Devotional thoughts and original tunes. This is a podcast for your heart and your headphones.
Enjoy a light-hearted, albeit curmudgeonly, take on morality, politics, and the modern world that will hopefully encourage and challenge you, and maybe even entertain you as well.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
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This is the first episode of what is planned to be a limited series podcast that delivers a devotional thought and a tune in each episode.
Hopefully you will be encouraged, challenged and maybe even a little entertained.
I hope you enjoy.
Jurassic Andy
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Welcome to the inaugural episode of Jurassic Andy's TNT podcast. The TNT stands for a thought and a tune. I'll explain that in a little bit. My name is Andy Harrison, and I'll be your host for what is currently planned as a limited series podcast that will hopefully encourage you and challenge you and with any luck entertain you as well. I've been in ministry now for over 40 years, and I've I've watched the culture ride, the ebb and flow of change. I find myself more and more drawn to the unchanging ancient truth. Proverbs 22-28 says do not move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set. I think you'll find that Jurassic Andy is a title I've well earned as I share my light-hearted, albeit curmudgeonly, thoughts on morality, politics, and the modern world. In each episode of Jurassic Andy's TNT, I'd like to deliver a devotional thought and a tune. I I may have a taste for unchanging standards, but I I'm not adverse to new technologies and new ways of communicating. In the last couple of years, as week to week I've been putting together sermons for the congregation I serve, I've I've sought ways to help me summarize my thoughts and boil down certain biblical lessons and narratives to get to the central themes they teach us. And I've thought to myself, what what if I had to put this biblical story or explain this truth in a short poem? How how would I have to condense my thoughts or frame them for that medium? Well, I'm one of those people who loves music, but I really lack any drilled instrumental or vocal giftedness. For me, a song is better than a standard poem. And uh with the onset of artificial intelligence, I now have the ability to produce at least lyrics and select the genre of music, and AI will produce the music and vocals, which has been kind of fun. So that's what I've done. And at this point, I've kept the creation of this music a matter of use for my own creative outlet and and uh my own personal edification. But I guess I've decided to drag you over into the slog with me. Now nobody's trying to win any Grammys or anything, so that's that's not what's going on here. The songs are meant to reinforce the message of the devotional thought, and hopefully, in some cases, bring a smile to your face or a little warmth to your heart. So now you know what is meant by Jurassic Andy's TNT, a thought in a tune. There you go. So without further ado, let's get into it. 2 Corinthians 5 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away, behold, new things have come. In several of his letters to the churches, Paul is quick to point out the differences between the old man and the new man, the old self and the new self. The one who is in Christ is to lay aside the old self and its evil practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed daily, into an understanding of who we are to be. We are to consider ourselves dead to that old way of life and alive to the new one. So given this directive and the fact that this is not something the believer gins up on their own, it's the work of the Holy Spirit within them. I have a question. Why do so many of us Christians look just like old men? When we're verbally abused, we verbally abuse in return. When we're offended, we offend in return. Generally speaking, in today's public square, there doesn't seem to be an obvious distinction between those who are supposedly new men from those who are quite obviously living as those who practice the deeds of the darkness. When Paul is writing to the church at Colossae, he makes it known that those who practice evil deeds will face the wrath of God. So exactly what do I think my wrath will add to his? If someone rips me on social media, do I suppose that that if I unleash the fury of hell upon them that I'm somehow doing my duty as God's agent of wrath? Or am I just a new man walking as an old one? Look, if sarcastic comebacks were listed under the gifts of the Spirit, I would be the most spiritual of men. However, it isn't. And so I have to let those go. I have to lay them aside. I have to die to them. In a day when every man wants to see his vitriolic thoughts shared worldwide and they have that opportunity, it behooves those of us who are called to walk in a manner worthy of our calling to stand out as those who lift people up instead of bringing them low. It's possible to hold to those ancient boundaries without stoning everyone who refuses to do so themselves. If you are in Christ, you have been made new. In Christ, we are to be new creations. The old is gone, the new has come. I hope you're listening. Because I see and hear a lot of old men. And if anyone knows old men, it's Jurassic Andy. Now sit back and turn up your headphones or your car radio or whatever it is you're listening to this on. Because today we're going back to judge. See you next time.
