Real Truth Matters Podcast

Send us Fan Mail In our last episode, we aired a sermon Michael Durham preached the previous year that created some controversy. The contention was not doctrinal but about the application. The question disputed was about suitability. Was the sermon appropriate, and should a preacher say such things?  In this episode, we will air the final half of the sermon. In the following episodes, the podcast...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Season Two! The Real Truth Matters Podcast starts season two with a sermon Michael Durham preached last year that created some controversy. The contention was not doctrinal but about the application. The question disputed was about suitability. Was the sermon appropriate and should a preacher say such things?  In this and the next episode, we will air the sermon so you...

Send us Fan Mail In this last episode of season one, Michael Durham deals with David's practicing the presence of God. How do you cultivate an ongoing awareness of the presence of God? Are there things you must do for this to take place? And if so, what are those things that we must do so that we walk conscious of God? Please take time to listen to this most important episode. We will resume...

Send us Fan Mail Unless you are a new Christian, you have learned that God's ways are so radically different than our ways. We all want God to show up when we are in trouble. We pray, cry, and make promises so that the Lord will intervene. But sometimes God shows up and He is the trouble. He afflicts and causes pain. He hurts rather than heals; He wounds instead of restores.  As we continue l...

Send us Fan Mail Should we learn how to wrestle in prayer until we prevail with God? Of course, but the incident in the life of Jacob when he and God wrestle the entire night is not about prayer. It is often used as an illustration of persevering prayer, but that is not the point of the story. Jacob doesn't start the wrestling match, God did. God was about something else in Jacob's life...

Send us Fan Mail Prayer is one of the most challenging things in the Christian life. But without it, there is little communion with our God. In this episode, Michael Durham shares how you can turn the Bible into a book of prayer and thereby revolutionize your prayer life. He discusses how he discovered this and gives a brief example of using the Bible as a guide to prayer. 

Send us Fan Mail Too many times, we do not experience the Word, Jesus Christ, when we read His word. How can we change this? How can you start reading the Bible and connect with the One who authored it? That is what today’s edition of the Real Truth Matters podcast is all about. Please join us and learn that we must not make the fundamental mistake of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day and separate God’s...

Send us Fan Mail Do you struggle in prayer, thinking prayer should be more a dialogue than a monologue? In this episode, Michael Durham shares how to pray in the biblical way that makes communion with God real conversation. This is one of the most practical principles about prayer you will ever hear. So, we invite you to listen. 

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes prayer requires more of you than at other times. There is a prayer that requires grit, a determination that will not relent. So often, the Lord tests our endurance by delays in granting the answer that we are seeking. Some have prayed for years for things they desired to see, and some have died without seeing their request answered. But they never gave up asking. Listen...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the RTM podcast, Michael Durham deals with our Lord Jesus' answer to the request for Him to teach His disciples how to pray.  The Lord's answer is the best teaching on prayer you can read. Books on prayer are wonderful, and we ought to be grateful for them and read them. But no book on prayer says as much about how to pray as this simple outline given...

Send us Fan Mail To really pray, we must prepare our hearts to pray. This is a biblical fact, and it is a fact of church history. All too often, we dash into the closet of prayer, say prayers but do not actually pray. We have fulfilled the form and ritual of prayer, but true communion with God doesn’t happen. Prayer is a spiritual work, and it requires our spirit to be attuned to the spiritual rea...

Send us Fan Mail In the previous broadcast, it was stated that Jesus made a habit of prayer. It was a regular and continual part of His life. And, as our Lord’s disciples, we must regularly pray, as well. Biblical suggestions were given on how to build prayer into your daily life.   As we look at the text John 11:41-43, what must seem an odd text on the subject of prayer, we do find what is founda...

Send us Fan Mail We don’t pray as we ought to or would desire. We all have failed in prayer. You can even pray regularly but oftentimes find it hard to pray when you pray. In this episode of the RTM podcast, Michael Durham addresses this biblically and encouragingly. This episode and the next will give reassuring support from the prayer life of our Lord Jesus. Jesus prayed much. And if we are to b...

Send us Fan Mail Do you struggle to believe God is good to you? Are you bothered by the lack of reality of God in your life? He doesn’t seem real at times. You believe in Him, but He’s more like a fact than a person. These are important questions we need to ask. In this episode, Michael Durham continues to unpack the Bible’s principal purpose of prayer. As we continue to learn how to commune with...

Send us Fan Mail In Matthew 17:2, Jesus said, “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” So, what does Jesus mean? Is He saying the more prayer, the more power? The more prayer, the more success?  These are important questions because depending on the answer, we will have a biblical Christianity that has a motivation of prayer that is unique, or we will have an improper mot...

Send us Fan Mail Every Christian has a vital interest and desire to commune with the living God. But how do we do this? Sometimes it isn't easy. Prayer can be, at best, a difficult thing. There seems to be so much that opposes us, keeping us from praying or hindering us when we pray. We would rather do many other things than pray. Prayer can be so challenging that, as Thomas Shephard, a leadi...

Send us Fan Mail Is fellowship with the living God and Creator of all things really possible? And if so, how does one go about having communion with God? Are there specific protocols to observe? Or can one enter in without rules and regulations?  In this episode, Michael Durham defines what communion with God is and deals with the possibility of lowly creatures like us being able to fellowship wit...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Michael Durham discusses how the Lord gets our attention. No doubt, He can get our attention in a million different ways. His power is unlimited. If He wants, He could get our attention most spectacularly. But since the Lord seldom uses the more dramatic methods to gain our attention, we should investigate the less spectacular and regular ways He employs. If you a...

Send us Fan Mail We must never think of God as being a “chatty” person. But at the same time, we must not think of Him as being silent. He does communicate to His own. There is the potential of fellowship with God, and fellowship requires communication. The primary means for our Lord to communicate with us is through the Scripture. However, the Bible does not preclude any other form of communicati...

Send us Fan Mail How do you know if God is leading you on a specific path? Well, do not despair. The Lord is too kind to leave us to a guessing game. The Bible gives six markers or identifiers that mark the way of the Lord. You could say these six markers are six tests, tests by which we see if something is God’s will or not. So don’t panic; God commands us to exam Him and all other spirits who wo...

Send us Fan Mail How do you know if God is leading you on a specific path? Well, do not despair. The Lord is too kind to leave us to a guessing game. The Bible gives six markers or identifiers that mark the way of the Lord. You could say these six markers are six tests, tests by which we see if something is God’s will or not. So don’t panic; God commands us to exam Him and all other spirits who wo...

Send us Fan Mail Does God still speak personally to us, or was that something for just the Apostles and no longer viable? In this episode, Michael Durham, explains that God still does speak subjectively. However, to hear God speak is not a physical, but spiritual reality, which requires the spirit of a man to be trained and developed in the art of spiritual listening. Perhaps God is speaking, but...

Send us Fan Mail Most of us think we experience so little of Jesus. For this reason, we find ourselves thinking that, at times, it is difficult to follow the Lord. We don’t seem to know what Christ is up to in our lives; we complain that He is not easy to see and, therefore, hard to follow. But, how do you follow someone you can’t see?  Michael Durham tackles this subject and helps us to see that...

Send us Fan Mail According to some, it seems God has hidden His will from us; He has given us some cryptic clues and then bids us go hunt for it. Those who find the elusive prize are usually the super-spiritual because only they understand the clues and have learned God’s method of hiding His will.   To know God’s will for you is nowhere that difficult. It does take some effort, but you will find...

Send us Fan Mail Most Christians believe the dynamic of relationship seen in the Bible stays in the Bible. We should not expect the level of intimacy that men and women in the Bible experienced. We have our Bibles, and we have the corporate worship of the saints; why then should we expect more? If you do, you will only be disillusioned and dissatisfied. But that is not the stated sentiment of Scri...