In this episode, we examine what Jesus told His disciples in John 15 about what it means to abide in Him and bear fruit. This episode comes after a long season of failing to abide and bear fruit and in the midst of a season of growth as I relearn to abide and bear fruit. Thank you, you who have encouraged me to relaunch the podcast! Thank you to whoever listens, subscribes, and shares!
We often have doubts about ourselves because of the fact that we continue to sin, even after receiving salvation. However, Jesus is our advocate! He is our mediator! He pleads our case before God and makes a way for us to continue having fellowship and intimacy with our Heavenly Father. We make a choice every day to have the right motives and desires, and to act upon those desires, yet Jesus also chooses every day to be our advocate. He chose us first, and continues to choose us every single day...
Discipline is the foundation for building success, but discipline is hard. In today's episode, we take a closer look at why discipline is important and what it means to be disciplined in our daily lives. This episode is based on the first chapter of my book Righteous Business. If you would like to purchase this book, it is available from my website at the link below, as well as all book retailers! http://www.mallettwritings.com/
Every decision we make, where we go, what we do, what we say, who we spend time with, makes a difference in our mindset and in our fellowship with God. John cautions us here in today's passage that we should be careful to walk in the light. But thank God that we have forgiveness in Jesus for when we fail!
Righteous Business is the kind of business that everyone should practice. Whatever your business is, it is your responsibility to do it righteously. This means conducting ourselves according to the wisdom of the Word of God. As we study through Proverbs 12 throughout this year, my hope is that each episode will challenge you to become a better steward of the resources given to you by God, a better leader of the people around you, a better manager of the organization if which you are a part, and ...
As Christians, we know that fellowship is important, but do we realize just how important it is? Do we understand why it is important? In today's episode, we will discuss what fellowship is, why it is important, and what it effects in our lives as humans and as believers. This episode also comes with very exciting news! My personal copies of my new book Righteous Business will be delivered the afternoon that this episode is being released. That means that I will finally be able to have my live u...
If you are anything like me, you are easily distracted or overwhelmed by life to such an extent that you struggle with devotion to any good habit, much less the habit of being devoted to studying the Word of God. Going into this new year, after an interesting winter break, my hope is that today's episode sets the tone or the pace for a renewed devotion to the Word of God. We listen to plenty sermons, podcasts, and teachings from respected pastors, preachers, and teachers, but do we balance that ...
We are bombarded with temptations every single day, and we so often struggle in our own power to resist those temptations and remain free from sin. Joseph is a great example of what it looks like to cut our losses and flee from sin. In today's episode, we will discuss what it looks like to be faced with temptation and remain faithful to God even in the face of the most difficult, persistent temptations.
In order to be "good," we must remove bad, yet many of us, just like the Israelites, remove bad without replacing it with what our souls really need. We all are created for the purpose of being in a relationship with God and glorifying God. With this in mind, it is important for us to understand that we must replace our sinfulness with godliness, or else we will find ourselves continuing to struggle with the same sins and sinful human nature until we finally do allow ourselves to be filled with ...
Joseph is a bible character known for his dreams and interpretation of dreams. For New Testament Christians, dreams may be something that we are unsure about when we consider what it looks like to follow God's will as closely as possible. Dreams are an important part of our relationship with God and spiritual development. In today's episode, we will discuss this and take a look at what it means practically to dream big and dream righteously.
Jesus, in a very striking statement to the people of Israel, says that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgement for the city of Sodom than for the people of Israel. Why would Jesus make such an incredible claim? In today's episode, we will find out what it takes to have right standing with God, and take a close look at the differentiation Jesus makes between the wicked people of Sodom and the religious people of Israel.
Jacob wrestled with God and would not let go until God blessed Him. In our comfortable culture, we have forgotten how to wrestle with God, and this has had a dramatic impact on the way we view our relationship with God. In today's episode, we get a clearer picture of what it looks like to wrestle with God and why it is so important.
We tithe because that is what we are commanded by God to do. Tithing is such an important part of our daily Christian living, yet we see in Genesis 28 that Jacob decided to tithe, to give ten percent of his wealth back to God as a result of a revelation of the goodness of God and the promise of God to always provide for Jacob. How much different would our lives and our relationship with God be if we tithed as a response to the majesty and love of God?
Genesis 27 is a very familiar story of Jacob's deceitful behavior earning a quick, temporary gain in life. Isaac blesses Jacob instead of Esau as a result of the schemes of Rebekah and Jacob, yet this blessing does not protect Jacob from the consequences of his deceit later on in life. The two thoughts we discuss in this episode are the brevity of life and the fulfillment of life in God.
Because we understand the present better than we understand the future, it is very easy for us to take what is satisfying, fulfilling, or enjoyable now, even if it means sacrificing what is coming in the future. For Esau, this was trading his birthright for a single meal. Though we would never trade a material inheritance for a bowl of stew, we trade our spiritual inheritance for so much less. And we do this every single day, probably without even thinking about it!
Everyone has faith. The depth of our faith is what changes things for us in life. I have faith that my alarm clock will wake me up, but do I have faith that I will get another day? I have faith that I will heal from a cold, but do I have faith that I will heal from a terminal illness? Regardless of how the situation seems to me, my faith should be just as deep, no matter what. The centurion in today's episode understood what faith is, and he demonstrated the deepest faith.
The teachings of Jesus had a far greater impact on the Jews than any of the teachings they had ever heard before. This is because there was something different behind Jesus's teachings. He taught as someone who had a special power or authority to teach. This same special something is available to us through the Holy Spirit. As we grow closer to God, we will deepen our understanding of the Bible as well as our understanding of God. This is what differentiated the teachings of the Jewish religious...
God called Abraham to be blameless in order that a covenant would be established between them. Abraham bowed down before God, and God established that covenant. Yet we see as Genesis continues that God desired Abraham to continue to be blameless being blameless before God is not an event. Walking with God is not a temporary thing that we sometimes do, or only do when it is convenient or beneficial to us. Unfortunately, in the busyness of the world, we can fall into a rut of viewing God this way....
God calls us to be blameless, to be holy just as He is holy. We see God remind Abram of this in Genesis 17, yet Abram's actions are radically different in this chapter than in the previous chapters. Abram's behavior looked different here when God finally established His covenant with Abram, yet it was not Abram's actions that changed things; it was his heart! In today's episode, we come to a greater understanding of what it means to be blameless, and we also take a look at the relationship betwe...
The world was created perfectly by God, yet sin has ruined that perfection. We struggle and fight and experience tragedy and hardship because of the results of sin. Throughout history, people have organized movements and causes to try to get the world back into its proper state of being, yet so many people don't have a clear understanding of what counts as the "proper" state of being for the world. In today's episode, we will look at one simply verse that proclaims the truth about God's relation...
Continuing our study of Psalm 22, we are reminded by Jesus' example of the importance of memorizing scripture. However, it is important that along with memorizing the Bible, we allow God to help us understand what we are memorizing. Being equipped with His Word does little good if we do not understand how it applies to our life circumstances. The Pharisees had the whole Bible memorized, yet failed to understand how those verses referenced by Jesus related to what was happening right before their...
When Jesus was on the cross, He cried out to God, saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This was something that confused me as a child. Why would Jesus think that God had abandoned Him? Of course, we know that when Jesus took on the sins of the world, God couldn't bear to look at His own Son. But there was a greater reason for Jesus' crying out in this way. Jesus was quoting Psalm 22, and this is a powerful reminder to us of the importance of looking to scripture to be reminded of ...
We don't associate laws with revival or commandments with rejoicing, but that is exactly what the psalmist writes about in this passage of scripture! Our values dictate our perception of obedience to God's laws, but our values, as humans, are almost always wrong. We over-value the things of the world and under-value the things of God, which causes us to respond differently to God's Word. In today's episode, we will take a look at how we can change our perception of God's laws and work to change ...
None of us has a perfect track record in our pursuit of righteousness and fellowship with God, but we can look back on our life and see that God has always kept our feet from slipping. Even when we stumble, He has continued to provide for us, whether that means helping us learn a hard lesson or moving us into a place of greater blessing. In today's episode, we look at how David experienced this in his life, and we apply that wisdom to our own lives.
So long as we live in a broken world, we will struggle with a broken understanding of what is good, godly, and desirable. We will fall into things that we thought would satisfy us, but actually only multiply our sorrows. In this episode, we look at the psalmist's dichotomy between finding fulfillment in the world and finding fulfillment in God.
The world is full of wicked people, as well as people who are suffering oppression and persecution. It is important for us, especially those of us who have freedom from persecution, to be mindful of the struggles of the Body of Christ around the world. The Lord's Word is perfectly pure, and He keeps His Word. He keeps His promises to us, no matter what is happening in the world around us. We have the testimony of the Bible to strengthen our faith, as well as the testimony of everyone throughout ...
The psalms are filled with beautiful imagery and emotion not only to capture our attention but also to help us gain a greater understanding of the principles within the poetry. In this picture, the psalmist gives us an idea of what it looks like to be rooted and growing in the Lord, along with the reverse understanding of what it looks like when we are failing to walk in the righteous way. In today's episode, we will closely examine the details of what the psalmist is describing so that we can h...
To be passive is to be unrighteous. For many people passivity is the norm, the most comfortable way of living. Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to become more like Christ if we allow ourselves to be passive. We cannot make ourselves more like Christ by our own effort, but we can choose to set ourselves apart from the wickedness of the world so that God is free to work in us to make us more like Him. In this chapter of Psalms, especially in these first two verses, the psalmist gives a clear...
We have been given the earth and all of creation as our home while we live within time, but we are not very good at stewarding it well. I believe that we fail to steward creation well because we diminish the significance of creation in light of eternity. God has given us time and creation, and even though time is the smallest portion of our eternal lives, we have a responsibility to take care of the things that we do have here within time. This message may frustrate some who feel that we should ...
Writing, journaling, note-taking; however you call it, writing is a crucial spiritual discipline, and so many Christians fail to practice it. We hear sermons, read scriptures, and listen to podcasts, yet never write what we are learning, what questions we have, and where we are struggling to grow. Throughout scriptures, we can see commands and prompts to write down the wisdom and experiences we are gaining in our walk with God, and all of scripture is an example set for us for this spiritual dis...
