The End of All Our Exploring show

The End of All Our Exploring

Summary: These are the weekly messages of Wellspring Counseling, a Christian agency whose mission is to help those find the extradordinary in their lives. You can recieve more information about our non-profit organization at wellspring-counseling.org.

Podcasts:

 Number 10, How to Make a Fist | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

You have your own story, different from anyone else and that again furthers the point of how imaginative God is in his approach to reaching us with his grace and forgiveness. My own story is unique. I took my time with God. It took a long time for me to begin to trust him and to begin to relinquish my life to him. Looking back at that time in my life, it was a very sad time for me. Like many of us, I was desperate. Even at the raw age of 18, I had tried so many different directions for my life and each ended up in a detour that seemingly had no destination. That part of my story has aspects of it in which I know forgiveness, but at the same time, I have grief because of certain things I did or certain attitudes I carried. God always comes to us when we are at our worst. That is where he found me.

 Number 9, The Messy Journey to Simply Believe | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

In any journey, you have to start somewhere. Believing in Jesus also has a beginning. Whatever you want to call it -- giving your life to God, becoming born-again, following Jesus, being saved—the Christian journey starts off by believing. A believer is someone, well…who believes. What’s a dictionary say about it? It defines believing as simply the mental act, condition or habit of placing trust or confidence in a person or thing. Sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? I like to think of it as a change of mind. I once thought this; now I see it this way. This is what believing is—it’s little more than changing your mind.

 Number 8 - Judas, The Quintessential Believer | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

A short fictional piece to preface our discussion of what is a believer?

 Number 7 - Learning By Doing | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

This is what we are after, isn’t it? We want change. However, we want the real thing. Be entirely honest with yourself, are you the same person you were a year ago? Five years ago? Forty years ago? This might possibly be the greatest danger in being a Christian. I once heard a pastor say this, Trust this Jesus—this all you need to do. That is completely false and this is what so many people are told when they come to faith and only gives them permission to continue to be the fallen individuals they are, not growing and not changing into the incredible people they were meant to be. Being in relationship with Jesus goes way beyond just trusting.

 Number 6 - We Won't Get Anything Done Unless We Get Going | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

If anything, you have to be honest with yourself and be where you are. Whenever, someone pursues counseling in their life, and they have come because of a certain problem, I always tell them that half the battle has been won; that they will overcome their obstacles because they have acknowledged them. This is because they have admitted where they are. This is exactly what we need to do through this process. God desires our honesty and we need to be straightforward with ourselves. So where are you in your walk with God? Have you been a Christian for 30 years and yet you are no different than you were when you were fourteen when you went to the altar at the Bible camp? Is your relationship with God in word only? That's okay. Admit it. Take off the masks.

 Number 5 - Growing, Emerging, and Becoming More | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

This act of change is important because it is innate to being a follower of Jesus. Naturally, we are continually being renewed, growing and emerging and becoming more. With this, our journey of faith has marking points. Being a Christian is a progression. We have many examples of this in Christian literature, The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan as the classic and The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis in the last century. And yet, the walk of faith is never one in which the person “arrives.” We’ll let the eastern religions keep that monopoly. The walk of faith is like an long road trip, going from one town to the next and every now and then stopping alongside the road perhaps to change the tire that has blown or getting off at the next exit to have some good coffee and a piece of pie at a diner just off the beaten path. Discovery, in the in end, is at the heart of the Christian faith.

 Number 4 - Where Do I Fit? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

We need to go way back; back to the beginning. Our story starts in a garden. If we reframe this understanding of the hierarchy of God’s creation, it begins to paint with broad strokes where Satan fits into the center of this picture. If we, being made in God’s image, can now begin to understand why the Evil One wanted our destruction—now the story begins to fills in and where we fit.

 Number 3 - A Very Simple Theological Primer | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Here is the really big question; the one that has to be answered—how does one come into a relationship with the Creator of the universe, the One who is beyond beyond? What are the steps we need to make to know God? On first thought, it may seem impossible or unnatural. Me? A relationship with God? Sometimes, a necessary step in moving deeper in a relationship with God is changing our view of him, or in other words, our understanding of theology. At this point, we should discuss a little theology.

 Number 2 - So What Exactly is a "Good Christian?" | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Today, we are just asking a bunch of questions. For example, let's look at the question, "What is a good Christian?" Here, we attempt to search out what might be a possible answer. Is a good Christian one who does all the right things: doesn't go see rated R movies, or cuss, spit or have tattoos? Is a good Christian one who serves down at the homeless shelter every other weekend? Is a good Christian one who gives away half their income to their church? Is a good Christian one who commits his life to being a pastor, a deacon or missionary to some forgotten world? What exactly is a good Christian? And then there is the big kahuna, the big question... How does one know God? We'll try to get our hands around that one as well. Let's see if we can get anywhere with these two.

 Introduction - How Looking at a Painting Can Change Your Life | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Let's look at the painting Supper at Emmaus by the painter Caravaggio and also see if Martin Buber, another semi-famous guy (i.e., Jewish theologian) had anything good to say about what it might mean to have a friendship with God.

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