The Park Road Pres Podcast

Listening

In the view of the Bible, listening is more than important. The very creed of the Jewish Church is called "The Listen" (The Shema: "Listen, O Israel, the LORD is One" Dt 6.4) Christianity is actually VERY focused on this activity of listening well. AND those who believe the central message of Christianity (the gospel), they see the significance of listening and eventually they become skilled listeners.

Make Jesus Your Model for Loving Well

Today, we consider that the spiritually/emotionally mature person makes Jesus Christ the model for loving well. The truth and reality that God came down; He incarnated into our humanity, entered our place, and identified (became like) us in every way except sin – that becomes the pattern for love to which the spiritually/emotionally healthy person aspires.

Feelings in Complicated Times

Listen in as Winston Lages discusses Philippians 4, joy, and what it really means to be able to do all things through Christ who strengthens us. 

Living in the Father’s Presence

3 callings we have as followers of Jesus:1. We are called to live in the Father's presence2. We are called to be present in the life of our children3. We are called to be present in the lives of others

Embrace Grief and Loss

And you may notice that not everyone who suffers a lot of grief and loss actually grows from it… In fact, most people get damaged by it and may get bitter or cynical or withdrawn… Loss is not an automatic path to growth and maturity.

Receive the Gift of Limits

Today, a fourth quality: the spiritually/emotionally healthy person RECEIVES THE GIFT OF LIMITS. He or she knows when to say "no" both to bad things…and even to good things. She understands some basic truths about who she is and about how the world is and about what it means to be redeemed and what that doesn't mean. Spiritually and emotionally healthy people have had those truths seep into their motives and aren't easily pressed into a mold of someone else's expectations or someone else's goals or convictions. He's comfortable in his own skin and secure in his identity and calling under God.

Live in Brokenness and Vulnerability

A third quality in the kind of emotional wellbeing that always accompanies true spiritual maturity i.e., 3) Live in Brokenness and Vulnerability. In the spiritually and emotionally healthy person, there's a freedom from that natural defensiveness, from aversion to criticism, insecurity and hypersensitivity that most often accompanies our human, fallen condition.
We'll see that the Apostle Paul enjoyed that kind of inner liberty AND he also saw its absence in some of the young Christians he loved and served as Christianity was being established in the ancient world. Let's look at:#1 – A Dead Mindset Facing a Weak Apostle #2 – A New Rationale to Redirect Boasting #3 – The Practice of Upside-down Boasting

Break the Power of the Past

What influences both positive and negative, good and bad has our upbringing, our past, memories, regrets, successes and traumas, sources of satisfaction – how does our history influence the way we think, speak and act, ways we think about God, ways we treat others and ourselves.Using these classic passages, let's look at our history:1) An UNDERestimated Influence2) An OVERestimated Influence3) A Usable Influence

Look Below the Surface

Today, one of the skills necessary for the exercise of emotional health is the ability to look below the surface. We have to be able to see that, "what you see isn't always what you get." People may do the right things but be motivationally disconnected, going through the visible motions but without the right emotions. Something else is going on below the surface. Let's look at:
1) Our Preoccupation with Surface Appearance2) Getting to the Heart of the Matter

The Sanctification Gap: Models for Change

Today, we address again this sanctification gap – how we're declared righteous but don't always act, speak, think or feel righteously. When we think about sanctification or progress in the spiritual life – how do we go about it i.e., how to make spiritual/moral improvements to our character? How do we turn what God says about us in Christ (i.e., that we're NOT guilty and that we're righteous in God's sight – "saints") how do we turn God's declaration of righteousness into actual, practical character change?
In these sections written by St Paul, we see: 1) The "Common-Sense", Acceptable Way of Progress 2) The Counterintuitive, AcceptING Way of Progress