PREPPED Highlights: Wisdom, Faith, and Spiritual Growth

00:00 - Speaker 1 (None) Welcome to PREPPED, the podcast that equips you to live out God's story, not the world's story. Hosted by James Spencer, PhD, each episode bridges the gap between academic insights and everyday life, preparing you to understand the Word of God and put it into practice. Whether you're diving into biblical studies, looking for ministry guidance or aiming to deepen your faith, PREPPED empowers you to think biblically and theologically in a world that encourages you not to Ready to get PREPPED. Subscribe now and transform the way you bring God's story into the world. 00:35 Welcome to a special episode of PREPPED, where we're diving into some of the most impactful moments from our journey so far. Today, we're bringing you a collection of highlights from our top five most popular episodes, showcasing deep theological insights, thought-provoking discussions and practical wisdom for living out your faith. Whether you're a longtime listener or joining us for the first time, we hope these moments inspire you to think deeper, grow stronger and walk more faithfully with God. Our first segment comes from episode two, where Dr James Spencer explored the concept of sacred spaces, drawing connections between Eden, the temple and the ultimate hope of being in God's presence. Listen in as he unpacks how the temple served as a foreshadowing of the redemption made possible through Christ. 01:30 - James Spencer (Host) What we have to understand is the temple, because it symbolized this space where we could interact with God and be in God's presence, even in some lesser way. This is where the beatific vision begins to take shape in our imaginations and in the imaginations of the people of Israel, and so we see Psalms express a deep yearning for God's presence. We see temple rituals, though limited, pointing forward to a time when humanity could once again experience the fullness of God's presence. These things are really important. They're gesturing not toward the rebuilding of a temple. It's not about a structure. It's about how do we get back to the place where we left. What does that look like for us? And as Christians, we know that that answer is Christ. And so, through the temple, god's people were reminded tabernacle in the temple and the various other sacred spaces that we find in scripture, we're reminded that the ultimate goal isn't just sacrifices or laws, but standing before God, fully restored. So in Edom, adam and Eve lived in unbroken communion with God, although they did not see God in his fullness. As you know, it seems unlikely that what we're dealing with in Eden is the same as what we're dealing with in the fully redeemed context of the new heavens and the new earth, but this theological concept. What we're seeing there is that it refers to this ultimate, perfect and direct encounter with God. So what makes Eden so significant is not merely its beauty, but the relationship. It represents A space where humanity's deepest longing to know and be known by God was fulfilled, or at least on the way to being fulfilled. And the fall disrupted that, but the longing remained and it really does shape the rest of the biblical narrative, the biblical narrative. So now let's turn and look at the tabernacle, the temple and the renewed Edens and their transformation, really in the New Testament. 03:31 So if we're trying to get back into the presence of God, it stands to reason that, number one, we need to solve our sin problem. Humanity's desire to determine their own way rather than obeying God fractures the relationship with God, each other and creation, and this problem needed to be solved, and the tabernacle and temple offer an insight into how that problem could be solved. Number two I would just say that we need to remember that this involves not just us. It does involve a one-to-one relationship with God, but notice that in the fall, what we're seeing is a fracturing not only of the relationship with God but of everything else within God's order. And so we now have problems with each other. Man and woman are going to have trouble with each other, as we see as we go forward in the Genesis narrative. You know everyone's going to have trouble, you know figuring out how to relate to one another. There's murder, there's death, there's vengeance, there's all these different things. But then we also see that there are problems with creation. And so, as we think about this, just to keep in mind, this is not just about an individual relationship with Jesus Christ, although we often talk about it in those terms. It's also about a collective problem that the whole world, all of creation and all of the creatures have. 04:47 So, after the fall, the tabernacle and the temple become the means through which God's presence dwelled among his people, because the fall had really severed and unmediated access to God. The temple and the tabernacle allowed God's presence to dwell among the people without consuming or harming them, and they could have access to a holy God within the limits and constraints that he set forth, despite their sin. And so, just as Eden was something of a meeting place between earth and heaven, the tabernacle and temple function as the cosmic meeting places. We see glimpses of the sort of function at a number of different points, including, for instance, the ladder that Jacob sees in his dream at Bethel in Genesis 28, 12,. For instance, the ladder that Jacob sees in his dream at Bethel in Genesis 28, 12, which reads and he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder set up on earth and it reached to the heavens and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And that text is referenced in John 1, 51, when Jesus says truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. 05:44 So in the incarnation, jesus really becomes the link between earth and heaven. Jesus is described as the temple or tabernacle at various points in the gospels. For example, we already referenced John 1.14, where he became flesh and tabernacled among us. But Jesus is his presence, is God's presence among the people. And this language suggests that Jesus offered access to God. Rather than seeking God in a physical temple, he was to be sought through Jesus. And in John 2, 19 through 21, jesus actually refers to his body as the temple, showing that he is the ultimate meeting place between God and humanity. And again, this language suggests that it is through Jesus that we have access to the triune God. 06:30 Now, after Christ's ascension, paul and the author of Hebrews both deal with matters related to sacred space. In 1 Corinthians 3, 16 through 17, paul writes "'Do you not know that you are God's temple? "'and that God's Holy Spirit dwells in you? "'if anyone destroys God's temple and that God's Holy Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, god will destroy him, for God's temple is holy and you are that temple. 06:50 And here Paul shifts the understanding of the temple from a physical structure that maybe humans build to the gathered community of believers. The spirit of God no longer resides in a building, but amongst his people. And in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20, paul also says do you not know that your body, your individual body, is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 07:16 And this personal application reminds Christians that their bodies are also sacred spaces, set apart for God's purposes. Now we also see in Ephesians 2, 19 through 22,. Paul described the church as a household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, of which Christ is the cornerstone and the church grows into a holy temple in the Lord, and this emphasizes the centrality of Christ in uniting believers as God's dwelling place. The unity of the church and its holiness reflect the presence of the Holy Spirit. In the gospel, which is safeguarded and proclaimed by the body of Christ, is the message that brings salvation through faith. Becoming part of the body of Christ brings one into the presence of God. 07:59 - Speaker 1 (None) In our next clip from episode six, Dr Spencer addresses the heart of worship by examining the story of Cain and Abel. By discussing the crucial difference between worship that honors God and worship that tries to control him, Dr Spencer dives into how Cain's offering fell short, not because of its content, but because of his heart attitude. 08:21 - James Spencer (Host) So worship isn't just about what we bring, it's about sort of the heart behind it. And what I would say is it's not, you know, sort of a sincerity of heart, it's a willingness to worship God on God's terms. And I think Cain's offering really lacked that desire to honor God, in other words, to give God his due based on the way that God construes his own due, to give God his due based on the way that God construes his own due. God then gives Cain this warning. So God accepts Abel's offering, but he rejects Cain's, and Cain gets angry. Yet rather than condemning him outright, god sort of coaches Cain a little bit, and he, you know. 09:01 I think God's speech is really important here because he says if you do well, will you not be accepted, and if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. Now we've looked at that last half of that statement in a previous episode on the Ezer and when we looked at the very similar phrase in Genesis 3.16. But the first half of this is really important because God's word suggests that Cain knows how to do well. Cain knows how to go about bringing the required and proper sacrifice. He knows what he's supposed to do. He just didn't do it, and so God doesn't coach him and say okay, cain, I'm not gonna take this offering, but let me give you some pointers on how to do this better. You need to bring X, y and Z, and you need to bring them in this order, and they need to be of this quality. He's not telling Cain any of that. God's word to Cain is very short. If you do well, your offering will be accepted. If you don't do well, sin is crouching at your door. There is a sense in which Cain knows exactly what he needs to do. He just didn't. 10:07 So what it means to do well is not explained in the narrative, and so I think we have to assume that Cain sort of would have intuitively known what that was, and so what we see here is that Cain is obstinately, perhaps rebelliously, deciding that he wants to only offer God what he wants to offer God. He does not want to offer God what God actually requires to offer God. He does not want to offer God what God actually requires. Okay, so I would posit that Cain knew what was required for proper worship, but chose to ignore it and, instead of humbling himself, cain allows his anger to fester, ultimately leading to the murder of his brother. So how do those two things fit together? 10:45 How do we go from Cain being sort of wanting to determine what offering he's going to bring? He wants to make sure that this offering comes on his terms. He doesn't want to humble himself and bring an offering on God's terms. How does that situation result then in, you know, the murder of Abel? Well, let's take a look at that. I don't, again, I don't think Cain wouldn't have been jealous to some degree, but I don't know that if we're looking at it from the terms of not even just the personal motivation, which is difficult to assess within the biblical narrative, we don't exactly know how Cain's feeling. What I'm arguing is that the flow of the narrative. I think it fits better to think that his act of murder actually reflects a rebellion against God's authority. 11:32 - Speaker 1 (None) His act of murder actually reflects a rebellion against God's authority. In episode nine, Dr Spencer challenges us to think of discipleship as a form of Christian resistance and describes the power of holding our spiritual shape in the face of societal pressures and distractions. 11:47 - James Spencer (Host) Discipleship is a coordinating mechanism. It brings us together. We can trust that if I'm doing discipleship and someone else out there is doing, discipleship is a coordinating mechanism. It brings us together. We can trust that if I'm doing discipleship and someone else out there is doing discipleship, that we're really aiming at the same thing. We have a co-worker, a co-partner, a co-laborer, who is committed to doing what Christ is asking us to do, is telling us to do, and so that's how discipleship is, sort of this coordinating mechanism. 12:10 And so, if you think about the way the world coordinates your attention, your time and your desires, we kind of have to ask ourselves what steps can we take to reorient these toward God? You might limit time on social media, establish daily habits of prayer, prioritize participation in a small group that encourages accountability and spiritual growth. I mean, coordination is about more than strategy. It's about aligning your whole life with God's will. And so, as we think about that, the way I've tended to suggest we think about that is this we have to set aside, identify and set aside things that are hindering us from growing spiritually. We have to lean in or participate in those things that are going to help us grow spiritually, and in doing both of those things, then we are going to move forward and advance ourselves toward discipleship, and along the way, what we're going to do is we're going to learn to resist the world. And so now let's talk, let's shift gears a little bit, and let me frame out what I mean by Christian resistance. It's a strong word, I get that, but it means something, I think, very specific for Christians, and in its simplest form, resistance is about opposing anything that pulls us away from God or tempts us to be something that God has not made us into. It's not just avoiding sin, it's actively choosing God over the subtle distractions and misplaced priorities that dominate our culture. 13:37 A lot of times, when I talk about this, I tell people to picture a dam, and if you think about a dam, what a dam's basic function is is to hold its shape, Even when the water pressure is coming at it, you know. And the pressure of that water, whether it's still water or whether it's got the waves in it, the pressure of that water is tremendous. It's unbelievable pressure on the wall, and so the wall, the dam's job, is just to hold its shape, and I think that's a great picture of what I'm talking about with Christians. I'm not suggesting that we isolate ourselves from our culture. I'm not even suggesting that we go on the offensive. What I'm suggesting is that, in order to affect the world, we have to hold our shape. We have to have these distinctive moments where we know who we are and it's clearly differentiated from the water that's pressing in on us, the water of the world that's pressing in on us, and so the dam and the water are never out of contact. Like I'm not suggesting that the church step away from the world, I'm suggesting that, as the church engages with the world, it has to hold on to its particular shape, it has to have a particular character, and holding onto that character is part of resistance. 14:51 Now, as we think about resistance, one of the big things that I think is a struggle for the church today and for individual Christians today is distraction. There's really only one story that I can think of that mentions the word distraction, or even translates with the word distraction, and that's Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Martha is distracted by the necessary tasks of hosting, while Mary sits at Jesus' feet listening to his teaching, and I think it's interesting that Martha's distraction isn't some sort of sinful, evil thing that she's doing right. She's not doing something that we would ordinarily label as horrible. She's just trying to get dinner together. She's trying to do the act of serving, providing some form of hospitality. But that distraction, that idea that this is necessary and even more necessary than sitting at Jesus's feet, it keeps her from what Jesus calls the better portion, or the good portion, and being fully present with Christ is that good portion. 15:49 And so resistance really does mean identifying those distractions. Not just the evil stuff, right. Not just what we would classify, as you know, the normal run-of-the-mill sins, right? What we're looking at is what are the conventions in our lives, what are the assumptions that we're making that are holding us back from moving toward the God that we want to be present with? What's keeping us? What sort of walls are we creating between us and God that are really keeping us outside of his presence more than we want to be? 16:20 So resistance isn't always, you know, grand or dramatic either. Sometimes it's the quiet daily choices like choosing to read scripture instead of scrolling on social media. I don't think anybody's really going to see that. Saying no to overcommitment so that you can spend time in prayer. I think those are really small acts of defiance against worldly pressures that can add up and transform our hearts over time. So consider also the cultural pressures we face today, whether it's the expect you know like, expecting to be, you know, the keep up right, keep up professionally, or the pressure to conform to popular opinion. 16:54 Resistance often involves swimming upstream, but I think, as Romans 12, 2 reminds us, we're called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, not conformed to the patterns of this world, and so part of what we're doing, and when we resist, is we are holding onto that character, we're holding our shape, just like that dam with the water pressure. 17:13 We're holding our shape and we're making sure that things that we engage in aren't necessarily leading us toward the world, toward becoming more like what the world says we should be, but that we are truing ourselves to this basic referent point. So, as we think about Christian resistance, I think my advice would be you know it's easy to start small. It's easy to you know, implement some sort of practice every day that you can keep up with and start clearing paths for the way this would work. I mean, you don't build a dam in a day, right? And so taking those small steps, I think, can really be helpful, and I would just use those sort of in-between moments, those small steps waiting in line, commuting, to redirect your thoughts to God, I think, additionally, I would just set aside one evening this week to reflect on what's trying to truly pulling your attention away from God. 18:08 You have to identify those things that are hindering you from moving forward, and I don't think that's a one-time act. I think at any given point, we can overwhelm ourselves with all the different ways in which we are hindered from moving toward God, and so my advice would be just hey, don't try to tackle them all at the same time. Identify them, decide which ones you think you can resist well at the moment, and do those, but I think we have to start thinking about what it would mean to make resistance a habit and not just a one-time choice. 18:41 - Speaker 1 (None) The biblical flood story is one of judgment, mercy and covenant. In episode 10, dr Spencer explores how the flood narrative reflects both divine justice and the hope of renewal. 18:55 - James Spencer (Host) The flood story, while rooted in a real historical event, is primarily a theological and symbolic sort of event, emphasizing God's judgment, mercy and covenant. You know, again, I don't know that these three views need to be separated and teased out so strongly, because, as we look at this, it's obvious that Genesis 6 through 9 is highly structured and symbolic in its presentation and it has these themes of decreation and recreation. The flood reverses the order of creation. So in Genesis 1, we see that God separates the land and the water. And now what's happening? All of that is collapsing back in on itself. God is making creation sort of go back to a tohu vabohu or a formless and void space, and so it does symbolize his judgment. And as he then restores creation through Nova, we're seeing him continue to remain faithful to a people who have a humanity that is continually moving far from him. So we see God's mercy. I do think it highlights the theological depth of the text and I think it avoids unnecessary conflict with scientific evidence, though I don't really mind the conflict with scientific evidence because, as I said before, scientific evidence isn't ironclad. I mean, even when a piece of evidence doesn't seem to jive with what the biblical narrative is saying you're kind of like well, okay, but let's just see what happens. Right, it's not as if you have this sort of ironclad scientific evidence that disproves scripture. You don't. You don't have that, and so you have to think it through from an interpretive standpoint. The scientific evidence yes, some of it may conflict with the biblical text, others of it may not. But ultimately it's all sort of part of us trying to figure out all of these different questions we have and then bringing back to the biblical text and saying, well, what's the Bible really trying to do? It's not trying to explain geological or archaeological evidence, and so if it conflicts with them, do we really have that big of a problem with that? 20:57 The criticism here is that it risks being seen as reducing the flood, storage in just a myth, or I really? You know, when we talk about myth, I don't mean to make myth into simple fiction. I think myth conveys truth through symbol, and so when we usually talk about myth, we associate it with fiction. But I don't think that's what it needs to be. So we might say that it risks reducing the flood and area to a fictional story, some sort of allegory. Certainly not what I'm suggesting. 21:28 What I'm suggesting is that these events, whatever they were right, this flood event had deep theological implications. It carried a deep theological meaning and so, rather than downplaying historicity of the event, what we're saying is that the historicity of the event, what we're saying is that the history of historicity of the event, the actual bald facts of what happened in the biblical account, are given meaning by the, the narration and the revelation of god. So was the flood global or local, or something else? I mean, I think the answer may depend on how we read the text in light of broader biblical narrative in the ancient world's context, and whether you see it as a global or regional event. The flood reaches us, you know, teaches us these profound truths about God's holiness and humanity's sin and hope of restoration, humanity's sin and hope of restoration. And so my argument, just to sort of sum this up, is that my tendency is to think that the flood is universal, that it covered the entire earth. I don't know that I'm worried as much about whether the science is ironclad on that. I know there's a lot of evidence supporting that view, but I'm not sure that I'm overly concerned with understanding that evidence or with even needing that evidence. 22:53 I think when the Bible talks about the flood covering the whole of the earth. I don't see that as it referring to just a region or being limited to a region, although what I would say is that those who are reading this and writing this back in the ancient Near Eastern timeframe may very well have understood it, as, when they are reading the whole earth, what they're seeing is they're not seeing the whole earth as in, like I said, the seven continents and the globe and all that good stuff. They're seeing it as the whole earth that they know. They're seeing it as the whole earth that they know and in that sense, I think the flood narrative could be construed and have it might be. I find it to be fruitful to think through. Okay, how do we read this? As a regional story, a regional account of something that's happened in more of a constrained space, even though I think historically it's probably a worldwide flood. All right, well, that was. Those are the major views and hopefully I didn't confuse things too much. 23:55 But now I want to jump over into the ancient Near Eastern flood narratives. I think the biblical flood isn't unique in ancient Near East, although it has a number of interesting and unique elements. So we often get into the issue of borrowing when we talk about the ancient Near Eastern flood narratives, is the biblical account of the flood really just a rehashing of the Epic of Gilgamesh? In some way? I think that's sort of a naive approach to this. I don't love that approach. 24:27 I think what you could say is that why can't we assume that the flood happened and that these different cultures now are trying to offer up an account of why this flood happened, of their own theological bents, their own understanding of who God is, who they are, what their role in the world is? And so the biblical flood account is another one of those, an iteration on this that has been revealed by God, and we see that Genesis 6 through 9 in this flood narrative within the Bible is deeply rooted in the rest of the Pentateuch and the whole biblical story. It's rooted in this creation story that we have in Genesis 1, 1 through 2, 3. It has all of these various different elements, and so I don't really think of it in terms of borrowing. I think of it in terms of look, there's this flood that happened and everybody's got to explain it, and they explain it through a particular lens. It's just that the biblical lens happens to be inspired and revelatory. 25:31 - Speaker 1 (None) Technology and progress often challenge our spiritual priorities. In episode 14, Dr Spencer examines how our pursuit of convenience and disordered loves can sometimes lead us away from meaningful connections with God and our community. 25:48 - James Spencer (Host) I really like Augustine's concept of disordered loves, and I think it provides a valuable framework for understanding misguided progress as well. Disordered loves essentially occur when we prioritize lesser goods over God, or we try to make, let's say, you know, to go back to that concept of being immersed within. If you could imagine, you know, sort of being half in water and half in some other substance. It doesn't really work. What God is calling for is for our total devotion, and so the picture I like to use is a pie chart. You know, if we were to look at a pie chart and we were to say, okay, divide this up into the different areas of your life, and I want you to give what you think God desires for us, I want you to draw that first. On the pie chart, is there really anything left for us to do anything else with? And this idea of disordered loves is getting just to that point. Is that if we were to do a pie chart with the various things that we're supposed to love, where, when we start with God, there's no room left for anything else, because God isn't asking us to divide our time so that he gets the lion's share. He's asking us to be fully and totally allegiant to him, fully loyal to him, and that full loyalty doesn't leave room for anything outside of that full loyalty. It is not saying that we can't love anything else. It's saying that when we love other things, we do that on God's terms as opposed to our own. And so, when we think about this idea of misguided progress, part of the challenge that we're dealing with is that we are prioritizing or pulling in sharing time with God. These lesser goods. These lesser goods are sort of beginning to crowd out and take over some of what rightfully belongs to God, and so our affections start to become misaligned. And in the context of technology, I think this can happen when our love for convenience or power or recognition takes precedence over our love for God and our neighbor. And social media is one of those prime examples. Social media is easy to pick on because it's been so publicized about the problems that it creates. But, you know, I think we ought to be gracious to social media because it is designed to foster connection, which isn't a bad thing, but at the same time, it often creates envy and it often creates pride and division. And these platforms optimize for engagement, but the cost is pretty significant. There's fractured relationships. There's increased anxiety, there's diminished capacity for meaningful interaction. And this progress driven by disordered love, advancement without alignment to God's design for human flourishing becomes ultimately problematic for us. That's designed for human flourishing becomes ultimately problematic for us. 28:49 I love Albert Borgman's distinction between things and devices. He says that things require skill and engagement. So he talks about a wood-burning stove. That demands tending and it invites community. If you think about the process of starting a fire, it requires someone to go out and cut the wood, it requires someone to stoke the fire. Actually, you know, put the wood into the fireplace and begin building that fire. And then, in a house with a wood-burning stove let's say it was the only thing that was going to heat the house you wouldn't only have that heat there, you'd have a family sort of nestled in around this fire spending time together, because that's where the warmth is. He may have cooked on that fireplace. And so it's providing you with more than just heat, it's also providing you with a means of feeding yourselves. And so these things, in Borgman's language, they provide more than just one commodity, one thing it also draws people together. It gives them a place where their efforts can be combined and used together, and so this invitation to community is part of what it means to use things. 30:07 And his contrast is with devices, and he says that devices really do prioritize convenience and efficiency, but they do so at the expense of meaningful engagement, and so when we allow devices to dominate our lives, we risk losing the richness of relationship and experience that things provide. 30:26 So if we contrast just that wood-burning stove with, let's say, you know, an internet-enabled thermostat that many people have in their homes now and you can just turn the heat up with an app, that does not provide that same sort of social, communal interaction, that a thing did you know. At most you're going to ask someone to turn the thermostat up, and once they do, it's sort of over. It's a one second problem. And also our centralized heating doesn't really provide us a place to cook. We have a separate oven or stove for that, and so the idea here isn't that devices are bad and things are good. That's not the idea. The idea is that things provide something that devices don't, and that if we're going to call the progression or the movement from a thing to a device progress, we need to be really recognizing what we're giving away here, what we're losing in moving from a thing to a device and I think that's a really important way for us to think about this is that we tend to think that when we move to a device we're saving time. 31:42 But in saving time it doesn't necessarily mean that we are spending more time on these social interactions that might actually matter to us. It may very well mean that we are saving time so that we can give ourselves away to endless productivity or something like that. So I think for Christians this distinction between things and devices, it really highlights the danger of pursuing progress that prioritizes convenience over connection to God, creation and community. Reorning our loves is the antidote to that misalignment. Colossians 3.2 exhorts us to set our minds on the things above, not on earthly things. And that doesn't mean rejecting technology. I think what it means is critically evaluating its role in our lives. Are our advancements serving God's kingdom or are they reinforcing loves that pull us away from him, pull us away from others? By reflecting on our affections and aligning them with God's eternal purposes, we can ensure that progress fosters rather than hinders our spiritual growth. 32:47 - Speaker 1 (None) We hope you enjoyed this special PREPPED episode. These highlights remind us that living faithfully requires consistent reflection, learning and commitment. Thanks for tuning in to PREPPED. If today's episode helped you view the world through a God-centered lens, be sure to hit subscribe so you're always prepared for what comes next. Don't forget to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more believers eager to live out God's story. Share this episode with a friend, family member or loved one and together let's keep challenging the world's narratives. Until next time, stay grounded, stay inspired and continue living out God's plan. See you soon on our next episode of PREPPED.