<![CDATA[All His Church]]>
walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/podcastSubstackSat, 30 May 2026 01:32:12 GMThttps://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/7363747.rssChrisTrying to be a sheep that hears His Voice.episodicChriswalkindarknessnomore@substack.comNo<![CDATA[Day 20 - Let Your Yes Be Yes]]>In Day 20 of the All His Church podcast, Chris gets honest about language, cussing, and what it means to honor the name of the Lord in a world where blasphemy barely raises an eyebrow. Starting from his own story as a “championship level” cusser who asked God to take away the habit, he reflects on how the Lord answered that prayer and gave him a new sensitivity to how often God’s name is misused.

Rooting the conversation in Psalm 145 and the sobering story of blasphemy and judgment in Leviticus, Chris explores why Scripture treats taking God’s name in vain as a sin with the same seriousness as murder—and why that still matters in the age of Tesla and iPhones. This episode invites you to listen closely to your own words, recover a holy reverence for God’s Name, and let your “yes” be yes as you walk with Christ in everyday life.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-20-let-your-yes-be-yessubstack:post:198880584Fri, 22 May 2026 18:55:13 GMTChrisNo1108120<![CDATA[Day 19 - Rivers of Babylon]]>In this week’s episode of All His Church, Chris sits with the haunting words of Psalm 137, “By the rivers of Babylon,” and asks what we’re supposed to do with a prayer that ends in shocking violence. Using the exile’s lament as a backdrop, he explores how the Psalms are not sanitized hymns but brutally honest prayers of the heart—blueprints for bringing our real anger, confusion, and despair before God, not just the cleaned‑up versions we think He wants to hear.

Along the way, Chris connects Psalm 137 to a surprising discussion by Father Mike Schmitz about comedian Theo Von, highlighting a raw, vulnerable “addiction prayer” that names even the part of us that knows we might fail again, and asks God to enter that very place. The episode presses into the idea that the goal of the spiritual life is not spotless performance but union and relationship—with a God who already knows the truth and wants us to trust Him enough to say share it. Listeners are invited to rediscover the Psalms as living prayers, see Jesus Himself praying them on the cross, and learn how to pray honestly in their own “Babylon” seasons.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-19-rivers-of-babylonsubstack:post:198158054Sun, 17 May 2026 18:36:33 GMTChrisNo928<![CDATA[Day 18 - Forgivable]]>In this deeply personal episode, Chris reflects on Psalm 128 and the promise of a blessed home for those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways. He shares stories from a special week in his family’s life—his wife Jenny’s birthday, Mother’s Day, and the anniversary of their first date—and the simple but profound vocation captured in her note: “Let’s get to Heaven together.”

Chris also opens up about a season of intense darkness following his first marriage and divorce, including a near–suicide moment and a desperate cry for help. From there, he wrestles honestly with what Scripture and the Church say about divorce and remarriage and asks how we hold together Jesus’ hard words on marriage with the limitless mercy of God. Along the way he talks about being a “not‑so‑secret Catholic,” reading the Deuterocanon, praying the rosary as a lifelong Protestant, and the ongoing search for truth in the middle of denominational lines.

If you’ve ever carried shame over your past, questioned whether you are truly forgivable, or struggled to reconcile Jesus’ teaching on marriage with your own story, this episode invites you into a conversation about sin, mercy, and the hope of a future that’s still wide open in Christ.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-18-forgivablesubstack:post:197120330Sun, 10 May 2026 16:44:31 GMTChrisNo1159118<![CDATA[Day 17 - Vico]]>This week on All His Church, Chris sits with Psalm 34 and the story of Judas to ask a hard question: what do we do with repentance that comes right before despair? Drawing on “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit” and Matthew 27:1–5, he notices something easily missed—Judas returns the silver and confesses his sin before he takes his own life. From there, Chris shares the story of his friend Vico and why the Church’s response to suicide must hold both the gravity of sin and the tenderness of God’s mercy.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-17-vicosubstack:post:196340142Sun, 03 May 2026 19:05:45 GMTChrisNo1205117<![CDATA[Day 16 - Signs and Wonders]]>In this episode of All His Church, Chris reflects on signs and wonders through a very personal story about a broken front tooth. Chris wrestles with what counts as a miracle and why God might choose something so small and ordinary to reveal his presence. Rooted in Psalm 135 and the Church’s teaching on miracles, this quiet, intimate testimony becomes a daily reminder that the Kingdom is near, that Christ still acts in our lives, and that God’s grace often shows up in the details we overlook.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-16-signs-and-wonderssubstack:post:195461926Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:28:07 GMTChrisNo922116<![CDATA[Day 15 - Real Presence]]>In this episode of All His Church, Chris gets honest about a season of transition—kids leaving home, career questions after 30 years, and a surprising struggle to show up for Sunday worship. When his wife quietly says, “We need the Eucharist,” it sends him back to Scripture and to the heart of what Communion really is.

Praying through Psalm 78:23–29 and walking slowly through John 6:25–71, Chris reflects on Jesus as the true bread from heaven and what it means to “eat his flesh and drink his blood” in a church world full of different Eucharistic theologies—Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, Methodist, and symbolic memorial views. Rather than trying to solve the mystery, he invites you into it: a real Presence that meets us in our fatigue, doubt, and inconsistency, and calls us back to the table.

If you’ve been slipping from Sunday to Sunday, or wrestling with what the Lord’s Supper actually is, this episode is a gentle but clear reminder: we don’t just need more discipline—we need the Eucharist.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-15-real-presencesubstack:post:194721118Sun, 19 Apr 2026 19:03:22 GMTChrisNo1026115<![CDATA[Day 14 - God or Mammon]]>Chris shares a raw reflection on 30 years in corporate America, wrestling with the pull between "soulless" mammon (Matthew 6:24) and God's calling. Inspired by St. Catherine of Siena's fire-setting quote and St. Faustina's Divine Mercy story, he urges listeners to ask: "What did God make you for?"



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-14-god-or-mammonsubstack:post:193902618Sat, 11 Apr 2026 17:22:57 GMTChrisNo691114<![CDATA[Day 13 - Abraham's Bosom]]>This week on All His Church, Chris prays through Psalm 86:1–13, reflecting on God’s steadfast love and deliverance “from the depths of Sheol.” In the midst of Holy Week, he finally brings the Apostles’ Creed into the conversation, exploring how this ancient confession summarizes the passion, death, burial, descent, and resurrection of Jesus. Walking day by day from Palm Sunday through Easter, Chris offers a brief Holy Week overview and then lingers on Holy Saturday, asking: What was Jesus doing while his body lay in the tomb and his friends mourned? Join this ecumenical, contemplative journey as a “regular dude on a spiritual journey” invites you to pray the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, and to meditate on Christ’s hidden work between the cross and the empty grave.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-13-abrahams-bosomsubstack:post:193198322Sat, 04 Apr 2026 19:24:20 GMTChrisNo805113<![CDATA[Day 12 - The Big Bang]]>Psalm 2, Microsoft’s endless newsfeed, and the Big Bang all collide in this Holy Week reflection. Chris starts with a kid‑friendly explanation of the Big Bang, then asks what (or who) stands behind a universe scientists still call “unknown” at its deepest level. Along the way, he explores the Bible as God’s long rescue mission, the stunning preservation of Scripture across 1,500 years, and how Old Testament hints of resurrection point to Jesus as more than a “good moral teacher.” With help from C.S. Lewis, Fr. Georges Lemaître (the priest behind the Big Bang model), and the Catechism’s teaching that faith and science cannot truly conflict, this episode lands in a personal place: your life with God is not random, and Christ’s coming was never “out of nowhere.” Closing with prayer, “All His Church” invites you to see both creation and salvation as the work of the same loving Father.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-12-the-big-bangsubstack:post:192533917Sun, 29 Mar 2026 18:54:10 GMTChrisNo940112<![CDATA[Day 11 - Meant For Good]]>Host Chris reflects on Psalm 133 and the goodness of brothers and sisters dwelling together in unity. From his own journey through multiple traditions—Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist—he unpacks the story behind the name “All His Church,” describing how a season of praying about denomination led to Jesus’ reassurance: “Chris, it is all my church”.​

This episode offers a fast, accessible walk through Christian history—from Roman persecution and early heresies to Chalcedon, the Great Schism, and the Protestant Reformation—to show how human disagreement has splintered one Church into tens of thousands of denominations today. Chris then turns that history into a personal challenge, asking whether we still come to Jesus for clarification—through Scripture and prayer—or just follow our politics and upbringing, and inviting listeners back into the kind of unity Psalm 133 celebrates



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/day-11-meant-for-goodsubstack:post:191787592Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:44:32 GMTChrisNo1088111<![CDATA[All His Church - Ep 10]]>Opening with a note that today's reading comes from Sirach 15, a Deuterocanonical book not found in most Protestant Bibles, Chris invites Protestant listeners to explore it in the spirit of the podcast's ecumenical heart. The passage places fire and water before every person and says plainly: whichever you choose will be given to you. From there, Chris reflects on reading the Bible cover-to-cover four or five times and what it means to finally let God's full self-revelation sink in — including the thunderous blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28 — arriving at the conviction that free will and obedience are not opposites but the very hinge on which the whole story turns.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-10substack:post:191057394Sun, 15 Mar 2026 19:43:06 GMTChrisNo980110<![CDATA[All His Church Ep 9]]>Rooted in Psalm 78 and God's choosing of David — a shepherd boy pulled from the sheepfolds to guide Israel "with upright heart and skillful hand" — Chris opens with a practical meditation on waking up early, walking through the morning routines of Jocko Willink, Tim Cook, Anna Wintour, and The Rock to make the case that the first battle of the day is won before the world wakes up. He then pivots to the twelve tribes of Israel, noting that their names — unlike our modern habit of naming children after relatives or making names up — each carry a specific meaning given by God, asking what it means to be called by a name the Lord himself chose. The episode sits with the mystery of divine election and what it looks like to be faithful to a calling you were given before you understood it.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-9substack:post:190231947Sat, 07 Mar 2026 21:47:38 GMTChrisNo77019<![CDATA[All His Church Ep. 8]]>

Chris opens Psalm 149 with a confession: he hated math, got an English degree partly to avoid it, and yet found himself doing math in his free time — running the numbers on human overconfidence. Citing Gallup polls, GMO research, political science studies, and the jaw-dropping statistic that 75% of Americans believe they are the best person they know, he builds an ironclad mathematical case that a crisis of humility is at the root of most of our problems, spiritual and civic. He weaves in sayings from The Desert Fathers — including the devil's own admission to the monk Macarius that humility is the one weapon he cannot overcome — and ends with a personal gut-punch: calculating how many meals and how many lives (9, specifically) could be saved if he traded his expensive car payment for charity. The math, he says, does not require calculus — just the Lord

The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks (Penguin Classics): Benedicta Ward: 9780140447316: Amazon.com: Books

I am using the RSV for the readings.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-8substack:post:189491297Sat, 28 Feb 2026 19:56:51 GMTChrisNo98218<![CDATA[All His Church - Ep 7]]>Opening with Psalm 66 and the image of being brought "through fire and through water," Chris explores how fire in Scripture is not destruction but refinement, tracing that theme through Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the furnace, St. Polycarp, St. Lucy, and St. Dominic de Guzmán — whose trial-by-fire debate with the Cathars led directly to Mary appearing and handing him the first Rosary as a "battering ram" for spiritual warfare. He introduces the Millennial saint Carlos Acutis — a Halo-playing teenager who catalogued Eucharistic miracles online before dying at 15 in 2006 — and asks what excuse the rest of us have for staying silent about our faith when faced with far lesser fires. The episode is a call to fearless witness, venerated across Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions alike.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-7substack:post:188824263Sun, 22 Feb 2026 19:09:50 GMTChrisNo93517<![CDATA[All His Church - Ep 6]]>Anchored in Psalm 96, Chris opens with the image of a half-acre yard teeming with hundreds of living creatures — owls, raccoons, a white squirrel named Gandalf — and asks what it means that God made every single one of us in His image with equal worth. Through a jarring memory of a teenage night in Savannah, where a girl named Sara whispered "my home is a little wild — this is not who I am" before walking into a house filled with artifacts celebrating slavery, Chris challenges every listener to look at their own "wedding pictures" and honestly ask who is in them. Drawing on Paul's letter to the Galatians, Acts 17, and John's Revelation, he calls the whole Church — Catholic, Protestant, every tradition — to deliberately cross into the parts of God's creation they have been unconsciously leaving out.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-6substack:post:187978056Sat, 14 Feb 2026 19:36:21 GMTChrisNo793<![CDATA[All His Church - Ep. 5]]>Opening with Psalm 4 Chris uses the absurd rivalry between Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes to ask a serious question: how does love for something slowly curdle into hatred of whatever is on the other side? He traces that progression through Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, and ELCA teaching — all of which independently arrive at the same answer from 1 John: God is love — and then names the real Buckeyes in the room: political parties, races, nationalities, and yes, Catholic vs. Protestant. From "an eye for an eye" in the desert to the Sermon on the Mount, he shows that God has always been teaching the same graduate-level course in enemy love, and that the only weapon that actually stops hate is the grace to follow the one who went to the cross for the people trying to kill him.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-5substack:post:187317157Sun, 08 Feb 2026 19:25:50 GMTChrisNo863<![CDATA[All His Church - Ep 4]]>Anchored in Psalm 1 and the image of the tree planted by streams of water, Chris opens with the story of Woolworths — a 100-year retail titan that became Foot Locker — to frame a meditation on what happens to power that ignores God's law. Prompted by a video his mother texted him of students staging a school walkout over the treatment of immigrants, Chris walks through Deuteronomy, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Matthew, and Hebrews — showing that God's law on the treatment of foreigners and sojourners is one of the most repeated commands in all of Scripture. The episode closes with his mother's own eyewitness account of the 1963 Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi, drawing a direct line from that day to now and asking whose Law and Order we are actually enforcing.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-4substack:post:186367510Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:10:39 GMTChrisNo837<![CDATA[All His Church - Ep. 3]]>Praying Psalm 139, Chris turns to the mystery that God “knitted” each of us together before birth and wrote all our days before one of them came to be. He recalls the Arian controversy and the Council of Nicaea to show how nearly all Christians still confess the Nicene Creed and Christ’s full divinity, asking what it means when we actually agree on something so foundational. From there he confronts our selective concern for life—unborn children, people on death row, migrants in custody, public figures attacked—and calls listeners to a consistent, Christ‑shaped reverence for every person God has formed in His image, closing with the Rosary’s introductory prayers for mercy and courage



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-3substack:post:185647726Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:30:00 GMTChrisNo68313<![CDATA[All His Church - Ep 2]]>Chris reflects on Psalm 113 and his house‑saying, “Sometimes both things are true at the same time,” showing how paradox runs through everyday life, Scripture, and the teaching of Jesus and Paul. Using the question of why some Christians pray “For Thine is the Kingdom…” and others do not, he walks through the history of the Lord’s Prayer doxology from the Didache to the Latin Vulgate and King James traditions. Listeners are invited to see that no one is “wrong” here—that Catholics and Protestants both praise the same Lord in different liturgical rhythms—and to leave a quiet space after the Our Father in the Rosary where the doxology may be prayed from the heart.

Not a sponsor but good place to buy rosaries online if so desired



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-day-2substack:post:184985797Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:30:00 GMTChrisNo84012<![CDATA[All His Church - Ep. 1]]>A cradle Episcopalian raised among Catholic, Baptist, and Methodist communities, Chris shares how one Jesus met him across all those traditions and why he has never understood the “sides” between Catholics and Protestants. Through memories of a one‑decade blue rosary, a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and a childhood trauma seen again through Mary’s eyes, he discovers that the Mother of God was quietly guarding him long before he had language for it. The episode closes by inviting listeners to begin the introductory prayers of the Rosary together as a simple, shared practice within All His Church.​

https://marian.org/mary/rosary/how-to-pray



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit walkindarknessnomore.substack.com]]>https://walkindarknessnomore.substack.com/p/all-his-church-ep-1substack:post:184235292Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:30:00 GMTChrisNo66911full