Walking Together with Dennis Leavell

Haggai address a nation that chose to only focus on themselves and what they wanted, rather than surrendering to what God wanted.  God uses Haggai to ask a penetrating question:  "How does it look to you now?"  It's a great question to ask at the beginning of a new year.  Listen in an be encouraged.

Have you ever had a time when God seemed far away?  It's in those "silent nights" when it's easy to think and even convince ourselves that He isn’t there, and He just doesn’t care.  But never confuse His silence with His absence.  The reason He came to earth is so that He would be WITH us.  His name says it all:  Immanuel, God with us!

The word "worship" has been thrown around a lot, as a matter of fact, it's been abused.  How are we expressing worship?  What does true worship look like?  Today we look at 3 women in the Bible who took the time to teach us what true worship is.  Listen in and be encouraged.

When things don't turn out like we think they should have, we begin to question God.  Simply put, we want an explanation from Him.  We want to know His plans and we resist moving forward until we have a better picture of what's going on.  This was certainly the case with General Naaman, and what he discovers is that God simply wants us to trust Him and obey.  The bottom line is that God doesn't owe us an explanation.  

The apostle Paul tells us that we live in a world where people believe that everything revolves around them.  They will be so consumed with themselves that they will neglect, hurt, and vilify the people around them.  We have to answer 2 simple questions:  1) Did I love God more than myself this past week?  2) Did I love others more than myself?  Listen in as Paul gives Timothy some advice and warnings about people like this.

We're really good at trying to camouflage what we don't want people to see.  You might think you're good at faking it, but you're not.  God sees right through it, so do the people around you.  Isaiah experienced a personal worship service that changed him forever.  It prompted him to change and to respond.  God asks the same from us today.  Listen in and be encouraged.

One of the important lessons we learn in life is that MOTIVES MATTER.  Not just to us personally, but to God.  WHY we do something is just as important as WHAT we do.  Today we look at the Tower of Babel and it's a reminder about the danger of making our own plans without actually consulting God.  And God, in His mercy, didn't allow them to continue to follow the desires of their hearts.  Listen and be encouraged.

A hypocrite is a person who refuses to apply to himself the standards he applies to others.  Today we look at a handful of reasons why followers of Jesus don't look like genuine followers of Jesus.  The problem is not our job, our circumstances, our finances, or even our home life.  The real problem lies much deeper, our hearts.  Listen in and be encouraged.

So what's your reaction when other people refuse to serve at the same level of intensity that you're serving?  What if they don't lift a finger to help?  Let's take a look at two sisters who had 2 completely different ideas about what was important.

One of the terms that has been lost in our culture is "under-rower".  This meant a lot to the culture of ancient Greece.  The apostle Paul encourages the church in Corinth, as well as us, to be "under-rowers".  Listen in an be encouraged.  Season 2, Episode 6 of the Walking Together Podcast.