Freely Given
In the vicious cycle of self-help, self-righteousness, and self-loathing, we become a slave to the pursuit of perfection. Through Christ’s own perfection, he has set us free. This is a podcast about the freedom that comes through dependence in Christ, and understanding the depth of his love.
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Gretchen Squared
05/02/2024
Gretchen Squared
Katie Koplin is busy with a big family move and finishing up this year of grad school, so Gretchen Ronnevik invited on one of the young women she mentors, Gretchen Larson, to talk about what it's like to be a young, single adult in the church, what they need from the church, and how to foster intergenerational relationships. Gretchen Larson is a chef at a Bible camp, finishing up her studies on the hospitality business, and was a missionary kid in Eastern Europe. She is involved in mentoring women younger than her as well, and has some great insight to the simplicity and difficulty of loving our neighbors. We talk about the freedom given in Christ, and walking through various expectations, and goal setting that gets put on young adults, and how they long for deep connection. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Homemaking and Vocation
04/18/2024
Homemaking and Vocation
In the last episode, we talked about the tradwife movement. In this episode we move on to talk about what a homemaker actually is. Citing Edith Schaefer's book on the Hidden Art of Homemaking, we talk about the vocation of reminding people of their humanity, and their need for food and rest. We talk about all the various things that make us human. CS Lewis writes about how the easiest way to sin against someone is to start thinking of them as less than human. The world is constantly trying to do this. Homemaking is the vocation of reminding people of their humanity. Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin both share some of their stories of how easily it is to be drawn into the tradwife movement, as opposed to their experience as homemakers. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Tradwife Movement
04/11/2024
Tradwife Movement
What's the difference between a stay at home mom and a Tradwife? In this episode Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin, 2 women who have been stay at home moms, talk about the Tradwife movement, and all it contains. The easiest place to begin this conversation is from the male counterpart, or the Alpha Male mindset, to see the female counterpart to the joint movement. They talk about what this movement looks like for men, where "Beta Males" are viewed as trash, and then switch to the counterpart aspects of the equally dehumanizing aspects of this for the females. What starts out looking like a "good thing" turns "hardcore" as Christian values aren't hardcore enough in this movement to really take it as far as they'd like it to go. This movement elevates good things to gods, where our hope is placed in our own strength, and where the doctrine of vocation is replaced by roleplay. We look at examples of Tradwives, how they are often not Christian, but held up as a Christian standard, and historically how this movement came about. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Encouragement to Motherhood
04/04/2024
Encouragement to Motherhood
Co-host, Katie Koplin has curated a gospel central devotional for moms, and it's coming out this next Tuesday. We talk about how she chose the various contributors, and the themes that arose as the submissions started to come in. Learning our limitedness as mothers was one of the major themes, and how to hold hope and hard in the same room. We talk about the hard and good together, and how sometimes it feels like you get punished for doing the right thing. There's no avoiding the suffering, there's just learning to walk through it. We talk about dealing with fear as a mother, asking God for a guarentee that things will work out as we want, for a guarentee that they will be healthy and safe, and trusting God despite whatever could happen. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
/episode/index/show/freelygiven/id/30681928
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Default to Death with Sarah Crowder
03/22/2024
Default to Death with Sarah Crowder
We have back on our dear friend, Sarah Crowder, as she talks about her contribution to the upcoming devotional "Encouragent to Motherhood." In her writing, she shares about her kids one by one, being diganosed with type 1 diabetes, and mothering in hospital rooms, where death is near. She talks about the looming of the law when health issuses are life and death. As humans, we have what she calls a "default to death," which keeps bringing her back to baptism, and what Daniel Emery Price refers to as a "wet theology." We talk about the balm of baptism as we live in light of death. Come back to the water again and again. We talk about allowing yourself grief in motherhood, and recognizing the humanity of motherhood. We don't have hope that everything will turn out ideal, but we have hope that Christ will be with us. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Finding God in the Darkness with Brad Gray
03/08/2024
Finding God in the Darkness with Brad Gray
This week we are interviewing our friend, Pastor Brad Gray about his book He's one of the special Baptists who publish articles and books with 1517. We talk about preaching the gospel, free from manipulation, and the hope for those who are discouraged. We ask him big questions about his book: We talk about our faith in the midst of suffering, questioning God, and what's going on in our faith in the midst of depression. He talks about why he wrote this book, and how to comfort those who are in dark places. Freely Given: Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts: More from our guest: (Brad's 1517 Here We Still Stand video) Brad's book:
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Spirituality of the Cross BONUS Episode
02/29/2024
Spirituality of the Cross BONUS Episode
This month's bonus episode we discuss the book "The Spirituality of the Cross" by Gene Veith. This is a great book to read during Lent, as is looks at the centrality of the cross in our spiritual life. Katie Koplin and Gretchen Ronnevik focus their discussion on the beginning of the book, where he talks about morality based spirituality, speculative based spirituality, and mysical spirituality, and how the spirituality of the cross differs from those other 3 approaches. While morals, intellectual speculation, and spiritual experiences are all good, centering our spirituality on them can lead to exploitive and manipulative practices. We talk about how the definition of terms in this book is strongly from a Lutheran perspective, which is important because some of the words like "Evangelical" can have a multitude of definitions. From a historic perspective, at the time of the Reformation, Lutherans weren't called Lutherans, they were called Evangelical, as opposed to the Reformed who followed the teachings of John Calvin. Veith talks about how the term "Evangelical" is also used in many churches in Europe that hold a Lutheran theology and liturgy, which can be confusing to tourists visiting. Add to that, and the American definition of Evangelical has been seeping into Europe through missionaries. We talk about how law and gospel distinctions play into our spiritual life Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts: Books Discussed/Mentioned: "Free to Be" by James Nestigan
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Story and Theology
02/29/2024
Story and Theology
In this episode, Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin talk about the impact of story on our theological understanding, and the use of story in the life of Christians. Using the starting point of Psalm 107:2, we discuss how God works through story, and the baseline of him expressing himself through The Word, and ponder how deep that concept goes. The work of story connects the abstract to the concrete and this is shown through the sacraments, as God connects the spiritual through the physical. We talk about the impact of story on our souls, how giving our testimony can impact, and the use of story in understanding theology. We talk about how stories build our identity and our history, and is a restful way--and more effective of processing deep truths. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Grace in Limitations with Jane Grizzle
02/23/2024
Grace in Limitations with Jane Grizzle
Jane Grizzle is one of the contributors to the upcoming devotional edited by Katie Koplin: "" Jane wrote about motherhood in the context of having a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She is also currently working on her doctorate in ministry. Her contribution to the devotional talks about what it is to parent through limitedness. We talk about the reality of anxiety, making judgment calls in parenting, and parenting from a place of being limited--which we all are. This was an encouraging conversation. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
/episode/index/show/freelygiven/id/30081503
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Historic Valentine with Dr. Dan van Voorhis
02/19/2024
Historic Valentine with Dr. Dan van Voorhis
Is Valentine's Day a Hallmark Holiday? We sit down with Dr. Dan van Voorhis from "Christian History Almanac" and ask him about the history of St. Valentine's Day from a church history perspective. He shares with us 3 different historic people named "Valentine" in the 200s, when Christianity was illegal in Rome. He shares how the first valentine letter on the record was one of condolances, not romantic love, and how these stories were tied into the martyrdom of the early church. We talk about the facinating Georgian vs Julian calendar, and how that effects our perception of the season of Valentine's Day on the church calendar--as it used to be in the peak of spring, and how it started overlapping with fertility holidays. Throughout history, Christians used saints days to keep their calendar, to avoid using pagan gods' names in their calendar, and further down the line, Puritans didn't use either, and used only numbers in their calendar "15th day of the 10th month..." We go down a fun rabbit trail discussing the struggle of the historian to figure out which calendar each reformational character used in their letters, and calendars were often determined by Catholic or anti-Catholic loyalties. So if you want to be historically accurate, you'd celebrate Valentine's Day on February 27th, and send out a bunch of condolance cards. :) Just kidding. It was a just for fun conversation full of fun facts and Dan always brings the encouragment from a historical perspective that there is nothing new under the sun, and that the rumors of grace are true, and everything will be ok. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts: More from our guest:
/episode/index/show/freelygiven/id/30019623
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Biblical Reconciliation
02/10/2024
Biblical Reconciliation
This is part 2 of our conversation on no-contact relationships, and looking at how various relationships of Jacob's are reconciled, and the spectrum of what that looks like. Regardless of how reconciliation happens, it never goes back to the way it used to be. A new relationship with new boundaries are formed. We share the episode of "The Office" when Michael hits Meredith with his car, brings everyone to the hospital and while she's in pain, demands that she forgives him in front of everyone. When we injure someone, and demand instant forgiveness while they are still healing is actually reinjuring them over and over as you consistently put your needs above theirs--preventing any wound from closing. Another example is in divorce, when someone breaks the marriage contract, and there can be forgiveness for the other person, and at the same time, the marriage contract is over. We talk about reconciliation in eternity being our hope, and how restoration doesn't always happen here on earth as we live in broken bodies with broken minds. Freely Given: Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Going No Contact
02/01/2024
Going No Contact
Is it okay for Christians to cut off contact with someone? Is it okay to cut off contact with family members? What about forgiveness? In this episode Gretchen and Katie talk about the new term "no contact" that is replacing the traditional term of estrangement, and looking at various ways healing looks, and forgiveness playing out in person to person relationships.This continues on our series on prosperity gospel in the family, which is the belief that if we just do everything right, everything will turn out right. We push back against formulas, and look to the cross, and how personally and particularly God works out healing. In this episode we take a look at the life of Jacob in Genesis, and consider various ways that relationships in his life played out. This is part 1 of 2. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Dare to Lead BONUS Episode
02/01/2024
Dare to Lead BONUS Episode
In this month's extra book club episode, we are discussing Brené Brown's book: "Dare to Lead." We talk about mixing secular and Biblical sources and the right and wrong way to do that. We talk about her definitions of vulnerability, and when and where it's appropriate to be vulnerable. When she presented this information in as she presented it to various armed forces, she explains how any act of courage embraces vulnerability. This book isn't about leadership as much as it's about working in group settings, working through hard things with those in your community, all of which apply to parenting, committees, teams, or wherever there are people working toward a common goal. There's some great tips in here on how to build trust with others. There's also some great information on healthy boundaries: what they are and what they aren't. It's also a logical look at feelings and what to do with them, and how to view them. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Transfiguration Part 2
01/27/2024
Transfiguration Part 2
We are back with author Sarah Hinlicky Wilson to talk about her on the Transfiguration. We talk about the parallel of Jesus' baptism, and the transfiguration, and how God the Father speaks in both situations. We talk on the play on words with the Greek of booths/tents/tabernacle, and what Jesus was also showing them about himself during this Transfiguration. The line is drawn between the Transfiguration and the Crucifixion, and how the transfigured Jesus is different than the accounts of the resurrected Jesus. There was a kindness shown during the Transfiguration, even though they were afraid, and Jesus picks them up. This is a story reminding us that there are some stories that are about God alone. This is a story for us, but not a story about us. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts: More from our guest:
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Looking at the Transfiguration
01/19/2024
Looking at the Transfiguration
We are having author Sarah Hinlicky Wilson on this episode about her new book "7 Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration." She is also the author of the fiction book we read for our book club, "A-Tumblin' Down." She talks about theories of the Transfiguration, and why people think Moses and Elijah were on top of that mountain with Jesus. The talks about different accounts of the Transfiguration of Christ in the different gospel accounts. She talks about the interesting position of the celebration of the transfiguration in the church liturgical calendar from a church history standpoint, and it's connections with the crusades, and how that changed in the Reformation, and why it now comes just before Lent in the current liturgical calendar. Moses and Elijah are the only prophets who climb Mt. Sinai (called Horab in some passages), and the significance of meeting God at a mountaintop. Though the transfiguration did not happen on Mt. Sinai, but theres a reaching from the New Testament into the Old Testament in these accounts. It's very important to look at the story progression in regard to the transfiguration (what story comes right before, and what story comes right after) to interpret this passage correctly. While we often look at these passages in segments, this story is part of a bigger story progression in the gospels. It's connection to the Feast of Booths from the Old Testament puts it in context of the Israelites "liturgical calendar" of feasts, connected to the traditional agrarian calendar, and what it meant that Jesus brought them into the Feast of Booths that comes just before the Passover, which was a hard thing to understand just after Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Christ. Sarah does such a great job of explaining the significance of the Transfiguration, and layering the various calendars of the feasts, harvest time, and Jesus showing them that the passover has to happen still, and you can't skip the sacrifice of the Lamb. to bring this event into focus. Freely Given: Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts: More on our guest:
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Grace for the New Year
01/12/2024
Grace for the New Year
Gretchen and Katie are back at recording and they talk about where they've been, and what they learned. They talked about faux-grace that's really just people pleasing. They talk about learning to be graded and the return to school. They talk about grief, kids, joy, and their "word for 2024" as they look ahead. We talk about purpose and beauty of stories, the upcoming books for our book club, and best of all KATIE'S NEW BOOK coming out this spring. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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The Soul of Shame BONUS Episode
12/29/2023
The Soul of Shame BONUS Episode
This month, we discuss the book "The Soul of Shame" by Dr. Curt Thompson. It was a really fun conversation, and Katie called it her top read of the year. Both Katie and Gretchen loved this book, mostly because it talks about a lot of guilt, shame, forgiveness, and vocation plays out through a counseling lens. While the author does have a Christian lens and brings in the Bible, he does limit his expertise and perameters of the discussion to psychology, rather than theological. However, we felt it showed the psychological impact of sin and redemption from an interesting angle. His discussion of shame being introduced in the Garden of Eden brought together so many concepts at the same time. Much like David Zahl's explanation of "low anthropology" understanding the pervasiveness of shame--and how it is everywhere and touching everything--was at first discouraging, and then illuminating and encouraging. This book gives an awareness of the presence of shame, so that we can call a thing what it is. As we call a thing what it is, we can then understand what healing looks like. It has encouraged us both to properly recognize it, and reach for grace rather than shame. This book talks about the proper function of shame (a sociopath feels no shame over anything) and the twisting of shame. It also shares how shame essentially shuts down creativity, and how it effects freedom in vocation. This book talks about the relationship between vulnerability and grace. This book is full of stories of transformation and growth, as the truth sets people free. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Advent Outside Ourselves
12/17/2023
Advent Outside Ourselves
This is a special crossover episode with Kelsi Klembara from the podcast: "" Kelsi is also the online content manager for 1517 and mother to 3 kids. She holds an MA in Reformational Theology from Concordia University Irvine. We talk about the Advent season, and the three parts of Christ coming: coming to us in the incarnation, coming to us in word and sacrament, and coming again at the end of time. We talk about consoling one another with the gospel during this season, and focusing on the promises of God--what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. We talk about experienced waiting in this season, how theologians connect it to the end times, and living in the season of patience. We talk about the tension between preparation and waiting, and how the reformation pivoted the church's view of Advent from preparation to waiting. We talk about the connection between Advent and birth. (This episode was recorded just before Kelsi gave birth to her daugher.) We talk about the value of the Advent season, and impact that making space for these thoughts and considerations built into this church season helps us love our neighbors. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Freedom Lessons
12/12/2023
Freedom Lessons
We are interviewing Blake Flattley and Steve Zank to talk about the new "Freedom Lessons" album that they did with Flame. They talked about the thought process behind several of the songs, and how they chose various music genres to fit various parts of the small catechism. They talk about how the battle wrap performed by Flame and Loso to show the battle between old Adam and new Adam, the use of folk music to look at the promises of God, and thinking of not just the words to fit the message, but the notes and tempo to fit the message. This is an all star album, with various artists coming together to artistically express the wrestling and honest questions encountered in Luther's Small Catechism. This project is framing the catechism, not as something that needs to be mastered, but something that trains people to understand their Christian freedom. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Idolatry of Growth with Bob Hiller
11/24/2023
Idolatry of Growth with Bob Hiller
Gretchen and Katie have a conversation with Rev. Bob Hiller about prosperity gospel, and how it sneaks into churches in a way that we start targeting the healthy people, the young families, and those who have something to offer the church. We talk about the idolatry of growth, and how idolatry works in these scenarios. What are the goals of the church, and how can you tell if a program in the church is "working?" We discuss all of that, with lots of laughter and multiple perspectives. Bob Hiller is one of our favorite repeat guests, a pastor out in California, a co-host of the White Horse Inn podcast, on the board of 1517, and author to some great resources, like "Christ in the Straw" (which is apparently not an advent devotional). Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts: Bob Hiller's book:
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Discipline and Freedom with Chad Bird
11/16/2023
Discipline and Freedom with Chad Bird
We have Old Testament scholar, Chad Bird, on to discuss with us the ways we twist the book of Proverbs into a prosperity gospel, especially in regard to our ideas of family. This episode we talk about Proverbs 13:24, and what it means and doesn't mean to discipline our children. Rather than giving us a formula for discipline, we talk about the goals of discipline, and ways that our reliance or focus on methods misses the point of knowing and loving our particular children, and getting their attention in ways they will respond. We separate the ideas of discipline and punishment, and clarify which one God does with his children. We talk about our perceptions of pain, and ends up pointing to our wrestling with suffering, and how God disciplines us. In talking about pain, we talk about the desire of parents to just want their kids to be happy, and the unintentional pressure that puts on kids. We mention the priest Eli and his sons, and even the prophet Samuel, and what went wrong there. This ends up with us looking at what it means to be a theologian of the cross in our parenting, and calling a thing what it is, and allowing our kids to call things what they are, even if they are hard. Chad talks about how easy it is to slip into a "god-complex" as a parent, as we think our child's salvation is in our own hands, and how things go wrong in discipline when we think that we are God. The uses of pain, suffering, weakness, and limitations are not very pleasant things, but God seems to make use of them anyway, for our good. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Art and Faith BONUS episode
11/14/2023
Art and Faith BONUS episode
In this book club episode, we discuss "Art and Faith" by Makoto Fujimura. This was a book recommended to us, and we sort out the parts of this book that we appreciated, and the parts where we would disagree. Fujimura is an artist and a Christian who writes about the theology of making, and how imagination and faith interact. We talk about the Japanese influence in theology, and the struggle to translate not just words but cultural ideas. We talk about our struggle with the word "co-creator" and our love for the word "vocation." We debate our involvement with the work of God, and contemplate how Fujimura breaks down and illuminates the word author-ity. We agreed that his chapter on kintsugi is where this book shines. The taking on of someone else's shame involved in the backstory of kintsugi, and the big theme of redemption of what was broken was profound. We wrestle through this book, and process it together, and ask hard questions--which is what good art prompts us to do. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Training Up a Child with Chad Bird
11/08/2023
Training Up a Child with Chad Bird
As we discuss ways that prosperity gospel sneaks into the family, we decided to start off by looking at the book of Proverbs, as these are often the verses that are cherry picked and often used to take prosperity gospel ideas in regard to the family. We invited Old Testament scholar, Chad Bird to discuss the book of Proverbs. He talks about how it is a book of observations, not promises or commands. What does a life look like when it is designed under the order of God? He talks about what happens when we take the Proverbs to be what they are not, which is the case of Job's friends, who took general truths and applied them toward Job's pain and circumstances. We look at the verse: Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Is this a promise? Can we control our child's salvation? What does it mean to train up a child? Chad explains the Hebrew word for "train up" in regard to children, that gives a twist of what we often think. We talk about our continuous desire to control the situation, and how that's not going on here. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
/episode/index/show/freelygiven/id/28559939
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Prosperity Gospel and the Family
10/30/2023
Prosperity Gospel and the Family
This is an episode done in front of a live audience at the 2023 "Here We Still Stand" Conference in San Diego, California. Katie and Gretchen kick off a new series talking about prosperity gospel, and the way that it sneaks into our idea of families. Do you get extra sanctified in marriage? Will getting people married off save the church and our culture? What if you do everything right and your children still walk away from the faith? What sorts of beliefs do we hold that if we do certain things the way they should be done, our life will turn out well? They seek to give assurance in Christ, and Christ alone. Freely Given: Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Humility vs. Insecurity
10/20/2023
Humility vs. Insecurity
This week, Gretchen and Katie talk about what it means to be humble, as opposed to feeling insecure in our vocations. Insecurity and pride are actually closely related, as we become consumed with people's view of us, instead of finding our security and identity in the love of God. When we are rooted and established in the love of God, we are free to serve our neighbor. But as we serve our neighbor, it's so easy to slip into wondering what our neighbors think about us, how we are being perceived, and become consumed with acheiving our goals, or consumed with our failures to reach our goals. As an example, they talk about the writing and speaking world, where those who want to write, or want to speak go through various swings between insecurity and arrogance, as the goals to climb to greatness is a rocky one. There are coaches who try to help us believe that we are great, so that we can become great. But all of it is futile, when it is about us, and not about serving our neighbor. The also use parenting as and example of how we struggle with this perception of ourselves. Humility is driven by reality, and roots us in reality, whereas insecurity and pride are rooted in what we wish is true, or what we fear is true. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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People Pleasing or Loving Your Neighbor
10/10/2023
People Pleasing or Loving Your Neighbor
Gretchen and Katie talk through a listener suggested topic of people pleasing. They talk about their own struggles in this area, and how people pleasing can be the opposite of vocation, or interfere with vocation. They theorize why this is a constant struggle, and walk through what vocation is, and what vocation isn't. How do you know if you are loving your neighbor, or you're just trying to be liked, or the popular person? Then there's the struggle to be good at something, and want to go all in, but needing to set boundaries for the sake of our neighbor. This episode is personal and practical, as they both share their struggle with this, and watching others struggle with it as well. Freely Given: Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
/episode/index/show/freelygiven/id/28275863
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A Tumblin Down BONUS episode
10/05/2023
A Tumblin Down BONUS episode
We are discussing the book "A Tumblin' Down" by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson. (Our September book club book.) This is a fiction book about a pastor's family. This book starts with a pastor wrestling with a passage of scripture that doesn't fit well into his theological framework, and trying to figure out how to pull a sermon from it. Each person in this family goes through seasons of struggling with their faith both from their past, and in the present. But when this family is forced to grieve publically, and their faith gets put to the test, gossip overtakes the church as to how they are grieving, and how they should have handled their grief. This gossip leads to a tension that will either drive the pastor's family out, or cause a church split. As this family starts to crumble under the pressure, an unlikely friendship with a pastor from communist East Germany enters the picture. This book had us laughing and crying. The description of church people, while a fiction book, has so much truth. Freely Given: Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
/episode/index/show/freelygiven/id/28235222
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The Offensive Gospel with Mike Cosper
09/28/2023
The Offensive Gospel with Mike Cosper
We invited our friend, Mike Cosper back on to talk about his article he recently wrote for Christianity Today about Tim Keller. He quotes Tim for saying that the point of contextualization isn't to make the gospel more palatable, but but make the offense of the gospel clear. We discuss what it means that the gospel is offensive, and what it means to contextualize it. For many years, it has been assumed that the culture in America was a Christian culture, but there's a contextualization we must learn to do when we see the world around us as unaware and confused by any context for the gospel. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts: Mike Cosper's article on Tim Keller: also, his article he mentions working on in the podcast about a Marxist view of history:
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Vocation in Postpartum
09/21/2023
Vocation in Postpartum
We finally finish up our conversation on birth by talking about postpartum and breastfeeding vs formula. Putting it in the context of the doctrine vocation, they speak freedom into all of the guilt that women feel during this vulnerable time. We talk about pride we have in soldiering through, shame we feel in failure, shame with give to others, and the illusion of keeping up the supermom routine. We talk about respecting the humanness of individuals, and living in the grace and freedom that God freely gives. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts:
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Pain and Sanctification
09/19/2023
Pain and Sanctification
Gretchen Ronnevik and Katie Koplin discuss today the issue of pain in childbirth, and whether or not taking pain medication during childbirth effects your sanctification, or your moral standing. After overwhelming response from our last episode, there's some more things they'd like to say to encourage. They sort out the truth from the lies about sanctification itself, and what happens when we put that pressure on ourselves. We talk about God using ALL things for our good, not just painful things. They talk about expectations, birth plans, and knowing that God will be with you no matter what, not just in certain outcomes. Show Notes: What’s New from 1517: More from the hosts: Our next book club book for the month of September:
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