July 26 2021

Show open and Sober Soldiers plug

The show opens from the Pathway Studios in 'Johnston proper.' A host reports that three invited guests all said no, so nobody is in the studio. He then plugs Sober Soldiers (SoberSoldiersWithAZ.com), a recovery ministry he follows on Facebook, praising them for consistently pointing people to Jesus and saying he'd like to have them back on the show.

Honest prayer-life check-in

The hosts lay out the evening's material: an article titled '21 things to pray for' / 'Tips for a better prayer life.' Before reading it, each host answers how his own prayer life is going. None claims to be doing well: one describes being 'in a funk,' another feels he is only scratching the surface with eight key words and spends no time in silence or listening, and a third says praying well removes the feeling of being a stranger before God. Dan is addressed by name during the roundtable, and Ben is asked directly how he is doing.

Digging into the 21 tips: praise, awe, and the prayer cube

• Does God give you enough fresh evidence every day to be in awe of who you are speaking with?

The hosts play family-feud guesses for what is on the list (seclusion; a consistent time; praying the Scripture). On tip #1 ('praise God for who he is'), a host admits he runs out of words beyond 'God, you're really neat,' and they discuss whether the relationship with God should feel like any long friendship where obvious things stop being said. A host asks whether God gives fresh evidence every day to be in awe of. A camera-angle joke has a host looking like a centaur. A Joel Osteen prayer cube tangent (seen at Amazon) becomes a bit about a 'Live from the Path prayer cube.' On repetition in prayer, they note Revelation's elders saying 'holy, holy, holy' day and night and reframe the longing as being 'rewowed' by God's presence. A host describes praying in the shower and the danger of following a pattern without being in it; patterns and liturgy are fine if engaged, 'let's not read Psalm 23, let's pray Psalm 23.'

Continuing the list and the rocks of remembrance

The hosts walk through more of the 21 tips: thank God for what he has done, remember God's love and grace, and the value of recalling times God showed up. A host tells the story of a woman who came to his youth group with two boxes of rocks, each marked with a phrase retelling something God did; he and his family now write on rocks to keep a physical record of God's faithfulness. The remaining tips are rattled off quickly: love your neighbors, talk to God about someone in need, pray for someone who doesn't know Jesus, love your enemies, give time/money/energy, pray for church, city and nation, leaders, kindness, humility, teachability, forgiveness, obedience, a renewed mind, purity, responsibility, courage, hope.

What's missing from the list

• Should we pray directly for God to rejuvenate our prayer life?

Asked how to approach the list and what might be missing, a host suggests praying directly for God to rejuvenate one's prayer life instead of working around it, likening it to telling a spouse something isn't connecting. They note stagnation can also come from sin blocking the way, not just a lack of material. Dan recalls a college missions class: pray for open doors to share the gospel, plus boldness and clarity. They urge listeners not to evaluate their whole relationship with Jesus by their prayer life: a weak conversation pattern doesn't mean the relationship is bad, only that something good is being missed.

'Put Satan in his place in three easy steps' and the triple threat

A related Christian Post article promises 'how to put Satan in his place in three easy steps,' built on the basketball 'triple threat' (Adrian Dantley: dribble, shoot, or pass): 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 'be joyful, pray, give.' The hosts read the passage aloud on air, noting the surrounding verses about not repaying evil for evil and staying away from every kind of evil. They call the headline an article-click problem: it is really just 'read Paul and do what it says,' and mock the author's wild hair and semicolon abuse.

Threat one: be joyful

• Is 'rejoice always' (1 Thessalonians 5:16) a command in the Greek?

Walking through the article's first threat, the hosts debate whether 'rejoice always' is a Greek imperative. Using Logos and Blue Letter Bible, they confirm it is (present active imperative, second person plural). They push back on a simplistic internal-joy/external-happiness split and warn against weaponizing the verse ('your kid just got in a motorcycle accident, you should be joyful right now'), landing on continually taking in the world through the reminder of who one is in Christ, while weeping with those who weep.

Threats two and three: pray continually, give thanks

On 'pray continually,' a host endorses the article's line that 'God does not need updates'; one man's wife starts prayer with 'good morning, Jesus' and doesn't say amen until bedtime. On 'give thanks,' a locker-room tangent argues against the author's claim that locker rooms bring out the worst in everyone; the YMCA at 6:30 a.m. is mostly weather talk and corn prices, though Dan grants high-school locker rooms were a den of iniquity. A host applies Proverbs 12:18 and runs a quick Secular-or-Solomon style question: 'When you speak, do you bring healing? Is Satan threatened by the way you talk?'

Posture critique: 'yes today, Jesus'

The hosts argue the article's posture is wrong: they would rather 'posture obedience and faithfulness' than take stabs at an opponent Jesus doesn't give much time to. 'Not today, Satan' is traded for 'yes today, Jesus.' They reason Satan is only recorded battling one-on-one with Jesus himself (plus the fall of the first humans and the Job scene), so a Christian feeling singled out is lending too much power to the defeated opponent; everything should funnel up to God. The article's closing FCA cliche ('when their feet hit the floor, Satan shudders') is answered with: that shudder happened once, when the stone moved.

Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind, and end-times talk

The hosts read an article about Left Behind co-author Jerry Jenkins, who believes the world is close to the end and has written a new novel titled after his son's TV series The Chosen. They ridicule his 'theology' that God might cave under the weight of a sinful world, argue America is not the bellwether of the end times (people were once punished by being thrown in a pond with starved cats), and note the gospel is on fire in China, Africa, and the Middle East. They agree no more prophecy needs fulfilling before the end ('it's just been true for 2,000 years') and that the gospel starts with good news, not scare tactics: 'go out and spread the gospel, not go out and scare people to death.' The segment closes with the joke that Jenkins is cashing in on his son's show title.

Two prayer jokes and the word 'devil'

• Where does the word 'devil' come from, and is it in the Bible?

A host tells two clean prayer jokes: Johnny, who quits praying for a baby brother just before his mother delivers twins ('aren't you glad I quit when I did?'), and the praying Christian lady whose atheist neighbor buys her groceries, then hears her praise God that he 'made the devil pay for them.' Mid-jokes, a host asks where the word 'devil' comes from; they land on diabolos in 1 Peter 5 and Ephesians 4:27 as meaning slanderer/accuser, not a proper name.

Dear LFTP: the stepdaughter's anxious fiance

• How do I connect with my stepdaughter's silent, anxious fiance?

A listener writes that her stepdaughter is engaged to a young man who, apparently from anxiety, barely speaks at family gatherings and skips events. The hosts advise starting small: one-on-one time like watching a football game or a movie, meeting him at his level rather than throwing him into big family events; anxiety is not cured by being loved harder. The Secular answer is read (suggesting a serious talk with the stepdaughter and flagging the behavior as a possible red flag); the hosts push back that risking the marriage over awkward family gatherings is unfair, while conceding that if he can't manage even one-on-one conversation, stress is coming. Dan's suggestion to 'take his turf' is credited by name.

Dear LFTP: the thermostat wars

• How do I talk to my roommate about the thermostat without coming off as controlling?

A roommate wants the house at 77-78 while the roommates crank it to 72-73 ('you could hang meat in here'), and asks how to raise it without sounding controlling. The hosts side with the roommates: 72 is the widely accepted comfort setting, appliances work harder in heat, and '78 is ridiculous... old folks' home temperature.' The verdict: get a lockbox for the thermostat, or put on a sweater. The discussion spirals into energy-company 'nasty grams,' evaporative cooling (hosing down the house), swamp coolers, Ben's two wells, and an 'Independence Day' no-peace impression bit. The Secular answer is read ('stop pussyfooting around, have an adult discussion'; 'it's you, 78 degree man'), and a host closes with his own car-climate-control wars story with his windows-down wife.

Outro: complaint line, power bills, and iTunes

The outro runs the Bob Eisenlauer complaint line (515-517-0085; the transcript renders it 'Eisenhower') and asks listeners to call in with what temperature they keep their house. Each host answers (one keeps 74 in summer, 72 at night; Dan holds at 72; Nathaniel keeps 69). The power company's 'you use 80% more electricity' letters get mocked ('you've encouraged me the other direction'). They invite prayer requests on the prayer topic, note the 21-tips article came from the Christian Post, and celebrate that the show finally appeared on iTunes with listener reviews, asking for ratings. Sign-off: 'be faithful in the means; God will handle the ends.'