The Calhoun Church of Christ Podcast

The famous writer on prayer E. M. Bounds once wrote, "The gospel moves with slow and timid pace when the saints are not at their prayers early and late and long." (Purpose In Prayer, chapter 3)

The power to get the gospel of Christ into this broken world with soul-saving impact is the power of prayer. Certainly, it takes bold action to move the gospel into areas of this world's darkness, but our mission can fall flat without the power of prayer to thrust it ahead.

The very enterprise of getting the gospel out hinges on what God the Father said to his Son in the second Psalm, “You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession."

Asking, seeking, and knocking are the primary fuel to keep the gospel moving ahead and winning souls - but it's also the way you can stay empowered in your relationship to the Lord.

Listen and hear more connections between prayer and the gospel. 

"God is love." (1st John 4:16)

Most people have heard this, and many know it comes from the Bible. But is it true?

Some skeptics moan, "If God is love, why so much evil in the world?" Or "Why is my life so terrible?"

Yes, we often need a revelation of the scope and range of Divine love. That's what this podcast is about.

Listen and be thrilled to hear about how much God's love has planned for you. He has always loved you.

The Bible often attaches the idea of freedom to the gospel. Jesus said about himself:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news (gospel) to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down... He began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'” (Luke 4:18-21 NIV)

This freedom theme flows through several Scriptures that speak about the gospel.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2nd Cor. 3:17 NIV)

Listen to this episode and get a new insight into the supernatural freedom provided in the gospel.

Being convinced of God's love for you will change everything.

"How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!" (Psalm 36:7 NIV)

Most Christians know John 3:16, but it doesn't seem to go very deep into their hearts. We know it has something to do with the gospel, but it's much deeper than that.

God's eternal love is the fuel, the engine, of the gospel. It's what makes the gospel powerful enough to save a human spirit. 

Listen to this episode and hear four reasons why most Christians aren't convinced that God loves them... and what to do about these four barriers to a revelation of the Lord's eternal love.

If God is just an idea in our heads, we'll always be lukewarm Christians.

But if He is actually IN us, His presence will change everything. So, how can we keep the eternal gospel from becoming just another set of facts in our heads?

Early Christian leaders knew the answer. Listen and learn as we experience two powerful prayers by the apostle Paul that transformed the inner life of the believers under his leadership.

What happens to the body after we die? Some think we just "shed" it like an old garment never to see it again, like Plato and Aristotle thought.

But we don't.

The Bible says we have a much more intertwined life with our bodies even after our death. God's plan for the gospel includes the total reclamation and revitalization of our bodies in the resurrection of believers when Christ returns. We will live in our "glorified bodies" which will look just like Christ looks now.

Interested in hearing more?

 

Some Christians don't believe in the resurrection of the human body when Christ returns. They've been influenced by the ancient philosophers, such as Plato, who taught that the soul was the main part of human life and that death rids humans of the body so they can enjoy soul-life in the hereafter (See an interesting article here: https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/death-afterlife-greco-roman-antiquity 

Paul wrote about such Christians in 1st Corinthians 15:12, "But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?"

Then he said, "For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins." 1st Cor. 15:16-17 NIV)

So, it's clear that the bodily resurrection is part of the gospel. In fact, it's a major part of the good news, the gospel. That's why the apostle Paul wrote about the gospel in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 and then spent the rest of that chapter teaching them about the resurrection.

Want to learn more?

Jesus isn't dead. His body isn't here on earth.

At his resurrection, he came back for that body, and he now resides in it in Heaven, a glorified body that will never die again and never decay. It is his body, the same one that walked the earth, but it looks like his Father, glorified and fit to live in Heaven, ruling the nations and commanding angels.

All who believe on him will have the same resurrection because the gospel and the resurrection are bound together for ever.

The Spirit of the gospel is the power of our bodily resurrection.

Want to learn more?

How can we know for sure that God wrote the Bible? 

Many Christians have a weak faith because they don't know this basic fundamental proof that God wrote the Bible... "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." (Revelation 19:10) 

Bible prophecy came from God to prove that Jesus is his son, and that he gives us eternal life.

Jesus put it this way when he met with his disciples after his resurrection, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” (Luke 24:44 NIV)

The Bible reveals hundreds of prophecies predicted centuries, even millennia, before Christ's birth. And they all came true, proving that he is the Messiah.

Listen and find out more.

Jesus often said that he was pictured, previewed, and prophesied about in the Old Testament.

"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." (Luke 24:27 NIV)

"He said to them, 'This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms'. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." (Luke 24:44-45 NIV)

Prophecies spoken centuries, even millennia, before Christ were fulfilled by his life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection on behalf of lost humanity. The spirit of the gospel is the spirit of testimony about Jesus.

"Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10 NKJV)

Want to hear more?