If you want to know how you’re doing spiritually, all you have to do is answer one simple question: “Do I have joy?” If I’m full of fear, there is no joy. If I harbor bitterness toward someone, there is no joy. If I grieve the Holy Spirit by saying or doing something harmful to another, there is no joy. If I allow an addiction to control me, or follow after the passions of my flesh, there is no joy. But when my faith is strong, when I’m at peace with others, when my spirit is in control of my fl...
Sep 29, 2022•57 min•Ep. 160
There are spiritual truths that you cannot understand, no matter how smart you are, until God reveals them to you. Once you finally understand, the meaning seems so obvious you find it hard to believe that you never saw it before. But the fact is, until God explained it to you, it never made sense. This is what Jesus was explaining to His disciples that evening when He said to them, “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear [them] now…” (literal) (v12). In other words, He told t...
Sep 26, 2022•53 min•Ep. 159
What Jesus was about to do would change everything. All that God had done with the human race, from the time of Adam and Eve onward, looked forward to this moment. Even before He made the world, God peered into the future and saw everything. Listen to how Peter explained this, “…knowing that you were ransomed, not with corruptible silver or gold from your futile conduct [which was] given to you by [your] fathers, but with precious blood, as from a lamb without blemish or spot (stain), [the blood...
Sep 22, 2022•46 min•Ep. 158
If you met God, would you recognize Him? You might say, “Well, of course I would. He’s an old man with a long white beard, sitting on a throne with a brilliant light shining around Him. And there are angels who worship before Him day and night.” But that’s only the way people picture Him, it’s not the Person Himself. What if there were no beard or throne or light or angels, could you still recognize Him? What if He took on the form of a normal man, and you met Him one day standing on a street co...
Sep 19, 2022•52 min•Ep. 157
There’s a great difference between being informed and conformed. Being informed means to receive knowledge. Our minds learn something we didn’t know. But to be conformed involves being changed from one thing into another. It’s what happens to a lump of clay when it’s pushed into a mold. It takes on an entirely different appearance; one that was determined by someone else. First the clay has to be moistened with water. Then it’s kneaded until it becomes soft and pliable, and finally it’s pressed ...
Sep 15, 2022•51 min•Ep. 156
Love is the key to longevity, and longevity is the key to much fruit. That means that in order to bear much fruit we have to stay in relationship with people for a long time, and to do that we have to love them. If love declines, we withdraw, we become judgmental, we cease to pray for that person and stop serving them. And when those activities stop our positive influence comes to an end. We cease to be part of God’s solution and become part of the problem. So, if you and I are going to bear muc...
Sep 08, 2022•43 min•Ep. 155
To become a disciple of Jesus Christ requires enormous sacrifice. Basically, it requires a person to give Jesus the control of their life. From that point on, he or she will choose, over and over again, to live in such a way as to do whatever they can to help others meet Him. When Jesus called someone He never hid that fact from them. He never lured anyone with false promises of an easy life. Instead, He did the opposite. He warned them that following Him would cost them everything, but He also ...
Sep 05, 2022•54 min•Ep. 154
Salvation isn’t a transaction, it’s a relationship. We don’t do something to get something; we meet someone and then walk with that person for the rest of our lives. Then, when we arrive at our final day, He carries us through the veil of death into eternal life. It’s a relationship that connects us to the Creator, the One from whom all life flows. Life does not originate from an organic process, it produces an organic process. It comes from God and is sustained by God. One of the most amazing s...
Sep 01, 2022•51 min•Ep. 153
God is a generous God. He wants to share His authority, but only with a certain kind of person: His Son, and those who are like His Son. If He were to give His authority to anyone else they would use it for things that are not His will, which means He would be assisting them to do things that are harmful. And, of course, He can never do that because He is completely good. To deviate from His will would mean that something outside His plan, outside His character, outside His goodness was being in...
Aug 29, 2022•54 min•Ep. 152
When people talk about serving the Lord, when they try to convince us to selflessly minister to others, they often assure us that our service will bring with it a deep sense of fulfillment. We will feel good about ourselves knowing that we did something meaningful and helpful. But in practice, such feelings may boost our self-esteem for a moment, but they rarely make up for the level of personal sacrifice that was required of us. So those who serve in order to get those good feelings, soon disco...
Aug 25, 2022•52 min•Ep. 151
For the past few years these eleven men had been students. They had been listening, watching, helping and at times doing, but everything centered on Jesus. He preached, He healed, He cast out demons, He prayed, and He led them from place to place. So it was almost impossible for them to think that the kind of ministry that He had been doing could continue in any real way. And how sorry they must have felt to see it all come to an end. So many people had been so wonderfully helped, so many smiles...
Aug 22, 2022•46 min•Ep. 150
ave you ever wondered why so many individuals who claim to be Christians behave so badly? In some cases, large numbers of so-called Christians have behaved worse than unbelievers and some even at a level of evil explainable only by demonic influence. Have you ever been reading a history book or watching a documentary only to suddenly realize that the horror being described was perpetrated by people who called themselves Christians? Or, have you noticed that with sad regularity a Christian leader...
Aug 18, 2022•48 min•Ep. 149
God knew how weak we were when He called us. Yet He wanted us anyway. He knows us far better than we know ourselves. Nothing we do surprises Him. In one of the psalms David says, “He knows our frame, He knows we are but dust” (Ps 103:14). Clearly He’s not impressed with our natural capacities. How silly our well-intended promises must sound to Him when we try to assure Him that we will never fail that way again. Yes, it pleases Him that we want to please Him, but He knows only too well that our ...
Aug 11, 2022•47 min•Ep. 148
They were in their final hours together. He would be arrested soon, and by nine o’clock in the morning He would be on the cross. So, Jesus devoted the time they had left to preparing His disciples for the future. Here were truths to which they would need to cling. Here were promises that would carry them through the trials they would face in the years ahead. He spoke of heaven, love, prayer, the Holy Spirit, obedience, persecution, and, of course, His return to set up the kingdom of God. And the...
Aug 08, 2022•51 min•Ep. 147
It’s one thing to be wounded by an enemy, but it’s another to be betrayed by a friend. We expect enemies to hate us, and usually know why they do. There’s been an offense or profound disagreement and we haven’t been able to repair it. And it seems that no matter how nice we try to be to people we all end up with a certain number of enemies. It’s just a sad fact of life. But betrayal happens very differently. It comes as a shock, a complete surprise, from someone we trusted and thought loved us. ...
Aug 04, 2022•59 min•Ep. 146
It’s counterintuitive. It doesn’t make sense. You would think that the way to happiness would be by serving ourselves, but a self-centered life ends up being very depressing. At first it might seem to work, but as time goes on it produces anger. Life never seems to give us all we feel that we deserve and people seldom love us the way they should, so resentments build, leaving us angry. And that anger invariably drives people and happiness farther away, until, at some point, we realize that life ...
Aug 01, 2022•46 min•Ep. 145
It’s not enough to start out clean, we must arrive clean. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven, but on a day-to-day basis sins keep happening, and those sins, if left unattended, have the power to erode the very faith that saved us. That’s why our life with Jesus must be a daily walk, not a transaction that took place because of a prayer we once prayed or a doctrine we affirmed. Jesus is inviting us into a relationship with Him in which He will teach us how to avoid sin ...
Jul 28, 2022•53 min•Ep. 144
On that final evening in the upper room, Jesus did something that turned our world upside down. Normally, humans think that the more important a person is the more that person should be served and honored. We think important people are too dignified to do lowly tasks. We look for ways to give them special care. We give them the best seat, the best portion, the best of everything. They become the focus of our attention and adulation. So it’s no wonder humans strive to become important. In countle...
Jul 25, 2022•51 min•Ep. 143
On Sunday, five days before He was crucified, Jesus said this: “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (Jn 12:31). This world is under God’s judgment because of sin, and the “ruler of this world” is the devil. So on that day Jesus was announcing that His death on the cross and His resurrection would potentially release all humans from these two forms of bondage: the judgment of God and the control of the devil. He was announcing that He had come, like a wa...
Jul 21, 2022•57 min•Ep. 142
Truth doesn’t change, especially spiritual truth. The spiritual world is not a myth. There are lots of myths and fairy tales, invented stories about gods, goddesses and how the world was created. But that doesn’t change spiritual truth; it only makes it harder to find. The fact that there are people who say wrong things doesn’t mean right things don’t exist. And the truth is: There is a God who made us; He’s holy, and He’s going to hold us accountable for our words, thoughts and actions, unless ...
Jul 18, 2022•58 min•Ep. 141
Fear is very lonely. It seems to place a barrier between us and others, and between us and God. It feels like we’ve walked into a chamber and closed the door. There, alone, trapped with our terrible thoughts, our emotions churn and our body grows weary. In fact the suffering that fear brings is often worse than the problem itself. We can suffer through the same event over and over again in our mind, long before we actually encounter whatever it is we fear. I wish there were a way we could do awa...
Jul 14, 2022•54 min•Ep. 140
The greatest decision you or I will ever make is to repent and receive by faith the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That decision changes where we will spend eternity. But there is another decision each person must make which determines the outcome of our life. It’s one of those decisions where to not make a decision is to make a decision. If we make the right choice our life will be “fruitful,” meaning it will be full of people who are, in one way or another, being drawn closer to Jesus. If we m...
Jul 11, 2022•58 min•Ep. 139
It’s the most natural thing in the world: People turn to God because they need something and want Him to use His power to help them. That’s actually the motivating factor behind most of the world’s religions, and has been throughout human history. People do something, or sacrifice something, or chant something until their god or impersonal spiritual force treats them favorably. And history has shown that humans will do just about anything, no matter how horrible or costly, to persuade whatever t...
Jul 07, 2022•57 min•Ep. 138
If you’ll recall, Mary is the one who listened carefully. While her sister Martha was busy serving the guests, she sat at Jesus’ feet and pondered His every word. The Gospel of Luke describes that exchange. Let’s hear it again: “Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up [to H...
Jul 04, 2022•54 min•Ep. 137
Human beings have always had a hard time getting along with each other. The same forces that separate us from God also separate us from people. The Bible uses a simple word to describe those forces; it calls them “Sin.” Bundled into that one word are three destructive attitudes that have been the source of our troubles from the first humans onward. Those attitudes are selfishness, rebelliousness and independence. The “sins” we humans commit are the result of the “Sin” that's inside us. If you ex...
Jun 30, 2022•50 min•Ep. 136
There are people who absolutely refuse to believe in Jesus Christ no matter what proof is presented. You can explain God's plan of salvation in crystal-clear terms, but they say it doesn't make sense to them. They might watch a miracle performed before their eyes, yet they won't repent. There are people who fearlessly acknowledge that the Bible warns them about what will happen to them if they die in their present condition, but still refuse to change. Why? What causes a person to refuse to beli...
Jun 27, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 135
You aren't your body. You express yourself through your body; you are influenced by your body; you even have to take care of your body, but your existence is rooted in another dimension altogether. That's because God made you in His image, and He doesn't have a body. He is spirit (Jn 4:24). When He created Adam and Eve, He created rational, volitional, conscious beings who can know Him, obey Him, love Him and communicate with Him, person to person. He gave us a body, and said it was “good,” and ...
Jun 23, 2022•55 min•Ep. 134
Anyone who serves God effectively has to have two important qualities: courage and caution. They have to be willing to die for Jesus but determined not to do anything careless that might end their ministry early. Without courage a person won't follow where God leads; without caution a person will create so much trouble for themselves that they have to stop. Caution is the careful analysis of a situation before taking the first step, and for a disciple of Jesus Christ that means earnestly seeking...
Jun 20, 2022•48 min•Ep. 133
One of the most wonderful aspects of watching Jesus in action is that we're seeing how things ought to work. He never prayed a wrong request; no prayer of His ever went unanswered because of a lack of faith, and no spiritual opposition was too difficult for Him to overcome. Whenever we get into the subject of prayer the question always arises as to why some prayers are answered, and it appears, some are not. Because we humans sometimes do pray amiss or lack faith or encounter strongholds that ar...
Jun 16, 2022•57 min•Ep. 132
Let's reflect for a moment on our walk with God. When was the last time that you or I did something because we felt God told us to do it, and then He showed up and did some sort of miracle or we would have failed? If the answer is never, or it was so long ago we can't remember, what we're going to talk about today may be challenging to understand, but we have to try, because according to Jesus hearing from God and depending on His power is the normal way every believer is supposed to function. T...
Jun 13, 2022•59 min•Ep. 131
