Podcasts about lueken

If new creation has any chance of reshaping and remaking us, then we have to do the hard work of listening. And here's the thing. If we are listening to Jesus, we are going to be rattled now and then. Our way is going to be out of alignment with his way now and then. And then we have to choose who to follow.    From Luke 6, let me just rattle it off. Love enemies. Pray for those who mistreat you. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Refuse to use violence to get back at those who've used violence against you. Help the hurting. Be kind to those who are not grateful for your kindness. Be merciful. Judge yourself. Forgive. Let me say this in case it's not obvious yet. New Creation Living is not exclusively owned by any of our political parties. A Christian's priority is their citizenship in God's kingdom.  

Children intuitively know that this world is amazing and amazing things happen in it all the time. Even kids in tough circumstances, any of you who's ever been around a kid going through a really, really hard time, they still know, and they will instinctively default to celebrating the goodness of this world. They feel called to it. It's like an obligation. They see this celebration as the work to which they have been called.   Just a little side note on the on the child in my house that decided to dig the holes in the middle of the grass. Before the whole digging hole event thing, my wife had actually come to this child and asked this child, "Would you like to go to Chick-fil-A and celebrate the grand reopening of Chick-fil-A?" To which the child responded, "No." And I quote, "Because he had a lot of work to do.” Referring of course to this project of digging holes just for the sheer joy of digging holes.  

Without identity restoration, rebuilding, we cannot have reconciliation with our brothers and sisters. And our reconciliation happens when we encounter the ultimate other of humanity, that becomes a human being, that is Jesus. And when we encounter Jesus and our identity changed and transformed, we're able to relate to others in a different way. 

This idea when Jesus envisioned his people, his family, he designed it so that each member would need each other. It's the picture that we get from this passage that we read at the beginning of the message. This one body with many parts, each with its own role to play, each with its own ability to make contributions. And it's a great analogy because when of course you think about the parts of your body, literally there is no part that can survive on its own without the others. And literally any part of the body that is removed the whole body feels it. Even the appendix, you take it out, you're going to feel it. Which once again, nothing in our culture prepares us for that. Nothing in our Culture shapes us or forms us or trains us for this. Almost everything in our Culture is working to make us more independent, right? So much so that the suggestion that we should be in a place where we depend on others for anything, actually almost feels wrong, doesn't it? 

Our current series is called practicing faith because faith works like a piano. We practice it. It slowly gets into us, and we are gradually trained in how to live with and live under God with increasing trust and confidence in him. But if we don't practice it, it sits there maybe in some way part of us but not a shaping part of us. And yet faith is not meant to be a decoration. Faith is meant to be played. It's meant to be lived. 

Prayer begins with his daughters and sons interacting with Their very good Father, being with their very good Father. Imagine if all we did this week, in these in between times is go back to this prayer. And I would encourage this for some of you, if all we did was pray the opening line, “Our Father in heaven”. Our Father, good and loving Father who is right here and right now with me as I go into Raley's, with me as I search for Buzz and Woody, with me as I do whatever I'm doing. It might surprise some of us how prayer might start to move from being a bore toward being something like a meaningful relationship. 

And so in our life of faith in Jesus, we have a similar choice to make as we did with the hypothetical violin. And if you're not into music, then picture getting a brand new set of golf clubs or a pair of snow skis or a new air fryer or whatever it is that captures that sense of new that goes, "Oh, wow. That'd be cool." Right? But we have the choice to make whether we are going to just pack this new life in Jesus that we've received, put it in a box marked religious stuff, and stuff it up in the closet, or are we going to learn how to live it? 

There's just something about love that feels too overwhelming, feels too vulnerable. It feels too simple, too easy. It feels even too good to be true. But if we do let it in, even just a little, it becomes the truth that gives us hope, that brings us peace, that fills us with mega joy.   Just the fact that God loves us makes even the hardest things in life filled with light. But we, you and I, have to let it in. We have to allow it to count. We have to live in light of its truth. God has done everything. Not just Christmas, but literally everything that he has ever done. God has done it all out of love. But it is up to us to notice. It's up to us to believe it, to accept it, and let it transform our life.   

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase the God of the Bible? What's the demeanor of the God who lives in your head? How does he feel about this world? Maybe more personally, how does he feel about you? Don't polish it up. Don't pretty it up when you think, "What does God think about me? How does God feel about me? Does God think about me? Does God feel anything for me?" If you could see his face and survive, what would his face tell you about how he feels about you? What expression is on his face at the mention of your name? Mad, disappointed, frustrated, pity. What emoji would God use when he hears your name; headshake, eye roll, laughter, frown. What adjectives immediately come to your mind when you hear the word God; maybe some of these: holy, distant, righteous, weak, annular, just, powerful, cheery, sinister, impotent, gracious, loving, kind. Question, how about joyous? Is that on the list? Does he laugh? Does his head, if he has a head, throw back when he laughs hard? Does he delight? Does God delight? Does God ever look upon the world? Does God ever look upon the oceans with some measure of, that was a good day. I delight in that. When he sees his cosmic masterpieces, and we've named only a few of them, but when he sees his cosmic masterpieces, is he bored by them now? Has he gotten tired of them? Is your God joyous? Is my God joyous? 

The Other Side of the Story with Tom Harris and Todd Royal – Climate anxiety grips a generation, fueling fear, eco-grief, and hopelessness about the future. Heartland Institute fellow Linnea Lueken challenges the idea of a climate crisis, arguing that exaggerated narratives harm young people's mental health and overlook technological progress that ensures abundant, affordable energy for generations to come...

The Other Side of the Story with Tom Harris and Todd Royal – Climate anxiety grips a generation, fueling fear, eco-grief, and hopelessness about the future. Heartland Institute fellow Linnea Lueken challenges the idea of a climate crisis, arguing that exaggerated narratives harm young people's mental health and overlook technological progress that ensures abundant, affordable energy for generations to come...

Jesus incarnated the way of shalom. He taught us about it. He showed us what it does and how it drastically differs from the ways of this world. See, in the way of shalom, in the way of peace, people love their enemies. They confront violence with love. In the way of shalom, the strong care for the weak. The forgotten are included. The marginalized are valued. The poor are fed. Power is used for good. Reconciliation and restoration replace division and discord. Forgiveness instead of payback. Hope instead of despair. Humility in place of pride, gentleness instead of anger. On and on and on we could go. The Sermon on the Mount is the way of shalom.   

May this God of hope help us be lanterns of hope, in the world that we live, in the circumstances we are in, with the people we interact with as we go through Advent, that we may be lanterns of hope. That we may be people whose words and lives and attitudes and actions convey to a hurting world that there is hope and his name is Jesus. And this hope is there no matter what we're facing, no matter what is happening in our world or in our nation, no matter how fragile things are, no matter how disoriented the world is, that we might be lanterns of overflowing hope in this hope starved world.   

The step to take here is not to try to forget. The step here is not to try not to remember the event. To not remember what that person said or did to you. The step here is to simply forgive, again. You see forgiveness is more than just a singular event. A one-time thing we got through. Forgiveness is more of a posture. More of a perspective that we take on a particular event or towards a person. Where every time we remember the event. Every time it comes to mind and all the feelings around it come again. Every time we're faced again with this decision either to demand that that person pay for what they did, or we choose once again to forgive. And not just that time but every time. Until eventually yes, you get so used to having this posture of forgiveness towards that person or towards that situation. That the event no longer stirs up feelings of anger or animosity. You see forgiveness is not a onetime set it and forget it thing that we do. It is a posture that we live in every day.  

So you're in the pool and you got a beach ball and it's full of air and you know, so obviously, in in our little example here, the air is our anger, right? So, you're trying to keep anger under the water. You all can kind of picture what that would feel like. And we spend so much time in life like trying to keep the beach ball under the water, trying to keep our anger from, you know, popping up and showing itself. And you do that, but anybody who's ever tried to keep a beach ball under the water knows that eventually it's impossible to do because eventually, you know, it pops up and there's your anger out there for all to see.   Unless, of course, you get rid of all kinds of anger, which in our little example would be to let the air out of the beach ball, right? Because you let the air out of the beach ball, well, it's not going to pop up anymore, right? Which is great. Now it stays under the water. The only thing is that all the pressure around you is still there. All the things that caused your anger to want to pop up, they're still there. And now that you don't have any anger in you, what are you supposed to do? Are you just supposed to live like a shriveled up beach ball? 

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.” Ephesians 4:31  Today's verse is about pivoting away from whatever degree of anger is in us, whatever form it takes, whatever level it's at, toward a new Kingdom way of being, responding, reacting that is far more beautiful and good. Today is about the action that you and I can take to open a space for the Holy Spirit and to start transforming the anger within us.  

Life in the kingdom of God is not a life of just not saying unwholesome things, but of saying things that spread God's grace out into the world. 

Ultimately, work is not about how much money it brings into us. It is about how much of us we put into what we do. See, ultimately our work is not about earning our own living. Our work is not about us being able to achieve comfort and self-sufficiency for us and for our family. Our work is not a way to establish our status in society. Our work, us doing something useful with our own hands, according to this passage, is about having something to share with others. Paul writes, "Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with their own hands that they may have something to share with those in need.” - Ephesians 4:28 

When you think of anger, where is it in you? How does it show itself? And maybe the most important question of all, what is the story behind your anger? Do you know it? Does anyone who loves Jesus and is near you know it? 

One reason why the people of God are called to be mature is because our vocation, yours and mine in this world, is to be Jesus's representatives. To demonstrate the goodness of his way to proclaim the gospel, through our deeds and words, to show the world what it looks like to love God and to love others. 

Jesus is our model for attitude, and behavior, and perspective, and concepts. You see, only Jesus, is the whole package. Only Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. If we want to have life, real life, where we don't just pick and choose aspects of Jesus to incorporate. We don't pick his death for our sins so that we can get to heaven when we die. We don't just pick his teachings as pithy words of comfort. We don't just have him as a friend to keep us company and to keep us from being lonely. We don't just have him as a champion for our causes, whatever our cause may be. If we want to have life we must learn the Jesus way of life. We must enroll in the school of Jesus. Where Jesus himself is the teacher. Jesus himself is the subject. And Jesus himself is the ultimate standard of truth, but it's all of him and we have to choose him.  Pick a situation that you are in; maybe something that is troubling you, maybe a decision you're having to make, maybe a place you find yourself in and ask yourself the question, am I allowing Jesus to teach me how to handle this? Do I want Jesus to teach me how to handle this? 

Susan Pendergrass speaks with Marty Lueken, director of EdChoice's Fiscal Research and Education Center, about the 2025 Fiscal Fact Book. They discuss how much is really spent per student, where the money comes from, why staffing has grown even as enrollment has declined, the fiscal impact of school choice programs, and more. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

The Bible describes a hard-hearted person in Matthew 13:15, This is Jesus speaking, “For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes." I have just an observation, you can decide it's not true, but to me it has been. The longer we are Christians, the more certain we become, the more we nurture anger and think it righteous, the higher our risk of becoming hard hearted. And throughout the Bible Gods people have often had the hardest hearts. 

Did God really say you can't do this, or you can't do that? This kind of thought gets in our minds and then we nurture the thought. We cultivate the thought and so begins the process of eventually firing God and replacing him with me, ourselves, and off the rails we go to live happily ever after, or maybe not. So let me just bring this down to us again. I want to keep warning us to not let this stir up in us anger with finger pointed to some group out there, that is absolutely fruitless, if not outright uncchristian.The thing for us to do is draw this onto ourselves. So let me show you what I mean. I am at the center of futile thinking. At the center of futile thinking, in other words, is the me and everything the me wants. I want to do what I want to do. I know best. I think this is good. I think that is right. I want to do whatever I feel like doing. What's true for me is true for me, even if it's not actually true. If I think it's true or want it to be true or think it should be true, then it is true enough for me even if it is not objectively or actually true according to reality as established by God. And if all of this is starting to sound just a tad bit absurd, then I am communicating very clearly because it is.  

The politics of the world matters; right, left, Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive. But the church is a community of those whose first identity is who they are in the Trinity and to the Trinity. So, our first passion and first agenda and first focus is not right, left, progressive, conservative, Democrat, Republican. It is kingdom. It is the way of Jesus. Ephesians 4 and verse 15, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”   

Immaturity is one of the glaring problems facing the church in our country right now. Immaturity. Christian immaturity. Christians acting immature. There are far too many who claim to be Christian, standing in their highchairs with nothing on but a diaper, demanding dessert right here and right now. Christians who have not and are not, allowing the gospel to penetrate their pathologies and transform them into a new person who increasingly thinks, feels, acts, reacts, chooses, and responds the way Jesus would if he were in their shoes and in their situation. 

You see, whether we realize it or not, we are all living a story. I know some of you in your mind, are in your head just saying, "No, I'm not. I live in the real world.” But you see the real world is a story. The real the real world is a series of connected events and actions by significant characters that are leading to a particular end. You are living a story. The question is, which story are you living?   Is it a fantasy? One that you made up in your head? One that requires you to ignore truth and be blind to the realities around you? Or is it the story that makes sense of reality as it is? Is it the story of God? 

Lueken, Verena www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Studio 9

Im Buch „Alte Frauen“ beschreibt Verena Lueken Karrieren von Frauen, die erst im Alter starteten, darunter wie Vivian Gornick, Jane Campbell. Lucinda Childs und Ulrike Edschmid.

Jesus comes though not to abolish the tedium of God's laws, but to actually live them out, to show us what a life lived by God's system under God's government looks like. And not only that, he teaches us the details of how with God's ongoing help, we can live that way. 

If I were to give you two words for the role of the prophets, they would be, WAKE UP! Remember, they were a people who were to represent the way of God, the alternative to the systems and cultures of the world, but they like us, continue to believe that their ways were somehow better than God's ways. And as we see not just in the Bible, but in both the world without and our worlds within, the way we live comes with consequences. 

Maybe the choices that you've made have screwed up your life. Maybe they've screwed up the lives of others. But regardless of which mistakes that you are carrying today or maybe even running from today, the mistakes that we're trying to ignore, the the mistakes that we're trying to avoid, the good news of the story of the kings of Israel is that no matter how bad the mistake, no matter how poor the decision, no matter how far you or I fall. God does not give up on you. He does not give up on his plans for you. He does not give up on his plans of bringing good into your life. If we would just turn, if we would just change our mind, if we would repent from our rebellion against him and allow him to be the actual king of our life. 

Linnea Lueken, Research Fellow for The Heartland Institute, praises Lee Zeldin's repeal of the Obama-era "Endangerment Finding" for Carbon Dioxide and warns of the fear tactics being used by climate controligarchs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The story continues to unfold today as it has for thousands of years. God is creating a community that identifies as God's people and they and he interact, relate, and work together toward the fulfillment of his purposes; land, people, God, place, heaven, earth, co-mingling, interacting, intersecting, roots being set down, and all of this adding up to this demonstration to the world. This is who God is, and this is what life can be like under him. See, this is what church means, what I'm describing. This is what church is. And this is why church matters.

Walleye category, bass category, big fish and legacy anglers...We reveal the winners and the prizes from the Lueken's Village Foods United Way Fishing TournamentSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our service on Sunday was a deep breath from the day-to-day crazy of our lives. Pastor Mike encouraged us to sit in this idea that God's invitation to you to follow him, to trust him, to live in his ways, is immense. It covers quite literally everything.”   “The one who loves fulfills the law.” - Romans 13:18  Please use this link from The Bible Project to add context to The Never Ending Story: Law message from Sunday.  

In Exodus 14:13, Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance that the Lord will bring you today. These Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. You need only to be still.” 

Denae Alamano is in to preview next weekend's Lueken's Village Foods United Way Fishing Tournament and Mike Frisch previews Bemidji Community Education's Thursday offering for kids and families...The Zebco School of Fish.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Was it Abraham and Sarah's choices that made a nation, a people, a world where a poor teenage Judean girl could answer an angel? Yes, I am the Lord's slave. May it be to me according to your word. Or was it all God acting, directing, intervening? Yes. And yes, God has willed and designed his creation to be partnership. That is something we have to reckon with every day. A covenant includes two parties and that's the world you live in. The story you've received that is not yet finished, that has come and is coming. And the fulcrum of righteousness is partnership, and trust, and passivity is never an option. 

What is church about? Why does it matter? Does it matter? What are we attempting to communicate? What are we attempting to say to one another? What are we attempting to say to ourselves? And what are we attempting to say and demonstrate to a hurting world?  There is no one like our God! 

But when you think about it for a second, you think about what would have to be true about the world for us all to be walking around naked and feel no shame. What would have to be true about the world? What would have to be true about us for us to live unguarded, unshielded, fully transparent lives with each other? Well it would have to be a world where we were not a threat to each other, where we weren't always trying to manipulate and control each other. It would have to be a world of honor. A world of respect. A world of truth and humility. Not to mention, of course, it would have to be a world with really good weather and completely free of mosquitoes. And when you think about it, you realize that it is actually the perfect phrase to encapsulate the storyteller's opening scene of how God created a world that works. A world of harmony. A world of flourishing. A world where everything is as it should be. In short, it is the perfect phrase to describe this state of being that the biblical authors refer to as shalom, peace, universal flourishing, the way things ought to be.

We never outgrow the need for story. Yet we think we do, don't we? Especially when it comes to this book, we call the Bible. We have made it into a book of rules, rights and wrongs, and dos and don'ts. And yes, there are some rules that teach us how life works best, but if that is what the Bible is to us, we have missed the point altogether. We have made it into a book of character studies and history lessons or facts to be clung to and mastered. A book to be analyzed, dissected, and studied, and these have their place, but again, the Bible is not a textbook to be mastered.

“This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” – John 21:24-25 In the last two verses of John's gospel that I just read, John says in effect, I saw all of what I just wrote happen, and I wrote some of it down, and if every one of the things that Jesus did were written down there would not be enough room for all the books that would be written…Just think about what he's saying, my testimony is true, I saw it, I witnessed a lot of this, and if all that had been witnessed, or all that Jesus has ever done, would have been recorded in a book there aren't enough books in the world to record it all. See, he is pointing to Jesus not only as the rabbi he walked and talked with for three years. As a disciple, he's pointing to the Jesus of John 1:1 who, as it says, “In the beginning, the very beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He's pointing to Jesus as the One.

Inhale the victory of the cross and exhale the power of the resurrection. Maybe that gives us something in the thick of the suffering, down deep in the valley of suffering. Inhale the victory of the cross. Exhale the power of the resurrection. This is the way of the Christ follower. And you know what strikes me in all this, as we reflect on this. What strikes me is that this is another one of those occasions where we begin to realize, or we realize again, the business of following Jesus or of living Christian is not some nice idea. It's not a paper transaction to avoid hell. It's not a religious distraction to pretend things are better than they are. Rather, the business of following Jesus and living Christian touches our real lives in every way. It is intensely and immensely practical. It's actually, the center of our lives. It reshapes us. It reorients us and reframes everything around us, including, believe it or not, the valley of suffering.

See, back in the beginning, when this whole thing started, Peter had gotten into this Jesus thing with the idea, with the dream of changing the world. Jesus comes and calls Peter with the promise, “Follow me, I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus had called him to serve, and for a while, Peter had been at the very center of the action. Life change was happening all around him. Miracles were happening. He was right there. Then he screwed up. Then he failed. And it is the question that haunts everyone who has ever failed. Is this the one? Is this the one that gets me benched? Is this the one that takes me out of the game, that relegates me to a spectator in the Kingdom of God, that sends me to the sidelines?

Friendships can be hard; that's just the simple point, they can be hard. We let each other down, we disappoint, we don't come through, we don't show up, we fail as friends, and some of our friends have failed us. And so, friendships in the real world will usually be a mixture of the good and the beautiful and the hard and the painful, but the resurrected Jesus, just by way of vision, models friendship that perseveres through the failure with grace and with the desire to reconcile.

Every person that professes to be a follower of Jesus Christ has a vocation and that vocation is bigger, more important, and more of a priority than our jobs or our careers. This vocation actually encompasses any job or career or trade or roll. This vocation is essentially the same for every single person who follows Jesus. Whether our work is to pick up trash at the park, lead a fortune 100 company, raise our children, or study chemistry. The word vocation comes from the Latin word, vocare, which means call. In the Christian context it means this, what has God called me to be and do? 

I believe Dallas Willard used to say, “a good practice was to doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs”; doubt your doubts, believe your beliefs. And when we stay immersed in Christian community, even in the midst of our doubts, that's a good way to do that. Because of course, by staying in community, right, the next time Jesus shows up, Thomas was there, and he was able to encounter the risen Christ. And when he did, he was willing to be wrong. When he sees Jesus, he bows at his feet and declares him "My Lord and my God." No doubt about it, I think if we're honest, we'd have to admit that sometimes we get stuck in our doubts because we don't want the humiliation of having to say, "I was wrong." Sometimes it's just safer to say, "I don't believe."

Part one, thinking it was the gardener, just another day, just another person, just a thing. Part two, she hears her name, he calls her name. And part three, she turned toward him. This kind of just walks right out the door with us on any given Monday.   Outbreaks of God's presence and activity in the ordinary of our lives anytime, anywhere.  See a God who can return from the dead can rather easily handle something so pedestrian as omnipresence; present and active everywhere. So, we can encounter him anytime, anywhere if we are attentive. If we are listening. If we have eyes that see and ears that hear. If we're present in the moments of our lives rather than being behind them or ahead of them, if we're open to it. 

You see God's plan, His vision, is and always has been, to prepare a people for himself in the midst of whom he can dwell. Every aspect of our character, our spiritual formation if you will, contributes to that ultimate goal, that ultimate vision. Jesus is planning on riding through the gates of your life. So ,your renovation matters. Not just be cause it makes your life better. Not just because it benefits the people around you. It matters because you are a part of God's city, God's temple, God's people God's kingdom, that He is building for all eternity.  So, when you work to develop a deeper prayer life it matters for God's Eternal Kingdom. When you work on getting deeper into community or being reshaped by the word, it matters for God's Eternal Kingdom. When you seek to make every aspect of your life an act of worship doing everything in the name of Jesus for the glory of God, it matters for God's Eternal Kingdom. When you care for the vulnerable, put others first, learn to see the world through the eyes of a child, make space in your life for others, be meek, and humble in spirit, celebrate with joy, interact with goodness, and kindness, and gentleness. Whatever renovation that you feel God calling you into, you can be sure it's not just for your benefit. It's a part of God's grand vision for his Eternal Kingdom, that he might dwell with his people, for all eternity. That's what the renovation is all about.