Followed By Mercy
The Followed By Mercy Podcast
Real Grace, Honest Hope
You might notice a new name and a fresh look, but the heart behind this podcast is the same. After years as the World Evangelism Podcast, I sensed God leading me to a deeper, more personal path centered on His relentless mercy and the kind of honest hope that can reach into every hurting place. That’s why this show is now called Followed By Mercy Podcast. The format may shift, and the tone may be a bit more personal, but my mission hasn’t changed: I still believe the world desperately needs to hear the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. You are welcome here if you’ve been with me from the beginning or just found us now.
What if God’s love is more personal, stubborn, and relentless than you ever imagined?
Welcome to The Followed By Mercy Podcast, where we get honest about pain, hope, and the kind of grace that finds you right where you are, five days a week. This isn’t about religious performance or church routines. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt worn out, unseen, or unsure if they belong in the story of God’s love. Every conversation is rooted in this reality: God loves you right now, just as you are, and He isn’t giving up on you.
Here’s what you’ll find in every episode:
Experience God’s Relentless Love
Every show starts by reminding you that the Shepherd knows your name, cares about your story, and isn’t offended by your failures or questions. This is personal—it’s about God’s unwavering affection for you.
Find Your Place in His Heart
Once you grasp how fiercely you’re loved, sharing that love with others doesn’t feel forced. It becomes the most natural thing in the world. Real grace overflows.
Prayer That Changes You
We pray together—not just for the world “out there,” but for the battles and hopes you’re carrying right now. These prayers are honest, rooted in Scripture, and meant for hearts that need a gentle touch from the Shepherd.
Discover Your Unique Role
Whether you’re called to go, give, serve, or show kindness in your corner of the world, God’s mercy meets you where you are. You’re not just a bystander. You are His beloved, invited into the story He’s writing.
When life knocks the wind out of you, this is a place to catch your breath. You’ll hear the encouragement that meets you on your hardest days, and your honest questions will be welcomed. No pretending, no heavy-handed advice—just the reminder that your Shepherd is right there with you, walking every step with you, even when you feel like giving up.
Why does this matter? Because some days, it feels like nobody sees you or cares what you’re going through. But the truth is, you have a Shepherd who never takes His eyes off you, lets you slip through the cracks, and never gives up on you. That kind of love can put you back on your feet, and it might be the hope someone else is waiting to see in you, too.
If you’re longing for more than just religious talk—if you want to know you’re not alone and that God’s mercy is following you all the way home, you’re in the right place. Whether you listen in the car, on a walk, or in a quiet moment, let every episode remind you: God’s mercy is after you right now, ready to bring real grace and honest hope.
Subscribe today and join a community to discover what happens when loved people become loving people. The journey’s just beginning, and there’s a place for you here.
Followed By Mercy
Reading The Bible Through Love, Not Fear
What happens when you stop reading the Bible like a rulebook and start reading it like a love letter? That question guides our conversation today. We sit with four familiar passages from Genesis 3, Psalm 51, Luke 15, and John 8, and we walk through seven simple questions that help us see the heart of God instead of our own fear. These questions pull back the curtain on a God who seeks before we search, covers before we hide, and restores before we perform.
We start in the garden, where God's words Where are you become the cry of a Father who refuses to walk away from His children. In Psalm 51, repentance stops sounding like self-punishment and begins to sound like trust in steadfast love. Every line points toward the cleansing only Jesus can give. With the prodigal, the Father runs first. The robe, the ring, and the feast arrive before the apology forms on the boy's lips. Home is a celebration, not probation. And with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus kneels in the dust beside her, silences every voice of shame, and lifts her with words that hold both mercy and freedom. Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.
Across each story, the same pattern keeps showing up. God moves first. Love draws near. Grace invites us to trust instead of perform. We offer simple prompts you can use as you reread hard or fearful passages. Look for Jesus—notice who takes the first step. Ask what the scene reveals about the heart of God. Scripture comes alive when you stop asking only what it means and start asking what it shows about who He is.
If you have ever felt like the Bible was written to point out what is wrong with you, this episode gives you a better lens. One that centers on what is right with God. His mercy. His nearness. His restoring power.
If this speaks to you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs fresh hope, and leave a review telling us where you saw God move first. Your reflections help others discover a grace-filled way to read the Bible.
Topics we touch:
Seven grace-based questions for reading
Genesis 3 as seeking and covering instead of scolding
Psalm 51 as mercy-based repentance instead of merit
The prodigal was restored to sonship before any speech
The woman caught in adultery was freed before the instruction
trust instead of performance as the posture of faith
identity as sought, cleansed, and celebrated
practical prompts for revisiting fearful texts with love
If you'd like to discuss this further, I am here.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Just thought I'd chat with you just a minute today about how to read scripture through the lens of grace, love, and Jesus. And I thought I'd just walk you through some steps that I've been taking. You can't just ask, what does this verse mean? You must also ask, what does this verse reveal about God's heart? You see, for years I interpreted the Bible and I just read it more like a Chilton's auto manual. I just took my time and I went through what was going on in the verse and I analytically read it with forgetting what the overall purpose of the scripture is. So once your lens shifts from the performance to grace, from moves to relationship, you begin to see passages you've known your whole life in an entirely new way. The Bible becomes less about what's wrong with you and more about what's right with God. This article that I want to talk to you about, I wrote it on my Substack account. You can find that. Just go to Follow by Mercy, and those articles are all there. But it's uh it's going to walk you through some well-known passages, and we're going to use seven grace-based lens questions. So, in other words, use some questions that are based on grace as we read about it. So the first one's the fall, found in Genesis chapter 3. That's when Adam and Eve sinned. They took the fruit, they sinned against God. And our common lens is God shows up angry. Adam and Eve have disobeyed. They're punished. Case closed. But when you do it through the grace-based lens, walk through it, let's look at this. What does this reveal about who God is? Well, God came seeking, not scolding. He said, Adam, where art thou? That's not an interrogation. It's a heart up cry of a father who won't walk away. Second question. Does this passage show him angry, distant, or loving and near? Well, God steps into the garden, not away from it. He initiates a conversation even while they're hiding. So that says something about God. He came seeking, and he's not a long ways off. Well, where do we find Jesus in this passage? In Genesis 3.15, we find the first mention, the first whisper of the gospel. The seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head. And so from the very beginning, we see God stepping in and offering a solution. Who moved first? Was it God or man? Well, God moved first. Man hid. Man put on a mask. Man covered himself up, but God pursued him. The next question Am I invited to trust or pressured to perform? Did God come in to fuss it at Adam? No, God covered their nakedness. He did the work. The fig leaves of self-effort weren't enough. Only grace covers shame. Only grace covers shame. What does this say about who I am in Christ? Even in failure, I am sought after, not cast aside. Next question. Am I reading this with fear or with love? Through love, this story becomes the beginning of redemption, not rejection. So we've walked through seven questions that help us just meditate on that story, and it changes our entire perspective. How about Psalm 51, when David confesses? Well, the common land says repentance means begging God for mercy and proving how sorry we are. But the grace-based, we're going to ask those same questions. We're going to go back through that passage of scripture and see what we find. What does this reveal about who God is? What does this Bible story? What does this psalm reveal about who God is? David cries, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. He appeals to God's character, not his own performance. He's not asking God to look at him, he's calling on God because of who God is. Second question, does this passage show God is angry and distant or loving and near? Well, in that story, God is present, he's compassionate, and he's ready to cleanse and restore. All right, where's Jesus in this passage? The only cleansing strong enough to wash me thoroughly is the blood of Christ. This psalm points forward to the reality that Jesus will come down on a cross and pay our sin debt. Who moved first? God or man? Even in repentance, David turns to God because of his consistent mercy. His steadfast love, the love of God draws David to him. Am I invited to trust or am I pressured to perform? There's no performance in Psalm 91, only surrender. David knows he can't fix himself. He needs grace. What does it say about who I am in Christ? I'm a project to repair, or am I a child to restore? Am I reading this with fear or with love? Fear avoids confession. Love leads to it. This passage shows us that repentance isn't self-rejection, it's self-forgetfulness. It's turning from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness. It's the moment when we stop staring at our sin and start seeing God's mercy. Well, the third one to look at is Luke 15 and the prodigal son. When you read that story, the common lens is the son messed up. He came back. The father accepted him because he apologized. But when you look at it through the gray space lens, what does this reveal about who God is? The father's waiting on him and he sees him a great way off and he runs. He's not waiting with crossed arms, he's sprinting with open arms. Does this passage show him as angry and distant or loving and near? He is near, he's loving, he falls on the boy's neck. There's no lecture, there's no delay. Where is Jesus in this passage? Jesus tells his story to reveal the heart of the father, the shepherd who finds the woman who searches, and the father who runs. So we're looking at who the father is. Who moved first? God or man? The son turns home, but it's the father who sees him, the father runs, the father embraces, the father restores. Before the son ever gives a speech, the father restored him. Who moved first? The Father, God. Am I invited to trust or to perform? The son tries to earn a spot as a servant. The father won't have it. He declares him son, gives him a robe, a ring, and a feast. That's how what the father does. What's this say about who I am in Christ? I'm not returning to be tolerated. I'm returning to be celebrated. Am I reading this with fear or with love? Love is on every line of the story. Fear has no place at this table. How about the woman caught in adultery? Common lens is Jesus got her off the hook, but he warned her, you better behave or else. The grace-based lens looks at it like this. What does this reveal about who God is? God stoops down, Jesus stoops down into the dirt with her. He lifts her up with words of freedom, not fear. Does this passage show God as angry, distant, or loving and near? He's near, he's defending her, he's forgiving her. Where is Jesus in this passage? He's front and center, defending the accused, exposing the religious, restoring the broken. Who moved first, God or man? She didn't even ask for mercy. Mercy found her. Am I invited to trust or pressure to perform? Neither do I condemn thee. That's a starting point. Then go and sin no more, not a warning, an empowerment. What does it say about who I am in Christ? I'm not defined by my worst moment. I'm spoken for by the one who kneels beside me in grace. Am I reading this with fear or with love? Love is lighter than the stones. Love is stronger than the law. Love rights in the dust instead of etching in stone. So God's initiative in Genesis 3 is, Where are you? Jesus being revealed was he was the promised seed. And the response invited and covered him in grace, not fear. In Psalm 51, God's initiative, mercy-based, not merit-based. Jesus revealed cleansing foreshadowed. In Luke 15, the prodigal son, God's initiative, the Father ran. Jesus revealed the heart of God, and response invited was restored as a son, not as a servant. Jesus in John 8.8 says, Neither do I condemn you. That's God. Jesus revealed the advocate. Response invited to go in freedom and fear not. So here's some things to think about. Why don't you go back to one passage you've read and always read through it with fear? Revisit that with love. Where have you mistaken repentance for self-punishment instead of turning to God and trust? Who moves first in the stories? Always look for that. Where do I still feel like I need to earn my way? Do you feel like that? What would it look like to read every passage asking, where is Jesus in this story? So I want to challenge you to go back over these stories, look at them, think about them, meditate on them, and consider yourself. Learn to read the Bible through grace. Learn to read the Bible knowing this God is love. The expression of God is Jesus. So every time you see God in the Bible, thinking how Jesus presented him. Well, I pray this has been a blessing to you. I'd love to have a discussion anytime with you. God bless you.
