Lisa Harper's Back Porch Theology

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re diving deep into the biblical concept of atonement – which the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible describes as: the act by which God and man are brought together in personal relationship. The term atonement is derived from Anglo-Saxon words meaning “making at one,” hence “at-one-ment.” It presupposes a separation or alienation that needs to be overcome if human beings are to know God and enjoy a relationship with Him. In Romans 5:11, Apostle Paul frames it like this: And not only that, but we shall also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement – which in many Bible translations is called the reconciliation. Now, we want to make a wee qualification before we commence conversating because there are as many theories of atonement as there are ice cream flavors at Baskin Robbins. We don’t have enough time or thick enough skin to delve into all of the nuances of atonement, much less whether it’s limited or universal so we’re taking the risk of being equal opportunity offenders to both hyper-Calvinists and enthusiastic Arminians! But the theological axis we are going to unify around today is how through His vicarious, substitutionary, and sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus atoned for our sin and satisfied the demands of God’s perfect justice. In other words, we believe Scripture clearly reveals that we can’t save ourselves so our Heavenly Father mercifully sent His only begotten Son to pay the price humanity couldn’t possibly afford so as to reconcile us to Himself. Easter was a “consequent absolute necessity.” This episode might feel a bit like drinking from a firehose, so please grab a big cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or practicing roping steers, of course – and come hang out on the porch with us!  Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast @LisaDHarper @AllisonAllen @Jim.Howard.Co  Sponsored by Talk About from Awana. Get 1 month free at TalkAboutDiscipleship.com keyword Lisa Harper Save on the Dwell Bible App at dwellapp.io/LisaHarper  See "Jesus" for free on Sight and Sound TV. Learn more at Sight-Sound.TV

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re discussing all things anthropomorphic – which in the theological realm involves the oft feeble attempt to use human context and metaphor to describe what is divine and transcendent. And we’re doing so to responsibly frame the thesis that our Creator Redeemer is not uniformly angry or solemn but instead expresses sheer delight within the perfect Trinitarian “perichoresis” kind of relationship that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit enjoy with each other, and also with us - His prone to wander people. If you grew up like me with the wrong assumption that the Bible is an altogether somber rulebook and our Savior is an unsmiling grump, then today’s episode might just help you understand how orthodox Christianity and the concept of a smiling Savior are not mutually exclusive! Praise God, some of y’all are gonna get free today, baby! So please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or grinding your own wheat, of course – and come hang out on the porch with us!  Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast @LisaDHarper @AllisonAllen @Jim.Howard.Co  Sponsored by Talk About from Awana. Get 1 month free at TalkAboutDiscipleship.com keyword Lisa Harper Save on the Dwell Bible App at dwellapp.io/LisaHarper

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology – the fourth in our “Wild About Jesus” series – we’re going to talk about how Apostle Paul compared the Christ to the dude who started that whole fig-leaves-for-pants trend when he referred to our Savior as the “Second Adam.” Which sounds like he was casting Jesus as a sort of new and improved “version” of mankind, doesn’t it? Like adding Christological chorizo to queso or something to make it better. But that’s not Paul’s point at all, y’all. Instead, his systematic compare-and-contrast language leads to the theological truism that Jesus was God’s original gameplan to redeem humanity all along. We’re going to be pounding nails to shore up some awesome doctrinal scaffolding today y’all, so please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or trying not to fall over while peeling off a pair of Spanx in the narrow stall of a public restroom, of course – and come hang out on the porch with us.  Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast @LisaDHarper @AllisonAllen @Jim.Howard.Co  Save on the Dwell Bible App at dwellapp.io/LisaHarper

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology – the third in our “Wild About Jesus” series – we’re going to talk about the fact that Jesus is a proven historical figure. In fact, there’s overwhelming evidence about the work and person of Jesus Christ from numerous non-Christian sources from the earliest centuries of the Common Era! In his book, The Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, pastor and theologian Dr. Tim Keller writes about a man who told a pastor he’d be happy to believe in Christianity if the pastor could give him a watertight argument for its legitimacy. The pastor replied, "What if God hasn’t given us a watertight argument, but rather a watertight person.” Dr. Keller goes on to say that faith and certainty grow as we get to know more about Jesus – who He is and what He did. If someone you love has serious doubts about the historicity of Jesus and you feel like you’ve hit a dead end when it comes to talking with them about Christianity, today’s conversation might help you re-engage with them. So please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or changing the oil on your John Deere, of course – and come hang out on the porch with Ally, Dr. Howard and me!  Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast @LisaDHarper @AllisonAllen @Jim.Howard.Co

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology – the second in our “Wild About Jesus” series – we’re going to dive deep into the Christological doctrine concerning our Savior’s absolute deity and His perfect humanity, which is summed up in the term – hypostatic union. That fancy phrase dates all the way back to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, where it was determined that the Son of God was of the exact same substance as God the Father, as well as being indisputably human simultaneously! That despite our Redeemer’s habit of hugging on lepers and hanging out with disreputable sinners so as to save them, His compassionate relationship with flawed humanity in no way meant Jesus was a lesser form or diluted derivative of Yaweh. Dr. J.I. Packer says it best: He took humanity without the loss of deity. This truism is a foundational wall of biblical orthodoxy, y’all so please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or hand-painting quail eggs, of course – and come hang out on the porch with Ally, Dr. Howard and me! Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast @LisaDHarper @AllisonAllen @Jim.Howard.Co

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology – which is the very first episode of our second season so please forgive Ally, Dr. Howard and me if we sound gob-smacked with grateful joy but we just can’t help it because we’re over the moon that we get to continue this adventure with y’all - we’re going to begin an 8-week series that revolves around our Redeemer so we’re calling it “Wild About Jesus.” We’re gonna put the “Christ” into “Christocentric” baby! Now for those of you who’ve just recently joined this spiritual shindig, please know our goal here on Back Porch Theology is to dive into substantive biblical exegesis and spiritual formation but not be too stuffy in the process. That’s why we call it Back Porch Theology – because while you can hang with your friends on the front porch, those places tend to be all neat and tidy in light of their visibility to neighbors and passersby. But the Back Porch is a place where you can totally relax with your closest friends and talk and rock to your heart’s content. Plus, remember the Greek root words of theology are theos, which refers to God, and logos, which refers to words or conversation. So theology was never meant to be a boring, academic pursuit, it was meant to be lived! The bottom line is, here at BPT we’re all about having honest, biblically sound conversations about God, punctuated by lots of stories and a belly laugh or two - it's a pretty safe place to learn more about our Creator Redeemer and hopefully lean more fully into your relationship with Him. So please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or cutting your own bangs, of course – and come hang out on the porch with us! Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast @LisaDHarper @AllisonAllen @Jim.Howard.Co Back Porch Theology Goes Home-Christian Tour to Israel-March 21-31, 2023

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to sift back through the rapture and rupture of our first year of podcasting – we can hardly believe this is our 52nd week of BPT! We’re going to revisit some really cool theological concepts like orthodoxy, orthopraxy and orthopathy and I will surely mispronounce a multi-syllabic term or two because if you’ve spent even a short amount of time hanging out on the proverbial porch with us, you know that bloopers are a big part of our repertoire! But there’s a biblical method to our happy madness today as well, because in Revelation 12, the evil one is depicted as an angry dragon because our Savior’s sword is poking out of his nasty, scaly chest so that lying lizard knows his time is short. Revelation 12 also explains that the devil is defeated by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. In other words, when we talk about the good things God has done and is doing, we effectively plunge King Jesus’ sword deeper into his evil chest! Therefore, Ally and Dr. Howard and I are going to thoroughly enjoy some lizard torture today, because we’re gob-smacked by the grace God has lavished on us, as well as the gift of community He's given us with y’all and we can’t wait to TEST-TI-FY all about it! So please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or doing the Electric Slide with your small group, of course – and come hang out on the porch with us! Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast@LisaDHarper@AllisonAllen@Jim.Howard.Co Back Porch Theology is sponsored in part by Dwell Bible App. Save 30% off Dwell for Life at DwellApp.io/Lisa Harper.  Back Porch Theology Goes Home-Christian Tour to Israel-March 21-31, 2023 

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Ally and I are beginning 2023 with fresh resolve to lean more fully into the love of Jesus Christ! Our goal is to grow in our devotion to God, as well as to have more wisdom regarding how to prune that which (and those who) diverts or distracts us from Him. According to recent polls, losing weight is a perennial top ten New Year’s resolution and I hope to drop a few pounds myself…but man, how much more fulfilling would it be to drop ten or fifteen pounds of toxic, emotional baggage, y’all? So please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or still peeling off the Spanx from that New Year’s Eve party, of course – and come hang out on the porch with Alli, Dr. Howard, Belle and me! Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast@LisaDHarper@AllisonAllen@Jim.Howard.Co Back Porch Theology is sponsored in part by Dwell Bible App. Save 30% off Dwell for Life at DwellApp.io/Lisa Harper.  Back Porch Theology Goes Home-Christian Tour to Israel-March 21-31, 2023

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to dive into the joy-saturated stories of Anna and Simeon, two geriatric saints who never gave up hope that they’d meet the Messiah before they met their Maker. And we’re going to compare and contrast the solo Simeon warbled after meeting 7-week-old baby Jesus with Mary’s Magnificat – the gorgeous praise chorus she sang after Gabriel gave her the shock of a lifetime by proclaiming that although she hadn’t graduated from high school yet, Yaweh had chosen her to carry the Christ! You’re gonna be so stoked when you find out how those two ancient songs reveal the supernaturally comforting Trinitarian-nature of that first Advent! This episode might just help banish your post-Christmas blues better than chips and queso, y’all – which is a huge endorsement coming from me. So please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or secretly dragging your Christmas tree to some vacationing neighbor’s backyard burn pile, of course – and come hang out on the porch with Alli, Dr. Howard and me! Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast@LisaDHarper@AllisonAllen@Jim.Howard.Co Back Porch Theology is sponsored in part by Dwell Bible App. Save 30% off Dwell for Life at DwellApp.io/Lisa Harper.  Back Porch Theology Goes Home-Christian Tour to Israel-March 21-31, 2023

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to peruse the 400 Silent Years between the Old Testament and New Testament – which is formally called the Intertestamental Period – when God’s voice was not recorded. It’s tempting for us to associate silence with sadness, even badness, especially during seasons like Christmas when it seems the world around us is in an emotionally noisy, celebratory mood. However, biblical narrative kicks our assumption to the curb because over and over again in Scripture silence is the prelude to a miracle. Plus, learning to trust God’s sovereign mercy while waiting in the quiet often led to a wonder that far exceeded our ancestor’s faith. Abraham and Sarah became parents to Issac – the beginning of the theocracy of Israel – when Abe was 100 years old and surely at least a smidge deaf in one ear; Issac and Rebekah prayed for children for two decades before giving birth to those infamous twins, Jacob and Esau; Manoah and his wife gave birth to Samson when they were so old, they were on daily statins and wearing bifocals; and when Elizabeth got pregnant with John the Baptist – the human symbolism of Christmas Eve because he was the forerunner of the Christ – she was advanced in age, meaning she’d spent long seasons wondering if God was immune to her anguish. The deepest hope often grows in the darkest places. So please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you’re driving or bridling a reindeer, of course – and come hang out on the porch with Alli, Dr. Howard and me! Follow Us On Instagram! @BackPorchTheologyPodcast@LisaDHarper@AllisonAllen@Jim.Howard.Co Back Porch Theology is sponsored in part by Dwell Bible App. Save 30% off Dwell for Life at DwellApp.io/Lisa Harper.  Back Porch Theology Goes Home-Christian Tour to Israel-March 21-31, 2023