Ep.928: What Should We Be Praying For?
Guidelines and principles for having your prayers heard
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CHAPTERS
Theme Scripture: Matthew 6:6
Lots and lots of people pray, and we pray for all kinds of things from wanting more material things in our lives to wanting to be healed from disease or injury, to wanting bad experiences to end. While we also pray for God’s will to be done, it seems as though the focus of most of our prayers is about – well, it is all about "me" – what I feel, what I want and what I prefer. Think about it...praying is supposed to be spiritual access to the God of all things and in that access all we can focus on is...me!? So, how is prayer supposed to work? Are there guidelines or rules for HOW we should pray? Are there dos and don’ts for WHAT we should be praying for? Is prayer an open and easily accessible tool for anyone who wants to talk to God or is it more of a privilege for those who are seeking God’s will?
Because prayer is a worldwide, multi-religion phenomenon, our conversation needs to narrow to the Judeo-Christian principles of prayer. In so doing, that focuses our search for the basics of prayer towards the book in which we have the most confidence – the Bible. What a gold mine! We found that prayer as a tool has three basic components: Privilege, Process and Persistence. If we understand these three pieces, we can begin to understand how to make prayer a vital and effective part of our daily lives.
Let’s concentrate for a moment on privilege. If you really believe that the God of heaven is the Creator of all things and that He is all-seeing and has a plan for the world and for you then STOP! THINK! When you pray, you are talking to Him and you are trying to listen to what He – the highest and most powerful being in and beyond our universe - is telling you. If this does not give you a sense of undeserved privilege then, well, let’s just say that you might need to reflect and think it through again.
Many prayers in the Bible show us this deep and reverential attitude towards approaching God. David in Psalm 63 is a great example. He wrote this prayer while he was a fugitive, hiding in caves in Judah from King Saul who had gone mad and sought to kill him. As David began to pray under this life threatening strain, he gave us verse after verse of praising God and of the boundlessness of God’s mercy and security of God’s love. It is only after thoughtfully lauding the greatness of God that he asked for help in his life-threatening circumstances.
Perhaps we should follow David’s lead in our own prayers and put first things first. Let’s try to intentionally appreciate the magnitude of our God before we pour out our woes, fears and failures to him. When we do this we will more easily begin to see our trials through the godly eyes of faith rather than the defeated eyes of struggle. Making this adjustment will then help us to see His plans and answers more plainly as well.
Check out our July 31, 2016 program, “What Should We be Praying For?” There is so much more to learn about regarding the value of prayer, and it is all right there for the taking!
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Ep.927: Does Science Show the Existence of a Creator?
How true science verifies superhuman intelligence
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CHAPTERS
Theme Scripture: Psalms 19:4
"Materialism" is a philosophy that permeates much of the world today. It is the belief that physical stuff underlies everything real, and it rejects any supernatural forces as having influence in our world. It teaches that the universe came into existence on its own, without any intelligence or design behind it; and it has proceeded randomly since. Further, it is claimed there is no natural moral code in this accidental universe other than what man comes up with. Thus there is no reason why we are here and no hope beyond death. The material world is all there is or will be. Related to this is the concept of "scientism," which is the belief that science is the only reliable source of truth. Is this true? Is science the only source of truth? Does science really validate godlessness? Or does science show something else entirely?
Admittedly, attempting to talk about science and relating it to the existence of God is a monumental task, for both science and God are enormous and complex. Science proves itself to be based on precision and design, and we believe that God is in fact behind the intelligent design - not only of science but of everything else in the physical universe. Where there is a designer and a design, there must also be a plan. The Bible helps us to trace God’s plan for the universe, for our galaxy and for all of mankind.
Planet earth. We all know water drives earthly life but what many of us don’t know is that the properties of water are very unique and therefore perfectly suited to sustain life. For water to be able to do its life sustaining work our planet needs to be orbiting the sun within a narrow band where water can flow, where the sun’s gravity won’t overwhelm the planet and where we won’t burn up or freeze. The phrase “The Goldilocks Zone” has been adopted by some researchers to describe this narrow life-sustaining band around our sun because its conditions are “just right.” A question we should ask ourselves is, were these elements put in place by chance or by intelligent design?
Did you know the thickness of the earth’s crust is vital to life? Did you know the precise strength of earth’s magnetic field is also vital to life? And what about the precise combination of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide in our atmosphere – this is vital as well. Again, the question to ask is, could all of these things just randomly happened or was it by design?
When you look at the properties of the sun, the size and placement of the moon, and the nuclear, gravitational and electromagnetic forces in the universe, what continues to be revealed is design and extraordinary precision. Is it all by chance?
There is so much more! You owe it to yourself to listen to our July 24th, 2016 broadcast, “Does Science Show the Existence of a Creator?” Even if you don’t believe in Intelligent Design, we would love to hear what you think!
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Ep.926: But Do You Really Like Yourself?
Learning to adopt a healthy, godly love for yourself
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CHAPTERS
Theme Scripture: Romans 7:24
Most of us really don’t like ourselves. We are too tall or short, too fat or thin, too reserved or too lazy. We don’t like ourselves because we don’t think before we act or we think too much and don’t act at all. We don’t like ourselves because we are not attractive enough or we don’t have enough charisma or we are too lonely or we run away from our problems. Maybe we think we are too forward and forceful or too confrontational or maybe we think we are too analytical, too self-conscious or just plain wimpy! Whatever the case, we seem to be unhappy with ourselves, which brings us to the question – as a Christian aren’t we supposed to not like ourselves so we can be more like Jesus? So, shouldn’t we be happy in our unhappiness? Let’s stop already! Too many questions – let's find some answers!
The real problem with not liking ourselves is not that we are unlikeable. On the contrary, most of us can rattle off the names of many people we know who actually do like us. The problem is that we determine our desire to like ourselves by using an unreliable and sliding scale. Here is the process: our self assessment usually comes to the front of our minds when difficult things happen - we have just gone through a tough experience or a break up of some kind or we have come up short in some effort. We look at the results that are obviously not ideal and then inevitably compare ourselves to someone else who happens to have been successful in the same circumstance...and surprise surprise, the seeds of self loathing are planted!
This is such a flawed approach in so many ways, yet it is such a common approach among so many people. To change that which is common requires taking an uncommon path that begins with our common conclusions. Let me explain: A common reason for our not liking ourselves is that we are flawed. The Bible even verifies this as it tells us we are “born in sin and shapen in iniquity.” We read this and think that all too common thought, "Well, no wonder I don’t like myself!" and now we have begun accepting a premise (based on fact though it may be) without considering the larger and infinitely more important viewpoint. This unconsidered viewpoint is the heavenly one – it is God’s own viewpoint and observations of what and who we are.
What does God think of what and who we are? Is He looking down at us flabbergasted at our condition? Does he see us as broken beyond repair and a total waste of His time? No! We know He sees us differently because the Bible is not only clear on the matter, it is detailed as well. Therefore, should we not try and adopt His perspective of us as a baseline for our “likeability” rather than our own flawed and ever-changing conclusions of our “likeability”? Yes! But how?
Please, take some time and listen to our July 10th 2016 broadcast, “But, do You Really Like Yourself?” and give yourself the opportunity to refresh the way you see yourself. If you let it, this program can help to change and elevate the very path of your thoughts!
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Ep.925: Freedom and Responsibility – Still Important?
Assessing responsibility to freedom on Independence Day
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CHAPTERS
Theme Scripture: Genesis 1:28
We are blessed. We live in a country where freedom of speech and assembly are a given – a country where we can choose who to worship and how we accomplish that worship. We live in a country where we can apply ourselves, work hard and attain levels of success that are not only rare, they are unheard of in many other places. We live in America and we have the freedoms we currently enjoy because of the wisdom and sacrifice of the countless patriots who founded our country long ago. As we pause over the 4th of July weekend to celebrate their efforts and succes, we also want to pause to look long and hard at our present interpretation of freedom. Have we lost our way when it comes to the privilege of living in freedom and assuming the necessary responsibilities that are inherent to it? Is our freedom here in America on borrowed time?
Understanding freedom is a tricky thing. If you asked the average person you see everyday what freedom is, we all know that you would get a variety of answers. If you tracked the answers by age brackets, I think you would find (my opinion here) that our youngest adults – those in their 20’s and early 30’s would lean towards answering the question with a "freedom means being able to do what you want" kind of a statement. They are essentially saying that freedom is self-directed. But is it?
To truly understand the way freedom works best and produces its maximum results, we need to go back to the time when, well, when freedom was best. That time was way back when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden and God dealt with them directly. He blessed them with their environment and gave them dominion. These gifts were the basis of how mankind’s free world was supposed to look. It was a clean and fresh world in which they were given the authority to guide the growth of their pristine environment as they tended and nurtured it. Adam and Eve truly were free!
Along with the breathtaking benefits God had given them, He also gave them guidelines. These guidelines provided necessary boundaries for mankind’s freedom and dominion to operate within and they were simply and powerfully stated: This garden is all yours, but do not eat of a specific tree, or else you will suffer serious consequences. These boundaries rounded out the defining qualities of freedom.
Mankind’s original freedom had immense benefits, built upon the unequivocal foundation of clearly stated responsibilities - take care of what you are given and respect the boundaries your Creator has set. So, freedom as it was originally given was not simply “freedom with responsibility” it was actually “freedom because of responsibility.” Now that is a major difference!
What are the implications of “freedom because of responsibility”? Is our interpretation of freedom today on the same page, or do we not even know that that page exists? Check out our July 3rd, 2016 broadcast, “Freedom and responsibility – Still Important?” and see not only where all of this leads us, but also see how to step up to freedom because you are responsible!
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