Intersection With Rose Zacharias Meeder

Shaila Visser is passionate about helping people know Jesus.  She is National Director of Alpha Canada and leads with an infectious energy, solid competence and super fun sense of humour.  You will love this conversation!  Listen in as Shaila shares about her lowest point in life and discovering where her strength would come from.  I also get to ask her what her relationships with non-Christians have taught her about God.  She is one to watch!

What does the Boston Marathon, Spiritual Development and Chiropractic Medicine have in common?  A great guy named Dr. Freddie So!  In this episode we talk about finding God in the most unlikely of places - from a forgotten Bible collecting dust on a bookshelf to the finish line of an epic race ravaged by an act of evil.  Freddie is a chiropractic doctor and also someone who takes amazing care of his body, mind and soul!  Listen in!

It will astound you to know that this extremely articulate, wise and influential woman once dropped out of high school, was addicted to drugs and spent time in jail. Her life took an astronomical turn and now she is changing the world with her preaching and teaching. She’s amazing and you will be inspired. Listen in!

Abdu Murray is convinced we live in a culture of confusion and uncertainty.  He also believes that Truth can be found.  As a former lawyer and Bible scholar, Abdu was not always a Christian.  In fact his spiritual background and family heritage were far from recognizing Jesus as a Source of Truth.  Listen in as Abdu shares about his own spiritual journey, his Christian convictions and respectfully dialogues with me about how we may think a bit differently.  

Are you hiding something?  Are you possibly hiding the “true you”?  Have you ever thought that if people knew what was really going on inside your head, they would be shocked?  DeeAnn Jeremiah is a wonderful wife, mom and has been a Christian her whole life.  For years, she sat pretty in the front row at her church playing a part that she knew was not her real authentic self.  She desperately wanted to know God’s love and God’s best and where she eventually found it will surprise you.  Here’s to peeling back the layers of image and pretend and getting real and finding God.  Listen in on our conversation and then go buy her book “Imagine - Stripping Christian Image and Living God’s abundant Real Life”.

I am imagining a day when people who suffer from depression and anxiety feel ONLY depressed and sad and DO NOT feel shame.  I wonder if that day will come.  This day is certainly not that day.  There is stigma and judgment and negative bias towards mental ill-health and because there is this unspoken overlay, it makes it all worse.  Meet Jordan Berta - an extraordinary guy with courage and a huge heart.  His personal struggle with depression and anxiety gives him the right to speak on it's behalf and speak up he does - for all of us.  We all need to hear his message.  

As the saying goes - we are sure of two things in life - death and taxes.  It would be a stretch to produce an episode on this show on the topic of the intersection of taxes and faith - although I might surprise you one day!  That being said - today we talk about the "other" certainty - death, and we actually honour the very personal story of Cheryl Behan and her husband John. John, with the help of a medical team, pre-determined the day of his dying.  Although this subject has been a controversial one in the medical field, I sit down with Cheryl to hear her story of how she supported her husband through this very difficult and spiritual time.

Life is hard and the difficulties often begin in childhood.  Whether it is circumstances of abuse or neglect, shame or lack of support, many people have experienced adverse childhood events that mark them for life.  Em Dyson, a respected professional psychotherapist shares about her traumatic upbringing and how, over time, she experienced help and hope and healing.  

Marriage can be hard work at the best of times - imagine how difficult it is when your spouse is struggling with depression. Even talking about mental illness can still be so taboo, especially in our churches. Danielle discovered this when her husband was diagnosed with depression - she wanted to help, but how? It wasn't easy as she slowly watched him drift away from life, their marriage, and family. Unfortunately mental illness affects so many of us - depression and mental illness is everywhere and we need to know what to do when someone close to us is going through this. That's when we need each other most. Hear all about this firsthand from Danielle Foisy.

It's episode 34! Jared Brock is a man of many talents, including growing a beard. So he wrote a book about it - well sort of. His latest book, Bearded Gospel Men, represents his epic quest for manliness and godliness. He profiles men throughout history (who happen to be bearded, probably) who boldly stood for their spiritual convictions. This is what Jared wishes for every man today (and women too). The book will inspire you and our conversation will challenge you and  probably make you laugh too. I hope it will make you think differently about God and beards.

If it's one thing that has come out of our digital world its the ready access to pornography. There's often a tragic human story behind those images. Michelle and Jared Brock have committed their lives to bringing Hope to the Sold, shedding light on this industry and culture which traffics in the lives of vulnerable human beings - children and women in particular. I think you will find this interview enlightening and I hope it inspires you to learn more about their work. Michelle and Jared have brought their work to us via the documentaries Red Light, Green Light and Over 18.

Sometimes it's good to approach things with a somewhat lighter perspective, even when it's something so deep and profound as your personal faith. Join me as I interview Phil Callaway - author, radio host and acclaimed speaker who travels the world to make it, well, a little happier.

Hey podcasts listeners. So this was fun! I was invited by Faithstrong Today to interview Holley Gerth - author of Fiercehearted, her latest book. I loved reading her book and it so challenged me to be brave as I follow Jesus. I love how Holley doesn't just write these words, but also lives them. Together we have an honest discussion about what it means to be a fierce-hearted follower of Jesus, I am certain it will challenge you as well. And if you want to catch the video version - look me up on Faith Strong Today where you'll find not only my podcasts but many others as well.

Whenever I get an opportunity to have a great conversation with a "local" hero - I jump at it. So when Gill Tillman took me up on my request to have her interviewed on my podcast I was so excited. I find Gill so inspiring - she seems to always go above and beyond for our community. In so many ways she embodies what Jesus would do. So I wanted to know if there was a spiritual angle to Gill and her desire to help people - where did that come from, what continues to motivate her today and how does she see the spiritual side of her influencing the practical, helping side? Find out more as we talk about these things and more. You'll love Gill's story.

When our faith is strong and grounded it can shock us when we need it most. When there's every reason to cry and scream in sadness or anger, God brings that proverbial peace that passes understanding. This peace can only be understood when you are in the middle of receiving it. Jay and Steph's story is a heart-wrenching story. I hope you listen to it and reflect on your own faith for a moment. It's impossible to imagine how we might react in similar circumstances - but may it cause us to reflect on how we react in day to day events, so that if God ever puts us into a much bigger and deeper moment we will automatically turn to Him for all we need when we need Him most.

Hey everyone, welcome to episode 28! I've really enjoyed tackling the topic of people journeying from one faith perspective to another. Here I connect with Jared who came from Mormonism to mainstream Christianity. I wonder, is that change a 90 degree turn or a complete 180? What better way to find out than to talk to someone who has come through that experience! Jared is open and honest as he shares his life story with us - a wonderfully candid and open discussion of the ups and downs and the joy he finds in his spiritual life.

In this episode I share with you Robert Singh's story. Robert grew up in an intellectual  Hindu family. His pursuit for truth and faith eventually led him to find Christ. As someone who has always grown up in a pre-dominantly Christian culture, I'm always fascinated by what draws people from other faiths to accept Jesus. How does the story of Jesus intersect with the Hindu story? How hard is it to leave one way of life which belongs to your family, and follow a new path? Find out how it happened for Robert.

Welcome to the 26th episode of Intersection. It's been a year since we launched Intersection! I'm happy today to sit down with Matt Miles and talk about his response to being called from a career in the corporate world to a career with the church he loves. To do so he had to challenge accepting the status quo and take a risk - or what he refers to as "challenging the inertia". We then talk church - and what he sees as his vision for the church in our current culture. I am certain you will come away with some challenging thoughts - are you being called to challenge the inertia?

Meet Cori, a woman of remarkable faith and with an incredible journey. How would you respond to tragedy? Would you blame God or eventually come to see the good in even the most heartbreaking circumstances? Cori found comfort through God in a mysterious and beautiful way - showing us once again that we should never limit God and how he might reveal Himself to us when we need Him most.

If there's something that's dominated the news cycle over the past year, it's the US election. Unfortunately it's been a polarizing and divisive issue. As a Canadian I try to make sense of it, and as a Christian it's difficult to understand how someone with President's Trump's personality resonates so much with evangelical Christians.  So instead of giving up, I jumped on a great opportunity to actually sit down with someone who is right in the middle of this. Leesa Donner is a US journalist and a Christian. She support the current administration. So of course she's someone I want to talk to, to understand and listen to. I don't want to debate her, I just want to find out why she believes what she believes - without judgment - as one human being to another. I hope our dialogue inspires you to reach across the great political divide - whatever side you are on - and listen to someone else's perspective. (*P.S: my apologies for the quality of our Skype conversation - we had a poor connection, but I wanted to pre