• Why we avoid silence
• Scriptures on silence
• The Benefits of Silence

To download The Practice of Christian Silence, please subscribe to our podcast feed.

Last Updated: 11.09.11

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SOURCES

• Lightsource.com – a vcast site for Christian ministries (I don’t vcast much, but there you go)
• Oneplace.com – this site is a clearing house for podcasts for thousands of popular ministries.  Want to find your favorite radio preacher or show?  Try here.

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN PODCASTS

• Albert Mohler – The Briefing (Daily, 15 Min | RSS) – Explores current events from a Christian world view. It’s how I start each weekday, along with NPR.
• Albert Mohler – Thinking in Public (Weekly, 60 min | RSS): An interview forum for intelligent conversation about frontline theological and cultural issues.
• Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast (Monthly, 30 min | RSS) – Andy Stanley is not only a great preacher (see North Point Ministries podcast below), he is one of the most knowledgeable and biblical man I have ever heard on organizational leadership.  His insights are life changing for leaders.
• Apologetics 315 (Varies | RSS) – This relative newcomer is now the best place to get the latest audio of debates and lectures defending the faith.  They don’t create any audio, they just list it from around the web.  Not only do they update often, but they have their now infamous Ultimate Apologetics MP3 Audio Page.
• Issues, Etc. (5 per day / 20 min | RSS) – though this podcast is frequent and labeled as ‘Lutheran’, it is really just evangelical, and has really great content.  One of my new favorites.
• Reasonable Faith (Bimonthly, 20 min | RSS) s a conversational program dealing with the most important apologetic questions of our day.  It features William Lane Craig, the foremost Christian Apologist, debater, and philosopher of our time.  Great for keeping up with current trends and arguments in apologetics.
• The Resurgence (Bimonthly, 60 min | RSS): If you are interested in church growth and cutting edge thought on our cultural relevance, spiritual depth, and call to missions both locally and globally, this podcast is informative.
• Unbelievable (Weekly, 90 min | RSS): This UK podcast has really great discussions with thought leaders, usually having a very civil discussion between a Christian and a non.  Well moderated.
• Veritas Forum (60 min, varies | RSS)- A University lecture series started at Harvard, now spread nationwide. Their stated goal is to create “university events that engage students and faculty in discussions about life’s hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life.” Thoughtful, academic, awome.

ESSENTIAL NON-CHRISTIAN PODCASTS

• Freakonomics Radio (Weekly 60 min | RSS) – one of the most interesting and intellectually stimulating podcasts around – the counter-intuitive guide to reality.
• Point of Inquiry (Weekly, 30 min | RSS) – Explores pseudoscience, alternative medicine, religion, and secularism.  Interviews various scientists and thinkers. Great thought provoker. Not a Christian podcast.
• Shire Network News (Bi-monthly, 40 min | RSS): This satirical news commentary show is priceless, esp. if you are a conservative interested in ‘defending the anglosphere through satire.’  Wonderful conservative British wit, critiquing American politics and Isamofascism world wide. (WARNING:  May contain profanity, this is NOT a ‘Christian’ show).
• Stuff You Should Know (3x/wk, 30 min | RSS) – another interesting program about all kinds of subjects from HowStuffWorks.com. Awesome.
• The Thomas Jefferson Hour (Weekly, 60 min | RSS): Clay Jenkinson is a historian, and has for years impersonated, or incarnated, if you will, various historical figures.  Each show, he is intereviewed and answers as if he were Thomas Jefferson.  Fantastic thought-provoking and educational stuff, and way more interesting than dead history!  Awesome.
• University Channel Podcast (Multiple Daily, 60 min+ | RSS): This podcast from Princeton University has some of the most incredible speakers, all highly educated, sometimes boring, but the subject matter is usually relevant, thought provoking, informative, authoritative, and fantastic listening.

OTHER INTERESTING PODCASTS

• Acton Institute (Weekly, 20-90 min | RSS): This Catholic think tank has awesome, intellectual speakers – their tag line is “Integrating Judeo-Christian Truths with Free Market Principles.” They also have video archives.  Very world-view oriented and scholarly – faith and politics, economics, public morality, education, you name it.
• American Vision with Gary Demar (Weekly, 60 min | RSS):  Gary is a little off of mainstream, he’s in the homeschooling, Christian  ‘reconstructionist’, world view stream.  He sometimes has good guests on his broadcast.
• Bored-again Christian (Weekly, | RSS)- want to hear the latest in underground and cutting edge Christian music.  Try this.
• Christ the Center (Podcast RSS) (weekly, 60 min) – the Reformed Forum podcast is a bit academic, and they spend a lot of time reviewing new books.  If that sounds good to you, this is a good podcast.
• The Commonwealth Club (Biweekly, 60 min | RSS): This NPR show has some of the best public affairs lectures from high profile leaders and authors and other world leaders.
• Council on Foreign Relations (Weekly, 60 min | RSS) – This is one of my new, favorite academic think tank podcasts.  This independent (but somewhat libertarian) think tank produces the highly regarded Foreign Affairs periodical.  Amazing stuff, like the recent Religion and the Open Society Symposium, with full transcripts!
• The Critical Thinker (Monthly, 30-60 min, RSS) – A secularist podcast, has neat video and audio on critical thinking.
• Defender’s Podcast (Weekly, 50 min | RSS) – the Sunday school classes of William Lane Craig, foremost Christian debater, apologist, and philosopher of our age.  If you want to learn about doctrine and apologetics, this podcast is a
  mindful.  See his other podcast, Reasonable Faith,  below.
• The Dividing Line (Weekly, 60 min | RSS) – the talk show of apologist James White (Alpha and Omega Ministries),
  I like him because he is on the forefront of public debates with
  atheists, Mormons, Muslims, and guys like Bart Ehrman (you can see
  their upcoming debate in 01/09).  If you like to argue over the Greek behind the text, this guy is fun.
• Focus on the Family – (Daily, 30 min | RSS): Come on,  you know you love James Dobson.  Just give in. I actually don’t listen to most of these, but when something interesting comes up, his show can be exceptional.
• Grace to You (Daily, 30 min | RSS): Even if you dislike John MacArthur’s authoritative preaching style, he is still one of Christendom’s best preachers, and his study bible is one of the best.
• Homebrew Christianity (2x/week, 60 min | RSS) – a theological/philosophical geek discussion between two seminary students. It’s a bit theologically liberal (think Emergent and anti-Calvinist), but informative.
• K-LOVE Podcasts | RSS – the great KLOVE broadcast famlily has a few good podcasts, including the Closer Look podcast (Weekly, 15 min) and the Pastor’s Roundtable podcasts (Weekly, 5 min).
• John Ankerberg Show (Daily, 30 min | RSS): This apologist has a TV show, and most of his materials are well done, but pricey.  You can get his podcast for free.  Enjoy.
• Masters Seminary Faculty Lecture Series (Annual, 6 hour-long lectures | RSS) – John MacArthur started The Master’s Seminary, and each year, they have a short Faculty Lecture series on a specific topic (for example, this year it was  homosexuality).  Well worth a listen.
• North Point Ministries: Andy Stanley Podcast (Bimonthly, 40 min | RSS) The best of Andy Stanley’s sermons.  Andy is the son of well known expository preacher Charles Stanley, and is one of the best preachers from Generation X, or anywhere.
• Probe Ministries (Weekly, 13 min | RSS):  Produced as weekly radio spots, these are very good introductions to various world view and cultural issues.
• The Skeptical Christian (Podcast RSS) (40min, Monthly) – I’m still evaluating this one, but check it out.

OTHER LISTS OF PODCASTS

• Guide: Best Atheist / Secularist / Anti-theist Podcasts (tworothree.net)
• 15+ Podcasts Every Geek Should Listen To (makeuseof.com)
• 7 More Fantastic Podcasts for Geeks (makeuseof.com)
• Top 10 Christian Podcasts (about.com)
• Top Christian Podcasts (gotop100.com) – I’m not sure of the quality of this list, but you’ll find some offbeat podcasts here

What are your favorites, Christian or non?

Last Update: 06.13.11

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ESSENTIAL ANTI-THEIST PODCASTS

• Point of Inquiry (Weekly, 30 min) – Explores pseudoscience, alternative medicine, religion, and secularism.  Interviews various scientists and thinkers. Great thought provoker.
• Secular Nation Podcast (Bimonthly, 40 min) – Good content, low noise, essays, often read by various authors.

DECENT SECULARIST/ANTI-THEIST PODCASTS

• Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot (Random schedule and duration) – podcast of one of the few atheist blogs I enjoy, Common Sense Atheism.  Focuses on Philosophy of Religion, features, interviews with the BEST in the field, both theist and anti-theist. Unfortunately, Luke may be moving on to other disciplines, but his archive is rich with fantastic interviews.
• The Critical Thinker (Monthly, 30-60 min, RSS) – A secularist podcast, has neat video and audio on critical thinking.

ANTI-THEIST PODCASTS I AM TRYING

• American Freethought (Weekly, 60 min) – Good luck finding the podcast link on their website, but I found it at Podcast Alley.
• Apologia (Weekly, 60 min) -  a friendly forum for both theists and non-theists to come together in search of some common understanding. Rather than a contentious debate format, Apologia provides a setting in which all participants can discuss without confrontation.
• Atheist News (Biweekly, 60 min, EXPLICIT) – Not sure what to expect, but it does bear the EXPLICIT tag – probably not intellectual fare.  However, seems thoughtful and less snarky.
• Atheist Talk (Bimonthly, 30-60 min) – From Minnesota Atheists, issues driven, interviews.  Good content, but poor audio quality (echoey).
• A Christian and an Atheist (Weekly, 60 min) – friendly dialogue, good natured.
• The Good Atheist (Weekly, 30 min, EXPLICIT) – definitely has some profanity, thoughtful, shows some healthy skepticism of Dawkins, Hitchens, et al.  Kinda fun.
• The Infidel Guy (Weekly, 60 min) – Has high profile guests.

REJECTED ANTI-THEIST PODCASTS

• The Atheist Experience (Weekly, 90 min) – long, snarky, newsy, low content/noise ratio
• Chariots of Iron (Biweekly, 90+ min) – too conversational, light snark, low content/conversation ratio
• Digital Bits Skeptic (Weekly, 5-15 min) – Short single-subject reading of articles, most original by author.  Audio has a bit of an echo to it, not too professional. But, bite size.
• Dogma Free America (Weekly, 50-80 min) – long, snarky, newsy, low content/noise ratio
• Reasonable Doubts (Weekly, 60 min) – snarky, conversational, newsy
• Skepticality (Bimonthly, 60 min) – The official podcast of Skeptic Magazine.  Professional, conversational, but low content/conversation.  Not anti-religious.
• The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe (Weekly, 80 min) – not snarky, somewhat intelligent and good content, but a little too conversational.  Probably for those who like long informational talk shows.

• The Power of Desire
• The Priority of Desire
• The Problem of Desire
• The Transformation of Desire
• The Pursuit of Desire

To download Finding God’s Call IV – Motivated by Desire, please subscribe to the podcast URL.

1. Get there
2. Quiet your soul
3. Pour out your soul
4. Read and wait for Illumination
5. Journal
6. Express thanks

To download Draw Near to God, please subscribe to the podcast feed.

Here’s the complete sermon outline:

A. Good Teacher

The Mistake:  Jesus is denying his deity
The Truth: Jesus is challenging the man’s idea of ‘good’

The Problem: The man is a self-made success and now wants to excel in spiritual matters.

B. Keep the commandments

The Mistake:  Jesus is teaching that salvation comes through obeying the commandments

The Truth:  Jesus is setting him up to see that no one does or can keep the commandments, hence the need for faith and obedience.

C. Which Ones?

What is happening here:

1. This man is either a religious person who has been very observant, better than the people he knows, and wants praise for such.

2. He is a good person who is impressed by his goodness, and is daring enough to believe that any commandment Jesus can name, he has kept well.

3. Darker Motive:  He knows there are many commandments, and that no one can keep them all.  This intellectual and moral dilemma can be used as an excuse to not obey God.

a. Dietrich Bonhoeffer – The Cost of Discipleship

Once more the young man tries to evade the issue by posing a second question: “Which?”…Of course, he knows the commandments.  But who can know, out of the abundance of commandments, which apply to him in his present situation?  The revelation of the commandments is ambiguous, not clear, says the young man….He neglects the unmistakable command of God for the very interesting, but purely human concern of his own moral difficulties.

His mistake lies not so much in his awareness of those difficulties, as in the attempt to play them off against the commandments of God…All his difficulties are shown to be ungodly, frivolous and the proof of sheer disobedience.

We often use our moral and intellectual questions and difficulties as excuses to not obey the clear commandments of God.

On Asking Questions

1. We all wrestle with the harder questions of existence that challenge our faith in God.

2. Asking questions is OK, but the problem comes when the answers are not what we would like, or hard to understand, or impossible to figure out.

Honest questions and doubts are part of growing in faith, deepening our understanding.

When we turn to blame God and use these difficulties as an excuse to reject God’s claim on our lives, we are on the wrong path.

Why I left Christianity

1. I had experienced a very narrow, controlling Christianity that I had to UNlearn.

2. Some questions really bothered me, like
- eternal hell, seems too harsh
- what about ‘good’ people of other faiths or those who have never heard?

I know what it is like to have hard questions, and you can’t play along anymore.

Don’t use unanswered questions as an excuse to blame God.  Make sure that, even though you are asking questions, you are also LISTENING to what he is telling you.

On Atheists

NOTE:  I frequently listen to podcasts on Common Sense Atheism, where philosophers of religion are interviewed.  Many are ex-Christian atheists.

While they often start out with good and meaningful questions, they eventually get caught in a cycle of rejecting God because of the intellectual difficulties that the Bible and obedience present.

They get into this cycle of trying to UNDERSTAND what often goes beyond reason.  They BLAME God.

SCRIPTURE:  Always learning, never coming to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 3:7)

They should eventually say like Job:

Job 42:1-6
Then Job replied to the Lord:

I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked, “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?” It is I – and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. You said, “Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.” I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.

QUOTE:

“Now we see how the astronomical evidence supports the biblical view of the origin of the world….the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same. Consider the enormousness of the problem : Science has proved that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It asks: ‘What cause produced this effect? Who or what put the matter or energy into the universe?’ And science cannot answer these questions.

“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

From God and the Astronomers (1978), by Robert Jastrow, (1925 – 2008) American astronomer, physicist  and cosmologist, Founding Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in 1961, and served until his retirement from NASA in 1981.

D. Jesus’ List of the Commandments

1. You shall have no other gods before me
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. Honor your father and mother     
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery     
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The Mistake:  The essence of all real spirituality boils down to loving others.  All the specifics about God don’t really matter that much.

The Truth:  Jesus is again setting him up, knowing that the sins he left out are the ones in this young man’s way.
- covetousness
- does not love God, but rather, loves his own excellence

Matt 22:35-40
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

E. All these I have kept

This was really a ‘good person’ compared to others.  But Jesus is about to actually answer his question.

F. One thing you lack

One thing you lack if you want to be perfect.  Sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

The Mistake:  Jesus is teaching voluntary poverty as part of real faith and salvation.

The Truth:  Jesus is asking him to give up his God of money and security.

In the story of the Tax Collector Zaccheus, he tells Jesus that he will pay back four fold to anyone he has cheated.  Jesus does not make these same demands on Zaccheus.

Another Mistake:  Jesus is telling him that if he adds this to what he is already doing, he will be keeping the commandments perfectly.

The Truth:  Jesus is asking him to abandon his life of being a self-made, self-righteous, covetous person, and start fresh.  It is the life of FAITH and OBEDIENCE that he is lacking, and all of his efforts at building a self-styled spirituality that he can brag about must be replaced by simple obedience.

G. Come and follow me

This is what it means, in the Christian sense, to be spiritual, and to inherit eternal life.

H. One last mistake

We don’t see ourselves in the rich man, but everyone of us who lives in the west must consider the fact that we are rich and unwilling to follow Him aright.

In other countries, people don’t have 401K’s and retirement accounts, nor even health care.  Yet we often fail to follow God because we are so focused on getting the big house, the Mercedes, the fat savings account.

These things are not bad, but are they keeping you from doing what you believe or know God has asked you to do?

This year, I lost both my house and most of my retirement savings.  This keeps me awake at night, esp. since I have debt.  Yet God is asking me, will you do my will rather than spend the next twenty years trying to get all that back?

What has God asked of YOU?  Do you know?  If not, find out.  That’s where the real joy is.

1. Turn towards God, not away
2. Do not worry
3. God is doing something new
4. Put God first
5. Give what you have

At the bottom

1. Religious hypocrisy
2. Injustice and suffering
3. Personal limitations and failure

I apologize for the background noise, and the places where I had to dub in missing words – the original audio file had some dropouts.

Download What is truth? (mp3)

What is truth?

Download Alcohol and the Bible

1. Acceptance: I know you
2. Affection: I love you
3. Approval: believe in you

For you hardliners, don't worry, I cover DISCIPLINE in the second part.

Download Christian Parenting – Part 1 of 2

Christian Parenting – Part 1 of 2

1. Intro: False Vines
2. Starting the Journey
3. Experiencing God
4. Knowing God
5. The Obedience of Love
6. Loving Others
7. Being Prepared to Suffer for what is right

Download What is a spiritual person

Listen: John 10: The Good Shepherd

Download: John 10: The Good Shepherd

In the middle of that exchange, Jesus addresses those who have come to believe in Him during this discussion.  He says “If you continue in My word, you are my disciples indeed.  And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 

This sermon explores what it means to “continue in My word.”

Listen:  John 8: If you continue

Download: John 8: If you continue

• REST for our souls
• REGURGITATION of grievances
• RENEWAL of our perspective
• REFOCUSING of our plans for the future
• RUNNING the race

Download Desiring Prayer

1. Jesus probably didn’t have blond hair
2. Jesus was probably NOT born in December
3. The Magi were NOT Kings
4. God led the Magi to Christ using PAGAN ASTROLOGY
   • How should Christians view astrology?
   • Why learning about God from primarily from nature and astrology are risky and unreliable
5. The Star of Bethlehem was probably NOT amazing
6. The Star probably DID lead the Magi (retrograde motion and stationing of Jupiter)
7. The Magi probably visited Jesus from 4 months to 2 years AFTER his birth

• Download Truths and Myths of the Christmas Story

Related Posts:

• The Star of Bethlehem – the astronomical explanation

• Download Love suffers long and is kind

• Download Time with God

• The Revealing of God’s Call
• The Re-education of God’s Call
• The Renewal of God’s Call

It helps us see why God’s process involves development of character through failure, difficulty, and outward success that often shows up only at the end of the path, but not in the beginning.

It also discusses why it is never too late to pursue God’s plan.

• Download finding_gods_call_v_gods_process_and_timing.mp3

Or just subscribe to the podcast URL.

• DOWNLOAD Finding God’s Call III – A Biblical view of self-love

Or just subscribe to the podcast URL.

• DOWNLOAD Finding God’s Call II – character before gifts

Or just subscribe to the podcast URL.

This mp3 has a few skips in it, but it’s all there.

• DOWNLOAD Finding Your Calling Part I

Ever been in a church where they are overwhelmingly positive, and never talk about sin?  In fact, some things that traditional Christians call sin, they say are just fine and as God intended? Odds are, you’ve probably been experiencing an unhealthy church with a false teacher, or false prophet, at the helm.

Confused?  Not after you listen to this latest message, How to identify false teachers.

Points include:

1. Ask – you have not because you ask not
2. Seek – don’t just ask, take action
3. Knock – persevere when things get hard

Download Ask, Seek, Knock

Points include:

1. Take the log out of your own eye
2. Let truth into your own heart first
3. We give mental assent to truth instead of doing it
4. Do correct your brother

Download Do Not Judge

• The Masters Seminary Faculty Lecture Series Podcast (McArthur’s seminary)
• The John Ankerberg Show (apologetics)
• Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly (PBS) (not Christian, but informative)
• Acton Institute Podcast (Judeo-Christian public policy thinktank)
• K-LOVE Closer Look Podcast (very cool inspirational and infomational radio spots)
• Creation Update Podcast (old-earth creationism, Hugh Ross)
• Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Mark Dever, preaching)
• Hot Air TV (Michelle Malkin VIDEO-cast, political/cultural commentary)
• Let My People Think (RZIM) (Ravi Zacharias, apologetics and preaching)
• Living Way (Jack Hayford, preaching)
• Probe Ministries (apologetics)
• Resurgence (John Piper, preaching)
• The Bored-Again Christian (indie and underground Christian music)
• The Heritage Foundation Event and Radio Podcasts (conservative thinktank)