Podcasts about god himself

Join Scott and special guest, Nathan Smith as they discuss the importance of Sabbath rest and what God Himself says about it.

What Does it Mean to be a Child of Royalty…Early on, we discovered that the central message of Jesus was about the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven. He began His ministry preaching the same message as John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). Then, He continued revealing the value of the Kingdom and what life was like in the Kingdom. Look at just a few of these summary verses of His ministry: And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people – Matthew 4:23. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people – Matthew 9:35. When Jesus sent out His own disciples to preach and heal, notice what He told them. “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 10:7. Almost all the parables focused on the Kingdom (including the Kingdom parables in Matthew 13). “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants” – Matthew 18:23. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard” – Matthew 20:1. “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son” – Matthew 22:2. “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom” – Matthew 25:1. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them” – Matthew 25:14. Jesus even tied the message of salvation given to Nicodemus in John 3 to seeing and entering the Kingdom. Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus answered, “”Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” – John 3:3, 5. And Jesus also spoke about the Kingdom during the forty days between His resurrection and ascension. Look how the book of Acts begins. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of (what) the things pertaining to the kingdom of God – Acts 1:1-3. But there is so much more. …When the Royalty is God Himself?  What allowed the early church to thrive under great persecution was the fact they fully understood the Kingdom of God and the blessed ramifications of God being their King. But they were also fully aware they were not only subjects of the great King, but children of His. In fact, as beloved children, they became heirs, and joint-heirs with Christ. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these (the ones led by the Spirit of God) are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father” – Romans 8:14-15. But it gets better. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs— heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together – Romans 8:16-17. And we haven't even looked at how much the Father loves His children, which is beyond comprehension. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the...

"A man after God's own heart." This is the description that God Himself used of the man who would become King David. And yet we see that he was far from perfect. What was it about this man that God liked so much? This series looks at David's environment, experiences and responses to try and discover how we can live a life that brings delight to God's heart.

Why is God furious with Jeroboam, and why doesn't He seem to care much about the king's endeavors and successes- Pastor leads his family in today's -Hopewell -Home- passage. 1Kings 13-33-14-20 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord's Day. In these twenty-two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that what matters most of all is receiving and coming to God Himself only in the way that God Himself has chosen because that way, ultimately, is Christ- Coming in our own way is to cast God Himself behind our backs.

On this episode of Rightly Dividing, we are looking jumping into all of 2 Samuel 22 on our King James Bible study tonight, where we are shown the source of David's strength and power - almighty God Himself. In the process of doing so, we are treating to some gorgeous pictures of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, stunningly revealed for us who are saved to enjoy. Yes, King David fell with Bathsheba, all the way to the bottom, but he took his lumps and came roaring back because the true source of his power was never himself, it was God. There is much for us to learn from David in 2 Samuel 22, not the least of which is how we, here in the closing moments of the Church Age, can get a 'power upgrade in our daily walk with the Lord. When you spend any time feasting on the words of King David wherever they appear in your King James Bible, a recurring theme reveals itself over and over again. What is that theme, you ask? Why, it is the revelation of the character and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, popping up when David tries talking about himself. This type of thing is just what you'd expect from a man who was constantly after God's own heart.

Prior to Christ, the only object of Wilberforce's work was his own glory. But upon his conversion, Wilberforce began asking questions about what God was up to in the world and how he might leverage his vocation to join in his Savior's mission.But where was Wilberforce to start? Britain had so many wrongs that needed to be righted: prolific prostitution, the orphan crisis, poverty, and of course the slave trade, which Wilberforce described as “that hideous traffic, so disgraceful to the British character.”Wilberforce knew that he needed to focus intensely on one or two causes in Parliament in order to make the most of the life the Lord had given him to steward. But he was far less clear about what that cause should be. So, he took more than a year to explore his options. As one of his biographers wrote, “[Wilberforce] wasn't about to be bullied or badgered into a decision on how to spend the rest of his life….He would need to know God's mind, as he would put it…Wilberforce was not about to leap into the fray thoughtlessly; he would first ‘count the cost.'”After he counted the cost and identified the object the Lord was leading him to focus on (the abolition of slavery), Wilberforce recognized that he needed to go all-in and focus singularly on that “Great Object.” And quickly, too. As his dear friend and prime minister William Pitt told him as Wilberforce was close to committing to the cause of abolition, “Do not lose time or the ground will be occupied by another.” Wilberforce knew that if “God Himself was calling him to this task and he shrank from it, God too could find another to do it, and surely would.” In this, Wilberforce demonstrated remarkable humility in choosing his vocational path. He knew that if God wanted slavery abolished, He would find the right person to work through to that end. God didn't need Wilberforce specifically to accomplish His plans. I imagine Wilberforce meditating on Proverbs 19:21 at this critical juncture of his career: “Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.” The Lord's purpose would have prevailed with or without Wilberforce. But Wilberforce wanted the privilege of being a part of fighting evil on behalf of his Savior. And so, Wilberforce committed to the “Great Object” of his career from that moment forward: He would be God's instrument for ending slavery throughout Great Britain.

为你读英语美文 · 第460期主播：永清Rocket Boys第二章 Sputnik节选作者：Homer Hickam，翻译：永清“Look, look!” O'Dell suddenly cried jumping up and down and pointing skyward. “Sputnik!”“快看，快看！”奥德尔突然喊道，上蹿下跳，指向天空，“伴侣号！”Roy Lee sprang to his feet and yelled, “I see it too! “and then Sherman whooped and pointed. I stumbled off the steps and squinted in the general direction everybody was looking. All I could see were millions of stars. “There” Mom said, taking my head and sighting my nose at a point in the sky.罗伊·李跳了起来，喊道：“我也看到了！”然后谢尔曼大叫着指了指。我跌跌撞撞地走下台阶，眯着眼睛朝大家盯着的方向看去。我能看到的只是满天繁星。“在那”，妈妈说着，我抬起了头，对着天空中那个点的方向。Then I saw the bright little ball moving majestically across the narrow star field between the ridge lines. I stared at it with no less rapt attention than if it had been God Himself in a golden chariot riding overhead. 然后，我看到一个明亮的小光球神圣地在漫天繁星的缝隙间略过。我目不转睛地盯着它，仿佛上帝乘坐着金色马车，从头顶飞过。It soared with what seemed to me inexorable and dangerous purposes if there were no power in the universe that could stop it.它翱翔在苍穹，对我来说，势不可挡又带着危险，仿佛宇宙中没有任何力量能够阻挡它。All my life everything important that had ever happened had always happened somewhere else. But Sputnik was right there in front of my eyes in my back yard in Coalwood, McDowell County, West Virginia, U.S.A.. 在我的一生中，似乎所有重要的事情都发生在别处。但就在我家后院，美国西弗吉尼亚州麦克道尔县梅林镇，伴侣号就在我眼前。I couldn't believe it. I felt that if I stretched out enough I could touch it. Then, in less than a minute, it was gone.我简直不敢相信，仿佛触手可及。然后，不到一分钟，它就消失在天际。在Rocket Boys这本里，开篇的一句话便是“All one can really leave one's childhood is what's inside their heads. Education, in other words, and not earthly possessions, is the ultimate legacy, the only thing that cannot be taken away. 能让一个人真正能脱离原生环境的只有他们头脑中的东西。换句话说，教育，而不是世俗的财产，才是最终的遗产，是唯一不能被夺走的东西。”主播介绍永清：英语专业八级，毕业于西安外国语大学公众号：为你读英语美文文章，音乐，图片非商业用途，版权归作者或版权方所有我们生活在世界各地，从事不同职业，为你读我们喜欢的美文。

Come Holy Spirit MESSAGE SUMMARY: Special Introduction – The Spiritual Discipline of Giving: We are challenged by God to bring our whole tithe into the storehouse (church) because God tells us that we cannot out give Him. After all, everything we have is from God. Our gifts to God should be from our first fruits and not our last fruits. Developing the discipline of returning our first fruits to God breaks the hold of materialism on our lives. Today's Message – Come Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is God Himself. The Holy Spirit is a presence of God in the Trinity of one God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells us, as our counselor, always pointing to Jesus in truth. People are not convicted and converted in their hearts and minds to become followers of Jesus without the Holy Spirit. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our churches, not much will be accomplished. It is impossible to be a Christian and to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. The character of Jesus' followers is manifested through their lives bringing forth the fruits of the Holy Spirit, as presented in Galatians 5:22-23: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control . . .”. Otherwise, our lives will only reflect the fruit of the flesh as presented in Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these . . .". The Holy Spirit seeks to work through us in a way that those around us see the fruit of the Spirit and not the fruit of the flesh. What do people see when they look at Your life? As followers of Jesus, we need to live through God's gift to us of the power inherent in the Holy Spirit.   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, FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Luke 11:13 SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Malachi 3:8-12; Proverbs 23:5; Genesis 1:2; Psalms 1:39; Acts 1:4-5; 1 Corinthians 2:10; Hebrews 9:14; Luke 1:35; Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 3:17; John 14:16; Acts 2:42; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:6-7; John 3:4-8; John 14:16; John 16:7; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 5:18. A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org. WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL – “When Jesus Asked You: “Whom do you say that I am?”, Did You Answer Jesus: “You are my God and the Lord of my Life!”?”: https://awordfromthelord.org/devotional/ DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB

Have you ever played, “The Telephone Game”? As the time drew near for our risen Savior to ascend into heaven, He assured the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit. And one of the reasons for this was to ensure that the disciples didn't find themselves playing some version of this game when it came to relaying His teaching and the events of the Gospels. God Himself made sure of it.

Toward the end of chapter 4, Jesus makes a dramatic invitation to two pairs of brothers to follow Him and join Him in His work. It's a dramatic moment, with all four young men leaving the family business as fisherman to join Jesus. But as we examine the very human element of this story, we see that Jesus' call to these ordinary tradesmen is actually exceptional news for us - and we see Jesus making the same invitation to us, to “lay down our nets” and “follow Him.” An invitation that makes demands of us, yes, but also is filled with a promise of a life far beyond anything we could have previously imagined as we walk behind and beside God Himself.

Readings: Acts 14:21-27 Psalm 145:8-13 Revelation 21:1-5 John 13:31-35 By God's goodness and compassion, the doors of His kingdom have been opened to all who have faith, Jew or Gentile. That's the good news Paul and Barnabas proclaim in today's First Reading. With the coming of the Church—the new Jerusalem John sees in today's Second Reading —God is “making all things new.” In His Church, the “old order” of death is passing away and God for all time is making His dwelling with the human race, so that all peoples “will be His people and God Himself will always be with them.” In this the promises made through His prophets are accomplished (see Ezekiel 37:27; Isaiah 25:8; 35:10). The Church is “the kingdom for all ages” that we sing of in today's Psalm. That's why we see the Apostles, under the guidance of the Spirit, ordaining “presbyters” or priests (see 1 Timothy 4:14; Titus 1:5). Anointed priests and bishops will be the Apostles' successors, ensuring that the Church's “dominion endures through all generations” (see Philippians 1:1, note that the New American Bible translates episcopois, the Greek word for bishops, as “overseers”). Until the end of time, the Church will declare to the world God's mighty deeds, blessing His holy name and giving Him thanks, singing of the glories of His kingdom. In His Church, we know ourselves as His “faithful ones,” as those Jesus calls “My little children” in today's Gospel. We live by the new law, the “new commandment” that He gave in His final hours. The love He commands of us is no human love but a supernatural love. We love each other as Jesus loved us in suffering and dying for us. We love in imitation of His love. This kind of love is only made possible by the Spirit poured into our hearts at Baptism (see Romans 5:5), renewed in the sacrifice His priests offer in every Mass. By our love we glorify the Father. And by our love all peoples will know that we are His people, that He is our God.

Did you know that we were created to work? God designed work as a good thing, reminding the Israelites: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (Ex. 20:9). Through work, we can feed the hungry, create beautiful pieces of art, disseminate knowledge, construct homes, and create life-sustaining products. However, our God-ordained relationship with work has been tainted by sin. Psalm 127 speaks into our often frantic and restless relationship with work. The psalm opens by reminding us that “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain” (v. 1). Notice that the Psalmist doesn’t say that work is altogether bad. He does not say, “God builds and watches over us, so you might as well go home and relax.” The message of the psalm is in the “unless.” Unless we recognize that our work is in the context of God’s greater work. Unless we remember that our success in everything is dependent upon God. Unless we keep God at the center, our work becomes useless. It is possible to work hard and achieve nothing of eternal value. Psalm 127 reminds us that we should orient our work toward God. God is at work in the world and has given us the joy and responsibility of joining Him in that work. Children are an example of this. For many of us, our children represent the most significant and lasting impact we will have on the world (vv. 3–5). When our powers of work begin to wane with age, our children will be coming into their prime of life. While our work in their lives may be nearing an end, God created them, and He will continue to work through them. >> Today, whether you work in an office or at home, let everything you do be infused with an awareness that the One you serve is God Himself! Praise God today for the joy of participating in His work in the world.

Let me perceive forgiveness as it is. Let us review the meaning of "forgive," for it is apt to be distorted and to be perceived as something that entails an unfair sacrifice of righteous wrath, a gift unjustified and undeserved, and a complete denial of the truth. In such a view, forgiveness must be seen as mere eccentric folly, and this course appear to rest salvation on a whim. This twisted view of what forgiveness means is easily corrected, when you can accept the fact that pardon is not asked for what is true. It must be limited to what is false. It is irrelevant to everything except illusions. Truth is God's creation, and to pardon that is meaningless. All truth belongs to Him, reflects His laws and radiates His Love. Does this need pardon? How can you forgive the sinless and eternally benign? The major difficulty that you find in genuine forgiveness on your part is that you still believe you must forgive the truth, and not illusions. You conceive of pardon as a vain attempt to look past what is there; to overlook the truth, in an unfounded effort to deceive yourself by making an illusion true. This twisted viewpoint but reflects the hold that the idea of sin retains as yet upon your mind, as you regard yourself. Because you think your sins are real, you look on pardon as deception. For it is impossible to think of sin as true and not believe forgiveness is a lie. Thus is forgiveness really but a sin, like all the rest. It says the truth is false, and smiles on the corrupt as if they were as blameless as the grass; as white as snow. It is delusional in what it thinks it can accomplish. It would see as right the plainly wrong; the loathsome as the good. Pardon is no escape in such a view. It merely is a further sign that sin is unforgivable, at best to be concealed, denied or called another name, for pardon is a treachery to truth. Guilt cannot be forgiven. If you sin, your guilt is everlasting. Those who are forgiven from the view their sins are real are pitifully mocked and twice condemned; first, by themselves for what they think they did, and once again by those who pardon them. It is sin's unreality that makes forgiveness natural and wholly sane, a deep relief to those who offer it; a quiet blessing where it is received. It does not countenance illusions, but collects them lightly, with a little laugh, and gently lays them at the feet of truth. And there they disappear entirely. Forgiveness is the only thing that stands for truth in the illusions of the world. It sees their nothingness, and looks straight through the thousand forms in which they may appear. It looks on lies, but it is not deceived. It does not heed the self-accusing shrieks of sinners mad with guilt. It looks on them with quiet eyes, and merely says to them, "My brother, what you think is not the truth." The strength of pardon is its honesty, which is so uncorrupted that it sees illusions as illusions, not as truth. It is because of this that it becomes the undeceiver in the face of lies; the great restorer of the simple truth. By its ability to overlook what is not there, it opens up the way to truth, which has been blocked by dreams of guilt. Now are you free to follow in the way your true forgiveness opens up to you. For if one brother has received this gift of you, the door is open to yourself. There is a very simple way to find the door to true forgiveness, and perceive it open wide in welcome. When you feel that you are tempted to accuse someone of sin in any form, do not allow your mind to dwell on what you think he did, for that is self-deception. Ask instead, "Would I accuse myself of doing this?" Thus will you see alternatives for choice in terms that render choosing meaningful, and keep your mind as free of guilt and pain as God Himself intended it to be, and as it is in truth. It is but lies that would condemn. In truth is innocence the only thing there is. Forgiveness stands between illusions and the truth; between the world you see and that which lies beyond; between the hell of guilt and Heaven's gate. Across this bridge, as powerful as Love which laid its blessing on it, are all dreams of evil and of hatred and attack brought silently to truth. They are not kept to swell and bluster, and to terrify the foolish dreamer who believes in them. He has been gently wakened from his dream by understanding what he thought he saw was never there. And now he cannot feel that all escape has been denied to him. He does not have to fight to save himself. He does not have to kill the dragons which he thought pursued him. Nor need he erect the heavy walls of stone and iron doors he thought would make him safe. He can remove the ponderous and useless armor made to chain his mind to fear and misery. His step is light, and as he lifts his foot to stride ahead a star is left behind, to point the way to those who follow him. Forgiveness must be practiced, for the world cannot perceive its meaning, nor provide a guide to teach you its beneficence. There is no thought in all the world that leads to any understanding of the laws it follows, nor the Thought that it reflects. It is as alien to the world as is your own reality. And yet it joins your mind with the reality in you. Today we practice true forgiveness, that the time of joining be no more delayed. For we would meet with our reality in freedom and in peace. Our practicing becomes the footsteps lighting up the way for all our brothers, who will follow us to the reality we share with them. That this may be accomplished, let us give a quarter of an hour twice today, and spend it with the Guide Who understands the meaning of forgiveness, and was sent to us to teach it. Let us ask of Him: Let me perceive forgiveness as it is. Then choose one brother as He will direct, and catalogue his "sins," as one by one they cross your mind. Be certain not to dwell on any one of them, but realize that you are using his "offenses" but to save the world from all ideas of sin. Briefly consider all the evil things you thought of him, and each time ask yourself, "Would I condemn myself for doing this?" Let him be freed from all the thoughts you had of sin in him. And now you are prepared for freedom. If you have been practicing thus far in willingness and honesty, you will begin to sense a lifting up, a lightening of weight across your chest, a deep and certain feeling of relief. The time remaining should be given to experiencing the escape from all the heavy chains you sought to lay upon your brother, but were laid upon yourself. Forgiveness should be practiced through the day, for there will still be many times when you forget its meaning and attack yourself. When this occurs, allow your mind to see through this illusion as you tell yourself: Let me perceive forgiveness as it is. Would I accuse myself of doing this? I will not lay this chain upon myself. In everything you do remember this: No one is crucified alone, and yet no one can enter Heaven by himself.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 134

The Book of Lamentations: • Jeremiah is the Author • Written after the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 587BC • Includes deep grief over human suffering, confession of sin, cry for relief, and a glimpse of hope Lamentations is written in poetic form: • Long line followed by short line • Metaphors • Tragic reversals • Acrostics following the Hebrew Alphabet Why do we need a book about weeping? • Because we are emotional people and we shouldn't ignore deep grief • Because we need to know how to grieve without becoming hopeless Jeremiah's Comfort Came From: • God's unchangeable traits of mercy and compassion • God's Word that though He punish He will not consume • God Himself as his sufficient portion Jeremiah saw the benefits of suffering • It's good to be forced to quietly wait on the Lord • Its good to be forced to find hope in the Lord • Its good to bear the yoke in our youth Jeremiah learned that suffering never lasts forever, God always ends with mercy

Bill Gates has announced a social media unit to control "disinformation", to make sure that the only information available is THEIR information/disinformation. The House voted for $40B Ukraine support. Wake up Church! God's judgment is imminent. You have allowed culture to redefine the meaning of His doctrine, the cross, and even God Himself. If America falls, we should not be surprised. Galatians 6:14 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.   CONTACT THE SHOW Website: https://scalpeledge.com Email: KFR@scalpeledge.com Twitter: @TheScalpelEdge Instagram: @TheScalpelPodcast   #TheScalpel  

I loose the world from all I thought it was What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs? And what can save the world except your Self? Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth. A madman thinks the world he sees is real, and does not doubt it. Nor can he be swayed by questioning his thoughts' effects. It is but when their source is raised to question that the hope of freedom comes to him at last. Yet is salvation easily achieved, for anyone is free to change his mind, and all his thoughts change with it. Now the source of thought has shifted, for to change your mind means you have changed the source of all ideas you think or ever thought or yet will think. You free the past from what you thought before. You free the future from all ancient thoughts of seeking what you do not want to find. The present now remains the only time. Here in the present is the world set free. For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world. You have enslaved the world with all your fears, your doubts and miseries, your pain and tears, and all your sorrows press on it, and keep the world a prisoner to your beliefs. Death strikes it everywhere because you hold the bitter thoughts of death within your mind. The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold upon it are your wishes, acted out so you can look on them and think them real. Perhaps you think you did not make the world, but came unwillingly to what was made already, hardly waiting for your thoughts to give it meaning. Yet in truth you found exactly what you looked for when you came. There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release. Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly. Ideas leave not their source. This central theme is often stated in the text, and must be borne in mind if you would understand the lesson for today. It is not pride which tells you that you made the world you see, and that it changes as you change your mind. But it is pride that argues you have come into a world quite separate from yourself, impervious to what you think, and quite apart from what you chance to think it is. There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as far as he can let himself be led along the road to truth. He will return and go still farther, or perhaps step back a while and then return again. But healing is the gift of those who are prepared to learn there is no world, and can accept the lesson now. Their readiness will bring the lesson to them in some form which they can understand and recognize. Some see it suddenly on point of death, and rise to teach it. Others find it in experience that is not of this world, which shows them that the world does not exist because what they behold must be the truth, and yet it clearly contradicts the world. And some will find it in this course, and in the exercises that we do today. Today's idea is true because the world does not exist. And if it is indeed your own imagining, then you can loose it from all things you ever thought it was by merely changing all the thoughts that gave it these appearances. The sick are healed as you let go all thoughts of sickness, and the dead arise when you let thoughts of life replace all thoughts you ever held of death. A lesson earlier repeated once must now be stressed again, for it contains the firm foundation for today's idea. You are as God created you. There is no place where you can suffer, and no time that can bring change to your eternal state. How can a world of time and place exist, if you remain as God created you? What is the lesson for today except another way of saying that to know your Self is the salvation of the world? To free the world from every kind of pain is but to change your mind about yourself. There is no world apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source, and you maintain the world within your mind in thought. Yet if you are as God created you, you cannot think apart from Him, nor make what does not share His timelessness and Love. Are these inherent in the world you see? Does it create like Him? Unless it does, it is not real, and cannot be at all. If you are real the world you see is false, for God's creation is unlike the world in every way. And as it was His Thought by which you were created, so it is your thoughts which made it and must set it free, that you may know the Thoughts you share with God. Release the world! Your real creations wait for this release to give you fatherhood, not of illusions, but as God in truth. God shares His Fatherhood with you who are His Son, for He makes no distinctions in what is Himself and what is still Himself. What He creates is not apart from Him, and nowhere does the Father end, the Son begin as something separate from Him. There is no world because it is a thought apart from God, and made to separate the Father and the Son, and break away a part of God Himself and thus destroy His Wholeness. Can a world which comes from this idea be real? Can it be anywhere? Deny illusions, but accept the truth. Deny you are a shadow briefly laid upon a dying world. Release your mind, and you will look upon a world released. Today our purpose is to free the world from all the idle thoughts we ever held about it, and about all living things we see upon it. They can not be there. No more can we. For we are in the home our Father set for us, along with them. And we who are as He created us would loose the world this day from every one of our illusions, that we may be free. Begin the fifteen-minute periods in which we practice twice today with this: I who remain as God created me would loose the world from all I thought it was. For I am real because the world is not, and I would know my own reality. Then merely rest, alert but with no strain, and let your mind in quietness be changed so that the world is freed, along with you. You need not realize that healing comes to many brothers far across the world, as well as to the ones you see nearby, as you send out these thoughts to bless the world. But you will sense your own release, although you may not fully understand as yet that you could never be released alone. Throughout the day, increase the freedom sent through your ideas to all the world, and say whenever you are tempted to deny the power of your simple change of mind: I loose the world from all I thought it was, and choose my own reality instead.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 132

Want to sweeten and deepen every family, friendship, and business relationship in your life? Want to express love and kindness in a tangible, memorable way? Mark Parrett and Steven Manuel discuss how to give great gifts (3:45), one of God’s hallmarks for celebrations. Mark reviews some stories and tips for gifts given well, in the tradition established by God Himself. This very special episode is interrupted by someone bringing Steven a real-time gift! No really! (31:45-34:49)

No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth. Failure is all about you while you seek for goals that cannot be achieved. You look for permanence in the impermanent, for love where there is none, for safety in the midst of danger; immortality within the darkness of the dream of death. Who could succeed where contradiction is the setting of his searching, and the place to which he comes to find stability? Goals that are meaningless are not attained. There is no way to reach them, for the means by which you strive for them are meaningless as they are. Who can use such senseless means, and hope through them to gain in anything? Where can they lead? And what could they achieve that offers any hope of being real? Pursuit of the imagined leads to death because it is the search for nothingness, and while you seek for life you ask for death. You look for safety and security, while in your heart you pray for danger and protection for the little dream you made. Yet searching is inevitable here. For this you came, and you will surely do the thing you came for. But the world can not dictate the goal for which you search, unless you give it power to do so. Otherwise, you still are free to choose a goal that lies beyond the world and every worldly thought, and one that comes to you from an idea relinquished yet remembered, old yet new; an echo of a heritage forgot, yet holding everything you really want. Be glad that search you must. Be glad as well to learn you search for Heaven, and must find the goal you really want. No one can fail to want this goal and reach it in the end. God's Son can not seek vainly, though he try to force delay, deceive himself and think that it is hell he seeks. When he is wrong, he finds correction. When he wanders off, he is led back to his appointed task. No one remains in hell, for no one can abandon his Creator, nor affect His perfect, timeless and unchanging Love. You will find Heaven. Everything you seek but this will fall away. Yet not because it has been taken from you. It will go because you do not want it. You will reach the goal you really want as certainly as God created you in sinlessness. Why wait for Heaven? It is here today. Time is the great illusion it is past or in the future. Yet this cannot be, if it is where God wills His Son to be. How could the Will of God be in the past, or yet to happen? What He wills is now, without a past and wholly futureless. It is as far removed from time as is a tiny candle from a distant star, or what you chose from what you really want. Heaven remains your one alternative to this strange world you made and all its ways; its shifting patterns and uncertain goals, its painful pleasures and its tragic joys. God made no contradictions. What denies its own existence and attacks itself is not of Him. He did not make two minds, with Heaven as the glad effect of one, and earth the other's sorry outcome which is Heaven's opposite in every way. God does not suffer conflict. Nor is His creation split in two. How could it be His Son could be in hell, when God Himself established him in Heaven? Could he lose what the Eternal Will has given him to be his home forever? Let us not try longer to impose an alien will upon God's single purpose. He is here because He wills to be, and what He wills is present now, beyond the reach of time. Today we will not choose a paradox in place of truth. How could the Son of God make time to take away the Will of God? He thus denies himself, and contradicts what has no opposite. He thinks he made a hell opposing Heaven, and believes that he abides in what does not exist, while Heaven is the place he cannot find. Leave foolish thoughts like these behind today, and turn your mind to true ideas instead. No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth, and it is truth we seek to reach today. We will devote ten minutes to this goal three times today, and we will ask to see the rising of the real world to replace the foolish images that we hold dear, with true ideas arising in the place of thoughts that have no meaning, no effect, and neither source nor substance in the truth. This we acknowledge as we start upon our practice periods. Begin with this: I ask to see a different world, and think a different kind of thought from those I made. The world I seek I did not make alone, the thoughts I want to think are not my own. For several minutes watch your mind and see, although your eyes are closed, the senseless world you think is real. Review the thoughts as well which are compatible with such a world, and which you think are true. Then let them go, and sink below them to the holy place where they can enter not. There is a door beneath them in your mind, which you could not completely lock to hide what lies beyond. Seek for that door and find it. But before you try to open it, remind yourself no one can fail who seeks to reach the truth. And it is this request you make today. Nothing but this has any meaning now; no other goal is valued now nor sought, nothing before this door you really want, and only what lies past it do you seek. Put out your hand, and see how easily the door swings open with your one intent to go beyond it. Angels light the way, so that all darkness vanishes, and you are standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see. A tiny moment of surprise, perhaps, will make you pause before you realize the world you see before you in the light reflects the truth you knew, and did not quite forget in wandering away in dreams. You cannot fail today. There walks with you the Spirit Heaven sent you, that you might approach this door some day, and through His aid slip effortlessly past it, to the light. Today that day has come. Today God keeps His ancient promise to His holy Son, as does His Son remember his to Him. This is a day of gladness, for we come to the appointed time and place where you will find the goal of all your searching here, and all the seeking of the world, which end together as you pass beyond the door. Remember often that today should be a time of special gladness, and refrain from dismal thoughts and meaningless laments. Salvation's time has come. Today is set by Heaven itself to be a time of grace for you and for the world. If you forget this happy fact, remind yourself with this: Today I seek and find all that I want. My single purpose offers it to me. No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 131

There's bad news and good news about your messy story. The bad news is that messy stories are straight-up painful. The good news is that you aren't alone. Shadia Hrichi, author of Tamar: Rediscovering the God Who Redeems Me, shares hope-filled truths about how God Himself cares for and transforms our painful places.

"A man after God's own heart." This is the description that God Himself used of the man who would become King David. And yet we see that he was far from perfect. What was it about this man that God liked so much? This series looks at David's environment, experiences and responses to try and discover how we can live a life that brings delight to God's heart.

Toward the end of chapter 4, Jesus makes a dramatic invitation to two pairs of brothers to follow Him and join Him in His work. It's a dramatic moment, with all four young men leaving the family business as fisherman to join Jesus. But as we examine the very human element of this story, we see that Jesus' call to these ordinary tradesmen is actually exceptional news for us - and we see Jesus making the same invitation to us, to “lay down our nets” and “follow Him.” An invitation that makes demands of us, yes, but also is filled with a promise of a life far beyond anything we could have previously imagined as we walk behind and beside God Himself.

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The Scripture readings are Lamentations 3:22-23; 1 John 3:1-3; and John 16:16-22.The only rescue from God's wrath against sin is found in the very nature of God Himself. That is why there is hope throughout the book of Lamentations. The reason for this hope is that God's steadfast love never ceases, and His mercies never – never ever – come to an end. They are new each and every morning. Great is His faithfulness (Lam. 3:22-23).Our apologies for the quality of the recording but to connectivity issues in some places.

In Exodus 3, God Himself announced that not only had the cries of His people reached Him, but He personally had come down to deliver them. Yet, when Moses broadcast this message to those bond in Egypt in Exodus 6:7, scripture tells us that they couldn't hear nor believe him. This is the work of shame... a pervasive sense that even if you don't like where you are, you deserve to be there. Rather than embrace the deliverer in front of you, shame convinces you to accept the devils behind you. This healing message will dismantle the work of shame in the life of God's bride, liberating us from barrenness to be a blessing. Scriptures: Isaiah 54:1-8; 11-17 (NKJV) Psalm 139:5 (TPT) Psalm 139:23-24 (TPT) Takeaways: 1. Sin is not satisfied with shaming our past; it seeks to stain our future. 2. Shame tells us there's not only something wrong with what we've done, there's something wrong with who we are. 3. God turns barrenness into blessings.

Summary: The value of life is not found in the measures, treasures and pleasures of the world, but in God Himself. Psalm 139:1–24 1 - I have confidence in God's knowledge. V 1-6 2 - I find courage in God's presence. V 7-12 3 - I am alive by His power and purpose. V 13-16 4 - My value comes from God not this world. V 17-18 5 - I can see the real enemy. V 19-22

There is no love but God's. Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible. Perhaps you think there is a kind of love for this, a kind for that; a way of loving one, another way of loving still another. Love is one. It has no separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and no distinctions. It is like itself, unchanged throughout. It never alters with a person or a circumstance. It is the Heart of God, and also of His Son. Love's meaning is obscure to anyone who thinks that love can change. He does not see that changing love must be impossible. And thus he thinks that he can love at times, and hate at other times. He also thinks that love can be bestowed on one, and yet remain itself although it is withheld from others. To believe these things of love is not to understand it. If it could make such distinctions, it would have to judge between the righteous and the sinner, and perceive the Son of God in separate parts. Love cannot judge. As it is one itself, it looks on all as one. Its meaning lies in oneness. And it must elude the mind that thinks of it as partial or in part. There is no love but God's, and all of love is His. There is no other principle that rules where love is not. Love is a law without an opposite. Its wholeness is the power holding everything as one, the link between the Father and the Son which holds Them both forever as the same. No course whose purpose is to teach you to remember what you really are could fail to emphasize that there can never be a difference in what you really are and what love is. Love's meaning is your own, and shared by God Himself. For what you are is what He is. There is no love but His, and what He is, is everything there is. There is no limit placed upon Himself, and so are you unlimited as well. No law the world obeys can help you grasp love's meaning. What the world believes was made to hide love's meaning, and to keep it dark and secret. There is not one principle the world upholds but violates the truth of what love is, and what you are as well. Seek not within the world to find your Self. Love is not found in darkness and in death. Yet it is perfectly apparent to the eyes that see and ears that hear love's Voice. Today we practice making free your mind of all the laws you think you must obey; of all the limits under which you live, and all the changes that you think are part of human destiny. Today we take the largest single step this course requests in your advance towards its established goal. If you achieve the faintest glimmering of what love means today, you have advanced in distance without measure and in time beyond the count of years to your release. Let us together, then, be glad to give some time to God today, and understand there is no better use for time than this. For fifteen minutes twice today escape from every law in which you now believe. Open your mind and rest. The world that seems to hold you prisoner can be escaped by anyone who does not hold it dear. Withdraw all value you have placed upon its meager offerings and senseless gifts, and let the gift of God replace them all. Call to your Father, certain that His Voice will answer. He Himself has promised this. And He Himself will place a spark of truth within your mind wherever you give up a false belief, a dark illusion of your own reality and what love means. He will shine through your idle thoughts today, and help you understand the truth of love. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach love's meaning to your clean and open mind. And He will bless the lesson with His Love. Today the legion of the future years of waiting for salvation disappears before the timelessness of what you learn. Let us give thanks today that we are spared a future like the past. Today we leave the past behind us, nevermore to be remembered. And we raise our eyes upon a different present, where a future dawns unlike the past in every attribute. The world in infancy is newly born. And we will watch it grow in health and strength, to shed its blessing upon all who come to learn to cast aside the world they thought was made in hate to be love's enemy. Now are they all made free, along with us. Now are they all our brothers in God's Love. We will remember them throughout the day, because we cannot leave a part of us outside our love if we would know our Self. At least three times an hour think of one who makes the journey with you, and who came to learn what you must learn. And as he comes to mind, give him this message from your Self: I bless you, brother, with the Love of God, which I would share with you. For I would learn the joyous lesson that there is no love but God's and yours and mine and everyone's.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 127

Today I'm hanging out with the absolutely amazing Jennifer Taylor Wagner. Jennifer was relentlessly bullied for her weight as a child, and then as an adult experienced incredible life change when she lost over 300 pounds. However, even after achieving such an amazing goal, she found that getting her body to a smaller size was not what fulfilled her life. She began to do some hard inner work and realized that the heart change that has to come about is vital to transforming how you view your body, and realizing what your body has been through.  During our conversation, Jennifer shares her powerful story, all about her book Your Good Body: Embracing a Body Positive Mindset in a Perfection-Focused World and takes us to places where we can unpack some of the narratives we have around our bodies, our fragmented relationships with food, and  the mess that diet culture has created. The heart of Jennifer's message is: The more you can see yourself holistically as a person, made on purpose by God, who is in the middle of a redemption story, in a body, also made by God in the middle of a redemption story, can lead to walking in freedom and being able to engage the life you're called to regardless of what your body looks like from the outside.  Jennifer also specifically uses the Enneagram as a tool that can help us understand our motives, our struggles internally as well as our responses to our body. You'll hear that portion in the last 15 minutes or so and you can find her tools for how she uses it in the show notes and over on the blog!  The Lord isn't finished with you, friend. There is so much healing to be had still on this side of Heaven. You matter and your story matters.  Connecting with Jennifer: Audio book Book Instagram Online Course Podcast  JOIN OUR PATREON COMMUNITY!!!! I would be honored to have your support to keep the Simply Stories Podcast going! You can sign up for as little as $3 a month and each tier offers gifts that I hope will bless you in return.  Today's episode sponsor: Tony Crabtree Homes with Exit Realty Home buyer guide: http://bit.ly/buyersguidecrabtreehomes Seller guide: http://bit.ly/sellerguidecrabtreehomes Facebook Instagram Website YouTube References: -The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk  -”When My Heart is Torn Asunder”- Phil Wickham -The Enneagram -Type 9 -Type 2 -Jennifer's Enneagram resource -A good free test to take  -Jennifer's Bible reading plan via YouVersion “Body Image God's Way” Scripture References: Psalm 139:14-Perfectly and wonderfully made  Luke 6:45-out of the heart the mouth speaks  1 Corinthians 13- “the love chapter” 2 Corinthians 10:5-take every thought captive  Psalm 139:13, Jeremiah 1:5-we were crafted inside the womb by God Himself and He knew us and still knows us Genesis 3:11-13-”who told you you were naked?” Ephesians 6:10-18-Using the “offensive weapon of the word of God” which is the sword of the Spirit John 10:27-30-we can hear and follow the voice of the Shepherd 2 Corinthians 12:7-10-the thorn in your side 2 Corinthians 12:9-His grace is sufficient Galatians 5:1-God is committed to our freedom  Ephesians 3:20-21 (MSG translation)  Deuteronomy 6:4-7,Matthew 22:37-40,Mark 12:30-31,Luke 10:27-Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength  2 Corinthians 4:16-Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day Connecting with Emily and Simply Stories Podcast:Instagram (Em life // Podcast Life)FacebookTwitterBlog  *Intro and Outro music is from audionautix.com

Episode 104 Today we welcome the Rev Dr David Wilkinson all the way from Durham, England. Dr Wilkinson is an ordained Methodist minister with PhDs in Systematic Theology and Theoretical Astrophysics. In addition to working for St John's College, he is the project director of “Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science” which seeks to do exactly what the name implies. We talk about their surprising research into Christian leaders' attitudes towards science, how to think about biblical miracles, how to have constructive dialogue, and what happens when you put bishops in a room full of humanoid robots. This is an engaging, heartfelt, and inspiring conversation, and we're excited to bring it to you.    ECLAS - https://www.eclasproject.org/ Reid, Lydia and Wilkinson, David. (2021.) ‘Building Enthusiasm and Overcoming Fear: Engaging with Christian Leaders in an Age of Science', Zygon 56 (4). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14679744/2021/56/4   Support this podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/DowntheWormholepodcast   More information at https://www.downthewormhole.com/   produced by Zack Jackson music by Zack Jackson and Barton Willis    Check out Zack and Nichole's new podcast "Reimagining Faith with the Pastors Jackson" here... https://www.patreon.com/reimaginingfaith https://reimaginingfaith.podbean.com/   Transcript  This transcript was automatically generated by www.otter.ai, and as such contains errors (especially when multiple people are talking). As the AI learns our voices, the transcripts will improve. We hope it is helpful even with the errors.   Zack Jackson 00:00 Hey there, Zack here. Before we get to today's episode, which is so good, by the way, I wanted to let you know that my wife, Nicole, and I just launched a new podcast called reimagining faith with the pastor's Jackson. I haven't really shared a whole lot about this on the podcast yet. But we both just quit our church jobs, and are in the process of planting a new faith community called Open Table United Church of Christ. At this new faith community were committed to being theologically progressive, locally minded with Jesus at the center. We're starting from scratch. And we are rethinking every part about what it means to be a community of faith in this particular moment in history. We are really excited about the ways that the Spirit is moving among our little team. And we wanted a way to share that with you all as well. Hence, the reimagining faith podcast, we'll be posting new episodes every week, delving into our particular convictions, telling stories, interviewing difference makers and giving you an inside peek into the messy and ridiculous process of planting a church that is not quite a church, but it's also kind of a church, but not really, you know, it'll probably make a lot more sense after you hear a few episodes of it. So why don't you just go ahead and subscribe. Just search for reimagining faith with the pastor's Jackson wherever it is that you get your podcasts. And if you want to help us expand to this work, you can support us at patreon.com/reimagining faith. And now, on to the podcast. You are listening to the down the wormhole podcast exploring the strange and fascinating relationship between science and religion. Our guest today is the current principal of St. John's College Durham and a professor in the Department of theology and religion. He has PhDs in both theoretical astrophysics and systematic theology, having served as both a Methodist minister and an academic professor. He's also the project director of equipping Christian leadership in an age of science, which is a project whose goals are near and dear to my heart. And I'm sure many of yours as well. It is my privilege to introduce the Reverend David Wilkinson. Welcome to the podcast. Thank   David Wilkinson 02:19 you, Zack, it's so lovely to be here. Lovely to talk to you.   Zack Jackson 02:24 Yes, I'm so glad that we were able to coordinate across the ocean, get our time zones correct and, and that you're able to be with us today I am fascinated by just the breadth of the work that you have done and that you are doing with the organizations that you're associated with. And so, again, it's an honor to have you here with us. So I mentioned in that that introduction, equipping Christian leadership in an age of science, or EC L A s do you do pronounce the acronym when when you're in a company,   David Wilkinson 03:01 about team pronounces it in class, and part of our team pronounces it at class. And we haven't come to agreement on what the correct pronunciation is. So I'm happy with the project.   Zack Jackson 03:15 Did any of you consider switching the acronym the words around so it would spell something like Eclair or something that well,   David Wilkinson 03:22 as you can see, remember and see from me, I'm very open to a close and as many as possible, probably too many for me. But, I mean, you know, sometimes theology and science is dominated by some of these acronyms. I think what we've been concerned about has been that sense of equipping Christian leadership. And about almost 10 years ago, my friend and colleague Tom McLeish, who's a theoretical physicist and a lay theologian, and I were speculating about what happened when senior Christian leaders, such as bishops, or leaders of other denominations, or leaders of parachurch organizations, those organizations that span different churches, were asked about science. And one of the things that we noticed was that senior church leaders often responded with fear, or negativity, or silence. And the problem with that is that then those who serve as Christian leaders under them, if they come from a scientific background, if your senior leader responds with fear or negativity or silence, then that doesn't really affirm what you're bringing to ministry, in terms of your interest or passion about science. And then that ripples down into congregations, where disciples who live out their lives with a vocation to be scientists, technologists are in Engineers, they're not affirmed in their vocation. And of course, that then ripples out to reinforce this very dominant model of relationship between science and religion, that conflict model of science and religion or independence, that the two have to be separated. And so we thought, Is there a project to be done where we can equip Christian leaders to engage with science with joy, with humility, with confidence with excitement? And that would have a ripple down effect throughout the church?   Zack Jackson 05:36 Yes, I mentioned I resonate with this. This is the this is the project that I'm working on for my doctrine ministry program right now, creating resources for pastors to engage, to equip them to have these conversations because it is just so important. So in what ways have since you started this program? How have you been able to start equipping leaders,   David Wilkinson 06:00 one of the things we first realized sack was the importance of personal relationships and conversations. And so we started with, with conferences, where we would invite a small group of senior leaders, intentionally inviting them to come here to Durham. And we would take them into science departments, where we introduce them to world class scientists. Now, sometimes, in this work, organizations will choose a scientist who happens to be a Christian. We didn't do that. We just went for world class scientists, whatever their religious backgrounds, and we threw the bishops into their labs. And we got these people to talk about their own science and their work. And it was just terrific from cosmology and simulating universes through to biology, genetics, we even had one wonderful incident where we took 30 bishops into one of our engineering labs here in Durham, where we have small robots, six of them, artificial intelligent robots, humanoid robots, and the bishops were kind of pressed against the wall. Worried about this, these little robots who are wandering round, and the robots went up to the bishops, and started to talk to them. And suddenly the bishops move towards the center of the room, as they started conversing with these robots. And I wish I'd had a video camera to show you. And in a sense, we start with with bishops who are a little worried about science. And slowly they move into the center. And part of that is talking to research students, and talking with professors, and actually seeing that these folk work in science, because they're passionate about finding out about the universe, or they're passionate about helping society and other people, that some of the the big, bad images of science are not quite true when you meet scientists themselves. And we brought into that conversation, then theologians into the conference, to help decode some of the issues of play within the interplay of science and theology. And so this bringing together of people to talk together, and what we found, was after the sessions, the bishops were thrilled to have encountered science. And the scientists were thrilled to encounter bishops, and other senior church leaders who took science seriously. And many of the scientists without any Christian commitment turned up at the bar later on in the conference, to talk more with the bishops. I think there's something really important about that kind of interaction of people, that learning not just about the science in the abstract, but science in terms of it being done by scientists. And then we thought to ourselves, Well, there's one or two other things that we really need to do about this. So we've had a research strand, where we've interviewed 1000, clergy and a number of bishops and senior church leaders about what they really think about science. That's been an important thing. And we might want to go on to some of those findings in a little bit. We've also followed the US in a program called Science for seminaries and working with church leaders are beginning of their ministries. And then we wanted to provide some model situations where people could see how a local congregation could use the scientists within their congregations to do something fruitful for the kingdom, either for the church or for the community. And we call that scientists in congregations. And that's a program that's been used in lots of different parts of the world. And then the final strand that we've done, which is peculiar to the UK, in the UK, the Church of England is the established church. It has a lot of political and media presence. There are bishops in the House of Lords, for example, scrutinizing legislation. And so we embedded a team member within the church of England's work in that area, to assist on some of the questions such as fracking, or AI, that are going through legislation to help Christian leaders give sensible voices within the public debate. So those are some of the things that we've been really excited by Zach.   Zack Jackson 11:07 Oh, wow. Yeah, that that sounds very exciting. I would, I would venture to say that most congregations have at least one professional scientist within it, whether they, they're open about that or not. But I'm curious about the ways that your program has, has used scientists within congregations, how are you using those those gifts of people?   David Wilkinson 11:32 I think, I think that's a really crucial question. And so let me give you some for instances of some of the projects that we've supported. So we've supported a project called Take your vicar into the lab, where a number of scientists in the congregation have said to their church leader, why don't you come into our workplace, and we'll tell you about what we do day by day. And again, we're talking about people with vocation, and a very different context to what happens in the church on a Sunday. One group of scientists have worked with a professional theatre group drama group, to write a play on artificial intelligence. And this play will, will tour the country, the 45 minute one act play, then there'll be a coffee break. And then into the venue will come a number of local scientists who work in the area of AI for a question answered on AI and religion and Christianity. Another group we've worked with, has produced some resources for something that we call messy science. Now, in the UK, there's a very strong program called Messy Church, which is a way of doing church, for families with young children. And that involves some crafts, and making things. And what we realized was that actually, there are a number of children who are much happier to blow things up in science experiments, to make craft activities. And so we've we've created a book called Messy science, which is scientific experiments that you can do and as part of Messy Church, or indeed, that you can do for an all the family or all age worship on a Sunday, which involves some of the fun of science. Why, for instance, you can take a beaker full of water, and just put a piece of paper at the bottom of it, turn it over, and the water doesn't fall out most of the time. And so these kinds of things is about using the gifts and the passion and the interests of scientists. And I think you're right, like I think virtually every congregation has scientists or teachers of science or technology or engineering within it. But what we're not good at doing is affirming those gifts. So some of the churches I go to, if a young person says the Lord has called me to seminary or Bible college, the congregation will say hallelujah, they will bring that young person to the front. They will so we're going to pray and lay hands on you. And here's a big envelope with money in it to support your expenses. But if a young person in that same congregation says, I'm going to go and study chemistry, I wonder whether that congregation also brings the young person to the front, lay hands on them and gives them a big envelope to help them with their expenses. And I think that's about out, saying science as a gift from God. And to be a scientist is as much a vocation as it is to be a pastor, or to be a missionary.   Zack Jackson 15:11 Wow. That is a that is profound. It's I don't think that any churches out there would affirm a child's choosing to become a scientist the way they would be so proud of our little, our little boy who's grown up to be a pastor, and we'd love to help you out in any way we can. But a scientist is essentially seeking out God in just empirical ways through the creation as opposed to   David Wilkinson 15:40 theology, Kepler, the great astronomer, once said that science is thinking God's thoughts after him. And what a wonderful way of looking at the universe and that guy became a Christian at the age of 17, just before going up to university to study physics. And early in my Christian life, I kind of realized that if if I say that Jesus is the Lord, then he is Lord of all, not just what I do on a Sunday, but what I do in terms of my interest in mathematics and astrophysics. And so what does it mean to be disciple within that area, as well as what I do in terms of lifestyle with money and relationships, and all the rest of it. And I think that's an area that the church hasn't been good at, in an area that we can work out and help Christian leaders to see science as gift. And the responsibility that that brings.   Zack Jackson 16:42 Yes, I wish that more churches had that kind of had that kind of understanding, you know, that that kind of heart and belief. But according to the research that you all have done. That was there was a paper that was published in zeigen, Journal of religion and science, recently, looking at the disconnect between religious leaders interest in science and their willingness to talk about it publicly. There were some very interesting findings in there, would you care to tell us a little bit about   David Wilkinson 17:17 Yes, absolutely. And some things that surprised us. We wanted to serve a clergy first of all, and we surveyed about 1000 of them from all different churches and backgrounds. And one of the most surprising things was how often they find themselves talking about science, or engaging with people about science in their ministry. Now, we didn't expect that to be the case. Although looking back on my own ministry, I was a pastor for a decade, in full time, work leading a church. I remember, it was in Liverpool, just off Penny Lane for those who remember the Beatles. And we used to run a luncheon club, where, on a Wednesday lunchtime, we would gather together some elderly folk and provide them with a fairly basic but nutritious and wholesome lunch. And I remember going to a lady who was very elderly, and left school at the age of 14. And I would normally wander around and say hello to people. And I sat down at her table. And she looked at me and said, Now then David, she said, What's this Stephen Hawking and quantum gravity all about? And what does this mean for God? Now, I think sometimes we underestimate the kinds of questions that people have. And so we found that clergy were often addressing questions about the environment, questions about genetics, questions about what does it mean to be human? These big questions, and yet, often, they felt a little bit of a lack of confidence in engaging with these questions. And I think that partly comes from this conflict model, which is so embedded within Western tradition, which you found in the New Atheists. So for Richard Dawkins and others, you now find in many stand up comedians, who also represent the conflict model. But I think sometimes it's also about those subtle messages from the church that has said, Beware of science. And they've often coupled science with images of the Tower of Babel with trying to replace God or atheism. So I think we found that I think we also found and this is, this is something which really fascinated me. And that is the Sometimes the how why distinction becomes a avoidance mechanism for deeper theological questions. What I mean by that, is that when we talk about science and theology, and I often do this myself, we can talk about science about the how, and theology about the why, when it comes to the origin of the universe, for example, my area of, of work and science and, you know, quantum gravity, and is the how of God doing it. Questions of purpose and meaning or value is why, and that's a useful first order distinction. But we found that many senior church leaders were using it as a way to avoid some of the deeper questions. So if you use the how wide distinction, you can perhaps avoid the question, well, how does God really work in the universe? How does God work in healing in miracles in prayer? How is God involved in the laws of physics or not? Now, those can be quite scary questions to folk. But they're important questions for many people. And then I think we I think the third thing that we found was sometimes this fear of certain ways that science has been used, protect, particularly when it comes to theories of evolution. So although there was an openness to assessing scientific theories, there was a sense of those who have used the post Darwinian controversies to argue against Christianity, and to use some scientific theories and evolution and sociobiology. Sometimes I used to argue that once you have a scientific understanding of something, it's nothing but that. So religion could be seen and the way that it's developed, and its socio biological, biological origin. But then that quick move to say, and that's all it is. That's the mistake. So those are some of the things that came out of the research.   Zack Jackson 22:23 So I hear the the one idea that science provides the nuts and bolts the understanding of how things work, and religion then gives it the meaning, right, I've heard the illustration that you can learn all you can about the molecular makeup of a chocolate cake, and you can know all about its compounds, but no part of the science can tell you that it's a birthday cake, I'm sorry, that that that then has to come from the meaning. And then I also hear you mentioning, sort of at the end there about the God of the gaps that God develops as a way of explaining the things that we don't understand and has a way of helping us to sleep at night. Giving us a sense of control over the crops, as it were or the movement of the stars and the future and helping us to be less afraid. And as science then explains all of those things, then God gets smaller and smaller and smaller. And that model is just created in such a way that it eliminates itself. It does. And both of those two ways of understanding God are so prevalent, and they both are so limiting. What how do you how do you navigate this world? How do you hold both your faith and your understanding of science in intention in tandem?   David Wilkinson 23:47 Yeah. And the sack you've put your finger on it? I think and it's a question that goes back to an old book written by Jeb Phillips, many years ago, which was a book with the title your God is too small. You see, the problem with with God of the Gaps is, as you rightly said, God is too small. And the God that I see in Jesus is not a God who hides in small gaps of scientific ignorance. This is the Lord of all, who is the one who sustains every physical process within the universe. So for me, God is the Creator and Sustainer of the laws of physics. That's the first thing to say. I think secondly, God is big enough that he can sometimes do unusual things, beyond his normal ways of working. And therefore, both as a scientist and a theologian, I'm open to miracle. I'm open to God doing unusual things because I think God is big enough to to go beyond his normal ways of working and special prayer. Within SOS special events, I think the third thing that really helps me to navigate some of this sack is going back to Jesus time and time again. I remember, as a young research student, I've been on a conference in the middle of the summer in the University of Brighton, and Sussex and England. And we were the only people in the university, a group of 40, astrophysics PhD students. And there was only one pub. And so every evening we'd all end up in the same pub. And I remember sitting down with a with a colleague, very, very bright astrophysicist, who within half an hour, had proved to me that God didn't exist. I mean, he just argued against with all the classic arguments against the existence of God. And I remember wandering back to, to the small bedroom I had, and and thinking, Well, you know, I've only been a Christian two or three years. This guy's convinced me that the intellectual argumentation means that God doesn't exist, what am I going to do? And it was that point that by, by my bed on the bedside table was a Bible. I just opened the Bible, and I read again, the Gospels, and I become a Christian, because I'd seen in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God Himself walk in the pages of history. And there are many questions that I don't have the answers to, there are many intellectual conundrums about the problem of evil, or about how does God actually work in the world, which I don't have easy, simplistic philosophical answers to. But what I see in Jesus is a God who becomes a human being and lives amongst us, in the space time history, a God who participates in the consequences of suffering and evil, he bears them as well as I do. A God who gives me hope, in terms of bodily resurrection, going beyond our normal accepted patterns of what's possible in the world. And a God who actually has a historical record in Palestine, that you and I can sit down and discuss, we might not come to similar conclusions about it. But the data is there for us to discuss it. And so my understanding of science and theology is never simply what we might call the old, big arguments for the existence of God, the design argument, or the First Cause Argument, if I'm authentically Christian, then I have to bring into the conversation. God who reveals Himself in Jesus. And that's been an important part of, of my journey in trying to navigate some of these difficult questions.   Zack Jackson 28:14 As a pastor for the past eight and a half years, I not only get questions, nearly weekly, from, especially from the conference, and these teenagers who are thinking through these things in school, but also the adults I, I feel questions from my colleagues almost constantly, who likewise have people asking these questions, and they do not feel equipped to answer them. And so they, they give them you know, shrug shoulders, and I'm sorry, this is just what I believe I'll try to find resources for you. And one of the things that comes up quite often is miracles, when it seemingly when God breaks the rules, yeah. Because even if somebody who values God and values science, they will often just find naturalistic explanations for things. I mean, famously, Thomas Jefferson cut out all of the references of, of miracles in his Bible, and it was much smaller at that point. You know, for example, that if we believe that Jesus in the wedding in Cana and the book of John turned water into wine, using natural processes, I mean, just the fusion of atoms would have created so much energy, it would have leveled all of the Middle East, you know, in a nuclear explosion, and clearly that did not happen. So, either there was a sort of social miracle in which Jesus inspired people to run out to the liquor store, or there is something else happening something super natural. You've done a little bit of work into into miracles and what happens in prayer and things like that. Do you have any insights that you could offer to As clergy out there,   David Wilkinson 30:01 well, I have some insights, whether they're useful or not is another question.   Zack Jackson 30:07 Oh, the story of my life, I'll put that on my tombstone.   David Wilkinson 30:11 I think the first thing to say is that I want to take the gospel writers seriously. And I think sometimes Western scholarship has been rather patronizing to the writers of the Gospel by saying that they simply have rewritten the stories of social miracles, in terms of supernatural miracles, you know, and so, even more extreme would be those who've written that Jesus walking on the waters was actually because he was on a sand bank at the time. Well, I mean, you know, fishermen would know where the sand banks would be, and things of that sort, I think, the Gospel writers are being authentic in terms of what they believed, and I want to take that seriously. And then secondly, there is a granularity about some of the gospel reports, which suggests to me that they aren't simply made up to express theological truth about Jesus. So for instance, you mentioned the wedding at Cana, one of the one of the extraordinary things about that miracle is that Jesus turned between 120 gallons, 280 gallons of water into wine. Now, that that's, that's not the kind of usual detail that you would expect, in terms of if you'd simply wanted a miracle of water into wine, there's something really quite extraordinary about that unexpected about it. And I think there are a number of the miracle stories which just have that ring of truth about them. Now, that's the biblical scholarship at one level, which I think is important for us to do. I think then, as a scientist, I want to come with a number of convictions. The first is that 20th century physics tells us that the universe is far more subtle, and subtle than we ever imagined it to be. We live with the legacy of Isaac Newton's clockwork universe, where the universe is picture herbal, and predictable. And so the transformation of God has rules which he can't break, is based on that clockwork universe. But in the 20th century, as you well know, quantum theory, and then chaotic or complex systems, like the weather, we discovered that actually, the universe is not as picture trouble or as predictable as that clockwork universe was. Now, I don't want to push that too far to say, well, this is where God works in quantum systems. But I do want to take seriously as John Polkinghorne used to say, these things remind us of the danger of the tyranny of model of common sense. Our everyday experience and common sense isn't a good guide to the way the universe actually is, or indeed how God might work in the universe. And then I think coming back to that sense of the God who created the laws, has agency to work in through and beyond the laws is a very important theological question. And that maintaining of some limited agency, for God to work means that, that I'm open to God work in unusual ways. Now, all of that is not to say that I don't think there's an interesting question, as a scientist about where the energy comes from. I want to ask that question. And as a scientist, I want to say, when people claim evidence for healing, or evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, what is that evidence? And let's have an honest and serious conversation about it. I think that's important. But I don't think that all of those things need to be talked about in the round. I don't think that one of these things rules out the possibility of miracles. And so I know that's a very long answer to a very succinct question. But I think sometimes we get ourselves fascinated with wanting to give one line answers to actually very difficult questions. And one of the real problems of miracle for me, is actually not besides The real problem of miracle for me is, if God can work by miracle, why can't he do it more often? And in more serious ways, you know, so the Christian who says, I drove to the supermarket, and it was raining, and there was no parking spaces. But I prayed to the Lord, and suddenly a parking space was there for me. Now, apparently, I want to say to that Christian sister or brother, well, wonderful. But, Lord, why provide a parking space when actually, you know for that particular sister or brother, they could have done with a little extra walk, compared to what's happening with COVID? Or what's happening in Ukraine? And that's the problem of evil. And sec, I don't have any real answer to that. That's one of the big questions that I have. For when I see the Lord face to face. But I'm not prepared to reject the biblical evidence or the scientific openness. Because I can't fully understand the problem of evil, but I want to take it seriously.   Zack Jackson 36:16 That is a fantastic point. I think our anyone out there who's a religious leader has probably heard that second argument far more, you know, you hear stories of healing, and then I prayed for my mother to be healed and she wasn't healed. And then, then you have, you know, is the problem, my fate? Did I not pray properly? Did does, am I not favored by God?   David Wilkinson 36:41 And that's profound, profound, isn't it and that, and what that means, and that's where, for me, the what I sometimes call the messiness of the Bible, is really important. Because, you know, we have instances within the Bible itself, when Paul, for example, prays three times, about this thorn in the flesh that he has, and he's not healed. When, when we have this unusual incident of when Jesus is called by Mary and Martha, that his friend Lazarus is sick. And Jesus didn't immediately go and heal Lazarus. There's indications in Mark's gospel of times when the whole town or village were brought for healing. And Mark says, many of them were healed, not all of them. Now, that for me actually embeds this problem, not just in our experience, but there is a mystery going on within scripture itself. And, and the thing with Scripture is, it doesn't always give us the answer. I mean, I would love it. If Paul had provided not yet another letter, but a chapter entitled frequently asked questions. been brilliant. The apostle Paul had had a chapter on frequently answered questions, asked questions. And, and one of them would be the problem of evil. But of course, Scripture works often in narratives, in telling of testimony of story. And it's not the place where we get easy answers and philosophical theology. But it's important that our philosophical theology takes those stories seriously.   Zack Jackson 38:42 I can't imagine Paul trying to succinctly answer any question. Yes, let's say this is the man who spoke for so long that a boy fell asleep and fell out a window. Which, by the way, you know, he was able to raise this child back from the dead, but couldn't cure his own problem. preacher once told me that Lazarus still died. Yes. And that that sticks with me anytime I think about miracles. So aside from that, aside from the miracles, what do you think it's important that religious leaders should understand and, and in terms of science, and how can they possibly keep up with all of the new research not being scientists themselves?   David Wilkinson 39:34 I think both of those questions are really important. So let me take the second one. First, I'll come back to the first one. I don't think this is about equipping Christian leaders in terms of knowledge of science. I think this is about changing attitudes. So that as new science comes about, new discoveries are made new questions arise. Most religious leaders can encounter it, not with fear. But with a sense of, first of all, that this doesn't undermine faith. And second, that they already have resources within their own congregations that can help them. And we've talked already about the role and the vocation of those who are lay Christians and scientists. This is a terrific resource that God has given to every church leader from, you know, teenagers who are fascinated with the questions of science through to those who are at cutting edge research level. And so part of I think the change in attitudes, is that the church leader begins to see that ministry in this area is not just about them. But it's about the body of Christ together, relating to some of these questions. But in order to access that the initial response to science has to be changed away from fear into a humble listening to what's going on. Now, I think, to come back to the to the first question, I think, then there are some big questions for the next decade. And I think one of the biggest questions, which you and I have talked about before, is the question of what it means to be human. You know, I think we've gone through some of the interest and some of the big questions about origins, Big Bang, evolution, those types of questions, Christians still have different views on them. And we'll still keep continuing talking about them. But the central question of what it means to be human, I think is going to be highlighted in lots of different ways. For example, will artificial intelligence become conscious at some stage? If we discover extraterrestrial intelligence? What does that mean for human beings? The mind brain relationship, as we know more about what the relationship between mind and brain is all about? What does that mean, to be human? And, you know, even the Human Genome Project, that if I share 67% of my genes with cauliflower, which you can probably tell by looking at me, then, where's the distinction and being human? Now, I think, in lots of different ways in medical science through to what the James Webb Telescope is going to produce. That question of what it means to be human, is a central question for culture, for society, and for theology. Now, I think the great thing about the Christian faith for me, is that actually the question what it means to be human is a central theological question. It's been explored by generations of theologians down the ages. And one of the fascinating things for me is that it's not defined in the Christian tradition, by what I'm made of. It's defined by who I'm related to. So for me, the question of what it means to be human is a gift from God, a gift of intimate relationship, a gift of responsibility, a gift of creativity. So that to be human is not undermined by better understandings of what I'm physically made of, or that there may be other forms of consciousness out there. But that actually, what defines me as unique as a human being, is that God loves me. And God wants to be in relationship with me. And that may not be exclusive. In her there may be other intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe, who knows. But I don't think that's a threat to that central understanding of what it means to be human, or the kind of the shorthand that we use as theologians been made in the image of God.   Zack Jackson 44:34 That's beautiful. I, I'm so fascinated by the relationality of the cosmos, that we identify ourselves as a human by our relationship to each other, but we see it down to the fundamental level that 91% of the mass of the nucleus of an atom comes not from the proton and the neutron but from the forces that are generated by their interaction, and everything down to the fundamental Fields up until the galaxy clusters only exist in relation to one another. And if I mean, obviously, I'm, I'm imposing some of the meaning that from being a relational primate primates into the, into the cosmos, but you almost can't help but see the, the, the brushstrokes of a relational creator, in the fact that everything only exists in relation to each other. I   David Wilkinson 45:34 think that's right. Second, I mean, let me let me confess to you and to the listeners, that when I was trained first, as a, as a physicist, I thought that physics was the only true science, that chemistry, chemistry was for people who couldn't do physics, biology was for people who couldn't do chemistry. And I won't tell you what I thought of sociology. Now, now, of course, I have repented of such things.   Zack Jackson 46:03 For example, other mathematicians out there, for exactly   David Wilkinson 46:07 the reason that you've said that when atoms get together in relationship to four molecules, then a new series and levels of reality occurs, which is called chemistry. When those molecules get together and form living beings, a new level of biology emerges. And when human beings get together, a new level, which can only be studied by sociology emerges. And that's that emergent relationality, which you've talked about. And that reminds me as a physicist, that the universe cannot be simply reduced to its constituent parts, you have got to understand its constituent parts, but you can only understand them fully, when you understand the relationality between them, which is exactly the point that you beautifully made.   Zack Jackson 47:05 Well, thank you, thank you for the relational work that you're doing. And for that, being at the heart of your mission, understanding that it's not enough to just simply give information to clergy and to scientists, but to build relationships of understanding and mutuality. And that's, that is certainly how we interact. So for all the work that you're doing, through the foundation, through your your writings, and through, you know, the work you do at the college, thank you for for your life's work you're doing, you're doing really important work. And as we kind of ended our time together. Is there anything else that you would like our listeners to know, to take away from this conversation? I've   David Wilkinson 47:50 I've enjoyed the conversation immensely. Of course, I think it's important to say one of the fascinating things for me, as always, anything that one is able to achieve as an individual is only as strong as the team that you work with. And one of the great things about the work that we've been doing here in the UK is a combination of collaborations and partnerships between different universities and the Church of England. And the quality of the colleagues that that I work with, who involve scientists, theologians, sociologists, historians. And that's a very important part of understanding science. Science doesn't exist in a pure scientific vacuum. It comes with history that comes with philosophy. Indeed, it's framed for me by theology. And so as we work together, across different disciplines, so our understanding of these things becomes much, much richer. And the problem of divorcing the church from science is partly the way that our culture has divorced arts and humanities, from science. And I think particularly in the UK, that's been the case. And so part of this is a bigger cultural issue, which is valuing all types of human knowledge and how we interact together and learn more as community together. But thank you, Zack, I've really enjoyed this. It's a delight. What a wonderful podcast you doing. And thanks for for the time this afternoon.   Zack Jackson 49:35 Absolutely, and if any of our listeners out there are interested in learning more, they can go to E c l a s project.org. There's will be a link in the description if you'd like to learn more about what the equipping Christian leadership in an age of science is doing. There's plenty of videos from your previous conference, there's articles, there are links of places to get involved and to learn more and to help help equip you to do this very important work out in the world. You can also listen to any one of the 100 or so episodes of the podcast previously. We've where we've talked about a lot of these issues more in depth. So, again, thank you, David, for being here. And I wish all the best in all of your future endeavors.    David Wilkinson 50:20 Thank you very much.

Today on The Dominic Enyart Show, we navigate a tricky topic. While we want to both enjoy the screeching misery of the child killers on the left, we don't want to support an immoral (alleged) Supreme Court opinion. However, we can recognize that this overturning of Roe will open up the kill-shot for modern liberalism. And although this opinion is being made with immoral language that undermines the authority of God Himself, we can take what they meant for evil, and mean it for good ourselves. As the supreme court peels back the breastplate protecting the left, it is now our job to plunge the knife into the heart of liberalism. All of that and more, right here on the Dominic Enyart Show! Mondays- Bob Enyart Live (Broadcast Classics!)Tuesdays- The Dominic Enyart ShowWednesdays- The Dominic Enyart ShowThursdays- Theology ThursdayFriday- Real Science Radio with Fred Williams Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! Today's Resource: Focus on the Strategy Trilogy In Focus on the Strategy #1, using audio and video clips of Christian leaders, Bob Enyart presents seven lines of evidence that our national ministries have endorsed legal positivism, elevating man's rules and the Constitution above God, and giving them precedence above eternal laws such as Thou shall not murder. Focus on the Strategy #2 not only documents the political sell-out of the pro-life movement, it answers the question of how to restore the movement and end America's 'legalized' child killing. Focus II stands alone, preferably viewed before Focus #I, and documents that: Colorado's Republican Governor John Love signed the nation's first permissive abortion law in 1967. Republican U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote Roe v. Wade. The 7-to-2 Roe v. Wade ruling was approved with five a Republican majority of five votes. The Republican Justices now on the Court (including Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts) oppose personhood. All six Republican judges on the 11th circuit (nominated by Reagan, Bush Sr. & George W. Bush) voted to kill Terri Schiavo. Republican "pro-life" heroine Priscilla Owen voted to abort "Baby 10" as a Texas Supreme Court judge. Republican "pro-life" hero Samuel Alito sided with Planned Parenthood in repeated 3rd-circuit rulings, including ruling to keep partial birth abortion legal. Republican George W. Bush refused to support South Dakota's total ban on abortion. Hundreds of pro-life laws that regulate abortion that will actually keep abortion legal after Roe is overturned such as the Informed Consent laws. In Focus on the Strategy #3 Bob Enyart presents the 3-pronged strategy to end abortion in America. Three-fold Strategy: 1. Criminalize: recriminalize the intentional killing of the unborn and other innocents through state and national personhood efforts. 2. Demoralize: create unbearable social tension and ensure that there is no child killing with tranquility in order to coerce the government to correct the injustice of shedding innocent blood. 3. Evangelize: persuade individuals by education and evangelism to honor the God-given right to life.

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Let me remember I am one with God. Today we will again give thanks for our Identity in God. Our home is safe, protection guaranteed in all we do, power and strength available to us in all our undertakings. We can fail in nothing. Everything we touch takes on a shining light that blesses and that heals. At one with God and with the universe we go our way rejoicing, with the thought that God Himself goes everywhere with us. How holy are our minds! And everything we see reflects the holiness within the mind at one with God and with itself. How easily do errors disappear, and death give place to everlasting life. Our shining footprints point the way to truth, for God is our Companion as we walk the world a little while. And those who come to follow us will recognize the way because the light we carry stays behind, yet still remains with us as we walk on. What we receive is our eternal gift to those who follow after, and to those who went before or stayed with us a while. And God, Who loves us with the equal love in which we were created, smiles on us and offers us the happiness we gave. Today we will not doubt His Love for us, nor question His protection and His care. No meaningless anxieties can come between our faith and our awareness of His Presence. We are one with Him today in recognition and remembrance. We feel Him in our hearts. Our minds contain His Thoughts; our eyes behold His loveliness in all we look upon. Today we see only the loving and the lovable. We see it in appearances of pain, and pain gives way to peace. We see it in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid, who are restored to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were created. And we see it in the dying and the dead as well, restoring them to life. All this we see because we saw it first within ourselves. No miracle can ever be denied to those who know that they are one with God. No thought of theirs but has the power to heal all forms of suffering in anyone, in times gone by and times as yet to come, as easily as in the ones who walk beside them now. Their thoughts are timeless, and apart from distance as apart from time. We join in this awareness as we say that we are one with God. For in these words we say as well that we are saved and healed; that we can save and heal accordingly. We have accepted, and we now would give. For we would keep the gifts our Father gave. Today we would experience ourselves at one with Him, so that the world may share our recognition of reality. In our experience the world is freed. As we deny our separation from our Father, it is healed along with us. Peace be to you today. Secure your peace by practicing awareness you are one with your Creator, as He is with you. Sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the thought that you are one with God. This is our first attempt at an extended period for which we give no rules nor special words to guide your meditation. We will trust God's Voice to speak as He sees fit today, certain He will not fail. Abide with Him this half an hour. He will do the rest. Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing happens. You may not be ready to accept the gain today. Yet sometime, somewhere, it will come to you, nor will you fail to recognize it when it dawns with certainty upon your mind. This half an hour will be framed in gold, with every minute like a diamond set around the mirror that this exercise will offer you. And you will see Christ's face upon it, in reflection of your own. Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own transfiguration in the glass this holy half an hour will hold out to you, to look upon yourself. When you are ready you will find it there, within your mind and waiting to be found. You will remember then the thought to which you gave this half an hour, thankfully aware no time was ever better spent. Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will look into this glass, and understand the sinless light you see belongs to you; the loveliness you look on is your own. Count this half hour as your gift to God, in certainty that His return will be a sense of love you cannot understand, a joy too deep for you to comprehend, a sight too holy for the body's eyes to see. And yet you can be sure someday, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will understand and comprehend and see. Add further jewels to the golden frame that holds the mirror offered you today, by hourly repeating to yourself: Let me remember I am one with God, at one with all my brothers and my Self, in everlasting holiness and peace.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 124

Let me remember I am one with God. Today we will again give thanks for our Identity in God. Our home is safe, protection guaranteed in all we do, power and strength available to us in all our undertakings. We can fail in nothing. Everything we touch takes on a shining light that blesses and that heals. At one with God and with the universe we go our way rejoicing, with the thought that God Himself goes everywhere with us. How holy are our minds! And everything we see reflects the holiness within the mind at one with God and with itself. How easily do errors disappear, and death give place to everlasting life. Our shining footprints point the way to truth, for God is our Companion as we walk the world a little while. And those who come to follow us will recognize the way because the light we carry stays behind, yet still remains with us as we walk on. What we receive is our eternal gift to those who follow after, and to those who went before or stayed with us a while. And God, Who loves us with the equal love in which we were created, smiles on us and offers us the happiness we gave. Today we will not doubt His Love for us, nor question His protection and His care. No meaningless anxieties can come between our faith and our awareness of His Presence. We are one with Him today in recognition and remembrance. We feel Him in our hearts. Our minds contain His Thoughts; our eyes behold His loveliness in all we look upon. Today we see only the loving and the lovable. We see it in appearances of pain, and pain gives way to peace. We see it in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid, who are restored to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were created. And we see it in the dying and the dead as well, restoring them to life. All this we see because we saw it first within ourselves. No miracle can ever be denied to those who know that they are one with God. No thought of theirs but has the power to heal all forms of suffering in anyone, in times gone by and times as yet to come, as easily as in the ones who walk beside them now. Their thoughts are timeless, and apart from distance as apart from time. We join in this awareness as we say that we are one with God. For in these words we say as well that we are saved and healed; that we can save and heal accordingly. We have accepted, and we now would give. For we would keep the gifts our Father gave. Today we would experience ourselves at one with Him, so that the world may share our recognition of reality. In our experience the world is freed. As we deny our separation from our Father, it is healed along with us. Peace be to you today. Secure your peace by practicing awareness you are one with your Creator, as He is with you. Sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the thought that you are one with God. This is our first attempt at an extended period for which we give no rules nor special words to guide your meditation. We will trust God's Voice to speak as He sees fit today, certain He will not fail. Abide with Him this half an hour. He will do the rest. Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing happens. You may not be ready to accept the gain today. Yet sometime, somewhere, it will come to you, nor will you fail to recognize it when it dawns with certainty upon your mind. This half an hour will be framed in gold, with every minute like a diamond set around the mirror that this exercise will offer you. And you will see Christ's face upon it, in reflection of your own. Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own transfiguration in the glass this holy half an hour will hold out to you, to look upon yourself. When you are ready you will find it there, within your mind and waiting to be found. You will remember then the thought to which you gave this half an hour, thankfully aware no time was ever better spent. Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will look into this glass, and understand the sinless light you see belongs to you; the loveliness you look on is your own. Count this half hour as your gift to God, in certainty that His return will be a sense of love you cannot understand, a joy too deep for you to comprehend, a sight too holy for the body's eyes to see. And yet you can be sure someday, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will understand and comprehend and see. Add further jewels to the golden frame that holds the mirror offered you today, by hourly repeating to yourself: Let me remember I am one with God, at one with all my brothers and my Self, in everlasting holiness and peace.- Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 124

Éxodo 31: Dios quiere usar tus talentos y habilidades.Éxodo 31:1‭-‬11 RVA2015:El SEÑOR habló a Moisés diciendo: “Mira, yo he llamado por nombre a Bezaleel hijo de Uri, hijo de Hur, de la tribu de Judá, y lo he llenado del Espíritu de Dios, con sabiduría, entendimiento, conocimiento y toda habilidad de artesano, para hacer diseños artísticos y para trabajar en oro, plata y bronce; en el tallado de piedras para engastar, en el tallado de madera y para realizar toda clase de labor. “He aquí, yo he escogido con él a Oholiab hijo de Ajisamac, de la tribu de Dan. También he puesto sabiduría en el corazón de toda persona sabia de corazón, para que realicen todo lo que te he mandado: el tabernáculo de reunión, el arca del testimonio y el propiciatorio que está sobre ella. También todos los utensilios del tabernáculo: la mesa y sus utensilios, el candelabro de oro puro y todos sus utensilios, el altar del incienso, el altar del holocausto y todos sus utensilios, la fuente y su base, las vestiduras de material tejido, las vestiduras sagradas para el sacerdote Aarón, las vestiduras de sus hijos, para servir como sacerdotes, el aceite de la unción y el incienso aromático para el santuario. Lo harán conforme a todo lo que te he mandado”.-----------------------------------------------------------------Este es el último capítulo que registra la conversación entre Dios y Moisés, cuando subió al monte para recibir los mandamientos, estatutos y preceptos de Dios para el pueblo de Israel.En este último capítulo el Señor le dice a Moisés que Él va a escoger ciertas personas y les va a dar una destreza especial para elaborar y construir todos los accesorios del tabernáculo.En la segunda parte habla acerca de guardar el día de reposo perpetuamente. En otra ocasión voy a explicar con más detalle acerca del día de reposo, pero hoy quiero que meditemos en la forma en que Dios escogió a los artesanos. Dios llamó a Bezaleel y a Oholiab para que sean los líderes de ese grupo de artesanos que serían los encargados de construir todos los utensilios de oro, plata, bronce, piedras preciosas, madera y tejidos.El Señor específica que pondría en ellos el Espíritu de Dios; y cuando reciban el poder de Dios, crecerían en sabiduría, entendimiento, conocimiento y toda habilidad de artesano. Y no solamente a ellos como líderes, sino también a todos los que iban a colaborar en esta tarea sagrada y grande.Aquí podemos aprender que cuando recibimos el Espíritu de Dios, el Señor toma nuestras habilidades y talentos, y los potencializa, los incrementa. Si tienes una habilidad o profesión, no pienses que eso no puede ser usado en las manos de Dios. Tal vez algunos tienen la idea de que la única forma de servir al Señor es predicando, evangelizando o tocando un instrumento en la iglesia. Si eres contador, administrador, pintor, terapista, médico, plomero, ingeniero, sabes limpiar y mantener edificios, jardinero o cualquier labor que hagas, ¡todo eso Dios lo puede usar de muchas formas! Puedes llegar a ser un líder en tu congregación para el mantenimiento y embellecimiento del templo en esas áreas en que te destacas, puedes servir a tus hermanos en tu congregación con tu labor o experiencia profesional. Y no solo eso, ¡Dios te da, por medio de su Santo Espíritu, una gracia especial para que puedas tener contratos laborales que sean beneficiosos, o te guíe a trabajar en empresas con jefes que miren en ti la gracia de Dios y vean que su empresas son mejores desde que estás trabajando ahí. No creas la voz del adversario que nos hace creer que no somos especiales ni importantes, o que te rechazan por ser creyente. Al contrario, si haces tu trabajo con honestidad, como sirviendo a Dios y no al hombre, y estás lleno del Espíritu de Dios, entonces vas a ver que te convertirás en una pieza clave en el lugar donde laboras. Recuerda que Dios puso sabiduría en el corazón de aquellos que tenían la voluntad de trabajar en este proyecto. Así mismo, si hay disposición y voluntad, Dios mismo te dará la capacidad y el entendimiento a medida que te vas preparando y adquiriendo sabiduría en cualquier área que te propongas trabajar. Soy tu hermano y amigo Eduardo Rodríguez. Que el Señor escuche tu oración y use tu familia para su servicio en las áreas que se destacan.=====May 3Exodus 31: God wants to use your talents and abilities.Exodus 31:1-11:Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship.“And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you: the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle— the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base— the garments of ministry, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests, and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you they shall do.”-----------------------------------------------------------------This is the last chapter that records the conversation between God and Moses, when he went up the mountain to receive God's commandments, statutes and precepts for the people of Israel.In this last chapter the Lord tells Moses that He is going to choose certain people and give them a special skill to elaborate and build all the accessories of the tabernacle.In the second part he talks about keeping the Sabbath perpetually. In another time I will explain in more detail about the Sabbath, but today I want us to think about how God chose the craftsmen. God called Bezalel and Aholiab to be the leaders of that group of artisans who would be in charge of building all the gold, silver, bronze, precious stones, wood and fabric utensils.The Lord specifies that He would put the Spirit of God in them; and when they receive the power of God, they would increase in wisdom, understanding, knowledge and all craftsmanship. And not only to them as leaders, but also to all those who were going to collaborate in this sacred and great task.Here we can learn that when we receive the Spirit of God, the Lord takes our abilities and talents, and potentiates them, He increases them. If you have a skill or profession, don't think that it can't be used in the hands of God. Perhaps some have the idea that the only way to serve the Lord is by preaching, evangelizing or playing an instrument in church. If you are an accountant, administrator, painter, therapist, doctor, plumber, engineer, you know how to clean and maintain buildings, a gardener or whatever you do, God can use all of this in many ways! You can become a leader in your congregation for the maintenance and beautification of the temple in those areas in which you stand out, you can serve your brothers and sisters in your congregation with your work or professional experience. And not only that, God gives you, through His Holy Spirit, a special grace so that you can have employment contracts that are beneficial, or guide you to work in companies with bosses who look at the grace of God in you and see that their companies are better since you are working there. Do not believe the voice of the adversary that makes us believe that we are not special or important, or that they reject you for being a believer. On the contrary, if you do your work honestly, as serving God and not man, and you are filled with the Spirit of God, then you will see that you will become a key player in the place where you work. Remember that God put wisdom in the hearts of those who had the will to work on this projects. Likewise, if there is willingness and will, God Himself will give you the ability and understanding as you prepare and acquire wisdom in any area you intend to work on. I am your brother and friend Eduardo Rodríguez. May the Lord hear your prayer and use your family for His service in the areas that stand out.#Exodo #Exodo31#IglesiaElReino #KingdomChurch #IPUH#HogaresDePacto #HogaresDePactoPodcast #PastorCarlos #CarlosRodriguez #EduardoRodriguez

Toward the end of chapter 4, Jesus makes a dramatic invitation to two pairs of brothers to follow Him and join Him in His work. It's a dramatic moment, with all four young men leaving the family business as fisherman to join Jesus. But as we examine the very human element of this story, we see that Jesus' call to these ordinary tradesmen is actually exceptional news for us - and we see Jesus making the same invitation to us, to “lay down our nets” and “follow Him.” An invitation that makes demands of us, yes, but also is filled with a promise of a life far beyond anything we could have previously imagined as we walk behind and beside God Himself.

Proverbs | Desperate for Wisdom Sunday, May 1st, 2022 Trenton Walker Proverbs 1-3 The beginning of Proverbs is like a father walking with his son and showing that there are two paths. Only two. One includes God and His wisdom. The other is the path of destruction. In order to enjoy a life of wisdom, one must submit to God Himself and take from Him the same wisdom by which He created the world.

David still finds himself near the brink of death as he undergoes the discipline of the Lord. Out of this season of severe chastisement, David learns the lesson that all men so desperately need to discover- there is a futility to everything under the sun that none escapes. Yet despite how it may seem at first glance, this is a thing of great hope and joy because it brings the wise man to look to that which is -above the sun,- which is God Himself.

     John opens his letter with a statement about personal knowledge pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life” (1 John 1:1). The phrase, from the beginning likely refers to Jesus' ministry (1 John 2:7, 24; 3:11). The reason for this understanding is that John connects the phrase with his personal experience as one who had heard, seen, and touched the Lord Jesus. This emphasizes that Jesus existed bodily and not merely as a spirit (cf. Luke 24:39). This makes the content of the letter a deposition born out of John's eyewitness account (cf. John 21:24). The phrase, the Word of Life (τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς), refers to Jesus, whom John had described with similar language in his Gospel (John 1:1, 4, 14; 11:25; 14:6).      Concerning Jesus, John said, “and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (1 John 1:2). Manifested (φανερόω phaneroo) means to make visible or clear.[1] Jesus repeatedly revealed Himself as the Messiah. What John had seen concerning Jesus, he then testified and proclaimed to his readers via the written word. This assumes the integrity of the text and the use of language as a reliable vehicle for the transmission divine truth. Furthermore, what John is proclaiming pertains to eternal life (τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον), which believers can never lose (John 10:28).      What John had seen and heard concerning Jesus was true, and that truth was proclaimed to his audience and was the basis for their fellowship with God and each other. John said, “what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Fellowship (κοινωνία koinonia) for the Christian has both a vertical and horizontal aspect to it. It is tri-relational and involves fellowship with God and other Christians. Fellowship with God is the dominant theme of John's letter. Though eternal life can never be lost, our fellowship with God can be forfeited if we operate by false teaching or sinful living. For this reason, Christians must be careful to know and live by God's Word (Psa 119:160; Prov 4:20-23; John 17:17; 2 Tim 2:15; 3:16-17; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 3:18). False doctrine will not undo our salvation, but can wreck our fellowship with God and other Christians. For this reason, we must “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 1:3).      John concludes his prologue by saying, “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete” (1 John 1:4). What John wrote in his letter is the basis for Christian joy. God wants us, His children, to have joy. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11).      It's interesting that most who saw and heard Jesus rejected Him (John 3:19; 12:37). Jesus said this would happen (Matt 7:13-14). And now many who have never seen or heard Jesus personally accept Him and His message (John 20:29; 1 Pet 1:8). Those with positive volition will accept Christ, and this as a revelation from God the Father (Matt 16:15-17; Luke 24:44-45; Acts 16:14).      What John reveals is important for Christian fellowship with God, saying, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Here, John reveals God is light (ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν). Elsewhere, he reveals that God is love (1 John 4:16) and truth (1 John 5:20). For John to say that God is Light means He is morally pure, free sin, and in whom there is no darkness at all. Light reveals what is in the darkness (John 1:4-5) and those who love the darkness will turn away from the Light (John 3:19-20), but those who love God are open and honest with what He reveals (John 3:21). Jesus is the perfect expression of God's Light, and those who follow Jesus will walk in that light (John 8:12; 12:35-36). For John, light and darkness are ethical terms that refer to one's heart and behavior (1 John 2:8-11). Paul used the terms as well (Eph 5:8-10).      John continues, saying, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7). A Christian can be in a right relationship with God through faith in Christ (John 3:16; 20:21; Acts 4:12; Eph 2:8-9), and not be in fellowship with Him because of a choice to pursue sinful behavior. Being in fellowship (κοινωνία koinonia) with God refers to phase two of the Christian life, in which we are growing spiritually in our walk with the Lord. Earl Radmacher states, “Walk refers to a way of life or daily practice. To walk in darkness means to live contrary to the moral character of God, to live a sinful life. To claim fellowship with God without living a moral life or practicing the truth is to live a lie, since God cannot compromise His holiness to accommodate sin.”[2]      At any moment, the Christian is either filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18) and walking in the Spirit (Gal 5:16), or is grieving (Eph 4:30) or quenching the Spirit (1 Th 5:19) and operating by the sin nature (Rom 7:14-25; Gal 5:17). The believer who walks in sin is out of touch with God who resides in perpetual holiness. To walk in the light (ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν) means we abide in the sphere of moral purity where God Himself resides, and there we have fellowship with Him. Zane Hodges states: "How do we do this? If I enter a lighted room and walk around in it, I am walking in the light; I am moving in a sphere which the light illuminates as it shines not only on me but upon everything around me. If I were to personalize the light, I could also say that I was walking in the presence of the light. Since according to this passage God not only is light (verse 5), but He is also in the light, to walk in the light must mean essentially to live in God's presence, exposed to what He has revealed about Himself. This, of course, is done through openness in prayer and through openness to the Word of God in which He is revealed."[3]      To walk in the light of God and His revelation does not mean we attain sinless perfection. Certainly, John does not want his readers to sin, but understands there will be times when they do sin (1 John 2:1). To walk in the darkness means we refuse to acknowledge what God says about us and our sin. We are not being open and honest with Him; therefore, we are not willing to confess our sin to Him nor to walk in conformity with His Word. The question might be asked, how can a holy God have fellowship with us since we remain sinful? The answer is, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7b). The word cleanse translates the Greek verb καθαρίζω katharizo, which here is in the present tense, implying ongoing action. Zane Hodges states, “This simply means that as we maintain an open and honest relationship with God, the many sinful failures and habits that still cling to us do not prevent this fellowship, because God treats us as those who are clean by virtue of the Savior's shed blood.”[4]      Being honest about sin with his readers, John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Sin in this passage translates the noun ἁμαρτία hamartia, which refers to the sin nature we continue to possess after salvation. Biblically, we know every person born into this world—with the exception of Jesus—is a sinner. We are sinners in Adam (Psa 51:5; Rom 5:12, 19; 1 Cor 15:21-22), sinners by nature (Rom 7:14-25; Gal 5:17), and sinners by choice (Jam 1:14-15). Sin is anything that is contrary to the holy character of God. Though we have our new nature in Christ at the moment of salvation, we continue to possess our sinful nature, and this produces internal conflict throughout our Christian life (Rom 6:6; 7:14-25; 13:14; Col 3:9; Gal 5:16-17). This reality explains why Paul tells the Christians at Rome to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Rom 13:14; cf. Rom 6:6; Col 3:9), and to the Christians at Galatia to “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). Though we struggle with sin, we are assured that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1), for we are “the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21; cf. Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9). Both are true. We are perfectly righteous in God's sight because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and we continue to possess a sin nature and commit sin. Martin Luther understood this and coined the Latin phrase, simul iustus et peccator, which means we are simultaneously righteous and a sinner. Timothy George states: "Luther described [Christians] as “at once righteous and a sinner” (simul iustus et peccator). Formerly he had understood this term in the Augustinian sense of “partly” a sinner and “partly” righteous. … Now, however, while retaining the paradox of simultaneity, he sharpened each of the clashing concepts into a sovereign, total realm. Luther continued to use simul iustus et peccator after 1518-19, but he did so in the sense of semper (always) iustus et peccator. The believer is not only both righteous and sinful at the same time but is also always or completely both righteous and sinful at the same time [emphasis added]. What does this mean? With respect to our fallen human condition, we are, and always will be in this life, sinners. However, for believers, life in this world is no longer a period of doubtful candidacy for God's acceptance. In a sense we have already been before God's judgment seat and have been acquitted on account of Christ. Hence, we are also always righteous."[5]      As Christians, we are righteous in God's eyes because of the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to us as a free gift (Rom 5:17; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:9). And, we continue to possess a sin nature that continually causes internal temptation and conflict (Rom 6:6; 7:14-25; 13:14; Col 3:9; Gal 5:16-17, 19). Though the power of the sin nature is broken (Rom 6:11-14), the presence of the sin nature is never removed from us until God takes us from this world and gives us a new body like the body of Jesus (Phil 3:20-21).      But even though we possess a sinful nature and sometimes yield to it, there is always forgiveness. John states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The word if in this passage is a third-class condition, meaning it's up to us to confess our sins to God. Furthermore, confession (ὁμολογέω homologeo) is a legal term that means we say the same thing about our sin that God says about it. To walk in the light means we are continually confessing our sins to God when we commit them, and that we keep short accounts. God's forgiveness here is not that which justifies the lost sinner at the moment of faith in Christ (Rom 3:28; 4:4-5), but the familial forgiveness that restores fellowship.      When John states that God is faithful (πιστός pistos), it means He always keeps His promise to do what He said. God has integrity and cannot lie (Num 23:19; Tit 1:2; Heb 6:18). And God is completely righteous (δίκαιος dikaios) when He forgives our sins. Sin always incurs a debt, and forgiveness cancels the debt. But such righteous behavior in God to forgive is never based on our worthiness. Rather, it's based on the worth and finished work of Christ who shed His blood to atone for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). Furthermore, God not only forgives the sins we name to Him, but is also faithful “to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9b). Later on, John will state that “All unrighteousness is sin” (1 John 5:17a). The point here is that when we confess the sins we know about, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us of those sins, as well as all the sins we may have not known about or forgotten. God is perfect, and His forgiveness is always perfect. William MacDonald states: "The forgiveness John speaks about here is parental, not judicial. Judicial forgiveness means forgiveness from the penalty of sins, which the sinner receives when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called judicial because it is granted by God acting as Judge. But what about sins which a person commits after conversion? As far as the penalty is concerned, the price has already been paid by the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. But as far as fellowship in the family of God is concerned, the sinning saint needs parental forgiveness, that is, the forgiveness of His Father. He obtains it by confessing his sin. We need judicial forgiveness only once; that takes care of the penalty of all our sins—past, present, and future. But we need parental forgiveness throughout our Christian life. When we confess our sins, we must believe, on the authority of the word of God, that He forgives us. And if He forgives us, we must be willing to forgive ourselves."[6]      John closes this pericope by saying, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). Sin in this passage translates the Greek verb ἁμαρτάνω hamartano which refers to acts of disobedience to God. The form of the verb is perfect, which refers to past action with abiding results. That is, a denial we sinned in the past that continues into the present. By refusing to call sin for what it is, we are, in effect, calling God a liar, because He says we have sinned. Such behavior is indicative that “His word is not in us” (1 John 10:10b).      In summary, John wrote to fellow Christians with the desire that they have fellowship with God and other believers. John also made clear that fellowship with God means walking in moral purity. However, because we have sinful natures and commit sinful acts, there's an ongoing need for us to confess our sins to God in order to be restored to fellowship with Him. And when we confess our sins to God, He is always faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness that we may not be aware of.     [1] God has revealed Himself through nature (Psa 19:1-2; Rom 1:18-20), the writings of His apostles and prophets (Eph 2:19-20; 3:4-5; 1 Th 2:13; 2 Tim 3:16), and through His Son (Heb 1:1-2). [2] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 1705. [3] Zane Clark Hodges, The Epistle of John: Walking in the Light of God's Love (Irving, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 1999), 60–61. [4] Ibid., 61. [5] Timothy George, Theology of the Reformers (Nashville, Tenn., Broadman and Holman publishers, 2013), 72. [6] William MacDonald, Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 2310–2311.

Have you ever read all the names in the Bible and thought, “Like, come on. Who cares!?” But what if you knew the people who were in its pages? Would that change the way you thought about the rest of what's written in this book? In part two of "What is the Bible For?" Pastor Joe hones in on how the Bible records real accounts of historical events that happened to real people, and that God Himself commissioned their 40 authors. It's not just knowing the words, but knowing WHO wrote them that leads to truly experiencing the Bible as the living, breathing word of God. And when that happens, you'll experience God breathing life into YOU.

Was there really a Jesus...of history? Did He really claim to be God? Can the stories of the Bible be trusted? Can the testimony of early Jesus' followers be trusted? Bottom line, was He really the most devilish liar ever, the craziest lunatic ever, or God Himself? Because that is what the Bible says.

Joshua was growing old, and yet there was still much land to conquer in Canaan- and there were even enemies to fight. That is similar to our imperfect state while we still remain on this earth. Some of us have fought great spiritual battles and have even slain many giants- but it seems that as soon as we put our feet on the necks of one of our enemies, another springs up for battle. --But our inheritance is far better than that which the Israelites were taking possession of- We get God Himself, and Jesus has gone to prepare a heavenly mansion for us - the New Jerusalem, where we will no longer be able to sin- --The Lord told Joshua to go ahead and cast lots for the division of the land that was yet to be conquered. He guaranteed that He Himself would chase Israel's enemies out of the land. --We will go through hard times in life- but our Savior has gone before us in triumphant victory, and we can live in light of that promise- He is faithful, and His Word and promises are true and endure forever.

West Dodge Campus Pastor Jake Adams continued our Wild & Free series by explaining how we have the greatest advocate in the world, God Himself!

David still finds himself near the brink of death as he undergoes the discipline of the Lord. Out of this season of severe chastisement, David learns the lesson that all men so desperately need to discover: there is a futility to everything under the sun that none escapes. Yet despite how it may seem at first glance, this is a thing of great hope and joy because it brings the wise man to look to that which is "above the sun," which is God Himself.

Notas en Español e inglés

Kevin Horath - Living with a Hardened Heart Author and Pastor Kevin Horath and I talk about a hardened heart. Not a physical condition but a spiritual one. He's written several books but the one we focus on is The Pharaoh Factor - Living with a Hardened Heart. If you know the story, Pharaoh hardens his heart toward God, but what does that mean for us today? How does one acquire a hardened heart? How do we know if we have a hardened heart? Kevin and I both dug around in our own personal stories of what it looked like in each of our specific situations of having a hardened heart. How did we get there and what does recovery look like?  And just as important, we cover the question of how do we keep our hearts soft and teachable so that we don't return to an isolated, fearful, self-sustaining condition? A condition that I personally know is exhausting, frustrating and it's definitely lonely.  I marvel at the contradictions of this life in comparison to the things that have spiritual value, specifically God's spiritual value. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about. When things are the most painful, the beauty of what God has for us on the other side, the healing, it is something that we couldn't think to ask for. He wastes nothing and He redeems everything. When we submit ourselves, our situations to God, lay down things, in God's value system we get better than we had, better than we deserve. It's not simply restored to what it use to be. Rather we're given what God Himself has for us. And of course the ultimate example of submission is when Christ said, "It is finished." Sounds like the final conclusion, end of story, it's over. And yet, it was just the beginning for us. New life, direct access to God, salvation, eternal life, heaven on earth, and so much more. Another example is when we leave our old self behind (accepting Christ's work on the cross), we gain direct access to our Creator. Direct access gives us the opportunity to activate an intimate relationship with God and get to discover who God created us to be at our origin, when He knit us together in our Mother's womb. We get to put on, wear, walk-in God's original creation for us. We fulfill our purpose, our calling with joy no matter our circumstance. Free to live above the limitations, pain and brokenness of this world.  My final example….when fear is most terrifying, whatever area that may be, whatever form that takes on … behind that fear is a revelation, a truth about God and therefore a freedom for us to experience. The God of the Holy Bible is not the god of fear. Fear, chaos, confusion that's the presence of your enemy.  For example, your fear could actually be blocking knowledge of your gifting or clarity about your purpose. Satan does not want you to make a breakthrough because he can't afford for you know who you are, for you to bring forth the message God has appointed to you, at this time in your generation. So my point being, don't let this brief conversation between Kevin and I, about familiar scriptures, disciplines and God's truths pass you by. Draw in a little closer and ask Holy Spirit to speak to your heart and reveal any areas of your heart that may be hardened. Ask to reveal His truth so you can experience the freedom that He has for you. Ezekiel 36:26 is a promise from God to you and I. It says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you, your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Why would He make this promise to us? Because, a heart of stone is only as far away as the next painful situation, trigger about past trauma, or when you hear words that strike deep in your heart, when you get what you feel, is an external confirmation of your internal voice.  When we don't take the painful places of this life captive to Christ, hold them up to God's truth and let Him give us clarity with His value system, we will harden our hearts to the things we have no control over, no context for and no understanding of our identity. Despite the pain of this life, which we all know revolves around family, friends and relationships in general. It all comes back to relationship. It's the core of our existence because we were created for relationship. For that reason alone, it's worth being alive to and not dead to it … even though alive. With Christ, He rewrites all the evil this world dishes out, giving our soft tender heart a safe place to thrive despite the presence and in the very midst of pain and suffering. That's His speciality. Live Loved and Thrive! @alifeofthrive.com Connect with Kevin: IG: thefactorbooks FB: The Factor Books Website: TheFactorBooks.com Bio: Author Kevin P. Horath is a dynamic speaker and teacher who has served as Associate Pastor for Hillside Bethel Tabernacle since 1997 as well as working as a healthcare human resources executive for over 27 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management from the University of Illinois at Springfield. Kevin lives in Decatur, Illinois, with his wife, Kathy. They have three children, three grandchildren, two dogs, and one cat. In their free time, Kevin and Kathy love to sail on Lake Decatur. His goal is to help others find a spiritually healthy approach to life through the realistic, practical application of biblical stories, characters, and principles. Transcript: https://www.happyscribe.com/transcriptions/e023aefe34da4b418c7c8463937b34d5/edit_v2  

The fruit of the Spirit isn' t just something we display. It's the way God loves us! Every Christian cherishes the famous passage in Galatians 5:22–23 that lists the fruit of the Spirit. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. And self-control. These are the marks of godly character that we strive to display. But has it ever occurred to you that these are also the characteristics of God? Can it be that God loves us with the fruit of the Spirit? And only when we are secure in that love can we display it to others? Jessica Thompson is on the show today talking about the deeper love that your Heavenly Father has for you. Focusing on the majority of the fruit of the Spirit, she shows how God Himself has these attributes and lavishes them on us. Join us as we behold who He is and the nature of His love. Then prayerfully, by the work of the Spirit, we will become like Him. “To be a love offering, remember that you are loved.” Connect with Jessica: https://www.jessicathompson.co @thejesslou

Since the Holy Spirit breathed forth every word of Scripture through His prophets and Apostles, the Bible bears the authority of God Himself. Today, R.C. Sproul appeals to the impeccable authority of the Word of God. Get R.C. Sproul's 'Defending Your Faith' 32-Part DVD Series for Your Gift of Any Amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/2155/defending-your-faith Don't forget to make RenewingYourMind.org your home for daily in-depth Bible study and Christian resources.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19; Luke 24:27; Hebrews 1:1-4; John 14:5-9 - No one can escape the reality of being a theologian--the question is whether we're faithful ones. But how can we be confident we're not pursuing a faith of our own creation? One of the most important supports we can lean into is community. And there is no better foundation on which to do theology than in community with Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself. A sermon by Cameron Heger. [Part 1 of the series "Theology in Community"]

Toward the end of chapter 4, Jesus makes a dramatic invitation to two pairs of brothers to follow Him and join Him in His work. It's a dramatic moment, with all four young men leaving the family business as fisherman to join Jesus. But as we examine the very human element of this story, we see that Jesus' call to these ordinary tradesmen is actually exceptional news for us - and we see Jesus making the same invitation to us, to “lay down our nets” and “follow Him.” An invitation that makes demands of us, yes, but also is filled with a promise of a life far beyond anything we could have previously imagined as we walk behind and beside God Himself.

INTRODUCTION I am fond of saying that grace has a backbone, but I think it is time to explain what I mean by that. The context of these remarks is the general and current ongoing discussion about the worrisome trajectories of all those incipient legalists and antinomians out there. The incipient legalists are the ones the incipient antinomians are worried about, and vice versa. THE TEXT “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of hisgood pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). SUMMARY OF THE TEXT We see that for the apostle Paul, obedience is not a bad word. It does not have negative connotations for him. The Philippians were beloved by him, and he commends them for their obedience (v. 12). This was not just when Paul was present, but also when he was not with them. In particular, he tells them (in his absence) to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling (v. 12). How would it be possible for them to do this? God is the one who is at work within them, willing and doing in accordance with His good pleasure (v. 13). This means that the Philippians were to work out what God was working in. The labors of both parties, added up, did not come to 100%. God did everything in them. They did everything that was the result of what God did in them. Salvation is all of grace—even the work. But what is the relationship of the grace of God to the (seemingly unrelated) world of hard moral effort? If the grace of God is in all and through all, and beneath us all, then why do we still have to sweat bullets? Are those who sweat bullets abandoning the grace of God? Are those who rejoice in free forgiveness forsaking the demands of discipleship? But not all conditions are meritorious. RECONCILED FRIENDS Spurgeon once said, when asked how he reconciled divine sovereignty with human responsibility, that he did not even try—he never sought to reconcile friends. If we think about it rightly, from the vantage of those jealous for moral probity, we will never try to reconcile grace with works—that would be like trying to reconcile an apple tree with its apples. And, if we think about it rightly, from the vantage of those jealous for the wildness of grace, we will never try to reconcile grace with merit, for the two are mortal enemies and cannot be reconciled. But those who insist that apple trees must always produce apples will make the friends of free grace nervous, not because they have anything against apples, but rather because they know the human propensity for manufacturing shiny plastic apples, with the little hooks that make it easy to hang them, like so many Christmas tree ornaments, on our doctrinal and liturgical bramble bushes. But on the other hand, those who insist that true grace always messes up the categories of the ecclesiastical fussers make the friends of true moral order nervous—because there are, after all, numerous warnings (from people like Jesus and Paul, who should have a place in these particular discussions, after all) about those who “live this way” not inheriting the kingdom. Kind of cold, according to some people, but the wedding banquet is the kind of event you can get thrown out of. RIGHTLY RELATED So what is the relationship of grace to hard, moral effort? Well, hard, moral effort is a grace. It is not every grace, but it is a true grace. It is a gift of God, lest any should boast. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, and this is a description of someone being saved by grace through faith, and not by works (Eph. 2:8-10). This is the meaning of our text—“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” We are called to work out what God works in, and absolutely nothing else. If we don't work out that salvation (as evidenced by the fruit of it), then that is clear evidence that God is not working anything in. If we work out some pressboard imitation (a salvation that has the look of real wood!), then that shows that God is not working anything in there either. Moralism is just a three-dollar flashlight to light the pathway to Hell with. And of course, if we are guilty of the opposite error, if our lives are manifesting a lineup of dirty deeds done dirt cheap, the only real sin we are avoiding is that of hypocrisy. Overt immorality is the fifty-dollar flashlight.  ALL GRACE, ALL THE TIME This is why we need a little more of “in Him we live and move and have our being.” Actually, we need a lot more of it. The answer to the grace/works dilemma is high octane Calvinism, and by this, I don't mean the formulaic kind. If God is the one Paul preached—the one of whom it can be said “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things”—then where in the universe are you going to hide your pitiful merit? If He is Almighty God, and He starts to transform your tawdry little life into something resembling Jesus, who are you to tell Him that He is now wavering on the brink of dangerous legalisms? The bottom line is that we cannot balance our notions of grace with works or our notions of works with grace. We need to get off that particular teeter totter. We have to balance absolutely everything in our lives with God Himself, who is the font of everlasting grace—real grace. Real grace is the context of everything. If we preach the supremacy of God in Christ, and the absolute lordship of that bleeding Christ, and the efficacious work of the Spirit in us who raised Jesus from the dead, then a number of other things will resolve themselves in a multitude of wonderful ways. In Jesus, we are the new humanity. Is Jesus grace or works? Jesus lives in the garden of God's everlasting favor, and we are in Him. In Christ, there are no prohibited trees. Outside Him, they are all prohibited. That means there is only one real question to answer, and it does not involve any grace/works ratios. The question is more basic than that, and has to do with the new birth.

Who is the Spirit of God? Wild & Free is a series designed to reveal the person, power and presence of the Spirit of God as described in God's Word and as one to be experienced increasingly in the lives of all who are willing. This first message begins with an explanation of the Spirit in the Old Testament where He is first revealed as the wind, breath and presence of God Himself.

Bible Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-21Riley carefully measured a cup of sugar into a bowl. "I like making cookies," she said, "and Dad says my cookies are second only to yours." She cracked an egg and grinned at her mom."You do a great job," Mom said as she frosted a cake, "and I appreciate you helping me make treats for my Bible study." Riley furrowed her eyebrows as she stirred the mixture. "Mom, how do you know the Bible is true? I mean…couldn't it have some mistakes?" Mom looked surprised. "No, it couldn't.""Well, Addie's dad is a pastor, and they believe most of the Bible, but he says some of the things just couldn't have happened--like some of the miracles. He says God has set up certain laws of nature, and those things don't fit in." "God did establish laws of nature," said Mom, "but God Himself is not limited by them. He has power over them." She paused as Riley took the baking soda from the cupboard. "Riley, why don't you put a few extra teaspoons of baking soda in the cookie dough today?" Riley frowned. "Why? What for?" Mom shrugged. "Maybe it would make the cookies taste even better. And maybe if you added an extra cup of milk to make the dough nice and soft, you'd get some nice, soft cookies." Riley stared at her mom, then laughed. "Are you trying to ruin my cookies because you're afraid Dad will like them better than yours? Won't work, Mom! I've made these before, and I know this recipe is just right the way it is." "You've tested it and found it to be accurate." Mom pointed to a Bible on the counter. "That's also been tested and proven to be accurate. For example, the Bible tells of things that will take place, and many of them have already happened--like Jesus being born and then dying for our sins to save us. He fulfilled many prophecies in the Old Testament that promised God would send a Savior one day. The Bible points us to Jesus, and as we experience His love and power in our lives, it confirms that what God tells us in His Word is true.""I get it," Riley said. "The Bible is tried and true--just like my recipe!" -Hazel W. MarettHow About You?Have you wondered if the Bible is really true? It is! There were eyewitnesses to many things recorded there. Many events foretold in the Bible have already happened. But perhaps the greatest evidence that the Bible is true is its message about Jesus. His truth and love have changed people's lives. The Bible has stood the test of time, and it will continue to stand forever.Today's Key Verse:The word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8 (NKJV))Today's Key Thought:The Bible is true