The Return of Theophilus: I'm back with a new vision and focus for the podcast!

Hi Everyone, 

In this episode, Theophilus returns back to the podcasting world!  

It's been a long time since I last shared with all of you.  In this episode, I explain some of what I've been doing, the lessons I've learned, and a new format for the podcast.  

It'll still be The Bible Mind Podcast, though, where we view everything from a Biblical mindset!   My goal is to create shorter, more focused episodes that center around one or possibly two central themes.  As always, most podcast episodes will be heavy on the Bible study but now with a new emphasis on life application.  

In other words, my plan is to make Bible study easier to understand, more relevant, and more immediately practical to your lives, so that, hopefully, there'll be takeaways from each episode.  

If you've already listened to me in the past, thank you!  I hope this new iteration of the podcast will have its own ways of challenging and enriching your lives.  If you're new to the podcast, welcome!  I hope you stick around for a while and receive the value of what comes from studying God's word.  

Sincerely,

Theophilus

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2, KJV)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to the Bible Mind Podcast, where we seek to have the mind of Christ and to see things from God's perspective.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hi everyone, Theophilus here. It's been a long time since I have shared this podcast with all of you. The last time I was on the podcast, it was back in September of 2022. So it has been a while. From that time until now, so much has happened. I have worked a lot with my schooling in order to get certified in different subjects. And I've learned a lot about life. I am renewing this podcast right now. I want to kind of change the format, but I just want you to know that it's going to be shorter episodes. So I'm thinking about uh 30-minute episodes, and it's going to be more focused because I recognize from before I may have just shared a lot of things and maybe didn't focus on one central idea, but I'm wanting to do that in these new podcast episodes. But um I've learned that, you know, before, whereas I was mostly focused on the content because I thought it was so important. After all, truth is important. And when you study God's word and you see so many interesting things in it, you want to share it with other people and you want to share all of your insights and you want to share this and that. It was a lot. And I was so thankful for those times. But now I think I want to think about how to best present it so that people can receive it. They can receive it in kind of a shortened form, central idea, different things to illustrate the idea. Um still learning about different parts of the passage. I think it's going to be a lot more focused. And one thing that I would really like to do is I want to put in an application piece into each of the messages because we're living in tough times right now. I mean, we're headed towards, I believe, the return of Christ because we're in the end times or the beginning stages of the end times. So many different things that are happening in the world. And I believe that we as Christians, we need to know how to live in this world, how to have faith, how to be encouraged. It's still going to be the Bible mind podcast. And I care so much about that verse in Romans chapter 12 that starts off the whole chapter. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And we have to have the mind of Christ. We have to have a biblical mindset on the things that we perceive in the world, things that we are inundated with. It could be the media, it could be things that we watch on TV, different ideas that are discussed in classrooms, uh, when we talk with our friends, just all of these things that surround us, they want to conform us to the ways of the world, to the thinking of the world. But we need to maintain a biblical mindset. And so that's first and foremost always on my mind. And that's why this podcast is called the Bible Mind Podcast. Um, because that to me is central. How can we be transformed if we don't renew our thinking in the image of our Creator? It's very difficult because if we're thinking like the world, then we're gonna be like the world. So I'm gonna share about things from that biblical mindset. And one of the main things that I would like to talk about in a lot of these episodes is the end times. I have such a burden to share about the end times because so few churches, so few pastors are talking about this subject when we're living in these times. We're living in the times that the Bible has prophesied, and yet we don't have any biblical instruction from most of these churches. And I want to change that. I want more and more people to understand the times that they're living in, understand the signs of the times, so that they can know what to do. Okay, so they can know how to live. And so that's the burden on my heart. And I know that we can talk about many different subjects and we can um go over different passages and different books of the Bible, but I want this podcast to be very relevant to your lives, and so I think that that application piece is going to be very important. I've also had just different things happen in my life that I mean, I wouldn't say that they were like positive. We go through things that are hard, and sometimes they really I wouldn't say break uh our spirits because like my spirit isn't broken, like I have hope in God, but um, there's just been hard things, and I think that that's really shaped my heart, and I mean I have been broken in different ways, and I think that that's going to affect the way that I share these messages, and that's a good thing because I don't want to just be like a dry teacher of the word. I I really want to incarnate the word. I I want to be somebody who has lived the word and who's understood the need for faith, for hope in some hard things that, you know, it it's hard to go through those things without God. It's hard to go through those things without hope in God, hope in his word. So I feel like I'm bringing those type of experiences with me in this new phase of the Bible Mind podcast. So I hope that um you will stay with me. And that brings me to the reason why I use the pseudonym Theophilus. If you've listened to any of my messages before, you know that I use this name Theophilus. And even though I am female, this name is a male name, and it comes from the beginning of the book of Luke. This passage is Luke 1, starting from verse 1 all the way to verse 4. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. This is the inspiration for the name Theophilus. I guess I can see it from both sides of that relationship. One, I feel there's a burden on my heart to share the things that I've learned. I did go to seminary. I don't think that that's neither here nor there. What I am saying is I have been very familiar with the word. I have sat under a lot of great teachers. All that I have learned, I just want to share with other people. Not just the things that I've learned from other people, but the things that I have studied for myself. Because I think that is the best teaching right there. That's that's the freshest bread, is the stuff that you go deep into the word yourself. And God opens your eyes, he opens your spirit to see certain things, insights, perceptions, the mind of God as he was doing things in the history of Israel and with the early church and now us as Christians, you can see those things in the word. Those are the things that I want to share. Just like Luke, I'm hoping that they strengthen people's faith. They help people to feel more certain and more confident about what they believe. I want to share an orderly account for you so that you can systematically also go through the Bible and see the things that God has revealed to us. It takes going deeper, it takes um getting your hands dirty and kind of digging into the dirt and digging deeper, and then you think you have it, and then you have to dig a little bit deeper. And that's not an easy practice, but for those who do that practice, there's a lot of treasure waiting to be found. That's what God says, that he will reward those who earnestly seek him. And I know that many of you are friends of God. I am a friend of God. I hope so. You know, he tells his secrets to his friends, but also I know that those people who would tune in to something called the Bible Mind Podcast and would listen to some of these messages that I put out before, uh, you guys are friends of God too. I know that that is who's listening because you wouldn't be interested in those types of subjects if you weren't a friend of God. Um, because these are the deeper types of things that people don't always talk about, they don't even really think about, and they're not curious about. And it's sad because I think that God wants us to have a holy curiosity uh to drive us into going on those treasure hunts deeper into his word. That is why I use the name Theophilus. I want to share what I have carefully investigated for myself in the Word of God, in my own life with God, my experiences with God, and I want to give an orderly account to those who are out there so that they could also receive from that and be more confident and sure in their faith. So we need to be strengthened in our faith and we need to be prepared. I have learned a lot about the end times. That's one of my subjects that I like to go deep on, but I'm talking about how do we get ready for the times that we're headed in. There is a parable in Matthew 25 about the foolish and wise virgins. I want to be a wise virgin, okay, because um they were waiting for the bridegroom to come. The foolish virgins they didn't have a whole lot of oil in their lamp. So as time went on, and you know, they expected the bridegroom sooner, but he delayed his coming. The oil ran out of their lamps. And so they couldn't shine that light, you know, they had no oil left to produce the light. Uh, but the wise virgins, they not only had oil in their lamp, but they brought extra oil. And it's not like you can really share that oil because they tried. Hey, can you give me some oil because my oil is running? They were like, No, you go and buy extra oil. This is our oil, and we need it because we are waiting for the bridegroom. And that's the thing, everyone. I've been taught a lot, and one of the key things that I've been taught in the past is that the oil represents our history and God, our intimacy with God, the time that we spend with him, the time that we spend in his word, understanding who he is and his message to us, those things are so vitally important. And if you think about how oil is produced, it's not like we can just go to Costco and get the big economy-sized jug of olive oil. No, back then they had to crush the olives, they had to put the olives through the oil press in order to get the oil from the olives. As a side note, because I like to make these connections, Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed to God, you know, God, if if I don't have to do this, please, is if there's some other way, but not my will, but your will be done. Remember when he prayed that in the Garden of Gethsemane? Anyways, Gethsemane means oil press. Having this oil in our lamps and extra oil with us, that's not something that you easily do. It's not something that you just get at the convenience store. This is something that you work at, you spend time with God, you spend time in prayer, you reflect upon your life so that God can really grab a hold of you and continue to transform you into the image of his son. You go deeper into that relationship with God. And so that's kind of what I want to communicate with a lot of these things. And I know that those people out there who are listening to my voice right now, that you want that too. I believe you want a deeper, closer relationship with God. You want to know what that means. You want to know what that looks like. You're looking around the world right now, you see all the stuff that's going on, and you recognize that, hey, this doesn't look good. Things are not going in a positive direction. There's something wrong. And you're right in saying that. If you recognize that, it's because the Bible has already prophesied, hey, things are gonna get harder, the world is gonna get darker, people's hearts are gonna grow colder, it's gonna happen. But we are gonna be the ones with burning hearts. We're not gonna allow ourselves to be casual about God, to slow down in our reach for God. We're not gonna allow ourselves to get cold and callous towards God or towards the things of God. We're not gonna allow ourselves to be compromised in the things of the world, but we are gonna stay steady and we are gonna produce that oil by spending time with God, by being in his word, by understanding his word, and not only being hearers of the word, but doers of the word, because that person will be truly blessed, the one who does the word of God. So this is kind of what I'm sharing, and um, that was intense, but sometimes I can be intense. And I promise you that I'm going to labor to be honest and truthful with the word of God to handle it well, so that I can teach the word of God accurately. That's what I care about the most. And I want, again, for all of us, for each message, each teaching to come away with something that we can apply to our lives. Even with this intro back into the podcast world, I think that a proper application would be is this something that you want? Do you want to learn more about the Bible? Do you want to go deeper? Do you want to be challenged? Do you want to learn more about the end times? Do you want to be ready for those times? Do you want to be transformed by the renewing of your mind? Do you want to be challenged in possibly some of the ways that you're thinking right now? That you don't realize that, hey, I'm thinking like the world. I'm not thinking like the mind of Christ. And if that's you, then I challenge you. This is my action step for you today, is to commit to listening to this podcast. And if you have any questions, concerns, um, you may disagree with me about something, uh, feel free to write me. I'm gonna put my email address out there. You can write me at any time. We can enter into a conversation, a dialogue about any issue. Um available, and I would love to do that. So this is me coming back to the Bible Mind podcast. I just want to thank you for listening this long. I think that what I'm gonna start with next week is the book of Daniel. I'd like to do a deep dive into uh Daniel chapter one, and I haven't really looked carefully at the podcast episodes that I've already created, and I might have done Daniel chapter one because it's one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, but um, if I did, it's okay, anyways, because I'm gonna do it again, but I'm gonna go slower and maybe tackle it uh from a different angle. I think it's gonna be really great because he was somebody who was captured and put into Babylon. And we are surrounded by the Babylonian culture right now, and that is uh the world system that we presently live in. So I think it'll be very relevant for all of us to listen to this message, and I think we're gonna get a lot out of it. And just know that I have a certain amount of time every month by which I can do my podcast episodes. I may do one message a week, I may do two messages a week, if I have more time, maybe three, I don't know. It's just uh a matter of how much time I can devote to this, but just know that from this intro message, returning back to the podcast, I'm going to be putting out episodes on a more regular basis now. And it's so good to be back, and I think that this is God's timing. I don't know, he just kind of put some things together, and I really feel like this is him, and he wants me to come back in a fresh way. And I agree, I think it's time. I think I'm a different person now. I think I can share what the word says, but now from a place of more compassion, brokenness, experience, and maturity. And I hope that as you listen, as time goes on, that you will really be enriched by these episodes. Uh, challenged, just led to look within yourself and look more deeply at your relationship with God to see where you're at in relationship to Him. Anyways, thank you so much for all this time that you've spent with me. I so appreciate you. I want you to know that we're in this together, that we are all believers in Christ, and through this podcast, I hope to continue to encourage you as long as it's called today.