Podcasts

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Time Is running Out - 4 September 04, 2011 Today’s message may seem a bit strong in places…so before we start I want to temper what I’m about to say. Every generation experiences trials and tribulations that cause them to wonder, “How can things go on?” Throughout the course of history there have been times where things did not go on…in the manner in which they previously had. Yet, life did go on…the Lord tarries (patiently waits) till this present day, as Peter addressed this very issue some 1900 years ago: Time Is running Out - 4
Living Sacrifice - 4 August 21, 2011 Today as we move on in the book of Romans chapter 12 we turn from dispensation to application…how you live this faith out. What is in the world around us and what is in our own hearts… Living Sacrifice - 4
Wild Branches - 0 August 14, 2011 We’ve been following along with the Book of Romans for over a month now…wading into some deep waters. We’ve been seeking to understand some of the more difficult aspects of our faith...There has been something that we’ve been touching on here and there…even attempting to address it more fully at times…yet it persists as a bit of a mystery. That thing that keeps popping its head up as a question is the concept of Divine Election. Wild Branches - 0
	Love, Rest, Peace and the Creator's Plan - 4 July 03, 2011 There are truths in this life that are self-evident…if you are willing to seek them! The Creator has revealed Himself to His Created in many ways…scripture says that the Heavens declare His Glory…have you noticed? Love, Rest, Peace and the Creator's Plan - 4
What About? ...The End Times & Heaven - 4 October 10, 2010 So What About? …The End Times and Heaven? Here are the questions: 1. Do you feel the end times are near? 2. If God will come on Judgment day to judge the living and the dead, then how can people already be in Heaven or Hell? 3. Do ghosts exist, what about angels and demons? 4. Is the ‘secret rapture’ of believers biblical (before things get really bad)? 5. If God is all forgiving and forgets our sins why is there a judgment day? 6. What is the book of life, who is put in it, when are you put in it, and can you be erased? 7. Do you recognize people in heaven? 8. Are spouses together in Heaven? What About? ...The End Times & Heaven - 4
What About? ...Christians & The Church - 4 October 03, 2010 So today as we ask What About? …Christians & Church I’ll attempt to answer the questions: 1. What’s more important to Jesus: what we believe or what we do? 2. How do we know which Bible translations are the best. I’ve heard some even have verses omitted? 3. What does the Bible say about attending church (the building) every week? 4. What does the Bible say about loud music and instruments in church? 5. Quakers and their ministry? 6. What about apportionments? 7. What about Gays? What About? ...Christians & The Church - 4
What About? ...Sin & Salvation - 4 September 26, 2010 Today I hope to answer some questions about sin and salvation: 1. How do you determine which laws are to be followed? 2. What does the Bible say about Body piercings including permanent tattoos? 3. If a person commits suicide will they go to heaven? 4. Can a person be saved and then never do anything for God or worship Him in any way? 5. Does God really expect us to forgive and love as Jesus does? 6. Predestination? What About? ...Sin & Salvation - 4
What About? ...The Beginning - 4 September 19, 2010 As we start this new series ‘What About? …It’s Complicated! I want to let you know I have received about 25 questions from you all (depending on how you count them) and I have grouped them into 4 general categories...To start this week we need to start with a word, presuppositions. It’s a big word that carries a lot of weight these days, because each of us carries them around with us regarding all sorts of things. We each carry assumptions around with us based on what we’ve learned, what we’ve experienced, what we believe to be true about things around us. What About? ...The Beginning - 4
What About? ...Me - 4 September 12, 2010 I realized over the last couple of weeks as I have been preparing for our upcoming series that I pose a great risk in the questions I attempt to address...Doctrinal statements of ‘I believe’ for many define what makes someone a Christian! So before we go on this journey of questions and answers I want to spend some time ensuring that we understand what it is that makes us ‘Christian’…what it is about us that allows us to truly be part of the Body of Christ. What About? ...Me - 4
Ten Things to Do, One Thing to Remember - 0 August 29, 2010 Have you ever been given a list of things to do or to remember and you think, “This is easy I won’t have any problem with this.” Only later you can’t recall a single thing on it? I found the only way I could remember something was if I understood the why… Ten Things to Do, One Thing to Remember - 0
What Lies Before Us - 4 August 22, 2010 There has been a change in how the Creator has dealt with His Created…a transition to something new. The way He dealt with us in the past is gone and what lies before us is something entirely new! What Lies Before Us - 4
More Than What You See - 4 August 08, 2010 We get the Biblical definition of Faith from this passage of course; I reference it often in my sermons. Yet there is more here than a one line dictionary definition...Hebrews 11:3 . By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Some today might take this passage and say, “to believe and Creation you have to ignore the facts”…but that’s not the case! More Than What You See - 4
The Order of Things - 4 July 25, 2010 God has built into his world an order of things…you can make up your own and try it, you can ignore the order and see how it works…yet if you want things to work the way they were created to work you’ve got to seek the designers plan! The Order of Things - 4
The One Thing - 4 July 18, 2010 I don’t know about you, but my mind is going all the time! I’m driving down the road on our vacation and I’m thinking about all of the things I need to do when I get home. I’m worried about all of the things that are not completely resolved or are unsettled in my mind…trying to enjoy the scenery, trying to let it all just go for a little while and enjoy the moment. Trying to enjoy the day and take time to thank God for the many good things in my life…if I can just let go of the little things, the nagging things; I might be able to experience the one thing that matters above all else The One Thing - 4
Sown to the Spirit - 4 July 04, 2010 Have you ever noticed how much people like order? Straight lines for some reason make us happy, we build and grow and think it proper to be in straight rows...Have you ever asked yourself, “Is that the way God builds?” The answer of course would be no! God doesn’t seem to worry about straight lines…in fact He seems to prefer randomness. God relies on birds and squirrels other creatures to carry the seeds of plants and trees wherever they go and plant them there. Sown to the Spirit - 4
Children Under The Law - 4 June 20, 2010 The Bible from the earliest of times refers to God as our Heavenly Father. An image I quite honestly struggle with sometimes…because I’ve only seen the true role of a father from afar. I know He is loving yet strong, compassionate yet firm, forgiving yet righteous…our Heavenly Father is all things I wish I could be! Children Under The Law - 4
Baptists - 4 May 16, 2010 This church in Ephesus is listed in Revelation 2 as a church of hard work and endurance, the early church at its best. As we turn our focus this week to the Baptist Church we should know that the early church is who the Baptists look too to model themselves after. Churches like this one in Ephesus Baptists - 4
Episcopalianism - 4 May 09, 2010 Today is Mother’s Day, the day we set aside to honor our mothers. Those who have dedicated their lives to not only bringing children into the world but in raising them in love. Today’s reading gives us a glimpse of a remarkable woman, Lydia the first follower of Christ in Europe. We aren’t told that much about her other than she was:‘a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God.’ Episcopalianism - 4
Presbyterianism - 4 May 02, 2010 You see from the very beginning of Christianity there were those who thought the Salvation of the Lord was only for them and those like them! The early church was just for Jews…even though Jesus on several occasions reached out to the Samaritans; even though the O.T. Prophet Isaiah who had so much to say of the Messiah declared the Christ would be a light to the Gentiles…they still didn’t understand. Presbyterianism - 4
Lutheranism - 4 April 25, 2010 Did you know that on at least 30 different occasions Jesus refers to sheep? Do you think it might be an important analogy for us to understand? The Israelites were all descendants of a Wandering Aramean…shepherding was in their blood! We struggle to understand what it means to be a shepherd…and we wonder, “What are sheep like?” If left undirected or unguided over a long time…many get lost along the way! Just veer off course a little bit and over time your way off track! Such was the church in Luther’s time, it was: A Church in Need of Reform Lutheranism - 4
Catholicism - 4 April 18, 2010 Last week we covered Orthodoxy and struggled to look in and grasp what it means to be Orthodox…not many of us know people who are Orthodox! Today we look in a window on the Gospel that is very familiar to us…Catholicism. Every one of us at least knows someone who is Catholic…many of us have been born into a Catholic family at least in part. This community is a very Catholic community…I don’t know what the statistics are locally but worldwide over 50% of all Christians are Catholic! Of the 2.1 Billion estimated Christians worldwide 1.2 billion are part of some form of Catholicism! That is an amazing number if you think about it…every other Christian you come across throughout the world has a Catholic understanding of their faith! That’s why it’s so important for us to better understand them! Catholicism - 4
Orthodoxy - 4 April 11, 2010 As believers we have a common heritage that connects us to millions of others! Sometimes we lose our connections over foolish things and sometimes over not so foolish things…just like other families. Yet we almost always seem to lose good things along with the supposed bad. My hope in doing this series over the next two months is to recapture some of what was lost. There is so much to cover and so much to gain; I hope I can bring to light some meaningful aspects of our common faith in Jesus Christ. Each week my goal is to present several things that I think we can learn from our relatives in the family of God. Yes we could focus on what separates us yet when we all call on the same Christ to save us, the same Father to forgive us and the same Holy Spirit to transform us, why would we? Orthodoxy - 4
The First Day - 4 April 04, 2010 The very first words of our reading this morning start with: Early on the first day. Some translations have just changed that to: Early on Sunday, but I think there is some important symbolism missing when they do that. Maybe if you’re like me you’ve come to think of Monday as the first day of the week, because it’s the first work day for most. Yet that is not the way it had been for thousands of years. The First Day - 4
Enter The King - 4 March 28, 2010 We read and remember the shouts of joy and the praising in celebration of what the Lord had done…in preparation for what he was about to do…or what they thought He would do. They proclaimed Him as the coming King…yet just a few days later the crowd is shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” Why? What’s going on? We find insight just a few verses before this in a parable Jesus gives about a man of noble birth who went to a distant land to be anointed king. Enter The King - 4
Living in the Now - 4 March 21, 2010 Karma and I celebrated our birthdays over the last week and a half; thank you for the cards and words of encouragement! I’ve spent some time over the last week or so as I do every year, contemplating where I’m at in life and asking myself, “Was the last year a good year, a bad year…or just another year? Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you do that? I think it is a bit inevitable to do that around New Years and maybe again from a broader view around your birthday. I’ve shared before how I’ve realized in the past that I had spent much of my life either living in the past or living in the future and ignoring the now. You know either beating myself up over mistakes I’ve made in the past, and wishing I could go back to re-live some good times. Or the other extreme is always saying, “Just wait until this or that happens and then things will get better.” Living in the Now - 4
Come On Back - 4 March 14, 2010 It’s a tough thing when someone walks away…because whether it was you that walked away in order for that person to come back to the relationship there has to be an agreement between both parties. A settlement, a resolution has to happen over whatever it was that caused the separation in the first place Come On Back - 4
An Appetite for Christ - 4 February 28, 2010 I’ve been on this crazy diet now for a week…so since Monday morning I’ve known the pain of always being hungry! It’s actually been quite a learning experience for me. Not that I’ve learned things I didn’t know but I’ve experienced things again and they remind me of truths I have been neglecting. I’ve relearned how my stomach has been controlling my life! It has invaded almost every aspect of my decision making process. An Appetite for Christ - 4
Saved - Pastor Cal February 21, 2010 Anything worth having has to be worked for, nothing worthwhile is free, if it’s free there’s a catch…beware of strangers bearing gifts. There are a million variations of that same message, have you heard it, have you experienced the truth in it? Saved - Pastor Cal
Going Deep - Pastor Cal February 07, 2010 We read in the pages of scripture how God reveals himself to people in miraculous amazing ways. We read how He empowers some people to perform great miracles and we say, “I want to be used of God that way, I want to experience God like that!” Maybe some of you have even questioned, “Why don’t we see God move like that today?” Going Deep - Pastor Cal
Dividing Soul and Spirit - Pastor Cal October 11, 2009 All of us to some extent or another are just trying to figure out this thing called life…maybe some of you are a bit further along than I am, maybe some a little behind…yet none of us, have it all down. If you think you do have it all figured out watch out because you’re setting yourself up for a fall! Even Solomon the wisest man to ever live according to the Bible struggled with the meaning of life…what’s this life for? Solomon said it was all meaningless, a chasing after the wind! Dividing Soul and Spirit - Pastor Cal
Abundance or Scarcity - Pastor Cal July 26, 2009 Last week we saw people chasing after Jesus, we saw a longing for something more than this world has to offer…people longing for home. I showed you where the Word of God says that eternity has been placed in our hearts and so the restlessness we all feel, the desire to seek something more is natural…it’s how God draws us to Him, as we seek for answers as we seek for reason, as we seek purpose in this life…as we seek to belong. Abundance or Scarcity - Pastor Cal
Longing For Home - Pastor Cal July 19, 2009 What is it that motivates us? What is it that causes us to get out of bed in the morning? Now some of you are saying work, some of you are saying kids…maybe some of you are saying pain. I know if I lay for more than 7-8 hrs I’m in pain…yet what I’m driving at is something beyond the immediate need to go to work, to take care of the kids…to alleviate the pain. I’m grasping at the unseen force behind all that…what is driving your being. What is it that is motivating your heart…more than just doing the things you need to do to provide for yourself or your family? Longing For Home - Pastor Cal