Redemption's Table with Robert Barge Redemption's Table

Courtney Ellis is a bird enthusiast, a pastor, and an author. Her newest book is Looking Up: A Birder's Guide to Hope through Grief. She also hosts a wonderful podcast called The Thing with Feathers.  

 

Today's episode is a whimsical, ornithological, and theological swoop through Jesus' beatitudes from His Sermon on the Mount.  I asked Courtney to pair a bird to match each of Jesus' eight exclamations and she soared to the challenge. It's a fun way to kick off Summer Solstice! 

 

You can find Courtney at https://courtneybellis.com and also on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (now called X, but birders still prefer sending Tweets).  

 

Featuring "Songbird" by J.J. Heller (Used by Permission through Musicbed).

I remember my family's first color television.  I came home from school one day as a boy and there it was in our den.  I sprawled out in the floor and watched the Sergeant Jack Show, featuring Dick Tracy cartoons, on Channel 42 out of Birmingham.   I was enthralled.  I was drawn in to the screen and would sometimes sit so close, I could see the hundreds of multicolored dots that made up the greater image. And I heard those famous words from my parents every child has heard - "Don't sit so close to the screen; you'll ruin your eyes."

 

I'm grateful to say, I have yet to need prescription glasses.  But I am still being drawn in to the pixels.  Perhaps you are as well.  And if you're not, I would highly recommend it.  Because there's a lot more beauty coming at you than you realize.  But the only way you can catch more of it is to zoom in and slow down.  A life-changing mystery awaits when you do.

 

Featuring "Re-Enchanted World" by John Mark McMillan (Used by Permission through Musicbed).

Consider your worship.  In the first 22 weeks of 2024, what worship moments have been most memorable to you?

 

Worship is an easy word to ignore.  It's wrapped in plain brown paper.  We imagine we could guess the content of today's Table without opening or listening.  Yet, it's the very thing that can calm and rattle your life at the same time.

 

God is ready to meet you right now wherever you are.  When He does, will you take off your shoes to walk on holy ground, or will you walk on by?   

 

Featuring "All In All" and "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" by Josh Garrels (Used by Permission through Musicbed).

Welcome to our 150th Redemption's Table!  

 

I am learning how to host a podcast.  I now have 150 episodes of practice.  And I think the secret is to not take yourself too seriously while taking your guest and your subject very seriously.

 

Come join us for some fun as the host becomes the guest and I get grilled by three of the sharpest people I know.  Along the way, I'll share a little bit of my motivation for doing this podcast and how the Table has changed since that first episode back in 2019.  Get ready to smile, to be encouraged, and perhaps hear that one thing awaiting your discovery that has the potential to change the rest of your year. 

 

I am a host of friends and I have a host of friends.  And you are one of them.

 

Featuring "Let's Go Outside" by The National Parks (Used by Permission through Musicbed).

I like the word navigate.  I like the images that come to mind when I ponder that word.  It falls into a category of simplicity, of a way of life that brims with more intensity, with more pure oxygen than any artificial substitute our culture keeps seducing us to embrace.

 

To navigate is to know where we are, and to know where we want to go.  Once those two points are established, we follow the way.  It behooves us all to choose our path wisely.

 

You can navigate a trail, a river, a kayak, a surf board. But can you truly navigate your soul?  Yes, I believe you can.  Because if you don't, someone is going to.  And they might just have you believing the path you are on is where you really want to go.

 

Featuring "Constellations" by Ellie Holcomb (Used by Permission through Musicbed).

Eclipse.  Last month, millions in North America migrated both near and far to fall under the wonder of a moon shadow for a few, brief moments.  A total solar eclipse.

 

Calypso.  A musical style which originated in Trinidad, Tobago, and spread throughout the West Indies of the Caribbean.

 

Eclypso.  A combination of two familiar words to inspire a brand new thought.

 

Eclypso.  It's the song, it's the dance of your soul before God that rises in an eclipse-like moment, as you become enthralled with awe.

 

Let your curiosity draw you in.  Consider the question - when was the last time your soul was caught up in the rhythm of eclypso?

 

Featuring "Great Sky" by The National Parks (Used by Permission through Musicbed).