Born To Win Podcast - With Ronald L. Dart podcast

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We Have The Receipts

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Battle Camp S1: Reality Rivalries with Dana Moon & QT 1:00:36

12 päivää sitten1:00:36

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Do you have fond childhood memories of summer camp? For a chance at $250,000, campers must compete in a series of summer camp-themed challenges to prove that they are unbeatable, unhateable, and unbreakable. Host Chris Burns is joined by the multi-talented comedian Dana Moon to recap the first five episodes of season one of Battle Camp . Plus, Quori-Tyler (aka QT) joins the podcast to dish on the camp gossip, team dynamics, and the Watson to her Sherlock Holmes. Leave us a voice message at www.speakpipe.com/WeHaveTheReceipts Text us at (929) 487-3621 DM Chris @FatCarrieBradshaw on Instagram Follow We Have The Receipts wherever you listen, so you never miss an episode. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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Born to Win's Daily Radio Broadcast and Weekly Sermon. A production of Christian Educational Ministries.

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#Religion #Christian Educational Ministries #Knowing Gods #Christianity #Born To Wins

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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updated 17 tuntia sitten

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Born to Win's Daily Radio Broadcast and Weekly Sermon. A production of Christian Educational Ministries.

189 jaksoa

#Religion #Christian Educational Ministries #Knowing Gods #Christianity #Born To Wins

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Choosing a Pope 28:15

17 hours sitten28:15

28:15

There have been some truly great men who held the office of pope down through the centuries, and some men who were…well, not great. Some have been venal. Some have been violent. Some were put in office by imperial authority. Some were murdered in their beds. There have been times in history when schism found leaders and left the church with more than one pope, believe it or not. The word anti-pope is unfamiliar because there hasn’t been one for 500 years. What’s that? Well, an anti-pope is a claimant of the papacy in opposition to a pope elected according to canon law. To give you an idea of some of the ferment that existed in the past—in the 11 th century alone there were 5 anti-popes, and 8 of them in the 12 th century. That’s 13 anti-popes in 200 years. (Excommunications, naturally, flew back and forth.) It’s ironic that since the Protestant Reformation there have been no anti-popes—almost as though we flushed out all the dissidents and went forward. The Reformation, though, was a schism within the Roman Church, as was the split with the English Church under Henry VIII. But in the modern world, we have seen nothing like this. That does not mean we will never see anything like it again. It’s entirely possible that we could encounter the old word anti-pope on the evening news in the years to come. I’ve told you all this to help you understand something else that may well come to your attention in the next few weeks. For generations there have been those who referred to the Catholic Church as the great whore of Babylon [Revelation 17] and who believed that the last pope would be the Antichrist. Each new pope could be the last pope, and may fulfill many of the prophecies of the man of sin and Antichrist. He will, according to these would-be prophets, be the little horn of the prophecies of Daniel and one of the beasts of Revelation. Heavy stuff. But take any self-proclaimed prophet with a grain of salt. Where does all this come from? Some comes from an anti-Catholicism arising from conflicts in the dim past, and indeed there have been popes in the long history of the church that deserve condemnation. Catholics probably know that better than anyone. After the Renaissance popes provoked the Protestant Reformation (and they really did) the Catholic Church made some reforms of its own. Still, there are those who want to label the last pope as the man of sin. So, where did this idea of a man of sin for the last days come from? Well, we can thank the Apostle Paul for that. In one of his earliest letters, he spoke of the imminent return of Christ. Or at least it sure sounded imminent to his readers, within their lifetime. Well, this generated a flurry of concern, and Paul has to deal with it in his second letter: Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 This is pretty strong; and as bad as some of the popes have been, none of them ever got close to this. Who, then, would do something like this?…

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The Words of Jesus #44 27:58

1 day sitten27:58

27:58

My heart goes out to Simon Peter. It is impossible to feel what Simon and the others felt on the night Jesus was arrested. They had followed this good and gentle man up and down the hills of Judea and Galilee for 3 1 ⁄ 2 long years. Not only did they love him like a brother, they were convinced of the rightness of his cause—their cause. When you have done nothing but good, when you have been nothing but kind, when you are absolutely convinced that your cause is just and your conduct righteous and blameless, it must come as a terrible shock to have your leader betrayed, arrested, and dragged away in chains. But that was not the worst of it. When Jesus was arrested, Simon Peter and all the rest of them had fled into the darkness in abject fear. There is no ease for the shame that comes on a man when he has run away. No one needs to convict him of cowardice, for his own heart is judge and jury. I suspect that it was that sense of shame that brought Peter back to follow Jesus and his captors back to the place of judgement. Peter was trying hard to recapture his courage. And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple: that disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus into the court of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door outside. Then went out that other disciple, who was known unto the high priest, and spoke unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. Then said the girl that kept the door unto Peter, Are not you also one of this man’s disciples? He said, I am not. And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself. John 18:15–18 KJ2000 These were some of the very people who had arrested Jesus. (Apparently they had not seen Peter in the garden.) It took a certain amount of courage to be in that place, trying to keep his hands from shaking with the cold and the fear. But it would have taken a lot more to have confessed Jesus, in that time and in that place. Peter stood and warmed himself by the enemies’ fire—and denied Jesus, outright.…

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The Words of Jesus #43 27:27

3 päivää sitten27:27

27:27

Love is no defense against fear. Neither is faith. And if you are afraid, you are no different from any other man, not even those great pillars of faith that formed the foundation of the Christian church. It may shock you, but in this very human trait, you are not very different from Christ himself. After the last supper, Jesus completed a rather long discourse with his disciples and they were totally enthusiastic. They gave him rave reviews. They said: […] Lo, now speak you plainly, and speak no proverb. Now are we sure that you know all things, and need not that any man should ask you: but this we believe that you came forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour comes, yea, is now come, that you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:30–33 KJ2000 I know these men loved Jesus. I think they believed him as far as they were able. They just did not know what they yet had to face. Jesus knew. Then he paused to pray for them and, strangely enough, for us. Let’s see what he had to say, in John, chapter 17.…

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The Words of Jesus #42 27:58

4 päivää sitten27:58

27:58

Where is God? Where does he live? Can you point in the direction where one might find him? There are those who believe that God is in every blade of grass, every leaf of a tree. But they may believe in an amorphous God that is everywhere in general but nowhere specifically. They may believe in a God who puts in appearances from time to time, but usually is somewhere else—especially when you need Him. One of Jesus’ disciples may have been thinking in these terms when Jesus told him: He that hath my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him. One of the disciples said, Lord, how is it that thou wilt show thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:21–23 We are not going to put in an appearance from time to time. We will live at your house . We’re going to move in. We will be at the table for every meal. When you are having a soak in the bathtub, we will sit nearby and we can have a talk. As humorous as that may sound, the relationship is actually closer than that. Jesus speaks of living, not merely with you, but in you. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember that as often as I should. I really should not take Jesus to places he wouldn’t want me to go.…

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The Words of Jesus #41 28:05

5 päivää sitten28:05

28:05

We all know that God loves the world. But I’m afraid that we think of it as God loving us as one big gaggle down here, without any particular love for the individual. But when I say that Jesus loved his disciples, I am going way beyond the idea of a collective love. Jesus had spent 3 1 ⁄ 2 years with these 12 men. They had laughed together, cried together, slept on the ground around a campfire together. They had faced hardship and fear together. They had eaten together and been hungry together. He had taken them places and showed them things they had never seen before—never even imagined before. He loved them so much that he was prepared to die for them. He loved all of them, individually, even Judas. Here we are at the Last Supper and Jesus tells them, I have really wanted to share this last Passover with you before I suffer. 21 […] Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. 22 Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. 23 Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. 25 He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? 26 Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. 28 Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. 29 For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor. 30 He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night. John 13:21–30 I don’t think event is very well-understood by many people. Why did it have to be so? Why would Jesus choose a man that he knew would betray him in the end?…

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The Third Sabbath 41:27

7 päivää sitten41:27

41:27

Sheep, grain, bread, salt, seeds. In the Gospels, Jesus uses many metaphors when describing both the harvest that is before us and our own roles as workers, bringing in that harvest. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Christian Educational Ministries Weekend Bible Study . It is good to be with you and we thank you for being there and allowing us to make this weekly service possible. Over the past few weeks, we've followed Ron Dart in taking a closer look at the Passover, the resurrection of Christ, and the beginning of the countdown to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost . As we find commanded in Leviticus 23: From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain […] a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord . Leviticus 23:15–17 NIV This weekend concludes the third of those seven weeks, so tonight we'll join Mr. Dart in examining this time of year and its accompanying harvest—both of grain and of men.…

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About the Bible 28:07

8 päivää sitten28:07

28:07

What did the First Christians believe about the Bible? It is an interesting question for several reasons, not least because the Bible, as we know it, had yet to exist . The components of what we call the New Testament were being written in the years between about AD 55 and 70. To the First Christians, these were written testimonies and letters of the apostles. However, the First Christians were not without a Bible. But they referred to it by a different name. I won’t bore you with the details right now, but the collection the First Christians called The Holy Scriptures was what we call the Old Testament. For the First Christians, the Scriptures were authoritative. We should think a little further about what that means. When we speak of the authority of Scripture , we are using a shorthand phrase for something a little more complicated that I’d like to talk about.…

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The Words of Jesus #40 27:27

9 päivää sitten27:27

27:27

We have an incurable fascination with the future, don’t we. We want to know what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, why it is going to happen. Small wonder that when Jesus foretold the coming destruction of the temple, his disciples wanted to know. Enquiring minds always want to know. When will these things be, they asked, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus’ answer has a lot of information about the end time, but I can summarize it in two points: It is not for you to know the time. Get on with life and the work you have been given to do. When you see Jerusalem being surrounded, flee into the mountains, but between now and then, he said, you have things to be doing. What are those things? As a Bible teacher for many years, I have often had occasion to look over the prophetic studies of a lot of students and teachers. Almost all of them have been consumed with questions of timing and events. They try to correlate the events and the number of days. There are prophecies that deal with 1,260 days, or 42 months, or 3 1 ⁄ 2 years. These are benchmarks that men try to connect with a time line. It is almost as if we assume that working out the details of these prophecies have some practical value. I think there is a practical value in knowing what the prophecies say, but I doubt seriously that there is much to be gained by attempts to predict the course of events. Not many stop to ask why God would bother to tell us the future at all. I can think of two important reasons.…

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The Words of Jesus #39 28:04

10 päivää sitten28:04

28:04

The idea of the End of the World has a kind of morbid fascination for us. We are conditioned to think in terms of beginnings and ends of things, so it becomes not so much a question of whether , but of when . It is not a happy topic. I suppose it is a lot like a sore tooth—we have to keep exploring to see if it still hurts. I can’t pass up those old disaster movies that have us colliding with an asteroid or comet and facing up to the temporary nature of things. There have been some really huge meteor strikes in the past—the one that caused meteor crater in Arizona is one of the smaller ones. Now they believe that just such a collision accounts for the extinction of some species in the past and even the onset of the ice age. And they believe it can happen again. It is only a matter of time. I have heard this kind of collision called an extinction event. The question is whether or not man will be made extinct, either by such a collision or by our own devices. Jesus Christ spoke of such an event in what is called the Olivet Prophecy. According to Jesus, we are going to come face to face with extinction, but something will save us. 21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. 23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25 Behold, I have told you before. 26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. 27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Matthew 24:21–28…

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The Words of Jesus #38 28:00

11 päivää sitten28:00

28:00

How would you like to know—step-by-step—all the events leading up to the end of the world? Maybe you’d rather not know. We really have a morbid fascination with the end of the world, don’t we? We fantasize about how to escape it, how to prevent it. We make movies about blowing up asteroids and extinction-level events . It was chilling, several years ago, to actually watch as a comet slammed into a neighboring planet—piece by piece—and knowing that, if that ever happened here, it would be all over. The question of the end of the world was raised 2,000 years ago by the disciples of Jesus, and they got an answer from Jesus himself. Actually, it was only a couple of days before Jesus was crucified that there were standing among the magnificent buildings of the Temple and said, Master, look at the kinds of stones and what buildings they built here! Jesus replied, Do you see these things? I tell you the truth: there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. It’s hard to imagine the impact of that statement on Jesus’ disciples. The Temple was the center of their religious life—where men prayed, where sacrifices where made—even the plan of salvation, in a sense, was played out upon the stage of the Temple. The idea that this building— God’s building —would be destroyed? It seemed absolutely unthinkable—though they knew it had happened before. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world? Matthew 24:3 KJ2000…

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The Words of Jesus #37 28:01

12 päivää sitten28:01

28:01

Power corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. It is one of the reasons why men have rejected absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings. But forget about absolute power for a moment and think about power—power in small amounts. It is a little spooky to realize how little power it takes to start the process of corruption. When Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem, Rome was the absolute power, and Rome was corrupt. What was less obvious was that there was also power in the hands of religious leaders, and that power had done its work in all of the sects of the prevailing Judaism. But nowhere was it more apparent than among those who formed the religious establishment. Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. Matthew 23:1–3 There is nothing more frustrating than a double standard in religious leadership. What is it about power that causes that?…

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The Last Breakfast 31:51

14 päivää sitten31:51

31:51

It was just at the crack of dawn. First light of the new day was just starting to show over the top of the Golan Heights. Still too dark to see anything. The men in the boat fumbled around because they knew where their tackle was, they knew what the boat was like, they knew where everything was by hand, by touch. They had fished a lot at night, so they didn't have any problem with that. But on the shore, off to one side, they could see a little fire burning. They had fished all night long, and they were frustrated because they hadn't caught a thing. And, you know, fishing the way they fished was fairly hard work. And nighttime for them was the time—with daylight coming, hope for catching a lot of fish was beginning to diminish. But that little fire was burning over there. Someone was moving around the fire, and a voice came out across the sea there, about some hundred yards or so away where they were. "Boys, have you caught anything?" And one of them put his hand to his mouth and says, "No!" He said back, "You're fishing on the wrong side of the boat. Try the right side." Now, that must have in itself been a little bit of frustrating advice to those fellows out there because they'd been professional fishermen, off and on, all their lives. And there's just not a whole lot of difference between the right side of the boat and the left side of the boat. And one of them says, "There's no point in doing that." He says, "Well, you had a better idea?" He said, "No, I don't." So they threw the net out the right side of the boat. And before they got anything done at all, the net began to get very heavy. There was a lot of vibration coming up the lines, and they realized they had gotten themselves a load of fish. And about that time, John leaned over to Peter and said, "It's the Lord. It's the Lord." And Peter, who had been fishing naked all night (it must have been pretty warm), grabbed something and put it on him and jumped in the water. They were only 100 yards offshore, so they rowed their boat to shore, dragged the net behind them and up on shore, and they got counted over 160 fish they had in that net. But Jesus already had a fire going, had fish propped up against it, cooking away; and he'd taken bread and put it up, toasting the bread against the fire; and so they had breakfast already well underway. After breakfast, Jesus said to Peter (and the way I read the account, I think it was kind of privately when he said it, perhaps walking along the shore after breakfast as the sun was beginning to come up), "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me more than these?" And Peter said, "Lord, you know I love you." And Jesus replied, "Feed my lambs." He walked a little further along, and he turned again and he said, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you truly love me?" And he said, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." And Jesus fixed him with a glaze in his eyes and says, "Feed my sheep." And then finally he said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?" And Peter was grieved because he said it to him the third time, and I can understand why he might have been. And he said, "Lord, you know everything. You know I love you." And Jesus said, "Feed my sheep." Now, I can understand why Peter was grieved, but here's my question for you today (my first question of many): Why did Jesus call his love into question? Why was it questionable? Was it perhaps that he had denied the Lord three times? Most commentators who read this, most preachers who preach on it, make that comparison just like that. Peter denied Christ three times. Christ made him affirm his love back to Christ three times. There was reason for it. You know, to deny your best friend, your closest friend, is a betrayal. And Peter had in every sense betrayed Christ. His love certainly could be called into question, and so Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee did so. "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?" And now my next question for you: What if Jesus had asked you the same question three times? "Robert, do you love me? Feed my lambs." "James, do you love me? Feed my sheep." "Shirley, do you love me? Feed my lambs." Would it cross your mind to wonder why Jesus would need to ask you that question? Why? I mean, "Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" Because you do have to understand, I hope, that there are more ways to betray somebody or to deny somebody than the way Peter did. There are other ways to do it, as well. I don't doubt for a moment that Peter loved Jesus. I mean, how could you not love a man like him after having spent this amount of time with him? When you read about Jesus, you see the character of the man, you see the charisma of the man, the love of the man. And you remember that Peter and all these guys had been up and down every road in Galilee and Judea with him. They'd camped out on the roadside at night. They'd eaten from the same pot so many times they couldn't even count them. They shared the same bread. They passed it around together. They actually slept next to each other on the ground. How, after all that period of time, would Peter not love Jesus? I don't think there's much of a question as to how that would be so. But we only know Jesus secondhand. We haven't had that chance. We haven't had that time. How could we possibly know Jesus like Peter did to love him as Peter loved him? But Jesus had to ask him anyway. So I suppose he would ask me, as well. "Ronald Dart, do you love me?" And it's a painful question. But it's a question I have to answer. And so do you. "Do you love me?"…

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The Words of Jesus #36 27:27

16 päivää sitten27:27

27:27

When you consider the mess the world is in right now, you might wonder if God has written us off as a bad investment. But if you read the Bible, you know that the world—at least man’s world—has been in a mess from the very beginning and yet God has taken an interest in it, and seems to be making sense out of it all. He has plan and is working the plan. The challenge for is for us to make sense of it and go along with his plan. God has not only taken an special interest in the world, but has acted in history and has related to people in the world—sometimes to a community of people. The most obvious illustration is the most-favored nation status that God afforded Israel during much of their existence as a people. God was Israel’s king, and they were his Kingdom. The first manifestation, as it were, of the Kingdom of God . It is odd, in a way, the confusion that surrounds the expression, The Kingdom of God . It simply refers to that entity which God rules. It is a Kingdom in the past where Israel is concerned. It is a future kingdom where the whole world is concerned. It is a present Kingdom where individuals are concerned who submit themselves to that Kingdom in a spiritual sense. But knowing all this makes it all the more earthshaking when we grasp what Jesus was trying to tell the people of his day. Take this allegory, for instance. Surrounding Jesus when he gave this parable were a number of Jewish leaders, along with Jesus’ disciples. Listen carefully, because allegories are not always what they seem to be. We’ll find it in Matthew, chapter 21.…

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The Words of Jesus #35 28:04

17 päivää sitten28:04

28:04

There is a name that will live forever in our memories, and there is probably not a culture in the world that does not understand the significance of the name…Judas. Judas is hard to understand…almost as hard to understand as Jesus who included Judas in the small band of men he named as apostles. Because Jesus included Judas in that band knowing from the beginning that Judas would betray him. People have a morbid fascination with Judas, knowing that he did an evil thing but wondering at the same time if there is any way to rescue him, to rehabilitate Judas. He first starts emerging from the background noise around Jesus in an incident that took place a mere six days before Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the last time and was staying in Bethany, at the house of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Bethany is about a half hour’s walk from the temple mount. Martha had prepared supper for Jesus. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the table, and so was Judas. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? John 12:3–5 What was Jesus’ response to Judas?…

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The Words of Jesus #34 28:02

18 päivää sitten28:02

28:02

If I could tell you a way whereby you could live forever, would you be interested? Well, the question was put to Jesus, and Jesus gave a straight answer. Would you like to hear it? And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Mark 10:17 Now, there is our question. But the answer comes as a bit of surprise. One of the most fundamental Christian doctrines is that salvation is by grace, through faith and not of works. But listen to Jesus response. And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 19:17 Now this comes as a bit of shock, not that we should keep these commandments, but the suggestion that works have anything to do with eternal life, right? There is a funny thing about the 10 commandments, though. They don’t call so much for you to do anything as to avoid doing things. Is it a good work to abstain from committing murder? And surely we don’t think that men who habitually break the ten commandments will receive eternal life, do we? I think what many confuse in this issue is that salvation is a rescue operation . Sin is the transgression of the law, right? And the wages of sin is death, right? Well, you cannot get rid of the guilt of sin by keeping the law. That can only come about by grace through faith. But the person who will not forsake the sin that killed him cannot receive the grace of God, no matter that God extends it to him. It is called repentance .…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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The Words of Jesus #33 28:03

19 päivää sitten28:03

28:03

The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Matthew 19:3–6 Jesus’ answer? One man, one woman, for life. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. Matthew 19:7–8 What Jesus is here saying is in total agreement with Moses. His first statement was the ideal. The conclusion deals with the reality once sin has entered the picture.…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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Seven Weeks of Harvest 30:00

21 päivää sitten30:00

30:00

We rarely give very much thought to these days between Passover and Pentecost; but in ancient times, this was a time of very hard work. These are weeks of harvest that we are now going through. What do the weeks between Passover and Pentecost really mean? And what does an ancient agricultural rhythm have to do with the Church today?…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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50 Days to Pentecost 27:39

22 päivää sitten27:39

27:39

The listeners to our one station in the British Isles will know Pentecost as Whitsunday (White Sunday, that is) from the custom of the newly-baptized wearing white. I was surprised on a visit to London a few years ago to find that Whit Monday is also a holiday there. They get a extended weekend, the Brits do, based on an ancient Jewish holiday. Go figure that. The Jews know it as Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks. When you understand what Pentecost is, it is a wonder it isn’t a much bigger thing among Christians. Pentecost was the day the Holy Spirit was poured out in power on the early Church. It was the day they baptized 3,000 souls in one day. I don’t think the Church has ever done that since. It has been called the birthday of the Church, and you would think it would be celebrated in fine style. But for most of Protestant Christianity it passes unnoticed. It’s just another Jewish holiday and many don’t even notice that. Pentecost is the Greek word that means fiftieth . In Acts 2, verse 1: When the fiftieth day had arrived they were all together in one place. But the fiftieth day from what? Well to answer that question we have to go back a ways.…

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Christian Holidays #8 28:01

23 päivää sitten28:01

28:01

I have asked this before, but let me ask it again: Why was a Gentile church, decades after the ascension of Christ, observing the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread—what is generally assumed to be a Jewish holiday? And why is such a notable Christian observance as Easter never mentioned in the Bible? Now if you are a King James reader, you may recall Acts 12:4, where Herod has arrested Peter, and put him in prison, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. The problem is that the Greek word translated Easter is the Greek Pascha , which means Passover . So why, 1600 years later, did the KJV translators use Easter instead of Passover here? Well, the reason is that by the third century the entire church had begun to confuse Easter and Passover. How did it happen that the early church stopped observing the Passover and began observing Easter? It is quite an interesting story.…

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Christian Holidays #7 27:38

24 päivää sitten27:38

27:38

Unless you’ve recently arrived from another planet, you already know that most Christian people believe that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and he was raised from the dead on Sunday morning. But if you read the New Testament with any care at all, you probably have got a lingering question about this. Because Jesus said plainly that he would be in the grave for three days and three nights. Here’s what he said in Matthew 12: But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:39–40 KJ2000 Now, how do you get three days and three nights from late Friday afternoon to Sunday morning before daybreak? You’ve got Friday night—that’s one night. You’ve got Saturday—that’s one day. You’ve got Saturday night—that’s one night. You’ve got one day and two nights. You have to reach to find even a part of three days. But three days and three nights? Yes, I know some people think it’s a Greek idiom. But you don’t have to be a scholar to check that out. You can use your concordance and run down both the Greek and Hebrew words that are used in the Bible and check the usage there. Now, when you toss in that expression and three nights you add an emphasis to the expression that really requires that third night or at least some part of that third night. Now let me suggest an alternative for you consider……

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Christian Holidays #6 28:00

25 päivää sitten28:00

28:00

Sometimes the simplest answers are the best. I’ve asked again and again why it was that, thirty years after the ascension of Christ—long after everything that was nailed the cross was nailed there—a Gentile church was observing the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread that go along with it? Well, the simple answer is that the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are all about Christ . It was Paul who said it in his first letter to the Corinthians: Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:6–8 NASB According to Paul, the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are about Christ. But how so?…

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Christian Holidays #4 28:02

26 päivää sitten28:02

28:02

There’s an old hymn I remember singing in church when I was just a boy. It’s striking to me today, because it represents an understanding of the Bible in earlier generations that I think has been lost in many churches today. The song goes: Christ our redeemer died on the cross died for the sinner, paid all his due, All who receive him need never fear Yes, He will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, [repeated three times] I will pass, I will pass over you. Now, I sang that song for years and never realized where the theme—Passover—came from. There was a time when the great hymn writers had a sense of the connection between old and new. They realized that there is a strong tie between the death of Jesus and the Passover of the Jews. But just as that connection presented problems for the early church (and it did), it presents problems today, as well. A lot of folks don’t like the idea of anything Jewish connected with their Christianity. Yet here is this old hymn. And here is something that inspired it: what God said to Moses in Exodus, chapter 12.…

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The Night Jesus Never Slept 41:07

28 päivää sitten41:07

41:07

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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A Practical Passover 49:41

28 päivää sitten49:41

49:41

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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Passover Service 1997 52:34

28 päivää sitten52:34

52:34

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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Christian Holidays #3 27:36

29 päivää sitten27:36

27:36

How is it possible that a Christian church, some 25 years after the ascension of Christ, was still observing the oldest known Jewish holiday? And they were. It is easily demonstrated. And they weren’t even a Jewish church. This one was mostly Gentile. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in about AD 55, and scholars generally agree that the letter was written about Passover season. He was addressing a problem that was disgracing the church, and almost in passing—as though he took it for granted—he made a remark about the Passover that is somewhat startling. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:6–8 KJV Now, how is the connection made here to the Passover, and why was this church observing it, and why was Paul advocating it?…

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The Words of Jesus #32 28:00

30 päivää sitten28:00

28:00

A very wealthy man had a manager who had allowed a dangerous cash flow situation to develop. Various customers had built up debts and were slow to pay. The manager had allowed this, not so much out of negligence, but out of aggressive business policy. But the thing got out of hand, and the manager’s job was on the line. It is odd to think that a spiritual lesson could be drawn from such an incident, but Jesus does just that in the 16 th chapter of Luke. It is yet another allegory, and one must walk very carefully to understand what Jesus is saying here. 1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. 2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. 3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. 4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 5 So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? 6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. 7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. 8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: [for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.] 9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. Luke 16:1–9 This is a curious expression and probably hides the significance. Everlasting habitations is a kind of oxymoron in that the word for habitations is tent or tabernacle—a temporary kind of dwelling. An everlasting, temporary dwelling. Probably, Jesus’ statement is a figure of speech. To a man who just lost his job, he is suggesting a course of action that will give him a more permanent—though still temporary—situation. Always practical, Jesus is telling his listeners not to be greedy. Not to attempt to hold on to the last dime. And to use their physical possessions to make friends, because they may need them someday. So how did this very useful message play out with Jesus’ listeners?…

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The Words of Jesus #31 27:30

4 weeks sitten27:30

27:30

Is it hard to be a Christian? Or is it relatively easy? What is demanded of us to actually be a servant of Jesus the Christ? I suppose it depends on your theological perspective. If we are talking about forgiveness of sins, then salvation is by grace through faith. There is not a thing you can do to rescue yourself from the consequences of your sins. On the other hand, there are those who practice a kind of sound-bite theology and they say that salvation is by Christ plus nothing. Their detractors, also practicing sound-bite theology, accuse them of cheap grace . Other sound bites include, faith alone , only believe , saved by grace rewarded by works . I think the problem may lie in the perception of religion as a kind of fire escape. The whole world is going to hell, and my primary interest is in not going there . Once the fires of hell are avoided, there doesn’t seem to be very much left to do. Christianity being that easy, one wonders why there are any non-Christians left. It may be because some people have read the New Testament and found Jesus’ theology in this area to be a bit more complicated than the sound bites they have been hearing. Let’s examine a story Jesus told in Luke, chapter 14.…

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The Words of Jesus #30 25:53

5 weeks sitten25:53

25:53

The chances are pretty good that you know someone who has had a miraculous answer to prayer. There are a lot of people walking around out there who ought to be dead. But people have prayed for them, and tumors have disappeared. The problem is often that the healing can be explained away: missed diagnosis, spontaneous remission, etc. There is one miracle that is hard to explain away. A man who was surely dead, who was brought back to life. No, I don’t know anyone like that. But Jesus did. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. John 11:1–4…

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The Words of Jesus #29 27:32

5 weeks sitten27:32

27:32

It doesn’t seem that praying should be all that hard. It certainly isn’t when you are in trouble. Lord help me comes quickly enough. And we probably have some childhood prayers we memorized. The first prayer I can recall is Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take. Then I added a few God blesses on the end. I still am not sure why someone thought little kids should be praying about dying in their sleep. That gave me a few bad moments. But I gather prayer is not all that simple, because the disciples of Jesus came to him and asked him to teach them to pray. What he gave them is utter simplicity—the Lord’s prayer. With a little simplification, it is a better prayer for kids to memorize than If I should die before I wake. In any case, the question the disciples asked led to a discourse beyond the Lord’s prayer and it raises some fascinating questions. After giving them the Lord’s prayer Jesus continued with an illustration: 5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Luke 11:5–10 Now in context, there is only one way to understand this. He that keeps on asking will receive. To him that keeps on knocking, it shall be opened. But why? Why is it necessary to persevere, to agonize in prayer? Why can’t we just ask once and receive?…

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Nuggets from Paul 1:03:23

5 weeks sitten1:03:23

1:03:23

There are, in some of Paul's letters, some things that are...well, the only words I can say for it is astonishing and astounding . We spend a lot of time in these epistles explaining the problems, or expounding from those scriptures where Paul exhorts the church to do these things and do the other things, and where he addresses theological concepts, and we have had to spend lots of times with the technical problems. What I want to look at today is not those portions of the Scriptures, but what I call the unswept corners of Paul's epistles—where there are some things said that are not explained, that are not really a part of a technical discussion or an advancing of a doctrine. They are things that are said that are dropped on the ears of people who are new in the faith, when the faith was new.…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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A Non-Christian Easter 28:04

5 weeks sitten28:04

28:04

How much we take for granted. Every year the Easter season comes around with Palm Sunday, followed by Good Friday, followed by Easter Sunday. And each Easter has the sunrise service, new bonnets, Easter eggs, and Easter Bunnies. I’ll never forget the Sunday morning we were sitting having brunch in a hotel, and in the front door bounds this six-foot rabbit with a basket full of colored eggs in his hand. He made his way around the restaurant, giving out the eggs to the little children, who were all abuzz. I hope we all realize that the First Christians didn’t do anything like that. The connection of the sunrise service isn’t hard. After all, the women were at the tomb of Jesus at the crack of dawn, only to find the stone rolled away and the body of Jesus gone. Boy, that is such an important moment to all of us who are Christians. It has been so long since I went to a sunrise service that I forget what happens. It probably varies depending on who is doing the service. But, you know, you don’t have to feel guilty about sleeping in and not going to a sunrise service. The First Christians didn’t have a sunrise service as far as we can tell. But a stranger who came upon our customs would surely have some questions to ask. What, for example, do the rabbits and eggs have to do with the resurrection of Jesus? And, for that matter, what does the name Easter have to do with it? It is really interesting if you take the point of view of an uninformed observer and look at what the First Christians actually did, you run into some fascinating questions. Take Palm Sunday as an example. There are far too many variables to be certain that the events of that day took place on a Sunday at all . Let’s take a look at the scripture that forms the basis of that assumption in John, chapter 12.…

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The Words of Jesus #28 27:55

5 weeks sitten27:55

27:55

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Unless you just arrived from another planet, you have heard that sentence many times in your life. These words are the words of Jesus and they are found in John 8:32. They are true beyond a doubt, and in a wide range of applications. But you may not be familiar with the response to that statement by the people who heard it first. Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We are Abraham’s descendants, and were never in bondage to any man: how say you, You shall be made free? John 8:31–33 KJ2000 Now, this response is truly astonishing. The Jews had been a conquered people in one way or another for most of the years since the Babylonian Captivity. They had been under the Medes, Persians, Greeks, and here they sat under the heel of the Romans even as they spoke these words. Yet they thought they were free . It's almost an analogy for life, in general. Is it possible that we are living out our lives in a kind of bondage while we say, along with these Jews, We are free men. We have never been in bondage ? It’s possible, I suppose, to be a slave and not know it. Most of us are in one kind of bondage or another. The terrible irony is that we have forged our own chains and wear them when we could probably just as easily cast them off, because the chains are in our minds.…

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The Words of Jesus #27 28:03

5 weeks sitten28:03

28:03

I think we have discovered why some of the words of Jesus are so obscure. Deep into the years of his ministry, there were so many people laying wait for him, trying to trap him and wanting to kill him, that he often spoke in riddles and allegories which he later had to explain to his disciples. It was not so much that he was afraid as it was that his time had not come. At the last Feast of Tabernacles he attended, he went there secretly and did not teach until the feast was half over. Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, How knows this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. John 7:14–16 KJ2000 I have to stop here and take note of a theological doctrine that Jesus and the father are coequal from eternity. The line of reasoning that comes to that conclusion is a little beyond most of us. The average reader, making his way through the four Gospel accounts will naturally and easily assume that the Father is greater than Jesus. For one thing, Jesus is found right here saying that the doctrine he taught was given to him by the one who sent him. There is no simple way of getting around the fact that the greater sends the lesser. And the message Jesus taught originated with the Father. If that is not enough, consider what Jesus will later say to his disciples in John, chapter 14, verse 28……

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The Words of Jesus #26 28:02

6 weeks sitten28:02

28:02

There are some things about Jesus that are bound to be troubling to a Christian reading the New Testament—that is, if you are reading the New Testament carefully and thinking about what you read. It’s a testimony to the hateful antisemitism that still exists that some people get real uncomfortable when I remind them that Jesus was, after all, a Jew . Jesus observed the Sabbath every week of his life—even though he rejected the Pharisees interpretation of Sabbath observance. Jesus also observed all the religious festivals of the Jews. Every year of his life, he made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. To have failed to do so would have been to break the written law—something Jesus never did. 2 Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said unto him, Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see the works that you do. 4 For there is no man that does anything in secret, when he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. 5 For neither did his brothers believe in him. 6 Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is always ready. 7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hates, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. 8 Go you up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast: for my time is not yet fully come. 9 When he had said these words unto them, he remained still in Galilee. 10 But when his brothers were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. John 7:2–10 KJ2000 It may seem strange that Jesus could go up in secret, but remember, this was an age without television or newspapers. Relatively few people would recognize him, though nearly everyone had heard of him. And, during this festival, Jerusalem was thronged with hundreds of thousands of people. There is a peculiar Christian conceit that dismisses all things Jewish as though it were another religion and another God. Because of this, we sometimes fail to recognize things that are vitally important. We fail to pay attention to things like the Feast of Tabernacles. What is this feast and what was its purpose?…

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The Words of Jesus #25 28:03

6 weeks sitten28:03

28:03

It is becoming increasingly common these days for a minister, a pastor of a church, to be caught in some kind of sexual sin. I recently read that upwards of 30% of church pastors have committed adultery or some cognate sin at some time in their pastorate. I don’t know why I should have been surprised at that. Our society is so sexually overcharged, and a minister is at once in a vulnerable and powerful position to either be taken advantage of or to take advantage. What is a little surprising is that increasing numbers of these men are being retained in their positions even after the discovery of a sexual dalliance. When this happens, there is usually confession and forgiveness by the whole church. I presume the fact that a man has fallen off the fidelity wagon once need not destroy a lifetime career of an otherwise effective pastor and preacher. I am not so sure what churches do the second time he falls off the wagon. Or the third. How many times can a church forgive a wayward pastor and have the forgiveness mean anything? There was a day when Peter came to Jesus and asked the question: Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus’ answer places a pretty big burden on us all: Oh no, Peter, I wouldn’t say seven times: but, Until seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22). But I can’t see a church retaining a pastor who keeps repeating his sins. Sooner or later, he will fired. Probably sooner—especially in this day of the instant lawsuit. Is a church that fires its minister being unforgiving? The problem with forgiveness is that the word has a rather broad range of meanings. Let’s examine some of them.…

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The Mind Reader 28:03

6 weeks sitten28:03

28:03

Can God read your mind? 99 people out of 100 who believe in God would say, Yes, God can do anything. He can read your mind. But if you are a serious Bible reader, you probably have had reason to wonder if that is really true—at least, if it is true all the time. To even ask the question is to call the issue in doubt. And it is an important issue to say the very least. So why would anyone doubt it? After all, the Psalms tell us The Lord knows the thoughts of man and Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart. But there are times when reading the Bible that what we think we know about God suddenly doesn’t work. Let me tell you a story from the Bible to illustrate where the problem comes in. We’ll begin near the very beginning, in Genesis, chapter 2……

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The Words of Jesus #24 27:20

6 weeks sitten27:20

27:20

Which is more important, do you think, pursuing a religious argument with someone, or giving a life to man who doesn’t have one? Note that I said, pursuing a religious argument, not resolving a religious difference. These arguments never seem to be resolved, so we must engage in them for our own entertainment. And when I talk about giving a life to a man who didn’t have one, I am talking about poor devil who claws at his flesh, foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth. I am talking about a man whose life is so bad that he throws himself into the fire or sometimes into the lake trying to destroy himself. This is a really tormented man, and I am talking about complete and total restoration. Which is more important? There must have been times when Jesus wondered if he could afford to leave his disciples alone. The poor man I was talking about was brought to Jesus’s disciples while he was away. His father brought him and asked the disciples to cast the demon out of the man. I don’t know what they did. Whether they stood there helpless or whether they attempted an exorcism that didn’t work. But when Jesus returned, he saw a crowd gathered around them and the scribes questioning them. For the scribes this was an important failure by Jesus’ disciples, and they would have jumped on this as they did everything Jesus and his disciples did. And while they stood and argued religion with the disciples, this poor, tormented man sat there drooling and clawing at himself. For some, he was just an object of a religious argument. But Jesus did not see people like this as objects. He saw them as tormented human beings. What was it like to be inside a body and mind like that? How bad does it have to get in your mind before the pain of tearing your skin or burning yourself is preferable to the torment of the soul? When Jesus came on this scene, he focused on the poor man. In a way, you might think that having the power to heal a person like that would give you a flippant attitude toward suffering. You could shout be healed and walk away triumphantly. I have an idea that, when you really have the power, it is not that way. When you don’t have the power, you feel bad about human suffering, but there is nothing you can do. But when you do have the power, there is a terrible burden of responsibility that comes with it. I suspect that Jesus, having the power to heal, felt the pain of the sick and the suffering much more deeply. And all the more so, because he would bear their sicknesses and their pain to the stake.…

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The Words of Jesus #23 27:35

6 weeks sitten27:35

27:35

It is hard to imagine the confusion that swirled around Jesus during his ministry. The entire Jewish world had already been ripe with expectations of a Messiah, but Jesus was not exactly what they expected. It is strange when you think about it—that a person could miss seeing the Messiah because he expected the Messiah to be different. I think this is what the prophets were talking about when they warned man about making God in their own image. It is sobering to consider that I could miss something very important about God because I expected something else. It is testimony to the importance of keeping an open mind. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Matthew 16:13–20 Now what seems strange to me about this passage is that not one of the disciples asked Jesus, Lord, what is a church? Don’t you think that is odd? Up to this point, he had said nothing about any church. Now, out of the clear blue sky he says He is going to build his church. What is a church, anyway?…

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The Words of Jesus #22 27:34

7 weeks sitten27:34

27:34

Do you wash your hands before you eat? Well, if you had a mother, you probably do. It is a habit acquired in childhood. But chances are you don’t worry about it very much unless you have just been petting the dog or something like that. Why do I ask? Well, it became a major issue between Jesus and the Pharisees, believe it or not. Jesus had made a decision to stay in Galilee because the religious leaders in Jerusalem wanted him dead. It just wasn’t safe for him in Judea. So the Pharisees sent delegates to Galilee to report on what Jesus and his disciples were doing. What did they find? Jesus’ disciples were eating without washing their hands. Mind you now, this was not a matter of hygiene. The oral law had a long section dealing with ritual purification. They scrubbed up like a surgeon before sitting down to eat. Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? Mark 7:1–5 A small digression about ceremonial defilement. Under the law of Moses, there were a lot of things that might defile a man or a woman, but ceremonial defilement or uncleanness as such was not a sin. It was a sin to go to the tabernacle or temple and to attempt to carry out the ceremonies there in an unclean condition. But the condition of being unclean was not a condition of sin. A woman was unclean after childbirth, but childbirth is no sin. All uncleanness or defilement did was to prohibit a person from temple ceremony. But for the Pharisees, ritual purity was a way of life. So how did Jesus answer this charge?…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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The Words of Jesus #21 26:07

7 weeks sitten26:07

26:07

There were at least three major categories of people who heard Jesus speak. There was a smallish group of people who immediately responded to him. To them, he was like water on dry ground. They soaked up his every word and wanted more. There was another small group that bristled at Jesus’ every word. There was something about him that annoyed and angered them. Frankly, I don’t think in most cases they could have told you why. There was a third group, by far the largest, that just didn’t get it. They were fascinated with Jesus—who wouldn’t be? But his words seemed to go in one ear and out the other. It is easy to criticize these people, but it probably better to feel sorry for them. Jesus certainly did. They tell us he was moved with compassion for the multitudes because they were scattered abroad as sheep without a shepherd. The truth is, they had looked at things so long in the same way, that Jesus might as well have been from another planet. They simply were unable to process a lot of what Jesus had to say. Jesus brought new wine, but they only had old wineskins. And they thought the old wine was better. It is tempting to think, when you encounter people like this third group, that more arguments or better arguments will help. But the problem is not with the facts, the doctrines, the arguments. The problem is on the inside of the people who are listening. There is an interesting dialogue between Jesus and a crowd that included all three of these groups of people. It is found in the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to John. The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone; (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:) When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. John 6:22–26…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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Extreme Grace 28:13

7 weeks sitten28:13

28:13

It had been a hard three days. David and the handful of young men with him had left in hurry and they had taken no food. By the time they got to a place called Nob, they were in a bad way. They needed food and there was only one place David thought they might get something to eat. So he went to the priest at the tabernacle, a man named Ahimelech. 1 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? 2 And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have sent my servants on ahead. 1 Samuel 21:1–2 Now, David lied to the priest, because Saul hadn’t sent him anywhere. David was running for his life from Saul because Saul had ordered him to be killed. Should he have done that? Should he have lied to the priest? Well, he goes on to compound his lawbreaking. 3 Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. 4 And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. 5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. 6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before the Lord , to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 1 Samuel 21:3–6 Now, this is a real classic of rationalization, of reasoning your way around the law because the law was clear as crystal. If you were the judge, what would you do about this infraction. Because it was an infraction of the law—this is beyond dispute. Only the priests were allowed, by law, to eat the holy bread. How do you think God would judge it? Well, fortunately, we have a clue, because Jesus himself evaluated this instance.…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

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A Hard Road Ahead 49:08

18 weeks sitten49:08

49:08

Do we truly understand how difficult the years ahead will be? Christians have often believed that we would escape the disasters striking the world simply because we were more righteous than others. Some thought we’d be taken to a place of safety , spared from the trials ahead. But the Bible tells us otherwise. Even the children of Israel faced plagues, and Jesus warned his disciples that they would face persecution and suffering. As hard as it may be to accept, the road ahead will be long and narrow, filled with challenges. It will become increasingly difficult to obey God and follow his commands. The world is reinterpreting right and wrong, making it harder to know which way to walk. How can we remain steadfast in our faith, as a culture is continually redefined around us?…

Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

1
You Can Change Your Life 55:06

18 weeks sitten55:06

55:06

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