Burning Hearts with Rachel Herbeck

Jesus gives us the ultimate model of discipleship, that we should have the mindset of humility that He had and become obedient to the Father even to the point of death.

As we desire to grow in humility and imitating Jesus, we are encouraged to stay open to the work that God is doing in us and not close ourselves off to the work of God.

Building on our episode yesterday, today we discuss how keeping our eyes on ourselves does not bear fruit. Paul encourages us to look, to keep our eyes on others, to look at the needs, feelings and desires of others before our own and to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

One of the main thing that separates us from Christ and one another is a preoccupation with self. As we receive God’s love, we grow in our ability to see the needs of others.

This week we dive into Philippians 2 where Paul discusses how to cultivate unity within the body of Christ. We receive an encouragement from Paul to love each other, not with our own strength but with the same love of Christ.

The culmination of Jesus’ call to love is not to love those who love us, but to actually love those who persecute us. We ask the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts in regards to the ways we are loving those we struggle with.

A love that is genuine rejoices in hope, is patient in trials and constant in prayer. Today we discuss how we grow in each of these areas.

As followers of Christ, we read today that we are not only called to love each other, but we should have affection and fondness for others. Paul instructs us in this by encouraging the Romans to outdo one another in showing honor.

One of the elements of loving like Christ is to love with a love that is genuine and sincere. Today we are invited to examine our hearts and see how genuine our love is, asking Jesus to purify us.

In Romans 12, we read about the marks of a true Christian. Christ calls each and every one of us to a high standard of love. Jesus fills us with His Holy Spirit so that we can love like he loves.

Stephen’s witness of martyrdom is incredibly inspiring. As we wrap up our week, we reflect on him offering his life to Christ and truly witnessing to the glory of God until the very end.

In his debate with the Jews, Stephen calls out the religious leaders saying they are stiff necked and resist the Holy Spirit. Today we discuss how we discern how bold and direct we should be as we preach the Gospel. As we call on the Holy Spirit, we receive help to say and do what we are supposed to.

Stephen is able to be bold, calm, and unafraid because he is filled with the Holy Spirit. We ask the Holy Spirit to fill us in a deeper way and show us where we are called to preach the Gospel.

As Stephen preaches the gospel, the Jews rise up against him and stir up opposition against him. We reflect on what our response is when we are opposed for the Gospel and we ask God for the grace to be unafraid and anchored in Him.

This week we discuss the first reading from Acts that the Church gives us the day after Christmas. We focus in on the importance of the Church presenting us with the martyrdom of St. Stephen right after Christmas day.

Christ is the true light of the world. He shines in the darkness, bringing us each new life for all of eternity. Jesus calls us to receive his light and then go out and reflect his light into a dark and broken world.

Christmas day has arrived and we reflect on the reality that Jesus comes to us today. And as He comes, in himself He brings true and eternal life. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us receive this life in a new way.

As we enter into Christmas eve, we continue our discussion of John 1. We read how everything was made through the Word and see how’s God’s love creates. It overflows and desires to give of itself, resulting in the creation of the world and of us.

We continue through John 1 today as we reflect on the reality that Jesus has existed with the Father from all of eternity. Because of this, we have existed in God’s mind, totally and completely loved.

We begin this week of Christmas with my guest, Katey Norman. We discuss our advent preparations and John 1. As we walk through this week, we ask the Holy Spirit to build in us anticipation for Jesus’ coming as the Word made flesh.

Finally we see that God doesn’t want to just rid us of bad things, but He desires that we be filled with supernatural charity that is part of our relationships with others. As God transforms us, we become more like Him and we change not only for eternity, but in our communities as well.

We see Paul inviting us to put more things to death in us, including anger, malice and wrath. We focus in a unique way today on malice, asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts of any ways that we have held onto internal hostility toward others.

Today we focus on the Church’s teaching regarding the wrath of God. We see God’s wrath and good, holy, and just – not a state in His mood or losing His temper.

As we examine Colossians 3, we see that putting to death what is earthly in us is a call to action. God’s Spirit moves in us, giving us power to grow, power to change, power to be made new. But we are challenged and convicted to engage our wills – to truly respond to god’s conviction with action.

Today we begin to look into Paul’s teaching in Colossians 3. Because we have such a powerful identity in Christ, we are commanded to put to death what is earthly in us so that we can have access to the new life God has given us.