Encouraging WORD for everybody

We really uphold the Word of God, the Bible, as infinitely encouraging and valuable to us. We are amazed at the way, over the past 14 years, God has used his word to lead us and build us up in faith. We strive to read God's word each day because we love it and we love the fellowship we have with Jesus through the word. We also love to hear people teach about God's word.

One thing that I, Tricia, have never really gotten into though is podcasts. Before we came to Zambia, Kelly downloaded a lot of messages from different churches in the States. He listens to them in the car and sometimes on his headphones when he's working on the computer. I, on the other hand, never have. I live a very noisy life and generally don't have a time where I can actually focus on someone talking into my ears... especially with five kids around. Also, I confess, that if I'm not watching something and I'm only listening... I tend to fall asleep. Even if it is very interesting, I fall asleep.

Why am I bothering to blog about any of this? Well, this has been a hard year for us and while I have enjoyed some good teaching at church and Bible study this year, I was feeling like I needed a change. On Sunday afternoons we usually all lay down for a nap/rest. Instead of reading a book about Christian living or theology I asked Kelly to hook me up with some podcasts. I decided to check out Tim Keller from Redeemer.

WOW!

Talk about a nice change of pace! Don't get me wrong, we love our Zambian pastor and he is a good teacher. But, the Holy Spirit has really used these messages over the past few weeks to remind me of all the joy that I have in Jesus Christ. I have been so encouraged through these teachings and today I just felt that I had to share. God uses different things to encourage different people, but just in case you are needing an uplifting and challenging message today, you might try one of these from Timothy Keller:

Beholding the Love of God, April 2, 1995
A Covenant Relationship, Sept. 9 2007
The Jealousy of God, March 27, 2011
Basis of Prayer:  "Our Father", April 23, 1995
Come and See, Nov 15, 1998

These are all available here with dates from when they were posted to iTunes but with the same sermon titles. 

Hopefully these messages are still available somehow online though they are old. If not, I would encourage you to listen to a newer message from him because he is a brilliant preacher. And if you happen to be one of my non-Christian friends reading this, then I want to say LISTEN!!! It's no accident that you are reading this and I pray that you will take the time to listen to some wonderful news that could open up a world of hope like you never imagined.