Lisa Harper's Back Porch Theology

The older I get, the more convinced I am that admittedly flawed sinners are the most credible witnesses of the Gospel, because blemished believers can’t fake moral superiority. Our scars make it glaringly apparent that we couldn’t protect ourselves from harm. Authentic Christian warriors with scabby knees, bruised hearts, and even track-marked arms, who sometimes stumble yet always grab onto the arm of Holy Spirit in order to stand up again and again, exemplify the redemptive power of divine grace. We prove how miraculous and restorative the love of God really is. We know we can’t make it by ourselves and can only keep ourselves together because of the miraculous redemption King Jesus provided for us on the cross. In his book, Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning wrote, “On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars.” Today on Back Porch Theology, Alli, Dr. Howard and I are rolling up our sleeves to show you our scars in the hopes they’ll help you lean more fully into the embrace of Jesus – the One with the loveliest nail prints in His hands and His feet.

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to effectively swab the cheek of our belief system and do a DNA test to explore our spiritual ancestry. Alli, Dr. Howard and I are going to take you on a journey all the way back to the birth of Christianity and explore the foundations of our faith. We’re going to make several cool stops on this tour of biblical orthodoxy, including a visit to where Emperor Constantine put his hope in Jesus and discover how his salvation shifted the entire course of redemptive history. Then we’ll mosey on down to the Council of Nicaea – where a group of spiritual leaders first gathered to hammer out the core doctrines of our faith and kick heresies to the curb so this whole fledgling belief system called Christianity didn’t come flying off the rails. For those of you who are relatively new to Christianity or even those of you who’ve been walking with Jesus a long time but still feel a tad wobbly when it comes to understanding why we believe what we believe, today’s going to be like the spiritual version of a downward dog pose – it’s going to strengthen your core. So please grab a cold drink, a warm snack and your Bible and come hang out on the porch with us – we love getting to spend this time with you!You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!

If you could see Alli’s and my faces during our conversation on Back Porch Theology today, you’d see that we’re both wearing ear to ear grins because we get to spend the next forty-five or so minutes with y’all in one of our favorite playgrounds, which is the land of multi-syllabic theological terms! Now for those of you who aren’t as prone to wind-baggy-ness as we are, please, please, please don’t press delete yet - I promise there’s some awesome gold nuggets in the proverbial dirt we’re panning today! Because while a large theological vocabulary in itself isn’t exactly scintillating, the biblical truisms and characteristics of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit – the terms we’re going to talk about represent – are wildly encouraging for those of us who’re steadily stumbling further into divine grace. One of my favorite pretend and posthumous boyfriends – German theologian Dr. Helmut Thielicke – once said, “Unless a theology works at the margins of life, it’s not worth anything even if it makes sense at the easy center.” Some of the core Christian beliefs we’ll be riffing about today are like step-by-step directions regarding how to safely and joyfully navigate the messy margins of life with our faith not only intact but galvanized. Because God is not a proposition to be studied, y’all – He’s a Good Shepherd with whom we get to engage and follow! So please grab a tall, iced oat milk mocha with whip – or whatever your personal favorite go-go juice is – plus your Bible and a journal, then pull your chair right up here on the porch for some lively and life-giving conversation with us!You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!Sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% at BetterHelp.com/LisaHarper

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is both confessional and convicting because we’re talking about the difference between discernment – which can be loosely described as the ability to tell the difference between right from wrong - and criticism – which is primarily focused on finding fault in others. A young Christian recently asked me, “What’s the difference between ‘seeing sin’ in someone else’s life and confronting it, and having a critical spirit?” I told her I thought the key distinction between recognizing and confronting behavior that’s ungodly in someone else and criticizing others is the posture of our own hearts. Are we aware of other people’s mistakes because they trust us and have confided in us, or have we appointed ourselves as the “moral police” so as to justify examining blemishes in everyone else’s behavior? First Corinthians chapter five explains that part of our job description as ambassadors of Christ is to help restore those who’ve been tripped up by sin back into a redemptive relationship with God, not try to elevate ourselves by exposing other people’s flaws! If you feel like you’ve taken more than your fair share of lashes from a sharp tongue or you’ve got a tendency to nit-pick others yourself, we hope you’ll get some much-needed relief today or maybe even a necessary but non-condemning course correction. So please grab your favorite drink, a snack, and your Bible then pull your chair up to the porch – we’re really happy we get to hang out with y’all.You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!Sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% at BetterHelp.com/LisaHarper

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re talking about this engaging, exciting, captivating, compelling, LIFE-GIVING, divine love story we call the Bible. Far too many of us have sat under pastors, priests, teachers, and spiritual leaders who’ve communicated God’s Word with the same level of passion a court reporter has when recording HOA litigation over a homeowner’s grass being one half of an inch above the neighborhood standard. While others of us have had the imperatives in God’s Word applied to our lives in such punitive ways that we can’t help thinking of it as a rigid book of rules that we’ll surely get whacked over the head with. However, both of those extremes are gross misuses of the Bible – it was never intended to be used primarily for discipline or for memorizing religious data, and it’s not just a collection of morality tales like Aesop’s Fables, either. From the very beginning, Scripture invites and impels us to lean into a real, loving relationship with God. Just as He breathed air into Adam’s lungs to jumpstart humanity, He breathed these words into being so that we could have LIFE and have it more abundantly. If you’ve secretly thought the Bible was a wee bit boring, or maybe just inscrutable like those teensy-weensy printed directions regarding how to set up your new Wi-Fi router, today’s episode is going to be a Little Mermaid moment for you – it’s going to open you up to a whole new world! So please grab a cup of iced coffee and your Bible – unless you’ve got both hands full trying to recoil the garden hose that your teenager put back on the reel all wonky and lopsided! – and come hang out on the porch with us.You can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!Sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% at BetterHelp.com/LisaHarper

Dive into a heartfelt discussion on the impact of moral failures among spiritual leaders. Explore the emotional challenges believers face when their mentors fall, while finding hope in the journey of faith. Delve into the complexities of accountability, compassion, and the need for humility in leadership. Discover the importance of lamentation and community as a source of healing. This conversation urges a thoughtful and caring response to failures, promoting understanding and connection within the faith community.

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is like getting to eat dessert before the entree because Alli and I get to sit down with my long-term spiritual mentor, Scotty Smith. Scotty became my pastor when I moved to Nashville in my early twenties - almost forty years ago. He was also the adjunct professor at Covenant Seminary and shepherded me through a master of theological studies during my first seminary stint back in my thirties. He’s been my pastor, professor and spiritual big brother for three and a half decades now and getting to sit at his feet and learn more about Jesus remains one of God’s great gifts in my life! And while Scotty is one of the most brilliant theologians I’ve had the privilege of learning from, he’s also very transparent about how he spent the first half of his adult life accruing and disseminating biblical data because he didn’t know how to have relational intimacy with God, much less anybody else. However, our Creator Redeemer is so kind and mercifully pursued Scotty’s heart until he was finally able to experience the deep emotional healing he’d been desperate for since his mom died when he was in high school. I really believe the next forty-five minutes are going to usher in tangible hope for some of you precious saints who subconsciously put a fence around your heart after childhood trauma too. So many of us want to experience deeper intimacy with God and others, we just aren’t sure how to go about dismantling our self-protective fences. Today’s going to be an awesome kind of group-demo-day, y’all so please grab your favorite summer beverage – mine is sparkling water mixed with strawberry Crystal light and freshly squeezed lime – and your Bible, unless both of your hands are now occupied rummaging through the utensil drawer trying to locate your lime squeezer – and come hang out on the porch with us. We’re so glad we get to spend this time leaning into God’s embrace with you.Join the free Hidden Online Bible Study hereYou can find the What Happens Next book and Bible study at MaxLucado.com or wherever you buy books!Sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% at BetterHelp.com/LisaHarper

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is part two with my dear friend, Kristi McClelland, because she’s kind of like a hot Krispy Kreme donut, one simply isn’t enough! Kristi’s a best-selling Bible teacher, author, and college professor – but I think the most fitting description of her is “revival coach” because she’s so saturated with Jesus that if you get anywhere near her, Gospel joy will inevitably slosh out on you! However, I should probably issue a good-natured warning before we dive in and let you know that Kristi and I are both very energetic, fast-talking windbags when it comes to matter of faith so you might want to tighten your seatbelts for this proverbial ride through all things redemptive because we’ll likely careen from raving about the beef jerky at Bucees to the practical theology of A.W. Tozer within the first few minutes! Frankly, if you’re listening to this while on a Peloton, you might pause and unclip out of those fancy biking shoes for a while because this isn’t going to be a passive-listening kind of podcast – it’s more of a hands in the air, hollering with glee gabfest because we’re exposing the difference between the performative, sin-avoidant, stale kind of religion some of us were brought up in and the vibrant, life-giving, Spirit-filled reality that an intimate relationship with Jesus gives us access to. So please grab some iced coffee and your Bible – unless you’re hanging onto a wakeboard rope with both hands realizing that you’re probably too old to be dragged behind a speedboat in your skirty bathing suit – oh wait, is that just me? - and come hang out on the porch with us.Join the free Hidden Online Bible Study here

It’s the first week of July here in the U.S. so lots of people are firing up their barbeque grills, putting watermelons on ice, and arranging lawn chairs in the grass to get ready to watch fireworks shows because for whatever reason, pyrotechnics are an integral part of North American culture when it comes to celebrating our country’s Independence Day on July Fourth! And while I thoroughly enjoy pyro and brisket, all of this nationalistic hullabaloo re: civil and political freedom got me to thinking about the infinitely superior freedom available to Christ followers the world over. Because regardless of your nationality – by the way, we’re wildly grateful that the porch has become an inclusive, pan-national place where God’s image bearers gather from all over the world. Our boss here at Access More recently showed Alli, Dr. Howard and me some listener data and we were thrilled to see how many Back Porchers we now have who listen from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and South America – Good Day, mates – Jambo friends – Buenos Dias, brothers and sisters. Thank you so much for hanging out with us and putting up with the fact that sometimes we communicate from a myopic American, First World, vantage point. We’re joyfully discombobulated that our Creator Redeemer has gathered people from around the globe to be part of this faith community and our huge hope and fervent prayer is that everyone feels a deep sense of belonging on the porch. Now back to the point of today’s conversation, it’s going to be all about the life-giving and galvanizing truism of freedom found woven throughout this divine love story we call the Bible. We’re going to attempt to answer the question – what did Paul really mean when he proclaimed to the Galatians that it was for FREEDOM that Jesus came to set us free. Today’s conversation is kind of like a cool breeze on a day that’s so hot, your thighs are sticking to the car seat, so please grab a tall glass of sweet tea, iced coffee, yak milk – or whatever beverage strikes your summer fancy – and your Bible – unless you’re too busy filling up old Coke bottles with bottle rockets, of course - and come prop your feet up on the porch with us…we’re really glad you’re here.Join the free Hidden Online Bible Study here

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is kind of a Christmas come early for me because we get to hang out with my dear friend Kristi McClelland, who’s a Bible teacher, author, scholar, college professor, massive Narnia fan, as well as a human colander who leaks Gospel joy everywhere she goes! We’re covering a wide range of topics today eventually landing in Luke’s Gospel account and let me encourage you to lean in and turn up the volume a tad because some of what may initially sound like extraneous small talk is riddled with spiritual gold. Her experience and explanation regarding the transition from dutiful submission to God’s will – that is obeying what He tells us to do through the imperatives in His Word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit – to surrendering to God’s will with peaceful agreement and anticipatory hope is a wise template for spiritual maturity and intimacy with our Creator Redeemer. This is another one of those “bring your notebook to the porch” episodes because much like you need two paper plates to carry the glorious weight of a burger and baked beans and corn on the cob and potato salad and a big slice of watermelon at a barbeque, the litany of biblical truisms Kristi shares are too heavy for most of us to carry with our memories alone! So please grab a tumbler of iced oat milk with a heavy splash of cream and mocha, or a Stanley filled to the brim with sparkling water and a squeeze of fresh lime, or whatever your favorite summer beverage is and your Bible – unless you’ve got both hands wrapped tightly around a steel wool scrubber trying to scrape barbeque grime off your Blackstone like I did this past weekend, of course – and come prop your feet up on the porch with us, we’re absolutely delighted to get to spend this time with you.  Join the free Hidden Online Bible Study at faithgateway.com/hidden Wherever You Go I Want You To Know is available here. Save 25% by using code: Go25