How can understanding Jesus’ emotions help us understand our own? Listen as Alasdair Groves focuses on one particular emotion which Jesus felt: anger, which we see in Scripture is often directed at the things that turn people away from him. “Jesus is angry about anything that pulls his people away from him, that pulls his people away from their home, the place of life, the house of the living God, where he is leading us to dwell forever and ever.” Mentioned in this episode: We recently...

How can understanding Jesus’ emotions help us understand our own? Listen as Alasdair Groves focuses on one particular emotion which Jesus felt: compassion, an ache on the heart that presses toward action to make things better.“   God sees our frantic bleating, living like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless. He is a good shepherd, and he has compassion on his sheep, even especially where we struggle to have compassion for others.”   Mentioned in this podcast: We're excited to...

How can understanding Jesus’ emotions help us understand our own? Listen as Alasdair Groves focuses on one particular emotion which Jesus felt, just hours before his crucifixion: dread. How does Jesus’ experience of dread encourage us in our own experience of it?   Mentioned in this podcast: Head to ccef.org/school to register for Dynamics of Biblical Change, one of our foundational courses, in the March 2024 term. Pricing increases after February 5, so register soon for the discount!   ...

“The heart poured out to the Lord is actually a form of trust.”   Sometimes we find ourselves unable to control our emotions. Often this produces guilt, and we wonder, “What does that say about my faith?” How do we navigate such an experience? Listen as Alasdair Groves discusses this experience and what faithful living looks like in this first episode of a miniseries on emotions.   Related resources: Untangling Emotions | Book by Alasdair Groves & Winston Smith Emotions Are a...

Sometimes Scripture feels dry, distant, or impersonal. How do we apply Scripture in these times? How do we take hold of a cup of cold water when we are most thirsty? Listen as Alasdair Groves discusses what it looks like to bring Scripture to bear on our sufferings and struggles, using several examples from his own life. Related resources: Shaking Off Some Lifelessness with the Psalms | Blog post by Ed Welch https://www.ccef.org/shaking-off-some-lifelessness-with-the-psalms How Do You...

Do you ever feel guilty about how small or weak your faith is? Listen as Alasdair Groves talks about weak faith, primarily considering an example from Peter, one of Jesus’ own disciples.   “It's not about the strength of your faith. It's about the strength of the Savior. It's about the strength of the one who can pull you out of the dark waters and bring you back to the boat. Even the tiniest little bit of faith is God's gift to us anyway.”   Related resources: The Way of Wisdom in...

“We can become blind to the goodness of what God is calling us to, the fact that his call to obedience is a call to the path of life, not the path of death. When our drudgery becomes our view of what’s happening here, if we see it as him against us or calling us to something that’s not good for us, we’ve lost some ability to perceive what is true.”   Why do we struggle to do the things God has given us to do? How do we fight laziness or procrastination and move forward into the hard but...

“When you offer normal, mundane, simple, best-you-can-do words of love and encouragement to somebody in their struggles, there is actually a physiological impact you are having on that person. When you offer words of comfort, you are literally changing something about their body.”   We’re excited to launch season 4 with a discussion on how the words we speak to one another can actually have physical effects for good.   Related resources: Words of Counsel | JBC article by Pierce Taylor...

“It is hard to speak to the Lord about your sufferings and to lament and to honestly go to him and say, ‘Lord, this is hurting in my heart, on my soul.’ We rarely step into relationship in that way, and it's a struggle. It's a challenge, and it's a good, right, excellent challenge to come to him as the one who really does care.”   What is self-pity, and how should we view it? How can we turn our self-pity into godly lament that engages honestly with the Lord? Listen as Alasdair Groves...

“Only the Lord is deserving of full, utter trust. We have a God we can trust 100% in every situation to be who he says he will be. And that means we can always trust whatever he’s up to in another person.”   What does it mean that “love trusts all things,” as 1 Corinthians 13:7 says? How do we show an appropriate level of trust in others, and when are the times we shouldn’t? Listen as Alasdair Groves discusses what it means that “love always trusts.”   Related resources: Rebuilding...

Alasdair Groves speaks with Collin Hansen about his new book, Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation, and the influences on Tim Keller, which included CCEF and David Powlison. Collin Hansen is the vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics.   Mentioned in the podcast: "Idols of the Heart and 'Vanity Fair'" | Journal article by David Powlison. Read it here for...

When we think about the state of the church today, the negatives often come to mind. While there is much to be grieved about and much change that needs to take place, there is much to be encouraged by when you look at how God is working through local churches around the world. Listen as Alasdair Groves considers some of the reasons not to give up on the church.   "The church has been through a thousand seasons where it's torn itself apart over the ages. But grace is always the center. God's...

What does it mean to “get over something”? After enduring a difficult situation, how do we know if we’ve processed it wisely? Listen as Alasdair Groves discusses some steps we can consider as we grieve and heal. Check out our free resource included with this podcast! Use the code “podcast” at checkout to receive your free article. “‘I’ll Never Get Over It’: Help for the Aggrieved” by David Powlison https://www.ccef.org/shop/product/ill-never-get-help-aggrieved/

What do we do when we don’t seem to feel much emotion? How can we understand this experience, and what is God’s call to us in it? Listen as Alasdair Groves talks about the experience of numb emotions.   “Each one of us will face different struggles, but for each of us, there's an opportunity to walk toward the Lord and walk toward each other. If you experience a lack of emotion, that in and of itself is always an opportunity to speak to the Lord and to speak to others.”   Related...

Most of us are familiar with the ways our phones can be detrimental to our spiritual lives. But how often do we consider ways they can be of spiritual benefit? Listen as Alasdair Groves talks about how smartphones can actually enrich our relationship with God.   “My phone was pointing me directly to the glories and the riches and the treasures of God's promises to us, fulfilled so directly and so richly through the Holy Spirit, even in things as simple as what I was doing as I swiped or...

“Sometimes, we will listen and we will hear silence. We will look around, and we will not see him or what he is up to, and we will not know what to make of our circumstances, but here’s what we do know: we walk with the God who preserves his people. The God who stores our tears in a bottle is the God who knows our names and who shapes our names and our circumstances and will always be among us.”   What do we do when God is silent? How do we have hope when it feels like he is absent? Listen...

“One of your greatest goals as a man whom the Lord has called into marriage is to maximize your wife’s opportunities to use her gifts within the context of her life and community. You ask, 'How can I help her flourish?' That is serving her; that is leading her."   Scripture calls husbands to lead their wives. But what does this look like? How do we know if we’re leading our wives well? Listen as Alasdair Groves talks about what it looks like to focus on serving our wives rather than...

“We have a God who loves, cares, and knows, and I can rest utterly in the hope that he will be with me, he will walk with me, and he will provide. He will care for every last moment of my day tomorrow as I am exhausted.”   Do you ever have nights where you can’t sleep? Whatever the reason may be, struggling to sleep is a form of suffering. Alasdair Groves explores what it looks like to lean on the Lord when we can’t sleep, assured that he is near and he cares.   Related resources: ...

“We do grieve, but we don't grieve without hope. Our grief is a hopeful grief. The losses we sustain and experience in this life are hope-filled because of Jesus, because we have a hope that transcends death itself. We have a God who is redeeming all of creation.”In the first episode of season 3, Alasdair Groves talks about how grief is not something to run from, be ashamed of, or try to get rid of, but grief is an invitation to worship God as the giver of every good gift.   Related...

Enjoy a bonus episode while we’re on break over the summer! This episode is a recording of Alasdair Groves’ plenary session from the 2021 National Conference: Modern Problems. This year's National Conference: The Way of Wisdom will explore Old Testament wisdom literature in light of Jesus, the true wisdom of God. Learn more and register at ccef.org/2022. To receive a $25 discount on your in-person registration, use the code “podcast” at checkout. This discount is valid through the end of...

“We should never be content with, ‘I love that person but I don’t like them.’ That should always be a call to press deeper, to seek to love in ways that lead us toward a greater tenderness and affection.”   In our 8th and final episode of season 2, Alasdair Groves explores the phrase, “I love you but I don’t like you.” Is it helpful, harmful, or potentially both? How can we engage with someone whom we love but don’t “like” in a particular moment or season? How can we both love someone and...

"Anything that presses us forward towards each other with a desire to know the Lord and know his people and know how to love better is going to be helpful. Better to be thinking and reflecting more rather than less if you’re doing it with love and humility and the desire for wisdom.” How do we think biblically about personality tests? Are they helpful, harmful, or potentially both? Does Scripture have anything to say about personality? In this episode, Alasdair Groves discusses these...

What is conversion therapy and how do we think biblically about it? How do we engage with and offer the hope found in Christ to those struggling with same-sex attraction, transgenderism, and other LGBTQ+ issues? How do we navigate our role as disciplers in a world where the definition of “counselor” is increasingly broad? In this episode, Alasdair Groves discusses these questions and more through the lens of a biblical counselor.   With the release of this podcast, we are offering Mike...

Through the specific example of video game addiction, Alasdair Groves illustrates a broader skill fundamental to biblical counseling: learning to see and draw out what is good, even in the midst of someone making a mess of their life.   “In Hebrews 10, the Lord calls us as Christians to spur one another on to love and good deeds. That's an invitation to an incredible wealth of creativity as believers in thinking about how to apply this passage. Finding the traces of good in someone's bad...