Reliable Truth

Today my guest is Ken Boa, President of Reflections Ministries. He is teaching a 3 part series on Transitioning Well - How to take the greatest years of your life, when you have the wisdom, the relationships and the resources, to impact the world.Ken says, “Age conspires with God to take away our temporal hope.” Think about that again: “Age conspires with God to take away our temporal hope,” forcing you, against your will, to begin to think about the fundamental questions. How much time is there? Why am I on this planet? Because if you really think about it, you know that you’re an eternal being having an earthbound embodied experience.In fact, your greatest opportunities this day will not be in your calendar. It’s the difference between kairos and chronos. Join us to learn more!

Are you walking through a difficult time in your life?Today Richard‘s guest is Tom Bradford, President of the National Christian Foundation of Alabama. Tom is sharing his personal journey of faith while battling terminal cancer. His story is powerful, full of love and hope. We hope his message inspires and strengthens you today!

Do you have the right kind of wealth? In other words are you rich in the things that really matter? Do you possess spiritual riches?The word content literally means "to be full, to be satiated, to be satisfied."  Jesus said in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst." When Jesus said this, he’s not referring to our bodies, He’s referring to our souls. Jesus is saying, I’m what your heart is longing for, but the cost is great. Surrender your life to Me, He’s saying. Set aside all those otherworldly things you go dashing after and put Me first. He says because when you do, you will suddenly find you have everything you’ve been looking for in life. And I think this is the key to contentment, putting Christ first. Everything else is secondary.St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."

Where do you find contentment in life? I believe that true contentment has nothing to do with what you have or don't have. Contentment is in the state of your heart. I believe there are three sins, or vices, that have a huge impact on our lives. They rob us of true contentment. What do you think these three sins might be? I believe they are pride, greed, and envy. The first reason they’re so deadly is that they’re so hard to detect in your life. Most people don’t think they’re guilty of any of these. I mean, how many people do you ask, “Are you greedy?” Nobody thinks they’re greedy. I’ve got control over the issue of money. Today I want to provide you with an antidote for these vices and how to find real contentment in your heart and life. Think about the life that you could live if you had contentment... If pride, greed and envy can be somewhat nullified in our lives.In Part 2 next week we'll look at the secret to finding true contentment.

There is one thing that each of us need - if you have this, it will make your life.Tragedies and heartbreak will come, but if you don't have this - you probably won't do well. I'm talking about deep friendship.At its center, Christianity is about relationships - our relationship to God and our relationships with people.What kind of friend are you? I believe there are 4 levels of friendship: an acquaintance, a team member, a social friend, and then what I call a "franchise player friend" - this friend is closer than a brother. A level 4 friend is loyal for life. Whatever it takes they are with you.Yet, many people don't have a single level 4 friendship.So how do I get Level 4 friends? Jesus said that whatever measure I give, that's what I will get. So to get a Level 4 friend, I have to BE a Level 4 friend. Be the kind of friend that you long for others to be to you. Love the people you're supposed to love with everything you've got. Above all other friends, God, the King of glory is offering you His hand of friendship. How do you walk away from that? Your call.Today's podcast is from my good friend Jerry Leachman. I hope you enjoy it!

Have you ever thought about the ideas you have and how they shape your life? Philosopher Dallas Willard says "Our ideas are the assumptions we have about reality. They are the way we think about and interpret life. Ultimately our beliefs and ideas determine how we live, and therefore our ideas about life will lead to certain consequences." Today I am addressing three false ideas about reality, and how to choose wisely what to believe.God is most interested in who we are becoming - and the objective is Christlikeness. Christlikeness involves your character, your wisdom and your ability to love and have deep substantive relationships. These sound very appealing, but we cannot achieve any of these in our own strength. We can change our habits and behavior, but we cannot change our own heart. God has to do a work in your life, and the only way through a relationship with Him. The deeper a person goes into a relationship with God, the greater the transformation that takes place in their life.Is it possible that you believe in Jesus, but you don't know Him? Could it be that Jesus resides in your head, but has never made it down to your heart? 

Today's podcast is from a group Bible study I am teaching about the principle of sowing and reaping. I believe that for every person who is listening to this podcast, God would desire you to have a ministry of some sort. It doesn’t have to be a big ministry, but I believe that there is something that He wants to do through each one of us as we live this life. And I would also say that if you’re at home, and if you have kids at home, that’s probably one of your biggest ministries right there, is raising your children. Ephesians 2:10 - Do you know that verse? “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” That word “workmanship” is a Greek word poiéma, which literally means "work of art." We are God’s work of art! You have been created in a very unique way, with unique talents, gifts, abilities, resources, and He says He wants you to take all that you have been given and use it for certain good works that God prepared beforehand - before you were even born. And that you would walk in them. This is God’s Will. And He desires to see that lived out in our lives.

Today we're finishing the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. This parable reveals something about eternity. Many people don't realize the fact that in Heaven, you will have a physical, resurrected body. We're not going to be these spirits floating around in the clouds like some people think. In this parable, Lazarus and the rich man weren't spirits. They had physical bodies. Think about the Apostle's Creed - it says, “I believe in the resurrection of the body”. That's not talking about Jesus' body. It’s talking about our bodies. II Corinthians 5:1-2 says, "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. For in this tent, we groan, longing to put on our Heavenly dwelling." The apostle Paul was saying that when our bodies die, they're going to be replaced by a permanent, glorified body that will never pass away. So, what does it mean if Christ really rose from the dead? It means everything. It means he is the Jewish Messiah. It means the Bible is true. It means His words are true, that there will be a judgment and that there is a glorious kingdom of God. And for those who set their ultimate hope on the God who raises the dead, they can rest on Jesus’ own words in John 14, “I go and I prepare a place for you..."My prayer is that through this study you will gain a greater understanding of the magnificence and the beauty of eternal life in God's kingdom. 

Today's podcast is the second part of my Bible Study series on Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus. This parable is found in Luke 16:19-31. Last week, we considered what the Bible tells us about hell. Hell is a real place - a place of agony, a place of torment, and it’s a place that no one really would ever want to end up. If hell is real, what should our lives be about, particularly as we consider people in our lives who may not have a relationship with Christ? Today our focus is on the rich man in the parable. Did the rich man go to hell because he was indifferent to the poor? No. Did he go to hell because he was rich? No. Or did the poor man go to heaven because he was humble and poor? And the answer is no. Mark 8:36-37 tells us, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”Tim Keller says if you build your identity on anything but God and then something jeopardizes that thing or something goes wrong in that area, you’re not just unhappy, there’s no you left. That means you don’t feel viable and you don’t know what you’re living for. You don’t even know who you are because of what's happening in your life. There is an identity meltdown. Does this describe what you're experiencing right now in your life?

Today's podcast is from a Bible Study series I taught at The Center. We're looking at one of Jesus' parables that I think is very pertinent to us today. This parable is found in Luke 16:19-31 and is about the reality of heaven and hell. It talks about the human condition and man’s resistance of God. It talks about the irreversibility of death, which closes the door to grace. And that’s very seldom taught.Jesus mentions hell 11 times in the Scripture. He also spends a lot of time talking about those who will enter the kingdom of God and those who will not. Those who have eternal life and those who do not. The Bible teaches us that there is a place of torment apart from a relationship with God. Jesus primarily used parables to teach His people and give us greater insight into the mysteries of the kingdom of God. What is Jesus is trying to teach us here?This is Part 1 of a 3 part series. I hope you enjoy it!