March or Die

What does the Bible actually say about divorce? It's one of the questions Jeremy Stalnecker gets asked most through his work with veterans, first responders, and their families at Mighty Oaks. In this episode he walks through the main passages: Jesus in Matthew 19, Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, and what the rest of scripture says about abuse. Jeremy starts with God's design for marriage. Our culture treats marriage like a contract: if you hold up your end, I'll hold up mine. The Bible describes a covenant, two people becoming one flesh until death, and a picture of Christ's love for the church. That's why he says divorce should never be the first option. From there he gets into the harder questions. If divorce wasn't God's plan, why does it exist? When does the Bible allow it? He covers adultery, abandonment, and abuse, and he's clear on one thing: if you or your kids are in danger, God is not asking you to stay. If you've already been through a divorce, Jeremy has a word for you too. God still loves you and still has a plan for your life. You're not a second-class Christian. This is a big topic and every situation is different, so think of this as a starting point. Leave your questions in the comments. If you're in an abusive or unsafe situation, get safe first and then get help. In the U.S. you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233, text START to 88788, or visit thehotline.org. Hit Subscribe, share this episode with your community, and drop a comment on what landed hardest for you. Want more reinforcement? Subscribe to our newsletter, The Forward Edge, to go beyond the podcast and dig deeper into these topics and more: https://marchordie.substack.com! Join us daily for encouragement and biblical truth with the Mighty Oaks Daily Devotional, you can sign up for reminders: https://mightyoaksprograms.org/daily-devotional or text JOIN to (832) 333-8794 Follow March or Die:https://instagram.com/MarchOrDie https://Facebook.com/MarchOrDieShow https://TikTok.com/March_or_Die  Follow Jeremy:https://instagram.com/jeremystalnecker https://jeremystalnecker.com  Follow Sean:https://instagram.com/seantopgunkennard https://youtube.com/@SeanTopGunKennard  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

The doctor looked at Daniel Ritchie's father and asked if they should let him go. Daniel was born without arms, a disability two ultrasounds missed, and he came into the world not breathing and not moving. His dad didn't need a second opinion. Less than two minutes later, Daniel was kicking and screaming. But surviving the delivery room wasn't the hard part. By 13, Daniel hated his life. Bitterness turned into isolation, isolation into depression, and depression into wanting out. Then a friend invited him to a church lock-in he only went to because it sounded like chaos — and a youth pastor spent an hour walking a hostile 15-year-old through the book of Romans. In this conversation with Jeremy Stalnecker, Daniel talks about identity, contentment, and why the modifier we put in front of "Christian" quietly runs our lives. "I'm not an armless Christian," he says. "Christ is the most important part of who I am. The armless piece is just the refining aspect in the story." ABOUT DANIEL RITCHIE Daniel Ritchie is an author and speaker who has spent eight years traveling full-time, sharing his story with churches, conferences, and organizations across the country. danielritchie.com Hit Subscribe, share this episode with your community, and drop a comment on what landed hardest for you. Want more reinforcement? Subscribe to our newsletter, The Forward Edge, to go beyond the podcast and dig deeper into these topics and more: https://marchordie.substack.com! Join us daily for encouragement and biblical truth with the Mighty Oaks Daily Devotional, you can sign up for reminders: https://mightyoaksprograms.org/daily-devotional or text JOIN to (832) 333-8794 Follow March or Die:https://instagram.com/MarchOrDie https://Facebook.com/MarchOrDieShow https://TikTok.com/March_or_Die  Follow Jeremy:https://instagram.com/jeremystalnecker https://jeremystalnecker.com  Follow Sean:https://instagram.com/seantopgunkennard https://youtube.com/@SeanTopGunKennard  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Pastor Rich Cundall and his wife Laurie adopted four children. Years later, all four were in crisis at the same time and Rich walked into his own board of elders and asked them to decide whether he was still fit to lead. He told them he hoped they would let him go. They said no. And the third reason they gave him changed how he understands leadership: "We need an example of what it looks like to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. What it looks like to be broken and still trust Christ." Sixteen years later, Rich is still the pastor at Hessel Church and he is careful to say that the story does not have a tidy ending. One of the four has been healed. The other three, in his words, are "still working on their testimonies." In this conversation, recorded in front of a live audience at Hessel Church during the NorCal Men's Summit, Rich and Jeremy talk about what it actually costs to lead through adversity: why the church's instinct to hide brokenness forfeits its credibility, why a leader has to build his team long before the crisis arrives, and why Rich believes the very thing you think disqualifies you is the thing God intends to use. "We impress people with our strengths. But we connect with people in our weakness." Hessel Church: https://hesselchurch.org  Hit Subscribe, share this episode with your community, and drop a comment on what landed hardest for you. Want more reinforcement? Subscribe to our newsletter, The Forward Edge, to go beyond the podcast and dig deeper into these topics and more: https://marchordie.substack.com! Join us daily for encouragement and biblical truth with the Mighty Oaks Daily Devotional, you can sign up for reminders: https://mightyoaksprograms.org/daily-devotional or text JOIN to (832) 333-8794 Follow March or Die:https://instagram.com/MarchOrDie https://Facebook.com/MarchOrDieShow https://TikTok.com/March_or_Die  Follow Jeremy:https://instagram.com/jeremystalnecker https://jeremystalnecker.com  Follow Sean:https://instagram.com/seantopgunkennard https://youtube.com/@SeanTopGunKennard  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

"We just talk about boy band Jesus." Nick Freitas breaks down what biblical masculinity actually is and the five pillars every Christian man is called to build: spiritual, emotional, physical, intellectual, and professional. Host Jeremy Stalnecker sits down with Nick Freitas, author of THE MAN BOOK, host of Making the Argument, husband of 27 years and father of three, for a conversation about why men quietly walked away from the church, and what it takes to bring them back. Nick doesn't blame the culture and he doesn't hand out a 12-step program. He goes to scripture: what does God actually require of a man? Out of that comes the five-pillar framework he teaches, spiritual, emotional, physical, intellectual, professional, with the receipts for each one. Along the way: why "touchy-feely" church drove him off before special forces brought him back, why hyper-masculinity is the same error in the opposite direction, why he tells young men to get a "violent hobby" (and the caveats that go with it), what it means to be the patriarch of a multi-generational family, and why every phase of a man's life has a job attached to it, including the last one. Get Nick's Book here: https://a.co/d/02m6Epqr  Check out Making The Argument here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0PGCCatgQGZcatLmNSQ9oz  Follow Nick on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCPFzA28Hw9tYDxXAeidDk6w   If you're a man trying to figure out what you're actually supposed to be,  or you're raising one, start here. Hit Subscribe, share this episode with your community, and drop a comment on what landed hardest for you. Want more reinforcement? Subscribe to our newsletter, The Forward Edge, to go beyond the podcast and dig deeper into these topics and more: https://marchordie.substack.com! Join us daily for encouragement and biblical truth with the Mighty Oaks Daily Devotional, you can sign up for reminders: https://mightyoaksprograms.org/daily-devotional or text JOIN to (832) 333-8794 Follow March or Die:https://instagram.com/MarchOrDie https://Facebook.com/MarchOrDieShow https://TikTok.com/March_or_Die  Follow Jeremy:https://instagram.com/jeremystalnecker https://jeremystalnecker.com  Follow Sean:https://instagram.com/seantopgunkennard https://youtube.com/@SeanTopGunKennard  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

"Please don't ever make me bury a friend." For 24 years, police chaplain Chuck Price has shown up for cops on the worst days of their lives and 95% of the job is just sitting in a car with them, long before the worst day ever comes. In this episode, host Jeremy Stalnecker sits down with Chuck Price, police chaplain, FBI-experienced, and executive director of Wixom Ministries, to explain what a first-responder chaplain actually does. It's not invocations and benedictions.  It's a "ministry of presence": riding along, earning trust one shift at a time, so that when the line-of-duty death or the worst call comes, you're already someone the officer trusts. Chuck unpacks why he "can't carry their burden" (only walk with them), how he shares faith without ever pushing it, why patient presence beats forced evangelism ("If I'd pushed Jesus on you 15 years ago, would we even be here?"), and how to spot, or become, a chaplain who shows up for the right reasons. If you're a first responder, a police family, or someone who wants to serve the men and women who serve us, this one's for you. Hit Subscribe, share this episode with your community, and drop a comment on what landed hardest for you. Want more reinforcement? Subscribe to our newsletter, The Forward Edge, to go beyond the podcast and dig deeper into these topics and more: https://marchordie.substack.com! Join us daily for encouragement and biblical truth with the Mighty Oaks Daily Devotional, you can sign up for reminders: https://mightyoaksprograms.org/daily-devotional or text JOIN to (832) 333-8794 Follow March or Die:https://instagram.com/MarchOrDie https://Facebook.com/MarchOrDieShow https://TikTok.com/March_or_Die  Follow Jeremy:https://instagram.com/jeremystalnecker https://jeremystalnecker.com  Follow Sean:https://instagram.com/seantopgunkennard https://youtube.com/@SeanTopGunKennard  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.