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Are you overwhelmed by the news? Do you want to be informed about but not inundated by world events? Join The Equipped community, and together we will consider a portion-controlled dose of headline news, but always through the lens of the True and the beautiful, and with an eye toward how you can make a eternal difference!

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Kevin and Rick - August 27, 2025

August 27, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True Kevin and Rick Meet Kevin and Rick. Kevin and Rick It sounds like a couple of dads from the neighborhood or two guys from small group, but Kevin and Rick are our newly acquired feeder pigs. I can’t explain the names because I don’t understand the reason they were chosen, but I can tell you it was the result of much deliberation around the family...

August 20, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True To Do or not to Do? Go. Wait. Do. Don’t. Which is it? Or is it both? We have had a similar conversation before, but this seeming juxtaposition appears regularly enough in scripture to warrant our repeated attention. “Go and make disciples of all nations.” It is perhaps the most operative phrase in the final commissioning from Jesus to the disciples...

August 13, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True The Crazy Out There The news will make you crazy. Truly, it seems as though our world gets more and more chaotic every week. In one very real sense, it is true. 1 John 2:17 says, “The world and its desires pass away,” and 2 Corinthians 4:18 reminds us the things we see with our physical eyes are temporary. Simply put, the earthly world is wasting...

August 6, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True Warring Lions “You’ve got a lion inside of those lungs.” It is a lyric from Brandon Lake’s song, Gratitude, but it points vividly to the biblical concept of warring lions in your life—a concept I am confident is all too real for you. The imagery of God’s Word is epic in the literal sense of the word. The big story of the Bible is one long and poetic...

July 30, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True Ryno I met my childhood hero at the White House many years ago. No, it wasn’t the President; It was Ryno. “Ryno” is Ryne Sandberg. He was the second baseman for the Chicago Cubs when I was a kid, and he was the player my dad and my coaches told me to emulate. He played terrific defense (unlike most great players, his statue at Wrigley Field is of him...

July 23, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True Don't Say It It is a word never to be uttered. It should especially never be mentioned in an e-newsletter or any other subscription-based form of communication. It is in every way taboo, and one every marketing plan will scream for you to steer clear of at all costs. Despite all these realities, it is a word you and I should take seriously and deploy...

July 16, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True One Day One day, Jesus walked up. That is how a children’s Bible we use paraphrases John 1:29, which in the NIV version says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him.” The context is this: John has been telling everyone that Jesus the Messiah is coming—and that he, John, is NOT the Messiah. John has been preaching, and prophesying, and...

July 9, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True Sit or Serve? It is a difficult concept for me to fully understand and yield to, and it presents itself in the form of a question. Perhaps you can relate. The question is this: Should I sit or should I serve? At the risk of eliminating any suspense, the answer is yes. Yes to both. Yes and yes. You should absolutely live a life of service. Jesus...

July 2, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True Fried Eggs on the Sidewalk It was hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk (at least the darker sidewalks). For most of last week, our region (and many others) experienced an intense heat wave. Air temperatures were over 100 degrees, and thick humidity pushed the heat index to nearly 120 degrees at times. It was beyond hot. It was dangerous. Even the...

June 25, 2025 Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful! Subscribe for FREE! Pay if you want--or don't! Podcast The True Is it in You? “Is it in you?” It is the crescendo question of the iconic marketing campaign deployed by Gatorade. NBA legend Michael Jordan was the centerpiece of the ads in the 1990s and narrates the more recent iteration of the commercial that depicts several athletic stars of today. The premise of the ads is that everything about sports is...