As you will hear in this PODCAST, how ironic that Peter should invoke this image, and we discuss it, on the evening of the Winter Solstice, 2019.
As we bring the lovely little letter called 1 Peter to a close, you are in for copious amounts of much-needed encouragement.
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God bless you richly as you listen.
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, there is no more precious a proclamation, made by Peter to us, in the entire Bible than this one.
Nor is there a more precious a picture, painted by God Himself, of this proclamation, than this one.
My earnest prayer is that this message may be a blessing in your life today.
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
God bless you richly as you listen.
His name was Pontius Pilate. And as you will hear in this PODCAST, he was not a nice man.
This is the man to whom Jesus was handed over to be crucified.
This is the man who will live long in infamy.
This is the man who caved to political pressure in order to preserve his position of power, even if it meant crucifying an innocent man who though He was God, held no position.
This is the man who metaphorically drove the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet, and a stake through the heart of Peter. Peter, whose faith would fail spectacularly in the face of Jesus’ trumped-up charges.
There is a lot going on here, every salient detail of which will enhance your Easter season enormously.
May God bless you richly as you listen.
Here’s the thing: As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, at precisely 6:13 this past Monday morning, I had an epiphany.
Fact is, between last Saturday night and Monday morning, I was stymied by one perplexing question:
“Here in 1 Peter 2, why in the world didn’t Peter use the word for stones that is his name? Petros?”
Or to put that another way,
“Why did Peter here in 1 Peter 2 use the word for stones, Lithos?
They are, after all, synonyms—Petros and Lithos—at least in English. Both are translated “stone.” So why didn’t Peter refer to himself—and to you and me—as a Petros? Why a Lithos?
Oh, my friends, the answer to that question is breathtakingly beautiful. Beautiful indeed.
As are you!
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God bless you richly as you listen.
In 1 Peter 2:5a (NLT), Peter painted this amazing picture. Speaking of you and me, he wrote,
“And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.”
Living stones. As you are about to hear in the PODCAST, Peter may have been an uneducated fisherman. But he was inarguably the master of the metaphor.
Last week, he referred to us as “priests”—a metaphor rich with a wealth of meaning once we understand the role of priests throughout the biblical narrative.
For this week, “living stones.” What a meaningful metaphor that is—“living stones.”
As we are about to learn, this is perfect for us to consider as we close out 2018—a year that has dealt with most of us in a remarkably unkind way. The challenges we have faced, the trials we have endured, the obstacles we have overcome… And yet, and yet, like “living stones,” you are still standing. And for that, I applaud you!
Now to the point at hand: Does anything strike you about Peter’s reference to “living stones”?
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
God bless you richly as you listen.
In honor of this Christmas season now officially upon us, let’s go back to the beginning.
In this PODCAST, you will hear from the one, the prediction of whose birth shattered 400 years of a deafening silence and started the Christmas ball rolling—our old and dearly beloved friend, John the Baptizer.
This is his compelling story, as told in his own voice.
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
God bless you richly as you listen.
May I ask you a personal question?
As you will hear in this PODCAST, the exact same question that I asked of a couple of hundred of the best high school students you’d ever want to meet. Here’s my question:
Do you want to live your life in the midst of God’s blessing?
If your answer to that question is “Yes,” THIS is what God’s blessing means; THIS is what a God-blessed life looks like.
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
God bless you richly as you listen.
Think of it. As you will hear in this encore PODCAST…
(An encore because I am speaking at one of my all-time favorite places in the world, Hartland Christian Camp)…
Promptly at 3 PM…
Exactly at That.Very.Moment when Jesus breathed His last…
Precisely to the second when Jesus exclaimed, “It is finished. Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit”…
This happened:
“Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
Do you have any idea what that means? It will take the remainder of this discussion for us even to begin to understand What.That.Means.
Why did God tear the veil?
It was obviously God who ripped it. No human hand could possibly tear it. That veil was an elaborately woven fabric that stood 60 feet high, equal in height to a seven-story building. No one could tear that curtain. Only God could tear that curtain.
Which only amplifies the question, Why?
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
God bless you richly as you listen.
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