Have you ever felt if you were part of the Bible your story would be the one tucked in between the exciting parts? It is easy to feel this way, but the truth is far more complex. Join me on The Broken Journey as we look into a little story tucked away in Genesis 4 and learn how no matter how small we feel our story is there is still a call for us to answer.

Recommended Reading:

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Finding God in the Lord of the Rings

Rabbi David Fohrman has written an excellent book wrestling with the narrative of Cain and Abel entitled "The Beast that Crouches at the Door". This episode dives into this narrative of desire and its role in this story and our lives largely guided by Rabbi Fohrman's work. I pray you enjoy and our encouraged by the episode.

This episode is a discussion between my good friend Andrew and I around the book by Dr. James Littles entitled "More Like Him". We discuss the second chapter in particular addressing some of the questions Dr. Littles poses in the chapter around the topic of spiritual transformation and spiritual disciplines.

Genesis opens with a poem about creation. More than a history of origin, or evidence of our material existence it is an invitation to trust the story the Spirit is telling. It is a poem ultimately about finding our Sabbath in Him.

In this episode I walk through Larry Crabb's excellent work on prayer, The PAPA Prayer. I highly recommend his works. PAPA is an acronym guiding what he describes as relational prayer which should serve as the foundational motivation for prayer. The aim of prayer is to get God not just answers/blessings. Present yourself as you are with all honesty and no spin. Attend to who His word says He is not your images or faulty understandings built off bad examples from authority figures in our pasts. Purge anything hindering intimacy. Then finally you can approach God with your heart set on what matters most and what your heart most deeply wants...Him.

This episode is a Q&A with students from a Pneumatology class. The primary focus is on the role of Sabbath in shaping our understanding of spiritual formation. Some of the questions addressed are perspective vs practice, being called to minister not "the ministry", can we be spiritually formed without community engagement, what should we share about our gifts, callings, traumas with others...

Exodus 3:14 Brings the reader of the text into a powerful conversation between God and Moses where God utters the much discussed phrase "I AM that I AM". This is a message which delves into the statement, with a specific interest on how it is translated and how the statement indicates what the Spirit of God is up to in the Biblical Narratives and into our lives. God has a name and He desires to put His name on each and every one of us.

The Aekdah, or The Binding of Isaac, is a powerful story that sits at the heart of the Genesis narratives. It has been a controversial, difficult, challenging, inspiring tale of faith, sacrifice, worship. In this episode I wrestle with the text and try to demonstrate how it has great import for our lives today and reaches into the New Testament shaping our understanding of who God is and how he is at work in our lives. Thank you for joining me on The Broken Journey.