Episodes

Thursday Jan 19, 2023
What is Suffering and how does it affect us? Part 2
Thursday Jan 19, 2023
Thursday Jan 19, 2023
Mark explains how his suffering prompted him to depend more on God, and then discusses with KJ whether some of our Lord's words in the Sermon on the Mount suggest it is misleading to talk about "Christian flourishing" in this life.

Thursday Jan 05, 2023
What is Suffering and how does it affect us? Part 1
Thursday Jan 05, 2023
Thursday Jan 05, 2023
Mark offers a way to characterize all kinds and degrees of human suffering and then explores with KJ how this can help us to live better, more deliberate, and more courageous Christian lives.

Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Christmas Greetings
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Mark highlights the full Christian story by reading John Julian's hymn, "Hark! The voice Eternal," and then reflecting on human history's central turning point: Jesus' resurrection.

Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Human Suffering as the Spoiled Fruit of the Fall
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Mark and KJ discuss how human suffering is the spoiled fruit of Adam and Eve's fall into sin and how that means that God is not to be blamed for our suffering, as well as the vast differences between "top-down" and "bottom-up" explanations of human life.

Thursday Nov 17, 2022
Review and Prospect
Thursday Nov 17, 2022
Thursday Nov 17, 2022
Mark and Karl—"KJ"—Johnson review the centrality of stories in our lives and begin to discuss how Adam and Eve's disobedience to God's command not to eat from the forbidden tree, as the first great turning point in human history, opened the door to human suffering.

Thursday Nov 03, 2022
The Fall and its consequences - Part 3
Thursday Nov 03, 2022
Thursday Nov 03, 2022
This episode asks whether Adam or Eve was more responsible for the fall and then turns to show how suffering became inevitable once Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree yet is also a key element in how God calls us back to himself.

Thursday Oct 20, 2022
The Fall and its consequences - Part 2
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
Paul and Mark examine how the serpent led Eve to doubt God's warning that if she and Adam ate from the forbidden tree, then they would die, as well as how they knew enough about God and his love for them that they should not have believed the serpent's lies.

Thursday Oct 06, 2022
The Fall and its consequences - Part 1
Thursday Oct 06, 2022
Thursday Oct 06, 2022
In this episode, Paul and Mark show why the penalty of death was the inevitable consequence of Adam and Eve's eating from the forbidden tree.