#033: Marriage Prayer

This week I talk about the future of Church Requel, some Westminster theology, and with current news of General Patraeus - 12 ways to affair-proof your marriage.

Here's what I have lined up for you this week:

[07:00] Future of Church Requel - Last night we faced some hard realities about the current finances of Church Requel.  Some changes will have to be made soon.  Listen for yourself to my talk last night and my follow up thoughts this morning.

[30:10] What is God, part 3 - We wrap up the question #4, "What is God?" from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. My discussion is primarily based on G.I. Williamson's book, "Westminster Shorter Catechism: For Study Classes."

[39:38] 12 Ways to Affair Proof Your Marriage - With the news of General Patraeus' resignation in the news every day, we all could use a good reminder of how to "affair-proof" our marriages. Many thanks to Den Guptill over on SermonCentral.com, who provided 8 of these ideas.

Music for this week's podcast is "Marriage Prayer" by John Waller from his album, As For Me And My House.

#032: Kiss The Rain

How do we integrate God's Word into every area of our lives? In this week's podcast we talk about 6 ways to live a life of Biblical integrity using our 6 memory verses from the 40 Days In The Word.  I also talk about the recent decline in Apple's fortunes, about the Lord's Prayer, and question #4 - "What Is God?" - from the Westminster catechism.

Here's what I have lined up for you this week:

[9:00] Has Apple Gone Rotten? - Apple Company has been a winner both in terms of its products and its corporate and stock performance. But the last couple weeks have not gone so well.  I talk about the iPad mini and the expectations and disappointment of the recent quarter. I talk about the Saturday Night Life sketch a few week's ago.  Here's the YouTube link to the "Tech Talk" video. Here's an encouraging opinion from The Motley Fool about Apple stock price.

[22:35] The Lord's Prayer, People and Protection - We wrap up our 6-part model prayer discussion. This week - how we use the Lord's Prayer as the basis to pray for other people and for spiritual protection.

[31:17] Question 4b - "What Is God?" - We continue our theological discussion from the Westminster Confession and Catechism. Here's a link to G. I. Williamson's helpful book, "Westminster Shorter Catechism: For Study Classes."

[43:46] CR Sermon: "How To Integrate God's Word Into My Life" - This is the audio talk from Sunday night at Church Requel.  This sermon, written by Rick Warren earlier this year, wraps up our 40 Days In The Word series.

Music for this week's podcast is "Kiss The Rain" by Yiruma from his The Best Reminiscent 10th Anniversary album.

#030: Godly Training

The secret to great Bible study is asking great questions. In this week's podcast we talk about the 4 key questions we should ask each time we study God's Word. Our podcast is really godly training because we also talk about meditation on Scripture, prayer, and theology.

I'm publishing the podcast a day earlier than normal so that Mary Kay and I can get away a little sooner tonight after the CR worship service for a week's R&R. Here's what I have lined up for you in this week's podcast:

[05:19]  Meditation and S.P.A.C.E.P.E.T.S. I talk about the reason we should meditate on Scripture. Then we use an acrostic to remember the application questions we should ask when we meditate.

[17:25] 6-Part Model Prayer. We continue to consider the Lord's Prayer as our model for our daily prayers.

[28:19] Question 3. What's God's Word for anyway? This two-part answer transitions us into the rest of our theological study from G.I. Williamson's book on the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

[37:26] CR Sermon: "How To Study The Bible." I've prerecorded this week's 40 Days In The Word sermon for the podcast. We consider 4 questions in every Bible study. In this podcast we use Philippians 2:19-30 as an example of a Bible passage we will study together. At first glance it doesn't appear that there is much here. However, using the 4 questions, we discover 5 marks of a godly man or woman. Many thanks to Rick Warren for writing this sermon and making it available for us to use!

Music for this week's podcast is "Gonna Fly Now (Theme From Rocky)."

#029: Seeing Clearly Now

When we read the Bible, how can we see clearly what God wants us to see? In this podcast we'll 4 good things that happens when God opens my eyes. We'll talk about 5 ways to prepar ourselves to see what God wants me to see.

Here's what I have lined up for you in this week's podcast:

[8:00] 4 Questions To Ask Before Posting Political on Facebook or Twitter.  The Pastors.com staff put this good advice up on Aug. 14th. It seemed most appropriate now as we are entering the final weeks of the U.S. national election.  I talk about the importance of showing perfect courtesy to all people all the time.

[20:34] The 6-Part Model Prayer. We continue our discussion about our prayer life by looking at the model prayer Jesus gave us.  Most of us know this model prayer as "The Lord's Prayer." How can we use this prayer to form our own more personal prayer life?

 [32:26] Question 3 - What's God's Word For? We continue our discussion of the Westminster Confession with the important transition question. The answer to this question sets up the next 104 questions! Listen and you'll hear why. We continue to use G.I Williamson's Shorter Catechism book.

[45:15] CR Sermon: "Seeing What God Wants Me To See" In this 4th part of the 40 Days In The Word series we consider the subject of illumination. What happens when God opens my eyes? How can I prepare myself? You can follow along with the YouVersion sermon notes.

[1:40:15] Wrap Up - Friends invited us over after church so I didn't wrap up until Monday morning. Short and sweet!

Music for this week's podcast is "I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash.

#026: Rainy Picnic

When the wind blows the rain sideways and people still remain faithful to the picnic, something special is going on.  When is the pastor as much a cheerleader and encourager as he is a shepherd? Or maybe these all fit the job description! Join me in this 26th episode as we talk about soggy picnics and high spirits.  Also we kick off our 40 Days In The Word campaign this week!

Here's what I have lined up for you in this week's edition of the podcast:

[0:00] Intro - I talk about this past week getting prepped for the 40 Days in the Word campaign and the Fall Fun Picnic.

[16:17] Rainy Picnic Highlights - I describe the soggy day and sunny spirits.  I interview many of the folks there. When is a pastor more of a cheerleader?

[36:46] Faith Like A Child - Speaking of having so many children at Church Requel, what do we learn about the faith of kids? Jesus told us that we must have the faith of a child or we'd never see Heaven.  What did he mean? Thanks to Joe Farnello at SermonCentral.com.

[50:15] The Rule of Life - Last week we finished question #1 of the Westminster Confession of  Faith. The chief end of man is the give glory to God and enjoy Him forever. But how do we do that? Is there a rule of life... a guidebook?  Based on Westminster Shorter Catechism by G. I. Williamson.

[1:01:55] CR Sermon: "How To Build My Life On The Bible" - This is the kick-off sermon for the 40 Days in the Word campaign, orginally written and delivered by Rick Warren to Saddleback Community Church in January 2012. We learn 5 ways to build our life on the solid foundation of God's Word.

Music for this week's podcast is "Bring The Rain" by Mercy Me.

#023: Labor Day Special

Happy Labor Day! Welcome to this special holiday Labor Day Special edition of the Church Requel Audio Podcast! I've got a surprise for you at the beginning of the podcast. HINT: best played first thing Monday morning. Ha!  After we have some chit chat time together, here's what we'll be talking about this week:

[12:49] Labor Day Inspiration - How do we worship God with our labor? What positive influences for Christ might we have with those fellow employees we work with? Or negatively, how might we be turning people away from Christianity by the way we work? I share some excellent insights by Melvin Newland from his 1991 sermon.

[39:11] Chief End of Man - This week we begin a new feature of the Church Requel Audio Podcast. Each week we will spend a few minutes talking about our Christian doctrine spelled out in the Westminster Confession of Faith.  We'll be using this excellent book by G. I. Williamson, in case you would like to buy yourself a copy to follow along.

[50:00] CR Sermon: Overcoming Giants, Part 2 - Here is the conclusion of my 2-part sermon on how we overcome giant problems in our lives.  The sermon is based on the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17.  You can follow the YouVersion sermon notes here.

[1:28:00] Wrap Up - Listen to my quick recap of our evening together at Church Requel.
Music for this week's CR podcast is "9 to 5 - The Musical (Original Cast Recording)" by Allison Janney, Megan Hilty, Charlie Pollock, Stephanie J. Block and Ensemble.