Unveiling Grace Podcast

Latest Episodes:

UGP 280 - Hard to Find Someone Who Understands Ex-Mormon Issues and Marriage Struggles – Ashley Grinstead – Part 3 Feb 17, 2024

Show notes

God answers Ashley’s concerns—of all places—in the Celestial room of an LDS temple. At the time, her husband was all-in LDS. But as a Christian, she felt convicted: You know the truth.

UGP 279 - New LDS Convert: What Have I Done? Will I Lose my Family Over This? – Ashley Grinstead – Part 2 Feb 10, 2024

Show notes

In addition to the requirements of performance-based religion and not being able to sing the LDS hymn, Praise to the Man, Ashley, a born again Christian, encountered other things that bothered her about the LDS church after she joined. For her LDS baptism, she had chosen a beloved Christian hymn. That hymn had to be approved by her bishop and he denied her. A year after being active LDS, Ashley desired to earn the right to have a forever family. She and Vince now had 2 daughters ages five and one. She needed to make herself worthy to enter an LDS temple by passing two temple recommend interviews (bishop and stake president). The last question in that interview bothered her.

UGP 278 - Christian Wife, LDS Husband Navigate Faith Differences – Ashley Grinstead – Part 1 Feb 03, 2024

Show notes

Ashley grew up in a home without faith but her parents got saved when she was in her 20s and now suggested she marry the guy she was living with—the marriage lasted 7 months. After the divorce, she met the nicest guy. Vince was inactive LDS which made no difference to her at the time. Although he’d served an LDS mission, he struggled on and off with alcohol. Ashley began to attend her parents’ Baptist church. One day she encountered the Holy Spirit and was all in with the Jesus of the Bible. She saw things with brand new eyes. Ashley got baptized; Vince did not come and when she got home, he was intoxicated. One day, she convinced him to attend a Bible class but the topic happened to be false religions and Mormonism was included. Vince was not interested in a faith that trashed his faith. Eventually they had a daughter and, as tends to happen, religion became important to both.

UGP 277 - Adam’s Road Piano: Teachings of Jesus – Matt Wilder – Part 3 Jan 27, 2024

Show notes

This week we invited Matt Wilder to put together some excerpts from a presentation he frequently performs at churches called Teachings of Jesus. Grab a drink, maybe your Bible, and settle in to commune with God through music and Scripture.

UGP 276 - Adam’s Road Piano Ministry Salvations Praise Report – Matt Wilder – Part 2 Jan 20, 2024

Show notes

Matt called upon the name of the Lord and received His peace and the rest that passes understanding. At the time, he was a piano performance major entering his senior year at Brigham Young University, but anyone who disaffiliates with the LDS church cannot stay at BYU. Having been dramatically changed, he began sharing the gospel of grace to friends/family (his now wife Nicole), left BYU, and became a founding member of the Adam’s Road Ministry in Florida in 2006. Having unusual giftings in piano performance, music composition, and memorizing Scripture, in 2017, Matt says God laid on his heart to expand the reach of Adam’s Road to include the Adam’s Road Piano Ministry. In addition to traveling to give his testimony at churches with Adam’s Road, Matt memorizes Scripture, puts original music he composes behind the Scripture, and bears his testimony of Jesus to church audiences in his own unique gospel presentation. He describes the details of salvations from Idaho to Nevada to Indiana, Utah, and Arizona. God is using the Adam’s Road Piano presentation as well as the Adam’s Road Podcast—which he does weekly—to change hearts toward the gospel of grace.

UPG 275 - Insider Tour of the LDS Missionary Experience and the Power of Salvation – Matt Wilder – Part 1 Jan 13, 2024

Show notes

Why is salvation by God’s grace so extraordinary a gift for one who has felt the burden of guilt within a rigid, works-based religious system? What is it like to be a Mormon missionary? Matt Wilder of Adam’s Road Piano discusses the weight of the LDS performance-based system as a Mormon missionary in Chapter 3 of the book Responding to the Mormon Missionary Message. When LDS, he felt constantly guilted. Had he sufficiently repented of his sins? Life as an LDS missionary was regimented—rules-based. Missionaries report numbers regularly to mission leaders. With an emphasis on goals and numbers, measured success led to rewards. Matt likens the efficiency of accountability similar to that of a business. For him, the weight of these continual expectations manifested themselves internally—emotionally and physically as he strove to prove himself worthy.

UGP 274 - Feelings, Truth, and 5 Reasons You Can Trust the Bible's Reliability - Jon Benzinger - Part 2 Jan 06, 2024

Show notes

Is truth what we feel to be true? What do you do when what you know to be true clashes with what you are feeling is true?
Pastor and researcher Jon Benzinger is our guest again for a fast-paced, fact-filled discussion on the top 5 reasons we can trust the Bible to be our reliable guide for life and relationship with God and others. We also talk about the importance of feelings and we explore how performance-based religion often gets it wrong when it comes to our feelings and how we know truth. Lynn and Jon also talk candidly about how God used the Bible to personally change their lives and the hope and healing that is there for anyone who is seeking transformation.

UGP 273 - How You Can Know the Bible is Reliable – Jon Benzinger – Part 1 Dec 30, 2023

Show notes

Our guest is Jon Benzinger, Lead Pastor at Redeemer Bible in Gilbert, AZ. He's done extensive study on the multiple lines of evidence for the reliability and trustworthiness of the Bible. Jon is an excellent communicator and engaged with us with authenticity and clarity. He has an incredible heart for people, especially the predominant demographics in Gilbert -- Hispanics, retirees, and Mormons.

UGP 272 - Jesus is Enough Movie – Richard Dutcher – Part 5 Dec 23, 2023

Show notes

As Richard studied the Bible and attended a small church, he felt infused by the Holy Spirit. He was drawn to read the Bible, and returned to prayer. He says, after 10 years, his heart turned back to Jesus. That’s where love was, that’s where peace was. He felt home and prayed for God to show him what he wanted him to do. Please pound me on the head, he prayed, so I can make sure to hear it. Every week at church, his friend Danny said “Hey, I just saw this 17-minute video testimony of an LDS missionary that came to faith in the Jesus of the Bible. You might want to make a movie about this. Promise me you’ll watch it.” Richard had no intention of watching it and avoided doing so for weeks. The last thing he wanted to do was make another movie about Mormonism! One Saturday night he knew Danny would ask him about it again at church in the morning, so he found the video on YouTube and watched it. He was powerfully moved, overcome with emotion. “Really [God]?! You want me to make a movie about a Mormon missionary who becomes a Christian?!” Soon after, Richard boarded a plane to Winter Garden, FL, to meet that young man with the 17-minute testimony. His first night there, sitting by the fountain in downtown Winter Garden, he just KNEW this was what he was supposed to do; the Lord had been preparing him his whole life. He moved to Florida, researched those involved in the story, and wrote a movie script titled Jesus is Enough. Richard is currently seeking funding to produce the movie. His heart is to help others know why Jesus is Enough.

UGP 271 - What Does it Matter if It’s Not True? Richard Dutcher – Part 4 Dec 16, 2023

Show notes

Richard says if he could talk to himself at the time of his LDS faith crisis, he would have said “Get to a Christian church!” He grieved the loss of his faith in the LDS church, the loss of his wife and children, the LDS filmmaking, for a very long time. He never lost faith in God but stopped talking with him and lived through 10 years of discouragement and defeat. Now a famous apostate, he stayed in Utah to be near his kids. Richard describes sitting on his front porch in Provo with a huge Christos statue from one of his movies in his front yard drinking wine and smoking cigars as LDS families walked by to go to church. In his misery, drinking too much, he made a comedy and a horror film but his faith was dead. Films and faith had separated. He wanted nothing to do with church ever again doubting he could ever discern between what was real and what wasn’t. Yet, amid these trials, the Lord brought him back to life through a pastor in line behind him at a hamburger joint. He attended Bible study, finding Christians authentic about their struggles, not pressuring him in any way but teaching him salvation came through God’s righteousness not his own. Richard dove hungrily into the “New Testament with Mormonism distant.” He began to love the Word knowing he could never put faith in men again. And hope emerged that God had something better for his life.

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