What did Mary know?
-
Luke 0
Close
The season to be busy?
HO HO HO 'Tis the season to be jolly! From the day after Thanksgiving, until the 25th of December, everybody is HAPPY. We hear Christmas music, shop 'til we drop, go to parties and attend performances. Then on the 26th of December, it's ALL OVER. We're left with un-decorating, bills, extra pounds, and even illness because we ate and partied too much. All this for one day! Christmas should really be in our hearts, EVERY day of the year! So...how can we prevent ourselves from being caught up in all of this? By focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. On this Grace Notes program, Barbara Sandbek is going to do just that. She'll begin a series on the Christmas Story, and bring out some interesting points you may not have considered. So prepare to be blessed - and don't miss a single broadcast as she unfolds the event with a Christmas song...
Just say 'thanks'!
God gave mankind the finest gift that could EVER be given. He SAW our need before we knew it and before we even asked. We were living our lives apart from Him, but God’s heart LONGED for our fellowship, so He commended His love to us through the gift of His Son, Jesus. Jesus STRETCHED OUT His hands on the cross to give us God’s love. He died and rose from the grave, to pay the penalty for our sin against God and to provide reconciliation. When we accept this gift, we have fellowship with God. What greater gift could we possibly want? On this Grace Notes program, our host Barbara Sandbek will talk about how we should respond to this great gift.
It's only downhill from here!
So far in our study of Jonah, we’ve learned that God wanted to REACH out to the pagan Gentiles of Ninevah with His mercy, so He REVEALED a message to His prophet, Jonah, and told him to go there and preach it, but Jonah REACTED by RUNNING away. On this program, we’re going to reenact what happened as a result of Jonah’s disobedience. The setting is Joppa, a seaport about 35 miles northwest of Jerusalem - known today as Jaffa. A ship is docked there and about ready to leave. It’s destination - Tarshish, a mining colony in Spain. Looks like a nice day for a cruise. Hey…there’s Jonah boarding the boat now.
God can repay with mercy
The purpose of the book of Jonah is to show that God is concerned for ALL mankind, not just the Jews and that He will do whatever is necessary to accomplish His purpose of making Himself known, even to His enemies. 2 Peter 3:9 says that God is not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance. The book of Jonah anticipates the universality of Jesus' Gospel, and is the Old Testament counterpart to the salvation message of John 3:16 which says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that WHOSOEVER believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” On this program, Barbara Sandbek will take a look at Jonah’s reaction to God’s call to go to Nineveh.
It's all about God's grace!
There has been much debate over whether the story of Jonah is true or just an allegory. Regardless of your stance, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that ALL Scripture is inspired by God and is PROFITABLE for our training. On this Grace Notes program, Barbara Sandbek will begin a series on the book of Jonah. You’ll find this to be NO fish story - rather one that’s alive with lessons we can learn and apply so don’t miss a single program.
How to succeed - forgive
On our Grace Notes program today, Barbara Sandbek will tell us the story of a successful Biblical character, Joseph, who vividly demonstrated how important forgiveness is in achieving success. But before she does, let’s join with her in worship and adoration of the Lord our God.
Thine is the GLORY forever
The phrase ‘the Glory of God’ represents many things – the essential quality of God’s character, His righteousness, and His presence. In fact, someone once described it as ‘all his attributes summed up into one and then raised to the nth power’. His Glory is also His worthiness. Everything about Him testifies that He is worthy to receive praise, honor, and respect. When we ascribe Glory to God it is a form of affirmation, praise, and thanksgiving.
Deliver us from evil
A temptation from God is ‘a trial or proving of man’s integrity or virtue, which aims at an ultimate spiritual good’. A temptation from satan is ‘an enticement to sin or do evil’. In THIS phrase, it is important to note that the line, ‘deliver us from evil’ is translated in the NIV this way…deliver us from The Evil One. With this in mind, let’s join our host, Barbara Sandbek as we study this request further.
Forgive us our debtors as we forgive our debtors
The Jews in Jesus’ day were a people very subject to revenge and were hardly brought to forgive any injuries done to them. Perhaps this is why Jesus made it a point to command that they forgive others AND tell them what the consequences would be if they didn’t. In discussing this, we need to be careful not to conclude that our forgiving of others causes God to forgive us, or to compare our forgiving to God’s. With this in mind, let’s begin our study.
Give us this day our daily bread - continued
On our last program, we began a review of the petitioning section of the prayer, with the phrase, “Give us this day our daily bread”, and concentrated on the word, ‘Give’. On our program today, we’ll complete our study of the entire phrase. We pray these messages will serve to enhance your prayer time as you seek to follow Jesus’ example.