Living Water Radio: For Today's Christian Life

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Summary:  Some people seem to want everything to return to normal without taking any of the precautions necessary to flatten the curve and help make our medical treatment facilities manageable and our treatment providers safe and sane. We can’t give up on them any more than God has given up on all of us.

   Referenced Bible texts: Matthew 13:9-16; John 3:17-21; Psalm 51:10-12
   Referenced Article:  https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/we-shouldnt-presume-that-the-velociraptor-experts-know-the-best-way-to-deal-with-velociraptor-attacks
   Other Referenced Article: I saw the other article as a graphic without a reference to its original source. Email us and we’ll send you the graphic if you’d like a copy.
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Summary:  Despair has often been said to be the worst sin, or at least the most dangerous, because it says “Nothing can be done”. It gives up on God. The cure for despair is not a wooden optimism, but to receive the thing for which human beings were created, a living relationship with the living God. The Holy Spirit, God’s ongoing presence for good in the world, is the living water that shapes and sustains us as God’s people.

   Referenced Bible texts: Galatians 6:7-10; Philippians 4:13; Romans 15:13   
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   Summary:  Blowing off illegal fireworks is an expression of liscense, not freedom. Not wearing masks in the face of the evidence that they save lives and jobs only makes the coronavirus pandemic worse and contributes to civil breakdown. Not recognizing the general character of God, the Creator, accessible to all people in God’s Creation, produces selfish behavior. We live in reality by serving God, the Living Reality.

   Referenced Bible texts: Romans 1:16-20; Philippians 4:8
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Summary:  We are free to live our lives as we want, as long as the exercise of our freedom does not diminish the same right held by other people. We are to act responsibly for the common good, not merely our own good. Christians celebrate our dependence on God for all good things, including our salvation. We are set free from the consequences of sin, death, and the power of all that defies God, something only the love of God can do.

   Referenced Bible texts: Galatians 5:1;  Jeremiah 31:31-34
   Referenced Facebook post: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2867491636696787&id=100003079363440
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Summary:  Science and religion are two different ways of gaining different kinds of knowledge. We must sift through differing claims in each, but especially in religion, to get closer to the truth. We entertain ideas, including the unpopular ones, and ask questions such as, “Who do I trust?”, “Who among those seeking to influence me benefits from the outcome of my decision?”, “Is there actual dialogue that leads to better understanding in the ideas taking place?” These help us avoid being like those who “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires”, and be like those who are learning to learn by listening to the Voice of God within.

   Referenced Bible texts: 2 Timothy 4:1-5
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Summary: The world is the way it is because human beings opposed, and continue to oppose, God. Our actions bring evil into the world. God responds with steadfast love and sacrifice, and we act in response to the acts of God in order to make the world more like the already-but-not-yet Kingdom of God, a better country, in accord with God’s will, that is, God’s justice.

   Referenced Bible texts: Revelation 21:1-4; Hebrews 11:13-16
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Summary:   The Mizpah was a statement of accountability (Genesis 31:49b), but it has come to take its meaning from a broader Biblical context. That is, that we both pray for God’s presence in our lives while we are absent from one another, and we know it to be true.  

This is our 25th episode, not counting #0, the Welcome and Introduction. It was what I once  thought would be our first episode, but other ideas kept intruding. 😊

   Referenced Bible texts: Genesis 31:44-50; Ephesians 4:1-6
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Summary: The Bible is like an armillary. It must be taken from its decorative position and into the light,  put in the right position in a person’s life, and read with a mind and heart open to its correction and instruction, pointing to Something much greater than itself. 
   The Bible is inspired, that is God-breathed, which means that it gives life. It brings us into the presence of the living God.

   Referenced Bible texts: 2 Timothy 3:14-17; Genesis 2:7
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Summary: Not much has changed in the past 3 and 1/2 months for some of us. But for most of us, everything has changed. 
   We have adjusted to voluntary isolation. With businesses and institutions re-opening while the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise, how do we decide when to readjust to the world’s old/new normal? One time tested guide is the Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

   Referenced Bible texts: Matthew 7:12; Hebrews 13:1-8; Galatians 5:22-23
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Summary:  How does the Church rise to reach people with the good news of reconciliation with God at the cross? 
   One way is to consider how the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, the Church, grew from a few dispised and frightened individuals, to a growing counter-cultural movement, and the official religion of the Roman Empire in just a few centuries. 
   How do Churches that are now re-opening during what we hope are the final days of the Coronavirus pandemic, and what we pray are the the early days of renewed national soul-searching regarding race relations and the injustices experienced by the African-American community in particular, rise to adapt and minister? 
   One way is to consider what the inclusive community of the early Church did as a church known to be a servant Church before it was known as an institutional Church. 

   Referenced Bible text: Acts 9:36-42, 43
   Referenced book: The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark, © 1996 Princeton University Press, and Harper/Collins; on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060677015?psc=1&pf_rd_p=d8ce9248-9f14-4bd5-8d02-a98af28945ae&pf_rd_r=ECCPYWXCJVCZ0DY9FS8P&pd_rd_wg=k0jvZ&pd_rd_i=0060677015&pd_rd_w=rLQl2&pd_rd_r=92749791-11d9-4f0a-9343-b5631c304fbf&ref_=pd_luc_rh_crh_rh_sbs_sem_01_01_t_img_lh