Write this Down! with Dot Bowen

Dot Bowen
  • 5.0 (30)
  • CHRISTIANITY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Bible teacher, author and founder of Cup of Joy Ministries, Dot Bowen, teaches listeners what it truly looks like to know, love and follow Jesus. Each week, Dot invites you to sit down with her and her daughter, Cara, to have an authentic conversation about Biblical Scripture and God’s Truth. Their honest and thought provoking conversations are full of wit and wisdom which will have you diving deeper into God’s Word. Whether Dot is teaching, speaking or simply grabbing coffee with a dear friend, she can often be heard saying with excitement, “Write this Down!” Her heart for the listener is to take the things she asks you to write down before the Lord and ask Him to open your eyes to His Truth and love. John 8:32 says, “and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” By the end of each episode, you’ll find yourself grabbing a pencil so that you can Write this Down! with Dot Bowen.

  1. 6H AGO

    Episode 268: Who Made Me the Judge?

    It is so much easier to spot what someone else is doing wrong than to take a hard look in the mirror. In this episode, Dot and Cara work through one of the most quoted and most misunderstood passages in all of Scripture, Matthew 7:1-5, and push past the casual “judge not” bumper sticker to find what Jesus was really getting at. They talk about the difference between judging someone’s actions and pronouncing judgment on their heart, why humility is the only lens that makes us useful to the people we love, and what it looks like to go to God first before you go to anyone else. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us. Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know!  Episode RecapIntro (00:00)Write this down: Matthew 7:1-5, the speck and the log (00:00)What Jesus is really saying here — it is not that the speck does not exist, but that you cannot help someone if your own vision is clouded (01:24)“If I can see it, I can do it” — Dot on why the thing you notice most in others is often something worth examining in yourself (01:49)Cara asks for a real-life example, and they land on parenting judgment vs. actual sin — and why motive matters more than the behavior we see (03:33)The Pharisees as the original example: what it looks like when religious confidence becomes a log in your eye (12:03)The woman caught in adultery — one of the best pictures in Scripture of what it looks like when someone drops the stones and approaches with humility instead (13:42)You are probably capable of more than you think — why “I would never” is one of the most dangerous things a Christian can say (16:03)The relationship rule: you have to be invited in before you speak into someone’s life, and being invited once does not mean forever (21:42)Practical wisdom from Dot: take it to God first, ask him to show you your own heart, and trust him to do what only he can do in someone else’s (25:57) Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at hello@dotbowen.com. Watch Write this Down! on YouTube Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook  This Episode’s Scripture VerseMatthew 7:1-5 (ESV) — “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

    27 min

  2. APR 29

    Episode 267: Ask, Knock, and Trust the One Who Answers

    You've asked. You've knocked. You've kept asking. And the door is still closed. Dot and Cara get real about the places where prayer feels hard, where persistent asking starts to feel pointless, and what Matthew 7 is actually saying about a God who doesn't hand you a stone when you ask for bread. This one is honest, a little vulnerable, and full of hope for anyone who has wrestled with why God keeps saying not yet. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us. Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know!  Episode RecapIntro (00:00)Write this down: Matthew 7:7-11, a call to keep asking the God who gives good gifts to his children (00:13)Ask and it will be given to you, sure, but what about all the times it hasn't been? Dot and Cara get honest about the frustration of persistent prayer (01:21)What Luke's gospel adds to this passage, and why the Holy Spirit matters in how we read it (02:36)Unanswered prayer isn't always a no, and sometimes the no is the answer you'll be most grateful for (04:00)Cara opens up about where she is right now with asking, when you trust God's nos but you're just tired of bringing your heart to the door (08:00)Dot's aha moment: what if what I'm asking for is the stone? What we think is bread, God sometimes sees as a serpent (13:00)Dot shares a story about praying specifically for Cara and hearing her pray the exact same thing later that same day, a quiet wink from God that he's listening (18:49)The Israelites crossed the Red Sea and then complained about being thirsty. Dot on spiritual amnesia and why we keep forgetting what God has already done (21:38)Moses in Exodus 33: you can't see what God is doing right now, but when you look back, you'll see him (23:00)The closing truth: keep asking, because God is good, and he will not withhold what is best for his children (25:36) Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at hello@dotbowen.com. Watch Write this Down! on YouTube Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook  This Episode’s Scripture VerseMatthew 7:7-11 (ESV) — "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"

    28 min

  3. APR 22

    Episode 266: Finding Peace When the What-Ifs Take Over

    What do you do when the "don't worry" in Scripture feels impossible to actually live? In this episode, Dot and Cara sit with Matthew 6:25-34 and get honest about the anxious thoughts that sneak in, the "what if" seeds that take root, and what it really looks like to keep your eyes on God when life feels out of control. This is a real, warm, and deeply practical conversation about faith as something you do, not just something you know. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us. Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know!  Episode RecapIntro: Cara admits she's feeling the most anxious on the very morning they're recording about anxiety (00:00)Write this down: Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus telling his disciples not to be anxious (00:00)Why Jesus repeats "don't be anxious" more than once, and what that tells us about how well he knows us (01:40)Cara and Dot reflect on how anxiety can sneak up on you even when you don't think of yourself as an anxious person (02:00)How we know too much now, and how our hearts and souls were never meant to carry all of it (04:13)Keeping your eyes on God: what that actually looks like in practice, including prayer, truth-speaking, and remembering his names (07:19)The seed called "what if" and how it's really a control problem underneath (11:57)Living on Friday before Sunday comes: when darkness and people's choices look like they're winning (14:06)It's not a need problem, it's a faith problem, and how Dot reframes what anxiety is really telling us (17:06)Dot's insight: believing the truth only becomes real when you start living it. Faith is a verb. (24:40)The gentleness of Jesus in this passage, how he's not chastising us, he's just saying, remember me (27:33) Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at hello@dotbowen.com. Watch Write this Down! on YouTube Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook  This Episode’s Scripture VerseMatthew 6:25-34 (ESV) — “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

    30 min

  4. APR 15

    Episode 265: You Can't Do This on Your Own (And That's the Point)

    What if the Sermon on the Mount is the New Testament's answer to the Ten Commandments, a standard not written to burden us, but to show us how to truly live? In this episode, Dot and Cara sit down for an honest conversation about one of Jesus' most sweeping teachings in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and why it might be the most important thing He ever said. They talk about what it actually means to be set apart, why living like Jesus points people to God rather than away from Him, and the one thing that makes any of this possible at all. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us. Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know!  Episode RecapIntro (00:00)Write this down: Matthew 5:1-2 (ESV) — Jesus goes up the mountain, sits down, and begins to teach His disciples (00:07)Why the Sermon on the Mount matters: Cara admits she never fully appreciated this passage before, and that’s kind of the point (00:32)Jesus taught with authority, not like the scribes or Pharisees, and the crowds were astonished (01:09)This teaching was for His followers: the Sermon on the Mount is God’s instruction to His people on how to live set apart (02:43)The New Testament parallel to the Ten Commandments: just as Moses gave Israel a standard, Jesus gives His followers one too (07:09)We’re not going to reach it on our own, and that is exactly why we need the Holy Spirit (14:45)Living like Jesus points people toward God, not because it makes us look good, but because it makes Him visible (10:23)Sanctification: what it means that God is always working in us to look more like Him, not as a checklist, but as a life (14:45)The spoiler Dot gives: we cannot live the Christian life in our own strength, and that is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit (23:22)This Episode’s Scripture VerseMatthew 5:1-2 (ESV) — “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them.” Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at hello@dotbowen.com. Watch Write this Down! on YouTube Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook

    27 min

  5. APR 8

    Episode 264: Jesus Said Pay Attention to the Fruit, So Let's Talk About That

    How do you know if someone is the real deal, and what do you do with that once you do? In this episode, Dot and Cara open up Matthew 7 and talk through Jesus' principle of knowing people by their fruit. Not judging, not writing people off, but paying attention in the way a loving Father says you need to. They talk about what fruit of the spirit actually looks like, why we tend to excuse what we should just be noticing, and how this principle applies to the people in your life, the voices you follow, and the fruit you yourself are producing. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us. Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know!  Episode Recap Intro (00:00) Matthew 7:15-20, the warning about false prophets and knowing them by their fruit (00:02) Cara shares that this principle is one Dot has taught her, and that she already feels conflicted about it after just the last ten minutes (00:56) The difference between judging and recognizing: Jesus didn't say you can judge, he said you will know them (02:15) Fruit takes time. It starts from a seed, and whatever is in the heart will eventually produce it, no matter how long someone can pretend otherwise (03:38) What good fruit actually looks like: love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control, the fruit of the Spirit (05:43) A moment is not a full-grown fruit, but it does tell you something is there (05:15) If you want to know whether a voice, a relationship, or a situation is leading you toward God or away from him, pay attention to the fruit it is producing in you (08:06) Dot draws the line between understanding why someone behaves the way they do and excusing it. You can have compassion and still notice the fruit (09:35) Isolation is a fruit worth paying attention to. Dot clarifies: alone time with God is not isolation. Isolation means no trusted voice is speaking into your life (11:25) Cara gives a real-world example of subtle false prophecy on social media, and why posts that claim to know what God will do for you should give you pause (16:01) Dot brings it home: God gave us this principle because he is a loving Father who could not take us out of the world, but he could tell us how to live in it. The fruit doesn't lie (25:39)This Episode’s Scripture Verse Matthew 7:15–20 (ESV) — “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at hello@dotbowen.com. Watch Write this Down! on YouTube Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook

    27 min

  6. APR 1

    Episode 263: Faith, Doubt, and a God Who Shows Up Anyway

    Faith and doubt have always gone hand in hand, and the story of Doubting Thomas might be the most honest proof of that in all of Scripture. In this Easter episode, Dot and Cara sit with John 20 and find something tender at the heart of it: Jesus didn't scold Thomas for his doubt. He showed up, scars and all, and met him right where he was. Together they unpack what it means that Jesus kept his scars, why eight days of waiting might matter more than we think, and how the resurrection isn't just something that happened 2,000 years ago. It's something God is still doing in us today. Pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and lean in with us. Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know!  Episode RecapIntro — Happy Easter! (00:00)Write this down: John 20:24-29, the story of Doubting Thomas (00:13)The resurrection is the miracle of all miracles, but Thomas missed it the first time (01:56)Was Thomas doubting, in awe, or just someone who needed to experience it for himself? (04:44)God wrote Thomas into Scripture for us, so that those who haven't seen can still believe (07:38)Eight days later: why the timing of Jesus showing up for Thomas matters more than we might think (08:48)Jesus kept his scars, and the only man made thing in heaven is the scars on his hands (14:43)Our scars don't define us, just like they didn't define Jesus (16:23)The resurrection proved Jesus is God, and that changes absolutely everything (18:50)God meets us where we are, whether that's doubt, desperation, or somewhere in between (27:11)This Episode’s Scripture Verse John 20:24-29 (ESV) — "Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.' Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.' Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God!' Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'” Resources Mentioned In This Episode "The Only Man-Made Thing in Heaven Are the Scars on Jesus' Hands" by B.J. Thomas Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at hello@dotbowen.com. Watch Write this Down! on YouTube Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook

    28 min

  7. MAR 25

    Episode 262: The Name that Changes Everything - Part 2

    When life feels uncertain or overwhelming, where do you run? This week, Dot and Cara explore the names of God and what they reveal about His character. He is our Shepherd, our Righteousness, our Protector, and our ever-present Emmanuel. This conversation moves beyond simply knowing God’s names to truly believing in them and the refuge they offer us. If you’ve ever struggled to trust who God says He is, this episode will encourage you to call on His name!  Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know!  Episode recap: Intro (00:00)Write down Proverbs 18:10, then go back and listen to last week’s episode! (0:18)Calling God “Father” is incredibly intimate (3:38)Dot uses different names of God when she is feeling different needs in her life (4:56)Memorizing these names is not important, knowing the character of God is (9:15)Calling on the name of God reminds us of our neediness (13:40)If you ever want to feel loved, reflect on the name “Emmanuel” (God with us) (18:58)Why call on God’s name if you’re not going to believe in it? (24:56)  Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at hello@dotbowen.com. Watch Write this Down! on YouTube Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook  Scripture Verse: Proverbs 18:10 (ESV) “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”

    30 min

  8. MAR 18

    Episode 261: The Name that Changes Everything - Part 1

    What’s in a name? In Scripture, names carry deep meaning, so when God reveals His name as “I AM,” He is telling us something powerful about his character. In this episode, Dot and Cara begin a new conversation about the names of God by looking at Exodus 3, where God introduces himself to Moses. Together they explore why knowing the names of God helps us draw closer to Him and recognize that He is everything we truly need. Stay tuned for next week, when they’ll dive deeper into specific names of God and share the ones that have meant the most in their own walk with Him. Until then, pull up a chair, grab your Bible, and join the conversation!  Got a question about today’s episode or something else you’d like to hear us talk about on the show? Let us know!  Episode recap: Intro (00:00)First, write down Exodus 3:13-15 (0:18)In biblical times, your name was synonymous with your character (3:54)“I Am” is the name God calls himself (7:00)Why is it helpful to know the names of God? (8:44)Every need we have as humans, God is saying, “I am all of that” (12:05)Calling God by name makes it personal (17:14)Get a book on the names of God to use in your prayer time this week (20:30) Are you interested in having Dot come and speak to your community? Email us at hello@dotbowen.com. Watch Write this Down! on YouTube Find Dot Bowen on Instagram and Facebook  Grab this (or any!) book on the Names of God: https://amzn.to/4saTXthScripture Verse: Exodus 3:13-15 (ESV) “Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever,the name you shall call mefrom generation to generation.”

    23 min
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5
out of 5
30 Ratings

About

Bible teacher, author and founder of Cup of Joy Ministries, Dot Bowen, teaches listeners what it truly looks like to know, love and follow Jesus. Each week, Dot invites you to sit down with her and her daughter, Cara, to have an authentic conversation about Biblical Scripture and God’s Truth. Their honest and thought provoking conversations are full of wit and wisdom which will have you diving deeper into God’s Word. Whether Dot is teaching, speaking or simply grabbing coffee with a dear friend, she can often be heard saying with excitement, “Write this Down!” Her heart for the listener is to take the things she asks you to write down before the Lord and ask Him to open your eyes to His Truth and love. John 8:32 says, “and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” By the end of each episode, you’ll find yourself grabbing a pencil so that you can Write this Down! with Dot Bowen.

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