Not Sure | Old Testament Law, Holy Spirit Guidance, Christian Discernment

Produced voiceover open

The produced opening voiceover plays — "Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path." — spanning the first three transcript segments.

Live show start and opening banter

Ben does the live show start from the Pathway Studios and the room warms up: a riff about careening off bridges with low sides, a Zimbabwe bridge anecdote, and Boova apologizing to Dan for not listening to the show weekly and promising to take it in.

The docket: two Holy Spirit questions

• How should Christians relate to the Old Testament law — keep the moral law and drop the sacrificial and ceremonial?

Ben sets the agenda. First: the common tripartition of Old Testament law into sacrificial, ceremonial, and moral — and whether Paul and Galatia would be "hosed off" about the use of it. Second: whether asking the Holy Spirit to "come in" and "fall like rain" at an event fundamentally misunderstands our relationship to the Spirit. Dear LFTP letters will follow.

Ben's profanity confession

Ben confesses that Mike flagged low-level profanities in last week's program; Ben thought the critique was about his sermon the next day, which means he is using too many low-level profanities in too many situations and needs to curtail it.

The law chopped into three: moral, sacrificial, ceremonial

Ben presses the tripartition: if the law reflects Yahweh, how could it go away, and what about the thousands of years of Israel's relationship with him? He argues the new-creation program is an identity of Jesus plus the guidance of the Spirit — Jesus' life, death, resurrection and kingship cannot be separated — and that Spirit-indwelled Christians need not carry any part of the law forward. The Spirit is the people of Yahweh's Spirit, not "your personal Holy Spirit"; submit leadings to the community so ten people around you can say "dude, I don't know."

God led me to a bigger church? Community discernment and preachers

The room tests communal discernment: every preacher who leaves one church for another says God led them, and it is always to a larger setting with a bigger salary. Dan tells how his church's eldership sent him away before his firstborn arrived — God speaking through the community, the opposite of the usual pattern. They contrast this with Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas were praying and fasting and the church sent them out, and note how human preference and guilt can drown out the Spirit.

Boova restates the case: the flawed covenant

Boova restates Ben's premise in his own words: Christians carry forward not the moral, sacrificial, or ceremonial law but the relationship righted through Jesus' life, death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement. He cites Hebrews 7 or 8 on the old covenant having a flaw — God himself saying through the prophets "I will create a new covenant" — a law that was reactional to Israel's failings and pointed forward to the day God's people would be known by their relationship to him through his Son.

Mike: disagreement, sanctification, and the comfort of the law

Mike raises the hard case: if all Spirit-indwelled people should agree on what is good and right, and they don't, are the dissenters grieving the Spirit or being sanctified over time? The room lands on walking in step with the Spirit (Galatians) as something possible to have without doing, on older believers starting fewer fires, and on the seductive comfort of the law — predictable, firm footing — versus the unpredictable, container-shaped presence of the Spirit. Ben admits he loves the comfort of the law and leans on Scripture for teaching.

"Fall like rain": does inviting the Spirit imply he is absent?

• Does asking the Holy Spirit to "come" into an event misunderstand our relationship to the Spirit?

Ben raises his second question: prayers and worship songs that ask the Holy Spirit to "fall like rain" and "come into this place" sound like an invitation to someone not yet there, when the Spirit is indwelt the moment you acknowledge Jesus as king. Dan adds that these moments often chase a display or a feeling; Mike reframes it as people submitting their will — "increase my faith" — wanting God to force their brick wall down. Ben's caution: it is fine as art, but it risks teaching his six-year-old son the Spirit only shows up when we sing on Sunday morning.

Boova's nephew prays: "God, shut him up"

Boova tells how he used to pray before teaching — "let it be your words; if I bring unrepentant sin or pride, shut me up" — and one day his nephew asked to pray and prayed simply "God, shut him up." The older brother objected, the nephew corrected him ("shut him up, not shut up"), and every adult in the room understood: the request was that the teacher not teach from his own pride. Boova notes the meaning lands across generations.

Music, chord progressions, and over-spiritualizing feelings

The room admits the danger in the music itself: put the right chord progression under anything — Dan jokes you could sing "I love toothpaste and earwax" — and it produces a feeling that gets over-spiritualized as the Spirit moving. Ben says as art he has no problem with it, but he worries when it becomes theology that leaves people confused after the event. He closes with a song from fifteen years ago about "I'm not home yet / this is not where I belong" that struck him like an anthem for teleportation to Sky City.

Mike's Berean pushback: can you check your way out of the Spirit?

• Can you "Berean" your way out of the Holy Spirit — canceling genuine direction because the scripture cited for it was wrong?

Ben turns it on Mike: can you "Berean" yourself out of the Holy Spirit — take genuine direction and cancel it because the scripture cited was wrong? Mike explains his approach: he easily accepts Bible studies as God's provision without fact-checking every point, and notes Ben can't — "Where I think Ben cannot do this" — because Ben spots the wrong scripture and can't get past chapter two. Mike's example is the Experiencing God study: "don't just get up and do things; if he's not going, you don't want to go," which he is trying despite not being sure it's prescriptive for everyone.

Ben: discernment is real, everything is on the table

Ben agrees the risk is real — his guard against scripture being used to manipulate people can limit what God might do through fallible means — but insists on discernment without dismissing direction. He walks through walking in step with the Spirit (Galatians), testing whether God might move you away from a good thing and not only a sin, Abraham and Isaac and Job as God reinstating what was surrendered, and the discipline of actively listening instead of deciding the outcome in advance. He plugs the Bob Eisenlauer complaint line, (515) 517-0085, for things Christians say that might not be helpful.

Dear LFTP: the high-school sweetheart and the oil-rig romance scam

• What should I do about my high-school sweetheart, who cut me off after I warned her that her online relationship is a romance scam?

Mike reads a letter from a man in his sixties who, after his fortieth high school reunion, reconnected on Facebook with his old high-school sweetheart, helped her financially for years, and has now been cut off after warning her that her long-distance "oil rig offshore worker" is a romance scammer — she says it is true love and they are getting married without ever having met. The hosts read it as an emotional affair the writer should never have entered, advise cutting it off entirely, and note the Secular answer — that this is a common scam and he should not be surprised when it collapses — is really just a preemptive "told you so."

Dear LFTP: the husband in his undos and #nakedDan

• Should my husband wear more than his underwear when our granddaughter visits?

Mike reads a letter from a woman in her sixties: at home her husband wears just his "undos" — watching TV, eating dinner — and with their 2.5-year-old granddaughter coming to stay, she wonders whether he should wear a shirt and shorts since he values the hosts' opinion. The room debates at length, Boova confesses his own "guchies" household habits (his Italian in-laws' word for undergarments) and his father's tighty-whites, and Ben coins "hashtag naked adult Dan" for Dan. The Secular answer: tell him that unless it is 95 degrees, the appropriate answer is a shirt and shorts.

Dear LFTP: the $99 birthday bill and "Jesus always pays"

• Was it wrong to be taken aback when I was expected to split the cost of a friend's birthday dinner?

Mike reads a letter from a man invited to a friend's birthday dinner at a popular restaurant: after the birthday boy excused himself, the waiter presented the bill and the nine remaining guests were expected to split the celebration — $99 each — which the writer put on his card without comment and now wonders whether he misread a social norm. The room agrees it is a normal split, Boova notes the Biagi's-on-the-South-Side rule (bring wine, bring a book), and Mike retells Dave Herrick's advice from ten years back on this show: you have an angel investor — "you got Jesus and Jesus always pays" — so fight to be the generous one taking the bill.

Outro sign-off and prophetic sung close

Ben closes the show with the "be faithful in the means, God will handle the ends" sign-off, plugs the complaint line, and teases next week's listener texts on what Buba (Boova) wants to know — what everyone calls their underpants. A produced prophetic-lyrics musical outro follows, sung over the close.