The Peaceable Kingdom

The first sermon I listened to by Jonathan Martin of Renovatus Church was "The Woman at the Well" on 2/3/13. It was on the Samaritan woman in John 4, a common text about which I have heard many sermons. And yet, the way he spoke of the text was revolutionary, as were the remaining sermons in his "Seen" series. I have not looked at the women in the gospels, and the particular way in which Jesus sees them, the same way since.

I have been listening to his sermons for a year, and they have changed me. I do not think I could have endured the suffering of this past year without the wisdom and grace Pastor Jonathan's words have provided me. At the end of our second failed fertility treatment, we planned a spontaneous cabin getaway, and I spent the weekend reading his book Prototype. It calmed my soul and gave me the hope I needed to keep going.

All that to say, if you are a fan of podcasts, and even if you aren't, you should tune into his new series on the Peaceable Kingdom. The first sermon proclaims his view that the book of Revelation is the most explicitly non-violent book in the Bible, which is radical. And a little crazy. Anyone who hopes to prove a point like that deserves a listen.

Listen here, or subscribe to his podcasts on your phone, as I do. Particularly if you have a frustrating commute to and from work. It makes the long drive much more bearable.

Comments

Olivia Marilyn Rich

Hi friends! Looks like I blogged in 2018 a total of...zero times. I did start a lot of drafts, but none made it to publishing. I'm hoping to maybe get back into blogging (like, at least more than zero times in 2019), but I realized that until I can give any life updates, I need to post SOMETHING about baby #2's arrival. According to my blog, I'm still 9 weeks pregnant with her, but she is now 15 months old. So here is the completed version of her birth story that I attempted to write last year. In order to tell Livvie's birth story, I need to record her pregnancy. It was hard to write about during it, harder to write about it after it. I'm feeling less connected to it now- it is a hazy memory of misery in my mind. I know it was awful, but I can't quite remember just how awful. I guess this is how people have more babies, as the memories are slowly swallowed up by the heavenliness of the baby outside of the womb. The most difficult part of my pregnancies is...

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