Podcasting and Good MP3 messages.

I’ve been happier than a pig in mud lately.

In recent months, I’ve been catching up on my podcasts. At first I didn’t know what they were for or what a podcast was. Turns out it’s basically a form of subscribing to a website or feed that gives any type of media file, in this case–audio. I subscribe to preaching and teaching mp3s through my iTunes application. And man am I ever blessed lately for it! In fact, one of the biggest reasons I gave up blogging, was to free up my spare time to just listen to a bunch of teachings. LOTS of them. When I went up to Leeuwarden recently, I listened to like three or four a day.

POCASTS worth looking in to…

I’ve got a good variety of things I subscribe to. So I will take a paragraph or two in this entry to recommend each of the ones I am consuming, and say a sentence or two to give an idea of what they’re about. Most churches and ministries that do podcasting release one per week, and some even less than that. So at first while I was in Canada this fall, I’d take my laptop to a coffee place (where I drank COFFEE) and would download the latest from 3 ministries. Then in my bedroom alone with a notepad sometimes, or my playing my brother’s Nintendo hand held thing (whatever it’s called), I’d pop them on and listen to them.

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, “Let My People Think” was the name of the podcast I subscribe to–Ravi is a Christian apologist, and this podcast is about 28 minutes–it’s a weekly radio broadcast that airs on various Christian radio stations, and the broadcast is available thru the podcast. I recommend it if you want to feel smarter after listening.

Bethel Church, “Sermon of the Week” from Redding, California. These are usually preached by pastor Bill Johnson or visiting guest speakers such as Cindy Jacobs, Kris Vallaton or Todd Bentley. As a result of hearing Todd Bentley for the first time here, I wound up subscribing to his podcast recently–”Supernatural Living Messages“.

Bill Johnson operates heavily in the miraculous and their ministry out there sees healings and miracles on a regular basis, and many visitors travel there regularly– in one way they’re seeing a mighty revival in this area. I know of some people personally from FIRE that have visited that church, and I’ve got two books by Johnson that changed my life, so I went for it, and I love the depth but yet simplicity of his preaching style. I recommend it.

The other one that was in my core three podcasts I started off listening to on a regular basis was the boys at XXXChurch. If you subscribe, you will have like 80 messages and videos show up to pick from, and since discovering it I’ve been just soaking up the messages as often as I have a chance. I do not agree 100% with their style and attitude (they are very disrespectful sometimes with their segments, ie “Christians doing dumb things” and they slam other brothers and sisters in Christ for things I do agree are wrong) but I love it and think for the most part they ruffle feathers that need to be ruffled.

They go into porn conventions and share the Gospel with porn stars and those addicted to it, as well as giving out Bibles. This is their weekly podcast/radio show style message, and sometimes it includes interviews with people who’ve left the industry and gotten saved, or sometimes them that are still in it. It’s very eye opening stuff and if you’re unfamiliar with them I suggest visiting their website http://www.xxxchurch.com/. My favorite aspect of them is their non-religiousness–they sometimes use as their weekly podcast radio messages where they were the guest on some show and got torn to pieces by the hosts–or they play messages they preached at Churches–I recommend the message “4 Ways To Ruin Your Life” if you subscribe.

I’ve more recently discovered FIRE Church finally has a podcast. This can be subscribed to by going to http://www.fire-church.org/. FIRE has a team of leaders with no specific one man show, so these messages could be of a pastoral style, a teaching, or a militant ‘revolution in the church/society’ message by Dr. Michael L. Brown, or a prophetic insight by Bob Gladstone, or a message on the heart of God by SJ Hill (if you like Jon Piper, this is a man with a similar if not identical passion). Messages can be also be downloaded in Mp3 form directly from the site.

Some of the more important messages Dr. Brown preaches in the FIRE community in North Carolina wind up on his ministry site, http://www.icnministries.org/. I also recommend going to that link for many many Biblical teachings he taught and preached during the Brownsville Revival that are available on this site (He was dubbed “the theologian of the revival” for a reason!). Also, for those of you who were unable to attend the FIRE For Life Summer School in Holland this past summer, his one message on Israel from the final night is available on that site, and it’s one I highly recommend. Not for the comfortable lukewarm believers who want to stay where they are spiritually. Your feelings will probably be hurt!

Some of you have noticed the link I have on the right hand column for the book “You May All Prophesy.” Well if reading a book is too hard for you, you can download messages on the subject from Morning Star Fellowship’s Podcasting Community. There are not many messages available, but there is a 3-part series of messages I’ve listened to by Steve Thompson called “Prophetic Training“. Morning Star has a particular anointing and specialty in this stream of the Church, and easily I deem their teachers among experts in the Body of Christ on this subject.

And in completely different stream of thought altogether, I’ve begun listening to Tony Campolo’s podcast. It’s not to be confused with him preaching to an audience or someone, but it’s like a radio show style of his commentary on things, and someone sits with him and asks him a few questions based on the subject they’re discussing that week. They are similar to Ravi Zacharias, in that they are only 28 minutes long or so, so I find myself devouring them a lot lately since they’re finished so fast. He’s harsh, and blunt, and many people don’t like him, but many do–even though I disagree heavily with a few points of his theology. Nobody in our generation really teaches and preaches Biblically why smoking is morally sinful for a believer to do. I find he talks on many topics ignored in the Body of Christ at large, so I’m getting sucked in.

Websites for solid preaching mp3s.
I know many of you already know about sites like sermonindex or sermonaudio dot com, and usually you can find messages by anyone you search for on their site. But the following links are a little more “hidden” and not so easy to find, and I thought I’d share the wealth:

Fireonthealtar.com – you can listen to Dr. Brown messages not available on the other sites I mentioned, Leonard Ravenhill (who I’ve been quoting a lot from on this blog), Bob Gladstone (a FIRE teacher and leader), David Wilkerson and Arthur Katz.

Benisrael.org –Arthur Katz’s ministry site has many many mp3 messages from several decades of his ministry. Do not listen if you’re lukewarm and want your ears tickled. Your feelings WILL get hurt. The link on the right for the book “Apostolic Foundations” takes you to the part of this site where the book is made available for free online.

Ravenhill.org – an exhaustive list of audio and video messages by the late Leonard Ravenhill. Again, don’t waste your time if you want someone to rub your tummy and tell you everything you want to hear and how to be successful and obtain blessings and crap like that.

And last but certainly not least…

I feel like I’ve discovered gold when I finally found this site. Someone made mp3s out of messages by Dave Roberson. He is the man whose only published book is the one on the righthand column of this blog, called “The Walk of the Spirit the Walk of Power: The Vital Role of Praying in Tongues”. So for those of you who build your inner man up with this regular excercise in your spiritual life, then trust me, you will devour and get addicted to the teachings on this site. For those of you who WANT to learn more on the subject, then this is a great find. They’re sometimes many years old (from the 1980s and 90s), and the sound is not the greatest since they were converted to mp3 from audio cassettes. I recommend the teachings on ‘assmilating the Word of God’ and meditating on Scripture passages. The website is Tulsa Family Prayer Center Media
Edit (Mar 13/08): I have recently discovered his ministry has a podcast listed in iTunes called “Iktus Net” they updated it several times a week and have a few different speakers regularly preaching/teaching in meetings throughout the week that get put on their podcast.

Well, I’m sure I inundated you and you’re wondering how on earth I listen to all of these every week. The answer is I don’t keep caught up very well. I have an mp3 player and I download however many will fit, and then when I’m riding the metro or train or walking somewhere, I listen. I still am drowning in messages I can’t keep caught up with but my spirit is getting so edified from a lot of tongue praying, Bible reading and listening to a plethora of teachings like this.

I hope I’ve pointed some of you towards some really powerful life changing teaching I’m devouring.

God bless for now!