JAMES E. ALDERMAN & LARRY HUDSON / THE “GOSPEL” I GREW UP ON
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In this deeply honest and hope-filled conversation, Jason sits down with James E. Alderman and Larry Hudson to unpack “the gospel they grew up on” and the journey of waking up to a God who has never turned away. Together they explore fear-based religion, the Romans Road, transactional Christianity, healing, union, identity, and the radical discovery that God is better than we imagined.
Through stories of pastoring, deconstruction, friendship, prayer, suffering, healing, and grace, this episode becomes an invitation to stop striving for God’s affection and finally learn how to live loved. If you’ve ever wrestled with shame, separation, church hurt, or trying to earn what was already yours in Christ, this conversation will feel like fresh air for your soul.
For more info on James and Larry, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/@LettinTheLooseEndDrag/videos
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GRAHAM COOKE & DIONNE VAN ZYL / RELATIONAL THEOLOGY
In this engaging conversation, Graham Cooke shares his journey from being an introvert to an ambivert, emphasizing the importance of humor and kindness in understanding God’s character. He discusses the transformative power of personal encounters with God and discusses the concept of relational theology, highlighting how these experiences shape our spiritual growth.
Graham and Dionne Van Zyl explore the significance of breakthroughs in our lives, emphasizing that a true breakthrough is about who we are becoming, rather than just the resolution of our circumstances. The guys also discuss themes of leadership and the transformative journey of faith.
The dialogue emphasizes finding peace amidst chaos, the significance of hiddenness and manifestation in one’s relationship with God, and the essence of faith in navigating disappointments. Graham talks about how asking the right questions can lead to deeper understanding and relationship with God, and how a movement is being built to equip people in their spiritual journeys.
Which leads to BRILLIANT PLUS
A movement discovering a simple relational way of being with God.
Join Brilliant with Graham Cooke and become a member of the global movement experiencing God’s love every day. With an exclusive app, gatherings, and global small groups, you’ll unlock keys to a way with God that’s simple and relational.
JOIN HERE http://brilliantmovement.com/JasonClark1187
For more on Graham Cooke & Dionne Van Zyl
Website: http://brilliantmovement.com/JasonClark1187
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOne4P6sJV9kbpjiJSElDQA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grahamcooke_official/
Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!
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JUSTIN STUMVOLL / EXPLORING NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES
In this conversation, Justin Stumvoll and Jason explore the nature of God, near-death experiences, the transformative power of radical love, and the importance of emotional healing in understanding one’s relationship with God. The discussion also touches on the concept of oneness with God, the impact of heavenly encounters, and the journey of reconciliation and legacy within families. Ultimately, the conversation emphasizes the restorative nature of God’s love and the invitation to discover deeper connections with the divine.
Justin and Jason discuss how NDE experiences reveal unconditional love, the process of self-judgment, and the concept of justice as redemption. The dialogue emphasizes Earth as a unique opportunity for spiritual growth and understanding of the divine, highlighting the importance of choice in experiencing love and pain.
The guys present a vision of universal reconciliation, where all souls return to the truth of love. They discuss the importance of embracing the present moment, the journey of forgiveness, and the reframing of suffering and pain. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of trust in God, the fruit of love and humility, and the value of connection over agreement in spiritual discussions.
For more on Justin Stumvoll
Website: https://justinandabi.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheConnectedLifepodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@justin-abi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinstumvoll/
Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!
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KIM HONEYCUTT / SHAME, AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT
Shame is a belief that ‘I’m not good enough.’ You can’t manufacture it on your own – someone else has to give it to you. In this podcast, Psychotherapist Kim Honeycutt addresses, shame, blame the trauma of rejection. She brilliantly highlights our intrinsic worth, our identity in Christ, and the journey from rejection to acceptance.
QUOTES
“So much of our surrender to the Lord is (about) unlearning what key people in our lives taught us.”
“Your emotional maturity and your spiritual fulfillment will never surpass each other, they will always be the same.”
“You’re not born with shame, someone else has to give it to you. A child doesn’t criticize him or herself, it’s a learned behavior. Shame will always tell me I am wrong, not that I did something wrong, but that all of me is wrong.”
“Personality is not who you are, it’s who you aren’t. It’ what you present with so people don’t get any closer to you so they can’t hurt you.”
“John 3:30, ’He must decrease, I must decrease…’ what I am decreasing is anything that tells me I have to earn.”
“The opposite of blame is responsibility.”
For more on Kim Honeycutt
www.kimhoneycutt.com
ICUTalks
Flip Your Lid PODCAST
Amazon
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DON KEATHLEY / THE GOSPEL
“The gospel is not an invitation to accept Jesus into our hearts, it’s a proclamation that Jesus has already accepted us into His heart.” Like a kind father, Don Keathley Don touches on the goodness of our Father, Jesus as perfect theology, grace, our union, our identity, how to approach scripture, and the lie of eternal conscious torment.
QUOTES
“Behavior follows identity. The key to everything is identity. When we come into an understanding of divinity as identity; that we really are partakers of the divine nature; that just opens up the door to wholeness.”
“A holiness lifestyle is a natural response to wholeness.”
“If all died in Adam, then all certainly have been made alive in Christ.”
“I don’t consider myself a universalist but I do consider myself an inclusionist. I believe we are included in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus.”
“The gospel is not an invitation to come and accept Jesus into your heart, it’s a proclamation that Jesus has already accepted you into His heart.”
“In my experience, people have never heard the gospel, they’ve heard a transactional message where salvation is a transaction, they’ve heard a decisional Christianity. They have never heard the good news, they have never heard the gospel that they are already accepted they are already included, now awaken to who you already are.”
For more on Don Keathley
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Amazon
Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY
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MICHAEL MCELYEA / You Love Me, But You Don’t Know Who I Am
You love me, but you don’t know who I am. Those are the words God spoke to Michael several years ago and it took him on a journey into measureless love, grace, and union with an always good, never leaving, no distance or separation, Triune God. With grace and joy the conversation dove into the two greatest lies on the planet, Penal Substitution and Eternal Conscious Torment.
Quotes:
“You love me, but you don’t know who I am.”
“The cross is an unveiling of the nature of the true God as radically forgiving, co-suffering, other giving love…and an unveiling of His love for humanity and our value and worth…”
“You were not joined to God at the cross, you were joined to God in Mary’s womb”
“In the incarnation, humanity and divinity are joined as one, eternally.”
“’God, what about evil people?’ I asked. God answered my question with a question, ‘Is my name not Abba?’
“Once I understood the incarnation (it raised the question), ‘Is God going to destroy His own image?”
“He is destroying things in His fire but it most certainly isn’t people, nor is it to inflict punishment, He is destroying that which destroys us.”
For more on Michael McElyea
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The Uprising
Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
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CHRIS GREEN / THE TEXT KNOWS WHAT IT’S DOING
S.01 EPISODE 13
Hermeneutics, pain and suffering, the sovereignty of God, brain science, Terrence Malick films, and tacos. Chris Green hits all the beats in this deep and thought-provoking podcast.
Prior to joining the SEU faculty, Chris Green taught previously for more than a decade at several other schools, including Pentecostal Theological Seminary (Cleveland, TN), Oral Roberts University (Tulsa, OK), and Southwestern Christian University (Bethany, OK). He is the author of several books, including most recently Surprised by God and The End is Music, both published by Cascade Press. His current research interests are focused on the doctrine of God, Pentecostal spirituality, and issues of racial/ethnic injustice. Chris serves as a Teaching Pastor at Sanctuary Church (Tulsa, OK), and he is also a visual artist. He and his wife, Julie, live in Lakeland with their three children.
You can learn more about Chris Green at www.seu.edu
For more on his most recent book go to Surprised by God & The End is Music
Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
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FEAR, COVID-19 AND THE ENNEAGRAM / WITH KAREN CLARK
S.01 EPISODE 8
We had Karen Clark on and talked about how to navigate fear in the midst of Covid19. We discussed the three triads of the Enneagram and how knowing our Enneagram number can help us healthily navigate fear.
Karen shared that ultimately knowing the goodness of God is the foundation of navigating fear healthily; perfect love casts out fear.
Thomas, Jason, and Karen talk about some of the fear-mongering theologies that are running rampant online. When we understand who God is we understand that God didn’t send Covid19. God is not the instigator of death, He came to give us life and life more abundantly.
Finally, they discussed how God is a good Father who is available to us now in the midst of our fear. A Father who weeps with us while also lifting us up so we can see our circumstances the way He does and live in peace.
Quotes
“Fear should walk under the authority of love.”
“Fear is meant to be used as a road sign to let you know you need to change course. Fear is not meant to control.”
“Any end time view that ramps up fear, stop engaging in it, He’s a good Dad.”
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MAKO NAGASAWA / A RESTORATIVE GOD
S.01 EPISODE 7
Early Church Fathers, the formation of the New Testament, how to approach scripture, Starwars, Puff Daddy, The Police, and the vast difference between retributive justice and restorative justice. Mako Nagasawa’s insights and generous communication were insightful, hopeful and transformative.
A few references Mako noted in this interview
The Second Founding by Eric Foner Civil War Historian
Irenaeus: Against Heresies
Richard B Hayes Echoes of Scripture
For incredible resources on what we discussed and more, or to connect with Mako, go to Anastasiscenter.org
This fresco above is called Anástasis in Greek, from Chora Church in Istanbul, Turkey. In love, Jesus pursued all who died before him, pulling Adam and Eve from their graves, because he was victorious over sin and death on our behalf. This event, the “Holy Saturday” between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, is referenced in 1 Peter 3:18 – 20; 4:6, Ephesians 4:9, and early creeds, and was portrayed in this way starting around the 6th century.
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Why Can’t I Experience God’s Love?
A Gun Is a Gun
To suggest that the sovereignty of God is about control is a little like saying, “God carries a gun but never uses it… or rarely uses it, or, well, you never know when He is going to use it.”
Eventually it breaks down to, “God carries a gun just in case.”
A gun is a gun. Its implication is in its design. While a gun can provide a sense of safety and security, it does so through threat, or act of violence. It can only be used for good if the person holding it is actually willing to pull the trigger.
When we use the word control to define the sovereignty of God, we put a gun in His hand.
If we insist that God’s sovereignty has something to do with control, then whenever He interacts in our lives, He is being sovereignly controlling. Actually, everything we experience, be it positive or negative, must be attributed in some way to His controlling nature.
Much of the Church believes God is in absolute control and also that God is always good. These two opposing thoughts have positioned many believers in a fractured, compromised state where their faith can become undermined by circumstances and disappointments.
A good God in control forces us to justify the Tsunami as God’s will, and then we are left with how to navigate the aftermath.
The sinner that died? Well, that was a just God acting from sovereign control.
The six-month-old who drowned? Well, that was a horrible tragedy… or was it more? Was it somehow God’s will? You just never know…
And trust is eroded. And without trust we cannot have intimacy…
Created for Intimacy
“How do I experience God’s love?”
Because I write and speak on the always good love of our heavenly Father, that is a question I am asked often. It’s a question I believe many sons and daughters have wrestled with, particularly in the Western Church where we have had to puzzle out God’s role in the devastation of the most recent Tsunami…
Much of the church has had to navigate the disparity inherent in a theology of control. I believe this has birthed a great crisis regarding intimacy with God; we don’t know how to experience His pleasure. We have little access to His good love.
Many of us know the names of God, we know His attributes, we are intellectually certain He loves us, and yet we are not confident in His affection. While we all desire closeness with God, for many, closeness with God is far from a daily, moment by moment experience.
For many, the Christian faith is based more on an acknowledgement of God’s love than an actual encounter. But love goes beyond intellect; love is an emotive experience with a Person.
Have you ever noticed that at least two thirds of the Kingdom can be felt? “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (6)
This scripture in Romans reveals that the Kingdom can be emotionally experienced. Joy and peace are not just theological positions in God; they are also actual felt responses to experiencing His presence.
We are designed to experience God’s presence, His closeness, His affection. He created us for relationship; not a theoretical relationship, but an experiential knowing. We were born to know and be known, to commune with God, to have an honest, true, whole, authentic, affectionate relationship with our Savior and Friend.
It’s called intimacy.
And I would like to propose that much of the church is unable to access this intimacy for one reason. We have a theology of control.
Intimacy and Control
Control can be a good concept when applied to things or situations.
Jason was in control of the car. That’s good.
But control is a broken idea when applied to relationship, it undermines intimacy.
Jason was in control of his wife, his kids, his friends, his parents, his neighbors, his subjects… That’s not good.
Intimacy can’t be experienced in a relationship where one person is controlling the other. Intimacy is only experienced where there is trust. And trust isn’t possible if one of the people in a relationship carries a gun.
You can’t have intimacy with someone you can’t trust. And control undermines trust. It is the antithesis of intimacy.
A God-in-control positions humanity in insecurity. It undermines trust in the One who we are most designed to know and trust. Why? Because a God in control is a controlling God.
A theology of sovereign control erodes our ability to trust, making intimacy with God something we are promised but never actually experience.
But Jesus powerfully modeled the way into intimacy by surrendering His very life. Jesus rejected the gun; the very idea of control.
If we aren’t convinced that God is love and His love is sovereign, perfectly good; if we think God is in control of particular areas of our lives, then we are forced to navigate those areas of our lives outside of intimacy. And it effects everything!
The Subtle Erosions of Control
The theology of sovereign control doesn’t just undermine our faith in God’s good love when facing tsunami-size problems; it subtlety erodes access to trust in our everyday life.
If He is in control, then when we stub our toe, the car needs new brakes and we don’t have the cash, the neighbor doesn’t like us, someone else gets the closer parking space, the dog escapes from the backyard and it’s getting dark and he’s not that bright; even in the subtle context of daily life, we are forced to wrestle over something that is (and should be in our minds) an absolute – the goodness of God. Ultimately our trust is compromised and intimacy is lost.
We are designed to live, move and have our being in the confidence that He is always good – that His love is sovereign. And yet our very misguided definition of His sovereignty undermines our ability to trust in His goodness. Our faith is subverted by our misunderstanding.
But, if we are willing to step away from the flawed narrative of control and lean into a greater revelation of His love, it opens up for us an opportunity to trust His goodness in ways we have never been able to trust before.
And in this trust, we will begin to know His affection in ways we have never fully known but always longed for. And when we begin to discover His affection truly and fully, we will experience intimacy with God.
Jesus came to make us sure. Jesus revealed sovereign love and He came to give us access to intimacy.
The whole world needs to know this!