Lisa Harper's Back Porch Theology

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, we’re going to honestly explore how Christians can do better caring about and caring for the precious people who are leaving mainstream churches. It’s a given that some are walking away from communities of faith for sinful reasons but what about the saints who are leaving our sanctuaries because they’ve been deeply betrayed by a spiritual leader or they simply can’t reconcile the Jesus of Scripture – who hugged lepers, welcomed outliers, and compassionately advocated for the poor - with the sociology of the affluent, seemingly inwardly focused congregation they were raised in. Pastor and modern theologian, Dr. A.J. Swoboda made this wise and gracious observation about some who are leaving the church: they have tasted Jesus, and rigid religion has proven to be a poor substitute. Before we go any further, I want to state what I hope is blatantly obvious here at Back Porch Theology and that is: we are passionately, unashamedly, enthusiastically PRO-CHURCH. Dr. Howard pastors a local church in Dillon, CO and Allison and I are life-long church girls. All three of us have spent a good chunk of our lives serving on church staffs or parachurch ministries. We wholeheartedly believe the Christian church is one of the main means of grace our Creator Redeemer uses to accomplish His kingdom purposes. We also believe the Bible is crystal clear regarding how important it is for God’s people to gather on a regular basis as a community of faith for centralized worship, corporate prayer, biblical instruction, water baptism, relational encouragement, and to celebrate the sacrament of communion. But, and this is a big but, we also think Christ-followers can do a much better job of caring for and listening to the men, women and teenagers who are leaving our churches for reasons that should give us pause – mainly, that sometimes our corporate gatherings of faith no longer resemble the Savior we’re singing about or the wholistically redemptive message of the Bible we profess to base our belief system on. Not everyone who walks away from a local church is an angry rebel or a selfish prodigal or a divisive opponent, much less a dangerous heretic. Some sheep are hurt and scared and lonely and they thought they’d get closer to the Good Shepherd if they joined our herd, but unfortunately their wounds have gotten worse, as a result of hanging out with us and they don’t feel like they have any other option except to limp away to a less painful pasture. If someone you love has walked away from church disappointed, disillusioned, and is quite possibly in a season of deconstruction we believe today’s conversation can help you maintain a genuine relationship with them as they sort out what they believe to be true about God, even if they pull away from church for the time being. And based on the some of the excruciatingly honest emails we’ve received here at BPT, we understand that some of you - who purely by the grace of God trust our motley crew enough to hang out on the proverbial porch with us - are nursing fresh wounds from a bad church experience. Please know that you’re especially weighty on our hearts today. We’ve prayed that Holy Spirit will use this conversation to bring you a tangible sense of His comfort. That it will serve to remind you that while Christ followers are notably flawed, Jesus – our incarnate Savior - was without sin, not a man that He could lie or change His mind, according to the Old Testament book of Numbers. Yes, human love is conditional, but God’s love is unconditional and immutable – it doesn’t change. He is not fickle He is perfectly...

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology I’m basically peeling off my emotional Spanx and revealing my proverbial cellulite, stretch marks, and wobbly bits because we’re diving deep into the subject of rest, which doesn’t come naturally to me because more often than I’d like to admit, my default setting gets stuck on go. I know cognitively that God modeled rest when He crashed out on a celestial couch after creating the world and that since He gave us the gift of rest before the Fall, it’s a perfect gift, not an accommodation for human weakness, however my worth and my word tend to be unhealthily intertwined and all too often I live at a frenetic pace that robs me and those I love of peace, isn’t sustainable, and isn’t what God calls us to as His beloved. Busyness really isn’t a spiritual gift, y’all. I often find myself pondering how Jesus lived His life at a pace of 3 mph because He walked everywhere He went. He was fully present with people. He even took the time to welcome interruptions. If possible, I encourage you to actually sit down while you listen to this episode – don’t try to listen while you’re making dinner or working out because, well because that’d be like funneling chips and queso straight down your throat without savoring the crisp of the tortilla chips and the velvety tang of the cheese! So please pour yourself a cup of coffee or hot tea with honey and grab your Bible and prop your feet up on the porch with us. We’re really glad you’re here.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology was actually recorded in Montana with my dear, dear friends, who are actually more like siblings now, Pastor Levi and Jennie Lusko. We’ve been friends for a while now, but after doing a Christmas tour on a bus last year with our kiddos, we morphed into kind of a blended family and began calling ourselves the Huskos! When you spend weeks together in the equivalent of an extended RV and have to make restroom stops at rural gas stations in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, you bond for life, baby! I laughed so hard while we were on the road together, I kept getting stomach cramps. Which of course I hoped would give me a six-pack, alas all our late-night snacks at Buccee’s had a greater effect on my abdomen. Of course, interwoven with all our fun and laughter, Jennie and Levi and I shared some tears, too. Because we’ve all suffered some devastating losses. Real life – and real relationships – include joy and pain. Heartwarming moments and heartbreaking seasons. I know authenticity and Christianity aren’t always synergistic in modern culture, but they sure should be. I think today’s conversation is going to feel like an old pair of Uggs, warm and comfortable. So please grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate or hot tea, and your Bible, and come hang out on the porch with us. I promise, you’ll fit right in with our slightly whacked, very messy, ride or die family of faith.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Alli and I have the pure joy of asking Dr. Howard – whose PhD is rooted in the New Testament so he’s a smarty-McTarty when it comes to Pauline theology - all kinds of questions about the more complex points and passages the book of Romans. Questions like, How can we reconcile Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith in Romans 3-4 with his view on the Law and good works in chapters 2 and 7? How does Paul’s concept of predestination and election in chapter 8 align with the broader themes of free will and human responsibility in this epistle? How can we explain – better yet model - Paul’s teaching that hope won’t disappoint with our friends, family, co-workers and neighbors who’ve all but lost theirs because of tragedy, hardship, loss, or abuse? And How can we hang onto the joy Paul preaches about while simultaneously leaning into the suffering he frames as part of our faith? One of the things we love most about Dr. Howard is that he delights in making profound theological concepts understandable to people who don’t have a bunch of academic degrees like him and he does that with contagious joy today. So please grab your favorite beverage, a yummy snack and your Bible – unless of course you’re practicing a routine with flaming batons – and come hang out on the porch with us. We’re really glad you’re here! 

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. On today's special episode of Back Porch Theology, I'm hanging out with my dear friend Christine Caine. You'll love listening to her because she has this Australian accent. I always tease her and say she could read the phone book and I'd rededicate my life to Christ. But Chris and I are focusing on Advent, the marvel and the miracle of Advent.You know, for more than a thousand years, Advent has been this really special time that's been set apart in the church calendar, which invites us to pause, to prepare, and to anticipate the arrival of our long awaited Messiah, King Jesus. The season of Advent gives us the time and the opportunity to, to prayerfully reflect on the wonder of Christ's glorious entrance into the world. It's a call to attentiveness. It's an opportunity to prepare the way for the Lord that begins in our own hearts. It's this time when the air around us almost feels thick with the expectation of the dawn of a new day. So I think you're going to love today's podcast. I think it'll help get your heart.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re having the biblical equivalent of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest that takes place on Coney Island every July Fourth. Because while we won’t be trying to gobble 62 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes like world champion Joey Chestnut did last summer, we are going to attempt to digest some of the major doctrinal themes found in the book of Romans in one single podcast! Speaking of Christian doctrine, Martin Luther - widely known as one of the key leaders of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s – was a dutiful priest who almost drove himself crazy trying to live a life holy enough to please God. He spent hours in prayer every day, he fasted for so long and so often that it caused severe intestinal problems, and he even practiced self-harm, thinking that the discomfort and pain that resulted from intentionally wounding himself was a necessary penance for his sin. It wasn’t until he taught on the book of Romans that the Holy Spirit opened his eyes to divine grace – to the unmerited favor of Jesus Christ – and that’s what dramatically changed his personal life and gave rise to the Protestant church. Luther described Romans as, “The gate to paradise” because it’s what led him from practicing rote religion to experiencing a real relationship with our Creator Redeemer. We hope today’s conversation opens the gate for some of you to walk into a much closer relationship with Jesus, too. So please grab your favorite beverage a snack and a Bible – if you have one – and come prop your feet up on the porch with us.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re getting granular about the divine, salvific grace Paul riffs on early in his letter to the Romans. We’re going to take a long pause in our collective amble down the Romans Road so as to marinate in the concept of justification. We’re going to do an in-depth review of how the sinless life and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ made it possible for rebellious, sin-riddled yahoos like us to be reconciled with a perfectly righteous God. Because all too often we church folk tend to volley multi-syllabic theological terms like “justification” and “sanctification” and “propitiation” amongst ourselves like innocuous doctrinal pickle balls without giving too much thought to the grief and gravitas they represent. In much the same way we blithely wear crosses as mere jewelry or prominently display it in the form of a hip tattoo, forgetting what that Roman torture device – equivalent to a medieval guillotine or modern-day electric chair, which I can’t imagine someone wearing as a fashion statement – represents…that the King of all kings chose to leave His throne in glory, condescend to human form and humble circumstances, only to be betrayed and abandoned by His closest friends and ultimately have stakes hammered into His feet and wrists so He could be suspended in the air like a human shish-kabob while a cruel mob jeered His torture and subsequent murder because Jesus knew His blood was the necessary price that had to be paid in order to justify – to make us right – with God. We’re not going to skip past the hard facts of what He sacrificed for our redemption today y’all because quite honestly doing so mitigates the miracle of our salvation. So please grab a great big mug of strong coffee and your Bible – unless of course you’re in the hot-wax stage of a manicure – and come ponder the audacious kindness of King Jesus on the porch with Alli, Dr. Howard and me.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to mess with your beautiful minds just a wee bit by flipping to the end of the book of Romans before reading the beginning. But we’re not just messing with y’all to exasperate you like my nephew John Michael loves to do when he teases Missy. I promise there’s a redemptive method to our madness! We’re going to read Romans in reverse because if you don’t understand what Paul’s preaching toward the end of this theologically dense epistle, then the beginning and middle of the letter lose some of their doctrinal oomph. Dr. Scot McKnight, who’s a renowned New Testament scholar, seminary professor, prolific author and who purely by the amazing grace of God has become a Kerygma regular and a friend to Alli, Dr. Howard and me says this about reading Romans in reverse: One quick read of Romans 14-16 reveals the pastoral context of this letter, and no reading of Romans 1-11 that ignores 14-16 will catch the Pauline drift of why he is writing. In other words, our tendency to crush out on chapters 4-8 of Romans – what with all of its low-hanging theological fruit – while ignoring the latter part of Paul’s preeminent epistle is akin to eating the entire basket of tortilla chips before the hot queso gets to the table and then having nothing to dunk in that glorious goo…we’re missing out on the best part! So please grab your favorite beverage and your Bible – unless of course, you’ve got both hands halfway up a gourd in an attempt to DYI Fall centerpieces for your niece’s low budget wedding – and come hang out on the porch with Alli, Dr. Howard and me. We’re as happy as three hungry mice trapped in a cheese factory that we get to hang out with you today. And I apologize for the multiple cheese references but once I hear the word queso my dairy obsession tends to take over!

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. Apostle Paul’s letter to the fledgling Christian church in Rome - which he wrote during the second half of the First Century - has often been hailed as the hub of Christian theology because in it he establishes the foundational walls of biblical orthodoxy. In fact, all you have to do is read the statement of faith listed on a few of your favorite Christian church or ministry websites to discover that the majority of our doctrinal beliefs as Christ followers have been mined from this New Testament treasure trove called the Book of Romans. However, Romans is broader and more nuanced than just a brilliant treatise on humanity’s need for salvation and justification, so we’re kicking off this rollicking adventure through Romans by pulling up on the proverbial nose of the plane for a 30,000-foot view to better understand the historical and sociological context of this profound epistle. So please grab a pumpkin cream cold brew – is it just me, or are coffee shops pulling out the pumpkin drinks earlier now? If memory serves me correctly, those fancy pumpkin flavored coffees didn’t use to debut until September so the whole gourd theme made sense in light of the Fall season, but now they start advertising pumpkin-juiced-java-lattes in July when the back of my thighs are still sticking to my hot car seat and my hair looks like Beetlejuice because of the humidity and it just feels wrong. If we’ve got any Back Porchers who are big dogs in the coffee industry, will you please tell the powers that be to push the pumpkin campaign back a few weeks, y’all – at least until projectile perspiration season is over? Well anyway, regardless of whether it’s squash infused or not, please grab your favorite cuppa Joe or tea, your Bible and a notebook because our excursion through Romans for the next several weeks is going to be chock full of so much good stuff it’ll be hard to hang onto without jotting a few notes! Then pull up your chair and join Alli, Dr. Howard and me on the porch – I can’t overstate how glad we are that you’ve chosen to hang with us today.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is part travelogue, part exegesis, part confessional, and part pinky swear because while we were visiting Ephesus on our trip tracing the missionary journeys of Apostle Paul this summer, I couldn’t help thinking about the Ephesians’ sad, downward spiritual trajectory recorded by John in Revelation chapter two when he describes those early Christians as “doing all the right things outwardly yet losing their first love.” Theologian A.W. Tozer said it well, albeit soberly, when he observed, “For millions of Christians, God is no more real than He is to non-Christians. They go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mere principle.” As our tour group walked along the rocky paths of those ancient ruins where Paul once preached and Timothy planted a church and John discipled new believers while keeping Mary, the mother of Jesus, company in her latter years, we found ourselves pondering what went wrong. What caused that group of once devoted Christ followers to lose their zeal and exchange a vibrant personal relationship with Jesus for rote religiosity? In much the same way a physical autopsy allows physicians and scientists to gain invaluable data that can lead to new, life-saving medicines and procedures, a spiritual post-mortem exam of how the church at Ephesus lost their first love can provide invaluable data for those of us who are committed to keep our love relationship with Jesus healthy and intimate. There will inevitably be both difficult and dry seasons on the Christian journey, but goodness gracious, I never want to be rightly accused as someone whose love for Jesus has faded and I’m sure you don’t either. So please grab your favorite beverage and a sharable snack – unless of course it’s kale chips, which I will happily abstain from – and pull your chair up on the porch with Alli, Dr. Howard, and me. Today’s going to be a good one, y’all.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Alli and I are delving into a facet of Christoformity – that is being shaped like Jesus – which doesn’t come naturally to either one of us and that is the art of waiting. Now if your wiring tends to be more high-speed like ours and you’re prone to cram a week’s worth of work on your daily to-do lists, please don’t skip out on this episode because not only can I promise it’s going to be a shame-free zone, I can also promise this conversation is jam-packed with encouragement and practical theology about pacing because the biblical context of waiting rarely refers to a complete cessation of activity. In other words, when God’s people waited in biblical narrative it wasn’t remotely stagnant or boring. In fact, both the Old Testament canon and the New Testament canon align the concept of waiting on God with the active posture of expectant hope. There’s a huge difference between spiritual stillness and a lethargic lifestyle, y’all! For Christ-followers waiting is less about drumming our fingers with impatience while we wait on someone who’s running late and more about our souls sighing with contentment and trust as we wait for our Creator Redeemer whose timing may not always match our expectations yet is always perfect! Increasing our capacity to wait on God is congruent with an increased confidence that He's always in the process of redeeming our inherent dignity as imago Dei; He’s always in the process of mitigating the evil that wounds and corrupts humanity; and He’s always in the process of decreasing the gap between the here and now and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ. So please grab a cup of decaf and your Bible, push any mental distractions to the edge of your mind, then take a seat on the porch next to us, prop your feet up and exhale – I have a feeling Holy Spirit’s going to take a load off lots of us today.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is a vulnerable one y’all because we’re tiptoeing into the theology of tears. Crying used to make me uncomfortable. There was so much anger and chaos and sadness in my early childhood before my parents divorced that I subconsciously began using my blanket as a mini cape and tried to be Little Miss Sunshine. The way I figured it, my poor Mom and Dad already had their hands full of so much hard stuff they needed a daughter who was a self-sufficient smiler, not some needy crybaby. I was well into adulthood before I finally understood that my childish conviction that sad equals bad was way off base. Because sincere tears are God’s gift to express emotion where words fail. Those tiny rivers of salt coursing down our cheeks can help wash the debris of spent sorrow from our weary souls. They can even carry big balloon bouquets of sheer joy. And biblical narrative is quite literally soaked with tears. Ruth wept after her husband died and at the idea of being separated from her mother-in-law Naomi, Hannah wept because she was brokenhearted over her infertility, of course Job cried out to God over the death of his children and employees, along with the catastrophic loss of his health and wealth, Jeremiah wept so often over how the Israelites had forsaken the unconditional love of God and were foolishly looking for love in all the wrong places that he became known as the “weeping prophet,” the Psalmists were nothing if not emotionally vulnerable and the Sons of Korah – who were ancient worship leaders – even exclaimed that tears had become their food, Peter wept bitterly when he realized Jesus was right the night before when He soberly declared Pete would betray Him three times before the rooster crowed the following morning, an unnamed woman in the Gospels was so overwhelmed by the kindness and accessibility of Jesus that she washed His feet with her tears, and our Savior himself shed tears during His earthly life and ministry. One of my favorite writers Charlotte Bronte put it this way, “I believe while I tremble, I trust while I weep.” The bottom line is grief is not ungodly and is rather, biblically defensible as well as modeled by the Messiah Himself. We hope today’s conversation might be the beginning of real healing for some of you precious saints who’ve been bottling up your sorrow for far too long – likely with good intentions, or at the very least the goal of not being a burden to anyone else. So please grab your favorite beverage, your Bible and maybe a box of tissues and then scooch your chair right up next to ours on this big, ol’ porch where you don’t have to pretend like you’re okay when you’re not. 

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re stepping into some seemingly foreboding biblical territory that we’ve yet to venture into on this podcast, which is the Old Testament book of Daniel. If Daniel was on a geographical map, it’d probably be punctuated with huge mountains and treacherous rivers and volcanos because Daniel is one of the more complex books of Holy Writ. It takes place during a very tumultuous time period in Israel’s history, when many of the Southern Jews were swept away into captivity in Babylon, where young Daniel is soon catapulted from slave to sage because of his God-given ability to interpret the King’s nightmares. Daniel’s story ultimately spans the time-period of several Babylonian kings and includes sorcery, fiery furnaces, man-eating lions, mental illness, and an attempted coup or two. To call it a drama is a massive understatement! Plus, the book of Daniel includes lots of prophecy regarding God’s people, as well as an overarching eschatological – or “end time” – theme so it can be a unwieldy booger to interpret, much less figure out how it applies to Christ followers today. Which is why we’ve enlisted the help of our dear friend, Kristin Brewer, who co-wrote the production of Daniel for the Sight and Sound Theatre, which has just recently been released to movie theatres across the nation. So please grab your Bible, a beverage, and a tub of popcorn and come join us on the porch for a deep dive into the breathtaking adventure of Daniel, featuring the never-ending faithfulness of our Creator Redeemer!

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. Peanut butter and jelly, Starsky and Hutch, Chips and queso, Cagney and Lacey, tea and honey, Dolly and Jelly Roll…there are some partnerships that just make sense, like they were absolutely made for each other. Well on today’s bonus conversation on Back Porch Theology, we get to introduce y’all to a new friend that fits us like a glove called Sight and Sound Theatre. Sight and Sound – or S’squared, which is the cool nickname Alli and I have cooked up for them! – is an awesome organization with a purpose and passion for bringing stories to life that reveal the power of the Gospel. What began as one couple’s prayer and a single slide projector fifty years ago has since grown into two live theater locations, an online streaming platform, and a feature film studio, reaching audiences around the world with stories from the pages of scripture and history. And since there’s not much we love more here on BPT than telling stories about who God is and the faithful things He does, we fell pretty hard for these folks because showcasing His redemptive mercy is their primary motivation too! We can’t wait for you to meet them, so please grab your Bible and a cup of something iced and caffeinated – I don’t start drinking hot coffee until the weather starts cooling down because there’s just something about holding a steaming beverage while my sweaty thighs are sticking to the seat that grieves me – and come prop your feet up on the porch with us.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. The older I get, the more convinced I am that admittedly flawed sinners are the most credible witnesses of the Gospel, because blemished believers can’t fake moral superiority. Our scars make it glaringly apparent that we couldn’t protect ourselves from harm. Authentic Christian warriors with scabby knees, bruised hearts, and even track-marked arms, who sometimes stumble yet always grab onto the arm of Holy Spirit in order to stand up again and again, exemplify the redemptive power of divine grace. We prove how miraculous and restorative the love of God really is. We know we can’t make it by ourselves and can only keep ourselves together because of the miraculous redemption King Jesus provided for us on the cross. In his book, Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning wrote, “On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars.” Today on Back Porch Theology, Alli, Dr. Howard and I are rolling up our sleeves to show you our scars in the hopes they’ll help you lean more fully into the embrace of Jesus – the One with the loveliest nail prints in His hands and His feet.

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to effectively swab the cheek of our belief system and do a DNA test to explore our spiritual ancestry. Alli, Dr. Howard and I are going to take you on a journey all the way back to the birth of Christianity and explore the foundations of our faith. We’re going to make several cool stops on this tour of biblical orthodoxy, including a visit to where Emperor Constantine put his hope in Jesus and discover how his salvation shifted the entire course of redemptive history. Then we’ll mosey on down to the Council of Nicaea – where a group of spiritual leaders first gathered to hammer out the core doctrines of our faith and kick heresies to the curb so this whole fledgling belief system called Christianity didn’t come flying off the rails. For those of you who are relatively new to Christianity or even those of you who’ve been walking with Jesus a long time but still feel a tad wobbly when it comes to understanding why we believe what we believe, today’s going to be like the spiritual version of a downward dog pose – it’s going to strengthen your core. So please grab a cold drink, a warm snack and your Bible and come hang out on the porch with us – we love getting to spend this time with you!You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. If you could see Alli’s and my faces during our conversation on Back Porch Theology today, you’d see that we’re both wearing ear to ear grins because we get to spend the next forty-five or so minutes with y’all in one of our favorite playgrounds, which is the land of multi-syllabic theological terms! Now for those of you who aren’t as prone to wind-baggy-ness as we are, please, please, please don’t press delete yet - I promise there’s some awesome gold nuggets in the proverbial dirt we’re panning today! Because while a large theological vocabulary in itself isn’t exactly scintillating, the biblical truisms and characteristics of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit – the terms we’re going to talk about represent – are wildly encouraging for those of us who’re steadily stumbling further into divine grace. One of my favorite pretend and posthumous boyfriends – German theologian Dr. Helmut Thielicke – once said, “Unless a theology works at the margins of life, it’s not worth anything even if it makes sense at the easy center.” Some of the core Christian beliefs we’ll be riffing about today are like step-by-step directions regarding how to safely and joyfully navigate the messy margins of life with our faith not only intact but galvanized. Because God is not a proposition to be studied, y’all – He’s a Good Shepherd with whom we get to engage and follow! So please grab a tall, iced oat milk mocha with whip – or whatever your personal favorite go-go juice is – plus your Bible and a journal, then pull your chair right up here on the porch for some lively and life-giving conversation with us!You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!Sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% at BetterHelp.com/LisaHarper

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is both confessional and convicting because we’re talking about the difference between discernment – which can be loosely described as the ability to tell the difference between right from wrong - and criticism – which is primarily focused on finding fault in others. A young Christian recently asked me, “What’s the difference between ‘seeing sin’ in someone else’s life and confronting it, and having a critical spirit?” I told her I thought the key distinction between recognizing and confronting behavior that’s ungodly in someone else and criticizing others is the posture of our own hearts. Are we aware of other people’s mistakes because they trust us and have confided in us, or have we appointed ourselves as the “moral police” so as to justify examining blemishes in everyone else’s behavior? First Corinthians chapter five explains that part of our job description as ambassadors of Christ is to help restore those who’ve been tripped up by sin back into a redemptive relationship with God, not try to elevate ourselves by exposing other people’s flaws! If you feel like you’ve taken more than your fair share of lashes from a sharp tongue or you’ve got a tendency to nit-pick others yourself, we hope you’ll get some much-needed relief today or maybe even a necessary but non-condemning course correction. So please grab your favorite drink, a snack, and your Bible then pull your chair up to the porch – we’re really happy we get to hang out with y’all.You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!Sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% at BetterHelp.com/LisaHarper

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re talking about this engaging, exciting, captivating, compelling, LIFE-GIVING, divine love story we call the Bible. Far too many of us have sat under pastors, priests, teachers, and spiritual leaders who’ve communicated God’s Word with the same level of passion a court reporter has when recording HOA litigation over a homeowner’s grass being one half of an inch above the neighborhood standard. While others of us have had the imperatives in God’s Word applied to our lives in such punitive ways that we can’t help thinking of it as a rigid book of rules that we’ll surely get whacked over the head with. However, both of those extremes are gross misuses of the Bible – it was never intended to be used primarily for discipline or for memorizing religious data, and it’s not just a collection of morality tales like Aesop’s Fables, either. From the very beginning, Scripture invites and impels us to lean into a real, loving relationship with God. Just as He breathed air into Adam’s lungs to jumpstart humanity, He breathed these words into being so that we could have LIFE and have it more abundantly. If you’ve secretly thought the Bible was a wee bit boring, or maybe just inscrutable like those teensy-weensy printed directions regarding how to set up your new Wi-Fi router, today’s episode is going to be a Little Mermaid moment for you – it’s going to open you up to a whole new world! So please grab a cup of iced coffee and your Bible – unless you’ve got both hands full trying to recoil the garden hose that your teenager put back on the reel all wonky and lopsided! – and come hang out on the porch with us.You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!Sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% at BetterHelp.com/LisaHarper

Visit donate.accessmore.com to give to help fund more episodes and shows like this. During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re wading into sober, heart-rending, deep water. If you’ve got little ears around right now, I encourage you to pause this podcast until those precious punkins aren’t within earshot. However, in light of some of the spiritual giants who’ve been felled by moral failures lately, we believe an honest conversation about human frailty even among Christian leaders is both timely and necessary. Please know we will NEVER name names, belittle other believers, or sensationalize what is causing deep sorrow to any member in the Body of Christ here on BPT. Frankly, it grieves us deeply that modern culture feeds a voracious appetite for gossip and tends to applaud the cruel sport of gang-piling people who’ve gotten tripped up by sin – especially if they have a public platform. I think far too many folks who identify as Christians have gotten comfortable squeezing into moral police uniforms and then posting uninformed critiques on social media with sanctimonious impunity. Therefore, we think this season during which several high-profile spiritual leaders have seemingly toppled over into messy heaps of humanity is an opportune time to search the Scriptures for how we can more faithfully respond when a pastor – perhaps even a personal mentor – falls into sin. What does it mean to disqualify yourself from leadership but not from Christianity? How can laypeople remain devoted to following Jesus when their leaders disobey His commands? And how do we stay engaged in the process of biblical restoration when we’re just so stinkin’ sad & disappointed about yet another church scandal in the news? If you’ve been wounded in church or by a church leader, please linger with us until the end of the episode today because while we won’t wrap our time together up with a perky bow or a pithy sentiment, I can assure you there’s tangible hope at the end of this tunnel. So please grab something to sip, something to snack on – on days like today I think the calories might not count quite as much - and your Bible, then pull your chair up as close as you can. We’re really grateful we get to hang out with y’all today.You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!Sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% at BetterHelp.com/LisaHarper