1208PODCAST

For a few weeks now, Jamin has felt a call to do some significant fasting during this Lenten season. He invites you to join along and gives some Biblical reasons to fast compared to the many modern reasons people fast.

Jesus speaks identity into his disciples. He changes Simon's name to Peter. He nicknames the other Simon "the Zealot." He nicknames two others "The Sons of Thunder." He calls 12 of them "apostles." Jesus invests calling in them through names, and titles. What names and titles is he speaking over you? What names and titles does he want you to speak over others?

It seems like a little deal to us when we read stories about Jesus breaking Sabbath laws and expectations, but it certainly was a big deal to the Pharisees. In their minds, he was breaking the sacred laws that God had put in place. But Jesus didn't see it that way. So how did he see it?

Old jeans with new patches. Old wineskins with new wine. These are some analogies that Jesus puts forth to show us the incompatibility of his ways and the old ways. This has a million applications to us today, but first we need to understand how the old is embodied in the new.

Sometimes Jesus finds "people of peace" that he can work with to reach others. In this case, he calls one tax collector to follow him, allowing him to get to know all of his tax-collecting friends. He then enters their world and meets them in their sin and shows them his Father.

When we read the story of the healing of the paralytic, our attention often gets caught up on the paralytic's faith rather than on Jesus' strange teaching on forgiveness that follows. Why did Jesus' forgiving people sound so extreme to the religious leaders? And what does it mean that Jesus also told us that we could forgive people?

Jamin shelves his original message to talk about the Holy Spirit.

Many Christians have a very negative view of skin. But in this Christmas message, Jamin talks about the goodness of skin and God's redemption of it through God, who put on skin himself as Jesus.

Kaytlin Turner brings us one last message before graduating and heading home. We love you Kaytlin!

If you want to know who God is, you need to look at his Son, who is the clearest revelation of the Father. Once you've gotten to know his will and character, then the rest of the Bible starts to make sense and we begin to live as we should.