Crucible of Thought

What if the thing Christians call "hell" was effectively just a welding torch, designed to join us all into one? What if we could become one, without all that heat and fire and pain? Let's talk about becoming one, and how it relates to something the aerospace industry calls "cold welding" or "vacuum welding."You can watch this in video form at https://youtu.be/Teaf6POYL50

I'm joined by Paule Patterson and Andy Luiten to discuss the state of the American church, and her relationship to prophetic voices calling her to account. How did the church get here? What factors are at play? Can we learn anything from the counseling professions as we think about whether the church can recover from its challenges?You can also watch this at https://youtu.be/-cL9POzUh5k

Paule Patterson and I talk about awakening and enlightenment, then the very opposite: the idea of kenosis, of dying to self, of ego death. What does it mean for the Son of Man to experience a mystical awakening? How do we need to die to self, to experience a death of our "ego," to become truly alive? Is this an individual thing, or can it only be experienced in community? Paule and I explore these questions together.You can also watch this episode at https://youtu.be/7CllsdnY9oc

In my fifth conversation with Paule Patterson about his book "The Coming of the Son of Man and the Mystic Awakening", we discuss ways that the Bible adopted language from the empire around them, but subverted that empire in the very adoption of that language.You can also watch this as a video at https://youtu.be/HR9cRpFCxQQ

Life and death are impossible to separate. And inevitably, life itself springs from death. It doesn't ease the pain of loss, but we can take comfort in the rebirth inherent in the process of life.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXlIvBgsYmY