Episodes

  • JL 228 - Lessons from the Movie Here - PPP113

    JL 228 - Lessons from the Movie Here - PPP113
    Nov 18 2024
    Look for the positive message not hung up on something's that makes you said. Honor your parents-friend shared how he and his wife were caring for his father who was in the early stages of dementia, his only wish not to go in a nursing home “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exod.20.12&version=NIV Stop worrying (verses) "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day its own trouble. Matt.6.34 NKJV Pursue your dreams (don’t stay stuck and feel like a victim, blaming others, make a choice and take complete ownership for that choice) Remember to always seek Gods will and not just ask him to bless your plans. We have a part and he has a part. That gets tricky when we're not hearing an audible voice. "“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” James 4:13-15 Noteworthy this is from James who also said faith without works is dead, and emphasized our actions not just our beliefs as critical part of faith. Praise: "In the multitude of my anxieties within me,Your comforts delight my soul." Ps.94.19 NKJV
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    12 mins
  • Are We Doing Church Wrong with Jason Pierce-JL227

    Are We Doing Church Wrong with Jason Pierce-JL227
    Nov 11 2024
    j316173@hotmail.com For professional management: jrpierc2@uncg.edu You teach classes on having a vision for your life and it struck both of us as we were talking recently that you don’t hear this message about casting a vision for your life, often if ever in the Christian church. Why do you think that is? What are the consequences of this, I.e. how is this lack of direction from church messaging on vision affecting the way we “do” Church as well as the way we as believers live our lives outside the church? How might Christianity be different if this dynamic were to change? Is this Biblical? If not, what does the Bible say about how we should incorporate our faith, into our daily lives ? If a change is needed, what’s the best way to affect that change?
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    47 mins
  • JL 226 - Morning Prayers - PPP112

    JL 226 - Morning Prayers - PPP112
    Nov 4 2024

    I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
    Psalm 3:5
    Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.
    Psalm 5:1-3
    With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early…
    Isaiah 26:9
    After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was sweet to me.
    Jeremiah 31:26
    As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

    Blessings when arising in the morning and relieving yourself, and putting on the Tallit Katan

    https://torahresource.com/product/brachot-bkol-yom-daily-blessings-pocket-size/
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    15 mins
  • Praying the Psalms with Jim Papandrea - JL225

    Praying the Psalms with Jim Papandrea - JL225
    Oct 28 2024
    Why did you write this book? The subtitle is “The Divine Gateway to Lecto Divina and Contemplative Prayer”. What is Lecto Divina? What is contemplative prayer? I’d like to drill down a bit into the 4 parts of Lecto Divina clarity The first is Lecto which means reading. What’s going on here? The second is Meditetio, meaning meditation or reflection. This is narrowing in a portion of the passage correct? You caution against private revelation, why is that ? Third is oratio, where reading becomes praying, where you make the words your own. Tell us more about this step Fourth is contemplation. You say this is complicated, more difficult than what it may seem at first and something you grow into. What about contemplating is so difficult? In the section on how to use this book, you rely on teachings from the church fathers. Tell us a bit about who you’re referring to when you say that and why you feel we should look to their advice? You talk about the difference between praise and worship vs prayer. What is the difference? Your book is a portion of the Psalms that are found in the Bible. What did you leave out and why? You made a new translation of the excerpts using the Hebrew, Greek (Septuagint), and Latin. First, why did you feel the need for a new translation rather than just using an existing one? Since the Psalms were originally written in Hebrew, explain what the Greek Septuagint is and why you took that into account. I don’t know much about Latin, other than it used a lot in the Catholic Faith and I know you are catholic. What’s unique about Latin, why has the Catholic Church used it and why did you consider it in your translation? You talk about how we should properly think about two references we see in the Psalms. One is our enemies, the other is images of fortifications like fortress, refuge and rock. Let’s take one a time, first how should we think about our enemies when praying? Next how should we think about images of fortifications? You chose to use the word “Father” when the name of God, or tetragramtron is used. For clarification, what is the tetragramatron, how has it been translated and spoken historically by Jewish believers as well as in modern Christian Bibles? Why did you decide to use the word “father” here. There’s a lot debate among the Messianic faith, which is what I practice, on whether we can and should pronounce the name of God. What is the position of the Catholic faith and you personally on this issue? We consider the Psalms as literary poetry, but you said you intentionally chose in your translation to focus on the meaning and less on the poetry. Am I correct in stating that and why did you take that approach? You suggest changing the tenses when reading the Psalms as well as inserting personal names where there are general references. Why ? I’d like to read a quote from John Cassian on pg 23 of the intro and get your thoughts on it With the breathing prayers and mediation you caution against Eastern or modern forms of meditation. What’s the difference between good and bad meditation? I do my quiet time in the morning and when I tried the breathing prayers I found myself falling asleep a couple times. How can I avoid this other than getting a good nights rest? Finally in your intro you had some thoughts on journaling and provided blank pages in your book for journaling, specifically that it can be beneficial but you had some cautions as well. What’s the best way to incorporate journaling into our prayers? At the end of your book you have a mood index where you have categorized the Psalm excerpts from the book based on feelings. I’ve heard a variety of opinions on how we as believers should think about and respond to our feelings, whether we should embrace them and be in touch with them, or alternatively redirect what we consider negative feelings and focus on being positive. This is particularly relevant when we’re going through difficult circumstances and trying to heal through those circumstances. For me personally my wife separated from me and has stated her intent to divorce me and I’ve experienced deep sadness both during this time as well as in the past, so this issue of our feelings is one I’m very interested in. How do you think we should think about our feelings? The bulk of your book is in fact the Psalms themselves and not your thoughts about praying them. Would you mind walking us through the process we’ve discussed by selecting one of them Psalms and demonstrating how you might pray with that Psalm. How can others get your book and contact you? Any final thoughts?
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    37 mins
  • JL 224 - Cycles of Life and Work - PPP111

    JL 224 - Cycles of Life and Work - PPP111
    Oct 21 2024
    Today I started over a cycle of reading the Bible in a year. https://hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/read-bible-in-a-year-2024-2025.pdf Wikipedia on Rosh Hashanah https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah In the first reading of the yearly Bible reading in Genesis it’s shows how God seems to have built this concept of cycles into the fabric of His creation. Day Week Month Year - disputes around the proper calendar - 12 months Shmita - 7 years - let land rest Jubilee - 50 years From Revival Ministries International Publish date: 03/30/2003 The Lord began dealing with me recently about the Year of Jubilee. I believe that this is our Year of Jubilee! In Nazareth, at His local Synagogue, Jesus was handed the book of Isaiah and He read from chapter 61: The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed one, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], 19 To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound.] Luke 4:18-19 AMP Jesus preached that the acceptable year of the Lord was here—the Year of Jubilee, which took place every 50th year—the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound (Leviticus 25). What Jesus was really saying was, "I am your Year of Jubilee!" THE LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 Say to the Israelites, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits. 4 But in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap and the grapes on your uncultivated vine you shall not gather, for it is a year of rest to the land. 6 And the sabbath rest of the [untilled] land shall [in its increase] furnish food for you, for your male and female slaves, your hired servant, and the temporary resident who lives with you, 7 For your domestic animals also and for the [wild] beasts in your land; all its yield shall be for food.8 And you shall number seven sabbaths or weeks of years for you, seven times seven years, so the total time of the seven weeks of years shall be forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month [almost October]; on the Day of Atonement blow the trumpet in all your land. 10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his ancestral possession [which through poverty he was compelled to sell], and each of you shall return to his family [from whom he was separated in bond service]. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall not sow, or reap and store what grows of itself, or gather the grapes of the uncultivated vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat the [sufficient] increase of it out of the field. 13 In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his ancestral property. 14 And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. Leviticus 25:1-14 AMP Under the Old Covenant every seventh year was a time to let the ground rest so that it could recover and come back stronger, producing a stronger, healthier, more abundant harvest. But the fiftieth year—Jubilee—was an extra special year. It was a Holy year. In the last year, before the year of rest, God caused the ground to produce three times as much fruit so that His people could eat and be satisfied whilst the ground rested and whilst they rested in His goodness. Jubilee is a year of faith—where you rest from your own labors and your own efforts—allowing God's goodness to lead you and feed you. God wants us to remember that it is He Who watches over us, feeding us, guiding us, and providing for us. If we forget this, we will wear ourselves out with our own efforts, but if we remember that He is the source of our life and every good thing in our life, then we can relax in Him and focus on worshipping Him and yielding to Him. Jubilee is a time to let slaves go free, to redeem what has been lost and to reach out and help both family and neighbors and those who cannot help themselves. In the year of Jubilee, even though you do not plow or prune or sow, you are still able to eat of the fruit that the ground produces. You cannot reap from a field that you have never sown, but when you have faithfully sown and sown and sown and then God calls a Jubilee year for you, then you know that ...
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    31 mins
  • Apologia for the Law Pt 2 with Roger Hadad - JL 223

    Apologia for the Law Pt 2 with Roger Hadad - JL 223
    Oct 14 2024
    There is another New Testament writer of just one book, who sometimes seems to counter Paul’s arguments relating to the law. I’m talking, of course, about the book of James, written by the brother of the Master, though I understand his real name was Jacob or in Hebrew Ja’akov. You make the point that many of James arguments mirror those of the Master, and that James did not have a pharasaical background as Paul did. Why is this important and what can we learn from James about our understanding of the law? Your chapter titled “The Sacred Law” begins perhaps ironically with a quote from Paul, Romans 7:12 “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good”. You then devote about 11 pages to just a portion of the many scriptures that describe the law as good, holy and something we should try to keep. Not to bore our listeners who don’t get excited about arguments based on the original Greek and Hebrew meanings, but you make a fascinating point about the use of the Greek words nomos and entole referring to the law and the commandments. Walk us through this observation and it’s implications for our understanding. You are intellectually honest, as they say, in your book, and note that modern Christianity’s understanding of the law is not without reason. You list several verses commonly used to support a certain viewpoint. I’d like to read these verses and then ask you to respond. The first verse is 2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” The next verse is Hebrews 8:13 “In that He says a New Covenant, he has the made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” And third is John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another”. What is your response to these verses? When asked for the greatest commandment, Christ said basically to love God and love others. Why is it a mistake to think of this love as an emotional love? No debate on this topic is complete without a reference to Acts 15. Talk to us about what happened in Acts 15 and what we should learn from it as it relates to our relationship with the law? Another phrase used in this debate is the New Covenant. Now, I realize we could devote multiple podcast episodes just talking about the concept of a covenant and all its uses in the Bible, but to cut to the chase what is your understanding of what the New Covenant is and how it should impact our faith and our understanding of the law? You use an interesting analogy of a Rubik’s cube to describe the puzzle of understanding what Christ described as weightier matters of the law, those of justice, faith and mercy. What is the relationship of these three concepts to each other?
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    40 mins
  • Apologia for the Law Pt 1 with Roger Hadad - JL222

    Apologia for the Law Pt 1 with Roger Hadad - JL222
    Oct 7 2024
    Q&A: Before we start, I want to say that full disclosure is that I consider you a friend and we attend the same congregation. I also wanted to say up front that we’re going to talk about a book You wrote called “Apologia for thee Law and the Sabbath”. And in that book you often refer to Christ as the Master. One advantage of this is that we avoid turning off one group or another by referring to Him as either Jesus or Yeshua, so if it’s alright I’ll try to refer to Him during our interview in a similar way, either as the Master or as simply Christ. You begin that book by stating that the book is not for someone who has already made up their mind that the law has been done away with. I guess we could say the same thing to our listeners, that if they’ve already up their mind on this topic this interview is not for them. Why do you say that and how would you describe the mindset of the listener who is well suited to hear our discussion today? You use an analogy of 3 TV sets for sale to describe the acceptable doctrine of Christianity today. Share that analog with us to help set the table, so to speak, for our talk today. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on your testimony in this discussion in order to save time for all the arguments from your book, but you talk about how your faith journey included a time spent with what you call other’s centered legalism. Since legalism is often a knee-jerk reaction or description to what we’re going to talk about today, define for us others-centered legalism as you experienced it and how it differs from the inner cultivation of the spirit. You start out by asking a question, can we sin without the law, and to make your point you enlist a stop sign analogy. So what is the answer to this question and explain it to us using that stop sign analogy. There are many scriptures that challenge us “not to sin” or to be righteous, and yet as Christians we believe Christ’s sacrifice was needed. How do we rectify these two seemingly incongruous ideas? Your chapter titled “dead to the law” starts out with a quote from Peter where he states that Paul’s writings are hard to understand, to which I think we can all say “Amen”. This a big deal since 2/3 of the NT was written by Paul, and many Christian doctrines are based wholly or at least in part on his writings. So let’s address this concept of being dead to the law and what seem to be contradictions in Paul’s writings. You make the point that when there are apparent contradictions with Paul or anywhere in scripture we need to look beyond the superficial meaning. So let me ask you the question, did Christ cancel or nullify the law, and how does the Sermon on the Mount help answer this question? You state that the law is not an obstacle for salvation but its indispensable platform. What do you mean by that? Another twist on this same argument is that Christ gave us a new law and it’s called love. Is this true? Let’s talk about he concept of a bond servant as described in both the OT and in the NT most notably in an often ignored short book called Philemon. What can this tell us about our relationship to the law? So the concept of a bond servant can help us better understand our relationship to the law, but you say that the concept of a school master can help us understand the reverse, the relationship of the law to us. Talk to us about this. Now with the concepts of bondservant and schoolmaster as a background, how can we better understand what Paul means when he talks about the law of liberty?
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    46 mins
  • JL221 - Welcome Part 2 - Welcome to the Jacobs Ladder Podcast

    JL221 - Welcome Part 2 - Welcome to the Jacobs Ladder Podcast
    Sep 27 2024
    This is the second Welcome Episode for this podcast and along with it I'm officially changing the name of this podcast from Christian Men at Work to Jacobs Ladder and along with the name change I'm changing the focus and purpose of the podcast. The purpose of the Christian Men at Work podcast, since it first started in October of 2016, has been to inspire you to have joy and purpose in your work. I've attempted to do that in two ways. First, I've interviewed men from all walks of life, with varying job titles, who have had one thing in common, they've all chosen daily to live out their Christian faith through their work, and because of that they've been leading, prospering, glorifying God, and finding joy and purpose in their work. The second way I've tried to achieve this goal is through short messages called Selah episodes where I've shared my thoughts, usually pretty closely related to the topic of faith at work. The last episode, which was #220, was Feb 5, 2024, where I interviewed Jason Pierce talking about a Vision for Life. Up to that point, I had conducted 110 interview style episodes with the other half being Selah episodes. If you've been a listener over the years, you may have noticed a trend in recent years toward more Selah episodes as well as a departure at times from the faith at work focus. I've never gone this long, about 8 months, without producing an episode. Before I resumed the podcast again, I wanted to be sure I was both mentally and emotionally ready to do so, and I wanted to clarify the focus and purpose for the podcast before moving forward. I felt I needed to do that first so that I could be passionate about it again, so that I would be motivated to pour myself into it, and so that I could be consistent with it. During the last few years I've had two primary changes in my life. One has been a gut-wrenching, life changing personal challenge which has driven me closer to my Creator and closer to other men in friendship, particularly men that are going through similar personal challenges. The other big change in my life has been that I've changed some of my beliefs and practices which are best described as more Messianic than Christian. To quickly address that issue, I share the belief with Christians that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the long promised Messiah, and that my salvation comes from faith in Him and His righteousness alone and not my work or good deeds. Where I defer from most Christians is that I believe it's God's will for us to follow His law, including the Torah or first 5 books of the Bible, as well as the Prophets and Writings (i.e. Old Testament) out of love towards Him and not out of obligation or to earn salvation. In practical terms that means I observe the 7 Feasts rather than Christmas and Easter, I follow the dietary laws, I observe Sabbath on day 7 and not day 1 and other things that are usually practiced by observant Jews. You could say that I differ from Christians by following the the Law and I differ from Jews by following Jesus and I believe we should do both. If you've been listening in recent years you've probably noted those two changes in my life through the messages I've been sharing. When I started this Podcast I had just gone through a major challenge in my life where I had gone bankrupt from chasing get-rich-quick schemes and not having a biblical approach towards work and finances. I had, at the same time, gone through some other personal challenges but I felt led to write a book called Jesus is at Work dealing with the faith at work issue, and write a blog on the same topic. Soon after that, I switched from blogging to podcasting. I still feel passionate about incorporating my faith into my work. I love my job more than ever, and I am very thankful for it. I believe my work at my job is part of my purpose here on earth. I want to continue to weave into this podcast the faith at work theme and I want to continue to focus primarily on men. However, moving forward I will be broadening the focus. What is the new focus? Well, you could summarize it by a Beatles song "All you need is love", but seriously, love is the simplest way for me to summarize where I want the focus to be. Specifically, I want to talk about loving God, loving others and loving ourselves, at work and at home. Without love, having faith at work or in our personal lives doesn't mean anything, in my opinion. It's no coincidence that this is basically what Jesus, who I normally call Yeshua, said summarizes the two greatest commandments, upon which hang all the law and the prophets. It's also a paraphrase of the Sh'ma, which Jewish people in their synagogues and Messianics in their congregations recite every Shabbat. I chose as the new title for this podcast Jacobs Ladder, which was recommended by a dear friend. The intent of that title is to provide an image of an intimate connection between God and man, without which we have no hope of ...
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    10 mins