Gospel Rant

This is the fifth episode of my new series on how to overcome spiritual malaise, fatigue, sluggishness and failure, power 2 change. P2C. Are you experiencing church fatigue? Christian fatigue? Left intuitional church altogether? Welcome. This might be just what you are looking for. Is this a new list of things to do so that your spiritual walk would finally just take off? Not at all. Your job as a disciple of Jesus has never been about how much you do or do not do. Listen and let this sink in. Discipleship is not about become more like Jesus—at least not directly. How are you going to do that anyway? What muscle group? That’s been your problem and why you fall short so often. No judgment. Instead, discipleship is about becoming more dependent upon Jesus and His Sprit. Those are two different things. Right? Is it beginning to make sense? Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-

Welcome to Gospel Rant.This is the fourth episode of our new series Power2Change (P2C). Do you really want to grow in Christ? Do you want to feel his love for you? Do you want to hear him say to you “Well done good and faithful servant.”  Here’s the thing, you can just keep on trying harder. But, how’s that gone for you? Or you can realize that there are parts of your own midbrain (your flesh) that is fighting your experience of your relationship with Jesus. Doesn’t that make sense? Curious? Check it out.  Bring it on. Let me know what you think. Bill@gospel-app.com. Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Welcome to Gospel Rant.This is the third episode of our new series Power2Change (P2C). I am about proclaiming God’s love for the unlovable, unloved and unlovely. It's a scale 0-10, you may be a 2 or an 8, but we are all on that scale this side of heaven. Want more? Welcome. It should make a difference. Is it helpful to be reminded that you are fighting a war against yourself? And that ‘self’ has a lot of very powerful brain chemicals—it is more powerful than your prefrontal cortex. If you have been shamed that your situation what it is because you don’t have the stuff, the faith, the will, you are the problem, this will be really good news. That is only partly true. Trying harder will fail—I promise you. Here’s a better way. Nothing magical, or tricky. It’s just the basic old fashion gospel. In fact, in this show we are going to explode the largely false notion we moderns have about free will. This will definitely get me some emails and trolling. Bring it on. Let me know what you think. Bill@gospel-app.com. S

A special one-off Gospel Rant podcast that compares and contrasts the coaching philosophy of newly retired Alabama football coach Nick Saban with the admonitions to the church by the author of the Book of Hebrews. We will, God-willing, start a Gospel Rant series on the Book of Hebrews in mid-March. Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Welcome to Gospel Rant and this second episode in the Power 2 Change Series. Who benefits from this show, this series? Do you feel that every time you try to do good, to move forward in your Christian walk it falls flat? Like Paul, what you want to do you just can’t seem to pull off? Relational mess ups. Bad choices. Emotional issues. Can’t forgive. Addictions killing you. Lack joy, peace, faith. You feel more anxious and lonely, you seem to argue more? This is Paul’s magnum opus on our ongoing struggles. Gal 5, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Nothing could be more on point. You are in the middle of a war. In fact, the war is in the middle of you. What you will hear and learn, you’ve probably never really heard before in relevant modern terms.  This series could be life-changing. You will not be able to fix the problems by yourself. You need Power2Change. If the Gospel can help addicts, hard core addicts, think what it could do to the rest. Great news. But we have to see the gospel differe

BRAND NEW SERIES!!!! Addicts (and we are all addicts if we were just a little bit honest), welcome to Gospel Rant and this new series Power 2 Change (P2C). This is a good place to start at the beginning of 2024. We are looking at Galatians 5 in a fresh new way. Who benefits from this show, this series? Do you feel that every time you try to do good, to move forward in your Christian walk it falls flat? Like Paul, what you want to do you just can’t seem to pull off? Relational mess ups. Bad choices. Emotional issues. Can’t forgive. Addictions killing you. Lack joy, peace, faith. You feel more anxious and lonely, you seem to argue more? This is Paul’s magnum opus on our ongoing struggles. Gal 5, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Nothing could be more on point. You are in the middle of a war. In fact, the war is in the middle of you. What you will hear and learn, you’ve probably never really heard before in relevant modern terms.  This series could be life-changing. You will not be able to fix

Merry Christmas! So who were the Magi? What were they doing in Bethlehem and what does it mean for us today? What happened when the love of God for the irrelevant bumps into pagan irrelevant ambassadors? Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Merry Christmas! What happens in the Advent story when God's love bumps into a disgraced and long cursed tribe? This is one of the best cold-case stories ever. Enjoy. Pass it on. The love of God can do it.Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Merry Christmas. You know the story of Zechariah, a faithful priest in the irrelevant temple of God in Jerusalem around 5 BCE? Or do you? What happens when God's love bumps into an irrelevant priest?Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Merry Christmas! The Temple of God in Jerusalem in the first century had become irrelevant compared to it's Old Testament counterpart. We will explain why. But what's going to happen when God comes and bumps into His irrelevant temple?Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

What happens when the love of God incarnate bumps into a woman who has lost everything--at the funeral of her only child? We will dig a little into the concept of Jesus 'seeing' her. Very powerful. It could change how we think about Jesus today.Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

We know the story. A rich ruler comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. But there is so much more to the story than the way it is most often taught. What was he really looking for? Check it out. Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

What happens when God’s love bumps into a man who would have been treated as an outcast, unclean, and likely cursed by God. Today we treat such people differently, but then, to be born blind carried a huge societal stigma. What happens when Jesus ‘sees’ a blind man and his love for the outcast who has felt unlovable, unloved and unlovely his entire life rushes over him? Check it out. The story is not just about his healing. The larger story is why others weren’t heal. This is the morality tale of the man born blind in John 9.Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

What happens when God’s love bumps into the perhaps most unlovable unworthy, unlikable person in the Old Testament? What happens when the love of God for the unlovable, the unloved and the unlovely bumps into the active unrepentant, sex addict, God blaming prostitute, Gomer? What God does will likely shock you, even if you’ve heard the story before. This could change how you see God and his amazing unbelievable love. Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

On this Gospel Rant, we are going to look at God's relationship with the first murderer Cain. What if I told you that it is pretty clear in the story that God's really did love Cain and was offering him a stunning gift? The story is pretty familiar to you, but there's a couple of things that you might have just missed. What happens when God’s love bumps into the first murderer, Cain? Curious?Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

What's going to happen when the fierce love of God for the unlovable bumps into someone whose unfortunate disease made them leave family and tribe and live in the shadows as untouchables. Does God's love pursue and embrace lepers?  You'll see. Enjoy.Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Now that we've laid out a more biblical view and understanding of God's love, let's see it in practice. Our first case study is a really good one. It is hard to think of a more unlovable or more unloved woman than this unnamed Samaritan woman. That's where Jesus finds her, but he doesn't leave her there. What happens when this unworthy woman bumps into Jesus' love for the unworthy? You'll see. Enjoy.Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Did you know that the Greek word eros (where we get erotic) is not even in the New Testament? Only used twice in the Green Old Testament. And yet, we modern Christians, like the Ancient Romans are terrified of eros. The Romans even tried to legislate against it. It did not work very well. Our views of love have been widely informed by C.S. Lewis’ Four Loves (agape, eros, phileo and storge). Every Sunday School child knows that agape is “God’s love”, right? Well it turns out that ‘agape’ is actually one of the generic Greek words for love. It has a broad group of meanings. Jesus says that even the tax collectors do it. Just saying. Instead of seeing love broken into four separate categories, the Biblical writers see love as more holistic (including all four aspects of Lewis’ loves) but on a spectrum from ‘selfish’ to 'selfless.’ God’s love is perfectly selfless agape, phileo, storge, and yes, eros. There is a godly eros. The selfish form of eros (Greek: porneia) is the love that terrified the Romans, that Paul

I have come to believe, based upon a lot of research that our Western view of love, including our western Christian view of love, has much more in common with the Ancient Romans than Paul. Example? The Ancient Romans truly believed that love is a function of the object (per Plato and of course Pygmalion). Let me unpack a bit. If an object (art, drama, person) is beautiful, they should expect to be lovable and loved. If they do not fit with the cultural norms of beauty (size, personality, skin color, sex, etc.) they should not expect to be loved unless they remove all uglies and stigmas. This is such bad news for the vast majority of the population who don’t fit in the ‘right’ categories. I just finished a video review of the summer’s blockbuster movie Barbie. This is at the very heart of the movie's moral messaging. This is not Jesus’ message at all. Jesus’ love actually loves the unlovable. His is the love that eventually brought the Roman Empire to its knees.Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/ Di

Welcome to our new series, God’s Love for the Unlovable. It’s the stark wonderful and frightening truth, God’s love is for the unlovable, the unlovely, and the unloved. That’s all of us on any given day if we were just a little bit honest.  How has the creator God wonderfully made my brain so that it can love others and be loved, even in trying circumstances? We will get into the fun neuroscience of “falling in love.” It is very interesting and geared toward laypersons. The point? When I experience the “height, width, length and depth of the love of Christ" (Eph 3), the Holy Spirit—no doubt—ignites the very same parts of our brain. We feel like we are "falling in love with Jesus” and that he is “falling in love with us.” Of course we know that he has never stopped loving us—but it sure feels like it. I was preaching on this very topic on Valentine’s Sunday at a church. During the break between services, five men, total strangers, sought me out to tell me that they believe that they were experiencing the love