May 28 2012

Show open and guest introduction

A host introduces singer-songwriter Ryan Paul Buck as the in-studio guest ('Ryan Paulbuck is in studio', seg-00024) and previews the hour: stories and tunes. Includes the standard Pathway Studios intro, a short comedy exchange, and Ryan's story about a grandmother-led family trip to Alaska that inspired the first song.

Performance: 'You Are the Lord'

Ryan Paul Buck performs a live worship song in studio, with lyrics including 'Every nation and tongue will confess you, Lord, all over the globe' and 'Oh, God of this city, we call on your name'. The hosts react positively and ask about the song's origin: Ryan says it was inspired by the Alaska trip with his grandmother and grew out of a 'God of Mercy' chorus he had been carrying.

Interview: Ryan's musical journey and storytelling calling

Interview covering Ryan's start in music circa 2001 doing hip-hop with his older brother (raps over industry instrumentals, a Guitar Center drum-machine trip in Minnesota), their first disc 'True to Life', self-taught recording engineering, learning piano and guitar, and leading worship within six months of picking up the guitar. Ryan says the word 'storyteller' defines him and that 'the best story I ever told is the gospel of Jesus Christ'; he discusses juggling songwriting with cameras and video production. A host jokes about 'old Mike' being replaceable now that Ryan ('RPB') is in studio.

Performance: 'The Life You Gave'

Ryan performs 'The Life You Gave', a narrative-styled song about the death and resurrection of Jesus that he says was first sung into existence while he lingered in the chapel after a long worship set. The performance (partially transcribed) includes lines like 'What words could I ever bring that could even compare to the life you gave' and 'The earth didn't shake as everything began to break.'

Ryan wrap-up: allergies, Paul's thorn joke, and plugs

Post-song chat: Ryan describes the moment writing the album as feeling like 'this is exactly how Christ feels when he looks at me'; a host riffs that the Apostle Paul's 'thorn' may have been an unmentioned allergy (corn, dairy, wheat). A host, addressing Dan by name, jokes about keeping the show Jesus-focused. The segment closes with plugs for ryanpaulbuck.com, the album on iTunes, and physical copies at Hope Bookstore / Cafe Hope at Lutheran Church of Hope.

Secular vs. Solomon game — world-languages edition

The hosts play 'America's fastest-growing internet game show, Secular vs. Solomon': Ryan Paul Buck and the chat guess whether each proverb is worldly wisdom (Secular) or biblical (Solomon), naming the country of origin for secular ones. Rounds include proverbs from Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland and Germany; one round resolves at Proverbs 17:16 ('Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he does not have a lick of sense?'). A guest known on-air as Nathaniel is told he can't play; the bit about 'God helps those who help themselves' being 'in the Bible' closes the game with a laugh.

YouTube clips promo, past guests, and music-store comedy bit

The hosts plug the YouTube clips channel (youtube.com/livefromthepath) and name past musical guests: Ryan Sheeler, Jeff Arundel, Jesse Anderson, Syndrome of Fire, Saved on Sunday, Wayne Stewart. Ryan's album 'The Foundation' is praised as good driving music. The hosts then riff a comedy bit about opening a Live from the Path music store — and becoming a Little Debbie distributor — in the studio space.

Ryan on the song 'Father': spontaneous on-stage origin

Ryan explains the origin of the song 'Father': scheduled to lead worship with a John Foreman song ('Your Love is Strong') at a young adult service, he felt the Spirit lead elsewhere and the new song — words and rhythm — came out spontaneously on stage during a communion moment after the message. He notes the bridge contains a proverb: 'God exalts the humble and opposes the proud.'

Performance: 'Father' (untranscribed audio)

Ryan performs 'Father' live in studio ('This is Father'). The performance has no transcribed audio in the transcript (roughly a five-and-a-half-minute gap between 'Let's take a listen' and 'That was Ryan Paul Buck'), so its contents are unattested here.

Break bumper: Daniel Brown foot-race audio and comedy bits

A host thanks Ryan and announces a break: Daniel Brown of Saved on Sunday joins, and the show plays audio of a foot race between Mike and Daniel at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival. A string of rapid comedy bumpers follows: 'Welcome to Give Me Money', 'Jim Neighbors would never betray Jesus', a weather bit ('With 100% chance of rain, as is, it's raining right now' — credited to 'Troy Spangalanger'), a 'classic bit' about Dan's shirt, and an Old Spice-style parody bit ('Look at your man... now back to me...').

The Solomon Show comedy sketch

A sketch intro: 'welcome back to The Solomon Show, where we spend time on the three W's — Wisdom, wives, and war with Palestine', with the host's 'arch-nemesis, Secular' as in-studio guest ('You, sir, are a punk'). It continues into a rapid-fire parody roll call of fake in-studio guests ('Supernaw's live in studio', 'Double J's in studio', 'Pants Talk Box Whetstone', 'Jessa and Jordan Anderson', 'Jeff Arendale and company') before returning to the live show.

Second hour open: Dear LFTP preview and proofs recap

The hosts preview the second hour: advice letters ('dear live from the path, I just need some help') and a continuation of their tour through godisimaginary.com's '50 proofs that God is not real'. They recap that last week covered prayer (proofs one and two), and tonight they will hit proof number three: 'look at historical gods'. A host, addressing Mike by name, asks him to read the first Dear LFTP letter.

Dear LFTP: a dying father's last wishes

• How important are a dying person's last wishes?

A listener asks how important a dying person's last wishes are: their father, a WWII Navy veteran, wanted to be buried with his first wife in a distant state, but the estate and his current wife can't comfortably afford it — would it be horrible to do something else, like scatter his ashes in the ocean? The 'secular advice' suggests wishes in writing, notes the current wife would legally hold the ashes, and offers dividing the ashes into thirds. The hosts joke about cremation lockets and urns, and conclude with lighthearted advice about keeping a shirt or his cologne for memory's sake.

Dear LFTP: blended family, controlling husband, grandchildren

• Am I a terrible mother and grandmother, and does my husband not really love me since he made me choose between him and my son?

A listener writes that her husband Jack made her choose between him and her seven-year-old son three years ago; she hasn't seen the child since, is depressed and bottled up, wants to be a grandmother to her grandkids, and is scared to question her husband. The hosts give a blunt answer ('yes, you are a bad mother and grandmother'; he does not love her) and then work through the theology: submission to God outranks submission to a husband (citing 1 Peter 3 on wives winning unbelieving husbands, and Sarah/Abraham), a wife is not required to submit to sinful direction, there is no biblical license to divorce here, and responsibility to the child comes first. The 'secular answer' advises strengthening her backbone and living her family life without his blessing. The discussion widens to grace vs. law in messy second marriages and remarriage theology (with a Bathsheba example).

Dear LFTP: early-morning power equipment and advice wrap-up

• Am I being unreasonable to expect people to refrain from using loud power equipment before 10 a.m. on weekends?

A short letter: a neighbor regularly runs loud power equipment before 9 a.m. on Saturdays; is it unreasonable to expect people to refrain before 10? The hosts riff into a comedy exchange about a Christ-loving man's vanishing weekend (church, naps, lawn), closing the advice block with 'Open up Galatians' and a promise to send the bill for their counsel.

GodIsImaginary.com proof #3: historical gods rebutted

• If historically worshipped gods (Egyptian, Roman, Aztec) were imaginary despite massive worship, is today's God just as imaginary?

The hosts read aloud proof number three from godisimaginary.com: 'look at historical gods' — belief in God is ubiquitous through the ages; the Egyptians built pyramids, Romans temples to Jupiter, Aztecs pyramids and temples, yet we know those gods were imaginary, so today's God is 'just as imaginary'. Their rebuttals: the argument backfires since the atheist's 'strength in numbers' stance is actually the minority position (Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism all affirm a higher power), Christianity takes the fire because Jesus is a threat (there is no 'anti-Buddhist blog'), and they had earlier addressed prayer and coincidence/cancer arguments with appeals to Exodus and the supernatural. The segment frames the discussion as an ongoing multi-week tour of the site's 50 proofs.

Proof #4 teaser (Jeremiah's lament) and sign-off

• If God exists, why do the corrupt and greedy succeed while the God-fearing struggle?

The hosts preview proof number four ('ask why religion causes so many problems' / 'if God were to exist, wouldn't you expect huge benefit to those who follow him?'), noting it mirrors an Old Testament lament — one host guesses Ezekiel before another corrects to Jeremiah ('yeah that's Jeremiah'): why do the corrupt and greedy succeed while the God-fearing struggle, and what did God answer. They set proof #4 aside for next week (Christmas break) and sign off with plugs for livefromthepath.org, the YouTube clips and full-show channels, the iTunes podcast, plus a Daniel Brown 'Saved on Sunday' acoustic-album saga involving a listener's birthday gift card.