In the wake of the assassination of ⁨@RealCharlieKirk⁩ I, am ashamed to admit, did not have a Christian response.

It isn't a problem that I was angry. It isn't a problem that I was horrified at the insensitivity and inhumanity of some people's responses. It isn't a problem that I hope justice comes swiftly.

What IS a problem is that I allowed myself to be overcome by evil rather than overcoming evil with good. What IS a problem is that I desired an enemy to vent my anger on. What IS a problem is that the thought of praying for my enemies sickened me. What IS a problem is that, briefly, I allowed my politics to inform my morality rather than my morality to inform my politics.

"The problem is that all of our hate is 'justifiable.' There's enough evil for us to endlessly pass the blame, justify our actions, keep killing each other, isolate ourselves, and create power structures that protect our own interests. There's only one way out and it's impossible for humanity to do it. When Jesus went to the cross, He demonstrated the ONLY PATH of redemption in an evil world filled with corruption and pain. Jesus is the way. The cross is the way. Forgiveness, releasing debt, choosing generosity in the midst of injustice, sacrificial love, and building relationships with your enemy is the only way to abundant life."

- ⁨@johnmarkdyer7⁩

Some will see this as SOFT Christianity but, really, it just IS Christianity and it is INCREDIBLY difficult at a time like this - but it is what we are called to.

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TruthBeToldYouTube

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

#faith #religion #spirituality #Charliekirk #utah #politicalviolence #currentevents #worldnews #conservative #liberal #politics #political #politicalnews #republican #democrat #Christian #Christianity #Jesus #Christ #JesusChrist #God #narrowpath #narrowroad #love #loveyourenemy #romans #Paul #bible #biblical #bibestudy #reaction #response #theology #apologetics #virtue #morality #persecution #podcast #turningpointusa #usa #america ⁨@turningpointusa⁩

2 Corinthians 2:9 is a favorite verse of many preachers, pastors, speakers, and teachers who want to communicate JUST HOW GREAT the Kingdom of God will be.

"Eye has not seen," meaning, "You won't believe it when you see it!" "Ear has not hear," meaning, "You've never heard of anything like it!" "Nor has entered into the heart's of man," meaning, "You couldn't even IMAGINE IT if you TRIED!"

But is that what this verse is saying?

For some reason, this verse is one that gets ripped out of context and, it really doesn't even need THAT much context to know that this is not what Paul is talking about.

In this episode, we keep reading, and get to the beautiful truth that this verse is ACTUALLY trying to communicate.

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TruthBeToldYouTube

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

#faith #religion #spirituality #faithful #spiritual #religious #theology #apologetics #Jesus #Christ #JesusChrist #God #Christian #Christianity #bible #biblestudy #1Corinthians #ApostlePaul #Paul #epistles #biblical #scripture #church #context #hermeneutics #fyp #Christancontent #christianliving

When faith is talked about, it is often incredibly complicated or overly simple. It's something we all understand and, also, struggle to comprehend - not to mention live out!

In this episode, we look at an analogy that might help us understand faith a bit better, review one of the Bible's most common stories that illustrate faith, doubt, and fear, and we dig deeper into why belief in what Christ has done is a faith builder.

I know that the biblical authors talk A LOT about faith in the person of Jesus Christ, faith in His life, works, and death, and faith in His resurrection; but how does this translate into faith in my daily life? How does knowing that Jesus existed help me life my life more faithfully? How does knowing that He could do incredible miracles help me have faith that He is working things on MY behalf? How does the fact that He was resurrected make me have more faith that He hasn't left me in the proverbial Valley of the Shadow of Death?

Certainly, believing these things to be true is GOOD and helpful for SOME things.. but it hasn't always correlated, for me, why the authors of the Bible seem to think these things are foundational for faith in God for EVERY part of my life.

This is something I've struggled with for awhile (and probably will continue to to some degree), but the thought process in this episode helped me out a lot!

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

Truth Be Told is 5 years old! Over the course of 5 years, this project has seen a mix of lessons learned and amazing successes that I can only count as blessings from God. In many ways, all of you listening now, or all those who have listened in the past have BEEN blessings yourselves.

Many of you who listen regularly have expressed a desire to see Truth Be Told reach a larger audience and are truly rooting for the success of this channel.

However, we have accomplished quite a bit in 5 years so, in this episode I wanted to share some of those milestones with you and encourage you to continue supporting.

One fascinating lesson I've learned over the course of this work is that, much like Joseph telling his brothers, "what you meant for evil, God has meant for good," often, it is those who dislike Truth Be Told, despise Christianity, and can't stand me that end up being one of the biggest helpers to me. Every time they comment something hateful, every time they share my content with their friends to mock, and every time someone skeptical wants to "keep tabs on me," by sharing my content with someone they respect more, the algorithm responds by increasing the visibility of the video that, hopefully, is a reflection of God and His Word to those who need it.

With this in mind, just imagine what your partnership could mean for Truth Be Told! Maybe, in this project, I am doing the planting, but every time you watch, comment, share, subscribe, rate, or interact with this content, you make yourselves the waterer which, SO FAR, has given God the opportunity to cause this effort to yield a lot of good fruit.

Thank you!

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TruthBeToldYouTube

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

#faith #religion #spirituality #bible #biblical #biblestudy #Christianity #Christian #truthbetold #truth #podcast #Jesus #Christ #JesusChrist #newtestament #oldtestament #youtube #religious #anniversary #5years #God

How can we deal with some of the incredibly difficult times we go through? How does finding meaning in our suffering make it easier to bear? Does it always?

Exciting episode this week in that, I am able to blend two of my favorite worlds: Christian Counseling and Biblical Study.

While reading Isaiah this week, I FINALLY reached a section (Chapter 32) that began to make sense of some of the confusing prophecies found in previous chapters. God says He'll be protective of His people.... like a lion is protective over its prey *gulp.* He says He will bind up His people's wounds..... that He has inflicted *gulp.* The list goes on. But FINALLY, in Chapter 32, we get a hint at the MEANING behind why God has allowed or caused these things.

There's a theoretical model of counseling called "Existentialism," popularized by Viktor Frankl, that deals A LOT in meaning making as an important part of having a fulfilling life that can endure all things.

Since Israel and Judah are expressly TOLD the meaning of their trials, and finding meaning in our suffering is incredibly important, does that mean they handle it well?

Unfortunately, no.

Why not? How does this effect our lives when we go through suffering and are desperate to find meaning in it?

If we treat Israel and Judah's reaction to the meaning God gives for their suffering as a cautionary tale, we can learn a REALLY valuable lesson in the process.

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TruthBeToldYouTube

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

#existentialism #christiancounseling #counseling #viktorfrankl #manssearchformeaning #meaning #purpose #meaningmaking #reason #therapy #podcast #faith #religion #spirituality #Christ #Jesus #JesusChrist #God #Christian #Christianity #theology #apologetics #bible #biblical #suffering #Israel #Judah #Gentiles #Isaiah #prophet #Romans #Paul #apostlepaul #apostle #biblestudy #hebrew #greek #newtestament #oldtestament #Catholic #Protestant #Jewish #Islam #religious #faithful #spiritual #truth #hope #love

In John 10, there's a really odd section dealing in a claim that Jesus is God, an obscure Psalm, a supernatural worldview that is only BEGINNING to become more commonplace, and cultural understandings of scripture and expectations of Messiah.

In this episode we go through the 2 main theories that seek to explain this section of Scripture and leave it up to you to decide which option has the greatest explanatory power.

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

#faith #religion #spirituality #john10 #youaregods #elohim #divinecouncilworldview #divinecouncil #psalms #john #gospels #Jesus #Christ #JesusChrist #God #temple #Israel #bible #biblical #theology #apologetics #truth #biblestudy #spirit #spiritual #pagangods #gods #OldTestament #NewTestament #Christianity #Christian #MichaelHeiser #DrMichaelHeiser #NakedBiblePodcast #TheNakedBiblePodcast #MikeHeiser ⁨@NakedBible⁩

While the answer to this question might seem obvious to many Christians on the surface, when we apply some critical thinking, common sense, and look deeper at the Scriptures, we might come to different conclusions.

This episode won't teach you WHAT to think but, hopefully, it will give some guidance on HOW to think about this sensitive topic.

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

#faith #religion #spirituality #cusswords #cursewords #profanity #christianswhocursesometimes #christian #christianity #Christ #Jesus #God #Christ #JesusChrist #religious #biblical #bible #profane #obscenity #truth #Paul #fyp #fypyoutube

When we read our Bibles, there is A LOT to remember.

History, Language, Culture, Audience - ALL of this needs taken into consideration.

At the risk of giving you one too many things to consider - we might also reflect on what TONE we're allowing to color our reading of the text.

In this episode, we walk through one example where the tone I applied to the text actually affected my understanding of what was being said.

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TruthBeToldYouTube

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

#faith #religion #spirituality #theology #apologetics #Christian #Christianity #hope #love #bible #biblical #JesusChrist #Jesus #Christ #God #tone #hermeneutics #exegesis #biblestudy #practicalchristianity #podcast #scripture #church #study #fyp #fypyoutube