January 16 2012

Show open; Mike's return banter

A host opens the show from the Pathway Studios in Johnston, introducing himself on-air as Ben Foost, and notes it is a hopping Monday in the studio. The crew ribs Mike for missing last week's show. Mike says he listened back to the podcast after missing it.

Last-week recap: Amanda sat in; Newsboys broadcast announced

The hosts recap last week's visit from musical guests Jesse Anderson and Jordan Anderson, joking that the Andersons told Ben's wife Amanda she is easier to look at than Mike. They plug Andy and Kelly, who opened for John Waller in Indianola, and announce the show will broadcast live from the upcoming Newsboys concert in March.

Tonight's topics preview

• Is there such a thing as too much good biblical advice?
• What does it mean to Sabbath, and what was God's intention for it?

Ben previews the night's lineup: what the Sabbath is and what it means to Sabbath, what to do if your job stinks, whether there is such a thing as too much good biblical advice, some Dear LFTP letters, and a CNN story about a Texas pastor's rooftop bed-in.

CNN story: Pastor Ed Young's 24-hour rooftop bed-in debate

A host reads a CNN report about Dallas pastor Eddie Young of Fellowship Church and his wife Lisa staging a 24-hour bed-in on the church roof to promote his book Sexperiment, quoting Young's line about putting the bed back in church and God back in the bed. Asked directly, Mike agrees with the premise that God made sex for marriage but calls the bed-in a stunt, and Dan calls it an obvious gimmick, arguing the hosts should lead with Jesus and let marriage blessings follow. The hosts debate whether the stunt's target audience is married couples, unmarried people, or nonbelievers, and push back on Young's super-glue analogy with a parade-float riff placing Jesus behind the sex float.

Upcoming music guests and a Christianity Today sidebar

The hosts announce that singer-songwriter Adam Cates returns next week with his finished album and a gig at Wellspring, and that Jeff Arendale follows with his first solo CD recorded in Nashville. They recap the Saved on Sunday acoustic album release party at Eagle Vision Church, naming Double J, Syndrome of Fire, Dark Horse, and Tim Denner as highlights. A sidebar covers a Christianity Today editorial questioning spanking, with jokes about a photo of a child covering his backside.

Replay of last week's clip: Amanda fills in for Mike

A host plays back a clip from the previous week's show in which Mike was home with his family and Ben's wife Amanda sat in at the studio, replaying the Andersons' line that she is easier to look at than Mike. The studio crew trades more jokes at Mike's expense about being remembered as an ugly man.

Andersons' songs, YouTube, and Blip TV revenue

The hosts plug the two songs Jesse and Jordan Anderson performed last week, including You Go Before Us, which are posted on the show's YouTube channel and newer than the Not What I Thought CD. They note the full show streams on Blip TV, which has earned them seven dollars, and trade jokes about holding out for a whole pizza before cashing in.

Shaved-head comedy banter

The crew roasts a host who shaved his head at 3 a.m., comparing him to a wrestler, the Hunchback bell ringer, and Shrek, and noting coworkers now call him the big show. The bit lands on a proposed new show slogan from the chat: don't shave your head, go to church instead.

Is there too much good biblical advice?

A host argues Christians take in too much fragmented spiritual content, warning that daily devotionals that jump around create box-checkers who never apply anything, and urges sitting with one convicting passage for weeks instead. The crew pushes back that devotionals are not bad in themselves, debates the Prayer of Jabez fad and cherry-picked hope verses, and argues for reading whole books like Timothy in context rather than searching for verses. The thread closes on literal versus figurative reading, with the hosts treating Job, Adam and Eve, and Jonah as real because Jesus referred to them as real.

Reading the Bible on phones and tablets

Prompted by Mike, the hosts debate reading Scripture on phones, Kindles, and iPads versus holding a physical Bible. They land on thumbs-up for digital Bibles with a caution that Bible apps make it easy to skim a devotion, delete it, and drift into Facebook without ever really studying.

Psalms in LTG; marking up Bibles; praying by a daughter's bed

A host describes grinding through Psalms in his LTG and discovering he retains far more when he underlines and writes in his Bible, recalling underlining Psalm 101's integrity lines. He tells of praying beside his sleeping oldest daughter and sensing God saying, Ben, that is how I think of you, then finding Psalm 103's line about a father's compassion three days later. The crew agrees marked-up Bibles become reminders of what God was saying at the time.

Journaling and prayer journals

A host says he gave his marked-up childhood Bible to Brandon Shoemaker, Lori Haleso's oldest son, hoping the notes help him, and the crew notes he also has his own father's heavily annotated Bible. They debate journaling: one host wishes he had the discipline for a prayer journal like his wife, who can name the date she prayed and the date God answered, while another admits he never revisits what he writes. The thread touches Psalm 105's call to make God's deeds known publicly rather than only celebrating privately.

The Psalms as an emotional roller coaster

The hosts describe the Psalms as a roller coaster, swinging from praise to lament within pages, which they find relatable to human emotional life. One host says he once power-read the whole book in two and a half hours in a prayer room, while another prefers a psalm a day and spent a week re-reading Psalm 119 after it was recommended on a prior show. They agree the rawness, including imprecations, reads very differently from tidy devotion books.

Debate: must church small groups all study the same thing?

A long studio debate, echoing an ongoing chat argument, over whether church-sanctioned small groups must stick to the sermon's passage or may study additional Scripture on the same night. One side argues for whole-church alignment so families can discuss Romans 3 together instead of scattering across Luke 2, Philippians 1, and Revelation 4, while the other calls that a false premise and defends above-and-beyond study. The bit peaks with jokes about Troy Engeldinger confiscating Bibles, twelve campuses studying Ephesians 1:1-7, and a south-side campus called New Philippians.

Music break: You Go Before Us by Jess and Jordan Anderson

The show plays You Go Before Us, performed the previous week in the studio by Jess and Jordan Anderson, as a mid-show music break.

Andersons' CDs and digital downloads

After the song, the hosts plug jessanderson.com, the Not What I Thought CD, and Jess Anderson's funkier Fundamentally Broken CD, both on iTunes and Amazon. They compare notes on finally going digital, one buying the five-dollar digital download of Needtobreathe's The Reckoning.

Seven tips for talking with your neighbors about Jesus

The hosts work through an unnamed list of seven tips for evangelizing neighbors: find a road to Jesus, don't be weird and awkward, be winsome, counter Christian stereotypes, host an open house, be honest about struggles, and serve without attention-seeking, quoting the list's line that faith without words is dead. Comedy bits include a failed role-play about cutting grass and a riff on removing one's shirt and rolling in the neighbor's lawn. Mid-segment they pause to sing happy birthday to Danielle.

Upcoming guests rundown

The hosts preview the calendar: Adam Cates in the studio next week with his released CD and a Wellspring gig the same day, Jeff Arendale the following week with his Nashville-recorded solo album and bandmates, plus February visits from Todd Stevens and Shane Van Aert. They also confirm the March Newsboys show broadcast and interviews.

Dear LFTP: parents bringing kids to adults-only events

• Do parents give up the right to party when they have children?

A host reads an open letter about a mother who brought her five-year-old to a racy fiftieth birthday party, then asked the host to sanitize it, staying until a male stripper performed. The hosts side mostly with the letter writer: parents give up anytime-partying when they sign on for parenthood, but they also argue the adults should have toned it down once a child was in the room. They compare it to their own 10-to-midnight show slot, which they keep late precisely because of family priorities.

Dear LFTP: the retired husband accused of laziness

• My wife calls me lazy since I retired at fifty -- should I go back to work?

A host reads the Secular greed letter: a man retired at fifty after thirty years does all the housework, shopping, and pet care, yet his still-working wife grows abrasive and calls him lazy, asking whether he should go back to work. The hosts say no, calling it the flipped-gender version of disrespecting a stay-at-home spouse, though they wonder whether she is jealous, lonely for his company, or put off by too much togetherness. The Secular answer advises asking her plainly why she has become abrasive before job-hunting.

Dear LFTP: dad's intimate eBay purchases

• How do I ask my father to get a separate eBay account for his personal purchases?

A host reads a letter from a woman who manages her father's eBay business and keeps seeing his personal, intimate purchases in the order history, asking how to get him to open a separate account given the family's poor communication. The hosts advise telling him directly that she can see everything he buys, with comedy riffs on a fake radio announcement that all eBay transactions will now be seen. The Secular answer suggests emailing him with the letter attached, which the hosts call distancing and arrogant.

Dear LFTP: whose is the free bumped-flight ticket?

• Does the free bumped-flight ticket belong to me or to the grandma who paid for the original?

A host reads a letter from a granddaughter whose grandma-bought plane ticket got her a free voucher after she volunteered to be bumped, with her mother insisting the ticket belongs to grandma. The hosts mostly say offer it to grandma first, joking that she will likely tell the granddaughter to keep it, and frame the bump as stewarding a gift well, with a good-and-faithful-servant riff. The Secular answer cites Ecclesiastes on giving coming back to you, which the hosts greet with mock solemnity.

Two-year anniversary, podcast promo, misspelled coffee-table book

A host notes the show nears its two-year anniversary in March with almost a year in the current studio, plugs the reliable audio podcast and spotty videocast, and promises another compilation. Dan is needled over a coffee-table book that misspelled the word excellence in its broadcasting-excellence tagline.

What does it mean to Sabbath?

• Does the Sabbath include resting and praying and worship?

Returning to the preview question, the hosts agree the Sabbath is about rest and doing something different from the week's labor, not a second shift of lighter work, and that holy means set apart rather than a pious performance. They argue the day need not be Sunday, citing that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, and quote Genesis on God resting the seventh day. They push back on equating Sabbath with church attendance, trace the American two-day weekend to competing Saturday and Sunday Sabbaths, and note 1 Corinthians 16's first-day-of-the-week gathering without treating it as a worship mandate.

Applying Bible study: head knowledge versus heart knowledge

• How can I make sure I'm applying what I'm learning in Bible study?

A host reads a piece on making sure Bible study gets applied, built around Cindy, a woman who spent three years in his study accumulating knowledge without her life changing. The crew works through three failure modes: studying only to accumulate knowledge, coming with arrogance to prove a point, and reading through personal baggage that cannot believe God brings happiness. They close on grace being harder to believe than wrath, one host estimating his grasp of God's compassion is still seventy-five percent head and twenty-five percent heart.

Outro and next-week preview

The hosts close the show, confirming Adam Cates in the studio next week and Jeff Arendale the week after, both sharing new CDs. They send listeners out with another cut from last week's Jess and Jordan Anderson session.