Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

I once spoke with a woman who had been through at least three major medical journeys.  She felt a constant pull between Grace and fear in her life.  She desperately need Grace to win the battle within her.  We look at one way that has been used to categorize Grace: Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying Grace.  Our goal isn't to memorize any particular way to structure the overall notion of Grace.  We want to understand what Grace...

Matthew focuses on Jesus as the Messiah promised in many Old Testament prophesies - and thus seems to be writing for Jews.  Luke focuses on Jesus as a prophet, seeming to address Gentiles.  We look at my Scout Master, who was blind, and who inspired me (many, many years later) to look at the Gospel of Luke and consider Jesus as our Prophet.  On Palm Sunday, we see just why this is so critical to do if we truly want to understand Je...

I once spoke with a young man whose father had been a corrupt Methodist Reverend - a man who treated young women in his congregations as prey.  Before his father was exposed and arrested - when this young man was in high school - the Easter season had been his favorite time of year.  We talked about the Gospel of Luke - and the long walk from Capernaum to Jerusalem.  In this podcast, we look at that 106 mile long walk and what it m...

We take a sweeping look at the world of Faith and the history of Faith in the one, loving, and trustworthy God.  We look at the history of the manuscripts of the Bible, from ancient oral traditions to the Dead Sea Scrolls to the written story of Jesus.  We see that an astonishing, true story is told: the two phase revelation of God, first to the Chosen People, the people of the Covenant of Moses, and then, second, to us, through th...

We look at a ways in which people have tried to "prove" the Bible, using scientific and historical/archeological techniques, in particular, the Nazareth Inscription, a marble inscription that many say "proves" the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We consider, however, what faith truly is - and the losing battle of trying to defend our faith with science, history, and archeology.  We consider just what it means to "believe" and the im...

We look at the "silent period" between the words of the Prophet Malachi and the life of Jesus.  In particular, we see that a few books that many Christians consider to be "apocryphal", the Maccabee books, give us tremendous insight into what was going on in Jerusalem and surrounding areas during the time of Jesus.  We see Jews fighting Jews because some of them had abandoned their God and become Hellenized.  We consider the New Cov...

We look at the works of the Sages, the wise Israelite scholars who wrote for a very literate audience.  But the Apostles were not educated people.  At one point, Jesus realizes that since he is about to be gone, and the Apostles will be on their own to spread his Word, it is time to be straightforward and blunt with them.  He conveys a message in simple terms that the Apostles must always remember - and that we must always remember...

I met a man whose freshman roommate was from Uganda, and who was a Christian living under the ruthless dictatorship of Idi Amin.  It was this student from Uganda who taught my friend how to truly value the freedom to sing a silly song in the dark on Christmas Eve.  We also hear a beautiful rendition of Silent Night from Musiques Libre de Droit (https://www.musiqueslibrededroit.fr/) from SoundCloud.com: https://soundcloud.com/boo-mo...

I had rats as a boy, and one day, my father inadvertantly killed one of them.  The next day was Sunday, and my father was sorry that we would have to go to church - and be in front of God - before he could make things right with me.  We look at the season of Advent, where we await the arrival of Jesus in our lives.  We know that how we treat children, and in fact how we treat all people, gets passed on and on and on.  My father sho...