CIAM Radio

Years ago, a lumpy package arrived in my mailbox. I noticed my best friend’s return address on it and smiled. Joe sometimes sends me unexpected things. This package qualified: Inside was a dark brown shark’s tooth—five inches long.

Joe’s letter explained: It was a fossilized tooth from a prehistoric shark, a megalodon many times bigger than a great white shark. I tried to fathom how big a fish’s jaw would have to be to contain rows of such teeth. Scientists offer a speculative answer: nine by eleven feet. What a sight these creatures must have been!

Scripture doesn’t mention megalodons. But in the book of Job, God describes a sea beast called Leviathan. Job 41 details its impressive frame. “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form,” God tells Job (v. 12). “Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?” (v. 14).

The answer? Only Leviathan’s creator. And here, God reminds Job that as great as this beast might be, it’s nothing compared to its Creator: “Everything under heaven belongs to me” (v. 11).

That meg tooth sits on my desk, a visual token of our Creator’s majesty and creativity. And that unlikely reminder of God’s character comforts me when it feels like the world might eat me up and spit me out.

1 Chronicles 29:11 begins, "Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours." If God owns it all, what does that mean for the way we manage money? On the next Faith & Finance Live, Brian Holtz and Rob West unpack the Five Pillars of Financial Discipleship—principles that, when embraced by families, bring freedom and joy. Then, it’s your financial questions. That’s Faith & Finance Live, where biblical wisdom meets today’s finances—weekdays at 4pm Eastern/3pm Central on Moody Radio.

Faith & Finance Live is a listener supported program on Moody Radio.  To join our team of supporters, click here.

To support the ministry of FaithFi, click here.

To learn more about Rob West, click here.

To learn more about Faith & Finance Live, click here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Witness Wednesday!

In today’s episode, Todd Friel visits Kennesaw State University to engage with students on matters of faith and beliefs. First, Todd talks with Mateo, where they discuss Easter, its significance in Christianity, and personal accountability before God. Todd also has the chance to speak with a student on the meaning of life and the importance of faith.

Segment 1:

• Mateo is Catholic, but unsure about the true meaning of Easter.

• Believes he’s a “pretty good person” and that God will be impressed with his life.

• Todd patiently walks him through the Law, showing why sorrow alone can’t erase guilt—and why Jesus’ resurrection is everything.

Segment 2:

• Mateo leans on good works and God’s mercy rather than justice satisfied.

• Todd uses Old Testament imagery (Passover lamb, animal sacrifice) to help Mateo connect the dots: Jesus was the final blood sacrifice.

• Mateo starts to grasp the real meaning of Easter—and admits he’s unsure if he’s truly been born again.

Segment 3:

• Our next student lives by a “do what makes you happy” philosophy—says personal fulfillment is the goal.

• Todd challenges his worldview: What happens when happiness runs dry? Is there anything more stable?

• Ex-Christian by association, he admits he doesn’t know what Christianity is really about.

Segment 4:

• Todd continues his talk with the ex-Christian student and dismantles his moral relativism using the 10 Commandments.

• Realizes he’d be guilty before a holy God and deserves judgment—but sees the beauty of grace through Jesus.

• Learns salvation is not about “trying harder,” but about receiving Christ’s perfect record by faith alone.

___

Thanks for listening!

Wretched Radio would not be possible without the financial support of our Gospel Partners.

If you would like to support Wretched Radio we would be extremely grateful. VISIT https://fortisinstitute.org/donate/

If you are already a Gospel Partner we couldn’t be more thankful for you if we tried!

Why doesn't God remove our suffering if He truly loves us? Dr. John tackles this difficult question through Hebrews 12:4-11, explaining how God disciplines His children not as punishment, but as loving preparation for holiness. Learn why hardship is often God's training ground for our spiritual growth, and how understanding His fatherly discipline can transform our perspective on life's most painful seasons.

The Jesus Effect: Faith in Jesus ought to make a difference in our lives. The good news is not simply a message of comfort or hope; the Gospel is a message of transformation! In this 10 message series, Dr. John teaches about the changes Jesus makes in our worship, conduct, and relationships. Listen to these messages and get ready to be changed.

Listen to today's Laugh Again with Phil Callaway, "Tales of Simplicity." Enjoy!

A repentant spirit is rarely found in our litigious society. How seldom we say or hear the words, “I’m wrong. I am sorry.”

Join Pastor Chuck Swindoll in a message on Romans 6. Embrace your freedom in Christ. Refuse to yield to sin and, instead, offer yourself to God as an instrument for righteousness.

From the Series: Romans: The Christian’s Constitution

read more

Walker Hayes used to be an atheist and Craig Cooper was a pastor, and somehow God bonded these men and their families into an unlikely friendship of 20+ years. And as a result, Walker eventually became a follower of Jesus!

My life was profoundly affected by the example of five American missionaries who died trying to get the Gospel to a Stone Age tribe in Ecuador who had never heard the name of Jesus. They were actually murdered by the tribe that was then known as the Aucas. We now know them as the Waoranis. Amazingly, the wife of one of those missionaries and the sister of another actually went to the tribe that had killed their loved ones to tell them about Jesus. Today, some of the murderers of the missionaries are pastors of the Waorani church. It's an amazing story.

I had the unforgettable privilege a few years ago of going to the Ecuadorian jungle to tape a radio program about what happened there. And I met Mincaye, one of the killers, one of the pastors. I learned that those missionary women had difficulty translating the Bible into the native language because this tribe literally had no word for or even concept for "forgive." But the message somehow had gotten through to Mincaye. Here's what he said: "What we did to those missionaries was a terrible thing. But one day soon I will see them in heaven because Jesus has washed our hearts."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Jesus In Their Language."

A spiritual rescuer had come to people to whom the word "forgive" meant nothing. But God's messenger to them did what effective missionaries have always done. She found a way to say it in words the people could understand. You know, we can do no less for the spiritually dying people around us.

Obviously, the need to translate Christ's message is hard to miss in a foreign setting where there is a clearly different linguistic language. But the need to translate the Jesus-story is easy to miss when our neighbors and friends speak that same linguistic language we do, but they speak a different cultural language. The words of our Christian "tribe" simply have no meaning, or the wrong meaning, to the lost "tribe" next to us. Many lost people assigned to us by God have no better understanding of "born again," or "saved," or "accepting Christ," or "sin" than Mincaye did of "forgive."

In our word for today from the Word of God, we discover one big reason thousands of people from all over the world came to Jesus in the first outreach ever held by the Christian Church. It was Jerusalem, it was Pentecost, and according to Acts 2:6, "Each one heard them (that is the apostles) speaking in his own language."

Now that was a special miracle from God, but it underscores that people must hear Christ's message in a language they can understand, which our church language - which I call Christianese - is not. Maybe you've been transmitting the Good News about Jesus and getting little or no response. Could it be they're stumbling over your vocabulary? You can't just transmit the Good News; you have to translate it into everyday, non-religious words.

In Jesus' parable of the four soils, three of which produced little or no good harvest, we see the major difference between those three soils and the soil that produced great fruit. In each case, Jesus explains that "this is the man who hears the word." But where there was a great harvest, Jesus said, "This is the man who hears the word (and here's the one difference) and understands it" (Matthew 13:23).

We've got life-or-death information we have to deliver. We cannot afford to have our lost family and friends miss it because we said it in words they don't understand. It's time to move beyond the comfort of our Christianese to communicate the message people cannot afford to miss. The words we use could be decisive for each of us in our personal rescue mission for Jesus.

You're God's missionary where you are. If you make the effort to translate the Good News into the language of the person who needs it, you could be part of a life-g