If you are a lover of podcasts like I am, and a lover of church history, go check out Ligonier’s fantastic Luther in Real Time. Here’s what they have to say about it:

“It’s 1520. Martin Luther has been declared a heretic by Pope Leo X, and his books are being burned. How much longer before Luther himself is thrown into the fire?

Enter the dramatic story at the dawn of the Reformation with Luther: In Real Time. Each episode is released 500 years to the day after the events described, allowing you to walk in Martin Luther’s footsteps from his heresy charges to his famous stand for God’s Word.”

I didn’t start listening until a few weeks ago. That meant I had a lot of episodes to binge listen. I know that’s not the way the podcast is designed to be listened to, but I loved doing it that way. Each episode is only about 10 minutes, so it’s pretty fast paced. The production quality is extremely high and thoroughly engaging. Being a former professional musician, I also appreciated the music choices interspersed through each episode.

Beyond the quality of the episodes, I have to say that the story has impacted me on a deep level. I knew a modest amount about Luther’s life, but the way the podcast tells it drew me in and emphasized the life and death stakes that accompanied Luther’s choices. He knew he was putting his life in danger with every book he wrote and every sermon he preached against Rome’s excesses.

I am becoming more and more convinced of the outlier nature of the times I’ve lived in here in America not only since I was born in 1972 but for really the past two hundred or so years. Unprecedented freedom combined with extravagant wealth lulls people to sleep. It tempts me to ignore the sufferings of my brothers and sisters in Christ elsewhere. I fear it’s made me quite soft.

When I listened to Luther in Real Time I was faced with the question of whether I would have been able to stand like him, but also whether I will be able to stand amidst what I’m seeing will be tougher times ahead. What am I doing now to prepare myself?

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” Isaiah 7:9