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A daily word of encouragement

Why does Jesus often speak in parables?
By: Allison Hawkins
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 25, 2024
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A daily word of encouragement

You don’t have to fend for yourself.
By: Allison Hawkins
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 23, 2024
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Tailgate Talks

A Visit To The Office
We can long for heaven while still diligently working for Christ in life.
By: Blake Martin
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 24, 2024
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A daily word of encouragement

The Meaning of Marriage.
By: Allison Hawkins
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 22, 2024
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A daily word of encouragement

Religion or Relationship?

Do we get so caught up in religion that we forget to look for God?

By: Allison Hawkins
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 19, 2024
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A daily word of encouragement

Do our words really matter? 
By: Allison Hawkins
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 18, 2024
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Day by Day Hacks

Day By Day Hacks
We must approach the Bible as a whole, not ignoring even more difficult passages.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!
By: Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 29, 2024
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Day by Day - 1 Samuel

Shifting Blame Doesn’t Strengthen
When the Lord strengthens His children, He does so by pointing to Himself rather than them.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~  

  1. Shifting blame does not strengthen you in the LORD.

You notice that the men in David’s camp put all their eyes on David, and think that he alone carries the guilt of the situation. And many times, this is the path that is recommended to us as well. Get it off your chest, and shift the blame. The first thing I want us to notice is that David strengthened himself in the LORD. All capital letters used in LORD, which is God’s personal name that He gave to Israel as the name He was to be known by them—Yahweh. The name represents the eternal, covenantal, promise-keeping, never failing aspect of God Almighty. God’s name is “I Am.” It is not “I Was,” or “I Will Be” because God does not change. We can put our full trust in God because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change. He is “I Am.” It is means that our God is eternal and completely self-sufficient, in need of no one, depending on no one. This is the God that David is finding His strength in. The eternal, self-sufficient, promise-keeping God of the Israelites, the living God over all the earth. Now why is this important to know? This is important to know so that we do not confuse being strengthened in the LORD with getting a pep talk from the LORD. A pep talk causes you to look at yourself: “You are great!” “You deserve this!” “Give yourself some grace!” “Pour into your self” All this self-care business is nauseating. I have literally seen full grown adults want to be praised and championed because they had their teeth brushed by 10am. It was like they had lit the Olympic Torch or something. You can read about men who are in process of “becoming the best versions of themselves.” When the LORD strengthens His children, He does not point their attention to themselves, but rather to HIMSELF. We do not gain strength and courage and resolve and resiliency by looking in the mirror. WE gain it, “IN THE LORD.” When we come to the LORD with are faced with ourselves, with our sin, but in the LORD we are reminded that HE is a forgiving God, and He is not backing away from His promises because HE is a covenantal God. He points us to Himself and says to find our strength in Him!
By: Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 26, 2024
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Day by Day - 1 Samuel

When You Have No Strength
Grief alone will not provide strength, unless it leads to undivided alone time with God.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   When you have no strength, you strengthen yourself in the LORD. The children’s song speaks volumes…”they are weak but He is strong.” But how? That’s the real question isn’t it? How did David strengthen Himself in the LORD? What was His process? Because it’s not very helpful for us just to say, “He strengthened himself in the LORD, and you should too,” without knowing how he did that. And I think our text, and this particular verse, is helpful to us on understanding how Strengthening yourself in the LORD does and does not happen. HOW WE SEEK THE LORD’s STRENGTH:

  1. Grieving, alone, does not strengthen you in the LORD.

We see in this text that the men, including David, grieved heavily. This is not to see that grieving is not a part of the process, but grieving is not the whole process. Some people will tell you, “You just need to have a good cry…just a good rant session. Get it all out and then you will feel better. But it’s not true. You are not changed by just grieving through a situation. The book of Psalms is filled with songs of Lament. Grief. The expression of pain, heartache, confusion fills the pages of the book of Psalms. Psalm 12:1, 6 “Save O lORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak…(7) You O LORD will keep them (the poor); you will guard from this generation forever.” Psalms 13:1, 5 “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?…But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” In the Psalms of Lament, yes their is grief, but there is a turning to the LORD, a trusting in the LORD. The grief is a way of emptying you of all your strength, but there is no strength to replace it. Thinking that grief alone will strengthen you is the same mistake we make when we say, “I just need to get away. I need a vacation. That will make everything better.” This was my way of thinking for a long time until very recently that I realized that it is not the vacation that refreshes me but rather the undistracted, undisturbed time alone with the LORD. So grief alone, just letting it out, getting it off your chest, is not what strengthened David.
By: Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 25, 2024
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Day by Day - 1 Samuel

The Last Thing I Needed, The First Thing This Morning
Even in the depths of our despair, we can strengthen ourselves in God.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   The great country singer/songwriter Chris Stapleton wrote a song entitled “The Last Thing I Needed the First Thing This Was to Have You Walk Out on Me.” It’s a song that goes from bad to worse. And so goes many country songs, right?   We all probably have our favorite sad country song where the story goes from bad to worse. And the reason is that we all can probably identify with that reality—life going from bad to worse. We know that pain. Have you ever had a time in your life where the situation went from bad to worse? I know you have. I know some of your stories. Some of the pain, heartache, and sadness. In our text today, it goes from bad to worse. “…the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb, and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength.” The Amalekites were a group of people that David and his band had previously been raiding the previous 16 months. No doubt that the Amalekite men have timed their attack against Ziklag to be at the same time when David and his men were supposed to be at war with the Philistine army. Put yourself in the scene. You are excited to return home and hug your family, letting them know you won’t be committing treason. And when you cross over the hills and look down on your town, you see the smoke rising from the lot of land where your house used to be. But not just your house…all the houses. All the barns. You race down as fast as you can to see what and who has been salvaged, until you realize, your town is a ghost town. No one anywhere to be found. Why? Because they have all been taken hostage. And so we have this scene. The men, once they discover that not only have their homes and livelihoods been taken from them, so have their loved ones. And they weep, and weep, and weep. Some of you know this exact kind of pain—weeping till you have no more strength, no more tears to cry. Not enough strength to pull yourself up from the ground. From bad to worse. “And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul.” From bad, to worse, to even worse. Someone, in their pain and misery, rises up, points a finger and a glare at David and says, “YOU! If it hadn’t been for you we wouldn’t be in this situation. You caused all of this! This happened because of your bright ideas. Because of your plans! We have lost our homes, our children, our families because of you.” Have you been there? Have you been in that place where it seemed like all strength was gone? What did you do?

  • Maybe you just put your head down, stuff your emotions down deep and trudge along.

  • Maybe you drink yourself into a stupor.

  • Self-medicated

  • How about busyness—how many of you fill up your life with busyness so you won’t have to deal with the pain, or dive into the social media world thinking that will fix it?

  • How many of you put on a brave face in public but cry yourself to sleep at night?

What do you do when you have no more strength? AND, what will David do in such a place, in the midst of such a demoralizing, desperate situation? Will he try to run away like he did from Saul? 1 Samuel 30:6 “BUT DAVID STRENGTHENED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD.”
By: Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 24, 2024
Show Day by Day
Day by Day - 1 Samuel

He Walked Into The Darkness Of Death
Jesus, our perfect King, walked into the heart of death and darkness to release us from sin’s entrapment.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   As we consider the life of David, we see he had missteps and made bad decisions, and needed to be rescued from his own sin and entrapment. So we still need a king; in fact we need an eternal King after God’s own heart. And that is who we have in Jesus—the perfect King. He had no missteps and made no bad decisions. But He still needed rescue from sin’s entrapment of death, because as a perfect King, he was also the perfect atoning sacrifice, taking our sin upon Himself. He was held down into death by our sin. He was trapped in the clutches of death. Like Saul at the end of chapter 28, Jesus went away into the nighttime and darkness of death. But like David, Jesus is released from sin’s entrapment early in the morning. Sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Which proves Jesus as God’s choice for King, fulfilling all promises of a righteous and holy and glorious king.
By: Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 23, 2024
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Day by Day Hacks

Day By Day Hacks
An in-depth Bible study does not have to be reserved for scholars.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!
By: Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Apr 22, 2024
Show Day by Day