Grace 809

Transcript

Being  Monday, we’ll read from the Law. Deuteronomy 7-9. I’m calling today’s episode “Remember.”

As we often read here in Deuteronomy and other places in the Old Testament, God tells the people what He will do, and then He reminds them…many times. And He tells them what He did, and then He reminds them what He did, many times. 

Why does He do that? Why does God repeat Himself so much? Because they forget. Over and over again, they forget. And when it isn’t forgetfulness, they simply choose to ignore Him. They go their own way willingly. They rebel.

Crazy, right? 

No, not crazy. Just sinful. Why are they sinful? Because they are human beings. And being human, they have a sin nature. 

Which makes them…just like you and me. We, too need to be reminded repeatedly what the Lord said, what He did, and what He will do. We are no different than the children of Israel of the Old Testament. At least as far as our basic nature is concerned.

But those of us who have become followers of Jesus, those of us who have a real relationship with Him, those of us who are Christians have something that they did not. We have the Holy Spirit living in us. And we are no longer slaves to sin, as Paul said in Romans. 

But, as God said through Moses in Deuteronomy chapter nine, verse four, “…do not say in your heart, ‘The Lord has brought me in to take this land because I am right and good.’” That, beloved, is the sin of pride, which gets us into all kinds of trouble.

We are not saved because of anything we did, or because we deserved it. We are recipients of God’s grace only because of His goodness and His love. He did not call us because He needs us, He called us because we need Him.

Which is why we must stay close to Him. We are like the children of Israel in that we have to be reminded over and over again who God is, what He said, what He did, and what He will do. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He gave His Son, that we might live. He gave us His Word, that we might know Him. He has made it possible to live lives that are pleasing to Him, that He might bless us if we follow Him and determine in our hearts that we *will* follow Him. Not that we will never stumble, because we will. But we must quickly seek is forgiveness. And we know from 1 John 1:9 that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Not because we

Transcript

Lifespring Family Berean, Brother Paul of Seattle.

Today is  Epistles Sunday James 4-5. I’m calling today’s episode “Golden Nuggets.” 

Some have said that James is a bit like the book of Proverbs because of the way nuggets of truth are presented. Let’s look at a few of them.

James 4:2b – You do not have, because you do not ask.

Prayer is a necessary part of the Christian’s life. If we want God to bless us, we must ask. Listen to Charles Spurgeon: “Remember this text: Jehovah says to his own Son, ‘Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.’ If the royal and divine Son of God cannot be exempted from the rule of asking that he may have, you and I cannot expect the rule to be relaxed in our favor. Why should it be?” Also from Spurgeon: “If you may have everything by asking, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is, and I beseech you to abound in it… Do you know, brothers, what great things are to be had for the asking? Have you ever thought of it? Does it not stimulate you to pray fervently? All heaven lies before the grasp of the asking man; all the promises of God are rich and inexhaustible, and their fulfillment is to be had by prayer.”

James 4:3 – You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 

Contrast this with 1 John 5:14 – And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

James 4:4b – Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

Beloved, we cannot have one foot in the world and one foot in God’s kingdom. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

James 4:6b-7a – “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God.”

Pride is at the center of sin. Pride caused the fall of Lucifer. Pride caused the fall of Adam and Eve, and thus our sinful nature. Is it any wonder that God opposes the proud? But when we humble ourselves before God, when we confess our sin, God pours out His grace. It isn’t as though our humility *earns* God’s grace, but when we are humble, we are acknowledging that we are in need of the grace that He so freely

Transcript

Today is Gospel Saturday and we’ll read Acts 9-10. I’ll have some comments after we’ve read. Then there’s an on this date in church history. Also I have a giant praise for our prayer time today. I’m calling today’s episode “The Righteous Roman.“ 

In Acts 10, we are introduced to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, an officer in the Roman army. This was not a typical Roman, though. He was a devout believer in the God of the Jews, even though, being a Gentile, the average Jew would have very little to do with him. As a matter of fact, most Jews would have a strong dislike for, or even hate him. After all, Rome was an occupying force in Israel, and most of them treated the Jews with disdain.

But Cornelius was what the Jews of the time called a God-fearer, a Gentile who loved the God of Israel, but who did not become Jewish in how they lived their lives, or in circumcision. Jews came to respect them, but they could not fully embrace them because they were Gentiles, and had not become Jewish converts.

We know that God loved and heard Cornelius’ prayers, because God gave him a vision of an angel while he was in prayer, with a message telling him to send some men to Joppa to bring Peter to speak to him.

And the next day, while Peter was praying God spoke to him in a vision. Peter was shown a large sheet filled with all kinds of animals, some which Peter would consider kosher and some that were not. God told Peter to kill and eat some of them. And then, in typical Peter fashion, he said, “No, Lord! I have never eaten anything that wasn’t kosher!” God told him, “What I have made clean you must not call unclean.” This happened three times, and then the sheet with the animals was taken back up to heaven.

Peter had a limited view of God, and what it was to be godly. And now God was going to shake Peter up to change his thinking. He can do the same for us. Listen to what Charles Spurgeon said about this: “Shake yourself up a little, my brother. If you are too precise may the Lord set you on fire, and consume your bonds of red tape! If you have become so improperly proper that you cannot commit a proper impropriety, then pray God to help you be less proper, for there are many who will never be saved by your instrumentality while you study propriety.”

Isn’t it interesting that at this point in Peter’s life, God had used him mightily for His (God’s) kingdom. Remember Peter’s first sermon? About three thousand souls believed and were saved. And every day, souls were added to the church because of how God was usi

Dr. Kathy Koch explains why your child’s character matters more than his or her intelligence.
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God sees the needs of tomorrow and, accordingly, creates the training of today.

He did so with Agnes. As a young girl she was on fire for her faith.  She left her home, her family, and country and became a missionary. She gave God everything, and God gave her a test: loneliness. She felt as if God had left her. On and off for fifty years, she battled a secret pain. Only late in life did she come to see her suffering as a way to understand the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all the people who feel unwanted. It was only then that Agnes—Mother Teresa—saw her test as part of her call.

Your test is a part of your call as well.

Read more Unbreakable Courage

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Transcript

Today is Prophecy Friday and we’ll read the book of Habakkuk. I’m calling today’s episode “The Conversation.”

There is a lot of conjecture on just who this prophet Habakkuk was. The fact is, we don’t have much information about him. The Jewish Rabbis have their ideas. Roman Catholicism has theirs, based on one of the books of the Apocrypha. 

What we do know is that this is a book of Habakkuk’s statements to God in the name of the people, and God’s statements to the people through Habakkuk. That is the textbook definition of what a prophet is. 

One sentence in the book should have certainly stood out to you if you have studied Martin Luther and the Reformation at all. Did you hear it? It was chapter two, verse four. Here it is again: “But the one who is right with God will live by faith.” Or it might be more familiar to you from the King James Version: “but the just shall live by faith.”

You might not have known that this was from the book of Habakuk. You might have thought that it was from Romans 1:16-17. Here it is, again from the King James Version: “16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

There in Romans, Paul was quoting Habakkuk. And the phrase, “The just shall live by faith” is the verse that caused Martin Luther to begin questioning the Roman Catholic church’s practices. It’s an important piece of church history that I recommend you study if you’re not familiar with it.

The first two chapters were a sort of conversation between Habakkuk and God. And then in chapter three we read a prayer of the prophet. In the translation we read today, this is verse 2:

2 Lord, I know how famous you are. I have great respect for you because of your mighty acts. Do them again for us. Make them known in our time. When you are angry, please have mercy on us.

But listen to it from the NASB: 2Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.

In this verse, Habakkuk is asking God for something that you’ve heard me ask for during our prayer times together. He is asking God for a revival. He is asking God to do what He has done in the past. To bring people to Himself. Beloved, most of the problems we see in the world around us are because

What if your child’s biggest challenge is actually their greatest strength? Dr. Kathy Koch explores life-changing insights from her book 8 Great Smarts, revealing how every child is uniquely wired with different kinds of intelligence – from the nonstop talker to the deep thinker, the music-maker to the curious questioner. Learn how to recognize your child’s natural strengths, nurture what makes them come alive, and stop unintentionally paralyzing their "smarts."
Receive a copy of the "8 Great Smarts" bundle and an audio download of "Unlock Your Child's Learning Potential with the 8 Types of Intelligence" 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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Dr. Kathy Koch talks about using biblical wisdom to parent your children.
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The prophet Elijah was headline news in the nation. He was also a sitting duck for a big head. So, in a preemptive measure, God led him to a creek where Elijah would be utterly dependent upon a brook for water and some birds for food.

The enemy of the saint is pride. We must fight it like the foe it is. Take note of your “hat size.” Are you getting a big head? Then volunteer for menial tasks—wash dishes, sweep floors.

You are loved but not indispensable. You are God’s child but not God’s golden child. You have a place in God’s plan, but you are not essential to God’s plan. The smaller we are, the more room there is for God.

Read more Unbreakable Courage

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.