Podcasts about preachers

Joe Biden assures that no more lockdowns will be necessary, as long as everyone gets vaccinated and boosted. Psaki seems stumped when pressed on Biden's previous distaste for travel bans. The most popular governor in America turns out to be Phil Scott from Vermont. It looks like Matthew McConaughey has decided not to run for governor of Texas. Just how high is our current inflation? Joe Biden is tapping into the U.S. oil reserves again ... and selling it to China! While Biden is breaking into the oil reserves, Canada opens up its maple syrup reserves. A Swedish politician gets elected and then resigns just hours later. Federal taxpayers are now funding a program to teach critical race theory to college students. The Salvation Army backs off its woke requests to white and Christian donors. An end-times preacher wakes up to a weird encounter with a Xerxes-alien-thing? Kamala Harris has some advice for cooking a turkey. New Zealanders now have permission to use the bathroom at someone else's house! The justice system is finally getting around to trying Jussie Smollett. A Catholic university replaces Jesus with George Floyd in a campus painting? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, David and I talk about what his upbringing was like as a church planter's kid and what things he things his parents did well that helped to nurture faith in Jesus in his life, instead of the kind of bitterness that, sadly, one often sees in the lives of pastor's kids. David also shares about his journey from college minister to church planter and numerous actionable insights and principles from his personal journey to develop into a better preacher and communicator. Please see the episode webpage here for photos and resources related to this episode.

Why is the Western world (and now most of the world), in terms of religions, a giant atheism factory? What are the events and ideologies that led to such a drastic alteration in human living where religion has not died, but been replaced by a new religion of techne? Many factors could be listed, but today we will look at some of the key movements and events (such as the papacy, the Reformation and the Enlightenment) that are often overlooked, as well as the geopolitical powers and their influence in the domain of religion, and especially religion as a tool of the state. The state religion of our day is tech worship and the coming post-human world, with its own origin story, its own account of history (evolution) and eschatology (post-humanism).

Why is the Western world (and now most of the world), in terms of religions, a giant atheism factory? What are the events and ideologies that led to such a drastic alteration in human living where religion has not died, but been replaced by a new religion of techne? Many factors could be listed, but today we will look at some of the key movements and events (such as the papacy, the Reformation and the Enlightenment) that are often overlooked, as well as the geopolitical powers and their influence in the domain of religion, and especially religion as a tool of the state. The state religion of our day is tech worship and the coming post-human world, with its own origin story, its own account of history (evolution) and eschatology (post-humanism).

This talk was given at Hillsdale College on October 16, 2021 as part of the Thomistic Institute conference "Christ the Savior: Perspectives from the Early Church Fathers." For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and Assistant Professor in Systematic Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001, after having practiced constitutional law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also taught at The Catholic University of America Law School and at Providence College. He is the author of The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Hosted by Mark PospisilSound Engineer and Producer: Jonathan BlosserThe Stream Roots Podcast theme song was written, recorded, and produced by Jonathan Blosser and Owen Nash.You can learn more about Barnabas Ministries by visiting www.barnabasministriesmi.org

Episode 1: On the debut episode of The New Day: Feel the Power, Kofi, Big E and Woods give the true, behind-the-scenes story of how The New Day was formed, from the fateful pay-per-view that brought them together to the original idea of a militant group to a final concept they struggled mightily to accept. It's the first chapter in a heartfelt, hilarious tale for wrestling fans and newcomers alike. Now, if only they could agree on the name of the podcast ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rabbi Dave is ready for Hanukkah, which begins tonight at sundown. Friar Rod is still convinced that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. The onset of the next COVID panic has already begun. Let the lockdowns and mandates begin anew, over a variant that (a) probably is less virulent and (b) NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT ANYWAY! People are really touchy about bad Yelp reviews, but not as touchy as a Preacher who had a midnight rendezvous with a reptilian Persian Emperor. It'll all make you say, What the Frock?

CityLight Church Online, Pastor Mohamed Wurie

Sunday, November 28th 2021 | Beau Bradberry"For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy." Psalm 92:4

It has often been said that the most common command in the Bible is "Fear not." But what amazes me is how often those words appear in the Christmas story. "Fear not" is spoken to the shepherds by the angels, Mary by Gabriel, and Joseph in a dream. But before those words are spoken of Jesus' birth, they're said to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. But it's not just "fear not." Zechariah is told, "Fear not, your prayer has been heard." The command to not be afraid is tied to the deepest desire in Zechariah's heart, a hope he refused to let go of even when all hope seemed to be gone. What if God hears your greatest hope? What if your greatest fear could melt away in his presence? This is where we begin the Christmas story in Luke, and it could be where the Christmas story meets each of us.

Who is my neighbor? That question put the brush in Jesus' hand to paint the parable of the Good Samaritan. Listen to this week's episode to hear their story.    Purchase my brand new book Ten Words: a Practical Look at the Ten Commandments at https://pentecostalpublishing.com/products/ten-words Listen to Ten Words: a Practical Look at the Ten Commandments on Audible at Ten Words on Audible Purchase the devotional Simplify—which launched the podcast— at https://pentecostalpublishing.com/search?q=simplify   Join me on another podcast called God's Word for Life to help us better learn and live out God's Word for Life. Listen on Podbean Listen on Google Podcasts   Join me on another another podcast called The Preacher and the Policeman, where Lt. Andy Burns and I mix in current events with the gospel and do our best to add a heaping helping of humor.  Listen on Podbean Listen on Google Podcasts   Music provided by: Positive Happy by PeriTune https://soundcloud.com/sei_peridot Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/TutcA4JPa7Q

Jude is a fascinating, but short book of the Bible. In it, the author warns us against slandering an sort of heavenly being, including Satan himself. We aren't supposed to talk bad about the devil? Also: How can we practically pray in the Spirit - is praying in the Spirit the same thing as praying in tongues?

Good afternoon, I'm still reporting on the coup – the coup whose primary purpose is to weaken the United States so that it can be destroyed from within without firing a shot. Beth watches a really rough looking preacher named Robin Bullock who one week before last night's elections had some prophetic words on our situation in the U.S. Now don't let this guy's looks throw you. He grew up poor in Alabama where his family didn't even have running water. He was a member of a rock group before he got saved and now he spends his time listening for that still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.

Call me at 888-283-7272 Text me at 407-698-3814 Send me a DM on instagram @AsaRxTV I will answer these daily and tweet the answers @AsaRxTV with the hashtag #AsaRxExperience  How Fast Can You Live Your Potential and Be Healthy?  You don't have to live lower than your potential for the rest of your life! Take the Asa Rx Experience Healthy Solution Quiz by answering simple questions and our Healthy Solution will show you how quickly you can reach your healthy goals!   Our Gift To You  As a complimentary gift to you The Asa Rx Experience team wants to give you a copy of his international best-selling book to help you GET STARTED for FREE . Living Healthy is often misunderstood and overcomplicated. It doesn't have to be! We made it simple. After just 30 days of following The Asa Rx Master Class, 9 out of 10 users feel more confident in their choices toward a healthy future. Join Us On Asa Plus!.  Give us 2 minutes a day and Asa will change your life! Get the training that you need. How does your daily healthy lifestyle choices stack up? Our Asa Plus+ Community will help you what you need (and don't need), which questions to ask, and how to make the best natural lifestyle choices. In over 500 videos learn the best tools and strategies to get healthy and stay healthy from any device and on your time. Just 2 minutes a day! Find the Right Provider To Help Your Body Achieve It's Best. Finding the right provider doesn't have to be complicated. Here at The Asa Rx Experience, and AsaR.TV, we help you with getting your free conversation with our provider specialists makes it easy to know what questions to ask so you can make a confident choice. Meet with a provider on us!  Listen and Watch Anytime, Anywhere. The Asa Rx TV app lets you download episodes for offline playback, customize your content, and see what's coming up!

Michael and Pax welcome back Evan Hanson to talk about Sidney Poitier's directorial debut, Buck and the Preacher, starring himself as well as Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee.

In This Episode, Chris McCurley is joined by Blake Dozier to discuss “Sexual Ethics Pt. 2” Have questions? Email chris.mccurley@rippleoflight.com. 

Join us for service every Sunday at 9:30 am and 11:45 am (CST), Wednesday at 7 pm.If you would like to support PTW CHURCH financially you can give online through our website by clicking here https://ptwmtx.churchcenter.com/giving   You can also Text to 84321.Únase a nosotros para el servicio todos los domingos a las 9:30 a.m. y las11:45 a.m. (CST), los miércoles a las 7 p.m.Si desea apoyar financieramente a PTW CHURCH, puede donar en línea a través de nuestro sitio web haciendo clic aquí https://ptwmtx.churchcenter.com/giving También puede enviar un mensaje de texto al 84321.For more information about PTW Church, visit http://ptwmtx.org/Para obtener más información sobre PTW Church, visite http://ptwmtx.org/Podcast website:  https://preparingthewaychurch.buzzsprout.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/preparingthewaychurchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/preparingthewaychurch#preparingthewaychurch #iglesiapreparandoelcamino #pastorterryhorn #wordsoffreedomSupport the show (http://preparingthewayministries.org/en/giving.html)

Episode Notes Welcome to our 200th episode! We are excited to bring you a mostly regular show with a little baby celebration at the top. But soon enough we get into the meat of this episode wherein it is confirmed that there ARE vampires in Preacher's Corners – and maybe even more in Jerusalem's Lot where are hero has been bidden. Loa is tempted by her first cousin twice removed (once by a generation and once by death) and Honor is rebuffed by her intended but mostly Charles finds out what's in the walls, and it's not rats, or worms – you guessed it – vampire family members. It turns out the Boone's are a plague on this town. Now we just have to see how Charles is going to proceed.   Recommendations: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney+)   Next up: Chapelwaite Episode 5: “The Prophet” (2021) (EPIX)   Email us at latecomers@gmail.com Twitter: @latecomerspod Find Amity @ www.amityarmstrong.com and @AmityArmstrong on Twitter Our Facebook group is here for those who consent: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1754020081574479/   Find out more at https://the-latecomers.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Host: Robert Hatfield  |  Released Thursday, November 25, 2021 Steve Higginbotham joins us for a light-hearted Thanksgiving special episode of “Preachers in Training.” You’ll love hearing the stories of the unique things that have happened to him in ministry! Watch the Video Episode Resources Order a copy of Steve Higginbotham’s book A Day in the Life […]

Host: Robert Hatfield  |  Released Thursday, November 25, 2021 Steve Higginbotham joins us for a light-hearted Thanksgiving special episode of “Preachers in Training.” You’ll love hearing the stories of the unique things that have happened to him in ministry! Watch the Video Episode Resources Order a copy of Steve Higginbotham’s book A Day in the Life […]

Today we're joined by the Reverend Brandon Robertson, writer, activist and preacher, who rose to fame during the pandemic as the TikTok Preacher. We'll hear about the gays in the Bible, how the word homosexual wasn't even in the Bible until 1946 and his experiences undergoing conversion therapy. Brandon also also debunks some of evangelical Christianity's favourite hate-speech.If you're an LGBTQ+ person of faith and want to talk about faith and sexuality, visit https://www.livingout.org/. Get bonus content on Patreon, with our super exclusive fan feed See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Call me at 888-283-7272 Text me at 407-698-3814 Send me a DM on instagram @AsaRxTV I will answer these daily and tweet the answers @AsaRxTV with the hashtag #AsaRxExperience  How Fast Can You Live Your Potential and Be Healthy?  You don't have to live lower than your potential for the rest of your life! Take the Asa Rx Experience Healthy Solution Quiz by answering simple questions and our Healthy Solution will show you how quickly you can reach your healthy goals!   Our Gift To You  As a complimentary gift to you The Asa Rx Experience team wants to give you a copy of his international best-selling book to help you GET STARTED for FREE . Living Healthy is often misunderstood and overcomplicated. It doesn't have to be! We made it simple. After just 30 days of following The Asa Rx Master Class, 9 out of 10 users feel more confident in their choices toward a healthy future. Join Us On Asa Plus!.  Give us 2 minutes a day and Asa will change your life! Get the training that you need. How does your daily healthy lifestyle choices stack up? Our Asa Plus+ Community will help you what you need (and don't need), which questions to ask, and how to make the best natural lifestyle choices. In over 500 videos learn the best tools and strategies to get healthy and stay healthy from any device and on your time. Just 2 minutes a day! Find the Right Provider To Help Your Body Achieve It's Best. Finding the right provider doesn't have to be complicated. Here at The Asa Rx Experience, and AsaR.TV, we help you with getting your free conversation with our provider specialists makes it easy to know what questions to ask so you can make a confident choice. Meet with a provider on us!  Listen and Watch Anytime, Anywhere. The Asa Rx TV app lets you download episodes for offline playback, customize your content, and see what's coming up!

All of the teachingsare met within this zazen:pure meditation!* * *In the last segment we ended with Keizan's discussion of the Precepts, the true ones that go beyond mental characterization. These are the manifest Precepts, that do not depend upon our practice. They are natural, and universal. Such constructions as, “Do not kill,” “Do not steal,” and “Do not lie” become statements of the truth — that actually, the universe that gives us birth is that which actually ends life, and we cannot even own anything, let alone steal it. We cannot actually tell the truth, no matter how erudite, or glib, our speech. These, of course, are absolutist views of the Precepts, which also have relative meaning. In this segment we will continue with what the master says about the remaining two “aspects of spiritual training” he mentions. Beginning with mindfulness:“Mindfulness” is the observing that there is nothing that is in excess. When seated in pure meditation, we let go of “body and mind,” abandon “delusion and enlightenment.” We are unchanging, immovable, unwillful, impervious. We are like a simpleton or a legless man. We are like a mountain or an ocean: no trace of “movement versus stillness” has yet arisen. When mindful, there is no fixed state of things. Short and sweet, but comprehensive. Reminds again of Hsinshinming, “The Way is perfect like vast space — nothing lacking, nothing in excess.” Compare with the modern take on mindfulness, from the pop meditation of the same name, meaning “being in the moment.” In our anxiety- and uncertainty-ridden society, just being able to be in the moment for a moment or two, rather than obsessively ruminating over the past, or planning for the future, is certainly welcome. However, it does not begin to answer the question, Mindful of what? Keizan's abbreviated answer is meant to focus like a laser on one key point, but we would be prone to include mindfulness of the Four Noble truths and other central teachings of Buddha. However, his main point here is that we should also not obsess over these teachings, as such. After all, they are only pointing at the reality in front of our face. Which has nothing extra, nothing truly separate, in mokurai, the complementarity of movement and stillness. He takes a similarly blunt approach to defining wise discernment:“Wise discernment” is being selective within enlightened awareness. When seated in pure meditation, what is intellectually known spontaneously vanishes and self-consciousness is discarded. Your whole being's Eye of Discernment possesses no “specialized insight”: It clearly sees Buddha Nature and is, from the first, not deluded.Keizan uses this kind of expression, “from the first,” repeatedly. We will find Hakuin Zenji starting off his Song of Zazen with “From the beginning…” This captures the meaning of “refuge” in Zen — having the connotation of returning to the safe place from which we originated. It has all been like a bad dream, but we are the authors of that dream, and when we wake up, everything will be okay with us. The rest of the baggage that we carry with us — delusion, and the intellectual ramblings and self-centered striving that result — fall away. The emphasis on spontaneity means that this is not something we can do intentionally, but it can happen. Before launching into another litany of practical things like seeking a “good, quiet place,” a thick cushion, avoiding “mist, smoke, or fog” and “rain and dew,” keeping “your sitting place neat and clean,” et cetera, and repeating some of the prior instructions, he delves again into more specifically mental, or better, counter-mental, techniques:This is the technique for meditating: Let go of, and abandon, awareness of thoughts; put to rest looking at mental fancies and images. Do not devise some notion of what “realizing Buddha-hood” is. Do not let right and wrong control you. Act as if you were saving your head which was ablaze!Here we are hearing echoes of Dogen, for sure. Again, the “hair-on-fire” expression may have been a common trope in this period, much as it is currently. The “…give up even the idea of becoming a Buddha” is, again, pure Dogen. It begins to look like this document may have been a result of someone taking notes, or writing down a spontaneous talk given by Keizan Zenji to an audience. It has that kind of character, of jumping from point to point, and being careful to remember and transmit some of the golden nuggets he had inherited from the newly-developing legacy of Dogen's lineage. Many of the passages sound like direct quotes, perhaps paraphrased, and morphed in translation, from various of Dogen's written teachings, which have a more structured feel. Keizan is either quoting or channeling Dogen's Jijuyu Zammai when he says:Do not get involved with the burning of incense, the making of bows, the reciting of the Buddha's name, the undergoing of some penitential ritual, the reading of Scriptures, the holding on to a daily work schedule: just sitting, without “doing” anything, is what you should aim at above all.This does not strike me as the kind of advice and encouragement to a kind of indolence that the parents of the young monks in Keizan's charge would approve. But with a couple of notable exceptions, it seem lifted verbatim from his predecessor. It is notable that in the first line to Jijuyu Zammai, “practice” is the only thing that Dogen mentions and does not repeat in the following two lines, which seem to refute the first. Don't take my word for it, check it out. Practice transcends the relative, absolute, and even the nondual Buddha Way, whereas “…delusion and realization…birth and death…buddhas and sentient beings,” the other binaries recited as examples, apparently do not. “Practice, practice, practice!” sayeth the Preacher.Next, another whiplash:As a general practice, when doing seated meditation, you should put on your kesa. (Remove it in the dark before dawn and at dusk, as you come out of the meditation state.) Do not omit this.He segues instantly from recommending against following traditional protocols to insisting on wearing the formal robe. The kesa, for the uninitiated, is the quilt-like outer robe, which is typically donned at the beginning of zazen, and removed after. This seeming contradiction may be resolved by a sober analysis of what else the average monk would have available to wear, other than the robe, which can hide a lot of sins. The three undergarments in usage today — the juban, or undershirt, with some sort of boxer shorts; and the kimono and koromo, the Japanese and Chinese under-robes, respectively; may not have been universally in vogue. We do have to keep up appearances, to some degree.There are some deep-dive details noted in the text that may be of importance to scholars and historians, another reason I suspect that this may have been recorded from a live presentation in the zendo, or lecture hall. Before going into boilerplate instructions for the posture, one mention by the master I think is useful to clarify some confusion that arises yet today:Whilst on your mat… do not always sustain the cross-legged, “lotus” sitting position; range from a half-lotus position to, later, sitting with your feet under your spine. This is the method of sitting of the Buddhas and Ancestors: sometimes to do full lotus, sometimes half-lotus.This is different from Dogen's written record, but may have been characteristic of his live instructions. Remember that Keizan was born only 15 years after Dogen's demise, so his teachers had lived with and learned from the great founder in person. Note the admonition, more than a mere suggestion, to “not always sustain the cross-legged” position. This will come as a relief to many contemporary practitioners, who have been told that they must assume the “correct” posture, and heaven forfend if you should move. Buddha moved. I guaran-damn-tee you, Buddha moved.We recommend rotating through the various postures — over time, not continuously — to develop the requisite flexibility in the lower body, hips, knees, legs and ankles. Also sitting on a chair, including the ergonomic kind. Zen is always contemporary, as Matsuoka Roshi insisted. There is nothing magical in the lotus posture. It is, simply, more stable than the others, like the proverbial three-legged stool. What follows is familiar enough to those who follow Soto Zen praxis that we can skip it here. However, there are a couple of details that I think worth retelling, separated by more details in the text (italics mine):Next, your should settle down in your sitting placed by swaying your body seven or eight times in ever smaller movements, then steadily sitting erect.When you wish to arise from meditation, first, place your hands respectfully on your knees and sway your body seven or eight times in ever larger movements.This is a small, but not insignificant, improvement over the written instructions in Fukanzazengi, as the “ever smaller” movements in the beginning help us to find the central “sweet spot” in the posture, where we come into equilibrium, or equipoise, with gravity, the most efficient and effortless proprioception. The “ever larger” pendulum moves at the end of the session likewise loosen the musculature, especially the lotus-position base, allowing us to rise without strain. This set of moves is most often forgotten by many contemporaries, but makes the approach to zazen more like any other physical exercise.Keizan goes on to give similar instructions when rising and beginning walking meditation, when sleepy, and for breathing while walking, which he treats as an antidote to sleepiness, none of which I recall from Dogen's documentation. Doesn't mean they weren't there, but Keizan's emphasis does seem to be on some other syllables. Included in the advice for kinhin is the nugget:Although you are walking, do it as though you are not walking: be calm and tranquil, and do not thrash your body about.The last thing anyone who has done kinhin would associate with it, I think, is thrashing your body about. This rather comic image may reflect the young age at which some of the young monks, or unsui, would be sent to the monastery. Walking as if you are not walking is a wonderful idea. Matsuoka Roshi would often say, “Put your whole self into the walking” or “into the sitting. If you can put your whole self into this, you will gain the power to put your whole self into everything you do, and will become the strongest person in the world.” Today we might say that you will become the best version of yourself.I often say that zazen is like “falling asleep staying awake.” In other words, like drifting off to sleep, our natural, busy monkey mind preoccupations tamp down to a dull roar, we begin to lose sensory awareness, maybe even experience sudden vertigo, and in general, lose the turgor associated with normal awakeness and anxiety. But while this process sets in, we stay awake and observe it rather scientifically. Keizan seems to concur, offering some evasive maneuvers to fight off sleep:If drowsiness persists, you should make a vow, saying, “Because my karmic habits are already heavy, I am now shrouded in sleep. When will I awaken from my dark and confused wandering in the mind? I pray that the Buddhas and Ancestors will confer their great compassion on me and remove my dark and heavy suffering.”I suspect that these techniques address what we might recognize as symptoms of sleep deprivation. The dawn-to-dusk design of retreats, and especially the time-honored tradition of sitting up all night on occasion, surely are meant to challenge the circadian rhythm, with notably direct effects on perception. The entreaties to Buddhas and Ancestors we might consider extraneous to this problem, but they tend to remind us that all of our lineage went through privations and self-discipline at least as trying as those we face, in the relative comfort of an environment fueled by electricity and fossil fuels, as well as indoor plumbing. We got no room to complain about our “dark and heavy suffering.”Interestingly for a Soto Zen priest, Keizan also recommends that “If your thoughts are still not at rest, you should call to mind some short koan which your Master has given you to guide you, such as ‘What is It that comes like this?,' ‘A dog's not having Buddha Nature,' ‘Ummon's Mount Sumeru,' Joshu's oak tree,' for instance: ‘bland talk is what meets the need.” So koans were not eschewed entirely in early Soto Zen, even when doing zazen, but were considered relatively bland, not disturbing to equanimity. He also recommends focusing on death to calm the mind, “the great matter where your breathing comes to an end and your eyes close forever.” Or, “focus on the ‘not-yet-born state' before a single thought has arisen. In modern parlance, neither of these images would be considered especially calming. But then he predicts that even “when you are doing your daily activities, you will suddenly give rise to the two types of ‘emptiness' — that of there being no personal self and of there being no permanent self in phenomena — and your scattered thoughts will, without fail, lose their force. Again, seemingly not very soothing.In closing, he brings it home: “Then, what is right before your eyes will be your koan.” Which he rephrases, “At that moment, what the koan is is ‘right before your eyes.'” In between he notes, “You and it will not be ‘two things going around each other.'” Again, the great master seems to be throwing out, at random, all the fingers pointing at the moon that he can muster, in the hopes that one will stick. He ends with “Wholeheartedly do I pray for this; with all my heart do I so pray.” Can I get an amen?* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

Call me at 888-283-7272 Text me at 407-698-3814 Send me a DM on instagram @AsaRxTV I will answer these daily and tweet the answers @AsaRxTV with the hashtag #AsaRxExperience  How Fast Can You Live Your Potential and Be Healthy?  You don't have to live lower than your potential for the rest of your life! Take the Asa Rx Experience Healthy Solution Quiz by answering simple questions and our Healthy Solution will show you how quickly you can reach your healthy goals!   Our Gift To You  As a complimentary gift to you The Asa Rx Experience team wants to give you a copy of his international best-selling book to help you GET STARTED for FREE . Living Healthy is often misunderstood and overcomplicated. It doesn't have to be! We made it simple. After just 30 days of following The Asa Rx Master Class, 9 out of 10 users feel more confident in their choices toward a healthy future. Join Us On Asa Plus!.  Give us 2 minutes a day and Asa will change your life! Get the training that you need. How does your daily healthy lifestyle choices stack up? Our Asa Plus+ Community will help you what you need (and don't need), which questions to ask, and how to make the best natural lifestyle choices. In over 500 videos learn the best tools and strategies to get healthy and stay healthy from any device and on your time. Just 2 minutes a day! Find the Right Provider To Help Your Body Achieve It's Best. Finding the right provider doesn't have to be complicated. Here at The Asa Rx Experience, and AsaR.TV, we help you with getting your free conversation with our provider specialists makes it easy to know what questions to ask so you can make a confident choice. Meet with a provider on us!  Listen and Watch Anytime, Anywhere. The Asa Rx TV app lets you download episodes for offline playback, customize your content, and see what's coming up!

We've all seen them, the guys standing on the corner shouting at the people walking by.  They think they are sharing Jesus, but often they don't sound like Jesus at all.  Let me tell you about a different kind of street preach I encountered.

John Taylor: Kentucky Frontier Baptist Preacher 1752-1836 And the Kentucky Revivals The Narrated Puritan features weekly readings from Puritan history read by Tom Sullivan. You can find more readings by Mr. Sullivan at PuritanAudioBooks.com Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary is a Confessional Reformed Baptist Seminary Providing affordable online theological education to help the Church in its calling to train faithful men. To learn more about CBTS, visit https://CBTSeminary.org. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cbtseminary/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cbtseminary/support

My man Jamin Roller is very knowledgable. I cannot wait for you guys to meet him in this podcast! Please check out the whole conversation as well as his instagram. Not trying to get him famous, I'm trying to give you access to wisdom. The bible says seek wise counsel and I believe Jamin is just that. His mentor Matt Chandler is one of the best also. Also also Jamins dad Mack Roller is SALT of the earth. Please listen! Text me "podcast" to (940)353-0890

Located in the historic Vine City neighborhood of Atlanta, Redeemer Community Church exists to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ through our words and our lives, to make disciples of Christ, and to live as people who are loved, accepted, and transformed

This week I am delighted to welcome Dr. Todd Chipman to the podcast. Dr. Chipman serves as the Dean of Graduate Studies and Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as the teaching pastor at The Master's Community Church in Kansas City, Missouri.   He is an accomplished scholar and author having released many works including a recent contribution on the Gospel of Luke in: Discourse Analysis of the New Testament Writings, released in December 2020.

Call me at 888-283-7272 Text me at 407-698-3814 Send me a DM on instagram @AsaRxTV I will answer these daily and tweet the answers @AsaRxTV with the hashtag #AsaRxExperience  How Fast Can You Live Your Potential and Be Healthy?  You don't have to live lower than your potential for the rest of your life! Take the Asa Rx Experience Healthy Solution Quiz by answering simple questions and our Healthy Solution will show you how quickly you can reach your healthy goals!   Our Gift To You  As a complimentary gift to you The Asa Rx Experience team wants to give you a copy of his international best-selling book to help you GET STARTED for FREE . Living Healthy is often misunderstood and overcomplicated. It doesn't have to be! We made it simple. After just 30 days of following The Asa Rx Master Class, 9 out of 10 users feel more confident in their choices toward a healthy future. Join Us On Asa Plus!.  Give us 2 minutes a day and Asa will change your life! Get the training that you need. How does your daily healthy lifestyle choices stack up? Our Asa Plus+ Community will help you what you need (and don't need), which questions to ask, and how to make the best natural lifestyle choices. In over 500 videos learn the best tools and strategies to get healthy and stay healthy from any device and on your time. Just 2 minutes a day! Find the Right Provider To Help Your Body Achieve It's Best. Finding the right provider doesn't have to be complicated. Here at The Asa Rx Experience, and AsaR.TV, we help you with getting your free conversation with our provider specialists makes it easy to know what questions to ask so you can make a confident choice. Meet with a provider on us!  Listen and Watch Anytime, Anywhere. The Asa Rx TV app lets you download episodes for offline playback, customize your content, and see what's coming up!

In this Rev-centric episode, Rev is flattered when a woman named Anna takes an interest in his....um, sermon. The two fall in love and are about to marry until Harriet decides no one can ever be happy. Will Rev choose Anna over his congregation? Will we throw up in our mouths a little bit? We share breaking news about William Henry Harrison, argue over old wives' tales, and Amye gets a case of the giggles. Again. Show Notes:To sign up for our Patreon feed, download the Patreon app or visit www.patreon.com/genxthisiswhyFollow Gen X, This is Why on Facebook: facebook.com/genxthisiswhy/Buy us a coffee and tell us what's on your mind: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/GenxthisiswhyJoin our Facebook Group, The Me-Me B's for extra content, giveaways, and some fun Gen X introspection: facebook.com/groups/genxthisiswhy/And find us on Instagram at: @genxthisiswhyYou can find Amye at: @amyearcherwriterYou can find Jennie, but good luck with that.Questions? Comments? Email us at info@genxthisiswhy.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/genxthisiswhy)

Adam goes solo and is joined by author, critic, musician, and comic, Marc Burrows to discuss Chrstimas songs, music criticism, and Marc's new book, "Manic Street Preachers: Album-by-Album," to which Adam also contributed a chapter.Adam and Marc talk about Manic Street Preachers, their career, and how the book came to be. They also find time to discuss music generally, whether criticism should form a part of the creative process, and the legacy of the band. You can buy "Manic Street Preachers: Album-by-Album" and check out all of Marc's work by heading to: https://www.marcburrows.co.uk/Next week - we explore Cryosleep by Matt Bellamy!You can now wear your fandom on your (literal) sleeve!What Is Music? now has a RedBubble shop with lots of cool and stupid designs. You can get the designs on basically any product you like, from t-shirts and mugs, to bath mats and jigsaws, via clocks and phone cases! Head to https://whatismusicpod.redbubble.comIf you'd like a different way to donate to usYou can do so at https://ko-fi.com/whatismusicAny donations very gratefully received and go towards our running costs!Join the conversation on:Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatismusicpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatismusicpodE-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.comhttp://whatismusic.buzzsprout.com/Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/whatismusic)

Sunday Evening - Preacher Boys: JR Bingham - 00:00  "Spiritual Gift of Giving."   Acts 4:36 Caleb Higgins -  7:20  "Having Faith."  Romans 10:17, Joshua 1:9 Cooper Hersberger - 10:57  "Don't Kill Yourself, Christian." James 1:13-15 Matthew Larson -  17:24 "Your Life Is Not Determined By the Dreams That You Dream, But by the Choices You Make."  II Timothy 4:10, Acts 4:3 Ben Ratz - Heartland Baptist Bible College - 23:36  "What Does The Cemetery Have To Say?" Ecclesiastes 7:2

CityLight Church, Church Online, Pastor Bojan Jancic

Sunday, November 21st 2021 | Beau Bradberry"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

Timothy was told that Paul's scriptural instruction wasn't optional to tell the church nor optional for the church to obey. He was to command (Gr. paraggellō, ‘to transmit an order or charge') and teach (Gr. didaskō, ‘to impart instruction') God's word without reservation. Pastors are servants of God and are required to tell His truth regardless of their feelings, political pressure, or cultural values. Preachers are to be the conduit of God's truth. As the people learn, they can then apply it and start to please God. God set the pastor as the instrument of information so God can be the instrument of transformation (Heb. 13:17). Scripture isn't suggestions to ponder from God but are requirements to please God. Most issues in the Christian life aren't from lack of knowledge but lack of obedience!

Thanksgiving is coming. Every November, people on Facebook spend the month sharing what's on their list of things they're thankful for. Those posts often cause me to realize that I'm thankful for the same things! Their giving thanks literally gives ME thanks! Giving is like that, whether it's thanksgiving or caregiving, or simply giving to support someone's need. Our gift has a far more significant effect than just meeting a need. And in some miraculous way, we receive back more than we can know. In Philippians 4, Paul thanks his friends for the gift they have given him, but he wants them to know what they have received. In providing for him, they've learned the promise that, as Paul says, "my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). In giving, they've received back so much more.

Long before the Mayflower set sail for America's east coast, the writer of Hebrews points us to a gallery of pilgrims. Listen to this week's episode to hear their story.    Purchase my brand new book Ten Words: a Practical Look at the Ten Commandments at https://pentecostalpublishing.com/products/ten-words Listen to Ten Words: a Practical Look at the Ten Commandments on Audible at Ten Words on Audible Purchase the devotional Simplify—which launched the podcast— at https://pentecostalpublishing.com/search?q=simplify   Join me on another podcast called God's Word for Life to help us better learn and live out God's Word for Life. Listen on Podbean Listen on Google Podcasts   Join me on another another podcast called The Preacher and the Policeman, where Lt. Andy Burns and I mix in current events with the gospel and do our best to add a heaping helping of humor.  Listen on Podbean Listen on Google Podcasts   Music provided by: Positive Happy by PeriTune https://soundcloud.com/sei_peridot Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/TutcA4JPa7Q

Hear the Word of the Lord from Ecclesiastes chapter 11, starting in verse seven through the end of the book. 7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. 8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. 9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. 10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. 1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; 2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, 3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, 4 and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— 5 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— 6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. 9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:14, ESV The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. My junior year in high school, I was required to take a physics course. Now, physics would not have been my choice, numbers and science, and all of that is not really my favorite thing to do, but it was a requirement and I took it. There were actually some interesting things in the class, one of which was an assignment. I was calculating, this would be 20 years ago right now I was gearing up to do. We had to do it over Christmas break my junior year there and we had to build a balsa wood bridge. So they gave us balsa wood sticks and some wood glue, and we had to take it home and to form a bridge that would hopefully be as strong and sturdy to bear up under as much weight as possible. So I worked on this project with a friend. We went home and hung out, and kind of messed around if I'm really being honest, and put together a very basic bridge. We got a little concerned when we got there and we saw all the elaborate bridges that some of my other friends had put together and we were thinking, oh my goodness, ours looks so flimsy. What's going to happen here? Actually, we ended up okay because it wasn't just how much weight can your bridge bear up under, but it was a ratio thing. So the lighter the bridge, the sort of the less weight you had to bear under if two bridges held the less or the same amount of weight, the lighter bridge because it held up weight under less material, would be deemed the winner. So because ours was so flimsy and very little went into it, our ratio was actually quite high. What was interesting in that project was the way that they worked through bridge after bridge after bridge. They put it on this machine that my physics teacher had hooked up, that we he slowly poured water into the bucket so that he could know exactly how much weight this could bear up under. We watched bridge after bridge after bridge crack and collapse. There wasn't any bridge that stood the test of all the weight that was put on it. There was no bridge that got to the end and said, well, I guess that can withstand under any pressure. Eventually, every bridge broke. Indeed, in life, ultimately, everything breaks. So what this means and what the preacher is trying to tell us in this passage is that if our identity, if our hope, if our confidence is in how we compare against others at some point in our lives, well, then we're ultimately building our foundation on a sinking sand. Even though you might be a little bit behind someone here or you might be a little ahead of someone tomorrow, the point is that ultimately even your bridge won't stand up. Eventually, everything is going to break. You need a firmer foundation, one that's not built on shifting sinking sand. What the preacher says as he closes this book of wisdom is that you need to build your life on the rock solid foundation of God himself. In Jesus Christ and him crucified. You need to do this through all the days of your life, from when you were young to when you were old, for as many years as the Lord trusts you and trust to you until he calls you home. Afterwards, as the preacher reminds us, comes the judgment. Our big idea then today is this Fear God and keep his commandments. This comes directly from Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13. So this morning, three parts to the sermon as we look at it. First, fear God in youth, some of you young people today, this is a sermon for you. Second, fear God in old age. Those of you who are not young anymore, this is a sermon for you and for everyone in between. Then third, fear God in view of eternity. 1. Fear God in Youth 2. Fear God in Old Age 3. Fear God in View of Eternity Fear God in Youth So number one fear God in youth. Look again at 11:7, "Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun." Now the preacher's starting a comparison here, but it's not clear yet where he's going with this. So we have to peek ahead a little bit in the passage to see where he's going. He's talking about light and light is sweet, and he's talking about eyes that see, especially see the light of the sun. This is an image for youth, for the earlier years of our lives. We're going to see this as the preacher later talks about the dimmed eyes and the darkness of old age. In fact, one of the main ways that the Bible talks about old age is as dimmed eyes. For example, Isaac in Genesis 27:1 is old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see. Jacob, in Genesis 48:1, again is old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see. Eli, the priest under whom the Prophet Samuel served, again when he was only reading in ` Samuel 3:2 was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see. Dimmed eyes are a product of old age. So the preacher is saying, enjoy light while you can see it. It's sweet, it's pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. So verse eight, "So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity." What he's saying here is that life is precious, life is sacred, every moment of your life from the beginning to the end is something that you should enjoy and savor because he says the days of darkness will be many. Now, what are these days of darkness? Well, this could refer to old age. Again, if old age is characterized by dimness of sight, then old age could be the darkness that it's referring to here. Or this dimness, this darkness could refer to death. Death is the final enveloping of darkness around us, as it's often talked about in the Bible. Or it may not refer to the lifespan of an individual human being, but it may be talking about the lifespan of the world itself. The end of the world, the day of the Lord, the final day of God, when God brings all of history to an end and brings everyone in judgment is described by the Prophet Amos in Amos 5:20 as a day of darkness, "is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light and gloom with no brightness in it." So enjoy these years when there is light and enjoy all the years of your life, but remember the days of darkness will be many. There's a warning here, not to give too much attention to youthfulness. Verse nine, once again, encouragement to enjoy youth. "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth." Enjoy this youth! But he says, be mindful of the coming judgment. He says walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment. Now what's interesting about this walk in the ways of your heart and the side of your eyes is how often we are told elsewhere in the Bible not to walk after the ways of our heart and not to walk after our sight. For example, a verse I quote often is 2 Corinthians 5:7,"We walk by faith and not by sight." The preacher isn't contradicting those verses. The preacher isn't contradicting the many places where we are told not to follow after the ways of our hearts. What he's saying here is not a contradiction because those passages talk about morality. Will you trust in your own wisdom or will you trust in your own insight? Will you trust in what you can see or will you trust in the Lord? Here the preacher is simply saying, enjoy this, enjoy life while you can see it and savor it. The warning says don't get too far afield is to know that for everything you do, God will eventually bring into judgment. So in verse 10, the preacher really encourages us to enjoy youth, "Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity." They are a mist. They are here and then they are gone. Enjoy this while it is here. Youth ends far too soon. Now I am not yet what I would consider to be old, my children might disagree, but I'm also probably not quite in the young category anymore. I'm at 37 years old, which means that I'm just a year or so shy of half the average age of life expectancy for a male living in the United States. I haven't had that many years on this Earth, but it's astonishing how much has changed, even in my short lifetime. I want to give you a vivid example, some of you who are older will maybe remember some of this. My wife and I were this week at a shopping mall. Shopping malls are tremendously depressing places to go today. It's hard to explain to younger people how much fun and how much life and how much bustling there used to be at shopping malls. I have the most vivid memory as a child of being at a shopping mall and being in the food court, which was the best place to eat in town, and there were so many people they were just on top of each other. Then when you left the food court, people were just going in all kinds of different ways. There was life and energy and vitality there. I associated a lot with my childhood. But as I think about the childhood, my youth, I also know that that child or that mall in Hastings, Nebraska, has now been bulldozed to the ground because it couldn't sustain itself anymore. As I went in a shopping mall that's sort of limping along, I won't name it. I don't want to offend anyone, but you can probably guess there aren't that many in Omaha. As I went to a shopping mall this week, it was amazing. The growth of that is how skillful they are in putting up walls where they used to be businesses. So I was looking at a wall that was tiled and there was sort of a makeshift library, a take a book, leave a book. I realized, wait a minute, this is where the pretzel vendor used to be. As these businesses are going away as life and the world changes, I think about these vivid childhood memories of things that were a big deal then and how quickly things change and move away. That's a picture of a little bit of what happens in our youth. We have these vivid memories of when life is sweet and it's pleasant for the eyes to see the sun and the preacher says, enjoy this while you can. Children enjoy your childhood; you never get it back again. Young people enjoy the stage at which you are because you will never get it back again. Those of you with new babies enjoy that stage, they grow up so quickly. But everything eventually breaks. Nothing can withstand the test of time. It all eventually breaks down. Youth is but one season under heaven, there's a time to be born, but as the preacher is about to remind us, there is also a time to die. The preacher exhorts us to take seriously old age and death. Fear God in Old Age So what we're seeing in the next section in verses one through eight of chapter 12 is really the final word of the main part of this book. There's a main section. I'm going to show you how we find the end of that and a little bit, but this is the last main thing that the preacher says before the conclusion or the epilogue to this book. His main point is fear God in old age. The second section is fear God in old age, and it starts in verse one. This is sort of the transition from the previous section to this one. "Remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come in the years draw, near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them." Now we read in verse nine of the previous chapter that we should remember our creator because judgment is coming, but here the preacher is reminding us that we should remember our creator in the days of our youth because of joy. Charles Bridge is one of the commentators on this passage. He writes this this line that really stood out to me, "Many have remembered their creator too late in life, but none too soon." As I look back on my life, I do not regret a single thing I gave up following Jesus. I don't regret any of the parties I missed. I don't regret any of the lifestyles that people around me were living. I don't regret missing out on any of that. My only regrets are when I did not follow Jesus as closely as I should have. My only regrets. Many people find their creator too late, but none find their creator too soon. You see, when you're young, you tend to think that you are invincible. The preacher reminds us here that the young invincibility very quickly fades away, far more quickly than we realize. The days are coming when you will say, I have no pleasure in them. Then versus two through seven, the preacher turns to this extended metaphor or this sort of stream of images that sort of roll by us now. Sometimes he's building an extended metaphor where the details are very clear, you know, pretty much exactly what he's talking about. Other times, some people have tried to sort of press the details too far to say, well, this refers to that, and it's a little too hard to make some of those connections. Where the details are not always clear the general meaning is. He's giving us a tremendous range of imagery to remind us about what old age does to all of us. So look at what he says in verse two. Here is where he brings back that comparison that he started in verse seven at the beginning of our passage of the last chapter, that youth is characterized by seeing the sweet light, whereas old age is characterized by darkness. So 12:2, "before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain." Not just clouds that come to bring the healthy life giving rains, but now these are clouds that come after the rain is over and they just hang and darken the sky. Then there's verse three, "in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed," We have here at the beginning of a description of a house that's falling apart with age, and it begins with the keepers of the house probably talking about limbs, arms and legs that tremble. The keepers of the house tremble and the strong men are bent, what used to be as strong back is now bent over with age. The grinders ceased because they are few, probably referring to your teeth. The old age makes it difficult to chew. Those who look through the windows are dimmed again, we're having a sight imagery, someone's looking out of this house and you can't quite see through the windows anymore. Verse four begins the discussion of hearing and the doors of the street are shut, "and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low—" When we shut the doors, we can't hear what's going on outside, and that's what happens to this house. Again, where the youth think that they are invincible, those who are old know fears. "They are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— " in verse five. The almond tree blossoms, well, this sounds promising new life blossoms, but it's giving an image of if you think of an almond tree when it blossoms, it's whitened like hair. The grasshopper drags itself along, think of how spry and nimble a grasshopper is, but as the days creep on year after year in fall toward the colder seasons, you ever seen those grasshoppers that can barely move anymore? Grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home and all of a sudden, the house is no longer decaying. We find ourselves in the middle of a funeral. The end has come, the mourners go about the streets. Then verse six, "before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern." Again, don't try to press the details of what the cord is and the bowl is and the pitcher is or the wheel is. This is an image of the fragility of life. In just a moment, it's gone. Until verse seven, "and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." When God first created Adam, he gathered together dust and mold it and shape that dust into Adam's body, and then God himself stooped down to breathe the breath of life into this man. When sin into the world when that same man rebelled against God, God told him that you are dust and to dust, you shall return. Our bodies returned to the dust, and the life breath that's been on loan to us has to be returned to God. In verse eight, the preacher ends this main section of Ecclesiastes with, "Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. All is vanity." We know this is the end of the main section, because there's a this is the tail where there's a corresponding top at the very beginning of Ecclesiastes in 1:2. It says the exact same thing, "vanity of vanity, says the preacher, all is vanity." He began on that word, and now he ends on that word. Everything is a mist. It's a breath. It's a vapor. It's here, and then it's gone. Everything, even you young children one day are going to grow old and you are going to break down and die. Everything breaks down and dies. All is vanity. One of the most stunning object lessons of the relentless, vicious work of time, I think, is to see whenever they have a big reunion for something, a big reunion of people who are famous. So this year was the 50th anniversary of a really famous football game, the game of the century, between Nebraska and Oklahoma in 1971. Children, 50 years ago, Nebraska won games. In that in that game, it was a really big game against, against a really big team, and it was an epic battle. You can pull this up on YouTube. The fittest, the fastest, the strongest men who are youthful in their vigor and their vitality fighting it out like gladiators on the field. It was an epic game. That's why it's called the game of the century. When this reunion has happened, those same young, vibrant men are now bent with age and their limbs tremble. Age has taken a significant toil on the best and the fittest and the strongest of their generation. Even more cruel, perhaps, or when you see reunion episodes of sitcoms, especially the sitcoms that that glamorize and idealize and idolize youth. Where you see these people who are living it up for their youth and their beauty, and that's everything to them. You see them 20 years later and age has not been kind. You say if they were living for their youth, if that was everything to them, if that's what that show was about, their lives have already peaked. How tragic to live that way. How tragic to live clinging to what cannot be retained. If youth is everything, what do you do when it's gone? Youth is a time of light, and it is and it is a time of joy, but it is so fleeting. Old age is a time of darkness and fragility. No one likes it better. The preacher acknowledges that these are years you are going to say, I have no pleasure in them. You will have pleasure in them, but not of the kind that you had, which is everywhere, all around you in your youth. As I remember my grandmother so vividly saying at the death of my grandfather, death comes to us all. Death comes to us all. The preacher wants us to know life under the sun is so fragile, it is so fickle, it is so fleeting to cling to, it is futile and foolish. Wisdom insists, then, that we must remember our creator because he is the eternal one who stands outside time. Time does not age God because he is the ageless one. He is neither older nor younger. He has never been before. He is always before. He is, and he always will be. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change. There is no before and after with God. He simply is. Fear God in View of Eternity So the preacher concludes all of this book in verses nine through fourteen. With an exhortation to remember this creator. So now we come to section three, fear God in view of eternity. Again, some commentators call this the epilogue or conclusion, but the point is this stands outside of the main body of the work. The preachers surveyed everything, and now he comes to his final conclusions. What should we take from this? This is the application section of his sermon. So in verses nine through ten, part of this is tracing the preacher's work in life and ministry. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth. We're told in 1 Kings 4:32 that Solomon spoke 3000 proverbs and his songs were one thousand and five. You see we value in our day access to information. We want to be able to Google something at the drop of a hat and figure out an answer to anything or look it up on Wikipedia. Figure that kind of thing out. The ancients had a very different perspective. They valued not mere access just to know that I can look it up, and they didn't value mere information. They wanted mastery of wisdom. For someone to memorize 3000 proverbs and one thousand five songs is an extraordinary feat of wisdom. He mastered this great wisdom over the course of his life and he tried to pass it on. He was a teacher. He tried to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth. Then verses eleven and twelve, he talks about what these words did. He says, "The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh." Goads prod livestock. If you're trying to get a cow or a sheep to go in a certain direction, a goad was a big stick that you would poke him to get him to go in the direction that you wanted to go. We need these in our own lives to be goaded by these words of wisdom. But he says words of wisdom are also like nails. You think of what nails do? They fix something down, particularly for a shepherd, that's what's in view here. The shepherd who's goading, the shepherd who has nails firmly fixed down, the one shepherd from whom on wisdom comes. This is shepherding imagery. The shepherd would have used these nails to fix down his tent from site to site. Wisdom teaches us to know when we need to move and when we need to remain steadfast and fixed and steady. What the preacher warns us is that too much information, too many books, can obscure the clarity of God's wisdom, the wisdom that comes from one shepherd. Of course, this one shepherd is God. As Psalm 23:1 says, "The Lord is my shepherd". Particularly when Jesus Christ came into the world de declared, "I am the Good Shepherd" in John 10:11. That's where wisdom comes from. It comes from the timeless one, the eternal one, the one who is not affected by time because he created it and encompasses it all before him in his eternal wisdom and power. Well, in verse 13, this is the conclusion. He says, "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." He has surveyed everything under the sun and what does he say? Fear God and keep his commandments. After considering everything under the sun, everything in this world, the preacher says there's nothing in here that's going to satisfy you like you're looking for. Instead of looking under the sun, look above the sun, look to the creator of the sun. Fear God and keep his commandments. Now we've talked about what the fear of God is. It means, on the one hand, acknowledging your vulnerability and your helplessness and your hopelessness and your guilt because of sin. To be truthful about that. Not to try to hide it, not to try to make justifications or excuses. It's to acknowledge them before the judge of all the Earth you stand guilty. It's to go to that same judge and recognize that he is your only hope, because he has loved you so much that he has sent his son, Jesus Christ, into this world to die for you in your place so that you may be reconciled to him by grace through faith. It's to trust in this same Lord because of his promises, anyway, even though you are guilty. The fear of God, the fear of the Lord is another word, then for faith. As the Bible everywhere declares, we are justified, we are made righteous before God by faith. We are counted as righteous before him by faith. So the preacher says fear God, but he adds this line, he says, keep the commandments. Now this isn't to atone for your guilt. This isn't to earn something before God. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone and not by works. Ephesians 2:8-9 is very clear about this. "For by grace, you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not by work so that no one may boast." We are not saved by keeping the commandments, rather, when the Bible talks about keeping the commandments, it's always as a loving response of gratitude. Knowing that even as we seek to keep his commandments, we're still dependent upon him upon his grace, upon his power to obey. To keep the commandments as another word for what the Bible calls sanctification, to grow in the holiness without which no one would see the Lord. We are justified by faith, by the fear of God, and we are sanctified as by God's power. It's by God's grace through faith, we seek to keep his commandments. So, in verse 14, the preacher closes with this word. He says, "For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." A life lived for the fleeting pleasures of this world is its own reward in full and those pleasures are so quickly fading away. Nothing lasts, everything ultimately breaks down. A life lived for the glory of God, who is not under the sun, he is above the sun, he is the one who created this, and the life lived for his glory will not be in vain. Application How do we apply then? Well our application then is just what the preacher tells us, fear God and keep his commandments. Ecclesiastes is a difficult book. There are blunt words, grim outlooks and despairing conclusions. Forgive me if you were offended by the preacher's description of old age today, for example. As I said in my first sermon in this Ecclesiastes series. Martin Luther considered this to be a most optimistic book. Martin Luther was the great reformer who began the Reformation in 1517, and he considered this to be the most optimistic book. What he saw in Ecclesiastes is a book that has explored all the possible rabbit trails that we might pursue all the possible avenues under the sun to find happiness and satisfaction and joy. He exposes them all as a fraud. He shows that every single one of these cannot provide what we are looking for. So what he's doing is to clear away the debris, to get rid of what may cloud our vision, to get rid of what may be a confusion. Much study and much anticipation and attempts to find satisfaction in this life is a weariness to the flesh. He's done that for us, and he's cleared away these false ideas about how to live, especially by clinging to the vanity of this world. So that once that debris is cleared away, the gospel then can shine all the more radiantly. The gospel tells us not about a life hack, not about a quick fix, not about how to have your best life now. The gospel tells us that Jesus Christ came into this world, the one who is above the sun, who came down from heaven into this earth, so that he could lift us up to God. Fear God and keep his commandments. Well, let's unpack what that means, because it gets at what the gospel is. Again, the idea of fearing God is to believe, it's faith. It's to have faith in God and what the Bible tells us after everything else has been cleared away, and we can see the gospel in its radiance, is that we are to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with the promise that all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. There are so many proposals in life for how to find salvation. You can find anywhere all kinds of ideas about how to do the right good works, about how to sacrifice personally in your own life, about how to do the right collection of religious practices to appease God. The scriptures are so clear you are dead in your sins and trespasses. You are a child of wrath. You are without hope and without God in the world. There is nothing you can do to counteract this. You cannot do enough community service hours to overcome the wrath of God against you because of your sins. You need nothing less than the death and resurrection of God's only Son, the Lord of Glory. Fear God, then. He is the judge of the living and the dead, the judge of all the Earth, and he will surely do what was right. He will bring every deed in a judgment on the last day and he will by no means clear the guilty. Fear him, the Bible commands. Again, the other part of fearing him is not just to cower before him, not just to acknowledge your helplessness and hopelessness and vulnerability and guilt before him. It means to take him at his word. To believe the promises that he makes. The promise of salvation for all those who turn from their sins in sorrow. As we heard earlier today to consider his word, to confess our sins and to hear the assurance of God's pardon through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The question is, will you believe his promises? We turn to Christ for salvation. That's what this book is driving at. Clear away everything else that's getting in the way and turn to Jesus Christ, whom the rest of the scriptures hold out as your only hope and comfort in life and in death. Fear God. But also keep his commandments. In addition to the saving grace of justification by faith alone, another one of God's saving graces is as the Westminster Larger Catechism question thirty-two, puts it, "To enable us unto all holy obedience as the evidence of the truth of our faith and thankfulness to God and as the way which he hath appointed us to salvation." Now, listen to that God's commandments are the way to salvation. Now, not the way to gain salvation. We don't keep commandments to gain salvation. This is rather the way that God has appointed for those whom he has saved. It's not how we are saved, by keeping the commandments, it's what we are saved for. Again, Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "It is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not by works", not by keeping the commandments well enough". so that no one may boast." But in verse 10, the very next verse, he says, "for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works", for keeping the commandments, "which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in." We are saved not by keeping the commandments, we are saved for keeping the commandments. God has appointed these good works that we should walk in them as a people whom God has brought out of death and into life. You see, for the believer, God's commandments are no longer a thundering word of condemnation against our sin. That's the warning of the Bible if you have not yet trusted in Jesus Christ, God's word sounds as a thunder blast from heaven, declaring that you are guilty and in danger of the wrath of God for all of eternity. For believers, in the words of John Newton, the man who wrote Amazing Grace, "Christ has hushed the laws loud thunder", and he has done this, "so that justice smiles and asks no more." There's nothing else that you need to do because Christ has done everything that justice demands. The law then is transformed from our enemy, our persecutor, our oppressor, our condemning agent into a friend. Not by anything that we have done, but through Christ. Christ reorient us to the law through Christ, we relate to the law in a new way. He makes that introduction in a friendly way. The commandments of God then teaches how to please God through holy lives. So as we've seen all of the false ways to live and as the preacher has exhorted us at many points toward the wisdom of the fear of God, the wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord. I want to ask you, do you long for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord? Do you delight in the law of God in your inner man and your inner person? Do you pray that God would conform you to the image of Christ and to righteousness, holiness and knowledge? The only alternative to Christ is this vain world where everything ultimately breaks. Don't put your trust there. Put your trust instead in Christ. As the apostle John writes in 1 John 2:17, "this world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." "Vanity of vanity, says the preacher, all is vanity." In a view of that and in view of eternity. Fear God, looking to Jesus Christ in faith, and keep his commandments. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for a heart of wisdom, wisdom that comes from above that is first pure and peaceable, not wisdom that is from below and is earthly and spiritual and demonic. We pray that you would give us the wisdom of Jesus Christ crucified that we would look to him as our alone confidence, our alone assurance, our alone hope and comfort of salvation. That through Christ, you might relate us to the law in new way, not to gain something, because we can gain nothing before you, we can earn nothing from you. But to live a life that's really related to you as your children, as your people who are growing in the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Who are being conformed to the image of Christ, by your grace, by your mercy, by your power. We pray that this would all be to your glory through Jesus Christ name we pray. Amen.

Jesus has concluded His great Sermon. As we descend the mount, Matthew wants us to walk away thinking about two important words: 1. Astonishment 2. Authority

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Tommy Artmann (guest preacher).

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To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/545/29 Spurgeon isn't called the "Prince of Preachers" because of his uncanny way with words. He's called that because of his undeniable dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit.

Imagine being killed for preaching a sermon! What does the story of this murdered preacher teach us today? There are so many parallels and relevant applications from this incredible account. Nader Mansour explores this important biblical story in this study.

Every pastor knows they should apply the text. How should we do it well? How can we do it better?

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode Andrew is joinedby Nick Ochsner, the author of The Vote Collectors: The True Story of the Scamsters, Politicians, and Preachers behind the Nation's Greatest Electoral Fraud, to tell the story of the political shenanigans in Bladen County that exposes the shocking vulnerability of local elections and explains why our present systems are powerless to monitor and prevent fraud. Find more Keen On episodes and additional videos on Lit Hub's YouTube Channel!   ________________________ Nick Ochsner is the Chief Investigative Reporter at WBTV, the CBS station in Charlotte, NC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wow!  What a wonderful and spirited discussion tonight!  We certainly approached some topics - both personal and cultural - that were weighty and deserving of extra time and attention.  Thank you all for you great questions and comments as always! Synopsis: Tonight we continued with Letter 69 on depression and fear.  Theophan‘s focus, however, shifts to speaking about things that could possibly draw Anastasia away from the fullness of the faith, make her question her practice of the faith, or the path that she has been set upon.  An old friendship had been broken off. Yet Theophan would not have her try to preserve the relationship at the cost of something greater. Certain relationships falter over time or become toxic. Anastasia should simply be at peace and act charitably towards this past friend, but not seek to immerse herself once again in a relationship that could not bear good fruit.  Likewise, Theophan then began to express his concerns about someone who saw himself as an apostle; one who was evangelical in spirit and who had inserted himself into the Russian culture proclaiming a gospel and a faith of his own; creating something that was disconnected from the lived reality of the Church. For similar reasons, then, Theophan would have her avoid this man at all costs. She had the fullness of the faith as well as the participation in the Holy Mysteries. She should not substitute this for the particular charisms of a single man. Throughout the centuries the church has been attacked by various heresies and she must see her personal spiritual struggle in light of that broader context. --- 00:07:29 FrDavid Abernethy, CO: Starting on page 270 with “That you broke off”   00:11:29 Lyle: Hope everyone had a good week.  I'll be right back.  A stray dog showed up.   00:54:28 Eric Williams: Regarding Christians of separated and deficient sects, perhaps these lines from St John's gospel apply: “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.”   01:03:13 Ann Grimak: I am very agree Father   01:15:24 Wayne Mackenzie: gotta go   01:17:46 Ann Grimak: Love is not emotional,love is very deep   01:20:20 renwitter: Also, just want to put out there, for anyone who has not heard of him or read him: If there is interest in reading something that witnesses to, as Father says, a great integration of life in the spirit, as understood in recent times, and faithfulness to the Church, check out Raniero Cantalamessa. He is quite extraordinary, and has been the Preacher to the Papal Household chosen personally by Saint John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. My favorites of his are St. Francis and the Cross, Virginity (not really about virginity, per se, but rather the celibate vocations), and, most relevant to this discussion, Sober Intoxication of the Spirit.   01:21:50 Lyle: Thanks, Ren.   01:23:06 Rachel: Wonderful class! Thank you, God bless everyone.