January 23rd, 2009
Recorded on December 7, 2008. Jamie and Susan Ramge share some of their experiences as missionaries in Bolivia. They work with the Quechua indians. The Ramges describe the Quechuan Christians as the most giving and generous people they’ve known. When serving the Quechua, the Ramges pack five gallon cans of gasoline on their vehicles to provide fuel for their vehicle and the portable generator used in their ministry.
Jamie emphasized the best way to help new converts is to encourage them to worship God in a way that fits their culture. The Quechua often worship God for several hours singing songs they’ve created in their own language. Jamie and Susan spend much of their time helping the Quechua leaders become more effective leaders in their community.
The political climate in Bolivia is not entirely stable, and the Ramges have asked us to pray about that. We also have agreed to pray for Jamie and Susan as they immerse themselves in learning Quechua. Naturally we will pray for God’s providence with vehicle and technology maintenance as Jamie and Susan travel into remote areas in Bolivia.
Find out what Jamie and Susan Ramge have to say about their experience as missionaries in Bolivia by visiting the “From Richard’s Heart” podcast page.
Tags: Guest Speakers, Missions, Richard's Heart
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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.
Tags: idolatry, opposition, Personal Testimony, Richard's Heart
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December 15th, 2008
i managed to update our version of WordPress to 2.7 
. i realize there are a few million WordPress users out there who think this is no big deal. However, i am at best uncomfortable making significant changes to our site applications. Backing up WP’s database, etc. sometimes gives me the heebie-jeebies. Thankfully the developers do a good job giving step-by-step instructions on how to backup WP’s database, and so far i believe i’ve correctly modified the new WordPress files for our situation.
Now that our copy of WordPress has been updated, i hope to add one or two more episodes of “From Richard’s Heart” before the end of next Sunday. For those who are interested, i am working on a means for Richard and Karen to participate in our worship service on Sundays they cannot travel to Boulder because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances.
As always, i’m thankful for everyone’s prayers and support as we continue to develop this new mission area. God has blessed this outreach. Our small church now reaches people around the world with God’s good news. Lord willing, we will witness even greater things from God in 2009.
Tags: Application Upgrade, Site Update
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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.”
Tags: Coping, faith, opposition, Richard's Heart
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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.
Tags: Coping, faith, Richard's Heart
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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.
Tags: faith, idolatry, Richard's Heart
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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.
Tags: faith, Richard's Heart, works
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November 6th, 2008
i installed a WordPress update today without any significant hitches. This update includes some bug fixes and security upgrades. Thankfully the upgrade instructions on WordPress’s main site are fairly straight forward.
At best i am very uncomfortable installing software on our server. i am not a computer geek. i ran into some annoying problems when i originally installed WordPress. i dreaded trying to recreate all our blog entries. i also realized we needed the newer version of WordPress to combat some security vulnerabilities discovered in the previous version. i must express my thanks and gratitude to the many people developing this software. They have done a remarkably good job of making the upgrade process relatively painless for non geeks like me.
God willing, there will be a post announcing a new episode of “From Richard’s Heart.” i did not want to add a new episode until after completing this WordPress upgrade. i remain humbled by how God has blessed this podcast. We are slowly reaching the entire world through our web site and this podcast. Richard has called me a missionary. i’ve never seen myself as a missionary. My only qualification for working on this web site is my wish to serve God in some capacity, and a desire for people everywhere to hear the things that matter the most to Richard.
To everyone who has supported my efforts through your prayers i humbly say Thank You.
Tags: Application Upgrade
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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.
Tags: Coping, Richard's Heart
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October 14th, 2008
The biographical movie about Billy Graham’s early life is now being shown in 15 States. Unfortunately it is not available in Colorado–yet. Remember when Billy Graham came to Denver, and we participated in the crusade? Remember when many famous evangelists and tv preachers were caught in some very compromising situations at that time? Remember the Denver area media trying their hardest to uncover some scandal associated with Billy Graham’s evangelical team? Remember the tv and newspaper people concluding Billy Graham and his people were boring–boring because no one could find any scandal associated with the Billy Graham team. Anyone remember coming to know Christ through his ministry?
i challenge anyone associated with Mesa Community Church to pray for the success of this film. i challenge all of us to pray that the film becomes available in theaters throughout Colorado. i challenge us to go to Billy the Early Years‘ web site and send Billy Graham a special greeting for his 90th birthday. A link to the movie’s web site is available on our Links page.
Tags: Missions, Special Event
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