The Fireside

Some things are better heard than read. These are written to be spoken first, the way the old radio talks were, and then to stand on the page afterward. Every one can be listened to, or watched with the words lighting as they are spoken. Each points back to a longer letter for anyone who wants to go further. The written stories, whether or not they are recorded yet, are gathered at Bible Stories.

A fireside is a talk of five to fifteen minutes, read in the author’s voice, that ends on Christ. It can be heard, or watched with the words lighting as they are spoken, and every one sits on a page that holds the letter or the story behind it, with the verses whole and the sources named.

The readings

Whole passages read slowly, with the words lighting as they are spoken.

The Vine

Abiding, from the vineyard of Israel to John 15. A vine the Owner planted with every care that kept failing to bear, and the One who stood up and said He was the true one. The whole letter read aloud, 6:52.

Abide: What Holds When You Cannot

Three days. The garden God came walking in, looking for two people who were hiding. What love actually is, since the word has been overused. And what holds you on the days you cannot hold on at all, which turns out never to have been your grip. Three readings, about eleven minutes.

The letters, read aloud

Some talks are the opening of a letter, five minutes or so; the newer ones read the whole letter. All in the author’s voice, with the full argument and the sources under each.

The Word He Used Only Once

A woman weeping at a dinner party, a servant taken by the throat, and a word Jesus spent a single time in the whole New Testament. What refusing to forgive actually costs, and who those severe verses were aimed at. The opening read aloud, 4:57.

The Noonday Demon

A Greek physician sent people with mania to lithium springs in the second century, and nobody knew why for 1,800 years. The desert fathers named a demon from a translation. What Scripture actually puts on the page, and the thorn that holds it together. The talk, 5:15.

When the Mind Goes

A gentle woman with dementia begins to curse. Is it a judgment? Does it reveal what she really was? The question asked honestly, and the inference Jesus forbids. The talk, 5:18.

Who Is Carrying It

The mortgage, the sick parent, the shoes. “Take no thought” is not about thinking less; it is care that has come loose from its owner. Martha, Moses, and the grammar. The talk, 5:04.

Take Not Thy Holy Spirit From Me

Saul, with the Spirit departing. Samson, who did not feel Him go. David begging Him to stay. Then the Jordan, where He came and remained. The talk, 4:43.

The Thief Did More Than Believe

A man with minutes left and no hands free. Count what he did with them. The talk, 4:57.

The Year at Antioch

Before the letters, before the councils, before the name Christian existed. A year in one city. The talk, 4:44.

Who Walked Away in John 6

A sermon said the Catholics are the disciples who left. Read the chapter and see who actually walked. The talk, 4:27.

The Bored Ear

A servant offered his freedom who refuses it, and an awl through his ear against a doorpost. The shape of salvation. The talk, 4:58.

When the Devout Miss God

The fiercest opposition to God came from the most religious people in the room. The talk, 5:03.

The Rod and the Staff

What a shepherd’s rod was actually for, and why the psalm says it comforts. The talk, 5:23.

Who Gets to Say

Six men in a hallway after a baptism: “it’s good to know she’s saved.” Whether that sentence was theirs to say, and what Paul does instead. The talk, 6:23.

What Did the Cross Do?

Victory, rescue, and healing, not only a legal verdict. The older, larger view of the cross. The letter read aloud, 7:26.

Repentance: the Turn That Lets the Gospel In

Not groveling but a change of mind and direction, the door the good news comes through. Godly sorrow that works, not the worldly kind that kills. The letter read aloud, 9:14.

Justification

Declared right with God by grace, through a faith that is never alone. What the verdict means, and why it issues in a changed life. The letter read aloud, 7:49.

Adoption

The gospel does more than acquit the guilty; it brings them home. Not just pardoned but made sons and daughters, with the Spirit teaching us to say Father. The letter read aloud, 6:16.

Sanctification: Being Made Holy

Saved in a moment, made holy over a lifetime. The slow, real work of grace shaping a life into the likeness of Christ. The letter read aloud, 7:40.

The Spirit Isn’t Always Tidy

Not a force but God Himself, the Lord and Giver of Life, from Genesis to Pentecost. His full deity, and why He resists our systems. The letter read aloud, 12:25.

The Road Home

For the believer taught to trust nothing before 1500: Calvin, Luther and the Augsburg Confession, in their own words, pointing back to the early church. The letter read aloud, 14:17.

The Scroll in the Jar

Isaiah 53 was sealed in a jar more than a century before the cross. What that proves, what it does not, and the line in it most English Bibles leave out. The letter read aloud, 12:09.

The Graves That Wait

The only land Abraham owned was a grave, and Joseph gave orders for his bones. The fathers were buried in a promise, and one grave is empty. The letter read aloud, 12:53.

The Armour of God

Be strong, put on, take, stand: an order to every believer. Each piece of Ephesians 6 from its source in Isaiah, and how it is worn, by praying in the Spirit. The letter read aloud, 22:26.

David’s Mighty Men

Slingers who never missed, a hand frozen to a sword, three who broke a line for a cup of water. Real courage, and the King it points to. The letter read aloud, 4:34.

Did the Church Get It Wrong for 1,800 Years?

A simple test for any doctrine: when did the church actually start believing it? The letter read aloud, 3:58.

The Label and the Man

Calvin did not write TULIP. A short letter on how a teacher’s answer becomes his followers’ whole faith. The letter read aloud, 6:24.

What They Preached, and What They Taught Next

Two Greek words the New Testament keeps apart: kerygma, the proclamation, and didache, the teaching. Why the gospel fits on a card and following Christ does not. The letter read aloud, 4:56.

St. Robert Bellarmine

The Counter-Reformation’s foremost defender and a Doctor of the Church (1542–1621): his life, his writings, and his complete works gathered in full to read. The letter read aloud, 4:23.

Justin Martyr

The first Christian to carry the faith into the emperor’s court and argue it on philosophical grounds, around AD 155. He died by beheading under Marcus Aurelius. The letter read aloud, 5:19.

Saint Patrick

Past the parade and the shamrocks: a teenager enslaved in Ireland who escaped, then went back to bring Christ to his captors. The letter read aloud, 4:01.

For a hard season

Longer talks, about fifteen minutes, for the one who cannot start and the one who has spent the spark.

Overwhelmed

For the one who has done too much for too long and now cannot start. Elijah under the juniper, Nehemiah cutting a wall into forty pieces, the body beside you, and the God who works the willing. The talk, 14:52. The talk, 14:52.

No Spark

For the one whose engine will not catch, and who spends what spark there is on the game, the feed, the bottle, the bet. Out of spoons, the slow reward the Bible calls sowing, two doors that are not the same, and the God who is the spark. The talk, 14:21. The talk, 14:21.

The Bible stories, told aloud

A story read as it is written, with a question underneath it. More are recorded as credits allow; the written ones are all at Bible Stories.

Thou Art the Man

A king on a roof, a letter carried by the man it would kill, and a prophet who tells a story about a lamb until the king passes sentence on himself. The talk, 6:14.

He Wist Not

Samson, the Spirit who came and went, and the last prayer. Told to be read aloud. The story, 6:36. The talk, 6:35.

Sin Lieth at the Door

Cain, Abel, and the warning God gave before the first murder. Told to be read aloud. The story, 5:15. The talk, 5:15.

Where Art Thou

A serpent who begins with a question, two people in fig leaves, and a God who comes walking in the evening and asks: where art thou. The story, 5:21. The talk, 5:21.

Open His Eyes

A servant who saw only the army, a prophet who asked God to open his eyes, and the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire. The story, 4:52. The talk, 4:52.