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Do you ever feel you must perform for God to be loved by Him?

In the second episode of the Ever After Podcast, we explore how the Gospel has often been reduced to what we must do for God rather than the breathtaking reality of all He has already done to bring us back to Himself.

Great storytellers like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis believed that every story that deeply moves us draws its power from the greater Gospel Story. Stories have a way of slipping past our defenses, awakening both the mind and the heart. Facts may inform us, but stories have the power to transform us.

This episode invites you to rediscover the Gospel as the beautiful Love Story it truly is—and to experience the healing that can come through engaging deeply with stories that echo its beauty, sacrifice, longing, and redemption.

Episode Summary

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• why it is so easy to confuse the Gospel as a to-do list as opposed to the beautiful Story that it is
• how meaningful stories bypass our brain’s defenses and engage our hearts
• what happens in our brains when we’re deeply engaged in a story and how healing occurs

Resources Mentioned

• Preaching Christ in a Post-Modern World, by Dr. Tim Keller
  (No longer available for purchase)
• The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation, by Dr. Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks
• The Ever After Encounter, Anita’s premier women’s event, DiscoverEverAfter.org⁠⁠

Featured Movies

• Title: Cinderella (2015)
• Director: Kenneth Branagh
• Starring: Lily James, Richard Madden, Cate Blanchett

• Title: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
• Director: Rupert Sanders
• Starring: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron
  
• Title: Frozen (2012)
• Director: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee
• Starring: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff 

Scriptures

• Ephesians 3:15-19
• Ephesians 2:8
• Ecclesiastes 3:11
• James 1:8
• I Thessalonians 5:23
• Romans 8:29
• I Peter 2:9

Key Takeaways:

• If the Gospel is by grace, it must be a Story. Other meaningful stories or films can deepen our understanding and experience of the Gospel.
• When we’re deeply engaged in a story, both our emotional and intellectual ways of processing are activated and harmonized. Healing begins when this happens.
• Healing is when your head and heart start telling the same story.