Curiosity in Life

Curiosity can be one of the best motivators to improve our lives. We see or hear something, and we are curious to know more about it. When this happens, we tend to keep seeking out information until we can answer all our questions.

In our past we have all acted on something we are curios about. Think about it, in your past has there been something you have been curious about that lead to you searching and looking for the answers you were looking for? Our curiosity can get the best of us all at times.

Curiosity God’s Word

The same thing applies to God’s Word. God designed His Word for the people who are looking for it can find it. But the people who are not looking for it, cannot find it. If we do not want to learn the truth, we are not going to learn it. If we do want to learn it and we are willing to seek for it, to search it out, we are going to learn it.

Jesus used people’s curiosity to help Him teach them about the Gospel and we can do the same when teaching others, the Gospel.

Answering Your Questions

In this podcast we will talk about the different things that Jesus did, using people’s curiosity about Him to help them learn about the Truth. Tips on how we can recognize when people are curious and how to keep them interested and wanting to learn more.

People who are curious about learning about God are the people we are looking for. They are the ones who are open to hear the Truth and more willing to sit and listen, to ask questions and have a heart that is open to it.

Want to hear the answers to these questions? Take a few minutes and listen to this podcast. Reach out and ask any questions that come from this episode. I’m here to help. You can email me anytime at [email protected].

Making Our Own Choices

God has given us freewill to make whatever choices we want. With that He has given us the Bible to help teach us to make the right choices. God may know what choices we are going to make, but he does not make those choices for us.

For an example I had a dog that every time I opened the door the dog would bolt out of the house. I would know that every time I opened that door, that dog was going to bolt out of the house. I am not making the dog bolt out of the house. I am, however, opening the door and that is allowing the dog to make that choice.  So, even though I may know the future, that does not mean that I am controlling it.

How often do we do things like this? We make the choices that God knows we are going to make, but those choices are against what He wants us to do?

Adding On to Scriptures

With that we often wonder if we can change or add on to the things that God has instructed us to do. “He said this, but maybe it is okay to also do this…” We can read the Scriptures over and over and still make the choices to miss the simple instructions left for us.

Whenever I was a child and my mother sent me to the store, she had a list of things for me to buy. I would walk to the store; it was usually related to snacks or something. When we were kids she did not want to go get the snacks so she sent us. We had a list , we were not allowed to buy anything expect for what was on the list. We could not vary from it. We went and got what was on there and we came home. We had choices to make and even though we might have wanted something else, we knew we had to stick to what the list said.

Well, that is a very similar idea, if God tells us, “This is what I want..” and we may not realizes we are going against what God has said. How can we know we are making the wrong choices and going against God?

Answering Questions

Want to hear the answers to these questions? Take a few minutes and listen to this podcast. Reach out and ask any questions that come from this episode. I’m here to help. You can email me anytime at [email protected].

Behave When Mistreated

We often don’t know how to behave when mistreated by the people in our lives and are not sure how we should respond to them. We have a battle within ourselves with what we should say or do, and we usually end up not standing up for ourselves at all or we overstep and say something we should not have.

So, how should we behave when people have mistreated us? How do we know we should to turn the other cheek? How do we know when to let silence speak for us or when we need to say something?

We are going to be talking about a situation where someone hurt you but not severely. This is about times when our feelings are hurt, or it may be that we have been physically hurt. There are a lot of things that can happen to us, and we need to know how we should respond. What does God want us to do in these situations?

In this podcast we will talk about how to behave when mistreated so that we can be pleasing to God. We will talk about the importance in standing up for ourselves and for others, and we will look at the Scriptures for examples that God has given us. If you are struggling in this, know you are not alone!

We all want to get better at responding and knowing what we should say or do in these situations and this podcast has some tips and Scriptures to help better understand just how God wants us to respond.

Want to hear the answers to these questions? Take a few minutes and listen to this podcast. Reach out and ask any questions that come from this episode. I’m here to help. You can email me anytime at [email protected].

Having Integrity in Our Lives

Most of us strive to have integrity, but struggle with what sociality teaches us about, “being yourself”. We have all heard the phase, “That is just who I am, and I cannot change it”.  Is that true though? Can we not change the way we do things? We might have a way of doing things that feels natural, but that does not mean it is what God wants us to be doing. We need to analyze our lives and see where we need to change, while still being true to who we are.

Confusing Integrity and Laziness

I was listening to a speaker yesterday, he is big, makes a lot of money, and he has a huge following, and he was talking about the fact that he cusses all the time. I do not listen to the man, if I see him online, I will skip by, I will not listen to him because he has a foul mouth. But every now and then I will catch something that he says, and he usually has some good stuff.

So, I was listening to him today and he was talking about cussing and so I stopped and listened to what he had to say, and he did not use foul language while he was talking about this. I was shocked! He said, “You know if I did not cuss, I would be seven times bigger than I am now. You would not believe the amount of hatred I get because I say cuss words.” He then went on to say, “I wish that I would not be that way, but if I did not cuss when I spoke, I would not be me. Then I would not be presenting myself to you in authenticity.”.

That is NOT authenticity. Authenticity is not just doing whatever it is you want to do.

Understanding Who God Wants Us to Be

In this podcast we will go over 6 ways to increase your integrity. Understand what authenticity really is. We will talk about the importance of why we need to say yes and why we sometimes need to say no.

We all want to better our lives, but we cannot always figure out what steps to take or how to achieve those steps. Want to hear the answers to these questions? Take a few minutes and listen to this podcast. If you have a question that was not answered in this podcast, please reach out to me! I’m here to help.

Fruit of the Spirit in Our Lives

When we look at the Fruit of The Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), one of the biggest mistakes that we make is to think that those nine attributes are about you, or about me. So, when I am looking at them, the biggest mistake I can make is to think that I am supposed to have more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in my own life. Now obviously that is part of the process, that is part of who we are and part of our blessings.

 But, if you start actively putting these things together, you learn pretty quickly that you cannot really do them as well, if you are not helping other people reach those things. It is kind of brilliant how it all fits together. It encourages you to be more invested in the lives of other people. You cannot really grow in peace, if you are not invested in helping other people find peace in their life.

Growing in Love

You really cannot grow in love, if you are not helping someone else grow in their relationship with God. We are to help one another to grow closer to God. We are running this race together, as a team. Each teammate is there for each other, to encourage and help each other reach the finish line.

Keeping Our Blessings

Listening to this Podcast we will go over Scriptures and different examples of how to keep from losing the Blessings of God. Can we be saved and then live our lives however we want because we are saved? Or can we be lost again?

Is it possible to lose the blessings we have from God? If so, what can we do to keep from loosing the blessings God has given to us? Want to hear the answers to these questions? Take a few minutes and listen to this podcast. If you have a question that was not answered in this podcast, please reach out to me! I’m here to help.

Realizing We Are Envious

I had a friend confront me, because I acted enviously toward him. It seemed like everything he touched turned to gold, everyone loved him, he did not have to work for his relationships in any way. At least that was the perception I had of him. I did not realize what was going on until he sent me a private message and he said, “I feel like you are upset with me about something. Is there something that I did? Is there something I need to work on?” And then it hit me. I did have something against him, and I started thinking through it and I realized I was envious of him.

I did not realize what was happening until he said something. How often does this happen to us? Are we envious without even knowing it?

How to Overcome Envy

Most of us have felt envious at some point in our lives, sometimes we do not even realize we are, until someone points it out or we step back and analyze our actions. This podcast will cover many commonly asked questions and give some tips on how to work through this. On the other hand, we face people being envious of us and it is very natural to struggle to know what to do about it. This podcast will help explain how to handle these situations and help you be more confident in confronting these issues.

Am I being envious? Are the people around me envious of me? How do I handle this?

Want to hear the answers to these questions? Take a few minutes and listen to this podcast and learn what envy is and how to overcome it. If you have a question that was not answered in this podcast, please reach out to me! I’m here to help.

Leaving Everything Behind

Signs from God or coincidences?

I was talking to a man recently, who had quit his job, taken his wife and children, put them in a car and was driving from state to state. They had been driving for months, going from gas station to gas station, restaurant to restaurant, hoping to be able to be fed and taken care of. But they were mainly just going around and praying for people. He said everywhere he has gone he has found that people needed prayers. Now I am not going to argue with the man, I am sure everywhere he went he could find somebody who needed prayer.

While talking to him, something stood out. That “something” just happens to be ironic because I was studying this at the time. He said, “Well I just see all of these signs that were pointing at me to do this”. I told him it kind of sounds like what Abraham did. I could tell that was what he was thinking. God told Abraham to just leave everything and go traveling and that is what this man was doing.

That brings up the debate. Are the signs that this man claimed to have seen enough to convince someone that this is God’s will? Or are they just coincidental? (For more on the topic of Providence, check out this sermon: Live Your Best Life by Growing in Trust.)

The Difference Between Signs and Coincidence

So, in this podcast we will talk about both sides of the argument. What signs are from God? What does the Bible teaches about this topic and the story of Abraham? We will debate, discuss, and talk about the pros and cons to this topic.

Do you know the difference between a sign and a coincidence? What does the Bible say about providence and signs? Would you like to know more about these questions?  

With the insights from this episode, you will be able to better understand how to make decisions about your future. This episode will encourage you to pursue the life God has planned for you. This will help you live your life to the fullest.

Listen. And if you have questions, please contact me! I’m here to help.

Creating Our Own Checklists

Are we faithful or just reliable, when it comes to our faith? We are so good as humans at creating things to do, that have nothing to do with what we are trying to accomplish. It is called busy work, right? In religion we do that too. We create these lists of things that we should be doing. They are there to make ourselves feel better. If we at least have these boxes that we can check off, then when we check them off, we can look at our list and say we are accomplishing something.

So, why do we not just do what God wants us to do instead of creating our own lists?

John 14:21 says, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me…”

When something comes between you and your relationship with God, that thing needs to go away. Whatever it might be, anything that hinders your relationship with God and prevents you from being right with God, it needs to go.

Learning to be Faithful

So, in this podcast I want to help you to understand what it actually means to deny oneself, what we should be doing with our lives, and taking advantage of the opportunities to do good. We will talk about what it truly means to, “take up your cross” and follow Christ. Also, we will be talking about the difference in being faithful and being dependable.

Do you know how to recognize what in your life is coming between you and your relationship with God? How does this change the way you view faithfulness? Would you like to know more about these questions?  

With the insights from this episode, you will be able to look at your own life and see if you are faithful or reliable. This episode will encourage you to pursue the life God has planned for you and live your life to the fullest.

Listen. And if you have questions, please contact me! I’m here to help.

The Pursuit of Perfection

It is important to understand that we all have a need for perfection within us. We have that desire to be perfect and have everything right. But when people present themselves as being perfect or having everything figured out, we know that it is not true. That’s because we are not perfect ourselves and we are not less than anyone else. We are all in the same boat together, being humans. So, we need to figure out how to make this life work- how to conquer this need that we must be perfect. That need is a need that is self-imposed.

In the podcast episode I mention a sermon. Here is that link.

In a sense perfection is what God expects.  He expects us to obey Him, to follow His will. In a sense He wants us to be perfect and that is the reason He had to send Jesus.

We are not perfect.  

The Dangers of Perfectionism

We all want to grow and improve our lives over time. But perfectionism can get in the way. So, in this podcast we will be talking about recognizing the need we have to be perfect and make everything perfect around us, the dangers in trying to become perfect, the harmful effects of perfectionism, and what the Bible teaching us about Christ’s example.

Do you know how to recognize the areas in your life you are trying to perfect? How does this change the way you view perfection in your life? Would you like to know more about these questions?  

With the insights from this episode, you will be able to look at your own life and see if you are being a perfectionist and how to see yourself in a better light. This episode will encourage you to pursue the life God has planned for you and live your life to the fullest.

Listen. And if you have questions, please contact me! I’m here for you and want to help.

Excuses for Sin

There is nothing that we can face as Christians, that we cannot endure. The fact is, if we give into the temptation, it is because we have chosen to give into that temptation. We do not rationally choose or think, “Okay, I am just going to forget everything I know about God, all the commitments I have made, and I am just going to turn my back on Him.” That is not usually how it works. Usually, it is that we look at the situation and we rationalize just one small step at a time. We make excuses. And before we know it, we are using the same rationalization for extremely bad things that we never would have thought we would be doing.

So, Satan and sin takes you much further than you ever thought you would go, and it keeps you there a whole lot longer than you ever thought you would be there. It is tough to get out of it. And one of the reasons it is so tough to give up sin is because of the excuses that we have, the rationalizations that we create.

That rationalization helps you justify bad things. It makes you not only live in sin, but even defend it.

Taking the Right Road

So, in this Podcast we talk about different scenarios where we might be rationalizing a part of our lives that is sinful and how it is affecting our spiritual growth. We will talk about the steps people take and how to avoid going down the road Satan wants so badly for us to travel.

How to Grow Spiritually

Do you know how to recognize if you are rationalizing sin in your own life? How does this change to way you view sin? Would you like to know more about these questions?  Here is a blog post to help you overcome all excuses in your life.

With the insights from this episode, you will be able to look at your own life and see whether you are rationalizing sin or stirring clear of it. This episode will encourage you to pursue the life God has planned for you and how to see the road God wants you to travel. Listen. And if you have questions, please contact me! I’m here to help.