07/15/2021 UPDATE: Visceral Reflections has now propagated out to iTunes and is available on Apple Podcasts.

07/10/2021 UPDATE:  The New Visceral Reflections Podcast has been pushed out to various platforms including Spotify and Anchor.  Check out the Podcast page on the right side of the menu above. Thanks so much!

This post is to announce that I am creating a new Podcast to share some of the recording that I have been making for several years.  I have resisted doing this for a while, largely because there are so many good podcasts out there, and even more bad ones.  I had personally bookmarked several dozen just from within my circle of influence, but there is just no time to hear them all.  That reality helped frame what I hope this podcast will be.  The first item of note is that I am not interested in building a following, so that helps in that I will not feel compelled to create/force content.  My hope is that I can share inspiration that I have received and things I am learning for the purpose of helping other believers on their faith journey by removing barriers to faith, offering counsel, answering Bible related questions, as well as speak to those that God is calling, but have not yet received saving faith.  Overall, I hope these recording allow me to step into someone faith journey to point them to the cross and help them get close to God, and to know the depths, and heights, and width and breathe of His love for you and me.  So, this will be fluid, raw, free of a schedule, and ideally high value for some.  Jesus told Nicodemus that the wind blows where it wishes and is not contained, or predictable, and so it is with everyone who walks by the Spirit (John 3:8).  So the expectation is to be open to what God is doing and not outrun my coverage of what I envision this to be.

Typically my process is that I will receive inspiration on a topic I have been pondering or perhaps something that I have read in the Bible or a book, so then I will make a voice recording of my thoughts.  These recording often serve as fuel for the posts on this blog.  With encouragement from my niece to publish these recordings, I have begun to go through them and have found several that I plan to share, and more to still be reviewed.  The idea, at least as of today, is to share the raw, unedited inspiration that is often, for lack of a better term, a stream of consciousness.

At the C.S. Lewis Institute where I am a Commissioned Fellow and serve as a Mentor, we speak of bridging the gap between heart and mind.  As Christians, we seek to have Christ formed in us (Romans 8:29; Galatians 4:19), but our spiritual formation is not achieved merely through receiving information, but rather by using that information to act as guardrails in the practice of spiritual disciplines and personal worship, which deepens our roots, as branches connected to the Vine, so that we can live a fruitful life of abiding in Christ (John 15:1-11).  IN parallel, our roots are strengthened to go deeper with corporate worship at church.  In this daily practice of personal worship, we begin to crave communion with God, we develop a growing hunger and thirst for righteousness and we experience the love of God in daily life, a life of thanksgiving, a life of gratitude, and a peaceful confidence that God is actually in control.  This is a transforming place of surrender where we truly accept our stories and see our journey with new eyes, through the lens of the Sovereignty of God (Ephesians 1:18)!  Then we enter, what Eugene Peterson called “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” when describing the Christian life.

So, what are visceral reflections?  They are snapshots from my faith journey in the process to build the bridge between heart and mind.  They are my thoughts, opinions and extrapolations of the heart knowledge that has shaped me, those truths that I know to be true in my gut, spiritual realities that manifest in the physical world that I know are true by faith!  These are raw, unscripted, theologically tested, not checked for chapter and verse, but usually in the ballpark, and often contain long pauses while I unpack my thoughts on the fly.  I would also add that I have listened to some recording and the current version of me has received encouragement and insight from previous versions of me; that’s weird to share, but it’s true, not being boastful or arrogant, just factual.

You can see up in the menu that I have already added a Podcast page which will be updated as this develops.  That page will contain links to shares in the Marketplace and a list of episodes that link to the recordings.  So I pray that this new endeavor will add value, inspiration, conviction, and heart knowledge to help you grow closer to God!