Midweek Bible study at Colonial Heights Church.
Artwork by Scott Erickson (scottericksonart.com)
cameroncombs.substack.com (https://cameroncombs.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
The Garden of the Heart Ep. 5
This week we turn to discuss Eros—both its terror and its grandeur—and the way in which it reveals the depths of God’s heart for us. It is hard for us to believe, but the truth is that Jesus is madly, passionately in love with each of us. He means to make us bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. God does not mean to bring us into his life finally as servants or slaves or even as sons and daughters, but as his soulmates. It is the erotic love of God that draws him out of himself towards us in the Incarnation. God’s Agapē is his Eros.
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8 Oct 2026
Equality With God
The Garden of the Heart Ep. 4
After letting C.S. Lewis take us on a tour of the glories and dangers of friendship, we look at the heart of the scandalous nature of the gospel—in Christ we are friends of God.
In antiquity the three elements of true friendship were thought to be unity, mutuality/reciprocity, and equality. How is it that God can share these things with us? Can we be in a mutual and reciprocal relationship with God? Can we have equality with God? It all feels like too much to ask, and yet Jesus says, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cameroncombs.substack.com (https://cameroncombs.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
1 Oct 2026
Jesus Is (Not) Pro-Family
The Garden of the Heart Ep. 3
This week we discuss both the glories and the dangers of storgē—or the familial affections—ending with Jesus’ odd teaching that we must “hate” our family if we would be one of his disciples.
“So people called by Jesus learn that they had lived an illusion in their relationship to the world. The illusion is immediacy. It has blocked faith and obedience. Now they know that there can be no unmediated relationships, even in the most intimate ties of their lives, in the blood ties to father and mother, to children, brothers and sisters in marital love, in historical responsibilities. Ever since Jesus called, there are no longer natural, historical, or experiential unmediated relationships for his disciples. Christ the mediator stands between son and father, between husband and wife, between individual and nation, whether they can recognize him or not. There is no way from us to others than the path through Christ, his word, and our following him. Immediacy is a delusion…any time a [relationship] lays claim to immediacy, it must be hated for Christ’s sake.”
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, p. 94–95)
Here are the diagrams we used in class to see the difference between “immediate” relationships with our families (what Jesus calls us to hate) and those same relationships mediated by Christ.
Diagram 1: Immediate Relationships (to be hated for Christ’s sake)
Diagram 2: Relationships Mediated by Christ
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cameroncombs.substack.com (https://cameroncombs.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
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