Deep in Scripture Radio

The Biblical Drama, Acts 20:28-38 - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

The Church teaches that “the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wishes to see confided to the Sacred Scripture.” He did this not in the form of a theological systematic textbook, but rather through the recording of wise proverbs, inspirational psalms, the teachings and actions of Jesus, the encouraging and corrective words of apostolic bishops like Sts. Paul and Peter, but most often through the drama of biblical history. This is what we will be discussing today on Deep In Scripture.

St. Paul’s final Message to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20:15-27 - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

How many of you parents & grandparents, like me, when trying to help our children through taught times, resort to retelling stories from our youth. “Back when I was in school…” and then we go to explain how we did things with less resources and under considerably more treacherous circumstances. I suppose some of us do this out of nostalgia and some of us out of anger: “Kids today are spoiled!” But usually we do this because we hope our children can learn from our successes and failures. This is part of what we will be discussing today on Deep In Scripture.

Resistance to the Gospel, Acts 19:20 – 20:1 - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

In Acts chapter 19, we hear the account of an experience in the early Church that has consequently been experienced over & over throughout history, everywhere that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached. It has happened whenever missionaries have entered new territories and, by grace, proved successful in converting hearts to Jesus Christ and His Church. But it also happens whenever any of us make an effort to speak or live boldly our faith, especially when this means confronting the non-Christian values and practices of our culture or community. This is part what we will be discussing today on Deep In Scripture.

Evangelization and the Spiritual Battle, Acts 19:8-20 - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson continue to prepare for their study of Ephesians by looking first at the Early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

It says, in the passage in Acts that we will study today, that the result of St. Paul’s preaching and miracles was that “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks,” and that “the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.” This, however, did not come about without great resistance. The enemy never likes it when anyone, by God’s grace, responds and believes in the Gospel, and you and I can count on the spiritual battle whenever we chose to follow God more closely. This is what we’ll be discussing today on Deep In Scripture.

Gospels and False Gospels, Acts 19:1-7 - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson continue to prepare for their study of Ephesians by looking first at the Early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

Never before in the history of the world have more people been able to hear the truth about salvation in Jesus Christ and His Church. God has blessed us with the gifts of technology and communication: books, television, radio, satellites, Internet, cds, dvds, movies, and the list goes on. These all have a divine purpose, but we also all know that these gifts have too often been used for purposes contrary to the Gospel. As a result, it can also be said that never in the history of the world have more people been able to hear inaccurate, incomplete, and false representations of the Gospel. This is part of what we’ll be discussing today on Deep In Scripture.

Spiritual Formation, Acts 18:18-28, 19:23-35 - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

For nearly every one of us, our faith in Jesus Christ is something that has grown and developed over many years, from many sources and influences, some trustworthy and some not so trustworthy. All of this comes together to form what is called our spiritual formation. How we think about certain moral or doctrinal issues, how we understand prayer & worship, the Church, even Jesus, is based primarily upon how are faith and conscience have been formed. The problem is that we may be blind to how poorly we have been formed.

Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson continue to prepare for their study of Ephesians by looking first at the Early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

Settling Doctrinal Disputes, Acts 15:1-31 (Part 2) - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

Scripture says that God hears the prayers of a righteous man. And who is more righteous than Jesus? Apparently, though, when Jesus prayed in his great Priestly prayer in John 17 for unity amongst his followers, it didn’t prevent the occurrence of differences of opinion amongst the faithful. Major differences, some of which have led to schisms and apostasy throughout the centuries of the Church. How should we handle differences of opinion, especially over important doctrinal issues, and especially when it seems that the present position of the Church is different from what we’ve always believed?

Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson continue to prepare for their study of Ephesians by looking first at the Early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

Settling Doctrinal Disputes, Acts 15:1-31 (Part 1) - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

Scripture says that God hears the prayers of a righteous man. And who is more righteous than Jesus? Apparently, though, when Jesus prayed in his great Priestly prayer in John 17 for unity amongst his followers, it didn’t prevent the occurrence of differences of opinion amongst the faithful. Major differences, some of which have led to schisms and apostasy throughout the centuries of the Church. How should we handle differences of opinion, especially over important doctrinal issues, and especially when it seems that the present position of the Church is different from what we’ve always believed?

Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson continue to prepare for their study of Ephesians by looking first at the Early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

Getting to Know the New Testament Church, Acts 2:41-47 - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

Imagine that when Henry Ford built his first Model A assembly line, he made daily visits to examine the progress. Whenever he saw something that needed correction, he would jot off a short note. If things were going fine, rather than take the time to write a note, he would merely smile, nod at the foreman, and move on. Suppose then that later after he died, all these notes were gathered into a book. Would this collection of notes, which only contain his corrections to daily problems and little mention of the things that were going right, be an adequate manual for building an automobile manufacturing plant? Would this random collection of notes give everything necessary to build a car? This is a little bit of what it is like when one uses only the documents of the New Testament to describe the structure, beliefs, and practices of the Early Church.

Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson continue to prepare for their study of Ephesians by looking first at the Early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

Repent, and be Baptized! Acts 2:37-47 - Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson

Marcus Grodi and Jim Anderson prepare for their study of Ephesians by looking first at the Acts of the Apostles and the background of these churches to whom Paul was writing. Today they examine Acts 2:37-47 and the topic of Baptism.