Forgivin' Livin' Daily Podcast
Our podcasts are 5-8 minutes in length. We create these messages using one or two brief verses from the Bible that come from a devotional book. Our purpose is to help you hear the grace of Jesus in these verses so that your life may find its grounding in Christ alone. It is this grounding in grace that makes forgivin’ livin’ your way of freedom.
05/09/2025
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00God’s Justice Is In His Grace Toward Us (Ezekiel 33:17; Romans 9:14) 2
Our tour of the footsteps of gospel freedom is coming to an end, but its truth lasts a lifetime. God’s justice exposes us for who we are and frees us from all illusions about ourselves. The result is that we are free for love in a world where everyone else is filled with fear. We invite you to consider inviting Martin and Katie to come to your church community sometime to discover God’s “way” that leads to God’s justice. It is a narrow path. But it is life in Christ. And you will be on the road to freedom from yourself by living for Christ alone.
05/08/2025
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00(Theta) Fulfilled (Deuteronomy 4:13 & Matthew 5:17)
God wrote on the stone tablets but we also know that God has written on your hearts. We read in 2 Corinthians 3:3, “And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” But what about when Jesus writes on the sand? This happened at the time a woman caught in adultery was threatened with being stoned. So is there a connection between sand and the stone tablets and the human condition? One idea! When Jesus writes in the sand He is connecting with the dust in Genesis 2 that describes our created purpose. Jesus knows He has to bear the accusation that the stone tablets make against this woman. The two stone tablets will crush Him. His crumbled self is now like the dust of our first creation. But now He is the new creation in us who recreates us into the people we were meant to be in the beginning when God created us from dust. We now are free in Christ Alone to go and to sin no more since our Lord is with us and His Spirt is making us into living letters of hope for all those who are being accused and crushed by the law. May Jesus encourage your life as His letter of hope in the world.
05/07/2025
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00(Friendscast) God’s Mighty Faithfulness (Job 38:4,11; Matt 8:26 27)
Even the Nazis could not stop the annual creation of the “Daily Texts.” During their reign of terror which ended 80 years ago this week, they tried to crush any connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus was an Aryan after all, and not a Jew, according to their propaganda. Built every year during the war and even under communism after the war, faithful believers picked the verses for each day of the year, to create the “Daily Texts.” The 1300 verses from the Old Testament were placed in this bowl pictured above in Herrnhut. For a period of several weeks these people prayed to God to give them the verse that He wanted for that particular day. Then a New Testament verse was selected by one of their pastors to complement the Old Testament reading. These texts were eventually sent to the 60 plus countries some of whose books are in the Herrnhut building where this picture was taken. Great is God’s faithfulness who continues to bring hope through His texts to over one million people around the world. “God’s Word is our great heritage and shall be ours forever…to spread its light from age to age shall be our chief endeavor.” Let us keep praying daily for the fruitful expansion of God’s presence through His Word throughout the world.
05/06/2025
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00(Irishcast) Hear, Acknowledge And Believe (Isa 33v13 John 11v40)
Belong! Believe! Behave! Our God has an important way for us to be grounded in his faithfulness, and in his might. The first is that God wants us to know that we belong to Him. He is our Father and we are his children. Belonging then leads to believing. This is what Jesus tells Martha. Believing grows out of a relationship of belonging. When we know we are supported by God, our Father then believing in God, His Son becomes possible. And the change that happens as a result is in our life, our actions, our behavior. As a good tree, bears good fruit so the life that has been made good by belonging to the Father and believing in the Son creates the fruit of the Spirit that is our behavior. This is how God takes us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We belong and then we believe and then we behave differently.
05/05/2025
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00God’s Steadfast Love Sets Captives Free (Lamentations 3:31 32; Luke 1:63 64)
Stop and go lights. Traffic lights. They all carry the same colors. Red means stop. Green means go. In Germany they have these two figures to remind those of us who are walking that red means restrain yourself and don’t move. Green means you can get up and go. But no matter what images we find in different places on earth, we all know the red light means stop and the green one means go. So how is it with our God when we feel we are living with lots of red lights. Has God’s compassion run dry for you when the red light seems to be on all the time? What will it take for the green light of God’s grace to set you free? Today’s podcast helps us consider what we have to do to live with God’s promises in those times when we are waiting for God to turn the light green. Be sure you share how God has helped you when you have been waiting a long time for that green light.
05/04/2025
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00(Sundaycast) Testimony Of Josh Sharing The Gospel Through Sports (Exodus 15:2; Luke 1:51)
Do you find yourself in less than ideal surroundings? Do you feel stuck where you are at? Are you trapped? God uses us in those surroundings. The truth is…God uses us in the darkness. God uses us in the valleys. God creates tables for us to celebrate our disappointments. God follows our lives with goodness and mercy. Find yourself in Psalm 23. Describe where you are. Draw a picture. Compose a poem or a song. Let this Psalm shape the picture of life that you are journeying through right now. And as you do this you will remember that there is a shepherd, your Good Shepherd, who is leading you.
05/03/2025
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00(Mission Cast) "Turn On” Your Heart To God ( Psalm 119:36;Titus 2:7 8)
Today, Jeff and Mim discuss how God changes the human sinful, which is full of sinful desires and unregenerate, to be full of love for God and for our neighbor. Would it be so easy as to "toggle on" the heart to servant mode? We struggle with sin, but the Holy Spirit lives within us and is changing our heart degree by degree to conform to Christ’s heart. We are thankful that God changes hearts to make us the aroma of Christ in the world to be an attractive witness to others of Christ’s love. We share a segment of a conversation we had with Jeff and Paula Thompson (Mercy Projects), who are missionaries to Ukraine, as we discuss Bob Goff’s Book, “Love Does” and how God enables us to love and serve people of different cultures and languages — even our neighbors. May we all have the mentality that so-called random chance encounters with people are really divine appointments, arranged by God, to accomplish his purposes. May you be blessed!
05/02/2025
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00(Tourcast) I Will Never Forsake You (Joshua 1:5; Matthew 3:16)
Jan Hus was one of the first theologians to preach against indulgences and other actions of the Roman Catholic Chuch. He was eventually killed for his convictions by being burned at the stake. On his death, he is reported to have given a prophecy about Martin Luther. Hus said, “today you may kill this goose (Hus) but 100 years from now, God will raise up a swan and him you shall not kill.” That swan was Martin Luther. Hus became a symbol of dissidence and a symbol of strength against oppressive regimes. Because of his opposition to church control by Rome, he gave strength to those who opposed control of Czech area by the Habsburgs in the 19th century, and he became a symbol of anti-Habsburg rule. His arrogant stance in the square in defiance of the cathedral before him (see photo) encouraged others to defy their wicked leaders. When Czechoslovakia was under Communist control, sitting at the feet of the his memorial became a way of quietly expressing one's opinion and opposition against the Communist domain. What Hus began ended sadly in his tragic death but his life inspired many. He blessed those who became the Moravian missionaries who took the message of Jesus to the oppressed all over the world.
05/01/2025
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00(Theta) Humble (Daniel 4:37 & Mark 15:39)
Two people praying versus the East German Government: which will win? We heard yesterday how the cross could not be erased from the surface of East Germany’s proud communication tower. Yet the Moravian Star from Herrnhut has crossed the entire world. But more powerful than these symbols are the prayers of two humble people joining their hearts and words with Jesus for “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” The “Daily Texts” are shaking up relationships as people pray these texts together. For 305 years, prayers have gone forth from Herrnhut. The first messengers went from here to minister to slaves in the Virgin Islands. The “Daily Texts” went with them. The prayers of God’s people continue to bring life from dead end tyrannies. It happened in Leipzig in 1989. The wall came down. Humble prayers were prayed. What walls are you and your prayer partner praying to come down? Don’t give up!
04/30/2025
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00(Tourcast) Reflections On The Gospel Freedom Tour (1 Chronicles 29:11; Ephesians 1:9 10)
As our tour on the “faith steps of gospel freedom” now takes us on the road to the founding of the “Daily Texts” in Herrnhut, we thought it would be a good time to let some of our tour guest share a part of what they have received so far. We love the ministry vision that our friend Samuel Chestnutt has for these tours, “explore, marvel, share.” When we practice this each day as we follow Jesus, whether at home or away, we are preparing for the day when our God will create a new heavens and a new earth. We will spend eternity, exploring, marveling and sharing the amazing grace that our God has for us. And beyond that everything else that we will experience together for eternity. Our tours give us a few days to practice these three disciplines on earth in preparation for what we will be doing forever in the new heavens and the new earth.