Forgivin' Livin' Daily Podcast
Our podcasts are 5-8 minutes in length. We create these messages using one or two brief verses from the Bible that come from a devotional book. Our purpose is to help you hear the grace of Jesus in these verses so that your life may find its grounding in Christ alone. It is this grounding in grace that makes forgivin’ livin’ your way of freedom.
04/07/2026
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00(Irishcast) Love That Excels (Deut 10v18 19; Matt 25v 34,36) (Faith)
These photos from Zhenya and Ivan in Sumy, Ukraine reveal the ministry of clothing and feeding those people God sends to them. As you will hear in the podcast, the church in Sumy is a shelter for those longing for the loving touch of believers who express the heart of our Risen Lord for the least, the last and the lost. Where is your Sumy? God has appointed you for this. Jesus says, “I chose you and appointed you to go and to bear much fruit and that your fruit would last.” ( John 15:16-17). Ask Jesus today, “where do you want me to go?”
04/06/2026
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00(Floridacast) Nothing Will Separate You (Deut
Easter Monday gives us Bible verses of assurance. You are the apple of God’s eye. Nothing will separate you from His love. The reflection of the setting sun over this part of Florida on Easter weekend created an image of light in the clouds that reminded me of God stretching His arms out over us. One of our granddaughters added some drawings from the text in Deuteronomy. What does God need to do to prove His steadfast love for us? There are the words in the Bible. There is the worship celebration of Easter. There are little surprises in nature. But ultimately, we need to trust every thing God gives us so that we may live with the assurance that we are held in God’s palm. Nothing will be able to steal us from God’s grasp. So let the love of God flow through you today no matter what your condition. God is not going to let you go.
04/05/2026
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00(Sundaycast) What Makes Easter Happy (Psalm 23:5; 1 Corinthians 15:26) (Hope)
The assurance of Christ’s victory on Easter helps us through our times of suffering. Solveig and Elsa, our granddaughters, saw a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis (or cocoon) on Saturday. A table on their front porch was used by a caterpillar for its final resting place. Then yesterday the butterfly emerged. This led to significant conversation about the relationship between the hatching of a butterfly and the empty tomb from which Jesus emerged as a new creation. It also created an opportunity for some artwork by each of the girls on the fragile creature they saw come out of its own tomb. It entered a caterpillar and left a butterfly. What does this mean for us who have to face deathly difficulties in this life? We enter our struggles however sad and even deadly they may be with the assurance that our Lord will be with us through the suffering. Jesus will lead us to a resurrection reality. This realty is hidden to us much like the butterfly is hidden to the caterpillar. So trust Jesus in your darkest times. Know that what God did for Him on Easter, God will also do for you. Jesus has a resurrection reality waiting for you.
04/04/2026
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00(Mission Cast) Our Future Dwelling Place (Psalm 84:1 ; John 14:2) (Hope)
It’s Saturday in Holy Week. Jeff and Mim discuss our future, eternal home with the Lord. Mim comments how she feels “orphaned” these days and a little lost. Both her parents have died and are now in the arms of Jesus. Mim misses the way her parent’s delighted in her. She knows God delights in her. Maybe you can relate? We didn’t talk about it, but Martin Luther firmly confessed that our ultimate hope is not a disembodied heaven, but the resurrection of the body on the Last Day, when Christ returns. Luther wrote: “We shall sleep until he knocks on the grave and say, ‘Arise!’” Death is a sound, sweet sleep, but the soul does not sleep in the same manner as the body. It is awake and living before God, experiencing visions and discourses with the angels and with God. So, in this sense, we both dwell with the Lord and also sleep. Blessed Easter!
04/03/2026
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00(Floridacast) The Lamb Of God Shed Blood For You (Psalm 117:1; Revelation 5:12) (Justification)
Good Friday in Holy Week is the day our Lord finished the work He came to earth to accomplish. His image as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (as John the Baptist declared in John 1:29) is reinforced in parts of the book of Revelation as we find in today’s text. The passage from John 5:6-14 is the basis for the artwork created by the Van Eyk brothers in 1432. This image is part of an altarpiece for a Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. The altarpiece has long been highly coveted. Since it was first installed at Saint Bavo Cathedral the Altarpiece has survived 13 crimes. It has been through the hands of multiple armies. It was saved by the American soldiers, the “Monuments Men” who later brought it back to its original home. But the power of the panel displayed reflects “the lamb who was slain.” If you look closely you can see that the blood of the lamb is filling a chalice which is for the Lord’s Supper. When Jesus tells us to do this in “remembrance of me,” He wants each of us to know that the power of His blood shed for you and for me is the one power on earth that is worthy of our honor and our glory and our praise. When you are worshipping this weekend, sing those hymns and songs “in remembrance” of the Lamb of God who shed His blood for you. (Don’t forget to download your copy of the reading “What was accomplished on the cross?” by clicking on the prayer journal.)
04/02/2026
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00( Theta ) Help Hope For You (Psalm 146:5 & Matthew 26:27 28)
On Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday, we will worship receiving the Lord’s Supper remembering this night He was betrayed. But following that meal Jesus took his disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed. His prayer is painted by He Qi. We have a copy of this hanging in our home thanks to our friend Dianne. Jesus is praying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matt. 26:39 NKJV). Three times Jesus prayed in a place where olives were crushed three times to make olive oil. The crushing truth Jesus was facing in this garden was not the pain he would face but being abandoned by God His Father. It’s the power of the cross that at the same time that Jesus was in the center of God’s will, the Father would not be near Him. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46 NKJV). The Gethsemane prayers reveal how far apart we are from God that the Son of God must be crushed, isolated, forsaken for us to be saved. And where are we in all this trauma? With the disciples. Asleep. May the Holy Spirit wake us up to see how desperately we needed Jesus to be crushed for our sake.
04/01/2026
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00(Wheaton) Five Guys And The Bible (Ps 35:18; Phil 2:11) (Faith)
Wednesday in Holy Week ends with a special supper at the home of Simon the Leper. It might be called Simon the former Leper. Actually all of those invited have a “former” in their name. None of the guests was perfect. Everyone had an imperfection that the perfect person fixed. And these formerly imperfect ones are laughing because the One who perfected them is rejoicing with them as they eat together. God’s grace makes us laugh. We are free from our need to make much of ourselves. In this second to the “Last Supper” laughter is on the menu because the source of their joy has made everyone laugh. Next time you are invited by Jesus to dinner, expect to be laughing.
03/31/2026
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00(Irishcast) Our Suffering Savior (Daniel 9v14 Luke 24v26)(Justification)
On Holy Tuesday, Jesus is back in the Temple. But this time instead of cleansing, He is teaching. He’s been here before on a Tuesday when He was 12. Somehow his parents thought He was with other family members after the Passover. Luke 2:46-47 records this story. “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” The painting of the young Jesus by Hofman is famous. But on this Tuesday, 21 years later, Jesus is still teaching “in my Father’s house” (Luke 2:49) but His focus is directed against those who want to kill him. He teaches in parables. The parable of the tenants (Matthew 21:33-44) depicts the violent reality of Jesus’ eventual sacrifice which He and His Heavenly Father knew had to be accomplished. In each parable, He speaks with certainty that He knows He is the Messiah, the anointed One, the Christ. He will suffer and die at the hands of these very people He is speaking to this day in His Father’s house. But remember, it is also for these very people that Jesus was crucified so that their sins, be they scarlet, could also be white as cotton (or snow). Aren’t you glad Jesus died for these enemies? There’s hope for us!
03/30/2026
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00God Accomplishes Great Things Through Us (Deut 4:2; Romans 15:18) (Hope)
On Monday in Holy Week, Jesus cleanses the temple. This mosaic from a church in Palermo, Italy is just one of many renderings of Jesus cleansing the temple. But why did He do this? His commandment is what He declares in Matthew 21:13. “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” The temple cleansing is needed to make it accessible for all who seek a relationship with God. This is Holy Week’s purpose. But not for the temple in Jerusalem. God wants our lives to be cleansed to be His temple so that people may find access to the living God through us. Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? [17] If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Our temple, that is our body, is to be a house of prayer. God has chosen to dwell in you and in me so that our lives may be shaped by prayer in Jesus’ name. What needs to be cleansed in us today so that we might be renewed to be God’s temple on this earth?
03/29/2026
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00(Sundaycast) Resting In God’s Presence (Exodus 33:15; John 12:13) (Peace)
Palm Sunday shows us how our King comes to us. Our King chooses to show himself as humble and lowly so that no one will feel insecure or fearful in His presence. When the three Magi or Wise Men worshipped Jesus, the King of the Jews, in the stable, they were not put off by His humble birth. He was lowly then. He is lowly on Palm Sunday. We know from this that our King is one we can meet and know and love because He comes to us when we are not what we think a King would want in His Kingdom. But the truth is He is the King of the weak and lowly. So open your palms and receive Jesus as your King today.