Devotional Videos by Archbishop Foley Beach A Word From The Lord (AWFTL)

A Word From The Lord ministry, with Archbishop Foley Beach, has partnered with Poor Bishop Hooper to walk us through the season of Advent using their original music and animated art.
AWFTL Advent Devotional Schedule
12/01/23: In this first episode "Foreword", we begin with God's Creation of the World. However, sin comes into the world necessitating the need for "A Means of Grace and the Hope for Glory", the Christ.
12/3/23: In this episode “Hope”, the Holy Spirit’s notifies the aging but unbelieving Priest, Zechariah, that his barren wife Elizebeth will give birth to John the Baptizer, who will prepare the way for God’s Grace for undeserved Salvation, through birth of His Son.
12/10/23: In this episode “Peace”, the Virgin Mary is notified by an Angel that God, through the Holy Spirit, will bless her with the birth of The Christ, the promised Mesiah; and He will be named Jesus.
12/17/23: In this episode “Joy”, Elizabeth is visited by her cousin, Mary as they share both the joy of their unanticipated pregnancies and the assume blessing of God’s favor for them and the World, the Incarnate Jesus
12/24/23: The episode, “Love”, depicts the struggles that Joseph is facing from both his love and duty to an, as yet, unmarried but pregnant Mary. Also, Joseph is coming to grips with burden and responsibility of his early-life fatherhood for Jesus, who is Father God, in a human presence, as God’s Son.
12/25/23: The final episode brings it all together in Jesus’ genealogy from Adam to The Christ – proving that Advent and Christmas are a great deal more than what the commercialization of Christmas often implies. We end our Advent journey with “The First Born”  - The Christ!

November 2023                                                                                
Dear A Word From The Lord Ministry Friend,
Supporting Our Ministry for Today and the Future
Your continued support of A Word From The Lord ministry, through your prayers and financial contributions, is critical in these times. In my video, I mentioned the comments of people for whom our Devotionals and broadcasts today mean so much – I call this our “baseline ministry”. Below, I present some statistics that backup these written and in-person support testimonials. Also, my video mentions the “Gospel Gap”, which I define below. Most in the Gospel Gap resist going to church and encountering the Lord’s Word, even through traditional audio and video faith-based media. However we have a somewhat unique opportunity to leverage our infrastructure, capabilities, and my fifteen years of weekly sermons to extract targeted One-Minute Messages that seem to resonate with the Gospel Gap.
I invite you to read on for more information, but I want to encourage you to contribute by clicking HERE to donate now. You are making a secure donation through our partner the National Christian Foundation -- NCF (or you can mail checks using the information at the end of my letter). Your prayers and financial support keep our baseline ministry in fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19) considering that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17). Additionally, your contribution now permits us to continue defining how A Word From The Lord can participate in addressing the Gospel Gap.
Our Baseline Ministry Performance Today
In my global travels, people from all walks often seek me out to tell me how much our Devotionals mean in their lives. For example, one American has developed and leads a global small Zoom group, with one person assigned for each day of the week. They use the Devotional audio and Scripture References as the base for their joint discussions and prayer time with the Lord. This Zoom group has grown to include participants from several states and countries across the globe, with daily time zone scheduling being a challenge!
Some statistics provide you with a snapshot of our baseline ministry’s performance. Since we began podcasting in April 2018, we have had more than 800,000 intentional downloads of our devotional podcasts (e.g., Spotify, Apple Podcasts, daily emails). Podbean, our podcast publisher, tells us that this download volume places us in the top 10% of  all US podcasters. Additionally, our radio broadcasting locations and time slots provide opportunities more than 20 million annual contacts with the God’s Word. Our total annual costs, for all our development, production, podcasting, and broadcasting, are less than $0.004 per contact. With this efficiency ($0.004!), we remain faithful stewards of your support.
Our Opportunities to Address the “Gospel Gap”
While our baseline media ministry needs your continuing support, its content and infrastructure have permitted us to identify the components of the “Gospel Gap” (i.e. people that either have never heard the Gospel, have heard the Gospel but are indifferent to its message, or have heard the Gospel and hate God’s message and those who deliver His message). The Gospel Gap constitutes about 35% of US adults today, and it is growing. Our baseline ministry capabilities provide an opportunity to address significant segments of the Gospel Gap by using our existing content delivered directly to the Gospel Gap using media’s new and rapidly evolving digital targeting technology.
Today, we are at a crossroads in our dissemination of the Lord’s Word to those in Gospel Gap. As a monthly test during 2022, we targeted some Atlanta demographic segments in the Gospel Gap.  Every mont

JESUS DENIED BY PETER – Jesus Walking in the Way of the Cross
LYRICS TO MUSIC:
I said even if everyone else
Turns on you I promise I never will
I thought you were wrong wrong wrong Wrong about me…
I screamed even if I have to die I’m never never gonna deny you
I thought you were wrong wrong wrong Wrong about me…
You used the words of an old gone man Said God will strike the shepherd down
I know these lines have never been wrong before But I swear they won’t define me now
I knew you were wrong wrong wrong Wrong about me…
When she asked her question
That servant girl she broke my heart I knew she was the message
That you had spoken all along
Two behind her followed in the prints her feet had made
Said they’d seen me walking with you said my tongue gave me away
But I swore against their charges claimed you I’d never known
Just in time to hear the bird you promised lift its head and crow
Lift its head and crow
Oh Jesus
I wish you were wrong wrong wrong  Wrong about me…
MESSAGE SUMMARY: 
Peter’s three-fold denial of Jesus is a well documented incident. Not only is it recorded in all four of the gospel accounts, but history has provided a wealth of art, music, and writing to immortalize one man’s set of egregious mistakes. A lesser known addition to this collection is a poem written by pastor John Piper entitled ‘Peter and John.’ The work examines Peter’s denial from some years after the fateful event, by imagining a reunion between the two disciples.
Piper’s words are simple. His rhyme and rhythm straightforward. Still they paint a powerful picture of unbearable regret. As they reminisce, Peter confides in John that his denial of Jesus still haunts him. Peter’s mistake has grown into a plaguing remorse, despite any good work he can do in Jesus’ name. Though the conversation is entirely speculative, Piper’s assumptions could very well be true. Jesus predicted Peter’s behavior, and even with a warning, Peter turned his back on his friend and Savior.
We know Peter was an emotional and zealous man. He was the one with the courage to step out of the boat in Matthew 14:22-33. He rebukes Jesus when Jesus predicts his own death (Matthew 16:22- 23). Peter draws the sword and cuts off the soldier’s ear in the garden. And when Jesus says that all of his friends will leave him, Peter declares with full intent and belief, “even if all fall away, I will not,” (Mark 14:29). Jesus’ reply must have been heart breaking to such a devoted man: “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today - yes, tonight - before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”
What a blow this must have been to Peter’s spirit! It was a statement that directly challenged his devotion. But what Jesus says is true, even when it may confuse or be hard to stomach. Remember, Jesus also proclaimed that Peter would be the rock on which the church would be built. This too is true. And what an empowering truth that must have been! Peter certainly stepped into this role after Jesus’ departure. Not wallowing in his mistakes, but becoming the man that Jesus saw in him.
Though Piper’s poem spends a good deal of its time illustrating Peter’s burden, it also accurately portrays Christ’s desire for full forgiveness and redemption. He ends the conceived conversation with John laying hands on Peter and praying for him:
…And so John laid
His hands on Peter’s head and prayed: Come now, O Lord, and touch with me, Come, Jesus, heal the memory
Come, Spirit, spread a table here:
No sin, no guilt, no pain, no fear.
Come pour the cup and break the bread, And lift your servant Simon’s head,
And feed him with your righteousness,
And make the cup of blessing bless…
Written by Jesse Braswell Roberts / Poor Bishop Hooper golgothamusic.com // poorbishophooper.com // Second edition ©2022 
TODAY’S PRAYER: All of us are often like Peter. We want to follow Jesus, but we are weak.
The truth is we love him in spi

In the Garden of Gethsemane – Jesus Pathway to the Cross
LYRICS TO MUSIC:
In the garden he waits
For the very moment he has made
Like the face before a fist
Like the eyes before a kiss
It’s beautiful anguish
In the garden he prays
That this overflowing cup
Could pass away
And in this hour of need
If there ever such a thing
Out of fear I fall asleep
Oh the hour has come…
In the garden he bleeds
But a glimpse of the coming sea
And every angel up above
Cannot calm the sorrow
When a Father leaves his Son
Oh the hour has come…
MESSAGE SUMMARY: 
  Written in 1802, Beethoven’s only oratorio ‘Christ on the Mount of Olives’ (Christus am Ölberg) is intense, moving, and dramatic. A fifty-minute barrage of harsh yet beautiful German words pours from the mouths of a soprano, a tenor, and a bass. Unlike many of Beethoven’s contemporaries, Jesus’ humanity is fully embraced in his composition. Christ’s coming betrayal is witnessed amidst his own anguish and pain. From his very lips, the listener hears Jesus question his Father; every cry for mercy, every plea for help, every request for strength.
  Much like many other works of art, Beethoven’s piece sheds new light on Jesus’ suffering. It births new perspective, and makes the listener think, if even for a second, about the intricacies and complexities of the man Jesus Christ. It makes one ponder just what his betrayal meant not only to all humanity, but to Jesus himself.
  Understanding Christ’s humanity is something that is hard to do. Where does one begin? Few have experienced anything near the physical torture he endured, and to fully understand his spiritual and emotional anguish is impossible. For “he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross,” (1 Peter 2:24). This is certainly a weight no other could carry. He experienced the cup of wrath (Matthew 20:22), the fullness of God’s fury toward sin.
  But we know that he did so in a very human body. And it was in this body that the fullness of deity dwells (Colossians 2:9). We know he grew hungry (Matthew 4:2). We know he became tired (John 4:6). His emotions were no less real than any others’, as the author of Hebrews tells us, he lifted his prayers to the Father with crying and tears (Hebrews 5:7). Seeking to better understand Christ’s humanity will help us better understand how he saved humanity. Knowing the pain he endured can help us understand the frequent pain in our own lives.
  As Jesus prepared for his most difficult hours, the human nature of his closest friends took a prominent position. The disciples who accompany him cannot seem to stay awake in prayer. ‘For their eyes were very heavy,’ (14:40) seems to be a sorry excuse at such an important time. But oh how often we share the apostles apathy! Like the disciples, we often get distracted, lose focus, or fall asleep during prayer. We too await the magnificent return of the bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-13), but we so often cannot keep our eyes open.
  As Beethoven’s oratorio ends, we hear for a third time Jesus powerfully cry out “Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine.” What magnificent words to hear! That Jesus would fully embrace and admit his humanity, yet fully submit to his Father. These are the words that begin his journey to the cross, and usher in his final hours of sorrow. But they are also the words that allow for the world’s redemption. Despite the melancholy and heartbreak woven throughout Beethoven’s piece, the final moments of his work build in intensity, with flurries of rising notes and triumphant chords. It ends with the chorus singing:
‘Glorious worlds above us spire,
Happy Seraphs sing your joys.
Man, join in the holy choir,
Hail the great Redeemer’s praise’
Written by Jesse Braswell Roberts / Poor Bishop Hooper golgothamusic.com // poorbishophooper.com // Second edition ©2022 Jesse Braswell Roberts / Poor Bishop Hooper
TODAY’S PRAYER: Thank and praise God for his perfect plan. Ask

Golgotha Experience for Lent – Jesus’ Pathway to the Cross
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
INTRODUCTION by Poor Bishop Hooper -- Jesse Braswell Roberts
   Some years ago, I had the opportunity to spend a short time working and doing ministry in the Dominican Republic. During my stay in the southeastern city of La Romana, our group supported individuals living in the nearby ‘bateyes’, which are small, company-owned towns for sugar industry laborers. Mostly of Haitian descent, these workers often live in grossly impoverished conditions and work arduous hours cutting sugar cane by hand.
I was fortunate to meet a certain middle-aged man there one warm afternoon, tired and sweat glistening, but with a strong presence and similar forearms. He told me that he worked as a mechanic, as well as holding other jobs, when he wasn’t ‘cropping cane.’ We spoke amidst rubble of engine parts and tin roof. His English was broken yet formidable, so conversation came somewhat easily. I do not remember a great deal of our particular words, and I am to this day ashamed that I cannot recount his name, but I do recall one moment vividly. Our words somehow made their way to the subject of vacation. I asked about time off in his particular situation. I assumed his response to be Sundays or certain holidays. His answer startled me.
‘One day,’ he said joyfully. ‘Good Friday.’
It was at that time mid-March, so his day of respite was ever approaching. He told me he was excited for that day.
Imprudently, I inquired further. ‘What about Christmas?’ I asked. ‘No,’ he replied.
‘Why not Easter?’
Oh how I wish I could remember his next words exactly, for what he said was simple but powerful. Essentially, he told me that Good Friday was when Christ did the work so he did not have to. And for that he got the day off. And for that he was thankful.
From that moment, my perspective surrounding this ‘holy day’ and the preceding Lenten season changed. Growing up, Good Friday was at best mentioned, a semi-afterthought on the backs of Palm Sunday and Easter. But here, this man’s only day of rest was the Friday before Easter. It was truly ‘good’ for him, and its goodness existed in ways I had never before pondered.
It was years later that my wife Leah and I wrote the body of music that makes up ‘Golgotha.’ We were inspired to increase our community’s appreciation and understanding of what Jesus did on his ‘Sorrowful Way’ to the cross. As we explored the many traditions within the observance of Lent, we were drawn to the ‘Stations of the Cross.’ We found that it was built predominantly upon a bedrock of visual art. Christians over thousands of years had recounted Jesus’ last hours before his death in many strikingly beautiful ways. Our desire was to add to that beauty by creating new music. We wanted to write music that was rooted in scripture. Music that honored tradition, but also that invited the mind to see our Savior’s suffering in new ways. Not for our own entertainment or enjoyment, but rather so that we might offer him more thanksgiving, more praise, more adoration, and more love.
I pray the words that follow would lead you into deeper relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ. Each chapter corresponds with a song of similar title, and I’d invite you to listen to the music as you read. I’d encourage you to have a bible with you, and look up the other scriptures that are cited. They’ll undoubtedly provide deeper understanding and beauty. At the end of each section, I’d invite you to pray. There are prompts provided, but they are intended to be starting places, not final destinations.
With all of this, I must credit my acquaintance that day in the Caribbean sun. The Lord used his words to stir my heart. He made me think differently about the true work that Jesus did on the cross, and birthed in me an ever- growing appreciation for what Christ so magnificently accomplished there. I pray that in spending time w

Archbishop Foley Beach 2021 Christmas Message (SPECIAL: 3-MINUTE VIDEO)
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
I pray that in this Advent and Christmas season you are resting in the hope, love, and joy of Jesus Christ.
At this time in our world, the economy, national conflicts, travel plans, and Covid-19 and its variants all hold in common a simple reality and certainty, and that is of their uncertainty. We cannot be certain of where the global and local economy will be in the coming year, whether our travel plans will be unexpectedly changed, or what will happen with the morphing Covid outbreak. This can be very unsettling. Uncertainty can cause anxiety and stress: How will I provide for my family? Where will I even be next month? Will my classes be online or in person? What will my health be like?
The uncertainty we are currently experiencing is not a new thing.  In fact, it is as old as the story of a young couple in a backwater province of the Roman Empire planning on getting married but being surprised with the news that they will bear a Savior named Jesus. Not only would they be forced to travel by the dictate of an emperor for the purposes of a census and taxation, but they would be tasked with the responsibility of taking care of the Messiah. It is amazing to think that God entrusted this young couple with a role in his plan of salvation in the midst of the swirling angst in Palestine. What has he entrusted to you?
Our familiarity with the Christmas story shields us from the reality of the surprises and uncertainties that arose at every turn for Mary and Joseph: the uncertainty of carrying a child and finding housing in Bethlehem; the unsettling prophecy from Simeon declaring the baby Jesus is, “...appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel…” (Luke 2:34); the uncertainty of trusting the message to travel to Egypt; and the unsettling news of the slaughter of innocent babes in Bethlehem. When has following Jesus ever meant a security guarantee for the future apart from the assurance of salvation which is promised in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”?
By faith, Mary and Joseph followed the Word of the Lord through the angels, and it is by faith that you and I walk forward in this age of uncertainty. We know that by God’s goodwill we enter His rest with joy, loved and redeemed.  “Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Matthew 2:10). This is indeed good news of a great joy and is a certain comfort as we in Gafcon and throughout the global Anglican Communion move forward, trusting God and His Word, and seeking to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations.
A Merry and Happy Christmas to you!!
Archbishop Foley Beach
Chairman of Gafcon's Primates Council
 
TODAY’S PRAYER: Father, I confess that when difficulties and trials come into my life, large or small, I mostly grumble and complain. I realize the trials James talks about are not necessarily “walls,” but they are difficult to bear, nonetheless. Fill me with such a vision of a transformed life, O God, that I might actually consider it “pure joy” when you bring trials my way. I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief. In Jesus’ name, amen.     Scazzero, Peter. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day (p. 94). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, Because of who I am in Jesus Christ, I will not be driven by Hatred. Rather, I will abide in the Lord’s Love. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV):  Psa