LHIM Everything

LHIM Everything

By Living Hope International MinistriesSociety & CultureReligion & SpiritualityChristianityEducationSelf-ImprovementPhilosophy
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LHIM Everything episodes

  • God of Wonder

    Psalm 19.1-6 The heavens declare God's glory

    Psalm 104.1-35 The psalmist works through creation, marveling at God's manifold artistry and brilliance.

    Psalm 8.1-9 Even though God is so powerful, so transcendent, so majestic, he still cares about us puny humans.

    C. S. Lewis' attention to God's every-day marvels:

    Lewis’s keen, penetrating sense of his own heart’s aching for Joy, combined with his utter amazement at the sheer, objective realness of things other than himself, has over and over awakened me from the slumbers of self-absorption to see and savor the world and through the world, the Maker of the world…

    Lewis gave me, and continues to give me, an intense sense of the astonishing “realness” of things. He had the ability to see and feel what most of us see and do not see. He had what Alan Jacobs called “omnivorous attentiveness” (Alan Jacobs, The Narnian, p. xxi.) I love that phrase. What this has done for me is hard to communicate. To wake up in the morning and to be aware of the firmness of the mattress, the warmth of the sun’s rays, the sound of the clock ticking, the coldness of the wooden floor, the wetness of the water in the sink, the sheer being of things (quiddity as he called it). And not just to be aware but to wonder. To be amazed that the water is wet. It did not have to be wet. If there were no such thing as water, and one day someone showed it to you, you would simply be astonished.

    He helped me become alive to life. To look at the sunrise and say with an amazed smile, “God did it again!” He helped me to see what is there in the world — things which if we didn’t have them, we would pay a million dollars to have, but having them, ignore. He convicts me of my callous inability to enjoy God’s daily gifts. He helps me to awaken my dazed soul so that the realities of life and of God and heaven and hell are seen and felt. I could go on about the good effect of this on preaching and the power of communication. But it has been precious mainly just for living.

    John Piper, “Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul,” Feb. 2, 2010, Desiring God Conference for Pastors

    The post God of Wonder first appeared on Living Hope.
    42 min
  • The Living God

    Jeremiah 10:1-16
    All man-made idols are vanity. No other “gods” compare to the one true God, the only one. Yahweh is the true God, the living God, an everlasting King! “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth.”
    Deuteronomy 5:24-26
    They heard a real voice. A living being, the Creator of heavens and earth. They heard the voice of “the living God.”
    Joshua 3:7-10
    Moses is now dead. He had led them 40 years in the wilderness. But it was not the man, Moses, who led the children of Israel out of Egypt. Rather, it was Yahweh, the living God, that led them out of Egypt with a mighty hand! Moses was dead, but God was still alive, now working in the man, Joshua!
    1 Samuel 17:25, 36
    All of Israel was frozen in fear due to the giant, but David saw beyond the flesh. He put his trust in the living God!
    2 Kings 19:4; 10-19
    Hezekiah put his confidence in the living God. The other gods that the Assyrians had conquered could be cast into the fire and destroyed, for they were no gods, but works of men’s hands–wood and stone. But when they came up against Jerusalem and King Hezekiah, they were not fighting against dumb idols, but they were coming up against the living God.
    Daniel 6:20, 26
    The group consulted against Daniel, making it a crime worthy of capital punishment for anyone to make a petition to any god other than King Darius. However, Daniel wasn’t praying to just another god; rather, he was petitioning the living God!
    Acts 14:6-18
    Jupiter was the supreme god of the Roman pantheon, and Mercurius was the god of financial gain, commerce, communication, etc. Paul and Barnabas urged them to turn from these vanities to the living God, which made heaven and earth!
    Psalm 84:2
    “My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.”

    The post The Living God first appeared on Living Hope.
    46 min
  • Compelled by Love

    2 Corinthians 5:14 — “Controls” means pressure applied not so much to control as to cause action. It is motivation rather than directional force. The source of the pressure is the love of Christ.
    Philippians 1:23-25 At this point in his life, he is an older man who is thinking about dying, but for love’s sake he will continue to live.
    Acts 9:23-25 – escaped death; Acts 15:19-24 – stoned to death; Acts 16:22-40 – beaten with rods, thrown in jail; Acts 19 – the center of a city-wide riot….
    Acts 21:27-22:21 The love of God compelled him.
    2 Corinthians 5:15 — The word “for” is from a Greek word that can be understood as “instead of” or “in place of.”
    Galatians 3:13 — The curse of the cross was endured by Christ instead of by us.
    Romans 5:6-11 The reconciliation is the restoration of a loving relationship with God. God miraculously placed the love of God and the love of Christ in us. We are not compelled by our own virtue, rather by God working in us.
    Galatians 2:20 – Who loved me and gave Himself up for me
    2 Corinthians 5:15 Paul’s motivation was this great love and is ours also.
    Ephesians 2:4-10 The work of God is the ministry of reconciliation.
    2 Corinthians 5:15 – He died for us so that we would live for him.
    16 — Previously, Paul had a completely inadequate knowledge of Christ based upon a human viewpoint; now his understanding and ours are not limited to the flesh.
    21 — Christ knew no sin (Matthew 27:4; Luke 23:47; John 8:46; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 1:19 and 2:22). Jesus did not become sin; rather, he was the sin offering. The same word for “sin” in the Greek Old Testament is translated “sin offering.”

    Righteousness of God – Romans 3:21-26 and Philippians 3:7-9

    The post Compelled by Love first appeared on Living Hope.
    48 min
  • Working Heartily unto the Lord

    Ephesians 6:5-9 — Men-pleasers are not God pleasers. We all have the tendency to be on stage looking for others to acknowledge what we do.
    Colossians 3:22-25 — Do your work heartily unto the Lord, and the Lord will reward you now and in eternity, which is much greater than your pay check.
    Hebrews 13:20 and 21 — As much as we have the tendency to please men, we also have Christ working in us to do the will of God
    Matthew 6:1-6 — Yahweh is everywhere present all of the time, so strive always to acknowledge Him and live to please Him.
    Colossians 1:27 — Christ is in you all of the time.

    Acknowledge God and Christ in all that you do, and ask to receive help in doing the will of God in everything.

    Psalm 33:13-14 — Yahweh sees all the children of men.
    Psalm 139:7-10 — God is everywhere within the world.
    Matthew 6:24-34 — “Seek…His righteousness” means do the right thing according to God’s standard. Do not cheat or cut corners or do things under the table.

    When you are at work, work! The boss or fellow workers have little to do with the work that we do. Live for God and Christ.

    The post Working Heartily unto the Lord first appeared on Living Hope.
    38 min
  • Honorable Work

    “All work” is honorable — The exception to this is if you work a job that is in direct defiance to God’s will. This would not be honorable work (i.e. prostitution, stealing, lying to get wealthy, a paid assassin for the mob, etc). Sin is wrong, no matter how you label it.

    Ecclesiastes 2:4-11; 17-18; 5:10-16

    Toil and labor without God is vain — Vanity and striving after wind (vexation of spirit)

    Ecclesiastes 2:24; 3:13; 5:18-20

    Work is to be good and enjoyable — There is no distinction in Scripture between white collar work and blue collar work. All Labor is good and rewarding if it is according to God’s will, done for the Lord, to the glory of God. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34; James 2:1).

    What is your attitude towards work? Do you “tell yourself that your labor is good” (Ecclesiastes 2:24)? God does not put a dollar value on work. We as a society put a different price tag on the value of work and define a “good” job from a “bad” job, but the Scriptures simply put all this under the category of “labor.” The question is: what is your attitude towards work?

    What do the Scriptures say about work?

    Proverbs 24:30-34; 6:6-11; 21:25-26; Ephesians 4:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

    Remember Joseph

    Do you ever think you’ve got a hard life, hate your job, despise your situation, wish you had a different career, or think life has treated you badly? If you ever start to feel this way, remember the story of Joseph (Genesis 37:19-28; 39:1-23).

    The Example of Paul

    Attitude is everything! The Apostle Paul did whatever was needed to move the Gospel. If he had to work, he worked; if he could forego secular work and do full time ministry work, he would do that.
    Acts 18:2-3; 1 Corinthians 9:6-12; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-13; Philippians 4:8-13

    Maintain an eternal life perspective! Labor for the Lord. Your work is not in vain in the Lord!

    John 6:27; Psalm 49:6-20; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58

    The post Honorable Work first appeared on Living Hope.
    47 min
  • God Created You To Work

    Genesis 2:4-9, 15 Before sin ever entered the world, God had assigned the first people to work and keep the land where they lived. Therefore, work is not a necessary evil or an inconvenient means of meeting our needs, but work is intrinsic to God’s original design for humanity.
    Genesis 1:26 God’s vision for humanity is for us to manage His world, ruling over it as the only creatures made in His image and likeness.
    Psalm 145:15-17 In God’s management of the world, He gives all their food. He does not feed us or the animals directly, but through work.

    “Look at the places in the Bible that say that God gives every person their food. How does God do that? It is through human work–from the simplest farm girl milking the cows to the truck driver bringing produce to market to the local grocer. God could feed us directly, but he chooses to do it through work. There are three important implications of this. First, it means all work, even the most menial tasks, has great dignity. In our work we are God’s hands and fingers, sustaining and caring for his world. Secondly, it means one of the main ways to please God in our work is simply to do work well.” –Tim Keller, “How Faith Affects Our Work”

    Ecclesiastes 2:24-25, 3:12-13; 5:18-19; 8:15; 9:5-10 Although Ecclesiastes projects an overall bleak outlook on life, it also teaches us to work hard and to take pleasure in our toil under the sun. In fact, finding joy in our work is a gift from God.
    Isaiah 65:17-25 In the age to come, we are not off on clouds locked in an infinite loop of playing harps and singing praise. That’s not the picture we find in the Bible. The Hebrew prophets portray the Kingdom as a time of building, farming, eating, drinking, and socializing, all to God’s glory.

    Revelation 21:10-27 In the beginning, we inhabit a garden, but in the end, a city. Thus, the end is not exactly the same as the beginning but more developed as God’s people continue to work for His glory.

    The post God Created You To Work first appeared on Living Hope.
    44 min

About LHIM Everything

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A weekly podcast featuring the engaging and life-changing Bible teachings of Sean Finnegan and the team at Living Hope International Ministries.