CIAM Radio

Listen to today's Laugh Again with Phil Callaway, "G.R.A.C.E." Enjoy!

Humorist Ken Davis will encourage you to find joy by embracing a lighthearted attitude, even when your life isn’t perfect. He explains how God helped him overcome his own physical disabilities and find self-acceptance by understanding that he only had to be the best version of himself – just the way God made him to be.

Join Pastor Chuck Swindoll as he teaches from Romans 15. Learn how the same body with a variety of opinions and differences can glorify the same Lord.

From the Series: Romans: The Christian’s Constitution

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Life isn’t black and white—there’s a lot of grey. There are times to compromise, and times to stand firm. Where we go wrong is when we compromise our theology to accommodate our lifestyle.

One football team owner called it "the single most impressive symbol of being a champion in all of sports." Yep, he was talking about the National Football League's Super Bowl ring. The rings on Super Bowl champions are worth many thousands of dollars each one! Can you imagine losing something that valuable, that irreplaceable? Former Oakland Raiders champion, Gene Upshaw, can remember that. Yeah, he can imagine it. To keep his Super Bowl ring safe at home, he put it inside a bank that looked like a Pepsi can. Problem: he forgot to tell his housekeepers. You know where this is going? Yep, they mistook the bank for an empty pop can and tossed it out, ring and all.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Treasure In Your Mirror."

That was a costly mistake - trashing treasure because of the container it was in. Well, that's a mistake many people are making. Except the treasure is themselves. And maybe we needed to talk about this today because maybe you're throwing away a treasure called you.

Now you may not feel very valuable right now. Maybe you're not feeling very good about how you look, or what you weigh, or the fact that you're still single. You're not sure how much you're really worth. But you're making the same mistake those housekeepers made when they threw away that ring - judging the worth of what's inside by the container you come in.

It could be that you feel pretty worthless because you've been passed over, put down, rejected, maybe abandoned, or maybe abused. And the tragedy is that you may have been throwing yourself away because you don't know how valuable you are. There are a lot of ways to throw yourself away. You can throw yourself away sexually, socially by the people you hang out with, chemically, alcoholically, just by giving up or withdrawing, maybe even thinking suicide.

But you have worth that you'll never see just by looking in a mirror or basing it on how other hurting people are treating you. If you want to get an evaluation of your worth, you've got to go to the One who created you. He's the one who knows your value. In our word for today from the Word of God in the Bible, in 2 Corinthians 6:16, your Creator says, "We are the temple of the living God. As God has said...'I will be their God, and they will be My people...I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty."

Did you hear what the God of the universe says about those who belong to Him? They're His temple that He lives in, His people that He walks with, sons and daughters of the King! If you don't feel like you are priceless treasure, maybe it's because you are without the One who gave you your value in the first place; the Creator who made you as His one-of-a-kind creation. You're missing the love you were made for. And that's because, well, we've chosen over and over again to turn our back on God and do things our way.

But the Bible says God values you so much that He thought you were worth having His Son die for you! Good Friday was for you. Picture Jesus hanging on that cross. That was to pay for your sin so you could belong to Him. You'll never know how much you're really worth until you are in His loving arms.

Jesus won't make you give yourself to Him. It's your choice to finally end those self-directed, wasted years and to stand at His cross and say, "Jesus, the 'me' years are over. You love me. You died for me. I'm yours."

Why don't you make this the day that you become a member of His family. And say, "Jesus, I'm yours from this day on." There's a website I want to direct you to, it's ours. If you go there you'll find what you need to know from the Bible to be sure you belong to Jesus. It's ANewStory.com. Go there please.

Maybe you've believed that yo

Read: Isaiah 53:3-7; Matthew 9:10-13

Ciara cringed as someone started coughing their way down the hall. A moment later, the coughing stopped, but then her younger brother, sitting next to her at the kitchen table as they did their school, began coughing. Ciara scooted away. At least she had gotten over her cold before the others, but still…

Mom returned from blowing her nose. “All right, Max, have you gotten those math problems done?”

Max shook his head and sniffed loudly.

Ciara groaned. “Mom, aren’t we ever going to get over this?”

“We’ll get over it.” Mom sighed. “Eventually.”

“I think colds are the worst sickness ever!” Lynn declared, banging her books down on the table.

“Actually, they probably aren’t. Things like Covid or polio or malaria are worse,” Brennan pointed out. “Oh, and cancer, and…”

“You don’t need to list them all,” Mom said. “And I can think of a sickness that’s worse than any you’re likely to list—and we’re all infected with it and affected by it.”

“What’s that?” Ciara looked up in alarm.

“Sin,” Mom replied. “And it’s the worst kind of sickness, because it separates us from God. It’s anything we think, do, or say that goes against who He is and how He tells us to treat others. That means if we think of ourselves more highly than someone else, we’re sinning. If we ignore our parents when they tell us to do something, we’re sinning. If we speak unkindly to our siblings, we’re sinning. But there is a Physician who has the only cure—and He will give it to us completely free of charge.”

Max sneezed. “It’s Jesus, isn’t it?”

“It is. And do you know how He cures our sickness?”

“He died for us on the cross to take away all our sins.” Ciara smiled. “And because I’ve trusted in Him as my Savior, He’s cleaned my heart of all its sin!”

“Exactly.” Mom nodded. “And though we’re still affected by sin in this world and do wrong things, we can go to Him over and over again and confess our sin, knowing He will forgive us because He has washed the guilt of our sin away.”

–Ellie Shirk

How about you? Have you trusted Jesus as your Savior? Sin is a spiritual sickness that infects every human heart, and only God has the cure. Jesus’s sacrifice paid the price to save us, but we must receive the free gift He offers in order to be healed. When you trust in Jesus, He cleans your heart of sin and gives you a healthy heart for Him. (To learn more, go to Have You Heard the Good News?)

Today's Key Verse: When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Matthew 9:12 (NKJV)

Today's Key Thought: Jesus can take away your sins

God's love and comfort are always available to us if we'll believe in Him.

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Two pilots fell asleep in the middle of their flight over Indonesia. While the commanding pilot had permission to nap once the plane reached cruising altitude, he woke up to find that his co-pilot had also dozed off. The two were asleep for about thirty minutes with more than 150 passengers and crew on board and while at approximately 36,000 feet altitude. The plane had veered off course, but thankfully, the plane still arrived at its destination safely.

Human pilots may snooze mid-flight, but we can rest assured that God never falls asleep.

I find such comfort in the words of Psalm 121. In eight verses, we’re reminded that God is omniscient, or all-knowing, about our life; omnipresent, or present all throughout our day; and omnipotent, or all-powerful, and can protect us. The psalmist declares that our help comes from God (v. 2). He is our keeper and shade (v. 5), and He guards us from all evil while preserving our soul (v. 7).

God never gets tired. “He will not let your foot slip; he who watches over you will not slumber” (v. 3). “The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore” (v. 8).

When we’re wondering if God has forgotten us, we can rest assured that He is at the wheel. He is always awake and watching over us.

We often hear about bull and bear markets, but those trends actually come in two forms—cyclical and secular. Understanding the difference can help you invest with patience, discipline, and faith to make wise long-term decisions. On the next Faith & Finance Live, Mark Biller joins Rob West to unpack these market cycles and discuss why they matter. 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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