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Subhead: Danger and the gospel go together. Today we begin a short series exploring how.
Intro: Sadly, you will need to listen to the episode; I accidentally deleted the notes. I’ve reconstructed a bit from the links below. Sorry.
Bible segment: Read-through with The Bible Project
Isaiah 65-66, NIV (New International Version)
Apologetics segment:
I mean, philosophers can talk and talk, you know, in cloudy and flowery metaphors, and then the engineers can really focus the question. Like I just had a discussion the other day with an engineer from Google about this, and he said, “Okay, I know how to maximize people's time on the website. If somebody comes to me and tells me, ‘Look, your job is to maximize time on this application.’ I know how to do it because I know how to measure it. But if somebody comes along and tells me, ‘Well, you need to maximize human flourishing, or you need to maximize universal love.’ I don't know what it means.” So the engineers go back to the philosophers and ask them, “What do you actually mean?” Which, you know, a lot of philosophical theories collapse around that, because they can't really explain that—and we need this kind of collaboration. (1)
Yuval Noah Harari
If you want to know the biblical meaning of “peace,” or “shalom,” just look at the other phrases in the parallelism. When we do this, we notice the following insights:
1. Peace, or shalom, is not just an absence of conflict, but a positive presence of the Lord’s blessing.
2. To know shalom is to know God’s favor. His face will shine with pleasure on you. His face will look in your direction. He is noticing you with approval.
3. To know shalom is to know God’s gracious presence in all areas of your life. (2)
Dr. Art Lindsley
Wisdom segment
Your personal prayer-reading: Psalm 121
-R
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in tech-assisted communications, an award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. A five-time entrepreneur and certified John Maxwell Team leadership coach, he now is focused on launching For The Hope, a daily Bible and apologetics podcast and training organization equipping on-the-go Christian ambassadors with competence and confidence for everyday conversations. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources
(1) Nicholas Thompson, "Will Artificial Intelligence Enhance or Hack Humanity?," Wired, April 28, 2019, accessed May 4, 2019, https://www.wired.com/story/will-artificial-intelligence-enhance-hack-humanity/.
(2) Art Lindsley, “The Biblical Definition of Flourishing,” Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics, June 6, 2013, accessed May 4, 2019 https://tifwe.org/the-biblical-definition-of-flourishing/.