Grace 809

Every couple asks the question: How can we manage our money to invest in the things that truly matter? With work, family, and school, it can be hard to find balance. Russ Crosson has over 40 years of experience managing money from a Christian perspective. He gives helpful tips for “using your money to buy time” to invest in your family – whatever stage of life you are in!
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Russ Crosson explains that success has nothing to do with money and everything to do with following God’s commands.
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Dare we think the unthinkable? That God will hear our prayers, that he will listen when we speak? If you were to pray a faith-empowered prayer, what would you say? Then say it! Let faith fuel your prayers. And let prayers put starch in your faith.

Will God give you what you request? Yes, he will. He may do so in a different form than you ask for or a different time frame than you prefer, but “it is [Jesus] who is the ‘Yes’ to all of God’s promises” (2 Corinthians 1:20 GNT).

Let’s renew our commitment to unreasonable, unquenchable, unthinkable prayer.  Let’s ask God to resurrect hope that has perished and dreams that are buried.

Read more Unbreakable Courage

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Transcript

Today is Prophecy Friday. Haggai. I’m calling today’s episode “The Desire of All Nations.”

There were twelve Minor Prophets. The first nine prophesied before Judah was taken to Babylon in captivity, or pre-exile. Haggai is the first of the remaining three Minor Prophets who came after the seventy year exile.

Cyrus King of Persia allowed the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem in 538 B.C., after seventy years of captivity. Two years later, in 536 B.C., construction to rebuild the Temple was begun, but the work stopped just two years later, in 534 B.C. For fourteen years, the Temple was completely neglected. They had a foundation, but that was all.

And then, in 520 B.C., the Lord told Haggai to speak to the people about their neglect of the Temple. They had excuses for not continuing to rebuild the Temple, but they seemed to have no problems building homes for themselves. 

To their credit, Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest and the people listened to the word of the Lord through Haggai, and they restarted construction. And in chapter two of Haggai, the Lord encouraged the people. He told them to “…be strong and work, for I am with you. According to the word that I have covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!”

And then, verses 6-9 were very special. Let me share them with you again:

6“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; 7 and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. 8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. 9 ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

Why are these special verses? The phrase “the Desire of All Nations” is a prophesy of the coming Messiah. Most certainly, the nations do not know that Jesus is the Desire of All Nations, but listen to what the great preacher, Charles Spurgeon said about this passage: “He is the one, the true Reformer, the true rectifier of all wrong, and in this respect the desire of all nations. Oh! if the world could gather up all her right desire; if she could condense in one cry all her wild wishes; if all true lovers of mankind could condense their theories and extract the true wine of wisdom from them; it would just come to this, we want an Incarnate God, a

Dr. Jim Burns shares a story that demonstrates the power of spending quality time with your children.
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Your children used to be model kids—until they grew up and decided to try “adulting” on their own. As the dad of three adult daughters, Dr. Jim Burns shares practical ways to navigate this new season of parenting, keeping the welcome mat out and the opinions to a minimum. On this two-day broadcast, you’ll learn about topics like healthy boundaries, estrangement, and reconciliation with your wayward adult child.
Receive a copy of the "When Your Adult Child Strays" bundle and an audio download of "What to Do with Your Wayward Adult Child" for your donation of any amount! Plus, receive member-exclusive benefits when you make a recurring gift today. Your monthly support helps families thrive.
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When the child of Elijah’s friend died, the prophet prayed for the boy. “And God listened to Elijah’s prayer…Elijah picked the boy up, carried him downstairs from the loft, and gave him to his mother. ‘Here’s your son,’ said Elijah, ‘alive!’” 1 Kings 17:22-23 MSG).

The power of praying it through. Elijah believed in it. Jesus taught it. He told his followers “that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit” (Luke 18:1 MSG). Take the dead and dying portions of your life—the vigor that has faded, the faith that has dwindled—and lay them before the Lord. And next to them place our society, which seems sicker day by day.

The theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge called prayer “the greatest achievement of the Christian’s warfare upon earth.” If you want to take a stand against the enemy, hit your knees.

Read more Unbreakable Courage

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Transcript

Today is  Poetry Thursday. Ecclesiastes 5-6. I’m calling today’s episode “Your Life Has Meaning”   

Solomon begins chapter 5 with good advice. When coming to the house of God, it’s better to listen than to run your head (as my dad would say). Actually, that’s good advice in most situations, don’t you think? You can’t learn much when you’re talking. But when coming before the Lord, listening will always be more beneficial than speaking.

And then Solomon went on to say that money will never buy happiness. In fact, the more money you have, the more worries you have, according to Solomon. He said, the best thing is to eat, drink and enjoy the work you have. 

At this point, Solomon, in all his wisdom, is forgetting something very important. He’s looking at life from a very limited viewpoint. He’s looking at life almost as one who has no relationship with God. When you leave God out of the equation, it’s very easy to have a fatalistic view of the world. We’ll get into this in more detail when we get to chapter 8. But for now, I’ll just say that the deeper your relationship with God, the more meaning you find in life. There is a reason you’re here, if you are His. He has a purpose for your life. You matter. 

One of the saddest things in scripture, in my opinion, is in chapter 6, verses 3-6. “3You may live a long time and have a hundred children. But a child born dead is better off than you, unless you enjoy life and have a decent burial. 4-5That child will never live to see the sun or to have a name, and it will go straight to the world of darkness. But it will still find more rest than you, 6even if you live two thousand years and don’t enjoy life. As you know, we all end up in the same place.”

Isn’t that pathetic? “A child born dead is better off than you, unless you enjoy life and have a decent burial.” Reminds me of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. ((((Insert clip))))

I told you as we began this book that it’s important to hang in there until the end. We’ll have three more visits to Ecclesiastes. We’re halfway through. It does get better. 

But before I sign off today, let me again encourage you with the thought that in Christ, life is full of meaning. If you’re looking for meaning outside of Him, you’re looking in all the wrong places, as the song says. If you want to have eternal meaning, it is only in Jesus. 

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 5 ERV; Ch. 6 CEV

Dr. Jim Burns shares how parents should relinquish control of their adult children’s lives and try to maintain a good relationship with them.
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Your children used to be model kids—until they grew up and decided to try “adulting” on their own. As the dad of three adult daughters, Dr. Jim Burns shares practical ways to navigate this new season of parenting, keeping the welcome mat out and the opinions to a minimum. On this two-day broadcast, you’ll learn about topics like healthy boundaries, estrangement, and reconciliation with your wayward adult child.
Receive a copy of the "When Your Adult Child Strays" bundle and an audio download of "What to Do with Your Wayward Adult Child" for your donation of any amount! Plus, receive member-exclusive benefits when you make a recurring gift today. Your monthly support helps families thrive.
Get more episode resources 
Do you have a story or comment on how Focus on the Family impacted you or your family? Leave a message for Jim Daly!
If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, please give us your feedback.