Category Archives: Spiritual Development

Practical teachings from the Bible for every day living.

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#S4-013: Do You Have A New Vision for A New Year? [Podcast]

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Do You Have A Vision for Your Life?

This is the New Years edition of Light On Life. This is the time of the year where people think about things like resolutions, goals, and vision for the upcoming year. Soon after the completion of Disney World, someone said, “Isn’t it too bad that Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” Mike Vance, creative director of Disney Studios, replied, “He did see it—that’s why it’s here.” 1  Vision is seeing things invisible. Do you have a new vision for this new year?

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[Tweet “The degree of vision which dwells in a man is a correct measure of the man.”]

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#S4-012: Why You Need to Understand What the Star of Bethlehem Really Means [Podcast]

The Christmas Podcast

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Understanding the Reason Behind the Star of Bethlehem Will Help Your Faith in God.

God’s plan was thought up and set in motion before the foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4). Particular courses of events and situations, at times, align to bring into a focus a particular aspect of God’s wisdom and plan. Today, we are going to look at the birth of Jesus in this way. We are going to look at some of the events that came into view and we are going to ask a rather startling question about one of those events, the appearing of the star. Here is the question: ‘What would have happened, had the Star of Bethlehem not appeared?’

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[Tweet “God’s plan for your life was thought up and set in motion before the foundations of the world.”]

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Why You Need to Pour Your Jesus Life Into Others

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Discipling Is Where You Pour Your Life Into Others

A young man who works in an aquarium explained that the most popular fish is the shark. If you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium. Sharks can be six inches long yet fully matured. But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of eight feet. That also happens to some Christians. I’ve seen some of the cutest little six-inch Christians who swim around in a little puddle. But if you put them into a larger arena—into the whole creation—only then can they become great.1 Is it your goal in life to just be a cute six-inch puddle swimming Christian? Wouldn’t you rather get out into the ocean and make a big splash for the Kingdom of God? How do you do it? First, you have to make a decision about being willing to pour your life into others.

[Tweet “Ministry, discipling, and teaching, is where you share and pour your spiritual growth into people.”]

For more on this subject see ‘How to Develop Spiritually [Podcast].’
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#S4-006: How and Why It’s Important to Honor Your Parents [Podcast]

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Honor your parents, that's the Word of God unto us.

Philo, a first-century Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt, writes about the obligation of children in the home to honor their parents.

“Parents have not only been given the right of exercising authority over their children… for parents pay out a and invest in nurses, tutors, and teachers, in addition to the cost of their clothes, food, and care in sickness and health from their earliest years until they are full grown. Given all these considerations, children who honor their parents do nothing deserving of praise since even one of the items mentioned is in itself quite a sufficient call to show deep respect…Therefore, honor your father and mother next to God, he [Moses] says [Ex. 20:12].… For parents have little thought for their own personal interests and find their fulfillment and happiness in the high excellence of their children, and to gain this the children will be willing to listen to their instructions and to obey them in everything that is just and profitable; for the true father will give no instruction to his son that is foreign to virtue.” 1

Philo had it right. The Bible is clear, honor your parents.

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[Tweet “Jesus connects the word ‘honor’ with doing things financially for your father and mother.”]

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The Fear of the Lord As a Manifestation of the Spirit

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The Fear of God Is A Manifestation of the Spirit

As we continue to look at the Fear of the Lord, the following illustration is of note. Back in 1994, there was a very famous television evangelist who was in prison; his name is Jim Bakker. Jim Bakker had the largest Christian television network in the whole world, but he got caught up in fraud, and adultery. The government prosecuted him for the mail fraud he committed, and he was thrown into jail for five years. John Bevere visited him while in prison. This was part of the conversation they had.

After he had talked for a while, I felt like I wanted to ask him some questions. The first question I asked was, “Jim, when did you fall out of love with Jesus? When did you stop loving Jesus? Was it when you committed adultery with Jessica Hahn seven years before you got thrown into prison? Was it the fraud? When did it really happen?” Because I remember he was so on fire for God in the earlier years. He looked at me and said, “John, I didn’t.” I said, “What do you mean, you didn’t?” He said, “I didn’t fall out of love with Jesus; I loved Him all the way through it.” And then he saw total bewilderment on my face. I said, “What do you mean?!” He said, “John, I loved Jesus, but I didn’t fear God.” There are millions of Christians in America who love Jesus but don’t fear Him, and it is the fear of the Lord that perfects holiness in our life.” 1

In today’s blog, we continue to look at the Fear of the Lord in our everyday life.

[Tweet “The fear of the Lord falling upon people is one of the manifestations of the Spirit.”]

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#S3-051: How to Locate Your God Ordained Place [Encore Podcast]

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Josh McDowell told this great story. An executive hirer, a “headhunter” who goes out and hires corporation executives for other firms, once told me, “When I get an executive that I’m trying to hire for someone else, I like to disarm him. I offer him a drink, take my coat off, then my vest, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, whatever until he’s all relaxed. Then, when I think I’ve got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square in the eye and say, “What’s your purpose in life?” It’s amazing how top executives fall apart at that question. “Well, I was interviewing this fellow the other day, had him all disarmed, with my feet up on his desk, talking about football. Then I leaned up and said, ‘What’s your purpose in life, Bob?’ And he said, without blinking an eye, ‘To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.’ For the first time in my career, I was speechless.” What about you? Do you know what your place is in God? Do you know how to find it?

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[Tweet “If God promotes you from little to much, it is obvious that little was not your place.”]

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#S3-049: Why It’s Tremendously Important to Take Your Stand [Podcast]

Defending Your Bean Patch

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One unknown writer wrote these words. “We will never cease to be plagued with sin, but we will never again be brought under the dominion of sin.” 1 You must understand that the very reason why we are not in the Garden of Eden today is because there was a child of the King who was given dominion by the King and he chose not to use it. He refused to take a stand. That’s why we have the sin mess in the first place. Taking your stand and using your God give dominion is a key issue in the Kingdom of God. Jesus said so (Lk. 11:20).

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[Tweet “If you want to have a great victory, you need to take on the traits of David’s mighty men.”]

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#S3-040: Why the Awesome Hand of God Brings Blessing [Podcast]

God's Mighty Power and Anointing

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Proverbs 21:1 says the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord. That means all the kings, not just the good ones, not just the righteous ones. So, in last week’s podcast, we honed in on the phrase ‘the Hand of the Lord’. What does that mean, ‘the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord?’ The Bible speaks of the ‘hand of the Lord’, the ‘finger of God,’ and the arm of the Lord. But here, in Proverbs twenty-one verse one, we have hand of God, not arm or finger. We saw that the phrase ‘the hand of the Lord’ or the phrase ‘the hand of God’ occurs fifty-five times in the Bible. What is the Hand of Lord? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it something you want to experience or something you don’t want to experience? And so, we looked at the negative side, the judgment side of the hand of the Lord. We saw it manifest in the case of Israel’s sin. We saw it manifest in the New Testament of Ananias and Saphira and we pretty much determined that we don’t want any of that ‘hand of the Lord’ in judgment business because our God is a consuming fire. There is a positive side to the hand of the Lord. There is a blessing side and as believer’s we want all there is of the blessing which comes from the hand of God in our daily life. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. That’s what we are talking about in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “Physical strength is rooted in the spirit of man not the muscles of man. It has spiritual roots.”]

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#S3-038: Why Diversity Empowers Us Actually to Overcome Racism [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

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I heard this story this week from a good friend who has been following this series on ‘How to Overcome Racism’ in the church. And his story illustrates the reason why we need to teach and are teaching on the subject of racism. As it turns out, he was attending a church in Phoenix Arizona and volunteered to work with the Pastor in building up the work of God there. The Pastor was African-American as was most of the congregation. The volunteer was Caucasian. As it turns out, he was passing out fliers in the neighborhood with a young lady from the church who was all working for God. So both of them are going house to house. After a while, they decide to take a break from their labors. They hadn’t eaten anything, so they decide to go to a restaurant. Now mind you, he was not romantically interested in this lady. They were just hungry and wanted to replenish themselves. While they are in the restaurant, he notices someone staring at them to the point where it got to be uncomfortable. He didn’t think about it. He didn’t really put the pieces together. A few months after this, the pastor calls him into his office and tells him he has to leave the church.’Leave the church, why?’, he asks. The pastor tells him, ‘Because, you are demon possessed.’ So this man begins to quote the Word of God all the while confessing the Lordship of Jesus. So he says to the pastor, ‘Does this sound like I’m demon possessed?’ ‘No’, says the pastor but you’re still going to have to leave the church. The church, apparently, didn’t approve of anything interracial. Months later when judgment fell on that church this pastor reconnected with this man and apologized. He had gotten pressure from his deacons and constituents in the church and had caved into their demands. Racism in the church. It exists. There’s no need to hide from it. There’s no need to act like it’s not there. It shouldn’t be there but is there and that’s why we’re doing this series on ‘How to Overcome Racism in the Church’. We’re continuing on with it in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “Diversity is God’s idea. In His magnificent creation, He did not make everything the same.”]

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#S3-037: Yet More of How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

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Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. What did he find? asked the cohort. A piece of the truth, the Devil replied. Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth? asked the cohort. No, said the Devil, I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it. 1 There has always been religion on the world. A shiny piece of the truth, not the whole truth just a piece of it. A piece of a truth can lead to a whole lie. Israel had descended from the truth of God’s Word into a miry pit of ‘piece religion.’ They had pieces of the truth but not the whole truth.

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[Tweet “Every person is noble and of royal blood. For from one blood, God made all men to dwell on earth.”]

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#S3-036: Even More of How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

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Vivian Malone, a young black woman, enrolled as a student at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1963. Federal troops helped ensure her entrance into the school, but Governor George Wallace tried to block her way. When he failed, Malone became the first African-American student ever to graduate from the University of Alabama. Years later, Governor Wallace was taken in his wheelchair to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, where he asked black people to forgive him for his racism, bigotry, and specifically his ill-treatment of Vivian Malone. He asked Malone for forgiveness. Malone said she had forgiven the governor years before. When asked why she had done that, Malone said, “I’m a Christian, and I grew up in the church. I was taught that we are all equal in the eyes of God. I was also taught that you forgive people, no matter what. And that was why I had to do it. I didn’t feel as if I had a choice.” 1 Vivian Malone had it right. All are equal in the eyes of the Lord. We don’t have a choice about walking in love and forgiveness. Obeying the Bible; believing the Word of God just like it says; rising up against the spirit of division with the love of God, is the only real cure to racism.

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[Tweet “No matter how you cut it, prejudice and racism just has an icky feel to it, doesn’t it?”]

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#S3-035: More of How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

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A visitor to a mental hospital was astonished to note that there were only three guards watching over a hundred dangerous inmates. He asked his guide, “Don’t you fear that these people will overpower the guards and escape?” “No,” was the reply. “Lunatics never unite.” 1 Lunatics never unite, did you hear that? Racism is strife. Racism is lunacy. Lunatics never unite. In last week’s podcast, we drilled down into the word strife and we looked at some of the companions of strife. One of these companions is the word ‘disorder’ in 2 Corinthians 12:20. We are going to take a look at that and more as we continue looking at overcoming racism in the church in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “This mess we’re seeing in America is Bible Prophecy. Jesus prophesied it, so it’s not going away.”]