The Bible Speaks to You: Think, Pray, Love like Jesus

Last year, around Christmas, I began a week of vacation from work hoping to relax. Instead, on the first Monday morning, I woke with a sudden and rather overwhelming sense of loneliness. In decades past, I would naturally have spent that week around Christmas with my parents. By then, however, both had passed away within the previous decade, and the realization of that absence felt particularly gloomy as I began my week off. I opened the email app on my iPhone and, quite unexpectedly, found a message that seemed to speak directly to what I was experiencing. I had only recently subscribed to The Bible Speaks to You, and the very next episode challenged the assumption that loneliness was an inevitable part of my Christmas simply because my circumstances had changed. James Early’s ideas about seeing through that kind of gloomy thinking were both insightful and inspiring. What struck me most was how practical the message was: rather than simply accepting the feeling of loneliness as an unavoidable fact, I could question the thinking behind it and see the situation differently. One of the core ideas presented in that podcast concerns the nature of love—the kind of love described in the Bible with the Greek word agape, and the love that Jesus expressed toward humanity. I’ve found myself thinking about that idea in a surprisingly practical way. Even in brief encounters with people I happen to meet during the day, I can consciously recognize them as people worthy of love and goodwill rather than simply as strangers passing through my life. I was actually thinking about this very idea over lunch today, and realized how much James’s discussion has continued to influence the way I see other people. The timing of that first episode was remarkable, but more importantly, its message genuinely helped me. I’m grateful I happened to find this podcast when I did.

I found this podcast online via laptop and then I searched on my phone. Thank you for your calmness and insight

James’ take on the Bible is so beautifully clear and fresh. He brings a great perspective to Bible study, a down-to-earth one that no one should resist.

I’m learning to develop the mindset of Jesus by listening to this show! Such great teachings by James!