All posts filed under: Podcasts

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What is so mysterious about an Egyptian Guard?: PODCAST

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  Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this episode entitled, What is so mysterious about an Egyptian guard?, I will talk about the strangest passages in the Bible. Now I need to mention, I am the master of hyperbole and it is the strangest passage today. Next week another passage could be the strangest verse in the Bible. But this passage answers one of the major questions in the Bible namely: Who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus? If you have watched any movies such as the 1956 blockbuster hit, The Ten Commandments, we see that the Pharaoh, played by actor Yules Bryner, was Ramses. Even the 2014 version: Exodus: Gods and Kings, has Ramses as the Pharaoh. But was Ramses actually the Pharaoh of Exodus? That strange passage in Genesis suggests No. But before we discuss that strange passage, we need a bit of background on Joseph who eventually ended up second in charge in Egypt. Joseph was the youngest and favoured son of Jacob and he came with an attitude. Joseph told …

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Does God still speak to us through dreams and visions? — Podcast

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  PODCAST NOTES Hi my name is Deans Smith and in this episode, I ask the question does God still speak to us through dreams and visions? Throughout the Bible we see that God desires often communicated with people through dreams and visions. Of course, many make fun of such notions but it we know it still happens today, because a few years back God spoke to a young girl through a vision and then confirmed it with a miracle. We are all familiar with dreams and the Bible describes a vision as “waking dream” or a dream that takes place when your eyes are wide open, meaning you are awake. The utterance of him who hears the words of God, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Who falls down, with eyes wide open: (Numbers 24:4) It seems the two are clearly connected. And throughout the Bible, we see that God used both dreams and visions to not only communicate with people, but also to warn them. The ancient Patriarch Joseph not only received …

Does meek mean doormat?: PODCAST

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  Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this episode I ask the all-important question, does meek mean doormat? In His sermon on the mount, Jesus said: “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the world.” (Matthew 5: 5) Dictionaries define meekness as quiet, docile, an unwillingness to disagree, submissive, gentle and easily imposed on. These definitions would certainly leave the impression that if Christians want to inherit the world, we need to bow our head, submit and take on the role of a doormat. So this would also mean Jack Phillips is wrong. He is a Christian and owned Masterpiece Cakeshop in Denver Colorado. In 2012, a homosexual couple entered Masterpiece Cakeshop asking Phillips to make them a cake for their gay wedding. Phillips turned them down citing his Christian beliefs about gay marriage. Now before you suggest Phillips was discriminating against them because they were gay, this wasn’t true. Phillips told the couple, he was willing to make them a cake, but he would not decorate a cake with their gay …

When you pray, bring the pain, pray with intensity: PODCAST

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  PODCAST NOTES: Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this episode, I am discussing one of the ways Jesus recommends to get answered prayer. Jesus says we need to bring the pain, and pray with intensity. When we adopted our son from Guatemala, we did it privately working through a missionary and evangelical orphanage. However, things were quite different when we adopted our daughter from Peru where we went through government agencies in both Canada and the Peru. And unlike our son, we did not have a choice in what child we received. Because it was totally out of our hands, I spent most of my lunch breaks asking God to intervene so that we would get the child that God wanted for us. I remember it being a very intense time of prayer. It was emotional and I was praying incessantly and aggressively that God would intervene, if needed. I also remember the day, my wife and I got a call from Peru telling us that they had chosen a girl for …

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How did December 25th end up as Christ’s birthday?: PODCAST

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EPISODE NOTES Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this episode we will try to find out why December 25th was chosen as the date for Christ’s birthday. The real reason may surprise you. With Christmas around the corner, many of the less-reverent types like down-playing the day by telling us the early Church chose December 25 as the date to celebrate Christ’s birth because it was trying to stamp out the celebration of a pagan festival that took place at the end of December. Originally called Saturnalia, this pagan celebration marked the end of winter solstice, that typically takes place on December 21, when the days start getting longer. Essentially, this pagan festival was a form of sun worship as people celebrated the sun’s victory over darkness and it was typically celebrated between December 17 and 23. However, that all changed in 274 AD, when Roman Emperor Aurelian set December 25 as the day for the celebration, and gave it a fancy new name Aurelian Dies Natalis Invictis. Yes in typically despotic fashion, he …

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Can Christians have an unhealthy fear of the demonic? An interview with Wayne Johnston: PODCAST

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Audio Notes: Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this episode I am interviewing Wayne Johnston and asking the question: “Can Christians have an unhealthy fear of the demonic?” Wayne serves as an elder at Rock of the Valley church and also functions of the prophetic ministry and I’ve been wanting to interview him about an interesting experience that he had with both a demon and an angel of the Lord. Dean Smith: Welcome Wayne. Wayne Johnston: Thank you Dean: So how would you describe your prophetic ministry? Wayne: So I function in the area of the prophetic. God clearly gave me a gift of prophecy. It wasn’t my choice, but it came down to God wanting to encourage others through the gift just like any other spiritual gifts in the New Testament. Dean: I’ve seen people who have referred to you as a prophet. Do you consider yourself a prophet? Wayne: No. I just don’t think it’s my job to put a title on the gift. So it’s in the area of the …

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Spiritual warfare: How Satan attacks us from the spiritual realm: PODCAST

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Podcast Notes: Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this episode we are discussing how the spiritual realm interacts with the physical world. When we read the Bible, it clearly portrays two worlds – our physical realm and as well a spiritual dimension inhabited by God and His angels and as well satanic evil spirits demons. The question I want to answer in this episode is how does the spiritual realm interact with the physical and how do we fight off demonic attacks? It was a hot July Saturday morning and I was mowing the lawn in our backyard, when I was utterly stopped in my tracks by a memory that popped into my mind of a stupid thing I did years earlier. I mean years ago. I had already asked God to forgive me, but here it was blasting me like I had done it today. I felt utterly condemned and spiritually beaten up over this incident. I became depressed as thoughts raged in my mind over what had happened. The level of …

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The Gift of Hospitality, an interview with Kate Fisher: PODCAST

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PODCAST NOTES: BARB SMITH: Did you know the Bible talks about the gift of hospitality and in this Podcast I am interviewing Kate Fisher about this supernatural gift. I have known Kate for many years and she currently serves as a woman’s pastor at Celebration Church in Regina, Saskatchewan and she is as close to an expert on hospitality that I know because she lives it. Welcome Kate. KATE FISHER: Hi Barb BARB: Kate, I know you’ve studied the subject so what does the Bible have to say about hospitality. KATE: Hospitality is spoken over and over again in the word of God and specifically I searched out what was being said by Christ in the Gospels. Our Greek word actually for hospitality is “filoxenia” and I don’t know if I’m pronouncing that rate bike it means love of strangers and that completely supports Christ. Jesus talks about hospitality as a gateway to salvation. In Luke chapter 7 from The Message Bible: “The wretched of the Earth have God’s salvation through hospitality extended to them.” …

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What does a dog insult have to do with what really sunk Peter?: PODCAST

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  Episode #5 Notes Hi my name is Dean Smith and and in this episode we ask the question, and hopefully answer: What does a dog insult have to do with what really sunk Peter? Many of us are familiar with the story found in in Mathew 14 of the Apostle Peter’s failed attempt to walk on water. This account has been used repeatedly to show us that we need “more” faith for Divine miracles and that’s because as Jesus pulled Peter out of the water, the Lord said “You of little faith, why did you doubt.” “Little faith” leaves the impression that Peter failed simply because he needed “more” faith. But was this actually the case? Did Peter need more faith or was there something more sinister at work here? Faith was one of the important teachings of Christ. It was so important, that Jesus actually developed his own special word — oligopistos, commonly translated ‘little faith’ —  used to describe the disciples’ faith. We see the word used in Matt 6:30 and Luke 12:28. But …

You are not a mistake: PODCAST

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PODCAST NOTES: Hi my name is Dean Smith and this in Podcast #4, “You are not a mistake.” I want to share a story of something that happened to me back in the mid-1990s. It involved an issue that has personally plagued me for years. It is this: You are not a mistake. You are not failure. You may have made a mistake or you may have failed at something, but that does not make you a failure. I was working on a newspaper at the time and we had just sent our most recent issue to the printer. The finished product had just arrived and someone brought a copy to my office and slapped it on my desk. The typo on the front page was the first thing that leaped out at me when it landed in front of me. I can’t remember how many times we had proofed that issue, but a mistake had somehow slipped through. And there it was glaring at me. Though this happened years ago I still remember the …

How much authority in God do you have?: PODCAST

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  PODCAST NOTES: Hi my name is Dean Smith and this is Podcast #3: How much authority do you have. During the 1500s, Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic Priest who started the Protestant church. In this broadcast I want to discuss Martin Luther’s very strange prayer that led to the miraculous healing of fellow protestant co-worker Friedrich Myconius in 1540. So what was so strange about Martin Luther’s prayer and what can we learn from it? It was 501 years ago this year, October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther pounded his 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany calling for reform in the corrupt Roman Catholic church. Luther was protesting the sale of indulgences by a fellow Monk Johann Tetzel who was in town raising money for renovations of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. Indulgences allowed you to buy your way into heaven, no matter what kind of lifestyle you lived. You could even purchase an indulgence for somebody who had already died. People were wasting a lot of …

Does the Bible speak of ‘social justice’?: PODCAST

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  PODCAST NOTES: Hi my name is Dean Smith and this is Podcast #2, does the Bible speak of ‘social justice’? A few years back during a testimony time at the church my wife and I were attending a woman went to the front and said that the church needed to start fighting for social justice. There was a spattering of applause, because it sounded so spiritual. But the question I am asking in this podcast is it Biblical? “Social justice” is a favourite term of those on the political left, and recently I have seen the phrase starting to creep into Evangelical Churches. So what is social justice? The Oxford Dictionary defines the concept this way: Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. “individuality gives way to the struggle for social justice” There are two parts to this definition: First “Social justice” involves a redistribution of wealth. Now there is nothing wrong with people having equal opportunities. But for many of those promoting social justice, they are not …

Does eye for an eye mean you love your neighbor as yourself?: PODCAST

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  PODCAST NOTES: Hi my name is Dean Smith and this is Podcast #1, Does eye for an eye mean you love your neighbor as yourself? My wife and I were unable to have children and we ended up adopting our son from Guatemala and our daughter from Peru. When we adopted our daughter, we had to fly down to Peru to complete the adoption process. We ended up in the very southern end of Peru in the middle of the vast Sechura Desert, considered one of the driest places on the planet. Part of the adoption process involved going before a judge who would approve the adoption. We had a lawyer and the case was being handled in the judge’s office. As we walked down the corridor of the court building to her office, we noticed a one way Jesus sticker on the judge’s door. She was a Christian. The legal proceedings were handled by the judge who asked a series of questions in Spanish to our lawyer, who was the only person in …