Episodes

On August 26, 1832, Adam Clarke died during a cholera epidemic near London. But his story began with a boy in Ireland whom others considered slow, dull, and unlikely to amount to much academically. They were spectacularly wrong. Clarke became one of the great Methodist preachers and biblical scholars of his generation, mastering ancient languages and spending years producing his monumental commentary on Scripture. The boy who struggled with words devoted his life to helping others understand t...

Creed is an original song inspired by the Nicene Creed, the historic confession of Christian faith first formulated at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 and carried by generations of believers ever since. The song follows the great movement of the Creed: faith in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth; Jesus Christ, the eternal Son who became flesh for our salvation, was crucified, rose again, ascended, and will return; the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life; the Church; the resurrection of...

Life rarely arrives neatly arranged. It comes as beauty and brokenness, mourning and dancing, abundance and emptiness, sudden moments and long advents. Yet through it all, the Shepherd leads us and prepares a table in the middle of today. The meal is sure. The menu is unknown. A Scattered Feast is a spoken-word reflection on Psalm 23, dependence, providence, and learning to receive each day as it comes—trusting that even when we don't know what tomorrow holds, we know the One who prepares the ...

On August 25, 325, bishops gathered at Nicaea carrying more than theological arguments—some carried the scars of persecution. At the heart of their debate was a question that would shape Christianity for centuries: Who is Jesus Christ? In this episode of Moments Almanac, we explore the story behind the Council of Nicaea, the controversy over Arius, the crucial word homoousios—“of one substance”—and the creed that declared Jesus to be “God of God, Light of Light, begotten, not made.” We’ll also h...

Keep Me Close — Inspired by Psalm 17 “Keep Me Close” is an original Scattered Moments song inspired by the prayer of David in Psalm 17, especially these beautiful words: “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” — Psalm 17:8 David writes from a place of danger. He feels surrounded, pursued, and vulnerable. Yet at the heart of his prayer is something deeper than simply asking God to change his circumstances. He doesn't merely pray, “Get me out.” He prays, “Keep m...

On August 24, ninety years apart, two moments of religious persecution unfolded under the same name: St. Bartholomew’s Day. In 1572 Paris, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre left thousands of French Protestants dead. In 1662 England, the Act of Uniformity forced roughly two thousand ministers from their pulpits rather than violate their consciences—including Philip Henry, father of the great Bible commentator Matthew Henry. Two very different kinds of suffering, but one haunting question: What...

Psalm 17: Keep Me Close — The Apple of His Eye In this Psalm Reflection, we meditate on one of David’s most intimate prayers: “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 17:8). Stay through the end of the reflection for an original song inspired by Psalm 17, “Keep Me Close,” a musical prayer of trust, shelter, and longing to see the face of God. Psalm 17 is not the prayer of someone living an easy life. David feels surrounded, threatened, and falsely accused...

On August 23, two very different worlds confronted lies they had learned to live with. Increase Mather, a complicated voice in the aftermath of the Salem witch trials, challenged the dangerous use of spectral evidence. Decades later, the fires of rebellion spread across Saint-Domingue as enslaved people rose against a system built on the lie that one human being could own another. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we explore Salem, the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, and a sobering quest...

By the summer of 1741, George Frideric Handel had every reason to believe his best work was behind him. His operas were struggling, his finances were uncertain, his health had failed him before, and at fifty-six years old, the great composer seemed to be watching his celebrated career fade. Then Charles Jennens handed him a remarkable collection of Scripture tracing the story of Christ—from prophecy and incarnation to suffering, resurrection, and eternal reign. Handel sat down to compose. Twe...

For years, I thought the world would run a lot better if somebody would just put me in charge. Turns out, I can barely manage my own Tuesday. 😄 In this episode of Scattered Moments, I take a lighthearted look at what happens when I try to take charge of my time, gifts, money, emotions, story, and legacy—and what changes when I finally hand the keys back to Jesus. Maybe surrender isn't losing control. Maybe it's finally admitting we never had as much control as we thought. Thank God I'm not i...

Verse 1 I dwell within Your shelter I lean upon Your grace While others run to falsehood I choose to seek Your face Chorus You are my portion My cup My counsel My rock You are my teacher By my side My inheritance My guide Verse 2 The lines have fallen gently In places You have planned My future is not hidden It's resting in Your hands And even in the nighttime When troubled thoughts arise Your whisper is my counsel Your presence is my light Chorus You are my portion My cup My counsel My rock ...

On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa disappeared from the Louvre—and for hours, no one noticed. Forty-five years earlier, on that same date, hymn writer Civilla D. Martin was born. She would eventually give the church one of its most enduring reminders that while human eyes overlook much, God never does. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we follow the remarkable theft that helped turn the Mona Lisa into a worldwide icon and the story behind Martin’s beloved hymn, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” Jes...

What if God answered your prayers today by giving you nothing but Himself? Would He be enough? Psalm 16 is a song of quiet confidence from David. Trouble seems to be somewhere in the background—he begins by praying, “Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you”—but David spends surprisingly little time describing what threatens him. Instead, he turns his attention toward what he possesses. And his greatest possession is God Himself. “LORD, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; you hold my ...

On August 20, 1912, William Booth—the nearly blind, aging founder of the Salvation Army—died after a lifetime spent carrying the gospel into places respectable society preferred to ignore. His message was simple and relentless: as long as people suffered, “I’ll fight.” Exactly sixty-five years later, on August 20, 1977, Voyager 2 launched from Cape Canaveral carrying another kind of message: the Golden Record, filled with music, greetings, human sounds, and echoes of life on Earth. It was sent t...

Sometimes it’s a job. Sometimes it’s a ministry, a dream, a responsibility, or simply something we once felt certain God wanted us to do. Discouragement has a way of making an exit look like the only reasonable option. In this episode of Scattered Moments, we begin with the unlikely story of an aging Kentucky restaurant owner whose business disappeared when the highway moved—and who discovered that what looked like the end of the road was actually the beginning of something new. Then we consid...

Two brilliant minds, separated by an ocean and 129 years, share the same date in history. On August 19, 1662, mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal died at just thirty-nine years old. Hidden inside his coat was a small parchment recording the night when the great thinker encountered something reason alone could not explain: the living God. Then, on August 19, 1791, Benjamin Banneker — a free Black astronomer and mathematician — wrote Thomas Jefferson a remarkable letter. Armed with Scriptu...

Who can dwell in the presence of a holy God? Psalm 15 begins with one of Scripture’s most searching questions: “LORD, who can dwell in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain?” — Psalm 15:1David answers with a portrait of integrity: a person who practices righteousness, speaks truth from the heart, refuses to use words to harm others, keeps promises even when they hurt, protects the vulnerable, and lives justly. This short psalm reads almost like a collection of proverbs, but beneath it...

The Holy Place Inspired by Psalm 15, The Holy Place begins with the question at the heart of David’s psalm: “LORD, who can dwell in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain?” Psalm 15 describes a life of integrity, truth, compassion, justice, and faithfulness. Yet its opening question also points us toward our need for grace. How can imperfect people approach a holy God? For the Christian, the answer is found in Jesus Christ. We do not enter God's presence because we have achieved holine...

Two searches. Sixteen centuries apart. One remarkable date. On August 18, we remember two women whose influence reached far beyond what anyone might have expected. Helena of Constantinople, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, spent her final years in the Holy Land, where Christian tradition credits her with a search that uncovered the True Cross beneath the streets of Jerusalem. Then, sixteen centuries later, Tennessee became the final state needed to secure ratification of the 19th Amen...

Why do I keep climbing the stairs to my home office around 8:00 at night, turning on a microphone, and spending the next 45 minutes making a podcast? Somewhere along the way, Scattered Moments became more than a hobby. It became a spiritual discipline. In this episode, I share a little about why I keep showing up—and, more importantly, who I’m showing up for. This podcast is for the preachers and the pushers. The successes and the failures. The honor students and the underachievers. The holy an...

On August 17, two very different claims were staked. One was driven into the gravel of a Yukon creek, where the discovery of gold would ignite the Klondike Gold Rush and send nearly 100,000 fortune-seekers north. The other was staked decades earlier in the life of William Carey, a poor English cobbler who became one of the great pioneers of the modern missionary movement. Carey spent forty-one years in India translating Scripture, establishing schools, training leaders, and carrying the gospe...

“Still My Refuge” is a song of quiet faith shaped by the language and longing of Psalm 14. In a world that often feels cold, distant, and spiritually empty, this song holds on to one steady truth: the Lord is still our refuge. Drawing from the psalm’s sobering picture of humanity’s wandering—“all have turned away”—the song gives voice to those moments when loneliness, heartache, and conflict make us feel abandoned. Yet it also echoes the deeper assurance of Psalm 14, that God has not turned awa...

On August 16, two lives separated by eighty years tell a larger story about what happens when the gospel refuses to stay safely inside the walls of a church. In 1795, Absalom Jones was ordained a deacon in Philadelphia after once being forced from his knees and told where a Black worshipper was permitted to pray. Eighty years later, on August 16, 1875, revivalist Charles Grandison Finney died at Oberlin after a lifetime of preaching conversion and condemning slavery as a national sin. Two prea...

Psalm 14 begins with one of Scripture’s most familiar lines: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” But David is describing more than intellectual unbelief. The “fool” is the person who lives as though God is absent—as though there is no divine authority, no final accountability, and no holy presence watching over the world. From there, the psalm widens its focus. The Lord looks down from heaven searching for those who understand and seek Him, only to find that “all have turned away.”...