Jubilate Sacred Singers
The Jubilate Sacred Singers will join us on October 19, 2008. We encourage you to bring your friends as we celebrate a special time of worship with them.
Archive for September, 2008
Jubilate will join us on October 19
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Godly character brought about by Grace
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Recorded September 7, 2008. Richard looks at 1 Corinthians 15:15. Richard focuses on Paul’s statement, “By the grace of God, I am what I am.” God’s grace to me is not without effect. Paul is not worthy to be anything, but he is what he is by God’s grace. God’s grace transformed Paul from a terrible person into a champion for God. Godly character is the result of the active work of grace.
i’m still trying to get used to our new server and its idiosyncrasies. We recorded this episode when all the troubles with our old server made adding new podcast episodes impossible. i will say one thing about this episode, everything positive we’ve accomplished through this podcast episode is the result of God’s grace, and his grace alone. You can listen to this episode and subscribe to our podcast by visiting From Richard’s Heart.
Make the most of every opportunity
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Recorded on August 17, 2008. Richard talks about Paul’s mandate to make the most of every opportunity given to us by God. We are to take advantage of every opportunity to witness. Even when that opportunity isn’t safe or convenient or comfortable for us personally.
Richard takes a close look at 1 Corinthians 16:8 and following. He shows that with Paul’s safe and effective work, there were many who opposed Paul. Discovering resistance and opposition to our efforts can be a good clue on whether we are being effective for God. Satan ignores us when we aren’t doing anything for God.
In all things we are to be on our Guard, stand firm in our faith, and do everything in love. This takes courage, requires prayer, and takes great strength on our part.
Finally, can we pinpoint how God is working in our life? Do we see that when things go wrong in our life, they are often going right with Jesus?
This is our first podcast episode posted on our new server. So far i have not found any major problems with our new feed. God willing, i will have another episode of “From Richard’s Heart” available before the end of September.
Zambia Mission Trip
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Recorded on August 31, 2008. Brandon and Shaun Pearman share their thoughts and experiences on their recent mission trip to Zambia. Brandon talks about the power the local witch-doctors have over the Zambian children. He also points out that Satan engages all of us in spiritual warfare on many fronts.
Shaun showed us the harsh economic conditionsof the Zambians. Yet, the Zambian children show thanks for even the small things they recieve. He reminds us how God can transform this world through the most unlikely people.
This is the episode that created havoc for me when i tried uploading it on our old server. The podcasting software that our hosting company provided us basically insisted we had too many episodes. After spending many hours trying to fix the problem, i decided to move our site to this server. i’m also FeedForAll to generate the .xml files needed to create our podcasts.
As always, i encourage you to subscribe and listen to our podcast by visiting “From Richard’s Heart.”
i Will Sing God’s Praises
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Recorded on August 3, 2008. Richard takes a look at the first eight verses of Psalm 34. He reminds us that David chose to praise God even when circumstances weren’t favorable for David. We are encouraged to glorify and praise God together as a group.
We face many uncertainties in life. Yet God delivers us from the grip of our fears. As we look to God, we gain confidence. We shine with joy. Our troubles become God’s opportunities.
As we look more and more to God, we discover He becomes more involved with us. God sets up shop around us. We sample and savor God’s goodness. We know from our experience, God is good.
Richard’s mic kept falling off while we did this recording. He made a quick reference to our failing technology as he retrieved the mic. Fortunately for us while our technology often fails, God does not.
Hear what Richard has to say and subscribe to this series by visiting our podcast page.
Ron’s Testimony
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Recorded on August 3, 2008. Richard asked Ron Lindroth to participate in our worship service. Ron began by playing one of Richard’s favorite hymns on his harmonica. After giving a brief testimony, Ron concluded with the classic hymn “In the Garden.”
A lot has happened during August which has prevented me from posting new episodes. Our hosting company has been upgrading their servers. Work has been very demanding lately. Of course health concerns have been an issue for many of us this summer. However, God willing, we will have more new episodes available during the next few weeks.
As always, i encourage you to listen to and subscribe to “From Richard’s Heart.”
Ultimate Safety
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Recorded July 6, 2008. We live in an age of constant threats to our safety and security. Homeland Security is supposed to keep US citizens safe. Many people rely on their wealth to secure their future. We use police and military to protect our safety and security. So what is the ultimate in safety?
This week Richard examines what he considers ultimate safety. He begins by looking at John 10. In this chapter Jesus reminds his disciples that as our shepherd, he knows all of us, and we recognize his voice. Jesus prevents anyone or anything from taking us away from him. In return God asks us to act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with our God.
Because as a congregation we enjoy God’s ultimate safety, we participate in worldwide missions. We do this through our financial and prayer support of missionaries. We also participate via this podcast. And, we participate in worldwide missions as we witness to the people around us through our daily living.
When we recorded this episode, the Pearman family gave us an update on their upcoming trip to Africa. Our prayers continue with them as they serve God in this very important capacity. We are honored to be serve God via our support of this very special family.
For those who missed church on July 13, Richard shared some of his faith journey with us. He has lived an extraordinary life. Many of us rejoice continually that God has worked so powerfully in his life, and we thank God Richard willingly serves as our pastor.
Richard will share more of his faith Journey on July 20. i’m in prayer now that we will be able to include some of Richard’s testimony in “From Richard’s Heart.” All of us at Mesa regard Richard as a very dear friend. Our heartfelt thanks go to God and those who shepherded Richard during his lifetime. Now we know why Richard believes God provides us the ultimate safety.
Go!
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Recorded June 22, 2008. Richard’s message is based on Mark 16:15 and following. He highlights the word “Go!” Richard emphasizes Jesus did not make a “suggestion” or a request. Jesus expects us to do something. We are to go and preach the good news throughout the world.
As a small church we accomplish Jesus’s mandate to go by our financial support of people called to the mission field. We further accomplish Christ’s command by not discouraging the enthusiasm of new Christians. Finally we obey Christ’s directive to go into all the world by proclaiming the news of God’s salvation via our podcasts and our web site.
Richard’s health prevents him from standing through an entire message. He often sits on a stool while he talks to us. Richard sometimes refers to his simple wood stool as his “throne.”
i would like to thank Bill for providing me with the funds to purchase a program designed to set ID3 tags. This small program has already saved me several hours of frustration. For those who want to know, ID3 tags are used by iTunes and other podcatchers to provide specific information about each episode when you click on the “i” symbol. on the description column associated with each podcast episode. ID3 tags also provide the artwork that appears when you click on a podcast episode in iTunes. Until recently correctly setting the ID3 tags in our podcast series has been at best a painful process.
Again thanks, Bill, for providing me with the money to purchase software to make setting ID3 tags much easier.
Faithfulness
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Recorded June 8, 2008. Richard became quite ill prior to recording this episode. He had trouble walking, and he could barely talk. The audio had to be tweaked a bit to bring out his voice. However, all of us rejoiced in seeing him.
Richard talks about Sarah in this episode. He notes how she recognizes God’s faithfulness. Richard reminds us how God remains faithful, and how God meets our needs. All we are asked in return is to remain faithful to God.
i did run into a few technical problems producing this episode. As many people already know, Richard’s voice was almost gone when we recorded “Faithfulness.” Enhancing the audio to make him intelligible proved more challenging than i expected. One cool thing about all this is i may have discovered a new program that will make setting ID3 tags much easier for me. Your favorite podcatchaer (e.g. iTunes) uses ID3 tags to display basic information about each episode in a podcast series.
God willing, we will have another episode of “From Richard’s Heart” available in about two weeks.
Cause for Joy
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Recorded May 25, 2008. God has given us a wonderful gift. Through the sacrifice of Jesus our sins (wrongdoing) are not only forgen, but God chooses to remember them no more. This gives us cause for great joy and happiness in our lives.
Richard looks at Hebrews 10:16-17. He celebrates the fact that God not only forgives us, he also forgets our sins too.
This episode is the first one Richard did after his hospitalization. He is still recovering from his illness, but we have cause for joy that he did worship with us on May 25. All of us are grateful for the prayers offered on his and Karen’s behalf.
Many of us face very serious adversity in our lives. We have health concerns, aging parents who require more care, stressful jobs, uncertain housing, etc. Yet, we have cause for joy. Listen to “Cause for Joy” and subscribe to ”From Richard’s Heart“ on our podcast page.
