Tara Lee Davis's Podcast

Why does God pursue us?  Is He a control freak?  Are we mere puppets on strings?  Is following a Jesus about a list of do's and dont's, or is there more?  God simply wants a relationship with each of us, and relationship trumps religion every single time.  Religion shuts doors while relationship opens them.  In the story of the prodigal son, we see the contrast of religion and relationship and what set free was relationship.

Could it be that our lives are so consumed with self and what others think of us that we are missing out on the bigger picture of God using us to display His glory?  Have we exchanged the glory of God for the cheap praise of man?  Gideon proves to us that when we believe the truth of who God says we are, then God can rewrite the history books for His glory, fame, and honor.

As believers, what's the first thing that we ask when the storm hits?  Where is God?  Why has He left me?  Is He not listening to my cries for help?  Could it be that our questioning of Jesus, especially in the midst of hard times, points to a deeper issue that we don't fully know who He is?  All throughout Scripture, we see story after story of those who have found Jesus right in the middle of their mess, even when they themselves were a hot mess.

What does Resurrection Sunday mean for us as believers?  Is there more to it than "Dead Jesus, quiet Jesus, alive Jesus, hooray"!?  The exact life and death and resurrection of Jesus was actually a blueprint for you and I and yet, we often want the resurrection power life without first dying to self.  There could be no empty tomb without first a crucifixion.  Only in the dying of ourselves and sinful, selfish ways will we be resurrected with Christ and find the newness and abundance of life that we were designed for!

God created each of us to live legendary lives; lives that are full and rich, far bigger than anything we could ever hope for or imagine.  What if our tiny stories of pain and brokenness were actually apart of something much bigger that we can't always see and understand?  We will never live out the part we have to play in this big story if we don't understand the Story that's being written and you cannot possibly understand the Story when you don't know the Author.  Because there are going to be chapters of your story that are hard and painful, confusing at best.....but when you know the Author, you can point back to their heart and trust that they are writing something far better than you ever could.  So what does a wee little man and Whataburger wrappers have anything to do with it?  Everything, because it's all a part of knowing the Author of our stories.

If God's Word doesn't return void and is powerful and active, then why do we often not see good fruit growing in our lives?  We often waste incredible seeds of truth that are planted in our hearts not because it's too high and lofty or something that is unattainable for us to grasp, but simply because the soil of our hearts is hard instead of being good soil.

Your position determines your perspective and your perspective shifts everything.  There are countless examples of people in the Scripture who found themselves in precarious positions and yet what they held to be true deep in their hearts, is what affected them most in their outcome because how we see and view the things of life greatly affects how we live our lives.

We often need to be recalibrated to who we are, whose we are, and what our lives as God's children are to look like.  Can we say with confidence that God can indeed rescue, but even if He does not, He is still good and He is still God and we will still do the right thing?

In this introductory lesson, we give a breakdown and overview of the Parable of the Sower.  What do the four different types of soil represent?  And who is the Sower?  And who does God love anyway?

Jesus coming to our earth to be born as a baby reminds us of the constant tension we face between the reality of our world as we know it and the truth of God's Word and yet in the midst of that tension, Christ still chose to come...Immanuel, God with us.

God does not mince words in 1 Corinthians 13 when He talks about love.  Think you're doing well at loving others?  Take the word "love" out and insert your own name.....Warning:  Not for the faint of heart.  We are told to love others well, simply because He first loved us.

Anytime you and I drink from something or someone other than Jesus, we will not only be thirsty but we will end up being dehydrated.  Jesus is the Living Water and only He can satisfy the deepest longings our hearts and souls.  The reason we are thirsty is not because Jesus isn't better or good enough, but because we are drinking from the wrong water source.

The purpose of the fire is never to consume, but rather refine.  And when we don't trust the God behind our stories with the broken, painful pieces of our lives, we will in fact be consumed by the fire and instead of looking, sounding and smelling like Jesus, we will look like and sound like and smell like we've been in the fire.  But when we choose to trust God, and acknowledge that He is not only powerful enough to save us, BUT EVEN IF He doesn't, we are not only refined by the fire but others come to see and acknowledge that God is the only God worthy to be praised and worshipped.

There are many different names of God found throughout Scripture, and each one reveals the nature and character of God.  Why does it matter that God is known as the Alpha and Omega?  One word:  Sandwiches.

It was a classic, dramatic scene of panic when they woke Him that day on the boat; "Teacher, teacher.....don't You care that we are perishing?!??!"  We've all been there before, questioning what God is doing in our lives when things don't make sense.  But when we forget what He has spoken, we invite the chaos into our lives and hit the panic button prematurely.

When the disciples tried to tell Jesus what to do, He commanded them to do the impossible.  And when a crowd of 15, 000 people were able to eat until they were satisfied AND there were 12 basket fulls left, the disciples were reminded who God was..............and it wasn't them.  The chaos of our lives is simply an invitation to Jesus, asking Him to be God, and He rsvps's a solid YES every single time because that is who HE is and He loves to prove Himself, even to His biggest doubters.

Many of us have heard the crucifixion story of Jesus our entire lives, but do we really grasp what He endured to set us free? Why do we keep returning to vomit like a dog when Christ prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies? Regardless of how you and I live, Jesus loves us.

I think the question that's asked most often, when in the midst of a difficult season, is this; is it to possible to endure suffering while still following Jesus? But perhaps, all along, we've been asking ourselves the wrong question. It's not a matter of possibility, but rather worth. Is it worth following Jesus when that involves enduring suffering? Job lived a life that proves that following Jesus, even in the mist of extreme suffering, is always worth it.

John 14:15 says that if we love Jesus, we will do what He asks of us. The greatest commandment is to love Jesus with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is like it; to love others as ourselves. So when you and I have the opportunity to love the ones in front of us and we choose not, we are simply saying "I don't love Jesus."

Why does God desire obedience over sacrifice? Sacrifice is birthed from a budget, or rather a measured portion. Obedience is birthed from love for Jesus, according to John 14:15. The bottom line is this; Jesus doesn't want a measured portion of us or our lives, He wants all of us. Because when He has all of us, He has all of our portions and that is when He does His best work!