Mesa’s Blog page

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.

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.

Recorded 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.