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What are the two paths of life? A path of obedience to God and its blessings, and A path of disobedience to God which brings curses. The path of obedience to God is marked by the fear of the Lord. Well what is the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is that all-encompassing idea that the Bible brings together this sense of awe and reverence and worship and fear, so that every facet of your life...

Is there anything out there that you would sell your house, your cars, your possessions - all that you had in order to get it? Today we discuss the second of two of Jesus' parables on the kingdom of heaven. In Paul David Tripp's book Redeeming Money , Tripp says that "the central message of these two parables is the incalculable value of the kingdom of God." So, what is the kingdom of God and how...

What do you treasure most in your life? When Jesus speaks in the Bible, there are a number of times He will say, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like..." and then He usually follows it with a parable. For the next two weeks we're discussing two of my favorite parables - "The Parable of Hidden Treasure" and The Pearl of Great Value." In Paul David Tripp's book Redeeming Money , Tripp says that "the centr...

Who is caring for the caregivers? Richard's guest is Phil Reddick leading our 3rd annual Caregiving Seminar, hosted by The Center's ministry  FinishWell , along with co-hosts  YBL  and  WBL Hear 3 perspectives on caregiving, coping with health issues, dementia, grieving, and how to prepare for your loved ones during this critical time. FinishWell is a ministry of The Center, and is led by Phil Red...

What is God's message to us in these days? Our guest Dr. Mark Gignilliat continues teaching in our study of Deuteronomy. God's call to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:1-5 still applies to us: "These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after the...

Do you remember what happened on November 22nd 1963? John F. Kennedy was assassinated on that day. C.S. Lewis also died on that day. For the last two years of his life, C.S. Lewis suffered from very poor health. He knew that death was at hand, and yet anticipated it with cheerfulness and peace. At one point he said, “If we really believe what we say we believe—if we really think that home is elsew...

How do we know that heaven is real? I think some of you know that my brother passed away back in May. He had been sick a long time. Then I turned 70 back in December, so I'm getting on in years. Now I'm reading Randy Alcorn's book Heaven . So this is a topic that I think is important and as we get into today's study I think you'll see why. Be encouraged by what the book of Hebrews tells us: "So wh...

Are you praying for God's protection over your life and for your loved ones? This is the last message in our 9-part series. I think it’s crucial that you ask God to protect your family, and for those of you who are married, to pray for your wife and your marriage. Marriage and family are truly under great attack. I really do think that one of the greatest ways that the Enemy can undermine the chur...

Are you anxious about the future? David Wells, who is quite the scholar, wrote a book about 15 years ago, called  Losing Our Virtue . And listen to what he says about this as we think about the future and the present. Wells says: “ The world today intrudes upon us as it never has before, and one of the surest indications of this is that the levels of anxiety have never been higher in peoples lives...

When a storm enters your life, what do you do? You know what I mean by storm, right? Something very difficult comes into your life. A hard circumstance. Adversity. How do I get it out of my life? Is there something I can do to deal with the storm? Sometimes to get out of trouble, people do things they shouldn’t do. But let’s look at the storms of life that are out of your control. A storm that cre...

What is our tendency when we become really satisfied? Often times we become complacent. We think we've got life figured out. We take it for granted. When we get to a point where we think we have everything we need, instead of being thankful to God, we start becoming arrogant. Once that arrogance starts creeping in, you are well on a path to forgetting Him. In Proverbs 30, Solomon asks God to keep...

Who is the greatest Christian in the world? 18th century theologian William Law beautifully answers this question, which is the theme of this episode: “Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world?...” (And whenever we use the word saint, that means Christian.) “...It’s not who prays the most, or fasts the most. It’s not he who gives most alms, or who is most imminent for temperance, chas...

What does sacrifice mean? Is it a bad thing? To sacrifice is to forfeit something of great value to you, but you do it for something of even greater value. When you understand the worth of sacrifice, it changes everything. In the Christian life, to come to Christ, you’re forfeiting your life and your will for something of much greater value - and that is God’s will - His plan for your life. But mo...

What does total commitment mean to you? Whenever you truly commit to something or someone, you have to give up something in the process. In one sense you can see it as a sacrifice. This is where you forfeit something of great value for the sake of something of greater value. In our culture, the commitment we are most aware of is marriage. When a man proposes to a woman, he does so knowing he’s giv...

Does how we pray matter to God? In Part 1 we discussed these 2 principles: the importance of approaching God with humility, and praying with the right motive. Today we discuss the value of persistence in our prayer life. In Luke 18:1, it says we should not lose heart and give up. Though Jesus gives us no real explanation, it does appear that persistence is important for several reasons, one being...

What is prayer? And what does it mean to have a prayer life? The last time that we talked on prayer, I commented that in order to have an effective prayer life, there are certain crucial principles that are involved. Perhaps the most important is this truth of approaching God with a heart of humility. Prayer requires humility. Interestingly, your prayer life is the key that produces humility in yo...

How can you put science with faith?  In this episode, my guest is Dr. Ken Boa. He is exploring a huge topic, so get your seat belt on! ​​We are discussing science, faith and reason. The typical mindset is to ask. "How can you put science with faith?" Well, first of all, the actual origin of science occurred in a context of Christian faith. In fact, science, as we know it, only appeared ONCE in hum...

Where is your hope? Is your hope in success, your accomplishments or in a comfortable life? In scripture, Jesus constantly connects fear and anxiety in the hearts of men. No matter how good people look on the outside, they’re shakier than you think they are in the inside. That’s me and you included - we’re all looking good but most men I work with, secretly they’re just beating the door back from...

If you knew you had one day left to live, and you wanted to leave your children some kind of final instruction, what would you say to them? Twenty years ago I had my kids memorize what I thought was the most important scripture of the Old Testament. I asked them if they still remembered it and all three of them did. "Okay, let's hear it!" I requested. They all still knew it! In this verse, I Chron...

What are you thirsting for? When you desire something, there's generally something out there that will fulfill or satisfy that desire. But, one of the problems of life is when you become convinced that there's something out there in the world that you believe will satisfy your life. Then once you obtain it, you discover, "you know, this really doesn't do it. This really doesn't satisfy me." Or the...

Psalm 112 tells us about two kinds of fear. This chapter leans into both kinds, and it also tells us that these two fears cannot co-exist. They are like oil and water. Everyone is fearing something. But the question is: what are we fearing? and how is this fear shaping our lives? Psalm 112 tells us, "Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments!...Light dawns in ...

How can you and I be ready for what comes after this life? Today Richard's guest is Allan Chappelle, teaching an overview of Bible prophecy. The Bible is a supernatural book, written by a source outside of our time domain. This book literally knows the end from the beginning - the whole history of the world that is in God's knowledge base. And God proves the validity of this book by telling you wh...

When facing death, where is your hope? Yes this is not the season of Easter, but the truth of the resurrection of Christ is where we find our hope in facing death and dying. Is it truly possible to “joy­fully anticipate death,” as C.S. Lewis wrote about? Can we honestly reflect and come to terms with mortality so that we can live with a joyful experience of the present and still maintain an optimi...

What is your strategy for dealing with your mortality? Years ago, a friend of mine came to me, concerned about his father, who was a very wealthy self-made man. He was concerned because his father had no spiritual life, so he talked to his dad about it and his father said, "You know, I just don’t have any need for God in my life. I don’t have any real need for Christ in my life." In other words, h...

As we lead up to Father's Day, I'd like to share a message that my good friend Jerry Leachman gave at one of our Mens Breakfasts a few years ago. One of the most important things that could happen in a man’s life is to become reconciled with his father or reconciled with his son. Forgive and be forgiven. Then cultivate that relationship, and pass on what you are learning to the next generation. In...