July 8, 2013 Podcast

Show open: intro song, welcome, and episode rundown

The episode opens with a short comedic intro song, then a host welcomes listeners to the live broadcast from the Pathway studios in Johnston proper and to the online chat. The rundown covers Dear LFTP advice, pope-style advice, Boova's Halloween knock-knock jokes, an end-of-the-world predictions quiz, and in-studio guest Kristen from YWAM.

Interview: Kristen of YWAM on discipleship training and missions

A host interviews in-studio guest Kristen, who was recently based at the YWAM Kona, Hawaii base. She explains YWAM (Youth With A Mission), the six-month Discipleship Training School (three months training, three months outreach), her counseling course at the University of the Nations, and a two-and-a-half-month outreach in Vietnam. The hosts riff on YWAM as a 'service department for missionaries' and contrast boot-camp-style training with how churches send people out with no preparation.

Quiz game: failed end-of-the-world predictions

A host runs a five-question multiple-choice quiz on historical end-of-the-world predictions: the 1806 Leeds hen egg reading 'Christ is coming', Isaac Newton's 2060 prediction revealed in 1991, the 1910 Halley's comet cyanogen panic and anti-comet products, Shelley Corbett's 2007 book advertised on Southern Florida bus benches, and Thomas Muentzer's 1526 prediction and claim he would catch cannonballs in his cloak sleeves. The hosts and guest Kristen guess; the reveal stories prompt banter about faith, gullibility, and whether a big sleeve shows lack of faith.

Website promo and sponsor block

The hosts plug past games on livefromthepath.org, including Secular vs. Solomon episodes with Chandler Knudson and Righteous Vendetta, and the 'Deuteronomy Dan' game (real biblical law vs. law Dan made up). They thank sponsors Bob Eisenlauer's Eisenhower Team realty and Westfield Veterinary Hospital in Johnston, giving the vet's phone number and website.

Pope-style advice: don't be afraid to make better disciples than you are

• If 3,000 people mistook you for the pope and demanded a piece of life advice from your front lawn, what would you say?

Mike (addressed by name on-air) gives his 'pope-style advice': after reading Matthew's 'harvest is plentiful' passage with his five-year-old daughter, he realized her childlike faith makes her a better disciple than he is, and that sin and hypocrisy should not stop anyone from teaching what Jesus taught. His advice: don't fear making disciples better than yourself; make copies of Jesus, not copies of yourself. Another host agrees, describing his own brother outgrowing him spiritually.

Upcoming events: Promised Land Music Fest, Double J wrestling, Clive show

The hosts plug upcoming local events: the free Promised Land Music Fest (12th and 13th) with Thousand Foot Crutch and possibly Double J's final performance, Double J amateur-wrestling Saturday at 5:00 at the Marion County Fair in Knoxville, and a Clive-area show at Point of Grace with Chandler Knudson and Zach Sloboda.

Kristen's testimony: traveling on $5 and God as provider

Kristen tells how she spent a year learning God as provider: she quit her job in Ohio and went to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City with $5, bought a half-price backpack and cheap coffee, and was given food, money, and a place to stay by strangers God led to help her. She then traveled Kansas City to Texas to Washington DC to Hawaii to Vietnam 'all on $5.'

Discussion: hearing God's voice, discernment, and divine promptings

• What is it like to hear from God, and how do you tell his voice apart from your own thoughts?

Asked what experiences of 'hearing from God' are like, Kristen describes learning discernment in her discipleship training school: testing whether a thought is from God, herself, or the devil, and finding promptings confirmed in ways she would never naturally do. A host tells of circling back to help stranded strangers with a bike rack, and another tells of giving a trucker a spare battery at a truck stop. The hosts riff on Jesus as the 'dispatcher of heaven' sending the right person with the right supplies.

Dear LFTP: is an emotional affair cheating?

• At what point is a relationship with a member of the opposite sex considered cheating?

The reader reads a letter from a woman who discovered her husband's 'more than friendly' relationship with a coworker twelve years younger: a secret P.O. box, romantic letters, admitted kissing, and deep conversations he won't have with his wife. The hosts are unanimous it is cheating, emotional and physical, and note the second offense in sixteen years. The 'secular answer' agrees it is cheating; the segment ends with a brass-knuckles-with-Bible-verses joke.

Dear LFTP: therapist blurred boundaries then cut contact ('Confused in Texas')

• Is this normal behavior for a mental health therapist?

The reader reads a letter from 'Confused in Texas': after years of therapy for abandonment and trust issues, her therapist befriended her outside sessions, then abruptly set boundaries, cut contact, and blocked her number. The hosts agree this is not normal or ethical behavior, joke that the therapist treated her abandonment issues by giving her more of them, and advise finding a Christian counselor who points to Jesus. The 'secular answer' calls it highly inappropriate.

Radio sign-off for KTIA listeners

A host signs off the 99.3 KTIA radio audience, directing them to livefromthepath.org or Monday night 10:00 online to hear the rest of the show.

Dear LFTP: single mom overwhelmed by her 12-year-old daughter

• What do other parents do to make it through this incredibly painful period in the lives of their teenager and themselves?

The reader reads a letter from a single mother whose 12-year-old daughter has been withdrawn, rude, and contemptuous for three months; counseling hasn't helped and she can't get a break. The hosts advise she is still the parent and must set clear boundaries with real consequences rather than let a child drain her; they act out a comic role-play of mom vs. kid. Kristen adds that the absent father-as-disciplinarian is a real gap, and the hosts concede their blunt advice assumed a two-parent household.

Dear LFTP: telling the kids about IVF with a sperm donor

• How do we explain our IVF and sperm-donor conception to our children, friends, and family without becoming the focus of gossip and whispers?

The reader reads a letter from parents of four-year-old twins conceived through IVF with a sperm donor after male-factor infertility; they want to be open with their children but fear gossip, since the husband is still uncomfortable. The hosts say the husband's pride is the issue: the donor makes it essentially an adoption, identity is in being a son of Christ not in biology, and 'you get to raise one of God's children for His glory and your joy.' The 'secular answer' says infertility is no longer a shameful secret and details can come in age-appropriate stages. One host shares his own family went through fertility treatment.

Show close: podcast info and sponsor thanks

A host closes the show: the podcast posts at lifeinthepath.org, the show airs Mondays 10-11pm and Saturdays at 7 on 99.3 KTIA, and clips and past games are on the website. He thanks sponsors Westfield vet and the Eisenhower Team, with a joke about aphid-filled cats, then signs off.