Bible podcasts, videos, blogs, printables, and more to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible.

from Yvon Prehn to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible

On this site you’ll find Bible podcasts, videos, blogs, printables, and more to help you know, trust, apply, and teach the Bible. For FREE downloadable, editable, no attribution required teaching resources based on the content of this site, go to www.Bible805Academy.com.

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Mother’s Day, some gentle cautions and an opportunity to challenge your people to spiritual parenting

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This is not a happy upbeat piece, but it comes from my heart and I hope in sharing I might lesson the pain of some and turn some hurts into hope.

What follows is some very important pastoral advice, so upbeat or not, I pray you’ll listen all the way through

Many women who attend your church on Mother’s Day are not mothers. The reasons for that pain are many: they may have lost a child; they may be unmarried and with little prospects of a future marriage. They may be infertile and may not have had enough money for adoption or fertility treatments (both of which are extraordinarily expensive). They may have prayed for children for years, but for some reason the answer received was “no.” The reasons are many, but the pain felt daily by many of these women is deepened significantly on Mother’s Day. Often, this pain is intensified by the unintentional, unthinking and unkind actions of churches on Mother’s Day.

Here are some examples

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Mother’s Day—IS a great Sunday for evangelism and spiritual growth—here’s how to make the most of it

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Mother’s Day Sunday is the third-highest day for attendance in churches in North America, running slightly behind Christmas and Easter. Though most churches know this and work hard to make it a special Sunday, many miss significant evangelism and spiritual growth opportunities for that day—because of the day’s exclusive focus on mothers.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying churches shouldn’t honor mothers on Mother’s Day. They should; it is an important time to praise mothers and to thank God for them. What I’m recommending is that churches not make mothers their exclusive focus, but that they take advantage of the additional ministry opportunity made possible that day because of mothers. Here are three ways to do this, each of which will be discussed in more detail:

  1. Evangelism opportunities: unchurched children and spouses
  2. Honor moms by challenging them to pray–featuring One Mother’s Prayer
  3. An opportunity to challenge your people to spiritual parenting

I’m doing three separate short Ministry Misc. Podcasts for each one

There is a downloadable, free ebook with this content, and links to other materials at the Bible805.com website and at the end of this post.

First, let’s talk about evangelism opportunities: unchurched children and spouses

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One Mother’s Prayer, an inspiration and challenge for Mother’s Day and anytime

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One of the most important things anyone can do is to pray for another and the story in this handout is the true story of one of the most significant prayers in church history. HERE is a link to download preprinted PDFs of it as well as the text https://wp.me/pDky9-8TI

This brief piece has probably been reprinted and shared more than anything I’ve written. It first appeared in Today’s Christian Woman, a magazine that was reprinted in their Best of 10 Years of Writing issue, has been used and reprinted all over the world (I’ve even got a copy of a German magazine that featured it).

I’ll read it to you.

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Great exchanges, the Poem and PDFs of the Fasting life

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In the Hobo Soul Podcast we are looking at great exchanges we can make in our lives that help us be more pleasing to God. Below are some downloadable PDFs I created of the poem for you and then below them are the words to the poem. Just click on the image to download the PDFs. All the image PDFs are linked to each picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to the Hobo Soul Podcast here: https://hobo-soul-podcast.captivate.fm/

Below are the words to the poem.

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Thru the Bible, Lesson #10 Deuteronomy, Where rules become joyful reality in our lives

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Deuteronomy lessonThis lesson from Deuteronomy addresses a central question: how should God’s people live as they enter a new season, surrounded by a culture that does not follow Him? After forty years of wandering, Israel stands ready to enter the Promised Land. Deuteronomy gathers and applies what God has already revealed, showing that His commands are not burdensome but are given for their good, leading to a life of joy, purpose, and blessing.

The lesson highlights three key areas: how we love, how we give, and how we define ourselves. God’s love is the foundation—He loves first, and His people are called to reflect that love to others, especially those in need. Giving is presented not as a duty alone, but as a joyful, generous lifestyle that supports worship, celebration, and care for others. Finally, identity is not merely individual but corporate—we are a people, called to live in relationship, reflecting the relational nature of our Triune God.

Deuteronomy reminds us that obedience is not about restriction, but about choosing life. When we understand God’s love and follow His ways, we discover that His commands lead to the most fulfilling life possible.

Lesson Handouts

Thru the Bible, LESSON #9 Book of Numbers, Bad Choices, Tragic Consequences, and how Spiritual Disciplines Can Help Avoid Them

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This lesson from the book of Numbers answers an important question: what does God expect of us after we become a Christian? Using Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, we see a powerful picture of the Christian life. Though the people were delivered from slavery, they struggled to trust God in their daily lives, resulting in repeated cycles of sin, complaint, forgiveness, and consequences.

Numbers shows how small patterns of disobedience, especially grumbling and lack of trust, can grow into major failures with lasting consequences. Even though God remained faithful to His promises, the people’s refusal to trust Him led to years of wandering instead of entering the life He had prepared for them.

The lesson also introduces the importance of spiritual disciplines, better understood as spiritual habits, as a practical way to grow in trust and obedience. These habits shape our character over time so that when challenges come, our responses reflect faith rather than fear or frustration. Ultimately, this lesson reminds us that while God’s grace saves us, our growth requires intentional cooperation with Him.


Lesson Handouts

Confusion about Bible Stories, from series, HAPPY CORRECTIONS, because the Bible doesn’t say what you think it says

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Many Christians become confused or disappointed when they expect God to act toward them exactly as He did in the lives of biblical characters. While God’s nature never changes, His actions in specific historical situations often served unique purposes in His redemptive plan.

This lesson clarifies how to properly understand and apply the story or narrative sections of the Bible—stories that reveal God’s character and work through human lives yet were not written as direct promises or commands to us.

Using Gideon’s “fleece” as a case study, the lesson teaches that not every biblical story gives us a pattern to imitate. Instead, narratives show what God did, not necessarily what we should do. Proper application requires understanding genre, context, and the larger story of Scripture—from Genesis to Revelation—where God alone is always the hero. Following is the podcast, video, NOTES, and Discussion Guide for the lesson.

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Know, trust, apply, and teach the Bible—what it means from Bible805 and to help, equip, and encourage you

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Tools to help your people get into the Bible in the coming year.
The parts of Bible805 that will help you know, trust, apply, and teach the Bible.

I use these four terms, know, trust, apply, and teach the Bible to describe the ministry of Bible805. I’d now like to share what I mean by them in terms of what is available for you in the Bible805 ministry based on each term:

KNOW the Bible

I want to help you simply get to know the content of the Bible and from that the God of the Bible. It all starts there.

Because knowing is foundational to everything else, I emphasize again and again reading the Bible and specifically reading through the Bible in chronological order, and doing it every year.

There are many negative voices against that, even in church today—that people already know what’s in the Bible (few actually do), that reading frequently is legalistic, that too frequent reading leads to it being done without thinking about it, on and on. I do not think these objections are valid, and my recommendation is to read your Bible or listen to it; the point being to get its content inside you every day. [Read more…]

God doesn’t forget your dreams–it’s maybe time for a reset in life

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Hi, welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of road advice from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who’s a little further down the road of life. I’ll talk to you every weekday for about five to 10 minutes, with periodic longer talks on serious Saturdays.

In my devotional reading this morning, I read one of my favorite stories and I’m going to share what I think is a really life changing message from it for all of us.

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Make it OK for visitors to reject Jesus at Easter

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What are your expectations for Easter at your church? Especially for those who are visiting for the first time and who may be totally unfamiliar with the Christian faith?

In answer to that question, I’d like to propose that you make it OK for visitors to reject Jesus at your Easter Service and in our podcast today I’ll tell you why (and of course I’ll include how to start then on a path to accepting Jesus in the future).

Following are five realities to keep in mind–

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A really funny story about what happened after an Easter Service, or What can happen if you if you work hard on your Seasonal event, but forget everything after that?

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This is a true story. Though the specific event discussed is Easter, the lessons learned from it can apply to any event. In addition to applying to any event, we can all identify with the situation here. The challenges of ministry are so huge it is very easy to get overwhelmed in one area and totally forget another one. May the Lord have mercy and help us all.

Here’s the story–in one of my church communication seminars, at the break, a woman literally came running up the aisle to talk to me.

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” she said, “Now I understand what went wrong.”

I had just been talking about the importance of letting people know what you did on a regular basis (and maybe even where you regularly meet) when you hold a special event if you want positive results from your holiday outreach. The advice had been helpful to churches in the past, but her response was more excited than most, so I asked her to tell me more about her experience.

She then told me about a special Easter service her church put on that was a huge amount of work and an equally huge disappointment in results. Here were the details:

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Speed dating or relationship building? How do you treat visitors?

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What kind of relationship do you have with someone, if you meet them, have a great time, and then walk away, never to call, talk, or see the person again? Not much of one is it?

In contrast, what about a relationship where two people meet briefly but then keep in touch through letters, emails, phone calls, and other get-togethers? What if they take time to interact and get to know each other? We’d label that a meaningful relationship.

If we want any kind of relationship, friendship, or romance to progress, we know we’ve got to expend some effort to grow the relationship.

As a church, we begin relationships with the people in our communities when we host outreach or holiday events. Sometimes they develop into a meaningful, long-term relationship with visitors, but in the majority of cases, they don’t. Take time to consider some of the following thoughts and evaluate how your interactions with visitors.

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