2016 Episode 3

Show open from Pathway Studios

The produced intro plays and a host opens the show live from the Pathway studios in Johnston proper, welcoming listeners to Live From The Path.

Tonight's lineup preview

A host previews the show: a new segment called Not Quite Pope Style in which Boova shares something he has been mulling over, the return of the Secular vs Solomon game, and Dear LFTP advice topics including a couple with a drinking problem, grandparents surprised by their kindergartner's makeup use, and three cats in a one-bedroom apartment.

Not Quite Pope Style: Boova on praying specifically

• How can a person pray specifically and actually hear answers from God?

Boova shares that his spiritual leaders have been challenging him about his prayer life. He has never been someone who hears specific answers from God, so he tried praying very specifically: his car would not start, and he prayed it would fail on the first two key turns but start on the third. It did, exactly as he asked. He drove to Altoona praising God and has begun a prayer journal and quiet listening time to grow closer to God and rebuild trust with him.

Discussion: answered prayer and Daniel as a model

• How should an answered specific prayer change how Boova relates to God going forward?
• What in Daniel's life and prayers speaks to Boova's circumstances?

The hosts react to Boova's story. One host admits his troubleshooting instinct wants a natural explanation for the car, while another recalls two times the show's stream failed until they prayed and it worked on the next click. They connect Boova's experience to their pre-show Daniel study: Daniel's recorded prayers under a death warrant (Daniel 2), his three-week prayer answered on day one but delayed by spiritual opposition (Daniel 10), and how a person's prayers reveal what they believe about God.

Where is the line on crediting God? Over-spiritualizing

• Where is the line between crediting God and over-spiritualizing everyday events?

The hosts wrestle with the discomfort of crediting God for small things: the instinct to explain events naturally versus accepting mystery. Examples include the aspirin-and-toothache question, rain falling on the just and unjust, over-spiritualizing everything, and the irony that skeptics use God-given creativity to explain away miracles the way the Pharisees did. One host notes Daniel praying intensely for something God had already promised, and argues thanking God even for natural processes he designed is a truer perspective.

Secular vs Solomon game

• What does 'whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind' mean?

The hosts play the returning Secular vs Solomon game: a host reads a proverb and the players must say whether it is secular wisdom (naming a country of origin) or biblical wisdom (Solomon, naming the Proverbs reference). Rounds include the Russian proverb about a dog and its master, Proverbs 11:29, Proverbs 11:12, Proverbs 9:12, Proverbs 6:20, the Greek tree-planting proverb, the Indian tiger proverb, the Polish love-and-eyes proverb, Proverbs 10:1, and a visit-your-aunt proverb. Studio participants Andrew Carson, Dave Herrick, and Mike Guessman play along with the hosts, with running jokes about Monte Cristo, Montenegro, and the Bones TV show.

MLK Day reflection: engaging culture instead of staying silent

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a host reads from two books that converged in his mind. From Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs: communists ended those who removed themselves from reality, and the church cannot preach a 'pure gospel' detached from circumstances. From King's Letter from Birmingham Jail: 'We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.' The hosts discuss the risk of backing off too far, the false sense of security in the West, persecution under communism and ISIS, and how Daniel was faithful wherever God placed him, politics included.

When must Christians engage a political issue?

• How do Christians know which political issues they must engage versus leave alone?
• What is the practical take-home for listeners on engaging culture faithfully?

Picking up the MLK discussion, a host asks for the tipping point between engaging a political issue and skipping it. The hosts land on engaging where the political process speaks on something Jesus has spoken on: the sanctity of life (abortion) and marriage are God's issues, while taxes and zoning are not. One host shares rejoining a political party for the Iowa caucuses while wrestling with forcing people to act like Jesus-followers versus representing Jesus. They conclude discipleship changes culture more effectively than lobbying, noting the church ceded widows-and-orphans care to government and is now ceding morality the same way.

Dear LFTP: three cats in a one-bedroom apartment

• How should an unmarried couple resolve a conflict over three cats in a one-bedroom apartment?

A host reads a listener letter signed 'Surrounded by cats': an unmarried couple adopted a stray cat that had four kittens; they kept two, and the boyfriend is stressed by three cats in a one-bedroom apartment while his girlfriend resists rehoming any. The hosts' first counsel is that he should not be living with his girlfriend at all. On the cats themselves they advise compromise: clean the litter box yourself, share responsibility, discuss peeing on furniture with a vet, and set a line somewhere before six or seven cats. They also read the 'secular answer,' which calls them irresponsible pet owners and notes the stray should have been spayed.

Outro and contact info

The hosts close the show, giving the email info@livefromthepath.org and the website livefromthepath.org, and sign off with the show's closing line.