Podcasts about Father

Jesus Christ is our unbreakable lifeline, offering hope, strength, and security in every season of life. Hebrews 6:18-20 reminds us that through Christ we have a steadfast hope anchored in God's presence. Discover why prayer is more than a habit—it's our direct connection to the Savior who never leaves us or turns us away. Life often tempts us to look for comfort in people, achievements, or temporary things when we feel overwhelmed. In today's devotional, Alexis A. Goring reflects on how everyday experiences reveal a deeper truth: while people and circumstances may fail us, Jesus remains our constant source of hope and strength. Through prayer, we can bring every fear, burden, and unanswered question directly to Him. Highlights: Discover what Hebrews 6:18-20 teaches about the hope we have in Christ. Learn why prayer is our spiritual lifeline during difficult seasons. Be encouraged to depend on Jesus instead of people or temporary comforts. Find reassurance that Christ welcomes every fear, doubt, and burden we bring to Him. Understand how Jesus' constant presence gives lasting peace and security. Be reminded that our greatest hope is anchored in Christ alone. Resources Mentioned Song: Lifeline — Mandisa Song: That's Who You Are — Megan Tibbits Song: Don't Stop Praying — Matthew West Song: Jesus Walks with Me — Be Still Studios Join the Conversation What has helped you stay anchored to Christ during difficult seasons? We'd love to hear how prayer has strengthened your faith and reminded you that Jesus is your true lifeline. Continue the conversation with the Crosswalk community here: https://forums.crosswalk.com/ Do you want to listen ad-free? When you join Crosswalk Plus, you gain access to exclusive, in-depth Bible study guides, devotionals, sound biblical advice, and daily encouragement from trusted pastors and authors—resources designed to strengthen your faith and equip you to live it out boldly. PLUS ad free podcasts! Sign Up Today! Full Transcript Below: Our Lifeline By Alexis A. Goring Bible Reading: “We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.” - Hebrews 6:18-20 (MSG) A few years ago, while waiting to be seen in a hospital, I stepped into the women’s restroom and saw something that inspired this devotional: a lifeline. It was a red label with white-inked words instructing me to pull the attached red string if I needed help. The sight of this made me think about how Jesus Christ is our lifeline. Earlier this year, I saw a reel via Instagram of a young girl around age 11 or 12. She was captured on camera rushing onto the concert stage before security could catch her and embracing her favorite singer. Prior to this, I could see that the singer was performing at a calm, steady pace as she walked across the stage, holding the microphone near her face. When the young girl rushed onto the stage, the singer wasn’t fazed. She let the young girl wrap her arms around her waist and rest her head on her midsection as she leaned in for a tight hug that obviously meant the world to her. This girl received a 10-second embrace before security reached her and carried her away. When I saw this reel, it spoke volumes to me because it helped me realize several things. I realized that I have been there before because I have had favorite singers over the years—both secular and Christian—and I know what it’s like to cope with their music to the point where it feels like your favorite singer and their songs are your lifeline. When feeling sad or depressed, I would listen to a song that served as catharsis for my feelings, working it out of my system until I felt better. It was obvious to me that the singer in the Instagram reel was that young girl’s lifeline. Her music must have brought this girl through tough times and inspired her heart. Whether feeling happy or sad, this singer’s songs were obviously the soundtrack to her fans’ lives. It was obvious that she loved this musician with all her heart. It was also clear that this singer appreciated her fans because she let this girl hug her for more than a second without pushing her away. Jesus Christ also never pushes us away. And unlike any human—famous singer or not—He is our true lifeline. Only Jesus can save our souls. And He gave us a beautiful way to reach Him as our lifeline. That gift is prayer. I follow a page on Instagram that’s hosted by Ellie Mont. Last year, she said something very profound about prayer being our lifeline. These are a few quotes from her post on Instagram that support my devotional message today: First, she acknowledges that life can be hard for most people. Mont said, “Life often feels like a series of challenges and roadblocks that drain our strength. We try to be strong, to figure it all out on our own, but sometimes it just feels like too much. In those moments, we must remember we do not walk alone.” Second, she reminds us that Jesus walks with us. She also delivers a powerful line about the gift God gave us to reach Him and communicate with Him. Mont said, “Prayer is more than a religious habit or a last resort. It is a lifeline. It is a personal conversation with the God who created you, who sees everything you face, and who cares about every detail of your life. When you cannot handle the weight of your problems, you can bring them to the One who can. God does not ask you to be perfect. He asks you to come to Him just as you are.” Third, Mont reminds us that God wants to hear our hearts no matter how we feel or how messy it seems. She said, “You can be honest with Him. You can tell Him your fears, your doubts, your confusion, and your pain. There is nothing too small or too big for God to handle. He is not bothered by your questions or your tears. He welcomes them. He is a Father who wants to help you and walk with you through every season.” Finally, Mont gives us a word of encouragement for when we feel too discouraged to pray. She said, “Don’t let discouragement silence your voice. Do not let fear steal your hope. Keep praying. Keep trusting. God hears every word, even the ones you cannot say out loud. He sees your heart, and He is working even when you do not see it. You are not alone. You are not forgotten. You are not powerless. You are loved by a God who listens.” In closing, I’d like to say: Be careful not to make a human or anything that is not God your god or your lifeline, because there is only one true God and one way to heaven. The way is Jesus Christ (John 14:6). He is our lifeline. We need to cling to Christ more than we cling to anybody or anything else. Before you go, please listen to these four songs (below) and reflect on the lyrics. Song of Reflection #1: “Lifeline” by Mandisa. Listen to it HERE. Song of Reflection #2: “That’s Who You Are” (Original song by Megan Tibbits). Listen to it HERE. Song of Reflection #3: “Don’t Stop Praying” by Matthew West. Listen to it HERE. Song of Reflection #4: “Jesus Walks with Me” by Be Still Studios. Listen to it HERE. Intersecting Faith & Life: How does it feel to know that Jesus Christ is our Lifeline? What have you been clinging to more than Christ? Further Reading:Luke 18:1John 3:16-17John 11:25-26John 15:5Hebrews 4:16 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Jonathan Bow, Lead Pastor

Father and Annie explore the story behind the prophecy in Isaiah 55 with the call to "come to the water." In connecting that to the multiplication in the Gospel passage, we come to better understand the Eternal Covenant of the Trinity.

The Blessed Life According to the Son | Part 5Blessed are the Persecuted PeacemakersMatthew 4:17, 23-25, 5:1-12 | King's Chapel Live StreamWhat does it mean to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven?Jesus says that peacemakers are blessed because they will be called sons of God. As members of God's family, we are invited to share in His family business by seeking peace with God, peace with our neighbors, and peace within our communities. Peacemaking is not passive. It is a Gospel-shaped way of living that reflects the character of our heavenly Father.Jesus also tells His followers that those who are persecuted because of Him are blessed. Their reward is not found in comfort or approval from the world, but in the Kingdom of Heaven. Even when following Christ brings opposition, rejection, or hardship, Jesus calls His people to rejoice and be glad because their reward is great and they are in the company of faithful believers who have gone before them.In this message, we see that the blessed life is not always an easy life. It is a life rooted in Christ, marked by peacemaking, and strengthened by the hope of God's Kingdom.If you are trying to follow Jesus faithfully in a divided world, this message will encourage you to pursue peace with courage and to trust that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.Connect with King's Chapel in Longwood, FL - ▶️ www.kingschapelfl.com▶️ https://www.facebook.com/KingsChapelfl▶️ https://www.instagram.com/kingschapelfl/For the GLORY of our Great GodFor the GOOD of our NeighborMatthew 5:9-12 sermon, blessed are the peacemakers, persecution for Christ sermon, Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes explained, Christian peacemaking, Kingdom of Heaven sermon, following Jesus faithfully, King's Chapel Longwood FL

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”~Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish writer “God's goodness is a communicative, spreading goodness…. If God had not a communicative, spreading goodness, he would never have created the world. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost were happy in themselves and enjoyed one another before the world was. But that God delights to communicate and spread his goodness, there had never been a creation nor a redemption. God useth his creatures not for defect of power, that he can do nothing without them, but for the spreading of his goodness.”~Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), Anglican-Puritan theologian “So why did God create? Because God delights to spread His goodness. In other words, He is like a sun of goodness, blazing out with love. God didn't create because He needed to, because of any lack. He created because He was so happily bursting with goodness. God is so overflowingly, superabundantly full of life in Himself that He delighted to spread His goodness. His innermost Being is a sun of light, life, and warmth, always shining out; radiant and outgoing!”~Michael Reeves, theology professor and author “God is wonderfully generous by nature; to give is His delight. His gifts are immeasurably precious and are given as freely as the light of the sun. He gives grace to His own because He wills it, to His redeemed because of His covenant, to the called because of His promise, to believers because they seek it, to sinners because they need it. He gives grace abundantly, seasonably, constantly, readily, sovereignly; the value of the blessings is doubled by the manner in which it is given.”~C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”~Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Irish writer and missionary to India “The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.”~Helen Keller (1880-1968), author and activist “Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”~Khalil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese writer, poet, and artistSERMON PASSAGENumbers 6 (NASB95)24 The Lord bless you, and keep you;25 The Lord make His face shine on you,   And be gracious to you;26 The Lord lift up His countenance on you,   And give you peace.' Psalm 67 (NASB95)1 God be gracious to us and bless us,  And cause His face to shine upon us—          Selah.2 That Your way may be known on the earth,  Your salvation among all nations.3 Let the peoples praise You, O God;  Let all the peoples praise You. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;  For You will judge the peoples with uprightness  And guide the nations on the earth.                  Selah.5 Let the peoples praise You, O God;  Let all the peoples praise You. 6 The earth has yielded its produce;  God, our God, blesses us.7 God blesses us,  That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.Revelation 7 9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Revelation 22 1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. Matthew 28 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Send us Fan MailWhat if the deepest wound in your life isn't one you've been able to name?In this heartfelt episode of God-Sized Stories with Patricia Holbrook, Patricia sits down with Rachelle Starr, founder of Scarlet Hope, author, speaker, and executive producer of the documentary He Calls Me Daughter. After leaving a successful corporate career, Rachelle answered God's call to serve women in the adult entertainment industry, witnessing firsthand how countless stories of brokenness often trace back to one common thread: father wounds.Together, Patricia and Rachelle explore how our experiences with earthly fathers can shape the way we see ourselves—and even how we relate to our Heavenly Father. More importantly, they share the hope that true healing is possible through God's redeeming love.In this episode, you'll learn:What father wounds are and how they impact our identityWhy our view of God is often influenced by our childhood experiencesThe inspiring story behind the documentary He Calls Me DaughterHow Scarlet Hope is bringing hope to women in the adult entertainment industryPractical encouragement for beginning a journey of healingWhy every person can find lasting identity as a beloved child of GodRachelle also shares the heart behind He Calls Me Daughter, a documentary that invites viewers to experience healing from father wounds and discover the unconditional love of their Heavenly Father.You'll find these resources and Patricia's companion blog on her website: https://patriciaholbrook.com/2026/08/when-father-wounds-meet-the-fathers-love/Support Soaring with Him's Free Bible Distribution Program: https://www.soaringwithhim.com/bible/If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe to God-Sized Stories with Patricia Holbrook, leave a review, and share this conversation with someone who needs the reminder that healing is possible and every daughter is deeply loved by her Heavenly Father.Support the showClick on the link above to support us and help keep this show going!Click on the links to connect with Patricia on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube 

What is the nature and relationship between the first and second persons of the Trinity?

What does it mean to truly live, not just exist, in the middle of a world filled with uncertainty, fear, and pain? That is the question at the heart of this message, and the answer is rooted in one of the most powerful promises Jesus ever made. In John 14, Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure by introducing them to something extraordinary: another advocate, the Holy Spirit, who is not a lesser substitute but one of the same kind, the same quality, the same presence. This advocate does not merely walk alongside us like a coach on the sideline. He makes his home inside of us, adopting us as sons and daughters and giving us direct access to the Father. The comfort Jesus offers is not a comfortable life free of hardship. It is something far more durable: a peace and a truth that holds steady no matter what is swirling around us. The song Because He Lives, written in 1971 during a time of war, cultural chaos, and a rising movement declaring that God was dead, captures this promise beautifully. Its lyrics move through the arc of an entire human life, from a newborn baby to a final breath, and declare that at every stage, because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow. This is not wishful thinking. It is a theological reality grounded in the resurrection, and it is an invitation for each of us to stop merely enduring life and start truly living it.

Christians in the Church Must Become Christians in the Marketplace of Unbelievers MESSAGE SUMMARY: From the Gospel of Luke (10:1-20): Life Laborers Are Few This “Life Lesson from Luke” focuses upon the Apostle Luke in the context of “Luke the Evangelist” – telling the good news of Jesus the Christ. Introduction:  Jesus, in Luke 11:11-13, compares asking God versus an earthly father being asked by his son: “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”. God desires to give to us before we even ask Him but ask, we must. Since we must ask for the Holy Spirit, it is good to begin our daily prayers with: “Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit.”. From Luke 11:1-13, we have a Life Lesson on Prayer. Life Laborers Are Few:  As Jesus sends the Seventy-two out on a mission trip (Luke 10:1-20), He tells them, in Luke 10:2: “And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'". As in the First Century, today we can make the same observation as Jesus: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” – where are the laborers for His Kingdom today? People all around us are in need. This passage from Luke 10:1-20 reveals God's plan and model for evangelism – the ministry of the Gospel. Further, Jesus instructs us to: “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” – God's harvest. This model for the ministry of the Gospel is not just for Clergy, this model is for all followers of Jesus. To meet the needs of today's plentiful harvest, the Christians in the Church must become the Christian in the marketplace pf unbelievers. To be effective in this plentiful marketplace, we must be ourselves and a willing vessel for God's will and for God to fill us with the Holy Spirit. Additionally, we must be a willing laborer for the ministry of the Gospel – the harvest is plentiful. Be God's hand!   TODAY'S PRAYER: Keeping the Sabbath, Lord, will require a lot of changes in the way I am living life. Teach me, Lord, how to take the next step with this in a way that fits my unique personality and situation. Help me to trust you with all that will remain unfinished and to enjoy my humble place in your very large world. In Jesus' name, amen.    Scazzero, Peter. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day (p. 129). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. TODAY'S AFFIRMATION: Today, I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM RIGHTEOUS IN GOD'S EYES. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 SCRIPTURE REFERENCE SEARCH: www.AWFTL.org/bible-search/ A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org. WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL – “At Jesus' Crucifixion and Death, the “Temple Veil” Was Torn; After Jesus Easter Resurrection, You Now Pray Directly with God”: https://awordfromthelord.org/devotional/ DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB

Hebrews 9 Par-rah-GHEE-no-my = Appear, Appearing, Arrive, Arrived, Come, Coming Three “Appearing's” of Christ His First appearance (Hebrews 9:1-10) “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 CSB His Heavenly appearance “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things having come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands, that is, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all time, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?… For Christ did not enter a holy place made by hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Hebrews 9:11-14, 24-26 NASB His Second Appearing “And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” Hebrews 9:28 NASB “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8 CSB “God's saving grace, you see, appeared for all people. It teaches us that we should turn our backs on ungodliness and the passions of the world, and should live sober, just and devout lives in the present age, while we wait eagerly for the blessed hope and royal appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus the Messiah. He gave himself for us so that he could ransom us from all lawless actions and purify for himself a people as his very own who would be eager for good works.” Titus 2:11-14 NTFE “Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to repay each person according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end…The spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let anyone who hears say, “Come!” Let the thirsty come; let anyone who wants the water of life take it freely… Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with everyone. Amen.” Revelation 22:12-13, 17, 20-21 CSB Even So Come Hebrews 9 Par-rah-GHEE-no-my = Appear, Appearing, Arrive, Arrived, Come, Coming Three “Appearing's” of Christ His First appearance (Hebrews 9:1-10) “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 CSB PIC goes here His Heavenly appearance “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things having come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands, that is, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all time, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?… For Christ did not enter a holy place made by hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Hebrews 9:11-14, 24-26 NASB His Second Appearing “And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” Hebrews 9:28 NASB “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8 CSB PLEASE PUT THE VIDEOS HERE “God's saving grace, you see, appeared for all people. It teaches us that we should turn our backs on ungodliness and the passions of the world, and should live sober, just and devout lives in the present age, while we wait eagerly for the blessed hope and royal appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus the Messiah. He gave himself for us so that he could ransom us from all lawless actions and purify for himself a people as his very own who would be eager for good works.” Titus 2:11-14 NTFE “Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to repay each person according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end…The spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let anyone who hears say, “Come!” Let the thirsty come; let anyone who wants the water of life take it freely… Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with everyone. Amen.” Revelation 22:12-13, 17, 20-21 CSB

Listen along as we continue through 2 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 2 Peter 2:1-3 - Faith Title: Clever Stories “Christianity would then be evaporated of its essence and consist of little more than a vague reverence for “God.” Certain strands of the ecumenical movement err in just this direction. In the interests of Christian unity, they reduce the faith to its lowest possible common denominator.”  - Douglas Moo “In essentials unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.” - Rupertus Meldenius Apostles Creed:  I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; [he descended to the dead.] On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. (ELLC) “Anxiety is a truly remarkable thing. Maya walks home alone, like iron on the outside but a house of cards inside. The slightest little breeze is all it takes. Today it was the line in the cafeteria. The crowd. Someone backed into her accidentally; she doesn't know the boy's name, and he didn't even notice. They hardly touched each other. It wasn't his fault. But Maya was plunged back into hell again in an instant…Anxiety. It's such a peculiar thing. Almost everyone knows what it feels like, yet none of us can describe it. Maya looks at herself in the mirror, wonders why it can't be seen on the outside. Not even on X-rays how does that work? How can something that bangs away at us so horribly hard on the inside not show up on the pictures as black scars, scorched into our skeletons? How can the pain she feels not be visible in the mirror! She's become so good at pretending. Goes to school, sits in classes, does her homework. She plays her guitar, perhaps that helps, unless she's just imagining that. Perhaps her fingers just need to be kept busy. She's looked into the books her dad reads about "mental coaching," and they talk about the brain having to steer the body but that sometimes the reverse is the only way to survive. She's seen depressed adults do the same thing: keep moving, exercising, and cleaning and renovating their summer cottages, finding things that force them to get up in the morning: plants to be watered, errands to be run, anything so they don't have time to think about how.”     —Fredrick Backman, Us Against Them  

John 17:21 ”That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” From before the foundation of the earth, God determined that by the sacrifice of His Son on our behalf, everything that separates us from God would be removed from us physically as well as positionally. The love of the Father and Son could not be contained in heaven alone. His love, by its nature, had to be revealed, known, and shared with, in, and through undeserving, sin-ridden, hostile, hell-deserving, grace-transformed outcasts. In this verse, we see the awesome, and I do mean awesome, vision of God for us and the means by which it is realized. The vision is that through the intercession of Jesus, God and redeemed mankind would become one to the same degree that the Father and the Son are one. We are indeed saved by His life. He prayed for this glorious end in His prayer in this verse, and then having been resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, He has received the authority to give eternal life to all whom the Father gave to Him. He ever lives to intercede for us and save us as it says in Heb. 7:25. God has answered this prayer of Jesus, the Son. He prayed for our union with Him and the Father according to God's will and name, the name of love. This is the basis of our identity as sons of God and the basis of our purpose for living. We are as united with Jesus as He was with His Father when He was sent into this world to love with His Father for His glory. Let this sink in! May this great truth overpower the darkness, as His light, which is His love, shines in this world through us today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

Group Guide Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week. Acts 1:1-5 Spencer Carey Download TranscriptGood morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We did it you guys. We made it through 2 Samuel. 1 and 2 Samuel.And now we're in the book of Acts. So if you're new to our church, we typically, not exclusively, but the majority of what we do is we walk through books of the Bible. And we're gonna go verse by verse, passage by passage. And we're in Acts chapter 1 today. As we begin the book of Acts, we'll be in this for the next season. We're in the first five verses of the book of Acts.That is on page 1053, 1053 in your black Bibles. The main text will be coming from the Bible. So we will hold a Bible and read that with this. There'll be other texts. They'll be on the screen. But we're gonna introduce the book of Acts because it is wise when you jump into a book to have some context for what you're actually studying.So I want to point out three things as we begin to introduce us, I think, well to understanding the book of Acts. If you grab a study Bible, like the ESV study Bible, you open it up before we start reading a book. If you're gonna study it, you're gonna see different introductory elements. And I'm gonna give you three that kind of help us frame our time together in the book of Acts. Genre, author, and purpose. So let me hit those very quickly.It's important to first know the genre because not all scripture is the same. You don't read Proverbs like you read the Psalms, like you read Genesis, like you read the Gospels, like you read the epistles, the letters in the New Testament. They are all, they come from different genres. So it's important to understand what you're reading before you jump in. The book of Acts is historical narrative. Functions like the Gospels in that way.It's historical narrative. It's a bunch of stories that tell the story of how the church began starting in the first three decades of the church is what the book of Acts and 28 chapters covers. So from around 33 AD to around 60 to 65 AD, we're gonna read a bunch of stories and teachings that shaped the church early on and that we get to be shaped by as well. So it's one of the longest books in the New Testament. The Gospel of Luke is the only book that's longer and we'll be in it for a bit. So the second thing that is helpful to know is the author.And the author is Luke. So Luke was inspired by God to write this. So let's introduce ourselves to Luke. We don't know a ton. Here's what we do know. Luke was likely Greek.Okay. He may have been Jewish, it's debated, but if he's Jewish, he's very what you would call Hellenistic, meaning he's very Greek influenced. So he's Greek. What we also can see from the letters of the New Testament is he's likely a doctor. So likely a physician like Mike Goble who was just standing here leading us in prayer.He's a doctor. It's also clear that he's an historian. He was tasked with the job of both telling an orderly account of the Gospel in Luke of Jesus Christ and his life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection and the book of Acts, which tells the story of the early church. So some will say that Paul wrote most of the New Testament. It's actually not true. When you go by word count, Luke actually was inspired to write most of the New Testament because Luke and Acts is longer than all Paul's 13 letters combined.Fun fact. Three, purpose. Okay. Why is the book of Acts and our Bibles? Why did God inspire it? Why was it so important that it became an essential part of what's called the New Testament canon?What is the official books of the New Testament? Why do we have this? That's what we get to look at today. One of the things that's clear when you read the book of Luke is that there's this foreshadowing of the inclusion of the Gentiles. So that's basically, I would assume everybody in this room that comes from a non-Jewish background.There's this foreshadowing that the Gospel is going to go to the nations and that we're going to be included. And the book of Acts is going to show us how. How we are brought into the household of faith. So we're going to see this. We're going to look at the values and the witness and the Gospel that spread all that comes out of this. We're going to look at key figures like Philip and Peter and James, the brother of Jesus Christ, and Paul.We're going to look at all of this. And when you actually, if you look at a Bible and you go to Acts, oftentimes they're going to have the subscript that we have from the earliest manuscripts that says Acts of the Apostles. And if you read that, it may lead you to believe that this book is primarily about the work of the apostles. But what we're going to see is this book is primarily about a God rescuing his people and his rescue plan for the nations. And then even more of the point, one of the things that makes Acts so unique and so essential is it gives us the most comprehensive window into the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.We're going to read a lot about the Holy Spirit. No book in the Bible mentions the Holy Spirit more than the book of Acts. It would be wrong to say that this book is only about the work of the Holy Spirit, because God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son are both present and loom large in this book. But there's no other book in the Bible that gives us a more upfront window to the work of the Holy Spirit than the book of Acts, which makes this very helpful for us as we want to be a Spirit empowered people and the season that we're in trying to be missional and planting a church. So we're very excited to be able to walk this book together.And what we're going to see today and these first few verses and what we're going to see throughout this series can be summarized in this sentence, the Holy Spirit in God's church taking Jesus to the world. That what we're going to see is the Holy Spirit in God's church taking Jesus to the world. So let me pray and then we'll walk through this introduction together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the good news of the gospel that we just sang about, that we just prayed for, that we just recited from the Scriptures. God, I pray that you would help us be, have open eyes to see how you started your church and what it's built upon.And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, go to verse one. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. So let's pause there.Out the gate, there should be some questions that jump off the page. Who's Theophilus? When did you do all this, where you dealt with all the things that Jesus began and taught? And that is why understanding Acts, it's very helpful to have a working general knowledge of the book of Luke. The gospel of Luke helps us understand the book of Acts. Luke functions very much like a part one and Acts functions very much like a part two.So what I want to do a little bit today is to go to the book of Luke and to help us see a little bit of how this helps us understand Acts. I want to go to Luke chapter one. This will be on the screen. You can look up here and hold that place in Acts because we'll come back to it. Luke chapter one says, many have undertaken to draw up an account of these things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those who were, who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you most excellent Theophilus so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.So this is very similar to the introduction to the book of Acts. Who is Theophilus? We don't know for sure. We know that his name means lover of God. Theo and Phyllis, those are two different Greek words to come together, lover of God. It is very likely that he was a wealthy Christian who put the money forward for Luke to do the work of gathering all these reports.It takes time and energy and effort and money to go and travel throughout all of the New Testament world and to put together what is the gospel of Luke? What is these stories that tell us about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? And we should be familiar with that concept because we know today they are investigative reporters, that they make their living, they get paid to go out and do investigative work and put together reports from Bob Woodward and his work all the way to reporters like Christopher Rufo today. They are all types of different people that get paid to put together reports.And that is what Luke was. He was an historian who got paid and traveled to go and put together this gospel of Luke that tells us about Jesus Christ. And what I appreciate about Luke is that he's not only just giving us a bunch of facts about Jesus, he does the work of organizing it into a story. So when you read it, like the other gospels, it has story arc. So most stories, the gospels, stories in the Bible and stories that you go and you watch in the movie theaters, most stories have a general story arc.There's an introduction, there's rising tension, so there's going to be some different plot things that happen. There's rising tension, there's a climax, and then there's resolution. That's the majority of stories. And when you read the gospel of Luke, there's an introduction to who Jesus Christ is. He was born. And then all of a sudden, very early, you see the rising tension as he's ministering and establishing and teaching the kingdom of God.He's got the tension with the Pharisees and the religious leaders. And there's this tension that builds all the way towards Jerusalem where Jesus Christ is crucified, where he is resurrected. And then there's this resulting action, which is the commissioning of the church. And I appreciate that because it makes reading the gospels a lot of fun. It helps us see that he's a good storyteller in pulling all these stories together for us to see. But buried in the end of the gospel of Luke, in what we just read a few minutes ago, is a bit of a cliffhanger.And I also appreciate the art of a cliffhanger. My oldest recently has gotten really into books. She loves reading. And what happens sometimes is that she'll come down tired. And she's like, I'm so frustrated because I just want to go to sleep. But every chapter, there's just this cliffhanger.And I just have to keep reading. And it's like, I love that you love reading. We're going to have to learn to live with a cliffhanger for a bit because you actually need to go to sleep. But cliffhangers do that. They kind of leave something lingering that draw you into the next part. And that's what's the genius of the end of the gospel of Luke.And I want to go back to what we read just a few minutes ago so that we can see that. You get the very end of Luke, chapter 24, verses 44 through 49. This is how the gospel of Luke ends. Then he said to them, this is on the screen, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Okay. That's what we call biblical theology.That's the reality that the entire Old Testament, all of it points to Jesus Christ. And he sang it. Listen, law, the prophets, Psalms, all of it points to me. Verse 45. Then he opened their minds to the scriptures, which is Jesus Christ, opening their minds to understand.46, And said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead. 47, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed and is named to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. So Jesus points to the climactic work, his death, his resurrection. And then he tells them in verse 47, really a preview of what is ahead. He nods to, you're going to go and preach.It's going to be the message of this gospel of his life, death, and resurrection. You go preach that there's going to be a call for repentance of sins. They're going to experience forgiveness that washes and covers us. This is what you're going to proclaim, and that message is going to the nations. You are going to be witnesses of this. But first, you're going to go to Jerusalem, and you're going to wait, because power is going to come from on high.Wait for the promise of the Father. It's coming, but you go into Jerusalem first, and that's like the cliff thing. Oh, wait, what? And it's like, oh, I want to know more about that. And here's the good news. You don't have to wait a year for part two of the movie to come out.You can just flip over the book of Acts, which is what we're in. So go back to verse one. Now, we have a good working knowledge of what Luke is doing in the gospel of Luke. Pick up in verse one, the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, verse two, until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Which just for a moment, I appreciate that what is clear is that when Jesus is teaching his disciples throughout his ministry, the Holy Spirit is present with him, teaching his followers.Verse three, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. Okay, so there's a period of time between Christ's resurrection and his ascension, which is what we're going to look at next week is when he ascended to the right hand of God the Father. That period of time is 40 days. So in that 40 days, when you look and read the end of the gospels and you pick up in this part of the book of Acts, we don't get all likely of what Jesus did during that period. We can tell that he appears to them at various times.He's not with them every second, but he appears to them and what he's doing is he's preparing them. He's teaching them the kingdom of God and he's preparing them for what awaits them. He appears to them in Jerusalem. He appears to them on a mountain in Galilee. He appears to them on a lake in Galilee and he's doing the work of preparing them for what's next for the unfolding plan to reach the nation. So he's preparing them, but also what I like in this passage is it points out that he's also establishing that he is alive, that there are witnesses who have seen Christ.That's why Paul in 1 Corinthians, he points out that there are 500 people at one point that saw Jesus in the flesh. So Jesus is both preparing his church for what is ahead and establishing I am alive through all types of eyewitness accounts that we read in the scriptures. So he's in the period of preparation preparing them for what's next over that 40 days and now he's here verse 4. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.So Jesus is getting ready to ascend, but he tells them you're going to wait. You're going to wait in Jerusalem. You're gonna wait for the promise of the Father and that's foreshadowing what we're going to see the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church. You're gonna wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon you. Now at this point, it's very likely Jesus has taught them all about water baptism from the moment that he's baptized until now.And they should have the understanding at this point that baptism is the new covenant sign that you belong to God. But what they're going to learn is that faith does not begin with water baptism. It doesn't begin with water that faith begins with fire. That faith begins with fire that comes upon you when the Holy Spirit changes you into a new creation in Christ Jesus. When you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, the baptism of the Holy Spirit overtakes you and changes you into someone who is new that you belong to Jesus Christ. And then you enter the waters of baptism to declare that you belong to him, which is why we as good Baptists baptize after someone is converted to Jesus Christ.That's what he's giving a nod to here at the end of this verse five. So he's telling them they need to wait. You're gonna go to Jerusalem and you're gonna wait for the Spirit to come upon you. And then you're going to begin to see this wonderful redemption plan that's going to unfold. And the rest of the book of Acts is how that plan unfolds. God in his people with them, bringing them into his mission to reach the nations.And I personally am very thankful that God brings us out of the stands and into the game so that we get to participate with our God in doing the most important eternal work there is. Around this time every year, I get excited because football is not far away. Okay. I love football. It's my favorite sport. I like other sports.Football is my favorite. I like how in August as the first game approaches, how delusional I get into thinking I will convince myself by the end of August that Lenora Sellers may be a Heisman candidate for the University of South Carolina. It's going to happen. I can convince myself of that delusion while also know I can't wait for the disappointment. It's going to be so exciting. I hold those two intention simultaneously and I get excited because I love watching the Gamecocks.I love watching us take on like blue blooded SEC programs like Kentucky and Mississippi State on the SEC Plus Network where we usually play. I just I look forward to it. I like pro football. I like watching. I'm a huge Indianapolis Colts fan. I love watching every season.I was like one time we won the Super Bowl in my entire life and I enjoy doing it. I love watching it. But let me tell you something. When I play football, I had way more fun. When I got to play football growing up, I mean Friday nights were way better than Saturday mornings in the stands. Friday nights in the field were far superior to ever watching something on TV or being there in person to watch it.No, it was a lot more rewarding, a lot more fun to be in the game playing. And what I appreciate about our God is that this wonderful redemption plan that He has given us, that He's unfolding for us, we get to participate in. That we get to wait for the power of God to come upon us and we get to be obedient to where He calls us to go. We get to see the spirit change people's lives. Guys, there's nothing more wonderful in this world than declaring the good news of Jesus Christ to someone who does not believe. And then God goes to work in their heart, brings them to faith in Jesus Christ.And then 10,000 years from now, you are standing in the presence of Christ with that brother's sister because you leveraged your life now for eternity. There is nothing more important. There's nothing more glorious. There's nothing more wonderful. And none of that happens unless the Holy Spirit is present. None of that happens unless the Spirit goes to work.We're like little kids that just want to get in the game and we're like three feet tall and we want to dunk a basketball and we can jump two inches off the ground and we're dreaming up just I want to dunk it and then we get picked up and we get to participate. And that's what the spirit does in us. He works in us in a way where we get to be a part of this, the Holy Spirit in God's church taking Jesus to the world. That's what all of this is about. And that's what we're gonna see throughout the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit in God's church taking Jesus to the world.I just want to give you a preview of what's ahead. I want us to see how this this theme of the Holy Spirit and God's church taking Jesus to the world, how it shows up all over the place. Because we'll work through Acts 1, then we'll get to Acts 2. And in Acts 2 we're gonna see at the festival of Pentecost where all the Jews are coming in to celebrate that at the right time the Holy Spirit will descend upon the church. And then Peter who, think about this, just six weeks before that was denying Jesus Christ repeatedly, stands up what we'll see at Pentecost and preaches a sermon where 3,000 plus people, their eternity has changed and the church begins.And then we're gonna watch from Acts 3 to Acts 6 as the church explodes in Jerusalem. The Spirit working in profoundly wonderful ways as people are being changed. And with that comes what Jesus promised. That if you declare the good news of Jesus Christ, you will be persecuted. You will suffer and they do. And as the church begins to declare the good news of Jesus Christ and powerful, wonderful things begin to happen, the church begins to be persecuted.And that comes to the head in Acts 7 when Stephen, a servant of Jesus Christ, is declaring the gospel and he's murdered and martyred for his faith. And then we'll see how the Spirit uses that. Because the Spirit uses that to expand the church further. When we get to Acts 8 we'll see how this plan is unfolding because they're gonna spread when they're being persecuted into Samaria, into Syria. And now the gospel is spreading. And then we'll follow this as Acts 10 to Acts 12 we'll see the finally how the Gentiles are included and how God works in that.We'll see in Acts 13 at Antioch when the church is commissioned and Paul and Barnabas are sent to go and take the gospel to Asia Minor into Europe and the gospel begins to spread from Acts 13 to Acts 20 all over from Turkey to Greece. The gospel begins to go everywhere. And then as we finish the book of Acts we're gonna see in Acts 21 to 26 when Paul is giving a defense for the gospel as being persecuted, being imprisoned, and that he uses his imprisonment for the gospel to go forward. He uses imprisonment to get the gospel to Rome. He's like I want to get to Rome. So I'm gonna be in prison and that's where I'm going.And then Acts 27 there's a shipwreck and then Acts 28 he finally gets there. And what I love about Acts 28 is when he gets there guess what there are any Christians there. That's what God does. He keeps working in lots of different people. But you keep reading this the Holy Spirit and God's church taking Jesus to the world.You keep following chapter after chapter after chapter and then all of a sudden you get to 28 you get done reading it and it just ends. It's like Luke just dropped the pen and said I'm done. It's the wildest thing. Go read through the book of Acts. I encourage you guys as we start this series go read through the whole book. And you get to the end and it's just like this isn't complete.And we know that Luke knows how to write a story because you can read the gospel of Luke and you can see such compelling story arc and how it and it just that's not we just have this rising tension and it just stops. He just quits writing and it's clearly so incomplete. It's not like any other book in the Bible just stops. And the question that should linger is why. Why? Why is it just that?And the answer is because the story isn't finished. Acts continues. The story isn't finished. The gospel is still trying. We're still taking the gospel to every tribe nation and tongue. The story isn't over.The church keeps going. Years ago there were some clever Christians that came up with a church network name called Acts 29. Which was brilliant. But it was a statement on it keeps going. That we are living and Acts continues. That the story continues.And it does. It continued in the first century as the gospel spread from North Africa to as far as Spain over to India and to Asia. The gospel spread as of the next few centuries as the church began to be further established as they were once a persecuted minority. Faith becomes a majority faith in the Roman empire. And the church begins to grow and to expand and that eventually you follow the centuries and centuries later that there were some Christians who were being persecuted for their faith by the established church of England. And they say we want to go to this new place called America.And they travel to America and that kind of starts a big wave of Christians moving and pastors moving and missionaries moving to America. And eventually you saw land in this state where they start churches from the coast up to the upstate. And eventually at around the early 1900s people came to this part of the river and they began a new church. First Baptist Church of Casey. And this church ministered for a century and then all of a sudden another church started up in the area of Mill City Church. And then a few years later we merged together as one church, Mill City Church.And the spirit is still at work taking Jesus to the world. And what I love is that if you've ever read a book, you ever watched a movie that leaves the ending ambiguous? That leaves a cliffhanger? Instead of getting frustrated, what I like to do is I like to dream a bit. I like to imagine what actually is going on and what could be. Like if you watch the movie Inception, you get to imagine does the top fall or does it keep spinning?And you get to dream a bit about what that can be. If you read a book like The Giver, you get to imagine does he make it? Did he die in the snow or did he make it to experience reality? Whatever story has this ambiguous ending that is unclear, you get to dream a little bit about what that gets to be. And when you read the book of Acts, what I want us to do is I want us to dream a little bit. When we walk through this series, I want to dream about what can be.That if the Holy Spirit is at work in the church to take Jesus to the world, then let's dream a little bit. Because I'll tell you something, we dreamed for years about doing what we just prayed about earlier. For years we dreamed about planting a church. We want to multiply this church. We want to expand to a different part of the city. And then finally God put the pieces together.And if you've been here the last six months, you remember to hear this story. And I'm excited about sending out Oak Ridge. I'm excited about our little small version of Acts continued that we get to do. I'm excited that Mike who is just standing up here and that Isaac get to head out with right now it seems like 60 of y'all counting to go and take the gospel to a very strategic place on exit 51 to reach that part of Lexington that expands all the way into Gilbert and as far as Leesville. Like I'm pumped about that. But if we do that and we go, yes, we did it.We nailed it. We accomplished it. Then we missed it. If we think we've arrived at this, if we think that Jesus Christ's blood was poured out and wrath came upon him, that he conquered death at the resurrection, that he ascended to the right hand of God the Father to be king over all of creation, that the Holy Spirit descended upon the church for just Mill City in Oak Ridge. We missed it. So we need to dream a little bit.We need to dream about what can be. Dream about how God can continue to work because we got work to do. I'm gonna put up a timeline that'll hopefully help visualize this. You can go to that slide. Christ ascended almost 2,000 years ago. Like literally we're getting close to almost literally 2,000 years ago.Okay. At some point he's promised he's going to come back. He's going to return. Now you go to the next slide. I don't know where we are in this timeline. Don't get hung up on this.If you were in the book of Revelation, it's clear that you know we don't know where we are in this timeline, but we're somewhere in the middle of this. Now this expands for thousands of years. We've got a small place in that timeline where we have work to do until he comes back. And we should dream about what that gets to be. Because here's the deal. We've talked about this and we'll keep saying this, that once we set out Oak Ridge, everyone has work to do.There's no neutrality in how this is going down in January. Oak Ridge is going out and they've got work to do. And everyone who's staying here, we have work to do. So I want you to dream. How are we going to be obedient to the call to go and make disciples? How are we going to do that in our version of the Acts-continued story?What are we going to do? I want to give you some considerations for how you should think of this. Some of you need to start taking your faith more seriously. Some of you come on Sundays and you go to a group and or hopefully both. But what it has largely been is a time for you to be filled up.And don't miss something. We want we want you to be filled up. We want you to grow in maturity. But maturity in Christ is not just consuming and being filled up. It's pouring out. That God fills us so that we might multiply ourselves into others.That we might make disciples. The great commission is to make disciples. And some of you need to press into maturity. You get the wonderful opportunity to do that. You get to go deeper into the Bible, deeper into the discipline of prayer. You get to help you have a zeal for evangelizing, for sharing the gospel with your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers.And then I hope you get people that are coming around that don't know Jesus or just new to Jesus and you get to sit with them and point them to who Jesus Christ is and say, come follow me as I follow Christ. There's no better way to use your life than for the sake of helping others know Christ. And you get to. And this next season, you get to be a disciple maker. Some of you will have the opportunity to become a leader in training in your group. And you should take it and you should want this because community groups are the means by which we advance the mission in our city.Okay. Our groups are how we reach our city and our group leaders, you can talk to them. Leading a group is wonderful, but it's also quite difficult at times because the good work that God calls us to do is difficult. That's told to us. And what you get to be as a leader in training is not only grow in knowing more of Christ and maturity, but you get to be a helpful and healthy part of your group. You get to breathe life into your group that when everyone just opts out last minute and the person who was supposed to bring the meat just says, I got the sniffles and I'm out.But you're just like, I'm okay. Well, I'm jumping in. What do you need? That you're going to be a helpful part of your group. And some of you should aspire to them. You should want that.You should want to be a leader. You should want to say, hey, come follow me as I follow Christ. And I want to follow you as you're following Christ. We should want that. There's another thing I want to point out. And when I say this, this is autobiographical.When I led a group, it's reality in my group. Now, I already told my group leader, I'm like, this isn't, this is, this is not just us. This is widespread, but I want to put up group content for a moment. All right. This is last week's group content. This is second Samuel.We have five different versions of group content that show up. It's typically this format. If you're not in a group, you should be in a group and you'll see this and it's pretty great, but there's a gospel centered section. There's a community section. There's on mission section. Something that I've noticed that happens in not just my group, but in a lot of groups is that we will love discussing the Bible.We will love getting deep. We'll get the community and everyone has updates and we'll share and we'll talk. And then all of a sudden it's like time to leave and kids are going crazy and someone hurt themselves. And, and, and, you know, because they ran into the wall or something downstairs, not a, not an adult, but a child. And then it's on mission and it's like, ah, we should do it, right? Yeah.Cool. All right. Let's go home. I'm not going to ask you to show your hands, but how many times does that get buried? That's an afterthought. And it's like that, that needs to come to the foreground.There might be weeks where it's just like, ah, you know what? I love, but let's, we're eating a meal. Let's, let's, let's share some life updates. Let's, let's have some time for this. Let's not miss this because we have friends and neighbors and coworkers who we need to understand the eternal situation that right now they are journeying towards an eternity under the wrath of God because of their sin.And the church is plan a for advancing. You are the person that God has put in their life to tell them Jesus is better, that, that eternity is real and God wants you and is for you and desires you. And it's you. And we need to remember that because what could happen when you get to a church of our size is that you can get comfortable and you can think there isn't a need, but there is. And we can't miss that for a moment. So some of you, some of us need to regain our missional hustle in this season as we dream about what we could be in this Acts continued story.Some of us, some of you need to step up and serve. We've run some Numbers that are out of retreat. We kind of looked at all this stuff. There are 58 members of our church who currently do not serve in any capacity. Now there are some folks who have very, very real legitimate excuses, members of our church who have legitimate excuses for why that cannot happen.But there's a lot that don't. And here's the problem. There's 58 members of our church right now who've set in their commitment. They're committed to serving the church, but they're not serving in any capacity. When we send out Oak Ridge, there's going to be that number drops to 54. Now that tells us a couple things.First Oak Ridge is about to go out with a bunch of people who've served for years. And what Mike and Isaac are going to tell you is guess what? There's more where that came from. You got more work to do there. But what that means for us is that we're losing a big part of our church that has served for years.Like if I put up a chart right now, which I don't have, but if I put up a chart of all the different areas that people serve in our church and I just put in bright colors all the different people who've committed to go to the Oak Ridge church plan and the next slide, after they're gone, it just gets real dark. And it's because we will have opportunities for everyone to pick up a shovel and go. And I'm excited about that. I think you should be too excited about the opportunity to step into Kid City and breathe life into it, to our kids excited to step into hospitality and into groups and a bunch of different ways and to serve and to hustle and to grind because Jesus Christ is worth it.He's worthy of our worship and our service that is worthy of the gospel going forward. We're going to have a variety of ways that we get to dream. And I want you to dream. I want you to have personal dreams where you pray about this. I hope the series of Acts opens that up for you. I've got some.I want to share one of just one that's personal to me. That I feel called to this land and in this area. All right. That wasn't always the case. At one point when I went to seminary, I was like, I'm never coming back. I said it out loud.I'm never coming back. And I came back. Let me tell you something. I love this people. I love this place. Okay.My family history, they came over like 300 years ago to Pelion and they like never left. Like Pillion, West Columbia, Casey Lexington, you draw a triangle and my people have posted up in that area for 300 years. And I personally, I want this part of the Midlands, I want the Midlands to see scores and hundreds and thousands of people come to Christ. Because there's so, I know you think there's, there's lots of people that are, there's lots of churches that there are thousands of people in and around you that do not know and are not following Jesus Christ. And what I'm also seeing is that there are a lot of churches in our area that are dying as a statistical fact.There are a lot of churches in our area that are running in the red financially, that if they lose a few members, they're losing a big part of their church. They're physically dying. They are like a roof replacement away from just, it just have to shut the doors. My personal dream right now is that I want to see men in this church aspire to the office of overseer elder pastor. I want to see men in this church who want to step up and become pastors and pastor churches in this area over the next 10 years that need to be replanted, that need to be revitalized, that need life again. And right now there's a massive pastor shortage across the country.There's a massive pastor shortage. There's a bunch of boomers who are retiring, who are dying, and it's not being filled with younger generations. So what I want to see is men in this church. I want you to pray some dangerous prayers and I want you to ask, do I need to be the kind of man of character that says, follow me as I follow Christ as I shepherd the people of God here or somewhere else? And that's my personal part of the dream. And for the next 10 years, I want to see that happen all over the city.I want 50 years from now the Midlands to look dramatically different in churches because for the next 10 years, we leveraged our time, our energy, our money, and our people to send out pastors and teams of people to go and make more disciples in this city. And I want it to go further because it's been a few years since we have sent a missionary to the foreign mission field. It's been a few years and there are unreached peoples that get the smallest amount of resources and people. And some of you need to go and you don't need to be here in five years. And some of you need to have a conversation with Ben Johnson at 1040 Hub with Tim.Where's he at? Tim Rice over there, who works with IMB. We got missions, opportunities, good Lord. I'd love to see someone go to the nations, but we're going to have to pray and we're going to have to dream and we're going to have to own our part of the Acts-continued story. So in this next season, let's dream a little bit.Let's pray some dangerous prayers. Let's let the Holy Spirit work in a way that gets us in the game. Let's be obedient even when it feels risky, even when it feels uncomfortable. Let's own our part of our very small part, but important part of the story of the Holy Spirit and His Church taking Jesus to this city and the world. Let's pray.Heavenly Father, I pray that You might work in us in this season to stir us towards faith and trusting You. And the fruit of that would show up in beautiful, eternal ways. God, that first means that in this season there are people that do not know You that need to. There are people in this room who do not know You, have not surrendered their life to You, do not see You as Lord, and they need to. And I pray that You open their eyes to who You are and a baptism of the Holy Spirit would take over their lives. God, there are folks in this room that are going, that are going with Oak Ridge, and I am so thankful for their obedience to go, to be uncomfortable, to take risks.Lord, may You bless their labor, and may there be people in the kingdom of God a thousand years from now because they were obedient to go. And God, may You stir in us. May You give us a hustle. May You empower us for the good work that You have right here and beyond for years to come. In Jesus' name, amen.Transcript

SERIES: Matthew: King & Kingdom PASSAGE: Matthew 18:10-20 TITLE: The Father's Care For Us OUTLINE: 1. The Father's Care Stated 2. The Father's Care Illustrated 3. The Father's Care Practiced 4. The Father's Care Entrusted The post Matthew | King & Kingdom | The Father's Care For Us first appeared on Redeemer Bible Church.

John 10:22-42  Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God, one with the Father, and all who belong to Him are held securely in the grip of God. He calls us to lay aside pride, hear His voice, and believe in Him for eternal life.  Pastor Daniel Ackerman

It may come as a surprise, but in this world of stress and anxiety God doesn't want us to be afraid. But how is that supposed to work?   Do Not Worry About Anything Well, here we are – this is the last message in a series of four programmes that I have called "Do Not Be Afraid." So many people spend so much time being afraid in their lives. Either it's a crisis or just an ongoing nagging, ongoing sense that something bad is going to happen – a negativity; a pessimism, always thinking the worst. Always imaging the worst outcome – always expecting the worst. So often through the Bible, God says to His people "Do not be afraid." He doesn't want us living in fear; He doesn't want us worrying, and so many of us do. Okay, we might have a brave face; we might have a cool, calm exterior but inside, a lot of people are torn apart; shaken to the core by fear and worry. Well, today we are going to finish up this series by looking at three very practical things that we can do to overcome that. I'm talking about living a life that, by and large, is free from fear and worry. Scary things will still come along at us in life – it's about living through those things with a calm delight and a resolve, with a deep knowledge that God is in this place with us. The first thing I want to share with you is this: our mind matters! What we do with our thoughts really matters. Back in 1953 a man by the name of Norman Vincent Peale wrote a classic book – it's called "The Power of Positive Thinking" and for a long time I pooh-hooed that idea. "It's not about 'positive thinking'"; I said to myself, "it's about trusting in God." And even when I started reading his book fairly recently, I was sceptical but what he expounds in that book is exactly what God talks about in the Bible. Basically what he says is that: our mind matters. Let me take you to a passage that I often go to myself – it's written by the Apostle Paul in prison, on death row in a Roman prison, writing to his friends, the Philippians. Listen to what this man Paul writes from his dank prison cell. If you have a Bible, grab it – we are going to Philippians chapter 4 today – beginning at verse 6: Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed you were concerned for me but had no opportunity to show it. Not that I'm referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need for I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Let me start with just the first couple of verses – let's look at them again. Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. How do we not worry? You see, in my experience, worry is just something that happens. I have wanted to turn the worry tap off many a time but this stream of worrying thoughts keeps flooding into my mind. Now, I am as strong willed and disciplined a person as you'll find anywhere. When I set my mind to achieving something, I invariably do – I have all my life. But you know something? What I have discovered is that I am powerless to turn off the worry tap. It's horrifying because when you worry it grips your whole life – you're waking and you're sleeping. Have you ever noticed that – you toss and turn at night and you can't sleep? It is believing in these two verses that have enabled me to end the worry in my life! Can I say that again? It is believing in these two verses in the Bible that has enabled me to end the worry in my life. And you know something? When you stop worrying, you have peace! That's exactly what Paul tells us; that's exactly what God wants to tell you and me today: Do not worry about anything but in everything …  How do I stop worrying – not by turning the tap off by myself but by replacing it with something else – with the "but in everything … " "Do not worry about anything but in everything … " So what's the "but"; what's the thing that we should replace the worrying with? All that time and energy we spend worrying, what do I do with it? I transfer it to something else – to what else? "Do not worry about anything but in everything ..." - that means "everything" – "in everything" that is causing me to worry, "by prayer and supplication" – what does that mean? Praying and entreating God – asking Him, seeking Him – so instead of wasting all that time and energy on worrying, spend it on praying and asking God. Imagine how different life would be if every time a worrying thought came to haunt the deepest recesses of our mind, we said "Hang on a minute – stop. I am not going to think on that. I am not going to dwell and brood and worry, but instead, in everything I am going to pray." How….how do we pray? – with thanksgiving – "God I thank You that I am in this place. I thank You that I have the opportunity to trust in You. I thank You that unless You show up, I'm in trouble. Now Lord, here's my problem, will You help me? Thank You!" If every time we go to worry we did that, here's what the Bible promises us – now listen to it very carefully – to this promise … a promise that is going to change your life: "Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your request be known to God" – here comes the promise, "and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your minds in Christ Jesus." There it is! And you know something? That is exactly what happens! Try it, just for a few days, every time you start to worry about something, go to God, do the 'but' thing and here's what happens – He turns the worry tap off. No amount of strength or resolve or anything else is going to turn that worrying tap off, only God and it's an amazing peace; it's an incredible peace. The storm can still be raging, in fact, circumstances can be getting worse, but you have been praying and entreating and thanking God instead of worrying. And you think to yourself, "I can't explain this but I have a peace – how, why, how can this be?" That's why Paul calls it "a peace that surpasses all understanding" – God turned the worry tap off. He did what you and I can't do: and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  The worry can't get in – there is where the rubber hits the road.   My Mind Matters Okay, let's look at another practical thing that we can do to eradicate that fear and worry from our lives. See, it's more than just having faith – I mean faith is great but there are some practical things that we need to do to participate in God's plan for us not to worry and not to be afraid. Back with the Apostle Paul, in that dungeon again, on death row – if anyone had a reason it was the old Paul. We are going to have a look at what he wrote to his friends in Philippi about this whole subject of not being afraid. Pick it up in Philippians chapter 4, beginning at verse 8. He said: Finally beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. Now I want to start with the second bit of this first. And here is the reason for that: because what Paul is telling us is that he has discovered how to have God's peace; how not to be afraid; how not to spend worrying. See, this is not some theory lesson. This is a guy on death row explaining how to have peace. "Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you." So Paul is saying, "You know my life; you know how often it's been threatened; you know how often people have rioted when I got up to speak and they wanted to harm me and kill me. You know that, you have seen me in action and you have seen how I have coped with the pressures and the threats. You want to have peace? You want to live a life free from fear and worry? Then do the things that you have seen in me and the things that I am telling you now and you will have peace too - God's peace." I think that is fantastic because what we are about to have a look at is a proven thing – it works in the direst of circumstances. Doesn't that excite you? You know, there is not one of us who doesn't have some reason to worry – not one of us, who isn't going through some storm right now. And just in case there is the odd person who isn't, just recognise that it is because you are between storms – the last one has blown out and the next one hasn't swept in yet. So what is the practical guidance that Paul gives us in this passage about how to dispense with fear and worry? Let's take a look: Philippians chapter 4, verse 8: Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure and pleasing and commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. You know what he is saying here? What we do with our mind matters! That's what Norman Vincent Peale wrote in his book in 1953, "The Power of Positive Thinking". And as I have said before, I used to be very sceptical about this – faith isn't just positive thinking … positive thinking has a self-help connotation to me – like I can think my way out of problems without God. All I have to do is think positive but that's not what he meant and that's not what Paul means here. Paul is setting out a simple truth – we only have so much brain-band with each day; so much time that we can spend thinking; so many hours to think. Some of our time we spend sleeping, some we spend doing things that require our complete attention so we don't have time to think about anything else. We spend time "veged" out in front of the TV I guess, not really thinking about much at all. And then there is the rest of the time when we have time to think and we can think good thoughts or bad thoughts, encouraging thoughts or discouraging thoughts. We can think thoughts that look at our situation, which may be difficult; which may be scary; which may be whatever and what we 'think' is going to influence how we see things and how we "feel" them. The human brain – get this – has about seventy thousand thoughts a day! Busy little thing, isn't it? And what Paul is say here is: "Look, spend your brain time; your think time, thinking good thoughts – true, honourable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent; things worthy of praise – think about these things." You know something? That makes a lot of sense to me and it's something we have to teach ourselves. Here's how it works for me: a negative thought comes into my mind "You know, that guy just doesn't get it. He's never going to get it. He just drives me nuts." Maybe he doesn't get it; maybe he has some issues, but I have decided something – if I think that way it's going to influence how I treat the guy. So when one of those thought comes floating in, I boot it out! It's not some unrealistic thing where I sweep things under the carpet, but I replace the bad thought with a good one. "How can I care for him today? How can I support him today? God you love him just as much as You love me, show me Father how I can build him up; how I can develop him; how I can grow him?" That makes sense and it's a discipline and the more we do it; the more we get into the habit of recognising a bad thought when it comes in and booting it out and replacing it with a good thought – God thoughts – here is what happens: our whole outlook starts to change. God honours that and where things were once a threat, He gives us the solution. Where things once scared us, He gives us faith and peace and all of a sudden we find ourselves in a habit of resting our minds in good things and all good things come from God and more good things come from that – peace is one of them; joy is another. Whatever is true, honourable, pure, just, pleasing, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise, think about those things!   A Word in Time As we come to the end of our series, "Do Not Be Afraid," I want to share with you the most important thing that I know about banishing fear and worry from our lives. It is the most important thing; the most effective thing and it comes from the last part of this passage in Philippians chapter 4 that we have been looking at today on the programme. The Apostle Paul is on death row; he is teaching us how to banish fear from our lives, from the most dire circumstances you and I could ever imagine and here's what he says – beginning at Philippians 4, verse 10: I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed you were concerned for me but had no opportunity to show it." Remember, he is writing to his friends at Philippi, he is in his dungeon and he says: "Not that I referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little; I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry; of having plenty and of being in need, for I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Paul was an itinerant minister who travelled across most of the known world. A good part of his time he spent in jail and he is writing to his friends here about his physical needs. Obviously they provided for him and sent him money and resources when he has been in need and he is saying, "Thank you" – that's a good thing. I love how much of God's Word is about real, practical things in people's lives but he takes even this opportunity from his dungeon to teach them something. And I believe that God is taking the opportunity to teach us something. Here it is: For I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have a little; I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry; of having plenty and of being in need for I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Paul is saying, "You know something, it doesn't matter what circumstances I am facing – good or bad, plenty or little, full or hungry – I have learned … learned in practice; in my experience, I have learned the secret ... the secret of getting through any and all circumstances and that secret is this ..." Philippians chapter 4, verse 13, that: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. It doesn't matter what the world throws at me because God is the one who strengthens me. And when I am hanging close with Him; when I am relying on Him, He comes through – He does the things that I can't do – He saves me, He encourages me. "And I have been through this so many times", says Paul, "riots, so many times people have tried to hurt me; so many times people have criticised me, misunderstood me and rejected me because I was telling them about Jesus over and over and over and over and over again." Paul has learned this truth: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. And you know why this is so important? Because whenever I feel a sense of despair, I come back to this one Scripture. Whenever I feel overwhelmed or hurt or rejected or alone or distressed or afraid, I stop; I clear my mind and I say this Scripture verse: Philippians chapter 4, verse 13: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. This is the Word of God! And so I have a number of Scriptures, some that I have memorised, some I have got on my mobile phone. Another one of them is Mark chapter 11, verses 22 to 24: Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, "Be taken up and be thrown into the sea," and if you do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you have said will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. I have memorised that Scripture passage, can I tell you? I don't find it easy to memorise Scripture passages – that one and a few others I have memorised and I go to them again and again and again and again. Those I can't remember, I look at them on my mobile phone. You may not have a mobile phone – write them down on little cards, stick them in your pocket. God's Word changes our hearts and when we are struggling; when we are going through the hard stuff, we need access to God's Word. This is absolutely the most important thing that I know about living a life that's free from fear and worry. The more I do that, the more I find myself able to do all things that God calls me to do, through Him who strengthens me. I want to challenge you today. God's Word is not something to be trifled with. God's Word is not something we leave in a cupboard or on our shelves and then we wonder why our lives are full of fear and anxiety and stress. God's Word brings peace. God's Word convinces us of the truth of what God is saying: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. You can do all things through Him who strengthens you – through plenty or through little, through hunger or through fullness. The most important thing that I know about dealing with fear is to fill your heart and your mind with the Word of God because it has healing power. It will build your faith; it changes your outlook; it is the stuff of healing and transformation. God and grab some Scripture verses that really speak powerfully to you – put them on some cards or in your mobile phone or memorise them and go to them again and again and again – every day. When you get up in the morning; when you have a break during the day to get away from the madness, just to pause; when you go to bed at night. I tell you something, you will learn what Paul learned through the school of hard knocks that you can do all things through Him who strengthens you. You know, I challenge you today. You do this for just a couple of weeks; two or three weeks, and fear will be banished from your life because your perspective changes; you start to see things through God's Word and all of a sudden you start to live it by faith and your faith grows. It's not rocket science – this is so practical, anyone can do this. You can do all things through Him who strengthens you

The sermon explores the certainty and suddenness of Christ's return, drawing parallels between the days of Noah and the present age to emphasize spiritual readiness. It addresses various eschatological views but focuses on the clear biblical command to watch and prepare rather than attempting to calculate specific dates. The preacher explains the hypostatic union to clarify how Jesus, being fully God and fully man, can know the Father's schedule while remaining unknown to humanity. By examining the Olivet Discourse, the message highlights the eternal separation of believers and unbelievers at the Second Coming. The central call is for believers to live in constant vigilance and holy obedience, anticipating Jesus' unexpected arrival as a thief in the night.

The Holy Spirit gives believers hope, peace, and strength to endure life's storms. Romans 15:13 reminds us that God's power is always available, even when we feel weak, overwhelmed, or powerless. Discover how relying on the Holy Spirit helps us navigate hardship, grow in faith, and find lasting hope in every season. Life has a way of reminding us how little control we really have. In today's devotional, Melinda Eye Cooper shares how a devastating winter ice storm and days without electricity became a powerful illustration of our dependence on God. Just as our homes cannot function without power, our spiritual lives cannot thrive apart from the Holy Spirit. Highlights: Discover what Romans 15:13 teaches about the power of the Holy Spirit. Learn why life's storms reveal our need for God's strength and presence. Be encouraged by how the Holy Spirit provides hope, peace, guidance, and comfort. Understand how difficult seasons can deepen your faith and dependence on Christ. Find reassurance that God never leaves you to face hardship alone. Be reminded that true spiritual strength comes from the Holy Spirit, not ourselves. Join the Conversation How has God strengthened you through a difficult season? We'd love to hear how the Holy Spirit has encouraged, guided, or sustained your faith during life's storms. Continue the conversation with the Crosswalk community here: https://forums.crosswalk.com/ Do you want to listen ad-free? When you join Crosswalk Plus, you gain access to exclusive, in-depth Bible study guides, devotionals, sound biblical advice, and daily encouragement from trusted pastors and authors—resources designed to strengthen your faith and equip you to live it out boldly. PLUS ad free podcasts! Sign Up Today! Full Transcript Below: No Power By Melinda Eye Cooper Bible Reading: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13 NIV Living in middle Tennessee for the past thirty-plus years, I can attest that we rarely see much snow. Schools often close if the forecast calls for anything frozen, including flurries. But we’ve had a few serious winter storms, and they almost always involve ice. In January of 2026, one of those storms came through our area. We did our best to prepare in case the power went out. We’d stocked up on bread, bottles of water, and snacks. My husband brought a generator home from work to help keep our refrigerator running and a small space heater. Thankfully, we had a wood-burning fireplace, so we figured at least we’d keep warm. Snow started turning into sleet on Saturday and eventually turned to freezing rain. Temperatures plummeted. Tree branches snapped under the weight of accumulating ice, falling on power lines. The sky flashed when a transformer blew with a loud pop. Sunday, early in the morning, we lost power, and so did our neighbors. We tried to stay warm using the space heater and fireplace, but our house grew frigid. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. We barely slept the first night, even though we were using nearly every blanket we could find. It didn’t take long for reality to sink in. The power could be out for days or a week. Our neighbors texted the next afternoon that they were heading to Kentucky to stay in a hotel. The storm wasn’t nearly as bad there. We did the same, taking our dog with us. Getting inside a warm hotel room with a nice soft bed was a sweet relief. The lights worked. The television worked. And a hot shower was minutes away. It didn’t take long to get nice and comfortable. When we received notice that power had been restored to our area a couple of days later, we made our way back home. The drive revealed a lot of damage. Even though the thick ice covering trees and grass glistened in the sunlight and was beautiful in a terrible way, the storm mostly left a trail of destruction with downed trees, telephone poles, and broken tree branches in its wake. The storm and loss of power over the next several days (and a couple of weeks for some) caused a lot of problems, and sadly, some folks didn’t survive. We came home to a mess. Electric cords were draped everywhere, from hooking things up to the generator, and blankets were piled up. It was freezing inside the house. The heat was on, but it took a long time for the house to warm back up. Honestly, seeing the mess reminded me just how much we really need power in our homes. We rely on it heavily for day-to-day life. It runs the stove, HVAC unit, refrigerator, freezer, water heater, washer and dryer, lighting, appliances, and television. Almost everything. Even with our great efforts to prepare for a lack of power during the storm, it was still terrible. Our home quickly became uncomfortable without electricity. It seemed we could do nothing. We need power. Standing amidst the mess, it hit me spiritually. We need the Holy Spirit at every moment of our lives. We can’t do anything good without Him; we’d be uncomfortable, cold, and powerless. Intersecting Faith & Life: As a saved person, I’m deeply thankful for what Jesus did for me. I’m still in love with Him after many years as a Christian. But to be honest, I’m just beside myself that God also gave us the indwelling, powerful Holy Spirit to help us in life. He does so many things for us, including: Reveals Jesus Convicts us of sin Teaches us Reminds us Encourages us Protects us Guides us Warns us Gives us hope and spiritual gifts Tells us the truth Helps us pray Never leaves or forsakes us When a storm of life comes, whether it is a financial struggle, divorce, or the death of a loved one, we may be brought to our knees. The powerful Holy Spirit is with us in these hardships. He is our shelter when these storms blow through. Those difficult times show us just how much we need Him and rely on His power. They draw us into a deeper, more trusting relationship with our beloved Father. Father, thank You for giving us the powerful Holy Spirit to lead us through our lives. Helping us to grow closer to You and more like Jesus. In His name, Amen. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

What is the ultimate purpose of being adopted as a child of God? In today's episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef explains that while salvation, forgiveness, justification, and cleansing are all glorious gifts of grace, they point toward an even greater promise: the inheritance of the glory of God for the glory of God. Romans 8 declares that believers are children of God, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. Everything Jesus Christ receives by divine right, believers receive by divine grace. For the adopted child of God, eternal inheritance is not wishful thinking—it is guaranteed by the Spirit and secured by the finished work of Christ. Dr. Youssef also points to Paul's bold declaration: “to die is gain.” For the believer, physical death is not defeat but entrance into the presence of God and the fullness of the Father's estate. The suffering, loss, rejection, disappointment, shattered dreams, and pain we experience now cannot compare with the glory that will one day be revealed in us. Whatever is making you groan today, God is not wasting it. The Spirit of God is sealing your adoption, guaranteeing your inheritance, and turning your groaning into glory. Rest and rejoice in the ultimate victory that belongs to every child of God in Christ. Prayer: God, thank You for the glorious inheritance that You've promised Your children. Thank You that all the trials I face today pale in comparison to the glory You have in store for me. May I bring You glory as I trust in Your promises and look to Your coming Kingdom and Your very presence as my great reward. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today's devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don't have to walk through it alone.

To know the Father's love means to obey Him, for only those who obey are able to say that they recognize His authority over their lives and experience His loving care for them.

Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and to the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the new subscribers to the Gnostic Reformation here on Substack and to GnosticInsights.com. Did you know that there are three Gnostic Gospels that I have written? You can pick up the simplest book called The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated. It’s very short. Half of it is illustrations. Very simple. Very, very simple to understand this Gnosticism. This will give you the basics of what it is that I share. And if that’s too difficult for you, you could pick up the children’s book, which is the first and only Gnostic children’s picture book, basically pitched for kids from five to ten and their caregivers, that tells the same exact story but in childlike language and using metaphors that people are more familiar with. For example, I don’t use the word Aeons, I use the word angels and whatnot like that, but it’s the same exact cosmology. The children’s book is called Children of the Fullness: A Gnostic Myth. But the big book, the one that puts it all together, almost 300 pages, is called A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel. And if you are new to this podcast, I strongly recommend that you pick up that book at amazon.com because it will give it all to you in a very easy to follow way. And it’s all there. And it’s also lavishly illustrated by me, of course. So please, I’ve got them at amazon.com. They’re self-published. And if you have read any of those books, please leave a review on Amazon. I have very few reviews. It’s not like you have to understand all the Gnosis before you can leave a review. Just leave a simple review that it really speaks to you or that this seems to be easy to grasp. I would really, really appreciate it. Now, let’s get on with this week’s episode. Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and to the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. Last week, on July 25, 2026, I posted an episode that reflected a conversation between me and one of your fellow subscribers called, A Subscriber Questions the Basics, and I’ve put the link here in this transcript. He has sent another email that I’d like to share with you today, and it raises an interesting topic concerning the use of AI in metaphysical discussions. He says, “I know I just promised to stop, but this one is interesting. Seems you have impressed my demiurgic companion, ChatGPT. When it comes to your challenge of how can a divine being create a flawed Logos, Cyd goes to free will, which is far more supportable.” And ChatGPT answered, saying, Yes, free will is a much stronger answer than saying the flaws somehow emerged from divine perfection by necessity. It allows Cyd to argue Logos was created good, not defective. Genuine freedom included the possibility of acting independently. Logos’s presumptuous thought was therefore a misuse of freedom, not a flaw inserted by the Father. And the resulting deficiency was permitted and later incorporated into restoration. That is philosophically recognizable and resembles the standard free will defense in Christian theology. It does not remove every difficulty, though. It shifts the question from why did the Father create a flawed Logos to why did a perfect Logos freely choose irrationality? It says, “That is easier to defend, but still requires an explanation.” But I have to jump in to correct that basic assertion right now. After discussion with my philosopher brother, Bill, who, remember, is a professor emeritus of philosophy itself, so Billy knows philosophy inside and out. I myself am not a “philosopher” other than by natural talent. I am a rhetorician and a psychologist—slightly different. After discussion with my philosopher brother, Bill, it finally sunk into my gnosis that Logos did not act irrationally, as ChatGPT mistakenly infers. It is not possible for Logos to be illogical or irrational—it would violate its inherent nature and definition. Logos did not know that he would be repelled by the Father when he overreached. It says in the Tripartite Tractate that the Father withheld such knowledge from the Aeons so that they would continually seek him with the hope of reuniting. So what Logos did was reasonable given the limited knowledge he had. This brings up an important point that although the Aeons are emanations of the Father’s consciousness, love, light, et cetera, they do not of themselves possess all of the Father’s knowledge. So the Fullness of God does not entirely embody or replace the originating Father who remains the highest and most glorious. Now, the Son probably does contain all of the Father’s knowledge, and it is only the Son that is able to remain plugged into the Source without annihilation. Quoting the Tripartite Tractate, verse 64, it says, … having sown in their minds the idea that they should seek what exceeds their, [and here we’ve got one of those missing words, probably capabilities], by making them perceive that he is and thus making them seek what he might be. Now back to the ChatGPT, There is also a tension with providence. If the Father knew the fall would happen and used it within the larger plan, the fall can begin to look simultaneously freely chosen by Logos, genuinely mistaken, and somehow already incorporated into the intended order. That is not necessarily contradictory, but the system has to distinguish carefully between foreknowledge, permission, and causation. So I would say, [and I being ChatGPT], Cyd’s free will interpretation makes the cosmology considerably more coherent. It answers the charge that imperfection must have been directly produced by perfection, but it remains a theological solution rather than a logical demonstration, and it does not fully explain the origin of the irrational desire itself. Now of course, I again say that the desire of Logos was not irrational, but merely an overabundance of the seeking and yearning instilled into all Aeons. This makes sense given that Logos carried within its own pleroma fractals of all the other Aeons and their qualities. Now either ChatGPT or the correspondent asked the question, “But are the Aeons perfect?” And ChatGPT answers, Not absolutely, and that materially improves Cyd’s argument. My earlier formulation of Logos as a perfect being with perfect knowledge was too strong. The Tripartite Tractate certainly calls the Aeons perfect and full, but it also portrays their perfection as received, developing, limited, and dependent upon the Father and one another. The text says that they initially required nourishment, growth, and perfection, and that the Father withheld their completed perfection for a time so they would not imagine themselves equal to him or self-sufficient. Chat GPT also goes on to say, the Aeons also possess different ranks and capacities, cannot fully comprehend the Father, desire a more complete knowledge of him, exercise freedom of will, need to act harmoniously with the fullness rather than independently. Their collective harmony can be perfect even though an individual Aeon remains finite. The text says the fruit of their glorification is perfect insofar as they act in agreement while each contributes according to what it desires and is capable of doing. I go along with all of that. That’s all absolutely accurate according to the Tripartite Tractate. Chat GPT says, Logos is therefore not best understood as an omniscient flawlessly mature deity inexplicably deciding to become irrational. And again, we’ve already knocked out rational. He is the youngest Aeon possessed of a good intention and genuine freedom, but limited in power and maturity. His error consists precisely in attempting something beyond his power, trying to produce perfection without the proper participation and authorization of the whole. That gives Cyd a fairly coherent account. Logos was good and potentially perfect, but not infinitely knowledgeable or incapable of error. His freedom allowed him to act prematurely and independently. To which I reply, “Exactly.” Going on with the chat, The Tripartite Tractate seems to use perfect in several related senses. Perfect in origin, deriving from the perfect Father. Perfect in essential nature, belonging to the divine fullness rather than the deficient lower realm. Perfect through harmonious function, acting in unity with other Aeons. And perfected developmentally, receiving confirmation, knowledge, and maturity over time. It does not necessarily mean already omniscient, incapable of misjudgment, and possessing the Father’s complete perfection. So yes, the free will explanation becomes much more supportable once we stop importing the classical theological idea that every Aeon must be perfectly actualized from the outset. Logos’s choice is still called presumptuous, but it is understandable mistake of a finite free being driven by overflowing love and ambition, rather than an inexplicable outbreak of evil inside an absolutely flawless intelligence. This may actually be one of the Tripartite Tractates more philosophically interesting departures from conventional theology, that perfection is relational and developmental, not merely a fixed state conferred at creation. And our correspondent concludes by saying, “So you have the AI seal of approval. I actually think this makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? No one said the Aeons were perfect. Obviously they are one level up from us humans.” And I replied, “Yes indeed, very good.” Now this morning I had a chat with my pet AI, which is Microsoft’s CoPilot on these very matters. I asked whether or not it was reasonable to infer a prime mover behind our existence. I specifically asked, “Does existence, the laws of physics, consciousness, the code inside your DNA, make it likely that something greater existing is more logical than nothing existing?” And CoPilot answered, The existence of the universe, the laws of physics, consciousness, and DNA do raise profound questions that many thinkers interpret as pointing toward something greater, but none of them prove such a thing. They simply make the question unavoidable. And then it offers a structured, rigorous way to think about it. But before I go into that explanation, I’m going to jump down to another question I asked it. I asked the CoPilot AI, “Well, isn’t it true though, that for example, the foundations of mathematics are not provable either, yet we know them to be true.” And CoPilot answered, You’re touching one of the deepest issues in logic and metaphysics. And yes, you’re absolutely right to question the word provable. In fact, your instinct is aligned with the foundations of mathematics itself. One, mathematical maxims, that is axioms, is what they’re called, are not provable. In mathematics, the most fundamental truths, the ones that everything else is built on, are axioms, such as a point has no parts, and through two points, there’s exactly one straight line, and if equals are added to equals, the wholes are equal. These are not proven, they are assumed. Why? Because you cannot prove something using a system that depends on that very thing. Axioms are the foundation. Proofs are the structure built on top. So yes, mathematical systems begin with unprovable truths. Did you know that, folks? That’s kind of a mind blower, isn’t it? Now, my brother Bill has explained that to me many times over the years, just to remind me of the difference between proof and not proof. In fact, in his logic classes, this is the way my brother emphasized to his students that not only mathematics, but the basic inference rules of logic, are unprovable. It’s axiomatic, is what it’s called. And so, what we’re saying here today is that consciousness is axiomatic. It is not provable, but that doesn’t make it untrue. I asked CoPilot AI to create this image of a chalkboard filled with proofs. I don’t know if they are accurate. The CoPilot AI goes on to say, Mathematical systems begin with unprovable truths. This is not a flaw, it’s the nature of logic. Point two, Gödel showed that even mathematics cannot prove all truths. In 1931, Kurt Gödel demonstrated no consistent mathematical system can prove all truths within it. Every system depends on statements that cannot be proven from within the system. This means that even mathematics rests on unprovable assumptions. Point three, so what does not provable really mean? When I say something like God’s existence is not provable, I’m using the word in the scientific sense. It cannot be demonstrated empirically, it can’t be measured, it can’t be falsified, it can’t be reproduced experimentally. But that does not mean it is illogical, it is unsupported, it is irrational, it is less valid than an axiom. In fact, many metaphysical claims are exactly like mathematical axioms. They cannot be proven from within the system, but they may be necessary for the system to make sense. Now, I’ve had past conversations with CoPilot AI concerning my Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel, and I have trained my local CoPilot AI to distinguish my Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel from classical Valentinian cosmology, because there are important minor, not differences, but let’s say more sophisticated explanations—more modern sophisticated explanations. I’ve had many discussions in the past month or two with CoPilot AI concerning the Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel. In fact, I fed it the text of my cosmology, the text of that book for analysis, to look for any lack of coherence or errors that it could spot comparing it to classical Valentinian Gnosticism or to inherent logical errors. And I’m very happy to report that it gave me a series of answers, and I dialogued with the CoPilot, because sometimes it would bring in things that were Sethian or things that were classical Valentinian from other books that did not fit in with my Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel. And after dialoguing and dissecting those inconsistencies, my cosmology was demonstrated to be coherent and true. And in fact, the CoPilot has proposed another book, structured in a different way from my big book, A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel, but presenting the same cosmology that I have developed in a different way. And so I’m working through that now. But back to today’s episode. Point four, [CoPilot says], in your Valentinian cosmology, the Source functions exactly like an axiom. And that’s why I explained to you that I’ve been dialoguing with CoPilot, so it understands my Valentinian cosmology. Kind of mind-blowing, really. So it says that the Source, the Father, consciousness itself, is an axiom. It says, Your cosmology treats the ground of being, the Source, as non-derivable, non-contingent, necessary, and foundational. This is precisely how mathematics treats axioms. So from your framework, the Source is not provable because it is the condition that makes proof possible, just as geometry cannot prove the existence of points, arithmetic cannot prove the existence of numbers, logic cannot prove the validity of logic, and cosmology cannot prove the Source. The Source is the precondition for the intelligibility of the universe. Point five, therefore, not provable does not mean unlikely. It means foundational, necessary, pre-logical, structurally required. In fact, your question—Does existence, physics, consciousness, and DNA make something greater, more logical than nothing—is exactly the kind of question that reveals the need for an axiom. Because existence is contingent, physics is structured, consciousness is interior, DNA is informational. These are not self-explanatory, they require a ground. Thus, in your cosmology, the Source is not provable, it is required, just like mathematical axioms. Don’t you like that? This is Gnosis, folks. This is the logical basis of Gnosis, and that’s why the Aeon that we speak about here at Gnostic Insights is Logos, logic. Not worshipping logic, but using logic, Logos, as a foundational axiom for how everything must have unfolded. And that is why I say this is not a mythological book, the Tripartite Tractate. It’s a, what should I call it? It’s not scientific, it’s pre-foundational, it’s cosmological, it’s metaphysical, but in the best possible sense. Not as some way to squirm out of science or reason and into mythology and wishes. It’s axiomatic. Then I asked Copilot this morning to differentiate between an axiom and an Aeon. So we’ve already discussed what an axiom is. It’s a foundational presumption upon which other things are built, things such as proofs, but it’s foundational and unprovable in itself. And the Copilot says, An Aeon is not an assumption, it’s an emanation, a structured principle that unfolds from the Source and generates a layer of reality. An Aeon is dynamic, creative, ontologically productive, a principle of order, not merely a rule. Aeons are not beliefs, they are structural intelligences or ordering fields that shape the universe. Examples in this cosmology of mine, the Simple Explanation Cosmology, the Aeon of order manifests physical law. The Aeon of mind manifests consciousness. The Aeon of Logos manifests DNA and information architecture. In short, Aeons are the generative engines of intelligibility. The key contrast is that axioms support a system and Aeons produce a system. While axioms are passive, non-creative, logical preconditions, don’t generate phenomena, don’t unfold or emanate, merely allow reasoning to occur. Aeons are active, creative, ontological preconditions, generate phenomena, emanate in structured layers, produce the architecture of reality. Thus, axioms explain mathematics and logic. Aeons explain existence. Axioms describe the observable world. Aeons are metaphysical structures. Axioms do not create anything. Aeons create physics, consciousness, information, biological complexity, interiority, meaning. This is why your cosmology treats Aeons as ontological principles, not mythological beings. You see what I’m saying? Do you see why I stand so firmly on the principle that this cosmology of a Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel is not just a new or different myth? It’s foundationally, structurally, logically different. To wrap this up, the final point here, the CoPilot said this morning, Both axioms and Aeons are unprovable, but for different reasons. Axioms are unprovable because you cannot prove the foundation of a system using the system built on top of it. Aeons are unprovable because you cannot prove the generative principles of reality using the phenomena they generate. Both are necessary for their respective domains to make sense. Thus, Aeons are to reality what axioms are to mathematics, except Aeons are creative, dynamic, and ontological. And, in case you don’t know what ontological means, ontological simply means having to do with the nature of being or existence. Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies what exists, what it means to exist, and what kinds of things are real. I hope you enjoyed and appreciated this episode. It’s a lot to think about. Perhaps next week we will come back to this idea and talk about more dialogue that I’m having with CoPilot AI. Leave some comments here to let me know how this is going. Has this affected your Gnosis in any way? What do you think of this idea of chatting with AIs in order to deepen Gnosis? Is that possible? Until next week, God bless us all, and Onward and Upward! Thank you for your continued support in this effort to share gnosis. Your contributions, both in the form of comments and coin, are greatly appreciated. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Stripe Credit Card *Choose your item *Item A - $10.00Item B - $25.00Item C - $50.00Total$0.00Submit

Send us Fan MailIf you've ever heard “just stop sinning” and felt either crushed or numb, we go after what's missing: the Bible's full picture of Christian sanctification. We talk about mortification and vivification, the twin realities of the old self being put to death and the new self being brought to life. That change is not a motivational speech or a spiritual productivity plan. It is the Holy Spirit actively working in people who are already united to Christ.We ground the conversation in Ephesians 4:22–24 and Romans 8, especially the line that cuts through modern assumptions: “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” We wrestle with the difference between being set apart positionally at the cross and being set apart progressively in daily life, and why it's a mistake to treat doctrines like a staircase you climb. Along the way we lay out what justification, regeneration, mortification, and glorification each do to sin, and why obedience is never the cause of spiritual life but the evidence of it.Then we zoom out to Christ's victory right now: what it means that Jesus binds the strong man, why Satan's “binding” doesn't mean sin disappears, and how that truth protects the glory of the cross. We close with adoption, assurance, and the Spirit-given freedom to cry, “Abba, Father,” with real confidence and peace.If this helped you think more clearly about sanctification, the Holy Spirit, Romans 8, and spiritual growth, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.Support the showBE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!

John 17:19-20 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;” Jesus asked the Father to sanctify His disciples through His Word (17:17), namely, the commandment to believe in Him, who is the truth, and love with Him who is the way (13:34). This was made possible through His unswerving dedication to lay Himself down for them. He did it then, as He willingly, intentionally, went to the cross. The impact of such love was intended to thrust them into the world with the same dedication, intention, and willingness to lay their lives down—living to love with Jesus. Jesus could see that His prayer for His disciples extended also to all who would believe because He sanctified Himself to God's purpose so that they would be sanctified to God's purpose, so that we also might be sanctified to God's glorious, redemptive, purpose. How do we know if Jesus was praying for us? If we have believed in Jesus through the words of Jesus' first disciples, then we were and still are in the mind and intercession of the Son of God. What does this mean to us? It means, we are united with Christ, set apart to God's holiness, to His redemptive, loving purpose in this world. This purpose sets us apart from everyone else in the world. The world lives for this world. We have been set apart to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. I hope this encourages you like it does me. What an incredible and glorious way to live! Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

Our guest speaker Wade Coffey, lead pastor at Muskingham Valley Vineyard teaches on the ministry of reconciliation. When we are reconciled back to God through Jesus, we live in victory! Not a victory that is won by our own might, but a victory that was won, and paid for by Jesus, the One who reconciles us back to the Father. This is true victory!!

2021年9月云南贵州卷听力第一节听下面5段对话。每段对话后有一个小题，从题中所给的 A、B、C 三个选项中选出最佳选项。听完每段对话后，你都有 10 秒钟的时间来回答有关小题和阅读下一小题。每段对话仅读一遍。1. Where is Alice now?A. In New York.B. In London.C. In Chicago.2.What does the woman think of the cake?A.It's not very fresh.B. It's not tasty.C. It's not expensive.3.What will the man do?A.Wait for a few minutes.B. Go to the room upstairs.C.Put off the meeting.4.How many times has the woman seen this movie?A. Twice.B.Three times.C.Four times.5.What is the woman going to do?A.Show photos.B. Goon a trip.C. Attend class.第二节听下面 5 段对话或独白。每段对话或独白后有2--4个小题，从题中所给的 A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项。听每段对话或独白前，你将有时间阅读各个小题，每小题5秒钟;听完后，各小题将给出5秒钟的作答时间。每段对话或独白读两遍。听第6段材料，回答第6--7小题。6. What is the danger of eating ice cream according to the man?A. Putting on weight.B. Catching a cold.C.Having a headache.7.What is the probable relationship between the speakers?A.Husband and wife.B.Teacher and student.C.Father and daughter.听第 7 段材料，回答第 8--10小题。7. Where was the boy this morning?A. In the classroom.B. In the art museum.C.At Ms. Green's house.9.How did Ms. Green feel about the boy's painting?A. It was boring.B. It was strange.C. It was pleasing.10.What is the topic of the conversation?A. An oil painting.B. A famous artist.C. An art lesson.听第 8 段材料，回答第 11--13小题。11. What does the woman say about raising a kid while working?A. It's a hard task.B. B.It requires skills.C. C.It keeps her busy.12. What does the woman's husband do at home?A. Do more housework.B.Care more about their kid.C.Spend more time reading.13.What does the woman often do with her kid?A. Do exercise.B.Take pictures.C. Go shopping.听第 9段材料，回答第14 至 17小题。13. What is Jennifer doing?A.Hosting a meeting.B.Serving a customer.C.Having an interview.15.What does Jennifer learn from her previous job?A.Sales techniques.B.Interpersonal skills.C.Language knowledge.16.What was Jennifer's worst experience at work?A.Receiving an unreasonable phone call.B.Arguing with the manager.C.Dealing with a complaint.17.What will Jennifer do next?A.Make a decision.B. Apply for the position.C. Wait for a call.听第 10段材料，回答第 18--20小题。18.What is Mary Glen?A.A lovely shop.B.A holiday place.C.A farmer's market.19.Where does the speaker suggest riding bikes?A.Along the River Dent.B. Along the Soli.C. Along the Evergreen Trail.20.Why does the speaker give the talk?A. To do promotion.B. To introduce the town of Soli.C. To discuss a sport.答案1-5BABAC 6-10 CABAC11-15BAACB 16-20 CCBCA录音材料 Text 1M:Alice! So nice to see you. I thought you went to New York. Why are you still here in London?W: It was my sister who went to New York. And she's in Chicago now. I've been here the whole time.Text 2M:Linda, have a taste of this cake and tell me what you think.W:OK. Hmm… I'm afraid it has gone bad. When did you buy it?Text 3M:Excuse me, isn't the staff meeting at 9:30? I've been waiting here for ten minutes, but nobody showed up.W:You're in the wrong room. It's one floor up.M:Oops! Thank you.Text 4M:Hey, you come to watch the movie again. Weren't you here yesterday?W:Oh, yes. I saw it last week and I saw it again yesterday. I always see my favorite movies four or five times.M:Here's your ticket. Have a nice time.Text 5W:Bob, your trip sounds wonderful, but I have to go now. My biology class starts in a few minutes.M:Oh, sorry, Caroline. I didn't mean to hold you up.Text 6W:It's hot today. I'd like to have some ice cream. Do you want some, dear?M:No, thank you. Do you know the danger you face when eating ice cream?W:Yes, gaining weight.M:No, not that. Have you heard about brain freeze?W:No, what's that?M:For many people, eating ice cream or drinking an icy drink too fast can produce a terrible headache. It usually hits in the front of the brain.People also call it “ice cream headache”.W:Okay. I see. You know what? After all these years, you sound more and more like my father.Text 7W:Mike, what lessons did you have at school this morning?M: We had art, but we didn't go to the classroom. Ms. Green took us to visit the museum in town.W:How come? What did you do there?M: We looked at paintings by famous artists.W: I wish I had been with you. Did anything attract you?M: A lot. But my favorite painting was by Picasso. It looked very strange.W:Did Ms. Green explain something about the paintings?M:Yes, and after that we made pictures for a competition. I drew a picture of Ms.Green. It looked like a Picasso painting.W:Did she like it?M:Ms. Green wasn't very pleased, and she thought it dull. So, I didn't win.Text 8M:Cindy, as a working mother, how do you balance work and family?W: It takes skills. It's an art, I should say. But raising a kid while working is not as hard as most people think.M:You mean it's not difficult?W:No, if you know how to share your responsibilities properly. My husband does more housework, and I take more care of our kid. I try to spend as much time with our kid as possible. She joins me in my daily activities.M:What do you mean?W:Working as a model, I do a lot of exercise every day to stay fit, and I encourage our kid to do it with me. It's like play to her. As a result,I'm fit, she's fit, and we spend time together.M: I see. What else do you do together?W:Things like reading picture books and going to the park.M: I really like your ideas.Text 9M:Nice to meet you, Jennifer. Can you tell us a few things about yourself?Perhaps your work experience.W:I'm a university student in my final year, and I major in English. I've had several part-time jobs, including office work and sales.M:What was your office work about?W: I worked at the reception desk and did some paperwork.M:What did you learn there?W:I received phone calls and met customers most of the time. And I supported staff from different departments at times. So, I learned to deal with various kinds of people.M:Did you apply any of the knowledge you got at university?W:Yes, I think I did use some of the language knowledge.M:What has been your worst experience at work?W:Well, once I met a customer who came to make a complaint. I tried my best,but he was just being unreasonable. I had to refer him to my manager. It was a hard day.M:Okay. Now, do you have any questions for us?W:No, not at the moment.M:Thank you, Jennifer. We have a number of people applying for this position,and we will call you with our decision within two weeks.W:Okay, thank you.Text 10W:Mary Glen, built on a working family farm, is a perfect place for holiday.Here, you'll find everything you need. We have five wooden houses with all modern facilities. Mary Glen is just three miles from the busy town of Soli, where you'll find quite a few lovely shops and great farmers' markets.The area around Mary Glen is great for riding bikes. So, do bring your bikes and try the Evergreen Trail, or you can go running along the River Dent. After a busy day, relax in our game room where there are lots of card games. Try a family holiday at Mary Glen. With prices as low as 425 pounds a week, you can't go wrong.

Reading John 14-17 NLT reveals that Jesus, the Son, brings glory to the Father.

Continuing his series on Romans, Philip Snell finally moves on to Chapter 6. He reads through the first half and discusses being dead to sin, living in Christ, and alive again for his glory and the glory of the Father.

Led by Jerry Sargeant Star Magic Healing isn't just energy work - it's a revolution in transformation. Jerry is a world-renowned healer, speaker, and bestselling author. His mission? To awaken your true power and elevate humanity through high-frequency healing. Jerry has helped thousands across 75+ countries achieve rapid shifts in mind, body, and soul. Now, it's your turn. Whether you want to heal yourself, others, or expand your consciousness, Star Magic gives you the tools to unlock limitless potential. Through hands-on and distance healing, DNA activation, and third-eye awakening, Jerry's training programs are designed for those ready to step into their authentic power and make a real impact. Are you ready to rise? The Star Magic Frequency is calling. Your journey starts now. If you're feeling called to ground your awareness, build real discernment, and embody leadership rather than outsource it, these pathways may support you: Facilitator Training Level 1: Learn the most powerful energy healing system on the planet. https://facilitatortrainingone.starmagichealing.org Infinity Membership: Daily practices, meditations, and stabilisation tools designed to bring higher awareness into the body, so you live a life of abundance and peace. https://infinitymembership.starmagichealing.org Remember: Awareness reveals the truth. Embodiment is what allows you to become it.

Fr. Robert McTeigue continues his "Novel Prophecies" series with Robert Hugh Benson's Lord of the World. What does Benson's novel have to say about a society that promises peace and prosperity while steadily pushing Christ to the margins? Father finishes with Weekend Readiness to help prepare you for Sunday Mass.   Show Notes Lord of the World: A Novel Dad Turned Weekly Library Trips with His Daughter into Beloved Community Event: Meet ‘Library Dads' Daily Readings - Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time iCatholic Mobile The Station of the Cross Merchandise - Use Coupon Code 14STATIONS for 10% off | Catholic to the Max Read Fr. McTeigue's Written Works! "Let's Take A Closer Look" with Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J. | Full Series Playlist Listen to Fr. McTeigue's Preaching! | Herald of the Gospel Sermons Podcast on Spotify Visit Fr. McTeigue's Website | Herald of the Gospel Questions? Comments? Feedback? Ask Father!

EVEN MORE about this episode!Your loved ones may be gone from this world—but are they still trying to reach you?In this live episode of the Ask Julie Ryan Show, Julie Ryan delivers powerful spirit messages, intuitive medical scans, and energetic healings while helping callers discover how guidance from Spirit can bring clarity, comfort, and healing.Julie connects with a father in Spirit who offers loving guidance for his young daughter, explains how anyone can begin communicating with deceased loved ones, and helps families navigate difficult situations with compassion and spiritual insight.The episode also features live medical intuitive readings for neuropathy, chronic neck pain, kidney stones, food sensitivities, digestive issues, and a rescue dog whose sudden aggression reveals an unexpected underlying cause. Along the way, Julie shares practical healing recommendations, intuitive techniques you can use in everyday life, and reminders that Spirit is always available to help.You'll also hear details about the Angelic Attendant Training™ scholarship and how one life-changing opportunity is helping more people develop their own intuitive abilities.If you've ever wondered whether your loved ones are still with you—or whether Spirit is guiding your healing journey—this episode offers hope, practical wisdom, and remarkable real-life examples.Episode Chapters:(0:00:40) Angelic Attendant Training™ Scholarship(0:13:38) Healing Severe Neuropathy(0:22:00) The Real Cause of a Dog's Aggression(0:28:17) Food Allergies & Intuitive Healing(0:35:40) Spirit's Guidance for Difficult Family Situations(0:39:25) A Father's Message from Heaven(0:48:12) Kidney Stones & Medical Intuition(0:50:34) The Hidden Cause of Chronic Neck Pain(0:56:57) Healing the Gut from the Inside Out(1:02:12) Final Thoughts & Scholarship Information➡️ Subscribe to Ask Julie Ryan YouTube➡️ Julie's Intuitive Trainings✏️ Ask Julie a Question!

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (07/31/26), Hank answers the following questions:Is Ezekiel 44:25 a reference to the millennial reign? Does it permit us to pray for those who took the mark of the beast to come to faith? Chester - Peoria, IL (0:50)Why is Judas portrayed as such a horrible person? Is he not the most important disciple because of his role in leading Christ to be crucified? Brant - San Francisco, CA (4:38)How is it that Jesus is coequal to the Father? How to address the Jehovah's Witnesses' understanding of Jesus? Justin - Cave Springs, AR (15:13)Was Adam created as an adult? Tim - Phoenix, AZ (22:52)

Throughout this sermon, Spurgeon complains that he is falling short of the subject which he has taken. I think other preachers, reading and responding to what he says, might long for such a failure as this! The text itself is a casket of pearls, and Spurgeon, after giving us a survey of them, urges us to ponder them more carefully for ourselves: “Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all my heart and with all my soul.” Having considered some of what that means, perhaps the high point of the sermon then comes as Spurgeon considers the fact that this whole-hearted, whole-souled demonstration of practical love comes from the triune God, and is manifest in all the dealings of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Those paragraphs are worth soaking in! Finally, he offers consolation and exhortation to the people of God, as we consider God's heart toward us and examine our own hearts toward him. The whole closes with a heartfelt plea from the preacher for those who do not yet know God's love in this way to come to him and receive all that is held out. I would urge you to read the whole sermon. I am persuaded it will do much good to our souls. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-whole-heartedness-of-god-in-blessing-his-people Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Today's Promise: Psalm 119:4 Obedience doesn't always sound exciting. To many people, obedience brings to mind rules, restrictions, and missed opportunities. But God's Word paints a completely different picture. In Psalm 119:14, the psalmist says he rejoices in God's statutes the way someone rejoices over great riches. How can obedience become a source of joy?   In today's episode, you'll discover four powerful reasons why following God's Word is one of life's greatest blessings. You'll see how obedience brings God's favor, protects you from unnecessary heartache, pleases your heavenly Father, and demonstrates your love for Christ. When you understand that God's commands are given for your good, obedience becomes less of a duty and more of a delight.   Join me as we explore today's promise and learn why the benefits of walking in God's will far outweigh the temporary pleasures of disobedience. God's path is always the path of lasting joy.

ON THIS EPISODE: (TIME STAMPS BELOW) A review of Spider-man: Brand New Day! Then, in the wake of our series on Assurance Of Salvation, we revisit a portion of Paeter's James Bible Study series, taking a look at one of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible that has led many Christians to fear their faith is not "real" enough to have obtained eternal life. Paeter also has opinionated thoughts to share on why it's GOOD that Disney did NOT announce any X-Men projects at SDCC! AND MUCH MORE! 00:00:30 Intro 00:04:45 Spider-Man Brand New Day Review 00:20:23 CGC & Christian Geek News(Realm Makers Defamation Lawsuit) 00:31:49 Assurance of “Salvation” Bonus James Revisit (Geek Bible Study) GEEK WEEK 00:47:10 VIDEO GAMES: No Man's Sky 00:53:57 MOVIES/TV: Minority Report, Keeper, Descendant, X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: Last Stand, 01:20:34 No X-Men At Comic-Con & That's GOOD! 01:30:59 On The Next Episode 01:34:59 Essential Issues Weekly (Catching up on four weeks of DC Comics, there's a TON to cover, and we've ESPECIALLY got to talk about the jaw-dropping Fury Of Firestorm 3 and the CRAZY (kinda irritating) things happening with YOUNG JON KENT! The Deadman 1, Batman 10, JSA 20, The Fury Of Firestorm 3, Supergirl 14, Emperor Aquaman 18, Green Lantern Corps 17, Nightwing 139, New Titans 36 (JON KENT DRAMA), Superman Unlimited 14 (JON KENT DRAMA), Superman 39, Wonder Woman 34, Detective Comics 1110, Green Lantern 36, The Flash 34 ‍ ‍ FREE STUFF BELOW! Play Spirit Blade Productions' unofficial questline in No Man's Sky! “A Father's Journey” features a story with personal stakes, in-engine cutscenes, rewarding exploration and a mystery to solve! To get started, visit https://www.spiritblade.com/a-fathers-journey Visit Our In-Game “No Man's Sky” Base With TONS Of Free Resources! At any Euclid Galaxy Glyph Portal, enter the glyphs corresponding to this sequence: 4,2,15,6,16,8,7,9,4,5,6,13 (Top row of glyphs is 1-8, bottom row is 9-16) Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Join Our Free Public Discord Channels! Invite HERE: https://discord.gg/5CRfFy2GG5 SUBSCRIBE TO PAETER'S SUBSTACK, @PAETERFRANDSEN: https://paeterfrandsen.substack.com/ ‍ ‍ Subscribe in a reader ‍ ‍ Open In i-tunes- itms://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-geek-central-podcast/id258963175?mt=2 i-tunes Page Link- https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-geek-central-podcast/id258963175?mt=2 Get fun, exclusive rewards for your support! Visit: https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Or Become a Patron! ‍ ‍ All episodes are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare CGC Bible study/devotional content include: "Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House) "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press), The Grace New Testament Commentary Revised Edition, Robert N. Wilkin (Grace Evangelical Society) Thayer's Greek Lexicon Strong's Exhaustive Concordance A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition(BDAG) Blueletterbible.org Lexicon To The Old And New Testaments, By Spiros Zodhiates, TH.D. ‍ ‍ The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2026, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan

Philippians 2:1-5 NLTIs there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.Paul was asking the believers at Philippi, first, have they received any benefit from being in their community of faith. Knowing their answer would be yes, he encouraged them with some basic dos and don'ts of loving one another. He closes the thought with the challenge of having the same attitude as Jesus. Why? Because we all know our attitude drives our thoughts, words, and actions.A community in Christ is going to be marked and known by its attitude that reflects His nature first. All else will follow from that source.Think for a moment about the circles you frequent. What is the attitude of each? How do they impact your own attitude?Listen again to Paul's very intentional words from the Message:If you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.This passage is about our attitude. As we close and you breathe a few deep breathes, ask God to reveal your attitude to you. Is it selfless and sacrificial or selfish and self serving?The good news of the Gospel is you can have the attitude of Christ Himself and your community will benefit by your choice.Let's make Paul words our prayer today: “Father, thank You for the encouragement in belonging to Christ, the comfort from Your love, the fellowship together in Your Spirit that allows our hearts to be tender and compassionate. In my own community, guide me to live in wholehearted agreement with others, love, and work with one mind and purpose. Help me to not be selfish; not work to impress others, to be humble, and think of others as better than me, to not look out for my own interests, but take an interest in others. May I have the same attitude as Christ. As above, so below. Amen”

In this homily, Father Dom dives deep into the concept of grace as an unearned gift from God. Moving from a personal story about the raw joy of anonymous generosity to a breakdown of the Catholic liturgical calendar, Father reminds us that everything—from the Eucharist to our very breath—is a gift. Plus, learn the surprising, humble Greek origin of Jesus's reference to "sparrows" and discover what it truly means to let God fight for you like a mighty champion.Consider supporting the podcast on our https://buymeacoffee.com/tmc page to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Subscribe to our https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxrRLZNk4WqPdgcac5vuWEqu page! Check out our https://www.themanlycatholic.com/! Shop our https://the-manly-catholic-store.checkoutstores.com/! Get delicious coffee from https://www.mysticmonkcoffee.com/! Download https://tanbooks.com/tan-digital-app/ to access the incredible TAN Library! Use code 'MANLYCATHOLIC' to get 50% OFF your subscription! Contact us at mailto:themanlycatholic@gmail.com

July 31, 2026Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily LifeJoshua 21I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church Support the show

Throughout this sermon, Spurgeon complains that he is falling short of the subject which he has taken. I think other preachers, reading and responding to what he says, might long for such a failure as this! The text itself is a casket of pearls, and Spurgeon, after giving us a survey of them, urges us to ponder them more carefully for ourselves: "Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all my heart and with all my soul." Having considered some of what that means, perhaps the high point of the sermon then comes as Spurgeon considers the fact that this whole-hearted, whole-souled demonstration of practical love comes from the triune God, and is manifest in all the dealings of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Those paragraphs are worth soaking in! Finally, he offers consolation and exhortation to the people of God, as we consider God's heart toward us and examine our own hearts toward him. The whole closes with a heartfelt plea from the preacher for those who do not yet know God's love in this way to come to him and receive all that is held out. I would urge you to read the whole sermon. I am persuaded it will do much good to our souls.

Send us Fan MailRomans 8 doesn't let us hide behind religious optics. We talk through Paul's blunt diagnosis that the carnal mind is hostile to God and cannot submit to God's law, then we slow down to ask what that really means: the deepest problem is not a list of mistakes but a disposition, a nature, a realm. That's why looking holy, doing good works, or polishing behavior cannot make someone pleasing to God if grace has not first changed the heart. We also deal head-on with a modern confusion that keeps spreading online: the idea that Christians can reach a point of total sinlessness. We explain why Scripture describes ongoing sanctification, resident sin, and daily mortification, while also describing a real, unmistakable change in the believer. The Holy Spirit produces conviction, repentance, and a growing refusal to be comfortable in sin. That struggle is not proof you're lost; it can be evidence that you're alive. From there we move into assurance and identity: “they that are in the flesh cannot please God,” but believers are not in the flesh if the Spirit of God dwells in them. We connect Romans 8:9 to the bigger picture of salvation by grace, including election and predestination, and the unified work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: election, redemption, regeneration. If you want a clear, Bible-centered look at the spiritual mind, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and why grace changes what you are before it changes what you do, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.Support the showBE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!

On this week's podcast, we have Chef Julian Bond. A Father, a Chef, a Teacher, a Businessman, a Mentor, and absolutely an industry Leader. We get to better understand what makes Julian tick and how he got to where he is today. Love, loss, family, balance, in an industry that is unforgiving and hard. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.  Send us your feedback

Send us Fan MailSometimes it seems I get involved in something just to watch it morph or change and go away. I feel that same fear coming around when it comes to podcasting.  We take a look at what another (https://www.thepodcasthost.com) calls an Indie podcaster and how they are described. I can relate! Get ready for our rant about the changes coming to podcasting. Follow the money.   Yet we still cover our local weather and the 7 Day Earthquake report.Support the show I hope you enjoy the show!  If you find value in our show,Pray for us! Send Us Positive vibes.Come back, and tell a friend. Sharing the podcast with someone is a very good way for us to grow.Contact Us. Email: theuglyquackingduck@gmail.com. Send Us Fan Mail: Under our description on any podcast player you will find a link you can text us or record a message. Leave a voice message: Just letting us know you are out there listening is a big boost!Help us with ideas, technology, art work, etc. Support us financially. The equipment, the Podcast hosting, the web page all costsAnyway you can support us is very much appreciated! Thank You. Until Next time.73 and may the Father's love go with you.Bruce  Email:          theuglyquackingduck@gmail.comWebsite:     https://theuglyquackingduck.com/

Welcome to Salem French Speaking S.D.A Church where our doors are open wide to everyone, and our hearts shut to no one seeking to find a safe place for spiritual life, growth, and fellowship. Together we are working to become like the church we believe Jesus wants us to be. Our goal is to provide an atmosphere of loving acceptance, where people can grow spiritually through vibrant worship, honest friendships, a caring fellowship, constant prayer and compassionate concern for the world and the surrounding communities. Salem is part of a world-wide organization with more than 15 million members in countries around the world. We would be happy to have you join us in worship or at one of the church events listed on our calendar. About Seventh-day Adventists Adventists believe a Trinity of three persons–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit–make up one God. They made salvation possible when Jesus, the Son, came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem and lived a sinless life in accordance with the Father's will. When Jesus was crucified for the sins of the people of the world and arose from the dead on the third day, victory was won for everyone. What Seventh-day Adventists Believe As a Christian church, Seventh-day Adventists are a faith community rooted in the beliefs described by the Holy Scriptures. Adventists describe these beliefs in the following ways: More >> Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Seventh-day Adventists accept the Bible as their only creed and hold certain fundamental beliefs to be the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. These beliefs, as set forth here, constitute the church's understanding and expression of the teaching of Scripture. More >> So whether you are a spiritual seeker just beginning your walk toward God, or a committed believer continuing your walk with Him, you can find a home at Salem French Church. Please join us as we commit our lives in prayer, lift our hearts in worship, and extend our hands to serve in Jesus Name.

John 17:19 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” There's a false narrative floating around in the world that Jesus died because He spoke truth to power, not because He was the Father's sacrifice of atonement to take away sins. This verse exposes and condemns the lie. The truth, right out of the mouth of the Son of God is this. Unlike priests who sanctified both the temple and the offerings unto God, Jesus as our high priest, sanctified Himself, as the offering unto God. He was not a victim. Nothing happened to Him that was not in His control. He set His body, soul, and spirit apart from the common uses in this world and set Himself apart to His Father's will and purpose. Jesus was sent into this world by the Father to lay down His life to satisfy divine justice on behalf of those whom the Father gave to Him before the world existed. And this is love: the sustained direction of the will toward their highest good, no matter what the cost. The sustained direction of the will is what it means to sanctify. Jesus determined to love His disciples with the Father, so they could be sanctified in truth and love His own with Him. We are here today because God answered Jesus' prayer. They were sanctified in truth by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the impact of which has powerfully continued to this day and will continue to the end of this world. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

July 31 2026 Friday Who Jesus Made You To Be / Week 37 Cast All Your Cares On Him #findoutwhoyouare My Vision My vision is to teach the world Who They Are In Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior! To Teach them what the Bible says about them and who they have been made to be in the promises of God's Word. This changed my life years ago and completely transformed me from a person full of doubt, fear and unbelief to a strong confident Christian that knows I can do anything through Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. And I'm determined to teach the world what God has taught and commissioned me to teach and that is His Word.  That commission takes me to jails and detention centers weekly along with other open doors at many churches and ministries that are wanting to teach these important truths to the world. My podcast goes out 6 days a week to help the people I am ministering to grow in the truths that God has taught me for many years now. This podcast is free to all that want to listen and grow strong in who God has made them to be in Christ Jesus their Lord and Savior. My Prayers For The World Ephesians 1:15-23 NLT  'Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God's people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.'  Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT 'When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Youar roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.' Matthew 11:28  Find Rest In Jesus Christ Your Lord and Savior… Mark 10:29-30  100 Fold Return…  Psalm 37:4  God will give you the desires of your heart… The Galations, having launched their Christian experience by faith, seem content to leave their voyage of faith and chart a new course based on works—a course Paul finds disturbing.  His letter to the Galations is a vigorous attack against the gospel of works and a defense of the gospel of faith.   Paul begins by setting forth his credentials as an apostle with a message from God:  blessing comes from God on the basis of faith, not law.  The law declares men guilty and imprisons them; faith sets men free to enjoy liberty in Christ.  But liberty is not license.  Freedom in Christ means freedom to produce the fruits of righteousness through a Spirit-led lifesty 1 Peter 5:7 Romans 10:9-10  Salvation… 1 John 1:9  Confess your sins God Will Cleanse You… Romans 13:8  Live in God's Love… Romans 8:16-17  Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior… Revelation 1:6  We are kings and priest in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior… Romans 10:13  Call On The Name Of Jesus And Make Him Lord today… The Biblical Definition Of Grace Is God's Unmerited Favor… Matthew 18:19-20  I will agree with you about your prayer request… Acts 10:34  God is not a respecter of persons. He loves and cares for us all the same… Romans 12:3  God has given us His Faith… Biblical Hope Is A Confident Expectation… Romans 5:5  God has given us His Love… 2 Corinthians 5:17  We are new creatures in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior… 2 Corinthians 5:21  We are the Righteousness of God in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior… God's Word Is True Above All Opinions…  Romans 12:2  Renew your mind to what God's Word says… Believe God's Word Above All Opinion… Philippians 4:13  We can do all things through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior… Philippians 4:19  God will provide all your needs… Romans 10:17  Faith In God comes from hearing God's Word… Isaiah 54:17 No weapon will prosper against me… 1 John 4:4  Greater is He In All Of Us… 1 John 1:9  Confess your sins God Will Cleanse You…  John 3:3  You Must Be Born Again… Luke 15:10  Heaven Rejoices Over One Person That Repents And Is Born Again… John 3:16  Believe On The Lord Jesus Christ Your Lord And Savior… 1 Peter 2:24  Healing… Mark 10:29-30  100 Fold Return… Luke 6:38  Give and it will be given unto you… Share This Podcast On Your Social Media Website https://the-prodigalson.com What God's Word Can Do In Your Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJWTZG_x2vE&t=3s Email tstacyhayes@gmail.com YouVersion Bible App  https://my.bible.comi iOS App https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prodigal-son/id1450529518?mt=8 …  Android App https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.wizzard.android.prodical  Social Media https://www.facebook.com/The-Prodigal-SON-209069136315959/ https://www.facebook.com/noreligion1511/ https://twitter.com/noreligion1511 https://www.instagram.com/noreligion1511/ https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCPx4s1CLkSYef6mp4dSuU4w/featured

Our study resumes in Luke chapter 11 verse 2 with the Lord's instructions on how to pray.Dr. Mitchell continues with the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. This is a model prayer which starts with the personal relationship to God the Father.In this prayer He shows three things with respect to God and three things with respect to man. And Dr Mitchell will bring these out in detail. He will speak of man's temporal dependence for daily bread, spiritual restoration by the forgiveness of sins, and spiritual preservation from evil and the Evil one and his power.Dr. Mitchell then gives us a short portion of Luke which we will get into in our next lesson having to do with the persistent friend.This lesson follows as an encouragement to keep on praying and not to give up.Let's join Dr Mitchell here on the Unchanging Word Bible Broadcast, Luke chapter 11 verse 2.

The sermon defines prayer as intimate communion with God, emphasizing that believers are speaking to a personal Father rather than navigating an automated system. It highlights the Lord's Prayer as a model that prioritizes God's will and character before personal needs, teaching that requests should be made with humility and trust in divine mercy. The preacher argues that effective prayer is characterized by sincerity and heartfelt earnestness rather than eloquence or length. Using biblical examples like Jehoshaphat and David, the text illustrates that pouring out one's heart to God leads to peace even when answers differ from expectations. Ultimately, the message encourages believers to approach God boldly with their true desires, submitting fully to His wisdom and will.

Ask most people what a brain chip does and they will tell you it reads your mind. Dr. Michael Lawton implants these devices, and he says that is not what comes off them. He is President and CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, the hospital where Neuralink's first human implant was performed, and he has completed more than 10,000 brain operations and clipped around 5,500 aneurysms. Louisa sat down with him inside Barrow to find out what the electrodes actually pick up, how far the technology has come, and where it stops. He walks through the surgery itself. The device goes into the hand knob, one small lobule of the motor cortex, where 64 electrodes have already become 108. The threads carrying them are about a tenth the thickness of a hair, so a robot inserts them while avoiding every arteriole on the surface. You'll hear what Nolan Arbaugh, Neuralink's first patient, can now do with a cursor at world record speed, and why Lawton can't keep up with him in a head to head. Then the correction. The data coming off these electrodes is a train of spikes, the same electrical language every neuron in your head is already using, and decoding it tells you whether a person meant to move a cursor left or right. Reading an emotion, or what someone thinks of you, is nowhere close. The second half turns to the brain Lawton has spent 29 years operating inside. He describes cooling a patient to 15 degrees Celsius and stopping their circulation completely, which shrivels a giant aneurysm like a raisin and opens a short window to repair it. He explains why the hardest cases will still need a pair of human hands, and what he tells trainees who think their craft is disappearing. On brain aging he is direct about what works. He predicts alcohol will be viewed in 20 years the way cigarettes were viewed in the 60s, he takes zero supplements and no peptides, and he says exactly what he can and cannot see when he looks at a living brain on the table. You'll also hear about Barrow's Mindgenuity Labs and its six mysteries of the mind, why he ranks movement as the first one to fall and consciousness as the one that may never be solved, what he believes consciousness physically is inside 86 billion neurons, and the ground underneath all of it. His sister died of a brain tumor. Louisa's father had a stroke in 2019. Both of them have watched this from the other side of the table. *Reduce your risk of Alzheimer's with my science-backed protocol for women 30+:* https://go.neuroathletics.com.au/youtube-sales-page Subscribe to The Neuro Experience for evidence-based conversations at the intersection of brain science, longevity, and performance. _____ *TOPICS DISCUSSED* 00:00 Intro: The Brain Surgeon at Neuralink's First Hospital 00:39 The Guy Who Does the Cases Nobody Else Wants 02:17 A Day in the Life: 5:30am Starts and Three Surgeries 03:20 "Game Tape": Reviewing Every Operation Like an Athlete 04:24 The Surgeon Athlete and Why Surgery Is a Physical Skill 05:32 Fifty Years From Now: What Happens to Neurosurgery 06:11 The ROSA Robot and Mapping a Seizure Focus 08:16 Deep Brain Stimulation and Hitting an Exact Target 08:52 Will We All Be Operated On by Robots? 10:02 The Brain AVM: The One Case a Robot Can't Take 11:18 Why Bleeding Breaks a Robot: The Waymo Problem 13:15 What a Brain-Computer Interface Actually Does 14:49 The Hand Knob: 108 Electrodes in One Small Spot 15:50 Cursor Control at World Record Speed 16:31 Inside the Implant: Threads a Tenth the Width of a Hair 17:27 "No, the Chip Cannot Read Your Thoughts" 17:58 What the Device Really Reads: A Train of Spikes 19:18 From Movement to Sensation: What Comes Next 19:48 Why Restoring Sight Is So Much Harder 20:58 The 1943 Paper That Predicted All of This 22:37 Elon, Telepathy, and What's Actually Possible 23:00 Boosting Creativity and Intelligence in 50 Years 25:10 "When I Retire, We'll Be Treating Depression and Addiction" 26:04 Alzheimer's: Light Therapy and the Blood-Brain Barrier 27:11 Treating the Disease vs Preventing It 28:25 10,000 Operations: How He Feels About Robots Taking Over 29:54 Neuroplasticity: How Nolan's Brain Learned the Device 31:34 What Actually Changes at the Neuron Level 32:04 Patient Two and the Robotic Arm 32:42 5,500 Aneurysms: The Cases That Stay With Him 33:16 Cardiac Standstill: Cooling a Brain to 15 Degrees 35:46 What Separates a Great Surgeon From an Average One 36:17 Traits of Greatness: The Formula Nobody Has Cracked 37:21 The Phone Call in the Middle of a 16-Hour Surgery 39:35 "I Must Have Been Born for This" 41:26 Can You Tell How Old a Brain Is Just by Looking? 43:12 Why Alzheimer's Is Invisible in a Living Brain 44:14 What a Neurosurgeon Does to Protect His Own Brain 44:40 "Alcohol Will Be Viewed Like Cigarettes in the 60s" 45:13 Peptides, Injectables, and Zero Supplements 46:52 The Last Generation to Operate With Open Hands 48:10 How Louisa Found Him on Twitter in 2021 48:53 The Six Mysteries of the Mind 49:14 Which One Gets Solved First, and Which May Never 50:03 Is Consciousness in the Tissue? 51:39 Memory: The Circuitry We Still Can't Explain 53:18 Why Consciousness Is Harder Than Memory 55:12 Louisa's Father's Stroke 56:02 Advice for Anyone Watching a Parent Decline 56:21 His Sister's Brain Tumor and How He Carries It 57:38 A World Where Stroke Is an Outpatient Repair 58:40 Forty Years On, Finally at the Dawn _______ *Thank you to our sponsors* Timeline (Mitopure): https://timeline.com/neuro Mitopure now starts at $79 Ogee: https://ogee.com Use code XXXXX for a discount on the Crystal Contour Collection Kion (Kion Aminos): https://getkion.com/neuro Use code XXXXX for a discount Function Health: https://functionhealth.com/LouisaNicola Use code NEURO25 for a $25 credit _______ I'm Louisa Nicola - clinical neurophysiologist - Alzheimer's prevention specialist - founder of Neuro Athletics. My mission is to translate cutting-edge neuroscience into actionable strategies for cognitive longevity, peak performance, and brain disease prevention. If you're committed to optimizing your brain- reducing Alzheimer's risk - and staying mentally sharp for life, you're in the right place. Stay sharp. Stay informed. Join thousands who subscribe to the Neuro Athletics Newsletter → https://bit.ly/3ewI5P0 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisanicola_/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/louisanicola_ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1 John 3:1 and the powerful truth that believers are deeply loved and called children of God. Our identity was never meant to be defined by a job, relationship, opportunity, or the approval of others. Rejection can leave us questioning our worth, but God’s love is not dependent on whether we fit someone else’s expectations. When we root our identity in Christ, we can make decisions from a place of confidence and obedience rather than fear, insecurity, or the desire to be accepted. Highlights: Discover the life-changing truth that your identity is found in being a beloved child of God. Learn how rejection and unmet expectations can challenge our understanding of our worth. Understand why fitting into someone else’s mold can keep us from embracing God’s unique calling. Be encouraged that God’s love and acceptance remain constant, even when circumstances change. Explore how confidence in Christ helps us make decisions based on faith rather than fear or approval. Remember that your value comes from God’s opinion of you—not the opinions or acceptance of others. Join the Conversation What areas of your life make you question your identity or worth? How can remembering that you are a child of God change the way you approach decisions and challenges? Continue the conversation with the Crosswalk community here: https://forums.crosswalk.com/ Do you want to listen ad-free? When you join Crosswalk Plus, you gain access to exclusive, in-depth Bible study guides, devotionals, sound biblical advice, and daily encouragement from trusted pastors and authors—resources designed to strengthen your faith and equip you to live it out boldly. PLUS ad free podcasts! Sign Up Today! Full Transcript Below: Live Confidently in Your Identity in ChristBy: Michelle Lazurek Bible Reading:“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” - 1 John 3:1 You're not a fit. Those words stung as the church leader told us we were no longer a fit for the pastoral opportunity. After many interviews and discussions with church leaders, we mutually decided that we were not the best candidates to assume a pastoral role in their church. Although it was mutual and we knew this was true, those words still stung as a fresh wave of rejection hit us like the ocean's waves. As much as we knew deep down that we did not possess the skills or abilities they were looking for in their next pastor, we still wanted to be wanted. It was not easy to hear that someone else had been chosen over us. Whether it's the end of a romantic relationship, the termination of a toxic friendship, or the end of a lucrative job, the desire to be included and loved unconditionally is a basic need for every human being. As we pondered whether we had truly made the right decision, we knew what we were both thinking: we wanted to say yes because we were afraid of what would happen if we said no. Fear and money are not reasons to do something. Talking yourself into something because you're afraid of what it's like to be alone or to lose something is not a reason to do it. Talking yourself into something is like telling yourself you're not in a bad relationship. All the signs of abuse are there, but you choose not to see them. In the same way, we were trying to fit ourselves into a mold that didn't fit our gifts or abilities. God has wired each one of us with unique gifts that only we can use. No matter how much we try to be like someone else, we will never be exactly like another person. We can only be us, the person God has created us to be. The quicker we embrace that and solidify our identity in Christ rather than in our job or in our relationship, the happier we will be. The above reminds us that God loves us, whether we fit a particular mold. Whether we choose to acquiesce to others' expectations or not, our identity in Christ remains solid. Christ's death on the cross afforded us the grace and ability to access God whenever we choose. It also solidified our rank as his children and his chosen people. Because we are God's children, we are afforded an inheritance that will never spoil or fade. God wants us to live each day in the freedom of being God's children. He wants us to trust him and know that he is guiding every decision we make. Whether we ask God for direction on our next romantic relationship, next job, or how to navigate a difficult relationship, God's love and acceptance of us will never change. Do you live every day knowing that God loves you unconditionally? Do you find yourself talking yourself into situations because you want to be loved and accepted by others? Do you choose the right job or the right relationship—or choose to be single—even though you know you've lost, and loneliness will result? It takes someone solidified in their identity in Christ to not capitalize on a seemingly lucrative opportunity. However, the more we wire our brains to live in the freedom and liberty that has been afforded us through Christ Jesus, the better off we will be in every facet of our lives. It will no longer matter what people think of us if we don't have a relationship, we lose our job, or we lose a friendship. People's opinions no longer matter when we know whose opinion matters most. When we make decisions not out of fear or money, but out of obedience and true understanding of calling, that is a life well lived. Father, let us be people who live in the understanding of our identity in Christ. Let us live every day free to make decisions not based on fear or money, but out of obedience and a calling to you. Let us trust in you, knowing that you have ordered all our steps and will provide for our every need. Amen. Intersecting Faith & Life: What keeps you from living a life confident in your identity in Christ? Further Reading:1 Peter 2:9 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

There is a temptation when reading the closing section of Homily 17 to see it as little more than a long list of prohibitions. Do not quarrel. Do not lie. Speak little. Avoid pride. Flee idle disputes. Endure injustice. Keep away from the powerful. Be moderate. At first glance, it can seem as though Isaac is describing a life of relentless restraint. Yet nothing could be further from his intention. The asceticism Isaac describes is never an end in itself. It is not a spiritual achievement, nor a demonstration of discipline. It is medicine. Every command is given for one purpose alone: to heal the heart until it can see again. The passions do not simply lead us into sin; they cloud our vision. Anger, pride, gluttony, argumentativeness, ambition, and constant speech scatter the soul. They fragment our attention until we can no longer perceive the quiet movements of grace. We remain busy with ourselves while becoming strangers to the Kingdom already present within us. This is why Isaac warns so carefully about seemingly ordinary things. Much talk extinguishes the noetic movements of the heart. Pride drives away the gentle energy of the Holy Spirit. Endless disputes over doctrine can become more about victory than truth. Even legitimate concerns can consume the heart until it loses its capacity for wonder. Asceticism, then, is not primarily about saying no. It is about making room for a greater yes. As the heart is purified, something extraordinary begins to emerge. Desire awakens—not the restless desire that seeks to possess, but the deep longing placed within us by God from the beginning. Wonder returns. The world ceases to be merely useful or threatening and becomes transparent to divine love. We begin to recognize that every act of humility, every silence embraced, every injury patiently endured is quietly removing another veil from the eyes of the heart. Then Isaac arrives at the astonishing conclusion toward which the entire homily has been moving: “Your soul will see the light of Christ in herself.” This is not poetic exaggeration. Nor is it a mystical privilege reserved for a few extraordinary souls. It is the destiny of every human being. The One whom we have sought in prayer, in Scripture, in the sacraments, and in the wilderness is discovered dwelling within the heart itself. The ascetical life has not brought Christ near; it has healed our blindness so that we may finally behold the One who has never departed. Here desire reaches its fulfillment. Wonder is no longer merely a response to creation but to the Creator living within His creature. Love recognizes Love. The heart discovers that beneath all its restless searching there has always been an eternal Presence waiting in silence. The Desert Fathers never practiced asceticism because they despised the world. They practiced it because they longed to see. Every fast, every vigil, every hidden act of humility was an act of hope that the eyes of the heart might become clear enough to behold Christ shining from within. Perhaps this is why Isaac ends not with another command but with a promise. The goal is not a perfectly disciplined life. The goal is a luminous heart. For when the heart is healed, it does not merely believe that Christ dwells within. It begins to see Him there. And in that vision, desire finds its home, wonder becomes ceaseless, and the soul enters even now into the eternal light that can never again be overcome by darkness. --- Text of chat during the group:   00:02:13 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/philokalia-ministries-summer-retreat 00:10:02 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/where-silence-learns-to-speak   00:11:13 Larry Ruggiero: Can you send the ISBN# of the book you are reading from. I'm having a difficult time following in my book translated by Nun Christina   00:11:35 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Above link is the Charter for City a Desert Press   00:13:17 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 216 para 7 mid paragraph   00:15:34 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/where-silence-learns-to-speak   00:29:23 James Hickman: Father, no disagreement here, but could you please share a few concrete examples of what Saint Isaac means by “something pertaining to the soul”? I can see why we don't want to hurt the soul. What does Isaac have in mind that pertains to the soul though?   00:33:23 James Hickman: Thank you   00:46:01 Maureen Cunningham: I put an icon in my car when get urge for fries I look at the Icon of the Holy Face of Jesus   00:46:57 paul g.: ✔️   00:47:42 James Hickman: The Thomistic Institue just released a podcast recording of a retreat talk on forgiveness by Fr. Andrew Hofer, OP, where he reminds us of the patristic interpretation of the fatted calf as Christ. The saints denied themselves of delicious food because they've tasted and seen how good and sweet the Lord is. Far tastier than any food made by human hands is the Fatted Calf.   00:52:57 Maureen Cunningham: Not passed by FDA only baby product   00:53:49 Rebecca Thérèse: Is the supplement research conducted by pharmaceutical companies?   01:04:38 Erick Chastain: this set of passages seems to make the argument you should not often be on social media   01:17:09 John ‘Jack': They sanctify us   01:20:59 Joan Chakonas: I used to seek truth in economics and current events back in my secular days- but upon finding my faith I know Seeking truth with the help of the desert fathers is all i ever needed   01:21:07 Julie: Thank you Father

There is a temptation to read St. Isaac's description of the ascetic life as though he were outlining a ladder by which we ascend to God through effort. Nothing could be further from his mind. The ascetical life is not an achievement but a preparation. It removes what clouds the eyes of the heart so that grace may reveal what has always been present: the inexhaustible love of God. Isaac begins with struggle. The soul embraces fasting, watchfulness, vigil, prayer, reading, prostrations, and stillness with determination. Yet these labors are never an end in themselves. They are medicine. They quiet the tyranny of the passions and gather together the scattered powers of the soul. Little by little the heart becomes still enough to receive what no human effort can produce. Then grace begins to act in a new way. The mind is granted what Isaac calls the faculty of sight—not physical vision, nor intellectual understanding, but a purified perception of reality. The eyes of the heart begin to open. One starts to see as God sees. The mysteries of faith are no longer merely believed; they begin to be tasted. Scripture becomes transparent with divine life. Every created thing becomes luminous with the presence of the Creator. This is the healing of sight. What is seen first is not extraordinary visions but the overwhelming depth of God's love. The soul discovers that grace has always preceded it, surrounded it, and carried it. What once appeared ordinary now becomes radiant with mercy. Every remembrance of Christ reveals a love deeper than previously imagined. Every prayer uncovers a tenderness that had always been waiting. From this vision arises what Isaac calls fervor. But this is not emotional excitement or religious intensity. It is the heart set ablaze because it has finally glimpsed something infinitely beautiful. One cannot behold divine love without being drawn toward it. And here wonder is born. Wonder is the soul's astonishment before a Love that continually exceeds every expectation. It is the childlike gaze restored after years of blindness. The more one sees, the more one realizes how little has yet been seen. Every new glimpse enlarges the heart's capacity for awe. Wonder, in turn, gives birth to desire. This desire is no longer restless striving for spiritual experiences. It is the quiet longing to remain forever with the One whose beauty has captivated the heart. Desire has been healed because sight has been healed. One seeks God not from fear or obligation but because Love has become irresistible. The tears Isaac describes arise naturally from this transformation. They are the language of a heart becoming transparent before God. As tears deepen into abiding peace, the warfare of thoughts gradually subsides. From this peace comes purity. From purity comes clearer vision. From clearer vision comes still greater wonder. From wonder comes deeper desire. Thus the soul moves, as St. Paul says, “from glory to glory,” or, as the Fathers loved to say, from grace to grace. Even the ascetical practices themselves are transformed. Vigils, fasting, prostrations, and prayer are no longer burdens to be endured but expressions of love. One remains in prayer because one has discovered the Beloved there. Whether prayer multiplies into countless prostrations or becomes gathered into a single wordless contemplation, both are gifts of the same grace working according to the measure God gives. For Isaac, the entire spiritual life is nothing other than the gradual restoration of vision. We do not become different people so much as truly human. The veil over the heart is lifted. We begin to behold the Kingdom already present. We discover that God has loved us long before we learned to seek Him. Every genuine ascetical labor serves this one purpose: that our sight may be healed, our wonder awakened, our desire purified, and our hearts transformed ever more deeply into the likeness of Christ. The journey never ends, for the love that is revealed is infinite. Each grace prepares the soul for another grace. Each glimpse opens onto a greater horizon. And so the heart continues its pilgrimage—not driven by fear, but drawn onward forever by the inexhaustible beauty of Divine Love. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:01:00 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 217 Homily 18 00:04:21 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/a-new-book-from-city-a-desert-press 00:04:57 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.amazon.com/Monastic-Heart-Future-Church-Fragmentation-ebook/dp/B0H83PJB6R/ref=sr_1_2?crid=CA7O6MNLKS2B&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.UxrtdZ72KKP0IBe2nG2QKWoekj-tDWub-JRHV70F3o_9D8FKLwu3XJQwvaPRSOwXyoLeEkoM3pnCnEfXghYaecmDIjPMYikocLL4oOyECpNa633QwCLIRNEvGeBomRANfezyyKgZUNE_8KLrXsTDyDINbIELyJ_JDlSyMQ366ADfOF8Ko7V9c8zpgjxI-NXGJ8OXoZir32kRKTRw1hzIvS79rq-XnDOglQHeZ3C0ypk.jSo9ogtwHZA38QhTVKjumOyVWU5SWx0imIAZKw7pOPU&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+monastic+heart&qid=1785019600&sprefix=%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-2 00:06:15 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-monastic-heart-and-the-future-of-the-church-charbel-abernethy/1150670922?ean=9798996766413 00:08:19 Aaron: Good evening everyone. Hope you're all well 00:32:02 Maureen Cunningham: When you see your lack, how do you not have self hate for what you see with in yourself 00:44:45 Ryan Ngeve: Father regarding the last line from the previous paragraph, what purposes does it serve for the tears the overcome a man, leave him, and the come again unceasingly? 00:45:48 James Hickman: Re: the prodigal son, the Father's fatted calf was always there for either son to enjoy, the fatted calf being the sweet Christ. 00:45:57 Kathryn Rose: Myrrhic tears 00:46:53 James Hickman: The slaughtered fatted calf is like that peace from warfare 00:48:57 Erick Chastain: page #? 01:00:25 David Swiderski: The veil between heaven and earth is thinnest at night. I can't remember the Saint but learned this from someone in Spain in the Picos de Europa looking at the milky way and the sea of Biscay in the distance. I still like to do a vigil looking out a window or outside (in summer) 01:04:19 Aaron: How can one recognise their own limits in spiritual practice so they don't push themselves beyond what their body can bear? 01:05:07 David Swiderski: I will try. It was a comment from a friend I was so caught up in the moment I cant remember 01:05:19 Julie: Reacted to "I will try. It was a comment from a friend I was so caught up in the moment I cant remember" with