Faith Matters Podcast

Foundations of Faith Day 1 What does it mean to be a Christian? We all have an idea of what being a Christian should look like. But if we’re being honest, our views are often influenced by our cultural values, our politics, our background, and what’s currently going on in the world around us. If we were to strip away all those outside influences, what would our faith actually look like? Cultures w...

Born to Lead Day 5 We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. —Ephesians 2:10 With one targeted drop of a piece of an upper millstone from the top of a strong tower, the woman of  Thebez saved the lives of all the inhabitants of her city. Their adversary, the heartless, power-hungry King Abimelech was about to set fire to the door...

Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. —Luke 22:26 Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term servant leadership, saying that it “begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” And although Greenleaf coined the term, Jesus coined the concept and explained it t...

Born To Lead Day 3 Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind? —Job 38:36 We’ve all experienced that moment in time when we were certain of something that we could not logically be sure of. We just “had a feeling” that something was not right or that something was going to happen. That’s intuition—a gut feeling when “something” inside puts you on alert. Intuition and discernment oft...

Born to Lead Day 2 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. —Philippians 4:12-13 Resilience and persistence often work hand and hand. While resilience refers to bouncing back after...

The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” —Genesis 11:6-7 After the great flood of Noah’s day, God ordered the survivors to scatter across the earth and repopulate. But they had different plans. They decided...

Don't Quit In The Dip Day 5 Serving Others Proverbs 11:25 teaches us, “Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” We think it’s like young kids in line for the water fountain, where one kid is so thirsty that he’s fighting to get to the front to get a drink to refresh himself. That’s how we approach life a lot of the time. We think to ourselves, I’m thirsty! I’ve got to focus on me. I...

Day 4 Don't Quit In The Dip Uprooting Bitterness The Bible describes bitterness as a bitter root. Have you ever looked at your backyard and seen some weeds growing? You think to yourself, I should deal with that, but you don’t. The weeds are so small anyway, but after you procrastinate for a week, it seems like they’ve grown to be six feet tall. What started off as something that could have been e...

Overcoming Fear There’s a lot that people are afraid of in life. Terrorism. Heights. Spiders. Confined spaces. Public speaking. Being alone. Fear is the unpleasant, powerful, and often debilitating emotion we feel when we sense or anticipate danger. When we are in a dip, fear is not a faithful friend; it’s a ferocious foe. And for some of us, fear is the name of the pit we live in. I know. I’ve be...

The Simplicity Of Prayer What do you do when you don’t know what to do? What do you do when the dream inside of you is not matching the reality that’s in front of you? It’s going to sound cliché and elementary, but oftentimes we overcomplicate things. We’re willing to try the newest strategy, follow the latest teaching, hop on the trendiest spiritual bandwagon, but we roll our eyes at the basics....

DON'T QUIT IN THE DIP What do you do when you don’t know what to do? The place where people give up is what I call, “The Dip.” When you’re in the dip, you can see where you want to be, but no matter how hard you try, it seems you can’t get there. You begin to lose hope and doubt you’ll ever reach it. The dip is where your dream is just out of reach and you feel stuck. We all have a dream, but ther...

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COMPETITION In the Gospels, it appears that Peter and John did a lot of competing with each other. Both came from families whose business was fishing. Both were part of the original twelve disciples, and along with James, both were members of the inner circle of three to whom Jesus would give special time, teachings, and experiences. When people have this much in common, they regularly become comp...

STRONGER IN THE WAITING These words from the apostle Paul took place later in his life, at a time when lesser men would have thrown in the towel, thinking their best days were behind them. But a man like Paul lives with hope, expecting and preparing for a great moment that could be right around the corner. Paul was a force in the early movement of the church. But suddenly he found himself in chain...

HOW TO GET STUFF DONE This passage isn’t implying that a man can’t do anything without Christ. Atheists do a lot of things without Christ. But without Him, we can’t do anything of significance that is beyond our own power. No branch can support a piece of fruit unless it is tied to a trunk. Likewise, I cannot do things that are eternally significant if I am not tied to Jesus. Balancing a household...

THE LOST ART OF FRIENDSHIP When we are younger, friendships seem to just happen. My childhood friends were those who lived down the street. We bonded over building treehouses and playing pickup football games. In high school, I made friends through formal sports, building relationships with the guys on my team. In college, it was the guys I roomed with. For some reason, as we age, it becomes harde...

FIGHTER, FINISHER, FAITHFUL To have a life of impact, I need to be three things: a fighter, a finisher, and faithful. This sound advice was written by Paul near the end of his life, in a letter to his young protégé. Paul elevated these three attributes as being honorable, achievable, and necessary. Church people are okay with “keeping the faith,” but they scratch their heads at “fighting” and “fin...

Join us in a study on how to Refresh by David Villa