Barnabas Piper's Blog, page 41

New Happy Rant: Zoom Personas, Yachtsmen, and Tom Cruise Roles

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas do what they always do and wander to and fro through the following topics:

Various Zoom personas that annoy us
Joel Osteen’s Zoom persona
Ted the wharf guy
John Piper, consumer of fun
Why we dress the way we do
Leather jacket vibes
Tom Cruise’s greatest roles and performances

Sponsors

Thank you to The Gospel Project for sponsoring the podcast! If you are looking for excellent church curriculum for kids, students, or adults check them out. Also, check out their new ebook written by Aaron Armstrong & Chris Surrat called The Church is a Family at gospelproject.com/happyrant. It is FREE for you listeners.

Thank you to our sponsor for this week’s episode: Dwell Bible App. Dwell is a Bible listening app that we love! If you are looking for a convenient, fresh way of spending more time in God’s word Dwell is ideal. Go to https://dwellapp.io/happyrant to get 33% off your subscription.

Order Your Coffee

WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #294

New Happy Rant Sports: NFL Draftapalooza

In this episode of the Happy Rant Sports Podcast Ted and Barnabas talk all things NFL Draft:

The Tua risk
QB projections and busts
Players we’re excited to watch
Who should the Vikings take?
Players who’ve been called busts but aren’t
Positionless football
Favorite sleepers

Get Your Coffee

[image error]WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #41

New Happy Rant: Aggravating People, New Villains, and Built-In Bookshelves

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas do what they always do and wander to and fro through the sussing out of a variety of topics:

Who we’re aggravated at these days?
We need a new villain these days
Peeking into people’s living spaces
Why pastor’s love 1980s built-in book shelves
Persona clothing for church leaders from suits to tweed
How will kids remember this pandemic?

Sponsors

Thank you to The Gospel Project for sponsoring the podcast! If you are looking for excellent church curriculum for kids, students, or adults check them out. Also, check out their new ebook written by Aaron Armstrong & Chris Surrat called The Church is a Family at gospelproject.com/happyrant. It is FREE for you listeners.

Thank you to our sponsor for this week’s episode: Dwell Bible App. Dwell is a Bible listening app that we love! If you are looking for a convenient, fresh way of spending more time in God’s word Dwell is ideal. Go to https://dwellapp.io/happyrant to get 33% off your subscription. They are also offering Dwell FREE to churches for the next two months. Email them at Covid19@dwellapp.io for details.

Order Your Coffee

WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #293

New Happy Rant: Quarantine Best Practices

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas suss out the following topics:

Quarantine Side hustles and skills
Different Types of Quarantine Personas
Pastors and leadership

Sponsors

Thank you to The Gospel Project for sponsoring the podcast! If you are looking for excellent church curriculum for kids, students, or adults check them out. Also, check out their new ebook written by Aaron Armstrong & Chris Surrat called The Church is a Family at gospelproject.com/happyrant. It is FREE for you listeners.

Thank you to our sponsor for this week’s episode: Dwell Bible App. Dwell is a Bible listening app that we love! If you are looking for a convenient, fresh way of spending more time in God’s word Dwell is ideal. Go to https://dwellapp.io/happyrant to get 33% off your subscription. They are also offering Dwell FREE to churches for the next two months. Email them at Covid19@dwellapp.io for details.

Order Your Coffee

WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #292

New Happy Rant Sports: 90s Basketball and the 1990 Dunk Contest

In this episode of The Happy Rant Sports podcast Ted and Barnabas revisit their love of 1990s basketball and break down the 1990 dunk contest. They discuss the following:

First favorite teams
Weird 90s guys we have an affinity for
The awesomeness of the 1990 dunk contest (except the judges sucked then too) – Contestants were Kenny Battle, Rex Chapman, Scotty Pippen, Billy Thompson, Kenny Smith, Kenny Walker, Shawn Kemp, and Dominique Wilkins

Watch the contest here:

Get Your Coffee

[image error]WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #40

New Happy Rant: Fetishizing Farming, Homeschool Dadding, and American Idealism

In this episode of the Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas suss out the following topics:

The rise of chicken raising
How Americans fetishize farming (thanks Wendell Berry)
Learning to homeschool dad
Why American’s are idealisitic about the changes this pandemic will bring
Public shaming for being in public

Sponsors

[image error]Check out Our Good Crisis: Overcoming Moral Chaos with the Beatitudes by Jonathan K. Dodson from IVP. Dodson examines each of the Beatitudes in the context of the new morality that buffets our society today, presenting a compelling portrait of the truly good life, both personal and social. Jesus’ vision of the good is stunning: heaven meets earth, mercy triumphs over judgment, peace transcends outrage, grace upends self-righteousness. Here is an account, not of dos and don’ts, but of genuine moral flourishing.

Thank you to our sponsor for this week’s episode: Dwell Bible App. Dwell is a Bible listening app that we love! If you are looking for a convenient, fresh way of spending more time in God’s word Dwell is ideal. Go to https://dwellapp.io/happyrant to get 33% off your subscription. It comes out to about $20 for the entire year.

Order Your Coffee

WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #291

New Happy Rant Sports: Breaking Down a ’98 Vikings Game

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted and Barnabas do what they’ve never done on the sports podcast: they break down game film on the 1998 Thanksgiving Day game between the Vikings and Cowboys.

Don’t worry, it’s a condensed game film (15 minutes or so) and you can watch along with them here:

They also discuss:

Robert Smith’s underrated awesomeness
Randall Cunningham’s comeback
Randy Moss’s freakishness
Offensive line love
Barbed wire tattoos
Robert Griffith, Darren Woodson, and other Safeties who could never play today

Get Your Coffee

[image error]WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #39

5 Lessons I’m Learning About Talking to My Kids in Tough Circumstances

On March 3, Nashville, where my children and I live, was hit by a tornado that devastated a miles-long swath of homes and businesses, including a neighborhood just minutes from our church (where I’m on staff). As we struggled to get our heads around the scope and devastation of this tragedy the world was churning with news of a pandemic unlike anything in my lifetime. As the downed trees and flattened houses were cleared away, COVID-19 crept in and began its ruinous work with affects we all now feel in all areas of life.

For the first time in my children’s eleven and fourteen years they’ve now encountered unexplainable, deadly tragedy. It’s been overwhelming to talk with them about all this, but it’s clearly a God-given opportunity. Here are a few things I’ve been learning as we talk about life in a post-tornado, pandemic ridden world.

A “bright side” isn’t the same thing as God working.

A few days ago my older daughter looked at me with tears in her eyes and said “I just can’t see the bright side in all this, Dad.” She was right. If we’re looking for a “bright side” to a tragedy that ruins lives, we won’t find it.

Instead we were able to talk about how God works in a thousand ways we can’t see through good and bad circumstances and how He is on His throne even as He is near to the brokenhearted. Neither she nor I fully grasp the extent of God’s work and what it means for Him to be sovereign, but we know it is better than a mere “bright side.”

It’s not about you.

Without question, the loss is real, and children feel it (especially older ones). They feel the loss of access to friends and church and activities they love. They feel the claustrophobia and cabin-fever of quarantine. And, just like us adults, they are tempted to make this about them and focus on their own unhappiness.

This is when they need to be reminded that this isn’t their hardship; it’s everyone’s. This is a time when the second greatest commandment matters most: “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). We consider others’ needs before our own. We serve those with greater needs and who are more vulnerable. Children need to have their eyes constantly lifted from their navels to their neighbors, especially when life is hard.

Mystery is ok.

I have never lived in a city struck by a deadly natural disaster. I have never lived through a pandemic. And I don’t know what God’s purpose in all this is. It’s OK to acknowledge the mystery and overwhelming nature of all this to our children. It’s OK to say “I don’t know” when they ask “why?”

It’s OK so long as we also acknowledge what we know to be true: God has a purpose, God is sovereign, God is good, God does keep promises, and God can be trusted. Children are often more adept at handling mystery than we are because they’re more adept at trusting God than we are too.

We have whole new opportunities to pray.

I am not good at praying with my kids. I’m inconsistent and it feels rote and trite oftentimes. There’s nothing like a global pandemic on the heels of a natural disaster to change that. We have victims to pray for. We have national, state, and church leaders to pray for. We can pray for hearts of compassion, wisdom, and strength. And we can pray that people would meet Jesus through this. It’s hard to pray rote and trite prayers when lives and souls are on the line, and tragedy brings that into stark relief.

Celebrate answers to prayer.

To celebrate answers to prayer we have to be looking for them, a thing we often forget to do after we pray (at least I do). A few of the things my children and I have been able to celebrate in recent weeks are the generosity and selflessness of God’s people responding to needs, unbelievers hearing the gospel through our church’s live stream because we had to move services online, and displaced students finding housing with followers of Jesus.

We may not know why all this is happening or what God is doing in full, but if we keep our eyes open, we will see some things He is doing. When we see them, and when we celebrate them, it is a faith-building event for all of us.

This post was originally published at LifeWay Voices.

New Happy Rant: Difficult Personality Types, The Enya-gram, and Certifications

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas suss out the following topics:

Ronnie Zooming in Khakis
Which personality types are the hardest to understand and deal with for each host?
Narcissism’s many faces
Which personality types are best for leaders?
Introducing the Enya-gram
Certified guru, coach, and memoirist

Sponsors

[image error]Check out Our Good Crisis: Overcoming Moral Chaos with the Beatitudes by Jonathan K. Dodson from IVP. Dodson examines each of the Beatitudes in the context of the new morality that buffets our society today, presenting a compelling portrait of the truly good life, both personal and social. Jesus’ vision of the good is stunning: heaven meets earth, mercy triumphs over judgment, peace transcends outrage, grace upends self-righteousness. Here is an account, not of dos and don’ts, but of genuine moral flourishing.

Thank you to our sponsor for this week’s episode: Dwell Bible App. Dwell is a Bible listening app that we love! If you are looking for a convenient, fresh way of spending more time in God’s word Dwell is ideal. Go to https://dwellapp.io/happyrant to get 33% off your subscription. It comes out to about $20 for the entire year.

Order Your Coffee

WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #290

New Happy Rant Sports: NFL Free Agency, Trades, and Terrible GMs

In this episode of The Happy Rant Sports podcast Ted and Barnabas discuss NFL player movement and the GMs who dictate it:

Tom Brady’s Move to Tampa – how we feel about it and how well it will work
Cam Newton’s future possibilities (including one Barnabas REALLY likes)
Bridgewater, Rivers, Foles, Cousins and other QB moves
Big WR trades, including one by the NFL’s dumbest GM
Ted likes the Raiders moves
Ted hates the Lions moves
Offensive line crushes

Get Your Coffee

[image error]WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #38