The Water from Rock Podcast

Imagine sitting with a close friend for an hour or so and looking back at your life, talking about some of the highest, the lows, some good days, some perhaps not so good, but looking back on your life, I just bet that you would have some lessons learned, some real distilled wisdom. I count it one of my greatest privileges and pleasures in ministry to have served some time as a hospice chaplain, where I spent literally hours with people young and old looking back at life, telling their stories, lessons learned. Lessons learned is what we have in today's scripture from Psalm 37, a Psalm of David, in which David is passing down with the help of the Holy Spirit, he's passing down some hard-earned life wisdom... -------- Download a transcript for the June 5, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Theologian Ray Anderson suggests that on the day after the father throws that big homecoming party for his prodigal son, that on the day after the prodigal son returns to the far country, but that he returns in order to tell everyone how He had lied about his father, to tell everyone in truth, how extravagantly loving his father is. To tell everyone how his father forgives, rejoices, and celebrates a prodigal come home. I'm thinking about that today as I ponder some amazing words from the Old Testament prophet Zephaniah, now, I'm not sure that we usually think of celebration and joy when we think of the Old Testament prophets, but just listen to this passage from Zephaniah chapter 3, verses 14 to 18... -------- Download a transcript for the June 3, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

The other night, we were at some friend's house where the woman is a very wonderful, accomplished painter, and we were looking at a painting that she had just started, it was just the bare outlines of a painting, I couldn't see what the painting was going to be, but knowing the artist and knowing her work well, I knew that the painting would be beautiful when she was finished. Now, my thoughts about that artist and her unfinished painting takes me to a wonderful scripture verse that I want to share with you. It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It's Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 11, where Solomon portrays God as an artist... ----more---- Download a transcript for the June 1, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Isn't it fascinating how a God made the human eye so that when we enter darkness the eye dilates the eye gets bigger to let in more light? Now, as I look at scripture, I see something similar happening that when God's people enter a dark time, the eyes of the heart, dilate, they get bigger to let in more like much of the Bible was written by someone going through a dark time, to someone going through a dark time, such as the passage that I feel compelled to turn to the day. -------- Download a transcript for the May 29, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Do you ever wonder if your life is just going around in circles? Then maybe, now you hate to think it, but maybe you're just going nowhere? I mean, this thing happens to you and then there's that thing that happens to you. Things come at you from out of the blue and you wonder, you wonder if there is any sense to it, any rhyme or reason. For a few moments, I want to see how David looks at life. How we looked at where he's been, where he's going, where he sees it all leading him. -------- Download a transcript for the May 27, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

This morning as I was making coffee, I thought of the instant coffee theory of life that's put forward by Rabbi Harold Kushner. And with the instant coffee theory of life, you open a new jar of instant coffee and you dole out generous heaping spoon fulls because, well, you have a whole jar of it, but then by the time you start getting towards the bottom of the jar, you realize that that you don't have that much coffee left, and so you carefully go after every grain of coffee in the jar. And Rabbi Kushner says that that's a lot like we tend to treat the days of our lives that when we're young, we're usually not so mindful of our days, how much time we have left, but as we get older, we treat our days, at least we ought to treat our days a little more carefully. Making coffee this morning and the instant coffee theory of life takes me to a little prayer that I like to pray. -------- Download a transcript for the May 25, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

I just resigned from being the fourth person of the Godhead... That's what I said to my wife one Sunday on our way from church. I just resigned from being a fourth person of the Godhead... You see, I was tired of thinking that I bore the weight of the church. Tired of thinking like I had to make things happen. That it was about me and how I was doing. Today, I wanna talk with you about the person who does carry the weight of the church on his shoulders, the person who carries the weight of your life and my life on his shoulders, the person who empowers us, and the person who does make things happen, and that is the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. -------- Download a transcript for the May 22, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

I visited a friend in the hospital yesterday, and I asked him on a scale of one to ten, how are you? Today, I'm wondering about you who are listening by podcast, on a scale of one to ten, how are you? Whether you're feeling a one or a ten, I have a good word for you from scripture for the life of David, from a time when David is between a rock and a hard place, a time when David is in trouble again, and David has something good to teach us about difficult times. -------- Download a transcript for the May 20, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

I was waiting at a crosswalk the other day, and I pushed the button for the crosswalk to let me go, and there was this rude mechanical voice commanding... Wait, wait, wait. Well, I don't know about you, but I don't like to wait whether it's waiting in traffic, waiting in the supermarket line, are waiting because my computer doesn't seem to be working fast enough. The digital age is teaching me that waiting is bad for me, but the waiting is keeping me from getting what I want, that waiting is holding me back from the good life. And I, along with a lot of other people, don't want to wait. I want it now, but then I see in the Bible, I see God's people waiting... -------- Download a transcript for the May 18, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

I have some good news for you. Good news for you, as you seek to be in the world but not of the world. Good news for you is you try to navigate the craziness of a post-Christian world without being harmed, without being corrupted by the world. Some Christians choose to withdraw, to drop out from the world. While other Christians choose to compromise with the world. Well, let's look at what Jesus prays for you and me. About being in the world, but not of the world... -------- Download a transcript for the May 15, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Do you ever have those moments? Well, when you just know you need to forgive someone, but you can't find it in you to forget, or you have a moment to you sense God calling you to do something and you don't wanna do it, or you're wanting to obey God, but you don't know if you can... Well, if you ever have moments like that, I've got good news for you. It's a scripture verse that many have found helpful in moments like that. Philippians Chapter 2, verse 13, in which the apostle Paul writes, It is God who is at work in you, enabling you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Often people think of God as high up there in his heavens and well, in us down here trying hard to live for God, trying hard to serve Him, but that is not the Bible's teaching, God has not left us to ourselves... Note what the Apostle Paul says here, it is God who is at work in you. So that puts a whole new light on things... It is God who is at work in you. -------- Download a transcript for the May 13, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Henry David Thoreau said, the path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men. Good words, I think as you and I live in a culture where it can be so tempting to take the path of least resistance, tempting to just go along, to get along. Well, I was in college, home for spring break, talking excitedly with my mom about what I was learning and what I was doing, and my mother listened quietly, and then she warned me, Tim, you're like a sponge soaking up everything around you... Well, I knew that my mom was pretty smart about things, and I try to take seriously her warning about not being a sponge, about taking everything in and taking the path of least resistance going along to get along. Now, all this takes me to a verse of scripture that I do pray will guide me that it might guide you. -------- Download a transcript for the May 11, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Albert Einstein said that he thought the most important question facing humanity was if the universe was friendly. Well, that is an interesting question, isn't it? Asked by a man, certainly a genius, but a man who didn't think much beyond atoms and electrons and physical existence... No, I have a better question. A more wonderful question. And that is the question asked by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8, verse 31, What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? That's a better question. And then whether the universe is friendly or not. If God is for us, who is against us? -------- Download a transcript for the May 8, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Do you ever have trouble sleeping? Well, if you do, don't feel your the Lone Ranger, it seems the coronavirus pandemic has become a kronosomia pandemic, an epidemic of people having trouble sleeping, trouble following asleep, trouble staying the sleep. As we worry about jobs, about the economy, about our kids being gone from school, we worry about getting sick. Well, I know quite a bit about sleepless nights which takes me to the word of God where we see many of God's spiritual giants also having a hard time sleeping. Well there is Job in Job 7:4. The night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn. There's David in Psalm 6, verse 6, I am weary with my mourning every night, I flood my bed with tears, and there's a Psalmist Esoph in Psalm 77 verse 2, in the night, my hand is stretched out without wearing. So please don't feel guilty if you're having trouble sleeping, you're in pretty good company, but it's what we do with those sleepless nights, that makes a difference. And I wanna suggest to you three things that help me, three things that I've learned from scripture about what to do in those nights I'm having trouble sleeping, so that I try not to fight it, but to go with it. -------- Download a transcript for the May 6, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Do you remember as a child, the wonder you felt the amazement as you begin to become aware of the incredible world around you? When you first learned that funny-looking little cocoon thing hanging on a tree that would morph into a caterpillar, that would morph into a butterfly... I remember when I was a boy catching in a jar, this little thing that was swimming around in our irrigation ditch and showing it to my mom, and my mom told me something that I found hard to believe, she told me that that was a tadpole that would become a frog. It is all pretty amazing. They were pretty wonderful, but not nearly as wonderful or amazing as what God is doing in your life and my life as God is morphing us, transforming us. Making us more and more like Jesus. ----more---- Download a transcript for the May 4, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

I think of it as one of the perks of the profession of the minister, that I actually get to be with people in the ups and downs of life, to be with people on the mountain tops, and to be with them in the valleys. I think of it as holy ground, to be with the people and the extremities of life, and to experience God's presence, and to learn a little bit more about God, and to learn a little bit more about the mystery of suffering. I'm gonna share with you today a brief scripture from the Old Testament Book of Job, whose name is, well, it's synonymous with suffering. And with all the questions that go with suffering, and what we might learn from suffering... -------- Download a transcript for the May 1, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Wow! Did you see that supermoon the other night? It was so beautiful. A supermoon is when the moon comes closest to the earth and it is so big and bright. Well, I looked up at that supermoon and I thought, I thought how the Psalmist is right, that the heavens do declare the glory of God. But sometimes when I look up at the sky, I think the Hubble Telescope reveals that there are more stars in the observable universe than there are grains of sand on all of the earth's deserts and beaches. I look up at the sky and I can feel so small, so insignificant, and I wonder, what does it mean for us to be human beings... What are human being? That is the question posed by David, and a Psalm that I wanna look at today, a Psalm in which David... Well, he is in awe of the magnificence of the night sky, and David asks, What are human beings? And you know that that is what are the most important questions facing our culture today, a question that in many ways is dividing our culture. It is a burning question, What are human beings? -------- Download a transcript for the April 29, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Have you ever wondered why you're here? Why God put you here? Why now at this time, with your particular gifts and talents, with your life situation, with the things that have happened to you? Why are you here? Mark Twain said, the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. Why? That is a big question. And I've talked to a lot of people over the years that live through life, not knowing why they're here because of a lot of hurts, a lot of wrong turns, a lot of emptiness. Well, let's see if we can't figure out why. You and I are here. And let's go straight to the top. Let's go to God's word to find out God's purpose for you and me. -------- Download a transcript for the April 27, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

It has been said that people can live 40 days without food, about three days without water. And about eight minutes without air but can only live for a second without hope. We desperately need hope. We live in some difficult times. And we need hope. But what do people do who have no hope... No hope for the future. Where does one go to get hope? Well, has a passage of scripture that could help us with that. A scripture guaranteed to give hope for today. Hope for the future. Hope for eternity. -------- Download a transcript for the April 24, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Have a word for you today. It's the word peace. Is there a more lovely, a more wonderful word than peace? That's why early Christians loved to greet one another with the word peace because that's what they had experienced, peace. The Bible calls God the God of peace. And Jesus it calls the Prince of Peace. Imagine Jesus standing in a storm-rocked boat, commanding the waves, the wind, with the word peace. Or imagine Jesus on that first Easter greeting scared out of the wits, disciples with the word peace. Your heart, my heart longs for peace. Most of all peace with God. -------- Download a transcript for the April 22, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Have you ever been going through a difficult time and someone says to you, I know what you're going through? As well-intention as those words might be, I know what you're going through can sound hollow when you just buried your husband. Or when you're caring for a special needs child. Or when you've lost your job. Oh, someone might know bits and pieces of what you're going through, but no one really knows what you're going through, nobody knows but Jesus. And Jesus doesn't just know the facts of what you're going through. Jesus knows the feeling. Jesus feels with you the feelings of all that you're going through, Jesus hurts. He cries that's why I love to sing the old spiritual. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows but Jesus. And once more Jesus doesn't just know what you're going through, Jesus wants to help you. We see this in a passage of Scripture that I have well, underlined in my Bible, it's Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 through 16. ----more---- Download a transcript for the April 20, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

The children's book, The Little Engine That Could was a very popular bedtime story at our home. It's a story about The Little Engine needing to get over the mountain with a lot of toys for the boys and girls. And, as a little injured begins to gather steam to get over the high mountain, it begins to say, I think I can. I think I can, I think I can. I think I can, I think again, saying it each time a little faster than before and up over the mountain, the little engine goes... I think I can, I think I can. I think, again, I think again... Well, I love the story, but... Well, it's not entirely biblical. There are two important differences between the Little Engine story and the Bible. First, the Little Engine says, I think I can, but the Bible says, I know I can. And the second important difference is that the little engine relies on its own power to get over the mountain, but you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, we have the power to get over any mountain before us. As followers of Jesus, we know that Jesus will give us all the strength and we need to do whatever He calls us to do, Jesus will give us whatever we need to face, whatever he calls us to face. I know, I can. ----more---- Download a transcript for the April 17, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

It's two o'clock at night. You can't sleep, you toss and turn the night seems so dark and you're calling out to Jesus. Where do you imagine Jesus to be at two o'clock on a dark night? Are you wait nervously in the doctor's office, wringing your hands fearful about what the test results are going to show? And you're calling out to Jesus. Where do you imagine Jesus to be? When you think of Jesus, do you think of Jesus primarily as high up there in the heavens for away from you and your troubles and fears? Well, you ask most any child in Sunday school and they're gonna get it right. You ask them where Jesus lives. And they will tell you. They will tell you that Jesus lives in our hearts... ----more---- Download a transcript for the April 15, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Do you have a favorite Bible verse? I know that might be like asking you if you have a favorite child or grandchild you love them all. But is there a verse that you come back to again and again? The verse that picks you up when you have fallen. A verse that's like the North star when you've lost your way. The verse I want to share with you today. I am sharing for a very personal reason. It is the verse I clung to years ago when my young wife died from cancer. It is a verse that helped me to make some sense of suddenly being a single dad with two little boys trying to pastor a church. And well, it helped me then and it helps me now to live life with joy. This verse in the Book of Ecclesiastes which has turned out to be one of my favorite books in the Bible. And you should see the looks on peoples faces when I tell them that Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books, but I love Ecclesiastes because in it Solomon is taking on the hard painful issues of life and answering them. ----more---- Download a transcript for the April 13, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

Question, what do you like to call Jesus? How do you like to address Jesus when you pray? You call Jesus Lord. Savior, master, mighty God? Well, I'm gonna talk today about calling Jesus and knowing Jesus as a brother. As our brother. And this all has to do with what happened on Good Friday and Easter, that Jesus, through His death and resurrection, he becomes our brother. Listen to Jesus' words on that Easter morning, as Jesus sends Mary Magdalene to His disciples. I'm looking at John chapter 20:17, Jesus says to Mary Magdalene, go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Now, notice that this is the first time that Jesus calls his disciples, my brothers. You see, the cross and resurrection change everything. ----more---- Download a transcript for the April 10, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

On that dark Good Friday afternoon, Jesus was literally dead, he was limp lifeless from bearing the penalty for our sins. Then on the third day, the Holy Spirit raised Jesus to life. He did not resuscitate Jesus, He raised Jesus to new life. To a glorified eternal life. So following Paul is saying here, He's saying to the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, that that same Holy Spirit is living in you, to give you new life, to give you new power. Now, if we miss this here in Romans 8:11, we would see the same spirit powered life in Ephesians 1:18 through 20, where Paul writes, "The immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe is according to the working of His great power when He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at God's right hand in the heavenly places." So we see the Holy Spirit that lives in you is your power source. The Christian life is not a do-it-yourself project. -------- Download a transcript for the April 8, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

The well-known American preacher, Reverend RG Lee was visiting the holy land many years ago. And the first place he wanted to go was to Gordon's Calvary. It's that place where some believe that our Lord Jesus was crucified, perhaps you've seen pictures of it, it looks... It looks like a skull. Well, when Reverend Lee got to Gordon's Calvary, he wanted to climb to the top of the mountain, but his guide said that they could not do that, but Lee insisted and so they climbed than when they got to the top of Mount Calvary. Reverend Lee takes off his hat, and it becomes strangely silent, and after a few moments, the guide asks Reverend Lee, he says, Excuse me, sir, have you been here before? And Reverend Lee said, Oh yes, yes. I was here 2000 years ago. Well, you know that in saying that Reverend Lee was talking about, the gospel good news, that when Jesus was crucified, we were crucified with Him, and all of our sin, all of our guilt or shame our judgment nailed to the cross with Jesus. I love the old spiritual that we sing on Good Fridays. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? And of course, the answer is yes. Yeah, yes, we were there with Jesus, which means that we were there with Jesus when God raised Him up from the grave. Today, I wanted to reflect on scripture with you that wonderfully expresses what we were remembering on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The scripture is Galatians Chapter 2, Verses 19 and 20, where the Apostle Paul writes, I have been crucified with Christ. -------- Download a transcript for the April 6, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Today is Holy Saturday. I know that Hallmark does not make greeting cards for Holy Saturday and that Holy Saturday is not on most people's calendars, but it is the wisdom of Christians through the centuries to mark this day and to call this day holy as a day to pause, to pay attention, and to wait for what God is going to do. Why just imagine yourself on that first Holy Saturday... -------- Download a transcript for the April 3, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Every preacher that I've ever known, put in some long hours during Holy Week, burns some midnight oil, as we're wanting to communicate to make clear the meaning of Good Friday and Easter. And then on top of that, how do you go about explaining the meaning of these days to children who well, they might be thinking about Easter eggs and Cadbury chocolate bunnies. How do we explain the wonder, the glory of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus? Well, I'm encouraged in this task by a great preacher, a great theologian who lived some 500 years ago, who had a passion to communicate what these days mean. -------- Download a transcript for the April 1, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Have you seen that beautiful Passover moon looking down on us the past few nights? What that Passover Moon is telling us is that this is Holy Week. We are in those wondrous and holy days in which we follow our Lord Jesus from His triumphal entry, through the agony of the cross, to the glory of His resurrection. And I don't want to let these days just slip by us without stopping to think about the meaning of our Lord's passion, his suffering and death, and his resurrection. So for today, I want to look at the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans in Chapter Four, as Paul is pointing us to Abraham to show how we are put right with God. ----more---- Download a transcript for the March 30, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

I wonder if you ever have days, ever have nights when you feel like Atlas like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. If you're feeling that weight today as you're doing ministry, and if you're feeling that weight as a parent trying to provide and hold your family together in a time of the pandemic. Maybe you're feeling that weight as a worker, just trying to keep your head above water. Well, I think I have something good for you today, something for anyone feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders. -------- Download a transcript for the March 27, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

Do you ever read the Bible and you feel like you're reading today's headlines? Well, that's what I'm feeling today, as I read Psalm 11 where I see frightening things going on in the country as it says the good people are being targeted and the foundations are being destroyed. I read Psalm 11. and it feels like things are going to hell in a handbasket. That's a scene in Psalm 11 is David's friends, are packing up their bags, and they're telling David that he better head for the hills. Now as we read Psalm 11, it's important to keep in mind that we are reading dialogue. We are reading back and forth conversations going on between David and his friends. -------- Download a transcript for the March 25, 2021, Selah episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Home. Can you think of a more wonderful, more lovely word than home? The longing for home is deep, and most of us, that safe place where we can go just as we are, and they take a sin where we can kick off our shoes and relax and simply be who we are. We remember Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz who says, There's no place like home. And with those words and three clicks of her heels, Dorothy is back home from the land of Oz, back home with Auntie Em, the cowardly lion, and the tin man and all that really matters. It's at home. Most of us know about Dorothy is feeling that there is no place like home. Sure, we love to travel and to explore the wondrous big world, but it is good to come home, home is where the heart is, we say. Bartlett Geomati, former commissioner of baseball, and before that president of Yale University, when asked to explain the popularity of baseball in America, Geomati said, Well, baseball is all about going home, and we all want to get home. It's our longing to get home. That is at the heart of a passage from the Psalms that I wanna share with you today in Psalm 84. -------- Download a transcript of the March 23, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Recently, a wise friend reminded me, Tim, what we're facing in our country right now and in our lives, it's really a spiritual battle, because we are at a struggle against unseen forces of spiritual darkness. Now, as soon as my friend said that, I knew she was right. What we're facing today is what the Apostle Paul calls a struggle, not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against spiritual forces of evil. And as I prayed about what my friend told me, I thought of the powerful scene from the Bible that encourages me in the struggle and I'm gonna share it with you today, and I hope that it encourages you as well. -------- Download a transcript of the March 20, 2021, Selah Episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

How do you and I as believers, as God's people, how do we not just survive, but how do we actually thrive and what are admittedly some very difficult days? What does God's word have to say to us about actually being blessed, about leading fruitful lives at a time of pandemic of uncertainty and fear? Well, I wanna read a brief scripture passage and then take a few moments to think about being blessed and being fruitful in a difficult time... ----more---- Download a transcript of the March 18, 2021, Selah Episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

I was surprised one day last week when I walked into a large chain bookstore and there was what was called the self-help section of books. Now, I have not been in the bookstore for quite a while, and the self-help section was new to me. And I looked and I saw that the self-help section of books, it was larger than the history section. Larger than a science section... Then the biography section. I do not have figures for the year 2020, but for the year 2019, I see that there were 18.6 million self-help books sold. Self-Help is a booming business, there are self-help gurus everywhere. We are people wanting some help with self because the self is big these days... Self has been big, well, since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Now I'm for self-help, whether it's helping people lose weight, stop smoking, be more positive. Self-Help is okay as far as self-help can go, but self-help is really just superficial because Self-Help cannot go deep to the core of our problem, which is, after all, self. Now I know that sounds strange to a culture that talks so much about self-esteem, self-actualization, self-confidence, self-expression, and love to send selfie pictures. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about self. Is not about self-help, rather Jesus talked about denying the self... About losing the self. In fact, Jesus says that losing the self is the way to life. -------- Download a transcript for the March 16, 2021, Selah Episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

Your broken places are where my light shines through. It was like... It was like the spirit of God whispered that to me once as I was feeling very broken, it was a time of darkness for me. The feeling that things were out of control, and I sense the calm voice of God's Spirit saying, Your broken places are where my light shines through. And I thought about that for a bit... -------- Download a transcript of the March 13, 2021, Selah Episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.    

Oh, for the gift to see ourselves as others see us. That was a gift that Scottish poet Robert Burns wanted. But I'm gonna talk to you about a far better gift in that, and that is to see ourselves as God sees us. That really is what is most important, because the truest thing about you is not how others see you, it's not how you see you but how God sees you. As a pastor and a chaplain for many years, I've listened to a lot of people, and I've come to the conclusion that the major cause of most spiritual problems, the major cause of most emotional problems as Christians comes from our failure to see ourselves as God see us. So I'm want to read just a brief passage of Scripture that I find to be so freeing, so life-giving as it helps me to see myself as God sees me, and I pray that it will help you too. -------- Download a transcript of the March 11, 2021, Selah Episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

Have you ever thought of your Christian life as a masterpiece? Have you ever heard God saying to you, you are my handiwork, you were special to me? Maybe you have, maybe you haven't. Well, I hope that today you will hear God speaking this to you as I am in the New Testament book of Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, and what I think has got to be one of the most amazing, most wonderful verses in all of the Bible. -------- Download a transcript for the March 9, 2021, Selah Episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

I didn't know what to talk about with you today. I was feeling scattered, bothered, weighed down, I just couldn't get it together. And then I thought about what I was feeling, and I remembered a time in the life of David when he was feeling something like that, and it helped me to remember what David did when he was burdened, and that took me to a Psalm of David... Psalm 55. And I will admit straight up that I wasn't facing anything like what David is facing in Psalm 55, but you know, it helped me to see how David deals with burdens. And I think it can help you too, when you're burdened, bothered, just can't get it together. -------- Download a transcript for the March 6, 2021, Selah Episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

I'm gonna get right to it. I wanna read a verse of scripture and then tell a story, and it all has to do with how God sees you as a follower of Jesus. First the scripture, Colossians 1:22. Christ has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy, blameless and irreproachable before him. And that's how God looks at you as a follower of Jesus. Christ has reconciled you to God. -------- Download a transcript for the March 4, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

Hey, I wish I could sit down with you and talk with you who are listening and get to know you. Because I know you're listening today, not because I'm anyone famous, well-known, I'm not, but I know you're listening Because you love Jesus. And here's this guy who loves Jesus too, and he likes to talk about Jesus, you and I, we had this bond between us, and that's why I wanna talk with you today about something that is so important, and that is how the power of Jesus can be released through you and me into a world that frankly is very much needing to see the power of Jesus. -------- Download a transcript for the March 2, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

You know, there was something about being human that we want to know our purpose. We want to know what something is for, and as a pastor and chaplain, I have talked with many people over the years who were wanting to know their purpose, they were wanting to know what they were here for. Well, as I look at the Psalms, I see that David was a man keenly focus on purpose and on his reason for being here. And I'm thinking that you too also might be wanting to know about your purpose and what you're here for. And I find that David has a lot to say about life purpose, which is helpful in the ups and downs of our lives. -------- Download a transcript for the February 27, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Hey. How about some good news? Would you like some? Well, I've got good news for you. You did nothing to make God love you, and you can't do anything to make him stop. That's the clear message of a Psalm I'm looking at today and that I wanna pass on to you. This is a psalm that in Jesus' day was a favorite, one that they often sang. We don't talk about this so much today, and I think that's because it is so repetitive that is... It just keeps saying the same thing over and over again. It keeps on saying, "the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever." No matter what you've done, no matter what you have gotten yourself into, the steadfast love of the Lord for you endures forever. -------- Download a transcript of the February 25, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Do you ever feel like you're running on empty? I don't mean your car, but in your life where you feel like you're running on fumes perhaps not quite sure where you're going to get the power to keep going. That's how some people I know are feeling after months of a pandemic, and then piled on top of that or the tragic headlines in the news recently. And then there's my friend, who's fighting a battle against cancer and he's feeling exhausted. Where do we go to get the strength to keep going? That's a question I've often had to deal with in my own life and ministry. Today, I've turned to a scripture that helps me when I'm looking for strength to keep going. -------- Download a transcript for the February 23, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

Do you ever have mornings when your alarm goes off and you start thinking about some prickly people you're gonna have to deal with that day, or you think about problems that you're going to face? Or you just wanna curl up and go back to sleep? Or do ever have a night in the middle of the night, kind of night, so you toss and turn, you fret and worry, just wishing you had some kind of special power?   My go-to verse when I'm needing special power, special wisdom, is the magnificent Eighth Chapter of Romans that some have called Romans 8 the Himalayas of the Bible... -------- Download a transcript for the February 20, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

Is there a time in your life when God's presence has been especially real to you? A time when you could just feel God right there with you? That's a precious time when God's presence is more than just an assumption in our heads, but an awareness in our heart. There came a time in my walk with God when I longed to know I had to know God with me, in the way I'd been taught to sing as a boy about how God walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own... -------- Download a transcript for the February 18, 2021 Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

Do you ever wonder why I begin every one of these conversations with the Lord be with you? Well, I do it because that is the Bible's way of blessing someone, I don't say those words as I wish as a prayer, but I say the words as a blessing, a declaration of God's purpose, God's desire to bless you. The Lord be with you was how believers did it in ancient Israel as they would bless one another. It would go like this one person would say The Lord be with you, and the other would respond the Lord bless you. Check it out in the Book of Ruth 2:4 where Boaz greets Ruth with the words the Lord be with you and Ruth answers back, the Lord bless you. And those words, those blessings set in motion the little Ruth becoming... -------- Download a transcript for the February 16, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

People say that you got to have self-confidence... That it's all about self-confidence. That if you don't have self-confidence that you're going to be insecure, that you're going to stumble through life and fail. And so when I was a teenager, I wanted self-confidence, and so I read books and magazines on how to build my self-confidence... Well, it took some time, but over the years, I found something much more wonderful than self-confidence. I began to discover God-confidence. And let me tell you that God-confidence works so much better than self-confidence. God-confidence makes life an adventure. -------- Download a transcript for the February 13, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.  

I have in mind, any of you who feel like you're facing an impossible task. You know that God has called you to something. But you're feeling that maybe you don't have the strength, the ability, the smarts to get it done. Well, I know pastors who are feeling they're facing an impossible task with what the pandemic seems to be doing to churches, there are parents of school-aged children feeling that today, caregivers of loved ones feeling that... I feel like that from time to time, facing an impossible task, but I've got a bible verse that I come back to again and again as this first helps me get my bearings and gives me confidence for the way ahead. -------- Download the transcript for the February 11, 2021, Selah episode. **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

How do you picture God today? You see, God is smiling at you or is God frowning? For a long time, I pictured God as frowning at me, it's like I thought that God was always ticked off at me that I wasn't dedicated enough that I didn't pray enough, I didn't read my Bible enough. For you see sometime early in my Christian life, I got infected, infected by legalism, that is thinking that we are put right with God by what we do, legalism says, do but the gospel says, Done. I wanna share with you a Scripture passage that I can remember the first time I read it. It was like God threw up and the windows got through, open the door, and God let grace rush into my life. -------- Download a transcript of the February 9, 2021 SELAH episode **This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.