Why Celebrating Christmas Is Really About Jesus

Encore Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Fifty-One

Why Celebrating Christmas Is Really About Jesus

What’s celebrating Christmas really all about? This is a question that we must be mindful of during every holiday season. A MOTHER was having a gathering to celebrate the birth of her newborn son. She invited a bunch of friends over to celebrate his arrival. She welcomed her guests, and they all had a wonderful time celebrating, eating, and drinking. After a while, one of the ladies said, “Well, bring the baby out. Let us see it.” The mother went to get the baby from his crib—he was nowhere to be found. She started to panic and feel fearful. Suddenly, she remembered that the baby was still at her parents’ house, where she had left him that morning. She and the guests had been having so much fun they had forgotten what the party was about in the first place. During the Christmas season, many people get busy with celebrations and forget that the birth of Jesus Christ is the reason for the season.1

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What Is the Meaning of the Star in the Christmas Story?

[Tweet “The real Saint Nick was a miracle worker, God healed people through his ministry.”]

How the Hebrew Alphabet Leads to Powerful Security

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eight Episode Three

How the Hebrew Alphabet Leads to Powerful Security

On the subject of security, found only in Christ comes the following illustration. Like many of us, Allen wanted God to see things his way. Allen was raised in a Christian home, but he allowed different things to become idols in his life, things such as sports heroes, material possessions, and self-seeking adventures. One day, Allen’s life came crashing down. His marriage was on the edge of ruin. His children were out of control. His career was heading nowhere fast. Trouble flooded in upon him. At his wit’s end, Allen began to seek help. He attended a marriage conference with his wife, and while there, he desperately sought the only living and true God. On the final day of the conference, Allen noticed a wooden cross with a simple sign overhead that read: “Jesus invites you to nail every sin to His cross.” Hundreds of nails had already been hammered in by others seeking relief from the terrible weight of sin. With tears rolling down his cheek, Allen walked up and put his nail in the cross alongside the others. As he did, he felt all the hurt, the weight of having lived a life of sin, fall off his shoulders. “Jesus, I’ve lived my life for myself. I can’t do this alone. Please give me the strength to live for you.” After praying, Allen took a deep breath and walked away from the cross that held his sins—every one of them. Have you turned from God to idols? If so, it is time to nail the idols to the cross and turn back to God. 1 Today, we will take a look at the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, VAV, which means nail or hook and how it points to security in Jesus.

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Are You Willing to Give Jesus Everything?

[Tweet “Jesus is the secure link between humanity and God. He will never leave you or forsake you.”]

Why Celebrating Christmas Is Really About Jesus

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Fifty-One

Why Celebrating Christmas Is Really About Jesus

What’s celebrating Christmas really all about? This is a question that we must be mindful of during every holiday season. A MOTHER was having a gathering to celebrate the birth of her newborn son. She invited a bunch of friends over to celebrate his arrival. She welcomed her guests, and they all had a great time celebrating, eating, and drinking. After a while, one of the ladies said, “Well, bring the baby out. Let us see it.” The mother went to get the baby from his crib—he was nowhere to be found. She started to panic and feel fearful. Suddenly, she remembered that the baby was still at her parents’ house, where she had left him that morning. She and the guests had been having so much fun they had forgotten what the party was about in the first place. During the Christmas season, many people get busy with celebrations and forget that the birth of Jesus Christ is the reason for the season.1

Listen to the Audio

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What Is the Meaning of the Star in the Christmas Story?

[Tweet “The real Saint Nick was a miracle worker, God healed people through his ministry.”]

Just Who Is Jesus to You? Encore

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Twenty-Seven

Just Who Is Jesus to You? Encore

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.”]

What Makes Jesus the Good Shepherd

Podcast: Light on Life Season 7 Episode 7

What Makes Jesus the Good Shepherd

What makes Jesus the Good Shepherd? That is what defining traits separate good shepherds from n0t so good ones? In our country, we do not realize the intimacy of a shepherd with his flock as they do in Syria and parts of Southern Europe. It was my daily delight every day for many weeks and a dozen times a day, to watch a shepherd who had this almost incredibly close communion with his flock. Many times have I accompanied him through the green pastures and by the stream. If my shepherd wished to lead his sheep from one field to another, he went before them, and he was usually singing.

He led them with a song or with a sweet, low, wooing whistle like the call of a bird, and the sheep raised their heads from the herbage, looked at their guardian and guide, and followed on. I have heard his song and his low birdcall by the watercourse, and have seen the sheep follow his course over the rocky boulders to the still waters, where they have been refreshed. At noon he would sit down in a place of shadows, and all his flock crowded around him for rest. At night, when the darkness was falling, he gathered them into the fold.

We must realize an intimacy like this if we wish to understand the shepherd imagery of the Old Book. The communion is so intimate that the shepherd knows if one of his sheep is missing.1 What Makes Jesus the Good Shepherd, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why Following Jesus is Difficult, Risky, and Adventurous

[Tweet “The Good Shepherd is good because He lays down His life for the sheep.”]

Just Who Is Jesus to You?

Podcast: Light on Life Season Five Episode Ten

Just Who Is Jesus to You?

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.

Listen to the Audio

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

#S4-036: Want Victory Look At Jesus Shocking Geographic Throwdown [Encore Podcast]

Who Do You Say Jesus Is to You?

Who Do You Say Jesus Is To You?

In a 1983 Gallup poll Americans were asked: “who do you think Jesus is.” Seventy percent of those interviewed said Jesus was not just another man. Forty-two percent stated Jesus was God among men. Twenty-seven percent felt Jesus was only human but divinely called. Nine percent state that Jesus was divine because he embodied the best of humanity. Also, 81% of Americans consider themselves to be Christians.1 That’s what the poll said. The question now is: “Who do you say Jesus is to you?”

[Tweet “The only thing that matters is your answer to this question, Who is Jesus to you?”]

#S3-017: Why Is the Name of Jesus So Powerful? [Podcast]

How to Use the Name of Jesus to Live a Miracle Life

We have taken a look at the Name of Jesus already from several aspects in this series. Today, we are going to begin drilling down into Jesus one on one encounters with demons. It is yet one more reason why the Name of Jesus is so powerful in the realm of heaven and earth.

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[Tweet “The Hebrew word dominion is a verb. It’s an action word. It’s not a static state of being.”]

#S3-007: How Would You Have Ministered at the Pool of Bethesda? [Podcast]

Healing and Miracles in the Life of Jesus

In this episode, we look at the man who was healed at the Pool of Bethesda from a different angle. We ask the question, ‘How would you have ministered to this invalid man who was sick for thirty-eight years if you were walking in Jesus sandals?

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[Tweet “It’s impossible to separate being led by the Spirit from operating by faith and still be successful.”]

#S3-005: What Does Jesus Healing on the Sabbath Teach? [Podcast]

Healing and Miracles in the Life of Jesus

This is Part Three of a Series entitled ‘Healing and Miracles.’ You can find part one of this series, ‘How to Minister Healing Like Jesus Did‘ here and part two ‘Why It’s Important to Flow in Faith’s Domain‘ here.

In this episode, we look at Jesus healing on the Sabbath Day.  Since Jesus operated under the Old Covenant, the question invariably arises, why did He minister this way?

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The Importance of Knowing Where Your Faith Lies

The Epistle of James

On June 1, 1976, in a television interview with Reverend Adrian Rogers, then president of the Southern Baptist Convention and George Otis, director of High Adventure Ministries, Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States spoke these words. “I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t call upon God, and hopefully thank Him as often as I called upon Him. And, yes, in my own experience there came a time when there developed a new relationship with God and it grew out of a need. So, yes, I have had an experience that could be described as “born again.” 1 Knowing where your faith and confidence lies is vitally important in these ‘darker days’ in which we live. This knowledge should not lie just in a ‘one time’ experience with God but in a day to day, situation by situation lifestyle. The believers James writes to, in his epistle, had their faith somewhere else. It’s helpful to be reminded of his counsel.

#S2-047: How To Make Sure You Are An Instrument of Righteousness [Podcast]

A college Sophomore was in need of a car and had a series of dreams one night and everything was in yellow, everything! Early the next morning he began to hit the used car lots, looking at one car after another. Finally he found God’s will for him: a yellow car, yellow inside and out. He didn’t even ask to drive it. He just bought it. Turned out to be a lemon. 1 Yellow in your dreams is hardly the way to acquire God’s will. Jesus knew what the Father’s will was for His life. One day Jesus began to share with His disciples some of that plan. He met with some resistance. What lessons can we learn from Matthews account of this encounter?

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