Unveiling Grace Podcast

Is truth what we feel to be true? What do you do when what you know to be true clashes with what you are feeling is true? Pastor and researcher Jon Benzinger is our guest again for a fast-paced, fact-filled discussion on the top 5 reasons we can trust the Bible to be our reliable guide for life and relationship with God and others. We also talk about the importance of feelings and we explore how performance-based religion often gets it wrong when it comes to our feelings and how we know truth. Lynn and Jon also talk candidly about how God used the Bible to personally change their lives and the hope and healing that is there for anyone who is seeking transformation. Note: This podcast originally aired as Episode #070.

Welcome to 2021. We're kicking off the new year with two of our favorite and most popular episodes. Our guest is Jon Benzinger, Lead Pastor at Redeemer Bible in Gilbert, AZ. He's done extensive study on the multiple lines of evidence for the reliability and trustworthiness of the Bible. Jon is an excellent communicator and engaged with Lynn and me with authenticity and clarity. He has an incredible heart for people, especially the predominant demographics in Gilbert -- Hispanics, retirees, and Mormons.The question of why we can trust the Bible, and just as importantly, why we should live consistently with what the Bible teaches, made for a fun and fast-paced conversation with Jon. Lynn and I were encouraged and inspired by this episode and we are excited we get to kick off the 2021 podcast season by sharing it with you. Happy New Year!Note: This podcast originally aired as Episode #069.

Analise is engaged to a returned Mormon missionary and moving away from her own family in order to marry him when God intervenes.  She shares what she learned from the heartbreak and she and Lynn Wilder share advice for those who find themselves in a relationship with someone of a competing and incompatible faith.    Join us this week for part 3 of this story of love, grace, Jesus, hard choices, and horses.   

Analise's father was diagnosed with stage four cancer when she was nine and only given a couple of months to live. Her story of loss, faith, and love eventually became intertwined with Mormonism when LDS neighbors from a nearby ranch offered to help her and her mom with their horses and cattle. In this episode, Analise shares how her evangelistic Bible studies with the Mormon boy next door led to her falling in love with him and walking away from her family and almost her faith. Will she stay true to Jesus, or will she leave everything she loves to follow him into Mormonism? Join us this week for part 2 of this story of love, grace, Jesus, hard choices, and horses.

Analise's father was diagnosed with stage four cancer when she was nine and only given a couple of months to live. Her story of loss, faith, and love eventually became intertwined with Mormonism when LDS neighbors from a nearby ranch offered to help her and her mom with their horses and cattle. In this episode, we follow Analise, now an attractive young woman who is also an accomplished horseback rider. She is devoted to Jesus and burdened to share truth with her LDS neighbors. Life gets complicated when a young Mormon man, just returned from his LDS mission, shows up to help on the ranch. In time they fall for each other and Analise is suddenly much more open to the LDS faith. Will she stay true to Jesus, or will she walk away from her Christian family and faith to follow her heart? Join us this week as we start a 3-part story of love, grace, Jesus, hard choices, and horses.

In this episode after years of being a single mom and shying away from marriage, Leah falls for a non-Mormon. He converts and they get married in the LDS temple. The experience jarred him so, it led to his going inactive and sent Leah on a quest to prove both her husband and her Christian friend were wrong about Mormonism. In a series of providential events, God reaches her heart and transforms both her and her husband's lives. It's a fast-moving episode filled with laughter, and a surprise reconciliation with her father who had abused her as a young girl. Her life radiates a joy and hope in Jesus and is clear evidence of the healing that God's grace can bring to anyone.

Listening to her easy, infectious laugh and at times raw transparency, you'd not suspect the history of suffering and abuse that marked Leah's life into early adulthood. Born into the LDS Church, it was a place of comfort and stability, even while the Mormon system contributed to the abuse and her own deep feelings of unworthiness. In the end, God pursued her and reached her through unexpected means, and brought her to the place of joy and hope that is so evident in her life today. 

As a third-generation Latter-day Saint, returned missionary and now bishop of his ward, Jon's Mormon life was unraveling fast. Jesus was pursuing him and the truth of what he was finding about the LDS church was rocking his world. Now he has to tell his wife and Mormon leadership why he's not wearing his garments. God showed up in amazing ways and today they rejoice the whole family found grace, hope and renewed faith.

As a third-generation Latter-day Saint, Jon's Mormon life was on-track. Successful foreign mission, married in the temple, multiple callings, an offer to become a full-time LDS church employee, and then a call to be bishop of his local congregation. But all that was on the outside. Inside things were unraveling and there was no one to tell, especially not his LDS leaders nor his wife. Jon found grace in an unexpected place, but will he regain his faith after losing it?

For two years Susan's husband prayed for her, tried to help her, gave her materials, while she resisted. Meanwhile, a small group of people from her Christian church loved on her and prayed.  Susan talks about what they did right, and how God eventually captured both her mind and her heart.  For those who face the long and difficult struggle of sorting out the truth from the falsehood woven into the beliefs of your performance religion she says, trust God, pursue him and know that God is bigger than your crazy. Susan's story of hope and healing mixes humor and tears with a strong faith in a God who loves her for who she is not what she does.  That's how He wants to love you as well.

Raised in a loving, committed LDS home in southern Idaho, Susan knew little about life and faith that wasn't Mormon. In this candid and winsome interview, she shares how God used a cross necklace in her mother's jewelry box, and the breakup of her older siblings temple marriages to awaken her curiosity. However, exposure to the wider religious world of Salt Lake City, along with uncomfortable experiences with her LDS church leaders while in college at BYU turned that curiosity to disillusionment, and she found herself adrift without the family and faith that had sustained so much of her life.  Can God move into her broken life and marriage to restore joy and hope?     

Here's the happy ending we've been waiting for. Despite family drama and tension, Luke and Emma stay true to each other and Jesus. Luke tells more of how he navigated a family opposed to his marriage, and Emma learns some things about Luke she didn't know before this podcast. It's a candid interview marked with laughter as Luke and Emma share how they grow together with grace, hope, and love intact.

After getting a text from Luke saying he's breaking up with her (sent by his LDS friends), Emma drives 7 hours to talk face to face. Will she be able to keep Luke from being totally drawn back into Mormonism? Was his faith in Jesus real? Will their love survive this test and the months they will spend continents apart? This episode answers these questions and explores the pendulum swings and anger so common during the transition out of a performance religion. Luke and Emma share how to survive these relational storms with grace, hope, and love intact.

How do we know what we are told about Jesus is the truth. What are the facts and what are the sources for those facts? How do we know the same about the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith? These are the topics Tom Hobson explores in his new book, The Historical Jesus and the Historical Joseph Smith, which we talk about on this week's episode. These are core issues with far-reaching implications. And after listening, don't forget to check out the show notes where we will have links to many of the resources we talk about in this episode.

What do you do with a divided marriage? One spouse (probably you) is ready to exit your performance religion, or already transitioned out, but your partner is still in. How do you navigate a relationship marked by tension, anger, or maybe just a lot of silence, and isolation?Dr. Lynn Wilder and Joel Groat talk boundaries, meddling in-laws, and the risk of marital infidelity, and how to bring grace and truth into a troubled marriage in a way that shows love and respect. Join them for 27 minutes devoted to helping your life and relationships flourish - here: https://unveilinggracepodcast.com/