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
How devotion quietly hardened my heart and how grace brought me home
Most people don’t become Pharisees because they stop loving God.
They become Pharisees because they love Him deeply and are afraid of losing Him.
This episode begins with the prayer of Psalm 139:23–24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” It is a confession, not an accusation. I share how my own journey into a Pharisee spirit did not start with rebellion or pride, but with devotion. A sincere hunger to please God slowly turned into pressure to perform. Tenderness gave way to control. Grace was still talked about, but fear quietly took over.
I talk honestly about how peer pressure, spiritual comparison, and the desire to belong to the serious crowd can harden a heart without us even noticing. How we start drawing lines God never asked us to draw. How we defend doctrine more than we love people. How exhaustion replaces joy when performance replaces relationship.
The tragedy of the Pharisee is not that he loved God too much.
It is that he did not believe God loved him.
This is not a message of condemnation. It is an invitation back to rest. Back to union. Back to living from God instead of for God. When we finally believe we are already loved, something in us relaxes. We stop striving, comparing, and policing. And real holiness begins to grow again, not out of fear, but out of love.
If you have ever felt your faith grow dry, your prayers mechanical, or your joy fade while trying to be faithful, this conversation is for you. I am not sharing from a place of arrival, but from the middle of my own journey. And maybe, in some way, it is yours too.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
The Bible says in Psalm 139, 23 and 24, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. I want to talk about how I became a Pharisee without intentionally doing it. I want you to know that it starts with being devoted to God, not rebellion. We don't become Pharisees because of pride or that. We become it because of our passion for God and for the truth. People who genuinely love God a lot of times develop a Pharisee spirit. They hunger for God and long to please him. It takes root in hearts that are serious about truth and holiness and faithfulness. The ones who would likely drift into it are not the careless, they're the committed. You don't become a Pharisee because you hate grace. You become one because you love God and you fear losing him all my life. Felt like I had to prove myself to God and please God. You start out humble and teachable, and you forgive quickly, but you hunger to be close to God. Slowly, something changes. You take your walk and growth very seriously, but you begin to feel that pressure to perform, and your tenderness hardens into control. You still say it's all about grace, but somewhere deep inside it's not. You believe that God's approval depends on your behavior and how much you know and how faithfully you serve Him. Then peer pressure kicks in. People around us start slightly putting pressure on us. It pushes. You love God, but you want to belong to the group, the group that really means business. You want to be respected by those who seem to be most spiritual. And little by little you echo them, repeat their convictions, and defend their attitudes. I'm speaking out of, well, that's what I did. Suddenly you say amen to things that once made you uncomfortable. You draw harder lines, you set up borders, fences, and that God never asked you to build. You talk tougher, you act stricter, and you think you're getting stronger. What's really happening is your heart is shrinking. You don't see it at first. In fact, you probably feel more committed than ever. But inside, love is slowly being replaced by fear. The fear of getting it wrong, the fear of not belonging, the fear of being seen as too soft, and that's how it happens. You never plan to drift into harshness or lose your tenderness, but you get caught up in the crowd. You do and say things you never thought you would. Things that the younger, softer, grace-filled version of you would have wept over, and I can tell you that even now I weep over so much. I never meant it that way. I did it out of a heart of love. When one day you finally stop long enough to look back and you hate what you see, you can't believe how far you've gone. You remember when you were joyful and young and excited about the Lord, you love people easily. You thought about mercy and it moves you to tenderness and tears, but now you have grown suspicious, cynical, cold. You defend doctrine more than you love people. You fight for truth more than you forgive. In your attempt to protect holiness, you've lost sight of its purpose. You never see yourself as a Pharisee. That's the problem. Because there's a trap of comparison. There's always someone stricter than you, someone louder, harsher, more dogmatic. So you point to them and say, now that's the Pharisee. That's who Jesus is talking about. But the Pharisee heart doesn't just compare up, it compares down. It needs someone worldly loose or compromising to feel secure. Because as long as there's someone worse, you can feel righteous. That's how self-righteousness stays alive. It keeps score. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be better than somebody else. And slowly we live for the wrong approval, and without realizing it, we live for the approval of our spiritual crowd instead of the pleasure of our Father. We say we believe in grace, but we live as if we need to supervise grace. We profess to trust mercy and we offer it grudgingly. We say we walk by the Spirit, but I'm afraid what drove me much more was the fear of losing respect. You hate it because this was never the plan. You didn't mean to become harsh or proud. You just want to be faithful. But now your soul feels dry, your prayers feel mechanical, and exhaustion has replaced the joy you used to know. That's what happens when performance replaces that personal relationship. But if you've come to that place, and some people even call me about it, and you see that grace is tapping you on the shoulder and saying, you don't have to live like that anymore. Because the tragedy of the Pharisee isn't that he loved God too much. It's that he didn't believe God loved him. Everything he did, the fasting, the praying, the perfect obedience was his way of trying to convince himself he was acceptable. That's why religion turns hard when you don't rest in love, when you got to prove you're worthy of love, when you're always proven, you police others and you police yourself. That is so much my story. I wanted to make sure I earned it. Maybe it was the way I was raised, but I can't blame it on anybody, it's my responsibility. The proud heart isn't evil so much as it's fearful. It's fearful that if it ever stops striving, God might walk away. Oh, I don't know how many times I begged God to come be with me, and I begged God to work in my life, and I beg God to live in me, and I call for him to come when he was living in me. We're afraid that if we let go, grace might not catch us. The Father never called you to live for him out of fear of falling short. He called you to live from him, from union with his life within you. You see, the truth that is changing my life, and let me say this: I say changing my life because I'm not there yet. I am trying to learn to trust his love. I told him this morning as I walked around, thank you for loving me. I can't believe you love me. It's hard for me to believe you love me. But your father already holds you and he already loves you. You're already enough, you're already accepted, you're already complete in the Son who finished it all. When that truth finally takes root, something in us relaxes. We stop performing, comparing, we stop being the world's spiritual police officer. We rest. And out of that rest, real holiness grows because you're no longer trying to become what you already are in Christ. You see, love disarms what fear built. The cross didn't make God willing to love you or love me. It reveals that he already did. And once that truth captures our hearts, the Pharisee in us dies without a fight. Because love disarms what fear built. I don't know if you're like me, but I realize I've been much more of a Pharisee than I ever meant to be, than I ever wanted to be. I made a lot of mistakes. I messed up a whole bunch. But you know what? He loved me anyway. And I always tried to prove me. I wanted you to know I was a good guy. And then it's like the Lord, in a lot of ways, with my health and other things, took everything away. And I was alone with him, and I'm beginning to find out. He loves me and he loves you, and that's where we're going to live. That's where we're going to celebrate. God bless you. Thanks for listening. I really would like to ask you to share this podcast on the YouTube or share it on my podcast page. I'd ask you to be involved. I just want to help you as I grow. And I'm not here to tell you stuff like you need to do it. I'm just sharing my journey, which might be similar to your journey. I love you in Christ. God bless you. I'll see you next time.
