Well Worn Pages Book Club: Where Christian Classics Meet Everyday Conversation A Book Club for Christians who want to study the classic books of our faith and grow in their walk with God. <br/><br/><a href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">wellwornpages.substack.com</a>
Well Worn Pages Book Club Podcast
Claim This Podcastby Christy Miller Bell & Lori Behrens
10 episodes
Updated Daily
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Podcast Overview
Well Worn Pages Book Club: Where Christian Classics Meet Everyday Conversation A Book Club for Christians who want to study the classic books of our faith and grow in their walk with God. <br/><br/><a href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">wellwornpages.substack.com</a>
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3/27/2026
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Recent Episodes
May 29, 2026
...With Persecutions
<p>(Christy’s story) The gears whined in protest every time the bus driver slowed. After eight hours of bouncing through pot-holes and swerving around gaunt cattle, my stomach couldn’t take any more. Not usually one to get carsick, I finally gave in and asked for medicine. I dozed in and out of sleep while my head bounced up and down against my husband’s shoulder. Twelve hours later, bruised, exhausted, and starving, our group finally arrived at our destination deep in the Amazon jungle.</p><p>The most amazing part about that trip wasn’t the difficult bus ride. In fact, I don’t even remember most of it. It was that every person on our mission team was ready to go to work after only a few hours of sleep. We knew why we were there – to share the Gospel with people who had never heard it before. And the joy we experienced in seeing lives changed was worth every bounce on that bus.</p><p>Most of us, when given the choice, wouldn’t pick suffering. But there’s something different about being on a mission trip. You expect to not be comfortable. You sign up for it. You pack light, sleep hard, and count the discomfort as part of the calling.</p><p>But why is the expectation different at home? Why do I presume to sit comfortably in my pew at church, latte in hand, while the air-conditioning hums in the background? The uncomfortable question I have to ask myself is, “Am I willing to suffer in my own community for the sake of the gospel?”</p><p>This is the hard question John Piper puts to us in the last two chapters of Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. He doesn’t let us separate missions from suffering. They belong together. And he takes us straight to Mark 10, where Jesus promises that anyone who gives up home, family, or security for his sake will receive it back a hundredfold. It sounds like a good deal, until you read the next three words: with persecutions.</p><p>We’d rather skip those words. I know I would.</p><p>But Piper points us to John G. Paton, a missionary who lost his wife and child and found himself hiding in a chestnut tree from the very people he had come to reach. He didn’t find Christ waiting for him on the other side of the suffering. He found him there — in the tree, in the dark, in the grief. He wrote that Jesus had never felt nearer, never spoken more gently to his soul, than in that moment.</p><p>We may not choose suffering. But when it finds us, there’s joy in knowing that we don’t have to face it alone. Christ walks through it with us.</p><p>On this week’s episode of Well Worn Pages, Lori and I talk about Missions and Suffering in the final episode on Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. We’d love for you to join us.</p><p></p><p><strong>So what did you think about this book? What things did you agree with? And what things challenged you?</strong></p><p></p><p>Lori and Christy would love to hear your thoughts! Leave us a comment or send us an email at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:wellwornpagesbookclub@gmail.com">wellwornpagesbookclub@gmail.com</a>. And if this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who needs the conversation.</p><p><strong>Episode Summary</strong></p><p>Episode 9 closes out Season 1 of Well-Worn Pages with Desiring God‘s final two chapters: missions and suffering. Christy and Lori unpack Piper’s distinction between local ministry and frontier missions — reaching the unreached, defined as people groups where fewer than 2% are evangelical Christians. They trace the cost of that calling through Mark 10, Paul’s willingness to count everything as garbage for Christ, and the lived reality of John G. Paton hiding in a tree, praying through grief and hostile pursuit. </p><p>From Polycarp’s unbound martyrdom to Joseph the Maasai warrior returning again and again to a village that beat him — until the whole village believed — the episode builds a case that suffering is not incidental to the Christian life but central to its witness. The episode also serves as a season finale, with a summer break before Season 2 launches in August 2026.</p><p><strong>5 Key Takeaways</strong></p><p>* <strong>Frontier missions is a distinct calling.</strong> Piper differentiates between local ministry (where a church already exists) and frontier missions — carrying the gospel to unreached people groups where less than 2% of the population are evangelical Christians (IMB definition).</p><p>* <strong>God is the one who makes missions work.</strong> Our role is participation, not production.</p><p>* <strong>Sacrifice is required, but Christ is the reward.</strong> Piper uses Mark 10: 29-30 to show that Jesus doesn’t ask us to count what we’re giving up — he asks us to follow and promises to make up every loss a hundredfold, with persecutions included.</p><p>* <strong>“With persecutions” cannot be skipped.</strong> Mark 10:29-30 adds that phrase deliberately. Joy in suffering is possible because of who we serve.</p><p>* <strong>Suffering is a witness, not just a hardship.</strong> Piper makes no distinction between faith-based persecution and ordinary suffering like cancer — for the believer, all suffering is either a movement toward God or a stumbling block. People are watching how we handle it.</p><p>* <strong>Reading hard books takes determination.</strong> Both Christy and Lori found Desiring God challenging — and both returned to Scripture to test it. That process of examination is what distinguishes Well-Worn Pages from any other book club.</p><p><strong>Scripture References</strong></p><p>* <strong>1 Corinthians 3:17</strong></p><p>* <strong>Mark 10:29-30</strong></p><p>* <strong>Philippians 3:8</strong></p><p>* <strong>Proverbs 27:17</strong></p><p>Links</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/one-person-can-make-a-difference"><strong>God’s Smuggler Episode 4: One Person Can Make a Difference</strong></a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.imb.org"><strong>IMB.org</strong></a><strong> (International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention)</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://christymillerbell.com"><strong>Connect with Christy</strong></a><strong> </strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.loribehrens.com"><strong>Connect with Lori </strong></a></p><p><strong>Suggested Reading Schedule & Episode Guide </strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/christian-hedonism-and-why-we-almost"><strong>Episode 5</strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/christian-hedonism-and-why-we-almost">: Christian Hedonism: Why We Almost Put The Book Down (Intro, Chapters 1 & 2, and Appendix)</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/the-hard-way-joy-love-and-what-the"><strong>Episode 6 </strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/the-hard-way-joy-love-and-what-the">(This Episode)</a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/the-hard-way-joy-love-and-what-the"><strong>:</strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/the-hard-way-joy-love-and-what-the"> The Hard Way: Joy, Love, and What the Cross Teaches Us About Both (Chapters 3 & 4)</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/before-you-pick-up-your-phone"><strong>Episode 7:</strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/before-you-pick-up-your-phone"> Before You Pick Up Your Phone: A Conversation About Scripture and Prayer (Chapters 5 & 6)</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/where-is-your-heart"><strong>Episode 8: </strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/where-is-your-heart">Where Is Your Heart: An Honest Conversation About Money, Marriage & Who We’re Really Living For (Chapters 7 & 8)</a></p><p><strong>Episode 9 (Finale - This Episode): </strong>With Persecutions: The Cost No One Mentions (Chapters 9 & 10)</p><p></p><p></p><p>Coming In August 2026…</p><p>Season 2 of Well Worn Pages Book Club Podcast</p><p>Get updates directly in your inbox throughout the summer.</p><p>Be the first to know our next book pick!</p><p><p>Thanks for listening to the Well Worn Pages Book Club Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.</p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">wellwornpages.substack.com</a>
May 22, 2026
Where Is Your Heart
<p>The summer sun glared, but I (Christy) had to get out of the house. I never realized a month could feel so long. My husband had just changed jobs, and we were waiting on a rental to open up while he worked out of town. We were basically homeless for a month. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my grandparents, but moving in with them with two littles was almost more than I could take. It wasn’t just that the space was small. Everything in our lives seemed tiny. Especially our paycheck.</p><p>At the time, I didn’t really understand the graciousness of what they offered – a room in their already cramped house, meals for all of us on a small pension check, sacrifices made quietly so we could live close by. Their hearts were in the right place. But I wasn’t getting special treatment because I was their granddaughter. My grandparents were always willing to share what little they had with anyone who had a need. That’s the trait I most want to pass on to my own children. It’s the one that, if I’m honest, I struggle with the most.</p><p>So why, years later – when there is plenty on the table and scarcity is a distant memory – do I still hold so tightly to everything? It comes down to a heart question. The same one people have wrestled with for generations: Where is my treasure? What do I actually value most?</p><p>My grandparents lived out what Piper calls “enough for us, abundance for others.” They were conduits of God’s blessing with the little they had. What’s my excuse with more?</p><p>I’ll always treasure the few weeks I had in that cramped little house, eating my grandmother’s pot roast. Now that they’re both gone, I’m realizing that generosity isn’t just an action you take. It’s a lifestyle of holding tighter to Jesus than anything else on earth.</p><p>On this week’s episode of Well Worn Pages, Lori and I talk about Money & Marriage from chapters 7 and 8. Pull up a chair and join us.</p><p></p><p><strong>What are your views on money and marriage, and how has Scripture shaped them?</strong></p><p>We would love to hear your thoughts! Leave us a comment or send us an email at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:wellwornpagesbookclub@gmail.com">wellwornpagesbookclub@gmail.com</a>. </p><p>And if this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who needs the conversation.</p><p><strong>Episode Summary</strong></p><p>In Episode 8, Christy and Lori continue their discussion of Desiring God by John Piper, diving into chapters 7 and 8 on money and marriage. After checking in on last week’s personal challenges, they tackle two topics that hit close to home.</p><p>On money, they explore Piper’s central distinction: it’s not what you earn but what you desire. His wartime vs. peacetime illustration challenges listeners to live on enough and give the rest away — conduits of blessing, not cul-de-sacs.</p><p>On marriage, they unpack pursuing joy in the joy of your spouse and marriage as a picture of Christ and the church — a mystery we can barely see this side of heaven.</p><p>6 Key Takeaways</p><p>* <strong>Heart motivation is everything.</strong> The heart’s posture determines whether money is a tool or an idol.</p><p>* <strong>Working hard is not the same as pursuing riches.</strong> Piper draws a clear line between earning a living — getting raises, growing a business, building financial stability over time — and the sinful desire for more. Bettering yourself financially is not the problem. The problem is when more is never enough.</p><p>* <strong>Wartime vs. peacetime living.</strong> Piper’s Queen Mary illustration challenges listeners to ask: am I living for the finery, or am I content with what I need and generous with the rest?</p><p>* <strong>We are conduits, not cul-de-sacs.</strong> God blesses us so we can bless others. Abundance is not ours to hoard — it’s meant to flow through us.</p><p>* <strong>Marriage is harmony, not unison.</strong> Men and women are alike but unalike — and when different gifts and roles come together under Christ, the result is something richer than either could create alone.</p><p>* <strong>Marriage is a parable of Christ and the church.</strong> Piper reminds us that marriage is not just personal — it’s a living picture of something bigger. When both spouses submit to God, everything falls into its proper place.</p><p></p><p><strong>Scripture References </strong></p><p>* Matthew 6:19</p><p>* Matthew 19:16-30</p><p>* Colossians 3:23</p><p>* 1 Timothy 6:6-8</p><p>* Deuteronomy 8:17-18</p><p>Links</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/praying-it-through">Well Worn Pages Book Club Episode 3: God’s Smuggler </a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.queenmary.com">Queen Mary Museum in Long Beach California</a></p><p>Connect with Christy @ <a target="_blank" href="https://christymillerbell.com">https://christymillerbell.com</a></p><p>Connect with Lori @ <a target="_blank" href="https://www.loribehrens.com">https://loribehrens.com</a></p><p><strong>Suggested Reading Schedule & Episode Guide </strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/christian-hedonism-and-why-we-almost"><strong>Episode 5</strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/christian-hedonism-and-why-we-almost">: Christian Hedonism: Why We Almost Put The Book Down (Intro, Chapters 1 & 2, and Appendix)</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/the-hard-way-joy-love-and-what-the"><strong>Episode 6 </strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/the-hard-way-joy-love-and-what-the">(This Episode)</a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/the-hard-way-joy-love-and-what-the"><strong>:</strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/the-hard-way-joy-love-and-what-the"> The Hard Way: Joy, Love, and What the Cross Teaches Us About Both (Chapters 3 & 4)</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/before-you-pick-up-your-phone"><strong>Episode 7:</strong></a><a target="_blank" href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com/p/before-you-pick-up-your-phone"> Before You Pick Up Your Phone: A Conversation About Scripture and Prayer (Chapters 5 & 6)</a></p><p><strong>Episode 8 (This episode): </strong>Where Is Your Heart: An Honest Conversation About Money, Marriage & Who We’re Really Living For (Chapters 7 & 8)</p><p><strong>Episode 9: </strong>With Persecutions: The Part of the Promise We Skip Over (Chapters 9 & 10)</p><p></p><p>Next Week</p><p>Lori and Christy will conclude the discussion on Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.</p><p><strong>Episode 9: </strong>With Persecutions: The Part of the Promise We Skip Over (Chapters 9 & 10)</p><p>We’re taking a break for the summer and making big plans for our next season! Stay tuned for more information coming soon!! We can’t wait to share our plans with you!</p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">wellwornpages.substack.com</a>
May 15, 2026
Before You Pick Up Your Phone
<p>The alarm blares. I (Christy) reach over to switch it off. Immediately, I’m drawn to pick up my phone…check my email…get on social media. Sometimes I look at the weather app to see if I’ll need to gear up for rain or the news to see the latest in the Middle East. There’s an endless supply of information at my fingertips. But lately, I’ve noticed how scrolling first thing in the morning derails my entire day.</p><p>Mornings are my favorite time of day, but if I’m not careful, my phone can steal away the hours – and my peace. In its wake is left anxiety, stress, and a mind going in a million directions.</p><p>Before Your Feet Hit The Floor</p><p>What’s the answer? Long ago, a friend described her morning practice of dedicating her day to God. Before the chaos of getting ready for the day, shuttling kids to school, and powering through monumental traffic, she disciplined herself to whisper a prayer before her feet hit the floor. The phone was no longer a temptation for her. Instead, she couldn’t wait to open the Word and hear God speak to her. The phone was still there. She just stopped reaching for it first.</p><p>Deeply ingrained habits are hard to break. But here are a few ways to take your mornings back.</p><p>Make Some Things Harder</p><p>Plug your phone in another room (or at least on the other side of the room). Remove the physical temptation to scroll when you turn off your alarm.</p><p>Set focus times on your phone. This allows you to shut down certain apps for periods of time and makes it difficult to access the tempting apps. The more times you have to click to get to an app, the less often you will access that app.</p><p>Make Other Things Easier</p><p>Prepare for your devotional time the night before. Put your Bible, pens, journals, and devotional materials right by your bed and make them easy to access. Pick out the passage to read and write out a memory verse to meditate on as you go to sleep.</p><p>If you need caffeine first (like me) prep the coffee pot the night before, too. Set out your favorite cup and clean off your favorite spot to sit.</p><p><strong>Anticipation is its own discipline. When you look forward to something, you protect it.</strong></p><p>Tomorrow morning, the alarm will blare again. You’ll reach for your phone — force of habit, muscle memory, sheer reflex. But what if, just once, you set it down? What if the first voice you heard wasn’t a news alert or a friend’s Instagram story, but the quiet of God’s presence waiting for you?</p><p>Peace isn’t something you stumble into. It’s something you choose — before your feet hit the floor.</p><p>On this week’s episode of Well Worn Pages, Lori and I talk more about Scripture and Prayer. We’d love for you to join us.</p><p><strong>Do you know someone who starts her day drowning in her phone instead of in the Word? Send her this episode. It might be the nudge she needs.</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.loribehrens.com/scripture-meditation-challenges/">Join Lori’s Scripture Memory Challenge! </a></p><p>One verse. One week.</p><p>Join us each month for a 7-Day Challenge to study and internalize God’s Word. Spend 7 days immersed in one verse of scripture through daily emails structured using the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.loribehrens.com/story/"><strong>STORY</strong></a> Bible study method including prayers, study resources, and encouragement to practice God’s truths in your daily life. Don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen your scripture meditation skills and connect with other believers who are passionate about God’s Word.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.loribehrens.com/scripture-meditation-challenges/">May 2026 Challenge</a>: 7 Days in Psalm 119:18</p><p><strong>Episode Summary</strong> </p><p>Christy and Lori dig into chapters 5 and 6 of Desiring God — Scripture as the kindling of Christian hedonism and prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie. The conversation covers why the Word comes before everything else in the morning, how meditation naturally leads to prayer, and why a weak prayer life might actually signal something deeper about our relationship with Jesus.</p><p>Key Takeaways</p><p>* <strong>Your joy in God is not a steady flame.</strong> It wavers with real life — and that’s normal. Scripture is the kindling that keeps it burning when the enemy tries to blow it out.</p><p>* <strong>You can’t wield what you don’t wear.</strong> The sword of the Spirit is only effective if you’re in the Word daily — not just when you need it.</p><p>* <strong>God is glorified by doing through Christ what we can’t do for ourselves. </strong>Answered prayer comes as a result of a close relationship with Christ. Then God is glorified when we rely on Him completely.</p><p>* <strong>If you don’t protect the morning, anxiety wins.</strong> The phone, the to-do list, the grocery list in your head — Satan doesn’t need to stage a dramatic attack. Distraction is enough.</p><p>* <strong>Prayer is a walkie-talkie for warfare, not a wish list.</strong> We’ve turned direct communication with God into a civilian intercom — calling for more comfort instead of empowerment for mission.</p><p>* <strong>You have a part to play — and it’s simply asking.</strong> We come empty-handed, but we don’t come silent. James says it plainly: you have not because you ask not.</p><p>* <strong>It starts smaller than you think.</strong> One man. Six people. A million converts two years later. Faithful, planned, consistent prayer moves things only God can move.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%20119%3A97&version=NLT"><strong>Scripture references</strong></a><strong> in Episode 7:</strong></p><p>* Psalm 119:97</p><p>* Deuteronomy 32:47 </p><p>* Ephesians 6:17 </p><p>* John 4 </p><p>* John 16:24</p><p>* James 4:2-3</p><p>Coming Soon!</p><p><strong>A new Bible study from Lori Behrens…</strong></p><p>Transform your relationship with God as you walk line-by-line through Psalm 119.</p><p><strong>Find joy and peace alongside King David in the pages of </strong><strong>Joyful: Learning to Delight in God’s Word</strong><strong>. </strong>A six-week study in Psalm 119, From the Pen of a King Bible Study Series.</p><p><strong>When anxiety keeps you awake at 2 AM and dark thoughts swarm your mind, it can feel like God is absent. But </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://christymillerbell.com/why-god-sometimes-speaks-loudest-in-the-dark/"><strong>this post</strong></a><strong> explores a profound biblical truth: the darkest moments of our lives are often when God speaks most clearly and offers his greatest promises. From Abram counting stars to Paul singing in prison, Scripture reveals that nighttime suffering is not abandonment but invitation.</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://christymillerbell.com/why-god-sometimes-speaks-loudest-in-the-dark/">Read more here…</a></p><p>Get weekly encouragement from Scripture right in your inbox!</p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://wellwornpages.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">wellwornpages.substack.com</a>
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