Podcasts about Holy Spirit

Friends of the Rosary,Timothy and Titus — the saints that we honor today — shared with Paul the Apostle his ministry to the Gentiles.He described Timothy as "my true child in our common faith" (Ti 1:4), while Titus was the child of a devout Catholic woman and her pagan husband.Paul told the Corinthians, “I urge you, be imitators of me. For this reason, I am sending you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord; he will remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach them everywhere in every church” (1 Cor 4:16-17).The two saints and Paul's co-workers became Bishops in the apostolic age of the early Church. They were trustworthy men who shared the faith and thrived as amazing witnesses to Christ.The tradition states that Timothy died a martyr's death by stoning at about the age of eighty, after opposing a procession in honor of the pagan goddess Diana.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will. Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:⁠Apple iOS⁠ | ⁠New! Android Google Play⁠• ⁠⁠January 26, 2026, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET⁠

God wants to do great and mighty works in your life, but that requires you to first be real and authentic with Him and with others. Let’s remove all facades and allow the Holy Spirit to move in and through us, to the glory of God. (00:00) Knowing God Beyond Songs and Words(03:02) Salvation Was God’s Idea From the Beginning(06:05) The Promised Redeemer Who Crushes the Enemy(09:58) God Reveals Himself Personally to His People(12:59) Living Unashamed of the Gospel of Christ(15:30) Faith, Not Labels, Is What Saves(16:39) What a Grounded and Mature Faith Looks Like(19:07) Welcoming the Weak Without Dividing Over DoubtsCONNECT WITH PASTOR JACKGet Updates via Text:  https://text.whisp.io/jack-hibbs-podcastWebsite: https://jackhibbs.com/ Instagram: http://bit.ly/2FCyXpO Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WZBWV0 YouTube:  https://bit.ly/437xMHn DAZE OF DECEPTION BOOK:https://jackhibbs.com/daze-of-deception/ Did you know we have a Real Life Network? Sign up for free for more exclusive content:https://bit.ly/3CIP3M99

God's plan of salvation didn't originate in Israel, or even in the garden of Eden, but in eternity itself. Today, R.C. Sproul discusses the covenant made by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before time began. Get R.C. Sproul's book The Promises of God, plus digital access to his video teaching series The Promise Keeper and accompanying study guide, with your donation: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/4576/offer   Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Get the digital teaching series and study guide with your donation: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global   Meet Today's Teacher:   R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.   Meet the Host:   Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Life with other people is full of opportunities to practice patience—because people will annoy us. Sometimes it’s the small things: lateness, forgetfulness, insensitive comments, noisy habits, or careless moments that stack up until irritation starts to simmer. When we feel annoyed, it’s easy to believe we’re justified in snapping back, withdrawing, or keeping a mental record of someone’s faults. But this devotional reminds us that annoyance is often a crossroads: we can react from the flesh, or respond with grace. Grace doesn’t pretend wrong is right. It simply chooses love over resentment in the many everyday moments when someone falls short. And the reason we can extend grace is because God has already given us grace—more than we could ever earn or deserve. Our relationship with Him is built entirely on His mercy toward our own shortcomings. Using 1 Peter 4:8, the devotional paints a helpful picture: love “covers” like a blanket. Instead of exposing every irritating mistake to the harsh light of judgment, love chooses to cover it—letting small offenses go rather than turning them into walls between people. That kind of grace protects relationships and keeps minor annoyances from becoming major divisions. This doesn’t mean ignoring serious harm or refusing to address sin that needs confrontation. But for the multitude of small, everyday irritations, the call is to pause, breathe, pray, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us see others the way God sees them. Sometimes empathy grows when we remember people may be stressed, tired, hurting, or overwhelmed. And when we choose to cover with love instead of react with anger, God’s grace flows through our relationships—blessing everyone involved, including us. Main Takeaways Annoyance is common, but it’s an opportunity to respond with grace instead of irritation. God calls us to extend grace because we’ve received grace for our own mistakes. Love “covers” many small offenses, preventing minor irritations from becoming major division. Pausing to pray can interrupt reactive anger and invite the Spirit’s guidance. Empathy helps—people may be acting out of stress, pain, or exhaustion. Today’s Bible Verse “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” - 1 Peter 4:8, NIV Your Daily Prayer Here is a brief excerpt from today’s prayer: “Fill my heart with your deep love so it can act like a blanket, covering their mistakes instead of exposing them.” You can listen to the full prayer or read the devotional at the links below. Looking for more daily encouragement and faith-filled content? LifeAudio – Discover daily devotionals, Christian podcasts, and biblical encouragement at LifeAudio.com Crosswalk – Explore faith, prayer, and Christian living resources at Crosswalk.com This episode is sponsored by Trinity Debt Management. “Whether we’re helping people pay off their unsecured debt or offering assistance to those behind in their mortgage payments, Trinity has the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Our intention is to help people become debt-free, and most importantly, remain debt-free for keeps!" If your debt has you down, we should talk. Call us at 1-800-793-8548 | https://trinitycredit.org/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

As Pastor Ben Stuart continues through Acts, we will see the coming of the Holy Spirit fall upon all who believe and how this movement of God propels the early Church to the ends of the earth. Key Verses // Acts 2:1-41 — With Passion City Online you can join us live every Sunday at 9:30a and 11:30a! Join us at https://passioncitychurch.com/dc — Give towards what God is doing through Passion City Church: https://passioncitychurch.com/dc/give — Subscribe to our Youtube channel to see more messages https://www.youtube.com/passioncitychurchdc — Follow along with Passion City Church DC: https://www.instagram.com/passioncitydc — Follow along with Pastor Ben Stuart: https://www.instagram.com/ben_stuart_ — Passion City Church is a Jesus church with locations in Atlanta and Washington D.C. For more info on Passion, visit https://passioncitychurch.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Now in our continuing study of Revelation, the scene shifts from earth to heaven. Jesus is central, directing all events as the Lamb who died for the sins of the world; He is now the Judge at the throne of God. Only the Holy Spirit could describe what we read about heaven in this passage. Get ready for awesome things.

Are you setting fresh goals but wondering if you are building the right way this time? Do you want growth, income, and impact without pressure, hustle, or burnout? If you are tired of doing business in your own strength and feeling stretched thin, this episode is for you.   As Christians in business, we have a choice. We can follow the world's way of chasing goals through force and effort. Or we can follow God's way, which brings focus, peace, and alignment. In this episode, we talk about what Scripture actually says about growth, work, and obedience. God's way is simpler, more intentional, and far more fruitful than striving on your own.   This is a reset for your business and your heart. You will learn how to grow a business with God, not just for Him. Step into your calling with clarity, purpose, and confidence in the way you show up each day.   LINKS MENTIONED: *If you purchase from these links, I receive a small commission: Find the Inspire Teal Bible HERE   Ready to Start or Grow Your Business and Make Consistent Income From a Podcast?  Join my FREE, LIVE 5-Day Profitable Podcast Bootcamp! Discover a simple, God-led way to use a podcast to create sustainable income and meaningful impact—without hustling or being glued to social media.

What does biblical prophecy with integrity actually look like? In a charismatic landscape riddled with false prophecies and manipulation, the Remnant Radio crew is calling the Church back to accountable, Christ-centered prophetic ministry. Join Joshua Lewis, Michael Rowntree, and Michael Miller as they lay out a roadmap for practicing spiritual gifts with character, biblical grounding, and zero tolerance for spiritual abuse.This isn't just another critique of charismatic excess—it's a solution. The hosts dive deep into prophetic integrity at three critical levels: local church ministry, conference settings, and national prophetic words. Discover practical frameworks for training believers in the gift of prophecy, establishing accountability systems, and creating environments where the Holy Spirit can move without manipulation or data mining scandals.What You'll Learn:-What the democratization of the Holy Spirit means  -How to implement prophetic accountability in your local church, including recording prophecies and establishing prayer teams-The crucial difference between a missed prophecy and a false prophet-Why national prophetic words should be the exception, not the norm-Guardrails to prevent spiritual abuse through prophetic manipulation-Biblical examples of prophetic training (Samuel, the 72 elders, Acts 21:4)The Remnant hosts explore 1 Corinthians 14, Acts 2, Numbers 11, and other key scriptures while sharing real stories from their own ministry experiences. They're not afraid to call out abuses while also casting vision for what healthy prophetic culture could look like in the body of Christ.Whether you're a cessationist questioning if spiritual gifts are real, a charismatic burned by prophetic abuse, or a pastor wanting to cultivate the gifts in your congregation, this episode offers a balanced, biblically-sound approach to prophetic ministry that honors both the power of the Spirit and the authority of Scripture.0:00 – Introduction1:33 – Why Prophetic Integrity Matters6:29 – Prophetic Integrity in Local Churches11:16 – Democratization of the Holy Spirit20:02 – Establishing Prophetic Teams and Training27:44 – Prophetic Values and Weighing Words43:15 – Handling Missed Prophecies and Accountability48:42 – Prophetic Integrity at Conferences56:40 – National Prophetic Words and Accountability Subscribe to The Remnant Radio newsletter and receive our FREE introduction to spiritual gifts eBook. Plus, get access to: discounts, news about upcoming shows, courses and conferences - and more. Subscribe now at TheRemnantRadio.com.Support the showABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO:

Are you exhausted from trying harder and still feeling stuck? In this episode, Getting in the Flow of the Spirit, we unpack Ezekiel 47 and the powerful invitation to surrender control, end striving, and learning how to live from a place of radical trust and obedience as you step into the flow of the Holy Spirit.  If you've been weary, stagnant, or relying on your own strength, this conversation will challenge you to release control and experience the freedom and grace that comes from living a life led by the Holy Spirit. Visit Our Website for Show Notes: ACupFullofHopePodcast.com Follow A Cup Full of Hope on Facebook and Instagram: Instagram • Facebook Follow Caroline on Facebook and Instagram: Instagram • Facebook

Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Exodus 14-16 ;Acts 2 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus' kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved. TODAY'S EPISODE: Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible podcast! On this 26th day of January, Hunter welcomes both new and returning listeners as we continue our journey through the Bible, reminding us that this is more than just a reading plan—it's an invitation to transformation and deeper faith. In today's episode, we dive into Exodus chapters 14 through 16 and Acts chapter 2, witnessing the dramatic crossing of the Red Sea, God's miraculous provision of manna, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Hunter reflects on what stands in our way, whether it's insurmountable obstacles or small, bitter moments, and points us toward God's power to deliver, heal, and fulfill His promises. With heartfelt prayers and practical encouragement, he invites us to keep walking this daily journey together—one step at a time—trusting in God's love, strength, and joy for whatever lies ahead. So, grab your Bible and join us as we listen, reflect, and pray, allowing God's word to shape our lives today. Certainly! Here is the devotional section, transcribed from after the scripture reading and before the prayer, presented in the matching tone, style, and format of your example: TODAY'S DEVOTION: What's standing in your way? Is it as big as the Red Sea? Or maybe it's just a small pond, but the waters in that pond are bitter. What is standing in your way? What keeps you from moving forward? Where are you stuck? In today's story, the people of Israel were stuck. When they stared out over the impossibility of that giant Red Sea, they were stuck. And when they stared into that small little pond called Marah, they were stuck. In both cases, they faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and in both cases, God found a way to move them through what was standing in their way. And when God delivered them, there was dancing, worship, and song. They sang and danced because God delivered them by taking them across the Red Sea, saving them from Pharaoh's army. But only three days later, it wasn't the Red Sea anymore—it was a small, bitter pond. There, their song turned into complaint. Rather than looking to God, they looked for someone to blame. That's a picture of our own hearts. Our singing can so quickly turn to blaming. Yet God has nothing to apologize for. He promises to bring us out of bondage and into the land of promise. The real obstacle is not the sea or the bitter water—it's our own hearts. It's about whether we will see God for who he really is: a God who sees us, fights for us, delivers us, and makes good on his promises. Will we see ourselves as ransomed, delivered, no longer slaves but God's very own possession? At Marah, God showed Moses a tree—a healing tree. God told him to throw the tree into the bitter waters, and the poison was absorbed. Healing was released. The picture is clear: God, in his great love, knowing our tendency to despair, provided a healing tree—a foreshadowing of the cross, where Jesus absorbed our poison and released his life into us. God's answer for our heart is himself, offered for us on the tree. He makes a way through the impassable, so humanity can be released into true life. This life is meant to be lived in faith, trusting the God who is good, believing that he has truly transformed us through his great act of deliverance and love. We are no longer slaves, but his. The healing life of that tree is for you, right now, today. My prayer is that I'll see this by faith, that I'll hold on to this gift as I read and reflect on my life. That I will possess the one who has possessed me. That I'll adore him, worship, sing, and even dance. And that's a prayer that I have for my own soul, for my family—for my wife, my daughters, and my son—and that's a prayer that I have for you. May it be so. TODAY'S PRAYERS: Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.   Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray... Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen.  OUR WEBSITE: www.dailyradiobible.com We are reading through the New Living Translation.   Leave us a voicemail HERE: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible Subscribe to us at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dailyradiobible/featured OTHER PODCASTS: Listen with Apple Podcast DAILY BIBLE FOR KIDS DAILY PSALMS DAILY PROVERBS DAILY LECTIONARY DAILY CHRONOLOGICAL  

Father Hudgins' homily: The Sin Against the Holy Spirit

The Word of the Day with Rene' Holaday for Monday1-26-26: Part 3, Revelation 22:14.Genesis 2 & 3: The Tree of Life! Revelation from the Holy Spirit about Revelation 22:14!  Come and See!  ;()

#10MinuteswithJesus ** Put yourself in the presence of God. Try talking to Him. ** 10 minutes are 10 minutes. Even if you can get distracted, reach the end. ** Be constant. The Holy Spirit acts "on low heat" and requires perseverance. 10-Minute audio to help you pray. Daily sparks to ignite prayer: a passage from the gospel, an idea, an anecdote and a priest who speaks with you and the Lord, inviting you to share your intimacy with God. Find your moment, consider you are in His presence and click play.

Special Patreon Release: Better Together with Jon and Jolene Rocke   "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Mark 10:9 (KJV)   *Transcription Below*   Questions and Topics We Discuss: What are you so thankful you did in every season of marriage, from newlyweds to empty nesters that you see the pay off now in the present? How has grace and forgiveness benefited your relationship? What advice do you have for all of us married couples as we seek to grow as one, rather than grow parallel or even grow apart from one another?   Jon and Jolene Rocke are my local friends and my guests for today. They work side by side at Peoria Rescue ministries, and they have so many lovely gifts of leadership and hospitality and teaching, but the topic we are going to focus on today is marriage. From the first time we met, Mark and I adored them and appreciated their sweet bond with one another, and I'm so thrilled to introduce you to them today. Here's our chat:   Jon and Jolene both grew up in Christian homes and accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord at the age of 15.  Jon is from Morton and Jolene from Elgin, IL. They met on a bus ride to a Youth Gathering in Minnesota.  They sat together and talked the whole way home about life, the Bible and God.  Jon played his guitar and sang John Denver songs and their match was made with “Sunshine on my Shoulders”.   They married at the age of 18 and had their first child, Janelle, at 19.  They left for Grace college in Winona Lake, Indiana with an 18 month old toddler in tow and had another baby girl born while in college named Jaime.  At graduation in 1984, they were accepted to Trinity Seminary to follow Jon's desire to be a Professor of Theology, but became pregnant with their son, Jordan, which changed every plan and sent them back home to build up their finances.   They came back to Morton and worked in the Family Business and felt called to stay.  They raised their 3 children in Morton working in the business until God loosened their tent pegs and called them to Peoria Rescue Ministries in 2017. Jon is the Executive Director and Jolene is the Ministry Ambassador.  They are thankful to be working side-by-side in this new season of their marriage.   Jon and Jolene will celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary and have 3 married children and have 10 grandchildren. Their son Jordan and his wife Jessica live in Sandpoint, Idaho with their 3 Kids.  Their daughter Janelle and husband Ryan live in Kennesaw, Georgia with their 3 children.  And their daughter Jaime and her husband Jonathan live here in Morton with their 4 children.   Related Episodes from The Savvy Sauce: 5 Love Languages with Dr. Gary Chapman Traveling with Your Family with Katie Mueller   At The Savvy Sauce, we will only recommend resources we believe in! We also want you to be aware: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.   Five Love Languages The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers A Teen's Guide to the 5 Love Languages   Thank You to Our Sponsors: Chick-fil-A East Peoria and The Savvy Sauce Charities (and donate online here)   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook, Instagram or Our Website.   Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast!   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”   Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”   Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”   John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:09)   Laura Dugger: (0:10 - 2:05) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. I want to say a huge thank you to today's sponsors for this episode, Chick-fil-A East Peoria and Savvy Sauce Charities.   Are you interested in a free college education for you or someone you know? Stay tuned for details coming later in this episode from today's sponsor, Chick-fil-A East Peoria. You can also visit their website today at https://www.chick-fil-a.com/locations/il/east-peoria.   If you've been with us long, you know this podcast is only one piece of our nonprofit, which is the Savvy Sauce Charities. Don't miss out on our other resources. We have questions and content to inspire you to have your own practical chats for intentional living.   And I also hope you don't miss out on the opportunity to financially support us through your tax-deductible donations. All this information can be found on our recently updated website, thesavvysauce.com.   Jon and Jolene Rocke are my local friends and my guests for today. They work side by side at Peoria Rescue Ministries, and they have so many lovely gifts of leadership and hospitality and teaching. But the topic we're going to focus on today is marriage. From the first time we met, Mark and I adored them so much and really appreciated their sweet bond with one another. And I'm so thrilled to get to introduce you to them today.   Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Jon and Jolene.   Jon Rocke: (2:05 - 2:06) We're so happy to be here, Laura. Thanks so much for having us.   Laura Dugger: (2:07 - 2:43) Well, it's truly my pleasure. And will the two of you just start by giving us a little background on how you came to know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?   Jolene Rocke: (2:07 - 2:43) Yeah, I grew up in the Chicago area in a suburb and in a Christian home. So, I was very thankful to know about God. And I came to know Him as my personal Savior at 15. And so, then I really had a complete change. And from then on, I have just followed Him as close as I can. So very thankful for Jesus.   Jon Rocke: (2:44 - 2:59) Yeah, and I was actually 15 as well. Became overwhelmed with my sin at 15 and knew that I did not know Christ. And so, since then, a very imperfect following, but glad to be part of the family.   Laura Dugger: (3:00 - 3:15) Well, and that's awesome that both of you were 15 and never knew that piece of your story. But I'm assuming you were living in different places. So then how did the two of you meet and fall in love?   Jolene Rocke: (3:15 - 4:40) That is such a funny story. Because I, along with a friend of mine from Elgin, jumped on a Morton bus going to Morris, Minnesota. And they picked us up in Rockford. And we got on the bus, went to the same youth gathering for our church denomination. And on the way home from that weekend, we sat on the bus the whole way home and talked.   And Jon had what was so interesting to me, a study Bible. And I had never seen a study Bible in my life. And so, he showed me what an open Bible was with notes at the bottom. And because I came to Christ at 15 and started Bible study on my own with just a spiral notebook, a pen, and my Bible, I was fascinated by this Bible.   And I heard from Morton girls that he carried his Bible everywhere. So, he was kind of different than the rest of the guys. And I told them that's the kind of guy I was looking for. And then to top it all off, he had a guitar. And he sang John Denver songs to me. So, Sunshine on My Shoulders, I think, really made me happy.   Laura Dugger: (4:40 - 4:45) Just knowing your family music is such a big part of worship. Yeah. That's part of what wooed you, too.   Jon Rocke: (4:40 - 5:35) Yeah. Part of the crazy story is that it's a long trip. It's like a 12-hour trip. And so, we left Morton at like 5 in the morning. And so, I'm sleeping on the floor. And we picked these girls up. And I wake up, and I'm like, “Oh, an angel just got on the bus.” That's what I thought. And she was like, she didn't really have anything to do with me the whole weekend till the way home.   But we have a lot of fun with that story. And so that was the beginning. I think I sent flowers the next day. And we began, actually, a very long-distance, over-the-phone relationship, getting to know each other. And we actually went through, I think, the Book of Romans together over the course of, I guess, a year. And then got married. And we were pretty young.   Jolene Rocke: (5:36 - 6:47) Yeah. We met when Jon was just 16. And then two weeks after his 18th birthday, we got married. And I'm a year older. So, it was very young. But we are so thankful because we're going to celebrate 44 years of marriage here.   So, God knit us together, I think, through the fact that we were both really pursuing the Lord individually. And then we were so happy to find somebody like that. I thought I was headed to be a missionary in Africa at the time I met him. And he was, like, searching, too. But both all out pursuit of Christ. And so, I think that's what knit our hearts together. And it didn't hurt that he sent flowers the next day.   Laura Dugger: (6:47 - 7:15) It was a wise move. But I love it because the two of you have really grown up together. Totally. You've been meeting as teens. When you reflect back, what are you so thankful that you did in every season of marriage, from newlyweds to now empty nesters, that you're getting to see the payoff now in the present?   Jon Rocke: (6:49 - 8:10) Yeah, I think sometimes you are intentional. And we've tried to be intentional. But I think sometimes God brings circumstances into your life that sort of force something. So not only were we young when we got married, but nine months after we got married, yeah, we had Janelle, our oldest daughter.   And so, we had to realize we still needed time together. And we had a little baby. It began, I think, an intentional course for us to carve out time. So, you know, we put our kids to bed early. It was a big deal for us as parents that we had our time after they went to bed because we didn't get a whole lot of time.   And other little silly things, the kids didn't get to sit in between us at church. That was the rule. You can sit on either side of mom and dad, but you can't sit in between us. And so that was just, you know, again, a little thing that we did. And some things we had to learn. I'm more of a night person. Jolene's more of a morning person. Part of that, we had to learn at one point, you know, let's make sure we prioritize going to bed together. Just so, again, we had that time. So, there's been all sorts of different steps along the way that we've tried to prioritize each other.   Jolene Rocke: (8:10 - 9:01) So the two words that come to my mind with regard to that are compromise. You're two different people, and you're suddenly thrust together into a home situation. Well, that took compromise on both of our parts. So that's kind of sacrifice, too. That means he doesn't get to stay up until midnight if we want to go to bed together, and I'm going to have to push myself to stay up later just so that we can make a common bedtime.   So, compromise, and then I think the other major thing to me would be communication, because we didn't have a relationship before marriage where we were in the same town and could see each other all the time or go on dates. We didn't have that. So, we had letter writing. This is 43 years ago. So, we had letter writing daily.   Jon Rocke: (9:02 - 9:04) Some of us were daily. He was daily.   Jolene Rocke: (9:05 - 9:11) I wasn't quite as good at letter writing every day, but I was in college by now.   Jon Rocke: (9:11 - 9:13) You were still in high school. Now we know.   Jolene Rocke: (9:14 - 10:15) But I think the communication factor, that actually helped us because, yes, I realize face-to-face dating is a great thing, but to not be able to do that and have nothing but be able to write your day out, what happened during your day, you're learning to tell the other person what happened in your day, how you felt about that, what your dreams, your goals are. So, it started, to me and us, I think a great foundation of communication.   Laura Dugger: (10:15 - 10:30) And is it Song of Songs, I believe, 5:16, where part of it says, “This is my lover, this is my friend,” and that's what I'm hearing, is that you were really deepening your friendship in those early years and that from witnessing your lives, it seems that has only continued.   Jolene Rocke: (10:30 - 10:35) Yeah, exactly. We are so thankful. It's a very different story than most people, but we're so thankful.   Jon Rocke: (10:16 - 10:39) I think also, for us, it was Genesis 2 in the sense that you need to leave everything else and cleave together. We were young. It's hard to believe. When we look back, we think about our kids and our grandkids and would we want that for them, and yet I don't think we'd trade it for the world.   Laura Dugger: (10:40 - 10:52) I love that. And what encouragement do you have for others then who are also wanting to build a foundation of remaining connected and intimate in all the aspects of their own marriage?   Jon Rocke: (10:53 - 12:07) That's one of those things about being intentional. Matthew 19:6, where Christ repeats that adage from Genesis 2, that God created them male and female, they need to leave mother and father and cleave together, but then he adds this, “and no one should tear that apart.” And we often think about that, I think, as other people tearing that apart, and that's true.   But the same goes, we can tear ourselves apart if we're not going to make sure everything else, all other distractions, because they're going to continually come, right? And again, we had kids so early that I think we knew we had to carve that time out, because if we wouldn't have, I'm not sure how that would have worked. We would have been so consumed early. But career, we've just known that we've had to say, if we don't make sure that we're the priority, it's so easy to get lost in all the other things of life that are not bad. Kids are not bad, they're great. And your careers and your work, that's all good. But it can be the enemy of great in a marriage.   Jolene Rocke: (12:07 - 12:32) Yeah, we talked about the fact that this is how we started all those years ago. But a pursuit of God individually actually enhances a pursuit of God together. I'm still in the Word individually. Jon's still in the Word individually. But we also then read and pray together every night. So just this pursuit of God.   Jon Rocke: (12:32 - 13:06) But that wasn't something we did from day one either. I mean, that was a learned scenario where one time we were just kind of convicted of the fact that together we're not taking time to pray and read together. And so, then we just made that part of routine at night. So then again, that made us say we're going to go to bed together. Because if we didn't, then we didn't have that time. That opportunity to pray together and read together has just become a connection point that we wouldn't want to trade.   Laura Dugger: (13:07 - 13:55) I think that's encouraging in so many ways because you've grown into this. And I think for anyone just starting out, it's so helpful to see you didn't let excuses get in the way. It reminds me of a supervisor in college who said, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” And I think in a unique way with you two being launched into parenthood nine months after you were married, you didn't have the luxury of being frivolous with your time. And you chose intentionality. And it seems like God really has blessed that and honored it.   Jolene Rocke: (13:55 - 14:05) Yeah and continued it to this day. You're very right. We continue to be busy. And that's still the struggle to combat that with intentional time together. So definitely.   Jon Rocke: (13:55 - 14:31) You talk about seasons in our lives. So, I had to have a hip replacement. So, from like 23 till I had that at 50, I couldn't take long walks. But now we get to walk together, which is a huge privilege. And so, I always think about it. I'm not into exercise to exercise, but I'm into being together. And exercise is a thing we can do together. The other thing we did in our, I guess it was on our 25th. We got a tandem bike. And we love doing our tandem bike.   Jolene Rocke: (14:31 - 16:21) But he wanted a tandem bike right when we got married. And I kept saying, no, I didn't really want to sit on the back and have no control. And not be able to see when I thought I should break or when I wanted to turn.   So, this is something that I often encourage women that are moving into the emptiness season of life. I was driving to church alone. And the Lord really impressed on me that the extreme lavish amount of love that as a homemaker I gave to my children who were now gone, I needed to transfer that to my husband.   I've always loved Jon first and best. But I needed to take even the time commitment. What could I do to show Jon I loved him lavishly the way I tried to my children? So that was a time thing for me. And it was like get a tandem bike. So, I was willing then to get the tandem and sit in the back. And you really do; you're called the stoker. You really do work in the back. You don't just sit there. You work. But I no longer had the control of that. And I am learning to see butterflies land on corn stalks. And I actually love our tandem bike. But God had to grow me. And that was part of my several gifts to him in emptiness period that has helped us keep a strong marriage, I think.   Laura Dugger: (16:21 - 16:30) And isn't that interesting how there's a gift in it for you? Like you offer this sacrifice and yet he's teaching you new things.   Jon Rocke: (16:21 - 16:22) I love it, yeah.   Laura Dugger: (16:23 - 16:45) What would you two say is the biggest personality difference that you've recognized in your own marriage?   Jolene Rocke: (16:45 - 17:22) We just had a personality test yesterday. We have an executive team leadership at Peoria Rescue Ministries, and we had to do personality tests again. And that always is quite glaring to see how different we are. So, we're on two ends of the spectrum. But we can encourage any marriage that that can work and actually maybe be in your favor as long as you work hard at it. So, it just takes work and communication to say, you're very logical thinking, I'm very emotional, so how do we come together then in situations where I'm flustered and he's calm because he at times looks as if you don't care.   Jon Rocke: (17:22 - 17:53) Right, yeah, it can be that. You're highly relational. I'm definitely more process. And I think you're going to learn quickly, especially if you have kids, that all your kids are going to have different personalities. That's the weirdest thing, right? They all grew up in the same home and they're all just completely different. And so being able to help them understand kind of a little bit who they are and how that works has been a good thing that we're not the same.   Jolene Rocke: (17:53 - 20:01) God didn't make one good and one bad. He made all of us different, all in His image, to His glory. We all bring value to the family, and we both bring value to one another as helpmates because I'm able to sharpen Jon in areas that are blind spots for him. He's able to totally sharpen me and calm me in blind spots that are mine. So, I think in a marriage, it's just actually, it's been helpful. Differences are good.   Laura Dugger: (20:01 - 20:25) Oh, I love that. Differences are good. It sounds like God sanctified even your views of that. And so, getting really practical, when was a time when your differences were working against each other or caused conflict? And then how, through maturing and more time together, how do you celebrate and even lean into and appreciate those differences?   Jolene Rocke: (20:25 - 21:00) Well, one thing for sure is we had what we call our valley, where we learned that Psalm 23 wasn't just a funeral psalm, but it's a life psalm, and it's a way of life psalm. So, at that time, I had three family members pass away, and Jon had his family business go down. So, we watched our personalities within that in handling loss and grief. So, here's the optimist really down, and here's realist trying to be cheerleader and be up.   And so actually God did it, and we know without a doubt that God can work beyond personalities and bring you to a point where you can actually support one another well. But there again, it's got to be intentional. It's got to be me saying, we need to sit down now and have a meeting, talk about how you're feeling, whether you want to talk about feelings or not, because I need to know where you're at so that I can help you best.   Jon Rocke: (20:01 - 21:20) Yeah, and on a practical level during that time, I found myself not communicating some of what I thought was either scary or just the long drag of it. And so that was a potential way for us to disconnect because all of this is swirling from at least our livelihood standpoint, swirling in my head, and I'm not going to want to share that. And yet we realized we had to, but then those are not always easy things because Jolene, like most ladies, likes security as an important thing, right? Of just knowing what's going to happen.   In the end, it did make us really, again, Joe mentioned Psalm 23, and if he is our shepherd, what else could we want? We both had to end up clinging to that because our security was gone. Part of our sense of who we were, and particularly me in a family business for three generations, was gone. And so, we certainly had to make sure that our tendencies, like in communication, those kinds of things, we had to work through those during that time.   Laura Dugger: (21:21 - 21:30) Thank you for sharing that. I think that's very relatable to hear about the ups and the downs. And so, do you have any specific stories of a time when you were both in your strengths, and even though they were very different, they worked well together?   Jolene Rocke: (21:30 - 23:12) Yeah, I think that it's the learning what your strengths are that you may not know that God gives you at the time, and that's his grace. So, at the time, for all those years previous to the valley, Jon was the one that pushed me to communicate, and shutting down was not an option, which is what I wanted to do. So, I'd rather just not talk about it and go to bed. And he would push, push, push me to keep communicating, and that we would work through everything before the sun went down, as the Bible says.   Well, in the valley, it was Jon that was shutting down. And suddenly, you know, I had to be the one to push communication. So, this is something I heard on a sermon. A personality is not an excuse for sin. So that just means that I can't say, well, I'm not comfortable in conflict, so I'm not going to communicate and I'm going to shut down. No, you need to push yourself, ask the Lord for help, and go as his helpmate and say, you have to talk about it, you have to tell me, how are you doing? How are you feeling? So, I feel like it's just, it was such a beautiful valley when we look back now.   Laura Dugger: (23:12 - 23:25) Another previous guest had said she noticed when she was in the valley, that's when you're closest to the living water.   Jon Rocke: (23:13 - 24:41) Oh, absolutely. For sure. That's how creeks run, through valleys. Yeah. And I think our parenting, it was helpful for us to have both sides of our personality in parenting because I think we could address situations with our kids from different viewpoints and different ways to think about things, and those were helpful things as well.   But we also, during all sorts of the periods of time in our marriage, we had some little things that just reminded us. We had little words. So one was, you know, “we need to swim back.” So, you can often find yourself, because of a season of time or a season with your kids or whatever on the different islands, and we would just say, we got to swim back. And so that was one of our things that we did. And then we also had a, if we went too long, we just realized we weren't intentional about our intimacy of any kind. It was just basically, “Hey, you didn't kiss me today.” And we used to make that, “No, you didn't kiss me today.” And it was just a thing we tried to do to make sure that we had these little things that just kept us reminded. And so, they were really, they were kind of practical, just little code words for us that made a difference and got our minds back to where it needed to be.   Jolene Rocke: (24:41 - 24:50) Yeah, and in the busyness, that's easy to remember those little swing thoughts.   Laura Dugger: (24:50 - 30:17) Swim back. And now a brief message from our sponsor.   Did you know you can go to college tuition free just by being a team member at Chick-fil-A East Peoria? Yes, you heard that right. Free college education. All Chick-fil-A East Peoria team members in good standing are immediately eligible for a free college education through Point University. Point University is a fully accredited private Christian college located in West Point, Georgia. This online self-paced program includes 13 associates degrees, 17 bachelor's degrees, and two master's programs, including an MBA. College courses are fully transferable both in and out of this program. This could even be a great option to complete your general education courses and then transfer to the college of your choice and save money in the process. So, if you're looking for an affordable college option while simultaneously gaining valuable work experience and earning an income, Chick-fil-A East Peoria is the place for you. You don't have to go into debt to get a great education. To apply today, please go to https://www.chick-fil-a.com/locations/il/east-peoria and click on the Career tab. You can also call the restaurant at 309-694-1044 to find out more. And if you aren't located near Chick-fil-A East Peoria, make sure you check with your local Chick-fil-A restaurant to see if they also participate in the Elevate program with Point University. Thanks for your sponsorship.   Are you utilizing Savvy Sauce Charities to full capacity? Other than our special Patreon release episodes, our content is now available in video form in addition to our audio only, and we have written transcriptions for every episode. Visit our website today, thesavvysauce.com, to access all these forms of interviews. And while you're there, make sure you sign up for our email list to receive encouragement, questions, and recommended resources about once a month to promote your own practical chats for intentional living.   I also want to remind you about the financial side of Savvy Sauce Charities. As you know, we recently became a non-profit, which means all your financial support is now tax deductible. There are multiple ways to give, and we would be so honored if you would share your financial support with us so that we can continue producing free content that is accessible to the general public. Your money will go to support creatively getting the gospel message of Jesus Christ to the nations as we continue to share the good news on every episode. And I say this is reaching the nations because the Savvy Sauce podcast is downloaded in all 50 United States as well as over 100 countries around the world. Your financial support also supports practical needs such as aiding our team to continue producing helpful content that is practical and uplifting and always pointing to Jesus. Your financial support, furthermore, will help us continue to expand our reach and secure future projects we have planned for this ministry. If your ears are hearing this message right now, I am specifically asking you to give. We are so grateful for any amount, and our team will continue to seek to be good stewards of the gifts offered to us. So, if you want to write a check or set up an ongoing payment with your bank that delivers a check to us each month, this is the most beneficial way to give because no percentages are taken out for processing fees. You can make your check out to Savvy Sauce Charities at P.O. Box 101, Roanoke, Illinois, 61561. Additionally, with our new website, we now have a donate button. There are processing fees that we cover for these donations, but we wanted to offer listeners a seamless way to share their finances with us when we share our content with them. So just visit thesavvysauce.com and find the donate page under the tab support. Another way to find it is simply type in donate to the search bar on our website and just click the first picture shown.   We are all about sharing around here, sharing resources, sharing joy, and sharing the good news about Jesus Christ. We ask that you also will share by sharing financially, sharing the Savvy Sauce podcast episodes, and sharing a five-star rating and review. You can also share any of our social media posts on Instagram or Facebook. We are grateful for all of it and we just love partnering together with you.   Now, back to the show. What encouragement do you have for healthy communication and healthy conflict resolution in marriage?   Jon Rocke: (30:19 - 31:31) God's grace. It's going to have to take time. You have to find that time together. So, I think it's all about prioritizing that time. I don't necessarily like conflict, but I know in our marriage you can't avoid it. And so, we just had to work through it right away. And so, I would say don't let time simmer conflict because that usually never makes it better.   Certainly, there's a sense of if there's something that's really emotional and maybe you need some space. My problem is I often don't give Jolene that space and that's hard on her, it really is, and sometimes not fair. But in the same vein, for me it felt like I didn't care if I just said, “Well, go ahead and be angry or be whatever or be upset about this or just let's not deal with it.” And she was gracious in pressing in and doing that. But I think don't let time go, just deal with it.   Jolene Rocke: (31:32 - 33:26) And two, the encouragement I think of is that Jon and I tell each other everything, every little thing. And we are very aware of couples that don't. And when Jon was holding back for me in that valley time, I really noticed it and I felt pretty alone. So, if you're always telling each other everything, there should be no secrets. So that just means there might be conflict then. If you're going to tell each other everything, then there might be conflict and you need to be prepared for that.   But that's better than me not saying anything. I sometimes say it's like a teapot, you're simmering or you're spouting. What's the perfect in the middle balance? It's really important to not simmer because you will spout eventually and then that's a harder conflict than if you just kept talking, kept telling every little thing. And so, we do tell each other every little thing.   Laura Dugger: (33:26 - 33:40) Well, and to go with that metaphor, if you have a release valve where that hot air can escape, it sounds like your communication has been that where you can get the water temperature back to a healthy place in the relationship.   Jolene Rocke: (33:40 - 33:55) Yeah, yes. And that takes work. So, I mean, honestly, what encouragement? Don't give up. Just keep going because it's worth it.   Laura Dugger: (33:55 - 34:10) Well, and I'm thinking back. Okay, so you had three kids. They're somewhat close together and you were young. So those years when all of your children were in the home, even elementary school age, that timeframe, what did that look like for communication? How did you still make sure you connected every day?   Jon Rocke: (33:26 - 34:31) Well, then throw in, we went to college after we had kids, which was actually, again, just God's grace and gift to us that we were able to leave town, leave the family business for a while, didn't think we were going to be involved in family business, went out to Indiana, went to school, and we didn't have anybody else but ourselves. And so that, again, was just his gift to us as young. We went in 1980, so that was two years after we were married. So, we already had Janelle at that point, and then Jamie came along soon after. And so, I had school but had to work to support. Jolene had to work and she was mom to two little ones. And so, again, I think it was just those times of making sure that we said nothing else can get in the way of us. Again, another phrase that we just had was, you know, we can get through anything together and nothing apart.   Jolene Rocke: (34:32 - 35:21) And that's not a flippant statement for us. That means we're trying and we're going to find the intentional time, put them to bed early, and make sure on weekends we're connecting well. And that meant sometimes driving with our kids. We'd go on drives. But that's Jon and I being able to talk. And then if they're goofing off in the back seat, it's okay. It's just fine because we actually are having talk time. Drive time has always been great communication time for us.   Laura Dugger: (35:21 - 35:35) That's really helpful, I think, for parents in any season. And you're talking about God's grace. So how has grace, and even forgiveness, benefited your relationship?   Jolene Rocke: (35:35 - 35:40) It's everything to our relationship.   Jon Rocke: (35:22 - 37:12) It's the only thing in everything. The parable of the unjust steward in Matthew 18 and just this idea that if you catch the enormity of your sin, then you can forgive others. And so that has been, I think, an important part of what we do because I love that whole story. Peter is asking that question, “How many times do I have to forgive somebody?” And if you think about a marriage context, well, that's a great question because my guess is it's going to be thousands upon thousands of times for whatever little or big things they are. And he's kind of like loading up. I feel that he's getting ready to say, “I've already forgiven this person six times. So, is it seven? And then after that, there's no more?” And the whole point of that is, oh, you really want to keep numbers, Peter? Here's the numbers. You've been forgiven zillions. And so, what's the little trifle amount that you're not going to forgive? And so, I'm thankful that Jolene is gracious because she's had to forgive me and continues to. We're still learning in a new season of life where now we get to work together, which to me is a really great joy. But it's also a different reality where we have a lot of work talk. Well, that's great. And we love that. But that can't dominate everything either. And so that's another one of those things that we have to figure out how to carve out our time away from work. Even though we enjoy working together and it's really fun, it's a new thing. That can't get in the way of us either.   Jolene Rocke: (37:13 - 40:14) There's got to be grace on both parts that now as I look at him as a boss also. And my husband, you know, I need to give a lot of grace to realize he's working within a momentum around a team and a leadership. But then as he comes home, and I'm very fully aware now of what a hat change that means for a man. That means that he's taking off his hat now and becoming my husband at home. And so, it's grace on both sides as he sees me working even under him or with him as a team. But it's a lot of grace and forgiveness over the years because in the early years as you're raising children, there might be unmet expectations is something I wrote down because I feel like as I think back to this pursuer of God and who I married and I remember those early years thinking, well, wow, he's not leading in devotions in the family. And I'm kind of struggling to find, I need to, as the mom then, pick that up and make sure we're doing with the children some family devotions. Well, that can create controversy. It can be that I would be upset, but I needed to forgive him for the fact that he didn't mean to do that and abdicate that responsibility. He just didn't know. And so, there's so much about being graceful as a wife to say, okay, I understand. That wasn't maybe how you were raised, or you didn't see that modeled in the home. But this is what I would desire for our family. And so, you just keep working and you keep forgiving because we've been forgiven so much, as Jon said. So, we know that. And I think the other key thing then with forgiveness becomes no record keeping, just as love is in 1 Corinthians 13. It doesn't keep the record of wrongs. I don't need to sit around with my time and in my brain and think about how much I've forgiven Jon. I need to think about the fact that God's forgiven so much in me, and he has to forgive me all the time. So, you're on this equal footing with forgiveness rather than trying to harbor a record of wrongs.   Laura Dugger: (40:14 - 40:40) Well, and I think you bring up examples for how it works in our families as well with children. And so, it's clear you two have such a solid marriage and you also have a thriving relationship with your adult children and your grandchildren and all their families. So, I think you just have a lot that you could teach us about raising a family as well. What are you so thankful that you did when your kids were living at home that you're now getting to see the payoff as they're adults?   Jon Rocke: (40:16 - 41:43) We literally grew up with our kids. So sorry for our kids that they had to, you know, grow up with their mom and dad. But that's been a lot of fun too because we did a lot of play. Again, these are just little things for us, these little words. So, as the kids were young, we used to, something that bothered them is I would tell them pretty plainly that I love mom most. And so, kids will always try to drive a wedge between mom and dad. That's just part of the fallen nature of kids. And so, we really communicated early. Our kids will tell you that was a hard lesson for them to learn that they didn't quite understand at that age, right? But they've really come to appreciate that in their own marriages. And then the other thing that we said was we choose you second. So, they knew we choose each other first because you're going to be gone someday and mom's not. And so, but we will always choose you second. So, friends were not a higher priority or social or hobby or anything. You know, the kids were always knew they were second. And so our kids are scattered all across, although we have Jamie and Jonathan here, one family here in Morton that we love to live life with. The others are gone, but I think we're still close in a lot of ways from that.   Jolene Rocke: (41:45 - 45:27) Yeah, I think we're a close family because we have stuck together through not just the ups, but the downs, but we're fun loving. Jon and I like games. We like to do stuff, and we like to go places. We prioritized vacation when they were little so that we were all together in an intentional environment that was away from home. And so, we were together, they enjoyed going to Florida every year and it was always what we called just happenstances that were so adverse. It wasn't your ideal. And so, we did not have ideal things happen on any trip, actually, that we go on. So, what we decided to call them is adventures. So, we intentionally took adverse situations, whether that's a flat tire, going to Florida with all the kids and it's the middle of the night and we're all sitting at a gas station on the curb waiting for the next tire to get fixed. It's just, we just always called them adventures and I'm not sorry for that. That's something our kids are passing on to their kids when things happen. Our son in particular, Jordan, his family seems to have a lot of adventures, like Jon and I have had. And that's what they call them to their children. So, I'm not sorry for the word adventure. Jon taught me a saying that he used to say, you love your children, even if you don't like them or you will lose them. And that was really important in the teenage years. When one of our children was struggling in junior high, I knew even if I didn't like the way this one was acting, I needed to just keep loving them as scripture says, right? Not if they're perfect, but all the time. And so, we didn't lose her through that time, I think because there was so much intentional loving beyond the liking. The other thing that I would just mention with that to encourage any, any mom or dad, I picked up the book, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman and had this daughter read it with me so that we can learn, how do we love each other? Well, through this time when it feels like we don't really like each other that well. So, well, wow. I had no idea. It was physical touch for you. And I, I thought it was the acts of service. And you would notice that I picked up your room because I knew you had a hard day in a test at school. Well, there was never any knowledge or awareness that I did that for her. But whenever I put my arms around her and gave her a giant hug and wouldn't let her go until she melted in my arms, I realized, yes, that's what she, that's how I can love her best.   Laura Dugger: (45:27 - 45:50) That is awesome to hear that story. It is helpful to have actionable things that we can replicate. And so, I am going to link in the show notes to a few of our episodes that may be beneficial. If people want to take that concept a step further, Dr. Gary Chapman has been a previous guest. I'll link to those. And then also Katie Mueller talked about traveling with your family and the lessons that the Lord teaches his children about traveling in the Bible and how that applies to us. That's great. So, if you're willing, will you share anything more about the honeymoon? I'm so curious now.   Jon Rocke: (45:27 - 46:35) We will. I feel like we're taking too much time here.   Jolene Rocke: (46:35 - 46:36) I don't know, but well, we knew that this was setting the tone for marriage as far as adventures.   Jon Rocke: (46:36 - 46:37) But well, the very first off we, we got on a plane. So, we got married on a Sunday and we were flying out down to Florida on Sunday night. We got to Atlanta where we were supposed to connect to another plane. We were supposed to go to Fort Myers, Florida and there had been a storm and, and they were rushing to get us on the right flights or to get us to the next flight. And they put us on the wrong plane. You know, this was back in the day where that could happen. Couldn't happen today, but put us on the wrong plane. We ended up in Melbourne, Florida at midnight last flight of the night. You know, we're newlyweds. We're supposed to be, you know, on our honeymoon. They put us up at a Holiday Inn Express with the crew and said, you know, we'll get you out a flight. You have to be up at 4 a.m. And so, you know, I was, our first night was not necessarily what you would, you know, call the most romantic night that we could have. And then do you want to tell the second story of our honeymoon?   Jolene Rocke: (46:36 - 46:37) The canoe trip.   Jon Rocke: (46:37 - 46:37) Yeah.   Jolene Rocke: (46:37 - 47:28) The canoe trip is, I have such bad allergies to many things. And so, Jon knew that because we tried to go horseback riding and I thought I'd be okay because it was outdoors, but the dander on the horse made me just blow up into a big ball on my face. And so, he realized how much I have a problem with allergies, but we decided to go canoeing in a very narrow mangrove swamp. That was really depleted in, in its depth that day. And so, we were canoeing along, but we, we got into the side of the mangrove trees and out came a Hornets, Hornets out of this giant nest and stung me all over my back.   Jon Rocke: (47:28 - 47:50) And so Jon went into, I'm like thinking that my six day, you know, marriage is over. My wife, who's so allergic, we're half hour out on our journey and I'm, she's like going to die on the spot. Cause I figured if she's so allergic to animals, then this many, you know, bee stings or wasp stings, she's, you know, she's dead.   Jolene Rocke: (47:52 - 48:12) So he jumps, jumps out. Yeah. First, the truth is he took my top off and started taking mud from the bottom of the creek and, just plasters me with mud on my back. And then he jumps out of the canoe and starts running the, the canoe. Cause it was pretty shallow.   Jon Rocke: (48:12 - 48:31) I decided it was going to be quicker to get her back in time. I figured I had about 30 minutes, you know, to, to try to get her to some medical attention. And so, yeah, so I'm running the canoe back instead of paddling it. Cause I knew I could get faster. Well, then I cut my foot on a shoal and we're a mess.   Jolene Rocke: (48:31 - 48:37) I mean, he had it. What? Like six-inch stitches. So, we ended up in the ER here.   Jon Rocke: (48:37 - 48:38) Yeah.   Jolene Rocke: (48:38 - 48:52) Both of us with me, with stings, Jon, with a cut. And, and that was just the start of the honeymoon that we called a giant adventure adventure since it wasn't great.   Jon Rocke: (48:52 - 48:55) It's been a 44-year adventure.   Laura Dugger: (48:55 - 49:15) You did start with quite the adventure. I love that. And I think the husbands' listening will appreciate, of course you took their top off first.   Jon Rocke: (49:03 - 49:04) That's right.   Jolene Rocke: (49:05 - 49:07) It was a little embarrassing.   Jon Rocke: (49:08 - 49:10) It was a good thing. Nobody else.   Jolene Rocke: (49:10 - 49:15) Nobody else.   Laura Dugger: (49:15 - 49:25) Sorry. I had to tease on that part, but through various seasons, how did you prioritize one another above your kids, your career and your own families of origin?   Jon Rocke: (49:25 - 50:35) We just knew we had to have time. So, a couple of things. I mean, we had a fortunate built in mechanism too, to take trips together. So, within our family business, we had conferences and such that we had to attend. And so, we made that a priority that we were going to do those together. I wasn't going to just go by myself. And so, a couple of times a year, and now that we're working together, it can feel like life blurs between everything. So, while we're at home, we're still talking about work and we're still dealing with ministry. And the other thing is with our kids away, a lot of our trip time is spent with our kids. So, we have to make that, that's gotta be a priority, but we realized we still need just our time away. and when we got, we went down to Florida and we just said, okay, no work talk for these five days, you know, no work talk. And it was pretty fun because most of the time Jolene broke that rule. And I would say, wait a minute, no work talk.   Jolene Rocke: (50:36 - 50:36) It's true.   Jon Rocke: (50:37 - 51:09) It's very true. But those, so trips were a big thing for us, and they don't have to be a big deal trip, but a weekend away to break the routine. You know, the example of that was, that's why God created festivals and holidays were to break routine and to have a stop in our everyday lives. And so, he knew we needed that to reconnect with him. Well, we know we need that in our marriages is to break the routine.   Jolene Rocke: (51:10 - 52:17) Very intentionally. Jon was wise enough to know we needed that as even as young as he was. Can you imagine the volumes of love that that spoke to me, that he wanted me to go with him on the trips. So that meant so much to me. And it still does today because he always wants me to go with him. And then I, I just have over the years, like when the kids were at home, that was days of rest for me when he was in meetings. But as I started growing too, as a person and not needing as much rest, I also would go into all the meetings because I liked the learning. But even as we went through college, like I just was always a part of the learning. And, and I liked that, but Jon included me. That said a lot to me.   Laura Dugger: (52:18 - 52:25) And I love your companionship, how you prioritize that. What advice do you have for all of us married couples as we seek to grow as one rather than start to grow parallel or even worse, start to grow apart from one another?   Jon Rocke: (52:18 - 52:47) Yeah, I think find things to do together. That's part of how even the biking, the tandem thing came about. Cause if we went out on bikes on our individual bikes, then I'm like, I'm wanting to run ahead. Well, you know, and then, and she's like, you know, you're not getting very much exercise or whatever the case may be. But then on a tandem, we could accomplish everything together. And so, finding some of those things.   Jolene Rocke: (52:47 - 54:56) So there's seasons of time when you're raising your children, like that, Jon was biking by himself and with some other men in a fast pace for extreme exercise. And I was doing my thing. And so, I'm not saying that hobbies apart from one another are negative, but for us, they've been mostly together. And so that just means that even there was a period that yes, Jon would go out golfing, not in excess, but when our kids were around and little, I think I was communicating even in that, that you don't just go off golfing every Saturday and leave your wife with the kids on a Saturday because you now that's your day off work. No, it's, we never get a day off work. So, you need to kick in at home too. So, there was this balance, I think is a really good word for how do you, how do you do like even individual hobbies and exercise even, but then mostly we're always trying to figure out how we can do things together. So, taking a back seat, literally on a tandem bike and knowing that that was going to help our marriage to be together. I also said recently now in a decade ago, I will learn how to golf. And so that, that just meant, again, I have no, no interest that much in golfing. I thought I loved riding the car around and being outside, but now it's like, yes, I will learn to golf if that means that that's another hobby and a sport and an activity that we can do together. So, we started a Friday night golf time, just Jon and I, it's a date night of golf and Dairy Queen supper. We call it Dairy Queen supper because we just don't eat supper, but we eat Dairy Queen after we go. So there again, there's just like, what are, what can we do together? And we're still doing date nights because it's just, we actually are really good friends still.   Jon Rocke: (54:57 - 55:51) Well, I think like I say, every season has been different for us. There was a time where kids were intense and Joe was a phenomenal mom and, was totally engaged in that. And you're in your career phase too. And so, all those things are competing. Well, then we've come back in the last five years and now we work together. So that's a different whole different dynamic. And so that's why we needed, you know, yeah, we need a golf and Dairy Queen night because we just need to get away from the intensity of our work relationship, you know, and take that break on our tandems. We usually ride for breakfast. So, most things have to do with food. It's not about exercise. It's about how to eat. So that's kind of just part of what we do.   Laura Dugger: (55:51 - 56:19) I love it though. That's an interest for all people. It's something that we have to do multiple times a day. Well, what do you want to leave us with? Whether it's a challenge or scripture, it can be anything, but how would you like to wind down our time together today?   Jolene Rocke: (56:19 - 56:30) I'm going to just say to encourage everyone. Our marriage has taken compromise and it's taken communication and it pays off in the end.   Jon Rocke: (56:19 - 57:11) You know, Ephesians 5 is really an important understanding that it's submitting to each other. The idea of wives submit to your husband, you're not catching the whole picture of that. If that's what your focus is, because it's husband loves you, love your wives as Christ loved the church. And so, and it starts the whole section off with submit to one another. And so, we have to be just intentional and committed. One of my favorite sayings is from Augustine, who says, when he was in prayer one time says to God, “Command what you will, but give what you command.” And so, when I think about our marriage, that's what grace is all about. Yes, it takes intentionality and commitment, but that only comes by his grace.   Jolene Rocke: (57:11 - 57:55) And one other thing that I thought of is that we always taught our kids to remember whose they are. And that just means that if you do that within a marriage too, and you're remembering that you're the Lord's, you're made in his image, then you relate and you will love the other one better. Even as you know your identity in Christ first, you will love your mate better.   Laura Dugger: (57:55 - 58:05) Amen. And you too may know we're called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so, as my final question for both of you today, what is your savvy sauce?   Jon Rocke: (57:56 - 58:07) You know, I just say submission is a good thing. It's not associated that way, but in a marriage it's such a good thing.   Jolene Rocke: (58:08 - 59:13) So that's both submitting to each other, not just the wife being clamped down. But our savvy sauce would be that sacrifice and submission are good things. They're not bad words. So, in our experience, a savvy sauce for our 44-year-old marriage is that sacrifice and submission have been very good things on both of our parts.   Laura Dugger: (59:13 - 59:20) Well, you clearly live this out, and you've been great role models to Mark and to me and our family. You love one another with such an intensity, and you love your Lord that way, and you love your children that way in your community. And I just see the way that He's had this ripple out from being intentional in the most key important parts of life, and that He's really blessed you in that, but He's also blessed all of us around you. So, thank you for sharing your journey with us. Thank you so much for being my guest.   Jolene Rocke: (59:20 - 59:22) It's been so great to be here with you. Thanks for asking, Laura.   Jon Rocke: (59:13 - 59:27) Yeah, it's been a privilege for us just to take the time to reflect again and realize the challenges, but really just celebrate what God has done through His grace in us and our marriage. So, thanks.   Laura Dugger: (59:27 - 1:03:10) One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

The following is a "SummaryAI Outline" of this episode: Genesis: Creation Fall **Genesis 1: Triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) dwells in perfect relationship and intentionally creates humans. Humans were created in the image of God, given dominion and purpose as God's agents of light, love, truth, freedom, creativity, joy, and beauty. **Genesis 2: Man and woman lived in covenant harmony, received work and a boundary, and were naked and not ashamed (nakedness as vulnerability, intimacy, unashamedness). **Genesis 3: The serpent (Hebrew: 'the accuser') told a counter-story—"Did God really say?"— portraying God as withholding and untrustworthy. Belief in the accuser's story produced sin: eyes were opened, shame replaced innocence, they made fig-leaf coverings and hid from God, showing shame leads to covering and hiding. 2 Corinthians: Godly vs Worldly Grief 2 Corinthians 7:9: Text rejoices because believers were grieved into repenting. Both forms of grief cause sorrow; one is useful, one is not. Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Worldly grief produces death. God uses fear and shame to draw people back to Him. Jesus & Storms — Practical Applications Matthew 8 and Matthew 14 present Jesus as Lord over nature who literally masters the sea. Jesus calms the disciples' internal story before calming the sea; their story is "I must stay in control" (Matt 8:23–24); Jesus sleeps amid the storm, modeling peace; see Psalm 131. When the disciples cried, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing," Jesus challenged their fear and little faith (Matt 8:25); crying out to God refuses the lie of abandonment; see Psalm 130. Jesus sometimes invites faith instead of immediately removing danger (Matt 14); He walks on the sea and calls disciples to step out of the boat. Peter stepped out and walked on water briefly, sank when fear overtook him, and was rescued—illustrating the call to trust and Jesus' rescue when faith falters. Call to Action Distinguish whether one is listening to God's story or to a deceiver who pours shame and fear. Faith sometimes appears as resting in peace and sometimes as crying out for help, calling on Jesus, and seeking Christian community. Repentance includes turning from collusion with lies—repenting for believing the devil's story instead of God. Life's storms are inevitable (e.g., relationship loss, health decline, aging, job loss after 25–40 years, one gray hair or more); the choice is whether to trust Jesus and step out of the boat. Links: (1) Help make PSB better: become a Patron at www.patreon.com/PureandSimpleBible. You'll get some behind the scenes access to the podcast and videos, opportunities to vote for future content, and most importantly the joy of partnering and encouraging Jonathan to continue to produce pure and simple conversations about the Bible. (2) Get free resources for PDF download from www.pureandsimplebible.com/studyseries. These study books can help you, your family, and others in your life.

In this message, Pastor David Hughes teaches from Acts 8, highlighting obedience to the Holy Spirit and how faith expressed through baptism marks a step of transformation and new life.

Dave Cover preaches from Acts 13 on the Bible's vision of spiritual warfare, the reality of dark powers, and how Jesus continues His mission through the Holy Spirit. This sermon is part of our 2026 sermon series, "Acts 13-17: Revival & Resistance." Who is Jesus? What does he care about? How should his followers interact with the world around them? The book of Acts carries on the story of life with God, illustrating what it means to build his church and experience him through his people.  Want a refresher on Acts 1-12? Check out The Crossing's 2023 sermon series: "Acts: Belonging to a Mission". Interested in more content to help you experience God in 2026? Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. Every Friday, you'll get new resources to help you grow in your faith and a first look at what to expect on Sunday, delivered right to your inbox. Get connected at The Crossing! When you sign up for Crossing Update, you'll get a text message every Sunday morning with the new ways to get involved at the church. You can also find the latest information about events on The Crossing's website. 

In this insightful message, we journey through the powerful themes of Revelation chapters 4 and 5. This sermon invites you to embrace the divine invitation extended to John the Apostle, as he witnesses an open door in heaven (Revelation 4:1) and hears Jesus' call to "Come up here."Explore how these chapters reveal the cosmic movements of the Holy Spirit and the expansion of worship from heaven to earth. Uncover how the gospel of Jesus Christ bridges the gap between heaven's beauty and earthly chaos, as highlighted in Revelation 5:6. We'll draw comparisons with the Old Testament, including Ezekiel 36:26-27, to see how the Spirit's arrival signifies the inauguration of God's kingdom.Throughout this message, we emphasize the significance of singing a new song of gospel and glory, as mentioned in Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18-19. Discover how this heavenly worship spills into our lives today, equipping us to live as conduits for the kingdom of heaven.Join us as we delve deep into the scriptures, reflecting on the power of the Holy Spirit and the mission of the Church to bridge the disparity between heaven and earth. This transformative message is rooted in profound biblical insights and aims to encourage you in your spiritual journey.Listen now and be inspired to bring God's kingdom into your everyday life!

MINISTERIAL BIBLE STUDY (January 21, 2026) Part 1: The Threefold Patterns in God's Process of Salvation, and discussion on other issues, including tarrying and manifestations of the Holy SpiritSend us a textSupport the showThank you for listening to our podcast!If you have any questions, subjects you would like to hear discussed, or feedback of any kind, you can contact us at:greengac@yahoo.com or through the links below, where you can find additional information about our work as well as other materials: Green Gospel Assembly Church – The Church that is Different (church website)

Friends of the Rosary,Timothy and Titus — the saints that we honor today — shared with Paul the Apostle his ministry to the Gentiles.He described Timothy as "my true child in our common faith" (Ti 1:4), while Titus was the child of a devout Catholic woman and her pagan husband.Paul told the Corinthians, “I urge you, be imitators of me. For this reason, I am sending you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord; he will remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach them everywhere in every church” (1 Cor 4:16-17).The two saints and Paul's co-workers became Bishops in the apostolic age of the early Church. They were trustworthy men who shared the faith and thrived as amazing witnesses to Christ.The tradition states that Timothy died a martyr's death by stoning at about the age of eighty, after opposing a procession in honor of the pagan goddess Diana.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠January 26, 2026, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

In this Season 12 trailer of the Affirming Truths Podcast, Christian mental health coach Carla Arges shares the heart behind the upcoming season and the journey listeners are about to step into. Season 12 is for the Christian woman who: Feels overwhelmed by her emotions Battles intrusive thoughts, shame, people-pleasing, or self-doubt Loves God deeply but feels stuck, exhausted, or disconnected Wants healing that reaches her mind, body, and spirit This season will explore: The nervous system and the Bible A Christian approach to trauma and emotional dysregulation Taking thoughts captive without spiritual bypassing Restoring worth through kingdom identity Shame, surrender, waiting, and healing What the cross truly means for emotional and spiritual healing Carla also shares a heartfelt invitation to Rooted & Resilient, her proven, Holy-Spirit-led healing program for Christian women. With enrolment now open for a limited time, this trailer invites listeners to stop surviving and start healing - together. Join Rooted & Resilient Cohort 2: https://carlaarges.podia.com/rooted-resilient-cohort-2 Did you know that Carla is a Christian Mental Health coach? See if working with her is what you need in your current season.  Book a discovery call today! GET YOUR FREE RENEWING YOUR MIND WORKBOOK HERE Connect With Carla: Book a Discovery call with me https://calendly.com/cmsarges/discoverycall  Come hangout on IG with me @carla.arges Check out my blog and more at www.carlaarges.com

What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

Pastors Caleb and Chrissy Cole share the Word for the Year for Project Church: Fresh Wind. From Acts 2 and the story of Pentecost, they call the church back to prayer, presence, and waiting on the Holy Spirit. This message teaches that before God moves us, He must first fill us, and that Fresh Wind softens hearts, renews passion, and aligns believers with God's mission. A call to enjoy God's presence, not just perform religion, and to make prayer the primary vision. (00:00) - Series recap & focus on prayer (02:32) - Acts 1 & 2: Waiting for the Holy Spirit (03:38) - Word for the Year: Fresh Wind (05:08) - Before God moves us, He must fill us (05:40) - Fresh Wind softens hardened hearts (07:05) - Vision Sunday: waiting instead of striving (08:30) - Waiting is the discipline of listening (10:23) - Waiting forms Christlike character (15:14) - Learning to enjoy God's presence (19:54) - The vision is prayer, not projects (22:24) - Personal story: prayer rooms changed me (25:06) - Fresh Wind fills us to fulfill the mission

On today's bonus episode, licensed therapist and coach Heidi Mortensen shares her dramatic spiritual turnaround—from a lukewarm faith to full surrender—how the Holy Spirit made Scripture come alive, and how that transformation reshaped her marriage, business, and clinical work. Heidi explains blending therapy, coaching, and a prophetic sensitivity, discusses biblical deliverance, dreams, and discernment, and talks about her book "The Brave Encourager" and her podcast "Strong Tower Mental Health." For more on Heidi, visit: https://www.heidimortensonlmft.com   Podcast - Strong Tower Mental Health https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strong-tower-mental-health-podcast/id1584417090   Book - The Brave Encourager https://a.co/d/6nQWGAF For more information on Rebecca Maxwell and her practice, visit Jesusandyourmentalhealth.com

Did you know that the Holy Spirit is your down payment for your glorified body?President Trump rips the globalists to their faces at Davos; The reckoning is here!A warning from a woman in Britain about the Islamic takeover in Europe; Soy boyDon Lemon invades a church in Minnesota; Pastors, when is enough enough?Stand up! And my new book, Gold Tried in the Fire, is now available for pre-order. We put a link in the show notes for you!New episodes are released every Monday. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and leave us a rating on your podcast platform of choice. For more info or to support Burning Bush Ministries, visit our website at burningbushministries.tv.Follow us on social media:x.com/edifypodcastFacebook.com/edifypodcastPre-Order Jammie's Book:https://www.amazon.com/s?k=gold+tried+in+the+fire+by+Jammie+C.+Bush&i=stripbooks&crid=WWYDIH90NUD5&sprefix=gold+tried+in+the+fire+by+jammie+c.+bush,stripbooks,117&ref=nb_sb_noss Product Spotlight:Dr. Rhonda's Ultimate Daily Detoxifier:https://doctorrhonda.myshopify.com/discount/BURNINGBUSH?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fultimate-daily-detoxifierUse promo code Edify!Dr. Rhonda's Ultimate Immune Booster:https://doctorrhonda.myshopify.com/products/bpuibooster?_pos=2&_psq=ultim&_ss=e&_v=1.0Use promo code Edify!My Pillow:https://www.mypillow.com/?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=6481386640&cq_term=my%20pillow&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_plt=gp&gclid=CjwKCAjwue6hBhBVEiwA9YTx8D1g59gXEUjFegHoWVjHHx6V_dwQUAQpc2fT4fQqsK93A1s2W-XT-RoCeLsQAvD_BwEUse promo code B66

On today's episode of The Last Days Podcast Pastor's Todd begins our brand new series here at The River Tri-Cities Church, The Leading of the Holy Spirit. God is always speaking and has a plan for every single day of our lives. He has given us His Spirit to not only live on the inside of us, but to lead us into ALL truth. Throughout these teachings Pastor Todd is going to share on how we can be lead by the Holy Spirit, hear His voice clearly, and know that God is with us and empowering us to do His will here on Earth! Make sure you are subscribed and keep up with us on social media.NEW EPISODES every Monday & Friday @ Noon.https://www.facebook.com/TheRiverOfTriCities/https://www.youtube.com/@TheRiverofTriCitiesChurchhttps://www.instagram.com/rivertcchurch/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/thelastdayspodcast/?hl=en

It’s amazing how quickly a small thing can throw everything off. In music, even one string slightly out of tune can disrupt an entire song. This devotional begins with that image—musicians tuning their instruments before a performance, listening closely for what’s true, steady, and right. With practice, they can detect when a note is off. And once the instruments are tuned properly, the music becomes harmonious and beautiful, just as it was designed to be. In the same way, our lives can drift out of tune when we start listening to the wrong voices. The world constantly offers messages about what will make us happy, secure, or successful—wealth, status, comfort, possessions, or even cynicism and hopelessness. Some of those messages sound convincing, especially when our hearts are tired or our spiritual ears aren’t trained. But when we tune ourselves to the world’s “notes,” we often end up with more confusion, discord, and heartache. The devotional points to Rehoboam as a warning about what happens when we listen to voices that feel familiar or flattering rather than wise and true. He rejected the counsel of experienced elders and followed the advice that appealed to him—leading to major loss. It’s a reminder that what seems right in the moment isn’t always right, and that wisdom often requires humility and discernment. So how do we tune our lives to God’s voice instead? We practice. We develop a trained ear by spending consistent time in Scripture, praying for understanding, and allowing God’s Word to shape our thinking. As we read, memorize, and meditate, the Holy Spirit brings truth to mind when we need guidance. Over time, God aligns our hearts and choices so our lives begin to reflect His hope, His wisdom, and His story. And when we’re tuned to Him, our lives become a kind of worship—steady, purposeful, and pleasing to the One who made us. Main Takeaways Just like instruments need tuning, our hearts and minds can drift out of alignment over time. The world offers convincing messages, but they often lead to discord and discouragement. Rehoboam’s story warns us about the cost of listening to the wrong voices. Tuning to God’s voice requires practice through Scripture, prayer, and spiritual attentiveness. As God renews our minds, our lives become more harmonious and honoring to Him. Today’s Bible Verse “The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, ‘My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’” - 1 Kings 12:13-14, NIV Your Daily Prayer Here is a brief excerpt from today’s prayer: “Lead me away from the path of Rehoboam… Renew my mind, Holy Spirit, so that I may understand and follow the will of God.” You can listen to the full prayer or read the devotional at the links below. LifeAudio – Discover daily devotionals, Christian podcasts, and biblical encouragement at LifeAudio.com Crosswalk – Explore faith, prayer, and Christian living resources at Crosswalk.com This episode is sponsored by Trinity Debt Management. “Whether we’re helping people pay off their unsecured debt or offering assistance to those behind in their mortgage payments, Trinity has the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Our intention is to help people become debt-free, and most importantly, remain debt-free for keeps!" If your debt has you down, we should talk. Call us at 1-800-793-8548 | https://trinitycredit.org/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Read Online“Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.” Mark 3:28–30Consider the sobering reality of suffering the guilt of everlasting sin. Though alarming and unpleasant, understanding this possibility is foundational to a healthy spiritual life. This is best illustrated in the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, one of the co-founders of the Jesuits. The Spiritual Exercises are considered one of the most transforming retreat formats ever written. They guide spiritual directors who lead retreatants through a thirty-day retreat, helping them experience profound conversion and make major life decisions. The first week of those exercises contains various meditations on the horror of hell and the seriousness of one mortal sin.Today's Gospel is not only ideal for those beginning a thirty-day retreat, but also for everyone serious about spiritual growth. On our spiritual journey, we often must do that which is initially difficult and unpleasant so as to reap the fruit of that exercise. One such exercise is to meditate on our Lord's words: “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”In commenting on this, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss” (#1864).Traditionally, the sin this Gospel refers to has been called the “Sin Against the Holy Spirit.” Saint Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica (II-II, Question 14, Articles 1–3), articulates six ways that one can be guilty of this sin:Despair: rejecting God's mercy and refusing to believe one's sins can be forgiven.Presumption: believing one can attain salvation without grace or repentance.Impenitence: a refusal to repent for past sins.Obstinacy: a hardened resolve to remain in sin.Resisting the Known Truth: deliberately rejecting the truths of the faith to justify sin.Envy of Another's Grace: resenting the Holy Spirit's work in others.God alone knows the depths of our human heart and comprehends our guilt or mitigating circumstances.God alone is the perfect Judge. He judges with divine equity, His perfect justice and mercy united as one.Though God's mercy is limitless, this does not mean that everyone goes to Heaven. Recall Jesus' teaching: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13–14).The common thread in the ways Saint Thomas articulates this “everlasting sin” is an obstinate refusal to see our sins in the light of eternal Truth and then to repent and change. When properly understood, attaining Heaven is easy! All we need to do is be honest, turn from sin, and abandon ourselves to our loving God—especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A thorough and honest confession is a sure path through the narrow gate that leads to eternal life. Reflect today on the serious and consequential demands God places on us. His generosity knows no bounds, but we must receive that generosity on His terms. Ideally, today's Gospel will inspire us with the spiritual gift of Fear of the Lord. The perfection of this gift is not a fear of punishment, but a deep reverence and love for God that moves us to avoid anything that might offend Him. It deepens our relationship with Him and strengthens our resolve to walk the narrow path. If you find yourself obstinate at times, beware of the danger of that interior disposition. Most merciful Lord, please free me from all obstinacy and help me to see my sin as You see it. I repent of my sin and profess my need for Your Divine Mercy. Please open the gate to that Mercy so that I can be with You forever in Heaven. Jesus, I trust in You.Image:   Spurzem - Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE, via Wikimedia CommonsSource: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

Walk By Faith, Not Fear (TRUST WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE) | Blessed Morning Prayer To Start Your DaySUBSCRIBE to catch all the latest prayers uploaded to the Daily Effective Prayer Podcast!For more powerful daily prayers and to connect with the ministry visit:https://www.dailyeffectiveprayer.org© Copyright DailyEffectivePrayer.com  SUPPORT THE MINISTRY: (We are listener-supported)https://www.dailyeffectiveprayer.org/donate/ DO YOU NEED PRAYER? Send us a prayer request right now:https://www.dailyeffectiveprayer.org/prayer-request-online/ CONNECT WITH US:https://www.dailyeffectiveprayer.org/connectYouTube (1M+ SUBSCRIBERS)X / TwitterInstagram ThreadsInstagramFacebook Daily Effective Prayer™

#10MinuteswithJesus ** Put yourself in the presence of God. Try talking to Him. ** 10 minutes are 10 minutes. Even if you can get distracted, reach the end. ** Be constant. The Holy Spirit acts "on low heat" and requires perseverance. 10-Minute audio to help you pray. Daily sparks to ignite prayer: a passage from the gospel, an idea, an anecdote and a priest who speaks with you and the Lord, inviting you to share your intimacy with God. Find your moment, consider you are in His presence and click play.

Jesus didn't call people to simply believe in Him, but to follow Him.Many believers know the language of faith, attend church regularly, and affirm sound doctrine, yet still wonder whether they are truly living as Christ's disciples. In this episode, Pastor Jeff Cranston and Tiffany examine three marks of true discipleship: remaining in God's Word, bearing spiritual fruit, and loving others as Christ loves. This thoughtful conversation challenges listeners to consider not just what they believe, but how they live as followers of Jesus.What We Discussed: 02:30 Following Jesus Is More Than Intellectual AgreementJesus' call to “follow Me” is examined as a call to obedience and transformation, not just believing the right doctrine.03:15 #1 - Abiding in God's Word True disciples remain in Christ's Word. Abiding means staying, dwelling, and allowing Scripture to shape decisions, priorities, and worldview.07:05 Bearing Spiritual Fruit as Evidence of a Living FaithTrue disciples bear fruit over time. Spiritual fruit shows up in character, patience, humility, love, and meaningful impact on others, not in curated appearances or spiritual performance.09:30 Fruit Grows Through Faithfulness, Not SpeedDiscipleship is described as a slow, faithful process. Jesus never calls for instant fruit.11:10 Loving as Jesus LovesJesus identifies love as the clearest mark of discipleship. This love goes beyond affection and includes sacrifice, commitment, and concern for others.12:40 Love Our EnemiesThe episode addresses the hard call to love enemies, even those who oppose the gospel or disrupt the church, grounding this command in Jesus' teaching from Matthew 5:44.14:20 Love is Action, Not FeelingBiblical love is an action and commitment rather than emotion. True love shows itself through sacrifice, concern, and obedience empowered by the Holy Spirit.16:00 Why Love Is the Visible Badge of DiscipleshipWhile sound doctrine matters deeply, love is the evidence of discipleship the unbelieving world recognizes most clearly.18:45 Direction, Not PerfectionThe episode closes with a call to honest self-examination, reminding listeners that discipleship is about direction, not perfection, and that Jesus always meets His followers where they are.“ Discipleship isn't about hustle. It's about faithfulness.” – Pastor Jeff Cranston

Have you ever wondered what makes a church truly effective in God's eyes? In a powerful exploration of Acts 13, Pastor Jeff reveals how the early church in Antioch became a launching pad for world-changing mission. Through prayer, fasting, and bold proclamation of God's Word, this diverse group of believers demonstrated what happens when a church fully depends on the Holy Spirit's power. Whether facing opposition from religious leaders or witnessing miraculous conversions, they remained faithful to their calling. Pastor Jeff shares a personal testimony of God's faithfulness, including an unexpected opportunity to share the Gospel with the New England Patriots. Don't miss this inspiring message about how your church can be used by God to advance His kingdom today! Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Original Airdate: January 22, 2023 Isaiah 8:23—9:3 | 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17 | Matthew 4:12-23 Almighty, everliving God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure that, in the name of your Beloved Son, we might be found in good works.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John 16:13-14 (NKJV)However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. Matthew Henry wrote —All the gifts and graces of the Spirit, all the preaching, and all the writing of the apostles, under the influence of the Spirit, all the tongues, and miracles, were to glorify Christ.Recently, I hosted one of our monthly online women's gatherings for the Women's Bible Club and the Mercy Room. Our theme this year is Teach Me to Follow.We have been praying for each other to become more sensitive to His promptings. I will share a story of how His prompting to linger on some verses drew me into a beautiful view of Him. “He will glorify Me”— If the Holy Spirit wants to glorify Jesus to you, or through you, stop everything and follow. What a lovely view He wants to share with us. If you would like to support this podcast with a monthly or one-time gift, thank you!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.sherriyoungward.com/support⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠To find out about upcoming gatherings and new projects, please join my email list at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.sherriyoungward.com

In Acts 4, we are given a snapshot of what life looks like when resurrection power moves beyond a moment and into a community.This message explores how the Holy Spirit reshapes everyday life, not just our beliefs or worship gatherings. We see a church formed by covenant rather than convenience, marked by deep commitment to one another, a transformed relationship with possessions, and a shared responsibility for those in need.Rather than mastering spiritual content, the early church was shaped by the living presence of Jesus. Their unity, generosity, and care for one another became a visible witness to the resurrection. Not through programs or pressure, but through a reordered way of life.This teaching invites us to consider how resurrection life takes shape in ordinary spaces. Our relationships, our resources, and our response to need. It is a call to move from consumer Christianity toward a rooted, shared life centered on Jesus.

Pastor Mike Haman closes out the "Made For More" series by encouraging us to let our lives look more like Jesus through our choices, friendships, practices and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Friends of the Rosary,Today's Gospel (St. Matthew 4:12-23) presents Christ Jesus as the Light, fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy by dispelling the darkness of sin and freeing man from the obscurity in which he is enclosed.The light expresses God's involvement in human history as He manifests Himself as ‘The Light' that disperses the darkness.In God's light, everything assumes a new significance, bringing abundant joy and great rejoicing. The light is God's initiative, taking action towards a wounded humanity and performing His merciful love.This dynamic is expressed through Christ Jesus' call of the first Apostles.He invited them to abandon the nets in a sudden interruption in their lives and trust themselves totally to the Lord for a new ‘catch', a new definitive horizon. He chooses them with an unequivocal call, ‘Follow Me'.His call is a turning point in our lives.At the Last Supper, the end of His earthly life, Jesus reminds His disciples, "you did not choose me, no, I chose you." (Jn 15:16).We ask the Lord for the gift of a true conversion of our hearts, enabling us to receive Christ as the only Light to follow.Christ is the only one who dispels the darkness within and around us.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠January 25, 2026, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God's presence is with us now—giving us hope, purpose, and power as heaven and earth collide in our everyday lives. In this message, we explore why every human longs for heaven, what the Bible actually says about life after death, and how God's story moves from Eden to a New Heaven and New Earth. 

Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God's presence is with us now—giving us hope, purpose, and power as heaven and earth collide in our everyday lives. In this message, we explore why every human longs for heaven, what the Bible actually says about life after death, and how God's story moves from Eden to a New Heaven and New Earth. 

James 1:5 (NIV) “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”This year, with God's help and the power of the Holy Spirit, I declare: I will SEEK WISDOM. My independence, my isolation, and even the wrong friends are ENEMIES of my growth. I refuse to do life apart from GODLY COMMUNITY.If you want wise DECISIONS, you need wise VOICES.Proverbs 13:20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.1. Wisdom GROWS in PROXIMITY.Wisdom isn't just TAUGHT—it's CAUGHT.ISOLATION blocks ILLUMINATION.Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'2. Wise people are GODLY PEOPLE.A godly person KNOWS God's Word and LIVES God's Word.Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.Feelings are REAL, but feelings are not RELIABLE.Proverbs 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.3. Wrong community DESTROYS; right community STRENGTHENS.1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.'You can LOVE people without letting them LEAD you.Your circle is either FEEDING your faith or STARVING your future.Life starts UNRAVELING the moment I PULL AWAY from godlycommunity.Hebrews 10:24–25   And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.ROWS are great for worship. CIRCLES are where you grow.You are ONE godly community away from WISDOM landing in your life.

Radiant Life Church Podcast

Today is day 25 and we are beginning the section Concerning Holy Scripture with question 25. 25. What is Holy Scripture? Holy Scripture is “God's Word written” (Articles of Religion, 20), given by the Holy Spirit through prophets and apostles as the revelation of God and his acts in human history, and is therefore the Church's final authority in all matters of faith and practice. (Psalm 19:7–11; Jeremiah 36:1–8; 2 Timothy 3:14–17; Revelation 1:1–11) Our prayer today is the Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent found on page 598 of the Book of Common Prayer (2019). If you would like to buy or download To Be a Christian, head to anglicanchurch.net/catechism. Produced by Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Madison, MS. Original music from Matthew Clark. Daily collects and Psalms are taken from Book of Common Prayer (2019), created by the Anglican Church in North America and published by the Anglican Liturgical Press. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Catechism readings are taken from To Be a Christian - An Anglican Catechism Approved Edition, copyright © 2020 by The Anglican Church in North America by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Join Pastor Josh Moreno for part 4 of our series, "Grace Upon Grace!"

600 Garland Ave. Hot Springs, AR 71913 | gospellight.org

Due to the winter storm on the weekend, we were unable to gather in person. So Brent hopped online to offer a prayer and share a few thoughts about the death of Alex Pretti, what to do with our anger, and more.

A sermon on Romans 12 and the Holy Spirit's gift of Knowledge.

#10MinuteswithJesus ** Put yourself in the presence of God. Try talking to Him. ** 10 minutes are 10 minutes. Even if you can get distracted, reach the end. ** Be constant. The Holy Spirit acts "on low heat" and requires perseverance. 10-Minute audio to help you pray. Daily sparks to ignite prayer: a passage from the gospel, an idea, an anecdote and a priest who speaks with you and the Lord, inviting you to share your intimacy with God. Find your moment, consider you are in His presence and click play.

#10MinuteswithJesus ** Put yourself in the presence of God. Try talking to Him. ** 10 minutes are 10 minutes. Even if you can get distracted, reach the end. ** Be constant. The Holy Spirit acts "on low heat" and requires perseverance. 10-Minute audio to help you pray. Daily sparks to ignite prayer: a passage from the gospel, an idea, an anecdote and a priest who speaks with you and the Lord, inviting you to share your intimacy with God. Find your moment, consider you are in His presence and click play.