Podcasts about Amen

“Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” — Genesis 32:28 Jacob was a schemer. It came naturally. His mother was a schemer, and so was his father (see Genesis 26-27). Scheming was part of the family DNA.Jacob was returning home and wondering what kind of reception he would have from his brother, Esau, whom he had schemed against many years earlier (Genesis 27).But then one night when Jacob was all alone, he faced the one who could not be outwitted. Jacob wrestled that night with God.We might think of this wrestling with God as being for one night, but wasn't it more like for a lifetime? Jacob had wrestled through lots of situations in his life, all of which were in the hands of God. For example, Esau, his elder brother, was the favored son of his father, and Jacob dealt with that by scheming. Jacob also wrestled with finding love and wondering if he could ever return home.We might think of wrestling with God as the opposite of seeking to know and learn from God, but in this case the wrestling became a pathway to a new life signified by a new name. Jacob, now known as Israel, would go through life limping because of that night, but he would have in that limp a sign that God had come to him and blessed him as he faced an uncertain future.God showed up even for a schemer like Jacob. Lord, thank you for being willing to wrestle with Jacob. We can see you are willing to wrestle with us too. Give us what we need in order to follow you. Amen.

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 10-12,  Mark 16 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus' kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible! In this episode for March 9th, 2024, your Bible Reading Coach, Hunter, guides us through a meaningful journey in the scriptures, exploring Deuteronomy chapters 10 through 12 and the triumphant resurrection story in Mark 16. Hunter shares insights into the Shema, the significance of obedience, and God's unwavering faithfulness, reminding us that we are never left behind—even in moments of grief and doubt. We're also joined by our Prayer Assistant, Heather, who leads us in prayers for strength, peace, and unity, helping us start the day aligned with God's purpose. Whether you're a longtime listener or just joining our journey, this episode offers hope, encouragement, and a powerful reminder that you are deeply loved and never alone. Stay with us for scripture, reflection, and heartfelt prayer—let's walk this path together and step into the new day with faith and joy! TODAY'S DEVOTION: He has not left us behind. That's the essential message echoing from the empty tomb. The women arrive, grieving and uncertain, confronted with sorrow and a sense of abandonment—the loss so raw, feeling as if God Himself has departed, that Jesus who once delivered, healed, and loved has left them alone. Every funeral, every moment in the face of death, carries that sting of doubt: "Has God left us? Is this the end?" But the resurrection upends our fears. There, dressed in white at the tomb, an angel greets them—not with despair, but with the unthinkable news: "He isn't here… Go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there." The risen Christ is not found among the dead, nor does He abandon His own in the darkest hour. Instead, He goes before them—and before us—calling us to hope again. God doesn't do abandonment, friends. He rescues us completely, even from the deepest despair, from the very thought that we are left behind. The resurrection means the presence of God is a constant, not a memory. He meets us right in the places of pain and loneliness, convincing us by His Spirit how good this news really is—a promise and a reality that God is here and always will be. May our souls be convinced of this truth. May our families rest in it, and may our communities be shaped by it. The God who overcame the grave walks ahead of you today. He sees you, loves you, and never leaves you. May you live in that light. That's a prayer that I have for my own soul. That's a prayer that I have for my family, for my wife, my daughters, my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

Parenting 0-18 With an Eternal Perspective: An Interview with Jessica Smartt (Episode 286)   Hebrews 12:11 NIV “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it"   *Transcription Below*   Jessica Smartt is the author of Come On Home, Memory-Making Mom and Let Them Be Kids. She graduated college with an English degree, a religion minor and a hankering to pour into kids. After teaching middle school literature for five years, she was promoted to her current position and dream job: wife, homeschooling mom, author, and Professional Encourager of Intentional Moms. She lives in sunny North Carolina on a family farm with horses, chickens, and an ever-increasing number of beloved cats. She and her husband, Todd, have three beautiful children. She loves to energize everyday moms to save childhood and build close-knit families. Jessica's favorites include: bike rides, spinach quiche, a clean kitchen, being warm, national parks, and food that anyone else made. Connect with Jessica through Instagram or her website.   Thank you to Our Sponsor: WinShape Marriage   Questions and Topics We Cover: What questions can we ask ourselves as mothers to take inventory and get real about our capacity, health, and gifts? How can we purposefully make our home a place our family loves to be and we do too? Will you share a handful of your other favorite practical tips for building a strong family that we haven't covered yet?   Other Episode Mentioned from The Savvy Sauce: Making Family Memories with Jessica Smartt   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:14)   Laura Dugger: (0:15 - 1:23) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   I'm thrilled to introduce you to our sponsor, WinShape Marriage. Their weekend marriage retreats will strengthen your marriage while you enjoy the gorgeous setting, delicious food, and quality time with your spouse. To find out more, visit them online at winshapemarriage.org.   My returning guest for today is Jessica Smartt. She has authored another brilliant book entitled, Come On Home: A Grace-Filled Guide to Raising a Family Who Loves (and Likes) Each Othe. You're not going to want to miss a minute of this episode because she answers every question with kindness and eternal wisdom, yet she still manages to share plenty of fun ideas and applicable tips.   Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Jessica.   Jessica Smartt: (1:25 - 1:28)  Thanks so, much for having me. I'm excited about our conversation.   Laura Dugger: (1:29 - 1:44) Well, I've been looking so, forward to this, and it's been a few years since you were a guest on The Savvy Sauce, so, as you're looking back, can you just walk us through how your motherhood experience has changed from the early days to now currently?   Jessica Smartt: (1:46 - 3:36) Yeah, it has changed so, much, and I actually was thinking about this just on my own. God is so, good, and I don't know if everyone's experience is kind of like this. I look around and see very high-functioning young mothers, so, I'm thinking maybe not, but I just feel like those first couple years were such a struggle with a lot of mental illness and just anxiety, and probably that led into depression, too, and just feeling really overwhelmed. I do feel like a lot of it was sleep deprivation, which is a literal torture technique that armies use, so, I think just caring for my body better has actually been a huge thing, but also just God is just so, kind, and I think I mentioned in the book of just really early on having this moment where I thought I'm not any good to anybody, and I didn't fast-forward to see any of this, right?  I didn't know how it was going to end. I just knew I felt terrible, and I couldn't function and overcome with anxiety, and everything was blurry and overwhelming, and so, to then fast-forward and see personally in my own life the rewards of my kids are doing well, and I like being a mom a lot, and professionally that I'm even writing about it is stunning, so, it's a real redemption story to me, and just proof that also God uses those pits because it was out of that that I was able to actually gain traction even on my blog sharing about my personal experience and loss and weakness. God used that, so, I'm really grateful.   Laura Dugger: (3:36 - 3:45) That's incredible to get just a little picture of that journey, and can you update us with your kids' ages now as of today?   Jessica Smartt: (3:45 - 3:59) Yes, so, I have a 16-year-old boy. Last week we were visiting college, and that is very weird, and then a 14-year-old boy and an 11-year-old daughter.   Laura Dugger: (4:00 - 4:19) Okay, wonderful. So, regardless of what phase we're in as parents, do you have any recommendations for questions that we can begin to ask ourselves so that we can take inventory and get real about our capacity and our health and our gifts?   Jessica Smartt: (4:20 - 7:00) Right, yes, so, in Come on Home, that's kind of how I kick it off because I say, you know, you can't have the family that if in order to have the family you want or the home you want, you have to be honest about what you actually have and what you're starting with, and so, part of that is taking inventory of yourself and your life, and that's not something we often stop to do in the chaos and busyness, so, I asked what your capacity is and really just trying to help mom just think through preaching to myself here, like all the things that are on our plate, and is there something on our plate that the Lord maybe is not calling us to or that doesn't correlate and match to what our really core values are in life, and those are hard questions to ask, but they actually bring a lot of relief to just be honest with yourself about what's happening in your life and coming before the Lord and saying, you know, I'd literally say, like, make a list of all the things that you're doing and look at it and see if you should take any off, and the list is, you know, stunningly long for a lot of us, but yeah, so, that's just capacity, just kind of thinking through where we are and what we actually have the bandwidth to do, and then I talk about health and actually asking, like, your husband, if you're married, you know, how would you like me to care for myself better? What's one thing that you like when I do? And a lot of times I think we're really surprised when we hear the things they appreciate or what they'd like us to do, and they might just be giving us a really wonderful gift to go invest in an area in our life that we've been overlooking. So, and then gifts, that's a really fun one, too, because I'm not you and you're not me, and we're not the listeners, but God has uniquely equipped all of us to be the mom and the homemaker, you know, in our particular callings.   So, saying, like, are you a good organizer? Are you, you know, the fun mom, right, that I wish I was and I'm not? Are you, you know, the adventurer mom? Are you the crafty mom? You know, God has given, do you cook well and, you know, enjoy that? And everybody has a gift, that you're, whether you're, you know, a soft place to land for your kids and a good listener, or you're, you know, more drill sergeant-y, like those firstborns tend to be, and that is me, so, that's why I can say that. But just thinking about, like, what skills and gifts did God give me to lead my family well? And so, that was just kind of the ground-tilling up work before you think through, like, how can we build the family that we really want with the life that we actually have and the person we really are?   Laura Dugger: (7:01 - 8:14) And I love, that was one of the aspects of the book that I just appreciated. You sprinkle all these insightful questions throughout, and it is really great to reflect on those with the Lord or with the journal or in conversation, but you're encouraging us repeatedly to get a long-term vision of this parenting journey. And so, it makes me think, my husband works with Chick-fil-A, and oftentimes he's encouraged to be careful not to just get caught up working in the business, but to pull back and work on the business, and it's actually better for everybody. And I just think as parents, we need that same reminder to kind of lift up our eyes, get a different view, and get above these urgent, incessant needs of today and look at where we're going. And I think the Bible speaks a lot to that with being prudent. And you challenge us with that long-term view to actually take an eternal view in parenting, which is inevitably going to impact how we steward our time and our decision making. So, can you speak to both of those?   Jessica Smartt: (8:16 - 10:23) Yeah, I mean, the eternal, the perspective, I think I said, you know, there's the Bible verse about you reap what you sow, and we think of it as like a cautionary warning. And it is, but it's also just a true statement of how life works, meaning what you invest in, and what you spend your time in, what you care about, what the things you're actually doing is where you're going to see growth. And so, if I am investing in my home, I'm going to see fruit in there. Now, of course, it's not a one-to-one, it's not a slot machine. So, you know, we don't know exactly what it's going to look like. And God is so, good to cover up even over the areas that we've done a bad job in. But in general, you can't expect to grow cucumbers if you've been planting tomatoes. Like what you've been planting in the ground is what's going to grow up. And so, that's just like, even though it's kind of like fancy wordy language, it's always just a good reminder to me to think like, what am I actually spending my time doing?   I want a family that, like I was a recipient of, that's warm and inviting and you want to be around. And in order to get that, like you have to plant it. And so, that's a lot of being present as a mom and which is so, hard, very hard. But I just wanted to not lay a burden on moms, but really just encourage them like, do those things that are going to reap the life you actually want in the long term.  And of course, you mentioned the word eternity, that's planning, building disciples. And so, that is a very long road. You know, you're not going to always see the fruit of that, you know, immediately. But keeping our eye on, you know, I want to raise kids that are living out the calling that God has placed on their lives and are going out into this world to be truth and light. Like, oh my goodness, so, many hard, boring conversations that you have to have, but you have to, like that's, that's part of the equation.   Laura Dugger: (10:26 - 11:35) I think that even that piece is with discipline too, which is one of my least favorite parts of parenting. I don't know if others relate to that, but a verse that I find so, encouraging is Hebrews 12:11, that "no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful later on. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." And so, I love that encouragement you're giving to a parent for the long view, and you bring up your family of origin. You write so much about this gratitude you have for your parents and something you wrote really stuck with me where you say someone was always home, both physically and metaphorically, someone was paying attention. So, Jessica, what caution do you want to share with any parents today who may be tempted to let go a little too early, a little too soon and too young, whether that's with technology or even just being physically present?   Jessica Smartt: (11:36 - 14:25) I think it's just so, important for moms and dads to receive their instructions, not from the world, but from the Lord, because the culture right now is okaying and even encouraging parenting that is not godly parenting. We have so many distractions and we are pulled towards our phones, towards our own personal growth and flourishing, which is okay. You know, of course we want us to be healthy as we just mentioned, but at the expense of the kids that God has put in our lives, that is what, that is the messaging you're going to receive from the world. If you're hanging out with people who do not have a biblical worldview, that is going to be how they're spending their time.  And it's not a judgment statement. It's just, it is an observation that they, that is not, the focus is not, I'm going to sit and, you know, maybe at one point culturally years and years ago, it really was more family oriented, but it is not anymore.  It just simply is not. And, you know, it masquerades under that as, you know, oh, we're all going to the soccer game together and we're going to go watch the gymnastics performance or whatever it is. But that, that is not always true discipling of your children.   That's kind of being present in a cursory way and not truly and really, to really pay attention and really be present with your kids is going to look vastly different than what the rest of the world is doing.  And if it doesn't, you got to check. And I, I'm saying this as absolutely of myself, you know, there are moms that are just on their phone, and I can do that as well. I've had to put in, we can talk about specifics, but I've had to put in like specific things in my, in my actual phone, you know, and in my life parameters and guidelines so that I'm not doing that. But no one in the world is going to tell you not to, that's normal to just be stuck on your phone as a mom, as a kid, whatever. And so, a like, where are you getting your voice? That's saying how to parent, who are the voices that are speaking into your life?  Are you listening to older and wiser mentors? Are you reading really good books? Are you putting yourself in the word first thing in the morning or are you just floating around with whatever culture says to do? And I don't mean to sound judgy here because I am deeply convicted even as I'm speaking this of like, am I living this? I'm not always, it's very, very hard. But I just think we first, first step is, you know, to orient yourself to the Lord and how would he have you parent?  Not what is everyone else okay with doing? Cause it's going to look very different.   Laura Dugger: (14:26 - 16:54)  Okay. I love that with kind of the emphasis on; it does require a sacrifice from us with that quality and quantity time. And it makes me think on page 38 of your book, you encourage us to take the time to know each child, helping them find their passion, abilities, gifts, and interests.  And that really does bless both the child and the parent. And now a brief message from our sponsor.   Friends, I'm excited to share with you today's sponsor, WinShape Marriage. Do you feel like you need a weekend away with your spouse and a chance to grow in your relationship together at the same time? WinShape Marriage is a fantastic ministry that provides weekend marriage retreats to help couples grow closer together in every season and stage of life. From premarital to parenting to the emptiness phase, there is an opportunity for you. WinShape Marriage is grounded on the belief that the strongest marriages are the ones that are nurtured, even when it seems things are going smoothly, so that they're stronger if they do hit a bump along their marital journey. These weekend retreats are hosted within the beautiful refuge of WinShape Retreat, perched in the mountains of Rome, Georgia, which is a short drive from Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. While you're there, you will be well fed, well nurtured, and well cared for.   During your time away in this beautiful place, you and your spouse will learn from expert speakers and explore topics related to intimacy, overcoming challenges, improving communication, and more. I've stayed on site at WinShape before, and I can attest to their generosity, food, and content. You will be so grateful you went. To find an experience that's right for you and your spouse, head to their website, winshapemarriage.org/savvy.  That's W-I-N-S-H-A-P-E marriage.org/savvy. S-A-V-V-Y.  Thanks for your sponsorship.   So, Jessica, what has this looked like in your home? And can you give us some ideas?   Jessica Smartt: (16:56 - 19:19) Yeah, I just think it is so, easy for us to have our own expectations of what our kids are, and even to speak that over them from the minute they come out of the womb, whether it's, oh, we've just pinned them as to be this, or it's something that we are, or something that we want them to be. But instead to look and see like, who is this actual child that's been created? And I thought of, you know, years and years ago, my son was like, itching to do something, you know, they get to be like nine, 10. And they start feeling like, you know, they need something other than mom in the house. And we were kind of praying about it and thinking it through. And he said, “I think I really would like to play soccer.”   And at the time, we were pretty, pretty committed into the baseball world. And I was like, no, you know, I had friendships with the parents, and we liked the coach, and we were already there. And soccer was this whole thing I didn't even know, you know, I was like, no.  And honestly, I waited for a year or two. But now my both my boys are in a semi travel league. It's not like all out driving all across the country, but they've been able to play at a higher level.  And they're doing amazing. It's clearly what they were meant to do. And I couldn't miss out on that just by being like, no, you know, that's not what you do.   Like, you know, so, just being open as a parent to really like, what are they good at? And it may not be what you thought it may not be what you are good at. My daughter loves to make a giant mess in the kitchen, giant and cook. And oh, my goodness, it is very hard for me because I'm like a keep it clean.  Don't use all the ingredients. But I've been convicted to really, you know, let her explore these gifts. I have a friend whose daughter is making these elaborate birthday cakes. I mean, like the most crazy food network kind of thing. And I saw it and thought, I know what that kitchen must have looked like when you let her do that. That was a lot of days and afternoons of you letting her waste the flour and make a big mess.  But the fruit is, it's incredible. And, so, yeah, sacrificing what we want to let them grow into, you know, and God is so, good.   Like if we don't know what it is, pray with your kid, like you, what did you, what is your thing?  What do you think God's made you to do? We, you know, need an activity. What, what, let's ask God, like what he wants you to do. I've never prayed a prayer like that that hasn't been answered and never.   Laura Dugger: (19:20 - 19:47)  Oh, that's so, good. I mean, we think of for friendship for ourselves or with our children or activities that they want to do, just hopefully that's what we keep being reminded of is bring it to the Lord rather than seeking out those voices and culture and see what his perfect plan is. But you also write an entire chapter on the power of time. So, will you share some of your applicable wisdom here?   Jessica Smartt: (19:49 - 22:15)  Yes. And you know, don't mind me while I actually get out the book, because even though you wrote it, sometimes you're like, what exactly did I say? Um, but thinking through like activities that our family has signed up for, as I mentioned, you know, I was kind of like connected in that baseball mindset.  And so, was it actually the right thing for my kids? Maybe or maybe not. And so, I talked through like at questions to ask, you know, as a husband and wife about where our family's going and what activities our kids are doing, which is a giant question today.   I don't think parents are thoughtful enough about what they're signing up for and what they're doing. And you get, you know, mid-November and your schedule is completely packed and your kids having meltdowns and you're never eating dinner together. And you're like, how did we get to this life? But it was a little bit of like, not quite following the path ahead mentally to see what it would look like. And I would just encourage anybody right now that it's not too late to rearrange, even if you have to quit something, even if it costs a deposit, even if you have to back out, like we are not as trapped as we think we are. And if you're doing something in your family that's not healthy, or, you know, it's not benefiting you stop, like no one's gonna, you know, anyway.   So, as you're thinking through activities, I talked about the interest question, which means like, is your kid actually there? Or is it like you that's kind of getting more out of this? And then I talked about the mealtime question.  And maybe we'll get to this, but family meals are so important. They really are. Even if it is, you know, not hours of sitting there with candlelight, whatever, just to have that checkpoint together. So, is your activity schedule, allowing you to uphold whatever your values are with meals? I'm not gonna tell you what they are, but is that what you want, really? And then the whole family question.   You know, I've seen a lot, and we've lived it too, of like the younger kid being getting drug around to the older talented kid's activities.  That's really a hard one, right? And so, I'm not saying don't do that. Sometimes families are gonna just look like that for seasons. But I do think it's worth stopping to say, what is it like right now to be that youngest child? What are they going through?  And am I being kind to them? You know, are there switches we can kind of make in the family? Because it's, you know, the family is not about one person and their talents. It's a holistic, healthy, functioning unit.   Laura Dugger: (22:18 - 23:21)  Absolutely. So, even, I hear you saying, evaluating, again, kind of taking inventory. What is on the family plate? How is that affecting every human in the unit of the family?  Is that taking us where we want to go? Just being, I love how you use the word thoughtful. Just being full of thoughts of this and taking it to the Lord of what's the wise thing to do. And for all of us, I think with that time question, it does lead us to the question of, who are we spending the most time with? Because that will significantly impact our lives.  It'll impact our children as well. So, do you have any other, I love those questions. Any other lessons that you've learned? I'm thinking especially related to activities and youth sports come to mind because our culture really has gone to the side of idolizing it and catering everything else around that. So, do you have any other wisdom to share on that topic?   Jessica Smartt: (23:23 - 25:48)  Yeah, I mean, I'll just share. Personally, we have decided to have our kids play at a level that is probably sub what their talent could be. And I don't know.  I guess time will tell. If they look back and they were like, mom, I really, you know, could have, but I have a hunch that they won't. I more often am seeing in my friends and stuff that it's like, they get into high school, and the kids are kind of starting to feel burnt out. Or they're like, you know, it's so, hard right now to be, I mean, not even a professional, let's say soccer player, but at college, it's like unheard of.  It's the elite, elite. And so, it's like, why are you doing this anyway?   And we've had several opportunities to compete at higher levels and try out for things that we have said no to, you know, because it would require being gone more nights, it would require tons of time in the car, it would be families away on the weekends.  So, we have some of that. I think it's important when you have boys, especially to let them have an outlet to compete as we, if you know, I homeschool as you do. And so, if you have a homeschooled teenage boy, they should probably be doing something right. So, I am not saying sit at home and, you know, play Monopoly every night as a family. But, we have chosen to prioritize other things.   And so, so far, I am super grateful for that. We had a season where we were way too busy with baseball. And it was the boys were like 10 and 12. And Monday through Thursday, one of them had a different we were never eating together Monday through Thursday, Saturdays, we were taking off different directions. I could never understand why we had to drive two hours to play a team. I'm like, there's so, many baseball players right in this neighborhood.  Can we not find a team? And God use that it's fine. But, but I don't I don't envy that season.   And I'm really grateful for some of the breathing room that we've had. And also, I would say my son, my oldest son is a gifted guitar player and singer. And he would not be able to do that. If we were 110% in one of those other sports, he would not have any time to even pursue those other interests.  You just never know. You know, I think white space and mental white space and time, I talk about this and let them be kids is so important for just developing as a person. No one flourishes well with a completely jam-packed schedule. And so, how would we expect our children to, you know, that is good.   Laura Dugger: (25:48 - 26:02)  That is so, wise. And how can we strategically connect with our kids so that they do feel seen, and known and loved and liked?   Jessica Smartt: (26:03 - 27:54)  Yes. I mean, that feels overwhelming, doesn't it? But and I talked through in the book kind of each one of those categories. But I know this is going to sound cliche, but I would just say a like recognizing that if a kid doesn't feel like you like them, they're going to notice that. And so, it doesn't matter all the extra things what you're getting them for Christmas, and where you're they're taking them if they really genuinely feel like you're kind of annoyed with them. They know that.   And that's, that's not great. So, I would say first step before you get into any practicals and pancake breakfast and all that is just like, if you are feeling that way to your kid, a don't feel guilty. It's natural.  We all have that at times. And be come before God and just say, these are the feelings I'm dealing with. Can you please help me here? And again, to quote myself, I've never prayed that prayer and it not been answered.  God has always shown up in some way. And so, often what it looks like I talk about in being liked is just like genuinely working on something that you have in common.   I think my parents did that so, well with us. And it wasn't the same thing because my siblings and I are all different. But they really worked to always find common ground and always have that relationship bucket full, right? My mom is like big on, you know, don't make too many withdrawals unless you have made a lot of deposits. And they lived that for years and years and years of pouring into us and genuinely connecting with us. So, way harder to do than to say, but that's our goal. And I do actually have a lot of specific ideas in the book of random ways you can love your kids, love languages and all of that. But yeah, asking God for help.   Laura Dugger: (27:55 - 28:09) And sometimes it's just helpful to hear what somebody else does, even if that's not exactly how it'll apply to our situation. But can you just give one example of a way that you use your child's love language, maybe both for one of your sons and your daughter?   Jessica Smartt: (28:11 - 29:33) Well, I've learned a lot about my middle child, and he loves the comfort things in life. So, if I see him struggling with school or something, I can bring him, you know, yogurt parfait or he likes coffee. So, we give our kids coffee.  Don't sue us anyway. But if I make him a cup of coffee, oh, you can just see it in his face. It's like, oh, mom loves me, you know?  He's one that even like if I go make his bed, he'll appreciate that. Not every kid is like that. But just kind of seeing and noticing the things that he likes.   That's been kind of something that we do. And then my daughter loves to tell stories, long, long stories. And I'm working so hard to not only like, I want to listen, but also, you know, teach her how to condense. Because Jordan Peterson says, don't let your kid become someone that is, you know, not pleasant to be around.  If you're struggling with something, someone else will, too. And she's an absolute delight.  I mean, truly. But so, just listening to her stories and kind of working on the art of conversation. My mom always said, play tennis, conversation tennis. So, you hit the ball, and then I hit the ball back to you. So, we're working on that, you know?   Laura Dugger: (29:35 - 30:05)  Absolutely. That reciprocity is huge. If you take turns asking questions, it reminds me, a previous guest, Jodi Berndt, had also said, in addition to that, let's also teach our children how to serve the ball. So, to initiate that, I just thought that that's so good. I'll work that in. Jessica, how can we purposefully make our home a place our family loves to be? And we do, too.   Jessica Smartt: (30:07 - 31:52) I have been learning so, much about this in this stage of life, you know, in my 40s.  And again, it's hard when you have little kids. So, I think you can probably say across the board, it's going to look different when you're raising little kids to have a warm and wonderful inviting home than it is in your later years when your kids are older, and you have more time.  But I would just challenge moms. Well, I look back and I think, if I hadn't been so, stretched thin and put unrealistic expectations on myself in other areas of life, I maybe could have invested in my home a little bit more. And the thing I have learned is that having a home that's peacefully run just reaps so, many benefits for a woman and her family.   And I am behind the curve, I feel like, on this. But as I have learned to organize my space and really pour myself into my home, not feeling like it's a waste of time to organize a pantry. It is amazing how it blesses my family.  People notice it. And it's hard to even articulate it because you wouldn't even think that if you clean out a closet, it's going to bless your family. But it really actually does.  And my husband benefits from it. He's not even like a strict, everything has to be clean. But when I've worked on something in the home, he sees it and notices it and appreciates it. So, God has just been teaching me so, much about what it looks like to really be like a homemaker, a godly homemaker and pour myself into my home. And I have reaped so much joy and peace from living out that role and calling in my life.   Laura Dugger: (31:53 - 32:23) That was one of the quotes I wrote down that observation that you made on page 142. And I'll just quote you, "when I do something to invest in our home, every single member of our family brightens." And I exactly great and you gave practical ways of how we can do that. And I also like it because it gives a little freedom because we're one of the family members too. And I think we brighten when we get that space in order.   Jessica Smartt: (32:24 - 33:06)  Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Again, back to our earlier like cultural, cultural narrative versus biblical. There's like a, there's a lot of messaging about that it doesn't matter to really invest in your home and your family. And that's just not how God made the world to operate. So, I would challenge moms that even if they are doing what the rest of everyone is doing, and it's like, ah, it looks like a bomb went off in here. Like, um, you know, that may not be how God is calling us to live with a giant disclaimer that there are seasons of life that it truly does look like a bomb went off.  And that is okay. We are doing good gospel work, raising children.   Laura Dugger: (33:07 - 33:46)  Absolutely. But then also I think Proverbs 31 sometimes gets a bad rap, but really there's a lot of freedom in it for women because it is how the Lord created us, but she does look well to the ways of her household. And I think that just summed up, she's one of the members of the household, but so is everybody else. And that's one thing that can bless everyone, but you are just full and abundant with ideas, and you have an appendix in the book full of resources to help us maintain and take care of all our responsibilities. So, will you share a few of those ideas with us?   Jessica Smartt: (33:47 - 34:46) Um, yes, I, and maybe this is my homeschool mom speaking, but I have just learned so, much from other good books. I have, it's truly changed my life just in whether it's talking about personal health or discipline or marriage or prayer or my home. So, the thing I'm really actually most proud about in the appendix is my list of recommended resources. And it's just all the books that have impacted me as a mom and also impacted my writing too.  Um, I'll, I'll mention one. I think, uh, I don't know if everyone has read A Praying Life, but that has completely transformed not only my walk with the Lord, but my prayer life.  And I've implemented, um, it's Paul Miller, I believe his idea for prayer cards. And I do that every morning. Um, it has been the sweetest thing, and I've really reaped a lot of blessing out of kind of modeling what he sets up in that book.  So, that's just one example. If you haven't read A Praying Life, you should definitely go read it.   Laura Dugger: (34:47 - 35:20)  That's awesome. And I don't know if this ties in, but I'm just remembering back one of the podcasts that I heard you speak on. You share your definition of godly self-care, and you say that it's whatever helps you do your job well and not at the sacrifice of others. So, can you elaborate with some encouragement for how we can make sure that we don't go to either side, that we don't neglect ourselves, but we also continue with this merrymaking for our family.   Jessica Smartt: (35:21 - 38:22)  Right. Yes. And, um, that definition, I always want to be like, you know, the end part about not to the sacrifice of someone else. When I had a young, I think I had two kids and my baby was six weeks old.  I had a very qualified, loving teenage girl. Watch my two kids while my husband and I left for literally an hour to go to five guys and get burgers.  And my youngest was not thrilled. He did not prefer the bottle. So, in some ways his life was unsettled for a brief moment, but that was okay. So, I think everyone knows when I say, um, you know, not to the sacrifice of everyone else.   What I'm saying is like looking at the family and certainly we shouldn't be like living this plush and well-watered life and someone else's withering away. So, it's a general statement of, you know, that it would be too far, as you said, on the extreme of, and I do think that happens honestly, because we're all self-centered.  It's not that we don't love our kids. We're just trained to care about ourselves. But many women struggle on the other side of, um, maybe neglecting some areas in their life that could truly help them to be better wives and better moms. And, um, it's a really fun activity to think like, what, how could I change my life a little bit in a way that I would be a better wife and mom.   And I'm not meaning that to justify any sort of behavior that, you know, you want to do, because you certainly could use that for almost anything. Um, but really to think like, how can I be the best mom and wife that I could possibly be? And it might mean making some, giving yourself some breathing room. And I would also encourage women to, um, one of the best uses for that time is to work on your marriage because there's direct overflow into the family. And so, best case, I gave some ideas of like family adventures that can kind of fill your cup along with everyone else. And I would say maybe next best or equal would-be husband, wife stuff where you can check out, connect, and you're overflowing and ready to enter back into family life.   And then finally things that it's certainly fine to just step out and find those things that are life giving to you, but just trying to keep an eye on, you know, how is everyone in the family doing? And there might be seasons.  I think of my mom caring for her mom who had dementia. She wasn't really well watered in that season. She was, she was quite depleted, but that's what the Lord had been calling her to do at that period of time. Um, and we often were like, mom, you've got to like, we thought she did too much, you know?  Um, but looking back, I think she really is so grateful that she laid down her life. There's not regret.  And so, I'm like, well, maybe she was right all along. I don't know.   Laura Dugger: (38:23 - 38:58)  Good though. The both and to have seasons of that, where we can refresh so, that when we go into a season where it's a little bit prior, we can be serving hopefully still from the overflow. But you also just blew me away in the book with your knowledge on roots. And the subtitle of that chapter is "recipes, relics, relatives, and other things that keep kids grounded." So, will you just teach us a little bit more about roots and share how it applies to building a strong family?   Jessica Smartt: (39:00 - 40:51)  Yes, I would like to shout out to my husband who is in the landscaping business. So, he helped me. I was like, hey, can you please give me some fun facts about roots?  And he was thrilled. But um, one thing I mentioned is that most plant problems are caused by root issues. And gosh, have I seen that in real life, like even as an adult, you notice somebody that is carrying still issues that they're working through from their childhood. And so, what a gift we're giving our kids by giving them those strong, good roots and a healthy, you know, childhood to enter into adulthood, not crippled by things, but that they can give out of strength.   And my husband and I feel like, you know, although our families of origin were not perfect, we lived that story, we were able to go out in strength, and not, you know, carrying all this emotional baggage. That's what I would like to give my kids. So, um, but then yeah, at the end, I share that the most integral roots to the plant's wellbeing are the ones right near the surface. And I thought, what a kind of cool parallel that even if we, you know, I've shared about my experience, but someone listening may not have good roots, and they really might struggle with having support and partnership. But they can give a new story to their kids. They can give them the roots that they did not have through the Lord's strength.  And I have found friends that I'm literally seeing them do it. But they are they are crippled. And you know, in therapy and dealing with all this trauma, but they're passing a different story on to their kids.  And how cool is that? I have so much admiration for that. It seems like it's something that really only can be done through the Lord's strength, but he does it. He writes those stories.   Laura Dugger: (40:51 - 41:11)  And he seems to delight in redemption stories. So, I appreciate you sharing that. And I'd love to continue kind of this idea time. Will you just share another handful of your favorite practical tips for building a strong family that are topics we haven't covered yet?   Jessica Smartt: (41:13 - 43:16) Well, I would start with one thing I have seen huge rewards is if we do sort of like a secret Santa idea, and we actually do it also before Valentine's Day and do you know, your cupids arrow, whatever, because it just changes your whole mindset when you're suddenly thinking, how can I, you know, love this person in my family, you're in a better mood.  And so, we divide up names. And then we also do like acts of service. And that is just such a fun, like low keyway to kind of get your kids to think about loving their siblings instead of being annoyed by them. We have loved doing game nights, and we're not like big game people. But finding ones that I think my encouragement would be that it doesn't have to be like this long three-hour thing.   If your family's not into that, we've done like minute to win at games that I just pulled up online.  We have a lot of games that are like, no mental stress. They're very easy, like Slopsy. If anybody has not played Slopsy, they need to pick it up. It's you could play it if you were extremely tired, which I often am at the end of the day. So, to find some like quip, there's also what do you mean family edition.  And that is a fun one. And I have some other games listed in the book too, for readers who are interested. So, those would be two. We also do like one-on-one activities with the kids. And I always thought you had to do it like really, really regularly. But I would just give the encouragement that some is better than none. And so, even if it's only a couple times a year, kids just soak that up. And it doesn't need to be, you know, this whole long thing, it could be like, hey, you need some new winter pants. Let's get a Chick-fil-A milkshake beforehand. You know, just to kind of keep your eyes open for those activities and opportunities.   Laura Dugger: (43:17 - 43:47)  Guess what? We are no longer an audio only podcast. We now have video included as well. If you want to view the conversation each week, make sure you watch our videos. We're on YouTube and you can access videos or find answers to any of your other questions about the podcast when you visit thesavvysauce.com. Can you also share this genius idea about something that you put on the notes app of your phone?   Jessica Smartt: (43:48 - 44:50)  Yeah, so, I talked about the power of stories. Kids love hearing stories from our, you know, youth or young adulthood or even, you know, married years, whatever. So, I got in the habit of sharing a story with my daughter before bed. And of course, at night, you aren't always on your A game. So, I just have a note app on my phone to track different things that I might want to tell her. And my encouragement was that it doesn't need to be, we think it needs to be like this long, significant story, but even just little tidbits of things she has been delighted to hear over and over. You know, just like a passing, you know, anecdote that didn't seem to me to be too pregnant with meaning, but she just ate it up and loved hearing about all of the different things. So, yeah, that was just again, it didn't cost a lot. It's not hard, but just a little thing that kind of connected us and also connected her to a deeper sense of like, here's your roots of the people that raised you.   Laura Dugger: (44:53 - 45:36) I loved that idea because my daughters or our daughters will just catch us off guard and say, hey, share a story about us share a story about when you were little or when I was little. And so, I love your system that you have in place that when that idea comes to me, I can jot it down. And then when they ask unexpectedly, I'm prepared.  So, thought that was wonderful. And you've written an entire book on memories. So, I'll link to our previous episode where we talk about that.  And we dove into that topic. But you've updated your ideas in this book and come up with the most epic list of memory making ideas ever. So, could you just share a couple of those to give us a taste of what you include?   Jessica Smartt: (45:37 - 46:43) Yes, so, I think my favorite was at the end the chapter talking about surprises because I love the idea of surprising your kid. And when I talked about when I was little, my grandparents showed up at our school in their RV to take us camping. So, just thinking through like just different, a lot of those are like the big, you know, birthday or vacation or Christmas gifts. But even if you did it just one time, that's like a that can be like a core memory in you know, your kid's life.   When I was researching this, for the appendix, I reached out to a lot of my readers, and they had the most fun ideas of just creative family memory making things. And one that I remembered that I thought, I don't know if I have the guts to do this, but I think that this family came up with it during COVID. So, they were a little bit bored, and they packed a picnic and went to a stop sign. And when they got to one, they would roll a dice to see which direction they would turn until they ended up at a good picnic spot. She said it was harder than you would think.   Laura Dugger: (46:45 - 47:02)  That's hilarious. I love the creativity and that element of surprise. That is so, good. Well, I hope that everybody goes out to get a copy of your amazing book. But where else would you want to direct us to connect online after this chat?   Jessica Smartt: (47:03 - 47:15)  Yeah, definitely come say hi on Instagram. I'm Jessica Smartt with two Ts. And you can tell me what you enjoyed about our conversation. And I'm usually every so, often we'll check the messages, but I do get back to you.   Laura Dugger: (47:16 - 47:34)  Love it. We'll add links to that in the show notes for today's episode. And Jessica, you're already familiar that we're called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical. And so, my final question for you today, what is your savvy sauce?   Jessica Smartt: (47:36 - 48:09)So, what has changed my life, I really think is, and this isn't like the most exciting thing, but walking every single day, and I walk with my weighted vest. So, I look like every other 40-year-old woman that is out there. We have a little trail around our farm. So, I, it's, I honestly have like seen so, much change in my mental health and physical health. And I know they say that on all of these, you know, resources and stuff. And I never thought it was true. But it really has changed my life just to walk every day.   Laura Dugger: (48:11 - 52:21)  Amen, sister, I totally agree with that. That is so, well said. You are just a brilliant and faithful and godly and humble woman. You're gifted with your communication with your words in this conversation and in the books that you've shared with the world.  And I am just so grateful for you, Jessica. Thank you so much for being my guest today.  Well, thank you for those kind words.   One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

Gospel Luke 4:24-30 Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away. Reflection When the people of Nazareth realized that Jesus had a gift, he spoke with authority and they recognized him as the young boy that grew up in their midst, and he was even by many, considered to be illegitimate. So they didn't have any way of accepting the uniqueness that he displayed. And their response was anger, because he simply said, You aren't listening to me. It's interesting how anger can be a response to a criticism when we're afraid of what it's demanding of us. Jesus demands we change. And when we are seeing in Scripture ourselves being examples of what we shouldn't be, we need to receive it generously, and open hearted desiring to change. Closing Prayer Father, our daily lives are often filled with situations where we are criticizing ourselves or being criticized by others, and let us always have an open heart to that. Make sure that we listen to see if there's any truth in that criticism and not be like the people of Nazareth who became angry and attacked the one who brought the criticism to light. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260309dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 If You Knew Knowledge is power. When you know a problem, you can address it. When you have the background of a situation, you are better equipped to assess it and react appropriately. Proper education and training are essential for achieving objectives and goals within a given field. One day, Jesus was talking to a woman in a village he was passing through. She had not met him before. Both his ethnicity and his gender as a Jewish man would have made a public conversation between the two of them culturally inappropriate at that time. But Jesus was willing to work past those cultural norms. He began the conversation by asking her for a drink of water. When she responded with surprise and suspicion, what he said got her attention even more: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” “If you knew…” But she didn’t. To her, Jesus was just a bold Jewish rabbi. But he was so much more. He was the Son of God who gave physical water its qualities that are so important for life. He was the Messiah, who came from God to quench the needs of thirsty souls with his grace, mercy, and forgiving love. He was the only one who could solve her deepest need and ours. Jesus wants us to know him, too. When we know who he is, we eagerly come to him with every need of our thirsty souls, knowing that he will meet each one. He already has. By taking our sins on himself, he set us free from guilt. By giving his life for us, he rescued us from death. By rising from the dead, he gave us eternal life with him. No need is too great for him. In the Bible, Jesus invites you to get to know him better. Then, knowing how he loves to bless you, turn to him in every time of need. Prayer: Dear Jesus, lead me to your Word to know you better and, knowing you, to come to you for every blessing. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

For part 12 of 12 on “What is the Nicene Creed?” we unpack these lines:"We look for the resurrection of the dead,and the life of the world to come.Amen."**cues up "The Final Countdown" by Europe**So... what is the world to come? What does it have to do with the resurrection of the dead? +++Like what you hear? We are an entirely crowd-sourced, you-funded project. SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/AndAlsoWithYouPodcastThere's all kinds of perks including un-aired live episodes, Zoom retreats, and mailbag episodes for our Patreons!+++Our Website: https://andalsowithyoupod.comOur Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andalsowithyoupodcast/++++MERCH: https://www.bonfire.com/store/and-also-with-you-the-podcast/++++More about Father Lizzie:BOOK: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/762683/god-didnt-make-us-to-hate-us-by-rev-lizzie-mcmanus-dail/RevLizzie.comhttps://www.instagram.com/rev.lizzie/https://www.tiktok.com/@rev.lizzieJubilee Episcopal Church in Austin, TX - JubileeATX.org ++++More about Mother Laura:https://www.instagram.com/laura.peaches/https://www.tiktok.com/@mother_peachesSt. Paul's Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, PA++++Theme music:"On Our Own Again" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).New episodes drop Mondays at 7am EST/6am CST! 

While most termites look for food underground or in mud tunnels they build over dead wood, some are literally farmers, cutting and storing hay.Many termites will go about in the dark of night chewing off pieces of wood that are taken back to their nest. In the nest the wood is stored or cured before being eaten. Some termites cannot digest the wood, so they keep underground gardens of fungi that break the wood down for them so they can digest it. But in any case, most termites never see the light of day—or even the darkness of night.But there is one species of African termite that seeks its food in the open. This termite lives in large, dome‑shaped mounds that cover a huge radiating network of tunnels. On warm nights, the termites leave their nest and go out onto the open grasslands looking for dry clumps of grass. When they find one, as many as 5,000 individuals cover the clump, each one chewing the grass into thin, half‑inch‑long strips to be carried back to the nest. The grass is stored underground as the termites build up a food supply to get them through the winter.But this African termite's habit of harvesting and storing food for winter is one that humans supposedly did not evolve until only recently in their supposed evolutionary history. How can anyone believe that termites could figure out how to harvest and store food before humans did? Even the termite tells us we were created.Proverbs 6:6-8"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."Prayer: Dear Lord, I thank You that Your creation is filled with so much intelligence. Take my intelligence into Your service, refine it, and make me better able to witness Your truth and love in Jesus Christ to those around me. Amen.Image: Macrotermes bellicosus minor soldier, ETF89, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

From “In the Beginning” to Amen // How to Put on Your Socks 1.    How do I think about my place with God?Numbers 6:22-26 (ESV)“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying,Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,The Lord bless you and keep you;The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.'” 2.    How do we handle extenuating circumstances?Numbers 9:9-14 (ESV)“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it. But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the Lord's offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native.'” 3.    How do we handle insecurity?Numbers 12:1-2, 10, 15-16 (ESV)“Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it… When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow… So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.  After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.'” 4.    How do we handle a husband's jealousy?Numbers 5:27-28 (ESV)“And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.”

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Our shout-out today goes to Drew Amey from Roanoke, VA. Thanks for your partnership in Project23. We cannot do this without donors like you. Our text today is 1 Corinthians 8:4-6. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "an idol has no real existence," and that "there is no God but one." For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. — 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 We live in a world that tells us we can believe anything, affirm everything, and submit to nothing. Our culture celebrates pluralism—not just diversity of people, but diversity of moral authorities. Competing visions of truth, justice, and identity coexist, each claiming legitimacy and demanding allegiance. Corinth felt the same pressure. It was a city shaped by migration, trade, and constant cultural exchange. Many gods were named. Many lords were honored. Many systems promised meaning and belonging. Paul does not deny this reality. He acknowledges it. "There are many so-called gods and many lords." But then he draws a decisive line. "Yet for us…" That small phrase changes everything. Paul is not arguing that other belief systems do not exist. He is arguing that they do not rule. For followers of Christ, allegiance is not divided. Truth is not negotiated. Authority is not shared. There is one God, the Father—from whom all things come and for whom we exist. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ—through whom all things were made and through whom we live. This is not religious narrowness. It is moral clarity based on the truth of God's Word and revelation. A pluralistic world suggests that multiple systems can define good and evil simultaneously. That identity is self-determined. That justice is endlessly adjustable. That truth evolves with culture. These systems—political, ideological, and moral—do not merely offer opinions. They demand allegiance and thus worship. Paul's point is simple and unavoidable: you can live among many belief systems, but you cannot live under many lords. That is why participation in them is never neutral. What you permit, endorse, normalize, or excuse motions allegiance—whether you intend it or not. Food sacrificed to idols was never just about food. It was about communicating or indicating loyalty or misunderstood loyalty. Jesus does not offer coexistence with rival authorities. He offers coherence. In him, creation, truth, love, justice, and freedom hold together. He does not compete for lordship—he defines Lord and Lordship. In a morally fragmented world, the answer is not retreat or rage. It is allegiance. One God. One Lord. One allegiance. DO THIS: Identify one belief, habit, or cultural pressure that subtly competes for your allegiance and intentionally place it under the authority of Christ. ASK THIS: 1. Where am I tempted to divide my allegiance between Jesus and cultural values? 2. What systems most shape my sense of justice, identity, or truth? 3. How does Jesus' lordship clarify the choices I make? PRAY THIS: Father, I confess how easily my allegiance drifts. Anchor my heart in You alone. Teach me to live under one Lord, one truth, and one authority—Jesus Christ. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Be Thou My Vision"

Daily Dose of Hope March 9, 2026   Scripture:  Romans 3   Prayer:  Everlasting Father, We thank you that you are a God of hope.  You are a God who keeps his promises.  You are a God who always has our best interest in mind.  Forgive us for those times that we want things to go the way we want things to go.  Fill us with your wisdom and discernment.  Help us try to think about things from a more eternal perspective.  How difficult that is for us!  Lord, we submit to you our lives, our families, our jobs, our burdens, our physical bodies.  We give them to you and we trust you.  In Your Name, Amen. Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church daily Bible reading.  My prayer for each of you is that as we move through this season of Lent, you will make plenty of time to read, interpret, and pray over the Scripture.  What is God teaching you through Paul's letters?  We have now reached Romans, which I think is fascinating but one of the most difficult of Paul's letters to understand.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  What is God teaching you?  What are you gleaning?   Today's reading is Romans 3.  Paul continues to discuss the sinfulness of human beings.  No one is righteous, no matter one's religious upbringing (Jew vs. non-Jew), occupation, or station in life; every single person is a sinner.  It sounds a bit hopeless but Paul is leading up to something very important.  Yes, all people are sinners and all people fall short of God's standard BUT we can be saved through the gift of grace that comes with believing in Jesus Christ.  It's pretty incredible really.  We are all a broken mess.  We are born inclined to sin and this sinfulness creates a barrier between God and us.  But Jesus' sacrifice on the cross atoned for our sins.    What in the world does that mean?  When Jesus died on the cross, our sins and the sins of all humanity died up there with him.  If you think back to the Old Testament sacrificial system, the priests would sacrifice animals to atone for the sins of the people and the community.  And the people could not sacrifice their sick and lame animals, only the strong, healthy ones.  They needed to feel the sacrifice.  And then, the animal's blood was shed to demonstrate that sin has consequences.  It wasn't pretty at all but it wasn't supposed to be.  Now, Jesus is the final, perfect sacrifice.  It was his blood that was shed to atone for the sins of all people, for all time.    Let's go just a little deeper here.  As God himself, Jesus was holy and totally without sin.  He gave his life to be the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.  His death on the cross created a bridge between God and us.  No more barrier.  If we have said yes to Jesus, then when God looks at us, he doesn't see our sinfulness but rather Jesus' sacrifice.  The blood of Jesus essentially covers us or atones for us.   Now, because of Jesus' sacrifice, we are free to walk hand in hand with a holy God.  And we did nothing to earn this or deserve it.  As Paul writes, it was a gift of grace.  Grace is God's unmerited, amazing love that is freely given to all those who believe.    How have you experienced God's grace?   Blessings, Pastor Vicki    

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260309dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 If You Knew Knowledge is power. When you know a problem, you can address it. When you have the background of a situation, you are better equipped to assess it and react appropriately. Proper education and training are essential for achieving objectives and goals within a given field. One day, Jesus was talking to a woman in a village he was passing through. She had not met him before. Both his ethnicity and his gender as a Jewish man would have made a public conversation between the two of them culturally inappropriate at that time. But Jesus was willing to work past those cultural norms. He began the conversation by asking her for a drink of water. When she responded with surprise and suspicion, what he said got her attention even more: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” “If you knew…” But she didn’t. To her, Jesus was just a bold Jewish rabbi. But he was so much more. He was the Son of God who gave physical water its qualities that are so important for life. He was the Messiah, who came from God to quench the needs of thirsty souls with his grace, mercy, and forgiving love. He was the only one who could solve her deepest need and ours. Jesus wants us to know him, too. When we know who he is, we eagerly come to him with every need of our thirsty souls, knowing that he will meet each one. He already has. By taking our sins on himself, he set us free from guilt. By giving his life for us, he rescued us from death. By rising from the dead, he gave us eternal life with him. No need is too great for him. In the Bible, Jesus invites you to get to know him better. Then, knowing how he loves to bless you, turn to him in every time of need. Prayer: Dear Jesus, lead me to your Word to know you better and, knowing you, to come to you for every blessing. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Monday, 9 March 2026   and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.” And they were exceedingly sorrowful. Matthew 17:23   “‘and they will kill Him and the third day, He will rouse.' And they distressed exceedingly” (CG).   In the previous verse, Jesus told the disciples that He was about to be betrayed into the hands of men. The thought continues with, “and they will kill Him.”   The words are plain enough, and one would think they would be taken at face value. However, the human mind can make up many excuses for wording that we don't like, understand, or wish to come about. The same word, apokteinó, is used metaphorically as well as literally. Paul uses it in a metaphorical sense in Romans, 2 Corinthians, and Ephesians. For example –   “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.” Romans 7:11   Therefore, it may be that the disciples justified a figurative meaning in their minds as a way of denying the reality of the words Jesus presented to them. As for those words, they continue with, “and the third day, He will rouse.”   Again, we now know the words mean He will resurrect. But the word egeiró simply means to arouse. For example –   “And Joseph, having thoroughly aroused [egeiró] from the sleep, did as the messenger of the Lord he commanded him, and he received his wife.” Matthew 1:24 (CG).   For all we know, they may have thought Jesus was referring to something figurative, like being beaten into a coma and then coming out of it on the third day. Whatever was on their minds, Matthew next records, “And they distressed exceedingly.”   This sounds like they got it and understood Jesus' words, but that is not the case. Mark says, “But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him” (Mark 9:32). Luke is a little wordier, but his note agrees with that of Mark. Whatever was on their minds, it was enough to distress them, but they were confused as to its true meaning.   Life application: It is said, “hindsight is 20/20.” The meaning is that once something is done, we can look back on what happened in regard to some matter and understand with perfect clarity what took place, as if we have 20/20 vision.   However, before the event occurs, we don't have that clarity. Thus, to say “hindsight is 20/20” is a way of alleviating feelings of stupidity on our part for not seeing how something seemingly so obvious would come about.   It is also a way of refuting arrogant attitudes of someone who claims he is smarter than you because he was able to do something after an event that someone else could not do before the event. In other words, “Yeah, you got that right, but only because hindsight is 20/20.” The implication is that the person would not have gotten it in advance either.   And although the saying is usually true, it is not always the case. We have the written record of Jesus' incarnation, His ministry, His death on the cross, His resurrection, and His ascension. It is all written down plainly and without muddied waters to obscure any of it. And yet, the following points are true. Various people who say they believe the Bible:   Do not accept God's incarnation, thus denying the deity and/or humanity of Jesus. Do not accept that His ministry is the end of the law. Do not accept that He actually died. Do not accept that He physically rose and came out of the tomb. Deny the ascension to the right hand of God, including sitting in the position of all power and authority in heaven and on earth. These are all clearly and explicitly recorded in Scripture. And yet, there are innumerable denials of these and related truths within the greater umbrella of “Christianity.”   God was there at the creation, having given us a record of the event. And yet, some Christians deny a literal six-day creation. God was there at the flood of Noah, having given us a record of the event. And yet, some Christians deny that a literal flood took place.   The list goes on and on. If we take the Bible literally and in proper context, we will have 20/20 vision regarding what God has done, is doing, and is going to do concerning what is recorded. And yet, we deny these fundamental truths.   What a sad existence we live when we claim we are a part of the body of Christ and yet we deny the very source of what explains what that body signifies. Let us grow up to maturity, accepting the word of God and allowing it to renew our thinking in regard to what it proclaims.   Lord God, thankfully, You don't condition our salvation on accepting all that You have said in Your word. If You did, there would be many fewer souls on the highway to heaven. However, how displeasing it must be to You when we arrogantly dismiss what Your word says. Help us to consider Your word, accepting it as it is written. To Your glory! Amen.  

“Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” — Genesis 21:18 God is faithful beyond our ability to think or imagine.Some years earlier, Sarah (formerly Sarai) had come up with a plan to produce an heir for Abraham (formerly Abram). Her scheme was outside of God's plan (Genesis 16-17), but she decided to try it anyway. She gave her servant, Hagar, to Abram to see if she could have a child for her. Hagar conceived, and her child was named Ishmael. At first, Sarah saw the birth of Ishmael as a good thing, but that became a threat when her own son, Isaac, was born. So Sarah decided to remove that threat. Despite the protests of Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away. They wandered aimlessly in the desert, but God provided for them and promised to raise up Ishmael into a nation also.Have you ever tried to limit God's faithfulness to include only certain people or those who act in a certain way? In the Bible, God shows that his plans and purposes go beyond our expectations.At many funerals I have conducted over the years, I have often stated this biblical truth: “God is more faithful and just than we can ever imagine.” This can be a comfort to people who wonder about God and may also fear for their loved ones who have died. In such moments I often think of a teenager (Ishmael) and his distraught mother, who found that God was with them—in ways beyond our imagining. Lord, thank you for your surprising faithfulness and care. Open our eyes to the ways you are continually at work in our lives —and far beyond. In Jesus' name, Amen.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” - Philippians 4:6 Listen to other great sleep mediations on Amen.Sign up for a 7-day free trial of Formed.Support this podcast and the Augustine Institute by becoming a member of the Mission Circle. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of DTWOL... Equipped? we will explore how the only true God equips His disciples—not through self-effort or human wisdom, but through His living and active Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:8) We'll be diving into 2 Timothy 3:16–17, as we see how Scripture teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains His disciples so we may be adequate and equipped for every good work.We examine why God's Word is essential for discipleship, how reproof and correction are expressions of God's love, and how training in righteousness forms faithful disciples over time. This episode reminds us that being “equipped” is not about becoming impressive, but about being prepared—formed by God's Word, guided by His Spirit, and confident in the identity God has already given us in Jesus, amen?God's Word: Acts 1:8; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Timothy 4:5; Ephesians 2:10; Philippians 2:13Additional Scripture references are woven throughout the Godcast and can be gleaned from the full transcript. Amen?Email: walkingtheway3@gmail.com

“He Is” Series Day #1 Elohim (God as Creator) Genesis1:1 “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” Welcome to He Is, a devotional journey through the names of God. So often we focus on what we need from God — peace, provision, healing, direction. But in this series, we're going to shift our focus to who He is. Because when we truly know His name, we begin to trust His heart. Over the Next month or so, we'll explore the powerful names of God found in Scripture — from Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, to El Roi, the God who sees us — and allow each name to renew our faith and anchor our identity in Him. Lateley I have been hearing people mention the various names for God. It is not new for me to hear things like, God is our provider or God is our healer. However, I have been hearing people use the Hebrew and Greek names for the Lord. These are new to me. I have heard a few before, but I didn't realize there were so many. The other day, I heard someone mention a few of the names, and I felt in my heart that I was supposed to do a series on them in case others haven't heard of them either. The more we know about God, the closer we can get to Him. If we don't know God, if we don't know all of Him, then how can we trust Him? How can we be in a close relationship with Him if we don't know who He is? I pray that at the end of this series, you know more about God and who He really is. I pray you learn more about God than you did before. I pray this series not only blesses you, but transforms your view of God and our relationship with Him! Elohim is the first name for God given in the Bible. It was given in the very beginning when describing how God created everything. Today's verse is, “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.” However, that chapter goes into much more detail about all things God created in those first few days. God spoke the entire universe into existence. He thought of light and darkness. He thought of land and water. He thought of animals for the land and for the sea. He thought of days and nights and the sun and the moon. He thought of everything. I invite you to take a moment and think about your life. Think about how much detail went into creating the life you have now. Imagine how many things had to line up in order for you to have your parents. Imagine all the things that lined up so you could go to the school you went to or have the job that you have. When I take a moment to look at my life, I think about all the ways God was creating the life that I have now. In high school, I dated a guy whom I thought I would marry. I wanted to go to school in New Jersey to be close to where he was. However, I ended up going to school in Connecticut because I couldn't afford the school in New Jersey. I ended up breaking up with my high school boyfriend two years later. Then my roommate was taking ROTC classes at UCONN. They had a bring-a-friend day, and that is where I met the man I would marry. God knew what He was creating. When Tony and I got married, we had to move away from family because he was in the military. We both agreed that once he was done with his four-year commitment, then we would get out of the military, unless we both wanted to stay in. Which we both agreed was unlikely. Then, 4 years turned into 15 years before we finally moved back close to family. It turns out God knew what He was doing, and we both loved moving to new places, meeting new people, and exploring different parts of the world. God is an amazing creator. He can orchestrate things we never would have thought of. He can work with you to create the most amazing life you can dream of. He can create jobs you didn't even know existed. I was just listening to a podcast this morning about a couple who started doing TikTok videos as a spur-of-the-moment decision. Now the husband has quit his full-time job, they make money from their videos, and they're taking on other adventures they never would have thought of before. When you look at this couple on paper, they do not look like they would fit together at all. She has ADHD, and he has autism. He had a steady job for over 20 years, and she bounced from job to job. He has had 2 divorces and two children with two different moms. She has had numerous relationships with men and women that have never worked out. Even when they talk about their relationship, they talk about how it doesn't make sense on paper. They are two very different people. Yet God helped them create a beautiful life together. They have learned so much about each other and how they function best. They have gone into business together, making these videos, and have written a book or two. Things are really good with them. I do want to say one thing that I think we tend to overlook a lot. God did create a beautiful life for me and Tony and for this couple and for so many others. However, that doesn't mean we go through life perfectly without any problems. God didn't say we wouldn't struggle; He said he would be there with us through the struggle. So, Tony and I still argue with each other, we still argue with our kids, and we still struggle with life at times. Yet, we know God is here with us to help us through it. The same is true for you. When you look at your life and you wonder why you might be struggling, remember that God is with you in your struggle. Try to find the amazing things about your life. Try to focus on the good instead of the bad. If all you see are the bad things in your life, then pray to Elohim. Pray to God to create more of whatever you feel you are missing in your life. Do you need Him to create more joy, more fun, more adventure, more love, more peace? Whatever it is, ask Him for it. Ask Him to help you create the life you have been dreaming of, the life you have always wanted. God is an amazing creator. If he can create the entire world in 7 days, I think He can make some magic happen in your life as well. All we need to do is ask. Dear Elohim, please bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are the creator of all things good. You are the reason we have what we have. Thank you, Lord! Thank you for our families, friends, and all those in our lives. Lord, help us to create the life we want to live. Help us to create a life full of all the things you have put in our hearts. Help us to remember to come to you first, Lord! Help us to remember that you are always there with us and that you are the creator of all! We love you, and we ask this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! God is on your side and we are both rooting for you! Have a blessed day! Today's Word from the Lord was received in September 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My children, I know you listen. I know you hear me. Don't turn your back on me when I tell you something to do. Do it. It'll turn out right, because I am in it. And I have commanded it.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

This week Arlo looks for adventure through the telescope in his lighthouse! He is hoping to learn about someone new today. Will learn with the help of his friend Kelby the octopus? Let's find out!For more great stories and things to do, head to Saddlebackkids.comAnd to see the video version of Happy Harbor, check out our youtube channel!Parents, there's plenty for you too at Saddlebackparents.com, and don't forget to subscribe to the On Purpose Parents podcast from Saddleback Parents.Talk It OverThe Parable Of The Lost SheepHey parents! Use these questions as a guide to talk over this week's lesson about The Parable of the Lost Sheep with your child after they've listened to the episode!Who was today's Bible story about?Jesus.A man had 100 sheep. What sound does a sheep make?Baa.Uh-oh. What happened when he lost one of his sheep?He looked and looked all around to find it. Let's play peek-a-boo! You can pretend to be the sheep and I'll cover my eyes then find you. Ready? Peek-a-boo sheep!How did the man feel when he finally found the lost sheep?He was happy! He asked everyone to come celebrate. Let's jump and clap our hands and celebrate, too.Take some time to pray with your toddler. Encourage your toddler to sit with you and fold their hands, saying something like:God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for making us. Thank you for wanting to be our friend. Thank you that you will take care of us. We love you! Amen!Parent Encouragement - The Parable of the Lost SheepHey parents! Here's something for you to be encouraged by and get ideas to bring this Bible story into your everyday conversation with your child at home!DownloadCraft – I-Spy BagIn this craft, your toddler will make an I-Spy bag filled with hidden items from the Bible story. As they look for the items in their bag, they will be reminded that the shepherd looked for the sheep. He loved the sheep, and God loves us!DownloadActivity – Balloon SheepIn this activity, your toddler will have fun as they find all of the sheep like the shepherd found his lost sheep in our Bible story. The shepherd loved his sheep, and God loves us!DownloadColoring Page - The Parable of the Lost SheepWe have a variety of coloring pages to help your child remember familiar faces from this month's lesson!DownloadNavigating Parenthood: Step Up Hey parents! Saddleback Parents has great training, tips, and tools to help you win. Check out part 2 of this Two Minute Tip series all about how we can help our kids hold onto faith.Download

Year A – Third Sunday in Lent– March 8, 2026 Pastor Megan Floyd Exodus 17:1-7 John 4:1-42 Grace and peace to you from God and the Holy Spirit, and from Jesus Christ, who is truly the Savior of the world. Amen. *** Many… many years ago, Bill and I had the privilege of attending my friend's wedding… she and her partner got married in the Valley of Fire in the Grand Canyon… at sunset. It was… spectacular!   Our little party was delivered to this magical location on helicopters, which flew us through the Canyon, across the incredible landscape that just… stretched on for as far as I could see.   As we flew, the walls of the Canyon were on either side of us, and yet, my brain couldn't make sense of the scale. Then the pilot pointed out a little dark spec that was way under us… he said, "That's the other helicopter."   Those four words… radically changed my perspective. I mean… sure, I could see that the place was well worth the title of 'Grand,' …but suddenly, 'Grand' couldn't even contain the full scope of where we were.   Nothing could… I don't think there is any word in our language that can truly encapsulate the landscape… the magnitude… of what we call… The Grand Canyon.   And the same is true… about God's love.   God's love is so grand… so deep and wide and never ending… that we bump up against the same inability to fully wrap our minds around the full scope… the full scale of what it really means… that God so loved the world.   On that helicopter… I didn't even begin to understand how big that landscape was until the pilot showed me what it meant… until he gave me a new perspective and showed me how Grand it really was.   And that's what's happening in our text today… Jesus is showing the disciples what it means… that God so loved the world.   Telling them isn't going to be enough… he must show them… which is why it was necessary for them to go through Samaria. Verse 4.   Our translation reads, "But he had to go through Samaria." …the Greek word is stronger than that, though… It was 'necessary' …it was imperative that he go through Samaria.   Why? …they were traveling north from Judea to Galilee… and Samaria is between those two places. But, as the text points out… something that everyone at the time would have understood… very clearly… the Jews and the Samaritans do not associate with each other.   It was an ancient family feud… they have the same ancestors… but different theology around the critical question of… where is God found?   For the Jewish people, God was found in the Temple in Jerusalem… in the Holy of Holies. That's where they went to worship.   For the Samaritans, God was found high on the top of Mount Gerizim. That's where they went to worship.   They had other differences as well, but this was the most pressing theological question of their time... the question that went back to the time of Moses, in the wilderness of Sin, when they were dying of thirst… Where is God? Is the Lord among us or not?   These are heavy questions… and modern denominations have split apart for less.   So, to avoid the tension and the feud, Jewish people traveling from Judea to Galilee would have taken the road that ran along the Jordan River Valley. They would not have climbed through the mountains of Samaria.   So why… why was it necessary for them to go through Samaria?   It was necessary… because Jesus needed to show his disciples the full scale and scope of his ministry… he needed to give them a new perspective.   Jesus needed to challenge their assumptions about who is in and who is out… he needed to widen their understanding of what sort of people Jesus was seeking… about whom he loved.   So he took them to the very place they would have assumed was excluded. Samaria.   Jesus needs to go there to find his first witness… he needs to find her… the unnamed, unmarried, powerless, Samaritan woman… discarded or widowed five times over… now living with the brother of her late husband in a Levirate marriage.   She is a nobody… an outsider among religious outsiders… visiting the well when no one else would have been there… at the hottest… and brightest time of the day.   Remember what I said about day and night in the Gospel of John?   She's there when the sun is at its brightest… and with this woman… Jesus proceeds to have the longest recorded conversation that he has with anybody… in any of the four gospels.   It was necessary for him to go through Samaria… to find… her.   Now, like anyone who talks to Jesus, she doesn't fully understand him at first, but she sticks with it… and she trusts him with her truth.   So, in response to her faith and her growing understanding around the coming Messiah… he shares his truth… He is… the I AM… the Great I AM… the same I AM from the burning bush and Moses…   I know our translation says that Jesus replies, "I am he" …but that's just added grammar for verbal flow. Jesus' response to her is only… I AM. …and his statement holds the power and weight of all the other I AM statements.   He reveals his true identity to her… before any of the disciples figured it out. And in her joy, she left her water jar at the well to run to share the good news with her neighbors…   She told them of her experience… of her encounter with this man… she shared her wondering… "He cannot be the Messiah, can he?"   And she invited them to come and see… come and meet him… come, and hear from him yourself. She shared her witness… her testimony… and then invited them to come and experience him for themselves.   And because of her witness, her town became followers of Jesus… and were the first to recognize that he was truly… the Savior of the world.   This… out-of-the-way place… in Samaria.   Its… incredible. And this is only chapter four! Jesus hasn't hardly done anything yet!   He was identified by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God, come to take away the sin of the world. …then he called his first disciples…   …and they enjoyed a party at the Wedding at Cana, where, thanks to some strong encouragement from his mother, Mary, Jesus ensured there would be plenty of the very best wine for the happy couple and their guests.   After that, Jesus went to the Temple, where he… caused a scene. The other gospels have this Temple scene happening at the end of his ministry.   John, however, has it at the beginning… it gives Jesus quite the reputation.   And then Nicodemus came to visit him… at night. That's really all that has happened until this point, when he started heading back to Galilee and said it was necessary for them to go through Samaria.   Jesus was still seeking someone he could entrust his identity to… so he went to find this woman.   She taught the disciples… as she teaches us… how to be a witness… how to share our stories of encounter with God… with our Savior, Jesus Christ.   We don't need to fully understand every moment of meaning… only that meeting Jesus is to encounter God… the Holy Spirit… the Divine among us… and to be in relationship with him brings salvation.   We don't have to convince others… Jesus can do that… we just need to invite people to come and see… come and encounter a love so pure and inclusive, that it's hard to wrap our minds around.   Jesus was also seeking to demonstrate to his disciples… to give them a new perspective of just how grand God's love really was.   He needed to push all the boundaries and prejudices they held… and choose the most unlikely person to be the first one with whom he shared his truth.   She was his first witness… the first evangelist… starting the first church… first worshipping community… who understood that the answer to the most pressing theological question of their time… Where is God?   …that the answer was, God is with us, wherever we are.   Jesus needed to give them all some perspective… and we still need that today.   We like to draw boundaries… we like to know who's in and who's out… We like to think that this is all something we can fully wrap our minds around and have some certainty about it. …especially when it comes to God's approval… and God's love.   But it's hard to hold that kind of scope and scale in our minds… so we need this constant reminder… this continual renewal of our perspective… this pointing out of those people that we might be tempted to exclude…   God's love includes them, too.   For God so loved the world… will always be so much bigger than we can imagine, which is good news… because it means that no matter what, everyone is in.   Amen.      

March 9, 2026Today's Reading: Exodus 8:16-24 or Jeremiah 26:1-15Daily Lectionary: Genesis 29:1-30; Genesis 29:31-34:31; Mark 9:14-32“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me. Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.'” (Exodus 8:20-23)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.The plagues were impressive in and of themselves. Destruction in various forms came upon the land of the Egyptians, and Moses let them know it would all happen before it did. That should have been enough. However, on top of that, God spared His Children from destruction. God “set apart” a specific area and said it would be safe, and it was. What did God have to do to protect them? Was it some great wall that He would have the people build? Was there a special prayer they needed to pray? No. God simply spoke His Word, and it was so. No flies would enter the land of Goshen. God was in command. He had all authority in heaven and on earth, so the flies did what He wanted. God uses His authority to “set apart” His people and to protect them.Long after this, Jesus took His disciples up to a mountain and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) And then, long after that, a Pastor took you in his arms and did just what Jesus said to do. You were baptized, set apart, through water and the Word of Jesus. The Lord who commands all things with His Word spoke His Word upon you and made you His child, setting you apart. His Word now, just as then, makes it so.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.God's own child, I gladly say it: I am baptized into Christ! He because I could not pay it, Gave my full redemption price. Do I need earth's treasures many? I have one worth more than any That brought me salvation free Lasting to eternity! (LSB 594:1)Rev. Daniel Burhop, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Reese, MI.Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.We wander through life looking for freedom, only to realize we have listened to the devil's call to serve our selves, our pleasures, and our lusts. Instead of freedom we find ourselves enslaved to sin. We wonder if we have sinned too often, too deep to ever be welcomed back to the Father's home, back into His loving embrace. Have we lost our inheritance as children of God?In this short book, author Bryan Wolfmueller digs into the popular parable of the Prodigal Son to bring hope and aid to our hurting conscience. Wolfmueller proclaims the freedom-giving Gospel that through Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection, our place in the Father's house is secure, and forgiveness and welcome are ours in His outstretched arms. Fully Free, now available from CPH.

Good morning! On today’s show, Matt Swaim and Anna Mitchell welcome Fr. John Gavin, SJ, to share more thoughts on Christian maturity from the Church Fathers. Other guests include Stephanie Mann to continue our series on Robert Hugh Benson’s “Friendship with Christ,” Teresa Tomeo from EWTN’s Catholic Connection, and Kevin Schmiesing with This Week in Catholic History. Plus news, weather, sports, and more… ***** Despair Prayer of St. Claude de la Colombiere Lord, I am in this world to show Your mercy to others. Other people will glorify You by making visible the power of Your grace by their fidelity and constancy to You. For my part I will glorify You by making known how good You are to sinners, that Your mercy is boundless and that no sinner no matter how great his offenses should have reason to despair of pardon. If I have grievously offended You, My Redeemer, let me not offend You even more by thinking that You are not kind enough to pardon Me. Amen. ***** Full list of guestsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Im Podcast "Blick in die Bibel" spricht DOMRADIO-Redakteur Jan Hendrik Stens mit Kristell Köhler vom Erzbistum Köln über ihren Job. Sie leitet im Erzbischöflichen Generalvikariat den Bereich Glaubensorte & Verkündigung. Im Gespräch erzählt sie, wie Büchereien, Chöre und Treffpunkte zu "Glaubensorten" werden – Orte, wo Glauben gelebt und weitergegeben wird.Dann geht es um Jesus in Nazareth: Warum er in seiner Heimat auf Ablehnung stößt, obwohl er Gutes tut. Köhler erklärt, wie Jesus mit seiner Botschaft provoziert – nicht aus Bosheit, sondern um zum Nachdenken anzuregen. Das Ende der Szene bleibt rätselhaft: Statt Gewalt geht Jesus einfach durch die Menge hindurch. Ein spannender Blick darauf, warum Propheten oft "zu Hause" nicht ernst genommen werden – und was das heute bedeutet.Hört rein, um zu verstehen, warum manchmal nur ein Blick von außen die Wahrheit zeigt!Aus dem Lukasevangelium:In jener Zeit begann Jesus in der Synagoge in Nazaret darzulegen: Amen, ich sage euch: Kein Prophet wird in seiner Heimat anerkannt. Wahrhaftig, das sage ich euch: In Israel gab es viele Witwen in den Tagen des Elíja, als der Himmel für drei Jahre und sechs Monate verschlossen war und eine große Hungersnot über das ganze Land kam. Aber zu keiner von ihnen wurde Elíja gesandt, nur zu einer Witwe in Sarépta bei Sidon. Und viele Aussätzige gab es in Israel zur Zeit des Propheten Elíscha. Aber keiner von ihnen wurde geheilt, nur der Syrer Náaman.Als die Leute in der Synagoge das hörten, gerieten sie alle in Wut. Sie sprangen auf und trieben Jesus zur Stadt hinaus; sie brachten ihn an den Abhang des Berges, auf dem ihre Stadt erbaut war, und wollten ihn hinabstürzen. Er aber schritt mitten durch sie hindurch und ging weg. (Lk 4,24-30)(© Ständige Kommission für die Herausgabe der gemeinsamen liturgischen Bücher im deutschen Sprachgebiet)

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 7-9, Mark 15 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus' kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible podcast! In today's episode, Heather guides us through the 8th day of March, marking day 67 in our journey through the Scriptures. Together, we reflect deeply on Deuteronomy chapters 7 through 9 and the powerful events of Mark 15. Heather reminds us that these sacred texts bear witness to Jesus—the source of our life—and invites listeners from around the world to ask the Holy Spirit for illumination as hearts and minds are renewed in God's love. The episode explores Israel's history of rebellion and God's unwavering mercy, revealing how Moses pleaded for his people and how God's plan to rescue and bless humanity extends far beyond Israel. As we witness Jesus's sacrificial love and advocacy on the cross, we're called to see the true heart of God—a heart overflowing with mercy, forgiveness, and restoration for all. Heather leads us in prayer, encouraging us to walk humbly in God's mercy and share his love with the world. Whether you're familiar with these stories or hearing them for the first time, this episode offers a moving invitation to see God's faithfulness afresh and to step forward into the day knowing: you are loved. TODAY'S DEVOTION: We often read the stories of Israel's rebellion, their stubbornness, and their constant turning away from God, and it can seem as though their failures are unique or especially grave. But as Heather reflects, these narratives are an invitation to recognize our shared humanity—how everyone, everywhere, tends to reject God time and again. Yet in the midst of rejection, God's response is not what we might expect. Though it appears, even to Moses, that God's heart is set on rejecting the people, the truth is that Moses—like us—is seeing only partially, "through a glass darkly." He has not yet glimpsed the fullness of God's heart, the depth of mercy and love revealed in Jesus. One day, Moses—and all of us—will see with clarity. We'll see the heart of God unveiled in Jesus: the Son who offers himself for all rebellious humanity, standing as our advocate on the cross. It's there, in the Christological light of eternity, that we witness God's heart exceeding every hope, every expectation, every image Moses could have imagined. Moses repeatedly pleaded for mercy; he was a good advocate, faithful and persistent. But God's mercy was not because the people deserved it, but because God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was unbreakable. His plan was always bigger—extending not just to Israel, but to all people everywhere. Mark 15 shows us how God answers the pleading of Moses, how he responds to rebellious humanity: God offers himself. Jesus gives himself wholly, pouring out sacrificial love on the cross, accepting punishment on our behalf, ransoming us from sin and death. He forgives, sheds his blood, and pours out his Spirit—even for those who consistently reject him. Jesus stands in our stead; he rescues us from our delusions; he comes not to judge, but to save. Someone greater than Moses is now our advocate. Jesus undoes what Adam did. His vicarious life is not just for Abraham's descendants, but for all humanity. "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." Jesus is a better Moses, revealing the true heart of the Father—a heart of mercy, a heart that desires to bless and rescue. Micah saw it long ago: God requires us to do right, love mercy, and walk humbly with him. Today, we are invited to walk in this mercy, to rest in the relentless love of God, and to see ourselves—rebellious and beloved—as recipients of grace through Christ. Let us live as people forgiven, embraced, and empowered by the self-giving love of Jesus. May we know the Father's heart, and may we reflect his mercy to the world. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260308dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 True, Lasting Peace Amidst the struggles and hassles of our lives, there is a longing for true, lasting peace. If only there could be the peace that existed in the Garden of Eden. Our first parents lived in perfect harmony with God. They were his friends. And out of that peaceful relationship flowed a warm relationship with one another. The tragedy of sin was that it shattered both the peace between God and people and the peace among people. Quickly after the fall into sin, we see the rise of doubts and fears and hostility, which people directed both toward God and toward one another. True, lasting peace was lost. It's not hard to point to examples in our lives that demonstrate the truth of this: the envy in our hearts, the lust of our eyes, and the hurt that we cause by wayward words and selfish actions. For all these sins and the many more we do, we truly deserve God's eternal wrath and the pronouncement of his condemnation. Yet the remarkable thing is that God loves us, and he demonstrated his one-of-a-kind love by reestablishing peace between himself and his sinful, rebellious world of people. Listen to the words again: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Every teaching of Scripture rests upon this truth. Though all people are undeserving sinners, Christ sacrificed himself in their place to win peace between God and us. Peace was reestablished through the death of Jesus Christ for “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him” (Isaiah 53:5). God’s righteous wrath against sin was directed at Jesus, and he paid the deadly price for sin with his own precious blood and his innocent sufferings and death. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). Prayer: O Jesus, by humbling yourself and dying for me, you rescued sinners from the condemnation I deserved. Comfort me with the true, lasting peace which comes from knowing and believing that you are my precious Savior. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

When one responds, "Amen Yeheh Shemeh Rabba" to Kaddish, he must ensure to pause between "Amen" and "Yeheh Shemeh Rabba." The word "Amen" is a response to the prayer that the Hazzan had just said – that G-d's Name should be glorified and praised throughout the world. The words "Yeheh Shemeh Rabba…" constitute a separate proclamation, and are not a direct continuation of the "Amen" response. Therefore, one must pause briefly after responding "Amen," before declaring, "Yeheh Shemeh Rabba…"

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Our shout-out today goes to George Zeck from Venice, FL. Thanks for your partnership in Project23. We cannot do this without donors like you. Our text today is 1 Corinthians 8:1-3. Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." This "knowledge" puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. — 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 You can be theologically correct—and spiritually careless. Paul opens this section with a warning that cuts against a familiar instinct in believers: the belief that being right automatically makes us faithful. The real danger in a secular culture is not ignorance, but arrogance—truth held without consideration for others. The Corinthians understood that wooden and stone idols were nothing. They knew meat was just meat. Paul doesn't dispute that. He affirms it. But he exposes the problem. Knowledge alone inflates. It creates distance. It feeds superiority. It subtly shifts the question from "What honors God?" to "What am I allowed to do?" Do you see the shift? It is a shift from "He" to "me". But thoughtful "love" for God and others, combined with good theology, does stretch the believer to do some things they would not usually do. Stay humble in moments where pride could be misunderstood. Restrain actions where freedom is allowed. Consider how our accurate theological freedom might adversely affect others. That's why this section of chapter 8 still presses on us today. We may not debate food sacrificed to idols, but many believers still rationalize the so-called "gray areas" of life—places where Scripture allows freedom, yet pride tempts us to lean toward self rather than love. The Corinthians weren't arguing whether idols were real; they were arguing whether their knowledge gave them permission to participate, signal approval, or remain indifferent anyway. In the same way today, the issue is often not personal involvement but endorsement, celebration, or normalization. What God calls sin is reframed as virtue. Sexual immorality is affirmed as love. Abortion is defended as compassion. Same-sex marriage is praised as progress. Drunkenness, pornography, marijuana use, and indulgence are excused as harmless freedoms. Believers may not practice these things themselves, but participation, silence, or celebration can quietly communicate approval. And the defense often sounds spiritual: "I know better." "I'm free in Christ." "This doesn't affect my faith." "I'm not hurting anyone." Paul dismantles that logic. Being right is not the same as being faithful. If knowledge does not lead to love, it has already begun to lead us wrong. Truth without humility hardens hearts. Freedom without love compromises witness. Paul ends with a quiet but profound shift. Maturity is not defined by how much you know about God, but by whether you are known by God. Faithfulness in a pagan world is not measured by how much freedom you can defend, but by how carefully you steward it for the good of others and the glory of God. DO THIS: Before exercising a freedom you believe you have, pause and ask whether it builds others up or subtly elevates yourself. ASK THIS: Where am I more focused on being right than being loving? How might my freedoms affect the conscience or faith of others? Am I using knowledge to serve—or to justify myself? PRAY THIS: Father, guard my heart from pride disguised as conviction. Teach me to hold truth with humility and freedom with love. Shape my life so that it reflects Your heart, not just correct beliefs. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Make Room"

Brad and Steven are back this week, talking about, what else, the war/non-war with Iran. The guys talk about the various justifications that the administration has given for the “special military action,” and wonder what “imminent” really means. They also talk about Kristi Noem’s firing, Stephen Miller’s incorruptibility, and Brad’s solo weekend. Have a listen! […]

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260308dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 True, Lasting Peace Amidst the struggles and hassles of our lives, there is a longing for true, lasting peace. If only there could be the peace that existed in the Garden of Eden. Our first parents lived in perfect harmony with God. They were his friends. And out of that peaceful relationship flowed a warm relationship with one another. The tragedy of sin was that it shattered both the peace between God and people and the peace among people. Quickly after the fall into sin, we see the rise of doubts and fears and hostility, which people directed both toward God and toward one another. True, lasting peace was lost. It's not hard to point to examples in our lives that demonstrate the truth of this: the envy in our hearts, the lust of our eyes, and the hurt that we cause by wayward words and selfish actions. For all these sins and the many more we do, we truly deserve God's eternal wrath and the pronouncement of his condemnation. Yet the remarkable thing is that God loves us, and he demonstrated his one-of-a-kind love by reestablishing peace between himself and his sinful, rebellious world of people. Listen to the words again: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Every teaching of Scripture rests upon this truth. Though all people are undeserving sinners, Christ sacrificed himself in their place to win peace between God and us. Peace was reestablished through the death of Jesus Christ for “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him” (Isaiah 53:5). God’s righteous wrath against sin was directed at Jesus, and he paid the deadly price for sin with his own precious blood and his innocent sufferings and death. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). Prayer: O Jesus, by humbling yourself and dying for me, you rescued sinners from the condemnation I deserved. Comfort me with the true, lasting peace which comes from knowing and believing that you are my precious Savior. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Sunday, 8 March 2026   Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, Matthew 17:22   “And they, overturning in the Galilee, Jesus, He said to them, ‘The Son of Man, He is about to be surrendered into men's hands'” (CG).   In the previous verse, Jesus finished His words concerning casting out the demon, saying that such a kind would only depart through prayer and fasting. Matthew next says, “And they, overturning in the Galilee.”   A new word is seen in some texts, anastrephó. It is derived from ana, up, and strephó to turn. Thus, it signifies an overturning. The sense is close to returning, but rather than being used adverbially, it is a verb carrying more weight than that. One can return without any intent or change in the way things are, or one can return while considering, making changes, redirecting to something new, etc. It is also used as a word indicating contrast.   For example, the word is used in Acts 15:16 where the Lord promises to return and build again the tabernacle of David that had fallen down. God abandoned Israel, but He will come again to them, “unabandoning” them. Thus, there is a sense of overturning in action.   In the case of Matthew 17:22, it appears the word is used to indicate that, because of the instruction from Jesus concerning the demon, the disciples' direction in thinking is “overturned” to align with how things should be.   Because of the complicated nature of the word in relation to the surrounding words, some texts use another new word, sustrephó, to twist together. As such, it would mean they were gathering together in the Galilee. This is a convenient change, but it seems unnatural. The only other time it is used is when Paul gathered sticks together to make a fire. Regardless of this, it next says, “Jesus, He said to them, ‘The Son of Man, He is about to be surrendered into men's hands.'”   This is now the second time Jesus speaks of the coming passion He would endure. He is preparing the disciples for what is to come, but they seem to miss the import of what He is conveying. When the events finally take place, they will seem wholly unprepared for them.   Life application: There are times when a word is used, and it is hard to pin down what is being said. Even with an explanation of the word, what was said seems insufficient to define the meaning. In such a case, it is good to look at the other uses of that word and try to determine a common thread. In the case of anastrephó, here are all of its uses –   “But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they overturned and reported...” Acts 5:22   “After this I will overturn And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up.” Acts 15:16   “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we overturned ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.” 2 Corinthians 1:12   “...among whom also we all once overturned ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” Ephesians 2:3   “but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to overturn yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15   “...partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so overturned.” Hebrews 10:22   “Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to overturn honorably.” Hebrews 13:18   “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, overturn yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.” 1 Peter 1:17   “For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who overturning in error.” 2 Peter 2:18   These examples show that the word carries a sense of conducting oneself in a particular way, which is somewhat in contrast to another way. In many cases, through research of synonyms, a word may come up that carries all of the intent of the word. At other times, it may be best to literally translate the word (such as overturn) and let the chips fall where they may in the minds of the reader.   But remember this tool. Going to the other uses of an unusual word is a great way to better understand how that word fits into the broader panorama of its intended use.   Lord God, give us the desire to want to know every nuance of Your wonderful word. As it reflects You and what You intend for us, then when we rightly understand it and apply it to our thinking, we know it will help mold us into Your image. May it be so, to Your glory. Amen.  

“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” — Genesis 15:1 How long can you live on a promise? Abram and Sarai had lived with God's promise of a child for many years. Their faith was being tested, and their hope was beginning to fade.One evening God came to renew his promise to Abram, saying that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the night sky. Abram's faith was strengthened—and God provided even more.Our reading for today shows how God not only approaches people but also creates a pathway of relating to them. In this passage we read about a special kind of covenant (a binding promise) in which two parties would walk between the split carcasses of animals, as if to say, “May the same be done to me if I break my promise.” But here we find that only God goes between the carcasses. While Abram is in a deep, trance-like sleep, God himself takes on both sides of this covenant. This arrangement will have twists and turns, and God looks to the future, telling Abram that his descendants will become slaves in Egypt. But God also promises to bring them back—and he does that (see Exodus 12- 20; Deuteronomy 1-3).Since history began, people have tried to grab for themselves whatever they think their “great reward” should be. But God offers himself, making clear that the way to full life comes from understanding that the Lord is our shield and our ultimate reward. Dear God, thank you for making the way and providing for us. May we remember that you always provide for us and for our salvation. Amen.

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Cleansing and Rebuilding the Temple (1) (audio) David Eells, 3/8/26   Jerusalem & Temple Destroyed & Born Again B. A. - 06/04/2014 (David's notes in red) (Eze.13:14) So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be uncovered; and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. (15) Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar; and I will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; 16 to wit, the prophets of Israel that prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and that see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord Jehovah.  Just as people must die to self and be born again from above, so must Jerusalem and its temple. Why was rebellious Jerusalem, the capital of the Jews, torn down with its temple and its people crucified and killed in heaps? Their temple represented them and Jerusalem those who were to be the Bride. Josephus, the historian who wrote their history, said it was because of the way they treated Jesus and His disciples. It appears that Josephus believed that Jesus was the Messiah. This is a type that is coming to pass in our day in the so-called Church. For Paul said to the mostly Gentile Church that what happened to the Jews was a type for what will happen to the mostly Gentile Church at the ends of the ages. (1Co.10:11) Now these things happened unto them by way of example (Greek: “shadow” or “type”); and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. So what happened historically is a type for this day. Today, in the end of this age, the rebellious leadership of God's people, the false Man-child and Bride, represented by unregenerate Jerusalem, have crucified Jesus as He said, (Mat.25:40) And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, [even] these least, ye did it unto me. As the Dragon, Satan's body, including this false leadership, seeks to devour the Man-child and destroy the Bride for its own egotistical reasons. God has set them as a mark for the Beast to conquer. The Beast, which in Revelation 17 is inhabited by a body of spirits from the abyss, represents a body of people outside of Christ that will be used as a vessel of dishonor to destroy spiritually and, in some cases, physically these rebellious religious leaders and their people from the different sects of apostate Christianity. Some would say, “David, doesn't Jerusalem get destroyed after seven years, as a type of the 70 years?” Yes, but in a spiritual way, it is happening now as the leadership of apostate Christianity becomes more and more devoured by the mind and spirits of the Beast. As Jesus said of these evil leaders, (Mat.23:27) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. (28) Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (29) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous, (30) and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. (31) Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets.  (32) Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. (33) Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell? (34) Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: (35) that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth (this was also said of the Harlot in Revelation 17:24), from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Clearly, the Harlot has been around since Cain killed Abel. (36) Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. As Jesus said of these hypocrites and their city and temple, (37) O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (38) Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (39) For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (24:1) And Jesus went out from the temple and was going on his way; and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. (2) But he answered and said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. (Gal.4:22) For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. (23) Howbeit the [son] by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the [son] by the freewoman [is born] through promise. (24) Which things contain an allegory: for these [women] are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. (25) Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children. (26) But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. (Rev.3:12) He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh (present tense) down out of heaven from my God, and mine own new name. 13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. (Jer.3:12) Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah; I will not look in anger upon you; for I am merciful, saith Jehovah, I will not keep [anger] for ever. (13) Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against Jehovah thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith Jehovah. (14) Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: (15) and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. (16) And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. (17) At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations (Gentiles) shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem (notice that this heavenly Jerusalem will be synonymous with the name, meaning “nature, character and authority” of the Lord): neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. (18) In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the North (Beast captivity) to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers. (19) But I said, How I will put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the nations! and I said, Ye shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me. (20) Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah. (21) A voice is heard upon the bare heights, the weeping [and] the supplications of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Jehovah their God. (22) Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we are come unto thee; for thou art Jehovah our God.  B.A.'s dream: I dreamed that I was in Jerusalem (Zion) and I was watching as Titus and his army (of the Roman Beast of that day) were tearing down the temple with battering rams and large ropes. I listened as Titus gave orders to his army: “Tear these walls down! I don't want one stone left standing upon another!” (Luk.19:41) And when he (Jesus) drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it, (42) saying, If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. (43) For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, (44) and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.  Titus said, “This temple is a mockery and must be destroyed!” (Jer.6:15) Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith Jehovah. (16) Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein. (Jer.14:15) Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. (Mic.1:6) Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof.  My thoughts: (Act.17:24) The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. (Jer.7:3) Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. (4) Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah (which had become corrupt), the temple of Jehovah, are these. (5) For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; (6) if ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: (7) then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore. (8) Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. (9) Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known, (10) and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations? (The Temple of the Lord had become corrupt.)  (11) Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith Jehovah. (12) But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. (13) And now, because ye have done all these works, saith Jehovah, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not: (14) therefore will I do unto the house which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. (15) And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. (16) Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee. (17) Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? B.A.: Titus had such a stern (determined) look on his face, like he was being driven to destroy this useless temple (made by man's hands, the hands or works of the flesh) and I found myself agreeing with him. I began shouting, “Yes, tear these walls down! This isn't the house of God! Jesus isn't in this place! This place is just a den of thieves! (Mat.21:12) And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of he money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves; (13) and he saith unto them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye make it a den of robbers. (Is it not so today? Look how the leaders live after the lusts of their flesh. This did not Jesus and His disciples do.) Soon it was over and all those useless stones (apostates and their leaders who had been robbing God's people) were torn down, and they littered the ground. This reminded me of the “Third Vision” in The Shepherd of Hermas: “Concerning the Building of the Triumphant Church, and the Various Classes of Reprobate Men”:  And then she again took hold of me by the hand, and raised me, and made me sit on the seat to the left; and lifting up a splendid rod, she said to me, “Do you see something great?” And I say, “Lady, I see nothing”. She said to me, “Lo! do you not see opposite to you a great tower, built upon the waters, of splendid square stones?” For the tower was built square by those six young men who had come with her. But myriads of men were carrying stones to it (We are the living stones of the true house of God.), some dragging them from the depths, others removing them from the land, and they handed them to these six young men. They were taking them and building; and those of the stones that were dragged out of the depths, they placed in the building just as they were: for they were polished and fitted exactly into the other stones, and became so united one with the another that the lines of juncture could not be perceived. And in this way, the building of the tower looked as if it were made out of one stone. (Representing those who have been baptized in the water of the Word unto death to self.) Those stones, however, which were taken from the earth suffered a different fate; for the young men rejected some of them, some they fitted into the building, and some they cut down, and cast far away from the tower. (reprobated) Many other stones, however, lay around the tower, and the young men did not use them in building; for some of them were rough, others had cracks in them, others had been made too short, and others were white and round (too much flesh or wealth), but did not fit into the building of the tower. Moreover, I saw other stones thrown far away from the tower, and falling into the public road; yet they did not remain on the road, but were rolled into a pathless place. And I saw others falling into the fire and burning, others falling close to the water, and yet not capable of being rolled into the water, though they wished to be rolled down and to enter the water. (Those needing God's will in them to love the Word) The old unregenerate temple must die and be born again. (Zec.6:12) and speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: and he shall grow up out of his place; and he shall build the temple of Jehovah (Jesus in the Man-child ministry of Revelation 12 as spiritual sons of David); (13) even he shall build the temple of Jehovah; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. (14) And the crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of Jehovah. (15) And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of Jehovah; and ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto you. (Jesus is coming as the epiphany (or shining forth from) in His new leadership.) And [this] shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of Jehovah your God. Our spiritual forefathers came to heavenly Jerusalem when they walked in the steps of Jesus in truth and righteousness, but the fleshly church was driven from the land by the beastly flesh shortly thereafter. The restoration is beginning again. (Heb.12:18) For ye are not come unto [a mount] that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, (19) and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them; (20) for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; (21) and so fearful was the appearance, [that] Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: (22) but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels. B.A.: I was so happy, as I knew that this temple (apostate leadership) would no longer be able to inflict anymore pain on God's people. (Eze.14:4) Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Every man of the house of Israel that taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I Jehovah will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols; (5) that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. (6) Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Return ye, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. (7) For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that separateth himself from me, and taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I Jehovah will answer him by myself:  (8) and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. (9) And if the prophet be deceived and speak a word, I, Jehovah, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. (10) And they shall bear their iniquity: the iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him that seeketh unto him; (11) that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord Jehovah. For the past several days, I've been hearing in the Spirit, “Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord”. (Jas.4:10) Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall exalt you.    Temple of Crucified Saints  B. A. - 03/21/2014 (David's notes in red) I had a little dream this morning. I had a similar dream several years ago, but I was not with any group of people. When I first had this dream, I was confused because I did not have the understanding that I do now. It wasn't until a few years later that the Lord revealed the meaning to me, and now I had the dream again.  This time, I dreamed I was standing in the midst of a special group of people (Man-child/Bride corporate body) and we were all dressed like they were back in the days of our Lord, Jesus. (Job.29:14) I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: My justice was as a robe and a diadem. (Rom.13:14) But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Gal.5:16) But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Col.3:12) Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; (13) forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye: (14) and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. I watched as people came up to our little group, one at a time. As each individual approached our group, they went up to the elder (Jesus) who was standing at the front of the group, and they showed the elder their hands and their feet. I watched as the elder took hold of their hands and looked for the “nail holes” in their hands, and then he looked down at their feet to see if they also had nail holes in their feet as well; there had to be a “total crucifixion” (of self), or they could not join our group. (Rom.5:6) For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. (Gal.2:20) I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. (Rom.14:7) For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. (1Co.6:17) But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. (2Co.5:14) For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; (Gal.1:4) who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father: (5) to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. I watched as one person was turned away, and I prayed for him, as he was very sad because he had not been accepted. Suddenly, I heard the elder (Jesus) shout, “Saints, we are now ready (or qualified)! Let's go restore the temple of God! (Those crucified with Christ are ready to be the stones of the foundation of the temple of God. Cyrus, whom the Lord called His anointed shepherd or Messiah shepherd, as a type of Jesus in Isaiah 44:26 - 45:1, is prophesied to build Jerusalem, the Bride, and lay the foundation of the temple. Cyrus/Jesus set the first-fruits of Judah/Benjamin free from Babylonian captivity, as a type of crucifixion, to go and do this.)  B.A,:(Ezr.1:1) Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, (2) Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath Jehovah, the God of heaven, given me; and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (3) Whosoever there is among you of all his people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Jehovah, the God of Israel (he is God), which is in Jerusalem (the Bride). (4) And whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the freewill-offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem. (5) Then rose up the heads of fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all whose spirit God had stirred to go up to build the house of Jehovah which is in Jerusalem. (6) And all they that were round about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered. (7) Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of Jehovah (The holy people of God), which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods; (8) even those did Cyrus king of Persia (A type of Trump) bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. (These are the days of Cyrus(9) And this is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, a thousand platters of silver, nine and twenty knives, (10) thirty bowls of gold, silver bowls of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. (11) All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar (The Man-child) bring up, when they of the captivity were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem. (Ezra means “help or court”, and I thought it was interesting that Ezra chapter 1 ends with verse 11, (1:11) or “111” and many of us are seeing 111 almost daily.) (111 is the Gematria for the birth of Jesus in the New Testament and type of the end-time Man-child body. For years, I would ask for a word for myself through random faith and often was given the same verse many times until I quit counting: (Ezr.6:5) And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at Jerusalem, every one to its place; and thou shalt put them in the house of God. At other times, I received: (5:15) and he said unto him, Take these vessels, go, put them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be builded in its place. These gold and silver vessels are the first-fruits people of God who build and are the foundation of the temple.) Another text we have received concerning this is in Haggai. In chapter 1, the people were exhorted to stop building their own houses and build God's house, and they obeyed, for which God rebuked the devourer and blessed them mightily in chapter 2. Also in chapter 2, He compared their coming out of captivity to build God's house, like when their fathers came out of Egypt to build the tabernacle in the wilderness. Of these two times, He spoke of a great shaking of Heaven and Earth, which is a type for us today who are about to build Father's temple made without hands. A great shaking is now coming.  (Hag.2:3) Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing? (4) Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel (meaning “born from Babylon”; a type of the Man-child), saith Jehovah; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest (a type of Jesus with the Man-child); and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith Jehovah, and work: for I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts, (5) [according to] the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my Spirit abode among you: fear ye not. (6) For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;  (7) and I will shake all nations; and the precious things (Hebrew: “desire”; i.e., Jesus in the Man-child) of all nations (of God's people) shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah of hosts. We can see that the great shaking will begin with the laying of the foundation of God's temple with those who are crucified with Christ. (8) The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith Jehovah of hosts. The silver and gold of God's people have become His at this time. Also, gold and silver were given to Israel as they were leaving Egypt, as it will be today, to build the temple of God, His people. (9) The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts. The first house was letter and physical; the last house is spirit, made without man's works. B.A.: Then, at the end of this dream, I saw the “Spirit” of Jesus. Three years ago, I had this very same vision. But I was a young believer at the time and I didn't have the revelation of what the vision was about until much later, as I grew in the Lord. Vision: I saw the Spirit of Jesus. He was very tall and light was illuminating out of His Spirit all around Him. I watched as little particles (which later were revealed to me to be DNA cells) were coming from every direction and attaching themselves to His Spirit. I got the revelation that as each one of us is crucified with Jesus Christ and dies to self, we are part of His body, and we go back to Him because we came from Him (Because our born-again man is created by His Word, which is His DNA.). Come, Lord Jesus, come! I asked the Father for a verse for the dream, and He gave me (Act.3:21) whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets that have been from of old. (When we are restored, it is Jesus manifested in us in spirit and soul. He said, He was coming as the Latter Rain outpouring after two days or two thousand years on the morning of the third day. Hos 6:1  Come, and let us return unto Jehovah; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2  After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. 3  And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth. Jesus the Man-child type was the first to receive the Former Rain and Jesus coming in the Man-child body is coming as the Latter Rain.)   Man-child Will Purify God's House C. P. 02/25/21 (David's notes in red) In this dream, I was in our house with my husband and David Eells (Representing the first fruits David Man-Child reformers) was there too. He had white hair down to his shoulders and looked more like Moses than himself. He was wearing an ancient sort of clothing. (David's hair represents the increasing glory – 30, 60 and 100 fold; (Mar.4:20) And those are they that were sown upon the good ground; such as hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.) He covered his white hair with a little black/dark hat.) (Moses' face shown with the glory of God so bright that he had to veil that glory when He went before the people. But he took the veil off when he went before God in order to receive more of His glory.  The reason the David Man-child reformers look like Moses is this: (Act.3:22-23) Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me; to him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever he shall speak unto you. (23) And it shall be, that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. You would probably say, but Jesus fulfilled that and I would say you're correct. But Jesus said He was coming a second time as a Man-child born to a woman and this is in Revelation 12. We read in (Joh.16:21-22) A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world. (22) And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. Jesus first came in a body of the Son of David, and so He will be now in a corporate body of spiritual Davids, the man-child, by His Word and Spirit. History always repeats with larger groups of people. In a vision I have shared parts of, I saw the Man-child body of 144,000 at the throne of God to be anointed.) C.P.: David was walking through our house, making sure everything was white – furniture, walls, etc. He had a paintbrush in his hand. (This is pointing to another dual fulfilled prophecy with Jesus starring in this, too. (Mal.3:1-3) Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. (2) But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: (3) and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness. Representing the white House of God with Jesus as the head.) C.P.: Some other people – perhaps younger women- were walking behind him, asking him, “Why are you doing this?” (The more immature women in Song of Solomon did not understand the Brides radical running after the Groom.) He replied, “It's got to get done”. I said to him, “David, everything is already white. We've already painted it. The exterior of the house is old, but it, too, is white”. David replied, “Yes, but we must get rid of the cracks”. (2Co.7:1) Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. When the Man-child is anointed, Jesus will complete the work in us. Also, when David became king, he destroyed the Edomites who factioned or separated people against their own brethren. The factious represent the cracks that separate God's people.)  C.P.: David then went into the dining room and gave our already white dining table another coat of paint. He repainted our already white chairs white again and even painted the chrome-colored chair legs white. (The dining room is where the unleavened bread, the spiritual food of the Word, is served. (1Co.13:9-12) For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; (10) but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. (11) When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. (12) For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.) C.P.: Then David looked at the only wooden unpainted piece of furniture – a side buffet table, and with his paintbrush, he painted it white. Someone asked him, “Why does this also need to be painted? It's never used”. He replied, “I can't wait for someone else to do it. I must do it now”. (Everything that displays the unleavened bread of the Word must be purified. The Man-child will be first in our day with the pure Word by Father's grace. Jesus said in (Joh.9:4-5) We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. (5) When I am in the world, I am the light of the world.) C.P.: (Psa.51:7-13) Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (8) Make me to hear joy and gladness, That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. (9) Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities. (10) Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. (11) Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy Holy Spirit from me. (12) Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with a willing spirit. (13) Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; And sinners shall be converted unto thee. David was working the whole time feverishly, his body so energetic, his steps were energetic and fast paced, his hands were nimble and quick. But he was calm and spoke quietly. He was smiling and was at ease doing this job. (It is Jesus in the Man-child Who will do the Work. (Mat.12:18-21) Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, And he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles. (19) He shall not strive, nor cry aloud; Neither shall any one hear his voice in the streets. (20) A bruised reed shall he not break, And smoking flax shall he not quench, Till he send forth judgment unto victory. (21) And in his name shall the Gentiles hope. (Mat.10:19-20) ...be not anxious how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. (20) For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.) C.P.: Then he said, “Come, we need to sit under the table and pray for protection”. So my husband, David, and I, and these other young women whom I did not know, sat under the table, as if we were preparing for an earthquake. (Great earthquakes, spiritual and physical, are coming and many will die. The Man-child Jesus was resurrected with a great earthquake. Being under the authority of the food of God's Word on the table will bring growth and protection. (Psa.27:5) For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion: In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me; He will lift me up upon a rock. (Psa.91:1) He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (2) I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust. (3) For he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the deadly pestilence. … (7) A thousand shall fall at thy side, And ten thousand at thy right hand; But it shall not come nigh thee. … (10) There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. … (14) Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. (15) He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble: I will deliver him, and honor him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him, And show him my salvation.) C.P.: My husband took his phone out and showed me how the screen was now completely white. (We are not to look upon evil, deception, or impurity for the eye is a gateway to the soul.) There was a simple definition in black newspaper font typed on the screen: Christian (n): They will be destroyed because they worshipped another Messiah (a False Jesus and Word). (The flesh wants only a flesh-pleasing Jesus, and religion is the same, but we are not to look on such deception, but only God's pure Word. There will be no protection for those who depart from the pure Word and its promises. (Isa.8:20) To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them. (Rev.22:18-20) I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book: (19) and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book. (20) He who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.) C.P.: I woke up and received the following by faith at random, and my finger landed on “watch out” and “Life does not consist” in Luke 12:15 (NIV). Here is the ASV version: (Luk.12:15) And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (This is a very important warning for the true people of God at this point in time for great prosperity will come to test you. Please read this carefully: (1Ti.6:5-10) wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain. (6) But godliness with contentment is great gain: (7) for we brought nothing into the world, for neither can we carry anything out; (8) but having food and covering we shall be therewith content. (9) But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. (10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.)  Filling in the cracks in this dream to perfect the house and purify it reminds us of this revelation of Hermas.    The Shepherd of Hermas: Vision of the Tower Chapters 5-7 “The building of the tower will be finished, and all will rejoice together around the tower, and they will glorify God, because the tower is finished.” I asked her, saying, “Lady, I should like to know what became of the stones, and what was meant by the various kinds of stones?” In reply she said to me, “Not because you are more deserving than all others that this revelation should be made to you … Tell them that all these things are true, and that none of them is beyond the truth. All of them are firm and sure, and established on a strong foundation.” “Hear now, with regard to the stones which are in the building. Those square white stones which fitted exactly into each other, are apostles, bishops, teachers, and deacons, who have lived in godly purity, and have acted as bishops and teachers and deacons chastely and reverently to the elect of God. Some of them have fallen asleep, and some still remain alive. And they have always agreed with each other, and been at peace among themselves, and listened to each other. On account of this, they join exactly into the building of the tower.” “But who are the stones that were dragged from the depths, and which were laid into the building and fitted in with the rest of the stones previously placed in the tower?” “They are those who suffered for the Lord's sake.” “But I wish to know, O Lady, who are the other stones which were carried from the land.” “Those,” she said, “which go into the building without being polished, are those whom God has approved of, for they walked in the straight ways of the Lord and practiced His commandments.” “But who are those who are in the act of being brought and placed in the building?” “They are those who are young in faith and are faithful. But they are admonished by the angels to do good, for no iniquity has been found in them.” “Who then are those whom they rejected and cast away?” “These are they who have sinned, and wish to repent. On this account they have not been thrown far from the tower, because they will yet be useful in the building, if they repent. Those then who are to repent, if they do repent, will be strong in faith, if they now repent while the tower is building. For if the building be finished, there will not be more room for anyone, but he will be rejected. This privilege, however, will belong only to him who has now been placed near the tower.” “As to those who were cut down and thrown far away from the tower, do you wish to know who they are? They are the sons of iniquity, and they believed in hypocrisy, and wickedness did not depart from them. For this reason they are not saved, since they cannot be used in the building on account of their iniquities. Wherefore they have been cut off and cast far away on account of the anger of the Lord, for they have roused Him to anger. But I shall explain to you the other stones which you saw lying in great numbers, and not going into the building. Those which are rough are those who have known the truth and not remained in it, nor have they been joined to the saints. On this account are they unfit for use.” “Who are those that have rents?” “These are they who are at discord in their hearts one with another, and are not at peace amongst themselves: they indeed keep peace before each other, but when they separate one from the other, their wicked thoughts remain in their hearts. These, then, are the rents which are in the stones. But those which are shortened are those who have indeed believed and have the larger share of righteousness; yet they have also a considerable share of iniquity, and therefore they are shortened and not whole.” “But who are these, Lady, that are white and round, and yet do not fit into the building of the tower?” She answered and said, “How long will you be foolish and stupid, and continue to put every kind of question and understand nothing? These are those who have faith indeed, but they have also the riches of this world. When, therefore, tribulation comes on account of their riches and business, they deny the Lord.” I answered and said to her, “When then, will they be useful for the building, Lady?” “When the riches that now seduce them have been circumscribed, then will they be of use to God. For as a round stone cannot become square unless portions be cut off and cast away, so also those who are rich in this world cannot be useful to the Lord unless their riches be cut down. Learn this first from your own case. When you were rich, you were useless; but now you are useful and fit for life. Be ye useful to God; for you also will be used as one of these stones.” “Now the other stones which you saw cast far away from the tower, and falling upon the public road and rolling from it into pathless places, are those who have indeed believed, but through doubt have abandoned the true road. Thinking, then, that they could find a better, they wander and become wretched, and enter upon pathless places. But those which fell into the fire and were burned are those who have departed for ever from the living God; nor does the thought of repentance ever come into their hearts, on account of their devotion to their lusts and to the crimes which they committed. Do you wish to know who are the others which fell near the waters, but could not be rolled into them? These are they who have heard the word and wish to be baptized in the name of the Lord; but when the chastity demanded by the truth comes into their recollection, they draw back and again walk after their own wicked desires.” She finished her exposition of the tower. But I, shameless as I yet was, asked her, “Is repentance possible for all those stones which have been cast away and did not fit into the building of the tower, and will they yet have a place in this tower?” “Repentance,” said she, “is yet possible, but in this tower they cannot find a suitable place.” (In other words, they will not be among the first-fruits but will have to be crucified of their sinful nature.) “But in another and much inferior place they will be laid, and that, too, only when they have been tortured and completed the days of their sins. And on this account will they be transferred, because they have partaken of the righteous Word. And then only will they be removed from their punishments when the thought of repenting of the evil deeds which they have done has come into their hearts. But if it does not come into their hearts, they will not be saved, on account of the hardness of their heart.”    House of Idle = Idols Sandy Shaw - 08/29/2011 (David's notes in red) Sandy Shaw called me on 3/14/21 and said the Lord told her that this dream is to be shared for the time we are in now. On 3/13/21, Sandy said, “I woke up at 3:33 am and was having trouble going back to sleep, so I started praying and was able to go back to sleep. I then dreamed I was sitting on a bench under the shade of a tree on a really sunny day.  I was looking across a field when, all of a sudden, I felt the presence of God behind and around me. I was terrified to turn around and look. He placed His hand on my right shoulder and said, “Sandra, remember your Idle/Idol dream? That's for now! Share it.” When I woke up, the clock said 5:55 am. (God will give grace to overcome) So here is the dream below that the Lord was saying is for NOW:  In a dream, I was standing in front of a house with Spanish-style stucco. (This represents the house of apostate Christianity. Jesus warned us that the house that was built on sand would not survive the storm of life, and the three little pigs warned us that houses of inferior material wouldn't stand up to the big bad wolf. He warned that the house built on obedience to the Word will stand. The stucco in this house is like untempered mortar. (Eze.13:8-11) Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have spoken falsehood, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord Jehovah. (9) And my hand shall be against the prophets that see false visions, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah. (10) Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace; and when one buildeth up a wall, behold, they daub it with untempered mortar: (11) say unto them that daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. … (14) So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be uncovered; and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. (Eze.22:28) And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah hath not spoken.) There was a patio to get to the front door of this house. I saw people on the patio talking on cell phones and playing games on the Internet. Girls were talking to their boyfriends, making idle chit-chat, etc. I noticed a man standing next to me and I didn't know who he was until he spoke and asked, “How does this edify Me?” Realizing that it was Jesus talking, I said, “Lord, forgive us; we don't realize”. (The house or tabernacle being covered with Spanish-style stucco represents our old nature that is foreign to the Lord and the self-delusion that is contrary to righteousness in serving a false Jesus of our own making. (Eze.22:24-30) Son of man, say unto her, Thou art a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. (25) There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in the midst thereof. (26) Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths (ceasing from our own works), and I am profaned among them. (27) Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. (28) And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah hath not spoken. (29) The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yea, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully. (30) And I sought for a man among them, that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.) We walked across the patio and through the front door into the house. To the left was an area full of people watching TVs. All different types of TVs: old consoles, new flat screens, etc. -- all sizes. I saw old TV programs: Father Knows Best, The Patty Duke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and an old game show. (Oh, how things have changed!)  I heard “Queen for a Day”. There were soap operas on. The Lord asked, “How does this edify Me?” I said, “I'm sorry, Lord”. (Rev.18:2-8) ...Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird. (3) For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness. (4) And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: (5) for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (6) Render unto her even as she rendered, and double unto her the double according to her works: in the cup which she mingled, mingle unto her double. (7) How much soever she glorified herself, and waxed wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning. (8) Therefore in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judged her.) To the right side of the room was an area full of computers: new, old, big, small, fancy, iPads, etc. Children were doing homework on Facebook and MySpace — social chat sites. People were playing games and doing work. I got closer to their faces and saw their eyes were big and round like silver dollars, staring at the screen. A big clock is seen with its hands spinning quickly, as if to say, 24-7, this is going on. The Lord asked, “How does this edify Me?” I said, “Lord, forgive me, for I myself am guilty of this”. (These things happening on the right represent God's people justifying themselves and compromising. Saying, “It's okay to spend extra time on these devices because they aren't TVs and we must do our work on them as well. So the line in our conscience gets blurred. This can also represent justification by our own works and essentially is like worshipping a false Jesus that allows compromise contrary to His Word. (2Co.1:2-4) For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. (3) But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ. (4) For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different gospel, which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with him.) Standing in the middle of that room, I looked up and saw there were different levels to the house where the activity got worse, physically and spiritually. I saw and heard people speaking filthily. I didn't see it, but knew that it was pornography, and scary movie sounds were also in the background. People were cursing and saying all kinds of bad things. People were laughing at it when it was not funny. The Lord asked, “How does that edify Me?” (The different levels of the tabernacle represent people's spirit, soul and body. If these activities are occurring in the spirit and soul, they bring a curse on the bodies of these people and death. Spiritual death is reprobation, and it becomes impossible for them to be renewed again unto repentance. Their consciences are seared. They have become reprobated.  (Heb.6:4-8) For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5) and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, (6) and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (7) For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God: (8) but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.)  We went into another room on the left, and I heard different conversations. One person was trying to tell another something, and he said, “I know”, not letting the other finish because he already knew. (Pro.18:13) He that giveth answer before he heareth, It is folly and shame unto him.) In the same crowd, educated people were having conversations with others, but the educated person never heard anything anyone else said because they were puffed up and boasting that they had a degree in this or a doctorate in that. They knew it all and yet knew nothing. The Lord asked, “How does this edify Me?” (1Ti.6:3-5) If any man teacheth a different doctrine, and consenteth not to sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; (4) he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but doting about questionings and disputes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, (5) wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth… (2Ti.3:1-9) But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. (2) For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, (4) traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; (5) holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof. From these also turn away. (6) For of these are they that creep into houses, and take captive silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lusts, (7) ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (8) And even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also withstand the truth. Men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith. (9) But they shall proceed no further. For their folly shall be evident unto all men…)  To the right in that room were people bickering over trivial matters. One conversation that stands out is, “Who took my Kool-Aid?” I looked around and realized that all these people were carrying Bibles, and I realized they were all 'Christians'. The whole house was full of people professing to be Christians. The Lord asked, “How does this edify Me?” I said, “Lord, forgive us”. (Many worldly people associate 'religious fanatics' and cult members with Jim Jones. And they say things to Christians like, “Don't drink the Kool-Aid!” In other words, don't fall for the deceptions and traps of religion. James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher, and self-professed faith healer. He launched The Peoples Temple in Indiana during the 1950s. Jones and his inner circle orchestrated a mass murder-suicide of himself and his followers in his jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. Jones ordered and likely coerced the mass suicide and mass murder of 918 commune members, 304 of them children, almost all by cyanide-poisoned Flavor Aid (or Kool-Aid). (1Pe.5:8) Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour;) We went into another room and stood in the doorway. Small children were running around the room, jumping on chairs, sofas, pulling down curtains, and being very mischievous. Their parents were in the middle of the room, oblivious to what the children were doing -- “running wild”. They were so self-absorbed in what they were doing and their own desires that they were blind to what their children were doing. The Lord asked, “How does this edify Me?” I said, “Lord, I'm sorry”. (Many of God's people are not self-disciplined to stay in God's Word; therefore, the fruit that they bring forth is disorderly confusion and does not effectively edify the Body of Christ. (Isa.26:3) Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee…) We went into another room and saw people holding their Bibles. They tried to step forward, saying, “Yes, the Lord has told me to do this”. But before they stepped forward, they stepped right back and said, “No, no, He didn't tell me”. I saw people holding their Bibles open, saying, “The Lord has shown me this”, and then saying, “No, no, He didn't show me anything”. Then I saw people holding phones, saying, “The Lord told me to say this”, and then, “No, no, never mind; He didn't say anything”. They were never sure of anything they did and were procrastinating in the name of the Lord. The Lord asked, “How does this edify Me?” (Jas.1:5-8) But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. (7) For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; (8) a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.) We then went through sliding glass doors and saw a man sitting in a chair covering his face with his hands. He was being attacked by Christians who were standing around him and yelling, “How do you know that you know the Lord?” “Why did He tell you that and not me?” “Why do you think you are so privileged that you know and hear the Lord?” “Do you think you are somebody?” “You don't know your Word”. “You don't know God”. “Who do you think you are?” “How do you know you are not hearing demons?” The Lord asked, “How does this edify Me?”  (Gal.5:13-21) For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. (14) For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (15) But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. (16) But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. (18) But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. (19) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, (21) envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.) I felt such conviction during this dream for not praying, fasting or reading my Word. (These are actions which would warn us away from dangers to come.) I have been guilty of letting my time be idle = idol. A few days later, on 9/04/11, (911) I received Ephesians 5 as a reminder. Briefly this chapter is about:   (Eph.5:1-2) Exhortation to brotherly love. (Eph.5:3-14) Cautions against several sins. (Eph.5:15-21) Directions to a contrary behavior, and to relative duties. (Eph.5:22-33) The duties of wives and husbands are enforced by the spiritual relation between Christ and the church.

John 4:4-42Jesus left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” In 2019, Jumbo's, a Netherlands supermarket chain, introduced Kletskassas, slow checkout lanes that encourage conversations and human connection. The goal is the opposite of what you normally want at a check line, but for good reason. They are a part of the Netherlands public health campaign to lessen loneliness and help people feel like they matter, one long conversation. This week, I heard and read in many places how we are in a crisis of mattering. In her new book by the same name, journalist Jennifer Breheny Wallace describes mattering as feeling valued by othersAnd having the opportunity to add value back to the world around us. She argues it is an even deeper need than other core needs such as purpose or belonging. One might belong to a workplace, a family, or a church and still not feel like they matter to the people there.Wallace believes that young people are struggling with mattering more than anyone—that this need is going unmet for them. After hundreds of interviews, she heard over and over how young people felt they only mattered when their GPA was high, the number on the scale was low, when they had a certain number of likes or views on social media, or they were a top athlete. But by no means is the crisis of mattering limited to young people. Nearly anyone who has gone through a major transition has struggled with the question: Do I matter?You worked for 35 or 40 years and suddenly, one day, it all stops. You cared for a child or children in your home every day, and then they moved out. You made nearly every decision in life with a spouse but then left to make those decisions alone. We are familiar with this feeling of mattering.And with the rise of AI and the threat of it replacing more jobs and roles, the question of mattering will only become more poignant and prevalent. Jesus—and thereby the church—have something to say about this crisis, and we see it in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Mattering is at the heart of this story.But in order for us to really see that, we have to remember last week—when Jesus was approached by Nicodemus. Near the end of their conversation, Jesus tells him that God loves the whole world. This encounter with the woman at the well reveals just how encompassing God's love really is.Jesus is leaving Jerusalem and heading back to Galilee when we're told he had to go through Samaria. As you can see, Samaria is immediately north of Judea and the fastest way to get to Galilee. But most Jews did everything they could to avoid traveling through that land, lest they come into contact with a Samaritan. Usually they would cross over the Jordan River and then go up. So this necessity of Jesus is not geographical, but theological. Samaritans were already despised outsiders—idolaters even—seen as a lowly, unclean enemy. Women were lower in social status than men, especially women who were not married. Jesus arrives at a well at noon and here comes someone the world didn't think mattered at all: An unmarried Samaritan woman coming to quench her thirst just like Jesus.She could not be more at odds with Nicodemus: a male, Jewish religious leader (who came at night, mind you). If anyone mattered, it was him. His words held value. He had status. The woman, who isn't even given a name, does not. Yet Jesus engages both of them.In fact, the conversation Jesus has with the woman is the longest conversation he has with anyone. Ironically, a long conversation was precisely what the woman was trying to avoid. That's one reason she went to the well at noon—the hottest part of the day, if I had to guess.To be clear, we don't know exactly why she's there at noon. There could be all kinds of reasons. One of them is NOT because she's an ostracized tramp, hated by the other women of Sychar. Yes she had five husbands, but it's not likely because of some scandalous reputation.It is much more likely that this woman was passed from husband to husband through a mixture of divorce and death. And she keeps getting married because she has had no children—or at least no sons—to take care of her. So she ends up in what was called a levirate marriage, where a man is obligated to take care of his brother's widow if the brother dies childless.Not only is she a widow, but a barren one at that. The main thing that gave women value—what made women matter in the time of Jesus—she couldn't do. I think she went to the well at noon because not only did she think others believed she didn't matter, but she believed that about herself, too. And when you feel like that, when you believe that about yourself, you withdraw. You disengage.But here is this man who breaks all the rules, who crosses all the boundaries, and asks for a drink. A conversation unfolds where Jesus tries to help the woman understand who he is and what he can offer her, but it doesn't click until he tells her everything about her. In other words, he names the reason the world thinks she doesn't matter—and the reason she believes she doesn't matter. But instead of brushing her off, instead of rushing away, he leans in. He talks to her more. He even debates theology with her, and finally reveals himself as the Messiah, the very one she has been waiting for.The woman rushes back to Sychar and tells the whole town what has happened. It's amazing—this woman who avoided people suddenly can't help but engage and share about the encounter she's had with Jesus. If mattering means feeling valued and adding value back to the world, Jesus has given her exactly that.This mattering crisis is indeed a crisis, but it's nothing new. We have always failed to name who matters and why. The world has long said women don't matter—or that only their bodies matter, and only if they produce offspring. In this country we have said, and continue to say in different ways, that Black and brown people don't matter—or at least not as much as those who look like me.In this capitalist society, we say that only those who contribute matter—and those who profit most matter most.And over the last few years, we have said that anyone who isn't from this country, or doesn't look like they are, doesn't matter.And what does this war say about who matters and who doesn't? What about the elementary girls bombed in Iran—did they matter? Were they a part of this world that God so loved?This encounter with the woman at the well tells us that God loves everyone in this whole wide world—and that's why they matter. Nothing more and nothing less. It does not matter what a person does or looks like, where they are from or what language they speak, what gender they are, or who they love. For God so loved the whole world.If you have ever felt like you don't matter, I pray I am not the first to tell you that you do. To the queer kid in high school, the twice-divorced woman, the retired elderly man, the noisy child running in the halls—you matter. And it has nothing to do with what you have done. In the kingdom of God you do not earn value, it's freely given to you! We call it grace. And grace tells us You matter because Jesus shows us that every single person matters. You matter because God loves you.We as a church can do something about this mattering crisis, and it's to tell people they matter. It sounds so simple, but it's the message people need to hear. If the church does nothing else but have long conversations with people who think they don't matter and then tell them that they are loved, kinda of like those checkout lanes in the Netherlands, we will be doing God's work. In this story, Jesus shows us something we cannot forget:The woman at the well mattered.Your neighbor matters.You matter.Because God so loved the world. Amen.

Introduction: Three Valid Reasons for Liberty (that Don't Work When You Have a Weaker Brother). (1 Corinthians 8:1-13) I Have KNOWLEDGE. (1 Cor 8:1-3) Philippians 1:9 – And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment I Have WISDOM. (1 Cor 8:4-7) I Have GOOD THEOLOGY. (1 Cor 8:8-13) Matthew 18:6 - whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 25:40 - Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! AUDIO TRANSCRIPT 00:36-00:39Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians 8.00:41-00:49Oh, that sweet, sweet, quiet lull of early service on Daylight Saving Sunday.00:51-00:52So tranquil.00:54-00:55Let's kick that up, shall we?00:55-00:56Let's have a fight.00:58-01:01Amen, somebody came ready to rumble.01:04-01:06Not like a fist fight.01:07-01:09Let's just have a good old fashioned argument.01:10-01:12All right, that'll get the blood boiling.01:13-01:15All in favor of having an argument?01:16-01:16Some of you.01:17-01:18(congregation laughing)01:19-01:20Little too eager.01:21-01:22All right, here we go.01:23-01:24Is a hot dog a sandwich?01:27-01:29Oh, did you hear that Pastor Taylor?01:30-01:31Apparently we struck a nerve.01:32-01:34Show of hands, how many people say that a hot dog is a sandwich?01:35-01:36Okay.01:37-01:39Some of you, okay, how many people insist that it's not?01:41-01:41Whoa.01:43-01:46Whoa, you might wanna pump the brakes on that.01:46-01:49I mean, what, it's like meat and condiments in bread, right?01:51-01:53Isn't that the very definition of a sandwich?01:54-01:57And you're like, well, but it's shaped different.01:58-01:59Well, I'm shaped different.01:59-02:00Does that mean I'm not a human?02:00-02:01Like, come on, what's that?02:05-02:07Some of you are a little too emotional about that.02:09-02:10It's silly though, right?02:10-02:14We're not really going to fight about that.02:16-02:24But when we get to this next section in 1 Corinthians, believe it or not, and you will, it was a food controversy.02:25-02:26That's what's going on.02:26-02:31They had a food controversy, but it wasn't about hot dogs.02:33-02:40It was about something that was much bigger problem for the church.02:41-02:44All right, let's just stop for a minute.02:44-02:51This is a challenging text, but we are going to get through it together.02:52-02:55I'm gonna ask you to pray for me, and I will pray for you.02:56-02:58Let's see what the Lord has to teach us today in His Word.02:58-03:01All right, let's just take a moment and pray.03:09-03:11Father, fire us up to receive your Word.03:13-03:17We don't wanna go into a lull because we lost an hour of sleep or whatever.03:17-03:23God, this is your Word, and we should be excited to see what it is that you have told us in your Word.03:26-03:30and we should be looking to see how we can reflect the truth of your word in our lives.03:30-03:46So God, give us the faith to really believe what you said to the point that it takes root, to the point that it's manifest in our hearts, in our minds, in our attitudes, and ultimately in our conduct.03:47-03:57We pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and all of God's people said, Amen, amen.03:57-04:03In this section in 1 Corinthians, it's kind of like a big Q&A session, right?04:03-04:05And look at chapter eight, verse one.04:06-04:07Do you see the first two words in your Bible?04:08-04:13He says, in this chapter, he says, "Now concerning." We talked about that, right?04:13-04:17It seems to be like, okay, next subject, right?04:17-04:20That's his clue that we're moving on to a new subject.04:21-04:46And the next topic that again is going to span next three chapters is Christian liberty. Just in case we didn't offend anybody with the last part of it, let's talk about liberty, shall we? Am I free to do whatever I want? I'm free in Christ! I can do whatever I want to do, right? Right?04:46-04:46Right?04:46-04:46Right?04:50-04:53Oh, legalism versus liberty.04:54-04:58It's the issue literally as old as the church herself.05:01-05:02Legalism.05:04-05:05That's one side.05:05-05:06Legalism.05:06-05:11The people that are legalists say to be accepted by God, here's some things you can't do.05:11-05:13Here's your list of things that you cannot do.05:14-05:16And if you keep the list, you're accepted by God.05:17-05:19That's the legalist likes the rules.05:19-05:24But on the other hand, you have the liberty people.05:26-05:28The liberty people say, "Hey, I'm saved by grace.05:28-05:30My performance doesn't matter.05:30-05:35Nothing can change the fact that I'm saved by grace and I can do whatever I want to do.05:36-05:38Nothing will separate me from the love of Christ.05:38-05:55I am free to do whatever I want to do." Well their particular liberty issue that became a problem for the church is what Paul is addressing in chapter 8, 9, and through 10.05:57-05:57Here's their issue.05:59-06:01Look again, chapter 8, verse 1.06:01-06:15He said, "Now concerning food offered to idols." That's meat that was sacrificed to a pagan God.06:17-06:19Like what in the world is going on here?06:21-06:24Understand in the Greek culture, they had gods for everything.06:25-06:29It was part of every aspect of life.06:30-06:33There was a God for literally everything.06:37-06:48And when a pagan worshiper would offer a sacrifice to a God, that sacrifice was divided into three parts.06:49-06:59Part was burned for the pagan God, part went home with the worshiper, but then the third part went with the priest.07:00-07:02The pagan priest, right?07:04-07:05How much pot roast can you eat?07:06-07:11Okay, so you can imagine, these priests, they had an abundance.07:11-07:14So they would take the extra down and sell it at the market.07:17-07:29There was other pagan meat at the market as well, because in the Greek culture, they believed that an evil spirit could enter you through what you ate.07:29-07:31So they believed that an evil spirit could get in the meat.07:31-07:34And when you ate the meat, now you had the evil spirit inside you.07:35-07:41So they would sacrifice to a God who would make sure that there were no evil spirits in the meat.07:41-07:53And on top of that, because it was such a pagan culture, the temple was sort of the community center, meaning weddings and parties were commonly held at the temple.07:53-07:55You're gonna see that come up here in this text.07:55-08:04And here's the point, my friends, Almost all the meat in this culture was used for pagan worship somehow.08:05-08:06Almost all of it.08:10-08:11So maybe you begin to see the problem.08:13-08:19For the church, for the Christians, for the Jesus followers, there was division.08:20-08:27For some, they were like, "Should we eat the pagan meat?" Absolutely not.08:27-08:28I'm not touching that.08:29-08:32They use that meat in pagan worship.08:32-08:34I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole.08:35-08:37No way am I touching that.08:39-08:46And then there were more mature believers that were like, a hamburger is a hamburger, bro.08:48-08:50The boogeyman doesn't live in the hamburger.08:51-08:52Just eat it.08:52-08:52Come on.08:55-08:57Can you see why that would be a problem in the church?09:00-09:16People saying, "Eat the meat." People saying, "Absolutely, you shouldn't go near it." So in chapter eight here, and we're gonna be looking at the whole chapter, Paul is addressing the mature Christians who insisted on their liberty.09:19-09:26These mature Christians who said, "Hey, it bothers some of the weaker Christians that we eat the meat, but look, I'm free in Christ.09:27-09:28It's not haunted meat.09:28-09:31Am I not free to eat the meat if I want to eat the meat?09:38-09:44I'm gonna go way out on a limb here and guess that this probably isn't an issue for this church.09:45-09:46Right?09:48-09:58I don't imagine you've had to sit down at the table debate whether or not the boogeyman was in the steak, if you should eat it or not.10:02-10:06But you know there's always been issues of legalism and liberty in the church.10:07-10:25Always. Always. Okay so we're not arguing about the pagan meat, but I mean look at look at church history. We have this, even very recently, we are constantly At odds trying to figure out some things.10:26-10:28Issues of legalism versus liberty.10:30-10:32Like things like playing cards.10:34-10:39I know young people that might be hard to believe, but there was a time that that was a big issue in the church.10:39-10:41Should you be allowed to play cards?10:43-10:50Things like dancing, movies, hairstyle, dress.10:50-10:50Yes.10:53-10:55Things you can do on Sunday.10:57-10:59You can't go to a restaurant 'cause you're making people work.10:59-11:00You can't wash your car on Sunday.11:00-11:01That's considered work.11:02-11:05And you're breaking the Sabbath and there's so much wrong with that thinking.11:05-11:06But it's an issue.11:07-11:08It's an issue.11:09-11:11Things like yoga.11:16-11:20Last and certainly my favorite, Trick or treat.11:26-11:27I hate Halloween.11:29-11:32Not because you dress up like Spider-Man and get a Kit Kat.11:32-11:33I think that's kind of cool.11:34-11:42But just what it does in the church, because you have people that are like, it's fun, let's let them dress up and get candy and see the neighbors.11:42-11:45And then you have people that are like, it's demonic.11:46-11:49And like, I don't know what to do.11:51-11:53That's kind of the flavor of what we're getting here.11:55-11:56See, all these things are gray areas.11:56-12:04There's nothing explicit in the Bible that we can point to where the Bible says, do not do this, do not go trick or treating, do not dance.12:05-12:09Yet we can't find verses in the Bible that explicitly say.12:09-12:12So what do we do with these gray areas?12:12-12:18And the liberty person would say, I'm free to do whatever I want to do.12:19-12:20'Cause I'm free in Christ.12:20-12:22I'm free in Christ, man.12:22-12:24I can do whatever I want, right?12:27-12:28No.12:29-12:37No, not if doing one of these gray area things could cause a brother to sin.12:40-13:34So Paul addressing their issue with the meat gives us principles that apply for all times even until today. I want you to think about this scenario as we go through this passage because here's a real-life scenario that could happen to you where you need to apply these principles, this could happen to you this week. Just imagine the issue of alcohol. First of all, are you free to drink alcohol? Well, the Bible warns about drunkenness, but yes, the Bible does not say, "Thou shalt not ever touch alcohol." Okay? So yes, technically you are free, you are free to drink alcohol.13:37-13:42If you're of age and avoid drunkenness and all that, sure, sure, sure.13:43-13:50Okay, but imagine this scenario, a man who recently comes to harvest decides he wants to go to your small group.13:52-13:55But this man is coming out of an addicted background.13:57-14:00He had a really bad problem with alcohol, he went to rehab.14:02-14:05And this man ends up coming to know Christ.14:05-14:06He's born again.14:06-14:08He received Jesus as his Lord and Savior.14:08-14:10He's been transformed.14:10-14:14And now this man hates how alcohol has wrecked his life.14:16-14:21And this man sees alcohol a whole lot different than you or I might look at alcohol.14:23-14:34All right, so that guy says, "Pastor Taylor, I want to get involved in one of your small groups." And Pastor Taylor gets the guy coming to your small group.14:35-14:43And this week, you're having a barbecue at your small group because the weather is oh so great as it has been.14:45-14:53And as a small group leader, you're wondering, "Well, can I have beer at our small group barbecue?14:58-14:58Can I?15:01-15:46We have alcohol at a church event?" And you're like, "Okay, well this guy's coming and Pastor Taylor sort of told me this man's background and I know that if we have alcohol at our barbecue, it's going to bother that guy. I know that, but I'm free. I'm free to drink it. Why is his problem my problem? Should I still have it even though this guy's coming? I mean, I can have it, so let's just go ahead and have it and he can figure that out, right? Well, that was the Corinthian dilemma. Some mature believers were eating the meat regardless of how it affected the weaker believers.15:47-15:53And I'm glad you're sitting down because you're going to be shocked that this resulted in more disunity problems for Corinth.15:55-15:57Those people fought about everything.15:59-16:00And here's another issue.16:03-16:12So on your outline, listen very closely to this next sentence because you have to understand the angle at which Paul's going after them.16:13-16:26Paul, in 1 Corinthians 8, is going after the three reasons that the mature believers were using to justify eating the pagan meat.16:29-16:33It's okay for us to eat it, and here's why it's okay for us to eat it.16:33-16:39Paul goes after those reasons, and they're the same reasons we use today.16:41-16:55And interestingly enough, Paul agrees with them, but he shows them why their reasons for eating the meat, their reasons for liberty, do not apply in light of how it's going to affect a weaker believer.16:57-16:58All right?16:59-17:03That's why the heading on your outline, it's a big one.17:04-17:10Three valid reasons for liberty that don't work when you have a weaker brother.17:12-17:17All of these are legit reasons for liberty, but they do not work when you have a weaker brother.17:18-17:18Y'all with me?17:19-17:20I can start over.17:21-17:22It's a hot dog and sandwich.17:25-17:28Three valid reasons for liberty that do not work when you have a weaker brother.17:29-17:31Here's the first one, number one, write this down.17:31-17:32I have knowledge.17:33-17:34I have knowledge.17:34-17:36I know some stuff.17:37-17:38I know, okay.17:40-17:40Back to verse one.17:40-17:50"Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge." Stop there.17:52-17:57You see, they were saying, Look, I know I can eat the meat sacrificed to the...17:57-17:58I can do that because I know, I know.17:59-18:01I know what the Bible says about food, okay?18:01-18:05And Peter had that vision, Acts 10, the sheath, everything's clean.18:06-18:09I know about that, I know, I know, I know.18:09-18:11And look, meat is meat, I know.18:14-18:16We do the same thing, by the way, with alcohol, right?18:17-18:18We know, we know some stuff.18:19-18:22Okay, small group leader thinking about having beer at your barbecue.18:22-18:26I know, I know, I know what the Bible says, okay?18:26-18:31And in fact, you know, back in biblical times, they didn't have refrigerators.18:32-18:37So their grape juice fermented, and it was really only like a 3% alcohol on some things.18:37-18:40And it was, but some of the drinks was only 1% alcohol.18:41-18:48And (mimics barking) Look, knowledge is great.18:49-18:56Actually, God's word exalts knowledge, knowing God's truth.18:57-19:01But here's the thing, knowledge isn't everything.19:02-19:02Okay?19:04-19:06Knowledge isn't everything because look at the rest of verse one.19:07-19:18He says, "This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." Just having knowledge puffs up.19:18-19:20Knowledge makes people proud.19:21-19:22That's what he's saying.19:22-19:23Knowledge makes people proud.19:24-19:25Have you ever been around that guy?19:26-19:27You know that guy?19:28-19:30The actually guy?19:31-19:32You know that guy?19:32-19:33That's like actually.19:33-19:34You know, you've been around that guy?19:36-19:37If you are that guy, I hope you repent.19:38-19:39But you know that guy.19:39-19:43You're like, man, it was like 80 degrees today.19:43-19:47Actually, it was 77 degrees.19:48-19:49(sniffling)19:50-19:51You got me.19:52-19:53I'm a big fat liar.19:54-20:00Or you're like, strawberries are my favorite fruit.20:01-20:04Actually, a strawberry is not a fruit.20:04-20:05It is a member of the rose family.20:06-20:08Actually, a banana actually is a berry.20:09-20:09Actually.20:14-20:15Knowledge puffs up.20:15-20:19The guy that's just knowledge, obnoxious.20:23-20:29He says, "But love, love builds up." You see, knowledge is about me, but love is about you.20:30-20:32Love is about building you up.20:32-20:37And that's why you gotta have love with your knowledge.20:37-20:38That's Paul's point here.20:39-20:41Actually, he said the same thing, Philippians 1:9.20:42-20:51"And it is my prayer that your love may abound and more with knowledge. You see that? Love with knowledge and all discernment.20:53-20:59All your Bible knowledge does you no good if you aren't operating from a position of love.21:01-21:16So look at verse 2. He says, "If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know." Knowledge is a funny thing, isn't it?21:16-21:20You think you know something, and you don't.21:21-21:30The guy that's walking around thinking he's the expert and he knows everything, usually doesn't really know near as much as he thinks he knows.21:34-21:38You mature people, Paul says, you mature people insisting on your liberty.21:38-21:43You think you're so smart, but you don't know as much as you think you do.21:44-22:04because you're missing what the Christian life is all about and it is love. Biblical knowledge should move you to love. You're like, "Wait, wait, hang on.22:04-22:12How does that work? How does knowledge and love, how does that How does that work together exactly?22:12-22:17And Paul's like, "Like your relationship with God Himself." Look at verse 3.22:18-22:26He says, "But if anyone loves God, he is known by God." There it is.22:26-22:31Knowledge and love working together in your relationship with God.22:31-22:33Both of them have to be present.22:34-22:36So you can know about God without loving Him.22:38-22:45But you don't really know God without loving Him.22:48-22:49So what's he saying?22:49-22:50Here's the bottom line, alright?22:51-22:53Here's the CliffsNotes version of this chunk.22:53-22:58He says, "Your knowledge means nothing without love." That's what he's saying.22:58-22:59Your knowledge means nothing without love.22:59-23:06God doesn't care that you know stuff if you don't love your weaker brother.23:06-23:07That's the point.23:09-23:13So again, you're thinking about having beer at your small group barbecue.23:15-23:20Listen, and that guy's coming that's had the struggle in the past.23:20-23:26Look, that guy that's coming, he doesn't need your list of alcohol facts.23:26-23:27Okay?23:27-23:35What he needs is you to love him enough that you care more about him growing in Christ then you do you having your beer.23:39-23:48So if you're insisting on your liberty on the basis of, I know some Bible verses, you missed the big picture.23:50-23:52All right, I have knowledge.23:54-23:55Great, great.23:57-24:01Doesn't matter in the face of a weaker brother, you gotta love him.24:02-24:03I love 'em.24:03-24:06Number two, jot this one down.24:06-24:06I have wisdom.24:08-24:09I have wisdom.24:10-24:11There's a difference, right?24:12-24:13Knowledge, you know the facts.24:14-24:19Wisdom is like knowing how to apply the facts, knowing how knowledge works together.24:21-24:23Look at verses four through six with me.24:24-24:39He says, "Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but One.24:41-25:14For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords. Yet for us, there is one God the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." Wow. I could do like a whole series just on like the end of verse 6 there.25:15-25:16That is such an awesome verse.25:16-25:17You should highlight that in your Bible.25:21-25:23That's the gospel right there in verse 6.25:23-25:24This is the gospel.25:24-25:39God came to us in Christ, and we go to God in Christ.25:43-25:44That's awesome.25:47-25:50Regarding the issue at hand, Paul's here saying, "Look, right on, right on.25:51-25:52Hey, I'm with you.25:52-25:54The idol is just a trinket.25:54-25:55There's no boogeyman in the meat.25:56-25:57You have wisdom.25:57-26:03You understand the world in light of the truth of God's Word." Awesome.26:04-26:12Verse 7, "However, not all possess this knowledge." See that?26:13-26:14Paul's agreeing with him.26:14-26:15Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.26:16-26:16I get it.26:17-26:18The idol's a trinket.26:19-26:19Right.26:21-26:22The meat's not haunted, I get it.26:23-26:23You're right.26:24-26:34However, however, look, God in his word has told us everything he wants us to know about him.26:38-26:42But we are all at different levels of understanding.26:43-26:50Some of us are just a little further down the road on our journey than others in maturing with Christ.26:50-26:51That's just the way things work.26:52-26:54We learn, we grow, we mature.26:54-26:56Some of us are more mature than others.26:56-26:57That's just reality.26:59-27:00And that's what Paul's saying here.27:00-27:01He's, "Look, good for you.27:01-27:02You know some things.27:02-27:04You know some things about the idols.27:04-27:05Guess what?27:05-27:07Not everyone understands.27:08-27:09Not everyone's where you are.27:12-27:13Not everyone gets it.27:15-27:42Look at the rest of verse 7, he goes, "But some," talking about the weaker brothers here, "but some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled." Your conscience, he says, "These weaker brothers having a problem with their..." What is the conscience?27:42-27:44We talked about this way and through the book of Hebrews.27:45-27:46Your conscience, what is your conscience?27:46-27:57The conscience is the part of your mind that approves or condemns what you do, based on how you understand right and wrong.27:59-28:00That's your conscience.28:00-28:04And some, Paul says, have a weak conscience, meaning it's immature.28:06-28:28not fully understanding yet. And if a weaker brother eats the pagan meat, they go against their conscience and Paul says, "They are defiled." That word "defiled" actually means "guilty." They feel guilty for doing it. They went against their conscience.28:35-28:49Have you ever believed something for so long that even when you learn the truth, it's hard to let go of that old belief that you held onto for so long?28:51-28:52I think we've all been guilty of that.28:53-28:54You know, here's one for me.28:56-29:01When I was a kid, I've always been an excellent singer.29:04-29:06(congregation laughing)29:14-29:14What is going on here?29:21-29:23Learning to have grace with the weaker brothers.29:24-29:25(congregation laughing)29:28-29:30Pastor Taylor, you are absolutely right.29:30-29:32That statement was sarcastic, you are right.29:33-29:34He is absolutely right.29:34-29:36He's not the weaker brother, he's right.29:36-29:38But I have always been a great singer.29:38-29:49But anyways, when I was little, I would sing at the dinner table, 'cause I'm always singing, I'm singing, doing everything, but I'd come to the dinner table and I'd sing.29:50-29:51And do you know what my mom told me?29:52-29:57She says, "You can't sing at the table because it," anybody know?29:59-30:00She made this up.30:01-30:05My mom said, she says, "You can't sing at the table "because it makes the angels cry."30:07-30:08(congregation laughing)30:12-30:13I am dead serious.30:14-30:18Now I found, I just this minute realized she just made that up.30:20-30:21'Cause I was expecting somebody to shout that out.30:22-30:23Nope.30:25-30:29So I grew up like, don't sing, when I get to the table, I'm like, don't sing, why?30:29-30:38because all the angels in heaven are like, "Oh, please." At first I thought it was just like anybody singing, but I think mom meant my singing.30:39-30:41My singing offended the holy angels.30:41-30:56But so I was like, "Don't sing at the table "because the angels, it just made the angels cry." And you're like, "That's silly." It is, admittedly.30:57-31:05But I gotta tell you, to this day, if I'm eating somewhere and I hear somebody singing, do you know what the first thing is that I think of?31:08-31:09You're making the angels cry.31:10-31:11Way to go.31:13-31:14Do you know what I mean?31:14-31:22I know that's not true, but I do cringe when I hear somebody sing at the table because it was just so ingrained in me my whole life growing up.31:22-31:23Don't sing at the table, don't sing at the table.31:24-31:24Angels are weeping.31:27-31:27Like...31:30-31:34And it was true in this culture that Paul's dealing with here.31:35-31:40Imagine the person that got saved out of idolatry.31:41-31:42That's a huge change.31:44-31:57You know, all this time, for all these years, the evil spirits live in the meat, got to sacrifice to the gods, you get the spirits out of the meat, the evil spirits live in the meat, and then they come to Christ, They get the truth of the gospel, and they're like, "That's not true.31:58-31:59There's no evil spirits in the meat.32:00-32:07It's not true at all." It's totally safe to eat, right?32:08-32:12I mean, it is safe, right?32:17-32:23But, I mean, it is pagan meat.32:23-32:41eat. I mean, I guess it's okay to eat it. I mean, gosh, I just don't feel right about eating it. You see the dilemma? I know, but I...32:46-32:55See, mature believers, mature believers, maybe you understand the real truth about the idols and the mate.32:55-33:05Paul's like, "But your weaker brother, he's not there yet." And love says, "I will forego something that might bother the weaker brother." That's what love says.33:06-33:13Look, spiritual maturity is deeper than right and wrong.33:16-33:30The mature believer says, "How does what I do affect the baby Christians?" And you see with the whole alcohol, with the small group barbecue thing, it's the same principle in play.33:31-33:38If the weaker brother is coming to the barbecue, the loving choice is to not have any alcohol there at all.33:40-33:42Not being legalistic, being loving.33:44-33:48I don't want this to be a problem for you, so we're just going to take it off the table.33:49-33:51We'll have a Dr. Pepper.33:55-34:05Look, if you're insisting on your liberty on the basis of, "I have wisdom, I know the ways of the world and how it works," you've just missed the whole picture.34:08-34:08One more.34:11-34:15Three valid reasons for liberty that don't work when you have a weaker brother.34:17-34:19"I have knowledge." That doesn't work when there's a weaker brother.34:19-34:22"I have wisdom." That doesn't work.34:22-34:26When you have a weaker brother, number three, here's one that we often use, I have good theology.34:28-34:30And see, these all do kind of bleed together, obviously.34:32-34:33But I have good theology.34:36-34:37Look at verse eight.34:38-34:41He says, "Food will not commend us to God.34:42-34:55"We are no worse off if we do not eat "and no better off if we do." Interestingly, that word commend is literally draw us near to.34:58-35:01What you eat is not going to draw you closer to God.35:04-35:04And that's what he's saying.35:05-35:11Eating doesn't make you holy, nor does eating make you a sinner.35:13-35:15That's good theology, right?35:16-35:16It's good theology.35:18-35:20What you eat will not draw you near to God.35:21-35:24There's only one way to draw near to God, and that's Jesus Christ.35:25-35:29He provided access to God through his death, through his resurrection.35:29-35:32That's the only basis you have of coming to God.35:33-35:35The only way you can draw near is through Jesus Christ.35:36-35:38But it certainly isn't in what you eat.35:41-35:43That's great theology, right?35:45-35:53So God doesn't care what we eat, But, but God does care about his weaker children and the way we love them.35:54-35:55He cares about that.35:55-35:57Look at verses nine and 10.35:58-36:05He says, "But take care that this right of yours "does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.36:07-36:23"For if anyone sees you who have knowledge "eating in an idol's temple, Will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?36:27-36:30Stumbling block, stumbling block.36:30-36:33That's something that makes you sin, right?36:33-36:34That's a stumbling block.36:35-36:41And Paul here says, you're insisting on your freedom can make the weaker brother sin.36:45-36:45What do you mean?36:46-37:03Just simply this, if their conscience says, don't eat the pagan meat, and they see you eating, they're going to feel pressured to go against their conscience and eat, and that will make them miserable.37:06-37:11They're gonna feel the pressure, they're gonna eat, and then they're gonna immediately, I shouldn't have eaten that.37:13-37:20But you know, he makes me feel guilty if I don't join in and eat, but then I do eat, and now I feel guilty that I did.37:23-37:24You see an obvious application, right?37:26-37:33You decide you're gonna go ahead and have alcohol with your little small group barbecue, volleyball extravaganza thing.37:33-37:35And you're like, I'm still gonna have alcohol there.37:36-37:39And that recovering addict shows up.37:40-37:43And he's like, yeah, I don't drink anymore.37:44-37:45It ruined my life.37:48-37:50But everybody else is drinking.37:51-37:54Man, I kind of feel like the odd man out here.37:55-38:01Maybe I should, I mean, these are new friends and I should try to fit in, right?38:01-38:06So, I don't want to look like a weirdo.38:08-38:08And then he drinks.38:10-38:11How does he feel about himself afterwards?38:14-38:15I can't believe I did that.38:22-38:26Listen, never ever violate your conscience.38:28-38:36I have people come to me for counseling all the time and it can be a gray area matter and they'll say, "I just have this conviction about this.38:36-38:39"Is that right?" I tell them the same thing, ask anybody that's come.38:40-38:42I'm like, I will never tell you to violate your conscience.38:43-38:50If you have a conviction and it's different than mine, and it's a non-biblical issue, I am not going to tell you to violate your conscience on that.38:51-38:56And at the same time, do not ever ask someone else to violate theirs.39:01-39:06With your conscience, yes, understand, seek to understand why you feel how you do.39:07-39:11Evaluate if it is from God, but never violate your conscience.39:11-39:13Look, you're going to mature in Christ.39:13-39:19Your understanding of God's word is going to mature, but don't force it.39:23-39:27Let the growth happen naturally for you and for the weaker brother.39:31-39:48And I know at this point in the message, there's still somebody, somebody's inwardly protesting all this, saying, "Why should I care what my choices "have to do with somebody else's conscience?39:48-39:55"Like, why is that any of their business?" Well, look at verse 11.39:57-40:07Paul says, "And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.40:13-40:13Why should you care?40:16-40:18Because Jesus does.40:20-40:23How much does Jesus care about this weaker brother, really?40:23-40:25How much does Jesus care?40:26-40:27Jesus died for him.40:28-40:30That is how Jesus regards this man.40:30-40:35That is how Jesus so loves this man that Jesus was willing to die for him.40:36-40:38And that's why you should love him too.40:41-40:57Verse 12, he says, "Thus, sitting against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ." Wow.40:59-41:00Paul ratchets it up.41:01-41:03This is the top of the mountain here.41:04-41:10He goes, "Do you need a reason to not offend the weaker brother?41:10-41:13Do you need a reason for that?" He goes, "Here's your reason.41:13-41:15Here's number one.41:17-41:21Jesus takes any mistreatment of his people very seriously.41:22-41:29You sit against that weaker brother, you're sitting against Jesus himself." And Jesus takes this very seriously.41:32-41:41Look, if you pressure my son into doing something he doesn't wanna do, we are having words.41:45-41:51Jesus has a much stronger stance on this than I do, actually.41:54-42:14Matthew 18.6, "Whoever causes," these are the words of Jesus, "Whoever causes one of these little ones "who believe in me to sin, "it would be better for him to have a great millstone "fastened around his neck "and be drowned in the depths of the sea." You sin against a weaker brother, you're sinning against Jesus.42:15-42:16He takes that pretty seriously.42:17-42:32And again, Matthew 25, verse 40, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, "As you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, "you did it to me." Serious business.42:34-42:36And finally, verse 13.42:39-42:58Paul says, "Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, "I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble." Paul's like, "Look, run the risk of sinning against Jesus?42:58-42:59Nuh-uh, uh-uh.43:00-43:18I'm not going to insist on my liberty, my rights." Paul says, "I will become a vegan before I cause a brother to stumble, because loving Loving my weaker brother is more important than having a burger.43:20-43:24And loving my weaker brother is more important than having a beer.43:28-43:35So if you're insisting on your liberty on the basis of, "Well, I have good theology," you missed the big picture.43:37-43:37All right.43:38-43:39That was the introduction.43:41-43:42Here's the sermon.43:44-43:47Your liberty goes only as far as love.43:50-43:56Like the Corinthians, you can say, "Well, I know the Bible and I understand spiritual truths.43:57-43:59My theology is on point.43:59-44:06I am free in Christ to do whatever I want!" No, you aren't.44:09-44:14You must be willing to lay down your rights if it means protecting your weaker brother.44:17-44:19For communion servers would come up, our worship team.44:23-44:32I'll give you one more reason why we should lay down our rights out of love.44:35-44:37And it's because we have a great example.44:37-44:45You know, the Bible says Jesus did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.44:45-44:46Wrap your head around that.44:47-44:55Jesus had the right to insist on all of the privileges that come with being God.44:58-45:02And he humbled himself to give them up.45:05-45:11The question I have for you this morning is, will you follow Jesus in that?45:13-45:19Are you willing to lay down your rights, your freedoms, out of love?45:21-45:22I want you to stand.45:25-45:31And when you're ready to receive the Lord's Supper, by the way, if you're a born again believer in Christ, this is for you.45:32-45:37You don't have to be a member of Harvest Bible Chapel, but you do have to be a born again believer in Christ.45:38-45:39And if you are, he invites you.45:40-45:49Come down the center aisle, receive the elements, and I'm gonna ask that you take them back to your seat by going to the outside aisle.45:49-45:56And when everyone has the elements, we will receive the Lord's Supper together as an act of church unity.45:56-45:57All right, please come.46:01-46:03Why should I choose to lay down my rights?46:07-46:11because I have a great example in my Lord.46:13-46:20The Bible tells us the night Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and He broke it.46:20-46:43He gave thanks and He said, "This is my body which is given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me." After the meal, Jesus took the cup He said, "This cup is the blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin.46:45-46:47Drink this in remembrance of Me." Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 8:1-13What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Do you tend to lean more on the side of “legalism” or “libertine”? Why?What exactly is meant by “stumbling block” (1 Cor 8:9)? How could you be responsible for someone else sinning (1 Cor 8:12)?Besides alcohol, what are some examples of gray areas today that we need to be careful to “not make a weaker brother stumble”?BreakoutPray for one another.

Prisoner of Jesus the Messiah Ephesians 3:1-13 by  William Klock Ask yourself what happens when the church is being faithful in its gospel calling and life. As we've worked through the first two chapter of Ephesians, Paul has explained that the church is God's new temple. It's a people purified by the blood of Jesus so that God can draw near in the person of his Spirit to dwell with us. That's always been God's plan for humanity and for creation. The garden was his temple and he placed us there to steward it well, on the one hand, and on the other, to dwell with him and to enjoy his presence—life with him.  And ever since we rejected that calling, God has been working to restore us to it.  And so the church, this people washed clean of sin and death by Jesus, and then filled with his Spirit, this new temple, we're the working model of God's coming new creation in the here and now. And if we're faithful in being that working model, what happens? The ideal, the hope is that people hear our proclamation of the kingdom and they see the first beginning of God's new creation when they look at the church. In the midst of the darkness, the church should be light.  In the midst of death, the church should be life.  The church should be here to show a better way through the cross.  To prophetically wipe away the tears of the hurt and mourning and to confront the principalities and powers, the false lords and the corrupt systems of the world with the truth of the gospel and the lordship of Jesus.  And people do hear and see and experience the faithfulness of the church.  In us they meet the living God and the Lord who died for them and they encounter his glory and they kneel in faith and are, themselves washed by Jesus and filled with the Spirit. But our idea of the faithful church often stops there. Maybe that's because we think of the church, not in terms of faithfulness, but in terms of success.  Butts in the pews. Money in the plate. Acclaim by the world.  And yet for the first Christians the opposite was true.  They were small.  They were poor.  They were persecuted and imprisoned and martyred by the world around them. And that's because, when the church is faithful in living and proclaiming and witnessing the presence of God's new creation and the Lordship of Jesus, the principalities and powers—that was how Jews like Paul thought of the unseen powers, once placed by God to oversee peoples and nations, but now in rebellion against him—those principalities and powers, earthly kings, and the powerful people invested in those kingdoms and the corrupt systems that run them—Brothers and Sisters, if we're doing our job showing that God's new world is breaking in and that Jesus is setting things to rights, those powers will fight back.  They will try to shut us up or shut us down. They will throw us in prison.  They will kill us.  Or they will try to corrupt us. They'll divide our loyalties: Sure you can worship Jesus, but you'll also need to kneel to Caesar.  They'll get us to adulterate the gospel with materialism and commercialism or politics.  They'll convince us we can have one set of values in the church and another in business or in government. With that in mind, look at Ephesians 3. Paul rites, “It is because of all this that I, Paul, the prisoner of Messiah Jesus on behalf of you gnetiles…”  Paul sort of interrupts himself there for rhetorical purposes, but we should pause here too.  Paul was in prison. Probably this is when he was in prison in Rome, but it could have been in Ephesus.  And for a lot of people in his word, that meant that Paul was out of favour with God.  How often do we hear that sort of thing today? There are parts of the church that have been corrupted and compromised by the idea that faith means health and wealth, happiness and prosperity.  That you can name it and, by faith, claim it.  And if you don't get it, well, then you don't have enough faith or you're out of favour with God.  If we were to turn over to Second Corinthians we'd see that that's how the Corinthians interpreted Paul's imprisonment.  But this is pagan thinking. But Paul knew better. In verse 13 he tells them, “Don't lose heart because of my sufferings on your behalf. That's your glory!”  In other words, he's imprisoned because he's been faithful to the calling God gave him.  He's imprisoned because of his great faith.  He wants the Ephesians to understand the paradox of the cross: God's power is made perfect in weakness.  We're prone to forgetting this.  When we bail on a church because we think it's too small, when we start adopting sales tactics as if the gospel is something to sell, when we cozy up to corrupt leaders and rulers looking for favour, when we think we have to project or pursue strength in order to win, we've lost the plot that is centred on the cross of Jesus.  You can't adulterate God's new creation with the old.  If we do, we lose our witness and we stop challenging the principalities and power of the old with the lordship of Jesus and the glory of the kingdom. So Paul was in prison because he was being faithful, because he was establishing, just as God had called him to do, these little communities that were breaking the rules of the old order: bringing Jews and gentiles, men and women, slave and free together into a single family.  This was the family through which God will make his glory known throughout the earth.  Remember the priests mocking Jesus on the cross, to come down if he was really the son of God, then they would believe. But Paul knew—and the people in those little churches in Ephesus knew—it was because Jesus is the son of God that he had to stay on the cross.  It was through his weakness, through his death that the great enemy, death itself, would be defeated and the battle won.  Weakness is the powerful way of the cross. Paul had got the attention of the powers of the present evil age and it landed him in prison, but instead of thinking that God had failed, Paul knew that this was actually the sign, the proof that the gospel and the Spirit were doing their work, that they were truly rising to challenge the old gods and kings.  So he goes on in verse 3, “I'm assuming, by the way, that you've heard about the plan of Gods' grace that was given to me to pass on to you?  You know, the mystery that God revealed to me, as I wrote briefly just now.  Anyway…  When you read this you'll be able to understand the special insight I have into the Messiah's mystery.  This wasn't made known to human beings in previous generations, but now it's been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.  The mystery is this, that, through the gospel, the gentiles are to share Israel's inheritance.  They are to become fellow members of the body, along with them, and fellow sharers of the promise of Jesus the Messiah.”   God's great mystery, his secret purpose that was there all along, promised to Abraham and to Moses, to David and to the Prophets, but missed by so many people in Israel—and of course totally unknown to the gentiles who did know about those promises—that mystery hit Paul like a ton of bricks the day he met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus—or maybe it was three days later when Ananias prayed for him and his eyes were opened.  Paul started to rethink everything his Jewish Pharisee brain knew—and it knew the whole story—but suddenly he was looking it at through a new lens, through the reality that this Jesus who was crucified as a false Messiah had been raised and was, in fact, the Messiah after all.  And if that were true—well, that wall outside the temple, the one carved with the warning that gentile must not pass on pain of death—that wall was now irrelevant.  In fact, that whole temple had become irrelevant because of Jesus.  He's said this back in 2:19 and now he says pretty much the same thing again, “The mystery is this, that through the gospel, the gentiles are to share in Israel's inheritance.  They are to become fellow members of the body…fellow sharers of the promise in Messiah Jesus.”  In Greek he drives this point home with real force using three words that all begin with the prefix syn that means “with”.  The gentiles are with-inheritors, with-body, and with-partakers—to put it very literally in English.  For those in the Messiah, the distinction between the Jews and the rest of the world is gone.  And we often read right past it, but this was absolutely key, heart of the gospel stuff for Paul. Israel's story reached its climax and the promises were fulfilled in the Messiah and in his death for the sins of the whole world.  In that moment the whole sacrificial system, the whole system of purity and impurity, the temple itself became irrelevant for everyone—whether or Jew or gentile—for anyone who throws himself or herself at the feet of Jesus in faith and love to be purified once and for all and forever by his blood, to be filled by God's Spirit, and thereby to become a part of God's new temple. When the scales fell from Paul's eyes, he was the first to really grasp all this.  The other apostles back in Jerusalem were still debating whether gentile believers had to be circumcised or not.  So Jesus sent Paul to go announce to the gentiles that it's not necessary.  There's now a single people defined by faith in the risen Messiah.  Of course, Paul first went back to Jerusalem to make sure his fellow apostles understood this, too.  But his mission was to proclaim the good news to the nations.  I expect most of the his first converts were those gentiles who were already on the fringe.  The “god fearers” as the Jews called them.  Greeks and Romans who encountered Jewish society and saw something they'd never seen before.  In a world of moral filth, they saw in Israel a passion for holiness, a desire for justice, a hope of God setting the world to rights—a hope few in the gentile world had.  And they couldn't go to the temple, but they could sit in the synagogues and hear the scriptures read and there they heard about the faithfulness of Israel's God.  And so they hung around, on the fringe, longing for what this family had, but knowing it was not theirs and thinking it never could belong to them.  Hoping that maybe there could be a place for them, even if on the fringe, in this story of hope.  And Paul came to them excited, to announce that in Jesus, they were co-inheritors, fellow body-members, and fellow partakers of all those promises God had made to his people.  That in Jesus and the Spirit, the could actually become the temple of the living God…not on the fringe, but actually the temple in which he dwells. Imagine the excitement those first gentile believers felt. Like children in an orphanage, waiting and longing for years to have a place in and the love of a family, now they were part of the family.  They'd escaped from the fickle gods and moral filth and hopelessness of paganism and were now sons and daughters of God. So having made clear this point that is so central to everything, Paul goes on in verse 7: “This is the gospel that I was appointed to serve, in line with the free gift of God's grace that was given to me.  It was backed up with the power through which God accomplishes his work.”  I have to think that Paul never ceased to marvel at this.  The guy who made it his career to round up Christians so they could be brought before the Jewish council—and stoned like Stephen—that evil guy was called and chosen by God to proclaim this good news.  Washed clean by the blood of Jesus and made an apostle.  If anyone understood grace, it was Paul.  If anyone knew the power of God made perfect in weakness, it was Paul.  And so he goes on in verse 8: “I am the very least of all God's people.  However, he gave me this task as a gift: that I should be the one to tell the gentiles the good news of the Messiah's riches, riches no one could begin to count. My job is to make clear to everyone just what the mystery is, the purpose that's been hidden from the very beginning of the world in God who created all things.” Paul, the least deserving of anyone having been such a great persecutor of Jesus and his church, has been given the grace to proclaim the riches of God, his immense wealth.  The riches of the Messiah.  Sonship in God's family.  The inheritance of the word.  And one day that world set to rights and fellowship with the living God forever.  This is good news.  Not good advice, like, “Hey, let me tell you about Jesus. Try him out and see if he works for you and if not, oh well.”  No this is good news.  Sin and death are defeated, the corrupt principalities and powers are on borrowed time, God's kingdom has come.  And those powers have heard the proclamation of Paul and his churches and they're angry.  Maybe if it had just been all talk, maybe if they'd just proclaimed it as good advice, maybe if they'd let themselves be corrupted by the desire for strength and power, but no…the principalities and powers, the king and gods of the present age are angry, because they've seen this good news at work.  Caesar was the great peacemaker who had forged all the peoples of his vast empire into one with his sword and his armies.  But this crucified Messiah who came out of a weak and conquered people, whose missionaries had gathered a bunch of largely poor people, women, and slaves—their unity across all their difference brought about by a message of grace—that was a real threat to the order of the old world.  The Lord Jesus was the real deal.  Caesar was a cheap copy.  And while the Caesars of the world will one day be brought down, they won't go down easily.  And yet, it's in just this that the church has its greatest witness the power of God, the power of the cross, the power of the good news.  God's power is made most manifest when we are at our weakest—laughed at, imprisoned, martyred.  Those things are proof of the power of the gospel. And now Paul brings the first part of the chapter to its climax in verse 10: “This is it: that God's wisdom, in all its rich variety, was to be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places—through the church! This is God's eternal purpose, and he's accomplished it in Messiah Jesus our Lord.  We have confidence and access to God in him, in full assurance, through his faithfulness.” I've heard and read Tom Wright say that if you want to understand what Paul is really getting at in this first half of Ephesians, look at the 10s: 1:10, 2:10, and 3:10.  In 1:10 we see God's purpose to bring all things together in heaven and on earth in the Messiah. In 2:10 we see the church today, justified by grace through faith, called to have the vital role to play in God's plan to bring everything together in the Messiah.  And here in 3:10 Paul reminds us that when the church is faithfully the church—that fellowship of people from every nation, tribe, and tongue who have given their allegiance to the Messiah, then the principalities and powers are put on notice and called to account.  As Paul says here: “God's wisdom, in all its rich variety, was to be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places—through the church!”  For two thousand years God's promises to set creation and humanity rights was out there, but how was it going to happen?  Brothers and Sisters, it's through the church being the church, with uncompromising allegiance to Jesus, living in the power of the Spirit, refusing to compromise, refusing to give an inch to evil men, to wicked systems, to the gods of the present age.  Not one inch.  Because, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus tell us, in those famous words of Abrham Kuyper, “there is not one inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” And knowing that with full assurance, uncompromisingly living that out, we the church are, as Paul put it in Chapter 2, we're God's poiema, his beautiful, finely crafted handywork.  We put on display God's wisdom in all its polypoikilos, the ESV translates it “manifold”.  I'm tempted to translate it a little more freely as something like “all the colours of the rainbow”.  Think of the vision of the church in Revelation 7—an uncountable multitude from every nation, tribe and tongue.  The church is meant to display the polychromed, Technicolor glory of God's new creation and, in doing so, to reveal the shabby drabness of this wicked old age and its gods and kings.  But what the church has done instead is to fracture.  This colour here and that colour over there.  It's to our shame.  And perhaps it's because we ourselves have lost the glory of that Technicolor world the church is meant to represent, we seem to be perpetually drawn back to the shabby drabness of the present age and it's cheap attempts to do what only Jesus and the Spirit can do.  Again, we treat the church and the gospel like commodities to marketed and to be bought and sold.  We try to divide our loyalty between Jesus and mammon or sex or power.  We become captivated by the ugliness of violence and war.  Or we sell our souls for a mess of political pottage, losing our vision of new creation and our passion for goodness, truth, and beauty and instead of trusting in the God who will bring it about, we trust in horses and chariots and chase after lesser evils instead of the good.  Brothers and Sisters, that what the principalities and powers, that's what the devils want.  They want us to think that we can bring God's kingdom by using the world's ways.  But it won't, it can't work.  Because doing so simply paints the church with the same shabby drabnesss of their world and casts a veil over the glory of God and the goodness of the gospel.  It removes us as a threat to those powers. But when we are faithful to being the church.  When we are uncompromising in our loyalty to Jesus.  When love one another and are truly one, instead of fracturing our witness to the unity of the people of God, that's when the world and its rulers take notice.  They recognise that, as Paul wrote back in 2:6, we are already seated with God in the heavenly places in the Messiah.  That doesn't mean we're somehow above the mess.  Instead it means we're right here in the midst of the mess, taking on the corrupt and evil powers of this age with power of the cross of Jesus for the sake of the people around us.  We're here, with the authority of heaven, to shine the light of the gospel and to put on full display the Technicolor glory of God.  Even as the powers fight back. We've all seen it.  It's not always as obvious as Paul being in prison.  More often than not, it seems that when a church being faithful to preach God's word and to live out the gospel and the life of the Spirit, all hell comes at us out of nowhere.  People start grumbling and creating divisions.  People leave over stupid things.  World or national events distract us from the gospel. or divisions become obstacles to faithfulness.  Those are times for prayer and to double-down on faithfulness to Jesus and the gospel when we're tempted to give up or tempted to compromise.  But Paul would tell us to be prepared.  When you're being faithful, when a church is putting on display the manifold wisdom of God—new creation—the enemies of the gospel will see, they'll feel the threat, they will strike back.  That's why Paul was in prison.  And he tells them, “That's your glory.” Think again back to the Solomon's dedication of the temple.  That stunningly grand and beautiful building, skilfully and purposefully crafted so that the glorious presence of God could dwell with in it.  So that God could shine forth from it.  That was the glory of his people on display for the sake of the whole world.  And Solomon and all Israel watched as the cloud of glory descended and filled the temple.  I always struggle to visualize just how amazing that must have been.  But the key takeaway here is this, Brothers and Sisters: that glory now indwells us.  We are now God's temple, his skilfully and purposefully crafted handiwork, purified by the blood of Jesus, so that he can dwell in us.  And if we, by his grace and sure of promises, are faithful to be what he has made, we will shine forth that glory: life in the midst of death, light in the midst of darkness, hope in the midst of despair, glorious Technicolour in the midst of dreary mud puddles, new creation in the midst of the hold. Let's pray: Almighty God, consider the heartfelt desires of your servants, we pray,  and stretch out the right hand of your majesty to defend us against all our enemies, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." [b]Amen.

Brad and Steven are back this week, talking about, what else, the war/non-war with Iran. The guys talk about the various justifications that the administration has given for the “special military action,” and wonder what “imminent” really means. They also talk about Kristi Noem’s firing, Stephen Miller’s incorruptibility, and Brad’s solo weekend. Have a listen! […]

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 5-6, Psalm 43, Mark 14 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus' kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible! In this episode for March 7th, Hunter invites us on day 66 of our journey through scripture. Together, we'll explore key passages from Deuteronomy 5 and 6, Psalm 43, and Mark 14. Hunter helps us reflect on the foundational moments when Moses recounts God's commandments to Israel, the psalmist's longing for God's presence, and the powerful, sobering scenes leading up to Jesus' betrayal and crucifixion. As your Bible reading coach, Hunter weaves together these texts to reveal timeless truths about God's love, human frailty, and the radical invitation to participate in Christ's self-giving, forgiving love. This episode also includes moments of guided prayer and encouragement to let God's joy be your strength in daily life. Whether you're listening at home or on the go, you'll be reassured of one thing—"You are loved, full stop." Join us and let these words of life shape your heart, renew your hope, and lead you deeper into God's story. TODAY'S DEVOTION: We are all guilty of betrayal. Peter, Judas, all the disciples—even you and I—have in common this: despite our best intentions and strongest resolves, we have fallen away, betrayed with our words, our actions, sometimes even with a kiss. Isaiah says, all we like sheep have gone astray; we've left God's path to follow our own. That's the story not just of the disciples but of humanity. Each of us has reached for that fruit of deceit, separating ourselves from the source of our life, straying in ways large and small from the One who loves us. But Jesus steps into this place of failure and separation. He takes the cup—the cup that for him means suffering and death, the cup of bitter sorrow—and he transforms it. It's a cup filled with his blood, shed for the world, for you and for me. And in that act of self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love, Jesus draws us into life. He defeats death not with violence or retribution, but with his own surrender and love. He drinks down the cup of suffering so that he might hand us the cup of life—a life that invites us to participate with him in that same self-giving, forgiving, co-suffering love. We, who have freely received, are now invited to freely give. We are called not just to receive his forgiveness, but to live out that love, to be people shaped by radical hospitality, mercy, and hope. Let's learn these ways. Let us practice the rhythm of receiving his love and sharing that love with the world. That is my prayer for myself, for my family, and for you: that together, we would enter ever more deeply into the life Christ offers—self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love—for our neighbor, our enemy, and ourselves. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

Gospel Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." So to them Jesus addressed this parable. "A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.' So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers."' So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.' But his father ordered his servants, 'Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.' Then the celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, 'Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, 'Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.' He said to him, 'My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.'" Reflection I like focusing on the unhappy brother. Because he's so like the righteousness of so many of the people that Jesus was trying to reach. If you do what you're told, that's all that's required. But Jesus is coming into the world not for those people, but more for the sinner, for the younger son, for the one who sought life and wanted it more than anything else but made all the mistakes. And that's what we need to take to heart about this passage. God favors those who long to live and find life, and you can't do that without making mistakes. Let us never fear that our sins are the obstacle. We need to have passion, enthusiasm for life. We need to seek it and we make mistakes, and when we make mistakes, then we simply recognize that we are always forgiven.] Closing Prayer Father, your love is consistent. You are our father. You're the father of those of us who sin. You're the father of those of us who follow the rules rigorously. Let us be the same. Let us embrace all those who seek to please you and not judge them. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260307dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” Genesis 12:1-2 Making a Name for Yourself More than one has dreamed of it. Some have been lured by its promise. Others have cursed its lack of fulfillment. We call it many different things: “making it,” “success,” “winning.” Striving for it is as American as Mom and apple pie. It all comes down to making a name for yourself. People have gone about it in different ways, from getting an advanced degree to destroying personal relationships. “How much do you want it?” seems to be the strategy of success. Abram was already a success in the eyes of the world. He was married and wealthy. Then God changed everything. God promised Abram even more. God promised Abram a name so great that generations would remember it. Abram believed God’s promise, left his home, and went to a land he had never been to before. God makes a promise to you, too. His promise is that your name will be great—maybe not here on this earth, but certainly in the roles of heaven. God will make your name great, too. How much do you want it? Believe in Jesus. Abram did. That’s the way God marks success. Prayer: Savior, may your promises fill my heart with eager anticipation to see your glory forever in heaven. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that words simply wouldn't come—and all you could do was cry?

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Our shout-out today goes to John Deedrick from Andover, MN. Thanks for your partnership in Project23. We cannot do this without donors like you. Our text today is 1 Corinthians 7:39-40. A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God. — 1 Corinthians 7:39-40 Paul closes this long and careful chapter with calm clarity. After addressing desire, marriage, singleness, freedom, and faithfulness, he brings everything to rest on one steady truth: covenant still matters. He begins where Scripture consistently begins—with commitment. Marriage is not a temporary arrangement or a casual agreement. It is a covenant meant to endure for life, and Paul states this plainly, without apology or embellishment. At the same time, Paul is not careless with those who have suffered loss. When death ends a marriage, freedom is real. A widow is not bound forever; she is free to marry again, and Paul affirms that freedom without hesitation. But freedom is never detached from devotion. Paul adds a clarifying expression that shapes everything that follows: "only in the Lord." Choice is permitted, but allegiance remains. Desire may move, but it must move under the Lordship of Christ. Paul then offers his pastoral judgment—not as a command or pressure. He suggests that remaining single may bring greater happiness, not because marriage is lesser, but because undistracted devotion often produces more profound peace. His concern throughout the chapter has never been status, but spiritual steadiness. When Paul closes by saying that he speaks with the Spirit of God, he is not claiming superiority. He expresses confidence that wisdom shaped by the Spirit leads to a freedom that does not fracture faith. This final word is the heart of the chapter. Marriage is good. Singleness is good. Freedom is good. But none of them are ultimate. Freedom flourishes best where God's covenant is honored. When boundaries disappear into a field of choices, freedom does not expand—it collapses. But when freedom is shaped by devotion to the Lord, it becomes a gift rather than a threat to your soul. So we are all left with an invitation: live freely, choose wisely, honor the covenant, and remain anchored in the Lord. DO THIS: If you are facing a relational decision, write down what freedom looks like "in the Lord." Ask not only what you want, but what honors Christ. ASK THIS: Where do I confuse freedom with the absence of boundaries? How does covenant protect rather than restrict true freedom? What decision am I being called to make in the Lord right now? PRAY THIS: Father, thank You for the freedom You give and the wisdom You provide. Teach me to choose within Your design, to honor covenant, and to trust that true freedom is found in devotion to You. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Even If"

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260307dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” Genesis 12:1-2 Making a Name for Yourself More than one has dreamed of it. Some have been lured by its promise. Others have cursed its lack of fulfillment. We call it many different things: “making it,” “success,” “winning.” Striving for it is as American as Mom and apple pie. It all comes down to making a name for yourself. People have gone about it in different ways, from getting an advanced degree to destroying personal relationships. “How much do you want it?” seems to be the strategy of success. Abram was already a success in the eyes of the world. He was married and wealthy. Then God changed everything. God promised Abram even more. God promised Abram a name so great that generations would remember it. Abram believed God’s promise, left his home, and went to a land he had never been to before. God makes a promise to you, too. His promise is that your name will be great—maybe not here on this earth, but certainly in the roles of heaven. God will make your name great, too. How much do you want it? Believe in Jesus. Abram did. That’s the way God marks success. Prayer: Savior, may your promises fill my heart with eager anticipation to see your glory forever in heaven. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Saturday, 7 March 2026   However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:21   “And this kind it departs not if not in prayer and fasting” (CG).   In the previous verse, Jesus told the disciples the reason why they couldn't eject the demon, explaining to them the power of faith, even the size of a mustard seed. Having said that, He now speaks of the importance of matters related to their faith, saying, “And this kind it departs not if not in prayer and fasting.”   There are two new words in this verse. The first is proseuché, prayer. It is derived from prós, towards or exchange, and euché, a wish or prayer. Thus, it signifies an exchange of wishes. The second is nésteia, abstinence. This can be both from a lack of food (such as in 2 Corinthians 6:5), or for a voluntary or religious purpose (such as in Acts 14:23).   It is to be noted that this verse is not included in some texts, and it is either footnoted as such or left out entirely from some translations. If the omission of the verse is not footnoted, it means that the verse number is lacking as well. This can be confusing to those who do not understand such nuances.   Jesus' point here is not that all demons required their special prayers and fasting, but that this particular type of demon did. This, then, should probably be taken as a type of upbraiding. The disciples, having failed to eject the demon, should have gathered in prayer instead of disputing with the scribes.   However, the lack of ability to cast the demon out probably embarrassed them, and instead of going to their knees, pride stepped in, and they spent their time trying to justify themselves by past deeds or through the sure thought that their Master could take care of the matter in a snap.   Despite this, nothing is said about what type of fasting would be required, be it a promise to fast, a half day, a full day, etc. Therefore, without knowing what was meant, the disciples would have to do their best to seek the Lord's power to resolve the matter.   Life application: A main point to consider is that these men could not expect to arbitrarily walk up to any malady or affliction and snap their fingers to obtain their anticipated results. Instead, they were subject to the will of the Lord. This subjugation meant that when things did not go as expected, they were to stop and seek His face.   Although there is no prescription concerning casting out demons for the church today, there are hurdles that we will face, and we should seek the face of the Lord when we meet them. It is better that we come to the Lord with all of the needs of the day ahead, asking for His guidance. But when roadblocks appear, that is when we should re-seek His face, asking Him to guide our steps anew.   A second point about this verse is the omission of it in some Bibles. This is not a conspiracy by someone to degrade the importance of the word. Scholars translate based on various texts and textual differences. This is normally explained in the preface, if one is included.   However, it is rather shoddy to omit a verse without any explanation at all. Numbers increase one after another. This is standard for all people. When a number is missing, without an explanation, it violates the set rules of numerical progression. This is annoying and even troublesome, depending on who the reader is.   If you come to such a situation in your Bible reading, highlight or mark it so that the next person who reads that Bible doesn't have to fret over the missing verse. Bibles can get passed along any number of times. Notes for clarity can be a real blessing to the next person into whose hands it comes.   Lord God, give us the wisdom to seek You in prayer each day. And when times of extra trial and difficulty arise, help us to remember to stop, drop (even if only mentally), and petition You for greater assistance and insight into the difficulty we face. Yes, Lord, give us wisdom in this. Amen.

Pharaoh . . . sent [Abram] on his way, with his wife and everything he had. — Genesis 12:20 It was a time of famine, and Abram and Sarai needed food. There was food in Egypt, but going there could be dangerous. (This would not be the first time God's people sought food in Egypt during a famine, and this episode foreshadows events that took place later in the story of Abram's descendants— see Genesis 37-50.)As Abram and Sarai entered Egypt, Abram came up with a plan. He told Sarai, in effect, “If people ask who you are, I will tell them you are my sister. If I say you are my wife, they might kill me to get to you.”So a deception began, and one lie led to another. Before long, Sarai was taken to become a wife in Pharaoh's household. And the truth came out when God protected Sarai by inflicting diseases on Pharaoh and his household. (Some years later, a similar type of cover-up took place in the life of Abram's son Isaac during another famine—Genesis 26.)Abram had thought he was providing for himself and his wife, but he learned that it is God who provides and protects. Pharaoh could easily have killed Abram for his actions, but God provided protection for him in that way too.Instead of being killed, Abram was sent away with all the gifts he had received when Sarai was taken into the palace. And those blessings came ultimately through the faithful provision of God. Dear God, so often we think we can protect and provide for ourselves. Please take away our deception and pride, and help us to see that you alone are the one who provides. Amen.

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE:  Deuteronomy 3-4; Psalm 36; Mark 13 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus' kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the March 6th, 2026 episode of the Daily Radio Bible with your Bible Reading Coach, Hunter. In today's journey, we come together from all corners of the world to open our hearts and minds to the pages of Scripture, seeking to be renewed and trained in the ways of Jesus—the ways of life and love. This episode features readings from Deuteronomy chapters 3 and 4, Psalm 36, and Mark chapter 13. Hunter guides us through dramatic moments in Israel's history—their victories, God's commands, and the urgent call to remain devoted. Psalm 36 offers a reflection on the unfailing love and faithfulness of God, while Mark's gospel delivers a powerful reminder from Jesus about keeping watch and staying alert, because no one knows the hour of His return. Throughout, Hunter weaves in personal stories and practical encouragements, reflecting on the active, vigilant faith Jesus calls us to. The episode closes with heartfelt prayers and a gentle invitation to engage in simple acts of connection and humanity, reminding each of us that, above all, we are loved. Settle in as we step into these sacred texts, find encouragement for our daily walk, and remember together to keep watch—faithful and awake—trusting God's enduring presence with us. TODAY'S DEVOTION: Keep watch. That's the word of Jesus to us as we move through our lives. After reading Mark 13, we hear him say: What I say to you, I say to everyone: watch. Sometimes we can imagine that keeping watch just means sitting and waiting, maybe even nodding off as the night gets long. But as Hunter reminded us with his story from the Bering Sea, keeping watch on a ship was anything but passive. It was a calling to active responsibility—alert to every course correction, faithful to look out for hidden dangers, even when things seemed still and quiet. In the spiritual life, Jesus calls us to this same kind of active attentiveness. Peter, James, John, and Andrew come to Jesus full of questions about the future: When will all things be made right? When is the kingdom coming in fullness? Jesus doesn't give them a timetable. Instead, he calls them—and us—to a posture of vigilant faithfulness. No one knows the exact hour or day, not even the angels, not even the Son, but only the Father. What does it mean, then, to keep watch? It means being faithful in the routines of our lives, staying vigilant in prayer, making space to listen for God's word, and doing the next right thing in the service of others—our families, our neighbors, our communities, our church. The stakes are high, but the comfort is real: Jesus is with us through the long watches of the night. He keeps watch with us, teaching us to trust him, to lean on his presence, and to find "songs in the night" as we wait. This podcast itself is meant to be a sort of spiritual wheelhouse—a routine and a place where we daily set our eyes on Christ, letting his words order our thoughts and align our course. Through the encouragement of the Spirit, through song, through scripture, and through prayer, we keep watch together, not just for our own sake but for the sake of those God has entrusted to us. So let's stay present. Let's be awake to the life God is placing before us. Let's keep watch—not in anxiety, but in hope and trust, knowing he is near, he is faithful, and in his time, he will return. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

Gospel Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46 Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: "Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.' They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?" They answered him, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times." Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit." When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet. Reflection I wonder what the Pharisees felt when they'd hear words of Jesus condemning their life. Many of them must have felt somehow that they were guilty of what Jesus was saying. But when they're all together, when they're trying to protect what has been their way of life for so long, they are so resistant to hearing the truth. He reminds us that we have to be radically open to transformation and change if we're serious about following the Christ. We're to leave so many ways in which we've seen life to enter into the true work that God has called us to. Let us not be like the Pharisees. Let us be open to hearing exactly what Jesus is saying and knowing what needs to be changed in our life and not feeling responsible to be the one who changes it, but to allow him to do his work, to transform us into his son. Closing Prayer Father, when we see or feel that the words you speak are directly to us and we can know that we are not yet where we should be, help us always to be excited about the possibility of change and not wallow in shame or guilt that will get us nowhere. To admit, to see our darkness is essential. And until we do, we'll never be able to feel the healing power of your presence. And we ask this In Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260306dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion [Abraham] is the father of us all. Romans 4:16 Abraham’s Faith One of the giants of the early Christian church was John Chrysostom. He served as a pastor about 300 years after Jesus rose from the dead. Trained in classical rhetoric, John easily could have made a comfortable life for himself in various professions. Instead, he devoted his considerable gifts to the proclamation of Jesus Christ. Like many a Christian before him and after him, John Chrysostom read from the Old Testament about Abraham. He read how God called Abraham to leave the familiarity of his homeland and live as a permanent stranger somewhere else. He read how Abraham, surrounded by a godless and calloused culture, publicly proclaimed the name of the Lord. And he read how Abraham heard God’s promise that the Savior of the world would one day come from his family, and how Abraham believed that promise. As he thought long and hard about Abraham, about the profound faith Abraham possessed, John Chrysostom said this about Abraham, “He asked no questions, demanded no signs, but trusted the promise alone.” Let’s read that again. Of Abraham, John Chrysostom said, He asked no questions, demanded no signs, but trusted in the promise alone. It is no coincidence that the apostle Paul calls Abraham, “The father of us all,” the father of all of us who believe in Jesus as our Savior. He says this because Abraham embodies what it meant to trust the gospel promises of God. Paul marveled at Abraham’s faith. So did John Chrysostom. So did Martin Luther. How could he do it? How could he trust so fully, without question? Was it his innate strength of character? Was he simply a better, more spiritual, kind of person? That cannot be it. The Bible makes it clear that Abraham was born a lost, broken sinner just like the rest of us. In the end, the answer does not lie in Abraham. Rather, it lies in the power of the promise itself—the promise of full forgiveness in Jesus alone. It is the same promise that feeds your faith and mine. Prayer: Lord Jesus, feed my faith by the power of your promise. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Just as every marathon runner sets goals and works to meet them, we must meet our goals to achieve what God has for us. He does not want us to be stuck in the past. Instead, he wants us to forget what is behind, completely heal from it, and move forward so that we can move toward heaven. When we move toward heaven, we help others do the same. As people admire us and watch us straining through the ups and downs of life with joy and contentment, others are drawn to Christ, too. When we run the race that has been marked out for us, we in turn help others run the race as well. This episode is sponsored by Trinity Debt Management. If you are struggling with debt call Trinity today. Trinity's counselors have the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Our intention is to help people become debt-free, and most importantly, remain debt-free for keeps!" If your debt has you down, we should talk. Call us at 1-800-793-8548 | https://trinitycredit.org TrinityCredit – Call us at 1-800-793-8548. Whether we're helping people pay off their unsecured debt or offering assistance to those behind in their mortgage payments. https://trinitycredit.org Full Transcript Below: Strain Forward Towards the GoalBy: Michelle Lazurek Bible Reading:“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 3:13-14 After waiting many months for the Lord's direction, I have begun the ordination process with my denomination. Although it is a long, complicated process, I know I am up for the challenge. But first, I wanted to pray and make sure that my decision was not simply my decision, but one that the Lord was calling me to make. After many months of silence, God finally used somebody in my life to confirm what I needed to know. As I've gone through the process, God has recalled many emotional wounds I've needed to heal. Due to past church hurt and bad exchanges with brothers and sisters in Christ, I became nervous about whether I could do the job. I wasn't sure I wanted to go back into a situation that could be toxic or harmful to my mental or emotional state. One day, I was reading the Word and came across the above verses. It was interesting for me to note the phrase, “forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what's ahead.” The word “strain” implies that it's not easy to move. For instance, people with physical injuries who want to run a marathon will find it quite tricky. The pain of that injury will impede them from running the race fully with a healthy body. Although we may never completely forget the hurts and difficulties of our past, God wants us to forget what they are and continue toward the goal he has for us. God doesn't want us to ignore the pain. Instead, knowing it's there, we should take steps to care for ourselves and also to achieve the goal he has set for us. With proper rest, nutrition, and healthy water intake, a person who runs a marathon with an injury can do so, albeit slowly. It is the same with us. God wants us to strive toward the goal that he has for us. In these verses, the price is heaven. Through many seasons of life, we may be straining toward heaven. We may be going through challenging health crises, financial woes, church, or relationship struggles. Yet through all of it, God wants us to keep moving forward. Even when we are stuck in those emotional wounds, God wants us to heal so we can move forward and reach the prize. Just as every marathon runner sets goals and works to meet them, we must meet our goals to achieve what God has for us. He does not want us to be stuck in the past. Instead, he wants us to forget what is behind, completely heal from it, and move forward so that we can move toward heaven. When we move toward heaven, we help others do the same. As people admire us and watch us straining through the ups and downs of life with joy and contentment, others are drawn to Christ, too. When we run the race that has been marked out for us, we in turn help others run the race as well. Don't become stuck in the past. Instead, heal from what has ailed you. Seek the help of a professional, get medication, or do whatever you need to take to forget what's behind you completely. Then, when you are ready, move toward heaven, no matter what pace you are at. Strive toward the goal, move toward heaven, and inspire others to reach heaven's goals as well. Father, let us be people who strain toward the goal. Let us always keep our eyes on the prize: heaven. Let us remember, then, that the ultimate prize is being solidified in our identity with you and in our intimate relationship with you. Help us get the resources and time we need to completely heal from the past so we may move forward toward the goal you have set for us. Amen. Intersecting Faith & Life: In what way are you stuck in the past? In what ways can you heal from the past so that you can move forward to your future goals? Further Reading:Hebrews 12:1 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.