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129 EOTC – Know God, Love God & Live The Life For Which You Were Created

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:09:27 +0000

In this episode Cliff is once again joined by his good friend David Foster. Together they talk about true identity in Christ. They talk about money being a good thing and a God thing. And they talk about the journey of knowing God, loving God and living the life for which we are created.

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128 EOTC – Is God More Real Than Your Bank Account?

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:23:59 +0000

I am so delighted to have Wayne Jacobsen join us once again here on Encouraging Others Through Christ. This time around, Wayne shares some thoughts around a message that he sent me in an email a few weeks ago.

Here’s what he had written to me…

This has been one of the greatest joys of my journey, God setting me free from any concern about my financial income and that happened 15 years ago when we had nothing and God just kept providing for us. We got our kids through college without any savings for it, because I had been in “ministry” and never made enough to do it. But since we have found him faithful in the Matthew 6 kind of way, “Stop planning and fretting, just follow me.” Receive what he gives, charge for what he asks us to charge for, give away whatever he asks us to give away, save what he asks us to save.” It’s amazing how much clarity I have about these things and how much peace that has left me in these many years…. But I know there isn’t a prepackaged formula, but a place he “wins” us into, which also means there were plenty of scary times for my puritan-work-ethic-farming background!

Of course, I can’t pass up this opportunity to plug Wayne’s book, “So You Don’t Want To Go To Church.” Those who have been following my journey know just how much of an impact that this story had on my journey.

Here are some important links that I think you should know about:
- God Journey Podcast – Website | Podcast
- LifeStream Blog – Website | Podcast
- The Jesus Lens – Website
- So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore – Amazon
- He Loves Me – Learning to Live in the Father’s Affection – Amazon

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127 EOTC – He Redeemed My Mind To Think Big

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:59:47 +0000

I am excited to share a message from my good friend, David H. Foster, from his Renegade’s Guide To God podcast.

In this episode of the Encourage Others Through Christ podcast, I have taken the most recent podcast from my good friend, David H. Foster, and edited it down to be included here for you.

There are a few “thoughts” that I have jotted down that I hope will stick with you after having listened to this powerful message.

- All truth is God’s truth!
- God wants us to think our own thoughts.
- We are called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
- The world needs you to be a big thinker.
- Jesus wants you to live a big life.
- Our mind is not only in bondage to our fears and doubts, but also in bondage by our limiting beliefs about life.

I love what David shared at the end. We are called to think “redemptively,” to think in terms of “reconciliation” and to think “restorationally.”

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126 EOTC – A Conversation With Wayne Jacobsen

Cliff Ravenscraft — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:18:12 +0000

Back in episode 121, I shared some pretty shocking information related to my journey of faith and where I stand on my relationship with “the church.”

In that episode, I had shared just how much of an impact the book “So You Don’t Want To Go To Church,” by Wayne Jacobsen, had on me.

In this episode, I am delighted to share a conversation that I had with Wayne Jacobsen. We covered a variety of topics that I hope will inspire others to move further down the path of living loved by our Father.

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125 EOTC – Encouraging Others Through Christ

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:35:44 +0000

The About The Church podcast was launched in January 2006 as the third podcast produced here at the Generally Speaking Production Network. In this episode, I share the reasons why, after 125 episodes, I’ve decided to re-brand the show.

From this point forward, this podcast will be known as the Encouraging Others Through Christ or EOTC podcast. This “brand” has been around and a part of my life going all the way back to 1995.

If you were already subscribed to the “About The Church” podcast, you shouldn’t need to do anything, the new EOTC podcast episodes will be delivered to you as if nothing significant has changed. If you have not yet subscribed to the show, please do so by using the links provided below.

Please tell others about this show and send them to EncouragingOthersThroughChrist.com.

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124 About The Church – A Conversation With David Foster

Cliff Ravenscraft — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:57:14 +0000

In this episode of the About The Church Podcast, I am delighted to share a recorded phone conversation that I recently had with my good friend, David H. Foster from DavidFoster.tv.

I wish I had time to sit down and take notes about all the things we talked about in this conversation so that it would convince you to click play and listen. However, I’m going to just ask you to trust me when I tell you that this was an amazing conversation and that you’ll be glad you listened if you do click the play button!

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123 About The Church – The Parable of The Incredibly Loving Father

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:34:13 +0000

It’s been just over a month since our family decided that we were “Not Going To Go To Church Anymore!” In the past, if I would miss going to church a few weeks in a row, I would feel incredibly guilty and I would see my life’s priorities getting all out of whack. However, if you want to learn about how things are going for our family at this time, I encourage you to check out Episode 165 of the Almost Daily Devotional titled “Life Without Following The Rules.”

In this episode of the About The Church Podcast, I share an amazing teaching on a parable I have read over and over again. It’s the parable of the prodigal son. However, in all the times I’ve read this story and heard sermons preached on this parable, I’ve never understood the valuable things that this parable has to say about our Father’s love for us!

This teaching comes from Wayne Jacobson, author of “So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore.” I first heard this teaching as I subscribed to the Lifestream Blog Podcast in iTunes. I would encourage you to subscribe to this podcast and start with the oldest episode and start listening forward. This is what I am in the process of doing.

For those of you who do not subscribe to podcasts, but instead simply listen to these episodes via the web, you can find this teaching, in full, by listening to the session labeled Disc 2 on Wayne’s site at http://www.lifestream.org/transition.php.

Here are the major points that I wrote down while playing back this teaching for this episode:

- The issue is that People were complaining about Jesus sending so much of his time with sinners.

- The father didn’t even acknowledge the prepared speech. He’s already the son of the Father!

- I’m not going to make you hurt one second longer than it took you to decide to come back to me!

- What father gives an inheritance to a son that he knows is up to no good?

- Jesus is telling the story that has already taken place!

- The Father WAITS!

- Where in the parable does the Father demonstrate his love the most in the parable?

- What does the Father have with the son that He didn’t have at the beginning? A relationship of affection!

- God does not want the indentured servitude of slaves, but the affection, the extravagant affection of sons and daughters whom He loves.

- We have already been giving the inheritance as His son! “Everything I have is yours!” The older son continues to see himself as a slave in his father’s house.

- Two ways to hide from God.
1) Rebellion – Self Indulgence
2) Religion – Slaving Away With Following The Rules
- It’s just as easy to hide from God in religious activity.

- I really wanted God! – I WAS TOLD –>
“The more righteous you could be be, the more relationship
with God you could have.”

- The New Testament teaches us that —>
“The more relationship you’ll have with God, the more
righteous He’ll make you to be.

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122 About The Church – How To Win At Life With Money

Cliff Ravenscraft — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:47:25 +0000

In this episode of the About The Church Podcast, Stephanie and I share part 1 of 5 in a sermon series titled “Moneyology” by David Foster.

You can gain access to the original sermon series without our commentary by going to http://gspn.tv/moneyology.

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121 About The Church – Not Going To church Anymore!

Cliff Ravenscraft — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:09:43 +0000

In this episode, I share some pretty shocking information related to my journey of faith and where I stand on my relationship with “the church.” However, it is really difficult for me to actually state the decision that our family has recently made. The reason is because the statement is that our family has decided that “we are not going to church anymore.” However, it really depends on how you “define” the word “church” and what you mean when you say “going to church.”

Honestly, right now, I would argue that nobody really “goes to church.” The gathering of those who follow Christ “ARE” the church. Church is a reality that happens when believers gather together, it is not a location.

However, I really don’t want to write a blog post about this at all. So I am going to simply ask you to take a listen to this episode if you want to learn more. There will certainly be more episodes of About The Church to follow.

If you have any interest in checking out the book that has helped me to see what God has been speaking to my heart as of late, I encourage you to check it out.

The book is titled “So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore.” If this book is on our featured page at http://Mardel.com/gspn, please consider buying it there using promo code “GSPN” in the shopping cart. However, if you are not able to find the book on that page or if you looking to get the book for your Kindle, please go to http://gspn.tv/gotochurch.

As I said, there will be more episodes of the About The Church podcast coming soon. I promise you that I am not abandoning my faith. In fact, I plan to be a much greater participant within “the church” (aka the body of Christ) than I’ve ever been before.

In this episode, I did share something about Steve Brown and the Scandalous Freedom podcast that I’ve been listening to. I highly encourage you to CLICK HERE to check it out.

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120 About The Church – Rob Shares His Experience With New Bible Reading Plan

Cliff Ravenscraft — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:27:54 +0000

In this episode, Cliff and Robert discuss what has been going on in their hearts and minds as it relates to faith in Christ and their involvement in the local church. Robert shares his experience with a new Bible Reading Plan that he’s enjoyed very much. We also get some amazing feedback from Dr. Paul Hambrick that is simply encouraging and uplifting.

gspn.tv - Generally Speaking Production Network » Encouraging Others Through Christ

129 EOTC – Know God, Love God & Live The Life For Which You Were Created

128 EOTC – Is God More Real Than Your Bank Account?

127 EOTC – He Redeemed My Mind To Think Big

126 EOTC – A Conversation With Wayne Jacobsen

125 EOTC – Encouraging Others Through Christ

124 About The Church – A Conversation With David Foster

123 About The Church – The Parable of The Incredibly Loving Father

122 About The Church – How To Win At Life With Money

121 About The Church – Not Going To church Anymore!

120 About The Church – Rob Shares His Experience With New Bible Reading Plan

119 About The Church – Eagerly Awaiting The Restoration of Eden

118 About The Church – Liturgy of The Hours

117 About The Church – My Prayer Partner

116 About The Church – Making Room For A Biblical Model of Ministry

115 About The Church – Big Butter Jesus Struck By Lightning

114 About The Church – Stand Up And Agree

113 About The Church – Zombie Christians

112 About The Church – God Gets Graphic

111 About The Church – The Lawn Mower Episode

110 About The Church – What Do Mormons Believe

109 About The Church – Participate In The Insurrection

108 About The Church – How God Lays Things On Your Heart

107 About The Church – I Was Born This Way

106 About The Church – Dealing With Setbacks In Life

105 About The Church – Art And Denominations

104 About The Church – Bible Translations

103 About The Church – Green Shoes From Flaming Liberals

102 About The Church – Social Media And The Church

101 About The Church – Just Catching Up

100 About The Church – DG Riding Away On His Horse?

099 About The Church – Random Christmas Thoughts

098 About The Church – Reasons To Stop Evangelizing Your Friends?

097 About The Church – Animals In Heaven?

096 About The Church – The Future of The Church

095 About The Church – Bible Superheroes

094 About The Church – Preparing Your Kids For College

093 About The Church – Is God Real? Part 04

092 About The Church – Is God Real? Part 03

091 About The Church – Is God Real? Part 02

090 About The Church – Is God Real? Part 01

089 About The Church – A Relationship With God?

088 About The Church – Do All Religions Lead To God?

087 About The Church – Thoughts On Foul Language

086 About The Church – Is Tithing A Requirement?

085 About The Church – Small Groups And Christian Music

084 About The Church – Universal Reconciliation Theology

083 About The Church – Harry Potter And More

082 About The Church – Adult Only Episode

081 About The Church – Western Cultural Captivity

080 About The Church – Heaven Or Hell?

079 About The Church – Prosperity

078 About The Church – Capitalism

077 About The Church – Revolving Pastors

076 About The Church – Almost Daily Devotional

075 About The Church – We Are One Church

074 About The Church – Creation Museum

073 About The Church – Review of The Shack by William P. Young

072 About The Church – Everything But Nothing