The Water from Rock Podcast

GOD’S GOODNESS AND MERCY FOR YOU | Psalm 23

As you look at the news today, as you browse the internet, what's stirring in you? How are you thinking about life in the age of COVID-19? How are you thinking about your future in several? In single conversations we have been looking at life with David, there's so much that we can learn from David. As scripture tells us that he was a man after God's own heart scripture tells us that David fulfilled the purpose of God in his generation. And so today, I wanna pull up a chair and sit for a few moments alongside David, and ask him how he looks at life, how he looks at the future...

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Download a transcript for the October 9, 2021, Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

STAYING FOCUSED | Philippians 4:8

I remember as a boy watching a parade and seeing horses wearing with what looked to me like blindfolds, and I asked my dad why they were wearing pieces of cloth around their eye. And my dad who had been raised on a farm, who had worked with horses my dad explained that sometimes horses needed to wear what was called blinders to keep their eyes focused on what was straight ahead rather than being distracted by what was going on around them or behind them.

My dad said that without the blinders, horses that were working or racing could easily startle in fear and runoff, and so you know, with all that's going on in our country today, the pandemic, the political division, the anger that discord, the ugliness... I am thinking that Christians need blinders of sorts to stay focused rather than being distracted by everything that's going on around us. Philosopher Theologian Dallas Willard said that the ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we allow our minds to dwell on. The important word here is, dwell.

What do we allow our minds to dwell on these days, what do we allow our minds to focus on to meditate on?

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Download a transcript for the October 7, 2021, Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

BOLD FOR GOD | Exodus 1:15–21

I wonder if I've seen your name in the headlines? You haven't seen mine. But I say this because I have read enough headlines and I have read enough Bible to know that most names that make headlines, whether or not all that important... And names that are important, whether you say, don't make headlines. There were names, the world knows, and names God knows.

I'm gonna look at this today in the Book of Exodus, in the Hebrew Bible, the name for this book that we call Exodus in a Hebrew Bible, it is called names. That's right, names...

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Download a transcript for the October 5, 2021, Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

HOW TO MAKE GOD SMILE | Psalm 19:14

Have you ever considered that the words you speak every day and the thoughts that you have, have you ever considered that your words and thoughts can actually be a daily sacrifice that you can offer to God, and then you can make God smile? Like priests in ancient Israel offered a daily sacrifice to God, so scripture tells us that you and I can offer a daily sacrifice to God in the words that we speak and the thoughts that we entertain, that they can be pleasing to God.

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Download a transcript for the October 2, 2021, Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

PRACTICING GOD’S PRESENCE | Psalm16:8

Is there a time in your life when God's presence has been especially real to you? A time when you could just feel God right there with you?

That's a precious time when God's presence is more than just an assumption in our heads, but an awareness in our hearts.

There came a time in my walk with God when I longed to know I had to know God with me, in the way I'd been taught to sing as a boy about how God walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own. I needed that to be more than just a song I needed to know that it was real for my life. It was through a Bible verse that David taught me something about the daily practice of the presence of God who was always present to us and I wonder if David learned to practice God's presence when he was alone tending sheep or alone in some wilderness cave.

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Download a transcript for the September 30, 2021 Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

FOR ANY WHO FEEL LIKE SPIRITUAL FAILURES, GOOD NEWS | Matthew 5:1-2

Do you ever feel like, well, maybe like you're a disappointment to God?

I mean, try as you may you... You feel like you just can't get it together. You believe and you doubt... You hope and you get discouraged. You feel bad about feeling good, you feel guilty about not feeling guilty. You re-dedicate your life. And you're still struggling. I mean, did you ever think that maybe that just maybe you would arrive spiritually and you haven't? Well, if you've ever felt any of this I have good news for you. Good news is straight from Jesus as it comes from Jesus' first words in his first recorded sermon in the Gospel of Matthew. It's what we call the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is setting forth the principles of kingdom life.

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Download a transcript for the September 28, 2021 Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

THE SPIRITUAL IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP | Psalm 127:1–2

Are you getting enough sleep? I asked that because the Center for Disease Control warns that many Americans are not getting enough sleep. In fact, the CDC calls a sleep problem, they call it a public health epidemic.

When I was in seminary, a fellow student went to a much-beloved professor to talk with him about the student’s spiritual problem. They talked for a while, and then the professor said to the student, he said, what you need is to go home and get a good night of sleep. I think the professor was wise in knowing that not getting enough sleep, not only hurts us physically, mentally, emotionally but not getting enough sleep can become a spiritual problem.

Now, I speak to you as one who once bragged about burning the candle at both ends, but no more, as I have learned the importance, the spiritual importance of sleep. I wanna share with you a brief scripture that helps me get good sleep, and I pray that it might help you to... I'm looking at Psalm 127, which is a psalm by King Solomon. He's a wise man who got quite a lot done and a lot of good sleep along the way.

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Download a transcript for the October 10, 2020 Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

STRENGTHEN YOURSELF IN THE LORD | 1 Samuel 30

I find myself in difficult times coming back again and again to stories about David and two psalms of David, we know more about David and the inner life, the inner workings of David, than any other person in scripture and that's why David makes for such wonderful case studies, for just about any life situation. David is a man who can rise to great heights and he can sink to great lows. I like to study David because Scripture twice says of David that he is a man after God's own heart. Now, we've looked at David before in trouble, but it's gonna take a man David size to get himself into the mess we find Him in today.

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Download a transcript for the September 23, 2021, Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

A PRAYER TO MAKE LASTING IMPACT | Psalm 90:17

Just about everybody I know, and that's me included, we want to make a difference in the world. We wanna do something with our lives that is worthwhile, something that will endure, that will remain, that well, might even go on beyond us. And we don't wanna waste our time here. We want it to count. Now, the Bible teaches us a prayer that can help us with that, a prayer to do something with our lives that is meaningful, is worthwhile, that will endure...

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Download a transcript for the September 21, 2021, Selah episode

**This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and may not be 100% accurate.

THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE LOVE OF JESUS

I think probably one of the most basic fears is the fear of will I have enough for the future. And the pandemic and lockdown, and unemployment and economic upheaval have probably only added to our fears, Fear is like, well, I'm getting buy now, but what about tomorrow? Or, what if I get sick? But what if I lose my job? How will we make it? I wanna share with you today a prayer that helps me... Helps me take away any fears like fears those about the future, it's a prayer that as I pray daily.

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