Making Heaven Crowded

Selena

14 episodes listed below

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Plainspoken faith for everyday discipleship.

The gist

Making Heaven Crowded offers plainspoken reflections on Christian faith, Bible reading, prayer, love, conviction, suffering, and keeping the faith. Its tone is personal and earnest, often moving from everyday discouragement into Bible-based encouragement.

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About Making Heaven Crowded

Making Heaven Crowded is a personal Christian podcast built around faith questions, the Bible, and encouragement for people trying to understand how to live with Jesus at the center. Its style is warm and informal. The show often sounds like one believer thinking out loud through a topic that has become urgent in ordinary life. Episodes cover why evil happens, what Christian love means, how conviction works, how to pray, and how to start reading the Bible with more patience and understanding. The tone is not detached. It includes discouragement, heaviness, renewed motivation, and a repeated desire to keep faith when life feels confusing. The Bible is the anchor. The speaker brings in passages about love, the Lord's Prayer, the fall, trials, and evil, then explains them in plain language. Definitions often become a starting point, as in the episode on conviction, where a courtroom image becomes a way to talk about sin, God, and the Holy Spirit. Bible reading is presented as slow work rather than a front-to-back race. Study Bible footnotes, visual aids, devotionals, Bible apps, and resources such as Daily Grace Co. are treated as useful supports. Prayer is also made practical, with adoration, confession, thanks, and supplication broken into everyday language. The show has a strong devotional energy. It encourages listeners to trust God through trials, resist despair, forgive others, and lead with love. It also has a frank awareness of spiritual struggle, including doubt, temptation, suffering, depression, and the feeling that faith work may not matter. That vulnerability gives the show its shape. Making Heaven Crowded is best for listeners who want Christian teaching that is simple, emotional, and relational rather than formal, debate-driven, or highly produced.

Made for: Best for newer Christians, returning believers, and spiritually curious listeners who want approachable guidance on the Bible, prayer, love, and perseverance. It also suits people who prefer personal testimony and practical encouragement over formal theology lectures.

What sets it apart: The show stands out through its candid, beginner-friendly tone: heavy faith questions are handled through everyday language, personal struggle, Bible passages, and practical resources. It feels less like a classroom and more like a sincere faith conversation grounded in Christian belief.

In their own words

A podcast to help you take those first steps on your walk with Christ. Discussing all things Jesus and answering ALL your questions about the Christian faith.

Why you'd press play

Study-Bible footnotes meet Instagram reconciliation when you want faith advice with its sleeves rolled up.

Press play if you want

  • a beginner-friendly Bible-reading method that beats powering straight through front to back
  • prayer guidance concrete enough for you to remember as ACTS
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Bible reading habitsprayer and faithChristian loveevil and sufferingconviction and sintrusting God through trialsdevotional resources

Talks about

Best episodes of Making Heaven Crowded

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Why does evil happen?Apr 8, 2026

A scripture-first answer to suffering that lands on Revelation.

Making Heaven Crowded treats evil as a problem of the fall, suffering, and a faith that keeps moving when scripture does not hand over a neat explanation.

Tips on how to start reading your bible and actually understanding what it says.Oct 15, 2025

A practical reset for anyone who wants to read the Bible without bouncing off it.

Making Heaven Crowded treats Bible reading as something to build gradually, not rush through in one pass. The host keeps the focus on Matthew, Luke, and John as separate books and makes a plain case for taking a slower route, using footnotes, a study Bible, and even The Chosen…

Prayer and FaithAug 23, 2024

A plain Christian prayer guide that turns the Lord's Prayer into daily practice.

Making Heaven Crowded turns this installment into a simple study of prayer, using the Lord's Prayer as a frame for adoration, confession, thanks, and supplication.

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Episodes

  1. 1

    I've Been Having a Heavy Burdened Heart

    The host says she has felt a "heavy burning heart" over events in the U.S., including ICE agents and government actions, and that her own role is limited to reposting journalists and praying.

    Aug 12, 2026·27m·2 clips
  2. 2

    Anxiety

    Apr 22, 2026·22m
  3. 3

    Why does evil happen?

    Hidden gem

    ["Making Heaven Crowded's \"Why does evil happen?\" opens on Resurrection Sunday and says Jesus' death was \"supposed to be us on the cross.\"", "The host turns to Job 1:6-12, Hebrews 4:13, and Psalm 147:5, arguing that God sees everything and that Satan can only act within limits.", "The episode then uses Genesis 50:19-21, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 8:28, and Isaiah 41:10 to say suffering can be used for good and that trust in God matters more than present losses.", "The closing section cites Hebrews 11:39 and Revelation 12:3-4, 12:9, then points listeners to the show's Instagram for questions."]

    Apr 8, 2026·27m·1 clip
  4. 4

    Exposing the schemes of the devil

    Mar 11, 2026·18m
  5. 5

    What is love?

    Feb 25, 2026·16m
  6. 6

    Tips on how to start reading your bible and actually understanding what it says.

    Making Heaven Crowded uses this episode to argue that Bible reading works better when it is slowed down, read in context, and paired with study-Bible footnotes.

    Oct 15, 2025·31m·2 clips
  7. 7

    Conviction

    Hidden gem

    Making Heaven Crowded’s “Conviction” distinguishes temporary guilt from conviction, which the host describes as hating sin after being exposed to God’s beauty.

    Sep 12, 2025·28m·2 clips
  8. 8

    Suicide Awareness Month

    Sep 3, 2025·27m
  9. 9

    Living in a secular world

    Jul 23, 2025·18m
  10. 10

    Religion vs. Spirituality

    Jul 9, 2025·16m
  11. 11

    Having Doubt

    Aug 28, 2024·26m
  12. 12

    Prayer and Faith

    Hidden gem

    Selena opens by admitting she missed a posting deadline for Making Heaven Crowded, citing a tropical storm and discouragement after 50-plus downloads on episode one and under 20 on episode two.

    Aug 23, 2024·30m·2 clips
  13. 13

    What the heck does it mean to be saved??

    Jul 31, 2024·18m
  14. 14

    My testimony!

    Selena introduces Making Heaven Crowded as a judgment-free starting point for people curious about Christianity and Jesus.

    Jul 17, 2024·17m·1 clip