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Where is God When Things Don’t Get Better?
This week on Wellness Wednesday, we explored a difficult but important reality: What do we do when things don’t get better? So many people in our digital community are struggling—whether with mental health, relationships, unanswered prayers, or just the weight of life—and they’re looking for real answers. My mission with Wellness Wednesday is to…
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Why Does It Seem Like God Leaves People in Agony? – Psalm 22 – Daily Devo
As Jesus hung on the cross He cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Does God do that? Does he leave people during their worst times? What did Jesus mean? Every day on my Twitch channel’s we start the stream with a devotional from Logos’ Verse of the Day. It’s…
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Your Life Has Ripples (Remastered!)
My editor @StarPony999 took one of my older videos and re-edited it with some graphics, tightened it up, added an intro, etc. and I think it looks much better! I think I’ll be doing this style from now on. Is it possible that the misery you have been through – or are going through…
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Ripples: What If Your Worst Day was the Best Way to Change the World For the Better?
Is it possible that the misery you have been through – or are going through – is exactly the secret sauce that God is using to inspire others and make positive changes that you could never do yourself? Would it make it easier to face if you knew that your pain was necessary to…
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Discovering the Real You
Want to know your real passion? Your real priorities? Your real source of strength? There’s nothing that reveals the real you like tough times. But, not only do difficulties reveal who you are, so does it reveal who God is – and is often the opportunity to see His amazinlgy creative problem-solving skills at…
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Motivational Mickey, Angry Eyebrows, & God’s Sovereignty (“Of Interest” Ep. 14)
Interesting Links: Article: https://entrustedtothedirt.com/2020/10/30/you-are-a-good-teacher-because-you-dress-like-a-teacher/ Resource: https://bibleproject.com/ Study: https://www.desiringgod.org/books/the-pilgrims-progress Want to Support the Podcast?: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=7XJFMCJKESBEG&source=url
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My Motto, Evaporating Empathy, History,& Wounds (“Of Interest” Ep. 12)
This week, I talk about my weird personal motto, share an interesting article about the evaporation of empathy, an interesting resource to teach you a little bit about church history, and then we’ll be continuing our interesting study of John Bunyan’s classic, Pilgrims Progress by exploring how Bunyan’s suffering taught him that being a…
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Fake Greetings, Hell, the ESV, & Fruitful Suffering (“Of Interest” Podcast Ep. 10)
This week, I’m sharing an interesting article about Hell, an interesting resource for getting a free study bible, and then we’ll be continuing our interesting study of John Bunyan’s classic, Pilgrims Progress. Interesting Links: Article: www.crossway.org/articles/5-myths-about-hell/ Resource: www.esv.org Study: https://www.desiringgod.org/books/the-pilgrims-progress Support Link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=7XJFMCJKESBEG&source=url Al’s 3D Printer: www.als3dprinter.ca
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Stay in the Word (God Speaks to You Personally Through the Bible)
Service Video: Podcast Audio: A Living and Active Word Most of you know the passages I read at the beginning of service – the Call to Worship and the weekly Scripture Reading – are chosen long before I read them on Sunday mornings. Around the beginning of December each year I usually take…
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Why Did Jesus Suffer? (Lent 2020)
During the season of Lent is the time when we fast and contemplate the sufferings of Jesus, what they teach us about Him, and what they mean to us. Please open up to Mark 8:27-38: “And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked…
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Lord, Is This Normal? (Jesus, Founder and Perfecter – HC:LD16)
When doing any kind of experiment or making any kind of change, you need to establish a “baseline”, a starting point that serves as the one, known point of measurement that everything else will be compared to. Whether you’re studying climate change, time zones, altitude, typography, medicine, or physics, you need somewhere to…
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Why Must We Suffer? (HC:LD15)
If you recall back to the last series of weeks in our study of the Heidelberg Catechism you’ll remember that we’ve been talking a lot about the question, “Who is Jesus?”. This part of the Heidelberg is going through the Apostles Creed and we are on the second section that speaks of what Christians…
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Remembrance Day: Martyrdom, Suffering & Hope
John McCrae and Flanders Fields In Canada and around the world, the poppy has long been a symbol of the immeasurable sacrifice made by those who have died defending and preserving the rights and freedoms of others. It was a Canadian physician, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae who made it a symbol of Remembrance Day.…
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Bible Reading, Prayer & Your Crucible
Audio: Text: I’ve been doing something lately that I rarely do. I can’t actually remember when I’ve done this before. I’ve been reading books for myself. I know that sounds weird to say, but usually when I read, study, or watch something, it’s so that I can learn for the sake of my job.…
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Grieving With Hope
Have you ever seen the movie “Inception”? It’s about a group that invades other people’s dreams so they can plant ideas. It’s a cool movie. One of the cool parts is that they end up going deeper and deeper as they make the person fall asleep within their own dream so they can start…
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Where Was God in Sutherland Springs? (Carnivore Theology Ep. 103A)
The tragedy at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX took everyone by surprise, causing grief, sadness and a lot of questions to flood our souls. But maybe the biggest question for Christians is: Where was God in Sutherland Springs? Podcast Audio: How Can You Help Carnivore Theology? 1. Pray for us! 2. Record a…
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Depression: What It Is and How To Respond (Carnivore Theology Ep. 85)
What is depression and how does it differ from sadness? How can sufferers, friends, and churches respond to those facing depression? Podcast Audio:
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Joy: An Advent Reflection from Al (Carnivore Theology: Ep. 84)
Al reminds us that life sucks and gives some depressing reflections on Advent joy. Podcast Audio:
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What God is Doing When We’re Not Looking
Sermon Audio: Sermon Text: We read a scripture last week from the Isaiah 8-9 and I want to take this week to revisit one of those verses. Open up to Isaiah 9:6-7 and let’s read it together again. Last time we emphasized verses 1-5, as we discussed God coming as the child Jesus, making…
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Listener Questions: Can We Know God? Should We Suffer More? How Different Should Christians Be? (Carnivore Theology Ep. 72)
We couldn’t find Chad, so we wandered down to the mailroom to look for him — and decided to stay and answer some questions: Can We Know God? Should We Suffer More? How Different Should Christians Be? If God Wore a Superhero Suit, What Would it Look Like? Podcast Audio: Book Recommendations: Knowing God…
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Life Sucks Then You Die
Please open up to Habakkuk 2, and as you get there let me give you a quick reminder of what we’ve covered so far. Quick Review Habakkuk is a book that show us a conversation between God and one of his prophets about the incredibly sinful things he’s seeing around him. His whole nation…
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Why, God, Why?
The Charge of the Light Brigade There’s a scene from the movie Saving Private Ryan that gives a great illustration of waht we’re talking about today. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a squad of soldiers who have been given the task of tracking down a paratrooper who is the last surviving brother…
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How Do I Deal with Discouragement? (Reading the Beatitudes Forwards, Backwards & Inside-Out) (Burning Questions Series #3)
Don’t forget to take a look at the Kickstarter for my new book! Click here to check it out! This World is Getting Worse (And There’s Nothing We Can Do About It) Last week we said that this world is not our home. Has anyone felt that they just want to get off this planet and…
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The Reluctant Doctor (Mark 7:24-30)
The Story of the Reluctant Doctor Once upon a time there was a doctor of medicine. This doctor was somewhat controversial, in that, though his patients were cured, he used extremely unconventional, even odd ways to cure them – he also had a bit of a mouth on him. He tended to…
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Passion Week Series: Tuesday (Attacked on All Sides)
A couple weeks ago we started a series going through the final week of Jesus life His resurrection on Easter Sunday. We’ve already covered the events of Palm Sunday and Monday where we saw the Triumphal Entry, the Cursing of the Fig Tree and The Cleansing of the Temple. Today we will talk about…
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The Prosperity Gospel “Lite” (Carnivore Theology: Ep. 24)
The 24th episode of “Carnivore Theology”. The Prosperity Gospel & Christian Suffering We take some time this week to explain the danger and insidiousness of the Prosperity Gospel and the “Lite” version that’s creeping into our North American churches. How do we combat it? What is the place of suffering in the Christian life? Podcast Audio: Click…
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How to Go Through Hard Times (Christian Suffering and Lamentations)
The book of Lamentations is only five chapters long, but contains some incredibly powerful, emotional language. We often sing the words of Lamentations on Sunday mornings. Lamentations contains exactly what you’d expect – laments. It is a series of five sad and beautiful poems, like funeral songs, portraying the capture, fall and destruction of…
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Ground Yourself (The Parable of the Two Builders)
I’ve started a, sort of, impromptu series that I’m unofficially calling “Kick Off the New Year Right” or “How to Prepare for 2015”… or something like that. The series title doesn’t matter. What matters is that I want to spend a little while going over a few things that we need to make sure…
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Getaway: Jesus Kidnaps His Disciples
Podcast Audio: We’re back into the Gospel of Mark. So far in Chapter 6 we’ve talked a lot about what happens to people who are faithful about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others. First we saw Jesus rejected and almost stoned to death in his hometown. Then as Jesus sends out the twelve to…
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Remembrance Day: Poppies, Martyrs, Suffering & Certainty
Podcast Audio: John McCrae and Flanders Fields The poppy has long been, in Canada and around the world, a memorial symbol of fallen soldiers. It has come to represent the immeasurable sacrifice made by those who have died defending and preserving the rights and freedoms of others. It was a Canadian physician, Lieutenant Colonel…
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The Ottawa Shooting – How Should Christians Respond?
Podcast Audio: Trying Times These are trying times in the lives of the people of Ottawa, Canada and the world. We’ve experienced something here in Canada that we are not used to – an attack on our own parliament buildings. Canadians across the country were glued to their TVs and computers as they watched…
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Jesus’ Compassion for the Hurting (Mark 1:29-34, 40-45)
I celebrated a milestone. On Thursday, August 8th, 2013 I was officially 13,000 days old. That’s 1857 weeks and one day. Or 427 months. Or 35.6 years. I’ve learned a lot in my 30s. It has truly been the most productive and spiritually challenging decade of my life – so far. But I’ve…
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Pastoral Prayer: Of God’s Faithfulness
Invocation “God, you are faithful. You will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. But when we are tempted, You will also provide a way out so that we can stand up under it.” (1 Cor 10:13) You are Faithful. You never change. You are always there. You’ve never failed anyone…
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Serving Others: Why Should I? – The Four Core Christian Disciplines
Our heart for service is rooted in our relationship with God,and an understanding of all that He has done for us. It is empowered by His Holy Spirit within us. We serve out of thankfulness for our salvation and the presence of God in our life.This is the final section of the Four Core Christian…