JL221 - Welcome Part 2 - Welcome to the Jacobs Ladder Podcast

This is the second Welcome Episode for this podcast and along with it I'm officially changing the name of this podcast from Christian Men at Work to Jacobs Ladder and along with the name change I'm changing the focus and purpose of the podcast.

The purpose of the Christian Men at Work podcast, since it first started in October of 2016, has been to inspire you to have joy and purpose in your work.  I've attempted to do that in two ways.  First, I've interviewed men from all walks of life, with varying job titles, who have had one thing in common, they've all chosen daily to live out their Christian faith through their work, and because of that they've been leading, prospering, glorifying God, and finding joy and purpose in their work.

The second way I've tried to achieve this goal is through short messages called Selah episodes where I've shared my thoughts, usually pretty closely related to the topic of faith at work.

The last episode, which was #220, was Feb 5, 2024, where I interviewed Jason Pierce talking about a Vision for Life.  Up to that point, I had conducted 110 interview style episodes with the other half being Selah episodes.

If you've been a listener over the years, you may have noticed a trend in recent years toward more Selah episodes as well as a departure at times from the faith at work focus.

I've never gone this long, about 8 months, without producing an episode.  Before I resumed the podcast again, I wanted to be sure I was both mentally and emotionally ready to do so, and I wanted to clarify the focus and purpose for the podcast before moving forward. I felt I needed to do that first so that I could be passionate about it again, so that I would be motivated to pour myself into it, and so that I could be consistent with it.

During the last few years I've had two primary changes in my life.  One has been a gut-wrenching, life changing personal challenge which has driven me closer to my Creator and closer to other men in friendship, particularly men that are going through similar personal challenges.

The other big change in my life has been that I've changed some of my beliefs and practices which are best described as more Messianic than Christian.  To quickly address that issue, I share the belief with Christians that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the long promised Messiah, and that my salvation comes from faith in Him and His righteousness alone and not my work or good deeds.

Where I defer from most Christians is that I believe it's God's will for us to follow His law, including the Torah or first 5 books of the Bible, as well as the Prophets and Writings (i.e. Old Testament) out of love towards Him and not out of obligation or to earn salvation.  In practical terms that means I observe the 7 Feasts rather than Christmas and Easter, I follow the dietary laws, I observe Sabbath on day 7 and not day 1 and other things that are usually practiced by observant Jews.

You could say that I differ from Christians by following the the Law and I differ from Jews by following Jesus and I believe we should do both.

If you've been listening in recent years you've probably noted those two changes in my life through the messages I've been sharing.

When I started this Podcast I had just gone through a major challenge in my life where I had gone bankrupt from chasing get-rich-quick schemes and not having a biblical approach towards work and finances. I had, at the same time, gone through some other personal challenges but I felt led to write a book called Jesus is at Work dealing with the faith at work issue, and write a blog on the same topic. Soon after that, I switched from blogging to podcasting.

I still feel passionate about incorporating my faith into my work. I love my job more than ever, and I am very thankful for it. I believe my work at my job is part of my purpose here on earth.

I want to continue to weave into this podcast the faith at work theme and I want to continue to focus primarily on men. However, moving forward I will be broadening the focus. What is the new focus?

Well, you could summarize it by a Beatles song "All you need is love", but seriously, love is the simplest way for me to summarize where I want the focus to be. Specifically, I want to talk about loving God, loving others and loving ourselves, at work and at home. Without love, having faith at work or in our personal lives doesn't mean anything, in my opinion.

It's no coincidence that this is basically what Jesus, who I normally call Yeshua, said summarizes the two greatest commandments, upon which hang all the law and the prophets. It's also a paraphrase of the Sh'ma, which Jewish people in their synagogues and Messianics in their congregations recite every Shabbat.

I chose as the new title for this podcast Jacobs Ladder, which was recommended by a dear friend. The intent of that title is to provide an image of an intimate connection between God and man, without which we have no hope of connecting with or loving others or ourselves.

Here are a few other changes I'd like to implement moving forward.

I want to continue the practice of having both interviews as well as my own personal musings.

For interviews, the format will be very similar to what it's been in the past, though the topics will of course be more in line with the new focus of the podcast.

For my personal musing episodes, I'm going to call them PPP episodes, which stands for purposeful pondering with praise. I became increasingly uncomfortable over time with my use of the term Selah in the past. The original intent was to invite the listener to ponder on the thoughts I was sharing. However, the musings are just one man's opinions which may or may not be prompted by the Holy Spirit and certainly not inspired in the sense that scripture is breathed from God. Therefore, I no longer want to use that term Selah and to leave that for its hallowed used within the Psalms.

Through the new acronym PPP, I want to remind myself to keep my ponderings purposeful, in other words I want them to help you to make a change in your life, if you feel it applies to you, either in your thoughts or your actions. I don't want to just talk for talking's sake. The third P is a reminder to incorporate some form of praise into every pondering and to always try to make it about our Creator and not about me or you.

I'm not making any promises at this time as to how often I'll be releasing episodes or how the mix will be between interviews and ponderings. I'd like to commit to both of those so you know what to expect, but at this time I prefer to keep my options open. Wondering about that question has been one of the reasons I've waited so long to bring this podcast back to life and so I don't want that to prevent me from doing so any longer.

Whether you're a long time or first time listener, whether you're more focused on work or personal, and whether you consider yourself Christian, Messianic, Jewish or something else, I welcome you to the Jacobs Ladder podcast.

I'm excited about this new beginning and I'm looking forward to the adventure we'll be going on together.