Partakers Christian Podcasts

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G‘day! Partakers Christian podcasts of Bible Teaching, Bible Readings, Worship, Prayer and Church History on Podbean to help enable and encourage you! Come listen and interact.

Episodes

Tuesday Jun 18, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God - Brother Lawrence Part 5

Tuesday Jun 18, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God:

The Best Rule Of A Holy Life

(being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence)

G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites!

Letters - Letter 1

Since you desire so earnestly that I should communicate to you the method by which I arrived at that habitual sense of GOD's Presence, which our LORD, of His mercy, has been pleased to vouchsafe to me; I must tell you, that it is with great difficulty that I am prevailed on by your importunities; and now I do it only upon the terms, that you show my letter to nobody. If I knew that you would let it be seen, all the desire that I have for your advancement would not be able to determine me to it.

The account I can give you is: Having found in many books different methods of going to GOD, and divers practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me, than facilitate what I sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly GOD's. This made me resolve to give the all for the All: so after having given myself wholly to GOD, to make all the satisfaction I could for my sins, I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He; and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world.

(The downloadable audio continues the conversation...)

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Monday Jun 17, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God - Brother Lawrence Part 4

Monday Jun 17, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God:

The Best Rule Of A Holy Life

(being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence)

Conversations - Fourth Conversation

The manner of going to God.
Hearty renunciation.
Prayer and praise prevent discouragement.
Sanctification in common business.
Prayer and the presence of God.
The whole substance of religion.
Self-estimation.
Further personal experience.

He discoursed with me very frequently, and with great openness of heart, concerning his manner of going to GOD, whereof some part is related already. He told me, that all consists in one hearty renunciation of everything which we are sensible does not lead to GOD; that we might accustom ourselves to a continual conversation with Him, with freedom and in simplicity.

That we need only to recognize GOD intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment, that we may beg His assistance for knowing His will in things doubtful, and for rightly performing those which we plainly see He requires of us, offering them to Him before we do them, and giving Him thanks when we have done.

(The downloadable audio continues the conversation...)

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Sunday Jun 16, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God - Brother Lawrence Part 3

Sunday Jun 16, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God:

The Best Rule Of A Holy Life

(being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence)

Conversations - Third Conversation

Faith working by love.
Outward business no detriment.
Perfect resignation the sure way.

He told me, that the foundation of the spiritual life in him had been a high notion and esteem of GOD in faith; which when he had once well conceived, he had no other care at first, but faithfully to reject every other thought, that he might perform all his actions for the love of GOD.

That when sometimes he had not thought of GOD for a good while, he did not disquiet himself for it; but after having acknowledged his wretchedness to GOD, he returned to Him with so much the greater trust in Him, by how much he found himself more wretched to have forgot Him. (The downloadable audio continues the conversation...)

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Saturday Jun 15, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God - Brother Lawrence Part 2

Saturday Jun 15, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God:

The Best Rule Of A Holy Life

(being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence)

Conversations - Second Conversation

Love is to be the motive of all. Once in fear, now in joy. Diligence and love. Simplicity the key to Divine assistance. Business abroad as at home. Times of prayer and self-mortification not essential for the practice. All scruples brought to God. (The audio continues the conversation...)

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Friday Jun 14, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God - Brother Lawrence Part 1

Friday Jun 14, 2024

The Practice Of The Presence Of God:

The Best Rule Of A Holy Life

(being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence)

G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we start a Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites!

Brother Lawrence was alive in the 1600s and this book of his details about how a person can benefit from the steady and soothing connection with God and to God. We have much to learn in the 21st century from this 17th century brother in Christ and that is what we hope each of us will gain from these conversations and letters recorded for us.

Brother Lawrence gives open advice and we will see his passion for spiritual concerns as he went about his work in the monastery - in the kitchens and as a cobbler. In these recordings, we see how he rejoices in the mundane duties, his persistent prayer life and was well known for his kindness, sympathy and willingness to help all others. So with that said, let us start with this fascinating book!

Conversations - First Conversation

Conversion and precious employment.
Satisfaction in God's presence.
Faith our duty.
Resignation the fruit of watchfulness.

The first time I saw Brother Lawrence was upon the 3rd of August, 1666. He told me that GOD had done him a singular favor, in his conversion at the age of eighteen. (The audio continues the conversation...)

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Thursday Jun 13, 2024

Psalms MP3 Download links

Thursday Jun 13, 2024

Download mp3 Audio of Psalms here. If you are using Firefox, we recommend using

the DownThemAll plugin which you can use to download all mp3 files at one click...

Warning: quality varies from listenable to CD Quality

Thursday Jun 13, 2024

Partakers Bible Thought – The Spirit Explodes 22

Thursday Jun 13, 2024

The Spirit Explodes
Part 22 of 22 - The journey to Rome – at last.
Acts 27:1 – 28:31

by Roger Kirby

It really is rather puzzling that Luke spent so much space on his precious scroll describing this sea journey from which we, like everybody else, are not going to be able to get much spiritual nourishment.

~~ There are at least 3 possible reasons:

this sort of exciting sea voyage complete with shipwreck was commonplace in Greek literature and Luke wanted his work to fit the normal pattern to make it as acceptable a read as possible;
this is a ‘we’ passage, indicating that Luke himself was on this voyage and so was complying with the expectation of those days that historical writers should have had some involvement in the events they described;
Luke wanted to set Paul’s journey to Rome and his death there in parallel to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and his death, thus showing how the life of a Christian should imitate that of Jesus.

Question 1: What was Paul’s attitude to his fellow travellers and the ship’s crew?

Read Acts 28:1–10.

Question 2: What, therefore, is Luke suggesting by the way he described this voyage?

Question 3: What picture of the relationships between Christians and non-Christians do the events on Malta place before us?

Read Acts 28:11–31~~

Question 4: Triumph or tragedy? What do you think of what Luke says happened in Rome to summarize his long and vivid account of the acts of the apostles? ~~

Question 5: What does that imply for the work of the gospel today? ~~

Right Mouse click or tap here to download episode 22 as an audio mp3 file

Wednesday Jun 12, 2024

Partakers Bible Thought – The Spirit Explodes 21

Wednesday Jun 12, 2024

The Spirit Explodes
Part 21 of 22 - Roman Justice.
Acts 23:12 – 26:32

by Roger Kirby

This lengthy section, though important in showing to Theophilus that Paul was innocent of any crime against Roman law and providing the opportunity for Luke to recount the story of Paul’s conversion for the third time, is of no great interest to us. So we will take it at the gallop.

First there is the rather amusing account of how Paul started out on his much desired journey to Rome.

Read Acts 23:12 – 35.

What is interesting here is that the young man, Paul’s nephew, is able to gain access to the commander of the garrison. This suggests that he, and therefore Paul’s family, were of some considerable status and rank. Their society was exceedingly status conscious. Everyone knew where they stood in the hierarchy and acted accordingly. We have already seen this in the way that the commander reacted to the information that Paul was born a Roman citizen while he had to purchase his. That this comparatively young man is able to speak to the senior authority suggests he was from a well known and respected family. So late in the evening Paul set off for Rome escorted by 470 Roman soldiers.

Question 1: What would Paul’s reaction to this have been likely to be?

Read Acts 24:1 –26.

Question 2: In countries where bribes are expected even for things like justice, should Christians be prepared to pay them?

Read Acts 24:27 – 25:27

Read Acts 26:1 – 23.

Question 3: What is the crux of what Paul said?

One again it is the resurrection of Jesus as the first to rise from the dead. Should this not still be the focal point of all evangelism?

Read Acts 26:24 – 32.

Right Mouse click to download episode 21 as an audio mp3 file

Tuesday Jun 11, 2024

Partakers Bible Thought – The Spirit Explodes 20

Tuesday Jun 11, 2024

The Spirit Explodes
Part 20 of 22 - Jewish justice.
Acts 21:1 – 23:11

by Roger Kirby

From this point on Luke tells his story with big incidents, difficult to ask questions about. These first two and a half chapters are about how Paul was tried before the Jewish authorities and found innocent; the next two and a half are about how the Romans found him innocent; the last two tell the story about his voyage to Rome. We will have to take them in those big chunks with more explanation and less questioning than we have been used to. But first Paul still has to get to Jerusalem. Luke is still with him on this journey and so we get a vivid account of where they went.

Read Acts 21: 1–16.
Luke must have been aware that he was leaving a great puzzle behind for all this readers. In the last chapter he records Paul saying: ‘compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem’. Here he tells us the Christians in Tyre ‘through the Spirit urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem’.

Question 1: How can the Spirit have said these two apparently contradictory things? How can we resolve the conflict and what should we learn from it?
Question 2: Would they be able to do carry out those or equivalent ministries in your church? If, why not?
Read Acts 21:17–22:22.
Question 3: What particular aspects of human nature does this teach us about?
Read Acts 22:23–23:11.
Question 4: Why did he not do so? What should we learn from his experience?

Right Mouse click to download episode 20 as an audio mp3 file

Monday Jun 10, 2024

Partakers Bible Thought – The Spirit Explodes 19

Monday Jun 10, 2024

The Spirit Explodes
Part 19 of 22
~Goodbye and Encouragement to the Ephesians
~Acts 20:1-38

by Roger Kirby

There is a very end of term feel to this chapter. Things do not go according to plan. One student falls asleep in the middle of a lesson. Then Paul exhorts everyone to a vigorous future just like a headmaster at an end of term assembly.

Question 1: What more does Paul do than the work of an evangelist?
Question 2: What was Paul’s attitude to danger, as when the Jews, perhaps Jews planning to sail on the same boat as him, plotted against him?
Question 3: In what particular things is he telling them, and therefore us, to follow his example?
Question 4: An image from slavery is a poor one to relate to Paul’s description of how the elders in Ephesus were to operate. What better image of where overlooking occurs can you think of than that?
Question 5: How do we know what is the truth to which we are to firmly adhere?

Right Mouse click to download episode 19 as an audio mp3 file