KLOVE RADIO FEATURES – MAY 2024
DREAM BIGGER . . . NOT SMALLER –
Is your vision for your life increasing or shrinking? Are your thoughts about your future getting larger or smaller, believing for more or less? Satan knows all that’s ahead for him is isolation and insignificance; therefore, his primary goal is to make our lives shrink into meaninglessness. He will spend eternity wallowing in regret in a fiery pit, while those who love Jesus will bask in all the God of Heaven can imagine. The devil’s days are shrinking; his dreams are fading while ours are expanding. The enemy wants to make Christians think smaller; God wants to stir us to dream bigger and believe for more, not less. Trust Jesus to grow your faith and fade your fear. Up ahead, God’s best is waiting for you.
DROWNING US WITH CONTEMPT
Don’t ever believe that the culture is going to think you’re wise for believing in the Bible and that your living for Jesus is a stroke of genius. For the godless, our faith is foolish, and all hope in God is naïve. They’ll mock your obedience and laugh at your simple-minded trust. Yet, the truth is “…the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:25). God always gets the last laugh, His plans alone succeed, and reality triumphs over illusion. Our greatest distraction is resisting the mocking of others and feelings of personal insignificance, all attempting to minimize our worth and drown us with contempt for what is most precious to us.
ONLY GOD IS GOOD
Before Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, all they had ever known was good. Knowing evil has been the worst decision they and we have ever made. Having tasted both, if our hearts are right, we all want now to do good and not evil. But genuine “good” only comes from one source: God Himself. Jesus said, “No one is good, except God alone.” (Mark 10:18). This fact is irrefutable. So, how good is God? Romans 8:28 says He’s so good that He can take even the bad things that happen to us and make them produce a greater good. God alone turns deserts into pools of water and dry land into springs of water. (Psalm 107:35) Never stop believing in the goodness of a Holy God.
“DEAD” RELIGION IS A DRUG
Marx was right about one thing, “Religion is the opiate of the people.” It’s a drug that numbs, not a relationship that heals. We are eternal spirit beings. Therefore, it is critical to de-mystify the supernatural, not to decrease its value, but to increase its normalcy. The normal Christian life is the supernatural life. The abnormal Christian Life is a life without the supernatural. Yet, normal has never been ordinary. Ministering in the supernatural is like growing spiritual muscles. The more we use them with increasingly more significant weight, the bigger they get. That breaks down and tears muscle tissue to increase blood and oxygen flow. In the Spirit realm, let’s break down boring, repetitive religious practices and instead form holy habits based on relationships, not rituals!
SOTOSOC –
My older brother led high-level business seminars. He coined the acronym SOTOSOC. S-O-T-O-S-O-C. Simplicity On The Other Side Of Complexity. The world is so complex that if we cannot simplify how we process life, we will be overwhelmed by its endless complications. God didn’t design life to be this way to drive us crazy but to drive us to Him. We are overwhelmed by life’s challenges and need to learn how to be overcomers. And only God can teach us this. The Bible says, “…we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17)
IRRESISTIBLE VS. IRREFUTABLE
It takes courage to be humbled, acknowledging the pride and foolishness of thinking we don’t need God. Yet, though life-changing, humility can be temporary. On the other hand, being transformed requires grit and extraordinary perseverance and can last a lifetime. That’s why we should pursue lasting transformation over fading humility. You could say that while attraction to humility is irresistible, the longevity of transformation is irrefutable. Romans 12:2 says, “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Don’t stop at momentary humility; press on to life-long transformation. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)