Practical Faith

Jesus' second coming is actually talked about more in the New Testament than His first. We Christians make an enormous deal out of Christmas – and we should! – the Incarnation of God on earth was the event on which all of human history pivots! But Jesus Himself repeatedly called people to look ahead to His second coming.

We call the season of Christmas “Advent," which is a word that simply means “coming” or “arriving”, and there is a pattern to it every year. There is an annual rhythm to Advent which is also like an annual practice for the second coming of the Savior Jesus to earth – and it begins with Preparation. From the foundations of the earth – from the moment of humanity's first sin against God – He was making preparations to come to us, to be our Savior...

Jesus is the centerpiece of Christmastime! And all that goes along with this season is for Him! Garlands. Lights. Tinsel. Bows. Wrapping Paper. It's all for Him! Songs and Symphonies. Parties and Caroling. Ugly Christmas sweaters. Goofy Office Gift Swaps. Classic door decorations. Cheesy Christmas movies. Even when we don't know it – even when we don't mean to celebrate Jesus – all of it is in celebration of the Arrival of Jesus!

The worship of God is far more than the activities of humankind. In the natural world all around us, there is a service of worship that is happening all day, every day, around the clock, in adoration of God! The Bible frequently calls our attention to the ongoing worship that exists in the natural world...

This is the season of Advent, when we celebrate Jesus' birth!  When the long wait for His arrival ends – and the celebration of Emmanuel – God with us – begins!  It's Christmastime!  And all that goes along with this season is for Jesus!

We've been talking about how to clarify and pursue some dreams for our lives together with the Lord in really practical ways. Today, I want to offer just a few concluding thoughts to help you pursue your dreams together with the Lord – remembering that He designed you, Heloves you, and He knows the good plans He has for you.

Imagine that you were standing in a large room, like a big auditorium or gymnasium. You are standing in one corner of the room, and your dream of where you want to be is at the far corner of the room. That dream may be something for your spiritual life, or your home or family, or your career, or some other hope or wish or goal you have... But you can't reach it from where you are.  It's all the way across the room. You've got to map out some steps to get there. What are 2-3 clear, measurable, attainable first steps that will get you on a path towards your dream?

God's journey for us in life rarely looks like a straight line arrow. It often looks more like zig-zagging line with lots of twists and turns along the way. Some of this is our doing; some of it is His; and in His sovereign mercy, He is weaving it all together into an amazing tapestry of faithfulness. Where we sometimes get into trouble in walking with the Lord is when we put our expectations about HOW our desires are going to be fulfilled ahead of the God who intends to fulfill them. We see this happen in the Bible with Abram.

There's an important distinction between having clear goals vs. having just good intentions. All the hoping and wishing – and, even praying – in the world isn't going to amount to anything if I don't DO something about it. You have a vision for your future. You can see where you want to go. You've identified some simple, initial steps you can take in the right direction. And guess what? You are now a small step or two closer to realizing your dream of becoming more like Jesus!

What's your dream? What are you dreaming about with God? What are your hopes for yourself? for your character? your family? your future? your legacy? These are ALL great things to have a vision for in your life with the Lord. Depending on the size of your dream, you might be just 10 steps away, or it might be 50,000 steps away. But once you envision with the Lord where you want to go with Him, and you start taking steps forward on that path with Him, you will be getting closer and closer to actually achieving that future in the Lord that you have envisioned for yourself.

Today on Practical Faith, I want to lead you in a short exercise of dreaming with God about your future. You can do this wherever you are right now: in your car, at home, at the gym, wherever. For just a couple of minutes, we are going to talk and think about and practice dreaming together with God, who said, “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a good future.”

Today, we are wrapping up our short series on the topic of “Discipleship at Home,” and I want to address one of the most common objections I hear around this topic, and that is this: “It's too late for me. I missed my chance. My kids are grown. I wish I had known about all this stuff earlier...”

Welcome back to “Practical Faith” – where today, we will continue in our short series on the topic of “Discipleship at Home.”

Today on “Practical Faith,” we'll introduce a short new series on the topic of “Discipleship at Home.” The way we grow is by practice. Family devotions for us through the years have been full of trial-and-error, starts-and-stops, and starting back over again. It has not been perfect, but we have tried to remain intentional and consistent in practicing some form of family discipleship together throughout those years. The Lord has been gracious to us. Our kids have been patient with us :-) It's messy and imperfect, but two steps forward and one step back is still forward progress – and practice makes progress!

If you're like me, then, we don't want to do what only we can do in our lives. We certainly want to give our very best – but frankly – if this is just a human effort producing human results… then, what's the point? But the hunger and the ache and the yearning of our souls is, “Oh God!, please come – please come – and do what only You can do among us!”

Persecution affects about 200 million Christians around the world today. Imagine the amount of faith in Jesus, and courage from His Holy Spirit it must take to live in a place where your neighbors or the government are openly hostile toward your faith in Jesus… You and I have the opportunity to pray courageous, faith-filled prayers now for our persecuted brothers & sisters around the world!

God has purposes for you in this generation – purposes that He has called you and equipped you and prepared in advance for you to fulfill. Our loved ones – our friends and family – our everyday connections in the world – they are hungering for the grace, the truth, the deliverance, the victory, the identity and purpose which we all know they are only going to find in Jesus. And Jesus is saying to us what he said to the man healed in Luke 8, “Go to your home. Go to your loved ones back home! Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.”

God is already at work in the life of every single one of your unsaved friends. Every single one of them! And He is inviting you – He is authorizing you in the Name of Jesus – He is sending you! – to join Him in that miraculous work. Within the past 10 years in the U.S., a whopping 83% of all new church attendees came to church because someone invited them – either to a Sunday service, or to a small group gathering. 

God has purposes for you to serve right here – right in your very own town – among your very own generation, just like He had for David in the Bible...

To become like Jesus, we've gotta do three things: do things the way Jesus did them; pray in the ways that Jesus prayed; and believe like Jesus believed. Today we'll talk about believing like Jesus believed. Believing IN Jesus is of utmost importance. Eternity literally hangs in the balance of it. But it is just the starting point of a life of following Jesus. To become like Jesus, we've got to believe like Jesus believed.  And His faith in God was an active faith. Jesus believed the words of the Father enough to act upon them. In order to become like Jesus, we've got to believe like Jesus believed.

Becoming like Jesus means doing things the way Jesus did them.  It also means praying the way that Jesus prayed.

To become like Jesus, we've gotta do three things. We've got to do what Jesus did, pray like Jesus prayed, and believe like Jesus believed. So first up is: Do what Jesus did. Sometimes, as followers of Jesus, it can be cool to actually do things the way Jesus did them...

The Eternal Son of God – God, who made us in His image – He descended from heaven to earth and become like us in every way except sin. He made us like Himself. And then, after we messed it all up, He Himself became like us, so that He could enable us to become like Him again...

In the Book of Acts, we are amazed by the miracles we see there: miraculous healings… resurrections from the dead… angelic deliverances from prisons…  All these amazing things happened! But there is a danger for us in thinking that these are the only things that indicate the supernatural in the Bible. That these kinds of miracles are the reason the early Church flourished and grew. We tend to put signs and wonders like these up on a pedestal. And in so doing, we relegate all the rest of the Spirit's supernatural work in us as being ordinary, unimportant, and unremarkable. This is a mistake I make when I read the Book of Acts, and when I look at my life and the world around me...

The term “supernatural” simply means, higher than what is natural, above what is natural, beyond the natural. The supernatural is the work of God, fueled by the Presence and the character of God. Today, we will look at Acts chapter 2 and invite the Holy Spirit of God to awaken us to the supernatural in our lives...

When Dianna and I were chaplains onboard the Mercy Ship, I had a discipling relationship with a crew member onboard. He was a great guy – brilliant mind, fun personality, loved his wife and kids – loved and served the Lord faithfully! He had smoked his entire life, and he wanted to stop. And one day, he asked my advice...

In Mark chapter 12, the opponents of Jesus set a trap before Him. And, honestly, it's a brilliant trap. It should've worked. Here's how it went – it says, “Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.  They came to him and said, 'Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?  Should we pay or shouldn't we?' ”

A dear loved one has just received terrible news, experienced a sudden loss, a diagnosis, a betrayal – and they turn to you for help. How do you comfort a person in those first critical moments of a crisis? In the previous two episodes, we talked about leaning on your Experience and practicing Empathy to support and comfort your loved one in crisis. Today, we'll talk about the Equipment you have at your disposal: What resources do you have available to share with your loved one in crisis?

What is this person feeling right now, and how can I comfort them in this difficult moment in their lives? Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.

How do we help the people closest to us when a sudden crisis arises in their lives? What do you say? What do you do? How can you help a loved one during their first painful moments of a crisis in their lives? Your three main resources for supporting your loved ones in their moment of crisis are going to be your Experience, Empathy, and Equipment. Today, we'll focus on your Experience.

I want you and me to understand that our status in eternity fundamentally changed when God adopted us into His family! Your identity changed, your name changed, your inheritance & future & rights all changed! Somehow, in some heavenly way, your spiritual birth certificate was updated to show Almighty God as your adopted Father! And in that moment, it was decreed in the courts of heaven that you are now a child of God – an heir of God – and a co-heir with Christ.

I want you to think about prayer with me in a different kind of way today: Prayer is disruptive. Prayer is how we bring Jesus into our world. In a way, it is an arrival of the Spirit of Christ into the moment in which the prayer is taking place. Prayer is disruptive, in the best kinds of ways!

Every mighty movement of God started with a call for His people to pray.  Prayer revives the hearts of God's people as it prepares our communities for God's love, grace, and Word to be spread. Prayer-walking involves us personally taking our prayers to the very places where we desire to see God's Presence manifested and our prayers answered.

More than 75 percent of individuals who come to know Christ have experienced salvation as a result of a direct relationship. Oikos is a Greek word that is found many times in the New Testament that can provide tremendous insight and revelation to our prayers and evangelism. Oikos defines an individual's primary base of relationships and their relational sphere of influence. This includes one's family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and most frequent contacts.

Resurrection is God's specialty – He brings dead things to life. It's who He is. It's what He does! The Resurrection of Jesus changed everything. It represents THE pivot point of history – everything swivels – everything swings into a new direction when the Living Jesus stands up and walks out of the grave, victorious over death...

We often talk about Jesus in the past tense – maybe because we read about His mortal life on earth in the history of the Bible. But because of the Resurrection, Jesus lives today.  Have you ever considered what that really, logistically means? Jesus is a current, living person. Jesus is a present reality – in the world, and in our lives. Jesus was – yes. But also – Jesus is! And that is because of the Resurrection...

Do you remember the use of the  word "non-essential" from covid times?  Many people in 2020 were informed – by email, or phone, or in-person – that they were considered “non-essential.”Friends, you and I are not what we do.  Our worth is not rooted in our jobs.  Our value lies in Something far deeper and more eternal than our occupations...

If God has called you to something in the past – whether it was to faith in Him, or to a particular task, or to a person, or a place, or a direction – and you responded with a "no" to Him...  If God was leading you to forgive someone, or to trust again, or to let go of something, or to pick up something else – but you said "no"... If God was telling you to empty your hands, or to release your grudge, or to believe in His goodness again – but you refused... You can change your mind. There's still time. You can turn to Him, trust in Him, and obey what He said. There's still time to say "yes" to God.

A friend recently asked me a piercing question that I want to share with you. He asked me right after I had shared about a multi-year journey of breaking free from an addiction earlier in my life.  As we talked, I shared with him that the tide-turners that God used in my life to set me free were: #1-telling others, and #2-Scripture memory...

“Listening prayer” is pursuing the purposes of God by meditating on the Word of God & words of God. Praying to God is great!  He wants us to share all our thoughts and feelings with Him – all our needs and desires with Him.  But we should also allow Him the opportunity to speak to us.  It's important to create space in our lives to listen to God – time that prioritizes His words and His voice over our own.

The hope of the resurrection changes everything! Lisa Williams joins us today to share on the topic of the resurrection, and how it can impact our everyday lives as followers of Jesus. 

We've all felt it. A dilemma with no good solution. A situation that has you perplexed, stumped. You've tried everything you can think of, and you're stuck... What if you could separate yourself from the thick of the issue for a moment and evaluate it objectively, in the third person? What if I told you... you can! Here's how:

Today we discuss the second of three questions we can ask our Father God, which can help us discern His will and pursue continued growth in Him as His children. If you want to grow in some life-role or virtue in your life, ask God in prayer and listen for His answer: "What would someone who is better at this life-role or virtue than me be doing?"

I'd like to offer you three questions to take to God in your prayers, which if you will ask them of God regularly, and allow Him time to respond, they will produce spiritual growth in your life. The first question is this: “Father, what do You think/feel about…"

Last time, we introduced the term "lament" as a Biblical expression of our grief directed to God. Today, our guest speaker Lisa Williams will show us the four elements of a lament: Turn, Lament, Ask, and Trust. Psalm 13 will be our example to help us understand how to lament according to the Bible.

Our guest on today's episode of The Practical Faith Podcast is Lisa Williams! Today, Lisa shares with us on the Biblical language of lament, what it means, and why it matters.  

As people of faith, we can sometimes feel like we have to check this bias at the door.  As if faith and reason were incompatible, mutually-exclusive worldviews.  But they are not!  Today, I'd like to appeal directly to this bias of logic, reason, and science, particularly as it pertains to the historical reliability of the Bible.

Let's consider something for a moment: why did God choose to relate to us as Father? His creativity is unlimited.  e literally could have chosen any kind of relationship that He could think of to relate to those rescued & redeemed by Christ, and He chose that of Father & children. This is not a metaphor or a figure-of-speech. This is literal – this is who He is, and this is who we are.  In the Lord's Prayer...

Christ shares His own eternal inheritance with those He has saved – and the inheritance He shares with us is so much more than physical properties and possessions. It is amazing to realize all that we inherit from God through Christ Jesus...

Today, I want to invite you into the lawyer's office. But don't worry! You're not in trouble – in fact, quite the opposite! This is the office of a lawyer who determines the rightful heirs to an estate. This lawyer's job is to follow the mandates of a written will, and to distribute the rightful inheritance of the estate to the legal heirs named in that will. Now in this metaphor, we can consider the Bible to be “The Will of God” – and for this episode, I have woven together a few significant teachings from the Christian Scriptures to provide a basic but powerful “will” for us to understand...

Most of the Bible was written to be understood literally, describing historical events that actually happened. There are some parts of the Bible, though, that were written in figurative language; they are poetic or didactic in nature, describing an indescribable God using the limited words we have, and using allegory to teach us about ultimate reality in Him...