Exploring My Strange Bible Podcast
Exploring My Strange Bible is Tim Mackie’s personal podcast, produced by BibleProject. It’s an anthology of Tim’s lectures, sermons, and classroom teachings collected over the last 20 years.
A Future for My Work (Remastered)
Many Christians believe the world will ultimately be destroyed when Jesus returns, and so our day-to-day lives don't really matter. But the Apostle Paul teaches the opposite in 1 Corinthians 15 and Colossians 3. The eternal, redeemed nature of the new creation makes our work more meaningful than we can imagine. In the second half of a two-part teaching, Tim explores how our hope about the ultimate outcome of history significantly impacts the way we think about our jobs and career goals. Tim gave this message at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Ore., on March 3, 2013.
A Story About Work (Remastered)
Whether we’re young and still discovering our career, or perhaps more seasoned in work but new to following Jesus, integrating our vocation with our discipleship to Jesus is challenging. Why? Because the modern American story about work is very different from the Bible’s. In this message, Tim explores Genesis 1-3 to show how work is not a curse, but actually one of the greatest gifts God has given to humans. Tim gave this message at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Ore., on February 17, 2013.
Prayer and Paradise
Prayer and encountering God’s presence are biblical topics we can study, but they’re also very personal experiences for each of us, and so this message combines both. First, Tim shares his personal history with prayer, and then dives into a biblical study of God’s Eden paradise appearing where we least expect it. Tying these two parts together is a personal parable involving a wild huckleberry field on a remote mountainside. Tim gave this message at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Ore., on October 19, 2022.
The Gift (Remastered)
In the first teaching of this series, we explored the teacher’s core metaphor for life, which is the Hebrew word hevel, meaning “smoke” or “vapor.” The teacher takes a pretty dim view of things, saying that everything in life is unpredictable, enigmatic, absurd, and ungraspable. So what do we do with such a sobering truth? In this message, Tim explores how embracing life as hevel can actually be a gift to enrich our days, rather than diminish them. Tim gave this message at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Ore., on January 13, 2013.
Hevel (Remastered)
In the book of Ecclesiastes, the teacher shows how most of our daily time and energy is spent on meaningless things. The core metaphor he uses to make this point is smoke or vapor, which in Hebrew is the word hevel. So why is such a bleak book in the Bible? Tim unpacks Ecclesiastes’ introduction, its authorship, and how the book as a whole seeks to motivate humility, integrity, and enjoyment of the simple things in life. Tim gave this message at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Ore., on January 6, 2013.
A History of New Testament Manuscripts and English Translations (Remastered)
The manuscript history of the New Testament is very different from that of the Old Testament. The number of manuscripts, the amount of time they cover, the history of manuscript discoveries—it’s all very complex and fascinating! Then there is the separate history of how the New Testament has been translated and regarded by the Church over the centuries. In this third and final lecture of the series, Tim explores this manuscript and its translation history, as well as the process and dynamics of how these books were collected into an official canon of Scripture. Tim gave these lectures in February 2012 at Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin.
Old Testament Manuscripts & the Making of the New Testament (Remastered)
In this series of lectures, we’re building the foundation for understanding where the Bible came from. When looking at Scripture through this lens, we discover that the texts themselves offer clues about how they came into existence and why they were written. Rather than casting doubt on the Bible, this work actually helps us gain a deeper sense of what the Bible is and what we’re supposed to do with it. In this second lecture of a three-part series, Tim explores the manuscript history of the Old Testament, as well as the composition and writing of the books of the New Testament. Tim gave these lectures in February 2012 at Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Making of the Old Testament Books (Remastered)
Many people who view the Bible as God’s word believe it must have come into existence with little or no human agency. But this idea is foreign to the biblical authors and to Scripture’s very traceable history. It was not written in secret! The authors of these texts were, of course, human. However, they also claimed God was speaking to his people through these human words. In this first lecture of a three-part series, Tim explores the making of the books of the Old Testament and what we can know from the Bible itself about how it came into existence. Tim gave this series of lectures in February 2012 at Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin.
Torah Crash Course: Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (Remastered)
The books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy tell the story about God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai—and make up two-thirds of the entire Torah! God gives Israel 613 laws, interspersed with stories that offer commentary on them. Tragically, the Israelites demonstrate their inability to truly love and obey God and follow the laws. This unresolved tension creates a future hope announced by Moses himself: God will one day transform the people’s hearts and minds so they can be loving and faithful covenant partners. In this message, Tim explores Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, showing how they develop the storyline that Jesus fulfilled. Tim taught this series in the early 2010s at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon.
Torah Crash Course: Exodus (Remastered)
Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the night of Passover were the foundational stories for ancient Israelites, and they’re also crucial for understanding Jesus and his mission. For example, Jesus timed his arrival into Jerusalem with the Passover feast, and at the Last Supper, he used the symbols of Passover to explain the meaning of his coming death. Exodus also contains the covenant agreement between God and Israel, including the Ten Commandments, which Jesus picked up and developed in his own teaching. In this message, Tim explores all of these Exodus narratives and their influence on the Bible’s story. This series was taught in the early 2010s at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon.
