Breaking Bread Podcast

We want to honor our parents. After all, it is on God’s top ten.  Beautifully, honor takes on different hues depending on the life stage we are in. However, some situations make honor especially challenging. In this episode, Brian Sutter and Amber Miller address some of those challenging circumstances.

Honoring your father and mother is a big deal [Ten Commandments #5].  Yet working that out in real time can be challenging.  Especially when we disagree.  Obedience has an important voice at the table of honor, but its not the only voice.

Leave and then cleave. This is the pattern for marriage set early in the Scriptures. This is also the pattern for the gospel set throughout the Scriptures. Christ calls us to leave our previous lives, cleave to Him and become a new creation. In a divine reflection of the gospel, marriage calls us to leave our previous lives, cleave to our spouses and be a new family. In this episode, Kaleb Beyer walks through the nuts and bolts of this “marriage long” process.

God says to His children, “Come unto me.” In like manner, I should say to my children, “Come unto me.” But what does that look like? Craig Stickling and Brian Sutter offer practical encouragement for parents to engage their children in “family time.”

One of the hard realities of relationships is that love and hurt are bundled together. The vulnerability that relationship requires makes disappointment possible, even likely. Getting back up after disappointment and repairing trust is required for relationship maintenance. In this episode Kaleb Beyer and Arlan Miller provide a helpful template for restoring trust. 

God had a controversy with His chosen people in Hosea’s day; they didn’t know God (Hosea 4:1). Christ had a quarrel with the people of His day; they didn’t know God (John 7:28,29). Paul had a burden for the people of his day; that they would know God (Ephesians 1:17). In this episode Matt Kaufmann interviews Brian Sutter about how we can know God better and the delightful and sometimes surprising end that comes as a result.

Every parent wants his or her child to excel at something; to possess a gift, a talent, a strength. Because they have been fearfully and wonderfully made, they do. As parents, how do we steward them in these strengths? In this episode, Brian Sutter and Craig Stickling help shed light on this responsibility.

Men and women are equal. Yes. But equality is far too narrow a term to say all that needs to be said concerning gender. In this episode, Amber Miller and Matt Kaufmann discuss the limitations of these terms and introduce a few more helpful ones.

God created man in His own image.  Male and female created He them.  And God blessed them.  Genesis 1.  In this episode Matt Kaufmann leads Amber Miller in a conversation that highlights the blessing of gender.  In particular, the female gender.  God has placed unique characteristics of Himself in women.  In so doing, God has placed His likeness in the genders in such a way that each is necessary to illustrate Himself the Composite One. 

Bringing the sun back out in our overcast marriages is not the result of extravagant acts. In this episode, Kaleb Beyer explains the power for good that accumulating small moments of connection have in warming up the climate of our marriages. The currency of affection is simple, basic, local and accessible.

Friendship is a critical component of marital love. Unfortunately, too often its maintenance is neglected and our “like” for our spouse suffers. Wonderfully, our friendship can be revived. In this episode, Kaleb Beyer gives us the first of three hints on helping our friendship flourish.

The New Year naturally engenders reflection and anticipation. With gusto, we make plans for improvement. In this episode, Ted Witzig Jr. explains that the best way to make plans for success – is to make plans for failure. Getting back on track is the discipline required to get to the end of the rail.

These are the darkest days on our calendar. For many, the darkness that overshadows is not only physical. The wintertime blues touch the psyche. In this episode, Ted Witzig Jr. speaks to the issue of Seasonal Affective Disorder and points us to the solution – The Light.

Discipline is much more than behavior change. In fact, it must be. In this episode, Craig Stickling and Brian Sutter elevate this parental role to a more noble end than that of producing good kids. Listen for the hope that naughty kids afford.

By default, our children enter into our families in a relationship with us.  After all, they are our sons and daughters. However, relationships are not in name only. In this episode, Craig Stickling and Brian Sutter speak to the importance of building meaningful relationships with our children.

Teaching is wonderfully optimistic. The sky is the limit; what do you want your students to know? With a little intentionality, parenting is exciting in the same way. In this episode, Craig Stickling and Brian Sutter, interviewed by Matt Kaufmann, encourage us to seize the parenting moment of teaching.

Christ chose discipleship as the means to pass down faith and sanctify lives. When we engage in Christian discipleship, we participate in the divine and ancient classroom of Christ. In this episode, Arlan Miller and Matt Kaufmann help us understand what discipleship looks like in the church. 

October marks a milestone for Breaking Bread. Two years, 48 episodes and 46,000 downloads later, we are blessed to find our listenership growing. We rejoice in Christ, our Broken Bread who meets our many and varied needs. He is the substance of our hope in every conversation. In celebration of this milestone we have given Breaking Bread a fresh look and a new sound. Check it out today by listening to our special broadcast.

Our brains are plastic – moldable, changeable. In this episode Dr. Aaron Plattner connects the dots between our thoughts and our actions. He explains how thinking patterns can be changed for the better. This is very good news and ups the ante for our thought life.

When it comes to human organs, the brain is arguably the most precious.  Thinking, feeling and behaving find their genesis in the brain.  How has God created our brains to function?  In this episode, Psychiatrist Dr. Aaron Plattner helps us understand this brilliant creation.  He sheds much needed light on the intersection of faith and psychiatry.