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Small Steps with God

Small Steps with God

Written by: Jill from The Northwoods
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Small Steps with God is a practical guide to learning how to study the Bible thoughtfully and faithfully. Through clear teaching on exegesis, historical context, and careful reading, this podcast helps listeners move beyond surface-level interpretations and grow in confidence as students of Scripture. Episodes explore how meaning is drawn from the text—not read into it—along with series like MIRRORS, which examine biblical figures and historical groups to reflect on faith, obedience, and daily life. This is a place for steady growth, honest thinking, and learning to walk closely with God—one small step at a time.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Christianity Ministry & Evangelism Spirituality
Episodes
  • 160 - How to Actually Read the Book of Revelation

    160 - How to Actually Read the Book of Revelation
    Jun 30 2026
    I’ll be honest — when I was a kid, a movie based on The Late Great Planet Earth (which is loosely about the book of Revelation) kept me up for a month. So when I decided to start a Revelation series in The Bible in Small Steps, my first thought was “this might be the scariest thing I’ve ever recorded.” This episode is the why-and-how before we dive in — not the first real chapter, but the posture I want us to bring into the whole series.It’s a Pastoral Letter First. Before Revelation is apocalyptic, it’s a letter written to real churches under real first-century pressure, meant to comfort and steady frightened people. That’s still its job today — Revelation is meant to settle you, not give you a puzzle to solve.Four Views, No Need to Pick One. I walk through preterist, futurist, historicist, and idealist readings of Revelation — and explain why I’m taking a “yes to all of it” approach rather than picking a side, the same way a single image can be true of the first century, true throughout church history, and true at the end.Birth Pangs, Not a Timeline. Jesus used labor imagery for a reason — waves of pain and easing that build toward a final delivery. Seals, trumpets, and bowls in Revelation work the same way: not three sequential timelines, but the same conflict retold with the volume turned up each time.Don’t Make a Wanted Poster. Throughout history people have confidently named the Antichrist — Hitler, Napoleon, various popes and emperors — and every guess has aged badly. I explain why naming names actually undermines real vigilance, and why the better question is “what does opposition to Christ actually look like” rather than “who is it.”Numbers Are Vocabulary, Not Math. Seven means completeness, twelve means God’s people, a thousand means “a really long time” — not a literal count. Holding the numbers loosely is key to not getting lost chasing dates and calculations.We Already Know How It Ends. Jesus reigns, His people are secure, the Lamb triumphs. Every strange image in Revelation should be read forward from that ending, not as a mystery hanging over the outcome.If you only take one thing from this episode into the series: don’t try to solve Revelation like a code. Let it do what it was written to do — steady you.Jill’s Linkshttps://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgodhttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspodhttps://twitter.com/schmernEmail the podcast at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.
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    12 mins
  • 159 - John's Letters and the Church in Crisis

    159 - John's Letters and the Church in Crisis
    Jun 23 2026
    Have you ever trusted someone completely, only to have them start picking apart the very foundation of what you believed? That’s the situation the original readers of 1 John were living in — and it’s why this letter was written. Before we get into the text itself, I wanted to slow down and answer the questions that shape everything else: who wrote this, who was it written to, and what was actually going wrong in that church?No name, but no doubt. Unlike Paul’s letters, 1 John opens with no greeting and no sender. The church has nonetheless attributed it to John for two thousand years, and the evidence holds up — starting with Irenaeus, who knew Polycarp, who knew John personally. That’s a remarkably short chain of testimony.The fingerprints are everywhere. The vocabulary and rhythm of 1 John — light, darkness, truth, abiding, eternal life — echo the Gospel of John so closely that the two read like they came from the same hand and the same way of seeing the world. The letter doesn’t just share themes with the Gospel; it shares texture.An eyewitness, not a historian. The author doesn’t say “I’ve studied this” — he says “we heard him, we saw him, we touched him.” That’s not secondhand testimony. It’s the voice of someone who was actually there.A church under pressure. By the time John wrote, he was likely the last living apostle, writing from Ephesus to congregations being pulled apart by teachers offering “secret knowledge” — an early form of what would become Gnosticism. These teachers denied that Jesus had truly come in the flesh, taught that the physical world was inherently evil, and unsettled ordinary believers who started wondering if they were missing something.Why John wrote it. Not as an academic exercise, but so that his readers could know — not hope, not guess, but know — that they had eternal life. Assurance, for John, isn’t arrogance. It’s the natural fruit of trusting a trustworthy Savior.Four themes to watch for. God is light. Jesus Christ came in real flesh. Love is costly, not sentimental. And assurance is meant to be settled ground, not a source of anxiety.I’m genuinely excited to walk through this letter with you. If you’ve ever had someone confidently tell you something that sounded true but wasn’t quite right, you already understand why John wrote this the way he did.You can find this and all of my podcasts at jillfromthenorthwoods.com — see you in 1 John.Jill’s Linkshttps://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgodhttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspodhttps://twitter.com/schmernEmail the podcast at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.
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    21 mins
  • 158 - The Mozart Problem - Stop Measuring Gifts

    158 - The Mozart Problem - Stop Measuring Gifts
    Jun 16 2026
    I’ve been obsessed with the story of Amadeus for about forty years. And I’ve been sitting with a question it raises for just as long.What do you do when the most gifted person in the room is also the messiest, most broken person in the room? And what does it mean when God seems to work through them anyway?This episode starts with the story of Salieri — a fictional treatment, not a history lesson, but one that surfaces something real. Salieri was faithful, disciplined, devoted. He made what he understood to be a deal with God: I’ll give everything to my art and to you, and you’ll bless me with greatness. Then Mozart walked in. Crude, immature, self-destructive in almost every direction — and the music that came out of him sounded, to Salieri’s ears, like the voice of God itself.And Salieri’s response wasn’t envy. It was grief. Why is God doing this like this?Most of us have felt something like that. Maybe not about music. Maybe about a coworker who got a promotion they didn’t seem to earn. A sibling who shines without trying. A pastor whose sermons are genuinely life-changing and whose private life is a wreck. That low-grade ache — part envy, part confusion, part honest theological question — deserves a real answer.What the Bible actually says about giftednessThe Bible never promises that the most gifted people will live the most faithful lives. Scripture is full of the opposite: David — warrior, poet, man after God’s own heart, and also capable of adultery, deception, and arranging a murder. Samson, supernaturally powerful and completely unable to learn from his mistakes. Solomon, with wisdom that drew people from distant lands, who compromised himself into a fractured kingdom. Jonah, who delivered one of the most effective prophetic revivals in history while being furious it worked. Peter, who denied Christ three times in a single night and became the foundation of the early church.The pattern isn’t that God uses imperfect people. It’s that God uses people, period.Gifts vs. fruit — they’re not the same categoryPaul makes this explicit in 1 Corinthians. You can prophesy, move mountains, give away everything you own — and still have nothing that actually matters without love. Gifts are not fruit. They’re not the same thing, and confusing them is the source of a lot of our surprise when gifted leaders fall apart. We still believe, somewhere underneath, what Salieri believed: that someone who produces something that beautiful must be living something beautiful. Scripture doesn’t teach that.The hidden peopleThe kingdom runs on a different math than we’re used to. The widow with two coins. The woman who anoints Jesus and says nothing. The faithful servant trusted with small things. The unnamed believer Paul greets at the end of Romans. Not everyone is Mozart. Not everyone was meant to be. Faithfulness in ordinary things, when nobody’s watching and nobody’s applauding, is what Jesus keeps returning to.Salieri’s real tragedyBy the end of the story, Salieri’s tragedy isn’t that Mozart had more gifts. It’s that he couldn’t receive anything in his own life because he spent all of it staring at someone else’s calling. He had gifts, influence, an audience, a life. And he couldn’t see any of it. That’s the spiritual danger — spending your one life measuring it against someone else’s calling and missing the one you were actually given.Three small stepsName the ache. Don’t spiritualize it away too fast. When you encounter a gifted and messy person, ask a different question — not “why them and not me” but “what is God doing here?” And then turn your attention back to your own lane. Not with resignation, but with intention.Your faithfulness isn’t diminished by someone else’s gift. Your calling isn’t smaller because someone else’s is louder.📬 jillfromthenorthwoods.com✉️ jill@startwithsmallsteps.comJill’s Linkshttps://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgodhttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspodhttps://twitter.com/schmernEmail the podcast at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.Bible Maps and images used...
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    19 mins
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