The Goodness of God

Melisa Winburn is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Appalachia Service Project - an organization that has been helping Appalachians with their homes since the 1960s. It's an organizations that strikes the balance between having deep roots across a five state area and being able to coordinated the energies of 10,000 short term missions workers every year. Hurricane Helene profoundly altered their mission field and there work, but at the core, it remains about building relationships by caring deeply for communities. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Mary, the mother of Christ, plays a huge role in the first chunk of Luke's Gospel. She remains a global celebrity today with churches, art, apartment complexes, and entire nations devoted to her. She is a tremendous historical anomaly. She's not a queen or an empress - just a normal teenager for Galilee. Her faithfulness rather than the situation of her birth makes her worthy of her lasting following. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - everywhere you go. You house is filling with objects, boxes, and shipping envelopes. John the Baptist's call to simple and connected economic existence can feel particularly hard hitting. "If you have enough, share the rest. Don't exploit people." How can I do this, when I've got four more people on my Christmas list? This probably isn't a tension that one can easily resolve.... ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Angel Studios decided to tell the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and we decided to go see it. Neither of those decisions were great ones. The movie is more earnest, better acted, and more in line with Bonhoeffer's life and theology than one might imagine. Does that make it a good film? No, no, it does not. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

After naming John the Baptist, Zechariah gets his voice back and belts out a prophecy of his own. Those promises from of old, that felt like they dwindled over time, are back with a vengeance. God will speak. A king from the House of David will rule God's people. God will make all things well. It's going to look way different than before, but that difference is its strength. Christ's birth kicks off a mighty movement of God. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.