Followed By Mercy
The Followed By Mercy Podcast
Real Grace, Honest Hope
You might notice a new name and a fresh look, but the heart behind this podcast is the same. After years as the World Evangelism Podcast, I sensed God leading me to a deeper, more personal path centered on His relentless mercy and the kind of honest hope that can reach into every hurting place. That’s why this show is now called Followed By Mercy Podcast. The format may shift, and the tone may be a bit more personal, but my mission hasn’t changed: I still believe the world desperately needs to hear the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. You are welcome here if you’ve been with me from the beginning or just found us now.
What if God’s love is more personal, stubborn, and relentless than you ever imagined?
Welcome to The Followed By Mercy Podcast, where we get honest about pain, hope, and the kind of grace that finds you right where you are, five days a week. This isn’t about religious performance or church routines. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt worn out, unseen, or unsure if they belong in the story of God’s love. Every conversation is rooted in this reality: God loves you right now, just as you are, and He isn’t giving up on you.
Here’s what you’ll find in every episode:
Experience God’s Relentless Love
Every show starts by reminding you that the Shepherd knows your name, cares about your story, and isn’t offended by your failures or questions. This is personal—it’s about God’s unwavering affection for you.
Find Your Place in His Heart
Once you grasp how fiercely you’re loved, sharing that love with others doesn’t feel forced. It becomes the most natural thing in the world. Real grace overflows.
Prayer That Changes You
We pray together—not just for the world “out there,” but for the battles and hopes you’re carrying right now. These prayers are honest, rooted in Scripture, and meant for hearts that need a gentle touch from the Shepherd.
Discover Your Unique Role
Whether you’re called to go, give, serve, or show kindness in your corner of the world, God’s mercy meets you where you are. You’re not just a bystander. You are His beloved, invited into the story He’s writing.
When life knocks the wind out of you, this is a place to catch your breath. You’ll hear the encouragement that meets you on your hardest days, and your honest questions will be welcomed. No pretending, no heavy-handed advice—just the reminder that your Shepherd is right there with you, walking every step with you, even when you feel like giving up.
Why does this matter? Because some days, it feels like nobody sees you or cares what you’re going through. But the truth is, you have a Shepherd who never takes His eyes off you, lets you slip through the cracks, and never gives up on you. That kind of love can put you back on your feet, and it might be the hope someone else is waiting to see in you, too.
If you’re longing for more than just religious talk—if you want to know you’re not alone and that God’s mercy is following you all the way home, you’re in the right place. Whether you listen in the car, on a walk, or in a quiet moment, let every episode remind you: God’s mercy is after you right now, ready to bring real grace and honest hope.
Subscribe today and join a community to discover what happens when loved people become loving people. The journey’s just beginning, and there’s a place for you here.
Followed By Mercy
Thy Rod and Staff
When David said, “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,” he wasn’t talking about punishment; he was describing a Shepherd who stands between His sheep and danger, who guides and rescues, and who is always for us, even in the darkest valleys.
In today’s episode, we slow down with Psalm 23 to explore the real meaning behind the Shepherd’s rod and staff. These ancient tools aren’t about breaking sheep, but protecting them. The rod was a club to drive off predators, a symbol of God’s fierce protection. The staff, with its gentle curve, was for rescue and gentle guidance, not harm.
We’ll challenge the harmful idea that God “breaks” His children to teach them lessons. Anyone who has cared for livestock knows you don’t injure what you value; you protect it. God’s heart is to heal, not hurt; to guide, not shame.
You’ll hear my own story from missionary life in Peru, where God’s goodness showed up in an unexpected gift—two acres of land, provided at less than the cost of our old rental, simply because He loves to care for His own. This is what “goodness and mercy following us” looks like in real life.
If you’re walking through a valley right now, let this episode be a reminder: God is not out to break you. He’s beside you with rod and staff, protecting and guiding, bringing you safely home. The Shepherd’s comfort is real, even when the path is dark, because at the heart of it all is this unchanging truth: God is love, and the Lord is good.
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Well, I'm excited to be with you again today and to talk to you about Psalm 23. And we're going to get to an interesting part thy rod and staff, they comfort me and I want to talk to you about that today. I really think that'll be a blessing to you to hear and see what the Word of God is talking about there. But I was just out walking, something I try to do every day because I live a very sedentary lifestyle. I write all day long and make podcasts and sort of thing like that, and so I don't get enough exercise, and so I try to walk. And as I was walking, I began thinking about how surely goodness and mercy does follow me all the days of my life, how it pursues me all the days of my life. And I got to thinking about living in Peru and Betty and I had moved down there. We'd been in Mexico for a year.
Austin Gardner:That was a wild and crazy time Met some of the sweetest people in the world, and then we arrived in Arequipa and I rented a house on the very first day I arrived in Arequipa. Betty and the kids came up later and we got into that house a few weeks later. We enjoyed it, but it was on a busy road and one wall didn't have a neighbor because there was a vacant lot beside us. The other wall touched that neighbor and then, when you stepped out the back wall, you could see the back of the other person's house and their patio, just like we had. And so we were facing the street and they were facing the street, and there were times that my country boy spirit just really wanted to live on some land and one day, out of nowhere this is just how good God is. I was just thinking about that just a minute ago. All your life you've got to go back and look and see it so you'll understand that he is leading you and he is directing you. He is your shepherd. But it's so easy to forget these things.
Austin Gardner:I was driving through a section of town with Betty in the car and we drove by some places that had a half acre to an acre lot around their house, and so the house is in the middle and they had a big brick fence around the house, like all the houses had in Peru. And I told Betty I said, someday we'll be rich, someday we'll live in a place like that, we'll have our own little place. Well, at the end of the first year in my house, the landlord came and he wanted to up my rent and he accused me of having mistreated him because I had paid him in dollars. And so everybody, all the beneficiaries that I knew were paying in the national money, which was entities, and so they started out paying, like I did, about $400 a month. By the time a year's contract was up, because of inflation, they were down to $50 a month and I felt like that was wrong. And so when he first talked to me after about a month, it already dropped to $325. And I told him I said I'm going to give you $325 cash and we'll give that to you every month in American dollars, so that you aren't losing money by renting to me. I just don't feel like that'd be right. End of the year, he was mad. He said I'd ripped him off and he should have been getting $500. And so, anyway, I told him I said I'll just move because no other Mr Jerry was paying, like I was in our city, and so I said, okay, I'll move.
Austin Gardner:And I sent some Peruvian pastors out to help find me a place and you'd be shocked to know this, but it is the honest truth. They came back and said you're not going to believe it. I know you won't like it much because the houses are so separated and you'll feel lonely out there. But we found a place where houses have a lot of land, but it's a lot cheaper than what you're paying right now. I couldn't believe it. So we went down there, we got that piece of land and we moved into that and we ended up having two acres. And not only did we have two acres, I ended up buying the kids a horse, a horse that we call Blanca Floor White Flower that's because that's what her owner had called her before we bought her and we lived there for a couple of years and God so blessed.
Austin Gardner:And I remember thinking I just mentioned in my mind to my wife in private I didn't ask in prayer that someday I'd really like to have that and God did it. Would you go back right now and just recount in your own life? Would you right now, just take a minute, just stop and go back and think about all God's done in your life? Think about the times that God has just met your need. Well, what a need. It's just a wish, something he thought you might like, and the God of heaven, the God you serve, loved you so much that he just did it. He's so good to us, surely goodness and mercy is. Oh. That's not even a lesson for today. I have taken a lot of time to tell you that, but listen to this. I want to talk to you today about the rod and the staff that comforts you.
Austin Gardner:The Bible says A rod and a staff. A rod and a staff, these were far from instruments of cruelty, instruments of punishment. They were sources of comfort to the sheep. These symbols comforted the sheep in the ancient art of sheep keeping shepherding, and that's what the Lord had. The rod was like a club-like weapon, usually made out of a young branch, a young tree branch, with the root knob left intact to make a heavy head with a long arm on it, and it was used to protect the shepherd from the sheep and to protect the sheep from not excuse me, not the shepherd from the sheep, to protect the shepherd from the wolves and the sheep from the wolves, to be able to fight off the bear, the wolf or any other animal that might attack. It was used to protect from wolves and bears and lions. It was a weapon to drive away predators. Sheep are defenseless characters. They don't know how to handle it, but the shepherd is armed and ready to defend them and he will definitely take care of them and that is deeply reassuring to those sheep. Remember, david killed a lion and a bear that attacked his flock. David stood between his sheep and danger, so the rod and staff comforted, protected them.
Austin Gardner:Shepherds also used their rod. They'd hold it across the sheep as they came in and move the wool off of the sheep as they passed under the rod, and they counted them and examined them to make sure they were not hurt anywhere, to look for any sores, to look for any problems that they might have that they would want to take care of. They would use them to give direction by holding it up or even by putting it beside a sheep that might fall off of a ledge as they walked along, because the shepherd never leaves them. The staffette was longer. It had a curved hook at one end and it was often used to give gentle guidance and rescue them. You could take the hook and reach down and pull up the animal and rescue the animal. If it failed, the shepherds used that hook to rescue the sheep that had fallen into ravines or got entangled in thickets.
Austin Gardner:Seeing the familiar shaft appears to mean to the sheep imminent rescue. You might be frightened and you might be afraid. But here comes a shepherd and he's got his staff. He's got his rod. It was used to gently guide and take care of them. And what's that mean for us? Well, the rod is God's protection and God's authority. Just as the shepherd's rod drove away predators, god's power protects believers from spiritual danger.
Austin Gardner:Psalm 23 describes comfort, not merely emotional reassurance, but as a deep security, knowing that the shepherd protects and guides and values one, even through the valley of the shadow of death. The presence of these tools mean we don't have to be alone. We're never alone and we're not defenseless. And that's the lesson we find comfort in knowing that God provides protection from harm and gentle guidance on life's journey. These are tools. These are tools for taking care of the sheep. Now, the sheep.
Austin Gardner:Now there's a mistake made. I've heard all my life a shepherd would break the sheep's leg, and I always thought that was kind of funny, because I did grow up on a farm and I did have a dad that had animals and, no matter what, we were never to harm those animals. I can't explain to you. You don't harm the animals. You don't hit the animals, you don't break their legs, you don't break anything. You never do because the animal is too valuable. The shepherd treats the animal with love. I mean, just be honest, it's money, it's an investment. You got to take care of it.
Austin Gardner:So when we look to the shepherd, our father, god Yahweh, I am, if we don't look at Him with lens of love, we mischaracterize Him. We see Him as like a parent that's disappointed and about to deal out physical discipline. That causes us to look at God in a harsh light. It affects our entire concept of how God is and what he's doing. It affects our entire concept of how God is and what he's doing. It had more to do with the lens that I'm looking through than it does with who God actually is. You see, god loves you. We see God as a harsh disciplinarian, not a loving father. We say God as the mean old dad, not the sweet grandfather. We have Jesus who can cool off God. That's not true, because God was in Christ on Calvary, rescuing us. It's the opposite of the truth. It's a born of the devil, a lie, one who hates God. God loves us so much that he took the very first steps to come, get us and to save us.
Austin Gardner:We can turn Psalm 23 into anything we want, but David's in trouble and he says the rod and the staff, they comfort me. God can use the rod and staff to discipline us, without a doubt. And let me tell you, there is no diminishing the severity of sin. It brings great harm on us and God hates sin. God hates sin with a passion. God hates it that we sin, because sin hurts us and the wages of sin is death. But God is coming down and saying look, I'm here to take care of you. I'm going to guide you out of sin and guide you out of the mess you're in and get you to somewhere that you can be blessed and happy. He loves you. He will guide you, he will show you the paths of righteousness. He that began the good work in you will continue it. So if you wander, he will be with you and he will bring you home. If you fall, he will be there. You are not alone. What a comfort we find in our shepherd. So as I end today thinking about the rod and the staff, I just want you to think about how good God is.
Austin Gardner:There are two thoughts that always be on your mind whenever you think about our father. God is love and oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. God is good. God is love. Yes, god is just and justice and he makes things right. He does that. You see, I couldn't have any access to God without me being right. But I can't make me right. God makes me right. God makes me right. He's the justifier. I'm just the just who's been justified. So today, god's not going to break your leg. God's not angry with you, god's not mad with you. God hates sin, but he loves you and he wants you to come home, where you belong. He loves you. He's there right now, calling on you, and you need to get rid of all those horrible feelings you have and all those horrible things you're thinking about our father. They are not true.
