Rabbit Holes & Meditations - Christian Bible Study

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Tired of preachy, judgmental sermons? Rabbit Holes & Meditations is a Bible study podcast that trades performance for honest Christian conversation. We walk through Jesus’ words chronologically (this season), chase down the “rabbit holes” most people avoid, and let Scripture interpret Scripture. This show is for intentionally curious Christians who want depth without the drama. Sometimes we’ll spend 30 minutes on two verses—because careful reading matters. You’ll get biblical references, cross-references, deep dives, and real-life application around faith, fear, forgiveness, judgment, prayer, and hope—without being told what to think. We follow a strict “Bible interprets the Bible” approach we call the Berean Bible Study Filter, designed to keep teaching grounded and unencumbered by third-party commentary. Bring your questions—nothing is off the table. Come curious, leave grounded.

  1. 20h ago

    The Son Who Left - Prodigal Part 1 of 3

    Today is the first of a three part series on a Parable you may think you know well. The Prodigal Son is almost aways covered in a 30 minute bible study. That in no way let’s this text breath. Sit back, we’re going deep. You know this story. You probably think it ends at the party. It doesn’t. But before we get to the party, we have to go where the son went. Jesus wasn’t talking to runaways. He was talking to religious men at the edge of a crowd, grumbling because He ate with sinners. And He told them about a son who looked at his father and said two words: give me. Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. (Luke 15:12) He got it. All of it. And he walked into a far country, gathered everything, and scattered everything. Then the famine came. Then the pigs. Then the hunger — so deep he envied what the swine were eating. And no man gave unto him. That’s the world’s economy. It promises freedom and delivers bondage. It gives while you can pay and disappears when you can’t. It was the same deal Israel longed for in the wilderness — the bread of Egypt over the gift of manna. It’s the deal half the sidewalks in America are living right now. And then a sentence most people read right past. I perish with hunger. In Greek, that word is “lost.” For the first time in Luke 15, the lost one says it about himself. And when he came to himself… (Luke 15:17) That is where repentance begins. Not with a better plan. With the truth: I am lost. I have sinned against heaven and before my father. I have nothing to pay. This is part one of three. The son is on the road. He has a speech. He has an offer — make me a hired servant. He still thinks he has to work his way back. He doesn’t know his father yet. Open Luke 15. Read it for yourself. Then ask whether you’ve come to yourself yet. Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-son-who-left-prodigal-part-1-of-3/

  2. 1d ago

    The Danger of Being Comfortably Lost - The Parable of the Lost Coin

    You have never felt lost. That might be the problem. Everyone loves the lost sheep. Nobody sees himself in the lost coin. A coin doesn’t wander. It doesn’t feel the dark. It lies on a clean floor in a familiar house, perfectly content — and perfectly lost. Jesus didn’t tell this story to the runaways. He told it to the respectable men at the edge of the crowd, murmuring because He welcomed sinners to His table — the same men He had just told, at their own table, to invite the people who could never repay them. Now they were watching Him do it. And they called it scandal. So He told them about a woman who lost one coin inside her own house. She did not shrug. She did not settle for the nine. She lit a lamp, swept every corner, and searched until she found it. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Luke 15:10) The coin did nothing to be lost. It did nothing to be found. And still Jesus calls the found one a sinner who repents. This episode is about the decent man. The fair dealer. The golden-rule keeper. The churchgoer sure of his seat. The man with no God in the picture and no sense that anything is missing. The author was that man — a conscientious atheist for decades, who remembers searching for God and was not sure he could believe God had been searching for him. Until the coin asked one question. Who lit the lamp? Because when the light comes on, the first thing it shows is not the coin. It is the dust. The discomfort comes first. And nobody comfortable in his lostness ever goes looking. If you have never felt lost, the coin is your story. Absence of distress is not evidence of safety. The coin never felt distress either. And if you have started searching — someone was on their knees in that room before you ever knew it was dark. Don’t take our word for it. Be like the Bereans: they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). Open Luke 15. Read it for yourself. Then ask who lit the lamp in your house. Episode Link:

  3. 4d ago

    The Relentless Shepherd

    Anyone who has lost a child in a crowded store knows the feeling. For about ninety seconds, nothing else exists. You don't care about the cart, and you don't care who's watching. Nobody could talk you into calming down and being grateful for everything you didn't lose. You search until you find, and when you find, you don't scold. You grab that kid and hold on. Jesus told a story like that, and most of our Bibles put a heading over it: The Parable of the Lost Sheep. But Luke never wrote that heading. Read the verses yourself and count the verbs. The man loses, leaves, goes, finds, carries, rejoices, comes home, and calls his neighbors together. The sheep does nothing. This isn't the story of a lost sheep. It's the story of a relentless Shepherd. And He told it to the wrong crowd, at least by our assumptions. He wasn't talking to the sinners drawing near. He was talking to the religious men at the edge of the crowd, grumbling that He ate with people they had written off. The men who were sure they belonged among the ninety-nine. So here's the question this episode can't let go of: is there anyone in the flock who never needs to be found again? And what does it say about us when we hear that the Shepherd went after someone else, and our first thought is, at least I'm not like him? Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-relentless-shepherd/

  4. 6d ago

    The Game Already Played - Yesterday's Prophecies and Today's Headlines

    A lot is happening in the news and just to be sure it wasn’t just something I’m seeing because it’s something I’m interested in (which is how news is curated to the individual these days), I went to Google trends for some perspective. We looked at both Israel and Iran and then a lot of other stuff. Then when we felt we were on solid ground, we checked the headlines. Not the ones on the local news feeds. We checked the headlines of prophecy to build the picture of what we’re seeing. In fact, we ran the tape in reverse to drop biblical context onto real world events. See original article written for this episode >> The Game Already Played Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-game-already-played-yesterdays-prophecies-and-todays-headlines/

  5. Sep 28

    The Tower of Conviction - The Cost of Discipleship

    I was going to apologize for the length of this podcast but I think I'll refrain. I've already listened to it twice and I think it is one I will come back to many times. Yes! I listen over and over to my own podcasts. You see, I started this journey to learn, not to teach. I hope you're riding this journey right along beside me. I'm not your pastor, I'm your brother.  Our church has adopted the practice of teaching new Christians about the journey they are embarking on. It is the opposite of the altar call approach. A Christian in our church is baptized in the full knowledge of what that journey entails and part of that teaching covers the cost of discipleship. I went through that teaching, but I can't say I understood it completely. I still don't honestly. But the fog is lifting and I hope this podcast helps you with that same level of clarity.  The last few parables in this podcast have walked through Matthew 18 and now Luke 14. Instead of parsing the parables out of the chapters, we let the context drive the message. Doing that, I see Luke 14 in a whole new light. I think typically we tend to lift scripture from its context and often our pastors and teachers will then preach around the part that was lifted. I've learned a valuable lesson of not doing that. Today's podcast is long because it walks you through the context of the entire chapter to get to the message. I don't know if all chapters in scripture warrant that level of context but I'm certainly reading with more attentiveness,  You think the hard part is getting people to follow Jesus. Luke 14 shows Jesus with a great multitude behind Him — and He turns around and tries to send most of them home. Look at who He is talking to. Not pagans. Not skeptics. Jews raised on the Law and the Prophets. Men and women taught in the synagogues by the same kind of Pharisees and lawyers He had just left at a dinner table - the men who watched Him, took the best seats, and never once came to Him. This crowd did come. They are following the Messiah they were taught to expect. And He turns and tells them what that will cost. If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. The list ends with you. Then the cross - and nobody on that road had seen Calvary. To them a cross was a condemned man carrying the beam to where Rome would kill him. That was the road He said they were on. Then two stories. A builder who lays a foundation and can’t finish, and the whole town laughs. A king with ten thousand men facing a king with twenty thousand, who had better send an embassy asking for terms of peace while the other is still far off. The word Luke uses for that embassy appears one other time in the Bible - when citizens send word after their king: We will not have this man to reign over us. Two messages. Everyone sends one. And the terms? Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. All of it. Including the Messiah they had built in their heads - the conqueror who would fight their enemies for them. The prophets had already said the King would come lowly and speak peace. The war they should have feared was with the One they were waiting for. Then He ends with salt. Salt that has lost its savor still looks exactly like salt. It just does nothing. Faith goes flat the same way - it keeps its shape and loses its substance. And men throw it out. Here is the stake, stripped to nothing. You probably didn’t count the whole cost when you started. Neither did Peter. But you can know the sum: all. And you can ask whether your convictions are still salt, or just the shape of it. Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-cost-of-discipleship/

  6. Sep 27

    Dinner is On - What's Your Excuse for Not Showing Up?

    You know this one. The invited make excuses, the poor get the seats, and everybody nods about how the outsiders got in. Read it again, and read what happened five minutes before it was told. Jesus is at a Pharisee’s table on the Sabbath. The lawyers are watching Him to catch Him. A sick man is set in front of Him and He heals him — with His hands, in full view — and sends him out the door. Then He tells the guests where to sit and tells the host whom to invite. And then one man on the couches finally speaks, and here is what he says: Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Shall. Future tense. A man who has just watched the kingdom happen in front of him, in a Gospel where Jesus has already told the Pharisees that a healing means the kingdom of God is come upon you, describes the kingdom as something to wait for. Nobody at the table corrects him. The One they are waiting for is reclining across from them. So Jesus tells him a story about a supper. Not someday. Tonight. Come; for all things are now ready. The men invited had already accepted — that is what the second summons means — and every one of them, with one consent, finds a reason. A field he bought and hasn’t looked at. Oxen he bought and hasn’t tested. A wife. Two of them are polite. The third just says I cannot come. And every lawyer at that table knew where those three reasons came from: they are the grounds Deuteronomy gives a man for staying home from a war. The bidden bring war-exemptions to a dinner. The master is angry. He does not cancel the supper. He sends for the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind — the exact list Jesus had just handed the host of that house — and when there is still room, he sends to the roads and tells the servant to compel whoever is out there to come in before the food is cold. And then a line whose voice Luke does not settle: none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. The room says nothing. Jesus gets up and walks out to the crowd. Here is the stake, stripped to nothing. The bidden believed in the supper. They accepted the invitation. When the servant came they had something they would rather do, and a good reason, and good manners. That is all it took. You do not have to deny the kingdom to miss the supper. You only have to keep describing it in the future tense while it sits on the table in front of you. The Bereans searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). Open Luke 14 and read it as one scene — the healing, the seats, the guest list, the remark, the story — without a break, because Luke gives you none. Find the word now in verse 17. Then find your excuse. Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/dinner-is-on-whats-your-excuse-for-not-showing-up/

  7. Sep 26

    Pharisaic Musical Chairs - The Parable of the Chief Seats

    OK, imagine this revised version of musical chairs. The dress code at this party is quite formal. The game: Twelve people are invited to a dinner. Each invitation carries a number from 1 to 12 under a scratch-off panel, and the number cannot be read until the guest is at the table. The chairs are in two columns down a long table, and at the head sits the host — the man who assigned every number before anyone arrived, according to whom he wants nearest him. The guests come in and take seats, and of course they all want the seat nearest the host. They are not privy to the order ahead of time, they just want the honor of sitting near the host. Two rules: a guest chooses once and cannot move himself afterward; only the host moves anyone, and he may move a guest up or down. Which seat is the most valuable seat in the room? The answer is the last seat — not because it gets you higher, since every guest’s final seat is already on his card, and nothing he does changes it, but because it is the only seat from which the host’s repositioning can only honor you. From seat one the only motion available is down, in front of everyone. From seat twelve the only motion available is up. Same destination, opposite journey. Then have the hosts notice the scratch-off: the guest who marches confidently to seat one does not actually know his number. He is guessing and calling it knowledge. Then the turn: the moment a guest sits in seat twelve BECAUSE it is the smart seat, he has gamed the room, and the game cannot see that — but the parable can. That is the door into Luke 14. Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/pharisaic-musical-chairs-the-parable-of-the-chief-seats/

  8. Sep 23

    The Fallen Man is the Fall of Men - AI is NOT the Bad Guy

    I listened to a recent podcast by Tom Bilyeu, and it is brilliant in its scope. But I don't think it goes far enough, and in Tom's secular world, it wouldn't. Tom is not coming at this from Scripture, so you might write off the title of his video as nothing but clickbait: "AI Antichrist." Don't. You can watch the whole thing here: A.I. AntiChrist. It's worth watching, and worth understanding. Tom is a marketer who built and sold a company, and he knows what a product launch looks like. What he sees right now is a product launch, and the product is fear. His argument, in short: the sudden wave of "AI is going to kill us all" is being amplified on purpose, because fear proves the technology is powerful, that proof supports the valuations, and a frightened public will vote for regulation that the biggest companies will then help write. The target, he says, is open-source AI, the free competitor that can't be priced and can't be controlled. He's careful to say he doesn't mean the biblical Antichrist. He means what he thinks Peter Thiel means: the worst of human behavior, the appetite for total control, which arrives not by conquest but because people are frightened enough to hand it over. That video inspired this podcast and the article that goes with it. Here's where I part ways with Tom. I think he's right about the mechanism and wrong about the target. Nobody spends fortunes to control a product. You spend them to control what the product can reach, and this product can reach everything. The goal was never to control the machine. The goal is to control the world, and the machine is simply the first tool in history that makes the oldest human ambition possible at the scale Revelation 13 describes. And I want to be clear about something up front, because it matters: I'm not demonizing AI. I use it. I used it to write this. The machine is iron, and Scripture never blames the iron. It blames the hands. So this episode isn't really about artificial intelligence at all. It's about men. It's about a fall that started in Genesis 3, that God put a stopgap on in Genesis 11, and that every generation since has inherited from the one before it, each of us holding on to the man above us as we go over the edge together. We had an expression when I was a kid: a skunk smells his own stink first. If you want to know who's afraid of AI and why, don't look at the machine. Look at who's pointing at it. Open your bible and let's get into it!  Article: "The Fallen Man is the Fall of Men" Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-fallen-man-is-the-fall-of-men/

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About

Tired of preachy, judgmental sermons? Rabbit Holes & Meditations is a Bible study podcast that trades performance for honest Christian conversation. We walk through Jesus’ words chronologically (this season), chase down the “rabbit holes” most people avoid, and let Scripture interpret Scripture. This show is for intentionally curious Christians who want depth without the drama. Sometimes we’ll spend 30 minutes on two verses—because careful reading matters. You’ll get biblical references, cross-references, deep dives, and real-life application around faith, fear, forgiveness, judgment, prayer, and hope—without being told what to think. We follow a strict “Bible interprets the Bible” approach we call the Berean Bible Study Filter, designed to keep teaching grounded and unencumbered by third-party commentary. Bring your questions—nothing is off the table. Come curious, leave grounded.

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