Why You Can Overcome Weariness With God’s Amazing Grace

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Five

Why You Can Overcome Weariness With God’s Amazing Grace

In today’s episode, we are talking about the subject of weariness. It’s not something that we normally talk about, but the Bible addresses it and since it does we should know how to combat it. There is an old story of a Jewish rabbi who consented to take a weary traveler into his house for a night’s rest. After they ate, the rabbi asked the gentleman, “How old are you?” “Almost a century old,” the old man replied. “Are you a religious man?” asked the rabbi. “No, I do not believe in God. The rabbi was infuriated. He opened the door and said, “I cannot keep an atheist in my house overnight.” The old man hobbled out into the cold darkness. Later the Lord spoke to the rabbi. “Why did you let him go?” The rabbi replied, “I turned him out because he was an atheist, and I cannot endure him overnight.” God replied, “Son, I have endured him for almost one hundred years. Don’t you think you could endure him for one night?” At times, our endurance is not what it should be. I think we could say that all of us are guilty of this at some point. We get weary and we throw up our hands. So, today, we set our focus on Why You Can Overcome Weariness With God’s Amazing Grace. All on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why It’s Never Wise to Not Obey God’s Will for Your Life

Some don’t attend church because of inferior copies of Jesus. Inferior copies are not our standard. Click To Tweet

Why God’s Thoughts On Discipline Are Superior To Yours

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Four

Why God's Thoughts On Discipline Are Superior To Yours

In this week’s episode, the subject of divine discipline comes to the forefront. It’s called divine discipline, but it’s more like child rearing but from the spiritual side or from God’s point of view. ‘Discipleship’ involves ‘discipline.’ Discipline means correction. After all, God is your heavenly Father. Have you ever thought of Him not just as a supplier of your physical needs — you know, one you approach in Jesus’ Name asking for stuff? Do you or have you viewed Him as a parent who is looking out for your best interests, endeavoring to raise you into a place of maturity? You know that takes adjustment. That takes instruction. It may even take a bit of correction? You know, helping a child through their errors is part of a parent’s role. Which child that you know ever enjoys that part. ‘Oh yeah, I really love being in-time out.’ ‘Would you time me out again? — it really makes my day. No discipline is unpleasant but, after you experience it, you are way better off even though you may gripe about it. Even though you may not realize it. I know my son tells me to this day. Dad, now that I have children, I get it. I understand what you were trying to do. The alternative is to be left to yourself. To not have the Lord check you in your spirit, or try to restrain your actions, is a terrible place to be. No is a God Word. No is a good word. God is not afraid to discipline his children; but it is always out of love and for good purpose. But, how does He do this exactly? You know, it’s not the way some people think He does. Why God’s Thoughts On Discipline Are Superior To Yours, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Victory Over Yourself through Discipline

A good course of action if you've sinned is to repent immediately. Don’t play with sin — don’t cuddle with it — refuse to tolerate it. Click To Tweet

Why God’s Love and Direction Are a Match Made in Heaven

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Three

Why God’s Love and Direction Are a Match Made in Heaven

God’s direction or His ability to guide us into His ways is the subject of today’s podcast as we move further in 2 Thessalonians chapter three. Now there are places in the Word of God where we have God’s direction, that is, places where He wants us to go. Then there are other passages where there is firm encouragement to ask for directions. Asking for direction is not always the easiest thing for someone. Men are famous for their ability to not ask for direction. Some say the source for this is genetic. That’s the reason it takes 500,000,000 male sperm to fertilize one female egg. None would bother to stop and ask directions.1 I laughed when I read that. It’s vital to ask for direction and since you know God is a prayer answering God, you know what the outcome must be. Spiritual life is not a shotgun affair. You understand how shot in a shot God works? Hitting the target doesn’t require high accuracy. Just pull the trigger and you are bound to hit something. God’s direction is way more precise. In the animated classic Alice in Wonderland, Alice wanders through a frustrating world of rabbits, singing flowers, and one curious-talking cat. Her visit with the cat begins as she continues down a mysterious dark trail and stops at a large tree. Signs adorn the tree in every direction: “Up,” “Down,” “Yonder,” “Back,” “This Way,” and “That Way.” Alice is confused. “Which way do I go?” Just then, Alice hears a melodious voice drifting down from the trees. She looks around and observes two ghostly eyes and a wide toothy grin floating amongst the branches of a magnificent tree. The grinning teeth inquire of Alice, “Lose something?” “N-n-no,” Alice stammers in reply. Suddenly, a pink striped cat emerges from the branches. “Oh, you’re a cat!, Alice says.” “A Cheshire cat,” he responds.“I just want to ask which way I ought to go,” asks Alice. “Well, that depends on where you want to get to,” says the cat. “Well, it really doesn’t matter,” answers Alice. “Then it really doesn’t matter which way you go,” says the enigmatic cat, just before vanishing into the woods again.” Now that’s the story, but ask yourself, what’s wrong with this advice? Well, what’s wrong with it is the reply of the Cheshire cat: ‘Direction depends on where you want to go.’2 Direction, God’s direction does not depend on where you want to go. What it depends on is where He wants you to go. God will give you clear direction for your everyday life. That fact should make you happy and that’s why our focus is Why God’s Love and Direction Are a Match Made in Heaven all on this week’s Light on Life.

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Conscience Scripture List

Asking for prayer and praying for others is all the Jesus’ way. Click To Tweet

Why You Need God’s Protection in a World Gone Nuts

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Two

Why You Need God’s Protection in a World Gone Nuts

The faithfulness of the Lord to protect and guard His kids from evil comes into view in today’s podcast. You need God’s protection! We know that God is faithful and reliable in these areas. The question and challenge here is ‘Are we allowing and depending on Him in this area?’ We should understand our part of the faithfulness equation. We are encouraged greatly along these lines. God’s Word speaks about being faithful to the Word, faithful in the small areas of our charge as well as being faithful when we are entrusted with more. All of this encouragement to faithfulness points to that day when we hope to hear the Lord say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Man, I really want to hear those words.” I want to trust Him in all my ways. As the psalmist declared, ‘Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.’ In October 1993, police sharpshooters in Rochester, New York, surrounded a car. In the backseat of the car was a man with a rifle. The police attempted to negotiate with the man. No answer. The police watched and waited. No movement. Finally the police discovered the truth: The armed man in the backseat was a mannequin. When the authorities tracked down the owner of the car, he told them he keeps the mannequin in his car for protection. “You’ve got to do this,” he said. “With the car-jackings, it helps if it looks like you’ve got a passenger.” These are dangerous times. Whom do you rely on for protection? A mannequin or the Mighty One?1 Having faith in His faithfulness to protect is the thought today. Why You Need God’s Protection in a World Gone Nuts, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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How To Put On And Step Out With The Whole Armor Of God

You can experience His faithfulness. But, it all starts with the Word. Accept His Word and you will experience His manner and ways. Click To Tweet

Why Growing in Faith Brings Amazing Results

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode One

Why Growing in Faith Brings Amazing Results

In today’s season opening podcast, [Season 11] our topic of focus is faith, growing faith, faith in God, that is. In previous seasons, we have recorded several podcasts on this subject. Several podcasts are just a soccer ball drop in the ocean for such a vast subject. There is no way one can fully cover this just a few thirty-minute sessions. To fully cover a topic, you must fully know it and, I do not lay claim to this. But the good news here is that faith comes by hearing. And since it does, by hearing we can continually develop and go beyond where we are. So, we need to talk about faith constantly. The Bible talks about it in huge batches and we are following suit. Talking about what God talks a lot about keeps us in a safe place. If you’re interested in what we’ve already discussed on the matter, check the links below and see that all things are possible to them that believe. Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible 1 Abraham Lincoln understood this and chimed in by saying faith is to believe what we DO NOT SEE; and the reward of this [kind of] faith is to SEE what we believe.2 That’s good — you get to see the thing you are believing for manifest in the physical realm. So faith in God, makes visible the invisible. You’ve got to admit that’s pretty exciting? That’s why our focus today is Why Growing in Faith Brings Amazing Results all on this week’s Light on Life.

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The Enormous Need for Believing Jesus Is The I AM

when you vocalize the Word, faith comes by hearing it and things happen. Click To Tweet

Why Powerful Prayer to Advance the Gospel Is Right

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Fifty-Two

Why Powerful Prayer to Advance the Gospel Is Right

Powerful prayer is our season ending, year ending focus today. You know, this is the time of the year where people look forward to the dawning of a new year. With that, they become reflective. They become goal oriented because they realize that the currents of the past year led them to places that they were not happy being. Some of these new year type resolutions deal with course corrections. You know, making a clean, fresh start. The prospect of heading in a direction they knew they should have been going all along buoys them. It’s a hopeful, energizing time, this New Year’s piece. We should encourage it along. The Lord knows we need all the help that we can get. Now, you know how this New Year’s celebration works, right? On the last day of the year at the stroke of midnight in Times Square in New York City, multitudes cheer, horns sound, whistles blow, and people laugh and cry for joy. Amidst the celebration are the shouts of “Happy New Year!” This spectacle is repeated in succession in the various time zones from the Atlantic Seaboard to the far western reaches of Hawaii. We say, “A New Year has come!”

Now what?

Are all things right now that clock has struck 12 on December 31st with your freshly minted resolution in hand? Of course not, the stroke of the hour simply has marked the dawning of another day. Once the fireworks are spent and the confetti has fallen, you are left with your naked decision: “I’m going to read the Bible through in a year” You must ace this.

If you don’t fall back into the same old rut. No, years become new only if we make them so. Resolutions for new days, new beginnings, opportunities, and dreams are not to be made only in the moment’s excitement; but long after the glamor is gone these resolutions are to become the order of each day. This is the stuff of life.

What if you can’t think of a resolution of consideration? Might I suggest one?

As we move on to 2 Thessalonians 3:1–2, we come upon Paul’s request for prayer so that the gospel could quickly move forward. Do you think that might be a resolution worthy of consideration? Pray that the gospel would go forward quicker than ever before? Do you think this is a resolution you can carry forward into a new year and maybe beyond that? Why such a resolution — well first, you have Bible for it — that’s what Paul did. Second, you are a lover of God’s Word and you cherish it to such a degree that you want others to hear this good news. Third, you highly esteem the heavy price God paid that we might have it. Is there a chance that this year is the year where you lay aside selfish ambition and allow God’s will to become supreme? Is this the year you elevate the perpetuation of the gospel to its rightful place in your life? Well, those are good questions. So let’s home in on Why Powerful Prayer to Advance the Gospel Is Right — that’s our focus on this year end episode of Light on Life.

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Did You Know that A Good God Has A Good Plan For Your Life?

The gospel is foot-powered. Prayer propels this foot power to its optimum speed. Click To Tweet

Reasons Why People Fail to Receive From God

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Fifty-One

Reasons Why People Fail to Receive From God

In today’s podcast, we want to look at some reasons prayer is unanswered. Or, we could say it this way – why some fail to receive from God. William Wilberforce and some of his contemporaries started enormous social reforms in England. This group accomplished it by dedicating a significant amount of time to prayer and consistently devoting three hours to prayer each day. They organized Christians throughout the country to unite in special prayer before critical debates in Parliament. They knew and persistently proved the power of prayer. William Temple replied to his critics who regarded answered prayer as only coincidence, ‘When I pray, coincidences happen; when I don’t, they don’t. Our Lord’s disciples’ request is probably our most needed prayer: “Lord, teach us to pray.”1 So, that’s a terrific testimony to the power of God’s Word. You can receive answers to prayer. But, what’s the deal when you don’t receive an answer, when you pray and nothing happens? Reasons Why People Fail to Receive From God, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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How to Get to Be the Strong Man God Wants You to Be

To consistently receive from God, you must consistently be fully persuaded concerning God’s Word. Click To Tweet

Why You Shouldn’t Be Quickly Shaken by Prophetic Happenings

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Fifty

Why You Shouldn't Be Quickly Shaken by Prophetic Happenings

Paul uses a phrase, ‘quickly shaken’ that we want to jump in and look at today. Some of the Thessalonian believers had jumped ship and gone back from following Jesus. In church circles today, we use the term back sliding or backslidden to describe the process of a believer quickly turning away from Jesus. But is the process so quick? What goes through the mind of a professing believer when he turns away from Christ? How can a person who shows excitement for the things of the Lord suddenly act like none of that means anything at all? Well, backsliding does not happen suddenly. Mike Yaconelli writes in [The Wittenburg Door] the following. “I live in a small, rural community. There are lots of cattle ranches around here, and every once in a while a cow wanders off and gets lost.… Ask a rancher how a cow gets lost, and chances are he will reply, “Well, the cow starts nibbling on a tuft of green grass, and when it finishes, it looks ahead to the next tuft of green grass and starts nibbling on that one, and then it nibbles on a tuft of green grass right next to a hole in the fence, so it nibbles on that one and then goes on to the next tuft. The next thing you know the cow has nibbled itself into being lost.” Backsliders, those quickly shaken, keep moving from one tuft of activity to another, never noticing how far we have gone from home or how far away from the truth we have managed to end up.1

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Why Redeemed People Can Walk Free from Fear

Being ‘quickly shaken’ over bible doctrine is not anything new. Jesus dealt with the same thing with his disciples in John 6. Click To Tweet

Why Jesus Proven Second Coming Produces Ironclad Hope

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Forty-Nine

Why Jesus Proven Second Coming Produces Ironclad Hope

Hope is a marvelous and essential part of the power triplets, faith, hope, and love. The Lord provides hope and a way of escape in perilous times as the light grows darker among those who refuse to believe. He did such a thing in Noah’s day when the world was even darker than it is right now. God provided hope and a way of escape via the Ark that He commanded Noah to build. There’s a humorous story detailing the Ark building process. Here it is. And the Lord said unto Noah: “Where is the ark which I have commanded you to build?” And Noah said unto the Lord: “Truly, I have had three carpenters off sick. The gopher-wood supplier has let me down—yea, even though the gopher wood has been on order for over 12 months. What can I do, O Lord?” And God said unto Noah: “I want that ark finished even after seven days and seven nights.” And Noah said: “It will be so.” And it was not so. And the Lord said unto Noah: “What seems to be the trouble this time?” And Noah said unto the Lord: “My subcontractor has gone bankrupt. The pitch which you commanded me to put on the outside and on the inside of the ark has not arrived. The plumber has gone on strike. Shem, my son who helped me on the ark side of the business, has formed a pop group with his brothers Ham and Japheth. Lord, I am undone.” And the Lord grew angry and said: “And what about the animals, the male and the female of every sort that I ordered to come to you to keep their seed alive upon the face of the earth?” And Noah said: “They have been delivered to the wrong address but should arrive on Friday.” And the Lord said: “How about the unicorns, and the fowls of the air by sevens?” And Noah wrung his hands and wept, saying: “Lord, unicorns are a discontinued line; you can’t get them for love or money. And fowls of the air are sold only in half-dozens, Lord. Lord, you know how it is.” And the Lord in His wisdom said: “Noah, my son, I know. Why else do you think I have caused a flood to descend upon the earth?”1 Now, hopefully, that put a needed smile on your face. In today’s podcast, we take a look at the actual way hope and deliverance come via the simple expectation of Jesus Return. Why Jesus Proven Second Coming Produces Ironclad Hope, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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What’s So Important about the Days of Noah?

The Second Coming is a future event hidden by time and the will of the Father God. Click To Tweet

Why God’s Amazing Dynamic Deliverance Is Coming Your Way

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Forty-Eight

Why God’s Amazing Dynamic Deliverance Is Coming Your Way

In this week’s podcast, we are talking about God’s amazing dynamic deliverance from the standpoint of expectation. We know what to expect from the Lord when evil persecutes God’s own children. There is going to be a response. We can thank God for this response, ahead of time. We know what will happen. It’s a law in the universe. The farmer who plants certain seeds knows what to expect. He knows he will reap what he sows. He may not know exactly how many bushels of corn he’ll get to an acre, but he knows it will all result from the seeds he planted. That is an unbreakable law of nature: we reap what we sow, but we can never know exactly how much the harvest will be. This also holds true in the spiritual realm. We find immutable laws of sowing and reaping there as well. I know some people try to deny the existence of such a realm as the Kingdom of God. They are like moles who are ignorant of the existence of the sunlit world because they are blind.1 Why God’s Amazing Dynamic Deliverance Is Coming Your Way, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why Jesus Substitutionary Death is the Greatest Exchange Ever

When Christians are persecuted and Jesus’ followers are ridiculed and mocked, know that God's response is a prophetic happening. Click To Tweet

What Does a Spiritually Healthy Jesus Follower Look Like to God?

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Forty-Seven

What Does a Spiritually Healthy Jesus Follower Look Like to God?

In today’s podcast, we are talking about spiritual health. Naturally, people go to doctors to get checkups because they want to make sure their health is up to par. The same ‘check-up’ idea works for believers in Jesus. How’s your health — your spiritual health, that is? Are you growing in God? Are you closer to Jesus? Do you want to know Him better? Here’s an example of a healthy growing believer.

Have you heard the story of Charlie Riggs? Over 50 years ago, Charlie Riggs came to Christ and Lorne Sanny, a young man being discipled by Dawson Trotman, discipled him. Charlie was willing to grow in Christ, but he was rough around the edges and didn’t seem very promising as a Christian leader. When Lorne wrote to Dawson, he told him that Charlie Riggs was the only man he was working with and he felt discouraged by the prospects. Trotman wrote back and said, “Stay with your man. You never know what God will do with him.” So, Lorne Sanny continued to work with Charlie Riggs. A few years passed and a young man named Billy Graham came on the scene. In 1952, the Navigators “loaned” Charlie Riggs to the Graham team to handle the follow-up in their early crusades. He planned to return to the Navigators, eventually. However, he worked out so well that he stayed with Billy Graham. In 1957, on the eve of the famous New York City crusade at Madison Square Garden, the crusade director suddenly had to be replaced. Who could they get? The lay chairman suggested Charlie Riggs, but Billy Graham wasn’t sure if he could handle the job. “All he does is pray and quote Scripture.” The layman insisted, Charlie Riggs got the job, and the rest is history. The New York campaign became a model for the many crusades that would follow in later years. Billy Graham said, “I didn’t think he could do it. But I had this peace—that Charlie so depended on the Holy Spirit that I knew the Lord could do it through Charlie.” Charlie Riggs retired after many years of effective service to the Lord. What was his secret? How could a man with little formal training rise to such an influential position and hold it for so long? He says, “I always asked the Lord to put me in over my head. That way, whenever I had a task at hand, I either needed the Lord’s help or I was in trouble. He put Charlie Riggs in over his head—and then bailed him out. So many of us dads play it safe with our families. We pray only for what we think we can handle. Our answers are small because our prayers are small. Here’s a challenge. Let’s take Charlie Riggs’ prayer as our own: “Lord, put me in over my head.” It’s safer to stay in shallow water where you can always feel the bottom under your feet, but the real challenge is to jump in where the water comes up over your head. What are the challenges we face when we’re in over our heads? Job changes, teenagers, college costs and church schedules, to name a few. How about it, dads? Are you ready for some excitement? I am. Let’s ask God to put us in over our heads. And then, let’s watch God keep us floating just when we think we’re about to sink. Are you ready to increase and become a spiritually health believer?1

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Why You Should Be Jubilantly Expecting Increase

Husbands and wives should be thanking God for one another way more than they are. Words of appreciation should flow from our lips. You will stop fussing so much with one another if you will simply give thanks. Click To Tweet

Why Repetition Is a Vital Need for Godly Spiritual Growth

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Forty-Six

Why Repetition Is a Vital Need for Godly Spiritual Growth

Repetition is a key tool for spiritual growth and development. the same can be said for natural growth as well. Last week, we closed out our look at Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. But, did you know that shortly after Paul, Silas, and Timothy co-wrote the first letter, this dynamic trio wrote a second? Are you also aware that in the second letter, these marvelous missionaries both repeat and expand on the contents of the first letter? Why did they repeat themselves? Wasn’t one letter enough to get the job done? You may have heard a parent sternly express to their child, ‘I told you to do so and so and I am not in the habit of repeating myself.’ If this approach has some traction in the area of child development, why didn’t the Spirit of God use this same approach? Well, employing sternness is not the best learning method. Developmental growth takes patient repetition. This is a vital tool in helping Jesus followers grow into the image of God which is why we are focusing on this theme in this podcast. Why Repetition Is a Vital Need for Godly Spiritual Growth. That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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How Praise Powers You to Remarkable God-Style Growth

Faith is the language of heaven and since it is there are many verses that encourage a trusting lifestyle-type relationship between you and your heavenly Father.