Solo Contendere

Solo show open, docket, and complaint line

Ben opens Live From The Path alone from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper, noting the room is empty: Dan is in Zimbabwe, Mike is on vacation, and Boova is visiting family in the hill country of Pennsylvania with an unlimited Panera coffee cup. He sets the docket for the episode: an article on the one thing keeping your sin on life support, a story about getting scammed on Facebook Marketplace, a Christian Post article on Jude 9 and the tussle over Moses' body, and Dear LFTP advice letters. He gives the Bob Eisenlauer complaint line, (515) 517-0085, for calls or texts.

Article: the one thing keeping your sin on life support

• What is the one thing keeping your sin on life support?

Ben walks through an article on persistent sin, starting from a US News & World Report claim that two thirds of Americans admit to some form of addiction. He argues the show's line that it's always more complicated and more gray: over-spiritualizing addiction makes it feel anti-Jesus, but abandoning any belief in self-control opens people to worse influences. He confesses his own compulsion: gas-station and food FOMO, hardwired inability to pass a gas station without buying something, which he curbs only by limiting himself to one regular coffee.

Augustine's disordered loves and the Greek word epithemeo

Continuing the article, Ben reads Saint Augustine's Confessions line about a cauldron of unholy loves singing about his ears and the conclusion that wretchedness comes from disordered loves. Any love can become an unholy love: the New Testament word is epithemeo, translated desire, literally meaning a great over-desire — excess and immoderation even toward good things like work, food, sex, and social media. Nurtured over-desires morph into idols, though Ben pushes back on the article's move from disordered love straight to idolatry.

Pushback: is every compulsion really idolatry?

Ben argues the article overcooks the fish by calling every unshakeable compulsion idolatry. Tim Keller's line about finding the idol's chain and Martyn Lloyd-Jones's definition — anything occupying the place that belongs to God alone — get the broad point right, he says, but worship implies intentional surrender of control to a deity, which his Kit Kat and gas-station compulsion is not. He grants that calling things sin because they fall short of God's goodness should be enough motivation to quit without relabeling them idols, and questions whether sermon rhetoric overloads concepts just to get attention.

Contentment as the key; fasting discipline

Ben lands on contentment as the practical answer the article gets right: being content with what you have undercuts the chase for more, whether money or gas-station coffee in a Styrofoam cup. He riffs on John Newton's line about the best times being believable and the worst times bearable, noting that earth's good things are a shadow of, not alien to, the restored creation. The real issue is the compulsion itself: he proved he can exert self-control by fasting every Monday for a month, so the failure is choosing not to, and he urges grace toward others since what is easy for one person (his wife driving past gas stations) is hard for another.

How Ben got scammed on Facebook Marketplace

Ben tells his lawnmower story: with his riding mower's belt broken, he found a 2010 John Deere riding mower for $900 with 522 hours on Facebook Marketplace, with delivery promised from Norwalk. Every red flag fired — a six-hour-old seller profile, a deposit requested via PayPal friends-and-family (which removes all recourse), payment to a 'brother' whose name sounded like a Nigerian prince's, 'we dispatched it ten minutes ago' — and he paid the $50-60 delivery fee anyway because he wanted it to be true. A staged photo of a trailer tire being changed bought more time; when he asked for a photo of the mower on the trailer, radio silence. He invites listener scam stories on the complaint line.

Jude 9: Michael, the devil, and Moses' body

• Does the Bible quoting a non-inspired text make that text inspired?

Ben reads and reacts to a Christian Post article on one of the strangest verses in the Bible, Jude 9: Michael the archangel, disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce a railing judgment but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.' He reviews the canonical burial in Deuteronomy 34 — Moses dies in Moab, is buried in a secret grave opposite Beth Peor, and no man knows his burial place — and the lost sources scholars link to the tradition: the Assumption of Moses and the Testament of Moses. He endorses the article's point that the Bible quoting a non-inspired text or oral tradition does not make that source inspired; inclusion means it was historically accurate for the point being made.

Bauckham's legal-claim theory; the accuser and the comfort

• Is there a spiritual tussle over your body or soul like the one over Moses?

Ben covers Richard Bauckham's theory that the devil laid legal claim to Moses' body because Moses was a sinner — a murderer — with the claim aimed at his soul, paralleling Zechariah 3 where Satan accuses the high priest Joshua in his filthy garments before being answered with festal robes of God's justifying righteousness. He takes comfort in the picture: the devil accuses, the Lord rebukes, and our filthy garments are buried in a grave no one will find. He then wonders whether the same spiritual tussle applies to every believer, and muses — end-times theology dependent — that since Jesus said he saw Satan fall like lightning and Revelation says Satan was cast out, the accusation ministry may already be over, while admitting the question has little practical impact.

Dear LFTP: the new stepmother's pushy parenting advice

• How should a new mother handle a new stepmother's pushy and dangerous parenting advice?

Ben reads a Dear LFTP letter from a new mother whose father just remarried: her new stepmother, who claims to have been a nurse, pushes parenting advice that contradicts the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics — that breastfeeding stunts growth, babies should sleep face down, and holding a baby in the car equals a car seat. When pressed, the 'nurse' credential turns out to be a barely-passed correspondence nursing-assistant degree; she never worked as a nurse. Ben's advice: stick to your guns, be firm without animus, keep it lighthearted, don't let her persistence make you angry, and think the best of her — she may just be trying to earn a place in the new family. Secular's answer largely agrees, adding that the mother should never let the woman hold the baby in the car since it's illegal and could be fatal.

Dear LFTP: the married man who wants her as his side piece

• Should I block the married man who lied to me and wants me as his side piece, or stick around?
• When someone is cheating, do you tell the wife?

Ben reads a Dear LFTP letter from a woman who fell for a coworker who claimed his ex was out of the picture, then learned via internet research that he is married and bought the house with his wife — and now he wants her as his side piece. Ben's answer is blunt: get out right now; the man is deceitful and manipulative, and this is a bottom-of-the-barrel imitation of real love. His deeper pitch is Jesus first: marriage is a picture of our relationship with God, and that trust has to flow through knowing Christ rather than treating Scripture as a shallow marriage program. He adds practical counsel — hard cutoff, consider changing jobs, and yes, tell the wife, but not out of malice and with caution given the unknown risk in that household. Secular's answer lands close: block him and find someone who can give her the love she craves.

Outro: merch tease and sign-off

Ben closes the solo show by teasing new merchandise designs, including a 'who's this Yahweh' shirt, asks for feedback for himself or the thrift store priest on the complaint line, (515) 517-0085, and signs off with the standing benediction: be faithful in the means, God will handle the ends.