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.
04/27/2025
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00(Sundaycast) God’s Abounding Grace Answers Our Prayers (Psalm 116:1; Matthew 18:26 27)
Are you waiting for God to answer your prayers calling on Him day and night? Today’s prayers are prayed with the anguish that comes when we realize how deeply we know that only God can rescue us from the desperate problems we are facing. It is this powerlessness in our praying that leads us to “hammer on heaven’s door” as the saying goes. As friends from Africa shared with me once, they practice the P.U.S.H. prayers which is, “pray until something happens.” The story that Sonja shares today from Leipzig which we visited on Friday reflects this kind of desperate praying that led to the end of the East Germany and the Berlin Wall. You may find the story presented by German media interesting. (https://www.dw.com/en/how-east-germans-peacefully-brought-the-gdr-regime-down/a-50743302) But notice what book is at the heart of the sanctuary in St. Nikolas Church in Leipzig where the people met for prayer every Monday at 5PM. It’s the “Daily Texts.” Their Monday prayers began with reading the verses you are using to lead your feet into the path of peace every day. May our Lord continue to encourage you in your prayers using the “Daily Texts.”
04/26/2025
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00(Mission Cast) Only One Thing To Do Today … Follow Him (Ecclesiastes 5:10; 1 Timothy 6:7 8)
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Faith in Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross and his resurrection from the dead offers us the sure and certain hope of eternal life. Our true home and life is with Jesus. If we live only for this world, we are constantly consumed with desire and anxiety for more power, more money, and more wealth. In Christ, we can let go of all of this. The only concern for today is to follow Jesus. Jeff and Mim talk with good friends, Jeff and Paul Thompson (Mercy Projects), life-long missionaries who have dedicated themselves to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to people of the former Eastern Bloc and former Soviet Union countries. They discuss what would it take to simply “go and tell” like the women did that Easter morning when they discovered the tomb empty and believed he had risen from the dead, just like he said he would. Be blessed!
04/25/2025
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00(Tourcast) Praying Expectantly (1 Samuel 7:8; Philippians 1:19)
Praying with Jesus is the heart of Christian prayer. We pray because we know that Jesus is leading us to pray. He creates the desire in us to make our requests known to the Father. He shows us those promises on which our prayers depend. He reminds of those needs where He is working things for good and we pray for help to keep our eyes open to what He is doing. Our tour group pictured here is part of every praying community that is yearning for the revival that our Lord wants to bring to us. We close the podcast today singing a mealtime song which many of you know. It begins by asking our Lord to be with us, to be “present” at our table. Let us begin everything we do with this simple prayer, “be present at our table Lord.”
04/24/2025
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00(Theta) Rejoice (Psalm 13:5 & Mark 7:37)
Astonished? God the Father is the one who is running after you. His love for you is from everlasting. He is not even waiting for you to come to Him. Our God runs to bless you. The story of the Prodigal Father is about a father who makes a fool out of himself by running to the son who wanted his father dead. When he reaches the boy he hugs him and kisses him and won’t even let him try to make up. He blesses the rebel boy by throwing a huge party for him, by restoring him to full authority in the family, and by giving him precious clothes that make him honored wherever he goes in public places. This is the God who astonished all the people who saw Him do well in Jesus. Do you see God running after you to hug you, to bless you, to restore you to full membership in His family? Do you believe that your God even does this thing well for you? Believe!!!! Be astonished!!!!
04/23/2025
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00(Tourcast) Katie Von Bora Shares How God Freed Her To Escape (Gen 17:1; John 20:27)
Katie Von Bora tells the story of what God had to do to show her that her faith could rest in Christ alone. The theological cornerstones of the Reformation, Word alone, Grace alone, Christ alone, Faith alone and living to the glory of God, alone are woven into her testimony of how God moved her out of the convent. She served in a world where her ministry grew much more creatively than anything she could have imagined as a nun. For all of us who have limited ourselves by habits or traditions that give us some feeling of validation let us ask the question that Katie had to ask. Lord, is there something else that you want me to do with the gifts and talents that you have given me? Lead me!
04/22/2025
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10(Irishcast) Christ Our Sin Bearer (Isa 53v6 1 Peter 2v24)
ISAIAH 53 VERSES WITH THE FOUR R’s [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [3] He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. [5] But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. [12] Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. [11] Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. (The PDF file for today is the complete text of Isaiah 53 beginning with Isaiah 52: 13.)
04/21/2025
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00(Familycast) God’s Love Is For Bad People ( 1 Samuel 7:3; 1 Cor 8:6)
How does the resurrection of Jesus light up your world? What does his death and resurrection save you from? Fear? Doubt? Anger? What does it save you for? Forgiving? Serving? Praying? Witnessing? One thing we know for sure, when Jesus died on the cross, we died with Him. And when He was raised from the dead, He moved into our lives. Now we can say, “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Martin Luther, who spoke to us yesterday, once felt he was confronted by Satan. Satan was accusing him of not doing enough for God. Luther responded to the devil this way. He pointed to himself first and said, “You’ve got it wrong Satan, Luther doesn’t live here anymore. Jesus Christ lives here.” Then he pointed to the cross and said , “Luther lives on that cross.” Jesus lights up your world by moving into your life and taking your old self and placing it on the cross.
04/20/2025
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00(Sundaycast) Martin Luther Helps Us Practice Prayer And Praise (2 Kings 19:14; Luke 9:28)
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! This Greek Ikon painting shows our risen Lord no longer captive to sin, death and the devil. On Friday, these three laid hold of Him because Jesus was bearing the sins of the whole world. He was in that hour the worst sinner that ever lived on earth. You name it, Jesus was guilty of it. All the awful things we have ever known on earth are laid on Jesus. But because He bore them in His own flesh, you and I are free. He is all our sin and we are all His righteousness. We are not guilty. Christ is our guilt. As we say in the beginning of our podcast, on the cross Jesus makes the sweet swap or great exchange. He becomes may sin. I am His holiness. That is why you can rejoice and share this good news with any you meet today. If Jesus can make someone clean who is as bad as you, then there is hope for everyone you talk to today. (To see this clearly in Isaiah 53, download the Bible study on this chapter in the PDF. )
04/19/2025
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(Mission Cast) Follow Me Through Death To Life Isaiah 61:1 2 Luke 23:43)
This LENT we are providing a daily (Monday-Saturday) journaling opportunity. Our final Journaling Day, # 40, April 19 1. What is the "Lord’s Favor” and what is “Paradise?” 2. How do we follow Jesus through death to life? ("He is the way, the truth and the life” — John 14:6). 3. Today is the Day of Salvation (rescue)! What sin can you confess to Jesus, right here, right now, to be forgiven and free of its shame and guilt? 4. Action Step: Next time you take the sacrament of communion at the Lord’s table, practice a joyful smile when you return, reflecting on your new-found freedom in Christ!
04/18/2025
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Your Good News Good Friday Message (Isaiah 9:6; 2 Cor 5:19)
This LENT we are providing a daily (Monday-Saturday) journaling opportunity. Journaling Day 39 April 18 Write out some of Jesus’ words from the cross and what they mean to your soul. Express your response in a prayer of thanks to your Lord.