My Mornings with Jesus and Joe

Join husband and wife, Joe and Lori Altebaumer, as they come together to have faith-based conversations about Christ centered living and what it means to live a bold life of faith. From their kitchen table they will have real, honest conversations about the struggles they face and the lessons they learn as they grow in the understanding of what true Christian discipleship looks like from the perspectives of both a man and a woman. This weekly fifteen-minute podcast brings inspiration, encouragement, humor, and insight into what it takes to live as victors in a world at war for our hearts.

What It Means to be a Dedicated Christian 05/13/2024

Stuck in Between 05/06/2024

Drawing Near to God 04/29/2024

The Coming Glory of Restoration 04/22/2024

Transformed to Worship 04/15/2024

Eclipsed by the Glory of God 04/08/2024

The Glory of God 04/01/2024

The Power of Prayer Part 3 03/25/2024

Hearing from God 03/18/2024

Prayer Part 2 03/11/2024

Why Do We Pray 03/04/2024

Walking with God 02/26/2024

Feelings and Facts 02/19/2024

Obedience 02/12/2024

How We Overcome 02/05/2024

Bible Study 01/29/2024

The Seven Qualities of a Close Friend 01/22/2024

Spiritual Gifts 01/15/2024

Be Prepared 01/08/2024

New Year, New You . . . Not Quite 01/01/2024

Anticipation 12/25/2023

Ambassadors for Christ 12/18/2023

The Bible 12/11/2023

Home for the Holidays 12/04/2023

Enough 11/27/2023

Worship Part 2 11/20/2023

Worship Part 1 11/13/2023

Worship Part 1 Human beings are destined for worship. Not to be worshiped, but to worship. We all worship something—even if that something is ourselves. It is a uniquely human thing to worship, but where does this desire come from? For Believers who know and recognize the Creator and His creation, we understand this desire was intentionally built into the DNA of who we are. God gave us the desire to worship so we wouldn’t lose sight of who we are and Whose we are. We owe everything to God, and through our worship we proclaim our gratitude and declare our willingness to submit to His sovereign will. But is everything our modern society teaches us about worship, really true worship? “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who Him must worship is spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24 NKJV It is easy to fall into the popular mindset that music if worship. It is not. Music may be an expression of worship. Music itself can only produce emotion, and emotion is not worship. We may experience strong emotions while worshiping, but unless those emotions are first grounded in the truth of Who God is and who we are, they are meaningless and possibly misleading. Many popular worship songs, pastors, teachers, and self-improvement books fix our gaze on . . . ourselves. Though we are designed to worship God, in our fallen state we will look to things that make us feel good. Things that stir our emotions but do little to elevate God’s sovereignty. “True worship is to be so personally and hopelessly in love with God, that the idea of a transfer of affection never even remotely exists.” ~A.W. Tozer The kind of knowledge required to worship God in spirit and truth comes through the intentional act of getting to know God as deeply as possible. And the more we know God, the more we understand how much owe Him. His mercies are new every morning (see Lamentations 3:22-24NKJV)—mercies like forgiveness of sins, redemption, eternal life, wisdom and guidance, the renewing of my mind, and the ability to appreciate beauty. That alone should cause us to walk through our days in a continual awe and humbleness of spirit. Such a state would be a true sign of worshiping in spirit and truth. Are we more concerned with the worship music than we are with the message the words proclaim? Are we more attracted to the teachings of a pastor that makes us feel good about ourselves? Are our shelves lined with books where the primary subject is me? Or do we seek the things that point us to God, that take us deeper into the truth of His sovereignty, and stir in us a desire to surrender to our Creator? May we worship the Lord alone in spirit and truth or may we not worship at all. Scripture: John 4:23-24 Acts 17:23 Further Study: Connect with Us: Facebook @LoriAltebaumerWrites Instagram @Lori_Altebaumer /episode/index/show/7708e15b-93aa-4ca0-8364-c69b65321932/id/28606723

Unshakeable 11/06/2023

Unshakeable Unshakeable The acorns are falling this time of year where I live, and we are experiencing an abundant crop. These little round objects often accumulate in places making walking there treacherous, like walking on ice. We have to choose our steps wisely, and we must clean away the acorns that are creating a fall hazard. This world is being shaken, but are we? As followers of Christ, we shouldn’t be. Psalm 55:22 tells us that God will never let the righteous be shaken. And these are the words of Kind David, a man who knew a thing or two about turmoil, grief, and being shaken. The complete verse says, “Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” According to Psalm 40:2 we’ve been given a firm place to stand, and God is our solid rock. But we are living in a period of time when it is easy to totter over the edge of the firm place and topple into the shaking. In spiritual terms, we are walking in a world covered in the metaphorical acorns of misinformation, deceit, too much news and too many lies, false images created to mislead on purpose. And when we do find the real news, the truth, it is often too horrible to bear. If we aren’t on guard, we can easily slip on these “acorns.” But do we have to Joe? God’s Word exists so we don’t have to, though. So let’s take a little quiz. When was the nation of Israel first mentioned in historical texts? “Israel” first appears near the end of the 13th century BC within the Egyptian Merneptah Stele, referring apparently to a people (rather than a place) inhabiting what was then “Canaan.” A few centuries later in that region, we find two sister kingdoms: Israel and Judah (the origin of the term “Jew”) God promised this land to the Israelites, but even if someone chooses not to believe the Bible, there is historical evidence of the people who lived in the region and when. So the land really has been known as Israel and Judah historically. In AD 135, following a , Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and decreed that the city and surrounding territory be part of a larger entity called “Syria-Palestina.” “” took its name from the coastal territory of the ancient , enemies of the Israelites (ancestors of the Jews). During the reign of Rameses III (1186-1155BC) Egyptian history speaks of an attempted invasion by “sea people.” Historical evidence indicates some of these people settled in the land of Canaan and that some of these people were the group that came to be known as Philistines. Their pottery and other artifacts suggest that they originally came from Greece and Asia Minor. Israel was mentioned as the inhabitants of this land several centuries before the Philistines who became known as Palestinians thanks to a conquering Roman Emperor in AD 135. Why does knowing this matter? Because we are being bombarded with all sorts of in accuracies that are design and propagated to play on our sympathies or at least make us less confident about what the Bible tells us is true. So when we are reading the news and watching the protests against Israel, if we know the truth we can stand against the lies. We can remain unshaken. 1948 wasn’t the beginning of Israel. (We can’t encourage you enough to listen to of Cornerstone Chapel Leesburg that I’ll share in the show notes. He does a brilliant job of breaking it all down and he has maps.) As for the border fence that some are claiming exists for the purpose of oppression, I can remember back in the 1980s and 90s hearing of terrorist attacks against Israel. The fence was built in 1994 in response to the ongoing threat. (Here’s a note for our American listeners… we can’t rewrite history and hope to understand the present) Truth is what we have to rely on. And what is the ultimate source of truth? The Bible—God’s Word. In this verse from Psalm 55, He instructs us to cast our burden upon Him. Translated this means to throw or fling our care and anxiety upon Him. The word upon implies to throw with a duty being imposed upon a person. Basically, when we cast our cares upon the Lord, he doesn’t just toss them into a basket with all the other cares. He accepts a duty to receive and handle them. In the financial industry there is a term called “fiduciary responsibility.” It means that one party is legally responsible to act in the best interest of the other party. When we allow someone to have a fiduciary responsibility over our finances, we are trusting them to sustain us. This is what God does with our cares when we give them to Him. He will act in our best interest to sustain us or to nourish us. Of course, this requires our righteousness, which none of us possess aside from the finished work of Christ on the cross. Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to us through the shedding of His blood, but only if we accept it. We cannot deny the gift of God’s salvation and still receive the privilege of casting our cares on Him. Have you ever received a piece of mail marked “return to sender, address unknown”? In John 17:12 Jesus says, “I have guarded them, and not one has been lost except the son of destruction . . .” The son of destruction was Judas Iscariot, a man who knew and experienced a closeness with God but refused to accept His gift of salvation. Judas chose to believe he could pay his own debt instead of stepping beneath the covering of Christ’s gift of imparted righteousness, His gift of salvation. And Judas did pay a price, but it was far short of the debt he owed. The rest of the disciples went on to experience the shaking of a cruel and wicked world. Yet none of them were lost. The world could not dislodge them. Christ did not let them fall. We can stand against the hatred, the chaos, the sorrow and confusion in a world that is being violently shaken. That unshakeable faith is available to us as well. First, we must admit we can never repay the debt we owe. We can never be truly righteous on our own. And once we admit this, we must accept the gift of salvation that comes through faith in Christ alone. Then we are eligible to cast our cares—to throw our burdens—upon the Lord in faith that are received by Him as a duty, a holy obligation that makes them His responsibility. Once again, we trust Him to sustain us like one with a fiduciary responsibility. With our cares turned over to God, we live in the peace of knowing we can’t be shaken. No matter how violently the earth moves or how wicked the world becomes, He will never allow us to be shaken. So what do we do now? We make sure that we have surrendered our lives to Christ and His salvation. Then we turn off the news and read our Bibles. Scripture: Psalm 55:22 John 17:12 References: Connect with Us: Facebook @LoriAltebaumerWrites Instagram @Lori_Altebaumer /episode/index/show/7708e15b-93aa-4ca0-8364-c69b65321932/id/28511384

When It Becomes an Idol 10/30/2023

When It Becomes an Idol Even a good thing can be a bad thing when it becomes an idol. In Ezekiel 14:4-5, God warns His people about the idols they create in their hearts, saying “they are all estranged from Me by their idols.” This is what an idol—any idol—does. It takes the place of God in our hearts and redirects the worship that should be for Him alone to someone or something else. Wealth, power, and popularity are obvious no-nos when it comes to idols. Though they too can creep in so subtly we may be caught unaware, for the most part Christians recognize and steer clear of these. But the enemy is too clever to let us off the hook that easily. He uses the same old trick He started out with. Did God really say . . . ? He followed it up with do this and you will be like God (see Genesis 3:2-5). Sadly, he was almost right. We do now know good from evil, but we are nothing like the holy and righteous God. We are the minor gods we’ve made of ourselves, infinitely smaller, weaker, and less knowing than the one true God. And even on our best days, infinitely more wicked. How grateful we should be for the redeeming blood of Christ that washes our sins away, allowing us to take off the old person and put on the new. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV). But even as new creations, we are still made up of flesh and must continually guard against “the lust of the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16 NKJV). Too often the snares we fall prey to are the very things that are meant to serve God’s people . . . our ministries. We may start out following the great commandment to “ . . . love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. . . to love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38 NKJV). But then a little praise comes our way. Praise releases dopamine and dopamine makes us feel good. We are a people who like to feel good, so it makes sense we’ll keep doing those things that trigger that hormone. An honest desire to serve and worship God can turn into a way to feel good about ourselves. What starts off with the humblest of intentions can veer off onto the path that leads to self—self-absorption and selfishness. The peace of God—the peace that passes understanding—will never be found in self. How do we guard against making a ministry an idol yet still do our best in our service to God? “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits” Proverbs 16:2 NKJV). A check of our heart is a good place to start. We should ask ourselves what we are getting applause for? This helps identify possible sources of hidden idolatry. Then ask who that applause comes from? Where does God rank on this list? If He’s not the name above all names on our list, then who are we more concerned about pleasing? These questions require a deep level of honesty with ourselves. It will also require our surrender. Finally, we should ask ourselves if this is something we could walk away from or give up. If we answer no to anything but our relationship but our relationship with Christ, then we may have created an idol. “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:16NKJV). Let us refuse to make an idol of anything other than God, including ourselves. Scripture: 1 John 2:16 Proverbs 16:2 Matthew 22:37 2 Corinthians 5:17 John 10:10 1 Timothy 5:8 /episode/index/show/7708e15b-93aa-4ca0-8364-c69b65321932/id/28455182

Pray for Israel 10/23/2023

My Mornings with Jesus and Joe

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