Where Life & Scripture Meet: A Biblical Counseling Podcast
Why do we have a biblical counseling podcast? Well, the reason why we’re doing a podcast specifically on life and Scripture meeting is simple. At times, we all struggle with how real life and Scripture actually meet. However, as Christians, we have the privilege and challenge of exploring how the Bible gives words of life and perspective for the complexities of our current day. From dealing with extreme trauma, all the way to growing in the skill of daily rest, I hope you’ll join me, Alasdair Groves, in musing about how Scripture really does meet us in day-to-day life, and that it will be as energizing to your walk with the Lord as it has been to mine. Welcome to the CCEF Podcast: Where Life and Scripture Meet.
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Season 3, Episode 10: Making Sense of Self-Pity
“It is hard to speak to the Lord about your sufferings and to lament and to honestly go to him and say, ‘Lord, this is hurting in my heart, on my soul.’ We rarely step into relationship in that way, and it's a struggle. It's a challenge, and it's a good, right, excellent challenge to come to him as the one who really does care.”
What is self-pity, and how should we view it? How can we turn our self-pity into godly lament that engages honestly with the Lord? Listen as Alasdair Groves discusses self-pity and considers what to do when we or others are struggling with it.
Season 3, Episode 9: Does Love Always Trust?
"Only the Lord is deserving of full, utter trust. We have a God we can trust 100% in every situation to be who he says he will be. And that means we can always trust whatever he’s up to in another person.”
What does it mean that “love trusts all things,” as 1 Corinthians 13:7 says? How do we show an appropriate level of trust in others, and when are the times we shouldn’t? Listen as Alasdair Groves discusses what it means that “love always trusts.”
Bonus Episode: Interview with Collin Hansen
Alasdair Groves speaks with Collin Hansen about his new book, Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation, and the influences on Tim Keller, which included CCEF and David Powlison.
Collin Hansen is the vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics.
Season 3, Episode 8: The Church Is Doing Better than We Think
"The church has been through a thousand seasons where it's torn itself apart over the ages. But grace is always the center. God's love is always the center that draws his people back together. Let your eyes look for the ways where truth and hope and love and kindness and fellowship are gifts to you through your brothers and sisters, from Jesus himself."
When we think about the state of the church today, the negatives often come to mind. While there is much to be grieved about and much change that needs to take place, there is much to be encouraged by when you look at how God is working through local churches around the world. Listen as Alasdair Groves considers some of the reasons not to give up on the church.
Season 3, Episode 7: Are You Over It?
"The goal is not to endlessly process and be navel gazers who spend our lives trying to think through our experience. We'll never process anything exhaustively. We'll always be learning and growing."
What does it mean to "get over something"? After enduring a difficult situation, how do we know if we’ve processed it wisely? Listen as Alasdair Groves discusses some steps we can consider as we grieve and heal.
Season 3, Episode 6: When You Feel Numb
“Each one of us will face different struggles, but for each of us, there's an opportunity to walk toward the Lord and walk toward each other. If you experience a lack of emotion, that in and of itself is always an opportunity to speak to the Lord and to speak to others.”
What do we do when we don’t seem to feel much emotion? How can we understand this experience, and what is God’s call to us in it? Listen as Alasdair Groves talks about the experience of numb emotions.
Season 3, Episode 5: Redeeming Your Smartphone
“My phone was pointing me directly to the glories and the riches and the treasures of God's promises to us, fulfilled so directly and so richly through the Holy Spirit, even in things as simple as what I was doing as I swiped or scrolled or sent a text or did a hundred other things that we do every day.”
Season 3, Episode 4: When God Is Silent
“Sometimes, we will listen and we will hear silence. We will look around, and we will not see him or what he is up to, and we will not know what to make of our circumstances, but here’s what we do know: we walk with the God who preserves his people. The God who stores our tears in a bottle is the God who knows our names and who shapes our names and our circumstances and will always be among us.”
What do we do when God is silent? How do we have hope when it feels like he is absent? Listen as Alasdair Groves considers God’s seeming silence for 400 years of history between the Old and New Testaments, and how even then, God’s care is never diminished.
Season 3, Episode 3: Don't Lead Your Wife; Serve Her
“One of your greatest goals as a man whom the Lord has called into marriage is to maximize your wife’s opportunities to use her gifts within the context of her life and community. You ask, ‘How can I help her flourish?’ That is serving her; that is leading her.”
Scripture calls husbands to lead their wives. But what does this look like? How do we know if we’re leading our wives well? Listen as Alasdair Groves talks about what it looks like to focus on serving our wives rather than focusing on our role as leader.
Season 3, Episode 2: When You Can't Sleep
“We have a God who loves, cares, and knows, and I can rest utterly in the hope that he will be with me, he will walk with me, and he will provide. He will care for every last moment of my day tomorrow as I am exhausted.”
Do you ever have nights where you can’t sleep? Whatever the reason may be, struggling to sleep is a form of suffering. Alasdair Groves explores what it looks like to lean on the Lord when we can’t sleep, assured that he is near and he cares.
Season 3, Episode 1: Grief Is Worship
“Grief is an endless invitation to taste and see the goodness of God, without rush, without shame, without stoically holding back tears, but rather to worship the one who is the giver of every good gift and who will keep giving those gifts into all eternity.”
In the first episode of season 3, Alasdair Groves talks about how grief is not something to run from, be ashamed of, or try to get rid of, but grief is an invitation to worship God as the giver of every good gift.
Season 2
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Season 1
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Stories from Saints, Sufferers, & Sinners
Join Mike Emlet in listening to stories from saints, sufferers, and sinners in CCEF’s new mini-podcast series.
CCEF Where Life & Scripture Meet: A Biblical Counseling Podcast
