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Breaking Bread Podcast

Around the meal table, needs are met. As participants we celebrate the common solution to our physical need - bread. While we do so, bread of another type is broken as well. Help, hope and encouragement are shared to meet the needs of our struggles, heartaches and questions. Breaking Bread is reminiscent of these life giving conversations. This podcast strives to meet some of our common needs through our common solution – The Bread of Life.
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Now displaying: 2020

Around the meal table, needs are met. As participants we celebrate the common solution to our physical need - bread. While we do so, bread of another type is broken as well. Help, hope and encouragement are shared to meet the needs of our struggles, heartaches and questions. Breaking Bread is reminiscent of these life giving conversations. This podcast strives to meet some of our common needs through our common solution – The Bread of Life.

Dec 28, 2020

Meditation is in vogue. Mindfulness is in fashion. yet, the Scriptures have spoken to this discipline for several millennia. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Brian Sutter walks us through the what, why and how of meditation.

Show notes:

Question Answer
What is meditation? Meditation is deliberately setting our mind on a certain thing and remaining with our mind set upon it.
Why should we meditate? Through the discipline of meditation, we become more mentally healthy as well as spiritually healthy people. The reason for this is because our thoughts give attention to those things that are true.
In what ways is meditation a skill set? Meditation is a skill set because it is a learned and practiced skill by which a person can more fully focus their attention on a selected matter of the mind.
What lies at the center of meditation? Attention lies at the core of mediation. Dismissing unwanted distractions and focusing on desired interests is key.
What qualities do I need to have in order to meditate well? Patience and focus are required for meditation.
How do I meditate? To meditate, we must slow down, identify a matter to contemplate on, focus on that matter with curiosity, remain with that matter over time.
How is mediation different than Bible study? In Bible study, we are the agent, and the Scriptures are the subject we act upon. In meditation, we are the subject, and the Scriptures is the agent that act on us.
Are mindfulness and meditation the same thing? Yes. These terms are similar. Mindfulness is focusing on the present moment.
When is meditation unwise? Meditation is unwise when we adopt the modern notion that truth lies within us and meditation seeks to access that self-goodness.
Dec 14, 2020

Behind our vices is often a lie we believe. Reversing the lie goes a long way in reversing the vice. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Arlan and Matt speak to the health that comes by way of truth. As truth embodied, Christ wants to upset our lies.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

We live in a broken world and wounds happen. Furthermore, wounds compound and compact on top of each other. They build up over time. While some wounds are huge (abuse, etc) wounds don’t have to be huge to be impactful. In fact, often, the subtle unnoticed hurts pack the biggest punch because they go without our notice and their effect is assumed negligible.

FACT:

Wounds give way to lies and lies give way to vice.

GOAL:

A healthy life skill is being able to heal from the wounding we are bound to get.

HOW:

  1. Identify the lie you believe.
  2. Replace it with truth.
  3. Support the truth with repetition.

EFFECT:

Truth will have a living effect on our lives. We will begin to live according to the truth.

Example:

  • WOUND: When Jill was young, she was told by a teacher she wished she was smart like her older sister.
  • LIE: Jill believed that she would never be “good enough”.
  • VICE: Jill began to long for approval. She would seek for it in all the wrong places.
  • REPAIR: Jill came to understand the favor God has for her.
  • EFFECT: Jill is settled in God’s approval and does not seek for it in unhealthy places.
Nov 30, 2020

There is a path through grief. Helping our grieving teens make progress along that path is so important. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kathy Knochel and Craig Stickling give us practical tips on doing just that.

Things to remember as you walk with a grieving teen:

  • Acknowledge the difficulty.
  • Listen to their thoughts and feelings.
  • Ask for permission.
  • Remember anniversaries.
  • Remember the intensity of grief will over time subside.
  • Healing comes by moving though the grief cycle. https://www.accounseling.org/phases-of-grief/
  • Healing comes by processing the loss.
  • Healing comes by connecting with Christ.
  • Healing comes by acceptance.
  • Healing comes by doing.
  • Healing is possible.
Nov 14, 2020

Grief is always hard no matter the age. Yet, our teens experience a unique challenge when it comes to working through loss. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kathy Knochel and Craig Stickling walk us through the complexities of grief on the maturing heart and mind.

Grief and loss can be troubling to teens...

  • Their knowledge is outpacing their experience.
  • Their notion of a safe world is challenged.
  • While they are learning to take control of various aspects of their lives, they learn that they don’t have control.
  • Grief can be unsettling during a time when they are forming their identity.

While a teen’s grieving experience varies dramatically, it will likely include...

Nov 2, 2020

The cigarette is falling out of favor with the general public. Stepping into its place and gaining favor is the modernized e-cigarette. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Dr. Aaron Plattner helps us understand the growing appeal of vaping.

Oct 19, 2020

Sometimes little things make big differences. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kaleb Beyer relays three small things that exist in happy marriages.

3 Small Things

Be Purposeful

  • Highly happy couples generously focus on what their mate is giving to them. The spouse, in turn, deliberately tries to give back.

Be Present

  • Highly happy couples fully invest emotionally in their marriage by risking vulnerability; this leads to a dramatically increased security and happiness in the relationship.

Be Positive

  • Highly happy couples give their spouse most of the credit for their relationship success – and they live in regular, conscious gratitude as a result.

Taken from “The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages: The Little Things That Make a Big Difference” by Shaunti Feldhahn

Oct 5, 2020

Like a faulty check engine light that comes on prematurely, some consciences trigger signals of guilt when they shouldn’t be triggered. This is called false guilt. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Ted Witzig Jr explains the difference and how to detect if that check engine light is real or not.

  • True guilt is grounded in truth.
  • False guilt is grounded in feelings.
  • True guilt motivates us to deal with sin and move forward.
  • False guilt causes us to stall and spin in confession.
  • True guilt listens to scriptural objectivity.
  • False guilt listens to anxiety and depression.

How to deal with false guilt: A person dealing with false guilt typically hold themselves to standards they would not impose on others. They may benefit from getting perspective and counsel from other people. They should focus on moving forward and will need to elevate Christ’s promises to them and not allow their feelings to undermine the truth.

Sep 21, 2020

Both guilt and shame are similar feelings. Both can be triggered for similar reasons. But they each motivate us toward drastically different ends. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Ted Witzig Jr. sorts out the distinctions between guilt and shame and how we should respond to each.

Sep 7, 2020

Birth is sacred and yet, so is death. For many people they will have the opportunity and responsibility to care for their folks as they age and pass. This responsibility is met with challenges, difficulties, opportunities, and blessings. Roger Gasser and Tim Funk let us in on some of these responsibilities and help prepare us to walk these important days with our aging parents.

  • Realize the aging process of giving up control.
    • Give parents control where you can, as control is taken away.
  • Realize every situation is difficult.
    • Be careful when comparing your situation to the next. They are not the same.
  • Realize communication with the entire family is important.
    • Be patient with family members as understanding comes at different rates and at different times.
  • Realize grief management is needed. From physical to emotional, the losses are many.
    • Walk with your loved one through the cycle of grief.
  • Realize that guilt on many levels is likely.
    • Use the following stems often: "I love you." "Please forgive me." "I forgive you." "Thank you."
Aug 21, 2020

At some level, we all want to be successful. Yet success can have ill-effects. On this episode of Breaking Bread, Brian Sutter and Fred Witzig tackle this topic of success. Approaching the topic from a historical, clinical and biblical perspective helps provide insight into this “success” we all want.

Show Notes:

How healthy is my success?

  • Success should promote humility.
  • Success should not promote arrogance.
  • Success should promote thanksgiving.
  • Success should not promote entitlement.
  • Success should promote a dependence on God.
  • Success should not promote an independence from God.
  • Success should promote a healthy mind.
  • Success should not promote out of balance.
  • Success should promote good relationships.
  • Success should not promote negligence.
  • Success should promote a healthy view of God.
  • Success should not promote misconceptions of God.
  • Success should promote a high view of people.
  • Success should not promote a condescending view of people.
  • Success should promote joy.
Aug 10, 2020

Conviction of truth. Compassion for people. Context for our society. And comfort in Christ. These are our goals. Join Ted Witzig Jr. as he speaks to the important topic of gender and sexual identity with grace and truth.

Jul 27, 2020

Conviction of truth. Compassion for people. Context for our society. And comfort in Christ. These are our goals. Join Ted Witzig Jr. as he speaks to the important topic of gender and sexual identity with grace and truth.

Conviction of Truth

  • Mark 10:6-9
    • Gender is a divine creation.
    • Marriage between a man and a woman is a divine institution.
    • Fidelity is the divine intention.

Compassion for People

  • See people as Christ sees them. Love them.
    • We are created in God’s image.
    • We are loved by God.
    • We have undying souls.
    • We are in need of salvation.

Context for our Society

  • Common Cultural Script
    • I feel attracted to my same sex.
    • Attraction is a central identifier to who I am as a person.
    • Happiness is found in fulfillment of my identity.
    • I must live out my same sex attraction to flourish as a person.
  • People do not choose their sexual attraction. Attraction is complex.
  • Changing sexual attraction is not simple. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it does not.

Comfort in Christ

  • Jesus attracted people who had brokenness.
  • The repair that Jesus offers is much deeper than sexual orientation.
  • Jesus offers us an alternative script and it is good news for all of us.
    • I feel attracted to my same sex. This is just one example of brokenness in my life.
    • Sexual attraction is not the central identifier of my life. Rather, my identity in Christ is who I am at the core.
    • Happiness is found in fulfillment of my identity in Christ.
    • Human flourishing happens when I am conformed to Christ’s likeness. Thus, I do not need to act on sinful sexual urges.
  • Jesus offers the good news of conversion to anyone who wants it. A transformation occurs when we were once slaves to our brokenness and become new creatures with new minds set free to live according to Christ’s example.
Jul 13, 2020

Empathy is a gift we give to others. It is a gift for many reasons, not the least of which, is the selflessness required. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Amber Miller flushes out empathy. She helps us walk the fine line of looking within ourselves and accessing the God given skill set to turn outward and connect with another person.

  • Empathy is feeling with people.
  • Empathy is not fixing people’s hurt.
  • Empathy is recognizing, acknowledging, and connecting with another person’s emotion.
  • Empathy is not talking.
  • Empathy requires selflessness by not making the interaction about us.
  • Empathy does not require a shared experience.
  • Empathy requires vulnerability on the part of the giver and the receiver.
  • Empathy does not require complete understanding of another person’s experience.
  • Empathy is built by listening to another’s perspective.
  • Empathy is eroded by minimizing another’s experience.
  • Empathy is built by prayer.
  • Empathy is eroded by ignorance.
  • Empathy flourishes when the hurting person gives the helping person grace to try.
  • Empathy withers when the hurting person lords their hurt over another.
  • Empathy flourishes when the helping person gives the hurting person grace to share.
  • Empathy withers when the helping person lords their perspective over the hurting person.
  • Empathy is perfectly exampled in Christ, who experienced humanity fully and is now our advocate before the father.
Jun 29, 2020

Connection in marriage is possible. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kaleb Beyer shares with us three keys in connecting with our spouse. Accessibility, responsiveness and engagement go a long way in moving us in the right direction - toward each other.

Jun 15, 2020

Marriage is far more than a living arrangement. It is a living relationship which meets a core need we each have for connection. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kaleb Beyer exposes this core need and coaches us on how to achieve it.

  • Connection in marriage models the connection God desires with us - one in which life flows between us. Christ is the vine and we are the branches.
  • Every spouse desires connection. Connection answers “yes” to the questions, “Do I matter to you? Are you there for me?”
  • Withdrawal is a poor but common response to loss of connection. It in fact drives further disconnection. Withdrawal is when a person pulls away from their spouse in silence and inattention.
  • Aggression is a poor but common response to loss of connection. It, in fact, drives further disconnection. Aggression is when a person pursues their spouse with angst and negative accusation.
  • Underneath our withdrawal and aggression is hurt. Hurt is the pain that comes from lack of connection. At the surface disagreement between the spouses is apparent, yet spouses actually agree on this one need – connection.
  • Self-reflection is key to navigating disconnection. Learning why we respond in certain ways and assuring our spouse that though our reactions are imperfect, connection is desired.
  • Sitting with difficult emotions is key to navigating disconnection. Learning how to face unpleasant emotions and make sense of them with our spouses is necessary.

Connection is made by being available, responsive and engaged with your spouse.

Jun 1, 2020

Conflict happens. Some conflict can be avoided. All conflict needs resolve. Sometimes little things make big differences.  In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kaleb Beyer relays three small things that exist in happy marriages.

3 Small Things

Be Purposeful

  • Highly happy couples find that when they can’t resolve conflict before bedtime, they choose to sleep on it. If anger remains in the morning, they don’t let it go unresolved; they deal with it.

Be Present

  • Highly happy couples treat one another with intentional kindness; they joke and they challenge, but they try to never do it in ways their mate would perceive as disrespectful or hurtful.

Be Positive

  • When highly happy couples inevitably experience hurt feelings and conflict, they eventually reconnect by mutually sharing a private signal that says “We’re okay.”

Taken from “The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages: The Little Things That Make a Big Difference” by Shaunti Feldhahn

May 18, 2020

Uncertainty, unpredictability, unreliability, riskiness, chanciness, unsureness, changeability - 2020.  It’s one thing to have expectations gone unmet.  It’s another thing to be so uncertain that expectations can’t even be set. Those are the days we are in. And yet, there is an advantage these days afford. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Arlan Miller helps us see those advantages.

  • We learn flexibility. A lot is out of our control.
  • We learn childlikeness. God is our Father.
  • We learn dependence. God is our supplier.
  • We learn to be responsible in those things we know.
  • We learn to shift our trust from those things uncertain to the one who is – God.
May 4, 2020

It is easy to overlook the losses our kids are enduring these days. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Craig Stickling highlights what many of our kids are experiencing as their lives have been put on hold during these days of COVID-19. Fortunately, parents are equipped with a few helpful tools to minister to their losses.

Some tools for the toolset:

  • Acknowledge their loss. Don’t down-play it.
  • Kids have had limited experience. Bring perspective.
  • Connect with their loss. Resist shifting the focus to yourself.
  • They will be fearful. Help them express it.
  • They will be frustrated. Help them channel it.
  • They will be scattered. Help them focus.
  • They will be absorbed in the present. Help them see the future.
Apr 20, 2020

What do we do with emotional pain when we can’t make it better? (Hint: David, Hannah, Jerimiah, Job, Habakkuk and Jesus all did it.)  In fact, the example is so abundant in the Scriptures you can’t miss it. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Ted Witzig Jr. will answer this question and make it very accessible to all who endure pain. 

  • Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.
  • Lament includes four steps:
    • Turn to God
    • Make a complaint
    • Make your request
    • Move forward in trust
  • Lament connects the experience of our pain with the reality of God’s promises.
  • Some people are afraid to lament because it often deals with raw emotions and difficult questions. However, lament is actually an act of faith as we turn toward God in our pain.
  • God has given lament to the individual who is suffering.
  • God has given lament to the community who is suffering with an individual.
Apr 6, 2020

Suffering nearly touches us all and is a common human experience. Suffering is bad.  Period. Yet, God steps into this badness. Somehow His knowledge of it and presence in it has some redemptive qualities. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Brian Sutter with Fred Witzig take the topic of suffering head-on and expose the hope that suffering affords.

  • Suffering rises from different places. One type of suffering results from consequences from our actions. Another type of suffering results from calamity completely outside of our control. And yet, a third type of suffering comes about when we, by choice, pick up our cross and follow Christ.
  • Throughout time, suffering has proven to be a catalyst for either rejecting God or growing faith in God.
  • Throughout the Bible we have examples of men and women who, out of their suffering, turned to God and asked “why this suffering?” God is big enough to shoulder our complaints. There is a difference, however, in asking “why” from a standpoint of faith and a standpoint of no faith.
  • There are some advantages suffering brings. Suffering gives us a Godward perspective. Suffering helps us identify what matters in this life. Suffering allows us to identify with Christ’s suffering. Suffering helps us rid our hearts of sin. In time, God can use suffering to bring us to a settled place in Him.
  • Suffering is often coupled with our loves. Those people and things most dear to us carry the potential for suffering. This risk to love is the risk Christ took and suffered on our behalf.
  • According to God’s purposes, He alleviates some suffering while at other times equips us to endure.
  • God calls us to walk with those who are suffering yet doing so requires patience and silence.
Mar 30, 2020

God has made us to be healthy through the COVID-19 crisis. Sometimes that’s hard to believe. On this episode of Breaking Bread, Brian Sutter helps us untangle our thoughts and emotions so we can walk these days with a healthy mind.

What we need to know about ourselves…

  • We each have an emotional reservoir with only so much capacity. The stress resulting from the COVID-19 crisis can quickly overwhelm us. We need to make the effort to process the emotions we are feeling so as to manage our capacity to absorb stress.
  • Fear, the awareness of danger, is understandable during these circumstances. Fear left unattended can quickly evolve into ruminating thoughts of “what ifs”. This anxiety can be troubling. Our “what ifs” will be answered in time.
  • Our emotions play to our fears. Emotion will “color the story” and very often over-shadow logic. It is important we engage our thoughtful rational processes.
  • We do not all have the same roles in this crisis. Medical workers, authority figures, mothers, fathers, community members all have slightly different concerns. Step into your duties and support others in theirs.
  • Isolation is most unhealthy when we perceive we have been cut off from supply lines. Forge and maintain connection with others in accord with the given precautions.
  • Recreation can be healthy. Having fun is important. Escape has its place. Entertainment should be done with moderation.
  • God has created us to be healthy through trial and will very likely, in time, bring good from these trials.
Mar 23, 2020

Prayer is a conduit of God’s power, provision and purposes.  Through it God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.  What should we pray for?  And what do we do with unanswered prayer?  Joe Gerber addresses these questions and casts a vision for a culture of prayer.

Mar 11, 2020

The Moravians, an unassuming, powerless, group of refugees prayed mightily for one hundred years. The effects of those prayers cannot be estimated and are still felt today. This is no surprise to anyone who understands intercessory prayer. Prayer makes a difference. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Joe Gerber recounts this history and lays a foundation for prayer today. Listeners will be inspired by the privilege and responsibility of prayer.

Feb 24, 2020

Sometimes little things make big differences. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Kaleb Beyer relays three small things that exist in happy marriages.

3 Small Things

Be Purposeful

  • Highly happy couples practice meaningful touches throughout the day, boosting relational and individual health.

Be Present

  • Highly happy couples aren’t just spending time together because they are happy; a big part of the reason they’re so happy is that they are spending time together!

Be Positive

  • Highly happy couples quickly stop a negative train of thought or action by replacing unhappy or angry thoughts or actions with positive ones to combat negativity.

Taken from “The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages: The Little Things That Make a Big Difference” by Shaunti Feldhahn

Feb 10, 2020

The apostle Paul encouraged the Ephesian church to forbear with one another. Forbearance requires a skill set that is growing increasingly foreign in today’s world. A world where individual preferences abound and we have increasingly less reason to endure with those things that do not suit us. In this episode of Breaking Bread, Arlan Miller and Kaleb Beyer flush out the attribute of forbearance and expose it for its Christ-like beauty.

  • Forbearance is enduring with someone or something that doesn’t comply with your favor.
  • Forbearance is not forgiveness, which requires an offense to be pardoned.
  • Forbearance is acknowledging an annoyance but tolerating it.
  • Forbearance is not “facing”, which happens when we confront an unfavorable issue and urge change.
  • Forbearance is expecting the irritant to exist and not becoming bitter that it does.
  • Forbearance is not enjoying, appreciating or celebrating the annoyance.
  • Forbearance is receiving people and loving them despite their unfavorable attributes.
  • Forbearance is not ignoring or avoiding people or who do not strike your fancy.
  • Forbearance is an attribute of Christ towards you.
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