The Bible Project Daily Podcast

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This is a between-the-seasons bonus epsiode. I shall be back again on Monday to laumch our new season on the book(s) of Kings.Back in April 2025, I read, listening too, and studied. William Langland's Medieval poem "Piers Plowman". As part of a reading group I belong to. This is my reaction,, first made available as a 'Patreon Only' bonus episode  
"Piers Plowman", was first published in 1377 and in it Langland asks the eternal question. "How are we truly saved?"  This urgent question was particularly relevant when it was written 700 years ago because England was in the grip of the Black Death. But the question  is still echoing today.
Join me as I explore a strange and stirring medieval poem that confronts hypocrisy, grapples with sin, and ultimately points to Christ's radical grace.
Langland's riddles aren't just literary; they're spiritual challenges for our time. And asks are we ready to engage?
📖 Get the full devotional insights by reading my substack essay: [https://open.substack.com/pub/jeremymccandless/p/piers-plowman-a-cry-for-truth-in?r=2r7o2c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]
Links and Sources:
Piers Plowman Electronic Archive

A 15th-century Piers Plowman manuscript - National Library of Wales

A 15th-century Piers Plowman manuscript – British Library

The Myth of Piers Plowman: Constructing a Medieval Literary Archive by Lawrence Warner (Cambridge University Press, 2014)

Piers Plowman – Wikipedia
Audible Audio Book: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Piers-Plowman-Audiobook/1781983240?source_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp
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The L.I.F.E. Podcast: (Philosophy and current trends in the Arts and Entertainment Podcast).
https://the-living-in-faith-everyday-podcast.buzzsprout.com
The Renewed Mind Podcast. My Psychology and Mental Health Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568891
The Classic Literature Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568906
To visit my Author page on Amazon and view my entire back catalogue of books on both Amazon and Kindle and now also on Audible, Visit:
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Throughout this letter, Paul has been in a battle — not a personal one, but a doctrinal one. These Jewish legalists have followed him into Galatia, telling these new churches that faith in Christ is not enough, that believers must also keep the Mosaic law — especially circumcision — to be right with God.
 Paul has argued passionately, relentlessly even, that justification is by faith alone. Now, as he reaches the end of the letter, he picks up the pen himself and summarizes the entire controversy in a few powerful sentences.

Support the show
Follow and support me on Patreon.
Jeremy McCandless | Creating Podcasts and Bible Study Resources | Patreon
To receive my weekly newsletter and keep up to date with all five of my podcasts, subscribe at:
Jeremy McCandless | Substack
Check out my other Podcasts.
The Bible Project: https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.com
History of the Christian Church: https://thehistoryofthechristianchurch.buzzsprout.com
The L.I.F.E. Podcast: (Philosophy and current trends in the Arts and Entertainment Podcast).
https://the-living-in-faith-everyday-podcast.buzzsprout.com
The Renewed Mind Podcast. My Psychology and Mental Health Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568891
The Classic Literature Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568906
To visit my Author page on Amazon and view my entire back catalogue of books on both Amazon and Kindle and now also on Audible, Visit:
Amazon.com: Jeremy R Mccandless: books, biography, latest update

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If you go online and visit a poetry site, you will find 10’s of thousands of poems that attempt to define “love” for us.
 You find poems that say things like “Love is gazing upon a pool at night, bathed in shimmering moonbeams, roses in full bloom, etc…”
It seems to me that for many people, love is a sort of vague, dreamy, emotional fog.  But Scripture refuses to let love remain wallowing in the swamp of abstraction. If love is going to replace a religious code — as Paul insists it does in Galatians — then we need something far more concrete than moonbeams and roses.
However, in these closing chapters of Galatians, Paul has  told us that the entire Christian life is “faith working through love.” 
 In 5:13, he says, “Through love serve one another.” In 5:22, he says the fruit of the Spirit is love. So, love is the new standard of conduct for the believer.
But that raises a crucial question:
 What does real love actually look like, and how do we practice it?
What does real love do?...

Support the show
Follow and support me on Patreon.
Jeremy McCandless | Creating Podcasts and Bible Study Resources | Patreon
To receive my weekly newsletter and keep up to date with all five of my podcasts, subscribe at:
Jeremy McCandless | Substack
Check out my other Podcasts.
The Bible Project: https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.com
History of the Christian Church: https://thehistoryofthechristianchurch.buzzsprout.com
The L.I.F.E. Podcast: (Philosophy and current trends in the Arts and Entertainment Podcast).
https://the-living-in-faith-everyday-podcast.buzzsprout.com
The Renewed Mind Podcast. My Psychology and Mental Health Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568891
The Classic Literature Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568906
To visit my Author page on Amazon and view my entire back catalogue of books on both Amazon and Kindle and now also on Audible, Visit:
Amazon.com: Jeremy R Mccandless: books, biography, latest update

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I once spoke with a woman who had spent years in a church a full of rules and regulations. When she finally moved to a church that simply taught Scripture without adding man‑made religious rules, she told me she felt something surprising: 
 FEAR!
Those rules, she said, had given her a sense of security. When they were gone, she felt exposed.
 I also remember a teenage girl I once met at a youth club who reacted the opposite way. 
 When I told her we are not under the law, she said, “Great — that means I can lie to my mother, I can go out and party, and tell her I’m here at the youth club.” 
 And that’s the problem. Whenever Christians hear that we’re justified by faith apart from any legalistic requirements, some people panic. “Won’t that give me a license to sin? And some say great, that gives me a license that means I can do whatever I want?” So, if we are not under the Mosaic law, what guides our conduct?
That is exactly what Paul answers for us today in the second half of Galatians 5…..

Support the show
Follow and support me on Patreon.
Jeremy McCandless | Creating Podcasts and Bible Study Resources | Patreon
To receive my weekly newsletter and keep up to date with all five of my podcasts, subscribe at:
Jeremy McCandless | Substack
Check out my other Podcasts.
The Bible Project: https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.com
History of the Christian Church: https://thehistoryofthechristianchurch.buzzsprout.com
The L.I.F.E. Podcast: (Philosophy and current trends in the Arts and Entertainment Podcast).
https://the-living-in-faith-everyday-podcast.buzzsprout.com
The Renewed Mind Podcast. My Psychology and Mental Health Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568891
The Classic Literature Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568906
To visit my Author page on Amazon and view my entire back catalogue of books on both Amazon and Kindle and now also on Audible, Visit:
Amazon.com: Jeremy R Mccandless: books, biography, latest update

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 For four chapters, he has been laying down argument after argument, Scripture after Scripture, illustration after illustration, pleading with them not to return to the bondage of the law....  But now the question he asks becomes: 
If we’re not going back to the law, then what kind of life do we live now?
Beginning in chapter 5 — and running through the rest of the letter — he finally explains it in detail.  
This is the start of the practical section of Galatians. This is where Paul tells us what to put in place of the law. This is where he shows us how to live as people who have been set free….

Support the show
Follow and support me on Patreon.
Jeremy McCandless | Creating Podcasts and Bible Study Resources | Patreon
To receive my weekly newsletter and keep up to date with all five of my podcasts, subscribe at:
Jeremy McCandless | Substack
Check out my other Podcasts.
The Bible Project: https://thebibleproject.buzzsprout.com
History of the Christian Church: https://thehistoryofthechristianchurch.buzzsprout.com
The L.I.F.E. Podcast: (Philosophy and current trends in the Arts and Entertainment Podcast).
https://the-living-in-faith-everyday-podcast.buzzsprout.com
The Renewed Mind Podcast. My Psychology and Mental Health Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568891
The Classic Literature Podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568906
To visit my Author page on Amazon and view my entire back catalogue of books on both Amazon and Kindle and now also on Audible, Visit:
Amazon.com: Jeremy R Mccandless: books, biography, latest update