In this week's solo episode Lisa discusses the signs of a lack of discernment. It seems that most of us are clamoring for someone to tell us who's right on the internet and what's wrong with specific books. Discernment is a skill that all believers are supposed to be growing in, not one reserved for "elite" Christians. So she ends the episode with practical ideas for growing in discernment.
Shannan Martin's new book "The Ministry of Ordinary Places" released yesterday and Lisa sat down and chatted with Shannan about the book.
They discussed learning to view yourself as a neighbor, setting boundaries, and telling stories that involve other people. They also bring their enneagram 8-ness to the conversation for a few minutes.
"Until I'm told to go, this is where I am."
Order the book HERE.
This week Lisa interviews Andrew Peterson, a songwriter, musician, and author. You've probably heard his music but if not, go listen to Resurrection Letters Vol. 1 as soon as you've finished this episode.
They discuss how Andrew conceptualizes different types of albums, how long he considered working on his fiction series before he started writing, how he's managing social media these days, and his role in The Rabbit Room.
You can find Andrew on Instagram (when he's there) or on tour.
In this solo episode, Lisa dives into hospitality. She discusses having people into our homes, of course, but then moves on to forming a hospitality life, where we welcome people wherever we are.
In this week's episode, Lisa explores a short verse in Romans 12 that insists we are supposed to enter into the joys and sorrows of others. But that can be really hard, can't it? Lisa finds that remembering that Jesus is the prize helps her celebrate the victories of others and that remembering she isn't here to be happy helps her enter into the griefs of others.
Phylicia and Lisa bring the second episode in the Theology 101 series and break down the creation story and the fall. Somehow they also manage to talk about evolution, original audiences, what it means to be image-bearers, new creation, tactics of the enemy, and the atonement. All of that in only three chapters of the Bible.
We're all about faithfulness in the daily routine but sometimes you need a big dream to point you in the right direction. In this episode Lisa breaks down a few of her big dreams and how they shape what she does in her normal, everyday life.
This week Lisa wraps up our series on Bible literacy. She briefly mentions genres (the Bible is truth and literature) and then discusses different ways to read and study the Bible.
Resources on genre:
The Story of the Bible
How to Read the Bible
The Bible Project: scroll through and listen to the episodes on poetry and narrative and metaphor and setting
Ways to Read the Bible
1. As quickly as possible
2. Inductive study
Precept Ministries
Intervarsity
3. Chronological
TaNaK reading
4. Topical
Bible Gateway
Bible Study Tools
5. Listen to it: audio totally counts
Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin
How to Study the Bible by Kay Arthur
This week Lisa interviews Dr. Leighton Flowers of the Soteriology 101 podcast. Dr. Flowers, among many other things, is an apologist for traditional (provisionist) doctrines of salvation. We've recommended his podcast before and you all were so interested in this topic that we asked him to come on the show!
In this episode, Dr. Flowers discusses how he went into and out of Calvinism, when he started researching soteriology, and why he started his podcast. He also talks about the surges of Calvinism in church history, why we should all care about knowing theology and provides some resources at the end of the show.
This week, we are kicking off a new series! Phylicia and Lisa are co-hosting theology 101: a non-seminarian, open discussion on various theological topics. This series is designed to encourage you to dig into the Bible, form your theology as you read and study, and compare Scripture with Scripture.
We start with "Who is God"? What do we know about Him and how do we know it? Jump in with us!
Three episodes ago we talked about why Bible literacy matters for all of us, no matter our vocation. But we don't want to leave you hanging there so we're going to offer some help with this literacy. This week, Lisa discuss proof-texting and how to work through the context of Bible passages. She starts off discussing some verses we commonly use for poof-texting
Then she defines some words and asks a few questions:
Does it (your meaning) agree with the actual text it's contained in?
Does it agree with the story of the Bible?
What is the historical/cultural context of the passage?
Sometimes Christians act like understanding the Bible is simple, but if you put a little work into it you can get so much more in return.
This week, Lisa's husband joins her for a chat about how their family operates and then they do a question and response time with your questions!
(Follow us on Instagram if you want your voice to be heard!)
Listener questions that we respond to:
How can you include husbands/dads in pregnancy?
When one has a healthy habit, does the other get on board or resist?
Did we discuss potential family size before marriage?
What are our favorite ways to serve each other? How do we resolve arguments?
Did we get to a point where we decided divorce was not an option?
How can you let grief bring you together instead of pushing you apart?
This week Lisa is chatting with Landry Jung, a real-life friend who spent a semester of college in South Africa and is headed to China soon. We learn how she made these decisions and how her faith was impacted by encountering Christianity in another culture. We also discuss encountering the God that lives within us and why that makes so many of us uncomfortable.
The Forgotten God by Francis Chan
Knowing the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament by Christopher J. H. Wright
There's a behind-the-scenes announcement to start this episode!
This week is all about Bible literacy. It's tempting to think that knowing the Bible only matters if you teach the Bible or have a platform, but that's not true. We are all tasked to continue the work that Jesus started.
1. Our goal is becoming like Jesus.
2. What we believe about God affects our behavior.
3. We need to preach the Gospel to ourselves.
4. We are lights of the world.
Did you know that the Bible doesn't talk about having a quiet time? So where does this phrase come from? Is this practice foundational to Christianity?
In this solo episode, Phylicia digs into the history of the "quiet time." She explores what the morning watch was and how it emphasized intercessory prayer. Then she discusses how we can approach our time with God with the intent to know God and go about His mission in our days.
Phylicia was asked a question about how to make the Gospel less offensive, which sparked a lively conversation about how that's not actually possible. But why? If it's good news, what's so offensive?
In this episode, we tackle the following:
1. What is the Gospel? It is the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It's the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
2. Why is the Gospel offensive? We shouldn't try to smooth out that the Gospel is offensive because it's exclusive. Because it points out our sin. Because it requires everything from us. The Gospel offends the flesh.
3. How does the Gospel affect today? Does salvation only affect our eternal life or does it affect life now?
This episode started, as many others do, with a Voxer conversation about soulmates. Do we have soulmates or are we free to marry any available believer? How are we supposed to relate to the opposite sex?
Where did the idea of soulmates come from?
Singles: only temptations or prospects?
How marriage-changing it is to view your spouse as a brother in Christ first
A disagreement about the Billy Graham rule?
Inviting singles into our families
This week we are discussing 6 topics where we've changed our stance. Before we jump into that though, we have a brief conversation on reading your Bible and why you should change your mind as you grow.
Then we jump in, alternating topics.
What is modesty?
What does it mean that man is the "head"?
Is courtship required?
Should we really just use the KJV?
Are men really that much better than women?
Should women only wear skirts?
Be willing to change your mind based on what Scripture says.
This week we have a special guest, Rebekah Hargraves from Hargraves Home and Hearth. As you'll hear, Rebekah is a "fairly good" friend of both of us and joins us to discussion some complicated topics like the Eternal Subordination of the Son and how this played into the development of complementarianism as a movement.
Here's a brief disclaimer that we were unaware of what would be the current conversations about gender relations and the explosion of this topic (if you are following the news on this anyway). Either way, this was what we had recorded for this week and simply continues the conversations that we have been having already.
This episode includes a brief discussion of Eternal Subordination of the Son, quotes from the founders and presidents of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and how Jesus interacted with women.
Rebekah's article on complementarianism.
Christianity Today podcast link
Women in the Storyline of Redemptive History
Extra reading: How Jesus Discipled Women
This week we finish our conversation on things the Bible actually doesn't say about women.
We discuss how sex isn't just for men and that men aren't charged with being the primary breadwinners of the family. Then we move on to Biblical pictures of femininity and masculinity (hint: we're all being remade in the image of Jesus) and how both parents are necessary to raising children.
This is the first of two parts where we tackle some common conservative narratives about gender that aren't actually in the Bible.
This week we tackle the myths that men are supposed to keep women in line, that men and woman always view each other sexually, and that husbands are called to lead their wives. (Don't freak out until you listen in, ok?)
We'll finish up this conversation next week.
This week, we are tackling how to confront sin. This is not an intensive guide (please seek wise counsel from godly people in your life) but rather an overview of some Biblical attitudes to help direct your actions.
We talk about why how you talk to and about your spouse on the regular matters, when Phylicia resembled a cornered badger, and why you shouldn't be the accountability for your spouse.
Spring is baby and wedding shower time! In light of that, we decided to dedicate an episode to expecting and new mamas. We share books, the pared-down baby necessities list, birth accounts on Instagram, and resting- really resting- after you give birth.
Then we move into early motherhood and making sustainable decisions instead of convenient ones, avoiding the "mommy wars" by remembering the freedom we have about so many things as believers, and keeping something fun around to entertain yourself when you are up with the baby.
Note: If you listen with your kids around, we do discuss both birth and sex after babies. You might want to pop in some headphones for that part!
We're tackling goal setting, even (especially!) though it's the end of April. As Christians, how we spend our time matters and there's nothing like a re-evaluation before summer starts.
We talk about casting a vision, identifying your trouble areas, and the difference between goals and practices. Then we end with a discussion about Phylicia's productivity course!
We've dropped episodes on a lot of serious topics lately so we thought we would mix things up with a fun episode. We discuss personality tests, podcasts, and a handful of our favorite things.
We discuss three personality tests. On the Myers-Briggs, Phylicia is an ENTJ and Lisa is a INFJ. We've both recently dug into the enneagram and Phylicia is a 3: the Achiever and Lisa is a 8: the Challenger. On Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies, Phylicia is an Upholder and Lisa is a Questioner.
Soteriology 101- a favorite of both
The Purpose Show
The Bible Project
The Bible Binge
Dear Daughters
Happier in Hollywood
That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs
Sex Chat for Christian Wives
Women's Work
Favorite Songs: Phy loves Unstoppable by Sia, Ever Be by Aaron Shust, No Longer Slaves by Bethel Music. Lisa is enjoying Isn't He by The Belonging Co and This is Me and Come Alive from The Greatest Showman soundtrack.
TV Shows: The John Addams miniseries for Phylicia
Psych and The Mentalist for Lisa
Food: Strawberry Dip with almond cream cheese and dark chocolate chunks
Lisa's started an afternoon tea ritual.
Something we can't stop talking about:
Lisa is obsessed with the big picture ideas of why God made the world and why did He make people and what's our role as a redeemed people in a fallen world.
Phylicia is consumed with the issue of race and the Gospel.
3 Favorite Instagram Follows: Phylicia's- Lindsey Elmore, Ayanna Thomas, Jamie Golden
Lisa's- Jess Connolly, Elise Joy, Lori Harris