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The Bible is an amazing, potentially life changing, collection of literature. It’s been inspirational for thousands of years - and some say you can hear God through it. In this podcast, we’re going to share our experiences of listening through the Bible at a boxset binge pace. We’re going to engage with it and let it move us. The journey will take us through time and space with some of history’s most remarkable characters and world-shaping ideas. Who knows how differently we’ll see life alon ...
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first 19 chapters of the book of Deuteronomy. This name means that it’s a repeat of the law described in the first few books of the Bible. Why is it there? The perspective isn’t quite the same as the first time this law was described, and seeing something from more than angle can make…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the New Testament letters to the Hebrews, the Thessalonians, Titus and Philemon. What does faith look like for Jewish believers in Jesus as their promised anointed saviour? Hebrews is the name we give to a letter written to the first such believers, and it connects their inherited identit…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the final chapters of the book of Isaiah and Psalms 79 to 89, some of which reflect how people shared difficult experiences with God. What does it mean to rely on God, and why is this important? Israel suffered through much of its history. While maintaining religious and legal systems whi…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the chapters 28 to 49 of the book of Isaiah. When was the last time you thought about how amazing it is that people - including us - can hear from God? How can we know we hear from the real God, and don’t just replay our own ideas about life? Isaiah gives lots of guidance on this to peopl…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah. Can we imagine the horror and trauma of national exile? How would we feel and what would we do to try and feel better about ourselves and our future if it happened to us? From a distance, we could look at Isaiah’s words of God’s judgement and c…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about Paul’s guidance to the church in his letters 2 Corinthians, Philippians and Colossians. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians had been harsh, strict and apparently hurtful to some in that church in some ways, and in this follow-up, we get to see more of Paul’s heart - what did he really …
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the end of the story in the books of Kings, along with Psalms 73 to 78. The big, tragic message of this part of the story is that God’s people ended up exiled from their promised land, and the main reason given for this was their turning away from God. Looking at how this happened, there …
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the middle of the story in the books of Kings. History is often told in terms of leaders, what they did and how their power influenced the world, but in this part of a story of corrupt leadership, the focus moves to prophets Elijah and Elisha. They were given power from God to help ordina…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first part of the book of Kings. It can be hard to know what to make of these stories of life after King David. Characters like Solomon are awesome and sometimes live in ways we would love to have part of, but they are also complex and flawed. Drawing moral conclusions from what they …
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and both of his letters to a young leader, Timothy. After stressing to believers in Christ the importance of freedom from the law, why does Paul seem to be setting a lot of rules for the church in Corinth? Positioned at the intersection of lands and …
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about several “minor” prophets with major messages in the Old Testament, as well as Psalms 66 to 72. We often think of the word “righteous” as quite religious or worthy in a traditional way, but when God’s prophets called people to righteousness, it looks like the major concern was how people w…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the Old Testament prophets Hosea and Joel, and Psalms 52 to 65. What does God want most from people? Some parts of the Bible make it look like religious practice is the most important thing, while others make following rules in the rest of life seem vital over everything else. But when Go…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about wisdom in the Old Testament including Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and Proverbs chapters 19 to 26. Is the Bible an instruction book? It seems vital to review this before considering the wisdom literature, because that will shape our view on the role of what is written there. If the Bible i…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the end of Matthew’s gospel, chapters 21 to 28, as well as Paul’s letters to the Galatians and Ephesians. The gospel story of Jesus reveals a lot about what God really wants for people and the misunderstandings which arise when people think this is all about religion, ceremonies, sacrific…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about Matthew’s gospel, chapters 1 to 20. This seems written to introduce Jesus as part of his Jewish family, with a special place and purpose as a descendant of King David. Israel in Jesus’ time was divided over how to solve the problems of Roman occupation and see the kingdom of God restore t…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about 2 Samuel chapters 11 to 24 and Psalms 42 to 51. After the rise of King David came corruption which affected him, the community around him, and his family. We can only guess what was in his mind when he acted on his desire for another man’s wife, but we can see what was in his heart after …
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about 1 Samuel chapter 21 through to 2 Samuel chapter 10. The rise of King David is inspiring, like a hero story, although with some tragic twists to come. David’s initial struggles don’t just show his character as he hopes and trusts in God, but he meets creatively with God and ends up express…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first book of Samuel, chapters 1 to 20. What sort of kingdom did God want to build, and how was this shown when it worked well, and not so well? The rules had been set about who was meant to do what, but Samuel was a surprising addition to the line of priests who would mediate between…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the books of Ruth and Esther, as well as Proverbs chapters 10 to 18. What does it mean to be Jewish, or part of any meaningful group? The stories of Ruth and Esther are perspectives on this, both celebrated for what they can show us about faith, courage, loss and redemption, but differing…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the book of Judges. There are lots of gory stories which aren’t suitable for Sunday School (Bern shares an embarrassing Dad moment…) and it’s hard to find good role models, but perhaps Gideon comes close in the way he consults and responds to God, ready to do surprising things with humili…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the book of Joshua. At face value, this story of the establishment of Israel in its promised land is a combination of glory and horror - there is new life for God’s people, but a lot of death for almost everyone else. It’s important to consider how people at the time would have heard and …
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the book of Job. In lots of ways, this is a puzzling story that might seem not to fit well into the Bible - although that might depend on how we read the rest of the Bible. If we think it has given us explanations of why things work and rules we can follow with predictable results, we mig…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the gospel according to Mark. Looking at the history leading up to the time of Jesus, they reflect on the significance of Jesus' life and what it meant to live in and look forward to the kingdom of God. Where was, and is, the "battlefront" that establishes it? Between nations, between peo…
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In a bonus episode for Easter, Bern Leckie and Claire Lynch discuss the different views available in the Bible on the meaning and purpose of Jesus' death, as well as his resurrection and what these mean for us. We could regard the whole business as mystery, or pick a clear and simple explanation. One which is widely shared is "penal substitutionary…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the end of the book of Numbers, chapters 17 to 36. What’s so important about giving glory to God, or credit where it’s due to anyone? Bern shares his experiences of the difference that people sharing credit for their sources makes to workplaces. It took him a long time to make the connect…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the start of the book of Numbers, chapters 1 to 16, as well as Psalms 38 to 41. Numbers can be a tricky book to make sense of, seeming like a patchwork of pictures shared for different purposes which might not fit together as neatly as we think they should. But these purposes are importan…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the end of the book of Leviticus, chapters 16 to 27, and the start of Proverbs, chapters 1 to 9. It can seem hard to make sense of some ancient laws, and even harder to know what to make of their relevance to us today. Leviticus describes a covenant set out by a powerful Lord as condition…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the start of the book of Leviticus, chapters 1 to 15, and Psalms 29 to 37. There is a lot to talk about here, including the role Leviticus played in the lives of its original audience. While many have understood it to be the source of statute law, both modern scholarship and the rest of t…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the end of the book of Exodus, chapters 23 to 40. People see Moses go up a fearsome looking mountain into God’s presence, and there is a lot to discuss about what it means to be in the presence of God - how do we experience this today? Two contrasting stories emerge in this part of Exodus…
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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the beginning of the book of Exodus, chapters 1 to 22. There is a lot of important story to process here, beginning with the loss of good relationship between Egypt and the family of Israel, but with changes coming thanks to what God does through Moses. It’s the foundational story of Isra…
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In this episode, Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the end of the book of Genesis, chapters 45 to 50, and Psalms 1 to 28. The story of Joseph ends in a good place relationally, with reconciliation, forgiveness and restoration - it’s a picture of hope. But it’s also clear that there is more to come, both for Israel’s famil…
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We’re on a boxset binge through the Bible, and in this episode, Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the middle of the book of Genesis, chapters 25 to 44. This could be well described as a family story and, as with many families, it can get a bit messy. Far from being a set of neat moral tales, it’s an account of people caus…
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We’re on a boxset binge through the Bible, and in this episode, Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the very beginning, Genesis chapters 1 to 24. What is described at the start of the Bible has been the subject of much discussion over centuries. People take different views on interpreting it, but most agree that it is an aw…
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We’re on a boxset binge through the Bible, and in this episode, Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about Acts of the Apostles, chapters 10 to 28. Peter gets a mind-blowing revelation from God which ends up changing how believers in Jesus saw themselves, other people, and the whole purpose of religion and its laws. This story is …
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We’re on a boxset binge through the Bible, and in this episode, Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the Luke’s Gospel chapters 15 to 24 and its sequel, Acts of the Apostles, chapters 1 to 9. Luke’s story about Jesus and the surprisingly inclusive Kingdom of God continues with demonstrations of the power God wants people to …
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We've started on a boxset binge through the Bible, and in this episode, Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about Luke's gospel chapters 1 to 14. Luke is telling a story which is rooted in Jewish beliefs and customs, but turns out to be inclusive for everyone. In a difficult time, Jesus seems to challenge every authority and offe…
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In the first week of our boxset binge, we're introduced to Jesus by Luke, telling his story for the benefit of people who were interested in the God of the Jews, but were not themselves Jewish. Our suggestion is to listen to the first 14 chapters of Luke's Gospel this week - they'll take about an hour and forty minutes (at 1x speed) from our recomm…
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The Bible is an amazing collection of literature which some say can help us hear God. It has a big story, told through lots of smaller stories. It's full of engaging characters who are each part of something much bigger than themselves. In this podcast, Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch discuss how listening through the whole Bible, and noticing how it ma…
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Why approach the Bible like a boxset binge? Dan Green and Bern Leckie discuss the benefits of listening to the Bible, doing more chatting and sharing than studying, and getting on with life while boxset bingeing instead of only having sacred quiet times. It's an approach we're going to take as we binge the whole Bible throughout 2024, with weekly e…
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