Dr. Jim Richards

On the cross God reconciled the world to Himself. The word reconciled means to buy back, or to exchange one thing for something else. Jesus took our sin, sickness and disease, death and suffering; He offers us the opportunity to take His righteousness, life, health and healing. Paul said, we are ambassadors for Christ; we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, 2 Cor. 5:20. Faith in the work of the cross: death, burial, and resurrection, is how we enter into Christ and participate in reconciliation. Join me this week and step into this great exchange where you experience what Jesus deserves, because He experienced what you deserve.

The power of salvation is based on our beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection; the aspects of salvation we experience are based on what we believe about the resurrection; and every New Covenant promise is based on what Jesus obtained through the resurrection! Therefore, our top priority for living by faith should be to learn everything we can about what Jesus accomplished through the resurrection. Join me this week to expand your faith and experience of resurrection power!

We are all called to live in resurrection life. This is the power that worked in Jesus to raise Him up conquering sin, death, and the devil. When your faith is rooted in Jesus’ resurrection it is that same power that will work in you to raise you up over all your circumstances. We attempt to win our victories with a general kind of faith, simply believing the promises. True faith trusts what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection and shares in that same power. Join me this week to discover more about this limitless power which is available to you!

Every battle Jesus won for us on the cross and in the grave was won by His faith. He faced mental and physical opposition. After all, He had taken on our every mental and emotional pain and sickness. But He continued to believe and acknowledge God’s promises to Him in the face of all opposition, and He overcame it all! The resurrection power that worked in Him is the same power that works in us when we face opposition. Join me this week and discover how the very same resurrection power that worked in Jesus can work in you!

How long was Jesus in the grave? When asked that question almost every believer would day three days and three nights, because that is what Jesus said. But then if you ask them when Jesus was crucified the great majority of Christians would say Friday. Since the first day of the week began on Saturday afternoon at Sundown, this would mean that if He were raised on the first day of the week He would have only been in the grave one day and one night. We know what the scripture says, we know what Jesus said, but we believe what religion said! What else has religion told us about the death of Jesus that isn’t completely true? Join me this week to discover what really happened to Jesus in the grave and why it is so important to your faith!

Fake news isn’t anything new; it’s been around since Lucifer made his appearance on planet earth and told Eve a partial truth. The thing about a partial truth is this: it usually appeals to our logical mind; it’s close enough to the truth that we stop searching for the truth, and we accept the circumstances created by a partial truth as acceptable. The partial truth about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection has caused us to accept a substandard quality of life. Join me this week and raise your standard for life in Jesus!

Religion talks about the resurrection of Jesus, but never really tells you the real news about the resurrection. Exactly what happened on the cross? What happened for three days and three nights in death? What happened at the resurrection? And most importantly, why did those things have to happen? Without answers to these questions we limit our faith and the degree to which we can experience the resurrection life of Jesus. Every aspect of salvation and its benefits to the believer are based on our faith in what happened from the cross to the throne. Join me this week and discover specifically what Jesus did on the cross, in the grave, and at the resurrection, and what that can mean for your life!

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had determined certain miracles that they said only the Messiah could perform. Jesus performed all of the Messianic miracles and they still didn’t follow Him as the Messiah. But then Jesus performed the one Messianic miracle foretold in the scripture and still they refused to believe. Jesus gave them the sign of Jonah, which He offers to every human being. He offers to give us the proof of His resurrection which serves as the security for every promise God has ever made. Join me this week, connect to the ultimate Messianic miracle, and discover why it is the doorway to every other miracle!

Reconnecting to God should never be driven by the hope to get back to where you were. It should be about connecting to God in a way you never have before. We’ve got to have the hope and expectation of connecting to God in a way we never have before. If what we had was so good we wouldn’t feel distant and isolated. The Hebrew language draws a picture of mercy and goodness pursuing us to draw us to the heart of God; not a mere forgiveness and blessing, but a restoration and renewing, that like the prodigal son, will be better than we ever imagined. Join me this week as we explore what it really looks like to connect heart to heart with God!

The story of the prodigal son reveals much about every person involved in Kingdom living. The elder brother is self-righteous and doesn’t want the younger brother to get better than he deserves. The younger brother finally comes to his senses, repents, and returns to his father’s house. Then, there is the loving father who is patiently waiting for his rebellious son’s return. God is always waiting for our return, not to scold and condemn, but to restore us to our place in the Kingdom. Join me this week and come out from under the guilt and shame keeping you from returning to the love and protection of the waiting Father.

I know God says He’ll never leave us, but what good is it if I don’t feel it? The truth is: that which we cannot feel or experience is of no value in this life. We are emotional beings and our capacity to enjoy life is all about what we feel and experience. Ironically, God has made a way for us to connect to Him and others. It is one of those truths hidden in plain sight. The only thing that keeps us from seeing it is we are so sure that what we think should work, we can’t admit when it doesn’t, and we cannot perceive the simple solution that’s staring us in the face. Join me this week and begin to bring your connection to God alive in a way that you can feel!

I do so much for other people and it seems so unappreciated. One of the great deceptions about giving and sacrificing for others is the idea that it will cause them to love and value us more. There are situations when that is true, but few people know how to identify those who will be grateful and those who will take us for granted. The truth is giving and sacrifices don’t make others value us more, it makes us value them more. When we give to or sacrifice for others it is our emotional bond to them that grows deeper. Join me this week and discover how this Biblical insight can work for you or against you!

Help! I have an incredibly difficult time emotionally connecting. We were created to be social, emotional, relationship-oriented beings. Any number of familial, cultural, or social factors can make it difficult, however, for us to actually make emotional connections. The rise in the need for drugs, alcohol, physical and sexual activity could in part be due to the rise in people who are desperate for emotional stimulation. One thing is sure: you can develop the ability to connect with others relationally without substances nor inappropriate physical stimulation! Learning to shut down and close ourselves off emotionally may have been a survival strategy we developed as children that no longer serves us today. Join me this week and begin to develop the capacity to connect emotionally to people and to God, and enrich your every relationship.

What if I told you I knew the secret to bringing love into your life, to attracting and keeping true love alive in your life? Would you do it? Everyone says they will; they say they’ll do anything to save their marriage and have passionate love. I’ve shared this secret with hundreds of people in personal counseling sessions. The ones who applied it never failed to find true love; those who didn’t continued doing what they were doing and found themselves alone and angry. Join me this week and I’ll share the secret of having a lifetime of passionate love.

Whether we realize it or not unforgiveness keeps us under a burden; it violates our conscience, it corrupts our righteousness, but possibly the worst factor is it makes us vulnerable to temptation. Join me this week and we will explore Jesus’ teaching about lifting the burden of unforgiveness from our heart and living free from temptation.

The most basic concept of prayer is when the believer makes a determination based on the finished work of Jesus and then uses his or her authority to reconcile any situation which is incongruent with the finished work of Jesus. Instead, we often beg God to do what He has already done through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Join me this week and equip yourself to take actions of authority: the way Jesus taught it and the way Jesus modeled it!

Before Jesus taught us how to pray, He taught us how not to pray. Reciting prayers as a formula was one of the ways He taught us not to pray. Prayer has to be from our own heart, spoken in our own words, with our own beliefs, expressions, and emotions. But more than anything prayer has to be approaching God based on our relationship. The only cure for formula-based, ritualistic prayers is an intimate relationship. It has to be based on a relationship where a child is approaching his or her loving, generous father. Join me this week to move past formula-based prayers.

Jesus gave us another issue that must be resolved before we begin to actually pray. Sanctify God’s name in your own heart. Sanctification is the process of making something holy. God’s names reveal His character and nature. We know God will never act contrary to His name, moreover, He will always uphold His name. If we have made His name holy in our heart, praying in His name takes on an entirely new dimension. Join me this week and let’s discover a process that establishes our heart in faith in His name. Psalm 91 tells us He will answer and set on high those who know His name.

What most of us call prayer is more like beggars pleading their master for bread crumbs, unsure of what His response will be. That’s why Jesus taught that before we enter into any of what we call prayer, we should experientially connect to God as Father. Sons are not just legal heirs; they are joint rulers of their Father’s kingdom. They know their Father, what He wants, and how He gets things done. In other words, he knows the Father’s will without having to ask. Jesus modeled what it would look like in our lives if we really experienced and knew His will. Join me this week and discover an approach to prayer that is based on knowing God’s will and knowing what to do with complete confidence.

There is a door in our heart that gives entrance to the Kingdom of God: a place where we can access all the resources of God. We have been provided the key that opens this door. It was a free gift, but too often we don’t use the key we have been given. We attempt to use a key that our pastor gave us, our parents, or one we created ourselves. Millions of believers stand outside, baffled and discouraged when their key doesn’t open the door. Join me this week and I will help you find the key Jesus Himself has given you. It will open a door to a life of resources that no man can close.