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PODCAST

The Shield ONLINE

Teachings, messages, vital life learning, irrelevancies, and other musings about the Bible from The Salvation Army"s Captain Roger McCort. Life has few guarantees, but here"s one: You will find something new or interesting in every message or you can reach out to me and I will provide you with additional new and interesting facts, free of charge. Guaranteed.

religion & spirituality christianity

All Episodes

30:31

Sunday School Lies: David & Goliath

The Shield ONLINE ·

2025/01/14

It's not unusual for people to simplify things for children. But when we do that with scripture, we can lose the original intent or even change the reason the story was included. This is BAD. Why? Because when you tell the story wrong, you always lose something. Sometimes you lose everything.For example, the story of David and Goliath is NOT about a small boy beating a giant. It's also NOT about the underdog taking on impossible odds. Is that the story you know? Then you'd better join us for ...

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20:42

Unshakable Love

The Shield ONLINE ·

2025/01/06

Christmas is over. What was the point of it all anyway? Why do we always seem to leave the holiday season with the feeling that something was or is missing? And is that something that can be fixed, or is it just the way things are?Today we look at God's goal for his creation and the true meaning of the Christmas story. It's perhaps not what you thought and it's so much more than we usually celebrate about it.

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28:49

Unexpected Gifts (Advent Week Four)

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/12/22

Dear Magi,Thank you for bringing gifts to help with the raising of our child. They sure came in handy! It wasn't more than an hour after you left that we needed to pack up and move to another country, and we never would have been able to do that so easily without the extra funds you provided. Thank you! We enjoyed having you as our guests.I'm not so sure that the other parents in the area have quite the same fond memories of your visit...We'll be sure to stop in if Joe and I ever head over yo...

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27:11

Unclean Visitors (Advent Week Three)

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/12/15

You know all those pictures of the blonde women with harps and halos and swan's wings flying over a bunch of shepherds and some sheep while spotlights from heaven light them all up while the birth of Jesus is announced?Where does any of that come from? Because it isn't from the stories in scripture. What does the Bible say happened? Oh, it's something so much better...Join us for the third week of Advent and the true story of why it mattered to shepherds that this particular baby was born whe...

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25:39

UNWELCOME GUESTS (Advent Week Two)

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/12/09

We've grown a whole tragic mythology around the Christmas story that makes me CRAZY. This is supposed to be a CELEBRATION, people! Why do we insist on ignoring all the joy and adding false horrors into a tale that has enough difficulty of its own?This Christmas, try sticking to the scriptural story of Christmas and see if the true story isn't a thousand times BETTER than the one you see on TV.

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26:29

Unexpected Pregnancies (Advent Week One)

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/12/01

There is HOPE in the real story of Christmas that you'll never find under a tree. There are examples of people who have been clinging to the world's shame and condemnation accepting - if somewhat dubiously at first - that God can and does love and care for them for who and what they are. And that if that is true, which it IS, then the opinions being heaped on them by their family, their culture, and their world, do not matter one donkey dropping in the deepest desert.This is the Advent story ...

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29:50

David Takes a Wife

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/11/24

A lot of stories people tell over and over take on a mythic quality. The story of the first American Thanksgiving is one of those. Happy Pilgrims and happy Indians planning out a feast of turkey and pumpkin pie is a fairy tale, not a history.Many of the stories from scripture are the same. What we are taught isn't what you read. Sometimes the things you read are colored by your expectations and sometimes bits are skipped to make the story say what the narrator wants it to say. The REAL storie...

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26:03

Jump Like Jehoshaphat

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/11/17

"Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!" has been a humorous non-swear swear for a long time. But who was Jehoshaphat and why was he so jumpy?This week I'm going to tell you a story from the Old Testament which highlights the difficulty of remaining at peace during times of way and how fight or flight are not the only options. There is a third way, a choice we can each make, one that involves following the Way of the LORD. Which way did Jehoshaphat jump and which path will you choose?

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29:58

Bible Horror Stories: Hush, Little Baby (rev)

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/11/08

We live in a world full of violence and pain. Our culture celebrates retribution and preemptive strikes - the destruction or at least submission of our enemies as payback for what they have (or might have) inflicted on us.The Bible certainly contains many stories of the same kinds of struggles, of harm being done to the people of God and of their responses. Obviously, this provides a righteous path for us to respond to those who would harm us or our families or friends with the same kind of b...

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24:08

Bible Horror Stories: Ghost Story

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/10/20

This week, the Return of Horror Stories from the Bible continues with a tale of ghosts or demons responding to a call from King Saul. Why would Israel's first king turn his back on the commands of God to chase after messages from the dead? And what will he do when the message he gets is not at all what he hoped?Grab your popcorn and sit near a friend while we dig deep into this dark story from a dark time.

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29:10

Bible Horror Stories: Family Aflame

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/10/13

It's that time of year: Horror Stories of the Bible return to help lead us up to the celebration of all the saints who came before us. Today we delve into the twisted story of a man who was able to snatch bitter defeat from the jaws of victory. While his story may burn itself into your memory, don't light a candle for him. His choices left a legacy in ashes and are to be viewed as a warning that we should sacrifice our pride, not our pride and joy.The fact that there are multiple stories in t...

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25:52

Salting the Manure

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/10/06

Sure, the Beatitudes make a nice little framework for a life of faith in Jesus. Maybe I'll work on them sometimes, you know, like a church-related hobby. But we wouldn't want to go all in on them, would we? What would people think? We'd seem to be some kind of Jesus freaks if we did that. People might be mean to us. Some might even be angry! Jesus didn't really mean for his followers to take this stuff personally, did he?Oh, let me tell you, he made this all VERY personal when he told us to p...

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23:02

Please Persecute Me?

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/09/29

Is there any way to look at being made to suffer at the hands of others that could be considered any kind of a blessing? And yet, Jesus offers us this wild saying that says we are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness! What the heck is he going on about there? Has he spent too much time in the sun?Today, we dive into this Beatitude to uncover what it means and - just as importantly! - what it DOESN'T mean. And what, exactly, it means for those of us who are trying to follow t...

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31:29

Wage Peace

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/09/22

"In the real world, that stuff [that Jesus said] doesn't work."This was said to me by a pastor friend as we discussed the importance of following the Way of Jesus as he laid it out. Our disagreement was about how we are to respond to those who are or may be trying to harm us.That friend is no longer a pastor, which I think is probably for the best, because if a representative of Jesus doesn't believe the teaching and example of Jesus matters in "the real world" then they aren't representing J...

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24:09

Pure

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/09/15

Purity and holiness sound like terribly boring religious concepts requiring us to lead dull lives enclosed in harsh boundaries, deprivation, and perfection. When we screw up, we're out, right? ZAP goes the lightning, then straight into the depths of depravity and destruction!Yeah, that would be every bit as horrible as it sounds. Fortunately, that's not at all what the Bible means when it talks about being pure in heart! Remember that Jesus was pure in heart but his opponents got all over him...

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25:16

Have Mercy

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/09/08

Sometimes people suck, and when they do they should be held up for ridicule and contempt and mockery... Oh, wait. That's what we DO, but is that what Jesus asks of his followers? Is it the example God provides us with? Or are we supposed to find it in ourselves, somehow, to show mercy?I suspect you already know the answer. Maybe looking at the examples Jesus gave for showing mercy will give us some hope that we might be able to learn how to do it. Or maybe we'll decide that we just don't care...

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27:35

In Sync and Hungry

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/09/01

Now that we've spent a few weeks talking about being blessed, let's talk about what the word BLESSED means and how it may not be exactly what we've been thinking it is. Then let's talk about the deeper meaning of righteousness and how it's something for every one of us to embrace, not just a thing for holiness superstars. Something to consider: Being righteous doesn't come from following rules! It's based on something else entirely. Something we all want!

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27:07

Meekness, Not Weakness

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/08/25

Just because things rhyme, that doesn't mean they are the same. If you use a cat for a bat, you'll never get a hit, and if you wear it as a hat, you'll probably regret it. And yet we tend to mix up meekness by thinking it is a weakness when the reality is that it takes a lot more strength to live out meekness than it does to dominate, bully, or push your way over the top of anyone else.Well then, what IS meekness? And how could we live it out, if we chose to give it a try? And what does any o...

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26:54

Hurts

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/08/11

Today we start with a lesson in the obvious: Life hurts. There are wounds which we need to tend to or they will fester and drive us to self-destructive means of altering or covering the pain because we just want it to stop hurting. Or the pain takes over so much that we don't realize we can feel anything else. How can there be any blessing in pain or loss or disappointment?But maybe there is...This week, we explore how that might work, and why we are never so alone as we think.

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24:39

Unclench

The Shield ONLINE ·

2024/08/08

What does it mean to be poor and why would Jesus claim that this is some kind of blessed state? Why do we allow anxiety to drive us to cling to things we could release? What makes THIS the thing Jesus wanted to tell his followers to learn ahead of everything else?This week we cover the first of the Beatitudes, Jesus's instructions for life as a citizen of God's Kingdom.

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