Podcasts about scripture ezekiel

Can God still bring life when everything feels dead, dry, and hopeless?This week, Pastor J.D. Georlett and theologian Keith Holmes unpack Ezekiel 37's powerful vision of the Valley of Dry Bones and what it means for those who feel worn out, stuck, or spiritually empty.They also explore Ezekiel 34, where God confronts failed leadership and promises to become the Shepherd His people desperately need.

Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14Text: CD 3/4, Articles 12-13The Supernatural Work of RegenerationTheme: God gives new birth by an incomprehensible miracle.

March 30, 2025, The Rev. Dr. Brian Lays, Scripture: Ezekiel 34:1–6; Luke 15:1–7

Scripture: Ezekiel 36:26-27 Testimonies given by Malaya Buendia, Cereniti Buendia, Clara Odden, Casidee Zartman, Rowan Bolshakoff, Lucie Parks, Rudy Buendia and Anna Sinkey

Scripture: Ezekiel 36:16-32; Colossians 1:1-14Text: Canons of Dort 3&4, Article 10-11Theme: The work of conversion must be entirely credited to God.

2025-03-16--0830 Pastor Loran Livingston is the speaker this morning, March 16, 2025, in the 830 AM service. Scripture: Ezekiel 37:3–14, Isaiah 66, Daniel 9:24–27 Notes: -God always keeps His promises. -Just as He saves Christians, God will keep His Promises of old to Israel and save them also, according to His reliable Word. -Time is running short, so be ready for Jesus' return.

   A few years ago, I stood at the bedside of a friend and his family as the family discussed one of the most difficult life decisions any family can face. The man was on ‘life support’ and the family was considering turning off the machines. After prayer, they in fact did and as I watched, the man kept breathing and soon revived and has now been alive nearly five years since that day, living a vibrant second chance at life! Have you ever experienced or watched someone else experience a second chance at life?(Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   When we hear the word ‘corruption’ what pictures come into our minds these days? The violent drug cartels of Mexico; Human traffickers sneaking people across the borders; corrupt governments of third world nations; or high-ranking elected officials in sophisticated western nations who have succumbed to bribery or blackmail? Join me again in the great city of Babylon, 2600 years ago, with the Jewish prophet Ezekiel, in captivity, as he receives a message from God which is as relevant today as it was then. This new message, recorded by Ezekiel in chapter 8, is about corruption even among people who claim to be God honoring people!  (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 8. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

   Yesterday, Mr. Ezekiel challenged us to consider our vital life roles in our families and society as ‘watchmen’. It was God’s calling & commission to Ezekiel. (Ez. 3:16,17) For Ezekiel no further explanation was needed. He understood and greatly respected the role of a ‘watchman’ in his world, at his time in history.  But as God often does, God clarified His “watchman’ assignment with further details for Ezekiel, so let’s listen as we seek to discern God’s word for us today. Ezekiel recorded what he heard from God this way: “The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel…(Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 3:16-21. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

Daily Dose of Hope February 6, 2025 Day 5 of Week 45   Scripture:  Ezekiel 43-45; Psalm 135; John 15   Welcome to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan.  Some of you might be thinking, “What's after this?  We will be done with this reading plan in eight short weeks.”  Just to give you a heads up, when this plan is over, I plan to do a “Deep Dive into the Gospels.”  This will be a 10-11 month deep study of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John.  I'm so excited about this and I hope you are too!   With that, let's move to today's Old Testament test, Ezekiel 43-45.  Again, we begin to see restoration.  The altar returns and the priests return.  God's glory has also returned to the Temple in Ezekiel's vision.  It looks like the vision that originally appeared to him early in the book, in chapter 1.  It was a large cloud with four large, winged creatures and each creature has four faces. Under each creature is a sparkly wheel.  And the creatures wings were supporting a throne with a human-like figure who was full of light.  This is how God reveals his glory to Ezekiel.    Soon, the book of Ezekiel will close and we will see how God's plan is to restore all people and all nations back to him.  Unlike some of the other prophets, this book is filled with hope.    Our New Testament text is John 15.  This is familiar to many of us and it is beautiful prose.  I want to just reread a few verses because they are so magnificent.  This is John 15:10-15,  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.    You are loved, did you know that?  Not just a little bit loved, but the love of Jesus Christ is expansive and wide, self-sacrificing and extravagant. The words of Jesus in this text urge us to remain in God's love. It's only when we remain in Jesus, abide in him, that we have complete joy and can be a true friend to Jesus.   How do we remain in God's love? God's love is a firm foundation, never moving or changing. We, on the other hand, drift all over the place! To remain in Jesus' love, we have to make an intentional effort to keep our connection with him strong. We must pray, read Scripture, and make a special effort to listen and obey. My experience has been that the more I seek Jesus, the more I feel surrounded by his presence and love. There have certainly been times throughout my life in which I've gotten busy, distracted, and selfish. I've worshiped superficially. I am still loved in those times, but I bear less fruit and I begin to feel dry and detached.   It's only when I am being deliberate about staying connected to Jesus that I feel complete, fulfilled, and productive for the Kingdom. It's then that I experience the presence of Jesus in a profound way and truly feel the love that God intends me to feel. In Christ, we are loved and we are chosen. We were designed to be in relationship with a loving God who has been seeking us and pursuing us.   Blessings, Pastor Vicki      

Daily Dose of Hope February 5, 2025 Day 4 of Week 45 Scripture:  Ezekiel 40-42; John 14 Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope daily Bible reading.  It's Recharge day so I hope we see you tonight at 6:30pm in the Garage.   Our Old Testament reading is Ezekiel 40-42.  Here, we begin to see how God's presence is about to return to his temple.  We find Ezekiel being given a tour (in a vision of course) of a new temple.  It's a majestic temple as well, bigger than the one built by King Solomon.  Is this the way the temple will look in the new Jerusalem when Jesus returns?  Some people say yes.  In fact, some people would say these chapters offer blueprints of sorts.  But most people believe that we have a tremendous amount of symbolism here, as we do in the book of Ezekiel as a whole.  Yes, God's presence will be with his people.  It will be amazing and majestic.  But we don't really have the words to articulate what that will be like.    Our New Testament reading is John 14.  Let's focus on the first portion on the chapter.  This is such a great interaction between Jesus and Thomas.  The disciples are experiencing a lot of anxiety.  Jesus has just told them he's going away but he is trying to reassure them.  Jesus is like, I'm on my way to get your room ready.  I'll be coming back to get you, trust me.  But anyway, you already know the way.  And Thomas is like, “Umm…actually, I don't know the way, is there a map or something?”  And that's when Jesus says, “You do know the way because I am the way.  The only way to get to my Father is through me.”  And he reiterated what he has been teaching them, to know Jesus is to know the Father.  If you have seen Jesus, then you have seen the Father. When Jesus says, “I am the way,” he doesn't say “I am a way.” How the Greek sentence is constructed makes it absolutely clear and irrefutable that Jesus is making an exclusive claim here.   He is basically saying, don't go looking to anyone else to point you in those directions, because I am the only one who can!” Well, that feels pretty exclusive, doesn't it?  Yes, it is.  And exclusivity makes a lot of us feel uncomfortable.  So, let's dig deeper.  What other Scriptures point to the exclusivity of Jesus? 1.     John 3:16-18 (Jesus speaking to Nicodemus),  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.  2.     John 3:36 (later in the conversation)- Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them. 3.     Acts 4:12 (Peter, speaking before the Jewish ruling council) –  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” 4.     Rom. 10:9 – If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 5.     I John 5:12 - Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.   And there are many others but I'm going to stop there for now.  I do believe in looking at the full narrative of Scripture – if we look at all of the Bible – it points to Jesus as the way to heaven.  I've searched to see if the Bible allows for other options, possible openings, that might allow for another way and I haven't found any.  There are some things in the Bible in which there is tension – it says this but it also says this – and we have to really dig and pray and interpret.  But there isn't tension here at all --- Scripture clearly points to Jesus as the Son of God, the fulfillment of God's promise from Gen to Rev, and the only way to the Father, the only way to receive salvation, the only way to heaven.    And that makes logical sense to me.  Why would Jesus have voluntarily died on a Roman cross for us if he was just one option among many to provide a way to be saved?  If there were other ways to receive salvation and get to God, then why would Jesus even need to do all that?  Why would Christians throughout the ages have needed to stand their ground and lose their lives?  Why would Christians around the world today be risking their lives to follow Christ?  Some may say they are disillusioned but I personally don't believe so.  If we believe that Jesus rose from the dead, proving his divinity, proving he is Lord of all – then that means we have to also believe everything he said.  We can't pick and choose.  I'm not a scholar, you guys, but in my mind and heart, all of this points to the truth that Jesus is the only way.  So, that being the case – then other questions come to mind.  And here is where it often gets hard for us – more difficult questions.  What about all of the people who don't believe in Jesus?  If those who believe in Jesus have everlasting life, then what about those who don't believe in Jesus?  Are they doomed to hell?  How could a loving God allow this?  What about those who may have heard of Jesus, but did not really understand who He was? What about those who have never even heard the name of Jesus?  We have read Scripture already that speaks to those who reject Jesus face the wrath of God; those who don't have Jesus, don't have life.  Those who don't profess faith in Jesus will not experience salvation.  They won't spend eternity with God.  Both the OT and the NT speak about a place called hell.  The word most often translated as hell in the New Testament is the Greek word “gehenna.” Jesus uses this word 11 times. The literal translation of the word is the Valley of Hinnom (“ge”+“hinnom”). The Valley of Hinnom was Jerusalem's landfill where people burned their trash. So when Jesus speaks about burning in hell, he's using this image. Jesus' hell is a place devoid of hope and love, a place where God's will is absent, separate from the community.  And Jesus, throughout the Gospels, does speak of people making choices that land them in hell.  To deny the existence of hell is to deny the words of Jesus.  Period.  I've witnessed arguments about whether hell is a real place, whether hell is hot, whether it's cold, you name it.  I think we could probably argue those things until we are blue in the face and it isn't productive.  What we know:  Hell is a Godless place.  It is a place where God is not.  What I know is that God dearly loves us, he dearly loves all people and he desires for all people to know him and have a relationship with him.  But this is the thing, even though we were created to be near God, God does not force us or make us love him back or even force us to be near him.  So hell exists because just as some choose to be with God, some will choose to be without God.  I've had to kind of reconcile this for myself.  God is not mean.  God is incredibly loving.  He does not send people to hell.  He allows people to make the choice – a lifetime and eternity with God OR without God.  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  Do you believe this. Blessings, Pastor Vicki

God is a heavenly heart surgeon for those whose heart is wounded, hard, or in need of healing.  Keywords: Heart; healed; hardened heart; surgeon; repair; redemption; a new heart.Scripture: Ezekiel 36:26

   Have you ever felt compelled to speak something to someone which you knew would be painful for them to hear, but you were very confident that if you DID NOT speak, it would be wrong to remain silent? Do you remember the emotions, the anxiety you felt as you wrestled with what you should say, what the right and ethical thing to do was? I wonder what you did.(Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 2:7-3:4. Choose below to read or listen.Ezekiel 2:7-3:4                                   Ezekiel 2​​Ezekiel 3Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

Daily Dose of Hope February 4, 2025 Day 3 of Week 45   Scripture:  Ezekiel 37-39; Psalm 87; John 13   Welcome back, everyone!  It's Tuesday and it's time for the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that goes along with the New Hope Church daily Bible reading plan.  Let's get into our Scripture reading for today.   Today's Ezekiel reading is some of my favorite Scripture.  In chapter 37, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision in which he is in a valley filled with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dry bones. The Scripture is clear that these are very dry bones. They may have been the bones of a defeated army from a long time ago, simply left for dead, and many years have passed. There are no signs of who these people were; the flesh has decomposed and dried up, and all that's left are these piles of bones.   God is walking Ezekiel through the bones, back and forth. Then God asks Ezekiel, "Can these bones live?" I can't help but wonder what's going on in Ezekiel's head. He responds, "Only you know that, God."  Then, God then tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. He tells Ezekiel to tell the bones that they will come to life-that tendons will form, skin will cover them, and breath will fill them." This is where you know that Ezekiel is really obedient and faithful, because he doesn't ask questions, he doesn't hesitate or raise an eyebrow, he simply does it. After all the things God has had Ezekiel do, this one might even be fairly easy.    When Ezekiel prophesies to the bones, there is a rattling sound as the bones begin to come together. I love how the Scripture includes the sound effects. Rattle, rattle, creak, creak. The bones do come together and there are tendons, flesh, and skin. But at this point, there isn't real life in them. They are simply bodies with flesh and bone. I picture that museum exhibit at MOSI about human bodies, where they use real human bodies that have been preserved but they are not alive. For something to have real life, there must be breath and there is still no breath. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones again. God tells him to say this in verse 9, "This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live."   The Hebrew word for breath that is used here is ruach and it means breath, wind, or spirit. So Ezekiel prophesies and God's spirit or God's breath comes from all four directions and enters the lifeless bodies. This is the same word used in Genesis 2 when God breathes life into Adam. Here, God breathed life into these bodies. Then, imagine this, standing before Ezekiel was a whole army of people. No more lifeless bones but a whole army, living beings, come alive with the very breath of God.   Then, God tells Ezekiel that the bones were the people of Israel. Remember, these are the people who were hopeless, existing in exile but impoverished, emotionally and spiritually dead; separated from their land, separated from their God. God tells Ezekiel to communicate to the people that God will restore them. He will put life back into them and will return them to Israel. And I love verse14, "I will put my Spirit (my ruach) in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.'   Obviously, this is an Old Testament passage and the message was to the Israelites. But I think it's impossible for us, for me, to read this and not connect it with the new, better thing God does through the person of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. New life, resurrection, God's Spirit in-dwelling his people. These themes are so vivid in this passage and there are so many Scriptures that these themes bring to mind. I think about Jesus saying in John 10:10, "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." It's not the same old, dry bones existence, but new, abundant life in Jesus. I think about Acts 2, the early Christ-followers huddled in the upper room, knowing they are supposed to wait for something big but unsure what's next. Then, there is a loud, violent wind sound and what look to be tongues of fire. God's Spirit, once again, comes and is present among the people. It's different than before. It's a new thing. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, now God dwells in his people transforming them from the inside out. New life, a new kind of restoration. I will say it again: our God is still in the business of restoration.   So that's a lot of words to make this point. God knows your dry bones, the dry places in your life. God's Spirit has the power to restore your life. God's Spirit has the power to restore us as a church. But this is important-the transformative work of God is not about putting things exactly the way they used to be. Rather, it's about allowing God's Spirit to blow within us and do a new thing. You feel like your marriage is dead, like there is no life left? I have a very good friend who had filed divorce papers, the marriage was in shambles, both of them had extra-marital affairs, and many horrific things had been said. Words that literally took the breath out of their marriage. But at just the time when all seemed lost, God's Spirit blew into that couple and began to change them from the inside out. It was slow, it was excruciating at times, it wasn't the way they imagined, but they are together. Where God's Spirit blows, there can be life. God can do a new thing.   Now, chapters 38-39 of Ezekiel are a little different.  He is now speaking to the nations.  God will defeat the evil present in other nations as well.  Evil in these chapters is personified by a ruler named Gog, and that name is somewhat fictious, as it comes from a genealogy of ancient lands and he is an archetype of sorts of evil.  Gog, in this allegory, allies himself with many other nations.  But eventually, God defeats Gog through a series of calamities.  There is a lot of symbolism here, but the point is that God will defeat evil in the end.   Our New Testament passage is John 13.  Jesus has done the unexpected, as he often does.  The time for the Passover meal has come, the disciples are sitting and reclining at the table, and Jesus himself gets up to wash their feet.  This might not sound that odd to us, but foot-washing was a lowly task in 1st century Palestine.  Think about it: their feet were very dirty; the men wore sandals, they walked everywhere, and the roads were filthy with dirt, dust, and animal droppings.  Thus, this was the job usually saved for the lowliest of servants.  Peers did not wash each other's feet.   In Luke's Gospel, the disciples start arguing about who is the greatest among them; their attitudes certainly indicated that they weren't going to stoop so low as to wash each other's feet.  And so when Jesus gets up to wash the disciples' feet, in the Scripture that was just read, the disciples are shocked.  How could he?  Of course, Jesus always has something deeper in mind.  Jesus is a perfect example of humility and selflessness, which will ultimately be demonstrated in its most extreme form on the cross.    What is it about us as human beings that we so often struggle with truly loving one another?  Yes, I'll love that person, as long as I don't have to make a sacrifice.  But Jesus is the epitome of a perfect loving sacrifice and he calls us to be as well.  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”   Blessings, Pastor Vicki      

   2600 years ago in Babylon, chariots were the envious transportation of the day. Yesterday we joined Ezekiel in his multi-sensory experience of the Vision God gave him which he describes in Ezekiel 1. Yesterday we discussed the four faced, four winged angelic beings.  Today Ezekiel continues with these words: “As I looked at the four living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature…the wheels sparkled like topaz and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced… (Click here to see full text, images and links)    Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 1:15-28. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

Daily Dose of Hope February 3, 2025 Day 2 of Week 45   Scripture: Ezekiel 34-36; Psalm 86; John 12 Welcome back, everyone, to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan.  Let's get right into our Scripture for today. Our Old Testament passage for is Ezekiel 34-36.  Keep in mind, chapter 34 begins with Jerusalem having fallen to Babylon once and for all.  The final siege has occurred.  And we are left with this question:  Is God done with Israel for good?  Is there something beyond the exile? With chapter 34, we are taking a sharp turn.  We begin to see God's message of hope to his people.  God says he is going to bring forth a new David of sorts, a Messianic king who will fulfill the needs of the people and be obedient to God.  He will also bring forth a new Israel.  God's people will no longer have hard hearts but hearts of flesh who will love their God wholeheartedly.  God's Spirit will come to dwell in them.  I read through the verses in chapter 36 over and over again.  After so many chapters of doom and judgement, it was wonderful to hear these words in verses 25-28, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”  God is going to do a new thing in his people.  Of course, we know this new thing to be Jesus.  And the exciting thing about this is that Jesus is always seeking to do a new thing in his people, including us.  What new thing is God doing in you today? Our New Testament passage is John 12.  There is a lot going on in this chapter.  Mary anoints Jesus with an expensive perfume, much to Judas' dismay.  Remember, he was all about the money.  Then, we have the Palm Sunday passage, which we are about to talk about, and the chapter finishes with a discussion about the Jews who still didn't believe in him.  As a little girl going to Sunday School, I can remember making palm branches and waving them. Jesus' triumphal entry was described kind of like a parade. Think about parades with their marching bands, large balloons, and dancers. They are often about celebration and national pride. But Jesus' entry into Jerusalem this wasn't that kind of parade, especially as the book of John describes it. Basically, we see Jesus being given a royal welcoming. The other Gospels go into even more detail.  The people are laying palm branches down for him. They are running ahead in the streets to give him this royal kind of treatment. This is the kind of welcome that the emperor or a high official of the Roman government would have received. Think of it kind of like the red carpet being rolled out---a sign that a very important leader, the new king, has arrived.  While the disciples appear to be confused, some of the Jews in the crowd would have known that this a fulfillment of prophecy.  John quotes Zechariah 9:9,Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. All the signs point to the fact that this Jesus is the king.  By making this announcement, Jesus knows what this means.  His death will be soon.  Blessings, Pastor Vicki  

Daily Dose of Hope February 2, 2025 Day 1 of Week 45   Scripture: Ezekiel 31-33; John 11 Welcome back, everyone, to week 45 of the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan.  We have come a long, long way!  Seven weeks and we will have read the whole Bible.  Good job, guys.  Don't forget to tell me what you are learning. Today, we are back in Ezekiel for our Old Testament reading.  Chapters 31 and 32 are a continued judgement over the nation of Egypt and Pharoah himself.  But chapter 33 takes a bit of a turn.  God tells Ezekiel that God has made him the watchman over the people of Israel.  A watchman was the lookout person who kept watch for the enemy and alerted the people when the enemy arrived.  In Ezekiel's case, he would receive the word of the Lord and alert the people of Israel of how they were sinning.  In fact, he is personally responsible for proclaiming God's impending judgment and encouraging repentance in order to relieve himself of blame.  This is all happening on the eve of Jerusalem's destruction.  More on this tomorrow... Our New Testament passage is John 11.  This is when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.  I want us to notice here that the sisters, Mary and Martha, trust Jesus.  They are friends and they are upset that he wasn't there earlier.  I think sometimes it's easy to forget the human side of Jesus.  But besides being God, he was also friend, brother, and son.  We see some of this here.  He grieves over Lazarus dying.  He knows that he will raise Lazarus but he still is upset at seeing the sisters' grief.  He deeply cares for this family.  At the same time, Jesus is God.  He will raise Lazarus from the dead and obviously, this is no small thing.  He has delayed his arrival for a purpose.  When Martha tells him, “If you had been here, this would not have happened,” Jesus says these famous words, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” The bigger question for all of us is “Do we believe this?”  Blessings, Pastor Vicki  

   We are thirty days into the new year of 2025 and 12 days or so into the new US leadership, and I wonder what you have seen as you’ve watched the headlines all around the world in these tumultuous days? Fires in California / hostage negotiations in Israel / installation of a new President and many new key leaders in Washington, oh my it’s been a busy time! Here’s an important question: Do you see God at work in our world over these past days? If so, what convinces you it was God and not simply politics or strong winds fanning California flames or something else? What helps you discern when and how God is directly involved in human events, even your own life? That key question was front and center for many people 2600 years ago as it is today! (Click here to see full text, images and links)   Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 1. Choose below to read or listen.​​Pastor Doug Anderson    “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)Have a comment or question about today's chapter? I'm ready to hear from you, contact me here. Interested in helping "Walking with Jesus" financially? Click here

Daily Dose of Hope January 29, 2025 Day 4 of Week 44   Scripture:  Ezekiel 25-27; Psalm 85; John 9   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the daily devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan.  Today is Wednesday which means its Recharge day!  Hope to see you tonight at 6:30pm in the Garage.   In our Ezekiel reading for today, we see that God is condemning the nations directly around Israel, including Ammon, Moab, Philistia, and Edom.  Israel has assumed their gods.  They have also been arrogant and sought vengeance against Israel.  God will also bring these nations down and Babylon will again be his tool.  I continue to find it interesting that God uses this pagan nation for his own purposes and Babylon has no idea.  It just reinforces this idea that God is God over everything and everyone.  He reigns yesterday, today, and forever.  Period.   In our New Testament Scripture for today, John 9, Jesus heals a man born blind and it leads to all kinds of questions.  At the time, if a person was born with a disability, it was assumed the parents or grandparents had sinned; it was assumed that the disability was some kind of punishment.  Jesus, as he often does, turns this false belief on its head.    Jesus heals the man but he does so on the Sabbath (a big no-no.) The man is taken to the Pharisees and they question him – they can't believe that Jesus has healed this man who was blind from birth.  And they ask the man, how did this happen?  The man simply speaks truth.  He basically says, “I don't really know anything but what I do know if that I was blind and now I see.”  The Pharisees really mock the poor guy when he says that he trusts in Jesus.  In fact, they get so frustrated with him, that they throw him out.  And yet, the man knows that they couldn't open his eyes, but Jesus did.    The Pharisees, as they so often did, completely missed the point.  The Pharisees think they know God but they don't.  As the man Jesus healed was physically blind, Jesus calls them spiritually blind.  This is the thing: To know God, we have to KNOW Jesus Christ.    Blessings, Pastor Vicki    

Daily Dose of Hope January 28, 2025 Day 3 of Week 44   Scripture:  Ezekiel 22-24; Psalm 134; John 8   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan.    Surprise, surprise, we are back in Ezekiel today.  I hope you read through chapters 22-24.  These chapters continue the theme of God's judgement on Israel.  In chapter 22, we see a continuation of the argument (almost like a legal case) that God is making against the nation of Israel and its kings.  They have been sinful over and over.  They have earned this punishment.  Even if the fathers of the faith pleaded for mercy, God would not grant it.  God's goodness, in fact, demands that justice be done.  The chapter ends with this, I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.  Umm...so that is pretty clear.   Chapter 23 is another allegory.  It is a tale of two sisters who are prostitutes.  One represents Samaria (the Northern Kingdom), and the other represents Judah.  The chapter goes into detail about their sin, their disobedience, and their lust for other gods.  First, Samaria falls to the Assyrians.  But her sister doesn't learn from this.  Instead, Judah continues to engage in wicked, detestable behavior.  Thus, her fate is sealed too.  She will fall to Babylon.  Chapter 24 is another allegory, describing Israel as a cooking pot, symbolizing the city of Jerusalem. It was once a pot filled with delicious meat but now it is only filled with corruption.   I personally struggle with the end of this chapter.  God tells Ezekiel that he will lose his delight, his wife.  And when she dies, he cannot cry out or mourn her publicly.  This is to represent the stoic nature that the Israelites have toward what God is saying.  Soon, they also will lose their delight, the temple.  Ezekiel was strong and obedient but he was also human.  This must have been excruciating for him.    John 8, our New Testament text, is an interesting set of narratives about Jesus' identity.  It also includes the passage about the adulterous woman who is brought before Jesus.  That is a familiar story for many of us, so I'm going to focus more on the identity piece.   In verses 12-30, Jesus attempts, unsuccessfully, to explain to the Pharisees that he does not need the two witnesses required by the Law in any testimony because he already has them: his own and the Father's. To the Jews, this would have been impossible. No one could testify on their own behalf. Afterall, the Law, to ensure fairness and objectivity, required at least two witnesses. But let us not forget that the gospel is not necessarily historical but theological. We are reading the account of an early Jewish-Christian community engaged in heavy theological debate with the synagogue, a sort of family feud if you consider that everyone here is Jewish.   As the text continues, in verses 37-59, Jesus and the Pharisees and other Jewish authorities throw accusations at each other. Jesus says they are being children of the devil; they accuse him of being demon-possessed and a Samaritan. One can hardly think of a worse situation. No one was listening to one another.   But John is making a point.  He is leading up to Jesus saying in v. 58, Before Abraham was, I am.  Of course, he is speaking of himself using the Biblical way of referring to God.  He is saying that he is God.  This escalates things.  The Jews begin to pick up stones to begin to throw at him but he slips away.    Jesus is God.    Blessings, Pastor Vicki  

Daily Dose of Hope January 27, 2025 Day 2 of Week 44   Scripture:  Ezekiel 19-21; Psalm 84; John 7   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan.  Happy Monday!  Let's get right into our Scripture for today.   We start in Ezekiel today for our Old Testament reading.  God is continuing to proclaim judgement on Israel.  Chapter 19 is a lament to the kings of Israel, although the Scripture calls them princes.  Specifically, Ezekiel is referring to King Jehoahaz and King Jehoiachin.  These were men who failed Israel.  Israel is compared to a lioness who produces cubs.  These cubs, the kings, become powerful and destructive.  They do evil in the Lord's eyes.    This poem is followed by a similar analogy about a vine.  The vine is healthy and thriving but then it withers and dies.  This refers to the line of kings in Israel, a line that has now ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile.  Of course, we know that the line hasn't really ended.  God's promise about there being someone on the throne of David forever has not been broken, but it has changed.  While Ezekiel knows about a promised messiah, he doesn't know that five hundred years later, another will come who will be a continuation of the vine and will truly sit on the throne of David forever.  Of course, we know that person to be Jesus.    Chapter 20 and 21 change things up a bit.  No more parables of judgement.  Rather, this is more like God bringing his case against the nation of Israel.  He is essentially making a rather detailed argument about how far the people have moved away from God.  The end point being that God will not change his mind.  The people have earned this punishment.  Exile is the inevitable consequence and God will use Babylon as his tool.    I want to talk briefly today about our psalm – Psalm 84.  It is a beautiful piece of prose and some of the words have been used in familiar hymns and praise songs.  There is some debate about the time in which it was written but some scholars think it was during the exile.  This timing would make sense.  The author is yearning to be in the temple, essentially in the presence of God.  He is jealous of the birds who get to sit in God's holy place.  The psalmist says “better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.”    Of course, when we read the Gospels, we see how things have changed.  The presence of God, the temple, is no longer in a building.  The presence of God himself is in the person of Jesus, and now, by extension, in the church.  The followers of Jesus, filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit, is where God's glory now resides.  Isn't that amazing?   Let's move on to the New Testament passage, John 7.  This is kind of the beginning of the end of Jesus' public ministry.  He has been doing a lot of teaching and a lot of miracles.  At the beginning of chapter 7, we learn that it is the Festival of Tabernacles, one of the most important Jewish festivals.  Jerusalem would have been filled with visitors for this important event.  His brothers want him to come and essentially show off at the festival.  He can come do miracles and make a bigger name for himself.  A mocking tone is implied here.  They are not supportive of Jesus, they are goading him.  We can assume these are Jesus' half-brothers, the biological sons of Mary and Joseph.    Jesus decides the timing isn't right.  He has his brothers go ahead and he comes later, presumably to be more discreet.  But by this point, it was hard for Jesus to do anything discreetly.  People begin talking about who Jesus is.  And Jesus begins to teach several days into the festival.  His teachings are not well-received by the Jewish leaders.  He speaks of the ridiculousness of Sabbath-keeping without keeping to the spirit of the law.  What were the intentions of the law vs. what it has become?  A person's intentions are always more important than evidence or reason.    The leaders want to silence Jesus.  They begin their conniving to find a way to get rid of what they see as a blasphemous nuisance.  They continue to miss the point, over and over again.  How often do we miss the point?   Blessings, Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope January 26, 2025 Day 1 of Week 44   Scripture:  Ezekiel 16-18; John 6   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan.  It is week 44 of daily reading!  I don't know about you, but I continue to learn and be stretched.  Ezekiel isn't the easiest book but there is certainly a lot of substance there.  With that, let's get into our Scripture for today.   Our Old Testament reading is Ezekiel 16-18.  Wow.  It's hard today.  Chapter 16 compares the people of Israel to an adulterous.  God, through Ezekiel, goes into painstaking detail about how Israel has betrayed the one true God.  Israel has slept with other lovers, meaning she has worshiped other gods, and she has sacrificed her children to them.  She has prostituted herself over and over and over again to all the nations around her.  She has broken covenant with the Lord and there will be severe consequences.   In chapter 17, God has Ezekiel use an allegory, almost a riddle, to describe what God will do.  I'm not going to rehash the riddle here but be sure to reread it if you don't remember.  Here is the best explanation of that riddle I can find: The multi-colored eagle is Babylon, which broke the cedar tree of the Kingdom of Judah and planted the people (of the first exile) into Babylon itself.  After that, a new seedling of Judah was planted in the place of the old.  King Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Judah's king (Jehoiachin) and replaced him with Jehoiachin's nephew, Zedekiah.  This made Zedekiah the puppet ruler of a vassal state to the Babylonian empire.  But Babylon very intentionally held their new subjects in Judah, not allowing them to grow and prosper.    Despite swearing allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, Zedekiah secretly courted a relationship with his Egyptian neighbors.  The Egyptians are represented by the monochromatic eagle in the story.  Judah was hoping that Egypt would come to their aid and overthrow the Babylonians.   So the question that God is asking is does a Kingdom like that, one that is weak, treacherous, and deceptive, deserve to exist or should it be uprooted and destroyed?   That seems like a pretty dark place but Ezekiel doesn't leave us there.  With God's words, he continues the allegory. Just as the King of Babylon took from the top of a cedar, God will also take from the highest branch of a high cedar.  God will also plant a sapling on a high mountain.  This will come after the punishment, the exile, has ended.  The people who are left after the exile will be humbled, ready to focus on God and God alone, and ready to receive the Messiah.  Ezekiel is prophesying the coming of the Messiah and his Kingdom.       Our New Testament reading is John 6.  This is such a great chapter.  There is so much here we could discuss, but I want to focus on the feeding of the 5,000.  Jesus has taken his disciples away, trying to find a quiet place to rest.  That doesn't happen.  People follow them.  Jesus was probably quite a sight.  He said things people had not heard before and he did miracles.    The crowd that followed Jesus this time was quite large.  Thus, they sit down on the side of the mountain and Jesus asks Philip (mainly to test him), “Where in the world are we going to get food to feed all these people?”  Of course, Jesus already knew what he would do.  The interesting thing to me is that Jesus didn't get annoyed with the crowds, he was never exasperated.  He took it in stride and everything was a learning lesson.  Everything was a Kingdom lesson.   Jesus had tremendous compassion for the people.  If you think about Jesus' ministry, he was often interrupted, probably on his off day.  He would frequently be planning to do this one thing but pulled away in a different direction.  But it was in those interruptions, those distractions that Jesus did amazing work, that we get to see God at work in amazing, miraculous ways.  He heals the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years because she “interrupts” him on his way to the Roman official's home.  Think of the man whose friends created a hole in the roof to lower their friend in front of Jesus and “interrupt” his teaching.  He was interrupted by a demon-possessed man at the synagogue and he heals him.  I counted something like 35 “interruptions” and it was in those interruptions that Jesus healed, taught, loved, and demonstrated God's glory.    And I'm wondering if it might be the same for us.  We get so busy, so task-focused, but might it be in the interruptions that God is calling us to demonstrate HIS compassion toward others.  Sometimes, the most important things in our lives happen in the interruptions.  I think God wants us to pay attention to the interruptions because interruptions involve people who Jesus loves.  God uses individual people to bless others, to take care of the needs of others.  But let's get back to the feeding.  Exactly how it happened, we don't know.  What we know is that it happened.  Jesus took a little and turned it into a lot.  In that moment, we see God's Kingdom in all its fullness.  In God's Kingdom, there is no sickness so Jesus healed.  In God's Kingdom, there is no hunger so Jesus fed.  Most of us in here are pretty well fed but that was not the norm in first century Palestine.  People did not get enough to eat.  That's why in the Lord's Prayer we say, “give us today our daily bread” because daily bread was not a given.  Those 10-15K people that Jesus was caring for that day (the men plus their wives and children), these were peasants.  They were hungry people.  There was a huge disparity between rich and poor in the Roman Empire and some argue, quite convincingly, that was intentional.  It's a lot easier to control people when you are controlling their food, holding it out like a carrot.  It kept people down and that still happens in many countries around the world; the issue isn't always lack of food but a government that keeps the food from the people. But Jesus fed everyone until they were full (probably something they were not accustomed to at all).  And when all were fed, the leftovers were collected and there were twelve basketfuls remaining.  Amazing abundance.  Jesus demonstrated the abundance of God's Kingdom.  To these people following Jesus, there was a lack of food, so it made sense to demonstrate abundance that way.  For most of us, we typically eat until we are full so maybe that wouldn't make sense to us.  But for many of us, we still operate our lives from a SCARCITY mindset.  That means we worry that there won't be enough, we are fearful of running out, that there won't be enough for me.  We live always thinking, “well, what if this happens or that happens?”  But if we view our lives from the lens of scarcity, then we will always be fearful and anxious.  And we will miss so many of the blessings that God has in store for us. And Jesus wants us to operate from the ABUNDANCE mindset.  He wants us to trust that he will provide all our needs and then some.  There were 12 baskets left over.  Jesus wants us to have a stewardship mentality, recognizing that all we have, God has generously put into our hands.  All our resources – they are a gift from God, our health – gift from God, our children/grandchildren/friends – all a gift from God, our time – a precious gift from God.  Just as Jesus was asking his disciples to do in this miracle, he is asking each of us to do --- look beyond what's in front of you.  Look up from this physical, earthly reality and see that there is so much more.  I've got you.  I'm here for you.  Trust me.  The world tells us to be afraid, hold on tight to whatever you have, send the people away.  But Jesus is saying, “Look beyond the world.  Look beyond what's right in front of you.  Look at my Kingdom.” One thing I like about John's Gospel is he gives us a little more detail.  He writes about how, after Jesus feeds all the people, the disciples cross the lake back to Capernaum.  The people follow him again and ask for more bread.  Afterall, they were hungry people.  But Jesus wants them to go deeper.  He knows their needs are deeper.  All of our needs are deeper.  Anyway, Jesus says to them, John 6:35, I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry…   Of course, he is no longer talking about bread.  Those places of scarcity in our soul – the fear, the anxiety, the anger, the doubts, the pain, the past trauma, the bitterness, the insecurity, the emptiness, the bondage to things of this world – Jesus takes all of that and if we let him, will fill us, heal us, strengthen us, nourish  us.  Christ, the bread of life, satisfies the deepest longings of our life.  And friends, I need that.  You need that.  We have a whole community who needs it, yearns for it.  Let's chat tomorrow. Blessings, Pastor Vicki  

Daily Dose of Hope January 23, 2025 Day 5 of Week 43   Scripture: Ezekiel 13-15; Psalm 136; John 5   Hello everyone!  Welcome, once again, to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan.  Let's get right into our Scripture. Our Old Testament reading is in Ezekiel once again, chapters, 13-15.  Here we find more warnings for the people who are still in Judah.  God is speaking through Ezekiel, letting the people know that their idolatry and disobedience will have consequences.  They are fooling themselves by not listening.  They are fooling themselves for listening to the false prophets.   One thing I wanted to address is why God calls Ezekiel, “son of man.”  From my research, it looks like son of man simply means human being.  Please don't confuse this with the use of Son of Man that often described Jesus.  When Jesus uses that title, it refers to his humanity but also points to him being the Messiah.  In fact, the title Son of Man is used for Jesus some 88 times in the New Testament. Jesus' use of the phrase points to his exalted state as a person of the Godhead.  Generally (but not always), the use “son of man” in reference to human men is not capitalized.  It is capitalized when speaking of Jesus.   Our New Testament reading is John 5.  The chapter starts with a narrative about the disabled man who had not been able to walk for thirty-eight years.  There are a couple reflections I had from the text.  You may have noticed them too.   First, when Jesus asked the man if he wanted to get well, the man did not say yes.  Instead, he blamed his circumstances for why he was disabled.  “Well, no one will help me into the waters and then people go ahead of me.”  He takes no responsibility and he puts all his trust in this mystical pool.   Second, when the religious leaders find out Jesus healed on the Sabbath, they become angered.  They say nothing about how this man experienced healing after thirty-eight years of disability.  How crazy is it that all they care about are the rules?  They have no concern for individual people.    Jesus turned social and religious norms upside down.  He was less concerned with convention and more concerned about the souls of people.  The Pharisees totally were missing the point.  How often do we miss the point?    Blessings, Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope January 22, 2025 Day 4 of Week 43   Scripture: Ezekiel 10-12; Psalm 83; John 4   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan.  It's Wednesday so that means Recharge.  I hope you will consider joining us at 6:30pm for an amazing night of worship, prayer, fellowship, and small community.    Just to mix things up, I thought we would start today with the New Testament passage which is John 4.  This is the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.  Many of you are familiar with this passage and it is an extraordinary one.  Let's try to look at it with fresh eyes.  There are some really fascinating aspects to this narrative. ·      Jesus did not have to go through Samaria; he chose to.  He was making a statement here.  Keep in mind, the Jews and Samaritans hated one another.  Usually, Jews went the long way around Samaria so they didn't have to be contaminated by the people who they called dogs and half-breeds.  Remember, the region of Samaria was once the Northern Kingdom.  They set up their own capital and their own temple.  After the Assyrians conquered them, many people moved out and others moved in.  Thus, the people who lived there during Jesus' day were a mix of cultures and nationalities.  ·      Jesus initiates a conversation with the woman at the well.  Jews and Samaritans didn't have conversations.  Honestly, men and women didn't have conversations.  So many things about this situation were taboo.  But Jesus doesn't care about social conventions, he cares about individual people. ·      The woman was at the well in the middle of the day.  That tells us that she was trying to avoid others.  It was really, really hot at that time of day.  Most women would have drawn water in the cool of the morning.  So this woman was avoiding the town women because she was probably the focus of their gossip.  She had been married many times and she was, at the time, living with a man who wasn't her husband. ·      We don't know much about this woman, but my guess is that she had a life filled with hardship and trauma.  Jesus knew that.  He saw her needs and her struggles and he offered her living water.  She was open and receptive.  ·      This woman turns out to be one of the best evangelists in the New Testament.  She goes and tells the townspeople about this man who knew everything about her life.  Remember, these are the people who don't like her but she is boldly sharing about Jesus anyway.  Thus, many of the Samaritans believed and became committed to following Jesus.  ·      Jesus is in the business of changing lives and whole communities.  And he uses all of us.  Our past does not matter to Jesus, only our hearts and desire to change.   We haven't spent much time discussing the psalms lately so let's talk briefly about today's psalm.  Psalm 83 is written by Asaph.  Asaph was a Levite singer and writer who served both King David and King Solomon.  He is pleading with God to stop his enemies and allow them to die in disgrace.  It's kind of hard to read.  It also leads to this question – how often are our prayers for help selfish and about revenge, rather than about God's glory?   Today, we also are discussing Ezekiel 10-12.  Ezekiel is experiencing a vision from God.  He is back at the Temple, witnessing the cherubim (these are the same winged creatures that he saw by the river on his birthday).  Ezekiel is taken to a group of twenty-five men who are leaders and have led the city into sin.  God tells the prophet to speak against them, to boldly speak about the murders and atrocities they have committed.  He tells them that God will bring destruction.  To those who thought they should not leave Jerusalem, that they this was their land and they weren't about to leave, God will show them how wrong they were.    In chapter 12, we read about God instructing Ezekiel to do more of these sign acts to demonstrate the sin of the people and what God planned to do to them.  Remember, this was kind of like street theater.  He was acting out the prophecy.  And yet, the people are still hard-hearted.   Obviously, this occurred some 2500 years ago.  But as humans, we are still hard-hearted in so many ways.  How are you hard-hearted?  Spend some time in prayer about this today.   Blessings, Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope January 21, 2025 Day 3 of Week 43   Scripture: Ezekiel 7-9; John 3   Welcome, everyone, to the devotional and podcast called the Daily Dose of Hope.  This complements the Bible reading plan for New Hope Church in Brandon, Florida.    For our Old Testament reading, we are in Ezekiel, this time looking at chapters 7-9.  First, Ezekiel is again experiencing visions from God.  At first, he is taken to see the abominations occurring in Judah.  There is an Asherah pole at one of the Temple entrances.  For those who aren't familiar with Asherah, she was a Canaanite fertility goddess and the Asherah cult became very popular in Israel.  When you read about temple prostitutes in the Bible, they were often part of Asherah worship.  You can see why God was disgusted by this.   Then, Ezekiel was brought to a place inside the Temple in which the elders were worshiping many other gods and burning incense to them.  Next, there was a visit to another Temple gate where woman were worshiping Tammuz, a Babylonian fertility god.  And finally, outside the Temple, were Jewish men worshiping the sun god.  What a mess.  How did it get to this?   So, God is enraged and he wants Ezekiel to communicate this.  Chapter 9 is a vision of an executioner who will kill most of the people in Judah for their idolatry and disobedience.  Only those marked with an X will survive.  It is a bit disconcerting that God tells Ezekiel not to feel sorry for them, as they have earned this punishment.  Wow.  I struggle with this.  It makes me so grateful for the cross of Jesus.   Our New Testament text is John 3.  In this chapter, we meet Nicodemus, who is Pharisee and a member of the ruling council.  He is someone who is well-trained in Jewish law and tradition and most likely held in high esteem in his community.  And he comes to see Jesus at night.  To me, it's interesting that the Scripture points this out.  Obviously, Nicodemus is intrigued by Jesus.  He has seen the miracles and listened to Jesus' teaching.  He knows that Jesus knows God in some way, Nicodemus acknowledges that, but he is probably a bit leary of being connected with Jesus.  After all, what will the others think?   We don't know if there is some pleasant chit chat between Jesus and Nicodemus, there may have been, but in the Scripture it seems that Jesus wastes no time --- he gets right to the point.  He says to Nicodemus, “no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  Then, there is that interesting back and forth dialogue in which Nicodemus says, “well, how in the world can someone enter into their mother's womb a second time?”  And Jesus doesn't even respond to that, he says it again “Dude, you can't get into the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.  You must be born again!”   Now, Nicodemus would have probably thought that salvation was his because he was born a Jew.  He was one of the “chosen people.”  Or, he would have thought salvation was his because he knew a whole lot about the law, he had accumulated a lot of information about God, and he was trying hard to apply it.   Jesus is pushing back against that.  He says you must be born again.  Yes, Nicodemus, you were born a Jew in your first birth but that isn't enough for you to be saved and to enter God's Kingdom.  Yes, Nicodemus, you have lots of information about God, you may even be a really good person and attend synagogue, but that isn't enough either.  Jesus is saying to Nicodemus that you have to be spiritually reborn. Jesus knew that Nicodemus needed a change of his heart—a spiritual transformation that could only come from above.   The phrase “born again” can be translated “born from above.”    This is what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus:  Just as your mother gave physical birth to you, if you want to receive salvation and have eternal life, you need the Holy Spirit to give you a spiritual birth. Jesus says, flesh gives birth to flesh but only the Spirit can give birth to spirit.  This rebirth is when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive in Jesus Christ.  And there is a certain mystery to it.  Just as the wind exists in the earthly, physical realm but there is mystery to where it is going and coming from; so there is the same mystery with the Holy Spirit and how he moves and works.  How can this be?  That was the question Nicodemus asked.  Yeah, how can this be?   Let's unpack this a bit more.  When we were born the first time, we were born inclined to sin, inclined to make bad choices.  Think about a toddler.  Why do we have to put safety plugs in all our electrical outlets?  Because no matter how many times we say no, our little ones defy us and they go straight for that outlet.  Because they don't know what's best for them.  Our natural inclination is to do what we want to do.   From the time of the fall in Genesis to right now, this very second, we as human beings are sinful, broken people.  Look at our world.  We miss the mark of God's full intention for our lives.  Even when we are generally good people, we are far from perfect.    And our sin, our brokenness, creates a barrier between us and God.  God is holy, totally without sin, and we are a hot mess.  We all are.  And we can't jump that barrier between us and God.  Nothing we can do will close that gap.  No striving to be good.  No racking up spiritual merit badges.  Not being born into a Christian family or having a really strong Christian mama.    God made a way for us to be right with him, to eliminate that barrier.  God himself made a way for us to walk closely with him.  You know God's solution to our sin ---- Jesus.  (If we were to continue with today's Scripture, then we would read the best known Scripture verse in the world.  John 3:16 ---- For God so loved the world, that he…)   Jesus was God with flesh on.  He came voluntarily to demonstrate a different way of doing life AND then he went to the cross.  He died on that Roman cross, serving as the final, ultimate sacrifice for sin.  You see, when Jesus died on the cross, his blood atoned for our sins.  For all of our sins.  So, if we believe in him, turn away from our old way of doing life, then we receive salvation.  We are spiritually reborn.  Born again by the Spirit.  Jesus did the work and the Holy Spirit applies the blood.    You see, when we believe in Jesus Christ, God no longer sees our sin and our mess, he only sees the blood of Jesus.  Not only does this ensure that we get to spend eternity with Jesus, we receive new life right now, today.  We become new people, new creations (2 cor. 5:17).  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God himself, comes and dwells within us, changing us from the inside out.  Being born again means: 1-       Acknowledging your sin, turning away from your old life and turning toward God (repentance) 2-       Saying yes to Jesus!  3-       Being filled with the Holy Spirit.    Have you been born again?  That's a question we all have to answer.    Blessings, Pastor Vicki    

Daily Dose of Hope January 20, 2025 Day 2 of Week 43   Scripture: Ezekiel 4-6; Psalm 82; John 2   Happy Monday and welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan.  Let's get right to our Scripture for today.   For our Old Testament reading, we are back in Ezekiel, chapters 4-6.  Ezekiel gets God's message across to the Jews not just by speaking, but also by performing “sign acts,” which God requires him to do.  In a way, they were kind of like street theatre, getting God's words across to the people in a strange but powerful way.  For instance, Ezekiel is to make a model of the siege on Jerusalem.  He is to shave off his hair and chop it up and burn it.  Possibly the most cringey one was Ezekiel had to lay on the ground tied up for over a year, eating food cooked over cow dung, to represent the horrible food (and lack of it) that the Hebrews would be forced to eat when Jerusalem is attacked again by the Babylonians and experience a horrible famine.   And yet, God was clear. Ezekiel was going to do these things, he would be obedient to God, but the people would not listen.  Their hearts are hard.   Our New Testament reading is John 2.  This chapter includes Jesus' first miracle – turning water into wine at the wedding of Cana.  There are a couple interesting aspects to this narrative.  First, Jesus' mom was pretty bold.  His public ministry had not really started but she must have know what he was capable of.  Mary knew that Jesus could turn the water into wine.  I wonder what kinds of things had happened in their home?  Wouldn't that be fun to know?   Second, Jesus was hesitant to do the miracle.  He basically says, “This isn't any of our business, Mom!”  You must wonder why he was hesitant.  Yet, he did it anyway.  All kinds of things to consider here.    Finally, Jesus made the best wine that they had all night.  And he made a ton of it.  We get just a taste of the amazing abundance of God here.  There's more to come, of course.    How have you experienced the abundance of God in your life?   Blessings, Pastor Vicki  

Scripture: Ezekiel 44:15Resources for a life of following Jesus, every day, everywhere, with everyone.

Daily Dose of Hope January 19, 2025 Day 1 of Week 43   Scripture:  Ezekiel 1-3; John 1   Welcome to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church daily Bible reading plan.  Happy Sunday!  I do hope I will be seeing you in worship this morning.  Our sermon is on growing faith.  It seems appropriate to mention that here because reading the Bible is one of the main ways we can grow our faith and grow in our walk with Jesus.  So great job to all of you!    Today, we are starting the Old Testament book of Ezekiel.  Ezekiel was a priest living in Judah during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.  He was part of the first wave of refugees taken to live in Babylon.  Ezekiel's book opens up by telling us that he is living in an Israeli refugee camp of sorts in Babylon and it's his 30th birthday.  This is important because it's the day he would have officially been installed as a priest if he were still in Jerusalem.  But God has other plans for Ezekiel.   It's on this day, the day he turned thirty, that God shows up to call Ezekiel into his service.  But, not surprisingly, it's a bit unconventional.  He sees this highly unusual vision.  It was a large cloud with four large, winged creatures and each creature has four faces. Under each creature is a sparkly wheel.  And the creatures wings were supporting a throne with a human-like figure who was full of light.  Ezekiel realizes this is the glory of God.  And this is kind of surprising.  What is God's glory doing in Babylon?    These first three chapters are really Ezekiel's commissioning as a prophet.  God has called him to warn the Israelites that there are consequences coming.  They have broken covenant, they have worshiped other gods, and they are oppressing the poor.  God has allowed one successful Babylonian attack but there are more coming.  Everything will be destroyed and God wants Ezekiel to boldly share this with his people.   One interesting piece is when God has Ezekiel eat the scroll.  The scroll represented the words of God that Ezekiel was going to share with the people.  It tasted like honey.  I can't help but draw a comparison between Ezekiel eating God's words and our need to digest God's words too.  Unless we consume the Word of God, we can't live it or share it with those who need to hear it.  Does God's Word taste like honey to you?   Ezekiel is a very interesting prophet.  I think we are going to find it fascinating.  I'm not saying you will like it but you will find it fascinating.   We are also starting the Gospel of John in the New Testament.  We are looking at chapter one. God's Word in the Old Testament was his self-expression. Here, the apostle John is referring to the Word as God's ultimate self-expression, Jesus Christ. If we are to know God, we need to look at Jesus. Jesus is God and God is Jesus. God loved the world so much that he provided a way for all of us to know him and be reconciled to him. God took on human form and moved into our neighborhood. God walked and talked among his people, demonstrating the full extent of his love. We have seen the Father through the life of the Son.   Let's take a moment and read this classic Christmas text from Matthew 1:18-24 and then we will return to John 1, This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).   Jesus was Immanuel, meaning God with us. Christmas is not simply about a little baby being born and laid in a manger. Christmas is about God coming down to be with his people, to live among us, and to demonstrate the full extent of his love. Everything that Jesus did, from healing people, feeding people, loving the poor and the outcast, dying on a cross, and defeating death through the resurrection, illustrated God's incredible, amazing love for his people. We could go much deeper than that, there is certainly a great deal more to say, but I'm going to stop there for today. Spend some time in prayer and simply think about the wonder of the incarnation.   Blessings, Pastor Vicki

Send us a comment or question!Scripture: Ezekiel 10, Ezekiel 8, Haggai 2, Ezra 3:10-13Calvary Chapel Franklin: http://calvarychapelfranklin.com/  Email: info@calvarychapelfranklin.com  The Parsons Pad Website: https://parsonspad.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/parsonspadpodcastRumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1006557?date=this-year Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccfranklintn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalvaryChapelFranklin/  Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://parsonspad.buzzsprout.com/  Calvary Chapel Franklin meets at: Sunday mornings: 1724 General George Patton Drive, Brentwood TN 37027 Wednesday evenings: 274 Mallory Station Rd, Franklin TN 37967 (Aspen Grove Christian Church)Mail: PO Box 1993 Spring Hill TN 37174 If you need a Bible, please download the free Gideon's app for iPhone or Android: https://gideons.org/  Calvary Chapel Franklin is a 501c3 tax exempt religious organization. If you would like to donate to support this ministry, please click here: https://calvarychapelfranklin.churchcenter.com/giving 

In this message, Pastor Dobbs teaches us why we need a new heart coming from Ezekiel 36:26-27. Scripture: Ezekiel 36:26 - ”I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh”. Ezekiel 36:27 - ”I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them”. Hit the notification bell so that you do not miss our most recent video. From your mobile device, to sow a financial seed into the ministry you may visit us at occvr.org and click the menu tab to locate the donate button. The donate button will provide two options for online giving. You may utilize “Text To Give” in which you will text “give” to the phone number 770-692-2225 to setup your monthly gift or one time financial gift. The additional method for online giving is simply click on the paypal “donate” button. Thanks to our generous partners in ministry, we are able to continue spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our local and foreign outreach ministries. For further information on Overcomers Christian Center including address, service times, and other information please visit occvr.org. Also you may visit us at the following: Facebook: @occvr Podcast: The Overcomers

In this message, Pastor Dobbs teaches us why we need a new heart coming from Ezekiel 36:26-27. Scripture: Ezekiel 36:26 - ”I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh”. Ezekiel 36:27 - ”I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them”. Join us online: OCCVR.org

Send us a comment or question!Scripture: Ezekiel 40-48, Matthew 24:15, 2 Thess. 2, aniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11, Zech. 14:16-21The Temple Institute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUbABhhBw0Q&t=4s https://thirdtemple.org/en/ https://thirdtemple.org/en/architecture/ Calvary Chapel Franklin: http://calvarychapelfranklin.com/  Email: info@calvarychapelfranklin.com  The Parsons Pad Website: https://parsonspad.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/parsonspadpodcastRumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1006557?date=this-year Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccfranklintn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalvaryChapelFranklin/  Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://parsonspad.buzzsprout.com/  Calvary Chapel Franklin meets at: Sunday mornings: 1724 General George Patton Drive, Brentwood TN 37027 Wednesday evenings: 274 Mallory Station Rd, Franklin TN 37967 (Aspen Grove Christian Church)Mail: PO Box 1993 Spring Hill TN 37174 If you need a Bible, please download the free Gideon's app for iPhone or Android: https://gideons.org/  Calvary Chapel Franklin is a 501c3 tax exempt religious organization. If you would like to donate to support this ministry, please click here: https://calvarychapelfranklin.churchcenter.com/giving 

Scripture: Ezekiel 34:1-16; 36:26-28Resources for a life of following Jesus, every day, everywhere, with everyone.

Sermon by Pastor Mel Baga - "God's Purging Fire" Scripture: Ezekiel 22:17-22

Scripture:  Ezekiel 37:1-14, James 1:14, John 19:10, Genesis 2:7, Acts 17:25, Exodus 6:7, Joel 2:27, Acts 4:31, Acts 2:1-4, Mark 11:23, Luke 10:19, John 14:11-13The Pulse ExperienceA Network That Beats To The Heart Of God.Sermon: I Hear The Sound Of Bones RattlingSpeaker: Barbara MattheySunday, July 21, 2024For Booking Information: 304-364-4164Email: john@thepulsechurch.comThere Are Three Ways to Financially Support the Pulse-GassawayPayPal:https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick...Text:https://app.clovergive.com/app/giving/thepulse/THEPULSEGASSAWAYWVMail: P.O. Box 141 Gassaway, WV 26624Check us out on social media and our website.Website:www.thepulsechurch.comLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/john-fowler-mba-16247231Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/thepulsewv/https://www.facebook.com/718582154980548/YouTube:https://www.YouTube.com/@thepulsegassaway3388https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGXhf2uE9oSMh961HaKJogTik Tok:https://www.tiktok.com/@thepulsewvlive?lang=ru-RUhttps://www.tiktok.com/@thepulsegassawayTwitch:https://twitch.tv/the_pulse_wvInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/thepulsegassaway/Twitter:https://twitter.com/thepulsewvApple Podcast:https://thepulsewv-gassaway.simplecast.com/https://podcasts.apple.com/.../the-pulse-wv.../id1527607059Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4YZljk4BeOmao9KAo7NYn6...https://open.spotify.com/show/7pbbpIgE2Spzqdmd982w2c...Google Play:https://podcasts.google.com/.../aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wb...https://podcasts.google.com/.../aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wb...Radio Public:Sermons:https://radiopublic.com/the-pulse-wv-WemdAJPodcast:https://radiopublic.com/the-pulse-wv-live-GymVAJDeezer:Sermons:https://Deezer.com/show/3055022Podcast:https://Deezer.com/show/3053812I Heart Radio:Sermons:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-pulse-wv-87312929...Podcast:https://www.iheart.com/.../269-the-pulse-wv-live-87312874...Amazon Music:Sermons:https://music.amazon.com/.../22dca9f0-25f7.../the-pulse-wvPodcast:https://music.amazon.com/.../fe8c94c7.../the-pulse-wv-live

Scripture: Ezekiel 2:1-7

After a recent denominational convention, Barry discusses denominations and our interaction with them. He gives what are reasons to leave, what aren't reasons to leave, and reasons not to leave. Believe it or not, that actually makes sense in the context.       Scripture: Ezekiel 36:21-27 Referenced Episodes: 17, 18, 19, 51, 101

Welcome to our 10:00 a.m. worship service on Sunday 5/19/2024! Rev. Scott Sherrill is our pastor. Today is Pentecost Sunday! Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14 & Acts 2:1-21 Sermon: These Bones Will Live

Scripture: Ezekiel 28:1-21The Pulse ExperienceSermon:  Don't Go To Hell Part 2Pastor Jay MaceSunday, May 12, 2024A Network That Beats To The Heart Of GodFor Booking Information: 304-364-4164Email: jay@thepulsechurch.com There Are Three Ways to Financially Support the Pulse-Winfield, WVPayPal:https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=HCXFPAHPH8MYA&source=urlText:https://app.clovergive.com/app/giving/thepulse/THEPULSEWINFIELDWVMail: 5368 State Route 34 Winfield, WV 25213Or Give In PersonCheck us out on social media and our website.Website:www.thepulsewv.comFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/718582154980548/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGXhf2uE9oSMh961HaKJogTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_pulse_winfield?_t=8a2JwTzm8xG&_r=1Instagram:356youth_winfield: https://instagram.com/356youth_winfield?igshid=3s8rb0i8xqbvThe Pulse Winfield Gospel Quest:https://instagram.com/the_pulse_winfield_kidsclub_?igshid=154la475j8arrTwitter:https://twitter.com/thepulsewvApple Podcast:https://thepulsewv-gassaway.simplecast.com/https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pulse-wv-live/id1527607059Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4YZljk4BeOmao9KAo7NYn6?si=bJu7H3MWT5eezEh357OqKAhttps://open.spotify.com/show/7pbbpIgE2Spzqdmd982w2c?si=-5W7mfxhSJyIk-mREfMmHwGoogle Play:https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS96NDFMazd0WAhttps://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9ockc4RE4xaARadio Public:Sermons:https://radiopublic.com/the-pulse-wv-WemdAJPodcast:https://radiopublic.com/the-pulse-wv-live-GymVAJDeezer:Sermons:https://deezer.com/show/3055022Podcast:https://deezer.com/show/3053812I Heart Radio:Sermons:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-pulse-wv-87312929?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false&autoplay=truePodcast:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-pulse-wv-live-87312874?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false&autoplay=trueAmazon Music:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/22dca9f0-25f7-4cf0-a927-c896dbccd048/the-pulse-wv

Divine Tyranny? Blocks of Wood? Confession: Canons of Dort III-IV, Article 16 Scripture: Ezekiel 36:24-28 Preacher: Rev. David Inks   Sermon Outline: Introduction Beauty in Bondage (the fallen image of God) Two Arminian Beefs God’s Pleasing and Powerful Grace Conclusion   Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/MURo2ez9RTI   Canons of Dort: The Third and Fourth Main Points of […] The post Divine Tyranny? Blocks of Wood? appeared first on Covenant United Reformed Church.

Scripture: Ezekiel 38-39, Daniel 9:2;-27, Revelation 13Calvary Chapel Franklin: http://calvarychapelfranklin.com/  Email: info@calvarychapelfranklin.com  The Parsons Pad Website: https://parsonspad.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/parsonspadpodcastRumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1006557?date=this-year Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccfranklintn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalvaryChapelFranklin/  Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://parsonspad.buzzsprout.com/  Calvary Chapel Franklin meets at: Sunday mornings: 1724 General George Patton Drive, Brentwood TN 37027 Wednesday evenings: 274 Mallory Station Rd, Franklin TN 37967 (Aspen Grove Christian Church)Mail: PO Box 1993 Spring Hill TN 37174 If you need a Bible, please download the free Gideon's app for iPhone or Android: https://gideons.org/  Calvary Chapel Franklin is a 501c3 tax exempt religious organization. If you would like to donate to support this ministry, please click here: https://calvarychapelfranklin.churchcenter.com/giving 

Made Alive to Walk Anew Confession: Canons of Dort III-IV, Article 11-12 Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14 Preacher: Rev. David Inks   Sermon Outline: Introduction God Directs the Course of the Gospel God Gives Sight to the Blind God Gives Life to the Dead God Gives a New Walk Conclusion   Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/R6kFg8qAb9o   Canons of […] The post Made Alive to Walk Anew appeared first on Covenant United Reformed Church.

Scripture: Ezekiel 38-39, Psalm 122, Isaiah 62, Jeremiah 31:27-37, Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 15, Genesis 17:7-8, Revelation 13, Revelation 19:11-20:15Linkshttps://www.rferl.org/a/iran-retaliation-israel-strikes/32911861.htmlhttps://apnews.com/article/iran-israel-mideast-tensions-4-19-2024-a7ccbae2e2844bab089e8e4377a24ddbhttps://www.nti.org/education-center/facilities/isfahan-esfahan-nuclear-technology-center-intc/ https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-797936#google_vignette RECAP: Israel reportedly strikes military target in Iran; senior Iranian official says no plans for immediate retaliationRussia's foreign minister: 'We told the Israelis that Iran does not want an escalation' https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-says-no-retaliation-planned-as-both-sides-seek-distance-from-isfahan-attack/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/19/blatant-aggression-reactions-to-us-veto-of-palestines-un-membership-bid Calvary Chapel Franklin: http://calvarychapelfranklin.com/  Email: info@calvarychapelfranklin.com  The Parsons Pad Website: https://parsonspad.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/parsonspadpodcastRumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1006557?date=this-year Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccfranklintn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalvaryChapelFranklin/  Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://parsonspad.buzzsprout.com/  Calvary Chapel Franklin meets at: Sunday mornings: 1724 General George Patton Drive, Brentwood TN 37027 Wednesday evenings: 274 Mallory Station Rd, Franklin TN 37967 (Aspen Grove Christian Church)Mail: PO Box 1993 Spring Hill TN 37174 If you need a Bible, please download the free Gideon's app for iPhone or Android: https://gideons.org/  Calvary Chapel Franklin is a 501c3 tax exempt religious organization. If you would like to donate to support this ministry, please click here: https://calvarychapelfranklin.churchcenter.com/giving 

Despite people being afraid to be cancelled, I can't be cancelled when I'm following the rule book (The Bible!) Jesus Christ is the only way & until we start to speak what's reality then how can we ever help free others? I love God too much to play in his face and turn to other religions or consult with people who are partaking in wickedness. Scripture: Ezekiel 36:24-27 NIV

Scripture: Ezekiel 38-39

Here in this lesson on the nation of Israel as revealed in Biblical prophecy, Dr. Mitchell looks at the coming of the Lord in relationship to Israel. The Day of Lord is the biblical phrase used to indicate the time when Israel and the nations are judged by the Lord as revealed in Revelation chaters 6-19. But in regard to the Lord's dealing with Israel, they will be cleansed from the unbelieving Jews then those who trust in Christ, their Messiah, will be saved to enter the Millennium when Christ returns to the earth to save them. But God's grace is available to each and everyone who now trusts in Christ now. Jesus died for each one of us and our sins, and God raised Him from the dead as proof of our forgiveness from Him! Can you believe this? Yes! Will you believe this? Please do. Here is Dr. Mitchell on the Unchanging Word Bible Broadcast, Zechariah 8:20. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unchanging-word/message

Scripture: Ezekiel 38-39, Revrelation 20:8  Calvary Chapel Franklin: http://calvarychapelfranklin.com/  Email: info@calvarychapelfranklin.com  The Parsons Pad Website: https://parsonspad.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/parsonspadpodcastRumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1006557?date=this-year Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccfranklintn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalvaryChapelFranklin/  Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://parsonspad.buzzsprout.com/  Calvary Chapel Franklin meets at: Sunday mornings: 1724 General George Patton Drive, Brentwood TN 37027 Wednesday evenings: 274 Mallory Station Rd, Franklin TN 37967 (Aspen Grove Christian Church)Mail: PO Box 1993 Spring Hill TN 37174 If you need a Bible, please download the free Gideon's app for iPhone or Android: https://gideons.org/  If you would like to support this outreach, please consider donating via PayPal (Calvary Chapel Franklin is a 501c3 tax exempt religious entity): https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QCC42G4JT8U76

Scripture: Ezekiel 39, Revelation 6-19, Revelation 20:7-10Calvary Chapel Franklin: http://calvarychapelfranklin.com/  Email: info@calvarychapelfranklin.com  The Parsons Pad Website: https://parsonspad.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/parsonspadpodcastRumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1006557?date=this-year Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccfranklintn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalvaryChapelFranklin/  Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://parsonspad.buzzsprout.com/  Calvary Chapel Franklin meets at: Sunday mornings: 1724 General George Patton Drive, Brentwood TN 37027 Wednesday evenings: 274 Mallory Station Rd, Franklin TN 37967 (Aspen Grove Christian Church)Mail: PO Box 1993 Spring Hill TN 37174 If you need a Bible, please download the free Gideon's app for iPhone or Android: https://gideons.org/  If you would like to support this outreach, please consider donating via PayPal (Calvary Chapel Franklin is a 501c3 tax exempt religious entity): https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QCC42G4JT8U76

Greetings All!Firstly, would you consider supporting our full-time ministry as we head into another increasingly "radicalised" year of service for the soon-to-come Lord Jesus? Neither of us now have salaries and the work we are doing in the background to produce all that we do is significant. You can support us here. Thank you!Podcast title music can be listened to here. In today's episode of Into the Pray, we sit down in Costa Coffee with a microphone to have a prayerful conversation 4+ months on having "left home and city" as a result of the stand we're taking concerning the chaos of the Church. We've tried to be honest, gracious and encouraging with a very niche audience mainly in mind. We hope that the public ambience isn't distracting from what we share. By providing something akin to a general update/catch-up, we talk about: — Life since leaving home and city— Reading the Bible twice in 4 months— Three key verses of Scripture: Ezekiel 12:4; Hebrews 10:34; 1 Thessalonians 5:14.— Prophetic encouragement and challenge, especially for those experiencing the inner discomfort (and even turmoil) as to if/how you are to separate yourself from all forms and communities of spiritual compromise. — Brief feature of a rather forthright naysayer called Rosemary.Also of note: Back in the spring of this I year, I published the seminal work, "The Glorious Few: Redeeming Radicalisation in the Kingdom of God." In the period of 2 weeks following publishing, several major things happened all at once that could have happened at any point in the previous 9 years. The disruption of the Lord culminated in Mairi resigning from her role as a Teacher of French in a large secondary school in Edinburgh and was a disruption that I wrote about prophetically in the book's epilogue. This episode of the Into the Pray podcast is Mairi's testimony and, as the final podcast in our home where the podcast began, please let me encourage you to listen with a prayerful heart. Perhaps you'd also share the episode to your networks. Finally, what would Nick say to your local church and leadership? The 1% Church. Thank you for listening. Maranatha! Nick & Mairi My books are available here with info about the latest, The Glorious Few, here. Order our gospel tracts for your parish here. Our flagship content:

Has your time praying or reading the Bible ever felt a little stale? Pastors Kim & Jimmy dig in on how to keep your spiritual habits connected to your relationship with Jesus instead of getting stuck in religious monotony! While they admit: Sometimes keeping up your spiritual habits IS a grind, they offer practical tips and advice on how to connect with God and keep your outlook fresh and curious. All the Scriptures, resources, and links mentioned in today's episode are below in the show notes. Thanks for listening! SHOW NOTES Do you have a question for Pastors Kim and Jimmy to answer on the show? Send it in here:https://rock.tfc.org/more-than-you-asked-for-comment Stay in the know and get exclusive content when you subscribe to "More Than You Asked For" updates: https://my.tfc.org/morethanyouaskedfor-wf "More Than You Asked For" is available on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcasts. You can also watch in your preferred TV App (Apple, Roku, and Amazon Fire) by downloading the TFC App on your device. SCRIPTURE Ezekiel 14:1-48:29 Zechariah 13:9 Proverbs 25:2 Matthew 7:7-8 RESOURCES The Biblecast: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiblecastwithpastorjimmy Church Online: https://live.tfc.org/ The Bible Recap by Tara Leigh Cobble: https://www.thebiblerecap.com/podcast The YouVersion App and Bible Plans: https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app Peace Vol. I + II by Bethel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUmTiGOxKUOj2YS3fssLX5RT_GcsOEBQd CONTACT US podcast@tfc.org Learn more: https://tfc.org/mtyaf CREW Hosts … Kim & Jimmy Witcher Producer … Bree Proffitt Video Director … Tyler Devenney Creative Director … Knox Botsford Content Producer … Anna Curry Audio & Video Editor … Matthew Bowen YouTube Specialist … Elijah Slaydon Content Creator … Katelyn Skrdlant