Ep180, No More Sacrifice

Reconnecting with Your True Nature: How Personality, Purpose, and Trust Create Synergy

Reconnecting Before Relating

Gabrielle Cardona frames the episode around the need to reconnect with oneself before attempting to create strong connections with other people. She distinguishes external detachment from internal disconnection and argues that people can become so absorbed in technology, social pressures, and surrounding events that they lose awareness of their own thoughts, feelings, needs, and natural abilities. She presents self-knowledge as more than knowing facts about oneself, using the Spanish distinction between conocer and saber to emphasize personal understanding rather than informational knowledge. In her view, a person who clearly knows who they are can communicate what they bring to a relationship and offer others a higher-quality version of their heart, mind, body, and spirit. She repeatedly asks listeners to consider whether it is more harmful to perform a role that is not authentic or to suppress what they naturally are.

Synergy as Exponential Cooperation

The host defines synergy as the result produced when people work together in a way that exceeds the sum of their separate efforts. She illustrates the idea through exponential-number examples, contrasting simple addition with the much greater effect of one person acting as a base and another as an exponent. The mathematical metaphor supports her larger argument that relationships can multiply people’s gifts, skills, time, effort, and potential when they unite around a common purpose. She identifies three principles of synergy: people are always moving toward, away from, or with one another; energy is positive or negative rather than neutral; and power must be accompanied by accountability. The episode therefore presents cooperation not as passive agreement, but as an active process of empowerment, facilitation, and shared responsibility.

Detachment, Disconnection, and Positive Energy

Cardona explains that some people disconnect from parts of themselves as a survival mechanism, using her husband’s early experiences in Mexico as an example of a worldview shaped by vigilance and survival. She contrasts that approach with her conviction that positive energy is more powerful than negative energy and can either invite others into a healthier state or reveal that they are unwilling to participate constructively. She describes four common barriers to healthy interaction as ignorance, indifference, impotence, and incompetence. Rather than assuming that difficult people are inherently malicious, she suggests that they may lack information, connection to themselves, personal power, or practical skill. She also uses her ballet experience to distinguish external balance from internal centeredness, arguing that people must notice their internal state and recenter themselves before rejoining a group.

Trust, Surrender, and Relationship Investment

The episode presents relationships as investments of time, money, energy, and effort that can produce valuable returns when people approach one another with trust and purpose. Cardona distinguishes surrender from giving up, describing surrender as remaining committed while ending an unnecessary power struggle or the attempt to control every outcome. She organizes relationship assessment through two linked acronyms: ART for appreciation, respect, and trust, and AIM for abilities, intentions, and motives. In practice, this means appreciating what people can do, respecting what they intend, and trusting the motives behind their participation. She argues that people are often forgiving when they can see sincere effort and that a small number of profound, high-quality relationships may be more fulfilling than a large number of shallow connections.

Personality Differences and Communication

Cardona says that the same behavior or sentence can carry many meanings depending on personality, context, sentence stress, volume, pacing, intonation, and body language. She argues that texting and other electronic communication cannot fully transmit voice, facial expression, or physical cues, making misunderstanding more likely. Her coaching approach looks beyond the visible topic and immediate issue to identify the deeper problem or source beneath them. She also describes raising her three children differently because she believed each had a distinct personality and needed to be understood on individual terms. The larger message is that differences are not obstacles to synergy; they are the source of complementary abilities that allow people to facilitate one another and create results neither could produce alone.

Functional Order and Practical Cooperation

In the final portion, Cardona introduces MBTI preferences and explains her understanding of functional order through the examples ESFJ, INTP, ISTP, and ESTJ. She describes dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior functions and argues that people should identify which activities feel natural, pleasurable, and sustainable rather than defining themselves only by what their current lifestyle requires. Activities that do not fit a person’s preferred functions may still need to be performed, but she recommends approaching them through stronger or more natural functions whenever possible. She encourages people to state honestly what they do well, what they struggle with, and how responsibilities can be distributed without placing an unhealthy burden on anyone. The episode closes by summarizing healthy cooperation through SAFE—strength, ability, flexibility, and endurance—and by emphasizing that people synchronize and synergize when they unite their differences around shared purposes, intentions, and motives.

SEO Keywords / Key Phrases

relationship synergy, personality types, self-awareness, MBTI cognitive functions, introvert and extrovert, communication skills, appreciation respect and trust, emotional connection, personal growth, healthy relationships

The Laughing Heart with Errol Strider

Answers Are Timid: Seeking Spirit Beyond the Visible World

Summary

An Absurd Question Opens a Serious Inquiry

Errol Strader begins with an uncomfortable but deliberately absurd story from 1970s San Francisco, asking listeners how they would respond to a vulnerable man lying on the pavement. The anecdote establishes the program's blend of humor, moral uncertainty, and philosophical investigation. From there, Errol asks what is most urgent and essential to share in a time marked by social division, authoritarian pressures, nuclear danger, and widespread anxiety. He proposes that beneath those conflicts may be a deeper "ground of being" whose nature is love. The opening frames love not merely as emotion, but as a force urging existence toward harmony, freedom, joy, and continuing expression.

The Limits of the Mind and the Possibility of Change

Professor Umbridge argues that the rational mind can provide only a map of ultimate reality, not the direct experience itself. Most people, the guest suggests, are absorbed in the machinery of ordinary life and rarely pause to ask whether anything dependable lies beyond mortal existence. Suffering can make the idea of continuation undesirable, yet changing historical conditions demonstrate that even dire circumstances do not remain fixed forever. The contrast between Nazi-era Germany and modern Germany, along with Europe's movement from centuries of rivalry toward union, is offered as evidence that human conditions can evolve. This reflection creates space for hope without denying present suffering.

Answers That Must Be Approached Gently

The poem "Answers Are Timid" portrays truth as something subtle, patient, elusive, and resistant to force. Answers must mature, be sifted from confusion, and be approached by a mind prepared to receive them. The poem warns against squeezing answers into expectations or treating facts as final truth, suggesting instead that facts are only the clothing answers wear. Courage, loyalty, patience, love, labor, and obedience are presented as the qualities that allow deeper understanding to emerge. The concluding invitation - "Be an answer" - shifts the search from abstract discovery toward becoming a source of meaning in another person's life.

Why Spirit Is Neglected in Everyday Life

Errol recalls a lifelong refusal to accept that there are no answers and explains that his search repeatedly led him toward spiritual reality. He defines the spiritual as the underlying dimension from which existence emerges, then explores questions about God, the soul, mortality, and what may lie beyond the physical universe. Modern life, however, prioritizes what can be measured, controlled, purchased, predicted, or immediately used. Questions about dinner, money, work, health, travel, relationships, and entertainment routinely push spirit to the margins. Errol uses humor to imagine a culture in which philosophy, forgiveness, and psychological inquiry receive the same public attention as consumer products and breaking news.

The Scorner and the Readiness to Seek

In "The Scorner," abstract claims about reality, divine harmony, eternity, and cosmic trust are repeatedly challenged by a skeptical voice concerned with suffering, physical needs, sensual experience, and bodily death. The poem does not erase skepticism; it dramatizes the tension between transcendent possibility and the demand for tangible proof. Errol then recounts a story from The Urantia Book in which Yeshua identifies four conditions absent in a man he does not approach: dissatisfaction with oneself, willingness to seek help, hunger for truth, and an open mind capable of receiving spiritual light. These conditions become a self-assessment for listeners considering whether they are ready to explore spiritual reality. Pride, fixed assumptions, and lack of inward openness are presented as barriers to that exploration.

Many Names, One Loving Source

The closing poem, "The Source Has Many Names," gathers titles from different religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions while asserting that the underlying divine nature remains loving and kind. God, Allah, Brahman, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Tao, the Source, the Force, Father, Mother, Creator, and other names are treated as varied attempts to describe one transcendent reality. Errol closes by acknowledging that mystery cannot be fully solved and that final answers may always remain elusive. Nevertheless, a person can embody compassion, creativity, insight, and hope for others. The episode ends with an invitation to live richly, remain open to discovery, and become an answer in someone else's life.

LaGrave Live

LIVE Evening Worship Service - Lament Unleashed

About The Service:

We will delve into the last chapter of the book of Lamentations with the message, "Lament Unleashed." Chad Boorsma will preach.

Order of Worship:

https://lagrave.org/wp-content/upload...

About Us:

We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)

We'd love to hear from you:

Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact

Let us pray for you:

Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/

Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Givi...

The July special offering is for Westminster Food Pantry. The downtown food pantry provides an emergency supply of food and personal care items to people in need while also promoting self-sufficiency through referrals and education.

Listen on the go:

Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic

Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ

Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle

Soundcloud: / lagravecrc

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT

Follow us!

Facebook: / lagravecrc

Instagram: / lagravecrc

Website: https://www.lagrave.org

#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC

When the Journey Hurts: Lament, Suffering, and the God Who Hears

Evening Worship Framed Around Lament

This LaGrave Live evening worship service at LaGrave Avenue Church is led by Chad Boorsma and centers on a service of lament. After opening music that includes recognizable words from Psalm 46, the service leader welcomes both in-person and livestream worshipers, offers a greeting of grace, mercy, and peace, and prepares the congregation through words from Psalm 9. The opening frames God as the one who reigns forever, judges with righteousness, remembers the afflicted, and remains a refuge for the oppressed.

Psalm 9, Prayer for Illumination, and Lamentations 5

The service continues with additional readings from Psalm 9, emphasizing God’s justice, the hope of the afflicted, and the prayer that the nations recognize their mortality before the Lord. After a musical response, the congregation joins in a responsive prayer of illumination based on Psalm 119, asking God to open eyes, minds, and hearts to His Word. The central Scripture reading is Lamentations 5, a chapter that cries out to God over disgrace, loss of inheritance, hunger, exhaustion, violence, mourning, desolation, and the unresolved plea for restoration.

Lament as a Biblical Way to Come Before God

In the sermon, Chad contrasts the joyful call of Psalm 100 with the grief-filled voice of Lamentations. He explains that while worship can include gladness, Scripture also gives God’s people permission to come before Him with sorrow, complaint, confession, and pain. The sermon places Lamentations in the aftermath of Babylon’s siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., explaining how the book’s poetic structure reflects the attempt to bring order to chaos, while chapter 5 breaks the acrostic rhythm as grief erupts into prayer.

Naming the Pain Without Pretending

The sermon walks through the suffering named in Lamentations 5: fatherless children, widows, violated women, disrespected elders, burdened boys, hunger, exhaustion, danger, slavery, lost music, vanished joy, and a desolate Mount Zion. Chad then connects that ancient grief to modern suffering through the story of a woman forced to retire from preschool teaching because of a medical condition, later losing income, mobility, independence, and support from some friends. The point is not to equate every suffering with Jerusalem’s devastation, but to show that all people eventually face grief, illness, loss, broken relationships, or burdens they do not know how to carry.

Recovering Lament in a Culture of Denial

The sermon challenges a culture, and at times a church culture, that often practices denial or amnesia around suffering. Chad references the book When the Journey Hurts: Finding Meaning in Suffering for Heart, Mind, and Soul, noting its concern that lament has quietly disappeared from contemporary American Christianity. He describes lament as a process of crying out to God, complaining honestly, making requests, and remembering God’s works. Scripture, especially the Psalms and Lamentations, shows that suffering in silence is not the only faithful response; truthful prayer before God is also faithful.

Remembering God While Asking Hard Questions

Chad emphasizes that Lamentations 5 both pleads for God to remember and models the worshiper remembering who God is. Even in the middle of sorrow, verse 19 declares that the Lord reigns forever and His throne endures from generation to generation. The sermon also affirms that prayers of lament can include frustration over what feels like God’s silence, as verse 20 asks why God seems to forget and forsake His people for so long. Lament does not always explain suffering or promise an immediate change in circumstances, but it gives people a faithful structure for telling the truth about pain in the presence of the God who hears the cries of the afflicted.

Prayers of Lament and Benediction of Peace

The service closes by putting the sermon into practice through four guided prayers of lament, each followed by silent prayer and congregational response. The prayers lift grief over death, illness and failing bodies, strained relationships and loved ones wandering from faith, and the world’s warfare, injustice, displacement, and persecution. The congregation repeatedly responds, “Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.” After a closing musical response, the service leader sends worshipers into the week with a benediction, assuring them that the kind-hearted Lord goes with them and blessing them with God’s keeping, gracious face, presence, and peace.

The Jim Benson Show

Leftist-Dominated Mainstream Media Refuse To Air & Denigrate Trump's Election Warnings

CA Governor Gavin Newsom & wife's finances come under federal scrutiny

Jim Benson examines President Donald Trump’s election-security address, plays analysis from Dr. Steve Turley, and features a Ron Yates podcast segment exploring federal scrutiny surrounding Gavin Newsom’s political and financial circle.

Featured Audio Sources

This episode of The Jim Benson Show includes excerpts from President Donald Trump’s July 16 address to the nation, commentary from Dr. Steve Turley’s YouTube program, and a podcast/video presentation by Ron Yates containing additional news and interview clips. Jim Benson introduces each source and adds his own conservative commentary about election systems, government transparency, media coverage, and political accountability.

President Trump’s July 16 Address to the Nation

Jim opens the program with audio from President Trump’s July 16 address concerning alleged vulnerabilities within American election systems. Trump’s excerpt claims that China obtained approximately 220 million American voter files and that foreign actors possessed information that could potentially be exploited for election-related activities. Returning to the microphone, Jim characterizes the speech as a major national-security warning involving electronic voting systems, voter registration records, mail-in ballots, and foreign interference. He also criticizes several mainstream television networks for either declining to broadcast the address live or presenting it alongside efforts to challenge Trump’s assertions. Jim presents the newly released government documents as support for concerns he and other conservative commentators have raised since the 2020 election. These statements are presented throughout the episode as claims and interpretations made by Trump, Jim, and the featured commentators.

Dr. Steve Turley’s Election-Document Analysis

Jim next plays a video from Dr. Steve Turley’s YouTube channel examining Trump’s speech and the declassified election-related documents. Turley organizes the material into four principal areas: voting-system vulnerabilities, China’s reported acquisition of American voter information, an investigation involving voter registrations in Michigan, and claims about noncitizens or deceased individuals remaining on voter rolls. He argues that the release of source documents alongside Trump’s speech represents an unusual level of government transparency. Turley also maintains that the documents raise questions about whether officials within the intelligence community minimized or withheld information about foreign election interference. His presentation strongly criticizes legacy media organizations, accusing them of applying inconsistent standards depending on whether a development benefits Democrats or Republicans. Jim introduces the segment as one of the early analyses of information he expects conservative and alternative-media commentators to examine more extensively.

Jim Benson’s Election-Security Perspective

Following the Turley segment, Jim reinforces his belief that electronic election systems remain vulnerable to domestic and foreign manipulation. He references a book attributed in the transcript to Ralph Pezzullo and connects its arguments to earlier public claims made by Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and other figures following the 2020 election. Jim also discusses allegations involving Venezuela and the reported use of technology to alter election results in multiple countries. He acknowledges that some of the released files are heavily redacted and that he was unable to open certain documents on his computer. Nevertheless, he states that the available information strengthens his conviction that major election-security concerns were previously dismissed or concealed. The segment reflects Jim’s personal political conclusions and his broader criticism of federal institutions, Democratic officials, and mainstream news organizations.

The Ron Yates Podcast Examines Gavin Newsom’s Inner Circle

The program then shifts to a podcast/video segment from Ron Yates concerning an ongoing federal investigation involving individuals within California Governor Gavin Newsom’s political circle. Jim explains that the investigation reportedly began during the Biden administration, challenging Newsom’s public characterization of the matter as political retaliation from the Trump administration. In the Ron Yates segment, the discussion focuses on former Newsom chief of staff Dana Williamson, cooperating witness Alexis Podesta, and reports that Podesta secretly recorded conversations during the investigation. An embedded news interview features commentary from Citizens Alliance CEO Cliff Maloney, who argues that the use of a cooperating witness and wiretap suggests investigators were examining potentially serious conduct. The speakers speculate about the possible consequences for Newsom’s national political ambitions while acknowledging that the precise scope of the investigation remains unresolved. Jim presents the clip as evidence that legal and political problems surrounding Newsom’s associates may be becoming more significant.

The Ron Yates Podcast Follows the Newsom Family Finances

Continuing within the Ron Yates podcast/video, the focus turns toward Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit organization, the Representation Project, and payments reportedly made to her and a for-profit business she owns. Yates describes the financial arrangements in highly critical language and raises questions about donors, executive compensation, and possible connections between nonprofit funding and Gavin Newsom’s political supporters. An embedded interview segment discusses reported salary figures, the size of the nonprofit, property transactions, mortgages, and whether the Newsoms’ publicly known income appears consistent with their expenses. The interview participant notes that nonprofit organizations may legally determine executive compensation but suggests investigators could examine the identities and government relationships of major donors. The segment also references a California diaper-distribution contract involving an organization connected to Newsom’s wife, although Jim notes that this development may have emerged after the Yates video was recorded. No final legal determination is presented, and the allegations remain framed as subjects of reporting, commentary, and investigation.

Media Accountability and Jim Benson’s Closing Message

Across both principal topics, Jim argues that alternative and conservative media organizations are investigating stories he believes mainstream outlets have minimized. He presents the Trump address and supporting documents as evidence that election-security questions deserve renewed examination. He likewise treats the federal investigation surrounding Newsom’s associates and family finances as a test of whether political leaders will receive equal scrutiny regardless of party affiliation. The episode blends Jim’s direct commentary with substantial portions of outside audio, allowing listeners to hear the featured arguments before he places them within his own political perspective. He closes by directing listeners to The Jim Benson Show page on BBS Radio TV, where the episode and related videos are available. Jim also invites the audience to return for the next program in two weeks.

Angel Talk with Jim Young and Sandy Young

Topic: Wonder Working Power

If you are truly a Christian, then certainly you have read at least parts of the Bible which is God's law. When we think of heaven, or the Christ our Divine Savior and God, we need to realize all that he endured to ensure that those of us who are willing to do the same would earn a place with him.

Join us for another exciting Angel Talk radio show sponsored by The Living Light Center a Church of Faith and Healing.

Wonder-Working Power: Preparing the Soul for the Signs of the Last Days

Summary

A Call to Spiritual Readiness

Reverend Sandy and Reverend Jim open with a message about what they call wonder-working power: the divine capacity to transform life through faith, prayer, gratitude, and service. They urge listeners to accept Christ, include God in daily decisions, watch the energy of their words, and develop a consistent spiritual practice. The hosts frame the episode as a loving warning rather than an attempt to create fear, emphasizing personal responsibility and preparation.

Signs, Prophecy, and the Latter Days

The hosts interpret current disasters, wars, emotional unrest, unusual weather, and perceived changes in the Earth and sky as signs connected to biblical prophecy. They discuss the Book of Daniel, the Book of Revelation, the seven-year tribulation, and the phrase "time, times, and half a time." Throughout this section, these interpretations are presented as the hosts' spiritual understanding and prophetic belief.

Faith Demonstrated Through Action

A central theme is that professed belief should be demonstrated through conduct. Jim and Sandy repeatedly encourage feeding families, collecting food and clothing, helping strangers, comforting people in distress, teaching children, and speaking openly about faith. They use the Good Shepherd, the lost sheep, and the parable of entrusted talents to argue that spiritual gifts and material resources should be actively used in service to others.

The Antichrist, the Mark, and Armageddon

The conversation turns to the Antichrist, the false prophet, the mark of the beast, and the battle of Armageddon. The hosts read or paraphrase biblical passages, describe a future system in which buying and selling may be restricted, and warn that Christians may face persecution or martyrdom. They also discuss the Euphrates River, armies gathering around Israel, the return of Christ, and the ultimate defeat of evil as they understand these prophecies.

Judgment, Words, and Spiritual Accountability

The hosts devote substantial attention to the Great White Throne, the Book of Life, judgment according to works, and the lasting consequences of speech and behavior. They argue that words can wound or heal, that concealed actions will eventually be revealed, and that salvation should produce an ongoing life of repentance and service. Personal examples involving fraud, vandalism, ministry work, charitable giving, and difficult tests are used to illustrate their message.

Prayer, Higher States, and the Final Appeal

Near the end, Sandy and Jim describe prayer, sacred names, praise, music, Scripture, kindness, and blessing nature as ways to raise spiritual energy and regain peace. They also discuss their beliefs about dimensional shifts, changing perceptions of time, the Earth's inner core, and future planetary transformation. The program closes by asking listeners to prepare now, seek forgiveness, accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and live in a way that reflects divine love.

Apple Pie Playground with Valerie

The Science of Staying in Your Own Lane

How does staying in our own lane hold together a material universe? Sound silly? Let's talk about life's purpose.

Finding Your True Lane: Purpose, Presence, and the Courage to Create

Summary

Creating Reality in the Present

Valerie opens by describing creative reality as an overlooked spiritual gift available in every present moment. She encourages listeners to reinterpret difficult starts, restarts, and do-overs through letting go, renewed focus, and self-forgiveness. The episode presents attention as a major influence on moment-to-moment experience and invites listeners to imagine preferred conversations, emotions, and outcomes. Joy, curiosity, and alignment become practical ways to reconnect with the authentic inner child. This opening establishes the episode's central idea that people can consciously participate in creating a different experience of life.

The Roadway Metaphor for Personal Boundaries

A week of driving on newly paved roads without visible lane lines gives Valerie a metaphor for personal purpose and boundaries. She compares uncertainty on the highway with the difficulty of staying in one's own energetic and spiritual lane. Trying to satisfy everyone, control other people's choices, or monitor every surrounding lane can drain energy and cause a person to lose their own destination. The discussion asks listeners to trust others with their journeys while taking responsibility for their own direction. Staying in one's lane therefore becomes an act of focus, authenticity, and respect rather than isolation.

Breaking the Subconscious Autopilot

Valerie connects controlling behavior to subconscious fears involving unpredictability, vulnerability, and instability. She describes the subconscious as holding emotional conditioning, survival strategies, and automatic trauma responses that can shape how people navigate life. Habit and routine may keep people living from an energetic past, with very few fully conscious present moments. The episode proposes interrupting that autopilot by doing at least one new, novel, or different thing each day. Even small changes can restore conscious choice, imagination, creativity, and a clearer sense of direction.

Purpose as an Organizing Energy

The episode then interprets purpose through spiritual and scientific-sounding ideas involving energy, quantum mechanics, and entropy. Valerie describes purpose as a localized anti-entropy project that helps organize both an individual life and the shared material world. In this framework, apathy and stagnation weaken coherence, while intention, passion, and right action create durable patterns. She compares human cooperation to the organization of billions of cells that sustain a living body. The broader message is that purpose supplies energy, structure, and meaningful participation in collective reality.

Service, Compassion, and Human Wholeness

Valerie explores several philosophical and spiritual approaches to purpose rather than insisting on one predetermined assignment. Service repeatedly appears as a pathway toward a worthwhile life, compassion, awakening, and care for future generations. She discusses selfless action in Eastern traditions, caretaking roles in general descriptions of Indigenous perspectives, and Carl Jung's idea of integrating the shadow with the authentic self. Existentialist radical freedom is presented as another view in which people form their own purposes through choice. Across these perspectives, purpose is connected to service, wholeness, compassion, and harmonious participation in society.

A Four-Part Exercise for Finding Direction

The final portion guides listeners through a structured writing and reflection practice. The four stages examine the natural flow of daily life, the passions that animate a person, an unrestricted 'What If?' vision of the future, and the concrete sacrifices and uncertainties involved in taking action. Listeners are asked to identify first and second steps, visualize one month of purposeful living, and choose one small affirmative action for the following day. The exercise avoids immediate self-editing so that authentic first impressions can surface. Valerie closes by encouraging continued reflection, focused movement, and a purpose-driven life lived within one's own lane.

LaGrave Live

LIVE Morning Worship Service 07-19-2026

The Way of Wisdom: Wisdom and the Poor

About The Service:

Rev. Peter Jonker will preach on Proverbs 13: 23.

Order of Worship:

https://lagrave.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-7-19-AM-Order-of-Worship.pdf

About the Church:

We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)

We'd love to hear from you:

Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact

Let us pray for you:

Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/

Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Giving/lagr107178

The July special offering is for Westminster Food Pantry. The downtown food pantry provides an emergency supply of food and personal care items to people in need while also promoting self-sufficiency through referrals and education.

Listen on the go:

Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic

Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ

Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle

Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT

Follow us!

Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc

Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc

Website: https://www.lagrave.org

#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC

When Poverty Has No Walls: Wisdom, Justice, and the Grace That Saves

Summary

Worship, Welcome, and Confession

The service opens with congregational singing, a greeting of grace and peace, and announcements about fellowship gatherings, a missionary presentation, and upcoming church events. The worship leader introduces the continuing Way of Wisdom sermon series and identifies care for the poor as the morning's focus. A reading of Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus confronts the congregation with the consequences of ignoring suffering at one's gate. The congregation then confesses its failures to feed the hungry, welcome strangers, clothe those in need, and visit the incarcerated. The assurance from Psalm 130 emphasizes forgiveness, unfailing love, and full redemption.

Baptism into a Covenant Family

The baptismal portion welcomes Noah Thomas Leichert and Henry Roger Baumann into what the pastor describes as God's ancient covenant family. Beginning with Abraham and continuing through Pentecost, the pastor explains baptism as a sign of grace, belonging, and God's promises to believers and their children. Membership in this family gives the children a shared character, inherited stories of God's faithfulness, and the assurance of God's attentive care. It also brings obligations because the family participates in building God's kingdom and proclaiming Jesus Christ. The parents and congregation are asked to promise prayer, instruction, nurture, and faithful example as the children grow.

Prayer for the Vulnerable

Following the baptisms, the service turns toward confidential prayer requests and a pastoral prayer for people facing illness, grief, treatment, hospice care, and recovery. The prayer also remembers neighbors threatened by heat, poor air quality, and material need, asking that they receive shelter, health, companionship, and practical assistance. Families grieving recent deaths and supported missionaries in Haiti are commended to God's care. The newly baptized children, their parents, and their prayer partners are included in a petition for wisdom and strength. The congregation is challenged to recognize its blessings and use them to bless people around them.

The Many Causes of Poverty

The sermon begins by rejecting a one-dimensional explanation of poverty. Proverbs sometimes connects poverty with poor choices, laziness, procrastination, and the failure to work diligently, preserving an important place for personal responsibility. The preacher then emphasizes that Proverbs also identifies injustice, prejudice, social exclusion, and the absence of protective resources as causes that can trap people in poverty. The seventh-year agricultural law is presented as a God-given foothold for the poor that unjust landowners could remove. Low-income housing resistance and the contrast between wealth as a fortified city and poverty as ruin illustrate how people with resources possess protections that the poor often lack.

Becoming a Fortified Wall

The second major sermon point concerns the obligations of people who have resources. Proverbs calls believers not only to avoid exploiting the poor but also to notice them, listen to their cries, defend their rights, and give generously. The preacher uses his own habit of avoiding eye contact with panhandlers to explore how a seemingly practical act of avoidance can train the heart to ignore vulnerable neighbors elsewhere. The sermon connects Proverbs with the agricultural laws of Exodus and Leviticus, including the seventh-year rest and the practice of leaving part of a harvest available for those in need. The congregation is urged to become the protective wall that poverty has denied to others and to allow care for the poor to take root deeply in the heart.

Grace Revealed in Human Poverty

The final sermon movement argues that care for the poor reflects God's own character because God hears, defends, identifies with, and stands beside those in need. Jesus is presented as one who entered material poverty, centered good news for the poor in his ministry, and taught that service to the least is service to him. The preacher then turns from material poverty to the spiritual poverty experienced when families break down, illness becomes incurable, sin is exposed, or human ability reaches its limit. In those moments, people discover that achievements, money, and impressive resumes cannot supply the grace they need. The message concludes that the same divine compassion directed toward the materially poor is also the compassion through which Jesus saves, calling successful people to recognize their own dependence on grace and extend that grace to their neighbors.

Tony Alamo with Tony Alamo World Wide Ministries

Revelation, the White Horse, and the Warning Against Counterfeit Light

Sermon 762A

Archive Introduction and Prayer for Revelation to Be Understood

This episode opens as an archived message from Pastor Tony Alamo, presented by Help from Christ Ministries. The announcer provides contact information, then Tony begins by saying that the book of Revelation must be understood “right now” because, in his view, the time it describes is already at hand. He prays that God will guide the teaching without private interpretation, bind Satan through the Word, heal the sick, raise spiritually dead people from sin into life, and strengthen the church.

“Come and Dine” and Feeding the Sheep With the Word

The program includes a musical portion of “Come and Dine,” which Tony uses as a bridge into his sermon. He interprets the song’s invitation to dine with Jesus as a call to feed on the Word of God. From there, he emphasizes the responsibility of pastors, teachers, and shepherds to feed believers accurately and warns that teaching the Word improperly, especially Revelation, carries serious spiritual consequences. He cites the example of King Saul to argue that obedience to God is better than sacrifice.

Revelation Chapter Six and the Four Horsemen

Tony turns to Revelation chapter six, where the Lamb opens one of the seals and one of the four living beings says, “Come and see.” He explains his view that thunder represents a divine wake-up call in the last days and that the four beasts and four horses are symbolic of groups of people and spiritual forces. He identifies the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as central to understanding end-time events, saying that the metaphors and symbols become simple once they are interpreted through God’s Word.

The White Horse as Counterfeit Light

The main teaching focuses on the first horse, the white horse, which Tony interprets not as God but as a counterfeit appearance of righteousness. He connects this white horse to Revelation 13:11, describing a beast that looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon. In Tony’s sermon, the white horse represents an Antichrist power that appears holy, religious, and authoritative while actually speaking with Satan’s voice. He warns listeners not to be deceived by outward appearances, robes, titles, religious images, or “squeaky clean” presentations that he believes conceal spiritual darkness.

Rome, the Vatican, Persecution, and Political Power

Tony’s sermon includes strong religious and political accusations involving Rome, the Vatican, the Antichrist, democracy, the United Nations, U.S. military power, cults, schools, and global conquest. He claims that the white horse carries a bow and crown, symbolizing authority, persecution, and the effort to conquer nations spiritually and politically. He frames these ideas as part of his Revelation interpretation, saying true Christians and groups are targeted, isolated, persecuted, and eventually prevented from buying or selling if they refuse the Antichrist system. These claims are preserved as Tony’s attributed sermon commentary, not independently verified facts.

Deception, False Christianity, and the Call to Reject Satan’s Words

The sermon repeatedly contrasts true Christianity, as Tony defines it, with what he calls fakery, false prophecy, and counterfeit religion. He warns that Satan can appear as an angel of light and that people may be misled by religious costumes, ceremonies, institutions, false doctrines, and teachings that excuse continued sin. He argues that the Antichrist system wants people to accept a religious and political order that replaces obedience to God’s Word. Tony urges listeners to reject what he calls the words of Satan and return to the words of Christ.

Salvation Prayer and Closing Contact Information

The episode closes with Tony leading listeners in a salvation prayer, asking Jesus to forgive sins, enter the heart, and save the soul through His shed blood and resurrection. Sharon then gives ordering information for Sermon 762A, including the ministry website, email, mailing address, and phone number. The final archive announcement again invites listeners to contact Help from Christ Ministries, closing the broadcast with a call to keep listening for more messages from the book of Revelation.

As You Wish Talk Radio

James's Freedom Rant and Real Contact Ending, The Controlled Narrative

Freedom Rant, Real Contact, and the Battle Between Control Narratives and Higher Alignment

ECETI, Freedom Commentary, and the Control Narrative

In this episode of As You Wish Talk Radio from ECETI, host James Gilliland opens with what he calls “James’s Freedom Rant and Real Contact: Ending the Control Narrative.” He moves quickly through political, media, legal, military, health, and UFO-related commentary, repeatedly framing his remarks as warnings about hidden agendas, manipulated narratives, and systems of control. The transcript notes that these political, medical, spiritual, UFO, and legal claims are preserved as speaker statements and have not been independently verified.

Loved Ones, Soul Continuity, and Guidance From the Other Side

Before returning to political and social commentary, James pauses to speak about people who are losing loved ones or experiencing others “crossing over.” He says the body disassembles while the soul moves on, and he encourages listeners to let go of the belief that loved ones are gone or fully separate. In his spiritual framing, loved ones on the other side may be “just a thought away” and may be trying to guide people through challenging times. He encourages meditation, awareness, and openness to subtle guidance.

Politics, Media, Elections, and Global Control Claims

James then turns to a long political section involving public figures, election systems, foreign influence, socialism, communism, constitutional rights, common law, and what he describes as a restoration of the Republic. He claims that media outlets, politicians, agencies, and foreign governments are involved in deception and control, and he argues that voting systems must be secured because a nation cannot remain a republic if votes do not count. His commentary strongly supports what he sees as American sovereignty, God-given rights, and resistance to systems he describes as tyrannical or globally controlled.

Geoengineering, Health, and Environmental Alarm

A major section focuses on James’s claims about chemtrails, geoengineering, weather modification, toxins, heavy metals, biological agents, environmental damage, illness, and what he describes as a worldwide operation harming people, farms, forests, livestock, gardens, and the atmosphere. He says some states and countries have tried to ban geoengineering, but questions who will enforce it. He also connects these concerns to vaccines, military accountability, 5G, forest die-off, weakened trees, beetle infestation, mysterious toxic fogs, and what he frames as a depopulation agenda. These claims are presented in the summary only as James’s views and commentary from the episode.

UFO Disclosure, Dark Money, and the Spiritual Contact Community

The episode then shifts into one of its central themes: James’s critique of the UFO and UAP disclosure world. He argues that dark money, government agencies, media, Hollywood, controlled opposition, and personal ambition have corrupted much of the UFO community. He says spiritually oriented contact experiences, benevolent extraterrestrials, advanced off-world beings, inner Earth beings, and spiritually grounded disclosure have been marginalized or attacked. James positions ECETI as a place where authentic contact is still happening outside the controlled narrative, and he criticizes what he sees as competition, jealousy, character assassination, and deception within the UFO/spiritual field.

Divine Feminine, Dark Goddess, Archons, and Personal Responsibility

James later turns to the theme of the divine feminine and what he calls the dark goddess. He contrasts a nurturing divine feminine that supports union between masculine and feminine energies with a destructive version that, in his view, feeds on victimhood, division, unresolved trauma, and unhealed patterns. He argues that personal responsibility, forgiveness, release of the past, and healing are necessary for healthy union and spiritual progress. He connects this to broader divisionary programs involving gender, religion, race, culture, politics, and the UFO/spiritual community, saying that love and unity are the antidote to these forces.

Skywatch Field Recording and ECETI Promotion

The final major portion features an extended ECETI skywatch field recording, with multiple observers reacting to lights, flashes, power-ups, moving objects, and what they describe as ships over ECETI Ranch. Participants refer to a “UFO highway,” objects moving in different directions, lights near planes, power-ups, colors, flashes, and repeated sightings over the trees and mountains. The episode closes with promotional audio inviting listeners to join ECETI, watch As You Wish Talk Radio, view skywatch videos, explore workshops on self-mastery, herbalism, grounding, shielding, and support the ECETI store.