Podcasts about because god

In God Did Pt. II, Pastors David and Lydia Osborne continue SZN 2: Revival Through Reason with a compelling look at Romans 5:5–11. This message centers on the overwhelming love of God—a love that was poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, revealed on the cross, and restores our friendship with Him. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, not to make us simply “better,” but to make us His. Pastor David and Pastor Lydia remind us that God's love is not only universal, but deeply personal, offering us more than religion—He offers relationship. Through this divine love, our joy is made whole, our faith is strengthened, and our hearts are awakened to the beauty of being known and loved by God. Because God did, we can now truly live.

Because God is wise and all-knowing, you can place complete confidence in His plan for your life.

Today's Promise: Psalm 145:9 God is good. Goodness is part of His character. Goodness is at the heart of all He is. He is not just mighty, not just powerful, not just eternal; He is good. Because God is good, He does good. God's goodness sent His only Son into this world. It was His goodness that brought about your salvation. God pours out his goodness on all of His creation. His goodness blessed those who love Him and those who hate Him. He offers His mercy to all who will come to Him.

You ever feel like you're doing all the right things… but nothing seems to change? Like following Jesus is just harder than you thought it'd be? In this classic teaching, Francis takes us deep into the fight we all face—the struggle to stay faithful when no one's watching. He takes us into Galatians 6, where we're reminded: Don't give up. Because God sees it all… and the harvest is coming.

From Eden to Exodus, God seeks to restore what was lost in the garden through rescue and relationship. Why? Because God wants to be with his people. More than a great truth about the God we worship, its an invitation for the church to prepare a place for him to come and be with us.

The burdens of the church are too much for one person to carry.The burdens of one person are NOT TOO MUCH for one church to carry. Why? Because God set up a system for burden-bearing that involves a community not an individual.  Can a 3300 year old book have an authoritative impact on loneliness, discrimination, justice and burden bearing? Yup. This is why we are talking about  Deuteronomy. It is current for today (and tomorrow if you subscribe): https://youtu.be/wFLqN1xZ9Lg

Daily Dose of Hope May 20, 2025 Day 2 of Week 8   Scripture – Matthew 2   Prayer:  Dear God, You are amazing!  How awesome it is that you who created all things are also so intimately involved in our lives.  We give you glory and praise for who you are.  We are so thankful for your love.  We want to know you more.  We want and need to hear your voice.  Help us set aside our scattered thoughts and focus on you.  In these next few moments of silence, Lord, hear our prayers...  In Your Name, Amen. Welcome back, friends, to the Daily Dose of Hope, a devotional and podcast connected to the Bible reading plan at New Hope Church in Brandon, FL.  Today, we are digging into Matthew 2.  This is pretty familiar Scripture to many of us.  Let's try to see it with fresh eyes. The text begins with foreign Magi visiting King Herod.  These men are an interesting and mysterious group. We don't really know much about the magi who come seeking Jesus from eastern lands.  Some translations call them wise men or kings.  Matthew doesn't include a lot of details.  We have no idea how many there actually were (despite the popular carol, Scripture does not say there were just three of them).  Like the shepherds, the magi seem an unlikely group to seek out and worship Jesus. They were pagans, gentiles, involved in the occult, and yet they knew there was something more.  They were searching for something more.  So these magi embark on a long journey, carrying expensive gifts worthy of a king, eager to pay homage. Their efforts lead them to an encounter far beyond their expectations. Unlike an earthly king who would have been found in a palace, the magi are led to what we can probably assume is a modest home of a Jewish family and it's there that they find Jesus with his mother and Scripture says they bow down and worship him.  Maybe it wasn't what they expected but they see God's hand in it nonetheless and worship the one they know to be the Messiah, the savior of the world.  They were outsiders but they recognized the Messiah when so many insiders failed to do so. Up until now, it all sounds great, right?  But there is another character in this story.  His name is Herod the Great. The Herod family ruled over the holy land both before and after the time of Christ, they were somewhat like puppet kings, put in place by the Romans to keep order.  And they don't have a great reputation at all.  They were, for the most part, insecure and power-hungry. One reason I don't think it's accurate to refer to the magi as wise men is because they did one thing that was really unwise.  They go straight to King Herod, “So where is the NEW king? Where is the one who has been named king of the Jews?”  Keep in mind, Herod the Great considered himself to be king of the Jews.  The man is insecure and vicious so he tries to trick the magi into divulging Jesus' location.  But no amount of earthly power can get Herod what he wants.  The magi are warned in a dream to not return to Herod.  And this angers him more.  Herod was both feared and hated. The Jewish historian Josephus painted a picture of Herod as a suspicious and cruel client king, with a history of killing anyone whom he saw as a threat, including three sons and his wife. So even though the magi remind Herod of Micah's prophecy that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), his response was not to pay homage but to destroy the newborn king.  In Matthew 2:16, we read that Herod decides to take matters into his own hands and kill all the baby boys who might be in the age range of Jesus, When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.  Truly dark and horrific.  The extent to which human beings will go to gain power surely demonstrates the brokenness of our world.  Then and now.  But through all of this, Jesus is saved.  The baby's family is warned in a dream and they head down to Egypt for a period of time to keep the boy safe from Herod before they come back to Israel and settle in Nazareth.  Because God's purposes will prevail.  God had promised long, long ago to send a Savior for his people and there is nothing that could get in the way.  Listen to this prophecy from in Isaiah 9:6-7, spoken 700 years before the birth of Jesus, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.  It's like God was saying “I'm going to send someone who will restore the people of Israel to me.  This person will be a light to the Gentiles, and will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth AND it will be obvious once more that your God reigns.”  No power-hungry king could mess that up as hard as he tried.  No earthly power could thwart God's plan of redemption for his people.  It's true that bad things to happen.  God allows human beings free will and that is too often used for evil.  But that doesn't mean God isn't involved, it doesn't mean he isn't invested, God can and has orchestrated, changed, and/or stopped the plans of all kinds of people to get done what needs to get done.  God has been working, in his time, over the course of thousands of years, to achieve his bigger purpose. And what was the bigger purpose?  God's mission from the beginning was to redeem his world.  He did this through Jesus.  That little baby that the wise men knelt down and worshiped, that child that Herod felt so threatened by --- that child would grow to become the Savior of the world.  He would bring sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, he would proclaim good news to the poor.  He would preach the Kingdom of God and show the world a different way of living, ultimately giving up his own life voluntarily on a Roman cross.  In doing so, he became the final sacrifice for sin, providing a way for you and me and all people to be redeemed.  Because of Jesus' sacrifice, our sins can be forgiven and we can walk hand in hand with a holy God.  Because of Jesus, nothing separates us from God.  And then, three days after he died, he was resurrected, defeating evil and death and demonstrating to the world who HE is.  He is, after all, God.  Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is LORD of all.  Paul writes this in Colossians 1:15-20, The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.  Jesus is above all things.  Jesus is Lord. And over the course of 2000 years, rulers and kings and dictators and autocrats have tried to wipe out his influence.  They have misused his teachings, they have twisted the Gospel.  Like Herod, they have done all kinds of things to either try to eliminate the influence of Jesus or to use the Gospel for their own deceitful purposes.  And at times, it's been ugly and violent and really sad.  But this is TRUTH:  God will ensure that his purposes prevail.  Yes, in our sinful and broken world, all kinds of horrors will occur.  Vladimir Putin will think he's invincible.  Kim Jong Un will declare himself supreme ruler.  American politicians will think themselves unshakable.  You and I will experience heartbreak, loss, and illness.  And yet, Jesus is still Lord of all.  God is still working in our lives, God is still present with us in the middle of the mess, and Jesus is still in the business of transforming lives.  Friends, Jesus is on the throne, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The rulers of the world may oppose him but they are ultimately answerable to him.  Because he will come again. I'll stop there for now.  But I do have to ask this question:  Is Jesus Lord of your life?  More tomorrow. Blessings, Pastor Vicki    

Scripture: John 15:1-10 "Abide" is central to John's gospel. Abide is the orientation of our lives to Jesus, but also of Jesus's life with us. Jesus tells his disciples that he will abide with them, even as he goes away. In this goodbye it's interesting that Jesus actually never tells the disciples that they ought to bear fruit. It's actually the work of God to bear fruit. Our job, our only role, is to abide. Sabbath is the way we abide. Why do we yield our time around the Lord's day? Because Sabbath is an invitation to rest. Because God rests. But God doesn't need rest. Rest is the time to delight in the pleasure of what God creates.

Because God's promises are sure, we must recognize that He remembers us and has a unique plan for our lives. Genesis 40:1–23 (ESV): 40 Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. 4 The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. 5 And one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. 6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. 7 So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” 8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” 9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, 10 and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. 11 Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.” 12 Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 13 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. 14 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. 15 For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, 17 and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” 18 And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. 19 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.” 20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

Reader: John Hargrave Preacher: Jonathan Smith Recalling the big picture message from the first week, we are ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to the Lord Jesus to the ends of the earth. In today's message from Acts 2:14-41, the apostle Peter explains what the people are seeing and hearing and why it is happening. The Old Covenant has been replaced by a New Covenant, where the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all who find their lives in Jesus, no matter the circumstance. Because God sees Jesus when he looks at those who call Jesus "Lord", God will NEVER remove the Holy Spirit from us. This is new! Unlike the Old Covenant, God would give his Spirit to a few and only for a specific purpose, and once that purpose was done, he would remove his Spirit because the person was not holy and righteous. But not now! Red Door is an Anglican Church in Melbourne, Australia. We exist to be a community of people helping people make all of life all about Jesus.

On the next Treasured Truth, Pastor Ford will ask a poignant question—do we believe God for our future? If we do, then we should proclaim it! We shouldn’t care what kind of opposition comes our way, we know where we’re going. We know where we’re headed and no one and nothing can stop us from getting there. How can we know that for certain? Because God has already told us where we’re going and we know we can trust Him. To learn more how you can strengthen your faith in God’s plan for your life, join us for the next Treasured Truth. Treasured Truth is a listener supported program on Moody Radio. To join our team of supporters, click here. To learn more about Pastor James Ford, Jr., click here. To learn more about Treasured Truth, click here. Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/treasuredtruthSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Ronald Davis shares his powerful story of overcoming abuse and finding healing through prayer. Ronald discusses his tumultuous first marriage, the deep impact of his relationship with God, and how intense prayer and faith led him to forgiveness and restoration. Diana and Ronald also explore the challenges men face in abusive relationships and the often inadequate support from religious communities. Ronald introduces his book, 'Thy Kingdom Come,' which delves into the transformative power of prayer and its role in personal and spiritual growth. 00:00 Sponsor Message: 7 5 3 Academy 00:48 Introduction to the Podcast 01:22 Diana's New Camera and Podcast Updates 02:26 Introducing Today's Guest: Ronald Davis 06:43 Ronald Davis' Background and Journey 08:04 Ronald's Early Life and Spiritual Awakening 10:59 Understanding Prayer and Its Importance 12:40 Ronald's First Marriage and Struggles 17:02 Healing and Restoration Through Prayer 21:12 Challenges Faced by Male Abuse Survivors 25:27 The Church's Role in Addressing Abuse 27:54 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser   Thy Kingdom Come: The Purpose and Power of Prayer thykingdomcomebook.com   Bio:  Ronald Davis has been preaching the Gospel since his teenage years, driven by a deep passion for spreading the message of the Kingdom of God. With decades of ministry experience, he is known for his dynamic teaching and unwavering commitment to advancing God's Kingdom on earth. As the founder of Kingdom Truth Global, Apostle Davis equips believers worldwide with biblical truths, empowering them to live out their faith and walk in their God-given purpose. His life's mission is to see lives transformed by the power of the Kingdom and to raise up leaders who will impact the world for Christ.  Website: https://dswministries.org Email: diana@dswministries.org Subscribe to the podcast: https://dswministries.org/subscribe-to-podcast/ Social media links: Join our Private Wounds of the Faithful FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1603903730020136 Twitter: https://twitter.com/DswMinistries YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgIpWVQCmjqog0PMK4khDw/playlists Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dswministries/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DSW-Ministries-230135337033879 Keep in touch with me! Email subscribe to get my handpicked list of the best resources for abuse survivors! https://thoughtful-composer-4268.ck.page #abuse #trauma Affiliate links: Our Sponsor: 753 Academy: https://www.753academy.com/ Can't travel to The Holy Land right now? The next best thing is Walking The Bible Lands! Get a free video sample of the Bible lands here! https://www.walkingthebiblelands.com/a/18410/hN8u6LQP An easy way to help my ministry: https://dswministries.org/product/buy-me-a-cup-of-tea/ A donation link: https://dswministries.org/donate/   Ronald Davis Part One [00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. Now here is Diana. Hi everyone. How are you today? I'm glad that you're here with me for those that are watching on YouTube. I have a new camera today. Um, My old one, kind of, bit the dust and just got a new one. So hope I'm looking good for you guys. It's definitely high definition for sure. You could see my face very [00:01:00] clearly, probably too clearly. I could see my flaws, imperfections, whatnot. But hey, I'm an authentic person. There's no filters on here. I. Yes, this is my skin. I've not done any work to it. No Botox, nothing like that. It's just me. I don't use AI for very much at all for the podcast. I I just started using it for maybe summarizing show notes, but that's pretty much it. But anyway, that's what's new here on the show. I do have a great guest for you today. Those of you that have been listening for a long time on the podcast, we've had Shayna Rattler back on episode six. Yeah, that was second season, talking about what is a God shift. Well, she contacted [00:02:00] me and said her husband has written a new book about prayer and that she asked if I would have him on the podcast. So me and Shana had such a great time that I was happy to have her husband Ronald Davis on the show. He is a survivor of abuse from, looks like his first wife. I. His journey in prayer helped him to heal and prepare him for what God had next for him. So we're gonna be talking about his upbringing and his ministry. Of course, his story of abuse and how prayer played a big part in his recovery, and that's something that we all need more of is prayer. Such a touchy topic for a survivor to talk. We're a survivor because we were going through this [00:03:00] transition of going through all this abuse and coming out of it, and. Abuse always affects our relationship with God, especially our communication with God. Many of us are on the couch or we're not really sure about where do I stand on the subject of my faith? And that's okay. That's what the podcast is for, is we talk about these topics and we wrestle together for the answers. What does the Bible say about prayer? How does God feel about us? He wants to communicate with us and fellowship with us, and yes, we are asking for things with prayer, but we're also sometimes just sitting and listening and it's hard after you've been through an abusive. Relationship or you're still in one, it's hard to hear God's voice in the midst [00:04:00] of the noise around you. So we're gonna definitely talk that out today. So, Ronald's book is called Thy Kingdom Come, the Purpose and Power of Prayer, and you can purchase that on Amazon. I am gonna include the link in the show notes, of course. So I'll read what the book's about here. In this book, Ronald Davis takes you on a transformative journey into the heart of God's kingdom and the undeniable role of prayer in unlocking its power. This book is more than just a guide. It is a called a Deeper Intimacy with God, a rediscovery of identity, and an invitation to experience the fullness of his purpose for your life. Through insightful revelation and biblical reference, you'll explore the different dimensions of prayer and how to communicate with God effectively. Learn the key stages [00:05:00] of personal and spiritual transformation that align you with God's will. Understand the foundational connection between knowing your identity in Christ and walking in kingdom power. Discover the life-changing impact of intimacy with God on every area of your life. Whether you're a new believer or a seasoned leader, thy kingdom come, will empower you to deepen your relationship with God and live out his kingdom purpose in every aspect of your life. Embrace the power of prayer. Embrace the purpose of the kingdom. Let your life be a reflection of his glory. All right, sounds pretty good. so enjoy my conversation with Ronald Davis, I'm so excited to welcome Ronald Davis on the show. Thank you for coming on [00:06:00] today. Oh, you're, you're welcome. I definitely an honor to be here. I appreciate you having me. So I was saying to the audience before you came on that. You are Shayna Rattler Davis's husband. So when she reached out, it was very exciting that you wrote a book about prayer and that you'd like to come on the show. So any friend of Shayna is a friend of mine. So you said you were only married for five months? So far? Yes. Alright. How did you guys meet? Well, believe it or not a mutual mentor of ours he reached out to me one day and he said he said he wanted to introduce me to someone. He said, he thought about her about a year or so ago before he called me. He said, when he thought of her, he thought of me, but he knew at that time that I wasn't. By the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He just knew it wasn't time yet. So after a year or so, and what's funny is during that year I was in a deep [00:07:00] consecration and fasting before the Lord and seeking God. So after the year of that is when he called me and, he felt like it was now that time to make that introduction. And once we met it, we've just been inseparable ever since. Oh, that sounds fun. Now I'd like to get into a little bit about your history, your ministry how you were raised. Were you raised in a Christian home? I was. I was raised in a Christian home. But I was also raised in a very low income area. So it was two different worlds I was exposed to. My mom kept us in church, I got home to a father that was strung out on crack cocaine. And I had older brothers and siblings that were also contributors of drugs. So I was like, I lived in a house in an environment of, drugs and fighting and, just being exposed to gangs and that lifestyle, that street lifestyle, that, the hood lifestyle where people would refer to it as but my [00:08:00] mom put us in church, so we knew all the Bible stories, we used to receive prophecies as children. I remember receiving a prophecy that I was gonna be a preacher, my mom would threw it at my face at times. But when I was acting a fool and I wanted to do my own thing, but now look, I'm now writing books and glorifying Jesus many years later. But yeah, so that's kind of short version of my my household coming up. When did you meet the Lord? So I became serious about my relationship with God when I was about 16 years old, so from the time of, I'd say about 12, my mom stopped making us go to church, and I got more involved in like, as a young person in streets, sinning , using drugs, trying to sell drugs, trying to, adapt this lifestyle that I was, that was around me. I was, I was never a good fit for it, though, I'll be honest. I'd do wrong and feel bad, it just wasn't a good fit for me. I always knew my whole life that I was different. I remember having the gun put to my face and and I was about 14, 15 years old. And if there was ever a time ever heard [00:09:00] the first time I ever heard the voice of God, it was that day I could hear as clear as day, you can't die. I got work for you to do. Mm. And I wasn't even saved at the time, but that moment stuck with me to, to this very day. So I knew the hand of God was on my life, maybe 'cause of the upbringing in church. But I always knew God's hand was on my life, but I just thought it would be later in life that I would serve the Lord. But at 16, I went to a revival. Well, just before I turned 16, I went to the revival and I seen people being healed. I seen children giving their lives to Christ, and the message was powerful, and the man of God was amazing. And I wanted to be a part of what the Lord was doing. So, I, did antar call and I gave my life to Christ. And my life changed. People in my, my neighborhood saw me change. My school seen me change, so I went to being this bad kid in school to being the kid who was preaching in the hallways, telling people about Jesus. So it was a wonderful experience. I mean, and it's been a journey like everyone else, after we get saved, even that's sometimes when the story really begins, [00:10:00] right. Yeah. I love hearing people's stories of how they came to Christ. They're all different in yours is, exception. When you came to Christ when was the first time you actually understood the concept of prayer? I mean, talking to God, was that a natural thing for you or a foreign concept? Well, we've always taught, prayer in, in, in the church, but they didn't teach prayer like I know prayer now. They taught us we should pray. Mm-hmm. But they didn't really model prayer. I didn't know the way of consistent prayer. I didn't know the way of long prayer. So I would say my little daily prayers and as a young believer, just a level of zeal and hunger that we have for God. So we spend a lot more time, praying, even not praying as much as I do now, but I, what I thought prayer was, I did it to the best of my ability, but more so for me, I was given to the word of the Lord, like my first few years of salvation. I would read the [00:11:00] Bible for hours. That was my way of communing with God. This, studying the scriptures. So, by the time I was 18 years old, I was reading Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge. I was like, I was going deep in theology and breaking down the, historical background of the text. So before I was even 20, you would think I had went to seminary and I never did. I just was so deep in the word. So that was the journey that God took me first. He, it's almost like he wanted me to get that word foundation. And then, my journey into prayer as far as the place of prayer that I'm in now is, was relatively later in life. So from that point, I have that book, that systematic theology book. It's wonderful. Had I had that through Bible college. So, definitely got a lot of meat in that book. I still have it on my shelf. I do know that you were married before to your first wife. Tell us as much as you're comfortable [00:12:00] with what happened there? How did you meet her and what was the relationship like with her? Absolutely. So, that's a long story. I would give you the short version of it, oh yeah. Whatever you wanna do. I met my wife, in the church community, so we known each other from church. We served each other, we served each other in ministry. We took a liking to each other. I was really strong in the word, strong in theology. She had a strong prophetic gift and it seemed like we were just a good fit, the things that I would be studying, she would know by intuition. Like she just know by prophetically. And I said very gifted. And then, I was very rich in the word, but I wouldn't consider myself like as prophetic as I am now, and so, make a long story short, when we kind of took a liking to each other and we decided to get married, that's when the journey really began where I realized that you can have extremely gifted [00:13:00] people. But hurt people, hurt people. That's not just a cliche. It is actually true when the people have deeply rooted issues. It's hard for them to be loved, and it's hard for them to love. So, we had went through a season, when I first, I remember the first encounter where we got into an argument, a disagreement. And before you know it, somebody's throwing a blow. I mean, got punched in my face and I was in shock because this, this woman of God, this person I've just married, who I was so excited about, I think so highly of, lost control. So, and when the things ,first stuff like this start happening, obviously you're in shock, but then because we're Christians, we try to be forgiving as much as possible. Now we're in this marriage, we don't believe in divorce. So you figure, okay, I'm gonna love her through her pain, and many people think this, I'm gonna love them through it, but in all actuality, it's like, if two people get some serious help. You can't love them through it. It just sets the stage for [00:14:00] continuous abuse later. ' you know what? You may not want it, but if you tolerate it over time, what happens is now you'll begin to see yourself unconsciously as one that's worthy of such behavior. You know what I'm saying? Because what tells me that you feel like it's okay is because you stay. And I'll come back to that point later. But anyway, make a long story short, there was physical abuse, there was emotional abuse, there was psychological spiritual abuse. There was a lot of different things going on. And I'm not by any means trying to paint the picture that I was perfect in this marriage. 'cause I wasn't. Right. Right. I was developing, I wasn't as secure. In my prayer life as I am now. So I was doing a lot mm-hmm. Religiously, I was doing a lot trying to figure it out. I was doing a lot in the name of trying to love a person through it. I went through seven years of a marriage and I can't remember nine months of, 90 [00:15:00] days of consecutive peace. Yeah. I understand that. It was hard. Every, me too, it was just so hard. And as much as you prayed, as much as you tried to get through it, it's like it was always something, something just was never, it was never good enough. So after that, after everything we went through and the different financial hardship, that was the only source of income. There's a lot. I don't gimme the short version of the story, but there was a lot that I suffered. There was a lot that she suffered. There was a lot that we went through together trying to make it work and it got to the point which eventually we separated due to financial hardship. And in that separation. She blocked. I was blocked. I couldn't see my daughter. Blocked me on that, all the emails. And one thing I noticed about certain people with abusive personalities is they like to cut off all ties of communication. It's one of the ways that they inflict harm, whether they're doing it intentionally or not. It's that narcissistic personality is one of the ways that inflicts arm, they now feel like you're gonna suffer. [00:16:00] I'm gonna withdraw my presence from you. And it makes you feel less valued because not you feel like you were the one done wrong, and then they're treating you as if you were the one that treated them the way you felt like you've been treated. You know what I'm saying? Right, exactly. So in that, during that time of separation with no communication, I was able to find myself, I was able to see like, what is it about me that made it okay? Because even if it was, if this was gonna ever work, it wasn't gonna work like this. It wasn't gonna work. Yeah. So after all of that. Not having access to my daughter coming out of that relationship, coming out of that marriage. I was broken. I didn't really want to do ministry anymore 'cause we was doing ministry together. I didn't wanna do ministry more, I still wanted, God, I just didn't want ministry. So I was like, God, I needed to go through this process of healing. So I stopped, going live on Facebook. I stopped ministering, and I just began to shut down and just start working. And I went away for away from my, where I was [00:17:00] staying, went back home, felt like I needed to restore relationships, strengthened relationships back home that would, that would have been strained because of my relationship in this other marriage. So during that time, somebody invited me to preach one of my friends, and they didn't realize that's where my healing process started. Because it's like once I, wow. Once I started preaching and I saw God use me even in my brokenness. It's like I realized that, okay, like I still, this is what I'm here for. And I began to seek God in worship, began to see God in prayer, but still not at the level that I needed to. And there was many times on this period of time, I really felt like I hated her. I felt like, and then it was times where I couldn't see my daughter, so I felt that was really making me feel like a hater. And after all of that, when I went on a deep consecration, after some time had passed, we ain't talking a while, but artist society, you know what, I'm [00:18:00] not gonna date. I filed for divorce. We ended up separated with divorce. She signed, and I still, it was a gap in time when I actually first started seeing my daughter, but I really began to seek God and has left that whole situation in his hands. I began to cry to the Lord. I mean, I would fast and I would pray. I would pray from 10 to 3:00 AM in the morning. I sometimes I would pray 5, 6, 7 hours straight, just praying and seeking God, laying before him. And it was during that period of time that God really began to deal with me. He began to heal me. Like I would spend hours cry. I didn't know you could cry. That many got tears. And it wasn't all tears of sadness. It was tears of restoration. It was tears. It was tears of joy. It was like a cleansing, it was deep, and God was reminding me that I am his child. He is reminding me of who I am in spite of what I've been through. And I think the biggest challenge sometimes is to not identify yourself with your pain. Not identify yourself with a disappointment. [00:19:00] Because how another person treats you doesn't mean that's who you are. That just means how they treated you. So, but in that process of seeking God, God begins to restore me. And in that process of restoration, I was able to truly, to forgive from my heart. Because what God did is he took me back to the time that she was a child and begin to show me what it felt like to be an abandoned child. What it felt like to be an abused child, what it felt like to go through different foster care systems and nobody coming to your rescue. So he began to show me, he says, don't take it personal. She's hurting. And at that given moment, I cried with a deep cry and I began to like really just forgive. And it was that journey of forgiveness in complete, in, in wholeness that God was taking me through. That was preparing me for what was coming. So I won't let you jump in 'cause I don't want to talk too much. If you have any questions. Anything like that. No, I think you're saying your story very [00:20:00] eloquently hitting a lot of points that I can relate to. And I think, I mentioned to you that we have male listeners on the podcast that are survivors, that are listening is as well as the women. And they're just starting to get exposure that men do suffer from abuse also. Mm-hmm. How did you feel as a man going through abuse? You touched a little bit in general, but as a man did you get any kind of pushback from your community, your friends, your church about, oh, well, men don't get abused. You're the man of the house. You're supposed to be in charge, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What was that like? Well, the, the thing about most abusive relationships is you're in isolation. Yes, you're in isolation to protect your own image and also because you also want to protect the image of the person you trying to keep. Especially when you're in [00:21:00] ministry, you don't want people to see her in the light of her flaws. You try to keep people seeing her in the light of her, her gifts and her, her calling, right? So in a lot of times what happens when you're a part of an abusive relationship of any kind, there's an isolation. There's a pulling away from those who love you. You're not telling everybody your situation, even if they seen some of it from a distance. They don't know if it's continuing or not, because you're not sharing that information. And most men, we don't like to talk, we don't like to tell people what we're going through. We kind of go through it ourselves. Meanwhile, we're feeling broken. We're feeling devalued. We're feeling disrespected. We're feeling unworthy, and no matter how anointed we are, no matter how handsome we are, when you go through something like that, it makes you feel like less. And the man you feel, you feel like your manhood has been taken from you, and you, what happens is when you're dealing with a certain personality, if you're not careful, you will lose your voice. And one of the [00:22:00] last things that you can ever do and still re expect respect from a woman, for a man, is to lose your voice. Because if you lose your voice, you no longer lead . So, and to keep the peace sometime, we'll keep silent. So I did get a whole lot, I mean, some family members who knew what I got went through. I mean, my best friend, he was like, bro, I don't even know why he went back type thing. Like he was like, he was on this, I should have ended it a long time ago. Like he was, he had a different perspective on it all together, but other than that, but there wasn't much from that perspective as far as a lot of pushback from the community or, or, negative talk because a lot of people didn't know the extent of what I was going through to after, even to this day, a lot of people still don't know the extent. They just know my marriage didn't work, yeah. I was in full-time ministry with my ex who was my main abuser. And the same thing, I put on the mask. I'm in [00:23:00] ministry, I have to have it all together. I need to protect my reputation. Even, the church's reputation and. I didn't like the way I was treated. The church denomination I was in, devalued women and their their contributions and it was, submit. And that's the only role you have is to do what you're told. And when I wanted to get out, the church told me I couldn't. That is why I stayed and put up with it because the church said, well, you're gonna get excommunicated, you're gonna lose your ministry. You're gonna lose your friends and you're gonna have to start all over again. And that's exactly what happened. But I left because I couldn't take it anymore. I'm like, I don't care anymore. I'm, I'm getting out. Yeah. There's only so much you can stomach and then you wake up one day, it's like, I, can't live like this anymore. And God. I know [00:24:00] you're up there. I haven't been praying for a few years now because I don't think you're listening and but I'm getting out and taking the consequences of whatever happens if they shun me or kick me out for being divorced, so be it. I'll find another ministry. Well, I was like you, I didn't wanna go back into ministry either. My ministry now is very different than church planting that I was doing before. But yeah. So I can relate to a lot of the things that you were saying. Some some parallel there. I think the church has done a disservice. For the most part, the religious community has done a disservice when it comes to matters like this. And believe it or not, we protect the abuser more than we protect the person that's being abused. And this whole idea of, just work it out, work it out, work it out, and they're not understanding the full weight of what's going on. Like when [00:25:00] people have that, and I believe in deliverance, but I truly believe one of the hardest spirits to get rid of is that narcissistic, abusive personality that grows out a orphan spirit. Because that spirit oftentimes is the people are so far gone that even though they're conscious of what they're doing to you, they don't actually see themselves as being a bad person. Right. You're making me lose control. You're pushing me to this point. Mm-hmm. And, and a of times they're very intellectual, they're very gifted. They're, and people, they're likable, to the average person. So people are like, yeah, you just gotta work it out. I mean, every marriage have tough problems. No, I am being abused. I am being manipulated. I am being controlled. God did not create us to be controlled. This is why we always end up feeling some level of depression or a level of unsettling in our belly. Anytime you're under control, because it's not, you're not wired to function that [00:26:00] way, and it's just a matter of time that our, that dominion in us just ride and say, I can't take no more. I gotta get, because I know that, oh, God did not design me to be in control. Unfortunately, we have the enemy sometimes arranged marriages. Mm-hmm. I destinies and then he used religion to keep you in it. You can't get your divorce. You can't. So he'll use scriptures to kind of keep you in something that he's the author of. Because God is not the author of abuse. God is not the author of confusion. God is not the author of disrespect. If my husband is not good and perfect for me, he didn't come from God. I gotta have that. I have to know the word and be confident enough in the word to know that every good and perfect gift comes from above. I don't care how gifted, I don't care how anointed they appear. I don't care how intellectual they may be. If they're abusing me, they're manipulating me, controlling me. That was not from God. Yes, exactly. [00:27:00] Something I give myself, I'm not gonna say God gave me this person. well folks, this is a great place to stop our conversation. I know you want to hear more on prayer and how actually to commune better with God. So be sure to be with us next time on The Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. I wish you a great week. God bless you, and we'll see you next time. Bye for now. Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with us at DSW Ministries dot org where you'll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.  

Why was Noah favored in God's sight? Because God is full of kindness and compassion.

Because God has shown us mercy, we offer it freely

Because God called Israel into covenant faithfulness under the old covenant through Moses, we must learn to see both the continuity and discontinuity in what he required of them as we seek to apply these same words as God's word in our lives under the new covenant in Christ. I. Covenant Context Matters II. The Old Covenant Context of the Ten Words vv 2-6III. The Purpose of God for Israel Under the Old Covenant vv 5-6

The church is designed to be a humble community, led by humble leaders, who follow Christ's example. Why? Because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

 And that again and again and again….Regardless of how often we get hurt…At the end of the day, we fulfill with love our heart desires ….It doesn't make sense to read and see a love story or to hear love songs;- if we use them as surrogate compensation for our loveless life.And that I see everywhere.When I was a disciple of Bhagwan, we were encouraged to live the love, to open our heart and to love;- instead of to live partnerships.Because God is Love and Love is God!When we are in Love, we open up our heart not only for our darling also for God.In love, we are closer to God… I was an atheist coming out of a traditional atheist family, and I was never baptized in any Religion…Today, God is my focus, because of my deep tantric Love to a Girl.We both made Tantra and opened so to the divine or for me to God…I never have thought that….And after this dramatic love story, I had many other love stories, and even again the same happened to another darling of me… She loved me and then her heart opened, and she got connected to God…Should I stop love women, even at my age (60)? Or is not my love to God enough?Or should I be serious and don't be in that madness of Love?Is not this madness of love the best purifier of our soul?In love, all of our hidden demons are coming up, and we get such a hard time.Our lover doesn't hurt us, the unhealed emotional wounds of our childhood are hurting us. When we feel our unhealed emotional wounds our emotional wounds will heal.What is bad with falling in love?That we are too cowardly and too comfortable!!My Video: Don't be afraid to fall in love https://youtu.be/d-t2fqHtIBoMy Audio: https://divinesuccess.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/Podcast.B/Don't-be-afraid-to-fall-in-love.mp3

Kyle Kauffman | May 4 2025 God's mission of making disciples is global. We can see this in the book of Acts. The gospel is spreading all across the known world throughout this book. And sometimes we can become so focused on the Big Names in the book of Acts that we forget God's mission in Acts involved far more people than Peter, Paul, and Philip. Because God's mission is so BIG, it's easy for us to lose or forget what role the local church (and every member in the church) plays in this mission. In Acts 11:19-30 we get a good glimpse into how God intends to use the local church (and every member of the church) as part of the plan to make disciples. As we discover how God used the local church in Antioch to make a big difference, we might be encouraged to hope that God will use the local church in Paradise to make a big difference as well.

Because God gave the Ten Words to reveal Himself and His ways to them His people as part of the old covenant people, we in the new, though not under these commands as a law, still benefit from them as God's revelation of Himself and His ways.INT: It All Started with a Question. (Galatians flashback) I. God Spoke These Ten Words to Reveal Himself to His People. v 1II. God spoke These Ten Words in the Specific Context of His Covenant with Israel v 2

Because God is sovereign, and because God is always right, He is able to refine us and purify us through whichever trials and tribulations He knows we need. Are you going through trials or experiencing tribulation in your life? Watch today's episode for a great account of someone that likely had it worse than you, and see what he did and how God handled his situation. The entire event for Job only lasted 2 weeks! Then he lived another 140 YEARS after that in double blessing! If you were blessed by today's episode, you can help support my channel by liking, subscribing, commenting with your thoughts, and sharing with your friends. If you would like to financially contribute to my efforts to share the gospel through the daily Bible study, you can do so through PayPal by contributing to my PayPal email address, which is: reneholaday@gmail.com Thank you for watching and have a Blessed day! ;() ===== You can watch this episode on Youtube at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCtCttzU_y4 Please be sure to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, COMMENT, and SHARE!

When someone commits a crime, we want that person "brought to justice" because justice is a divine desire. While we often say "God is love," His most fundamental attribute is holiness. Because God is both holy and loving, He must also be just. In a world where money, bribes, and sometimes crooked judges allow criminals to go free, we're learning through Elijah's story that there is a God who is just, and justice will always be served. Even in Elijah's time in history, when the people of God worshipped idols and ignored the prophets, God consistently reveals His Word and holds them to account.   As Dr. R.G. Lee famously preached in "Payday Someday," because God is just, justice is a must. From one of the most important chapters in the Bible, observe God's justice in action in the life of King Ahab, learning to revere and expect this aspect of God's character to be revealed to us and to the world.   

John 5:30-47,I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?These last few Sundays we've been slowly walking through the scene from John chapter 5, which takes place at a pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda. There, a man who'd long been paralyzed began to walk again. Not thanks to medicine or machinery, but a miracle. Jesus, the God-man, had simply spoken, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” … And the man did.Well, the Jewish religious leaders didn't like it, because the day on which he healed the man was the Sabbath. And then they really didn't like it when Jesus defended his action by saying, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” In fact, his words so enraged them that, verse 18, they were:“seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”Faced with the religious leaders' anger, Jesus did not retreat. Instead, the remainder of chapter 5 captures Jesus' response to these leaders in which he makes some of the most stunning claims in all the gospels:Whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise (v. 19).The Father loves the Son, and shows the Son all that he's doing (v. 20).As the Father gives life, so the Son gives life (v. 21).The Father desires people to honor the Son just as they honor the Father (v. 23).Notice these claims of Jesus don't only concern him, but God the Father as well. His claims, in other words, are not merely about him as an individual, but about him and God and how they relate to one another.So it's for that very reason that, when he gets to verse 31, he concedes:“If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.”Not meaning that his words couldn't be trusted. But that since his words concern him and the Father, we should expect them to be backed not only by him, but the Father as well. And through the rest of this chapter, Jesus is ultimately going to show that they are. So what we're going to do this morning is trace Jesus' argument, and see two things: reasons and roadblocks. Reasons to believe Jesus' claims, and roadblocks to believing Jesus' claims.Reasons to believe, roadblocks to believing.Let's pray, and ask for God's help once more….ReasonsSo, reasons and roadblocks. We'll begin with reasons, and Jesus gives four of them. The testimony of (1) John the Baptist, (2) Jesus' own works, (3) God the Father, and (4) Moses. Let's start with that first one, John the Baptist. Turn to John 5:33. This is Jesus speaking.John the BaptistJohn 5:33,“You sent to John [ie. John the Baptist], and he has borne witness to the truth.”Borne witness — testified, spoken aloud, audibly confirmed — the truth of what Jesus himself was claiming. And when did John bear such witness? Well, in chapter one, where he said: That Jesus, though he'd come after him, actually ranks before him because, “He was before him” (1:15). That Jesus, in fact, ranked so high above John, that John was unfit to even stoop down and untie his sandals (1:27). That Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29). That Jesus is the “Son of God.” (1:34).Jesus says,“You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.” Now, lest we get the wrong idea here, Jesus quickly clarifies why it is that he's saying this. It's not because he feels insecure and needs John to back him up. Nor because he feels attacked, and wants to defend himself. Often, those are our reasons for responding. Someone confronts us, challenges us, and our immediate impulse is to pounce and defend. That's not what Jesus is doing here. Rather, as we see in verse 34:“Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.” So that you may be saved. How remarkable? I mean, think about it: Who was he saying this to? The very religious authorities who, according to verse 18, were actively seeking to kill him! I mean, Jesus knows the heart of man. He knew all about Nathaniel in John 1. All about the Samaritan woman in John 4. Jesus knows the heart of man, and Jesus knew these people were wanting to kill him. To destroy him. To put him in an early grave. I mean, how much do you have to hate someone to actually want them dead? And not only dead, but to be the one who causes his death? And yet Jesus, knowing all of that, looks them right in the eyes and says, “Just so you know, the reason I'm saying these things to you is so that you might be saved.” He'd already told them back in verse 24,“That whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.”And now here he is, trying to get them to hear it. Trying to get them to believe it. We asked: How much do you have to hate someone to actually want them dead? How much more do you need to love someone to actually want to save those who want you dead?Friends, isn't Jesus wonderful? Isn't he magnificent? Don't skip over verses like these. Linger long over the heart of God as its revealed in the pages of Scripture. Allow yourself the time to be made glad as you see, “My Savior, is just so good!” He seeks to save his would-be persecutors. So, first reason to believe Jesus' claims is the testimony of John the Baptist. Here's the second reason: Jesus' own works. WorksVerse 36,“But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John [Note: “Greater,” so he's ratcheting up his argument]. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.“Works like, in John 2, when Jesus turned about 150 gallons of water into wine, without even lifting a finger. Or later in John 4, when Jesus healed a man's son who was deathly ill, without even being in the same town as him. And just recently, in John 5, when Jesus told a paralyzed man to stand and the paralyzed man did. The feeding of the 5,000, the walking on the water, the giving of sight to a man born blind — all of these works are still to come. Yet, even now, Jesus says: my works act as words. They proclaim: God has sent me.So, first reason to believe is testimony from John, and second the testimony of Jesus' works. Third, is the testimony of the Father himself. GodVerse 37,“And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.”This of course is the heaviest hitter in the argument. Should the Father affirm the Son? Well, we need no other evidence. And Jesus is saying that he, in fact, has “borne witness.” But the question again is, when? When did the Father bear witness about the Son?Well at least one place was at Jesus' baptism. There, when Jesus had come up out of the water, the Father's voice rang out from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:11). And look, God tells no lies. God calls something good, he means it. God calls something evil, then that is what it is. God calls someone his beloved Son; with whom he is well pleased. Well, you better believe he is.So, we have the Father's witness in Jesus' baptism. And, I believe we're meant to see we have the Father's witness in all of Scripture as well.Look with me, verse 37,And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures [(ie. God's word) So I see a connection between God's witness, God's voice, God's word, and the Scriptures — all getting at this concept of the Father's witness of the Son] because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” The Scriptures at that time, the Old Testament, Genesis to Malachi — “They're about me,” Jesus says. The Father's word is about me. And that's why in Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus interprets all the Old Testament as things concerning himself (Lk. 24:27). The Old Testament is about Jesus.So, believe the testimony of John, the testimony of Jesus' works, and the testimony of God the Father both at Jesus' baptism and in the Scriptures. Last, believe the testimony of Moses. And this actually signals our transition from reasons to believe, to roadblocks to believing. We've got three reasons to believe. Here's a fourth — it's Moses — but it's at this point Jesus puts his finger upon the roadblock to believing.RoadblocksMosesLet's begin by considering the fact that Jesus has just called all of Scripture to account. Saying the Scriptures, which would've already included the writings of Moses, bear witness about him. So, Moses has already been counted as witness, yes? So, why is it that Jesus references him here specifically? Why does he, as it were, set Moses in the spotlight before them, and say “You know, Moses, he too has borne witness about me”?Verse 45,“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”Why the emphasis on Moses? Well, it's because these religious authorities had prided themselves upon their obedience to Moses. They, in fact, had built their entire lives around following the Laws of Moses. In their minds, they were set apart, and far greater than everyone else, because of their diligent study and expansive knowledge of Moses. Moses was, in this way, their one major stepping stone to self-worth, social rank, and salvation. And Jesus, is going to take a hold of it. You ever watch Charlie Brown as a kid? Charlie Brown, the well behaved, inquisitive, yellow shirt with zig zag stripe, cartoon young boy? If you did, then I want you to imagine the religious leaders right now as Charlie Brown. Jesus is Lucy. And the writings of Moses are the football. You guys remember what Lucy used to always do with Charlie as Charlie ran up to kick the football? She'd hold it, “Hey Charlie, here's the football.” And then just as Charlie ran up and was about to kick it she'd pull that thing away and Charlie's leg would swing on up into thin air carrying his whole body with. Jesus knew these religious leaders. He knew the confidence they had in their grasp of Moses and ability to follow the Laws of Moses. So, Jesus takes Moses' writings, and says, “Religious leaders, this is Moses. You think you got a hang on Moses. You're kicking into thin air.”Jesus puts the writings of Moses right down in front of them and says: You don't even believe his writings. You don't even understand his words. You think that if he were here today, he too would be pointing a finger at me, and yet it is he who wrote of me. And should you continue in your disbelief, it is also he who will stand as your accuser, on the last day.” Again, verse 45,“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.” And so we've got to ask the question: what's gone wrong here, so as to lead these religious leaders to not even believing the one in whom Moses wrote? What's gotten in their way? What's their roadblock to believing Jesus?Was it merely intellectual? A problem from the neck up? Read Jesus' indictment:You have not heard God's voice (v. 37)You don't have God's word (v. 38)You do not believe the one whom he has sent (v. 38)Therefore, verse 40, “You refuse to come to me that you may have life”And then, verse 42: “But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.”What a daring indictment!“You don't have the love of God within you.”It's like he's saying, “You who accuse me of breaking God's Sabbath, don't even love the God who gave you the Sabbath. You don't love him. You know things about him. You teach things about him. You've convinced others that your life is all about him. And yet if we were to put your heart under the microscope and scour its every corner for signs — what you most enjoy in this life, what you most savor in this world, what your treasure really is — at no point and in no place would we find even a hint of love for the God you claim to worship.”That's what it means for a person to not have the love of God within them. To not have it is to not have it. And why? Why is there no love for God in their heart? Because there's already a love for something else in his place. What is it? What, at bottom, is the roadblock to belief in Jesus? We need everyone in the room, myself included, to ask this question. What, at bottom, is the roadblock to belief in Jesus?Ask it for your unbelieving neighbor, your non-Christian co-worker, your sibling or parent who has walked away from the faith. And ask it for yourself lest you too make shipwreck of your faith in Jesus. What is the ultimate roadblock to belief in Jesus?It's this — uncontested thirst for your own glory. Uncontested thirst for your own glory. That, brothers and sisters, is at the root of unbelief. Not a problem in your mind, not a problem with your upbringing, not a problem with God's so-called lack of evidence. No, no, no. When it really comes down to it, when all is truly laid bare — the reason for man's refusal to bow the knee to Jesus is owing to man's thirst to have others to bow the knee to themselves instead of God.Jesus asks, Verse 44:“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”Answer, you can't. You cannot seek to glorify yourself and God simultaneously. Why? Because God's glory contests all others. God's glory outshines all others. God's glory makes our glory look small, and we, in our sin, don't like looking small.Think about it: The painter who wants to think himself the greatest in the world, will detest the museums where Da Vinci is celebrated. Just as the writer who wants to think herself the greatest in the world, will avoid the conversations in which Shakespeare is honored. The singer, the actor, the architect, and the salesman; the mother, the teacher, the doctor, and the lawyer — should they prefer the belief that they are the world's greatest — will intentionally and aggressively shield their eyes from the masters of their field so as to not look small standing next to them. They'd rather be blind and think themselves greatest, than open their eyes and realize they aren't. Friends, God is the ultimate Master. The Holy one. The eternal one. The sovereign, glorious, and omniscient one before whom we don't hold a candle. Should you prefer project “increase self-glory,” how could you love, pursue, praise the God who says, “My glory, I will not give to another”?Jesus' question is one we must regularly ask ourselves: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”So, hear the warning: Belief in God is impossible where praise of self is preferred. Hear that warning, and, now, hear the good news. If you are here today and you take joy in the thought of God being God — being radiant in splendor, held high and celebrated, praised and adored and enjoyed in the heavens…If you know that Jesus is wonderful, and are glad that he's wonderful…If you have tasted how good it is not to have to incessantly labor for even an ounce of momentary worshiped, but to simply delight in worshiping the one whose truly deserving of it anyway…If you treasure being loved, forgiven, and brought near to God, so as to gaze upon his beauty all the rest of your days…If it pleases you to say, “Oh, Father, not to us, but to you be the glory”…Well, it would seem that God has begun a work in you. And your life now as a Christian is a life of simply asking, “God, grow my heart in greater enjoyment of your glory, and greater distaste for my own.” Really, all of the Christian life simply comes down to those two corresponding realities: greater enjoyment of God's glory, greater distaste for your own.ApplicationFor Christians: Ask God, right now, “Search my heart for where uncontested thirst for personal glory still remains. Show me the places, the people, the things in which my prayer of my heart has not been, ‘Hallow be thy name', but ‘hallow be my own.' Convict me, change me, give to me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Turn my inborn impulse away from self-glorification, to the happy life of glorifying you. For Non-Christians: Remember, Jesus said what he did in John 5 “so that people might be saved.” His desire this morning, in other words, is not to be your accuser, but your Savior. Ask him to show you, right now, for the very first time, that his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, is actually that one great thing for which your heart has been craving all along. To show you that it will only be in your celebration of him that everything in you will finally be made whole. God made you to revel in his glory, not rival it. God made you to commune with him, not compete with him. Rest — your real, full, deep, lasting rest can be had if you are willing to throw in the towel of project “increase self-glory,” and take up the song of the glory of God. Do it now. Say: “God, make yourself great in my life now.” And then, enjoy God's glory, to your soul's delight.The TableWell, what brings us to the table this morning is the fact that the Scriptures that bear witness to Jesus — to his glory, his majesty, his identity as the Son — bear witness also to his death. Death on behalf of those who, by nature, scorned him, mocked him, and considered him smitten by God. Death as a piercing for our transgressions and crushing for our iniquities so that by his wounds we could be healed.

Because God is our almighty, saving God who has promised to keep His people to the end, we can and must trust Him and praise Him for His faithful goodness with extravagant joy.I. We Must Praise Him Because of Who He is and What He Does! v 24 1) He is able to keep you from stumbling 2) He is Able to Present You Blameless and Joyful in His Presence Forever! II. We Can Entrust Ourselves to Him Fully Because of Who He is! v 25 1) Who is this God trust? The only God our Savior 2) What does this great God abound with? Glory, Majesty, Dominion and Authority 3) What is the extent of His power and authority? All time and eternity 4) What is our response? Amen!

Christians are always talking about faith. My faith walk. Faith this, faith that. So what is faith? Not the theory? But what does it look like when you live it? The sort of faith that pleases God.   What Is Faith? It's really quite amazing, but over a thousand weekly editions of this program, Christianityworks, have gone to air since it launched way back in 2004.  It's been quite a walk of faith with all the obstacles that we've faced along the way and so today on the program we're kicking off a series of messages called, “Having the Sort of Faith that Conquers the World”. These two words “By faith” appear over and over again in the Bible. And in fact, if we go to the New Testament book of Hebrews, we'll see that's pretty much the place where they're most densely packed together. By Faith. Now faith, it's something that Christians talk about a lot – our faith walk, faith this, faith that. But what is faith? When and where do we need faith? How do we get it? It's something that Jesus talked a lot about so let me ask this, do we really understand what faith is? Do we really know what the outcome of faith is meant to look like in our lives? They're the questions that we're going to be pondering and exploring and journeying through together over these next few weeks on the program starting with today. Okay then, so what exactly is faith? Well I suppose that many of the people listening today perhaps you're one of them, would point me to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 to answer that question, it says that: Faith is the assurance of the things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen. Well and good, that's the most concise definition of faith in the bible, that's the stock standard definition, tickity-boo, who needs a series on faith? We know what it is: it's the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. But as much as we Christians quote that verse and its one of the most quoted Bible verses of all, do we really understand the context in which it was written? Let's look at it again, it says exactly: Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So what's that word "now" doing at the front of the verse? What's that all about? Well, that word is called a conjunctive, in other words, it ties this verse to what came immediately before. Ah, so this verse doesn't stand alone, there is a context, something that comes before that we need to get in order to really understand the verse. So, what comes before? Well, here it is, the previous chapter, Hebrews chapter 10 and we'll kick it off just at verse 26. Listen carefully because we're going to unpack this in a moment. Hebrews chapter 10, starting at verse 26: For if we wilfully persist in sin, after having received the knowledge of the truth, then no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the advocacies. Anyone who has violated the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witness. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the Blood of the Covenant by which they were sanctified and outraged the spirit of grace? For we know the one that who said ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay' and again ‘The Lord will judge his people'. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  But recall those early days when after you'd be enlightened you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution. And sometimes partners with those so treated. For you have compassion for those in prison and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions knowing that you yourselves possess something better and more lasting. Do not therefore abandon that confidence of yours, it brings a great reward. For you needed endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised for yet in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back but we're not amongst those who shrink back or are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved. Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. So what's the context? The context is two things, the punishment that will surely come if we reject God's grace and mercy and continue on in sin and the second part is about the extreme trials that we're bound to face in life. In fact the Hebrew believers, the ones who were reading this letter, were facing incredible trials! They were being persecuted like you wouldn't believe. And so the writer of this letter was saying, you know something, you're going to struggle with sin, and you're going to face incredible trials and so what you need, what you really need to get you through, is faith. To tell you the truth if you put it like that I'd frankly rather be in a situation where I didn't need any faith, because faith is what we need when we're battling sin. Faith is what we need when we're in a dangerous uncertain place. Faith is what we need to be saved from something we can't save ourselves from. To persevere through situations and ordeals to make it out to the other side of something we'd rather not be in the middle off. Wouldn't it be so much better from were you and I sit, if we didn't end up in places were we actually needed faith? Because faith is the assurance of something we hope for, which by definition means we don't have it right now and we wish we did. And faith is the evidence of that thing that we can't see yet, because all we can see is what we're in the middle of which are our circumstances, and we're hoping for so much more. And yet, as we're going to see shortly that's exactly how God sets things up. You have sin in your life and I have sin in my life, but in and of ourselves we just can't get rid of. We've struggled with it for years and we couldn't' do anything about it until we started putting our faith in Jesus. We couldn't overcome sin or set things right until we put our trust in Jesus. And the same thing's true of the many obstacles we face in life. Perhaps you're someone who's been listening to these programs for a while and you're thinking to yourself, ‘Oh that Berni guy seems to have things all sorted out. What an easy life. He gets to be on the radio and tell us how to get it right.' But you wouldn't believe the challenges and the trials involved in getting out there and doing what Gods called us to do at Christianityworks. The attacks that come against the ministry because Satan doesn't want people hearing about Jesus, he doesn't want us doing what we are doing. The trials when people fail, when the finances are tight, you name it. It's either happened, or it' s going to happen. And just in the same way you face trials, you face temptations, you have mountains that get in your road and stop you from doing the things that God's called you to do. You have sicknesses you have struggles, and people come against you, financial issues – my friend that's what faith is for. Faith is the assurance of things we hope for and the evidence of the things that we just can't see yet. You and I need faith and that's why we're going to be talking about it over the coming weeks on the program.   Big Picture Faith. Are you familiar with that term that saying that someone's lost the plot? What it means is that we've lost sight of were we are going, we've lost sight of the objective. We've managed to get things completely "out of kilter", "out of bounds", or "out of whack" as we as Australians like to say. "Oh man, hasn't he lost the plot!?" And often it happens when we become focused on just one thing in our lives, let's say a single relationship or a single thing that's not going quite right. When we're hurting, we focus on just that one thing that is hurting. Sometimes we lose the plot when we are so focused on making ourselves happy that we forget about everyone and everything else and somehow, the more we try to make ourselves happy the more empty we feel. It seems to me that they one sure way of feeling depressed is trying really, really hard to make yourself happy. So the reason we lose the plot is that we lose sight of the bigger picture, we're so focused on that one thing that we can't stand back. We're busy working hard at life, living life, peddling harder and faster and then the storm strikes especially when there is a head wind blowing and it's slowing us down. It is the easiest thing in the world to lose sight of the big picture, the context, the sense of meaning and purpose and direction that we once seemed to have for our lives and now the harder we go at it, the murkier it appears to get. What was once clear when we were young now seems to be blurry. Sometimes it's like we're living our lives in a fog. You know what I'm on about here right? And then one day you wake up and you think to yourself, I think I've lost the plot! That place right there is a scary place. I've found myself in that situation, when I'm busy working hard, even, working hard doing things for God, none of us is immune to this here. I don't get some exemption certificate from this stuff just because I work in a Christian ministry. This is real life. This is real stuff. What we're talking about this week on the program, in fact over the coming few weeks is faith. It's a phrase, two simple words, “by faith” that appear over and over and over again in the Bible, especially in the 11th chapter of the New Testament book of Hebrews. Now, we need faith for all sorts of things, we need faith in Jesus to be forgiven by God and to be set free to live an eternal life in His presence. We need faith to make it through the trails and the difficult situations and make it to the other side of those. And as it turns out we need faith to get a sense of the bigger picture, to keep the balance and sense of perspective right over our lives. So that we don't loose the plot or so that when we do loose the plot we can pick it up again. Have a listen to this. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3: By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible … In other words, by faith we know that everything that was created, was created by Jesus. He is the Word of God that is being referred to there. The worlds, the cosmos, the universe, the little ant that crawls cross the floor, everything … the worlds were created by Jesus, God spoke them into existence through Jesus. "Let there be light.” He said, and there was light! “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear.” And it was so, and God called the dry land Earth, and the waters were gathered together and He called them the Sea's. and God saw that it was good … and on and on. A universe that with all our brilliant technology we can only see part of, and the part that we can see with our radio telescopes is so big, its so vast that it would take light – travelling of course at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second or 300,000 kilometres per second – it would take light 15 billion years to travel from one end of the known universe to the other! Even the nearest star to the earth after the Sun is called Proxima Centauri, it's about 4.6 light years away. Now that doesn't seem too far does it? But if you and I were to hop into a car, say at 100km per hour and travel that distance of 4.6 light years, how long would it take us? Well, just about 7¼ billion years. And that's without any toilet breaks. It's the nearest star after the sun, and the rest are all much, much further away! Why is this important? Here's why. We live on this earth as though this is all there is. Now we know there is a sun up there and it's really big and its really hot and its about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometres away. We know that there is a universe out there that's huge. But day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, we live life really as though they don't exist. We live life as though the only thing that exists is my own "here and now", this instant: what I'm working on, what I'm doing, what I'm trying to achieve, what I'm feeling, what I'm struggling through, what ... Do you see my point? We completely loose sight of the big picture. I see all around me, every time I travel to India, I come back with a fresh realisation that the narrow privileged lives that we lead here in this affluent, blessed country we call Australia, is completely atypical, completely abnormal in the big picture of the rest of the world. And it's in this narrowness that we lose our way; its in this narrowness that we loose the plot. Let's look again at that verse on faith that I read out before. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3: By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was made was made form things that are not visible. Faith gives us the context that we need, faith is about knowing in our heart of hearts that there is God out there who made it all, He's so big, so powerful, so intelligent, so loving, so awesome that He created the whole cosmos. Even the bits beyond human science can see. And He placed you and me here on this earth in perhaps the only inhabitable place in the whole universe. That's the big picture. And so instead of telling our God how big our problems are we need to start telling our problems how big our God is. Instead of obsessing about this problem or that disappointment, instead of sweating over the little things in our lives, in faith we can stand back and see the big picture, the God picture, the faith picture. By faith we understand that God made it all. By faith we can rest in this God who loves us so much that He sent us His son to die for us. By faith!   God-Pleasing Faith Now there is a huge part of me I have to tell you that wants so much to please God with everything that I think and everything I feel, and say and do, I really, really, really want to please God. Really I do! But someday it seems that all I have to do to blow it is to wake up and get out of bed in the morning. Does that make sense? You want to do what's right, you know what's right with all your heart you want to please God, but you just can't seem to do it. It's like there is a war going on inside you, you want to do what's right, but every time you want to do what's right, evil intentions are lurking there right over your shoulder, whispering into your ear. Well it's not just me, it's not just you. The apostle Paul who wrote almost half the books in the New Testament he had exactly the same problem and you can read all about it in Romans Chapter 7. So how do we please God? Let's go back to that book towards the end of the New Testament, the book of Hebrews chapter 11, which is where we have been spending out time together today, and let's have a look because there is an answer in there as to how you and I can please God. And the answer isn't working harder at being good. Let's pick it up, Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at verse 4: By faith able offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approval as righteous as God Himself given approval to his gifts. He died but through faith he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken so that he didn't experience death, and he was not found because God had taken for it was the tested before he was taken away that he had pleased God. And without faith, it's impossible to please God for, whoever may approach Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. That's really interesting because back there in the book of Genesis, chapter 4 when we read about Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve's two boys, were not really given a reason why it was that Abel's offering was acceptable to God, but Cain's wasn't. There's a bit of a hint. We're kind of told that there wasn't something quite right in Cain's heart, but that is all we're told. It certainly had nothing to do with physically what he did. Both Cain and Abel brought an offering to God. Cain's was rejected while Abel's was acceptable to God and as a result, out of envy, Cain murdered his brother Abel. So what was the difference between the two. The answer is faith. Its there in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4: By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approvable as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts. He died but through faith, he still speaks. See Abel gave his offering to God in faith. And as God showed through His response to Cain, an offering without faith isn't pleasing to God at all. It's not just the physical act of making a sacrifice, that sacrifice has to come with faith. And again, we read that Enoch had been blessed by God because he's pleased God because of his faith. Executive summary, bottom line, what's God saying here? Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 6: You see without faith, it is impossible to please God. For whoever would approach Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. And it's not just here in the book of Hebrews that we discover the importance of faith in pleasing God. Jesus himself told people the exactly the same thing. When someone asked him, “Lord what do I have to do to be saved?” He answered quite simply, “Believe in me”. How often have you and I worked so hard at pleasing God as though anything we can do, can possibly add to what He has already done for us, and what He's planning on doing? Sometimes I think that we behave as though God is totally completely and utterly depending on you and me to fulfil His plans. As though without us, God's plans for this world are going to fall over in a screaming heap, and God's going to go, "Oh man! What am I going to do?" And so we work so hard, we work hard! And we bring Him the offering and we bring Him the sacrifice. We see all the problems facing us and so we bring in the offering from the field like Cain with little to no faith in our heart. Well, guess what? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Would you please note that word, "impossible"? What it does not say is that without faith you won't please God quite as much through your labours as you would have done if you put a bit of faith in the mix. That's not what it says. The Bible clearly says that without faith it is completely impossible to please God. The Greek words used there for "impossible" mean literally to be completely without strength, impotent, powerless, weak, disabled. That it is unable to be done, it's totally impossible. Why? Because God is God. And He has put us here in this physical world that is removed from His spiritual dimension, yet the spiritual dimension, the God dimension, the presence of God is as real and as present as the nose on my face. The thing is that we just can't see it. Our act of Love, our act of pleasing God is honouring him by believing that He is, that He does exist and that He is in the business of blessing and rewarding those who seek Him. Why does he do things that way? Well, just think about it, God has something of a problem when it comes to eliciting a free will love response from you and me. If we could see God for what He is, if we could see Him face to face in all His power and in all His glory, hey, there would be no free will involved. In the face of that power, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So He removes us from that presence, He puts us in a place where we lay hold of Him, not by seeing Him, but through a layer of adversity we call life. Through a cloud of unknowing, never quite seeing Him clearly in this life. And we lay a hold of Him, we honour Him, we love Him, we serve him, we obey Him by faith. And that is why without faith it's impossible to please God. Ask Cain, ask Abel, they'll tell you all about it, because by faith that story is still being told today. So the next time that you feel the need to work your back side off to please God, remember this, your work isn't so much the thing that pleases Him, it's not about the sacrifice so much, its about you, its about me, its about our faith! When we do what we do in faith, my friend, that is what pleases God.

When Joshua stood at the edge of Canaan, ready to lead Israel into the land of promise, God didn't give him a battle plan or a strategy session. He gave him one command: Stay in the Word. The secret to claiming victory wasn't about military might—it was about spiritual depth.Our springboard for today's discussion is:"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night... For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." —Joshua 1:8 (ESV)God's instructions were clear. Joshua wasn't to rely on strength, numbers, or clever plans. He was to saturate his mind, heart, and speech with Scripture. Why? Because God's Word is the battle plan. It's truth that drives out fear, promises that anchor our faith, and direction that keeps us walking in obedience.Lucado puts it this way—your success in Canaan depends on your relationship with the Word. Not because the Bible is magic, but because it's living and active. It feeds the soul, fuels courage, and sharpens discernment.Too many of us want victory without the voice of God. We want blessings without the Bible. But if you're not living in the Word, you're not walking in the land of promise.Your Canaan—your purpose, your breakthrough, your spiritual inheritance—won't be accessed through good vibes or religious routines. It will be unlocked by a mind renewed by truth and a heart anchored in God's voice.Question of the Day:What role does God's Word play in your daily battle plan—and is it time to return to it as your first weapon, not your last resort?Let's Pray:Lord, draw us back to Your Word. Make it our guide, our strength, and our weapon in every battle. Let Your truth shape us into warriors who walk in victory. In Jesus' name, Amen.Let's Get To Work!Support MyR2B Ministries:MyR2B Ministries is our full-time ministry. Your paid subscription helps sustain this work and expand our ministry outreach. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

What shaped your understanding of sex growing up? Was it a quiet conversation with a parent, an awkward health class, a warning laced with shame? For many of us—especially those raised in Christian homes—our foundational beliefs about sex were vague, fear-based, or simply unspoken. We may have heard “don't do it until you're married,” but little else. And the unspoken message? Sex is bad… until one day, magically, it's good.   We believe it's time to talk. This summer, we're inviting experts, sharing real stories, surfacing hard questions, and pointing back to God's truth. Because God cares deeply about sex. He designed it. And He wants something better for all of us. Let's break the silence—together.   Content Warning: This episode is best suited for those ages 16 and up.   Show notes:   We want to hear from you! Take our anonymous survey: https://cotmforms.wufoo.com/forms/x1a2abnw1v4fote/

Sick of tracking every bite like you're prepping for a fitness competition... just to end up bloated, cranky, and confused? In this episode, we're calling out the obsession with macro tracking and breaking down what really matters when it comes to nourishment. Ellie dishes up the difference between macros and micros—what the science says, when they might be useful, and why most women are completely missing the point. Spoiler: You don't need a calculator to heal your hormones, balance blood sugar, or reclaim your energy. You need real food, a little sass, and a whole lot of grace. Let's trade food fear for freedom, and math for meals that nourish your body and spirit. Because God didn't design you to be a walking nutrition label—He designed you to thrive. DON'T FORGET—WE WANT TO SEE YOU AT OUR WOMEN'S SUMMIT ON APRIL 26TH! ✨ Here are the details for the day:

April 24, 2025Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Story Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Thursday, April 24, 2025, and this is episode #4 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, “Do You Know Who You Are?"Let me ask the question again. Do You know who you are?You may be thinking, What a ridiculous question! Of course, I know who I am. I'm an accountant. Or, I'm a plumber. Or, I'm an electrician. Or, I'm a lawyer. Or, I'm a teacher. Or, I'm a basketball coach. Or, I'm the CEO of XYZ Company. Or, I'm a mom. Or, I'm a grandfather—and on and on and on it can go.But let me ask you a question: Is that who you really are? What if your career were suddenly stripped from you? What if, God forbid, your family and friends were suddenly taken from you? Who would you be then?Have you ever considered this profound question? If not, I would urge you to do so. For you see, who you believe you are is at the very foundation of your purpose on this earth. Who you believe yourself to be will determine your path in life, and whether that path takes you to fulfillment or to destruction, to life or to death.Sadly, most of us grow up with the idea that we will discover our identity in our job or career. And so, we plod along, year after year, until one day we realize that, despite the outward success, we feel empty on the inside. As a Life Coach, I have had numerous clients over the years come to me in their forties and fifties, admitting that the career they thought would satisfy them never did. In almost every single case, the client discovered that he was not living in God's purpose for his life, but in his own.Recently, I have been discipling my three teenage granddaughters using the outstanding Lifeway Bible study titled Defined. It was created by the Kendrick Brothers, producers of several powerful Christian movies, including The Overcomer. (As an aside, if you haven't seen The Overcomer, I urge you to do so.) In the Defined series for Girls, author and Bible teacher Priscilla Shirer discusses the topic of identity with a group of young women who face the identity struggle all of us face at some point in life. You, too, may be struggling to know who you are and why you're here on this earth. You, too, may be wondering how to discover who you really are. If so, stay with me until the end of this podcast. I'm going to give you some insights you may never have considered before in your journey toward discovering who you really are.Now, hear what I'm going to say next because it is a game-changer. There is only one way to discover who you truly are, and that is by turning to God for the answer. I'm going to repeat that because it's critically important: There is only one way to discover who you truly are, and that is by turning to God for the answer. Now, before you get upset with me, consider these four points, taken from the Defined study:1_God made you. Only the one who made something can define what it is. If you create something—let's say a work of art or a tool of some sort—only you have the right to say what it is.2_God owns you. He purchased you with the greatest price of all, the Blood of His Son Jesus Christ. If you purchase something, it's yours and only you have the right to do with it what you choose.3_God has authority over you. Only the creator of something has authority over his creation. Only the creator of something can determine the purpose for which he created it. Since God created you, He alone can determine your purpose. Only you have authority over something you create.4_ God knows you better than anyone knows you, even you yourself. Because God made you, no one knows you better than He does. So no one else has the right to tell you who you are. If you create a painting, no one besides you has the right to tell you what the painting means.Now, considering these four points, doesn't it make sense then that God alone can tell you who you are?

"Bottom line, guys, Mary is confused because she doesn't know the real Jesus. She is looking for the wrong Jesus … a Jesus of her own imagination … her kind of Jesus. She is blind to the real Jesus. And the real Jesus has to come after her, to break through her fog. You see, if Jesus had just sat back and waited for her to get it … You know, some of us are like, “You keep searching and eventually you will find,” right? “If you work at it hard enough, if you work at it long enough, you'll find the truth … your truth.” If Jesus had just stood there thinking, “I'll just wait here till she figures it out, till she discovers who I really am” … I don't think Mary would have ever found him. Because that's not how it works. Salvation is not about our finding him, it's about him finding us. God always loves us … first. God always nudges us, and draws us … first. God always calls us … first. And he always calls us, every one of us … first. Because God is prodigal with his grace. You've felt them, God's nudges. The real question is, how do you respond? So Jesus says to Mary, so gently, “Why are you crying?” Guys, he knew! Grief? Disappointment … they killed him! Were her tears because she felt broken? Was her hope gone, her direction gone, her purpose for living gone? Were they tears of unfaith, disbelief … stupidity?" Stephen "Doc" Pattison, Lead Minister

God is not confined to a building—He moved in to you.In Week 2 of the This Is My Temple series, Pastor Joe Moss II delivers a bold reminder that God is no longer looking for brick-and-mortar temples… He's dwelling in flesh and blood ones.That means every step you take, every word you speak, and every part of your lifestyle is meant to reflect His presence.It's time to stop idolizing stained glass and start honoring the living sanctuary—your body.In this message, you'll be challenged to:Rethink your view of “church”Embrace personal responsibility for carrying the presence of GodBreak away from spiritual routines that ignore the physical templeSteward your health and habits like sacred space

Because God is for us, the Christian's hope of glory is secure.

Psalm 47:1-9, Deuteronomy 28:15-68, Luke 18:1-30. If you put God first in your life all kinds of blessings follow Because God loves you he warns you of the dangers of disregarding the design for your life

Psalm 47:1-7, Deuteronomy 28:23-47, Luke 18:1-30. If you put God first in your life all kinds of blessings follow Because God loves you he warns you of the dangers of disregarding the design for your life

Daily Dose of Hope April 17, 2025 Day 4 of Week 3   Scripture – Mark 7:1-23   Prayer: Almighty God, We come before you with awe and humility.  As we continue through this Holy Week, help us remember all you have done for us.  We are nothing without you.  We need you desperately, Lord.  Help us gather our scattered thoughts today as we focus on you.  In these next few moments of silence, help us remember that we belong to you.  Help us lay our worries and cares on the throne of your grace...We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, a Deep Dive into the Gospels and Acts.  Today, we begin Mark 7 and read about another run-in Jesus has with the Pharisees.  But before we move into our devotional, I do want to mention that today is Maundy Thursday.  The word “maundy” comes from a Latin word meaning command and it refers to the command that Jesus gives his disciples in the Upper Room “to love one another as I have loved you.” This is often a day when we wash each other's feet and receive communion together as Jesus did before he was crucified.  Today, we will have the New Hope sanctuary open for prayer, communion, and hand washing from 12noon to 1pm and then again from 6:30 to 7:30pm.  There won't be a service but this will be your time for prayer, reflection, and communing with God.   Let's talk a little bit about 1st century Jewish life. Certain groups of Jews, such as the Pharisees and the scribes, affirmed two types of law. There was the written law, the first five books of the Bible, and the oral law, or the traditions of the elders/rabbis. The written law didn't have all the detail so the rabbis over the years had filled in those details with oral traditions. For instance, there is a lot in the written law about things being clean and unclean but not a lot of detail, so the oral tradition filled in the detail.   Who exactly were the Pharisees? They were a strict sect of Judaism that believed in following the law in the fullest sense. There were different standards for following the law for different groups of people (day laborer would not be able to follow the law in the same way that a scribe could do so.) But certainly, it would have been expected that a rabbi and his followers would follow both the oral and written law.   In today's Scripture, Jesus and his disciples had been out and about doing ministry and it is time to eat; they gather together to eat dinner.  But they were being watched.  Some of the Jewish teachers of the law, the Pharisees, had come to watch Jesus and his followers.  They were suspicious of Jesus.  They had heard about the healings.  They had heard about his teaching.  And they were feeling a bit threatened.  They travel from Jerusalem, which was 80 miles away, to come keep an eye on him.   And they find Jesus and his disciples eating without washing their hands and they are appalled.  Now, let's be clear.  Part of the oral laws that the Jews followed included ritual hand washing, in which they would pour water over their hands before they ate.  It wasn't to clean germs off their hands.  (They didn't know about germs yet – germ theory isn't discovered for another 1800 years).  Thus, this pouring of water on the hands didn't really make their hands clean.  It was a man-made rule that the rabbis tried to enforce.    And Jesus didn't have his disciples do it.  The Pharisees are shocked and they ask him, “Why do you allow your disciples to eat with unclean hands?”  And then Jesus says interesting.  He quotes Scripture from the prophet Isaiah, which basically says, “ ‘These people honor me by what they say. But their hearts are far away from me. Their worship doesn't mean anything to me. They teach nothing but human rules.'    On the surface, there wasn't anything wrong with what the Pharisees were trying to do. They had laws which they thought were very important in following God. But you see, Jesus could see past their words, past their rules, and into their hearts. He saw insincerity, hollowness, hypocrisy, all a bit of a facade. And thus, he sees this as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Just as in the times of Isaiah, the Pharisees were giving lip service to following God but their hearts were far from him. They were concerned about the Sabbath being followed to the tee but they would cheat people in the marketplace. They were concerned about following specifics of the hand washing but they weren't at all concerned about the widow and the orphan. Something was truly skewed here. They were all about piety but they had neglected compassion, justice, and love.   This whole issue of being unclean, of being defiled, was a big deal in 1st century Judaism. If you couldn't be clean (and a lot of regular people worked jobs or had lives that meant they couldn't meet all the various regulations to stay clean), but if you were unclean for whatever reason (your work or an illness), then you were kind of ostracized from the Temple. You were basically shunned from religious life. Jesus is making a huge point here. He is saying that becoming defiled goes so much deeper than what you touch or what rituals you may or may not attend to.   Jesus is basically saying, You are shunning people, you are telling them they are unclean, you are ostracizing them from the community, based on the rituals they have done or haven't done to be clean. But what you are missing is this: the things that really matter, the things that pose the greatest danger, are not external. They aren't hand-washing. They aren't meticulously keeping Sabbath. The things that matter most to God are internal.   You see, what Jesus is saying to them is that God cares most about the heart. I can't help but think back to God's choice of David for king of Israel. All his brothers seemed like a better choice–older, stronger, more educated, better marksmen. I Samuel 16:7, But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”   Friends, the Lord looks on the heart. God cares about what's in our hearts. He doesn't care if you've got Scripture memorized or you pray big fancy prayers out loud for your Sunday School class. He doesn't care if you “look” like a good Christian. Rather---He cares about how you treat the people who live next door to you. He cares about if you are really kind to people. He cares about whether or not you are saying nasty things about other people behind their back. He cares about whether you are generous with your resources. He cares about whether you really make him Lord of your life. If we are honest, I think we will all admit that the church has looked a lot like these Pharisees. We've been all about religious activity and less about trying to be like Jesus. We've been about the external and not the internal. We've cared about appearances. We put up this great religious front but then we are horribly judgmental or angry or bitter or you get the idea.   Friends, God could care less about your religious busyness. He wants your heart. He doesn't care about our ceremonial handwashing---he cares about if we are treating others with the love of Christ. And if we aren't, then all the ceremony, all the church stuff, all of this, it's kind of a farce. Why? Because God looks on our hearts. We aren't fooling God.   Some questions to think about: Am I growing in my walk with Jesus? What evidence do I have of this? Do I make excuses for my failure to be obedient and faithful to God's commands? Am I growing in faithfulness or stagnating by being too comfortable in my spiritual life? Am I frequently sharing my faith with people outside the church? Am I the same person at church as I am at home, at work, and everywhere else in my life? Do I speak and behave in the same way? Why or why not? Do I hide things from my church friends that I'm ashamed of? Do I ever thank God that I am not as sinful as other people? Do I ever say unhelpful things about my brothers and sisters in Christ? Do I have a critical or negative spirit? What things have I allowed to seep into my heart that I know should be released to God? How am I measuring up compared to Jesus?   Blessings, Pastor Vicki  

Psalm 47:1-7, Deuteronomy 28:23-47, Luke 18:1-30. If you put God first in your life all kinds of blessings follow Because God loves you he warns you of the dangers of disregarding the design for your life

The things you definitely can't tell your parents—like who you love, how you feel, or that you're mildly sad sometimes. Because God forbid anyone gets offended...Lucky for you, we still revealed these secrets to prove to you how it goes over here. What's the reality of your family dynamics?

Because God builds his kingdom through partnership in the gospel, we must build relationships based on giving and receiving. Philippians 4:14–19 (ESV): 14 Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. 15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. 16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

There's something deeply powerful about encountering God in the secret place. It's where worship unlocks access to His presence and intimacy with Him. Because God is relational, He longs for us to seek Him—not just know about Him, but truly know Him. Pastor Alex reminded us that in those quiet, surrendered moments, battles are won, strength is renewed, and lives are forever changed. There are five significant things experienced in the life of a believer who consistently seeks Him in the secret place. Let's be intentional to make room for Him—because what happens in secret shapes everything we see. Matthew 6:5-6 Daniel 10:10-13 Luke 4:1-14 1 Samuel 16:23 Genesis 32:23-29 Exodus 3:1-5 Matthew 14:22-25 Luke 18:2-8 Psalm 91

Because God has given us a faith that keeps us in His love, we must keep keeping on in that faith, holding fast by the means of grace, even as we hold out to others the promise of redemption.I. Keep Yourselves in God's Love by Keeping Hold of Faith in Christ vv 20-21 (1) By building yourselves up in your most holy faith (2) By regularly praying in the Holy Spirit (3) By waiting in Hope for God's promised mercy CC: Keep Yourselves in the Love of GodII. Reach Out to Those Whose Faith Has Been Perverted by False Teaching vv 22-23 (1) To those limping along in doubt, show merc! (2) For those who are following false teachers into judgement, Go after them (3) To those in the midst of soul-killing sin, continue to hold our redemptive mercy

Physical hunger is not your only craving. You also possess a spiritual hunger. This appetite also cries out to be fed. Both types of hunger were created by God. Physical hunger can only be satisfied by food. Spiritual hunger can only be satisfied by God.Main Points:1.  You have a longing in your soul for God. Many feel the yearning but do not recognize that it is spiritual in nature. They feel a sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction with life. So many people are thinking, “There must be something more to life. What am I missing?”2. In an attempt to satisfy their hunger, they go on a search. Attempts are made to gratify this spiritual emptiness with temporary, earthly things, only to be left with greater hunger.3. So, let me give you the good news. Only Jesus can satisfy our spiritual hunger. Why? Because God designed us in such a way. Only God can fill the void in our souls. A relationship with Jesus is so nourishing and so satisfying that we will wonder why we neglected Him for so long. We will wonder why we bought into the deception of this world it could offer what we needed.Today's Scripture Verses:Psalm 107:9 - “For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.”Matthew 5:6 - “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.”Quick Links:Donate to support this podcastLeave a review on Apple PodcastsGet a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship JournalConnect on SocialJoin The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group

It has always been God's desire to dwell with us. This is fulfilled through our faith in Jesus as our Savior. He has bridged the distance between heaven and earth, by giving us His Holy Spirit for guidance and correction. We trust Him and what He said, as recording in the Scriptures as well as what He says to us every day through His Spirit in us. He is with us and we are with Him, even though we don't always see it fully – it is still true – because God cannot lie. Because God wants us to be with Him. Because He loves us so very much.Daylight Meditations is a daily podcast from CFO North America. Please visit CFONorthAmerica.org to learn more about our retreats, and online courses. If you are encouraged by this time of meditation, please consider supporting us.Contributors: Michelle DeChant, Nancy Holland, Joy Peyton and Adam Maddock

Have you ever felt unseen? Like your prayers go unnoticed and your situation is too far gone? In the story of Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52), we're reminded that no one is invisible to God. A blind beggar sitting on the side of the road, overlooked by everyone else, caught the attention of Jesus with just one thing—his faith. What miracle or impossibility have you given up on? This message is a call to believe again. Because God always has the last word, not your circumstances, not your past, and not what others say. Bartimaeus didn't let the crowd silence him—and neither should you. Faith is the only thing that can move the mountains in your life. In this message, we explore how one man's bold cry to Jesus led to a life-changing miracle—and how your faith can do the same.

Oppression is everywhere and it is one of the most grievous things known to God and man. Because God saved the world through the oppression of His Son, God's people are liberated to liberate. We are freed from the oppression of sin to work toward freeing the oppressed, body and soul.

When Human Love Falls Short, God's Love Remains To better understand the first reading, it's important to grasp its context: . . . . . . the people of Israel are in exile, living under Babylonian oppression. Years have gone by, and their suffering shows no sign of ending. Their dream of returning to Jerusalem feels more distant than ever. In their discouragement, they begin to grumble: “We have sinned. God has abandoned us. We are stuck here in exile forever, without hope.” But into this despair, God speaks through the prophet with a powerful message of comfort and hope: “I have not forgotten you. I will not abandon you. I will come to save you.” The Prophet Speaks of God Using the Image of a Mother Remarkably, the prophet speaks of God using the image of a mother. Think about it — if we were asked, “Who loves you the most?” many of us would probably say, “My mother.” A mother's love is often the first and deepest love we experience. But God goes even further. God says: “If you think a mother's love is strong, multiply that love a thousand times… then multiply it again a thousand times more. Even if human love fails — even if a mother were to forget her child — my love for you will never fail. I will always come back for you. I will always save you.” This is the same message we encounter in today's Gospel. Jesus says: “My Father is always at work, and I too am working.” And what is the work of the Father? It is to give life. Jesus continues that work — offering life, healing, and salvation. Jesus tells us how we can receive this life: first, by listening to His word; and second, by believing in the One who sent Him. This is the path to eternal life. Even in death, those who have heard His word and believed will live. This is the invitation given to us in this Lenten season — to listen deeply to God's word and to believe in His love. Because God is love. And our prayer is that we, too, may be filled with that same love — a love that never fails, never forgets, and always saves. Listen to this Meditation Media. Listen to: When Human Love Falls Short, God's Love Remains ---------------------------------- Image: God the Father and the Holy Spirit : Italian Artist: Pompeo Batoni: (l. 1708-1787) ---------------------------------- Gospel Reading: John 5: 17-30 First Reading: Isaiah 49: 8-15

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“In times like these you need a SaviorIn times like these you need an anchorBe very sure, be very sureYour anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock! This Rock is Jesus, Yes He's the OneThis Rock is Jesus, the only OneBe very sure, be very sureYour anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!”~Ruth Caye Jones, 1943 “When one's hope is properly set on God, fixed upon His promises and founded upon His Word, that hope does not fail.”~Jay E. Adams “We wait for the Lord;he is our help and shield.For our hearts rejoice in himbecause we trust in his holy name.May your faithful love rest on us, Lord,for we put our hope in you.”~Psalm 33:20-22 (CSB)SERMON PASSAGEHebrews 6:9-20 (CSB) 9 Even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better and that pertain to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them. 11 Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, 12 so that you won't become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance. 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself: 14 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. 15 And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. 17 Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Hi Sister! When I first sat down to record this episode, I felt a mix of excitement, nerves, and deep gratitude. It's not every day that I get to share something so personal, something that has been years in the making—marked by heartbreak, surrender, and ultimately, God's goodness. If you've ever felt like you're waiting on the Lord, wrestling with His timing, or wondering if He sees your pain, I pray this episode speaks directly to your heart. Before we dive in, I have to take a moment to celebrate 40,000 podcast downloads! What a humbling milestone. I never imagined when I started this show that we would reach so many sisters around the world. This has always been God's show, and I pray before every episode that He speaks through me and gives you the encouragement you need. So, to celebrate, I'm hosting a special giveaway—keep reading for details on how you can enter! Now, in this episode, I'm opening up about my own journey of loss, waiting, and ultimately, surrender. I'll walk you through: How I navigated three back-to-back pregnancy losses, including losing my daughter at 15 weeks. The spiritual battle I faced as I questioned if I'd ever have another baby. The moment God called me to fully surrender my fertility to Him. How I found peace in tracking my cycle and understanding my body better. The difference between trying to conceive in fear vs. trying in faith. Sisters, this story is deeply personal, and I know it may be hard for some of you to hear. If you're still waiting, still hoping, still crying out to the Lord—I see you. I've been there. But I also want you to have hope. Because God is faithful, and His timing is always, always perfect. And yes—there's a giveaway! Here's how you can enter to win an All Access Pass to one of our group coaching calls: Leave a written review for the podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Share the podcast with a friend or post about it in a Facebook group. Screenshot your review and share/post and drop them into our Facebook group! I cannot wait to bless one of you with this coaching opportunity. You have until this Friday, the 28th to enter! Let's dive into today's episode. Grab a cozy blanket, a warm cup of tea, and let's talk about God's timing, surrender, and the hope that never fades. In Him,  Bekah     Resources & Links: ✨I've put together a free faith-filled booklet to help guide you through this journey. It's called Faith-Driven Fertility, and it's full of practical steps and encouragement for trusting God while supporting your body for conception.

Because God is holy and we are not, we should tremble. At Mount Sinai, the Israelites couldn't even touch the edge of the mountain without dying. In this message from Exodus 19, Pastor Lutzer highlights the revelation of God's unspeakable holiness and power in both His speech and His acts. How can we draw near to Almighty God? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/172/29

Because God is holy and we are not, we should tremble. At Mount Sinai, the Israelites couldn't even touch the edge of the mountain without dying. In this message from Exodus 19, Pastor Lutzer highlights the revelation of God's unspeakable holiness and power in both His speech and His acts. How can we draw near to Almighty God? This month's special offer is available for a donation of any amount. Get yours at https://rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. 

(Isaiah 46:11) Scripture is full of prophecy and sincere Bible students must not neglect it. Today, we uncover five definite blessings connected to the study of prophecy. Our goal is to learn more than end time events; it is to know more deeply the eternal God. (0968250318)  ----more----  The World's Fascination with End Times Hollywood has made a small fortune imagining what the end of the world is going to look like. In fact, it seems every week. Something new in printed form or media comes out about the end of time, and yet I think it may be smarter if we ask the one who started time, how time is going to end. That is the eternal God, the creator of all things. What does God say? What does the Bible say? About the end of time, about last things.  Biblical Prophecy: An Overview As you read and study the word of God, you're gonna be shocked, I think, to see how much of the Bible is prophetic - I mean by that telling us about things to come. Sixteen Old Testament books are considered to be prophetic books. You have what is commonly referred to as the major prophets and the minor prophets. But prophecy's not restricted just to those books. In fact, prophetic elements are found all through the word of God. In the Psalms there are prophetic psalms. Moses was referred to as a prophet, so that's hearkening all the way back to the beginning of the Old Testament. When you come to the New Testament, about 1/20th of the New Testament is prophetic. Now, obviously the revelation of Jesus Christ the apocalypse the final revelation. That's prophetic, but there are prophetic elements in the teachings of Christ and the writings of Paul. You can't neglect scripture. When it comes to prophecy. I heard someone recently say, what gives us the right I. To pick and choose which verses we wanna believe. What gives us the right to pick and cho choose which verses we want to study and apply and live. No, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. So what is the profit of us studying what the Bible says about the end of time? Lemme give you several profitable things that it'll do in your life.  The Sovereignty of God in Prophecy First of all, if you study what the Bible says about prophecy. It's going to reveal something to you about the sovereignty of our God, that He truly is on the throne. He has a plan. He's all wise and all powerful. He knows exactly what he's doing. Listen to the words of Isaiah 46, verse 11. The Bible says, "Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executed with my counsel from a far country. Yay, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it." Now, the context of this text is in a prophecy to the nation of Israel. But listen to the revelation of God himself, the one who's giving the prophecy, he said, I've spoken it. I'm gonna bring it to pass. I've purposed it. I'm going to do it. When you begin to study prophecy, one of the things immediately that is revealed is that our God is not arbitrary. He has an eternal purpose in the ages. This is not some emergency plan with our God. From the very beginning, before time started, God knew exactly how it was going to end. So his purpose is being fulfilled. That ought to help you not just to know events, but to know the God of the Bible in a greater way. Closely akin to that, let me give you a second profitable thing.  Faith in Bible Prophecy In the book of Acts chapter number 20, we're told this beginning in verse number 26, the Apostle Paul says, "Wherefore, I take you to record this day that I'm pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." One of the things that happens when you start seeing what the Bible says about prophecy is it increases your faith in the word of God itself. And the Apostle Paul said, Acts 20:27, "I've not shunned to declare all the counsel of God." May I say to you, we should not shun all the counsel of God. Study all of the Bible. Seek to understand all of scripture. Teach and preach all of the Bible. Why? Because God has a message for us in every part of scripture that includes prophecy, faith cometh by hearing by the word of God. Your faith is gonna grow as you see God fulfilling what he foretold and everything. God foretells, he fulfills. When you see all the prophecies that have been fulfilled to this point, do you know what it says? It says that the same God who never lies, who always tells the truth and always keeps his word, is going to fulfill the rest of the prophecies. So it reveals the sovereignty of God. It increases our faith in the word of God. How about this? This is a very practical thing.  Hope in Bible Prophecy When you begin studying what the Bible says about prophecy, it's gonna give you some hope and comfort. I'm talking about living through difficult days. It's gonna help you. Second Corinthians 4:17 says, "For our light affliction, which is, but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." What does prophecy do? Prophecy makes you get your eyes off of time and on eternity. It makes you go to the end and work your way backward to find out what truly matters in light of eternity. It brings both a challenge and a comfort at the same time. He repeats that emphasis when he writes to the church at Thessalonika. First Thessalonians chapter four, listen to the words beginning in verse thirteen. He says, "But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ, shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." Did you notice the first verse we read in 1st Thessalonians 4:13 has the word "hope" in it, and the last verse we read, verse 18 has the word "comfort" in it? Studying prophecy is going to give you hope and comfort. It's not just about knowing the sequence of events. Or what to look for next. In fact, we're not looking for an ending. We're looking for a new beginning. I'm not looking for the world to end. I'm looking for Jesus to come. I'm looking for everything God has prepared for us. That gives me hope and comfort living in difficult days.  The Purifying Affect of Prophecy And then I would say this studying prophecy, what the Bible says about the end of time will purify the believer. Yeah, one John chapter three, beginning in verse number two says this, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him, purify himself even as he is pure." The hope is not just for us to feel better. The hope is for us to live today. In light of eternity, it's gonna help you make today count. If you realize today could be your last day on earth, today could be the greatest day you ever live, which is the day Jesus Christ face to face. Let me give you one more study.  Loving Jesus More Through Prophecy What the Bible says about last things is gonna help you love Jesus more. Listen to Revelation 19, verse 10, "And I fell at his feet to worship him and he said unto me, See thou to it. Not I'm thy fellow servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." People who want to talk about prophecy in the end time, but they don't wanna talk more about loving Christ or winning souls or living holy, have missed the spirit of prophecy. The spirit of prophecy is not about having a head full of knowledge. It's about having a heart alive and on fire with passionate love for Christ and souls around you. It will make a difference in the way you live this day. So I'm excited about our studies. We begin to talk about what the Bible says about last things, but I wanna challenge you. Don't just study it, live it. Don't just consider considerate, apply the truth to your life today. Let what the Bible says affect what you give your energy and attention to this very day. Outro and Resources Repeating what other people have said about the Bible is not enough. We must know the biblical reason behind what we believe. We hope you will visit us at etj.bible to access our Library of Bible teaching resources, including book-by-book studies of Scripture. You'll also find studies to watch, listen to, or read. We are so grateful for those who pray for us, who share the biblical content, and for those who invest to help us advance this ministry worldwide. Again, thank you for listening and we hope you'll join us next time on Enjoying the Journey.