Reliable Truth

Do you need help with your relationships? Donald Miller says, "...the words alone , lonely and loneliness are three of the most powerful words in the English language... Those words say that we are human... they are like the words hunger and thirst, but they are not words about the body, they are words about  the soul ." God designed people to need other people. We are relational beings because Go...

Is your sexuality sacred to you? I contend that one of the most meaningful and powerful sources of joy in this life is our sexuality, particularly in the context in which God designed it. But when it's abused and misused, I believe, and I have seen, that it can be a source of unbelievable pain and guilt. In our last episode we discussed getting wisdom for handling our money. Well, the way we r...

Do you need wisdom for your finances today?  Blaise Bascal once said, "Human beings find life to be unsatisfying and incoherent as time goes by, because they have false beliefs and false ideas on matters important for living a high quality of life." He goes on to say, "Therefore it is critical that gain genuine wisdom by uprooting false beliefs and replacing them with true insights and perspective...

What will life in heaven really be like? Will we just be spiritual beings floating around in heaven? The Bible teaches that heaven is a place of joyous celebration, and that we will each have a physical, glorified body in heaven. Philippians 3:20-21 says, "For our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to b...

Do you know what life is like if there is no God?  ​It’s kind of like the view that John Lennon wrote about in his song, "Imagine." He says, “Imagine there’s no Heaven, it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us, only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. ” Lennon is saying, just imagine what it would be like if there was no God and no Heaven and no religion. ​ Solomon says that life...

What is the purpose of work?  Jeffrey Salkin in the Wall Street Journal said this, “Americans work so hard that we often put work at the emotional and spiritual center of our lives.” And then Sigmund Freud who, in all that I’ve read about him, lived a miserable life -  he said, “Work is the most powerful deflector to keep us from having to face the unhappiness of our existence.”  Last week we look...

What is the modern secular view of life?  You might say it is the same as Solomon’s conclusion in Ecclesiastes - if there is no God, life is meaningless. Your pursuits and your endeavors are temporary, and nothing more than chasing after the wind. Solomon concluded that life "under the sun" means there is no God who stands behind you and existence. There is no God sustaining the universe. No life...

"Do you find yourself unsatisfied with things in your life?" Warren Wiersbe asks in his commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes.  He continues, “ If so, you are in good company, because dissatisfaction is a part of the human condition. That’s why God gave us the book of Ecclesiastes — to remind us that satisfaction in life is not an external issue that can be appeased by amassing more stuff, or hav...

Jerry Leachman of Leachman Ministries joins us again today to share a special message about Christmas. His focus is on the shepherds, the first people the angels told about Jesus' birth. They were the first to see the baby Jesus. They knelt and worshipped him.  They were the first to worship and on the way back to their sheep, they witnessed to everybody. They were the first missionaries. They tol...

What are you living for? A few years ago USA Today did a poll, asking their readers this one question, “ If you could ask God one question and get an answer, what would that question be? ” And interestingly, the overwhelming number one question that the readers answered was ‘ What on earth am I here for?’ Why am I alive? Why do I exist?  What are you living for? Because the way we answer that ques...

How much of your life have you wasted trying to impress others? How much different would your life be if you were delivered from the fear and worry about what others think of you? Today we're looking again at what Solomon has to say about our work in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon says this, “ What does the worker gain from his toil? I’ve seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everyth...

If you could live your life over again, would you do anything differently? As I meet with men every day, I find that there are so many men who live with the pain of regret .  Today's podcast is about the book of Ecclesiastes - a philosophical book about the sorrows, the regrets and the life of King Solomon. You see, he turned away from his faith in his latter years, and he turned away to false God...

Are we in the land of the living? Actually, we are in the land of the dying. My guest today, Jerry Leachman, would tell you that this is a message from a dead man. Five years ago he had a massive heart attack, and experienced what his doctor described as “sudden death”. Jerry tells his story about being with Jesus during that time, and the message that he was impressed with to share with us. A sec...

What gives meaning to life? How do we treasure God and people? What is God's unique purpose for me, and then how do I wisely invest my life? Today my guest is Ken Boa , President of Reflections Ministries. In this final message on Transitioning Well, Ken will give us tools on how to live wisely; to give us a sense of encouragement, destiny and an understanding of where our lives are meant to be. G...

Today my guest is Ken Boa , President of Reflections Ministries. This is Part 2 of his 3 part series on Transitioning Well – Living this day as if it's your last. Do you think it's possible for a person to miss his life, like a person that misses a plane? Yes! I can live for the future, thinking if I can accomplish this or that, then I'll be happy, I'll be content. Guess what happens if you are am...

Today my guest is Ken Boa, President of Reflections Ministries. He is teaching a 3 part series on Transitioning Well - How to take the greatest years of your life, when you have the wisdom, the relationships and the resources, to impact the world. Ken says, “Age conspires with God to take away our temporal hope.”  Think about that again: “Age conspires with God to take away our temporal hope,” for...

Are you walking through a difficult time in your life? Today Richard‘s guest is Tom Bradford , President of the National Christian Foundation of Alabama. Tom is sharing his personal journey of faith while battling terminal cancer. His story is powerful, full of love and hope. We hope his message inspires and strengthens you today!

Do you have the right kind of wealth? In other words are you rich in the things that really matter? Do you possess spiritual riches? The word content literally means "to be full, to be satiated, to be satisfied."  Jesus said in John 6:35 , "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst." When Jesus said this, he’s no...

Where do you find contentment in life? I believe that true contentment has nothing to do with what you have or don't have. Contentment is in the state of your heart. I believe there are three sins, or vices, that have a huge impact on our lives. They rob us of true contentment.  What do you think these three sins might be? I believe they are pride, greed, and envy. The first reason they’re so dead...

There is one thing that each of us need - if you have this, it will make your life. Tragedies and heartbreak will come, but if you don't have this - you probably won't do well. I'm talking about deep friendship. At its center, Christianity is about relationships - our relationship to God and our relationships with people. What kind of friend are you? I believe there are 4 levels of fri...

Have you ever thought about the ideas you have and how they shape your life? Philosopher Dallas Willard says "Our ideas are the assumptions we have about reality. They are the way we think about and interpret life. Ultimately our beliefs and ideas determine how we live, and therefore our ideas about life will lead to certain consequences."  Today I am addressing three false ideas about reality, an...

Today's podcast is from a group Bible study I am teaching about the principle of sowing and reaping. I believe that for every person who is listening to this podcast, God would desire you to have a ministry of some sort. It doesn’t have to be a big ministry, but I believe that there is something that He wants to do through each one of us as we live this life. And I would also say that if you’re at...

Today we're finishing the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. This parable reveals something about eternity. Many people don't realize the fact that in Heaven, you will have a physical, resurrected body. We're not going to be these spirits floating around in the clouds like some people think. In this parable, Lazarus and the rich man weren't spirits. They had physical bodies.  Think about the Apo...

Today's podcast is the second part of my Bible Study series on Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus. This parable is found in Luke 16:19-31 .  Last week, we considered what the Bible tells us about hell. Hell is a real place - a place of agony, a place of torment, and it’s a place that no one really would ever want to end up. If hell is real, what should our lives be about, particularly as w...

Today's podcast is from a Bible Study series I taught at The Center. We're looking at one of Jesus' parables that I think is very pertinent to us today. This parable is found in Luke 16:19-31 and is about the reality of heaven and hell. It talks about the human condition and man’s resistance of God. It talks about the irreversibility of death, which closes the door to grace. And that’s very seldom...