Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

Some people are not looking for God. Others are people who are ready to hear, and the Lord knows their name and is determined to reach them so they may be saved. In Luke 9:1-6, Jesus is sending out the 12 apostles which He has selected for a trial run. Their assignment is to preach the kingdom of God, pray for the sick, cast out demons. They are to do what they have seen Him doing. Jesus is traini...

Where does love come from? We all know we need more of it, but wanting to love and actually being able to love are two different things. In this account of Jesus in the home of Simon the Pharisee, the Lord reveals a powerful truth about the source of real love. He says that a person's love for God begins as a response to His mercy. And though this passage does not go on to explain how our love for...

We are joining Jesus and the disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when suddenly a storm comes up. The disciples are full of fear and full of accusation. We have a tendency to do the same thing when things get difficult. But following the Lord doesn't mean we won't encounter hardship. Listen to find out what we can learn from Jesus stilling the storm in Luke chapter 8. To purchase Pastor Steve...

A parable is a story from practical life that has a spiritual application. So when we understand the story, we see a principle about the spiritual realm. That is true here as Jesus teaches the parable of the sower from Luke chapter 8.  To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon .  Also check out our website at lifele...

Over the years I have talked with a steady stream of people who sheepishly admit that they are wrestling with doubts about God. Even as they are telling me this, they frequently drop their voice to the level of a whisper, afraid that others might hear their confession. Do good Christians ever have doubts about their faith? Is it wrong for people to ask hard questions or even be skeptical of some o...

In Luke 7:1-10 the centurion exhibited faith that released the healing power of God to another person. That it is possible to believe God for another's healing is a very important truth. Many of us have friends and family who are ill or suffering in other ways, and we would love to be able to assist them in receiving God's miracle power. Let's gather some insights concerning the centurion's faith....

A disciple is someone who believes in the Lord and intends to serve Him. That doesn't mean you don't have another job. But we are talking about the orientation of the heart. For every disciple, the call on our lives is to preach the gospel and make other disciples. A disciple is constantly in the process of bringing people to Christ and teaching people to obey all that Jesus has commanded (Mt 28:1...

What kinds of responses are we to have when we meet hostility? Jesus has just appointed 12 apostles from among his disciples. He is planning on his own disciples making other disciples. In Luke 6:27-38 Jesus talks about a disciples' attitude toward hostile unbelievers. Jesus says, "When you make disciples, you are going to hit persecution. And these are the attitudes I want you to have when you do...

Disciples will test each of these areas: money, appetites & physical comfort, emotional peace and popularity. Each of these will tend to hold us back from obedient service. Jesus is not talking about personal disciplines or scolding those who enjoy humor or condemning anyone with a good income to hell (the poor aren't going to heaven because they're poor anymore than the rich are going to hell...

Jesus didn't trick people into becoming disciples, neglecting to mention the hardships until people were too far in to back out. He didn't try to sell them by focusing only on the benefits. He didn't suggest people try discipleship for a little while and then if they didn't like it, they could always quit. No, He came right out and explained, in detail, the persecutions they would face and the per...

In Luke 6:1-5, we're looking at an event in Jesus' ministry where the subject of the Sabbath comes up. We'll look at what the issues were, what the Lord says about it, and we'll look at some practical things about the business of giving a day to the Lord. We'll talk about whether it's required or not and what might be the benefits of it.    To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: L...

The new wine is an illustration that Jesus gives. The Pharisees, along with the disciples of John the Baptist, can't understand why Jesus and His disciples are not adhering to the same rituals, like fasting and Sabbath observance, that they do. Jesus answers in Luke 5:34-39 and says, "I am bringing a new spiritual walk with God. I am not rejuvenating Judaism. I am making a break and introducing a...

As we read Luke's account of that first Resurrection Day, we are startled by the unbelief and confusion in the disciples as they discover the Lord has been resurrected. If Jesus had never explained what would happen to Him, their response might have been understandable. But that was not the case. Jesus had clearly taught that He would die and rise again after three days (see; Lk. 9:22-24,44,45; Mt...

In this account of the Lord's calling of Matthew to be His disciple, we see a stark contrast between the heart of God and the attitudes of religious people toward unbelievers. Whereas God is merciful and aggressive in seeking to rescue lost people, religion tends to build up a wall of separation. First we need to understand how and why that wall builds up, then we need to look carefully at Jesus a...

When people reached Jesus, their restoration came easily. But there are obstacles that keep us from coming to Jesus and receiving His care. Our lesson today gives us two powerful examples of people who refused to let obstacles keep them from receiving from Jesus. As we read these accounts, not only do we see Jesus' power to touch lives, but we are prophetically confronted by models of aggressive f...

America is now a nation of religious and cultural pluralism, witti a Christian minority. As a society, we are rapidly discarding the Judeo-Christian worldview and ethics that were the agreed upon norm of past generations. Biology, geology, astronomy, and psychology in particular have been used to sever us from our theological roots. Also, nearly uncontrolled immigration has accelerated us toward p...

If you knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that God existed, that the Bible was true, that there was a heaven and a hell, that Jesus Christ is the savior, would you be His disciple? How would that change your life? What would it do to you? Jesus has just done a miracle by bringing a load of fish into Peter's net, and Peter now knows God is real. In this episode we look closely at the process of Jesu...

For most of the past 30 years Jesus has been a normal young man in Nazareth, except, of course, for the fact that He has done nothing to disobey God. He had become the village carpenter, working alongside Joseph His stepfather, and He was regularly found studying in the synagogue and known to be a godly man by the whole village (Lk. 2:52). But over the last few months God has done some profound th...

To understand these temptations of Jesus and to recognize how they might apply in our own lives, we must see that these are temptations designed to assault a particular kind of person: they are the temptations the devil brings against someone whose heart is set to serve the Lord. They are the temptations of a minister. Each temptation strikes at a different aspect of our Lord's commitment to serve...

Jesus' three temptations in Luke chapter 4 are not just run of the mill temptations. They are the temptations of someone who is set on serving God and has an anointing and call on their life. So this is true of an earnest believer, a minister full of the Spirit. The devil also has temptations for that person. And the Lord will actually allow it; in fact, it is part of the process. And that's what...

When people are touched by God through you, they often don't know the difference between you or the Holy Spirit in you. That is a dangerous moment when spiritual pride can come in. John the Baptist had a powerful ministry. He was out calling Israel to repentance, and people by the thousands were coming out to him. This was a move of God. The Romans sent soldiers out to the Jordan River since there...

The time has arrived for God to work His great salvation. And He has anointed and prepared a young man to be a prophet in Israel. As we look at John the Baptist's ministry, we see John challenging Israel with a call to repentance to prepare Israel for the Messiah. In this message we will define repentance and look at how God goes about bringing us to a place of doing it.  To purchase Pastor Steve'...

For some reason when we think of the Holy Spirit we tend to think of Him as an emanation from God, some sort of impersonal power He uses to make things happen. But this thinking is wrong. He is not a power. He is not even a power with a personality. He is a Person whose presence is powerful. There is a great difference between an Impersonal force (such as gravity, electricity, magnetism, light, he...

Why does God seem to hide His kingdom? Why does He do things in such subtle ways? You would think if God really wanted to save people, He would be dramatic and do things no one could question.  As we look at the birth of John the Baptist and later Jesus' ministry, we see how Jesus conducted Himself and the way He organized things, and it left John the Baptist frustrated and questioning whether Jes...

Last time we saw Mary receive the miracle of a supernatural conception. She became pregnant with the Son of God. Suddenly Jesus was living inside her, and the effect that His presence had on her and the circumstances surrounding her is a dramatic illustration of what all Christians can expect. After all, when a person believes in Jesus Christ, He also comes to live inside of him/her (Jn. 14:20, 23...