As we talk through the Good News of Jesus this week, we must always make it personal. In other words, deciding to believe in Christ is a very personal thing. We all come from different backgrounds and belief systems. In the end, though, what will you do with the story of Jesus? Do you believe it is true? Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Over and over in the New Testament, Jesus talks to the individual. He knew us before we were born, and knows all t...
Jul 27, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 561
The most influential ruler of all time, the greatest king to ever walk the face of the earth, is also mankind’s greatest example of humility. Jesus may have been born in a stable, but the Son of our Creator God was anything but ordinary. He lived a humble life, but performed miracles along the way, and showed us what it means to be a humble servant leader among men. Jesus selflessly took human form, God incarnate, to become a living sacrifice for our sins. He did not profess His innocence and de...
Jul 24, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 560
Picture what it would be like to lose everything in one fell swoop. Your house burns to the ground. The stock market plummets and all your money is gone. Worst of all, your children fall ill and die. Suddenly, you’ve lost not only your material possessions, but your family, too. When people refer to someone as having “the patience of Job,” they say that for a reason. Job was a man of immense wealth, the richest man in the region, and was the father of 7 sons and 3 daughters he loved dearly. He w...
Jul 23, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 559
In Luke Chapter 7 verses 1-10, Jesus heals the servant of a centurion soldier at Capernaum. These verses illustrate the faith this soldier has that Jesus can heal his favorite servant. We also learn in these verses that the Jewish people of the city knew of this particular centurion, and put in a good word for him with Jesus, because he had built the Jewish temple in Capernaum on their behalf. Imagine that! A gentile, a man who was a soldier of some esteem in command of other soldiers in his cit...
Jul 22, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 558
Have you ever recorded minutes for a meeting? Whether you were taking notes at work or for a volunteer organization, such as the PTA at your child’s school, taking minutes and reporting on them at a follow-up meeting is an important responsibility. What ideas were discussed? How were those ideas followed up on? Who, including yourself, agreed to complete certain tasks before the next meeting? And were those tasks completed on time, and correctly? Recording minutes looks pretty mundane from the o...
Jul 21, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 557
Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates is credited with saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This line of thinking, developed nearly 2500 years ago, applies to our lives as Christian believers today. Let’s examine the question: What does it mean to be a godly man?” There are many characteristics that come to mind when thinking about godliness and living the kind of life the Lord wants for us. Today, we’re talking about honesty. In our culture—even in our Christian culture—lying is ofte...
Jul 20, 2020•2 min
Welcome back to prayer 101, the big question for today is how do you develop a prayer life? The answer to how we develop a healthy prayer life is really not that complicated. It's all about choice. We can learn to pray first by reading scripture and taking notice of the hundreds of prayers offered by believers just like us. We can also talk with veterans of prayer in our own life, those who are older and deeper in their faith. But notice something about the prayers recorded in the Bible, they ar...
Jul 17, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 555
Have you ever been really angry at someone, and had a tough time letting it go? Maybe a work colleague let you down, or got you in trouble with the boss. Maybe family drama is dragging you down, and there are unresolved hurt feelings. Maybe your spouse betrayed you, and you aren’t sure how to move past it. Unforgiveness in our lives is painful, and as believers, it can affect our prayer life, and even our relationship with the Lord. Mark 11:25 says, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anyth...
Jul 16, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 554
Tim closed his laptop and wondered what to do next. He had a degree. Great job experience. Enthusiasm and passion for his work… But the job market was tough in his new hometown, and his savings was running out fast. “Lord,” he prayed, “please help me find a job. You know my talents, and what I need to help support my family. Please provide.” He’d been praying this same prayer daily, but no job had come along. Tim knew God’s promises were real, but the disappointment of unanswered prayer was weig...
Jul 15, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 553
Jenna stopped in her tracks, sighing in frustration as she bent down to pick yet another rock out of her shoe. “ Why on earth am I suddenly picking up rocks every time I walk the dog,” she wondered. They finished their usual route, and at home, Jenna slipped off her shoes and discovered the problem: she’d worn those old slip-ons for so long that she wore a hole right through the soles of both shoes! Philippians 4:6 reminds us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer ...
Jul 14, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 552
Humans were built for language and communication. It's one of the bits of creative genius God used when He formed His highest creation. And apart from regular communication, whether it's the written word or verbal, we have a great gift from a loving God: prayer. And that's what we're talking about this week in a series we're calling, Prayer 101. Prayer is an intensely personal way to communicate with our Creator, the One who knows everything about us. Jeremiah 29:12 says, “Then you will call on ...
Jul 13, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 551
One of the best benefits about flying at night is to look out the window and see millions of lights against the black backdrop. The lights signal that a city or town is down there — a place where families live. Our spiritual lives are the same way. This world has its share of darkness, but God looks down and sees His lights. He sees the good that says, “Love lives here.” Matthew 5:14 says, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” We are told in Scripture that as...
Jul 10, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 550
Sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ means that we don’t just sit in our houses and shut away the world. Scripture is an action item. Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.” If the Bible is true—if God’s story intersects with our story—then a hurting world is in need of a Savior. The pain many are enduring will have no end until they meet the God-Man, Jesus. He is our healer and His glory fills the earth. We all have different persona...
Jul 09, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 549
Nothing is more basic to life than creation itself. The Bible tells us that God alone has the power to truly create, and the beauty of language in Psalm 139 explains this fully. Some believe the psalmist was writing in part about the creation of Adam. Psalm 139:1-3 says, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.” The writer marvels at the way...
Jul 08, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 548
Think of what Jesus was asking of His followers. He had just risen from the dead. That doesn’t happen every day. His ministry had been destroyed, so they thought. He wasn’t coming back. But then He did. Only days after being killed on a brutal Roman cross, Jesus was standing in front of his friends, looking very much alive. And He was telling them their futures were dicey. Mark 16:15 says, “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Jerusalem at the time was ...
Jul 07, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 547
Don’t you just love the diversity God put into the world? He created harmony and balance everywhere, including our individual “best time of the day” to be creative and productive. Some of us are “up with the chickens,” as they used to say. Others burn a candle late into the night. Whatever time is your time to connect in positive ways, God made you to shine for His purposes. Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.” Embrace your uniquene...
Jul 06, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 546
Have you ever thought about the fact that you have an obligation to defend our nation’s freedoms? You live in the Land of the Free; your contributions are needed. We all have a role. Joshua 1:9 commands us, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Sure, maybe you’re not a Navy SEAL. Maybe you don’t fly supersonic jets in combat. You never served in the military. Most citizens haven’t, an...
Jul 03, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 545
From the very beginning, women around the world have served their countries on the front lines of war. In America, we know that the Land of the Free has hundreds of thousands of women manning their stations at home while Daddy fights a long way from home. In fact, winning World War 2 would have been dicey had we not had millions of women manning factories and offices. But many of us are unaware that women serve in front-line units. As of last year, 800 served in combat. By the fall of 2018, 18 h...
Jul 02, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 544
Today in America, two million men and women serve in our armed forces. More than 200,000 of them are deployed to various points around the world. Joshua 1:9 reminds us, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” The Lord has told us directly not to be afraid. We aren’t even to be discouraged! He’s told us through His promises that He’ll be with us every step of the way. If we stop and thin...
Jul 01, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 543
Matt Axelson was a smiling, sandy-haired native of California. In 2000, he entered the Army and became a Navy SEAL. Then 9/11 happened. In the sweltering summer heat of Afghanistan in 2005, Axelson’s team was told to capture a senior member of the Taliban. Unfortunately, the team was betrayed by locals sympathetic to the Taliban, and the SEALs found themselves surrounded by upwards of 100 enemy fighters. During a fierce firefight, Axelson was hit in the head and chest, but continued fighting unt...
Jun 30, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 542
We owe them so much. Do you ever stop and think about the routine things you do every day? Buying detergent so that you can wash your family’s clothes. Fixing a couple of boards on your deck. We even grind through staff meetings at work. All this of course mixed with life, laughter, and love. But do you think about why you can do these things in a great and strong country? Primarily it’s because of the sacrifices of our fallen soldiers—those men and women who have defended the homeland since Col...
Jun 29, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 541
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 Stree...
Jun 26, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 540
Would it surprise you to know that God has always been interested in you? Did you know He knew you before you were born? He has a vested interest in how your life turns out. Romans 8:31 tells us, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” He isn’t some remote deity. God doesn’t pay attention only most of the time. He doesn’t form His plans here and there. He is there for us all the time. The question is, where are we? Before you were born, it was God’s will that you would have a relationship wit...
Jun 25, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 539
It’s interesting watching the outcomes of people who refuse to give in to fear. Many years ago, while America was going through a severe economic depression and a world war, President Roosevelt told Americans that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Those listening over the radio said later that they felt a great sense of relief just from his words! Psalm 23:4 tells us, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod an...
Jun 24, 2020•2 min
Even during times of calm and security, the honest truth is, there are very few examples of really strong and steady leaders. It’s a given then that when times are scary, brave leaders that reassure us are really rare! The Bible speaks of one such person. Joshua 1:9 says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua was an especially passionate and courageous leader. A born leader....
Jun 22, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 537
The worst of times brings out the best in some people. As we think about sacrificing for others this week, we find some extraordinary stories. One such story from 70 years ago spotlights a very brave woman. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." During World War 2, Romanian Princess Catherine Caradja defied her government’s alliance with the Nazis. When Allied bombers flew over, targeting oilfields, several planes were shot down. The ever-...
Jun 22, 2020•1 min•Season 1Ep. 536
What is your relationship with your father like? That’s a very personal question, right? And for some people, it may be a topic they don’t enjoy discussing. Sometimes people who don’t have a meaningful relationship with a father or father figure, struggle to grasp just how much God, our creator and provider, loves us. It can be challenging to develop a personal relationship with your heavenly father, if you’ve missed out on a positive bond with your father here on earth. Psalm 90:2 says, “Before...
Jun 19, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 535
Joseph was a hardworking tradesman who God hand-picked from all the men in the world to be the earthly father of His own Son, Jesus Christ. What an honor! And in some ways, what an incredibly challenging task. Joseph wasn’t a king, a politician, or a recognized leader of any kind when he was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. A simple carpenter, he was also a man of compassion. When he learned Mary was pregnant and knew the child could not be his, he intended to divorce her quietly and send ...
Jun 18, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 534
Moses was the father of two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, and he also served as a father figure to the entire Hebrew people as they escaped from slavery in Egypt. He loved his people, and helped discipline and provide for them on their 40-year journey to the Promised Land. Imagine leading a frustrated, tired, hungry group of travelers through the desert — without air conditioning or handheld electronics — for four decades! So many aspects of Moses’s life story seem larger-than-life, and he was inde...
Jun 17, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 533
Noah was far from perfect, but he was a humble man, and protective of his family. He stands out among fathers in the Bible as a man who remained loyal to God, in spite of the wickedness of the world around him. Doesn’t that sound a lot like life today? Fathers who choose to follow a life of faith are surrounded by temptation and downright evil in this world, but God is pleased by our devotion, and He has a plan for each of us — even when circumstances are frustrating or difficult. Genesis 6 vers...
Jun 16, 2020•3 min•Season 1Ep. 532
