PATH TO ZION PODCAST

When weighty matters are front and center in our lives, openness and willingness to deny ourselves must be our response. Are you wholly committed to the purposes of God and being found yielded to whatever He is asking of you?

In Psalm 31 we see a great example of the balance of one who requests God's deliverance yet properly recognizes He is in absolute control. Despite our circumstances, even those we desire to see change, we must remember to acknowledge and believe that God is with us. 

Doesn't everyone enjoy getting something new? Maybe it's a gift received. Maybe it's a purchase made. Perhaps it's experienced even in the birth of a child or moving into a new home. However they come, "new" things are generally good things. So what about all of the new things we read in the Scriptures? Can we walk in the sense, feeling and emotion of when our love and salvation were new, always?...

Psalm 145 tells us of a pattern of one generation declaring God's wonder, majesty and mighty acts to another. It shows us a perpetual "passing down" of God's awesome deeds. I would say this has been lost throughout the ages. May we reclaim this pattern!

In this episode I share a couple of the more lighthearted moments of my youth and then bring it around to facing what we presently value and "need" in our lives today.

Hebrews 4 and 5 give us such an incredible description of Jesus' role of Great High Priest. This episode turns our focus onto this awesome position and function of Christ, on our behalf. 

Pull 25 followers of Jesus aside and ask them how they believe we're to give and receive love and you'll likely get 25 different answers - all based on the same Scriptures! So what do we do about this? Well, let's talk about that.

Part 2/Conclusion of the examination of the Syrophoenician woman from the Gospels. Her response to Jesus, and most importantly to what Jesus said to her, can teach us all a great deal.

This short series looks at the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew and Mark. This extremely short account in the Scriptures holds a wealth of spiritual wisdom for us to add to our lives, in regards to our condition.

The Garden of Gethsemane is loaded with many examples that we can glean from and add to our lives. In this message, I extract just a couple. It would do us all good to posture ourselves as Jesus did, in complete surrender to a will that was not His own. 

What do you do when something undesirable seems to persist? For weeks... for months... for years. We're not meant to just cope in our own natural abilities, nor are we to just repeat spiritual mantras about being more than conquerors as we ignore the facts. We endure, in faith. 

After spending some time with our dear friends newborn son, I've been so encouraged to go to my Father just as I am. He fully knows us as we are today. May we not in any way remain hidden but rather turn toward Him as a child in need of a perfect, loving Father.

What do we do when we rightly exercise faith in a circumstance but the results still (seemingly) lead us to what we would consider disappointment? We must become a people that endure, in faith, in all circumstances. This episode challenges us all to dig deep and endure... to the end.

After my posts discussing people "leaving the faith", I read an article by John Cooper of Skillet asking "what's happening with Christianity?". I felt compelled to record a response that answers that question, more so from a standpoint of "what's wrong with Christianity?". It is, of course, simply my opinion, based upon things I believe the Spirit is saying in this hour to any who would listen.

Part 2 of the short examination of how self-care/self-reliance/self-awareness opposes the message of Jesus and actually undermines one's spiritual growth and maturity. We are created dependent and we must remain always aware of that fact. It is for our good.

The empowerment of self and discovering one's own power/abilities is increasingly infiltrating the Church. Those who desire to cling to the patterns of the Bible and teachings of Jesus must be alert and aware of it. Clearly, we're called to surrender our own strength and be a dependent people.

This episodes continues the theme of examining our faith and asking some tough questions. I would say, in order to be assured that our faith is true, we must be sure that Jesus is the author and the finisher.

How many minutes a day do you find yourself still and quiet? No music, no talking, no media... no nothing. Yea... let's work on that.

Part 2/Conclusion of discussing why I believe people are "leaving the faith" and what we do from here, in this age that we now live in.

I decided to explore the topic of why I believe people are "leaving Christianity" as well as ask the question, "What do we do with 2 Timothy 4:3 that tells us a day is coming where people will 'no longer endure sound doctrine'?". 

I intended to simply open myself to listeners questions. Then, I ended up opening the discussion about how and why people "leave the faith". 

When training my son and seeing his tendencies in regards to his obedience, I can't help but step back and examine my own life. This episode urges us to peer into our obedience motivation.

A lot has been churning around in me this year along the lines of a, biblically-defined, ordered household. The other morning, I ended up recording a few basic thoughts on the matter. We're no poster children for the topic, but God is leading us into truth. (More on this, in much more depth, to come.)

Psalm 131 tells us of the satisfied life. One satisfied that God is his sufficiency and that his soul is at rest. What a wonderful place to be!

Just some thoughts on asking ourselves how we respond to things just not playing out the way we would like them to in life.