gwot.rocks - God, the World, and Other Things!

A glaring deficiency that exists in our Christian subculture is the celebration of God’s grace in our lives. On the surface, that sounds like it’s a good thing doesn’t it? But, it really is just another pitfall of pride. Today, we can learn a lesson from Israel’s past. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 10:1-13. We must guard our hearts that we do not fall into the sin of the exaltation of our graces, but l...

This podcast is going to take you down a twisting and turning path covering an eclectic world of independent facts and stories which come together to make a huge point of hope at the end of all this. It will be slightly messy and maybe a little hard to follow at times, but please, hang with me to the end, to get to the hope in all of this. With Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, there is alway...

This is empowering Encouragement #40. Don’t say in your heart, "I will go to this place and to that place, and I shall not sin;" for you are never so out of danger of sinning as to boast of security. The road is very mucky and muddy, it will be hard to pick your path so as not to get your shoes and your clothes dirty. This is a world of thick, dark, sticky tar; you will need to watch often, i...

After posting “The Jesus Revolution” podcast, the question came into my mind, “So if we as Christians really did go all in for Jesus every morning, every day, what would that look like and how could it revolutionize our world for Jesus? The answer, in one word is – “LOVE”. If every person who believes that Jesus is the way to the eternal salvation of a human soul manifested the love of Jesus...

Time Magazine Cover Article, Monday, Jun. 21, 1971: on the cover there is a pop art illustration of Jesus with the words arching over his head that read, “The Jesus Revolution”. There is a resurgence of interest in this movement that took place in the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. The current box off hit, “Jesus Revolution” is at the helm of this interest. The bottom line for this podcast i...

A proud and arrogant heart is the prophetic prelude of evil . It is an absolute fact, that in the spiritual real, that coming events cast their shadows before them. When individuals have ridden the high horse, destruction has always overtaken them. This episode delves into the truth written in Proverbs 18:12 “Before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.” Tho...

It’s crazy to see how our entire structure of food is under assault from every direction, EVERY DIRECTION…from the genetic tampering, formula altering, ingredient manipulation, vocabulary reassignment, politicization, targeted elimination, viral contamination, and on and on the list of assaults on our food sources continue. The goal of today’s podcast is to set the wheels in motion to encoura...

Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ and not religious practices. If we are trying to approach God through zealous religion apart from an eternity transforming relationship with Jesus Christ, we are self-deluding and hypocritical; we have put off God with heartless duties; we have acted in religion as if we have been blessing an idol; we are left powerless to search our hearts and regu...

A deeper dive into six aspects to consider as we seek to keep our hearts with God: 1.We need to take a frequent inventory of the condition of the heart, 2.A sense of shame over sin, that results in a closer walk with God, 3. An earnest appeal and instant prayer for purifying and rectifying grace when sin has corrupted and dishonored the heart, 4. Enact strong commitments and arrangements upon ours...

The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God ; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God . In Proverbs 4:23 we are given the exhortation to "Keep your heart with all diligence.” and the motivation to do it, "For out of it are the issues of life." What more important thing is there in our Christian lives to do but to fight with all our mig...

Against the backdrop of the gross outpouring of evil in our country, there are signs of the Holy Spirit of God beginning to move in a major repulsion of the evil. In Nehemiah 9 , the nation of Israel had set aside a time of fasting and mourning for their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They spent an extended amount of time reading from the book of the Law of the Lord, confession, and wo...

When Providence frowns upon us, and blasts our outward comforts, then we need to look to our heart to keep it with all diligence from expressing discontent against God, or fainting under his hand ; for troubles, though sanctified, are still troubles. Though God has reserved to himself a right of afflicting his people, he has tied up his own hands by promise never to take away his loving kindn...

Settle this great truth in your heart—that no trouble happens to the Church but by the permission of the Church's God; and he permits nothing out of which he will not ultimately bring much good to his people. We may derive comfort from reflections on the permitting will , as well as on the commanding will of God . John Flavel, Puritan pastor and author who lived in the second half of the 1600s, in...

I have Red-green color blindness, which is the most common variety of color deficiency in humans. I can't see shades of red and green the same way as people with normal color perception do. Because of that, I really like bright colors and bright lights…combine LED lights with multicolor that include blue, and I’m in illumination heaven. I've had brilliant white light on my mind a lot lately. It re...

A word of caution regarding an old problem...Jesus's warning found in Matthew 7:1-5 . The public domain writings of puritan author John Flavel, puritan atuthor form the 1600s, on the Treatise of the Heart informed the writing of this podcast. Here is link to a public domain edition of his valuable and insightful work found on archive.org The link opens to page 19, which is the beginning of the mat...

Y2K, 9/11/ the Gulf War, The Pandemic...the beginning of a constant tumultuous life being the norm in America. The capture of the world's mind toward tension and disaster. Fear, terror, war, pandemic, lock downs, more war, and so it goes. Anxiety, depression, and fear are at an all time high. Pay attention to all of the prominent people, the heads of the pack, in all the chief industries of o...

I started serving in Christian ministry in the summer of 1977. Over the years I have spent a lot of time in hospitals, caring for the sick and the dying. In addition to the conversations with the sick, I have had a lot of conversations with the doctors who were the primary medical caregivers to those people I too was caring for from a spiritual, personal support role. I have seen people extremely...

This podcast episode is an adaption of the writings of puritan author Richard Stibbes, from his open source/public domain material, “Works, Volume Three. Today’s podcast starts on page 213, “A Breathing After God.” I’ll have the link to the open-source reference in the show notes. I remind you that the website archive.org is a book hounds dream, they have thousands of volumes scanned of open sourc...

Rock guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck died on January 10, 2023, in East Sussex, United Kingdom at the age of 78 from bacterial meningitis. David Crosby, famous tenor voice, song writer, and member of the rock group, “Crosby, Stills, and Nash” and once in a while Young, suddenly died on January 18, 2023,at the age of 81. This is a reflection on what their passing. Even if you don't know who thes...

Empowering Encouragement Now segments are based in part on C.H. Spurgeon's Morning & Evening Devotions. This episode is an amalgamation of several days of devotions, with snippets that really speak to my heart extricated and reworked and mashed together into this one train of thought- a blanket of encouragement to guide your 2023. My prayer is that, as we come together in increased manifestati...

Some have worked hard to disrupt the use of the sinner’s prayer in leading people to salvation in Jesus by leveling charges against its use, claim it’s not in the Bible, and it can become formulaic, manipulative and man centered. Some of these charges are outright lies, and others are excuses given that lets them off of the hook to diligently share the simple truth of the Gospel and trust God...

We take for granted that all things mesh and work fluidly together…they don’t. With the grace of God absent, to borrow a line from the song “Midnight Blue” by Melissa Manchester, “even the simple things become rough.” The solution is simple, we must return to God. It’s an option that is still possible, but looking less probable every day. This episode shares a message of hope as to how we can get...

Philippians 3:14, “I press on toward the goal.” As we enter this new year, puritan author Thomas Watson challenges us to build Holy lives on the truths of knowing Jesus Christ & the certainty of our heaven, rather than retreat into carnal pleasures and unholy living. Buy Voices From The Past All readings in this mini-series from "Voices From The Past" (copyrighted material) are used with permi...

1 Kings 17 Luke 4:16-28 The Lesson of the Inexhaustible Jar. This podcast is adapted from the public domain sermon by Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Inexhaustible Barrel, which he delivered on Sunday morning, December 18th, 1859, at Exeter Hall, Strand, England. It’s core thought is built on 1 Kings 17:16, which reads in the King James version, the Bible translation from which he preached: “And...

Matthew 7:11 Puritan author John Bradford points us to the scripture, self evaluation, and a powerful prayer in order to recalibrate our brains on the truth that our Heavenly Father gives us an immense amount of earthly blessings which are but a taste of our heavenly blessings to come! A great reflection as we launch a new year! To God be the Glory! Buy Voices From The Past All readings in this mi...