Contest
Send me an email or call in an audio comment. Tell me when you listen to the Lifespring podcast. Do you listen while you commute to work or school? While you?re at work? During your exercise time? Tell me when it is you share your time with me.
My email address is steve.lifespring@gmail.com. You can send text emails there or comments in the form of mp3s. If you?d like to phone in your answer, call 206-600-LIFE. Just remember to give me a way to contact you in your phone comment, so that if you win I can get your stuff to you!
I?ll also give you a bonus entry for every friend you introduce to the Lifespring podcast this week. That?s how we grow the audience. You tell your friends. Send your friends an email with a link to lifespringpodcast.com. Have them listen to a show. I?ve got a player on the page there.
Send me a copy of the email you sent your friends. I won?t send them anything. I just need to see that you did it.
For every friend you tell about Lifespring, I?ll give you another entry in the drawing.
You enjoy Lifespring, right? So why wouldn?t your friends?
I?ll draw names at 5 pm, pacific time, May 30, 2005.
Scriptures
Romans 7:17-25 (TMNT)
I can anticipate the response that is coming: ?I know that all God?s commands are spiritual, but I?m not. Isn?t this also your experience?? Yes. I?m full of myself?after all, I?ve spent a long time in sin?s prison. What I don?t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can?t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God?s command is necessary.
But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can?t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don?t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can?t do it. I decide to do good, but I don?t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don?t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it?s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God?s commands, but it?s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I?ve tried everything and nothing helps. I?m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn?t that the real question?
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
1 John 1:9 (NIV)
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Rev. 3:20 (NIV)
20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Don?t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God?s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It?s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Summing it all up, friends, I?d say you?ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious?the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Matt. 11:28 (The Message New Testament)
?Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you?ll recover your life. I?ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me?watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won?t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you?ll learn to live freely and lightly.?
Psalm 139:1-24 (NIV)
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in?behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths,? you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, ?Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,?
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother?s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to? me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Some Pictures from Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary Kickoff
It has been suggested that podcasters post a short sample of their shows so people can get a “taste” of the show before committing to a full download. So, I put a button for that on the lifespringonline.com/podcast page.
DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST This show marks the six month anniversary of the Lifespring! podcast. Isn’t God good!?!
The new show is finally up! We did the Skype show and I had no idea that editing would take as long as it did! Boy did I learn a lot. Next time I’ll do several things differently to make post-production easier.
My brother-in-law, Major Steven L. O’Brien, joined me as we took a couple Skype calls. A brand new listener, Bert Offers, who just bought an iPod a few days ago and also just discovered podcasting called in from Miami. RevTim checked in, too.
Steve and I discussed a few things, including my dog and God.
The show ended up being fairly short, but I think you’ll find it a fun listen!
Just a reminder that Monday, May 2, 2005 at 7 o’clock pm, Pacific Daylight Time, we’re doing our Skype podcast. Don’t miss out on your chance to Skype your question to Steve O’Brien, my associate pastor and brother-in-law, and me with your question!
