It’s no accident that Jesus chose as some of His apostles a group of fishermen from Galilee. These were men who could understand Him when Jesus told them He would make them “fishers of men.” He meant, of course, that they would share the Good News about Him with everyone they came in contact with. That’s exactly what each of them did for the rest of their lives! John 7:38 says, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” Fishing requires pa...
Aug 18, 2025•1 min•Season 1Ep. 1886
Only a person who is willfully blind could deny that miracles happen today. They didn’t end at the shore of the Red Sea. Malachi 3:6 says, “I the Lord do not change.” From this, we can logically see that the Bible’s powerful and majestic miracles didn’t stop in the first century. They’re still happening. God didn’t suspend the love He dispenses in the form of miracles. Taylor McCaffrey was an alcoholic as a teenager. He was also a preacher’s kid, and these combined to weigh him down with guilt. ...
Aug 15, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1885
A political science major at a major university was having coffee with a campus pastor. The pastor knew that the student was wrestling with doubt about the existence of God and said to him, “John, you know all of us wonder at some point if it’s all real or not. For example, there are quite a few stories in the Bible that are just hard to believe. Jonah and the whale and all that.” John smiled and said, “No, that’s not my problem. What I wonder about is how God could care about me. I’ve done some...
Aug 14, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1884
Have you ever gotten so tired of life that you wished you could disappear and start over somewhere else? Ever wish that fantasy would just pull you out of your circumstances? They make movies about things like that, but it’s not real. John 14:2,3 says, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also...
Aug 13, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1883
Part of God’s unchanging nature is that He is sovereign and does things His way. In Isaiah 55, we read that God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. In other words, He’s infinitely more powerful than we are, especially when it comes to perspective. We read in the Old Testament that sometimes other nations mocked the Israelites when they were exiled from their homeland. Really, they were mocking God because it was said that maybe He couldn’t keep His promises. After all...
Aug 12, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1882
Do you need a miracle? If we’re honest and open to the truth, miracles have always been a part of our world. In the beginning, God made a dazzling world full of diversity, beautiful animals, gorgeous sunsets, streams of water. He also made us to enjoy it all, and to keep it for Him. But just like the entrance of sin into our world which marred the original beauty, we sometimes get weighed down with worry and cares of life. We look up one day and the drudgery of our days overwhelms us. The supern...
Aug 11, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1881
Congregations of faith all around the world use the word amen. Although many people use it in the right context, not everyone knows what this word means. “Amen” is an ancient Hebrew word, and Scripture uses this word in three primary ways: · At the beginning of a sermon or important statement, the word “amen” often means “verily,” or “truly.” · The Old Testament uses the word “amen” to describe God’s character as true and faithful. · The most common placement of “amen” is at the end of a prayer,...
Aug 08, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1880
Joshua was called by God to lead the 12 tribes of Israel after the death of Moses. Those were pretty big shoes to fill, and the Lord chose Joshua because he was faithful. Joshua knew when he called on God in times of trouble, He would answer. In one powerful example, Joshua asked God to cause the moon and the sun to stand still so that he and his army could continue fighting a difficult battle by daylight. Joshua 10:12–13 says, “On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said t...
Aug 07, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1879
Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, was unable to have children. A woman in Old Testament times who could not bear children was viewed as cursed by God. Not only was infertility heartbreaking for her as a woman and wife, but Hannah would have been looked down upon by her community for her inability to bear a child. Many of us can sympathize with Hannah. She longed to be a mother, and she was a daily witness to the children of her husband’s other wife. But Hannah didn’t give in to despair. S...
Aug 06, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1878
Who are you, exactly, that God should know your name, or care to know your story? Have you ever wondered about the answer to that big question? In the great scheme of things, we sometimes feel like ants in an anthill: nameless drones, fetching and carrying, an unremarkable face among the masses. We are so much more than that to the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says simply, “Pray continually.” Written as a letter to early Christians by the Apostle Paul, this encouraging note doesn’t specify that th...
Aug 05, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1877
Have you ever felt like you’ve just plain run out of juice? The book you’ve been reading seems pointless halfway through. That new sofa or lawnmower or set of wheels was pretty exciting last month, but now you’re not sure what the big deal was. Even your relationships feel lackluster. Human beings aren’t like cell phones or toy robots. We can’t rev up with a fresh set of batteries...we need other, more meaningful fuel to refill our tanks, and the energy we seek can’t be found at any store. 1 The...
Aug 04, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1876
If we’re honest and open to the truth, miracles have always been a part of our world. In the beginning, God made a dazzling world full of diversity—beautiful animals, gorgeous sunsets, streams of water. He also made us to enjoy it all, and to keep it for Him. But just like the entrance of sin into our world, which marred the original beauty, we sometimes get weighed down with worry and cares of life. We look up one day and the drudgery of our days overwhelms us. The supernatural seems far away. ...
Aug 01, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1875
When Hurricane Katrina rolled through, the spinning white satellite image on TV screens actually looked evil. For residents of New Orleans, waiting for that hurricane that’s exactly what it felt like. Thousands of people were affected by the brutal storm that poured in from the Gulf. In many ways, the city still hasn’t recovered. But in the chaos, God was there. For more than 20 years, water pump operator Rufus Burkhalter and Bobby Brown had worked at pumping station number 6 along the 17th Stre...
Jul 31, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1874
In the Tom Hanks film “Castaway,” the main character, Chuck, finds himself in the ultimate terrifying situation. Chuck’s plane goes down in the ocean, and he finds himself stranded on a very deserted island. Years pass. Chuck’s family and friends long ago gave up on him, and why not? No one could have known he was sitting on a remote pile of sand in the Pacific Ocean. He learns to survive, but then reflects on the future. What happens if he gets sick? What happens if he’s injured? Staying put is...
Jul 30, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1873
Hurricane Dorian caused a lot of anxiety and destruction. Many of us worried about the East Coast of our own country, but the Bahamas were hit really hard, with the storm basically stationary for many hours. Residents there hunkered down and sought higher ground, wondering when the onslaught would end, and the storm would pass. The physical damage left by the lengthy storm was devastating. When the winds of life blow fiercely, rain pours down, and the water rises, it is tempting to give in to pa...
Jul 29, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1872
Have you ever gotten tired of treading water? Martha is a 20-something-old lifeguard in Los Angeles. Besides dealing with deck chairs purposely thrown into the water and parents asking her to babysit poolside, she’s noticed another aspect of the job that really tugs at your heart. “Kids pretend to drown in the pool so that I will pay attention to them.” Wow. Think about that. At a young age, humans need to be nurtured and cared for. They want to be loved. So, a young lifeguard becomes their emot...
Jul 28, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1871
Have you ever wondered what your place in this world is? Of course, you have. That’s the human experience. Alone with our thoughts, we wonder who we even are, and what we are meant to do. It’s a mysterious journey, but the fog lifts and the way becomes clear when we get to know King Jesus. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” You were made for something! You were made to do things fo...
Jul 25, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1870
Sometimes life can be overwhelming. I think we can all agree about that. A huge wave of despair can seemingly come out of nowhere, and push us toward disaster. Anita’s life was like that, growing up in Hong Kong where revolutionary movements brought violence and loss of hope. She couldn’t see how the pieces of her life could be put together. She would ask herself, “How do you make peace with a potential that is frustrated?” Philippians 4:19 says, “But my God shall supply all your needs according...
Jul 24, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1869
Have you ever noticed how much we love ritual and form as part of religion? We become so good at it, so obsessed with it, that we lose sight of the essence of what it means to be a Christian. To know God. That is the primary purpose of our journey, and it will be the end of our journey. It is so foundational to who we are as humans that even the great Moses basically begged God to let him see Him. So close were they that according to Jewish tradition, when Moses died, God drew his spirit from hi...
Jul 23, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1868
The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is widely looked upon as the most famous painting in the world. By some historical estimates, the Mona Lisa took as many as 16 years to finish! Capturing Mona Lisa’s famous smile on a poplar plank was no hack job; Leonardo accepted a commission for the work in the year 1503, and completed his masterpiece supposedly around the time of his death in 1519. Clearly, this level of artistic achievement takes time. When you hear the word “masterpiece,” what do you thin...
Jul 22, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1867
Do you struggle to wonder what God’s will is for your life? Many of us do. Although it isn’t a quick answer, the best way to find God’s will for your life is to read His Word. The Bible will tell you the answer to that question. Romans 8:31 tells us, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Actually, finding God’s will isn’t the hardest part. Deciding to follow His will is where we get tripped up. People need the skill and the discipline of being persistent. Too often, the impulse is to give u...
Jul 21, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1866
We live in a broken world, and humanity is the most broken and imperfect of all God’s creation. The world has a permanent OUT OF ORDER sign on it, and as a result, most of us are looking for answers to our questions and solutions to our problems in all the wrong places. We place our trust in ourselves, in shallow standards of beauty, in money, and in our relationships with other people, hoping for meaning and completion we will never find in these sources. We are lost people, following false god...
Jul 18, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1865
Family is a wonderful thing, and these relationships do so much to enrich our lives, but family makes a lousy god. People sometimes think...if only my relationship was better with my dad, or if only I found a husband or wife, or if only we had kids — then life would be complete. A picture-perfect family is a blessing, indeed, but this is not where God wants us to seek meaning in our lives. Family relationships are complicated, and since we’re talking about people, not God, we are sure to be disa...
Jul 17, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1864
What are you worth? This is an ugly question you’d never ask in polite company, although you may be curious about the answer. “The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” This anonymous quote serves us well in our discussion of what happens when we choose to follow dollar bills, instead of the Lord. When we judge each other, and ourselves, by the value of our bank accounts, the size of our homes, or the luxury of the things we accumulate, we are choosi...
Jul 16, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1863
Annual cosmetic industry sales in the United States are about $89.5 billion dollars. That’s nearly 90 billion, with a B, spent on makeup and personal care items including skincare, haircare, perfumes, toiletries, deodorants, and oral cosmetics. For perspective, of 148 nations tracked in 2019 by TheGlobalEconomy.com, 126 of them had annual national expenditures of less than 90 billion dollars, including Israel, Switzerland, and South Africa. We spend more in this country on lotions, potions, and ...
Jul 15, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1862
Baal. Molech. Ashtoreth. Chemosh. Artemis. These names may not ring a bell for you, but back in biblical times, these false gods and others were known as competitors for devotion alongside our one true God — the God of Israel. If you aren’t a modern-day Bible scholar or a student of ancient history, these false gods may not be familiar, but make no mistake — just because we don’t use these same names for false gods today, doesn’t mean our culture doesn’t have any. We definitely do! Joshua 24:15 ...
Jul 14, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1861
Have you ever paused and thought about how rarely people see you for who you are? Have you ever done something that you feel is almost unforgivable? You need to know that is not the way God wants you to feel. Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a pure heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Some of the most famous people in history were very unrighteous at times. King David, described as a man after God’s own heart—he was loved that much—did dreadful things. Guess what, though? His life ...
Jul 11, 2025•1 min•Season 1Ep. 1860
John Kralik was in a bad place. The LA attorney was generally miserable…divorced again, broke, and living in a dingy apartment with no air conditioning. He was also struggling to pay his employees because clients wouldn’t pay him. Not exactly glamorous, but then John did an amazing thing. He decided he would concentrate on things to be grateful for, and follow that up with writing a thank you note every day for an entire year. Over time, and not too slowly actually, John’s life began to improve....
Jul 10, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1859
With the tech boom has come concerns that we are constantly under surveillance, or being watched. And maybe that’s not all a conspiracy theory. But no one in the world knows everything about us. There is still some privacy, some places we can go away from prying eyes. Except… Psalm 69:5 says, “O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.” We know that we serve the One True God, the One that made everything we see. Part of His infinite knowledge is every single thing ...
Jul 09, 2025•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1858
It’s almost universally believed that tech guru Steve Jobs floated into mega success with Apple, the company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak. Job’s first go-around at Apple didn’t end well in 1985, when he was forced out. His next effort wasn’t a home run either, yet Jobs put his head down like a fullback and plowed ahead. Next up for him was founding Pixar and finally, more than a decade after his humiliating exit from Apple, Jobs returned there as CEO and revolutionized the way people interac...
Jul 08, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1857
