Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

To some people their need for God's mercy is obvious. They've lived a terrible life. They've done many things of which they are ashamed, so no one needs to convince them they are in trouble with God. They know their spiritual condition only too well. For these the challenge of the heart is to believe God actually loves them and wants them to be with Him in heaven forever. These are the ones who ar...

What must I do to be saved? That question is the subject of much debate and much confusion as you might expect. But in our lesson today Paul answers that questionwith plain, unmistakable clarity. He says, "...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." There's nothing confusing in that statement. A child can understa...

Following Jesus can be very lonely sometimes. His moral standards and attitudes toward people are so different that the more we obey Him the more we find ourselves at odds with our culture. Awkward moments increase when we have to say "no" to something or "yes" to something others think is crazy. People view us with suspicion and wonder If we've taken this religious thing too far. Some friends sto...

Some people, even after genuinely becoming a Christian, are not content in the Lord. They still hunger for the world. There's a feeling about them. They're restless and see their commitment to the Lord as a collar around their neck. They may be outwardly obedient, but inwardly they wish they were free. Apparently, they aren't able to rest until they "backslide." A backslider is not someone who ope...

In the middle of an explanation about why so many Jews were rejecting the gospel Paul echoes one of the deepest questions that comes out of the human heart: "God, why did You make me like this?" For some reason most of us are displeased with what we see when we look at ourselves. This is true whether we're focusing on our physical appearance, our intelligence, our career path or even our spiritual...

The Bible clearly teaches that God is good, and there is nothing evil in Him at all (Jas 1:17), so when we come across a passage that seems to suggest He is responsible for hardening a person's heart, we naturally find the idea troubling. It reopens the question of God's character. Is He pure goodness, or does He have a dark side? Could He be responsible for causing a person's stubborn disobedienc...

God plays by the same rules He sets for us. When He created and ordered the universe, He established not only physical laws; He also established moral laws. And His moral laws are absolute and unchanging because they express His unchanging character. God isn't simply asking us to behave a certain way. He's asking us to become like Him. This means that right and wrong are standards which apply not...

Does God love all humans and want to save them, or does He love certain ones and hate others? This portion of chapter nine which we are reading today is a central passage to which people will turn to "prove" that God chooses who will or will not be saved. According to that doctrine, the most important truth to emphasize about God is His sovereignty, meaning His control of everything. It is assumed...

Paul opens this new section of his letter to the Romans with a revelation about himself so shocking he feels the need to assure them he is not lying or self-deceived. He says, "I am telling the truth in Christ," meaning he is conscious that Jesus will judge the truthfulness of what he is saying (Gal 1:20). Then he adds that both his human conscience and the Holy Spirit within him bear witness it's...

Paul pictures someone in Rome responding to his gospel this way: "As I listen to you, I hear you assuring me that God has provided all the resources I need to live a life that pleases God, but I'm such a weak person, and the forces that want to pull me away from Him are so strong that I don't feel confident that I'll make it to heaven. Paul, you sound so sure of your salvation. You talk like you a...

In these verses and in the chapters ahead of us, Paul shows us the mind of God. It's as though he had lifted us up into the heavenlies to observe the world from the perspective of eternity. As we read, time drops away, and all history lies before us, and we watch as God sets into motion His plan to save broken, sinful people and transform them until they become like His Son. Before we ever existed...

The word "elect" sounds cold and doctrinal, and it certainly has been used that way. The way some people use the term it refers to those few, happy, dare I say "lucky" souls who have been arbitrarily picked by God for salvation based on absolutely nothing in their lives. Those who teach this type of election say it is a wonderfully comforting doctrine that assures the "elect" that they did nothing...

The road to the promised land travels through a wilderness of suffering. And there’s no getting away from that reality. We aren’t in heaven yet. This planet is still cursed, and our bodies are still dying, so indeed suffering in one form or another comes to all of us – not because we’ve done something wrong, or because God has failed to protect us, but simply because we aren’t home yet. We’re trav...

God had a special goal in mind when He created the human race. It was no accident that we were made "in His image" (Ge 1:26,27), rational, spiritual beings who exist forever after begin conceived, persons who share enough of His personhood to interact with Him as friends. His great, loving heart wanted a bigger family–not because He needed us, as though somehow He were incomplete without us, but s...

I would be surprised if anyone could grow up in this sinful world without emotional scars. There's too much cruelty, selfishness, lust, anger and fear to escape. And even those who do grow up in a safe family sooner or later engage the larger society, and the damage begins. Not only are we wounded when bad things are done to us, but we also end up wounded when we do bad things to others. As the ye...

My flesh has a mind of its own, and becoming a Christian does not stop the flow of thoughts coming out of that mind. Sadly, it keeps generating bad attitudes, passions and images as long as I live. The good news is it won't be there after I'm resurrected into my new body. The bad news is I'll have to learn to cope with it and silence its voice day by day and moment by moment for the rest of my lif...

One of the greatest crises of Christianity is that we've lost our understanding of how to actually do what Paul Is teaching in this passage of Romans. I'm not exaggerating! By and large over most of the past 2,000 years church leaders have tried to make God's people holy by warning them not to do bad things and scolding them when they did which, as we all know, doesn't work. Like the man Paul desc...

This episode was originally recorded on the first weekend of Advent, that season of the Christian calendar when believers all over the world begin preparing their hearts to celebrate the "comings" of the Lord, both His first and second coming. For thousands of years believers waited for Messiah to come, and now thousands of years later we wait for Him to come again. We wait full of thankfulness fo...

This portion of Paul's letter is specifically addressed to the Jewish members of the churches in Rome. He is explaining to them a spiritual truth based on their common experience as Jews in reading and trying to obey the Law of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy). Today two thousand years later as we listen in on that conversation, it's easy to miss how it applies to us. But it does apply. In fact...

This episode was originally recorded around Thanksgiving! Paul describes his own frustrating experience as a believer who wanted to obey God but couldn't because the temptations of his flesh were too powerful to resist. And then he suddenly explodes with thanksgiving. Immediately after crying out, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" He joyfully shouts, "Than...

Sin wraps us in chains and drags us places we don't want to go. It truly turns us into slaves, people held in bondage unable to do as we please. But becoming "God's slave" is a very different matter. He who gave us a free will so we could choose to love and obey Him in the first place does not take that freedom away when we become born again. God has absolutely no desire to have little mindless hu...

In communion (the Lord's Supper) Jesus gives Himself to us: "This is My blood shed for you," and each time we partake we receive those precious gifts afresh by faith. But in water baptism we give ourselves to Him; we offer Him our old sinful self so it can die with Him on the cross and be buried with Him in the grave. And this is where Paul says our new life begins: with our "death." It sounds mor...

Good intentions aren't enough. Wanting to please God and live a clean life isn't enough. The incessant pressure we face is simply too much to withstand. It's like swimming against the tide. I may be able to hold on for a while, but sooner or later I'll grow weary and be carried along against my will. Unless we understand this and humbly accept our own weakness, we'll never live victorious Christia...

Just as Abraham's faith brought him righteousness and great blessings, those who have faith in Jesus Christ also receive righteousness and great blessings. Yet as Paul reminds us in this passage, our faith doesn't always protect us from suffering. In fact, some times we suffer because we have faith. We still live on a rebellious planet, in rebellious bodies and during a season of time in which Sat...

Just as faith is a choice, so is unbelief. Both begin and are sustained by a decision. I decide to believe, or I decide I will not believe; I decide to look for evidence of God, or I decide to look for evidence there is no God. In effect, faith and unbelief are both forms of faith and require constant reinforcing... an ongoing pattern of choosing... an ongoing pattern of looking for evidence of Go...