Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Well, greetings to all of you live travelers out there and welcome to thinking it through. This is a village to your cheese podcast, which explores emerging cultural issues from a biblical viewpoint. I'm your host at our discussions. Every time we meet my name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor at village church East in lovely Carol stream, Illinois. And today's topic is going to be well. It's going to be an introduction to thinking it through. I would love for you to know what our purpose and our philosophy in doing this podcast is all about, uh, one of the things that have been happening in our churches. We've seen some recent growth and people digging into their faith like few times in my life and what they have is questions, questions, questions. Now, listen, I love questions. And I think through the process of seeing these folks dig into their faith more, the Lord kind of laid it on my heart to provide a curious audience with the facts and information.
Speaker 1 00:01:03 They need to think things through that are going on in our world every day. There's a lot of ideas circulating, and there's a lot of podcasts out there with a lot of ideas that are, that are being propagated and put out there. What makes this podcast unique? Well, I'm glad you asked it can be simply found in the name, thinking it through. When I was growing up, my dad and my mom, they always taught me to think through the outcomes of my actions. Later on when I went to school, I found out that this is actually a philosophy for every action. There is an equal and opposite reaction. So if we do an action, something equal and opposite will occur. If then statements reflect this as well. It's a, it's a mathematical thing. If we, if we do blank, then blank will occur. If then statements are based on, you know, action reaction.
Speaker 2 00:01:57 So it is a good thing to think through our actions before actually acting. It's a good thing to have the information we need. It's a good thing to do the research. What happens if we speak before we think we usually end up regretting what we speak or what happens if we act before we think we usually act in ways that are embarrassing, we have to apologize for afterwards. Now, listen, God speaks of this in job four eight. It says those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same. That's an ancient saying from the book of job that basically says for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction thinking things through is tough. However, when culture is always changing, there is never stable. Changing cultures often determine different battlegrounds. They often tell us dictate what battles we should fight. And if you don't have the information you need, if you don't have the opportunity to think things through properly, then you might end up fighting battles.
Speaker 2 00:03:03 You don't even know why you're fighting them or reaching for outcomes. You don't actually know what the outcomes should be in a culture that we're living in. They're constantly changing and refining the definition of what is right and wrong. And so if we go back to job four eight and read those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same. If we don't know what inequity is or what trouble is, we're going to end up reaping a lot of iniquity and trouble in our own plates. Ultimately there is a foundation and this is the good news that's preserved for us. We are meant by God to have a stable ground from which to function while definitions of right and wrong are constantly changing around us. The core of morality never does. If you've ever heard of a great philosopher named CS Lewis, he lived in the early 19 hundreds.
Speaker 2 00:03:50 CS Lewis says, this is what drove him to Christianity. He says, every person shares a commonality of moral goodness in case you're kind of thinking who in the world is CS Lewis. If you've read our ever read Chronicles of Narnia or watched it, the movie he's the author. He was a very out there with his faith, very bold for his follower. As a follower of Jesus Christ. He was actually an atheist who converted to Christianity and what drove him to make the change. What drove him to Christ is that he couldn't understand. He couldn't explain how every person shared this commonality of a moral goodness or moral or, or beauty. Every person seemed to have a very similar understanding of what those things were. And so that for him, took him back to the beginning and believing that there was a God that created us and gave each human being these cognitive shared ideas of morality, no matter how society wants to change the definitions or move the goalposts.
Speaker 2 00:04:52 The consequences of our actions continually remain the same. If we sow to righteousness, we reap righteousness. But the opposite unfortunately is true as well. Galatians six as us, don't be deceived. God is not mocked. You probably know this one, whatever one sows that will he also reap. Yeah. In other words, that's the biggest if then statement in scripture, that's why we must spend time thinking it through before drawing conclusions on any matter. And certainly before acting on those conclusions, especially as we are bombarded with an ever changing culture. So the purpose of this podcast is to assist in the process of thinking it through. It's simply a podcast to discuss various topics relevant, to popular culture. From a biblical perspective, each episode, I will present different ideas to help navigate through controversial and even non-controversial issues so that we can make our way through the modern changing culture.
Speaker 2 00:05:52 The goal is to help followers of Jesus and basically anyone out there having enough information and background and have the knowledge to think through constant cultural changes with a mind to go grow and overcome. That's the theme of our church. Actually, we want to make followers of Jesus who are able to think things through and come out as overcomers on the other side. Now, where will we get our topics from? Well, if you go to village church, east.org, you will find a button there and you can submit any questions or topics that you want to submit. Now, listen, we reserve the right to filter and consolidate one topic with another topic, but we already have quite a list that we're going to be tackling. And we're looking forward to getting some of your ideas on what you would like to talk, uh, tackle this well, now topics don't have to be theological just because we're coming at it from a biblical viewpoint.
Speaker 2 00:06:47 They could include any hot items or general questions regarding to culture. Those are the things that we're going to hit. In fact, some of the ones you might ask, well, what exactly are some of the ones that are coming up shortly? Well, some of the ones coming up are, should we be striving for unity in America? That's a big topic in our culture today. Or how about this one? Does God think I should be vaccinated? That's an interesting way of coming at that question. Or how about this one? Is there anything wrong with legalizing marijuana? Uh, we're going to be discussing each one of these topics, as well as other ones. They can be hot items. They can be regarding culture or theological questions, because I know there are people that have a lot of questions about how our culture and how the Bible relates to it. And I have to tell ya, in my ministry, I have found that the Bible has a lot to say about an ever-changing culture. Each one of these podcasts is going to be 10 to 15 minutes. The goal is to give you something to listen to in your car or on your Walkman. Nobody has walked from, uh, it's a, it's a opportunity for you to listen in to a right. Alright, alright. So here, here, here, go.
Speaker 2 00:08:00 I got to try my little buttons out here so that we can, as I can get used to this, uh, this control pad, these are going to be 10 to 15 minutes. So you can listen to them in your car so you can listen to them on the go cultural issues that we'll be tackling all will come from a logical standpoint. We to give you the information that you need in order to draw a logical conclusion. And most of the times we'll be looking at what God has to say about these things as well. I will be your host, your single host, once in a while, we'll have phone conversations with different people that I'll be calling that be Chi-Ming in. Cause I love differing opinions and I hope that you will as well. And I'm looking forward to actually interviewing a lot of folks over the phone.
Speaker 2 00:08:42 Uh, I'm looking forward to hearing their opinions on a lot of these different subjects as well. While the purpose of this podcast is to help us in thinking things through and thinking through the bottom line is we do not have to on everything only Jesus could request that we have his mind on issues. This is why we say we want to have the mind of Christ. We want, we don't want to have the mind of Craig. We don't have the one mind of a pastor or a priest around us. We want to have the mind of Christ and for the rest of us, that means that we are simply fallen and opinionated, and we will have different views based on experiences and points of reference. But for every topic that we take on, we'll do our very best to give you the necessary information you need to continue thinking it through. The goal is as with my own family is to help our, our family and our friends and our circle of influence. Be able to have the information they need to be critical thinkers and not just sheeple people that follow, follow the crowd and don't even know why or where they are going. Well, listen, that ends our time together today, as we have spent some time thinking it through, I have enjoyed this video
Speaker 1 00:09:59 Very first podcast. I hope that you have as well. We'll be dropping two to three of these every week. So please sign up on our website to get access again. The website is www dot village church, east.org. Hopefully now you know why we are broadcasting and what we hope to achieve in each of these podcasts to help you grow in the knowledge that you need to find success in this world. Especially as we seek each one of us to have a mind of Christ, I hope that you'll join me again. Next time to spend a few moments together, thinking it through until then see you later.
