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Be Perfect as Jesus is Perfect

Release Date: 11/15/2024

Freely Given

What does Jesus mean that we should be perfect, as Jesus is perfect? Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin look at the context of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5 where this passage is found. Curiously, the command to be perfect comes right after the command to love your enemies. We often think that being righteousness as repelling sin, and repelling sinners, when the righteousness of Christ is goodness and holiness running toward sin and sinners to heal them. We also must define perfect correctly, as it means "complete" in this context. Another translation could be "be complete, as I am...

Catching Up from Crazy

Freely Given

After a bit of a hiatus, Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin sit down and catchn up. They talk about the recent "Here We Still Stand" Conference out in California. The theme of the conference was "Long Live the Church." They talk about their highlights from the conference, and how this year went. They talk about running around everywhere, what's going on with our families, and what our families do when we are running everywhere. They talk about harvest time, waiting in the drive thru, grad school, and living through a season where you can't finish a thought. Show Notes: ...

Being Christlike

Freely Given

Katie Koplin and Gretchen Ronnevik talk about what it means to grow in Christlikeness. This can be taken a couple of different ways, of trying to do what Christ did, or walking in what Christ did. They also talk about what it means to stir one another up for good works. Looking at the full context of several verses, as well as giving word pictures, everything somehow keeps coming back to Christ. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:

Godly or Like-God

Freely Given

What does it mean to be Christ-like? Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin have been hearing various definitions from people on what it means to be Christ-like, and so they go through those definitions. Are we walking in the path made by Christ for us, in his death and resurrection, or are we trying to be like-Christ, in a way that we become the judge of what is right and wrong, and we become the one who keeps the law. It all comes down to control and independence. All stories seem to go back to Eden. We want to know what is right and wrong so we don't need to depend on God quite so much. What...

"Vulnerable" with Raleigh Sadler

Freely Given

In this episode, Katie Koplin and Gretchen Ronnevik interview their friend Raleigh Sadler, who is the founder and executive director of "" which is a ministry that empowers churches to fight human trafficking, and reaching those most vulnerable. These guys have had a lot of laughter together at various conferences, and we start by talking about the weird humor that comes from working in such heavy, dark places. He wrote a book called "" and how everyday, regular church goers can reach their most vulnerable neighbors--not by being a superhero, but by tapping into their own vulnerablity. He...

"All Your Works Are Bad" and Other Hopeful Things

Freely Given

After chatting a bit about the names of their houses, and life in general, Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin jump back in to the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518, and how it is such a great foundation for Biblical counseling. Thesis 2 of Luther's Heidelberg Disputation get into how your good works are hindering your ability to see your need for God. How do we define good works, and how does it get dangerously intertwined in our idenity? This impacts our response to others who come to us with complaints, and our relationship with others, when we realize that we can continually try to justify...

Wrestling Against Needing God

Freely Given

Working through the book, "Making Christian Counseling More Christ-Centered," Katie Koplin and Gretchen Ronnevik discuss how the theology of the cross impacts how we view ourselves. Luther put the focus on idolatry rather than ethics or morality. This puts our works in the hot seat, as we need to ask the question: why are we doing what we are doing? What is our striving for? Do we need God because we are sinners, or do we need God because we are his creation? Did we need God before the fall? We did! We just called it good back then. Now we despise our neediness, and so often use our good works...

Uncomfortable Work of the Law

Freely Given

What does mental health have to do with the 95 thesis and the Heidelberg Disputations? Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin. This episode is very full with these two friends catching up, and hearing all about how sound theology impacts how we see ourselves and each other, and how disorienting it can be for the mind to have either of those distorted. Much of this episode is based off of the book: which brings Lutheran theology into Christian counseling, starting witht the Heidelberg Disputations. Gretchen and Katie talk about the work of the law, and their wrestling with this doctrine, in how...

Commitment to Reconciliation

Freely Given

The rest of Gretchen Ronnevik's interview with Nathan and Joy Hoff had a handful of technical difficulties, but the conversation was so rich that none of it seems to matter. They talk about teaching young adults in their internship what it means to be hospitable, and how to serve your neighbors. She also asks them about the yearly "storm" that happens within community as the ideal fades into reality, and what happens when the commitment to reconcilation comes down to earth. They distinguish between forgiveness and reconcilation, and how the community defines that and attempts to live...

Freedom to Be Ordinary

Freely Given

As Gretchen Ronnevik was with her family at Mount Carmel Bible Camp, she ran into her friends, Nathan and Joy Hoff who run an internship program in California for young adults at their church. They talk about their church, which isn't huge, and the interns who come and live in a community at the church to serve and grow. Young adults come there either driven and exhausted, and looking to learn a sustainable pace of service, or undecided and drifting, wondering what God has for them in their life next. There is a rule of life to their community, as they learn to live with one another, serve...

More Episodes

We often think that being righteousness as repelling sin, and repelling sinners, when the righteousness of Christ is goodness and holiness running toward sin and sinners to heal them.

We also must define perfect correctly, as it means "complete" in this context. Another translation could be "be complete, as I am complete." This whole sermon is a paradigm shifting lecture on what it means to be righteous. It isn't about doing good enough, or trying our hardest. It's understanding the fullness of the law, and the fullness of our need for Christ, and the fullness of his redemption for us.

And as we are full of his righteousness, not our own, we run toward our enemies with love, not away from it, as our self-righteousness prescribes.

So how do we deal with our enemies? We get into that, and more.

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What’s New from 1517:

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