Beyond Ourselves Podcast

Have you ever been without electricity and light for a significant period time? The Texas 2021 winter storm caused our home to be without electricity for six days, a short amount of time compared to what many suffered. Those six days were long enough, however, for me to think about the devastation unbelievers will experience when separated from the light of Christ for eternity. Can you imagine…dare we imagine eternal darkness?  Who in your sphere of influence needs to hear  that Christ broke through the darkness of sin and not in a small flicker of a way, but rather with a burst of eternal light?  Zacharias prophesied that Jesus would bring light to the world, calling Him the “dayspring from on high.” Luke 1:78  “Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us.”  Jesus, the Dayspring of heaven brought heaven’s glorious light to our dark world. If your soul is dark… If your thoughts are dark… If your perspective is dark…turn to the Light. Jesus can penetrate whatever darkness is in your life.  Open your heart to Him.  Ask Him to purge you of your sins. Say yes to Jesus, Heaven’s Light and Dayspring from on high.

Glorious Light, Dayspring from on High, shine the light of Your presence in us. Show us sins we need to confess. Cleanse us. Forgive us. Fill us with the Light of Your presence.

A person who is not a Christian once challenged me and asked why believers talk about God’s love but never His wrath. I thought about his question and realized that I’m guilty of that very thing. Think about all the wonderful ways we look at God’s love, gentleness, and favor. Today, however, the context in which God’s actions are described as WONDROUSLY MARVELOUS is a reference to His judgment on people who claim His name, but simply give lip service to Him. God uses the prophet Isaiah to call them out in  Isaiah 29:13-14. “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, WONDROUSLY MARVELOUS.'”  He goes on to warn them of the consequences of their lip service and rote worship. We might want to relegate our Creator’s wrath to the Old Testament, but Revelation 16 speaks of God’s judgment being poured out in a future day. We may wonder, “Is mankind’s behavior and sincerity of worship a big deal to God?” The answer is, yes.

Do you ever wonder who you can believe? One person says one thing and another claims the opposite. Yes, it can sometimes be difficult to know who to believe, but not in the case of Jesus’s words.  Revelation 1:5 describes Jesus Christ as “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood-” Jesus is a faithful witness. A witness of what? He witnessed to us about heaven, His Father, angels, crowns of righteousness awaiting believers, resurrection bodies, thrones, powers, kingdoms, the judgment seat, forgiveness, redemption, His Father’s house, and about Satan. Jesus testified about the fact that Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jonah were real people and that the Old Testament is true. Our confidence in the Bible and its teachings solidly rests on Christ because He is a faithful witness to us that they are true.

Lord Jesus, we praise You, the faithful WITNESS! Thank You for the confidence we have in the Bible and You because of Your word.

Our GIFT to YOU or your Christmas gift to someone:  Prayers of My Heart Journal with any donation of $20 or more. WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING about PRAYERS OF MY HEART JOURNAL.

What would you do if a man holding a machete threatened you, “Say Jesus isn’t the Son of God! Denounce him or die.” What would you do if you received an alarming call such as the Voice of the Martyrs reported Amir did? The caller, a member of an Islamic extremist group, warned Amir that they were watching his family and had seen his son attending church. The Islamist told Amir that if his son continued to attend church, Amir would “reap what he sows with his only son.” Do you stop going to church?

Monday, November 7 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. It is a day set aside for us to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted for believing Jesus’s words,

I am the way, and the TRUTH, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me, John 14:6.

I invite you to join me and others throughout the world who are praying for our brothers and sisters who follow Christ in spite of being persecuted for their faith. I invite you to pray and to keep praying. Why? Our prayers make a difference as demonstrated in Acts 12:5-11.

So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

Yes, our prayers make a difference. They reach heaven. God hears them. Your prayers make a difference in the lives of those who are imprisoned, tortured, and suffering for Christ. Pray and keep on praying. I have the last column in Prayers of My Heart designated for prayers for our nation, world, and persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. I encourage you to sign up to receive Voice of the Martyrs which will keep you up to date with weekly ways you can pray for specific people.

Watch Sabina to better grasp the radical truth to which we hold – that Jesus and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life.

Lord Jesus, we praise You, the TRUTH and way to forgiveness of sins and eternity with You and our Heavenly Father. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted and tortured for You. Thank You for standing by them. Thank You for strengthening them. Thank You for Your angelic messengers who are helping them escape the hand of their torturers. Thank You that in their persecution You are present to usher them into heaven as You did Stephen. Prepare us to stand boldly for You in our society in our generation and to not take lightly the opportunity and privilege to gather with other believers to worship You and study Your word. We love You, Lord Jesus Christ, and ask forgiveness for our smallness of faith and littleness of prayer for our brothers and sisters in prison. 

I love to gaze at the glory of the moon. The moon – IS – something that exists. The moon – WAS – created by God in eternity past. The moon WILL BE in our tomorrow. It appears in different phases but it is still the same moon. So why would we doubt that Jesus is the LORD WHO WAS the creator, WHO IS self-existent in heaven and in our hearts, and WHO IS TO COME? On December 25, we celebrate the LORD who came in the past in the appearance of a baby. But Revelation 1:4 says CHRIST is not only “HE is WHO IS and WHO WAS,” He is the LORD “WHO IS TO COME…” Think about it. Jesus is coming again!

Lord Jesus, WHO IS, WHO WAS, AND WHO IS TO COME, help us mindfully serve Your purposes until You return again!

Have you ever wished you had a mentor, someone to follow, to teach you how to do your job better, be a better spouse, or how to walk in a way that pleases our Heavenly Father? Many lack a good “example” as seen by the normalization of arguing, lying, materialism, and trusting in “self” rather than God. Yet our Heavenly Father gives us a good example – His Son. Jesus shows us how to stand against temptation, how to live for God’s will, how to treat others, and even how to suffer when following God’s Word rather than the world. Jesus is the ultimate eXample of how to entrust ourselves to our Heavenly Father’s care. First Peter 2:21 reminds us of the importance of following Jesus’s example. “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,” In a world filled with bad examples, our Father provides a mentor in Jesus and tells us to follow His example.  Will we this year?

Heavenly Father, thank You for providing Jesus as not only our Savior but also as an example to us. Jesus, help us follow Your example increasingly every day. We love You!

As the celebration of the birth of Christ nears each year, we focus on the babe in the manger. But, that babe was born a Prince with a kingdom to defend.  That babe was born with an angelic army at His beacon call. That babe was born a “WARRIOR” King as Isaiah 42:13 foretold, “The Lord will go forth like a WARRIOR, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies.” The babe stormed hell and overcame death. The babe is the victor over the devil and his demonic army. Christ will one day return to earth but not as a babe. He’ll return as the Warrior King that He is. With whom will we share the good news?

Lord, we praise You, WARRIOR King from on high.