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For our 400th episode, we’re reaching into the vault for a conversation with Tom, Todd, and Eric, the friends who helped start Fresh Text. In this pilot of The U2 Experience, we share how we each discovered U2, covering faith, friendship, and everything from the Animaniacs to the Annunciation. Find the full series on Song and a Friend by Tom Adamson. This episode contains a review of U2’s catalog and comments on our experience with it. Any clips included are previously copyrighted material used under the fair use provision and are not intended to misrepresent the original artists.

In this episode, John Drury and Joy J. Moore close the Galatians series with 5:2–6:10. They explore eternal life as knowing God now, the social sins in Paul’s list of vices that divide a community, and the household of faith that bears God’s family resemblance as it walks in the Spirit. Subscribe to Fresh Text on Substack for additional writings and conversations: https://johnldrury.substack.com/

John Drury and Amy Peeler explore Galatians 4:8–5:1 and God’s heart for freedom. They consider the human tendency to enslave ourselves to systems that measure our performance, how Paul retells the Galatians’ birth story through maternity, and what it means to rest like a dependent child in the womb of God. Subscribe to Fresh Text on Substack for additional writings and conversations: https://johnldrury.substack.com/

John Drury and Amy Peeler explore Galatians 3:19–4:7, weighing how the law and the promise fit together before narrowing in on 4:4–7. They trace God sending the Son, born of a woman, and the Spirit into our hearts, and why every cry of "Abba, Father" joins the eternal family of God. Subscribe to Fresh Text on Substack for additional writings and conversations: https://johnldrury.substack.com/

John Drury and DJ Coleman explore Galatians 3:1–18, focusing on Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians, the crucified Christ, Abraham, the law, the promise, and what it means that Christ became a curse for us. Subscribe to Fresh Text on Substack for additional writings and conversations: https://johnldrury.substack.com/

John Drury and Sarah Hinlicky Wilson read Galatians 2:15–21. They explore justification, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the law, and what it means to be co-crucified with Christ. Subscribe to Fresh Text on Substack for additional writings and conversations: https://johnldrury.substack.com/

John and Ken Schenck read Galatians 1:11–2:14. They explore Paul's own story, his calling, his years away, his fight with Peter at Antioch, and why Paul tells the Gentiles that taking up the law now isn't going all the way in. It's how you fall from grace.

John Drury and Brandon Charlton kick off a seven-week series on Galatians. Listen in as they read the letter's opening and closing to frame Paul's claim. Subscribe to Fresh Text on Substack for additional writings and conversations: https://johnldrury.substack.com/

John and Brandon explore Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." A conversation about how the one knocking is the needy stranger we often would rather ignore, and the hospitality Christ is inviting us into.

John and Brandon explore Philippians 4:13, the verse everyone quotes: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." A conversation about enduring every circumstance rather than achieving every goal.

John and Brandon explore Matthew 18:20 and the context that surrounds one of Jesus’ most familiar sayings. A conversation about church discipline, binding and loosing, the authority of the gathered community, and how Jesus frames correction within a larger vision of forgiveness and restoration.

John and Brandon explore Mark 14:51-52, the strange young man who flees naked when Jesus is arrested, leaving his linen cloth behind. A scene found only in Mark. A conversation about Mark's eye for vivid detail, why this figure is left unnamed, and how a coward in the garden becomes the anonymous bearer of the good news.

John and Brandon dig into Philemon 1:7, the strange KJV translation "bowels," and the Greek splankna behind it. A conversation about translation, the gut as the seat of compassion, Paul's fundraising letters, and the currency of the kingdom.

John and Brandon unpack the story of Eutychus in Acts 20, exploring Paul’s farewell sermon in Troas, early Christian worship on the first day of the week, and the way this strange miracle points to the power of resurrection life at the heart of the gospel.

"Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?" John and Brandon study 1 Corinthians 15:29 and its strange reference to baptism for the dead, exploring what Paul's argument reveals about bodily resurrection, the coherence of Christian practice, Christ's victory over death, and the hope of God's final renewal of all things.