What’s Our Responsibility to Those Newly Come to Faith in God

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Twenty-Three

What’s Our Responsibility to Those Newly Come to Faith in God

Today, we undertake to highlight the vital nature of responsibility as it relates to those who have just received Jesus as their Savior. What is our role when it comes to people who have just been born again? Isn’t it to make disciples? That’s what Jesus said. Take the raw elements of a new convert and help them on their journey of being molded into the image of God. That’s positive production. Picture a large manufacturing plant in your town or city that produces shoes. The management has invested great sums of money and many man-hours into the plant to produce the finest shoes possible. Money has been spent on salaries for the employees, machinery for shoemaking, and materials from which the shoes are to be made. The plant is now in operation with hundreds of workers scurrying to and fro. Machines are running full blast, and activity is at a maximum. One day the president asks the production manager, “How many shoes have we produced so far?” “None,” the manager answers. “None?” the president exclaims. “How long have we been in operation?” “Two years.” “Two years? And still no shoes?” “That’s right,” the manager says, “No shoes, but we are really busy. In fact, we have been so busy that we are all nearly tired out. We’ve been very active at our jobs.” The management would probably be very concerned, fire somebody, and try to find out what the problem was. If we now put a cross on top of that building and transform it into the church on the corner—your church, we find much activity going on. Men and women are working hard. The budget is higher this year than ever before. The objective, however, is to produce disciples. Is all that money and man-hours production in your church going into the production of disciples for Jesus Christ?1 Producing disciples, that’s our job and that’s why we’re talking today on the subject of What’s Our Responsibility to Those Newly Come to Faith in God — all on this week’s Light on Life.

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What Is The Parable of the Sower?

[Tweet “A responsible take on the gospel is not only to get people saved but to get them established in God.”]

#S10-022: Why the Second Coming of Jesus is the Expectation of All Believers [Podcast]

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Twenty-Two

#S10-022: Why the Second Coming of Jesus is the Expectation of All Believers [Podcast]

The Second Coming of Jesus is at the forefront of today’s podcast. Here is a story of how a Hindu found God because of this coming remarkable event. Jimmy Modha, who was raised in a devout Hindu home in Leicester, England, enraged his family by coming to Christ and converting to Christianity. He told them his sins had been forgiven because he had found God. “Which god?” shouted his father “It’s Jesus Christ,” replied Jimmy. “Actually He came and found me. He died on the cross for my sins; I am a Christian.” His mother fainted, his father threw him out of the house, and his brother Jay prayed for the gods to kill him. “We would mourn his death,” said Jay, “but at least our family would not be dishonored.” Jay, a brilliant student working on his Ph.D. in parasitology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine disowned his brother and refused to talk to him. In parting, Jimmy said, “Jay, if you are ever desperate and no one is there to help you, remember Jesus loves you, and His hand is on your life. Call to Him and He will save you.” Jay was furious, but Jimmy began praying earnestly for him. Shortly Jay began having disturbing dreams. “It was as if I was awake in my bed at three in the morning when suddenly a blinding light broke through the roof and ceiling of my bedroom. In that light I could see a cloud descending from heaven, bearing three awesome, fiery men-like creatures. The first blew a trumpet so loud that I was sure the whole world could hear its thunderous sound. I knew whatever was coming was universal in consequence. The second creature cried out, ‘Prepare ye, for the Lord is coming to reap the harvest!’ Then the third swung a scythe over the earth and cried, ‘Now is the earth ready for harvest!’ “I tried to wake up from the dream because I felt I was going to have a heart attack from sheer fright. But I could not. Then, in the middle of the cloud, I noticed a Person who looked completely different. The brilliant light was coming from Him. His face shone so radiantly that no features were clear except for eyes that looked like blazing flames of fire. A robe went from His neck to His feet, which were like white-hot metal. He was dreadful in His beauty and terrible in His splendor. “As He descended, He looked at me. I was completely undone, absolutely terrified. I could not bear to look at Him any longer, so I turned my head. To my amazement, there beside me was my brother Jimmy, who was not scared at all. In fact, his face was joyous, and he was reaching out as if to embrace the figure. “When I gained the courage to look at Him again, He addressed me saying, ‘Jay, what are you going to do when this happens?’ Then everything vanished, and I woke up.” It took Jay an hour to calm down, and he prayed for understanding. A few days later, Jimmy called and, hearing of Jay’s dream, said, “Jay, what you saw is the Second Coming of Christ. Shortly after this, Jay gave his heart to Jesus. Why the Second Coming of Jesus is the Expectation of All Believers, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#S4-025: Secrets to Hearing God: Are You Waiting? [Encore Podcast]

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Why Modeling the Jesus Life Is Such a Powerful Witness

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Twenty-One

Why Modeling the Jesus Life Is Such a Powerful Witness

Modeling is a term that has been kicked around in leadership and development circles. What is modeling? One writer said that it is the influence our decisions and lifestyles have upon those around us. Whether we realize it or not, we’re always modeling something. Unlike fashion modeling—in which appearance is paramount—modeling the Christian life requires honesty and authenticity. To model a relationship with Jesus is to be a living, breathing, tangible example to those we disciple. Consider how Jesus did this. He spent three and one-half years literally living with His disciples. This was not a new concept. This was the teaching method of Rabbis. But, consider that in today’s busy world, it’s easier to schedule a meeting than to live life with others. There’s certainly nothing wrong, of course, with having a consistent meeting time. But if we only have time to pass on knowledge in an “academic” way—divorced from everyday life—then perhaps we’re too busy. The vital nature of being in the company of others cannot be overstated. We need one another which is why, in today’s podcast, our focus is Why Modeling the Jesus Life Is Such a Powerful Witness — all on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why You Should Consider Jesus as Your Rabbi

[Tweet “Paul modeled Jesus for the believers at Thessaloniki. Who models the Jesus life for you? “]

Why Turning from Idols Is A Super Exceptional Move of God

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Twenty

Why Turning from Idols Is A Super Exceptional Move of God

God is always moving. From the very first pages of Genesis, where the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters, we can know that a move of God is always imminent. It’s just the way it is. God never stands still, and He never goes backward. His direction is always forward. I like what I read about the Australian Coat of Arms. It pictures two creatures—the emu, a flightless bird, and the kangaroo. The animals were chosen because they share a characteristic that appealed to Australian citizens. Both the emu and kangaroo can move only forward, not back. The emu’s three-toed foot causes it to fall if it tries to go backward, and the kangaroo is prevented from moving in reverse by its large tail. Those who truly choose to follow Jesus become like the emu and kangaroo, moving only forward, never back (Luke 9:62)1 I don’t know about you, but that motivates me. I like moving forward. There is nothing spiritual about stagnation. In today’s podcast, we take a look at how God moved among the Thessalonians. Why Turning from Idols Is A Super Exceptional Move in God, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#S4-034: Why You Can Absolutely Expect Powerful Healing Moves of God [Podcast]

[Tweet  “To see miracles, you have to preach miracles. To see a move of God, you have to preach the move of God. “]

Why It’s Vital that Jesus Followers Pray for One Another

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Nineteen

Why It’s Vital that Jesus Followers Pray for One Another

In today’s podcast, we are going to talk about the high value of praying for one another. We need to home in on this and give it the due place in our lives. You know we pay a lot of lip service to the notion of praying for one another. The words ‘pray for me’ or ‘I’m praying for you brother’ are part of our Christian-ese vocabulary. For people in the church world, it’s the thing to say. I mean you wouldn’t dare say that you weren’t going to pray for someone, would you? But when those words leave your lips, do you actually execute and lift your voice to God? That intercession is a great and necessary part of Christian devotion is very evident from Scripture. The first Jesus followers showed their love by mutually praying for one another. Paul, whether he’s writing a letter to a church [a group of people] or addressing an individual shows that his intercession for them is perpetual. It was this holy intercession that raised Christians to such a high level of love and development. When this same spirit of intercession is yielded to by Jesus followers, when Christianity has the same power over the hearts of people that it then had, this holy friendship will again be in fashion, and Christians will be again the wonder of the world.1 Why It’s Vital to Pray for One Another, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why God Wants You to Have Spiritual Revelation Flowing In Your Life

[Tweet “No one should be left behind in prayer. We should always thank God for each believer’s unique gifts.”]

How to Start a Power-Packed Effective Church: Lessons from Thessaloniki

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Eighteen

How to Start a Power-Packed Effective Church: Lessons from Thessaloniki

How does one pioneer a power-packed effective church? That’s the question today. We are going to take a look at how the call of God and the zeal of the Lord upon the Apostle Paul turned into a power-packed Church in one of the ten most influential cities in the Roman Empire, the city of Thessaloniki. Now, one thing is certain from the following illustration — this is not how Paul did it. You know, about 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. In the first year, this group of pioneers established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. In the third year, the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year, the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway? Is that wild or what? Here were people who had the vision to travel three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But, once they got there, in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision1 F.B. Myer said, that the church that refuses to be a missionary church will become a missing church. the Apostle Paul didn’t get saved to sit — He got saved to be sent. The result of his obedience to go? The powerful church at Thessaloniki. How to Start a Power-Packed Effective Church: Lessons from Thessaloniki, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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How the Breath of God Inspired the Writing of First Thessalonians

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Seventeen

How the Breath of God Inspired the Writing of First Thessalonians

So, we have finished the book of Ephesians and now we are switching to Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the first letter that is, Paul wrote 2 letters to this church. In upcoming podcasts, we are going to be talking about this letter. We will do some Bible background on the book and focus on just how the gospel came to Thessaloniki in the first place. We will look at the subject of integrity from Paul’s point of view. I mean what should integrity look like in a Jesus follower? How should we conduct ourselves in these areas? Then, we’re going to jump in and talk about persecution and how we should get a handle on this if we are confronted with it. And then, of course, Paul talks about the Second Coming of Jesus. But first, let’s talk about the historical background of the book and “How the Breath of God Inspired the Writing of First Thessalonians” That’s our focus today on this week’s Light on Life.

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#S4-045: Why You Should Believe in the Rapture [Podcast]

[Tweet “Think about those times when the Spirit of God hovered over you and God’s Presence was so marvelously real to you.”]

What Is the Link Between Praying in the Spirit and the Armor of God?

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Sixteen

What Is the Link Between Praying in the Spirit and the Armor of God?

Prayer armor, or praying on all occasions in the Spirit is Paul’s next admonition to the church after he talks about the armor of God. He uses the term praying all ways or at all times. During the turn of the 20th century, there was a great outpouring of the Spirit of God that began in Los Angeles at a place called Azusa. The Azusa Street revival of 1906 led to the spread of the Pentecostal faith, including speaking in tongues and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, throughout the US and the across the world. The movement further inspired missionaries and helped to break down racial separations.1 The power of God fell mighty for several years at Azusa but not only there, that same move took place simultaneously in other parts of the world, places like India and Sri Lanka. Here is just one story. “Miss Minnie Abrams tells of a meeting held by one of the Mukti bands in Anrangabad in 1906. It was in the Church Missionary Society schoolroom. A little girl of nine was wonderfully anointed with prayer. Before going back to the Church Missionary Society boarding school in Bombay, from which she had come for a vacation, she asked her father if anyone might receive the Holy Spirit. He told her that God would give the Holy Spirit to all who asked Him. On returning to the school she succeeded in getting four girls to join her in prayer, daily, for the Holy Spirit. Upon one of these, a girl of sixteen, the Holy Spirit was poured out with the speaking in tongues. She asked daily to retire to a room for prayer. She would become oblivious to her surroundings and time, wholly occupied in communion with God, praying always aloud. When it was discovered that she was speaking in a language not understood, Canon Haywood was brought in. He decided this might be the speaking in tongues he had heard about, and took measures to find out what she was saying. In the cosmopolitan city of Bombay where many languages were spoken, he found one who could understand much of what she said. She was pleading with God for Libya, in North Africa. She did not always speak the same language.{2. Stanley Howard Frodsham, With Signs Following: The Story of the Pentecostal Revival in the Twentieth Century, Revised Edition. (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1946), 109–110.] The Spirit of God fell on this young girl and she continued to pray is the record we have. Stories like this where the power of God falls and lives are changed is what we are talking about today as we ask the question – What Is the Link Between Praying in the Spirit and the Armor of God? That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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How To Put On And Step Out With The Whole Armor Of God

[Tweet “Paul assumes that when he asks the Ephesians to pray that they have their armor firmly in place.”]

Do You Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus?

Podcast: Light on Life Season 10 Episode 15

Do You Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus?

One of my favorite shows from yesteryear was Get Smart. It was a show about a goofy secret agent. One of the popular catchphrases for the show was ‘would you believe.’ Maxwell Smart would say when he got caught by the bad guys, ‘would you believe.’ Here’s some of the dialogue. “I happen to know that at this very’ moment, eight Coast Guard cutters are converging on this boat. Would you believe seven? Six? How about two cops in a rowboat?” Or, At this very minute, 25 Control agents are converging on this building. Would you believe two squad cars and a motorcycle cop? How about a vicious street cleaner and a toothless police dog? Or, I once trained a girl to swim across the English Channel five times. Would you believe four times? Would you believe three times across the Mississippi? How about twice around the bathtub? Once around the bathtub? Or, in a short while, General Crawford and a hundred of his crack paratroopers will come crashing into this landing. Would you believe J. Edgar Hoover and I0 of his G-men? How about Tarzan and a couple of apes? Bomba, the Jungle Boy? Or, at this very moment, 100 highway patrolmen with Doberman pinschers are surrounding this entire area. Would you believe four deputies and a bloodhound? How about a Boy Scout with rabies? The question arises, ‘do you believe in the Resurrection of Jesus? Do you believe it just like the Bible says it, or do you believe a watered-down ‘Maxwell Smart’ version of the events surrounding Jesus’ death?

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Three Things Jesus Did that You Can Do

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How to Become an Expert at Swinging the Sword of the Spirit of God

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Fourteen

How to Become an Expert at Swinging the Sword of the Spirit of God

We’ve arrived. Today, we take a look at the final piece of the armor of God, the Sword of the Spirit. What is the Sword of the Spirit? Well, the scripture says that it’s the Word of God. So, our interaction with the Bible is necessary when we engage the levels of devils that come against us to steal, kill, and destroy. One gentleman, Robert Boardman wrote an article entitled, The Neglected Exercise, What will you miss if you don’t read your Bible every day? In it, he said that in the early 1970s, he accompanied a small tour group into a country that was difficult to enter. In one city of about 500,000, we found only one church left open by the authorities. All over the city, we could distinguish former church buildings turned into museums, warehouses, offices, or military barracks. In that solitary open church, we joined about fifteen bystanders, including several youths, watching a stand-up worship service. The worshipers numbered ten elderly women, one elderly blind man, and a handful of children. A priest wafted incense and recited some incantations. Then he brought out a huge, bejeweled Bible, carefully unlocked it, and read a portion from the Old Testament and another from the New. He then locked the Bible and, to our astonishment, one by one the eleven elderly worshipers came by and reverently kissed the ancient Holy Book. As we came out of that forlorn but open church building, many thoughts raced through our minds. One thing we were sure of was that the onlooking young people were thinking, If this is Christianity, it deserves to stay in the Middle Ages. What we saw was a ritualistic, clergy-dominated religion where the people had no access to a Bible of their own. It was locked away from them. How many versions of the Bible do we have in the free world? Hundreds I’m sure. I have an invaluable study book called The New Testament from 26 Translations. Do you and I take advantage of the unlocked, abundant versions of the Bible in our homes and libraries? Or do our negligence and apathy make the Bible a locked book? That was Robert Broadman’s insightful comment. Let me ask you a question based on what you’ve heard. How does the Bible become the Sword of the Spirit that it needs to be if you treat it as a locked book? How to Become an Expert at Swinging the Sword of the Spirit of God, that’s the focus of this week’s Light on Life.

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Just Who Is Jesus to You? Encore

[Tweet “it’s not important what the devil has to say. What’s vital is what you have to say after he gets done talking. “]

Why You Must Be Serious about Wearing the Helmet of Salvation

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Thirteen

Why You Must Be Serious about Wearing the Helmet of Salvation

Today’s lesson brings us to the next to last piece of God-ordained armor for the Jesus lover, the Helmet of Salvation. Having the right mindset is essential for the believer. God knew that the battle for the mind would be ferocious at times. What does this helmet of salvation do for the child of God? It keeps us focused on our salvation. For example: Take a look around where you’re sitting and find five things that have blue in them. Go ahead and do it. With a “blue” mindset, you’ll find that blue jumps out at you: a blue book on the table, a blue pillow on the couch, blue in the painting on the wall, and so on … In like fashion, you’ve probably noticed that after you buy a new car, you promptly see that make of car everywhere. That’s because people find what they are looking for. What’s been getting your attention lately?1 Have you been focusing on the Helmet of Salvation? Why You Must Be Serious about Wearing the Helmet of Salvation, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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The Role of the Spirit in the Life of A Believer

[Tweet “One writer said the mind is the great battlefield. This thought is true and right.”]

Why the Shield of Faith Is More Than a Match for Devils

Podcast: Light on Life Season Ten Episode Twelve

Why the Shield of Faith Is More Than a Match for Devils

Our study on the armor of God brings us today to the shield of faith. What an essential piece of armor this is. You know in December 2004, a single question from a young soldier touched off a media firestorm. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had come to deliver a pep talk to the troops at Camp Buehring in Kuwait. But the usually unflappable secretary found himself blindsided by a bold query. As news cameras rolled, Army Specialist Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team asked Rumsfeld, “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?” Specialist Wilson clearly felt he was being sent into battle without proper protection. As Christians, however, we shouldn’t have that fear. Our Supreme Commander generously equips us with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. But it’s up to us to put them on and put them to use. Are you using the shield of faith?1 Why the Shield of Faith Is More Than a Match for Devils, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Manifestation of the Gift of Faith

[Tweet “Make it a practice to play healing scriptures if you get to feeling a little bit off in your body. God’s Word is medicine.”]