Temporada 2
The Cadence Of Papa's Heart EP75
The Depths Of Relationship EP74
Self Giving Love EP73
Welcome To The Party! EP72
Words We've Heard EP71
Do You Not Know? EP70
Reminiscing EP69
Too Good To Be True EP68
All In Christ EP67
From the transcript... Well, for me, when I even hear "what's the metrics of relationship," I just stiffen and bristle. Yeah, it's rules. Yeah. It’s a law kind of language. But I don't know how to have conversations that don't end up there, or that don’t use those terms. I guess that's what Jesus said—a good teacher brings out of his treasure things old and new. I’ve got a lot of that old law language in me. I just don't have much new love language left… at least not language that seems to satisfy me anyway. I’ve got some resources right here. I'll do a little plug here for Robin Smith. Her book It Is Finished — just read the back cover, and I might read a quote and talk about it. She says, "What if 2,000 years ago was the catalyst that changed everything? What if Hosea and Isaiah saw something that we haven't fully grasped?" Yeah. This book is full of stuff. She says here — and I'm just pulling a quote out of nowhere: Welcome to Finding Our Way. This is from Chapter 1, actually, “Understanding Paul.” But here — listen to what she says — I think it might go along with what we've been talking about.
From the transcript... So, I grew up talking about this self-giving God. Yeah. Eternally dead to the possibility of choosing anything other. How do we learn to walk in that, to walk with Him? Well, one, we're just now waking into the fact that that's who He really is. And then two, we realize that we're made in that same image. But because He's given us this agency of choice… yeah. Am I going to always choose as He always chooses? Yeah. Because I don't think it's that He can't choose — He just doesn't. Yeah. I realize it's God who cannot lie. Well, He can't lie or He won't lie? Yeah. It might be semantics, or... I don't think He can lie. His character is such that He will not lie. Yeah. I don't know how you say that without it again sounding like He doesn't have choice. If I were a betting man, I would wager that choosing other-loving, self-giving — choosing that as God — that's who God is. I would bet that's where life is. It's the only place life is. The other would have to be death. Yeah, that's those two trees. Yeah. But we don't really think that. Maybe we haven’t gotten that revelation. There's always a struggle against the choice.
In this episode Larry and James talk about the nature of love. From the transcript... Well, yeah, he was talking about, like, God's—primal self. Yeah, that's the way he said it. Here we go. Let's see. A self desires to please itself, to express itself, and so on. How does God, the primal self, do that? Yeah. He says here—yeah, that's his words—by the begetting of his Son to be the object of his love. And the Son receiving and returning the love of the Father. And the Spirit of the Father and the Son proceeding forth to express the same love nature in all creation. Yeah, he's trying to describe that Trinitarian dance of Father, Son, and Spirit. So he's not—I don't think he's necessarily trying to say before time there was a time that God begat his Son. In other words, God was alone in himself. I don't think that's what he's trying to say. I don't think so either. Because over here, he says, for God is the eternal three.
In this episode Larry and James discuss the celebration that has already started! From the transcript... Matthew 7, 24: Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. That's a conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount. He hears and does. We're talking about hearing—learning to hear from God. We've got to talk about doing what you hear. Because that's just, I think most of us struggle hearing. Yeah. And then even when we do hear, we struggle doing. Yeah. But that's part of the relationship. And that's what Jesus was trying to tell us, that when we hear and do, we're like the man that builds his house on the rock. That's the wise way to live. That's the better way to do. Because the storm's coming, period. The storm came both to the wise man and the foolish man. So these are just some questions I have thinking about that. Jesus actually was talking to those—his hearers. Yeah. So he meant what he was saying when he said it to them. But the Sermon on the Mount.
In this episode Larry and James rehearse the different understandings of certain words. From the transcript... That's so wonderful. That's all you ever record. I think I told you when I was out in Atlanta. Of course, I went with Herb everywhere, my co-pastor, because he was from there. And it took me, and I always prided myself in kind of having my bearings, being able to get around, know where I'm going, how to get back, all that stuff. Well, I was having trouble getting orientated out there. And, of course, it's a big city. Everything's new. Nothing familiar. Everywhere I go is a new journey. And I'd been going with him, and I'm trying to remember. I got to noticing we'd go back someplace, and I'm in my head thinking, okay, we should go down here and turn to the right. Well, he don't turn. I'm like, that's the way we went last time. I think. Maybe not. Finally, after I was there for a few months, finally realized. And I said, hey, now this is the way we came. He said, I know it. He said, I never liked to go the same way twice. He wasn't thinking about you trying to learn. Yeah, and that's what I told him. I said, man, I appreciate that. I kind of like it too. But I said, I'm trying to learn my way around. I don't need to go a different way every time. I need to go the same way a few times until I get that down. Yeah.
Larry and James talk about the wonder of that which is ours in Christ! From the transcript... It's our life. We're one. Our union with Him. I'm going to just string these three verses together. I know I read two of them earlier, but probably all three of them. Read them all over again. Yeah. He says, Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? I think a better translation of that baptism, an understanding in this context, would be united. You were united with Christ in His death. Could I say, or add to that — you are immersed in Christ? Like plunged into, submerged into? Yep. Which obviously is a union, because you're engulfed in Christ. If One died for all, then all died. Yeah. All right, well, okay. Go back. The first scripture you read — what's the first two words? Or the first few words? Do you not know? Okay, there it is. All right, that's our problem. We don't know what's happened. Okay. Carry on. The third scripture was in Colossians: For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Larry and James take a trip down memory lane. From the transcript... Because there's some folks out there that's acting like they're not new. But when you tell them, share with them the good news of what God has done in Christ — not counting their sin against them, but reconciling — they then can come into and begin to experience the newness of that life. Yeah. That they're already included in. Yeah, God's not as they thought he was. And Jesus did more than they thought he did. And God thinks a whole lot differently about you than you think about yourself. You think about yourself through your performance, which is really a law-based mentality and a judgment mentality — of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong, I'm doing good, I'm not doing good. Yeah, that's no way to live. No, that's why we tell the good news. People don't have to live like that. Relax.
In this episode Larry and James rehearse the goodness of the Good News as it is seen in Jesus! From the transcript... I think about the old classic sitcom about the Clampetts and, you know, finding the gold. And I'm just a Clampett kind of a Christian in the sense of—got this wealth, but I'm just an old country boy trying to learn how to live with this cement pond. It's such a strange way of living for us to just think that God loves us unconditionally. He has already completely, radically forgiven us of everything. He has never had one thought about us other than, "You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." His only heart's desire has been to bless, cherish, love us, and live life with us and as us and do things together. Every day. And that's just how it's always been. Navigate this mud hole. Oh, yeah. My freshly washed truck. I see that.
In this episode James and Larry discuss the reality of the all inclusiveness of the work of Christ and how it includes everyone! From the transcript... Yeah, I was going to say something about death has been defeated because Jesus has conquered it. Yeah, he came out of the tomb, didn't he? He did. So the reign of death is over. Death is defeated. It's a last enemy for us. I'm remembering that scripture where it says they were in fear, subject to fear because of death. That's Hebrews. Right, Hebrews 2. Yeah. It says language, like you said, how that it's been overcome. Yeah, but now it's been obliterated. But it's a last enemy for us to face, but it's still conquered. But our experience of that is ahead of us. Right. But we got confidence that it's conquered, too, before we get there. Yeah. That's right. Son, that's plummeting the depths of the gospel when you go to talking about conquering death. Yeah. But that's the gospel. Yeah. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
In this episode Larry and James discuss the wonder and beauty of life in Jesus. From the transcript... I like how you always turn the recorder on right here in this good bottom. So I'm like looking out over here in the bottoms looking for a place to go hunting as if I was going to go hunting. You get mad because I'm looking out the window instead of talking to you. You can look out the window. Oh, I'm going to look out the window. I was listening to Don. There's a little spot in that sermon where he enumerates all the things people question him about. "Oh, you believe humanity was reconciled at the cross? You believe everybody was forgiven at the cross?" "Oh, actually, I believe everybody was forgiven before time." That's what he went back and said. And then he said, "Oh, you believe in the universal fatherhood of God?" "Yep, yep." He just went through several things. It was pretty good just listening to him, thinking about what God did in Christ. He did for all. Whatever it was he did. Anything God's ever done, he's done that for all. He's... I don't know how to express the kind of father that he is.