Faith Producers International Podcast

JESUS CAME TO THE WHOLE WORLD AND FOUND ONE OUTCAST WOMAN   We just sailed through another Christmas season, celebrating the coming of the savior of the world as a baby in the manger. But there is a reason why the Bible does not record the adolescent years of Jesus, except for one episode, when he was 12 in the temple. We jump from that description of that young 12-year-old and the priest he inter...

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED   When you look back on your personal life and our national life, you recognize a number of nights that we could call "our night before" when everything changed. There's an old familiar statement we often make when we say, "It's always darkest before the dawn." What we mean by that is that before a miracle happens or our situation changes, we have plen...

THE DOUBLE STANDARD-DID CHRIST COME IN THE FLESH?   Fifty years after Christ's ascension, the apostle John set pen to paper and gave us the first, second, and third John in the Scriptures. This is the same disciple who leaned on Jesus's breast during the Last Supper. This is the one they could not kill, so they put him on the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the revelation of Jesus Christ. In first,...

THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM SOLVER   What was the original sin that separated humanity from fellowship with their creator? Was it, not the fact that Adam and Eve stepped away from the rules of life that God had set for them? The key to harmony and peace in the heavenly kingdom and in the world that Adam lived in was obedience to the rules of life. Those rules of life were very clear. Obey what I say, and...

WISDOM GIVES LIFE   It's the first day of a new week, and we look forward to the challenging yet adventurous days ahead of us. Because life is not always guaranteed to work out the way you thought it would, we trust the Lord to guide us through the pitfalls and the snares that it may offer. To do that, we prepare ourselves by studying and meditating upon the word of God for wisdom. Godly wisdom co...

THE KEY TO ETERNAL JOY   We used to sing a song in the church: "It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, and the half has never yet been told." And another song was:  "Joy bells, ringing in my heart, Joy bells, ringing in my heart, Take the savior here below with you everywhere you go, You will have the joy-bells ringing in your heart," Joy and a life of peace have always been the theme of the Chr...

WE CAN WALK ON WATER IF WE KNOW WHO IS CALLING US TO COME   Among the many questions that I have been asking as a pastor is the one concerning the will of God for their personal life. "Pastor, do you think it would be God's will that I move to Cincinnati?" "Pastor, should I Mary Jane? Is that the woman that God has given me?" The desire to know that God favors what you do makes all the difference...

RESTORATION-HOW FAR DOES IT GO?    I'm sure you've heard the gospel song pleading with God, asking if he could just make it in. Listening to it, we get the picture of someone diving through the gate of heaven, catching their coat tail as it closes. A person with that in their thinking lives a life of high anxiety, hoping and wishing that somehow God would have mercy on them and let them into his h...

A LIVING PICTURE OF JESUS CHRIST OUR RISEN LORD AND SAVIOR   So you want to see Jesus in the full manifestation of his glory? Then let's take a look at him through the eyes of John the revelator after the resurrection and Christ ascension to the father. After all, the last book in the Bible, the vision that John witnessed on the isle of Patmos, is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ. There's a g...

WHO ARE YOU COMPLETING ON THIS JOURNEY OF FAITH?   Have you ever considered the cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews chapters 11 and 12 as personal in your walk of faith? In Hebrews 11, we have been given a list of men and women in the old covenant who walk by faith and hope in the future of God's promises. They lived in hope without receiving the fullness of what was promised them. In the firs...

THE CHRISTMAS CACTUS   Hallelujah, we made it through Thanksgiving. Now, the next big hurdle to jump is the Christmas season. Everyone you know faces this season differently. Some great planners purchase gifts long before the season comes and stash them away for that big day.  My grandmother was like that. She had a couch in her front room with a compartment underneath, and all of us kids knew tha...

THE PROPHETIC DREAM-HOW DOES IT WORK?   If your spiritual antennas are up, you will have noticed the rise of the mystic ministry in the nations of the world. For some believers, this would be brand new because of the need for teaching or revelation in the body of Christ at large. However, according to the definition of the word, the shocking reality to many who sit in church and listen to weekly s...

UPON THIS ROCK, WE BUILD   While listening to the recounting of our Thanksgiving memorial as a nation, these few thoughts dropped in my spirit that I want to share today about the founding of this great nation we live in. As our forefathers came to this land, several major miracles made the difference between success and failure. First, we are the only nation founded as a Christian nation based up...

THE POWER AND PURPOSE OF A THANKFUL HEART   Have you ever considered the incredible wonder of the world's great orchestras when they gather fifty musicians and make music together? We call it music because it is coordinated, balanced, in tune, and on time. The second thing we notice is that they all focus on one person in front of them. We call the conductor.  As long as those fifty individuals ex...

WHAT DOES GOD DO WITH YOUR PRAYERS?   There is $1 million waiting for you in the bank downtown with your name on it. To receive it, you must get off the couch, call a cab, and claim your fortune. If you received that notice from the bank, would you see if it was real? If, for no other reason, most of us will go for curiosity's sake alone. Yet we have had an invitation from the Bank of Heaven to in...

WHY DOES THE TRUTH SET US FREE?   In John 8:32, the Passion Bible says, "For if you embrace the truth, it will release true freedom into your lives." Over the past decades, philosophers and freethinkers have wondered about truth. Gathering in groups, they debate with the logic of their empty understanding, trying to find their concept of it. After the intellectuals exhaust themselves, they conclud...

YOUR UNBREAKABLE MARRIAGE TO CHRIST   Tell me what church or theological stream you were raised in, and I'll tell you the level of anxiety you have about your salvation. That's a strange way to start a discussion of the most beautiful thing that could ever happen to us. To be born again by the blood of Jesus. God's dream from the beginning was always that he would bring us back into his family thr...

MOMENTARY MONARCHS AND OTHER DISAPPEARING TERRORS   In my youth, we sang a song in the church called "Turn your eyes upon Jesus." "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full, and his wonderful face and the things of the world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace." That song captures the theme of my video tonight concerning the current situation of our nation and our society and ho...

YOU ARE AS CLOSE TO THE FATHER AS YOU WANT TO BE   In the early days of our evangelistic travels, Arlis and I found ourselves on the East Coast of this great country. With a few days between commitments, we joined two of our best friends and headed for the Big Apple. New York City. Times Square. The Statue of Liberty. The Empire State Building. New York pizza. And at the end of the day, Broadway a...

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT   My father was a 'sage,' and he always quoted something from the Proverbs of Solomon to support his wisdom. Our family established two repetitive habits we faithfully did all my young life. Throughout the day, my mother or father would read the Proverbs for that day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, and most months have 31 days. Our apostle, dad's pastor, as a young...

FIVE THINGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME   NUMBER ONE, SON, BE KIND AND FORGIVING. "And be kind one to another tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." The Scriptures tell us that you must show yourself friendly if you want friends. In so many words, it's telling us that kindness attracts people to you. Forgiveness toward others is the bedrock principle of Chri...

WILD WHEAT AND ANGELS-WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH US?   Hidden secrets abound. The spirit of revelation is given, and we begin to see the kingdom of God develop before our eyes. Why does one person understand the mystery of God and the spiritual world while the one beside him doesn't? Is it a matter of intellect? Or is there a more profound spiritual truth that we may miss in this explanation? Th...

FRESH BREAD EVERY MORNING   The scent of fresh, glazed donuts wafts through the windows of our church on Sunday morning. Suddenly, I was hungry for one of those beautiful creations. Hurry up, get through with your sermon, Dad, I thought as I visualized one of those sticky, sweet, luscious glaze donuts in my hand. As far as I was concerned, church couldn't get over soon enough. All these years late...

 I AM THE OLD OX- I FEAR NO EVIL   King David said in the Psalms that he was once a young man but now was old. In that time, he had never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread. This was the observation of an old ox. During the Bible days, they would train a new ox in the discipline of pulling the plow. They would put that young 400-pound ox in the same yolk as a 2000-pound old...

DON'T ALLOW ANYTHING TO DIMINISH THE JESUS IN YOU   Some years ago, a man came to me in my dreams. Tapping on my forehead with his finger, his face very close to mine, speaking loudly, he said, Don't allow anything to diminish the Jesus you have right in there. Well, I paid attention, knowing that the Spirit of God was allowing that to happen to improve my sensitivity to Christ in me, the hope of...