All of God's people need a dairy diet. So... got milk? Sometimes the Scriptures speak of moving on from milk to solid foods, but in Peter's teaching, there is no spiritual growth for any of us apart from milk. Catch the practical appetite aids at the end to help increase your dairy consumption too! Scriptures Referenced: 1Peter 2:2 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MandMsPodcast
[This episode touches on some sensitive subjects and may not be appropriate for younger listeners.] We like to think that some of our sins are private, not harming anyone but ourselves. But the Apostle John exposes such thinking as delusional. When we indulge in "private" sins like pornography, we're not only participating in the sexual exploitation of others; we're also robbing the people closest to us. There is no such thing as private sin, and understanding that can go a long way to overcomin...
In Judo one learns not to resist when attacked, but to yield. In a very real way, the gospel teaches Christians to do the same. Whether it's Satan, or your own guilty conscience accusing you of sin, learn to agree with the charges. When you do, the enemy's attack to harm you can actually strengthen your enjoyment of Christ. Scriptures Referenced: Rom 5:6-8; 8:32 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MandMsPodcast
How do you respond when someone tries to correct you? Your reaction is one of the telltale signs of whether you are truly a wise person or not. From the wisdom literature of Proverbs, this episode provides four reasons to listen well to words of rebuke. Scriptures Referenced: Prov 9:8-9; 12:1; 13:18; 15:31; 17:10; 25:12; 27:6; Jam 3:17; 5:19-20 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MandMsPodcast
At first the empty grave made Mary Magdalene's day worse. But then it started making things better and better. The resurrection of Christ is not just a fact of history, and a hope for the future, but a reality that transforms the present. The empty grave is bigger than your bad day! Scriptures Referenced: John 20Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MandMsPodcast
Why is Good Friday called Good Friday? What is so good about that day? In this ultra-brief episode, Mike & Matthew tell you what you need to know about Good Friday. Scriptures Referenced: 1Cor 5:7; 1Cor 15:3-4; 1Pet 1:18-20; Rom 14:5; Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
We're bombarded daily with messages and spiritual truth claims from every direction. How can we distinguish the true from the phoney? In this episode we work through 1 John 4:1-6 and learn to activate, calibrate, and comfort our spiritual baloney detectors. Scriptures Referenced: 1 Joh 4:1-6; Joh 16:33 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
The Christian gospel stands or falls on the issue of whether or not Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But why is that? Tune in to hear Mike & Matthew explain the personal implications of the resurrection, and what evidence exists to justify the gospel's claim that Jesus is alive. Scriptures Referenced: Lk 24:3; Jn 20:28-29; 1Cor 15:3-8, 44 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
What should I do when my friend has fallen into sin? The work of restoration is a valuable and much needed ministry, but it cannot be attempted in a self-confident, mechanical manner. With sensitivity and very helpful insight from Galatians 5-6, guest contributor Stephen Grant teaches us to help up, hold up, and build up one another. Scriptures Referenced: Mat 18:15-17; Gal 6:1-6 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
We might not want to admit it, but some of us worry that heaven will be a let down. The final chapter of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress can help chase such doubts away and replace them with strong hunger pangs for heaven. Tune in to set your mind on the welcome and wonders of heaven. Scriptures Referenced: Rev 21:4; 2Pet 1:11; 1Cor13:12 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
Struggles with depression, doubt, and despair are a somber reality for many of God's people. If that is your experience, you aren't alone in walking that dark path. Many noble Christians have had to endure these trials - including the character, Christian, in Pilgrim's Progress. Is there deliverance from Giant Despair and Doubting Castle? And where can we find hope to carry on in the darkness? Scriptures Referenced: Psa 88; John 10:28-29; 2Cor 1:20; Titus 1:2; Heb 12:22-24; 1Jn 2:25; Rev 21:3-5 ...
"Comparison is the thief of joy." That famous quote is true, isn't it?! And yet we still go on comparing ourselves to others in every sphere of life, even in the church. So through his characters Christian and Faithful, John Bunyan shows us how we can learn to compare ourselves with other believers in a way that serves our joy instead of stealing it. Scriptures Referenced: Joh 21; Eph 4:4-7; 1 Cor 3:21-23; 12:4-7; Psa 139:16 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology...
The life of a Christian pilgrim is not easy, and it would be much harder if we didn't have other believers to support us. This is what a local church is for. In Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan illustrates a high view of the local church, and teaches us some needed, insightful lessons about how our church fellowship can be a more Christ-exalting experience. Scriptures Referenced: Psa 26:8; Prov 18:1; Mat 16:19; Ac 20:28-31; Rom 15:4; Eph 4:29; Eph 5:4; Jam 4:11-12 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com fo...
Long before Adventures in Odyssey invented the Imagination Station, John Bunyan conceived the Interpretation Station. There the Interpreter teaches us many lessons to help us on our heavenly pilgrimage. Who should we choose as spiritual guides in life? How do we overcome sin, live with an eternal perspective, and persevere through attacks on our faith? The Interpreter (who represents the Holy Spirit) can help us with all this and more. Scriptures Referenced: Rom 7:5-6, 16:17-18; Acts 15:9; Luk 2...
Attention: the 2023 Practicology Reading Challenge begins now! This February join us in reading John Bunyan's classic adventure tale, "The Pilgrim's Progress." Tune in to hear more or less everything you need to know to join in. There will be a prize draw for those who finish the challenge. See the Practicology website for a reading schedule!
What would it take to make you sing again? If you could hear what God calls you, that would do it. If you could know how God feels about you, that would do it. If you could see how he clothes you, that would do it. And if you could see what he's promised you, that would do it too! Scriptures Referenced: Ps 149; Mar 1:11; Luk 15; 1Joh 2:25 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
The gospel is Good News For You - which is why we are calling this new series that explains the gospel "GNFY". In this first episode of the series, we think about the Christian teaching of substitution - how does it work that the ancient historical death of Jesus of Nazareth impacts us today? How could his death atone for my sins? Scriptures Referenced: 1Cor 15:3-4; Titus 2:13-14; 1Pet 2:22-24; 1John 2:1-2 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter...
For many of us, our joy can take a hit in January and February. Often we assume that negative emotions are a sign that we have done something wrong in our relationship with God. But what if the opposite was true? What if we could learn to hear a different message from our emotional struggles, a message that (strangely enough) would bring us comfort? For Christians, our negative emotions can actually serve as affirmations of the legitimacy of our faith. Scriptures Referenced: Ps 139:11-12; Gal 5:...
We don't know what changes 2023 will bring, but we do know one thing that won't change - God will still be faithful. We can be up and down, but God's faithfulness to us doesn't hinge upon whether we are up or down. The church in Corinth had more than one issue that needed cleaning up, but God was faithful to them because God always sticks by His people. And as Matthew shares from his own experience, sometimes it is in our "downs" that we really learn the faithfulness of God. Scriptures Reference...
While good grandmas might go on shopping sprees at Christmas, Grandma Athaliah preferred killing sprees. And in one of her evil rampages, she almost succeeded in wrecking Christmas forever. Thank God for Aunt Jehosheba, though! Dale Ralph Davis has memorably called her "the Lady who saved Christmas." This Christmas we need to keep our spiritual armour on, be ready to serve as God's special agent, and kindle a nice cozy fire of hope within our hearts because we happen to know the best Christmas s...
What if the most difficult times of life are actually the times in which God is working most actively to bless us? In this episode journey back to the strange scene in Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God. When it comes to God and his desire to bless us, we always need to expect the unexpected! Scriptures Referenced: Gen 32:22-32 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
Charles Wesley's Christmas carol, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is packed full of spiritual truth, including some precious lines about the incarnation - God being manifested in human flesh. What does it really mean, though when the song speaks of Jesus Christ as "incarnate deity?" Tune in to hear Matthew & Mike clarify the theology of the incarnation, as well as speak of its main purpose and how it matters to us today. Scriptures Referenced:Isa 7:14; Mat 1:20-23; John 1:1,14; Php 2:3-8; Heb...
"Try and see God's glory when you read your Bible." That's great advice for every aspiring Bible reader, but how do do it? What does it actually look like to see the glory of God in a Scripture passage? In this episode we show what it might look to see God's glory in Acts 2. This chapter records the first ever flash mob. Who was behind this flash mob in Jerusalem? (1) Someone who is wondrously shy. (2) Someone who is wondrously kind. And (3) Someone who is wondrously wise. Scriptures Referenced:...
Christmas is right around the corner, and what better gift than a good book! There is no book like the Bible but we all learn from the ministry of others, including ministry that comes to us in written form. In this second installment of Cloak, Books, and Parchments (2Tim 4:13), Mike & Matthew share brief reviews of ten book titles for your reading pleasure. There is also heads up about our reading challenge for the "I love to read month" of February. Scriptures Referenced: 2Tim 4:13 Visit P...
"I'm so blessed." "God has really blessed me this year." We use blessing language a lot, but does our understanding of blessing need recalibrating? Jacob's did. And we have guest contributor Jeswin Jeyasurya with us to help us understand what it means for us to be blessed. Scriptures Referenced: Gen 25-30 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
How should we study the Bible to make sure we interpret it as God wants us to? Guest contributor Nathan Pratt helps us to answer this question, and also provides solid practical suggestions on how to make our Bible study personal and effective in our lives instead of an exclusively academic knowledge. Scriptures Referenced:Psa 19:10; Psa 119:103; 2Tim 3:16; 2Pet 1:20-21 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
Sometimes Christians come across passages in the Bible that they find culturally embarrassing. Passages that talk about slavery or the conquest of Canaan, for example. When we give a secular friend a Bible, these are the passages we hope they skip over on their way to one of the gospels. In this episode we go through 6 steps you can take in reading these passages. And if you take them, who knows? Maybe you'll go from embarrassment over an OT text to worshipping the glory of God in the face of Je...
Over the past few years, controversial policies have led many Christians to think a lot more about how we should respond to government. How do we respond to the government when they act unjustly? Is there a time to resist the governing authorities? If so, what would that look like? Scriptures Referenced: Jer 29:7; Dan 1; Dan 3; Dan 6; Acts 5:29; Rom 12:18-18; Rom 13:1-7; 1Tim 2:1-2; 1Pet 2:13-17; 1Pet 5:6 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter ...
"God is King of the whole earth" (Psa 47:7), but obviously the world currently functions under human governments, ordained by God. What should we expect from governments led by sinful men and women, many of whom possess little fear of God? And how do these failing governments direct our hearts to Christ? Vincent Kember (Episodes 37 & 39) returns to the podcast to give us three key lessons in a two-part theology of government. Scriptures Referenced: Dan 2; Dan 7; Rev 11:15 Visit PracticologyP...
In this episode Mike tells his personal story from doubts to conviction regarding the doctrine of the Trinity. Then we draw out some final lessons regarding deconstruction and reconstruction. Please note that our mixing software shifted some of the audio and that a few words are cut off as a result. Scriptures Referenced: Jude 20; Php 2:5-11 Visit PracticologyPodcast.com for more episodes.Follow the Practicology Podcast on Twitter and Facebook
