Category Archives: Spiritual Development

Practical teachings from the Bible for every day living.

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Why Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement is the Only Way to Heaven

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 27

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Why Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement Is the Only Way to Heaven

Jewish literature celebrated God’s provision of manna for Israel in the desert. People expected the Messiah to perform a similar feat. The age of the Messiah would be an age of abundance, when God’s blessings would be poured out on Israel. In the following discourse, Jesus presents himself as the fulfillment of these expectations. He said He was the Bread of Life. In contrast to popular belief, however, God’s provision of life through his Messiah entails substitutionary suffering. Jesus will have to “give his flesh for the life of the world,” and only those who “eat his flesh” and “drink his blood” will partake of God’s salvation blessings.1 What did Jesus mean by these strong words? How do we apply His thoughts to our everyday life, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Just Who Is Jesus to You?

[Tweet “Jesus feeding the multitudes is the only miracle recorded in every single gospel.”]

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Challenging the Monumental and Mammoth Enemy of Weariness

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Challenging the Monumental and Mammoth Enemy of Weariness

Many people out in the world are living weariness of everyday life. They are an auto-pilot just going through the motions. In an extreme case of this trend, ten percent of the British people believe they would be better off dead, according to a survey. One in four was unhappy in his or her job, while one in three felt exhausted, unappreciated, or underpaid. Christine Webber, the psychotherapist who did the survey, said, “Sadly, it comes as no surprise to me that so many people are unhappy at home and work. It seems that people’s lives do not live up to their extremely high expectations. It is particularly worrying to see so many people dwelling on morbid thoughts, with a large proportion just plainly exhausted by life.”1

You have to know that whatever is in the world tends to creep into the church. There are believers in Jesus who are unknowingly combating weariness. We can and should take a hint from the pages of the Bible and fight this challenging and monumental enemy called weariness.

#S2-050: More of Why Renewing the Mind Is Important for Soul Development [Podcast]

[Tweet “If you are faithful to your job, shouldn’t you be equally faithful to your God?”]

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Why Mixing Sacred and Unsacred Is Not a Good God Thing

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Why Mixing Sacred with Unsacred Is Not a Good God Thing

What do we mean when we say a thing is sacred? Look at your Bible, and it says, “Holy Bible.” What makes it holy? The land of Israel is called “The Holy Land,” and the city of Jerusalem is called “The Holy City.” Why? There is a quality of all three that they share in common. They all belong to God. The Bible is God’s book; Israel is God’s land; Jerusalem is God’s city. They are all God’s property! That is why they are holy; they belong to God.1 Only that which originates in God and stays in the hands of God and has God’s blessing on it is ever considered sacred.

#S3-003: How to Minister Healing Like Jesus Did [Podcast]

[Tweet “Man took God’s holy design for ‘real spirituality’ and turned into an occasion for religion.”]

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Why It’s Important You Know You Are Sons of God

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 24

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Why It's Important You Know You Are Sons of God

It’s vital that we know our identity in Christ. First John three and verse two, classifies all of God’s people as sons of God. The  Old Testament sounds a similar refrain. In Second Kings 10 and verse, thirteen Jehu meets with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah. Because these people are unknown to Jehu, he asks these people Who are you? They answered with these words, ‘We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king.’ That’s who you are, children of the King. The children of the King is what we are talking about in this week’s Light on Life. The Kingdom of God and Kinship: The King and His Kids.

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[Tweet “In the Kingdom of God, every citizen of the Kingdom is personally related to the King.”]

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The Astounding Secret of Not Forgetting God

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The Astounding Secret of Not Forgetting God

One of the functions of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is to bring the words of God Most High to our remembrance. Would you agree that not forgetting God is a huge deal? You would especially think that after reading passages like Psalm 9:17? I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to have any part of this ‘forgetting God’ business. It’s common spiritual sense to take heed to the Word of God along this line. While doing so, also note of some of the feasts in the Bible, like the seven feasts of the Old Testament as well as the one feast, Communion, of the New. Some of these feasts have as their center of attention the astounding secret of not forgetting God. Not forgetting God, that’s our focus in this week’s blog.

Why You Can Be Thrilled With God’s Excellence

[Tweet “It is God who gives the power to get wealth. The tendency in the human is to forget this fact.”]

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Amazing Pointers on the Road to Lifting God Higher

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 23

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Amazing Pointers on the Road to Lifting God Higher

On the subject of lifting God higher, Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia wrote a letter about A. D. 110 to the Roman Emperor Trajan. Pliny described what he had learned about the Christians and their worship. “They are accustomed to meet,” he says, “on a fixed day before daylight to sing a hymn of praise to Christ as God.” The troubled governor of Bithynia had tried to explain to the Roman Emperor the reason for the spread of the Christian faith, which was extending so rapidly that it was leaving the pagan altars deserted. Unwittingly he had declared the secret of the power of Christianity and its spread in the world—the Christians worshipped and lifted Jesus Christ as God higher.1 Amazing pointers on the Road to Lifting God Higher: that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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How Not to Be A Minister of Condemnation

[Tweet “‘Talking stars,’ stars that preach that there is a powerful Creator God are on display every night.”]

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How to Let the Love of God Dominate Your Life

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How to Let the Love of God Dominate Your Life

The following illustrates the powerful love of God towards man. When God was about to create man, says a Jewish legend, He took into His counsel the angels that stood about his throne. “Create him not,” said the angel of Justice, “for if you do, he will commit all kinds of wickedness against his fellow men; he will be hard and cruel and dishonest and unrighteous.” “Create him not,” said the angel of Truth, “for he will be false and deceitful to his brother-man, and even to You.” “Create him not,” said the angel of Holiness, “he will follow that which is impure in your sight, and dishonor you to your face.” Then stepped forward the angel of Mercy (God’s best beloved) and said: “Create him, our Heavenly Father for when he sins and turns from the path of right and truth and holiness I will take him tenderly by the hand, and speak loving words to him, and then lead him back to You.”1 Man is a love product of a love God. He was created in love. Man is sustained by love. And, when He comes to know Jesus as His personal Savior, the very love of God is shed abroad in his heart. By that very love of God, we live and move and have our being. How can we today, allow that love which is already in us to dominate our lives?

#S3-049: Why It’s Tremendously Important to Take Your Stand [Podcast]

[Tweet “The love of God is not dependent on the character or outward conduct of others.”]

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Three Ways You Can Know That You Are Trusting God

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 22

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Three Ways You Can Know That You Are Trusting God

How can you know that you are trusting God? What does it mean to have faith or to believe? How do you know if you really are believing God for healing or any other Bible promise? Jesus ministered healing to twenty-three individual cases. In the vast majority of these individual cases, you can see evidence of the person’s faith in connection with their healing.  You may have had those times where you thought you believed God, and nothing happened. You were believing the Lord for some healing in your body, and you got no better fast. How do you know if you’ve connected? Everything is by faith. You know and expect by faith. If you want to connect with God, you have to speak in His domain. You have to speak His language. Otherwise, you won’t be heard. Heaven is a faith place. The domain of unbelief is not understood there. You will not connect with heaven’s power if you’re speaking in the wrong realm. So, how do you know if you really are trusting God? One way you can find out? Take the test. There are seven tests which you can apply, which we are going to go over. These are not all the tests there are. These are seven that I know about. In this podcast, we will talk about three of them. How do you know that you are trusting God? That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why It’s Important to Flow in Faith’s Domain

[Tweet “You know you believe when no one can talk you out of it, even under pressure.”]

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Can’t Miss Lessons on the Rod of God

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Can't Miss Lessons on the Rod of God

God can take the ordinary and turn it into something powerfully above and beyond the normal. There are several can’t miss lessons we can glean by looking at how God took a simple stick and transformed it into a tool of righteousness. In today’s blog, we take a look at some can’t miss lessons on the Rod of God.

Why A Good God Has A Good Plan For Your Life

[Tweet “God got a hold of Moses stick and turned into a lightning rod for the miraculous.”]

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Jesus Is My King, Do You Know Him?

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Jesus Is My King, Do You Know Him?

That’s My King, Do You Know Him? was the best-known message of Shadrach Meshach Lockridge who was the Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, a prominent African-American congregation in San Diego, California, from 1953 to 1993. He was known for his preaching across the United States and around the world.1 We include that transcript below for your edification and blessing.

How You Can Have a Revelation of God’s Power

[Tweet “We around here talk about black power and white power and green power, but it’s God’s power.”]

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Worshiping God: Why the Hour Is Here

Podcast: Light on Life Season 6 Episode 19

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Worshiping God: Why the Hour Is Here

Jesus spoke to certain women at a certain well on a certain noonday in John four. Part of that conversation was about worshiping God. That what is the proper way to engage in that activity. Stephen Charnock said the following on the subject.

“God is a Spirit infinitely happy, therefore we must approach him with cheerfulness; he is a Spirit of infinite majesty, therefore we must come before him with reverence; God is a Spirit infinitely high, therefore we must offer up our sacrifices with the deepest humility; he is a Spirit infinitely holy, therefore we must address with purity; God is a Spirit infinitely glorious, we must, therefore, acknowledge his excellence in all that we do, and in our measures contribute to his glory, by having the highest aims in his worship; he is a Spirit infinitely provoked by us, therefore we must offer up our worship in the name of a pacifying mediator and intercessor.”

1 God is a Spirit that’s what Jesus said to this Samaritan gal and they that worship Him must do it a certain way. That’s the focus of this week’s Light on Life.

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Conscience and the Inward Witness: A Look at the Spirit Led Life

[Tweet “Fathers have an enormous impact on their children’s faith and values.”]

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What the Blessing of Judah Reveals about Praising God

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What the Blessing of Judah Reveals about Praising God

It’s a good thing to be always praising God. While five soloists from the Duke Ellington band danced in the aisles of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., a largely black-tie audience of 1,000 clapped hands to the tune of $12,000 at a musical fund-raiser. “Praise God and dance!” exhorted mellow jazz musician Ellington, and the last section of his Sacred Concert No. 2 began. Band members clapped, thrusting their hands heavenward toward the ceiling high above the arrow-like ribs of the sanctuary. Soon clumps of clappers in the audience joined in, timidly at first, then raising their hands straight up in a fervor of rhythm.1  Clap your hands, stomp your feet, shout unto God, or just raise your hands to Him without doubting, it’s wonderful to be always at the business of praising God.

#S4-047: Why It’s Important to Live A Separated Life [Podcast]

[Tweet “You cannot make God bigger, but He can become bigger to you through praise.”]