Revived Thoughts + Martyrs and Missionaries: Top 5 Episodes of 2023

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[00:00:56] Revived Thoughts is a production of Revive Studios. This is Troy and Joel and Elise and you are listening to Revived Thoughts and Martyrs and Missionaries end of the year roundup. Top best episodes of the year. We are all online to share our,

[00:01:18] what our vision of the top five episodes of Revived Thoughts and Martyrs and Missionaries were this year with you. And we hope that you who are listening right now, well, if you're maybe newer, this is a great way to catalog what episodes you should catch up on

[00:01:31] and which ones you haven't heard before. And if you have been listening, do you think that our top five episodes were your top five episodes? Find out. All right, guys, say hi. Hey, how's it going? Hey, how are you doing, Elise? I'm good. How are you?

[00:01:47] I'm doing pretty good. Long time. No listen. No hear your voice. No listen. So you're admitting you don't listen to my show. I see how it is. Oh, man. Off to a fast start. No, no, no, no. It's a person thing.

[00:02:01] It's a interaction. Long time no interaction, I should say. For sure. What's the temperature there, guys? It's hot. It feels hot. Needs to rain. Humid. Has it started raining yet? For the rainy season?

[00:02:16] Sort of. Like there was like a good two weeks where it felt like the rainy season had started. And then this last week, it was kind of like the rainy season was like, well, I'm going to take a vacation.

[00:02:25] I've been working hard for a week and a half. It really doesn't feel like it's really started. When the rainy season is real, it goes on for six to twelve hours at a time. Just torrential downpours like you can't even imagine. I mean, it's just unbelievable.

[00:02:43] And I feel like it really still, even though it should have started by now, it really still hasn't gotten to that level quite yet. I'm not complaining too hard, though. I am right now. It's hot in this room we're in.

[00:02:53] What about you, Joel? Is it cold and snowy there in Kansas City? You know, it's actually been a pretty mild December so far. We've been like cruising in the 40s. The highs are in the 40s most days, which is honestly a pretty nice December.

[00:03:08] So I'm sure when January comes, we'll get slammed with, you know, it'll just be in the teens from then on. But I'm enjoying the 40s. The sun comes out. It's not too bad. You can go for a walk in it.

[00:03:19] Until you get to that season of Kansas City weather where it's just all ice and snow and it's impossible to drive or do anything for like two months. In the wind. Yeah. I mean, if you enjoy seasons,

[00:03:31] if you want to experience what all four seasons have to offer, have to offer in the full list, move to the Kansas City area because we get all the spring, all of summer, all of fall, all of winter pretty equally, I feel like.

[00:03:45] Yeah, but I mean, you don't have all the seasons because you don't have rainy season. Of course, we don't right now either. So that's, you know, that's kind of the problem. I don't think any of us are selling our geographic locations. People are listening, going,

[00:03:56] all right, so don't move to Indonesia and don't move to Kansas City. That's what I'm forwarding. Here I come. Here I come. That's right. All right. Well, hey, let's go ahead and get started. Every year we do this and we have done this with Alyse before.

[00:04:07] We didn't have Alyse on last year. I don't know why, but we didn't have you on last year, Alyse, but we do a top five best episodes. And like I said in the intro, the goal of this is just to kind of give a lot of new listeners.

[00:04:19] They wonder, where do I start with our show? We have hundreds of episodes with with Alyse's show. It's like 60 or 70 episodes. Where do you start with these big long shows? It helps maybe if you have a guide map to kind of be that, that where you get started.

[00:04:31] And for the people who have listened the whole year, you're dedicated, you know every episode, you're right there with us. This is just a chance for you to see were your five favorites the same five favorites that we had. Now, with that said, Alyse had this idea

[00:04:45] and I think it's a good idea to throw in a little game. So, throw in a little something for everybody to listen to as we go. So, during this episode, I'm going to be dropping some church history trivia questions and giving Joel and Alyse

[00:04:58] opportunities to see if they can get the answers correct. And we will see who comes out on top at the end of this episode. I will say, if you're a gambling person, you know, I don't want to say, I don't want to tip the scales here,

[00:05:14] but the odds might be more in one direction than the other. But we're going to see, we're going to see. Joel, how do you feel? Feeling confident tonight that you got this game? I'm feeling about as unconfident as one person can possibly get.

[00:05:25] I feel like our listeners, our listeners have by this point come to understand our dynamic here. You're the super brainy genius that remembers every church history detail and understands everything. And I'm kind of along for the ride. I enjoy, I really enjoy it, but I don't remember

[00:05:45] I'm not going to do my best, but we'll see here. Excellent. That's it. That is the attitude you want to have at the beginning of this church history trivia challenges is, I don't know. We'll see. I mean, you say all that. He's probably going to smoke me.

[00:05:59] All right. Are you guys ready for your first question? Actually, I got one already locked and loaded right now. If you guys are in. Let's do it. All right. I'm going to throw this out there. Just make a buzzer sound. Let's see.

[00:06:09] Let's see a little like a beat or something. You can do your best here. And that'll be my cue to throw it to one of you. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. First question before we've even hit our sermons. Here we go. First question.

[00:06:20] Question number one on church history trivia challenge night is in what year was the Great London Fire? Oh, what year was that fire? Beep beep. Is that? Oh, hey, is that Joel trying to be on the way? I'm going to do that Joel. 1666. Ding ding ding ding ding.

[00:06:40] That one does go to Joel. That's that's unfair. It is not fair. How many times I rambled about that fire to you, Elise? You certainly had as many opportunities as Joel did. Fair point. All right. Well, that was unexpected. Joel's taking an early lead with that unconfidence.

[00:06:56] He suddenly shook up the board. All right. With that said, let's go ahead and start. What is your number five sermon? Joel, since you took the lead, why don't you sermon or martyr and missionary? What is your number five episode for the year? Yeah, it's a tough one.

[00:07:13] I don't know. I don't know if I would necessarily order my suggestions in a strict linear best to worst, but more of just like maybe top five ones that I liked this year type of thing.

[00:07:27] You know, I think that would be I wanted to say that too, because I don't know that like any of these episodes for me, especially probably probably like the bottom four. Like there might be one that I'm really feeling tops about that.

[00:07:38] I think that was just it was pretty good. But yeah, maybe there's a favorite and then four runner ups type. Yeah, that might be a good way to say it. Like they're all good. And it's like how do you compare four and five? You know what I'm saying?

[00:07:48] Like it's not like this one was fourth best. It's clear that I want to agree with you on that. Since it's fresh on the memory because we just recorded it earlier this month. I really liked our moody episode this year titled. What do you think of Christ?

[00:08:02] I had fun talking about it in the prologue section and I like listening to Dustin read it. I thought it was pretty good. Yeah, he did a great job and and to it. It was fun for us to go back and do DL Moody.

[00:08:17] It's been a long time. I didn't realize until I was putting that episode together how much of DL Moody's story, you know, you say I always have these church history trivia facts, but actually forgotten a lot of his story because it's just been I

[00:08:28] think it's been genuinely like two or three years since we've done an episode on him and it was really fun. It was refunded refresh on that. Just reading through how hard his life was and just the way God used him. He has an amazing story.

[00:08:42] So yeah, that's a really good one. And I agree that was when we put out if you're listening to this with us in real time, that was when we put out most recently or one of my most recent

[00:08:50] episodes and if you're listening later, hey go check it out. It's a good one to check out. Alright, Elise number five in your martyrs and missionaries categories list, whatever you want to call it.

[00:09:00] All right, I think I'm going to have to go with Alan Gardner not in vain because I think his story was was one of those that it could have been really depressing because he kind of dies and and seemingly as a failure

[00:09:20] but then there's a lot of fruit from his from his ministry not necessarily in the way that we would see it. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but it's just he goes all over the place.

[00:09:30] He doesn't he doesn't really he doesn't really see a lot of fruit in his ministry and even after his death there's questionable fruit and then but it doesn't matter because it's still a great story and he has he has a great heart for people. So I like that.

[00:09:43] All right, that's a good one. I think Alan Gardner's story just piggybacking with me with Elise here. It's a depressing story, but I think Elise did a really good job telling the full history of it in a way that I was I did.

[00:10:02] I had heard the story before and I was the one who is like telling Elise for a year like oh you gotta do this story and she was like a guy starved in the jungle.

[00:10:08] I don't know how much I want to do that one's kind of depressing and she did a really good job filling in details. I had not heard before myself for me number five.

[00:10:17] I think I got to go with this is kind of a weird one, but I feel like whenever we do these mine always kind of are. Ephraim the Syrian, the one that came out over the summer.

[00:10:25] It was this like 1600 year old sermon that the reason I liked it so much and I think it's just a cool one is it I feel like it embodies the revived thoughts vibe of like finding some history that nobody's talked about or looked at in

[00:10:38] a long time dusting it off and sending out to the world and I really enjoyed the sermon. It was I mean like a sermon on the end times told from the perspective of Somebody who's like in the Syrian Church 1500 years ago and yet despite

[00:10:51] how we should feel so extremely disconnected from something like that. I felt like it was a really good sermon convicting people were like man was convicted by that sermon. It was good and I think it was just really cool that we got to put that one out.

[00:11:03] So that's probably my number five. Awesome. All right, all right. All right. Wait, we got the ball rolling. Ray for church history trivia number two. Light on me. You ready? Okay, this famous missionary happens to share the same name as a Marvel comic

[00:11:21] book character at least should not be looking surprised that is he does. It's got the same name. Oh gosh Peter Marvels. Oh gosh, okay. I know he's Joel's got to be working with Google that he figured that out so quickly but he is correct. That's Joel 2.

[00:11:45] I know he's right. There's an episode called at least it yeah, Peter Parker family friendly neighborhood. Doc. I'm going to call it. It's almost 10 o'clock. It's my it's not that is see see. Uh-huh. So this is really I hadn't I was just brainstorming. I was yeah, just brainstorming.

[00:12:04] We heard that type. We heard that clattering of the keyboard Joel that that Google now is coming this is this is not looking good for me. I can't believe that that was not how I expected that to go at all.

[00:12:13] At least zero to two and that was straight from your show. You know, I'm not surprised. You know, I try to come off humble but the truth is I'm pretty smart. So that's well, I'm really thinking like oh, there's not a there's not a

[00:12:25] Marvel hero named Hudson Taylor. Troy you dummy. There's no David Livingston in the Marvel comic book. You know, Peter Parker was who I was thinking. Okay. All right, Joel. You're on a roll here. Why don't you open us up with your number four episode of the year?

[00:12:41] All right. All right. All right number four. Yeah, think about it. You know, I really liked do you remember we did that revive conversation where we just talked about that article that that that leaflet was that was a Spurgeon that Richard

[00:12:59] Baxter it was Richard Baxter about how to spend our free time and I found that shockingly fun and refreshing and interesting to talk about. Yeah, you know, we got I got we got good feedback from people who messaged me and was like, that was a fun one.

[00:13:15] Like I liked it's weird that this 400 year old pamphlet that was like quit spending your free time on useless stuff still made so many of us go scratch our heads and go, huh? That applies today and probably more so. I really like that one too.

[00:13:28] Actually, I would say if I was having a separate category for a vibe conversations, I think that would have been my number one revive conversation for the year as well. And you know what? Don't you've inspired me. I got to find another pamphlet for us to do.

[00:13:39] We should do another do it. Yeah, I think those would be fun to cover more. All right, Elise, I'm in this to you. Give us your number four martyr and missionary, although I'm starting to question who's really running your show after that last these last two churches.

[00:13:53] That's fair. Okay, so it's kind of a toss up and I think I think I'm going to have to go with the interview that I did with Jonathan Carswell about Pauline Hamilton, who was a missionary to post-war China and then also to Taiwan.

[00:14:15] She was she was a really cool woman and she did a ton of different ministries and just her autobiography is just filled or I guess her biography is not autobiography, but it's just filled with stories about about her life like and all these people that she impacted

[00:14:33] and all these things actually does her autobiography. Yeah, it's just it's really cool. All right, number four for me. Yeah, so we've had so many good episodes this year. I was like, you kind of forget as you go through the year,

[00:14:49] just focus on the week to week and then when you get to the end of the year, you're like, oh yeah, we did that this year. We did that this year. We did that this year.

[00:14:55] But I think one of the ones that I enjoyed a lot was doing the revived conversation with Ben from Haunted Cosmos. He came on and we talked about like these weird supernatural things that happened in church history, just asking and talking about questions.

[00:15:07] So like, what do you do with people in church history? You say they heard a voice and it told them to do something or Joan of Arc, who said she got a vision from God.

[00:15:14] Just these kind of weird things was really fun conversation and a lot of listeners really enjoyed it too. So that I think that go for a solid number four.

[00:15:21] I would feel weird if I didn't mention that episode and it was just fun to have a guy from that show on too. He did. He was great guys. Really nice. Occasionally I'll send him something like, hey, did you see this?

[00:15:30] And he'll be like, of course, but he's a good guy. So that was fun. All right, Church History Trivia number three. Now, at least I've really got to get this. At least it's a zero.

[00:15:38] Joel has two and technically Joel is going to be, you know, a little more favored on this one because it's a little bit more in our court. However, I do think that I do think I would not be surprised if Elise gets this one. So here it is.

[00:15:51] Who gave the eulogy for George Whitfield? Oh, I know that Wesley. Ah, at least got it. It wasn't. Yes. Bbb. But it was it was John Wesley. So I may actually challenge you and made you should make sure it was which which one it was not Charles,

[00:16:07] but it was John Wesley. All right, at least on the board one to two. She the face she made was so like, I think I know this. Oh, wait, what if I get it wrong? That would be really embarrassing. No. All right. Good. Elise is on the board.

[00:16:19] I think she gave me another thing. Seconds. I want to get it. No, it's fine. Joel. Thanks for giving Elise one. I know you had it. Of course, you're an expert of these, but it was nice of you to throw at least one. All right, at least.

[00:16:30] Well, no, actually, I won't start with you because I feel like I like this kind of revive thoughts. Marta and missionary revive thoughts. I have going, but I think I'll go first then to give Joel a chance to think about number three.

[00:16:40] My number three episode of the year. Oh, man, I shouldn't have gone first anymore trying to think about it. This one, it was definitely one of my favorites. I definitely could have even seen it sliding into number one. It is next three.

[00:16:51] Honestly, it's really hard to do a number one or number two here. But Peter Kierkegaard sermon against the Mormons, which just came out a couple weeks ago. We've had lots of people like reaching out, being like, man, that was a really good one.

[00:17:03] And I even had somebody reach out and go, are you sure BYU posted that? Because why would they post it? It's such a damaging critique of the Mormon church. And it is. And I just think that was just a cool one.

[00:17:14] It's I love sermons that are off the cuff or the guy didn't have like two weeks or a month to plan it, but he just had to give it in the moment. And that one, I just think that was a really good one.

[00:17:23] So yeah, that's definitely one I'm really glad we got out this year. Yeah, it's definitely on my radar too as well. I'm glad you mentioned it. All right, Elise, number three. All right. My number three is serving in silence the Armenian genocide.

[00:17:40] And I like this one because it's different from a lot of other episodes that I've done and you don't really think about missionary serving through genocide. I mean, we have a lot of like post-war China.

[00:17:55] We have a lot of like, you know, people who go to Japan and stuff like that. World War II, we have that. But there was a ton of missionaries. There were a ton of missionaries in Armenia and in like Turkey and those places like that.

[00:18:10] And they were pretty much helpless during the genocide, but they also are some of the most accurate and plentiful first-hand accounts that we have of the genocide. So I thought it was a really difficult episode to do because it was very sad,

[00:18:26] but I think it was incredibly important. So that's my number three. All right. Cool. Joel, number three. I'm going to throw in again more of a recent one, but I enjoyed you talking about Woodrow Wilson on your two-parter because I wasn't involved with that at all.

[00:18:45] So I just got to sit back and be a bystander, a mere civilian listening to Revive Thoughts and listen to you talk about Woodrow Wilson. I appreciate that, Joel. That was a long ordeal that took...

[00:19:02] It was one of those many ideas that we have here where I just was like, this won't take too long. And before you know it, I'm a thousand tabs into a deep dive on Woodrow Wilson asking questions like, what was the French's response to this and that?

[00:19:14] Like just way in, way too deep. And I got to the end of that. And after recording it in this very hot room late at night, I was like, did that come across good? I don't know. But people have been saying it was good,

[00:19:26] that they liked it a lot, that it was really interesting. And a lot of people were telling me that they did not know any of that stuff about Woodrow Wilson and what a sleazebag he was and also how much he claimed to be a Christian.

[00:19:37] And so I was really glad that we were able to kind of get that out there to people. Thank you, Joel. I'm glad you mentioned that one. I didn't want to say it myself and be like, remember that time I talked for two hours about Woodrow?

[00:19:46] That was such a great time. Good me. So I'm glad someone else said that because that would have been a little bit weird. Do you want someone who understands you like no one else? Someone who can make your wishes come true

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[00:21:36] titled Falsely Accused and Sentenced to Life in Prison. Search for Compelled on your favorite podcast app or visit compelledpodcast.com. That's compelled with an E-D, podcast.com. Church history trivia round. Chance to tie. Two. Yeah, this is your chance to tie. All right.

[00:22:01] You know what? Another thing about it. I was going to say a Revive Thoughts style question, but I feel like to be fair, I'm kind of trying to pull from both shows here. So, I got to be a little more balanced here and pull one for Elise.

[00:22:11] But you know what? This guy, it could be anybody. Okay. So, either one could get this. He does fall a little bit more in Elise's category, but that's okay. This guy is considered a proto-reformer who was burned at the stake in the early 15th century. John Hess.

[00:22:28] Yep. Elise got that one. That was too easy. Too easy. Sorry about that, Joel. Did the audio not come through? Maybe you were a little delayed, Joel. Yeah, it kind of broke up there for a second. It almost wasn't fair.

[00:22:40] I had like three names until you said 15th century and then it cleared my slate of memory. You know, I should have said 1400s because I don't know about you, but when I see 15th or 16th century, my brain goes 1500s, 1600s.

[00:22:55] And I have to go and tell my brain no. I am finally at the age of 31, I feel like trained my brain enough to finally keep up with when people say century rather than hundreds. So, it only takes you half a lifetime to get there. Pretty much.

[00:23:09] I don't know if other people have that problem, but I teach history. There are moments where I'm like, what, 19th century. That's right, class. We're in the 19th century. Alright, number... People talk to me and they're like, it makes perfect sense, Joel.

[00:23:22] And I'm like, we don't say that we're like 31. We don't live... We're not 31. We're living the year 30. Our 31st year. That would be like saying, how old are you? I'm in my 31st year. That's just not a conversational way to... You're not wrong because we'll say,

[00:23:46] oh, the first century refers to the first hundred years. But a century hasn't technically passed yet. So it shouldn't... Should that even be called the first century because the first century starts after the first hundred years. Technically, we're in the 21st century and it's not 2100s.

[00:23:57] And I know everyone is... We're in it. Oh my gosh, our church history podcasters are such idiots. They can't do basic math. I understand the argument. Your brain tells you 19th century. Conversationally, we typically conversationally refer to the amount of time that has been completed first. Yes.

[00:24:14] Not the amount of times that we're occupying within. Yes. And the only time I feel like we do that is with the centuries. And then you have to... Yep, yep. We're on the same page. We're a big... Everybody's already bounced out. They're like, I can't.

[00:24:29] But we're a big history group. We can get this changed in history.com. All right, Joel, throwing it to you, even though you didn't get the point there, give us your number two episode of the year. Where would you go for number two? Sorry, just clarify.

[00:24:42] This is me? Yeah, you're up. Give us your second. Your second, not your third, but your second episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness. This is second to last. Second to last. I know what I want to put in number one. I'm trying to think

[00:24:58] if it competes with number two. And if so, what I'm going to... I don't know. I'm just going to put it in number one. I'm going to put it in number one. And if so, what I'm going to... I'm going to do Increase Mather. Do yourself no harm.

[00:25:15] That one I thought was fascinating as well. I'll put that in my number two slot. Increase Mather. For starters, how many times do you... You don't get a lot of Mather love out there in general, right? Yeah, yeah. He gets thrown under the bus a lot. He does.

[00:25:29] So I agree with you. I'm glad we got that episode out. It was actually hard to get that episode recorded because I sent it to multiples of people and people were just kind of like, I feel uncomfortable recording this episode on why you shouldn't commit suicide.

[00:25:43] They basically sent me back like, I feel like he's too hard on this and I don't agree with him. And it actually took me quite a while to find somebody who agreed to do it. And yet I think it was a really good episode

[00:25:55] and I'm really glad that he did. I think that it was a great one. It's definitely an uncomfortable and awkward episode. But I think that's part of the reasons that... I mean, from a historical point of view, I found it fascinating. It was like, yeah.

[00:26:10] Again, when we just look at what is a part of church history and what people went through, it's a unique addressment of that. Again, yeah, it is not necessarily fun, but I did find it fascinating. Thank you. All right, Elise, Martyrs & Missionaries episode number two.

[00:26:33] Okay, this, my penultimate episode. Is Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians, which is the most recent episode on Martyrs & Missionaries. And I loved doing this episode because it was just the weirdest... It was so weird. Because I started out thinking like, oh, I'll just cover, you know, Count Zinzendorf.

[00:26:57] People quote him. That's great. And then it just evolved into like cults, heresy, side holes, wound witnesses. And it... It got out one of the grossest episodes of church history ever. But I got so much feedback from it and I loved it because people were just like,

[00:27:15] what on earth is a side hole? And why did they say it so often? Yeah. But it's great because it's just so, so weird. If you're a Revived Thoughts Only listener and you don't know what Elise is talking about, I both encourage you and caution you

[00:27:29] to go listen to Elise's... I wholeheartedly encourage her. One of her most recent episodes on the Moravian church movement. And I think what I love about that episode was Elise went in with such innocent... And we all did. This idea of like,

[00:27:42] oh, I'm going to study the Moravians. I've heard about them for a long time. They keep showing up as like, oh, there's a group of Moravians here and there. I wonder what they're really about. Who is this Count Zinzendorf guy? And I see... I mean, even last week

[00:27:52] I saw a pretty big Twitter account quoting Zinzendorf. He's a famous guy that people like to quote. We had no... You shouldn't. You just... You have no idea what you were getting into. And by the end of that, I feel like everyone who's listened to that was like,

[00:28:06] by the end of that episode, my head was spinning. Like, what happened? And how did it go so horribly wrong? So that was really good. I enjoyed that a lot. All right. For me, number two. I'm going to give a tie. I do this...

[00:28:16] I think I do this every year with number two. And that's just... It's just... I shouldn't do it, but I do it anyway because I can't... I can't cut my babies in half here. I love them both. And I got to put two episodes up here.

[00:28:25] So I'm going to do it. All right. Number two. First one is by Ambrose. He gave it while he was under siege. He was kind of under attack. And he gives a sermon while these Roman guards are trying to break in basically into it,

[00:28:38] into where he and the guys are. And he just talks about how it doesn't matter what happens to him. What matters most is that they fought for God. It's a great episode. We put it out as the first episode of the year. And I definitely think

[00:28:48] it would be... It would be wrong not to mention it on this list because I really, really love this episode. The other episode I'm going to say, this is kind of a weird one. I'm going to say it's a little bit different than the other episodes.

[00:28:59] It's a little bit different but it's a weird one. Behind... Our behind the scenes episode that Elise and I did back in May, we heard a lot of people say... We heard other... We had a lot of people say basically like we're really grateful

[00:29:09] you put that episode together. You did a really good job explaining life overseas for people. And we also... It directly helped us. We didn't know it but I mean it directly helped us connect with a church when we were back in the States which was awesome.

[00:29:22] And we got to go speak there up in Maine and they were just the nicest people that was just... And it was just other things like that and we got to connect with people and network and just get to know people and we would have never had

[00:29:34] any of those things kind of come together had that episode not gone out. So we were really grateful for just the positive feedback because we were really nervous. We were kind of telling our story and thoughts in a way that we weren't sure how other people would feel

[00:29:46] and it was just great. So that was really as a personal episode that one meant a lot to us and meant a lot to me that we were... I remember Elise was very nervous like oh should we even do this? I was like no

[00:29:58] I really think we should and it worked out really well. So we're grateful for everyone who did reach out to us and yeah thank you for that. It was personally very enriching. All right. Church history trivia number five. This might be the last one just so we don't

[00:30:14] have a tie break here. Now that I've said that as the last one I just had a question in my head and it just totally blanked like where did it go? Shoot where did it go? My brain had a good question for you guys. Oh come back.

[00:30:26] No this is really embarrassing where did it go? I totally totally blanked on it. All right church history trivia number number number five last question here. Did I win? No no. Actually one of my questions was going to be which guy served in the YMCA as a...

[00:30:46] You did it Joel! You won! You pre-answered it. That's amazing. Church history trivia number one which ah easy which

[00:31:31] and and you both knew it. It was too easy. The listener is probably going this is church history. I had a better question. I literally had it saved in my brain. I was like this is a good one and I cannot I do I found it.

[00:31:43] Okay you guys ready for the tiebreaker? This one you will not get I remembered what it was now. Okay. All right. The listener is now going so you didn't write these questions down beforehand. No we did not. All right. Bernard of Clairvaux is responsible for causing

[00:32:01] this is Joel typing it into the second crusade right. How did okay Joel what I want to see your screen what how did you how could that have happened. It does Bernardo Clairvaux cause a second one. That is so serious. Yeah. It sounds like I genuinely remembered

[00:32:19] something from church history so I'm pretty proud of my I got it. Joel I mean he answered it. I guess that he is. I'm not sure if I'm going to get it. I guess that he is correct. It was the second crusade it was they tried to do

[00:32:34] one before and it wasn't very good and Bert. Well the first one was successful that we did a whole episode on that said OK die for the listeners if they want to go find it by going to our Patreon but he was the one that rallied

[00:32:46] all the folk for the second one right. Yeah. He rallied them for the second one of the second one was an utter and complete disaster which was really bad because he basically sold it as like God wouldn't let us lose and then they lost really interesting probably

[00:33:00] why you shouldn't do that. All right. So we had a type tie three to three but it looks like Joel is now the church history history history trivia winner or three. Twenty twenty three crown. Yeah. The twenty twenty three crown Joel. Wow. You went in so

[00:33:17] unconfident but you came out on top way to go my man. Well done. And with that Joel tell us what your yeah tell us what your number one episode of the year is. Oh it's got to be a really interesting conversation about that. Is one of the most

[00:33:32] horrifying ways to die. The London fire of 1666. What a sell. The listener is going to just go download that right away now there you are you're hearing that you got to know I'm glad you picked that one as the one that I actually am not it's not my

[00:33:54] number one and I didn't I felt weird because I was like how do I get it's another one where I did a lot of the other episodes and also it was like it's really good episode but it doesn't it wasn't going to be my number

[00:34:06] one because I did want to shout out a sermon that we had but I love I love doing that episode. It is one of the weirdest chapters of church history. I think that I have ever explored and recorded with you Joel that it was just like from

[00:34:19] start to finish you would not if you wrote that script down and handed it to Hollywood and you went and saw that movie you would get to the end of that movie and go that is the most ridiculous movie I've ever seen and it's exactly true

[00:34:31] it happened and even probably it's probably there's probably even more stuff to it that we didn't know about it's just an absolutely insane episode. I at least your number one episode of the year my number one is a three in one because I did three episodes on

[00:34:45] this person and if you are a faithful martyrs missionaries listener and I didn't choose this person you would be very upset so it is it is Hudson Taylor of course and that is that is my top one and I don't think I have to explain it because

[00:34:58] I'm not a big fan of Hudson Taylor but but is but his life is is so cool and I thought I knew everything there was to know about Hudson Taylor before I went in this episode or three episodes and I found out that I knew next to

[00:35:10] nothing and I was honestly incredibly blessed by doing the three part series on him so that's my that's my number one somebody who's read Hudson Taylor's autobiography like I thought or his biography by his son I can't remember what it is but it's like anyway I didn't

[00:35:25] think I would be learning all of his stuff when I listen to the episode you had so many stories and like really great stories that I had never heard before and you also told flaws of his but not in a way like sometimes they'll they'll rewrite history and

[00:35:39] they'll just like this guy was actually terrible they try to do that with David Livingston a lot more like oh he was actually an evil no he was a great guy but with Hudson Taylor you didn't do that you did a good job I think talking about like

[00:35:52] real flaws of his and also giving a ton of story if you like Hudson Taylor if you like you know missionary stories and you haven't listened to anything oh I already know Hudson Taylor's nothing trust me I would almost guarantee you there are lots of stories

[00:36:06] in there that you had not heard before because again they're not in the autobiography you have to go to other sources to find them my number one episode for the year William Bacon Stevens the anatomy praises God episode it was so good I really enjoyed that

[00:36:20] one just it was unexpected because it was this guy I'd never heard of well he was William Bacon Stevens he didn't ever do anything else or anything but he had this really awesome sermon I just kind of stumbled into by accident where he just talks about how

[00:36:34] the human body glorifies God to a room of basically doctors who are graduating going to the doctor degree and he's like you guys have learned to treat the physical body but you don't know about treating the spiritual body the spiritual causes which caused so many

[00:36:48] of the issues that you're gonna have don't forget God and he just uses the human body with the science they had to explain how it's just amazingly created and how cool is that I feel like all of the things he said is even more true today

[00:37:01] like the things that he was impressed by back then there's even more evidence of how incredible the human body is now and so it's just a really neat sermon that from 170 years ago is echoing the same truths of God that I think are still real to this

[00:37:14] day so I really enjoyed that sermon and it was an unexpected treat like I did not I didn't get any into that sermon I did not see it being as awesome as it was I think it's part of the reason I enjoyed it too neat all right another

[00:37:27] year in the bag of Revive Thoughts and Martyrs and Missionaries that's right we have we've covered another year and we have our top five we have our church history trivia crown winner Joel for this and an upset for the ages I don't think there's really anything else left

[00:37:42] to do other than to say I'm on the Revive Thoughts side I would just like to say thank you to you who are listening we could not do or we certainly could not do our show without you because you read the sermons for us every week

[00:37:54] that we put up on our show and we are extremely grateful to all of you who have messaged us commented on something sent us a personal email who have read a sermon for us that all the different ways that you have many of you have reached out

[00:38:06] to us over this last year we're and all the people who have signed up for patreon as well or who bought some of our merch when we did the little merch thing we learned a lot from that apparently you guys will buy merchandise from us which is

[00:38:19] pretty cool and yeah we're just really grateful for all the different ways that you have come along and supported us this year and we're looking forward to making on our end revive thoughts many more episodes for all of you to listen to in this next year at

[00:38:32] least what do you got for them I would I would kind of echo your sentiments because I think that we have some of the most interactive audiences like that you could you could have for a podcast I feel like we get several emails and they're

[00:38:44] so sweet or they're informative or their suggestions of like hey from my show like hey would you like to cover this person or here's this you know obscure person I love no more about and like can you figure this out and I'm like oh that sounds really

[00:38:57] interesting let me add it to my list and so if I haven't gotten to your person yet it's because they're on my list and at some point they will they will be covered but but yeah I think that we don't we feel what you

[00:39:07] see if you if you're on a podcast you're speaking to a microphone you can sometimes feel like you're just speaking into the air and you're like okay I hope this does well but our audiences are give such great feedback so I think that it just it

[00:39:20] feels nice to feel like you're interacting with with you guys yeah pretty consistently I agree what do you got for the listeners we're heading out here I'm excited for 2024 it's crazy that we're still doing this I don't like how long when did we start revive that's I

[00:39:34] didn't remember I do remember it was in 2019 and at the time I was living in Miami and we were putting this together in a laundry room we then moved to Kansas City did it for two years together at your house which was when we had real church history

[00:39:46] trivia nights where we would have like live streamers and people come in that list that was fun and we were like oh we have a lot of trivia nights and we would have like a lot of people come in that was that was fun during those halcyon

[00:39:58] days of kovid live streaming when that was really big and then we went to Cambodia and Elise and I recorded our episodes in a literal wardrobe that didn't lead to Narnia it just led to like cockroaches probably and now here we are in the Indonesian studio with these

[00:40:11] really nice sound boards and this really nice roadcaster and I don't want to say like it's been a journey but it does feel like it's been it's been a journey so far so next year next year in 2024 we'll be crossing into our sixth year of doing yes Joel

[00:40:23] we will have finished five years but as you point out that's such a weird way to say it I feel like I feel like I raise me a concern that we don't know how to count it's neat and I love doing it and I look forward to

[00:40:35] doing it for years to come I enjoy doing it too and I will say listener you are you are listening right now I mean I revive thoughts still has five point zero zero five percent of the total of the total of the total of the

[00:40:47] total of the total of the total of the total of the total of the total of the total of the total of the five point zero stars out of 180 Apple reviews I don't I feel like we've got we're probably not breaking a record but that's definitely like

[00:40:59] I've never seen a show I am I mean for especially because us we're not exactly an uncontroversial show we're covering theologians and we're covering like big topics like war we've had to talk about slavery we've had to talk about a lot of like not good stuff the

[00:41:13] fact that we have not gotten one starred by anybody and the fact that you have all stayed with us for years and kept those ratings coming in and just have been so encouraging. It's just one of those many things that you have done

[00:41:25] that I am really appreciative of. And just another way that you've all shown us that you care and that you enjoy this content. And yeah, we're just really grateful. All right. Oh, I had one more thing I wanted to add here. I want as a Christmas present,

[00:41:39] we are four reviews away on Martyrs and Missionaries from having 100 Apple reviews. So if you would like to give a review, you don't have to write anything. I mean, I enjoy reading them, but you can just click that five star if that's what you want to do.

[00:41:54] And that would be a huge Christmas present to me if you would like to do that. All right. So you heard that there. Elise is announcing that for Christmas, she's dear Santa-ing five star reviews on Apple Pod. For our, for Revive Thoughts, we don't want anything big.

[00:42:06] We don't need Christmas presents. We just like that you're listening. But if you want to join us on Patreon and continue supporting what we're doing here. Hey, what is the easier thing to ask? We would be more than happy to have you because it does help.

[00:42:16] Every Patreon listener helps us a lot and you continue to do all this. So yeah, if you're listening and those of you who are on Patreon, we are really grateful for you and your continued support. All right. I feel like we've hit all of our major important things.

[00:42:28] We thank you for listening to this rare crossover episode. We have not done one in two years or so where all three of us have been on together. So this is Troy, Angel and Elise. And you've been listening to Revive Thoughts and Learn to Choose.

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