Graceful Insights with Dr. Kathy Wood

This is our final podcast on “losing heart”. We will start out by summing up what we have seen so far about what causes a loss of heart and what feelings go along with the loss of heart. How does a person avoid losing heart – how can a person guard against this? And, how can a person find his heart again? And finally, how you can help people who seem to be losing heart – what can you do for them?

Today we will look at some additional verses on losing heart and some examples of people in the Bible who lost heart. What situations were those people facing? How did God help them through those times when all they really wanted to do was give up? 

In our last podcast, we looked at several verses dealing with loss of heart and a few of the causes of this condition. God encourages us to look at our circumstances from His point of view and not to respond to those circumstances like the world would. God has a different perspective – that is not surprising! Now we will take a look at Hebrews chapter 12 and see what God says about endurance and w...

Losing heart – what exactly does this mean? Almost everyone goes through loss of heart at one time or another. It can be caused by a variety of things like extreme grief or situations that are so hard that we do not know how to get out of them or heavy disappointments, just to name a few. The Bible actually has a lot to say about losing heart – what causes it and how to recover from it. In this po...

This is our final podcast on “discipleship”. Today we’ll take a look at some additional things that Jesus said about following Him. And we will look at some questions – Is becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ worth it? And will it be easy to be a disciple? And, if following Jesus is difficult at times, is there any help for us!? Let’s take a look at the answers to these questions.

In our last podcast, we looked at the challenge that Jesus gave to the large crowds of people listening to Him. He challenged them to follow Him. And he told them what that meant as He discussed preferring Christ over all other people, denying ourselves, taking up our crosses daily… Following Christ requires a total commitment of your life to that end. He also talked about the narrow gate and the...

Did you know that the word “Christian” only occurs 3 times in the New Testament of the Bible? The word “disciple” appears much more frequently and, in fact, is the word that Jesus used for those who believed in Him. So what IS a disciple? And perhaps more importantly, are YOU a disciple? In today’s podcast, we’ll take a look at those questions.

Is it possible to control what we say? God says that the tongue is untamable! Well, that is discouraging! And He says that what you say reveals the condition of your heart. So what are we to do? And what if we decide to do nothing and just keep grumbling?

Life has a way of not going how we expect it to go. People disappoint us and situations trip us up. Before we know it, we find ourselves complaining about our lot in life. So what? Doesn’t everyone have the right to complain sometimes? The Israelites certainly thought so as they wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years. But grumbling and complaining did not turn out well for them…

If our words are so powerful – if, as God says, ‘life and death are in the power of the tongue’ – then what can we do to make sure that our tongues are a source of life to other people? God also says that the tongue is impossible to tame. Well then, what are we to do?! God has the solution.

Do the words we speak really matter all that much? Could they matter more than we realize? Is it possible that some of the rewards that God promises us in His word depend on OUR words? A very sobering thought – let’s look more closely at this.

Self-control is a supernatural result of God being in control of your life. In this podcast we will look at some biblical examples of people without self-control and of people who did have self-control. What are some areas of our lives that often reveal lack of self-control? And, what happens if we don’t develop godly self-control? Are there any warnings for us?

Self-discipline, willpower, self-control! These words may make us kind of uncomfortable because they point out areas we struggle in like out-of-control eating or out-of-control anger. What exactly is self-control? And how is it developed – where does it come from? And how can we live as self-controlled Christians day after day after day? This may seem almost impossible… But it isn’t!

Today's episode is titled "Who's in Control–part I". God is sovereignly in control of everything… or is He? And if He is in control of everything, do we want Him to be? This is the first podcast in a four-part series on control.

Today's episode is titled "Who's in control? – part II". What if a situation "looks" horrible? Is God still in control? We will look at some very interesting examples of this in the book of Daniel. And then finally, what is your attitude toward God being in control? How does His control affect how you think and how you live?

Today’s Episode is titled “No faith? Great faith? Saving faith?” Sometimes the most unlikely people show greater faith than the so-called “religious people” around them. How can that be? What does great faith look like? And what does a person look like who has stopped growing in his faith? In this last episode, let’s answer these questions and we will also look at the most important faith of all –...

Today’s Episode is titled “Where does faith come from… And how does persistence make it grow?” In this segment, we will dig a little more into the origins of faith – where does it come from? And once you have faith, how does it grow? What does persistence in prayer have to do with it?”

Today’s Episode is titled “Is faith that important?” God says that without faith there is absolutely no way that you can please Him. Nothing else you might do can overcome lack of faith in your life. So, how much faith is enough? And can we pray for more faith? We will look into this during this segment.

The way we define “faith” is very different from what the Bible says it is. In fact, biblical faith changes what you do and how you do it… And it is visible to those around you. We’ll look at what faith REALLY is in this podcast.

Many of us say a blessing before we eat and some of us actually ask God to bless us and other people. But what are we asking for? Is a blessing just some vague set of words before a meal or toward a person? No! FULL TRANSCRIPT: One of my favorite Psalms in the Bible is Psalm 103. Here is how it starts: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my...

In our final episode on evolution, we ask, exactly how did life begin on the earth? Did it crawl out of a primordial soup? Did God really create all the plants and animals – and even humans? Or did humans evolve from animals called primates? And finally, isn’t it possible to believe in both evolution and creation and avoid the controversy altogether? FULL TRANSCRIPT: Today we will actually touch o...

Some kinds of evolution DO occur, like dogs and Archaeopteryxes. And what about fossils? They do exist so isn’t that an example of evolution? And what about those vestigial organs? We will hit on all of these in this segment. FULL TRANSCRIPT: So far, we have looked at evolution/creation terminology as well as a brief history of the controversy overall. In our last podcast, we also looked at one pi...

In today’s episode, we’ll finish up with a history of the controversy, even looking at how Texas plays a part. Then, onto the “hot issues” like how old is the earth? And what “flavors” of creationism are there? And finally, lots of different organisms are really very similar – what is that all about? FULL TRANSCRIPT: So far, we have gone over some of the terminology dealing with evolutionary theor...

The idea of evolution as a logical way to explain how we get the great variety of living organisms that we see today has not been around forever. In fact, it is a relatively new concept that gained ground when science came on the scene. Let’s explore how the theory of evolution became so entrenched in our society. FULL TRANSCRIPT: Well, here we are again, part 2 of the Evolution/Creation controver...

How does a scientist who is also a Christian know where to stand on the evolution/creation controversy? Is there a point in the middle? And where do most people stand in the United States? We will look at all of these questions in this segment. FULL TRANSCRIPT: I have been asked to prepare a series of podcasts dealing with the controversy surrounding creation and evolution. As a biologist who is a...