Transcript

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 4-5 NIRV

Podcast Introduction

This is Epistles Sunday, and we’ll read 2 Corinthians 4-5. The show title is ˆThe Time Has Come.”

Comments on 2 Corinthians 5

Today I’m going to focus on the seventh verse of chapter 5, which just happens to consist of only seven words: We live by believing, not by seeing.

You know, there comes a time in each person’s life where they just have to make a decision. Given the facts that can be known, and accepting that there are some things that cannot be known, we just have to decide and move forward.

I have someone in my life who has a tremendous amount of knowledge about the Word of God, he’s well read, he’s listened to some of the world’s best teachers, he says he believes, and yet he cannot rest in his faith. He continues to have doubts, because there are things of God that he cannot understand. 

My first response is, “Of course you can’t understand it all. God is infinite. We are finite. It would be a small god indeed if we could have perfect understanding of him.” 

Thankfully, God has loving patience. He allows circumstances in our lives that cause us to have to trust Him, and when we see how He was present in those circumstances, our faith grows. 

When our son Steven nearly died, God showed the Lovely Lady LeeAnn and I once more that He is trustworthy. Today, Steven is physically healthy, and he’s doing well in his career. 

My wife and I felt God’s presence during Steven’s crisis, and we knew that whatever happened, He would not desert us. It would have been easy to look at circumstances and fall apart. Steven came within a hair’s breadth of dying. During those hours that he was in the operating room, my wife and I certainly were afraid for Steven, and we shed many tears as we cried out to God to spare him, but we didn’t doubt that God had Steven in His hands. And we knew that his being in God’s hands was the very best place that he could be. LeeAnn and I were willing to accept God’s will for Steven and for us, because we were living by believing, not by seeing.

Beloved, there are countless times in each of our lives where we cannot see what lies ahead. We don’t know what God is doing in a given situation. All seems lost, or the way forward is unknown. That is where faith comes in. We live by believing, not by seeing.

Philippians 4:6 and 7 says, “6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

“The peace of God, which transcends all understanding…” All of the knowledge in the world, all of the “seeing” in the world, will not bring such peace. To have this peace, the peace of God, we need to decide to believe. Put the “need to know” away. You can’t know. Do your due diligence, to be sure, but then, make the decision and let the peace of God guard your heart and mind. He has made promises galore in regards to his love and protection. 

Decide to believe. Rest in God’s peace. Live as God guides you.

Support

This a value for value podcast. There are no advertisers because advertising=censorship. If you enjoy the Lifespring Family Audio Bible, decide how much value it brings to you. Only you can make that determination. Then put a number on the value and send it to me here: SUPPORT.

Transcript

Download .txt file.

Steve Webb 0:00
We just have to decide, and move forward.

Steve Webb 0:10
This is the Lifespring one year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. I’m your og Godcaster. Steve Webb. This is the daily podcast where we’re reading through the entire Bible in a year. And hey, how are you? So good to see you today? This is a pistol Sunday, and we’ll read Second Corinthians four and five. I’m calling this episode. The time has come. Since it is Sunday. This is the day that we will share prayer requests and praises. But before we begin reading, let’s ask God’s blessing on our time together. Our heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this time to read your word. And I ask Lord that you would teach us, bless us as we read and I asked this in Jesus name, amen. Okay, let’s begin.

Steve Webb 0:55
Second Corinthians chapter four. So because of God’s mercy, we have work to do, he has given it to us and we don’t give up. Instead, we’ve given up doing secret and shameful things. We don’t twist God’s Word. In fact, we do just the opposite. We present the truth plainly, in the sight of God, we make our appeal to everyone sense of what is right and wrong. Suppose our good news is covered with a veil, then it is veiled to those who are dying. The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe they can’t see the light of the Good News of Christ’s glory. He is the likeness of God. We do not preach about ourselves, we preach about Jesus Christ, we say that He is Lord, and we serve you because of him. God said, Let light shine out of darkness, he made his light shine in our hearts. It shows us the light of God’s glory in the face of Christ. Treasure is kept in clay jars. In the same way, we have the treasure of the good news in these earthly bodies of ours. That shows that the mighty power of the good news comes from God. It doesn’t come from us. We are pushed hard from all sides, but we are not beaten down. We are bewildered, but that doesn’t make us lose hope. Others make us suffer. But God does not desert us. We are knocked down, but we are not knocked out. We always carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies. In that way, the life of Jesus can be shown in our bodies. we who are alive are always in danger of death, because we’re serving Jesus, so his life can be shown in our earthly bodies. Death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written, I believed, and so I have spoken with that same spirit of faith, we also believe, and we also speak, we know that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, and He will also raise us up with Jesus, He will bring us with you to God in heaven. All of that is for your benefit. God’s grace is reaching more and more people. So they will become more and more thankful. They will give glory to God. We don’t give up, our bodies are becoming weaker and weaker, but our spirits are being renewed day by day. Our troubles are small, they only last for a short time, but they are earning for us a glory that will last forever. It is greater than all our troubles. So we don’t spend all our time looking at what we can see. Instead, we look at what we can’t see. What can be seen lasts only a short time, but what can’t be seen will last forever.

Steve Webb 3:41
Second Corinthians chapter five. We know that the earthly tent we live in will be destroyed. But we have a building made by God. It is a house in heaven that lasts forever. Human Hands did not build it. During our time on earth we grown we long to put on our house in heaven as if it were clothing, then we will not be naked. While we live in this tent of ours. We grown under our heavy load. We don’t want to be naked. We want to be dressed with our house in heaven. What must die will be swallowed up by life. God has made us for that very purpose. He has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment. The Spirit makes us sure of what is still to come. So here’s what we can always be certain about. As long as we’re at home in our bodies, we are away from the Lord. We live by believing not by seeing, we are certain about that. We would rather be away from our bodies and at home with the Lord. So we try our best to please Him. We want to please Him whether we’re at home in our bodies or away from them. We must all stand in front of Christ to be judged. Each one of us will be judged for the good things and the bad things we do while we’re in our bodies. Then each of us will receive what we are supposed to get. We know what it means to have respect for the Lord. So we try to help other people to understand it. What we are is playing to God, I hope it is also playing to your way of thinking, we are not trying to make an appeal to you again. But we are giving you a chance to take pride in us, then you can answer those who take pride in how people look, rather than what is really in their hearts. Are we out of our minds? That is because we want to serve God does what we say makes sense. That is because we want to serve you. Christ’s love controls us, we are sure that one person died for everyone. And so everyone died, Christ died for everyone. He died so that those who live should not live for themselves anymore. They should live for Christ. He died for them and was raised again. So from now on, we don’t look at anyone the way the world does. At one time, we looked at Christ in that way, but we don’t anymore. Anyone who believes in Christ is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come. It is all from God. He brought us back to Himself through Christ’s death on the cross. And He has given us the task of bringing others back to him through Christ. God was bringing the world back to Himself through Christ, He did not hold people’s sins against them. God has trusted us with a message that people may be brought back to him. So we are Christ’s official messengers. It is as if God were making his appeal through us. Here is what Christ wants us to beg you to do. Come back to God. Christ didn’t have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.

Steve Webb 6:50
Well, beloved, today, I’m going to focus on the seventh verse of chapter five, which just happens to consist of only seven words, we live by believing not by seeing, you know, there comes a time in each person’s life where they just have to make a decision, given the facts that can be known, and accepting that there are some things that cannot be known. We just have to decide and move forward. I have someone in my life who has a tremendous amount of knowledge about the Word of God. He’s well read. He’s listened to some of the world’s best teachers. He says he believes, and yet he cannot rest in his faith. He continues to have doubts, because there are things of God that he can’t understand. Well, my response is, well, of course, you can’t understand it all. God is infinite. We’re not. It would be a small God, indeed, if we could have perfect understanding of him. Well, thankfully, God has loving patience. He allows circumstances in our lives that cause us to have to trust Him. And when we see how he was present in those circumstances, our faith grows. When our son Steven nearly died, God showed the lovely lady Liana and I once more that he is trustworthy. Today, Stephen is physically healthy, and he’s doing well in his career. My wife and I felt God’s presence during Stephens crisis. And we knew that whatever happened, he would not desert us, it would have been really easy to look at circumstances and fall apart because Steven came within a hair’s breadth of dying. And during those hours that he was in the operating room, my wife and I were afraid that we were going to lose him. And we shed many tears as we cried out to God to spare him. But we didn’t doubt that God had Stephen in his hands. And we knew that his being in God’s hands was the very best place that he could be. Leanne and I were willing to accept God’s will for Stephen and for us, because we were living by believing not by seeing.

Steve Webb 8:51
Beloved, there are countless times in each of our lives where we can’t see what lies ahead. We don’t know what God is doing in a given situation. Sometimes all seems lost or the way forward is unknown. That’s where faith comes in. We live by believing not by seeing Philippians four, six, and seven says, Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, the peace of God which transcends all understanding, all the knowledge in the world, all the seeing in the world will not bring such peace, to have this peace, the peace of God, we need to decide to believe, put the need to know away, cast it aside. You can’t know do your due diligence, yes, but then make the decision and let the peace of God guard your heart in mind. He has made promises galore in regards to his love and his protection. Decide to believe, rest in God’s peace. Live as God guides you make the decision. Another decision message, I’m wondering if someone listening right now is struggling with a decision. If that’s you, I’d be Happy to discuss it with you. Call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1951732 at 511. Or drop your comment and comment.lifespringmedia.com or if you’d like the conversation to be more private, you can always email me at Steve at Lifespringmedia.com. If you are struggling with a decision, maybe I can help you with it. Tomorrow will be the law Monday and we’re going to read Exodus 17 through 20.

Steve Webb 10:54
Roderick came in with a $50 donation. Thank you, Roderick. God bless you. And Anonymous also came in with a $50 donation. And thank you and God bless you. What a blessing. Thanks to both of you.

Jingle 11:08
Lifespringmedia.com slash support.

Steve Webb 11:14
We have some praises and prayer requests today. First, a praise the pod father Adam Curry was on Joe Rogan’s episode 1930 This past week, and he spent some time I guess, talking about Jesus. And so that is a praise. I don’t have a Spotify subscription. So I haven’t heard the episode. But I did see a little excerpt that Tina Curry, Adam’s, wife put up on Instagram. And I gotta say, I’m kind of proud of Adam, in a good way. I’m so pleased that he has the courage to speak up like that. Just praise the Lord. And now prayer requests. I spoke to Bryan Duncan the other day, and boy, his wife is really having a hard time we talked about this a few weeks back and she’s got a an issue with the nerve in one side of her face that is extremely just excruciating. I talked about how she’s getting weak, she fell down and it’s, it’s getting worse. And both Cassie and Bryan are just really feeling kind of discouraged. And also, Brian was telling me that he’s having some real bad foot pain. And the doctor said that he might even have a stress fracture or something in one of his feet. So we need to pray for the both of them. And then the Lovely Lady LeeAnn has a request. She said, please remember my client Jason and his family in your prayers. She said when he and I spoke today, he said his daughter was in the hospital with a serious illness. I told him, we would keep them in our prayers. So thank you for joining me in this. And so let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for inviting us into your presence today, Lord, and we do have a few requests to bring you today. But as we bring them we acknowledge and we thank you that Your Will is perfect. And we want your will to be done. But first we want to thank you for the work you’re doing and Adam Curry’s life and in his wife Tina’s life, they’ve been so open and public with what they call their faith journey. And I thank you for giving them the boldness to speak so publicly about how they found you. And as I listen to them, it’s very apparent that you are making changes in them. Bless them, Lord, and I thank you. We pray now for Bryan and Cassie. She’s in such pain and she’s struggling so much. I pray that you would strengthen her help her to get her appetite back. Direct them Lord to a doctor that can help them. Touch your body with your healing touch and ease the pain in Brian’s feet. Lord, both of them are feeling so discouraged. lift their spirits, Lord, show them the joy that only you can bring father, and Lord, we pray for LeeAnn’s client Jason and his daughter. We don’t know any details about his daughter’s illness, but you do. I know it’s a scary thing when your child is sick. So I pray for the daughter that you would heal her but also for Jason and his wife that you would comfort them as you did LeeAnn and I when Steven was so sick, and Lord, I thank you for each person who has ever supported this podcast and I ask you once again to bless them for their offerings of finances, talent or time. And for each one listening right now Lord, for the Lifespring family I pray that you would encourage them meet their every need according to your well bless them, Lord, we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Our next time of prayer will be this coming Wednesday. And if you have a prayer request or a praise that you’d like to share with the Lifespring family, go to prayer dot Lifespring media.com. I will pray for you in my private prayer time and I’ll share your prayer requests or praise right here on the show. Prayer dot Lifespring media.com.

Steve Webb 14:59
My thanks to the team, Denise, Michael Haner, Scott Snider, Jason Paschall and Brittaney. Thanks to each of you. And did you get yesterday’s newsletter? Brittaney did a great job, didn’t she? You say you didn’t get it? Well, it’s time to sign up. Go to news dot Lifespringmedia.com I won’t spam you or share your information. And today’s really beautiful show art is by Scott Snider. Thank you, Scott. Well, that’s a wrap. I’m looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Until then, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb, bye

James Cooper 15:37
All the programs in the Lifespring media family are made possible by the generous gifts of people like you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Transcript not yet corrected.