LifeRocks

The mind is a complex matter. It is what makes you human and can turn your life into a maze of emotions, thoughts and desires, creating a clutter within. A past relationship, a difficult decision or the many responsibilities demanding your attention mess up your mind. How can you declutter it?Popular thought tells us that mindfulness will clear our minds of clutter. Yet this focused mindlessness leaves us open to poor renters, bad occupants of your mind. It takes pure and powerful goodness to overcome even the slightest badness.There is only one source of true, pure goodness: God. He invites you to focus on Him in order to experience mental peace. Unlike all the bad that clutters your mind, God is good and trustworthy. But on which God should you set your mind? You think about it, let’s talk about it.----------------------------------------------------------------Subscribe to the LifeRocks YouTube Channel: bit.ly/liferockssubscribeReceive the Weekly Spiritual Insight email here: liferocks.org/subscribeLike the LifeRocks Facebook page: facebook.com/liferocks.orgFollow us on Twitter: twitter.com/_liferocksFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/liferocks_officialAsk us a question here: liferocks.org/contact-usSupport the show

Hello world, welcome to LifeRocks. I am thrilled to announce we are launching our “You 2.0” series as a podcast! With the New Year just around the corner, perhaps you are looking for a self-update or enhancement. Join us for a 13-part series about auditing, reforming and updating your life for a happy, healthy “You 2.0.” You think about it, let’s talk about it. Support the show

Just like technology, your soul, too, needs updates. As a human you are broken, imperfect and in need of an external power source to guide you to true goodness. God, who created and loves you, offers to fully update, restore and lead your soul to goodness. With His updates, He will show you who you were created to be, what your purpose is and how you can live well. Are you in need of a life and soul update? Will you accept His update?TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Today, I speak on “Updating Your Self.” Not “upgrading your self,” that comes later on. Just your version 1.0. Updating yourself even to be at 1.0. Updates are when a business sends communications to you to update your applications. Upgrade is when you’re hoping for and wishing for, like in a technology upgrade or an airline travel upgrade. Well updates, you’ve heard of news updates, keeping you aware of what’s happening on the hour, every hour. You’ve heard of house updates, because your house got a little old-fashioned; or your clothes or wardrobe update.But today I speak on soul update. Life update. For example, you’re a person of principle, but you’re not able to keep your own principles. You’re a creature of dignity, and you live yet the most undignified life. You’re a person of beauty, but there is a side of you which is terribly ugly. You need to be updated.Now like me, you probably get app updates all the time on your smartphone. And for some reason, I’m not sensitive to those. You know, the present version of it seems to be fine. I am, however, talking not only simply of an application update, but an operating system sort-of update. And that we’ll come to a little later on in the upgrading of your life. But right now you are not even meeting the potential of version 1.0. For example, you are very smart, but you are not good. You’re very educated, but you don’t have character. Maybe you’re very, very rich, but you don’t have an identity, which allows you to use your wealth really well. Your own dignity, your own principles, your own convictions are broken by you. And so God sends you an update option. He sends you the update, because you’re not automatically checking for them. It’s a manual update. And you’ve got to say, “Yes.” And you’re going to click that you agree with this option, and then it runs through the processes throughout your entire life and makes you more at ease with what you are, who you are, right now.This is not yet an upgrade, that comes to 2.0, and I’ll talk about that later. But this is simply being 1.0 at your best. For that too, you need to know your Creator. The One who created you. The One who can bring life to the fullest inside who you are. And then when you trust Him as your only Savior, you not only have life to the fullest now, but life forever. The Lord Jesus said, “I’ve come that you might have life.” That’s version 1.0 in its best. A little later on, we’ll talk about how you can have fullness of life. So that you have a new creation, a new orientation, a new identity.Would you like to update your life? Just click “yes,” and God takes on His role of updating you from this very moment. Join me as my friend on Facebook, or write to me via email. Contact me on the web. I’d like to help you update your life.  Support the show

The unaudited life is not a healthy life. Where do you stand when you examine your successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses? Have you fallen short of your own expectations and desires? Do you long for a chance to reorder your life, to have new courage, new motivation? There is hope for a new direction for your life, one that is available to you at no cost from the God who created and loves you. Will you trust Him to give you new direction? You think about it, let’s talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! My bachelor’s degree was a “B.Com,” a Bachelor of Commerce. The original “B-dot-com” in Business, as it were. Those few years seemed like a big waste—especially when I went through a course on auditing. The “B.Com”—we were just being calm and youthful, immaturity and ignorance. My professor, who was not interested in the subject or the students, got us all a “pass” because that helped his success rate with the authorities and his popularity with the students. The auditing course has since become much more important as I attempt to live by the principles of good accounting.Just like there could be auditing of companies and organizations and businesses, there could be an auditing of us, our lives, our souls. The religions and the philosophies have told us about this. In fact, leadership literature has much about this as well. Socrates, the great philosopher said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Others have said you need to look at your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities, your threats, your personality and temperament, your scales and talents, and then know a bit about yourself.That is only internal self-auditing. That’s a great place to start. In fact, my takeaway from the philosophers and religions goes this way: “The unexamined life is not worth living,” is followed by, “The unaudited life is not a healthy soul.” So if you don’t audit yourself, you don’t know yourself, but if you don’t know yourself, you can’t audit yourself—you’re caught in a bind. And therefore, we need to go to external auditors, just like businesses and companies go to external auditors, who do not have a conflict of interest in examining us.In the same way, I am going to recommend that you go to an external auditor. An internal self-audit would be subject to your own prejudices, to your jaundiced view of yourself—but an external auditor who knows everything about you, who does not have anything to gain from you, who strengthens your soul but gives it free of cost, is God Himself. And as He audits your life, your soul, you will notice, because He notices, you have fallen short of His principles, His expectations. But you have fallen short of your own expectations, of your own principles. And the immediate, severe, and eternal consequence of having fallen short is what I’m going to call the non-repairable self-identity. Your life never simplifies. It never heals. It never congeals. So the external Self Auditor, without a charge, without conflict of interest, recommends a course—a direction for correction. He says, “I will send my Son without cost to you, all you’ve got to do is receive Him. And if you receive Him, you’ll have a brand new life.” You’ll become a new creation, so that all your life processes and life structures can be restructured. You’ll have new impetus, new motivation, new courage. You will be clean in your audit.Audit yourself. Because the unaudited life is not a healthy one. If you liked this talk, let me know. Send it to your friends, get on our website, and let’s begin our dialogue. I’m waiting to hear from you.Support the show

What is your self-brand? Do you identify yourself by your talents, skills or appearance? These are all good things, but you are much more than these. The only brand that adequately fits the depths of your character is the brand that comes from your Creator. He knows you, loves you and wants you to see the brand that He has given you as His creation. Do you know the brand that He has for you? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Selling products and services is the lifeblood of any business. After a product or service is conceived, it’s developed, it’s made, it’s branded, it’s marketed—but unless it is sold and bought, the product or service has become a failure. Now what people have done is they’ve taken the marketing side of it and applied it to people. They think you are a product or service. In fact, in today’s job environment when competition is so high, they suggest that you retool yourself for today’s environment, and you’ve got to brand yourself. You’ve got to target your life with effectiveness and how to nail your career with assuredness as you present yourself and branding yourself.But let me ask you; are you simply a product or a service? You’re much bigger than that, you’re a person! Maybe we should reduce you to skills and talents, but you are deeper than that. You’re a person. And the image and brand stuff, you know that’s very temporary. It’s good for career development literature; it is not good for character, because character continues—image changes. If you’re reduced to products and services, that diminishes your personhood. If you’re reduced to skills and talents, that diminishes your uniqueness. And if all you are is your image and brand, that’s too temporary, too subjective, too relative, too short—you need objective value. I know executives are trying to pursue personality-fronted brands, and they fall into corruption and indiscretion, because they want to by all means to keep the image alive. But they are deeper than that. And everybody finds out.Is it possible for you to be branded, from outside yourself? So that you don’t deceive yourself and delude yourself, but rooted deep inside yourself, because that gives you confidence and hope. Not simply as a career move, but as a character move. For this I want to suggest that God’s branding of you is just right, because it’s objective, it’s outside, it’s long, and it’s rooted deep inside you, from which you can gain confidence and go on. God’s view of you is positive and negative—it’s both optimistic and pessimistic. It’s both high and low. On the positive side, you are a creature, endowed with dignity. He thinks the world of you. You are a testament to His creativity. Now philosophy has tried to reduce us into simply being one of the many constituents of reality. Instead, God says, “You’re unique, like nobody else.” He thinks the world of you—you’re much more than simply your brand, your image, your talents, your skills, and simply being a product or service. You are a person.On the negative side, however, we are sinners. We fall short of God’s branding of us—we even fall short of our own branding of ourselves that we know deep inside of us. And so God places a new brand value on you. He sends His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus, to give us a new brand—not the marker for curse because we’re sinners, but the mark of the cross. He gives you a new brand. He forgives our sins. He gives us salvation. He gives us a new brand by which you might live, and I might live. His brand is how you want to brand yourself.Write to us! If you liked this talk, share it with your friends, visit our website. Let’s continue the dialogue.Support the show

Correction is good for the soul. We all desire to be and do what is good, which requires constant correction of our corrupt heart. This correction must come from an external source who knows our hearts and knows how to guide us to goodness. God knows you, loves you and sent the ultimate Corrector to lead you to eternal goodness and salvation. Will you follow Him and let Him correct your heart? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! I have this wonderful feature on my smart phone. It’s called autocorrect. I use it, rely on it, and you do as well. Except a smart phone, in the hands of a dumb operator, complicates matters. The smart phone has not made me smarter, but I have made it dumber. By using the autocorrect feature every time I propose a word or spelling, it tries to correct me, and I dismiss it, and it preserves my bad spelling now as the default alternative.Websites have been dedicated to humor, in terms of autocorrect. You may have heard the answer to “How are you?” Somebody wrote “Germans are attacking me,” when all he meant to say was “germs are attacking me.” Or the young lady who wrote to her boyfriend, said, “You are my rock, you are my knight, you are my shining armpit.” She wanted to say “shining armor,” knight in shining armor—came back armpit, and she was in trouble after that. I have a couple of bad cases of wrong spelling being proposed by my smart dumb phone. I’ve said “Hello” to people in all ways; it says “hell” to people, “Hell, hell to you.” It came because I was writing a talk on hell, you might want to visit that site, on how to get to hell, and it’s preserved my bad entry. I’ve tried to load previous backups of the good dictionaries, and they say it only preserves bad entries throughout, unless I restore the factory settings, the factory original dictionary.Now what has happened to my smart phone has happened to you. Because your heart has been corrupted. And it preserves all the bad downloads and all the bad defaults. And therefore we have a challenge. How do I go about restoring the original factory settings of my heart, the lexicon of your heart? We’ve got to send it back to the factory, to the manufacturer, the maker-designer. Because your heart governs everything: your attitudes, your actions, your thoughts. So I’d like to suggest to you how you can restore your factory default as the best, and will completely override everything that you have inscribed in your heart, and give you a brand new, clear, clean heart.First of all, you’ve got to admit that your heart has been corrupted. Second, you’ve got to admit that you’ve got to send it to the factory. And the One who’s put your heart together, your whole being together, says, “I will not only be your Maker and Designer, I’ll be the Savior of your heart.” Because “auto” in Greek means self, you cannot self-correct. You’ll only preserve bad thoughts, bad ideas, bad attitudes. God says, “I will send you my Savior. I’ll give you a brand new heart, a clean heart, a clear heart.” And once you’ve been reconstituted with the new download of the factory, every time you inscribe something bad, something wrong, something sinful, you can confess your sins and you will be wiped clean and a new factory default starts. Would you like the Maker/Designer to be the Savior of your heart? To be the Corrector of your life? You cannot correct yourself. The Lord Jesus says, “I will be your Savior. Restore the factory default. And every time you do something wrong, think something wrong, feel something wrong—you just confess, and I will rewrite a brand new original factory download for the rest of your life.”If you liked this talk, let us know! Send it to your friends, communicate with us. We’ll give you further details.Support the show

Technological advancements propose new possibilities of working harder, longer, better. But the reality is that no technological advancement or enhancement can give you long-term rest or joy. For that you need an internal, spiritual enhancement. The only person who can give you this is God. He has sent His Son to welcome all who are weary, anyone who needs rest from life. He will restore and enhance your heart and soul to full capacity if you trust Him. Will you trust Him to enhance your soul? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Work can be hard, jobs can be a drudgery. At the end of the day, you’re worn out, you fall in your bed limp like a piece of wet cloth. And so the pharmaceutical industry has come out with ideas, jointly working with three British academies. They are talking about human enhancement and the future of the workplace, about an invasion of titanium-limbed, laser-eyed, serotonin-pumped cyborgs in the 21st century workplace. They talk about a future time when shift workers can be given anti-boredom pills, or those working through the night can take wakefulness pills. Or office workers can don exoskeleton suits so that they can heave very heavy material. Actually there’s trans-cranial simulation so you can be more productive at work.There’s a lot of discussion going on—the ethics of this kind of human enhancement. The questions are very simple: If you stay awake for a long time, would you be emotionally depleted? If you carry very heavy things at work, are you willing to do the small things that your wife needs at home? Or if you’re simulated and simulated creatively at work, are you able to allow that to emerge into other areas of your life? We’ll let them discuss it.But the reality is true. We are weary. At the end of the day, we are tired. Sometimes jobs are drudgeries, and we fall into bed very, very tired. Now technology and human enhancement might help your performance, but it will not help your competence. It will help your performance doing the mundane—shifting heavy things and doing your emails and so on, but will not give you joy and creativity and intelligence. For the technology advancement, in terms of human enhancement, will not give you goodness. The whole history of technology is strewn with stories of how people use technology to destroy other people. The equation of body enhancement and identity enhancement is the problem. Just because your body is enhanced does not mean your soul is, that your identity is enhanced.Now all those other things can be a unique selling point as you present yourself to those who are considering you, but I want to talk about your soul. How can your insides be enhanced, so that it will be long-term motivation for your public, personal, physical performance? I don’t want you to keep taking pills. Instead, I want an inner restructure, an internal unleashing, a spiritual salvation that will last throughout your whole life and forever. God is the One who can enhance you. In fact, He gives an open welcome to anybody who is weary. The Lord Jesus says, “Come to me, regardless of caste or creed or background or language or ethnicity or economic stature. Come to me, and I will give you rest. If you are burdened, if you are heavy with weariness, if you are carrying too much in your life, come to me, and I’ll give you rest for your soul on the inside, and that will carry you forever.”Now go get all the performance that you need in terms of staying in your job and your competence that you need in order to perform well, but I want your insides to be changed. Because God can enhance you. You cannot enhance yourself. “As a whole person, come to Me.” Just come to Him. Tell Him you want to come to him. He will be happy and eager to welcome you.Write to me, keep in touch, come to our website.Support the show

Have you ever felt that you have gotten lost? Somehow somewhere along the way your heart mislead you down a road of corruption and conflict, and you no longer know how to get back. You need someone to find and guide you back to goodness and peace. The good news is that there is one Person who came to seek and save those who are lost. He sees you, knows your heart and invites you to follow Him to true transformation. Will you follow Him? You think about it, let's talk about it. TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Today I want to speak on “Finding Your Self.” Have you ever heard of retrograde amnesia? Retrograde amnesia is when you lose memory of parts of your life. This happens when you get old. Somebody said there are three things which happen when you get old. The first thing is forgetfulness, and the next two things, I forget what they are.Now movie producers and book writers use retrograde amnesia as a plot line in order to bring suspense to a completion at the end. Wait until the end of the movie or the book and you’ll find the solution. Now worse than retrograde amnesia is when you lose yourself because you forget who you are. That’s actually happened to the father of a friend of mine, They have not found him for many years. He went out for a walk, and they have not yet found him many years later.It’s the failure, the loss which comes from having forgotten who you are, or where you are, and why you are and when you are. Unfortunately, that can happen to you. You sense a lostness right now. You don’t know who you are, you don’t know who you are really. Unless somebody comes looking for you, to find you, you will never be found. I want to ask you…where are you finding your way out of this cycle of failure, the failure that comes from having lost a sense of identity? Are you going to other people who also need the same sense of identity and have lost themselves? Are you going to your false selves to find the way out?I’ve got some great news for you. There’s one Person who talked about Himself and said He has come to seek and to save those who are lost. You are like a sheep that’s gone astray, in your way, and you’re going very fast your own way. He says, the Son of man, the Lord Jesus, says, “I’ve come to seek and to rescue you and to save you from your own lostness.” It’s almost like God typed into the finder/spotlight feature in His computer. He put your name in there, and you showed up, and the life path has showed up, but the file seems corrupt. He clicks on it to see if you will open, if you’re willing to open to Him. He reads your file, He rewrites your file. In fact, He transforms your file, converts it, because He’s come to seek and to save those who are lost.Would you like to be found? To find yourself, you’ve got to find the Finder. Come to Him. In fact, if you want to know how to come to Him, just check me out on Facebook or click on the link below. I’d like to visit with you. Please do so right now. Let’s carry on the dialogue. Don’t suffer from retrograde amnesia, because your loss of self-identity is not the cause of your problems, it’s the result of your problems; and for you to find the cause and admit to the analysis of your spiritual situation, you say you’re open to the One who’s put your name into His file finder, and He’s found you. He’s come to seek and to save you.Support the show

Have you heard of identity amnesia? It is a rare condition that causes people to suddenly and unexplainably forget who they are, where they are and what they are doing. Though this medically happens only in extreme and rare cases, many of us can experience an amnesia of our identity as a person. What do you do when you forget who you are? What happens when you don't know your purpose anymore? Only God, who created and knows you, has the ability to show and lead you to your true identity. Will you trust Him to lead you? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Today I want you to consider “identity amnesia.” This is when you forget who you are. This is not the same as retrograde amnesia, when you forget parts of your past, but really forgetting who you are in the present. That’s a deeper problem, because you not only don’t know who you are, but you are lost because you do not know who you are, and that causes a lot of complications for yourself and others. The father of a friend of mine walked away from his house twenty years ago. They’re still attempting to find him. They’ve given up on the find—however, they’re more afraid now of what he might do to himself and he might do to others. Identity amnesiac, they’re called.Now, that happens to us on occasion. It may happen to you when you forget your name and your password, because your name is the closest sibling to your identity. Remember the kid’s puzzle which said, “What belongs to me but I never use?” What belongs to me but I never use? Of course, the kids will tell you that the answer is your name. It belongs to you, but you never use, because others use that toward you.Identity amnesia is not only that you lose yourself, but the consequences of having lost yourself affects many others. In 2005, a man by the name of Raymond Power Jr. stepped out of his own life. A 57-year-old New Yorker—a father and a husband, church goer, family man, Boy Scout leader—who had been experiencing Vietnam era depression, had also seen the towers being attacked in 2001, suddenly disappeared. They put his face and name out on America’s most wanted videos and programs, and another homeless man identified him in Chicago. He couldn’t really remember his name. He thought it had something to do with tower, so they called him Raymond Power and J Tower—they connected it. The family was so happy to find him, but they were terribly sad, because the man did not know who he was. His wife said he was totally fine till he disappeared. He functioned all right, then he forgot who he was.Have you ever forgotten your name? That would be a terribly embarrassing situation. I mean, it’s embarrassing when you forget somebody else’s name, whose name you should know, it’s at the tip of your tongue, and you’re trying to search for his name…What if you forgot your own name? What would you do? Would you cough a lot, to find out what your name is? Would you ask for your wife to tell you what your name is? Would you ask for your own business card so that you would remember what your name is? You know all those tactics in remembering somebody else’s name. But a bigger problem than losing your name is to lose your identity—your core identity. When you lose your core identity, you engage in all sorts of self destruction, and delusion, and self deception. What you need is somebody who is intimately acquainted with you, who knows you just like you are, and will not dismiss you, who will remember you and will help you identify yourself. In your 1.0 version, you have forgotten who you are. And being lost, you damage yourself and you damage others. But the one who can upgrade you from 1.0 to 2.0 is God...Support the show

Social networking has transformed the way we think about others and ourselves. It is easy to get caught up in portraying ourselves as perfect, accomplished and impressive to others online. But the truth is that the online self does not accurately reflect our spiritual identity. To know our true selves, we need to go to the One who created and knows us for who we truly are. God made each of us with specific intention, and He invites all who are tired of trying to impress others to come to Him, to receive His rest and the peace that comes from being fully known. Will you accept this invitation? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Social networking services are all the rage at the moment, having crossed the one billion mark. I’m told that each person has about 125 friends. There’s 125 billion contact points, even though the population of the world is only 7 billion. I’m sure you’re on those sites as we are. I’d like to ask you as to why you want to be in that time sucker of a phenomenon, why you want to be constantly updating your profile as a power user, an addict perhaps, and a frequent user. What are you trying to do with constantly telling people what’s going on, where you are, and how it’s going to be in the future? All those posts and pokes and friends and followers—what are you trying to do with it? I’m told that people like to impress themselves with how good they look. That’s why they won’t put their passport picture there, they are trying to put the best possible picture of themselves, and cameras of course don’t lie, do they?If all you’re doing is updating your personal profile in terms of where you are in location, it’s okay, but if you’re trying to impress yourself with prominence, and how important you are, and significance, and how you’re superior to others, I want you to watch out, because at that point, you’re not just in a social networking site, you’re attempting to make a spiritual statement about yourself, and that is the challenge. Because if you’re trying to impress yourself, and others are not as impressed with yourself as you are, by your associations, by your friends, then I need to check your heart.Social networking sites are not to be helping you with your spiritual identity, because you’ve falsely constructed yourself. You’re trying to maintain that impression of yourself when it is absolutely wrong. If you’re trying to value yourself more highly than you should, you can fall into pride and conceit and arrogance. For that, you need a true estimate of yourself without being prideful in impressing yourself with who you are. For you to get the right value of yourself, you can’t find it from others who are trying to impress themselves, because all of us are in the same situation. You’ve got to get an outside view of who we really are, but inside the human situation. And that’s why this particular attempt is false.If you’re trying to impress others with your accomplishment, with your offenses, with your arrogance, with your vulgarity, with your violence, with your vocabulary, I want you to really check your heart. Because there is one Person outside the entire human situation who has come inside the human situation to tell you how much He values you. You don’t have to be impressing yourself or impressing Him. He says, “I love you so deeply, that I’ll give you a sense of value and dignity so that you take My opinion of you as the way by which you self-value—value yourself.” Because God has put a profile picture of you, and He says, “I would like to be your friend and I know everything about you. Instead of being impressed with you or impressing yourself about yourself, I will put the picture of my Son up there, and I will be your friend. Forever. I’ll be your Savior. Forever...Support the show

Being around those who know us is love. We surround ourselves with friends and family because it feels safe to be known and accepted. But where do we turn for love when we are surrounded by people who do not know us? Do you truly know yourself? The good news is that you are never alone because God is always with you. He knows you even better than you know yourself. He offers to show you who He designed you to be, His beloved creation. Will you let Him show you your true identity? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Today I speak on “Knowing Your Self.”One time I was in Singapore, I wanted to talk to a friend of my father’s, an acquaintance of mine as well. I looked up his name in the directory and I phoned him. We carried a pretty good conversation, but about five minutes into the conversation, we both suddenly realized that he was not the person I was looking for. We had a healthy conversation but he was not the person. Maybe you have the right name, but you don’t know the person. Actually, I’m talking about you. You look in the mirror and you ask yourself, “Do I really know myself?” It’s an important question, because unless you know yourself, your identity will not control you, will not be focused, will not give you energy and motivation.Several times over the years, I’ve been to the bustling capital, text capital of the world, Manila, and everybody’s texting all the time while they’re stuck in traffic. They have used text abbreviations like “1-4-3” for one letter, four letter, three letters. You know it: “I love you.” Or I love you with “8-3-1.” Now what does that mean? It’s eight letters, three words, and one conviction/belief.I’ve got good news for you. Somebody who really knows you well has texted you. He is the Divine Shepherd of your soul, because He knows His own, He says. And my own know me. In this classic presentation, the Lord Jesus says, “I know you really well, I created you. I’ve gone after you even though you’ve gotten lost. You don’t know yourself but I know my own, so if you relate to me appropriately and rightly, if you trust me as your Savior, the Shepherd Savior of your soul, you will know yourself.”In airports across the world, I arrive without knowing a single soul. I look for somebody with my name on a board or who calls out my name on the airport announcement system. And sometimes they don’t show up. I look around to see if they’re late. I attempt to reach them. And then finally, somebody who I’ve never known from Adam shows up to say, “Are you Ramesh Richard?” Wow, that gives me great relief, because somebody knew my name.I’ve got good news for you—Somebody who knows your name, knows your face, knows all about you, says, “For you to know yourself, I ought to know you, and you ought to know me.” And so God sends a text message down just for you. 1-4-3: I love you. 8 letters, three words, but one conviction. “For you to know yourself, you’ve got to know Me. I know you. Would you like to know me? So you’d like to know yourself?” That’s the Lord Jesus’ invitation to you. Write to me. Check me out. Click on the link below. I want to hear from you right away.Support the show

Who are you? Do you describe yourself by your responsibilities, relationships or economic status? The truth is that you are so much more than all of those. You are complex, unique and created with purpose. The only way to truly know yourself is to know the One who made you: God. He created you and wants you to know Him and who He made you to be. Do you know yourself? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! I want to ask you one of my favorite questions of all time: Who are you? Who are you, really? Have you ever met yourself?If in answer to the question you tell me what you own, where you live, what you drive, what smartphone model you use, you really don’t know yourself. And some of you may tell me what you eat. Be careful what you eat—if you eat too much turkey or exotic snake or smelly fish. If you gave me those kinds of answers, you really don’t know yourself, your true self, your inner self, your core self. You’re broken up into fragmented identities.So let me introduce you to yourself. To meet yourself. Who are you? Who are you, really? Well maybe you’ll give me your name in answer to that question, and that’s as close as you can get, because your name is unique. It hangs around you for the rest of your life. Your password might be unique as well. You may have heard of the man who changed his password to “incorrect,” because his computer kept saying, “Your password is incorrect.” “Your password is incorrect.”Others of you might tell me what you do in answer to “Who are you?” Now that is your role definition. It’s good for you to know what you do, especially for your bosses to know what you do. But that’s role definition. Some of you may tell me where you’re going. That’s good as well. Goal definition, but really what I’m really asking for is your soul definition—your inner, true, core you. Who are you? Who are you, really?There’s an old movie called “Multiplicity.”Where the main character is so busy with life at work, at home with his kids and his wife and so on. He asks a scientist to clone him. So one clone goes to work, one clone stays at home, one clone goes to play with the kids. Unfortunately one of the clones gets too busy with his own work-life balance and clones himself. And every time the wife meets one of these, and only one at a time, she’s confused. The outside looks all alike, but the inside is different. Okay, that’s where biology is different from you.Biology through empirical, evidential-based science can tell you a little bit about who you are uniquely with your fingerprints and retinas and so on. But I’m talking about the differentiated contrastive uniqueness: you. And you cannot get that answer unless you know the one who’s made you. Who’s creatively endowed His dignity and uniqueness and artistic ability inside you. You are a witness to His art and science. Because you are not factory-made, you’re God-made. You’re not man-made, you are God-made. And the One who made you comes to this earth in order to help you meet yourself. In fact, you cannot know yourself unless you know the Lord Jesus. If you’d like to know Him so that you can know yourself, please write to me. Click on the link below. Write me a comment. Check us out on Facebook. I want to meet you, so you can meet yourself.Support the show

Your identity as a human is precious. Some may try to steal or destroy it, but no human can take away what was given to you by your Creator. God created you and gave you a unique and precious identity. He invites you to follow Him and He will show you who He created you to be, and redeem what others have tried to steal or destroy. Do you know your true identity? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Today, I speak on “Protecting Your Self.”One of the fastest growing problems across the world of technology is what we call “identity theft.” Identity theft is where people want your information. I’m not talking about imitating you, that we do with people we admire—sometimes done with envy of celebrities; where they imitate your clothes, whatever you do, your fashions, your approach to life. That’s a compliment, but I’m talking here about identity theft, which steals your information with criminal intent. They want your bank information. They want your credit card information. They want your passport information. They hack into all sorts of technology and computers in order to become you, as it were, for their terrible purposes. And everybody I’ve talked to who’s gone through identity theft says it’s harrowing. It’s a huge headache.So an entire industry has grown around detecting, monitoring and resolving identity theft. It’s a fascinating industry. Now they really don’t steal your identity. They only steal some information about you. Your identity is the core you, inside you, the soul, the self-identity you are, and no human being can steal that. Now, your body is rather complex—your physical identity. Now your soul identity is even more complex than your body. And don’t let anybody reduce you to the mere external. You’re more than your body. The only way to steal your soul identity is if somebody larger and more powerful than us as human beings comes through the back door and makes a claim on our lives. He overpowers us. He’s against us. He comes to steal, to kill, to destroy. He breaks us, and so-guess what? We break ourselves and break each other. He steals our identity, so we become victims and we victimize one another. That core identity is fragmented, because he’s come and stolen what is not appropriately his. To that immediate intrinsic need, the Lord Jesus comes and says, “I’ve come in order, to get the thief out of the way who steals and kills and destroys, I am the Good Shepherd. I give my very own life directly to you, for my sheep. I don’t have to come to the back door." And twice he says, “I give my life to the sheep,” in the space of a couple of comments; to share with you that you’re not to be discounted, devalued, but deeply valued. And how do you know that? He gives His life for you and me.One other statement of value is there. The thief attempts to steal, kill and destroy your identity, devalue you, to discount you. The Lord Jesus says, “I am your Good Shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me.” So don’t concede your character. Don’t give up your core. Let the Good Shepherd be the one who transforms you, rescues you, redeems you and upgrades you to 2.0.Support the show

It is human nature to self-improve. We all desire to be the best version of ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually. But no matter how much we transform externally, we cannot reform our hearts by will alone. True heart, soul and life transformation can only come from God, who knows you and loves you. He invites all who are weary, broken and imperfect to come to Him and trust Him to transform you from the inside out. Will you trust Him? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! Today I speak on “Reforming Your Self.” Now who doesn’t want to be reformed, to get better, to be improved? Only the dead in cemeteries don’t want to be reformed, or improved or bettered. But you want to reform yourself. Now there are all sorts of sources of reformation. People give you slogans. You go to seminars and outlandish ideas some/none of them seem to last very much longer than the meeting themselves. You’ve tried all kinds of ways to reform yourself. You’ve tried, for example, physical fitness, because the body does affect the soul and the mind and the heart. My wife and I are presently in a five-week, ten-session physical fitness training, with a rather demanding sort-of-a trainer. And He’s helping me discover muscles I’ve never had. Some sort of physical training. Others of us try mind training, especially by going to positive thinking seminars and possibility thinking seminars, so you’ll think of yourself in a better way, think of others in a more positive way. That’ll help you some. That’s called “reformation,” but you’ll find negative thoughts continuing to overwhelm your positive thoughts and possibility thoughts. Others try social training to follow the mores and culture that surround them. They’re not peculiar and odd and strange. And yet others think about religious and moral training: to do the things that you should do, to not do the things that you should not do. The problem with religion and morality is that it never gives you the power to do what you’re supposed to do.Then, finally, there’s sheer will training. I mean, there are some of you who are strong and determined to do right. Somebody told you if you do things for about 21 days it becomes a habit. And at the end of the 21st day somebody tells you it’s really going to take 28 days, and you’ve got to start all over again. The problem with all of these kinds of training is it attempts reformation before transformation. May I suggest to you that you need to be transformed inside you before you can be reformed outside you? Transformation is version 2.0, and reformation may be at best 1.0. Now what God says is through the Lord Jesus, you will escape the corruption that is inside you. That you will become a participant in the divine nature, and therefore you’ll have all the power that’s needed for all of life and godliness.So He says, “Invite me inside your life. I will transform you.” And after the transformation sets in, then all the reformation pieces can be put together. He writes the source code for this reformation and transformation. So go to Him. He’s developed the application and the upgrade, and he can transform your life. So don’t reform yourself. Let God transform you through the Lord Jesus. Send me a comment on Facebook. Click on the link below. I want to hear from you frequently, as often as you want, so we keep up this dialogue, because your life must be transformed.Support the show

We all experience the need to be revived. When we are physically tired, we sleep to be energized. When we are mentally exhausted, perhaps we need to recover. But what about when we are spiritually spent? This is the ultimate tiredness and affects every aspect of our lives. But we cannot revive ourselves spiritually because we are human. Our souls are corrupted by sin. The only solution to spiritual tiredness is to trust in the sacrifice that God made to revive our souls. Do you need spiritual revival? You think about it, let's talk about it.TRANSCRIPT:Hello world! In Bali, Indonesia, not long ago, we saw lots of advertisements for health spas and salons and massages. Now my wife and I, we’ve not had many massages in our life. So for one full-service massage, we went in. They gave us a back massage as well as a head massage, Indonesian scents, they filled all our factory senses. We’ve heard wonderful Indonesian Gamelan music orchestration. Unfortunately, the full service was not a long service. By the time we walked back to our room, all the service that we possibly achieved by personal revival were depleted. Now it’s a big industry, personal revival, to revive yourself. Cosmetic dermatologists have advertised perfumes and creams and lotions that you apply. Another way to be revived in yourself is to pursue a cause where you see a need and you want to attack it and address it, and you want to help people.The problem with reviving yourself is that it is not left to us mere mortals, because the meaning of the word “revive” is to really “resurrect.” And if you’re dead, especially if you’re dead tired, it’s very difficult to “resurrect,” let alone “revive,” yourself. If you’re listening today and you want your tired old self to be revived, you may want to get a nap this afternoon or get an energy drink that you might imbibe. Get some mental quietness. But I’m talking about your whole being be revived, because physical tiredness you can handle with a little bit of sleep. Mental tiredness with a little bit of thinking, but spiritual tiredness is much more difficult. Maybe a thought here, a thought there, but a whole being tiredness can only be resurrected by the One who is in charge of the resurrection. Your revival is not your ability. Because we are dead in our spiritual nature toward God, in our transgressions, in our sins. We’re walking across this world indulging the lusts of our minds and of our flesh according to the course of the air, of the Prince of Power of the air, the Bible says, which means we don’t please God. We are dead spiritually, and unless God makes the first move we cannot make a move towards Him. Our moves are responses, not determination; and God has just done that. He has come in to rescue us, to resurrect us, make us alive together with His Son, the Lord Jesus, and raise us so that we can have a resurrected life. Not only a resurrection in terms of whole being, but really forever. And not only a resurrection forever, but the ability to do good works right now, that He has planned for us to do, so that you could really be cause-oriented.So if you don’t want to be living under the entropy of reality, of aging and weakness and illness; an ailment that awaits all of us and despair that follows. If you do not want to be dead, separated from God for eternity, He can resurrect—revive yourself. You will live again. If you like these thoughts, let me know. Just click on that button. Send this to your friends. Get on our website, and let us know. We can continue the dialogue. Thank you very much.Support the show

So, you’re ready to make an informed decision about hell. Now what? In this episode you’ll learn what to do next: embrace the expert and receive the rescuer.Support the show

You’re a decent person. You work hard, try to help other people out, and even say some prayers. That’s enough to offset any risk of hell being an actual reality, right? Find the answer in this episode as Prof. Dr. Ramesh Richard helps you appropriately analyze the risks and formulate a response to the existence of hell.Support the show

In your imagination you conceive of a place like hell with unquenchable flames and unceasing torture. You can even contrive of reasons it may exist. But, such far-fetched notions could never be justified…not without a trustworthy source. In this episode you’ll meet that source, the authoritative voice on hell.Support the show

Curiosity about hell flickers out when you consider the lack of both scientific evidence and firsthand experience about it. But, are these the only methods for proving the likelihood that such a place exists?Join Prof. Dr. Ramesh Richard and take the first step of thinking critically about hell.Support the show

The word is everywhere: there’s hell to pay and hell to raise; things are hard as hell and hot as hell. In this podcast we’ll discuss how common usage of this #4LetterWord eases its harshness and helps us dodge the discomfort of considering it as legitimate reality.Support the show