How to Live a Sustained and Guilt-Free Life

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Nine

How to Live a Sustained and Guilt-Free Life

In this week’s podcast, the subject of guilt steps forward as we march through the first chapter of First Corinthians. Paul writes to this church informing them of a particular thing God will do for all Jesus’ followers. He will sustain them to the end, holding them guiltless on the day of Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as we get into today’s lesson, we will read these set of words again, but we will do it in context. So, here’s the question we’re going to look at today. If God holds us guiltless, why are so many feeling guilt? That this struggle with guilt exists is clear in the following illustration. Gayle Roper wrote an article in Discipleship Journal entitled “I Can’t Forgive Myself What You Need to Know If You Still Feel Guilty.” It’s a good article and you will find it in Discipleship Journal. In the article, Gayle gives the following stories: • Story number one: The note slid under my door and skittered across the floor of my room at the retreat center where I was the weekend speaker. “I had an abortion seven years ago,” it read. “I can’t forgive myself. Can you give me some hope?” • Story number two: A large gentleman wore a Jesus T-shirt and cap and carried a huge Bible, the very image of the eager Christian. “I look good on the outside,” he said. “But inside, there’s all this ugliness. I can’t forgive myself.” • Story number three: A young couple, picture-perfect Christian newlyweds, stared at the floor. “We may have been virgins technically when we married,” he said. “But only by the strictest definition.” “We feel so guilty about the fooling around as we did,” she added. “We can’t forgive ourselves.“1 People in the church house are struggling with guilt. The good news is the struggle is over. How to Live a Sustained and Guilt-Free Life, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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What It Means to Be Really Mature in God

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Eight

What It Means to Be Really Mature in God

Today’s dive into the Book of First Corinthians brings us to the subject of maturity. What does it really mean to be mature in God? Sinclair Ferguson asked the same question. He states that our constant quest as Christians is to become mature. Whenever I think of the subject of maturity, Sinclair said, I recall a painful experience during my first couple of years as a young pastor. A visitor was addressing our young people. He was in his early twenties himself and had made his first discovery of Jesus while caught in one of the sub-cultures of the West Coast. After becoming a Jesus follower, he told us, he realized he lacked spiritual maturity. So, [these are his words now, this new born Jesus follower] — He decided to go to Bible school for a year, and [again these are his words] ‘when I got maturity’ I decided to go on overseas evangelism.

So, I am going to cut in here and comment on this before we get back to the rest of Sinclair’s story. This young Jesus follower thought he was mature after going to school for a year. Think about that as we go back to the rest of the story.

Sinclair said that the rest of this young man’s address displayed how little maturity of understanding he actually possessed. The thrust of his thinking [this young believer who went to Bible school for a year] was that if you were not absolutely certain that you were in the right place, you ought to be serving God overseas (as he was!).

Of course, spiritual maturity is not so easily obtained. It does not come with diplomas. Nor does it show itself by insistence that one’s own pattern of life must rule every believer’s life. [‘you know you’re only mature if you do things like I do them’ kind of mindset.]

What was even more painful about this whole story was to see the effect of this young man’s address on our young people. They were blown away with this guy – they thought he was the most mature super spiritual thing ever. It took a long time for some of them to recover. What’s the point here? None of these people really understood what spiritual maturity was all about.1 You know it’s no different today. There’s all kinds of thinking out there. People just don’t know. That’s why in today’s podcast, we’re talking about What It Means to Be Really Mature in God all on this week’s Light on Life.

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#007: Are You Tuned into God’s Heart? [Podcast]

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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

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.

Why You Should Never Doubt The Faithfulness of Your Heavenly Father Towards You

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Forty-Five

Why You Should Never Doubt The Faithfulness of Your Heavenly Father Towards You

The faithfulness of God to His kids is one of the more comforting Bible truths. Most of us have lived long enough to be disappointed with people from time to time. But the Lord remains faithful. Even when you cannot see Him, the Christian believer knows that God is ever so near and close by! Picture a little girl flying a kite on the beach. Her kite is so high in the air that it looks like a speck in the white, cotton clouds. Someone happens by and asks, “What are you doing?” “I’m flying a kite,” the little girl answers. “I don’t see anything. How do you know it’s still there?” “Because, silly,” the girl replies, “I can feel the kite tugging on my hand.” Similarly, when we have faith in God, we feel the tug of His presence even though we cannot see Him.1 In this week’s podcast, we take a look at the faithfulness of God as we close out our series on the book of First Thessalonians. Why You Should Never Doubt The Faithfulness of Your Heavenly Father Towards You — that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why is the Gold Fingered Man in the Book of James Important?

The God of Peace will sanctify your spirit, soul, and body.

How to Understand the Three Dimensions of Man: Spirit, Soul, and Body

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Forty-Four

How to Understand the Three Dimensions of Man: Spirit, Soul, and Body

The Bible informs us that there are three dimensions of man: spirit, soul, and body. We also know that the Holy Spirit of God indwells all believers. So what is the communication like between God who is a spirit and man? It’s somewhat like the communication that occurs with radios, TV, or WiFi. There must be a link between the receiver and the transmitter. When we listen to a broadcast, there are many sound waves all around us, but the only way for us to become aware of them is to have an appropriate receiver able to catch them and make them audible. We would never know that anyone was talking to us from a distance if we expected our heads to pick up the sound waves. There is only one way in which man can know God, and that is through man’s own spirit. God is a Spirit and can be known only by a spirit. We must not expect to feel Him with our fingers or see Him with our physical eyes. It cannot be done. Yet that which can be perceived only by the spirit of man is just as real as that which can be perceived by his physical senses.1 That’s why we are talking about How to Understand the Three Dimensions of Man: Spirit, Soul, and Body – all on this week’s Light on Life.

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Conscience and the Inward Witness: A Look at the Spirit Led Life

[Tweet “Give place to prophecies because that’s one way He moves when the Church come together.”]

How to Work and Flow with the Holy Spirit in the Vocal Gifts

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Forty-Three

How to Work and Flow with the Holy Spirit in the Vocal Gifts

The working of the Holy Spirit in our midst is something to be treasured. His working is what we are going to be talking about today. Now, I say ‘His working in our midst’ because you will see so much of His movings in a group setting. One gentleman said it this way. “The Holy Spirit is the source of community and the Spirit’s work is more related to the building of the community than to the edification of the isolated individual.”1 Group life is a marvelous life full of wonder because the Spirit gets involved. How does He move? Well, He moves in a lot of ways. One particular way we want to look at is via prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. And that’s why in this podcast, we will take a look at How to Work and Flow with the Holy Spirit in the Vocal Gifts, all on this week’s Light on Life.

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Reasons to Study Spiritual Manifestations

[Tweet “Give place to prophecies because that’s one way He moves when the Church come together.”]

Why Possessing Patience Is A Powerful Step to A Faith Filled Life

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Thirty-Nine

Why Possessing Patience Is A Powerful Step to A Faith Filled Life

In this week’s episode, we take a look at the valuable traits of patience and long-suffering. I mean it’s more valuable than gold because being exercised in this discipline can put gold in your pocket. In the days of instant coffee and fast-food service, we have come to expect short waiting periods. We struggle with patience daily; we get tied up in knots. Why? Because God is not on our schedule. We want to hurry up and wait while He wants us to be patient, to wait on Him. Abraham waited twenty-five years for the son God promised him. The promise came but he messed up along the way because he thought he’d help God out. Patience or the lack thereof played a part in all of this. William Carey, the father of a modern missions movement, had to be patient before the first Hindu convert was baptized in India. Did he wait for a few months? Was he patient for a year or two? The Lord gave him the grace to wait seven years until he could see the fruit of his labor. What if he didn’t wait? What if he quit in year six? The next time you have to wait for a slow traffic light to change, put on the garment of patience … and use the time to pray think, or plan. Make use of the time, patiently so; enjoy the wait!1 Enjoy the wait! — Now there’s a novel thought. Don’t get frustrated by the wait — enjoy it. Why Possessing Patience Is A Powerful Step to A Faith-Filled Life. That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#S2-002: Secrets to Hearing God: Are You Waiting? [Podcast]

[Tweet “The next time you have to wait on life, use the time to pray think, or plan. Make use of the time and enjoy the wait!]

Four Ongoing and Continuous Responsibilities for Every Jesus Follower

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Thirty-Eight

Four Ongoing and Continuous Responsibilities for Every Jesus Follower

As Jesus’ followers, we all are in charge of certain responsibilities when it comes to our brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s the ‘we’ part of being in the Body of Christ. The ‘we’ part of the Jesus life means the emphasis is us — not I. The Jesus life is a group life. It’s a life invested in others. So, we have a responsibility. Now, you know there will always be those who try to side-step their responsibilities. They blame other factors, other people, for their actions or their current lot in life. Here are just a few minor examples. In 1980, a Boston court acquitted Michael Tindall of flying illegal drugs into the United States. Tindall’s attorneys argued that he was a victim of “action addict syndrome,” an emotional disorder that makes a person crave dangerous, thrilling situations. Tindall was not a drug dealer, merely a thrill seeker. No responsibility. An Oregon man who tried to kill his ex-wife was acquitted on the grounds that he suffered from “depression-suicide syndrome,” whose victims deliberately commit poorly planned crimes with the unconscious goal of being caught or killed. He didn’t really want to shoot his wife; he wanted the police to shoot him. He didn’t own his actions. Then there’s the famous “Twinkie syndrome.” Attorneys for Dan White, who murdered San Francisco mayor George Moscone, blamed the crime on emotional stress linked to White’s junk food binges. White was acquitted of murder and convicted on a lesser charge of manslaughter. Nowadays, nobody’s at fault for anything. We are a nation of victims.1 Well, this kind of thing won’t work living the Jesus Life because that life is a life of ownership. Four Ongoing and Continuous Responsibilities for Every Jesus Follower: that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#S2-026: Why Keeping the Law Won’t Get You to Heaven [Podcast]

[Tweet “Our responsibilities include admonishing the idle, encouraging the fainthearted, helping the weak, and being patient with all.”]

How to Avoid the Wrath of God and Be Caught Up With Jesus

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Thirty-Six

How to Avoid the Wrath of God and Be Caught Up With Jesus

As we roll into chapter five of 1 Thessalonians, we have ten more verses that relate to the Rapture, the Wrath of God, and End Times. Charles Finis Dake wrote quite a bit about these areas. He was a prolific student of God’s Word having put in 100,000 hours of study which averages roughly to eight hours a day. He said this about End Time events. “Having been born in 1902, I have now had time to witness the coming and going of quite a few prophetic students who, one by one, have made boisterous claims regarding the exact time of the rapture, exactly who the Antichrist was, and exactly what “the mark of the beast” would be. I have lived through strong announcements that various dictators were the Antichrist—Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and others. One preacher was so convinced that Mussolini was the Antichrist that he wrote a book about it. But before the book could become a best-seller, Mussolini died. “My God,” the preacher said. “They’ve killed my Antichrist and I’ve just printed 5,000 copies of my book!” With all of this, and more, going on in the prophetic field during my lifetime, I think that my reasons for writing The Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ are obvious, and I trust understandable.1 We’re talking End Times, specifically the Day of the Lord. What is that? And, How to Avoid the Wrath of God and Be Caught Up with Jesus. That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#027: Dreams: One Way God Communicates Today [Podcast]

[Tweet “The Law of Sowing and Reaping will be in effect on the Day of the Lord. What people have sown will bring forth a harvest.“]

How Does the Rapture of the Church Play Out On The Great Stage

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Thirty-Five

How Does the Rapture of the Church Play Out On The Great Stage

Are you looking for Jesus to return in the glorious event mentioned in First Thessalonians four known as the Rapture of the Church? Famous Bible Expositor G. Campbell Morgan, said, “I never begin my work in the morning without thinking that perhaps He may interrupt my work and begin His own. I am not looking for death. I am looking for Him.”1 Are you looking for Him? The early believers were not looking for something to happen, they were looking for Someone to come. Looking for the train to arrive is one thing, but looking for someone we love to come on that train is another matter.2 I was particularly moved by this story told by Joseph Stowell president of Moody Bible Institute. He said, “One day, while visiting a home for mentally handicapped children operated by a Christian friend, Joseph noticed the tiny handprints of children covering the window. Stowell remarked about them to his friend. “Oh, those,” he replied. “The children here love Jesus, and they are so eager for Him to return that they lean against the windows as they look up to the sky.”3 Little children are looking for Jesus to return. What about all of you big children? That’s why we are focusing on the matter of How Does the Rapture of the Church Play Out On The Great Stage. All on this week’s Light On Life.

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#S5-001: Escaping the Carnage of the Great Tribulation [Podcast]

[Tweet “The Word of God identifies for us the exact moment when the wrath of God starts.“]