Podcast by St. Mark Houston
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Life was supposed to slow down this summer. It didn't. And if we're honest, it never will, not on its own. This week we tackle one of the most countercultural ideas in all of scripture: Sabbath rest. But Jesus reframes the whole thing. Sabbath was never meant to be another burden to observe rightly. It was made for us, and Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, transforms it from a day we rest on into a…
Underneath all the busyness, the scrolling, the consuming, and the relentless doing is a hunger that most of us have never stopped long enough to name: a soul-level hunger for approval. It goes all the way back to Eden, where God looked at mankind and called us very good, and everything since has been humanity's attempt to get that back. This week we sit with one of Jesus's most scandalous…
Jesus offers one of the most countercultural invitations in all of scripture: come to Me, take My yoke, and I will give you rest. But what does that actually mean, and what does it look like on a Tuesday? This week we dig into Matthew 11:28-30 and discover that Jesus is not just offering a feeling of peace, but a whole reorientation of daily life, inviting us to let Him serve as our rabbi, setting…
Everyone is tired. Everyone is anxious. Everyone is distracted. And the instinct is to just power through, but this new series asks a different question: what if we powered down instead? We dig into the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10, where Jesus gently confronts Martha not because she is doing bad things, but because she is drowning in good ones. The real problem, Jesus suggests, is not a…
We close out our Summer Shorts series with two of the Bible's shortest books, Second John and Third John, and they share one surprising theme: hospitality. John writes to a church navigating a world full of false teachers, people who denied that Jesus came in the flesh, and his message is both urgent and practical. Christians are called to be unreasonably inhospitable to lies and unreasonably…
This week in Summer Shorts, we dig into the book of Jude, one of the Bible's shortest letters and one of its most urgent. Jude had planned to write about salvation, but something came up: false teachers had quietly slipped into the church, twisting God's grace into permission to live however they wanted. His message to the church then is just as relevant now. Contend for the faith, hold fast to…
What are the greatest feuds of all time? From the Hatfields and McCoys to Hamilton and Burr, history is full of rivalries, but none with longer-lasting consequences than the feud between two brothers: Jacob and Esau. This week in Summer Shorts, we dig into the book of Obadiah, the shortest book in the Old Testament, written at the moment when Edom stood back and watched, even celebrated, as their…
This week in our Summer Shorts series, we dig into the entire book of Philemon, one of the shortest letters in the New Testament and one of the most personal. Paul writes from prison to his friend Philemon on behalf of Onesimus, a runaway slave, asking Philemon to receive him back not as property but as a beloved brother in Christ. Along the way, Paul models something remarkable: rather than…
This week we kick off our new summer series, Summer Shorts, big truths from some of the Bible's smallest books, starting with the book of Titus. Paul's letter to Titus covers a lot of ground fast: what it looks like to lead a church with integrity, why sound doctrine matters and must be defended, and how older believers are called to pour into younger generations in real, relational ways. We also…
What does it really mean to be a good dad? In this Father's Day message, we look at Exodus 34, where God reveals his own heart as a father: merciful, patient, steadfast, and forgiving, and explore what it looks like to reflect those qualities in our families. We dig into what it means to have a tender heart toward those in our care, to protect our families from our own anger, to pursue our loved…
What happens when the very place meant to bring healing becomes the source of pain? In this final message of The Tough Stuff series, we explore one of the most uncomfortable topics in the church: church hurt. Drawing from Ezekiel 34 and the Gospel of John, Vicar Alex unpacks the image of the shepherd and what it reveals about leadership, accountability, and the danger of entitlement in the pews.…
