Steve the Builder A layman’s view of living the Orthodox Christian Faith.

Start date: January 2009 721 minutes, 23 seconds in 54 episodes

Steve Robinson is heard regularly on Our Life in Christ with his co-host Bill Gould. But in this shorter podcast, Steve reflects on the practical side of being an Orthodox Christian working in a secular environment.

Author Bio ↓

Episodes

Transcript Available Sponsor a Transcript Direct Link Play in Popup Download MP3

Date	Title & Description	Duration
Aug 06, 2011	On Growing Old Steve reflects on turning 59, the past, work, family, a change of careers and facing old age. Click to play	09:13
Jun 09, 2011	Love Wins: An Orthodox View of Salvation In response to Rob Bell's controversial book Love Wins, Steve ventures into the world of video and gives a short summary of the difference between the mainstream Protestant view of salvation and an Orthodox view. Listen to the short audio introduction below, then watch the video. Click to play	02:32
Mar 01, 2011	Miracles or Deceptions? Steve discusses his experiences with miracles as a Protestant and now as an Orthodox Christian. Click to play	17:11
Jan 31, 2011	Demolition, Canons and Spiritual Direction Steve reflects on the limitations and dangers of the tools of his trade and how it applies to how we approach the Canons of the Church. Click to play	16:50
Jan 17, 2011	If I Were a Rich Man… Dadadadada…. Steve the Builder is on the road again and spent a week insulating and remodeling the Abbot's cell, a 60 year old building at St. Michael's Monastery in northern New Mexico. Click to play	09:14
Oct 27, 2010	Orthodox Evangelism You'd think by now that people would figure out that what is hip, cool and relevant today will elicit LOL's on YouTube 30 years from now. What does this mean for Orthodox Christians, cultural relevance and evangelism? Click to play	13:23
Oct 09, 2010	Fr. Meletios Webber on Priesthood and Spiritual Fathers, Part Three Steve finishes his interview with Fr. Meletios and discusses spiritual directors, accountability groups and obedience. Click to play	18:48
Sep 30, 2010	Fr. Meletios Webber on Priesthood and Spiritual Fathers, Part Two Steve continues his interview with Fr. Meletios Webber and they discuss the role of the parish priest as a Father/confessor, confession and counseling, penances, clairvoyance and much more. Click to play	36:50
Sep 22, 2010	Fr. Meletios Webber on Priesthood and Spiritual Fathers, Part One Steve interviews Fr. Meletios Webber, the Abbot of St. John's Monastery, on what the "grace of the priesthood" bestows on a man and what the priest's authority and role is in the life of the parish and in his relationship with his parishoners as his spiritual children. Click to play	29:39
Aug 19, 2010	On The Priesthood How does someone know they are called to the priesthood? Steve discusses his lifelong "call" and where he was ordained.	14:22
Aug 16, 2010	StB Goes to the Movies Steve the Builder reviews "Inception". But after seeing the movie, he's not sure if Ancient Faith Radio is real. Nor is he sure if the idea for the podcast was planted in his head by Leonardo DiCaprio or by a night out at the park with friends in 1969. But maybe the movie is more real than the people who made it intended it to be.	08:38
Aug 04, 2010	Orthodoxy and Homosexuality, Part Two In Part Two Steve answers email from listeners in a Question/Answer format.	25:49
Mar 18, 2010	Orthodoxy and Homosexuality, Part One In this podcast Steve references an article he wrote for AGAIN Magazine on the Orthodox Church and same sex attraction. In it he shares the results of several interviews with Orthodox men and women who shared their backgrounds and experiences as homosexuals before and after becoming Orthodox Christians.	22:26
Mar 04, 2010	The Orthodox Chameleon They say "Clothes make the man"... Steve gives up his Hawaiian shirt and learns a hard lesson.	11:51
Feb 19, 2010	The Story of Joe What happens when someone puts a gun to your head and you don't believe in Jesus?	11:28
Feb 10, 2010	Valentine’s Day and Marriage Listen in on Steve's reflections on learning to love, his marriage and his Valentine's day wish for his wife.	05:23
Jan 30, 2010	Ask Me About Jesus Or, maybe you shouldn't... there are other people who are more authoritative. I'll tell you where to find them.	09:23
Jan 23, 2010	The Boat Join Steve as he stands in line with some fellow shipmates on the economic downturn boat and talks about navigating rough financial waters.	09:44
Dec 15, 2009	Ain’t I Great? Sometimes we ask, "If I die young, how many great things might I have done?" Perhaps we should ask, "If I live long, will I die a human being?"	11:44
Dec 09, 2009	Happy Holidays When Jesus came as The Gift to the world as a stranger, He encountered politics, and it was politics that ultimately killed the Gift. In Houston Texas, politics once again kills the Gift of Christmas.	08:59
Nov 25, 2009	A Life Well Lived Steve has been dealing with friends and family who are facing death for the past few weeks. Listen in as he talks about his father and friends and the difference between a good life and a life well lived.	08:46
Sep 10, 2009	Capital Punishment, Final In the final podcast in the capital punishment series Steve discusses punishment, retribution and hell in light of "God is love". Can Christians legitimately believe in retributive punishment and a loving God? And finally, what is the responsibility of Christians to those on death row?	14:51
Sep 03, 2009	Capital Punishment, Part 7 Is the death penalty really a deterrent? Is there a need to kill evildoers if we can keep society safe through the prison systems? Is punishment a primitive concept not fit for modern enlightened society?	14:14
Aug 27, 2009	Capital Punishment, Part 6 This week Steve discusses the woman taken in adultery, would Jesus "flip the switch" on the electric chair, and should evildoers be given life in prison in hopes that they will eventually repent?	16:02
Aug 20, 2009	Capital Punishment, Part 5 Why does God allow imperfect and fallen human beings make life and death decisions? Have Christians permitted the atheists to define our doctrines? Who has a greater problem justifying being against the death penalty, the Christian or the atheist? What does iconography have to do with the death penalty? All this and more...	18:12
Aug 13, 2009	Capital Punishment, Part 4 What are the pitfalls of a "Christian State"? Can or should the State govern according to the Gospel? Can "forgiveness of enemies" be a valid principle of civil order? What do the Fathers of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches say about the relationship of Church and State in regard to civil order and capital punishment?	16:12
Aug 07, 2009	Capital Punishment, Part 3 In Part 3 of the series, Steve begins a discussion of the Church and State. How do we view Judaism as a theocracy? Is Jesus anti-death penalty? What is the purpose of civil authority? Is the State constrained to function on the level of the Gospel and should it?	15:27
Jul 31, 2009	Capital Punishment, Part 2 In the second part of the series Steve discusses the Flood as the dividing line in human history in regard to the meaning of death, fear and capital punishment. Did the Mosaic Law abrogate the covenant with Noah? What do the atheist and the Christian have in common in regard to capital punishment?	15:38
Jul 23, 2009	Capital Punishment, Part 1 Steve begins a four part series on "Capital Punishment". In Part One he chronicles his work with emotionally disturbed children and the beginning of his shift from radical pacifism to a reconsideration of the death penalty.	10:30
Jul 16, 2009	Cleaning House What REALLY happens when the wife is gone for ten days and the husband realizes he has 24 hours to prepare for her homecoming? Listen to Steve give away the "man secrets" and why cleaning house is a part of our salvation.	07:50
Jul 03, 2009	All Dogs Go to Heaven I had to put one of my dogs to sleep. He was young, healthy but had been abused. He started biting visitors to our home. I was confronted with the question, "What does love demand?" When our pets die, or we have to kill them, what do we tell our kids? What do we do for closure? Do our pets go to heaven?	13:12
Jun 26, 2009	The Theology of Work, On the Road with Steve the Builder In the seventh podcast from the road trip to St. John's monastery, after a long day Steve reflects on the meaning of work, family and death and their relationship to our salvation.	10:42
Jun 18, 2009	Monasticism or Marriage? On the Road with Steve the Builder When a married man spends three weeks at a monastery, sometimes delusions can begin to set in. Who is more holy, the monk or the married man (or woman)? Listen in on Part Six of the "On the Road" series as Steve reflects on the monastic life and married life during his recent stay at St. John's Monastery.	15:47
Jun 12, 2009	Man as Meat, On the Road with Steve the Builder In part five of the "On the Road" series, I stopped in front of whore house in the middle of the Nevada desert. Sex and death are inextricably intertwined in the human being. That is why the Playmate Ranch is the perfect icon of our fallen humanity.	13:25
Jun 05, 2009	Sin, Slots, Church and Death, On the Road with Steve the Builder This is the fourth podcast of the "On the Road" series. As I was driving through Las Vegas I saw two billboards, one for a Church and one for a casino, but they were really saying the same thing.	10:09
May 28, 2009	Death Valley, On the Road with Steve the Builder This is the third podcast in the "on the road" series while I'm travelling through the desert on my way to St. John's Monastery. In this episode I make a stop in Death Valley. What I find in the desolate desert of Death Valley is a metaphor for the fallen human being in the image of God.	10:39
May 21, 2009	Death in the Desert, On the Road with Steve the Builder This is the second podcast of a series recorded while travelling through the deserts of Arizona and Nevada to St. John's Monastery. Something caught my eye and I stopped. This is what I found about 80 miles from civilization.	12:50
May 14, 2009	The Will of God for My Life, On the Road with Steve the Builder Steve the Builder is on the road. Join me on my trip to St. John's Monastery in Manton, California, where I will be working on their new church for the next few weeks. I just traveled through about 1,000 miles of desert and stopped at a lot of interesting and sobering places along the way. Companion pictures for this podcast and more from the trip are on my blog at http://pithlessthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-desert-of-sorrow-and-sin.html	16:53
May 07, 2009	Fear of Silence In the movies when we hear silence in a darkened house, something dies. Spiritual silence is entering a dark place...but what happens if we are brave enough to shut off the noise?	11:48
May 02, 2009	Hope, a Paschal Reflection The Resurrection and the events that led up to it confronts the world with a reality that both the atheist and the Christian agree upon. Christians would do well to listen to the atheists who preach half the gospel more faithfully than some Christians do. But whose faith, in the end, brings hope?	11:24
Apr 16, 2009	Betrayal In Holy Thursday's afternoon liturgy, we promise in the prayers before Communion, "Neither will I give Thee a kiss as did Judas". And that evening we hear the Gospel. The sum of our life says we've lied.	10:45
Apr 10, 2009	The Thief When you have no choice, what will you choose?	08:12
Apr 03, 2009	Abandoned Is the sign of being a good Christian a chipper personality, a happy "gladness in the Lord", and a positive outlook on life? The answer is in Matins and the Song of Solomon.	16:34
Mar 27, 2009	In the Company of Sinners How does a seminary graduate end up owning a construction company and what happens when you take the gospel into the "real world" of business?	14:42
Mar 20, 2009	Philosophical Ketchup Part Two What do 1959 Cadillacs, dog houses, rabbits and Congress have to do with the philosophical spirit of the age? Find out as Steve discusses ten things you cannot say as a moral relativist... but wait! THIS podcast goes to ELEVEN!	15:33
Mar 13, 2009	Philosophical Ketchup The gospel of relativism is preached everywhere, at all times, and by all. It shows up in the most inconspicuous and subversive places.	11:21
Mar 06, 2009	The Present Moment How we close a door is a measure of our spiritual life.	08:11
Feb 27, 2009	Fairy Tales Science and Hans Christian Anderson have one thing in common: They both deal in fairy tales...except one of them tells us the truth.	15:30
Feb 20, 2009	Homeless, Hungry, God Bless Who do you see on the street corners? Or do you even look at them? When we avoid eye contact with the homeless, we are avoiding looking into the face of Christ and at our own faces.	08:06
Feb 13, 2009	The Man in the Mall When we look at human beings what do we see? More importantly, are we willing to see ourselves?	11:21
Feb 06, 2009	The god Called “Earth” With all the discussion of carbon footprints and the human impact on our planet, has environmentalism become the new paganism of the 21st Century?	14:37
Jan 30, 2009	Toyota Changes Everything Toyota's latest ad campaign claims that their new dealership changes EVERYTHING. Perhaps it could have, but someone beat them to it a long time ago.	07:33
Jan 23, 2009	Dining Out Like a Christian In this podcast Steve gives a simple way to get to know someone quickly: take them out for dinner. He discusses how both CEO's of international corporations and the scriptures tell us that how people treat waiters and waitresses says volumes about their personality, ethics and spiritual life.	11:21
Jan 15, 2009	Circle of Life In his first episode, Steve reflects on fish, turtles, Disney, life and death.	09:39