CIAM Radio

Dr. Gary Chapman encourages parents to embrace five timeless characteristics that will create a healthy family environment. These include a service-oriented mindset, intimacy between husband and wife, strong parental guidance, obedience from children, and loving leadership provided by the husband.

Eternity isn’t something we like to think about, but each of us will certainly enter it one day. The question is...where will we spend it?

There's a bridge in a park not too far from here - they take carriage rides there. It's just a bridge to most folks, but not to our son and daughter-in-law. That will always be a very special spot to them. It's where he asked her to marry him. It's interesting how a plain old piece of geography becomes forever special when something special in your life happens there: the place you were born, or maybe where you had your first date or your first kiss, or where you were married, or where some significant "first" in your life took place. When a certain place is where something important started, it will always be a special place.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Place Where Heaven Comes Down."

For many of us, there's been a place and there's been a time when everything changed, because it was there that we began our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. One day on my way to an assignment in downtown Chicago, my wife and I decided at the last second to take a certain exit ramp off the expressway. The exit sign indicated the street where I spent the first six years of my life. I haven't been back there since. And, no, it is not a cave.

We drove a few blocks until we spotted the three-story brick apartment building where my Mom and Dad, my baby brother and I lived. I knew it as soon as I saw it. We turned the corner to see if the school was still there. That old brick fortress was still standing, still a school like it was when I went there for my first day of school. Then I had to drive those three blocks to the church on the corner. It was like I was four or five years old again. My baby brother had died suddenly, and my grief-stricken father decided to take his other son to church - a place none of us ever went. I could almost see my Dad now, sitting in his old car by a side door, smoking his cigarette, reading his Sunday paper waiting for his boy to come out.

There was a choir rehearsal that night my wife and I found the church, and a nice lady took me up the long stairs to the third floor room that I remembered at the top of those stairs. That's where Junior Church met, and I choked up. I turned to my honey and I said, "This is it. This is where I asked Jesus into my heart." And there on the wall was the same image of Jesus I remembered most as a child - the Shepherd with a little lamb in His arms. Later, as I learned the Scriptures, I came to realize that in that room at the top of the stairs I had, in the Bible's words, "crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24).

I pray that if there has not been a time and a place like that for you, there will be soon...in fact, maybe today. In Genesis 28:16, our word for today from the Word of God, Jacob talks about the spot where he'd camped for the night and God showed up to change his life. He said, "Surely the Lord is in this place...how awesome is this place!" But after all is said and done, it's not the place that really matters. It's that there is a time when you open up your life to the Savior who died to pay for your sin. Jesus said it's like being born, and the birth is a definite beginning isn't it?

Has there ever been a time when you consciously gave yourself completely to Jesus as your only hope of being right with God? If you have, you know you have, whether or not you remember the exact time or place. If you don't know you have, you probably haven't.

Scripture says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:7). That could be today for you. The place might be right where you are. God is moving in your heart now and "surely the Lord is in this place." The Shepherd has come to you to pick you up and carry you from this moment on, all the way to heaven. But you've got to say yes to Him, to tell Him with all your heart, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

Read: Matthew 2:9-11

The Ravens were up by one in the championship game of the winter league basketball tournament when the scoreboard buzzed. The game was over! All the guys huddled around their star player, Bryson Phillips, who scored 28 of their 62 points.

On the car ride home, Bryson couldn’t stop looking at his Most Valuable Player trophy. “This is the best day of my life!” he told his dad.

Suddenly a bird swooped down in front of their car. “Watch it!” yelled Bryson. Dad tried to swerve, but it was too late. The car hit the bird head-on, and it instantly fell to the ground.

Dad pulled over. Bryson raced out and knelt beside the bird. “Is it still alive?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Dad.

As they continued driving, Bryson set his trophy aside and peered out the window. He thought of his friend Alex. It had been over a year since Alex had passed away from cancer. It had taken him and his family by surprise—one day Alex was fine, and then suddenly, he was gone. Just like that bird getting hit by our car, Bryson thought.

“Are you okay?” asked Dad.

Bryson looked at the trophy in the seat next to him. “All of a sudden this trophy seems kind of worthless,” he said. “I’d give it back in a heartbeat—along with every Raven basketball victory—if it meant getting Alex back.”

Dad sighed heavily. “I miss Alex too. Life is precious—more precious than anything we earn or receive on this earth.”

“Much more precious than winning basketball championships,” added Bryson.

Dad nodded. “Jesus is the giver of life. That’s why He came into the world. He sacrificed His life on the cross so we could have eternal life—a life that goes beyond the years we live on earth. The joy of life with Him is better than anything else. Even when we experience difficult things—like losing Alex—we can be joyful knowing that Jesus walks with us through life’s troubles and promises us a life with Him that lasts forever.”

Bryson smiled as he thought of Alex in heaven with Jesus. He picked up his trophy again. “I do like the joy of winning, but it will never come close to the joy Jesus brings.”

Dad smiled. “Nothing does.”

–Randy Saller

How about you? What things in life give you joy? Winning a game? Spending time with family and friends? Having others recognize your accomplishments? God blesses us with many good gifts, but there’s one thing He wants us to treasure above everything else—His Son, Jesus. Only Jesus can give us life that lasts forever and joy that is unlike anything else.

Today's Key Verse: When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. Matthew 2:10 (NKJV)

Today's Key Thought: Rejoice in Jesus

A peace that surpasses all understanding is available to every believer.

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It was Tuesday at the gym, so the people walking around the track were supposed to go clockwise. The first walkers my wife joined were doing that. But then another person walked onto the track going counterclockwise. A couple of her friends joined her—and then another. Suddenly there was chaos on the track—and it took a few minutes to restore order.

While no harm was intended by the wrong-way walkers, I couldn’t help but think about the power of influence. One person headed the wrong way leads to another, and on it goes. It’s a bit like Proverbs 13:20: “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” Following the lead of a person going the wrong way leads to trouble.

In Galatians 5, Paul explains how such a mistake can halt our spiritual progress. “You were running a good race,” he says. “Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you” (vv. 7-8). God, who desires obedience, never leads us away from truth and “into confusion” (v. 10). But those who oppose His truth can hamper our spiritual walk by redirecting us from Him.

God wants to be our guide. When we walk with Him we’ll never wander in the wrong direction.

When two faith-based credit unions come together, the goal isn’t just greater size—it’s greater Kingdom impact. That’s the story behind the newly rebranded AdelFi Christian Banking. On the next Faith & Finance Live, Rob West and Aaron Caid share how this merger came together, what the new brand represents, and how it strengthens Christian banking. Then, it’s your calls. That’s Faith & Finance Live, where biblical wisdom meets today’s finances, weekdays at 4pm Eastern/3pm Central on Moody Radio.

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Segment 1

• You can sit under “expository preaching” and still starve spiritually if it never aims for your heart.

• Teaching the text without any application turns sermons into lectures.

• Some preachers have settled for mere information over true transformation.

Segment 2

• Paul Washer calls out sermons that inform the mind but leave eternity untouched.

• If your pastor doesn’t plead with you about heaven and hell, souls are in danger—including yours.

• True preaching doesn’t just explain verses—it confronts sin and stirs obedience.

Segment 3

• “Cleverneutics” makes Scripture say theological novelties.

• If a teacher always sounds innovative, you should be on your guard.

• Word games and cleverness oftentimes obscure straightforward, biblical truth.

Segment 4

• Some pastors distort Scripture with “creative” theology instead of submitting to it.

• Answers in Genesis reminds us: Christianity isn’t about novelty—it’s about time-worn truths that save.

• The danger isn’t just bad sermons, but loss of confidence in the truth of Scripture.

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