Lisa Harper's Back Porch Theology

Purchase Indescribable Atlas Adventures here During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re talking about how to cultivate a more relaxed, trusting, and intimate relationship with Jesus. My first time, guest co-conspirator on the porch is Megan Fate Marshman, a Bible teacher and theological scholar who spews joy with the same effervesce that a shaken bottle of Coke spurts soda when you unscrew the cap. And her joy is especially compelling when you find out it coexists with heartbreaking loss. I’ve wanted to meet Megan since a mutual friend sent me a clip of her teaching last year and I was undone by her honest grappling regarding how to cling to the goodness of God after she became a young widow with two little boys. Just listen to this wisdom bomb she dropped recently: Do we want a relationship where we strive independently, sidelining our awareness of His sovereignty or are we yearning for a relationship where we engage in heartfelt conversations with God, forsaking the need to figure everything out on our own? Dependence requires our humility – acknowledging our need for help, voicing our worries and hopes, and opening our plans for His guidance. Megan goes on to explain how her grief has given her the gift of perspective. How the math of God is abundance – how under the canopy of His sovereign mercy even pain has the potential to multiply love, joy, and peace. And how the opposite of joy isn’t sadness, it’s hopelessness. If you’ve ever wondered if gut-wrenching loss and deep faith in the kindness of God can truly coexist, you’re going to meet the honest affirmation to that seeming juxtaposition today. So please grab a peppermint mocha or a gingerbread latte and your Bible - unless of course you’re up to your elbows in sticky fake snow because you’re trying to recreate one of those gorgeous, flocked garlands you saw on Pinterest - and come hang out on the porch with Megan and me. We’re really glad to get to spend this time with you! This podcast brought to you in part by Better Help. Save 10% hereFind out more about CH Ministries here

Purchase Indescribable Atlas Adventures here During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re diving into a rich, nuanced and deeply encouraging theme that Dr. Howard recently preached on at his church, Dillon Community in CO, called, The Joy of Being Human. The fact that Ally and I are getting to dialogue with Doc H about the joy of being human here at DCC, which is located high in the Rocky Mountains seems especially fitting because there’s just something about looking at the grandeur of that mountain range, the peaks of which are already flocked with early season snow, heralded by a brilliant blue sky and groves of Aspen trees waving their golden leaves like pom poms that amplifies the joy of belonging to a God who created this kind of exquisite beauty. Speaking of beauty, today’s conversation is going to take us on a super scenic tour comparing how the beginning of this divine love story we call the Bible – the genesis, if you will, of our relationship with God - unfolds much like a wedding: we find a metaphorical betrothal in Exodus, when the only true God - who breathed this glorious universe into existence – effectively gets down on one knee and asks us to spend the rest of our lives with Him. Then if you really lean in and listen, you’ll hear the echoes of wedding vows in Leviticus – I promise that book isn’t just about Mosaic law and communicable diseases, y’all! And when we get to the redemptive history recorded in the book of Numbers, we discover the relational rubber hits the road hard because the Israelites have moved past their honeymoon stage with God and are learning how to live day-after-day with Him in a desert where they’re often disappointed and uncomfortably dependent upon their heavenly husband for provision and protection. The Bible isn’t a rule book, or a textbook, or a collection of benign morality tales. It is the true story of what it means to be human – created by a perfectly loving God, in the very image of His trinitarian personhood. Genesis 1:26-27 clarifies that He created us in the image of the divine US - of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Saint Augustine expounded on that mysterious truism when he declared that, “Only the Christian God exists in perfect community among Himself,” which also means that to be created in God’s image is to be hardwired for real relationship. The trinitarian God of the Bible is self-sustaining. He didn’t create us because He needed a bunch of mindless minions to do His bidding or who were somehow obligated to Him in blind allegiance. God created us on purpose for a purpose, as Jeremiah exults, His plans for us include a hope and a future and Paul adds that His plans for us will ultimately lead to our good and His glory. Our Creator is not some uni-browed bully, waiting to smack us over the head with a big Bible if we step out of line, y’all. He is instead a compassionate Redeemer, who loves us more than we can possibly ask or imagine. The joy of being human must be inextricably married to the experiential truth that God lovingly planned us into existence or it’s simply theoretical and the joy implied is unsustainable. If you’ve been feeling tired, overwhelmed, lonely, or just a little bit off this season, we believe today’s conversation will help blow fresh joy, hope, and peace into the sails of your heart and mind. So please grab a cup of coffee, or maybe some hot tea with honey, or better yet an oat-milk-chai-latte with a generous dollop of whipped cream which is one of my favorite beverages this season. Then pick up your Bible and come pull up a chair...

Purchase Indescribable Atlas Adventures here Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is going to be a huge helping of gratitude. Whether or not you practice the traditional American holiday called “Thanksgiving” which takes place this week – it’s always celebrated on the last Thursday in November - I believe image bearers the world over can benefit from a generous serving of gratitude on a regular basis. In fact, there are multiple secular, scientific studies proving that gratitude – that is when we are intentionally thankful for something or someone – has physiological benefits like improved sleep, digestion, and cardiovascular wellness, as well as psychological benefits like decreased stress and an increased sense of overall well-being. Case in point, my road manager, Sharon, and I have come up with a simple game when we’re traveling and one of us notices that the other one is being especially grumpy or negative. We call it the “Stop and Give Me Ten” game - and I assure you that in spite of the title, it has nothing to do with push-ups. Frankly, if I attempted ten push-ups in a row right now it’s quite possible I’d break my nose after collapsing to the floor. The “ten” in the title of our game refers to all the fingers on two hands worth of things we’re grateful for. Recently, after a long day of delayed flights we got to our destination airport only to discover that the car rental company had given away the SUV we’d confirmed and they only had compact cars left. So, after breaking a nail trying to cram all our luggage and several boxes of books into a two-door designed for petite people, I climbed into the passenger’s seat with a huff. Then I began to complain about all the inconveniences we’d endured thus far that day - the unappetizing yet overpriced airport food, how particularly rude our gate agent had been, how both men I’d sat next to on our flights were armrest hogs.After listening to my whiney chorus for a few minutes, Sharon turned to face me and said: STOP AND GIVE ME TEN! I stopped - partly because she was driving in Dallas traffic and I was afraid she was going to rear-end the car in front of us - but then Holy Spirit poked my fault-finding heart into a real pause and after a moment I held up both hands and counted off all ten fingers in quick succession:• I’m thankful our flights were only delayed instead of cancelled• I’m thankful we’re in a car instead of on foot• I’m thankful I make enough money on the road to pay my mortgage• I’m thankful I get to see women launch themselves into the arms of Jesus for the first time almost every weekend• I’m thankful I got to make it home in time to be with Dad before he passed away• I’m thankful for Missy’s physical health• I’m thankful I have family and friends who’ve experienced my plethora of shortcomings and yet still love me• I’m thankful our God’s faithfulness doesn’t wane when I’m being such a weenie baby• I’m thankful I wore stretchy pants today instead of stiff jeans• I’m thankful we’re staying at a decent hotel tonightAnd it’s amazing how just 36 seconds of practicing gratitude totally changed my mood. I went from Eeyore to Tigger in less than a minute!I know it’s a much more serious thing to practice gratitude when your husband walks away, your loved one dies, your cancer returns, or your company’s downsized. But I promise – more importantly – God promises in His Word that extending past the trouble of life to reach for the truth of His abiding peace, unconditional love, and transformative joy is worth the stretch....

Purchase Indescribable Atlas Adventures here During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, we’re going to honestly explore how Christians can do better caring about and caring for the precious people who are leaving mainstream churches. It’s a given that some are walking away from communities of faith for sinful reasons but what about the saints who are leaving our sanctuaries because they’ve been deeply betrayed by a spiritual leader or they simply can’t reconcile the Jesus of Scripture – who hugged lepers, welcomed outliers, and compassionately advocated for the poor - with the sociology of the affluent, seemingly inwardly focused congregation they were raised in. Pastor and modern theologian, Dr. A.J. Swoboda made this wise and gracious observation about some who are leaving the church: they have tasted Jesus, and rigid religion has proven to be a poor substitute. Before we go any further, I want to state what I hope is blatantly obvious here at Back Porch Theology and that is: we are passionately, unashamedly, enthusiastically PRO-CHURCH. Dr. Howard pastors a local church in Dillon, CO and Allison and I are life-long church girls. All three of us have spent a good chunk of our lives serving on church staffs or parachurch ministries. We wholeheartedly believe the Christian church is one of the main means of grace our Creator Redeemer uses to accomplish His kingdom purposes. We also believe the Bible is crystal clear regarding how important it is for God’s people to gather on a regular basis as a community of faith for centralized worship, corporate prayer, biblical instruction, water baptism, relational encouragement, and to celebrate the sacrament of communion. But, and this is a big but, we also think Christ-followers can do a much better job of caring for and listening to the men, women and teenagers who are leaving our churches for reasons that should give us pause – mainly, that sometimes our corporate gatherings of faith no longer resemble the Savior we’re singing about or the wholistically redemptive message of the Bible we profess to base our belief system on. Not everyone who walks away from a local church is an angry rebel or a selfish prodigal or a divisive opponent, much less a dangerous heretic. Some sheep are hurt and scared and lonely and they thought they’d get closer to the Good Shepherd if they joined our herd, but unfortunately their wounds have gotten worse, as a result of hanging out with us and they don’t feel like they have any other option except to limp away to a less painful pasture. If someone you love has walked away from church disappointed, disillusioned, and is quite possibly in a season of deconstruction we believe today’s conversation can help you maintain a genuine relationship with them as they sort out what they believe to be true about God, even if they pull away from church for the time being. And based on the some of the excruciatingly honest emails we’ve received here at BPT, we understand that some of you - who purely by the grace of God trust our motley crew enough to hang out on the proverbial porch with us - are nursing fresh wounds from a bad church experience. Please know that you’re especially weighty on our hearts today. We’ve prayed that Holy Spirit will use this conversation to bring you a tangible sense of His comfort. That it will serve to remind you that while Christ followers are notably flawed, Jesus – our incarnate Savior - was without sin, not a man that He could lie or change His mind, according to the Old Testament book of Numbers. Yes, human love is conditional, but God’s...