The Jesus Society

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A conversation about relationships, renewal & purpose in the Kingdom of God

Episodes

Monday May 17, 2021

How to Live Like Jesus in 2021

Monday May 17, 2021

Today, we're gonna talk about what it means to live like Jesus in 2021. Because remember — we are his body. He lives in us, and so we are his hands, his feet, his lips in this world. That’s what Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:12-27 - "you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

That means that the way the Lord wants to bless and redeem and heal the world will largely be through us.

So, since that’s true, what sort of people ought we to be in the midst of God’s good world? What kind of people does it take to change the world? What made Jesus so compelling? And how can we be like him? What does it take? What does that look like?

Join me today as we talk about some specific suggestions about how to live like Jesus redemptively in the world of 2021.

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

Please visit us on our Facebook page for The Jesus Society Podcast (@JesusSocietyPodcast). We’ve also got a Facebook group for the Jesus Society Podcast. Also, check out our website — thejesussociety.com.

And, as we continue to try and grow our audience, we’re currently loading all episodes of The Jesus Society podcast onto YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEy1ppP5RWd3jXPc6bI6WuQ/) and Odysee (https://odysee.com/@TheJesusSocietyPodcast:6). If you search for The Jesus Society Podcast on either YouTube or Odysee, you’ll find us.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

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Monday May 10, 2021

God and Violence in the Old Testament

Monday May 10, 2021

Today, we’re going to try and tackle a big old hairy tough subject — the idea of violence at the hand of God, particularly in some of the Old Testament passages.

This is a stumbling block for a lot of people. And there are all sorts of thorny points around this issue. But the crux of it involves a number of Old Testament passages that give us pause. We read, for example, about the total annihilation of Sodom and Gommorah (Genesis 19:23-29). We read about God’s command to Saul to destroy Amalek including “both man and woman, child and infant” (1 Samuel 15:3). And we read the book of Deuteronomy where in several places, God commands the people to utterly destroy the people in the lands they would be invading (Deuteronomy 2:34; 3:6; 20:16-18).

And that bothers us (and of course, it should). But then we tend to either do one of two things — we either reject God because we find those kinds of things repulsive, or we come to the conclusion that there was a different God operating in the Old Testament than we find in the New Testament.

So what do we do with all of that? Well, that's what we're going to try and sort out in today's episode.

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, as we continue to try and 1grow our audience, we’re currently loading all episodes of The Jesus Society podcast onto YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEy1ppP5RWd3jXPc6bI6WuQ/) and Odysee (https://odysee.com/@TheJesusSocietyPodcast:6). If you search for The Jesus Society Podcast on either YouTube or Odysee, you’ll find us.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

Monday May 03, 2021

Sweet Fellowship

Monday May 03, 2021

Our tagline for the show is “exploring relationship, renewal, and purpose in the Kingdom of God.” So today we’re gonna focus on the “relationship” piece of that. My conviction is that the Kingdom of God is God’s society on earth. God’s family. And the big question is what kind of family is God's family? How do we relate to one another, and to the world?

Join me today as we discuss:

1. Abraham and the start of the earthly family of God

2. The important idea of koinonia in the New Testament

3. How we've missed the point of "fellowship."

4. Radical relationships in the earliest Christian community

5. Learning from the "one another" passages in the New Testament

6. Ten important "one another" passages (Rom. 12:10, Rom. 12:16; Rom. 13:8; Rom. 14:13; Rom. 14:19; Rom. 15:7; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:2; Eph. 4:25; Eph. 4:32)

If you put all those passages together, and you’ve got a group of people living together in that way, would you like to be part of a group of people like that? What would you give to be a part of a family like that? Do you think a family like that could show the world anything useful? Do you think a family like that could change the world? Or at least their little part of it?

I do. And so does God. In fact, that’s sort of the whole point. A family of God on earth who will bless the world and love the world and heal the world, empowered by the Spirit of the God who created it.

The point, folks, is that transformation happens in loving, nurturing, blessing community. It just does. If other Christians are not significantly involved in your life, your development as a Christian will be stunted. And sadly, this is where many Christian are – having attended Bible classes and heard sermons for years, but who have not developed significantly beyond where they were when they were baptized. Perhaps the missing ingredient is the kind of close, authentic, interdependent relationships depicted in Scripture and intended by the Father.

God so very much wants to give us a family — his family. He wants us all to be a part of it and to share his love and truth with others so that they can experience what only he can give, and what alone has the power to change the world.

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

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Resources for Today’s Show:

1. Blessed to be a Blessing episode (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jesus-society/id1500065616?i=1000468518961)

Monday Apr 19, 2021

You Are A Gift!

Monday Apr 19, 2021

I had coffee with a dear friend yesterday, and we both said that throughout most of our lives, we've felt inadequate. Different from other people. Inferior. I no longer feel that way, and I’ll get to that part of the story in a bit. But as it turns out, I’m not alone. In fact, many of the people I talk with week in and week out live in that same space.

Join me today as we discuss why that is and why, instead of being square pegs in a round world, each of us is exactly who God made us to be, and are, in fact, a gift to the world.

In the work God is doing to recreate the world, you - in all your uniqueness - have an important role to play. The world needs people exactly like you!

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

_______________________

Resources for Today’s Show:

1. Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CNZG896/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_WPQ07A5MD0MFYEP4R7QD)

2. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (https://www.themyersbriggs.com/en-US/Products-and-Services/Myers-Briggs)

3. Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307352153/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_BRBSTCT2ENDH227QFSJ5)

Monday Apr 05, 2021

Leaving the Church for Jesus?

Monday Apr 05, 2021

On Monday (March 29, 2021), Gallup published an article titled “U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time” (link below). The article reports on the 2020 religious survey that Gallup has conducted every year, I think since 1937. According to Gallup, “U.S. church membership was 73% when Gallup first measured it in 1937 and remained near 70% for the next six decades, before beginning a steady decline around the turn of the 21st century.”

The gist of the article is that for the first time in American history, church membership has fallen below 50%.

And the three big takeaways from the article, according to Gallup, are these:

1. In 2020, 47% of U.S. adults belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque.

2. That number is down more than 20 points from turn of the century.

3. And according to Gallup, that change is primarily due to the rise in the number of Americans with no religious preference.

But here’s the thing about all this — numbers never tell the whole story, particularly when it comes to societal change. And that’s especially so when we’re talking about church affiliation as the single barometer of faith.

So what’s really going on here? That is what we’re gonna talk about today.

Join me today as we discuss:

1. Two kinds of religiously unaffiliated people

2. How to make sense of this trend

3. Why people are leaving the church, according to the people who leave the church.

4. What churches can do about this.

5. What you can do if you feel the need to leave your church.

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

_______________________

Resources for Today’s Show:

1. Jeffrey Jones, “U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time.”March 29, 2021 (https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx)

2. Pew Research Forum, “America's Changing Religious Landscape.” May 12, 2015 (https://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/).

3. Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1470725924/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_ZY2W77T0EVWGRQK38T1E)

4. Wayne Jacobsen, “The Phenomenon of the Dones,” December 8, 2015 (https://www.lifestream.org/the-phenomenon-of-the-dones/).

5. Wayne Jacobsen, Beyond Sundays (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983949190/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_E7EJQYVRWTQGR8MHHBD6)

Monday Mar 29, 2021

Resurrection People

Monday Mar 29, 2021

This is Episode 57 of The Jesus Society Podcast, and because this coming Sunday is Resurrection Sunday (Easter), I thought we should talk a bit about the resurrection of Jesus.

This coming Sunday, throughout the world, Christians will celebrate what we’ve come to know as Easter, and event that centers around the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. But most of us really don’t understand the significance of that event. But the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead stands as Christianity’s most remarkable and most important event. In one act, Christianity is transformed from a nice idea to a powerful, life-giving, world-changing revolution. The resurrection is what gives Christianity its power, AND its hope.

Join me today as we discuss:

1. The resurrection as THE sign of the new creation.

2. Why the resurrection is NOT about going to heaven when we die.

3. What is heaven, really?

4. How the resurrection demonstrates the intersection of heaven and earth.

5. Why the resurrection is the START of something awesome!

6. What it means to be resurrection people.

7. The fruit of the resurrection - unity and holiness

8. The fruit of the resurrection - justice and peace

9. The fruit of the resurrection - wise stewardship of creation

10. Already . . . but not yet.

God’s good world, spoiled by hostile and destructive forces, is now going to be remade. And it started when Jesus walked out of that tomb. And that’s why Christianity is the best thing on the market. Evil and darkness and despair do not have the last word. The last word is resurrection!!

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

Monday Mar 22, 2021

JSP Rewind -- What Really Happened on the Cross?

Monday Mar 22, 2021

Today's episode is a rewind episode that I originally recorded early in 2020 as Episode 9. Because we're getting close to Easter, I thought it'd be useful to revisit the crucifixion of Jesus before we talk (as we will) about the Resurrection. The truth is that Jesus' death accomplished everything we probably think it did, but it also accomplished a whole lot more than we usually imagine. So join us today as we talk about all of it.

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

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Resources for Today’s Show:

1. N. T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion (HarperOne, 2016) – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062334387/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_Q6E16KBSZ6KJGV9K5F5V

Monday Mar 15, 2021

Can I Be Blameless Before God?

Monday Mar 15, 2021

Today I want to address the subject of perfectionism in Christianity and the idea of being blameless before God.

Join me today as we discuss:

1. The flawed paradigm of perfectionism through which we imagine God views us.

2. When we started thinking the way we do about perfectionism.

3. Is our imperfection really the problem God's trying to fix?

4. Some examples of people in the Bible who are said to be "blameless."

5. Is blameless the same as sinless?

6. How John and David help us understand what it means to be blameless.

7. What does God really expect of us, and how does he deal with us when we fail?

8. How God deals with us with understanding and sympathy, and how we should respond in turn.

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

_______________________

Monday Mar 08, 2021

A Royal Priesthood

Monday Mar 08, 2021

This is Episode 54 of The Jesus Society Podcast, and today I want to delve into Israel’s identity and assigned vocation in the world — who they were and who they were to be.

This is important. Most of us Christians have been led to believe that Israel is a people group the Lord has washed his hands of. And that belief has allowed us to kind of wash our hands of Israel’s Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. And that is terribly unfortunate, because Israel’s story is our story, because Israel’s God is our God.

Paul says in 1 Cor. 15 that Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection are “according to the Scriptures” (meaning Israel’s scriptures — the Old Testament). So the Jewish Scriptures are at the center and soul of the mission of Jesus. So we simply must pay attention to them.

Now, there are two images given to Israel shortly after the Exodus (and later to us as Christians as well!) that carry the heart of their identity and vocation. And those two images are wrapped up in the phrase "royal priesthood."

Join me today as we discuss:

1. What it means to be "God's chosen people" (and what it DOESN'T mean)

2. What it means to be a priest in Scripture (HINT: it's more than just the guy who offers the sacrifices)

3. Priests in the garden of Eden???

4. Who are the "kingdom of priests" today?

5. Living as priests of YHWH in the 21st century

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

_______________________

Resources for Today’s Show:

What's the Big Deal with Israel (Episode 4) - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jesus-society/id1500065616?i=1000469208230
Did God Give Up on Israel (Episode 7) - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jesus-society/id1500065616?i=1000470621245
Justice in the Kingdom of God (Episode 16) - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jesus-society/id1500065616?i=1000477167165
A People of Peace (Episode 17) - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jesus-society/id1500065616?i=1000478009533

Monday Mar 01, 2021

The God of the Exodus - Part 2

Monday Mar 01, 2021

Today, on this first episode of our second year (YAY!), I want to think a little bit more about the Exodus, and what God revealed to his people Israel about himself and his nature immediately following their departure from Egypt. AND, how those things carried on through the New Testament, Jesus, and the church.

Join us today as we discuss:

1. The three symbols which conveyed to Israel who God is.

2. The central idea in the tabernacle (it's much more than just a place to offer sacrifices).

3. The relation of the temple to the garden.

4. The importance of the Ark of the Covenant.

5. The difference between a house and a house in 2 Samuel 7:11-14.

6. The ultimate "place" where God will live among his people.

7. The difference between God living with us and us living with God.

8. Why God always thought bigger and broader than the temple

9. Why Jesus was so upset about the moneychangers in the temple (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:17; John 2:16)

10. Jesus -- the new temple.

11. How "we are the temple of the living God" in the New Testament.

12. The ultimate temple in the new creation.

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As always, we’d appreciate it if you’d tell others about the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, AND now also on Amazon Music.

And, if you'd like to support the show and our related ministry, we’ve added a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thejesussociety).

Thanks for listening!

And remember, you are greatly loved.

Music and audio production by Nathan Longwell Music

_______________________

Resources for Today’s Show:

1. The Story of the Bible - Part 4: What's the Big Deal With Israel?