How to Live a Sustained and Guilt-Free Life

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Nine

How to Live a Sustained and Guilt-Free Life

In this week’s podcast, the subject of guilt steps forward as we march through the first chapter of First Corinthians. Paul writes to this church informing them of a particular thing God will do for all Jesus’ followers. He will sustain them to the end, holding them guiltless on the day of Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as we get into today’s lesson, we will read these set of words again, but we will do it in context. So, here’s the question we’re going to look at today. If God holds us guiltless, why are so many feeling guilt? That this struggle with guilt exists is clear in the following illustration. Gayle Roper wrote an article in Discipleship Journal entitled “I Can’t Forgive Myself What You Need to Know If You Still Feel Guilty.” It’s a good article and you will find it in Discipleship Journal. In the article, Gayle gives the following stories: • Story number one: The note slid under my door and skittered across the floor of my room at the retreat center where I was the weekend speaker. “I had an abortion seven years ago,” it read. “I can’t forgive myself. Can you give me some hope?” • Story number two: A large gentleman wore a Jesus T-shirt and cap and carried a huge Bible, the very image of the eager Christian. “I look good on the outside,” he said. “But inside, there’s all this ugliness. I can’t forgive myself.” • Story number three: A young couple, picture-perfect Christian newlyweds, stared at the floor. “We may have been virgins technically when we married,” he said. “But only by the strictest definition.” “We feel so guilty about the fooling around as we did,” she added. “We can’t forgive ourselves.“1 People in the church house are struggling with guilt. The good news is the struggle is over. How to Live a Sustained and Guilt-Free Life, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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What It Means to Be Really Mature in God

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Eight

What It Means to Be Really Mature in God

Today’s dive into the Book of First Corinthians brings us to the subject of maturity. What does it really mean to be mature in God? Sinclair Ferguson asked the same question. He states that our constant quest as Christians is to become mature. Whenever I think of the subject of maturity, Sinclair said, I recall a painful experience during my first couple of years as a young pastor. A visitor was addressing our young people. He was in his early twenties himself and had made his first discovery of Jesus while caught in one of the sub-cultures of the West Coast. After becoming a Jesus follower, he told us, he realized he lacked spiritual maturity. So, [these are his words now, this new born Jesus follower] — He decided to go to Bible school for a year, and [again these are his words] ‘when I got maturity’ I decided to go on overseas evangelism.

So, I am going to cut in here and comment on this before we get back to the rest of Sinclair’s story. This young Jesus follower thought he was mature after going to school for a year. Think about that as we go back to the rest of the story.

Sinclair said that the rest of this young man’s address displayed how little maturity of understanding he actually possessed. The thrust of his thinking [this young believer who went to Bible school for a year] was that if you were not absolutely certain that you were in the right place, you ought to be serving God overseas (as he was!).

Of course, spiritual maturity is not so easily obtained. It does not come with diplomas. Nor does it show itself by insistence that one’s own pattern of life must rule every believer’s life. [‘you know you’re only mature if you do things like I do them’ kind of mindset.]

What was even more painful about this whole story was to see the effect of this young man’s address on our young people. They were blown away with this guy – they thought he was the most mature super spiritual thing ever. It took a long time for some of them to recover. What’s the point here? None of these people really understood what spiritual maturity was all about.1 You know it’s no different today. There’s all kinds of thinking out there. People just don’t know. That’s why in today’s podcast, we’re talking about What It Means to Be Really Mature in God all on this week’s Light on Life.

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#007: Are You Tuned into God’s Heart? [Podcast]

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What You Need to Know about Knowing God

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Seven

What You Need to Know about Knowing God

In today’s podcast, our subject matter in the book of First Corinthians takes us to the subject of knowing God. A.W. Tozer spoke out on this topic with the following thought. “The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate.”1 Is this a thought provoking quote to you? What about this citation from J. I. Packer? “How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is demanding, but simple. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.”2 Tozer says there’s been a decline in the knowledge of God. Packer says that what’s needed to turn this trend around is turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God. We are headed out in this direction today. What You Need to Know about Knowing God. That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#007: Are You Tuned into God’s Heart? [Podcast]

God is. Yesterday He is. Today He is. Tomorrow He is. God never changes. Click To Tweet

How to Impact an Immoral City: Lessons from Corinth

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Six

How to Impact an Immoral City: Lessons from Corinth

So, we have finished the books of First and Second Thessalonians and now we are switching to Paul’s two letters to the Corinthians. In upcoming podcasts, we are going to be talking about this first letter. We will do some Bible background on the book and focus on just how the gospel came to Corinth. Corinth was a major city in the eastern Peloponnese of Greece. It lay near the narrow isthmus that joined the Peloponnese to the mainland. The city lay at the foot of a mountain, Akrocorinth (elevation 1883 feet), which also served as a location for some of the cults of the city.1 The gospel of Jesus Christ changed this city. How did it do it? To answer that, we will take on the subject of ‘How to Impact an Immoral City: Lessons from Corinth’ all on this week’s Light on Life.

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What Divine Healing Is and What It Isn’t [Encore Podcast]

God expects those who have heard the Good News to act on the Good News. He expects that where the light of the gospel has brightly shined, that people do not put up black out curtains. Click To Tweet