Bible Teachings from Summit Northwest Ministries

We have talked a lot about God and how he can be trusted. We have looked at the life of Christ and how it affirms the loving, trusting, compassionate nature of God. The question today is, "Will you actually trust him with your life?" Maybe you are like me, and you still don't have it all figured out. Maybe there are some parts of the Bible that still seem squirrely. Maybe you still have unanswered questions, but you've seen enough to begin ...

In our 21st century minds we are obsessed with making sure we believe the right things. This focus on believing the right things is not new. It really started to build momentum during the Renaissance period, Age of enlightenment or reason. It was an important development in our history, but as with most things ... the pendulum often swings well passed center before it returns.

When we turn our eyes on Jesus and see how he loved, then we understand the OT better. You see, The Eyes Have it. What are we focused on? If we keep our eyes focused on God as a God of love, if we keep our eyes on Jesus living that example of love, then when we see weird things in the Bible and it looks like God is mean or unfair, or just crazy ... if we keep our eyes on this God of love, then we know that somehow there is more to the story. If it looks unloving, then we've got it wrong, because God is love. If it looks crazy and unbelievable then we are missing something, because God is anything but crazy ... except ... it's true God is crazy in this one thing. He's crazy about you.

We all agree that sin is bad, but we are often more sympathetic toward sin than we are towards God. What I mean by that is this. If sin ends up killing somebody, we understand that. It makes us sad, but we expect it. After all, Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, ...But if we perceive that God has killed somebody for sinning, we get really upset about it. How can God do that? Sin can kill, and it's understandable. But God? ... that makes us angry.

Let's talk about Easter. It's the Superbowl of Christianity. Without Easter nothing makes sense. Without Good Friday, Christ's death on the cross, we have no hope and without Easter Sunday, the resurrection ... Good Friday is meaningless. This is it. The Superbowl ... the big showdown between Christ and Satan. It was a close call. On Friday night ... it looked like Satan had won. Christ was defeated. That Sabbath 2,000 years ago was truly a Black Sabbath, way before Ozzy Osbourne sang with the group.

SeasonTwenty-fourPodcast SynopsesWhen You're not sure you want to believe1.Title:E24:01–Romantic Love is Crazy ... in a good way!Synopsis:As we are going on this journey to find faith again, to become more passionate in ourspirituality, consider this. Think loving thoughts, toward your spouse, toward your family, your neighbors,those you don't even know, and toward God. Do loving things. It's the best way to build loveandto buildfaith. Romantic Love ... it's God's gift ... it's not always easy, but ... it's probably one of our best insightsinto how much this amazing God is crazy about His kids.

Not everybody relates to God in the same way. Did you know that there are at least 9 different spiritual styles? We all have our primary style in which we most easily connect with God, and we all have ways in which it is harder. None are more right than any of the others. They are just different. Maybe you'll discover why you see God differently than your friends and family and maybe ... together you can discover even more about this amazing God when you learn to see Him through the eyes of other people.

Our church, Summit Northwest Ministries, took a survey on church health. The survey is put out by Natural Church Development. In this episode I share the results of the survey with our church family. Listen in as we discover a bit about ourselves.

As we started 2024, I asked Panel of Collegiate Young Adults some questions about their generation and the church. Questions like: What do you wish other generations new about you? What arethe biggest challenges that Christian young adults face? Why aren't more Young Adults excited about God? What do you value in Church Community? What drew you to our Church community? Tune into hear their insightful responses.

God never changes … it's comforting and intimidating at the same time. Does this mean that all the harsh rules of the OT are still in effect? Does this mean that we need to do church just like they did 100 years ago? What does it mean that God doesn't change? And what part of God doesn't change? When we read the OT to find out stuff about God, it is quite a bit different than if we read it to find out what we are supposed to do. Let's discover together and amazing message about an amazing God who always has and always will be crazy about His kids.