Are You A Passionate Seeker of Jesus?

Podcast: Light on Life Season 7 Episode 39

Are You A Passionate Seeker of Jesus?

Are you a passionate searcher of truth — a diligent seeker of Jesus, the one and only true God? That’s a question we want to engage today. The story is told of Rabbi Baruck’s grandson Jechiel who was playing hide-and-seek with another child. Jechiel hid and waited for his friend to search for him. He waited a long time and finally left his hiding place. His playmate was nowhere to be found. Now Jechiel realized that his friend had not even bothered to look for him. With tears in his eyes, he came running to his grandfather. Then Rabbi Baruck also began to weep and said, “That is the way God acts: I hide, but nobody wants to look for me.” 1 Seeking the Most High, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#040: How to Grow in Faith: Five Questions to Ask [Podcast]

[Tweet “The responsibility of the races is to seek Jesus, that’s Jews, that’s Greeks, that’s all followers of God.”]

Why Self-Control Is Your Ultimate Ticket to Success

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Thirty-Eight

Why Self-Control Is Your Ultimate Ticket to Success

The following illustration underscores the vital nature of self-control in this ‘me’ society in which we live. Have you ever heard of the Marshmallow Experiment? This experiment tried to show the essence of emotional self-regulation as the ability to delay impulse in the service of a goal. The importance of this trait to success was demonstrated in an experiment begun in the 1960s by psychologist Walter Mischel at a preschool on the Stanford University campus. Children were told that they could have a single treat, such as a marshmallow, right now.

However, if they would wait while the experimenter ran an errand, they could have two marshmallows. Some preschoolers grabbed the marshmallow immediately, but others could wait what, for them, must have seemed an endless 20 minutes. To sustain themselves in their struggle, they covered their eyes so they wouldn’t see the temptation, rested their heads on their arms, talked to themselves, sang, even tried to sleep. These plucky kids got the two-marshmallow reward. The exciting part of this experiment came in the follow-up.

The children who, as 4-year-olds had been able to wait for the two marshmallows, were, as adolescents, still able to delay gratification in pursuing their goals. They were more socially competent and self-assertive and better able to cope with life’s frustrations. In contrast, the kids who grabbed the one marshmallow were, as adolescents, more likely to be stubborn, indecisive, and stressed.1 A simple experiment, profound results — Why Self-Control Is Your Ultimate Ticket to Success, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Laughing Your Way to Maturity

[Tweet “To win life’s fight, followers of Jesus need to drill, with the same intensity as an Olympic champion.”]

Just Who Is Jesus to You? [Encore Podcast]

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Thirty-Seven

Just Who Is Jesus to You? [Encore Podcast]

When we read any of the four Gospels, we have the wonderful opportunity to see Jesus live life on planet Earth. The Word encourages us to emulate Him, to copy Him, to move as He moved, and to overcome as He overcame. The first eighteen verses of John’s gospel, known as “The Prologue,” introduce us to who Jesus is. What do these verses teach us about Jesus, and how does this knowledge help us to fulfill God’s plan for our lives? That’s the focus of this week’s Light on Life.

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Why Jesus is the Logos of God Unleashed

[Tweet “Once you see who Jesus is, you will want to know Him on a personal level.”]

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Murderer [Podcast]

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Thirty-Six

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Murderer

It’s crucial to expose Satan as the murderer that he is. You know now and again, you come upon a story that touches your heart. This story is one of them.

Yvonne Pointer was one of ten children born to a wonderful mother and father, though she admits, “I was the worst. I did everything my parents did not want me to do.” For three years, a friend of her father tried to reach her. “He would come to where I was getting high and say, ‘You need to change your ways.’ He was a thorn in my flesh,” Pointer says. But in time, the high turned on her. Then she remembered the words of her father’s friend, went to church, and cried out to God. And on May 4, 1975, she turned her life over to Christ.

Less than ten years later, Pointer experienced what some say is the most tremendous pain on earth—the loss of a child. On December 6, 1984, her daughter Gloria was raped and murdered while on her way to school in Cleveland, Ohio. “After she died, I would spend hours in the church when no one was there because Gloria’s death didn’t make sense to me,” Pointer says. “I had come through drugs, through street life—and now this? I could not fathom why this would happen. But because I’d had that personal experience with God, I went to God.”

People from the church rallied around her, washing clothes, cooking, and cleaning when the mother didn’t have the strength. Slowly, a new sense of direction emerged. “In the beginning, it was all about the injustice done to my child. Period,” Pointer says. But soon, she became aware of others with similar losses. She wrote letters and talked to police, to reporters, and to anyone who would listen.

Meantime, Pointer co-founded Parents Against Child Killing, which later became Positive Plus, a women-helping-women organization. “We started with mothers who had lost children,” Pointer says, “but I found out pain is pain. If your husband walked out and left you with five babies, that’s pain. We felt we could find solutions by helping each other.”

Pointer has received numerous honors for her work as an advocate for child safety. She even speaks in prisons, sharing the love of God with inmates. “I found hatred too heavy a load to carry. Would I want the person who murdered Gloria over for Sunday dinner? No. But if I didn’t forgive him, unforgiveness would kill me too,” she says quietly. “Forgiveness releases you to live.” 1 In today’s podcast, we talk about your Powerful Victory over Satan, the Murderer.

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Immorality: The Main Reason Great Nations Fall

[Tweet “Thank God for Jesus — thank God for His grace today — because without it, where would we be?”]

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Liar [Podcast]

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Thirty-Five

our Powerful Victory Over Satan the Liar [Podcast]

It’s crucial to expose Satan as the Liar he is. D.L. Moody wrote the following about lying and liars. He said, ‘You cannot offer a man a greater insult than to tell him he is a liar. Unbelief is telling God He is a liar. Suppose a man said, “Mr. Moody, I have no faith in you whatever.” Don’t you think it would grieve me? There is not anything that would wound a man much more than to be told that you do not have any faith in him.

A great many men say, “Oh, I have profound reverence and respect for God.” Yes, profound respect, but not faith. Why it is a downright insult! Suppose a man says, “Mr. Moody, I have profound respect for you, profound admiration for you, but I do not believe a word you say.” I wouldn’t give much for his respect or admiration; I wouldn’t give much for his friendship. God wants us to put our faith in Him. How it would wound a mother’s feelings to hear her children say, “I do love mamma so much, but I don’t believe what she says,” How it would grieve that mother.

And that is about the way a great many of God’s professed children talk. Some men seem to think it is a great misfortune that they do not have faith. Bear in mind it is not a misfortune, but it is the damning sin of the world.1 Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Liar, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why Jesus Is the Powerful and Blessed King

[Tweet “The whole world system doesn’t have one nostril above the waterline when it comes to truth-telling.”]

Why Believing and Abiding Is the Key to the Happy Life [Encore Podcast]

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Thirty-Four

Why Believing and Abiding Is the Key to the Happy Life

Missionary pioneer J. Hudson Taylor of China was working and worrying so frantically that his health was about to break. Just when his friends feared he was near a breakdown, Taylor received a letter from fellow missionary John McCarthy that told of a discovery McCarthy had made from John 15—the joy of abiding in Christ. McCarthy’s letter said in part: Abiding, not striving nor struggling, looking off unto Him, trusting Him for present power … this is not new, and yet ’tis new to me.… Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy. As Hudson Taylor read this letter at his mission station in Chin-kiang on Saturday, September 4, 1869, his own eyes were opened. “As I read,” he recalled, “I saw it all. I looked to Jesus, and when I saw, oh how the joy flowed!”

Writing to his sister in England, he said: As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone. The last month or more has been perhaps the happiest of my life, and I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul.… When the agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before. Believing and abiding is the key to a happy life. That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.1

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What Are Fruitful and Unfruitful Places with God?

[Tweet “The word ‘abide’ is also a favorite word of John. He uses this word forty times in his gospel.”]

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Devil – Part 2

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Thirty-Three

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Devil - Part 2

It’s crucial to expose Satan as the devil. There is a legend of Martin Luther, that, during a severe illness, the Evil One entered his sickroom and, looking at him with a triumphant smile, unrolled a big scroll which he carried in his arms. As the fiend threw one end of it on the floor, it unwound by itself. Luther’s eyes read the long, fearful record of his sins, one by one. That stout heart quailed before the ghastly roll. Suddenly it flashed into Luther’s mind that there was one thing not written there. He cried aloud: “One thing you have forgotten.

The rest is all true, but one thing you have forgotten: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.’” And as he said this, the Accuser of the Brethren and his heavy roll disappeared.1 This story may be a legend where Martin Luther is concerned but Satan, the devil, for sure is no legend. Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Devil – Part 2, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#039: How to Terrorize the Terrorist [Podcast]

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Why Praying in Faith Means to Believe You Receive [Encore Podcast]

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Thirty-Two

Why Praying in Faith Means to Believe You Receive

Robert Murray McCheyne, the great Scottish prayer warrior, said that we must “Learn that urgency in prayer does not so much consist in vehement pleading as in vehement believing.”1 Prayer is good. Believing that you receive when you pray is better. It’s perfect Bible order. It’s the way Jesus taught us to obtain answers to prayer.

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Why You Don’t Have to Be Sick in Light of the Bible

[Tweet “If God said ‘Yes’ to your request, how would you respond, that’s believing you receive?”]

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Devil

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Thirty

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Devil

It is vitally important to expose Satan as the devil. The New York Times, reporting on a survey by the Barna Group, noted the diminishing belief in the devil among Americans. Two-thirds of Americans do not believe in the devil as a living entity. In a nationwide telephone survey of 1,007 randomly selected people, pollsters asked whether they agreed that Satan is not a living being but is a symbol of evil. Sixty-two percent agreed with the statement, while 30 percent disagreed; the remaining 8 percent had no opinion. If less than one in three Americans seems willing to give the devil his due, reported the Times, ìthen that is a result of fundamental, long-term shifts in the nation’s religious culture.1

The devil is a living entity. He is very real and very active on planet earth. In this week’s podcast, we take a further look at this very real enemy of the Lord and His people. Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Devil, all this on this week’s Light on Life.

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#S5-005: Who Makes It Out of the Tribulation? [Podcast]

[Tweet “The devil’s, MO is to make false statements about you to damage your identity in Christ.”]

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Serpent

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Twenty-Nine

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Serpent

It’s vitally important to expose Satan as the Serpent. The Alabama State flag once showed a cotton plant in flower with a rattlesnake coiled at its roots, about to spring into action. Underneath were these words in Latin: ‘NOLI ME TANGERE’ — “Don’t Touch Me.” Years later, this design finally changed to the cross of St. Andrew. The cross has supplanted the Serpent in Alabama.1 The cross supplants the Serpent — yes it does and in many ways! In this week’s Light on Life podcast, we take a look at and expose Satan as the Serpent.

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#039: How to Terrorize the Terrorist [Podcast]

[Tweet “The body of Christ, the followers of Jesus, need to rise and say NO! to any hellish plan of the Serpent.”]

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Dragon

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Twenty-Eight

Your Powerful Victory Over Satan the Dragon

It’s vitally important to expose Satan the Dragon. Some people think that there is no Satan. Perhaps the following story will be instructive to them. Once there was a boxer who was being severely beaten. Battered and bruised, he leaned over the ropes and said to his trainer, “Throw in the towel! This guy is killing me!” The trainer said, “Oh, no, he’s not. He’s not even hitting you. He hasn’t laid a glove on you!” At that point, the boxer wiped the blood away from his eye and said, “Well, then, I wish you’d watch that referee. Somebody is sure hitting me!” 1

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#S3-016: How to Obliterate Temptation in Jesus Name [Podcast]

[Tweet “The book of Revelation is the only book in the New Testament which references Satan the Dragon.”]

Why Jesus Is the Powerful and Blessed King

Podcast: Light on Life Season 7 Episode 26

Why Jesus Is the Powerful and Blessed King

It is vital as we look to Jesus that we understand that we look to Him not only as Savior but also as King. Jesus the Savior is the same as Jesus; the Messiah is the same as Jesus the King. The kingship of Jesus is vital ground for a follower of Jesus. A story arose about a certain chess master. In the story, this chess master, along with a friend, went to see the Ingmar Bergman film ‘The Seventh Seal.’ The plot of this classic film revolves around a medieval knight who engages in a game of chess with death (the evil one). Throughout the film, these two make moves on each other. Then, as the movie comes to a climax, the Prince of Darkness makes a move and, with great finality, utters the word “Checkmate!”

With that, the curtain comes down, and the movie is over. [So, this not my kind of film because they have the bad people winning at the end.]

According to the story, the chess master, who was sitting in the audience, turned to his friend and, in a puzzled tone, exclaimed, “Why is he giving up? The king has one more move! The king has one magnificent move left that can turn the tide and win the game.”

Now that preaches. To the mother who is worried because her son seems to be hopelessly hooked on drugs, there is hope in the message: The King has one more move!

To the father, on the verge of despair, because his daughter is being sucked into a punk rock subculture marked by sexual promiscuity, there is comfort in the words “The King has one more move!”

To those who think that the future of the world can be only disaster, the words ring triumphantly: “The King has one more move!”

And to the pastor, whose church seems to be torn apart with tensions and conflicting theologies, there is the good news—the King has one more move!11

In today’s podcast, we are going to take a look at the concept of Jesus as King: ‘Why Jesus Is the Powerful and Blessed King’ — that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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The Second Coming of Jesus: What You Need to Know

[Tweet “The Kingdom of God is a huge Bible doctrine for wherever there’s a kingdom, there has to be a king.”]