The Boundless Show

Stories of porn addiction recovery, plus how God saved a marriage from pornography, and when to talk about past traumas in a dating relationship.   Featured musical artist:  About a Mile   Roundtable: Overcoming Porn Addiction (Part 1)    Pornography addiction is increasingly common today, even among Christians. It’s a struggle many don’t want to admit, and freedom often feels out of reach. But our guests have broken the pornography cycle, and they join us this week to share their stories: what worked (and what didn’t) and why through God’s grace, freedom from sexual sin is possible.   Leave Us a Voicemail   Link to Counseling Services    Culture: When Porn Shows Up on Your Honeymoon   Mark and Rosie Makinney were on their honeymoon when a terrible secret was discovered — Mark was addicted to pornography. Rosie confronted him and together they began a journey to see if Mark was serious about his sin and if their marriage could be saved. You’ll hear their incredible testimony of God’s redemption, plus Mark’s no-holds-barred account of what he had to give up to finally crush porn’s hold on him.   Fight for Love: How to Take Your Marriage Back from Porn   Hope Restored   Inbox: When To Reveal Trauma to Your Date    Everything from past sexual experiences to self-harm, abuse and other traumas can be hard to discuss when dating. If you’ve made decisions you deeply regret, when is the right time to bring them up in a relationship? Counselor Glenn Lutjens weighs in.

When you need a dating “time out,” plus Q&A with Tovares and Safa Grey, and how to respond when your gay friends ask you to affirm their choices.   Featured musical artist:  About a Mile   Roundtable: How to Pause Your Dating Life    Dating can be exciting, but for certain reasons you may need to occasionally take a break. How do you know when a pause is necessary? And how long should it be? Our guests share the benefits they’ve seen in seasons of flying solo, and how to make a break work best for you. Oh, we also talk about how to not over-spiritualize non-dating or use it as an excuse for passive behavior or bitterness.   Leave Us a Voicemail   Culture: Q&A With Tovares and Safa Grey   Our friends Tovares and Safa Grey, founders of Godly Dating 101, have returned — this time in person! They address the most common dating questions they get from followers, the biggest mistakes singles make in waiting for a spouse, and lessons they’ve learned since tying the knot.    Link to Godly Dating 101   Inbox: When a Gay Friend Asks for Affirmation   You have a gay friend who asks for your support of their sexual choices. Amid intense cultural pressure and the desire to love your friend, how do you respond in a God-honoring way? Gender and sexuality analyst Jeff Johnston weighs in.

When friends and family urge you to date, plus Hannah Schermerhorn on lessons she learned in singleness, and being a sympathetic listener.   Featured musical artist:  Love and the Outcome    Roundtable: Feeling Pressured to Date    Friends and family are our biggest cheerleaders, but it’s unhelpful when they keep asking, “Have you found someone yet?” If you’ve fielded that question for what seems like the thousandth time, what can you do? We share ideas for responding with grace when others pressure you to date.   Leave us a Voicemail   Culture: One Woman’s Singleness Journey   For Hannah Schermerhorn, being single felt like admitting failure. After a broken engagement, she struggled to put the pieces of her heart together. But through that journey, she learned singleness can actually be a wonderful season with unexpected blessings. She joins us to tell her story, including an assurance that being a single adult doesn’t make you a second-class citizen.   A Single Life to Live: Stop Waiting for Your Life to Begin and Thrive Where God Has You Today    Inbox: How Can I Listen to a Friend’s Problem?    When anyone approaches our listener with a problem, he finds himself wanting to give advice rather than listening and showing compassion. How can he beef up his listening skills? Counselor Linda Miller weighs in.

Discussing how we spent the summer, plus Covenant Eyes’ Sam Black on the church’s role in porn recovery, and how do you stop a panic attack?   Featured musical artist: Audio Adrenaline   Roundtable: Did You Have a Productive Summer?    Now that summer is coming to a close, it’s time to take stock: What went well with this season of longer and supposedly carefree days, and what do you wish you’d done differently? Lisa and our guests started out with high hopes and open calendars, and now admit their share of both highlights and disappointments. If you wish your summer had gone differently (or you’re discouraged heading into fall), we’ll give a few ideas for redeeming the remaining days and staying hopeful for the months to come.    Leave us a Voicemail   Culture: Why Porn Addicts Need the Church   Sam Black is director of recovery education at Covenant Eyes, a trusted ministry designed to help people in their journey out of porn addiction. Sam shares his story and provides reasons and ways the church must (and can) be a safe place of recovery for addicts. Join us for this hopeful and practical conversation about the power of vulnerable community done right.   The Healing Church: What Churches Get Wrong About Pornography and How to Fix It     Find the Victory App   Inbox: How to Stop a Panic Attack    Whenever our listener faces a stressor – whether it’s money, work or relationships – he finds himself battling a full-blown panic attack. What can he do? Counselor Tim Sanford weighs in.

Recognizing God in daily life, plus cultivating a good relationship with your parents, and what to do when you disagree with your parents’ advice.   Featured musical artist:  David Dunn   Roundtable: Seeing God’s Hand in Everyday Life   We look at big, life-changing events and say, “Only God could’ve done that!” But what about the everyday moments? What about the situations that seem entirely ordinary? Is God in those, too? This week we’re talking about the many ways we’re currently seeing God’s hand in our lives, and we’ll give you a few ideas for recognizing Him in yours as well.   Leave us a Voicemail   Culture: Do You Get Along With Your Parents?   One of the hardest parts about becoming an adult is navigating the tricky relational shift with your parents. You want to honor and respect them, but what if they still treat you like a kid? What if you struggle to understand their lifestyle or decisions? What if they’re a bit too clingy or nosy? For Rhonda Stoppe and her son Brandon, the journey has had plenty of ups, downs, and lightbulb moments along the way. In our conversation, they offer hope for a healthy, mature and balanced parent-child relationship. In fact, they’ll even argue that parents and their adult children can (gasp!) become friends.   Moms Raising Sons to Be Men: Guiding Them Toward Their Purpose and Passion    Rhonda’s Website   Inbox: When You Don’t Like a Parent’s Advice   Your parents may mean well, but what happens when you flat-out disagree with their advice? Is this a time to take it, ignore it, or call them out? Counselor Joannie DeBrito weighs in.

Butting into a friend’s dating life, plus making church a haven for victims of abuse, and what if your best friend doesn’t like your other friends?   Featured musical artist:  Austin Stone Worship Roundtable: Getting Involved in Your Friend’s Dating Life Your friend is dating and you see something in the relationship that concerns you. Is it time to speak up? If so, how? How much input should you have in friends’ relationships, anyway? Our guests (one married, one engaged, one single) offer pointers on how to “meddle with grace” in situations like these. Leave us a Voicemail Culture: Is Church a Safe Place for the Abused? Dr. James Reeves felt God call him to make the church he pastored a place of healing for those who’ve been sexually abused. The impact of the church’s ministry has been felt throughout the Dallas community since its inception, and now it is leading the way for other churches to follow suit. Dr. Reeves and Focus on the Family counselor Geremy Keeton discuss why church should be the safest place for those who’ve been abused, and what it looks like to make that happen.       The Fearless Series Website   The Wounded Heart Link to Counseling Services Link to Articles for Help for Abusive Relationships Inbox: Best Friend vs. Other Friends Your best friend feels he or she doesn’t fit in with your other friends, and isn’t afraid to say so. Is this a problem with your bestie or with everyone else? How can you discuss this in a loving and constructive manner? Counselor Tim Sanford weighs in. 

Struggling to find your dream job, plus recovery from religious trauma, and when you’re in a relationship but have a crush on someone else.   Featured musical artist:  Vertical Worship   Roundtable: What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?   Figuring out your career path can be intimidating, and it’s rarely a straight line of opportunities and decisions. Few of us knew for certain what we wanted to do upon graduating from college, and some of us still haven’t found our career sweet spot. What’s the answer? Is it trial and error? Taking another career assessment? Prayer and fasting? All of the above? Our roundtable guests have been there, and they infuse this week’s conversation with practical tips and encouragement for trusting God with our vocational futures.   Leave us a Voicemail   Culture: Hope After Spiritual Trauma   Most Christians have at some point experienced a version of church hurt. In many cases, it’s been emotionally and spiritually traumatic. Whether it’s abuse, rejection, betrayal, moral failure or a massive church split, spiritual trauma is real. In the midst of it (or in the aftermath), how do you stay close to God? How do you trust His heart, and how do you find healing? Counselor Rob Jackson has years of pastoral and clinical counseling experience and has worked with many people on recovery in this sphere. If you’re struggling with pain from church wounds, this discussion may help you move forward.   Walking with God through Pain and Suffering   Link to Counseling Services   Inbox: When You Have a Crush on Someone Else   What do you do if you’re in a serious relationship but you have a crush on someone else? Counselor Kari Aho weighs in.

Maintaining hope for your future marriage, plus ways to share the gospel online, and how do you break a cursing habit?        Featured musical artist: Nathan Tasker   Roundtable: Why Marriage Is Worth It   With all the negative messages about marriage these days, it’s easy to wonder: Can marriage really work? Isn’t it easier to remain single? While singleness is itself a great calling, for those who are meant to marry some extra encouragement may be necessary. Our guests this week provide inspiration to stay the course and believe in marriage as a good thing. As Lisa says, “God’s still in the business of making great matches.” If marriage is in your future, there is hope.   Leave us a Voicemail   Culture: Sharing the Gospel Online   Australian evangelist Ryan Hemelaar is taking advantage of life in an increasingly digital age to share the gospel with people around the world — all from the comfort of his home. As the founder of NeedGod.net, he shares exciting stories of what God is doing in online conversations, and why technology is an increasingly effective way to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.        Honest Evangelism: How to talk about Jesus even when it’s tough   NeedGod.Net    Inbox: How Can I Stop Cursing?   Using profanity is a persistent struggle for many. Our listener admittedly has a cursing problem and wants strategies for how to stop. Counselor Jerry Jones weighs in.

Knowing God’s voice, plus part two of a conversation on self-control, and how to stop imagining worst-case scenarios.      Featured musical artist: Stu Garrard   Roundtable: Distinguishing God’s Voice From Mine   As Christians, we want to hear God’s voice, but how do we know it’s actually Him speaking? We second-guess a decision or direction, or we put out another proverbial fleece, or we wait for a bright light or booming voice — that never comes. Our guests break down their own challenges in hearing from God, including overcoming the paralysis of not knowing who or what to believe.   Leave us a Voicemail   Culture: Learning Self-Control (Part 2)   You started the year with good intentions, but they were short-lived. Now more than halfway through 2023, all of your goals, resolutions, and “I’ll do betters” have fallen by the wayside. Fortunately, author Drew Dyck is here to help. He’s consulted both the Bible and brain science to find out why self-control is so hard, but also how we can strategically build the muscle to help us form good habits that will go the distance. In part two of our conversation, Drew talks about The Habit Loop, relying on God’s strength, and how to beat technology addiction.    Your Future Self Will Thank You: Secrets to Self-Control from the Bible and Brain Science   Inbox: Help for Overthinkers   Our listener is struggling with overthinking things to the point where he imagines scenarios that don’t happen. Our producer, John Peardon, is no stranger to this — so he’ll encourage us with strategies that have helped him find peace of mind.

Don’t feel left out this summer, plus a conversation on self-control, and breaking up with a friend who isn’t good for you.   Featured musical artist: All Sons & Daughters   Roundtable: Left Out of Summer Fun?   You’re going about your summer and having a good time — until you discover some of your friends planned an event but didn’t invite you. Now that you think about it, a lot of things seem to be happening without you…at least if Instagram has anything to say about it. How do you respond? This week we talk about what makes us feel left out and how we can craft a contented summer regardless of who’s doing what.      Leave us a Voicemail   Culture: Learning Self-Control (Part 1)   You started the year with good intentions, but they were short-lived. Now more than halfway through 2023, all of your goals, resolutions, and “I’ll do betters” have fallen by the wayside. Fortunately, author Drew Dyck is here to help. He’s consulted both the Bible and brain science to find out why self-control is so hard, but also how we can strategically build the muscle to help us form good habits that will go the distance. In part one of our conversation, Drew extols the virtues of self-control, explains why willpower isn’t enough by itself, and how a conversation with his wife helped him take some personal inventory.      Your Future Self Will Thank You: Secrets to Self-Control from the Bible and Brain Science   Inbox: When a Friend Isn’t Good for You   You’re noticing that a friendship isn’t bringing out the best in you, and you’re wondering: Is it time to cut ties? Counselor Kari Aho weighs in.