Way Word

Called to be the LORD's deliverer, Moses is suddenly beset by several concerns. But as the LORD addresses each concern, the text gradually paints a picture of deliverance that is more about God than about what Moses brings to the table. I invite you to join me as we explore the power that really fuels a ministry or mission.

In his youth, Moses attempted to help his fellow Hebrews. But when they rejected him and the Egyptians hunted him, Moses fled. Forty years later, God appeared in a burning bush and bestowed upon Moses what his approach had been missing. I invite you to join me in today's episode as we explore God's revealed name and nature.

In Exodus 2, Israel's future deliverance is given a face in the birth of Moses. While Moses' infant story is a cool example of God countering Egypt's death narrative, Moses' adult story demonstrates how asserting yourself doesn't get God's mission done. I invite you to join me today in exploring these initial accounts that set up Israel's most iconic leader.

Years after Joseph's reputation fades from Egyptian memory, the King of Egypt decides to enslave the people of Israel. While a horrific development for their story, there are details displaying that there is a greater power at work than just this king, and that there is a greater future in store for Israel than just slavery. I invite you to join me in the exploration of these developments.

After Joseph and his brothers bury their father and return to Egypt, the brothers are suddenly worried Joseph might take his revenge since their father isn't there to stop him. How Joseph responds is not only a word of assurance to them, but is also a commentary on the overall theme of Genesis. I invite you to join me in this final Genesis episode as we review its highlights and sit with its message.

As Jacob realizes he is about to die, he musters his remaining strength to bless his sons. First, he amends his will by adding Joseph's sons to his lineage. Then Jacob proclaims over his sons what he envisions will unfold in the lives and destinies of their descendants. I invite you to join me in exploring the last will and anticipatory testament of Israel's third patriarch.

As Jacob's family arrives in Egypt, the multi-generational patriarchal story he brings with him is brought full-circle. I invite you to join me in today's episode as we explore how Jacob's experience of the famine, along with how the Egyptians' experienced the famine, brings into focus what God is accomplishing through these circumstances.

When the famine becomes intense, Jacob sends his ten sons to Egypt to buy food. But when Joseph sees them, he implements his own stratagem. Not for his own entertainment, but for the sake of their lives, and their futures. I invite you to join me in exploring this episode of reunion, revival, and refocus.

Amid the Joseph narrative, Genesis 38 suddenly diverts to explore a specific and significant story surrounding Judah. And like any story featuring Jacob's family, this one includes more deceptions. But in this story, Judah's daughter-in-law, Tamar, enacts a gambit of her own, and saves Judah's family in the process. I invite you to join me in this special episode today.

As Jacob's story expands to include his sons, the text concentrates heavily on Joseph. Joseph's story starts out as Jacob's beloved son, but soon takes a shocking turn that fills Joseph's life with dreadful circumstances and overwhelming challenges. Yet Joseph is not alone in his circumstances. I invite you to join me in today's discussion of Joseph's epic journey.

After Jacob arrives in Bethel, the LORD welcomes him into the formal framework of the covenant relationship, setting up the next part of Jacob's life. Sadly, that next part is marked by several deaths. I invite you to join me in this postscript/transitional episode of Jacob's journey.

Having presumably wrestled with God, Jacob ventures out to face what lies before him. He begins by facing his brother Esau. Later he is forced to face an outpouring of violence related to his family. Then returning to the place where his covenant story started, Jacob celebrates the God who has now brought him home. I invite you to join me in discussing this bookend episode of Jacob's epic journey.

Having the blessing doesn't mean Jacob is presently patriarch material. As he now proceeds to his Uncle Laban's camp, what lies before him is a gauntlet of growth that will shape him into a person worthy to be thought of as a patriarch. And when God does bring Jacob back, he will not be the same. I invite you to join me in this discussion of Jacob's twenty year journey to Haran and back again.

Though Jacob has acquired the Blessing, a variety of unknowns lay before him. An unknown deity. An unknown destiny. An unknown nighttime stopover. He may now even be unknown to himself. But as Jacob lays down to sleep, he discovers he is known. I invite you to join me in this conversation on Jacob's initiation into the covenant relationship.

We are barely introduced to Esau and Jacob before their stories quickly descend into struggle and chaos. So iconic was their rivalry that many centuries later the LORD illustrated His commitment to Israel by famously declaring "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated". I invite you to join me in today's episode as we discuss these two siblings' rivalry and explore the details that shaped their story and struggle.

When a famine hits the land, Isaac and the camp head towards Gerar. Upon their arrival, Issac pulls a page out of his father's playbook. This sets up a series of back-and-forth incidents that become Isaac's initiation in the covenant relationship with the LORD. I invite you to join me as we learn with Isaac that the solution to our fears of what lay ahead may lie in the faith others displayed behind us.

In today's episode, we bid farewell to Abraham and Sarah, and are introduced to Rebekah. The focus is not just about "goodbyes" and "hellos", but about transitions. The transition between patriarchs and matriarchs, the growth from youth to adulthood, the seguing of God's story and promise. I invite you to join me on this episode as our "Israel" Phase takes another step forward.

Was a testing of Abraham’s heart even necessary? Was such an extreme and horrific ritual as human sacrifice necessary for that test? Was putting young Isaac through a traumatizing experience like this necessary?

I invite you to join me in today's episode as I attempt to discuss these questions while exploring this tense moment in Abraham's journey.

After years of waiting and anticipation, Sarah finally gives birth to a son. While it is a celebratory moment for Abraham and Sarah, it is also a reality check for the camp, and for this text's characters, that the promise God made to Abraham not only has a future, but also a present that continues to expand and bless those connected to Abraham.

When King Abimelech meets Sarah, Abraham, once again, tells a familiar lie. It begs the question “After years of living in relationship with God, why is Abraham still telling the same lie?” I invite you to join me in today’s episode as we explore how habits can hold us back and how breakthroughs can move us forward.

The night of our Lord's birth is remembered as one in which the calmness of the King's arrival silenced the chaos of a world desperately in need of his presence. In this very special Christmas episode, I and a special guest, Pastor Charles Robinson, sit down, briefly discuss, and sing about that special silent night.

In Genesis chapters 18 and 19, the LORD's messengers make separate visits that lay before the reader two possible ways of living: a way of hospitality, and a way of hostility. One way is intended to establish a culture of holiness and harmony. Another way courts destruction. I invite you to join me in today's episode as we explore how the LORD's visits with Abraham and the city of Sodom help frame these dueling ways as choices we all must make.

A short period after their last conversation, the LORD appears to Abraham in the form of three men. Abraham welcomes them and shows them great hospitality. They reciprocate by repeating God's promise to give Sarah a son. For understandable reasons, Sarah is incredulous. The LORD then gives Sarah something to ponder in her heart as she waits for God's promise to come true. I invite you to join me in this seasonal episode as we also ponder the wonders of our God.

I was baptized into Jesus on November 25, 1990. That was 34 years ago. In today's episode I sit down to reflect on that with the man, the myth, the legend who led me to Jesus, and baptized me, my father, Pastor Charles Robinson. Love you, Dad!

Thirteen years after Ishmael was born, the LORD appears to Abram to renew their covenant relationship. Among His declarations, God elaborates on the future of Abram's descendants, expands Abram and Sarai's sense of identity, gives Abram a covenant ritual his descendants are to perpetually practice, and makes one particular promise that will require and reveal God's wondrous power. I invite you to join me in this episode as we seek to understand these developments.

Frustrated by her barren state, Sarai comes up with a solution to help her husband produce an heir: she will give her slave girl, Hagar, to him as a surrogate. But when Hagar conceives, she grows contemptive of her mistress. When Abram supports Sarai's power and authority over her slave girl, Sarai proceeds to abuse Hagar. It is a dark and uncomfortable story. But when the LORD's angel appears, the story takes a sudden turn. I invite you to join me in today's episode as we explore how God is paying attention to even the little people.

When the LORD answers a concern voiced by Abram, Abram responds in a very significant way that signals Abram is ready to level-up in his relationship with God. So God initiates a ritual that has ramifications for the historical long game of Scripture's story. I invite you to join me in today's episode as we explore the ceremonial certification of the LORD's relationship with Abram, and what that relationship still means for us today.

Genesis 14 begins by treating readers to a fascinating piece of war drama. But when that war drama eventually sweeps up Abram's nephew, Abram musters his men to respond with a rescue mission. In the wake of his victory, Abram meets two very different kings who each possess very different views of how power is playing out in the land. I invite you to join me in this episode as we explore the role Abram chose to play in that unfolding game of power.

When Abram and Lot's shepherds discover that two large herds cannot occupy the same fields, concerns of scarcity suddenly create conflict. These concerns soon incite Abram to make Lot an offer that actually put the land he was promised at risk. I invite you to join me in this episode as we explore how a relationship with God frames a mindset that transcends scarcity and visualizes how God's goodness is more.

As Abram journeys south, he is confronted by the first stress test of his faith. I invite you to join me in today's episode as we explore how, when Abram's faith first faltered, he learned that God's faithfulness to him does not.

Having received the LORD's call and promise, Abram must now respond. I invite you to join me in this episode as we explore what Abram's response is, and how that response puts him on a road to not just great expectations, but a great and unique relationship.

With today's episode, we mark the beginning of a new phase in our ongoing Bible Story Series. Over the episodes of recent months, our study of Genesis 1-11 has explored the establishing of creation, followed by the widespread corruption of creation. Now our study begins to look at how God plans to address and resolve that corruption.

I invite you to join me on this episode as we see the LORD call a man named Abram and make him a promise that will shape not only his future, but that of the entire world.

In this fourth and final part of our week-long conversation on sin, I bring it back to the beginning with the question: Does the idea of sin still matter? I invite you to join me in today's episode as I review the various treatments of sin and see if what we have discussed over the past few episodes preserves sin as an idea still worth considering.

In this third part of our conversation on sin, we turn to explore how sin has impacted and shaped the realities of our world. Whether our privileged relationship with God, the sacred places of creation, the people of earth, or the purposes we pursue, sin has infiltrated them and pervasively reconditioned them. I invite you to join me in this episode as we explore various ways it has done so.

In this second part of our conversation on sin, our museful approach draws us into sin's origin story found in Genesis 3. As we navigate through that text, it gradually acquaints us with several inner workings that makes sin what it is. I invite you to join me in today's episode as our exploration begins to give us a sense of the reality of sin.

This episode is the first in a series of week-long conversations on sin. But before we can even have a conversation on the idea of “sin”, it may first be helpful to have a conversation on how the word or idea of “sin” gets used.

In this episode, I will discuss four ways we might have seen the idea of "sin" get used, and then briefly suggest an alternative approach.

Before we conclude our exploration of the Scriptural Story's "Fall/Fallout" phase, the text provides just a few more stories that not only remind us of the state humankind has become, but lay the groundwork for God to begin working to resolve that state. I invite you to join me in this episode as I explore a son's indiscretion, a genealogy that is also geography, and a tower that blurred the lines of communication.

The Way Word Podcast is getting new music! About eight years ago, I wrote a song titled "Dreams of Jesus". The song revolved around Jesus's gospel message that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and that the saving redemptive reality of God's rule is being ushered into the world for its renewal. Going forward, this song will serve as the intro and outro music for The Way Word Podcast episodes.

In one of the most iconic stories of theological history, God addresses a world flooded with widespread wickedness by releasing a flood of His own. But besides the story details frequently fit for a flannel graph, what is the story of Noah and the flood about? I invite you to join me in this epic episode exploring God's judgment, God's salvation, and God's covenant of re-creation.

After Cain's exile, the text turns to a series of genealogies to continue telling the story. These genealogies reveal not only the initial generations that expand beyond the "first family", but curious details that indicate the kind of civilization these generations are giving shape to. I invite you to join me in today's episode as we explore the world Cain's actions set into motion.