Podcast: Why Does God Say He Hates Divorce?

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(Again, if you are here for camp pics, just keep scrolling!)

Mr. Robinson is back in town! We sat down and discussed a topic that has been on our minds since we discussed the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp defamation case: Why does God say He hates divorce? “Hate” is a strong word! But Malachi 2:16 is pretty plain.

Your youth is the time to come to understand how God thinks about marriage and relationships, and we hope this discussion about why God might feel the way He does about the topic is helpful to you. (Bonus: One reason we discourage the “boyfriend/girlfriend” thing for teenagers is explained in this podcast! Don’t miss it!)

Our post to YouTube needed a re-post to fix an error, so it looks like it is up on Spotify first! Here’s the Spotify link, and when it is up on YouTube, we’ll add that right below the Spotify notice. So, YouTubers, keep an eye out. It’s almost there… [Update: It’s fixed and back up on YouTube! We’ve added it below, a bit under the Spotify link.]

Podcast: Does Numbers 5 mean God is pro-abortion?

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Today’s podcast was recorded last night, inspired by a Twitter exchange one of us had with someone suggesting that Numbers 5 is a biblical endorsement of abortion. We thought it would be a worthwhile topic because (1) you guys are going to face scripture-twisting arguments like this, yourself, and (2) the Bible does have some passages that can strike us as “weird” at first reading, and this might be one for you. But it all makes sense if you approach the Bible with your biblical-thinking head on straight. We hope this helps!

We’ve embedded the YouTube video below, but you can also listen on Spotify if you have a Spotify account by clicking here. [Reminder: We’re on Spotify now!]

(As for emailing us, I’ve confirmed that the email address we have is not yet working properly, and I’ve got an email into the HQ IT department to see what’s going on. I’m sure they’ll be able to fix it soon, and we’ll let you know when it is fully working.)

Podcast: All About the Council of Elders!

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Wow! We sort of dropped out of existence for a week or so! Sorry about that! Last week was the Council of Elders meeting, and this week went by suddenly in a blur. Next thing you know, two weeks have flown by!

Hopefully, this will make up for it. This podcast, recorded at the end of last week, was Mr. Robinson’s idea. Since we hear a lot about the Council of Elders in announcements and articles from Mr. Weston, he thought to himself, “Hey, Self, why don’t we put Mr. Smith on the hot seat for this one and ask him all about being on the Council?” He promptly agreed with himself that it was a good idea (he and himself get along very well together), and that’s exactly what we did. We hope you enjoy this little peek behind the curtain of the Council of Elders. We’ll add a link below the video to Mr. Weston’s update from that week if you’d like to hear about some of the topics we discussed.

Also, if you have any questions for us on the podcast or ideas for future topics, feel free to email us at podcast [at] livingyouth [dot] org. (Typed it funny there in a futile attempt to fool the bots. Probably won’t work!) We look forward to hearing from you!

And here’s that link to Mr. Weston’s update where he talks about some of the topics we covered during the COE meetings.

Podcast: Reflections on the Heard-Depp trial

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The podcast topic this week was requested by a young adult a couple of Sabbaths ago. Seeing that a lot of people were talking about it, the Heard-Depp defamation trial seemed a good opportunity to model biblical thinking about an oddly big pop culture moment, so we were all in. Then, as we were uploading it last week, we discovered we were making a basic error of fact—which Mr. Robinson explains early in this podcast—so, we re-recorded today. Facts are important! Still, we hope you enjoyed the first installment of “Five Questions” with Mr. DeSimone last week, and we look forward to doing more in the future.

Also, as mentioned in the podcast, we now have a dedicated email address you can send questions, comments, or suggestions to (thank you, IT Department!). That address (which I will type oddly in a vain attempt to fool the spam bots) is podcast [at] livingyouth.org. We’d love to hear from you! Here’s the podcast…

Podcast: How Do We REALLY Prevent Mass Shootings?

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The tragic event in Uvalde, Texas—and the political back-and-forth about it—had us thinking this week, and it seemed an appropriate topic for the podcast. In this episode, we try to think about the issue biblically, focusing on the solutions Christ surely longs to implement. We hope you find it helpful.

(In other news, many of you have requested that the podcast be made available in other formats, and we think the time has come to do just that! We hope to have more news on that front next week. Thanks for your patience with us as we’ve learned and the podcast has grown! Your feedback has been very helpful.)

P.S. After we posted this, we forgot that we had mentioned Mr. Weston’s telecast “Will God Forget Your Children?” We’ve added a link to it below. Also, we mentioned Mr. Mark Sandor’s upcoming article on false freedom & liberty, but it has not yet been published, so we can’t link to it. But look for it in the next Living Church News, due out in July!

Podcast: What can Living Education do for you?

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Today (Friday), the Class of 2022 graduated from the on-campus Living Education–Charlotte program, and yesterday, we had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Jonathan McNair and pick his brain about both the program and his own long history of working with youth in the Church. Whether you are a teen or young adult with questions about Living Ed, a parent trying to decide how to guide your kiddos into their futures, or just someone wanting to know more about the program, this podcast answers all the questions. it was a real pleasure to sit down with Mr. McNair—who informed us, by the way, that there are still openings for the 2022–2023 year here in Charlotte! If you are interested in checking it out, listen to the podcast, and click on this link to apply.

Podcast: Dating and “Good People” in the World

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This week’s podcast focuses on another question we’ve received: What’s so wrong with dating “good people” in the world? It’s a great question! And both the Bible and, when you really think about it, common sense provide important answers. We hope it helps, and we hope our sound quality continues to improve! Again, your feedback is so helpful. Please let us know what you think.

Also, we don’t mention an article or booklet in this episode, but an old classic by Mr. Gerald Weston came to mind—an old 2006 Tomorrow’s World article written for the “Tomorrow’s Youth” feature, in which he included six of his “Unshakable Unbreakables.” Great advice worth reviewing—or reading for the first time for most of you, given it was published almost 16 years ago!

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