Archive for the ‘Richard's Heart’ Category

Surviving Our Vetting Process

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

Recorded November 23, 2008. Richard looks at Ephesians 5 beginning with verse 15. The U.S. recently finished a major election to recording this episode. Many politicians experienced a vetting process.  In other words their history, personal life, business dealings, moral conduct–every aspect of their lives were under microscopic examination.

As Christians, we too go through a vetting process. Therefore we need to be careful how we live. As Richard puts it, use your God given head. God knows all our secrets. He knows our thoughts. He remembers all of our actions. Nonchristians frequently delight in finding discrepancies in our faith. We can go through our vetting process on our own, or we can choose to use God’s wisdom.

Every day we have opportunities to serve our God. Do we make the most of every opportunity? Churches grow when their members do that. As a community of faith we need to seize the moment.

Richard reminds us the days are evil. Both in Paul’s day and in our time we face unspeakable evil. The underpinning of the American family is crumbling. TV glorifies sex, cheating, stealing and ungodly character. Being a Christian is at best very unpopular both today and in Paul’s day.

Therefore we must not be foolish. We need to understand and do the Lord’s will. Our quiet times provide God the opportunity to talk to us. As we learn to act on what Paul shows us in Ephesians 5, we come through our personal vetting process as people who are worthy of the title God’s faithful children.

You can hear what Richard has to say about Ephesians 5, and subscribe to From Richard’s Heart by visiting our podcast page.

Against all odds

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

Recorded on November 9, 2008. Look at Matthew 5:11. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Satan opposes people who are effective for God. Remember Corrie Ten boon? She suffered tremendously because of the Gospel. Satan opposed her because she was a powerful agent for God.

Joshua against all odds overcame giant a obstacle between Israel and Jericho and saw the great wall fall. Noah built a great ship and waited for the rain. Against all odds, Noah’s faith saved him.

Martin Luther King had a dream. Few people believed Dr. King’s dream would ever happen. Yet against all odds our next president will be an African-american. We see Vets returning from combat minus legs and arms, and against all odds many of them rebuild their lives and become living examples for the rest of us.

Against all odds Barack Obama will be our next president. As Christians, we know we are to pray for those in authority. Richard reminds us Barack Obama will be my president so I will pray for him.

At home what have we done? We need to be busy showing, telling, and demonstrating the gospel against all odds. If we do nothing for God, where is our faith?

You can listen to this episode and subscribe to this podcast by visiting “From Richard’s Heart.”

Lazarus Come Out

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

Recorded October 26, 2008. In this episode, Richard examines the story of Lazarus found in John 11. Jesus receives word that Lazarus, someone very close and dear to Jesus is very ill. Jesus deliberately waits before going to see Lazarus. Before He arrives to see Lazarus, Lazarus dies.

Does the story of Lazarus die with his death? Jesus finds Lazarus’ sisters mourning. Lazarus has been dead and buried four days. What more can be done except offer condolences and mourn with the family? If you look at John 11, you will discover the story of Lazarus ends with Lazarus alive and well.

Even in the most hopeless circumstances, God has the power to transform our tragedies into victory. Lazarus’ family and friends had to roll away the tombstone before receiving the victory. What do you need to do before experiencing your victory?

You can listen to this episode and subscribe to this podcast by going to the “From Richard’s Heart” page.

Make a message out of your mess

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Recorded October 12, 2008. This week, Richard takes a look at Acts 17. Paul is in Athens where he discovers an alter to an unknown god. Paul noted how religious the athenians were. They worshiped over 200 gods. Just to make sure they didn’t leave anyone out, they made an alter to the unknown god.

Paul knew who this unknown god is. Before looking at the unknown god in Athens, Richard shows us how Christians often worship unknown gods. For us unknown gods are anyone or anything that takes the place in the preeminence of our God the father. When something becomes more important than Jesus Christ in our lives, we worship an  unknown god.

This ungodly focus results in our being mired in an ugly mess. The more we stop trusting God in everything regarding our lives, the greater our lives become a mess. Thankfully the unknown god Paul preached about in Athens can transform our mess into a message.

No matter how great the mess in our life, God can redeem us and make a message out of our life. We can continue worshiping unknown gods, or we can choose to worship the one living God who sent His Son to redeem us from the mess in our lives.

To listen to this episode and to subscribe to this podcast series, visit “From Richard’s Heart.” Above all, remember God loves you.

What good is faith without deeds?

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Recorded September 28, 2008. In this episode, Richard takes a look at the relationship between faith and works. Most Christians are familiar with the great faith chapter in Hebrews 11. Like many people in the Old Testament, many of us live by faith too. We have not seen Jesus, we go day by day on the promises of God, and we lack absolute proof about God’s love. Yet we remain convinced in our heart of hearts that God loves us, that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and we are the beneficiaries of God’s grace. So how do we know we have faith? Better yet, how do others know we have faith?

We know we have faith when our actions reflect what our words say. Others will know we believe Jesus is our Lord and Savior by our deeds. We will never be saved by works, but our works provide the evidence that we really do have faith in a loving God.

You can hear what Richard has to say about how faith and works go together by listening to the “From Richard’s Heart” episode called “What good is faith without deeds?” After listening, we encourage you to leave Richard a comment on this blog page.

Destruction and violence are before me

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Recorded September 21, 2008. Sometimes the words in our Bible look like they were copied straight from today’s headlines. Habakkuk noticed violence and destruction in his world. Governments were corrupt, and justice seemed to be non-existent. His book reminds us of today’s headlines. Richard looks at the book of Habakkuk and shows us God’s response to the depressing news we encounter whenever we read the newspaper or turn on the television.

Hard to believe this is our sixteenth podcast episode. i’m also amazed how eerily similar Habakkuk’s words are to today’s headlines. Thankfully through God’s grace we enjoy peace. Through God we can know personal victory in every circumstance.

You can listen to this episode by going to “From Richard’s Heart“. There you can also subscribe to From Richard’s Heart and receive new episodes about every two weeks.

Do we experience Jonah’s fate?

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Recorded on September 14, 2008. Sometimes we choose to run away from God’s calling. We go to extraordinary lengths to escape God’s plan for us. This often results in disaster for ourselves and those around us. When we choose to return to obeying God in our lives, we witness a mighty work by the hand of God through us.

Richard looks at the book of Jonah today. He shows how costly running away from God is. He shows when Jonah finally does yield to God, Jonah saw many people escape certain death.

At times we struggle with God’s will. He sends us into enemy territory to show our enemies that God loves them. We know God loves us, but does He have to love our enemies too? Like Jonah, most Christians know in their heart that God prefers granting mercy to those who want us dead. God asks us view our enemies from His perspective.

Hear what Richard has to say about Jonah by visiting the “From Richard’s Heart” page.

Godly character brought about by Grace

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Recorded 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, 2008

Recorded 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, 2008

Recorded 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.”