"A lot of us have been taught to think of a Christian as one who has prayed a prayer, confessed their sin, asked Jesus to be in their heart. That kind of thinking makes the rest of the Bible's teaching optional, as least as far as being a Christian is concerned." Is that how you were taught to be a Christian? It's not wrong, but it's not entirely right either. Jesus calls us to follow him. Listen tohttps://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ ( )https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/ke...
Apr 07, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 64
"What happens when those losses aren't things that God retrieves and recovers but simply become lifelong setbacks, lifelong hurts?" Like we discussed in a previous episode,https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/waiting-on-god-takes-work-davids-life-in-22-stories-1-sam-24/ ( )https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/waiting-on-god-takes-work-davids-life-in-22-stories-1-sam-24/ (waiting on God takes work). It's painful and trying and scary. It's easy to feel alone and betrayed.https://www.bi...
Apr 06, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. Also Patrick and his wife Emily (who happens to be an interior designer) put together 20 tips for working from home. You can read their https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/stories/how-to-work-from-home-effectively/ (blog here). ---- "God cares a lot about our work. And h...
Apr 02, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. "So already there, you're finding out that the demons know more about who Jesus is than the disciples." Being a Christian isn't simply believing in Jesus. Did you know that? Luke 8.26-39 shows that even the demons believed in Jesus. But you still have to have faith. So...
Apr 01, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 62
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. ---- "Here's a great mindset to take on: 'I am the biggest sinner in my house.' And so that means that everyone else in my house, they're constantly having to show me patience. They're constantly having to show me forgiveness." Doctors aren't the only ones with grim pr...
Mar 31, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. "I think that's a sobering description of why people walk away from Jesus. It's not that people become angry with him, or they feel like he's failed them. It's not that, again, they don't have an intellectual reason to follow Jesus anymore." God offers hope, love, comf...
Mar 30, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. "We have narrowed salvation to focus only on our souls or only on individuals. And we have missed what God is doing on a cosmic level, what God is doing on a bigger level." When we think about salvation, we probably think about our souls, but it's way bigger than that....
Mar 26, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. "Mary was doing what a man was supposed to do at that point. Martha was doing what a woman was supposed to do. And Jesus said to Martha, 'Enough of that.'" Some people see Christianity with a horrible history of patriarchal oppression. But Jesus empowered women in ways...
Mar 25, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. "Love is never safe. Whenever you love people, it's always demanding. It always requires some sort of sacrifice. Love always demands something from us." As Christians, we're trying to love and serve our neighbors, but what's the best way to do that? Some people say thr...
Mar 24, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. "That's good news to all of us because all of us have a little bit of Simon living inside of us. All of us have a little bit of Pharisee inside of us." It's easy to judge the Pharisees for questioning Jesus. But then we become just like them: condemning other sinners. ...
Mar 23, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. "If God gives an answer, what I would do is argue with him. There's no answer that someone could give you, your wife, your kids, that you would say, 'Oh, okay, that makes sense.' So I think, instead of giving us an answer, God gives us something better." After years of...
Mar 19, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 58
"Faith is always risky. And the centurion gets it. And he takes on the risk willingly. Giving his allegiance, pledging his allegiance to Jesus could mean losing his job—and not just losing his job but maybe even losing his life. But he does it anyway." What is faith? It's not mere intellectual assent. It's not praying a prayer. It's revolutionary, life-giving allegiance. We learn this from one of the most unlikely people. A Gentile. And not just any Gentile, a Roman centurion—a high-ranking offi...
Mar 18, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 58
"What I want you to see is the storms were not responsible for the house collapsing." No matter what stage of life you're in right now, you know that life isn't perfect. You've been through tough times, and you know they're not all behind you. More trials will come your way. How do you prepare for storms in advance? How do you deal with them in the moment? Jesus teaches us how to do both in https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+6.46-49&version=NIV (Luke 6.46-49). It's a short sto...
Mar 16, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 57
"How we respond to Coronavirus will tell the world something about Jesus." Throughout history, Christians have responded to pandemics like these with tangible expressions of love. When we do, the world learns something true about Jesus: he is the loving King. Keith & Patrick discuss how Christians should respond to Coronavirus today. How can we be led by faith instead of fear? How can we love our neighbors well? How can we protect ourselves against underreacting and overreacting? To learn mo...
Mar 13, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 70
What do you think of when you hear “allegiance”? The Pledge of Allegiance (to the flag…)? Pledging your allegiance is dedicating your life to something. It’s not just being willing to suffer and die for a cause; it’s living it out in everything you do. Is that how you view Christianity? In this episode, https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Keith) and https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) discuss allegiance and the gospel with http://matthewwbates.com/...
Mar 12, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 69
"So the most important question you can ask is this, and you have to know this answer. And if you don't know it, you're in trouble." Some people seem to be natural-born leaders, don't they? Maybe you're one of them. You're team captain, you're class president, you're CEO. But no one starts out at the top. Listen to this episode to hear about https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick's) existential crisis about being a follower and the crucial question he derived from it as...
Mar 11, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 56
"I do good to someone, knowing they will do good to me. I will lend to someone, knowing that they will pay me back in some way. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just not Christian." Did you know that Christianity is one of the most diverse groups of people in the world? There are believers all across the globe—people with different languages, customs, professions, and traditions. But we all unite in his name. That's been true since the very beginning, when Jesus chose his disciples. https:/...
Mar 09, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 55
"Your habits end up shaping what kind of person you become. And they're small little choices that happen over and over and over throughout your life." You might not give much thought to habits but what about lifestyle? They're really the same thing. Small habits build up and shape how you live your life. But making and breaking habits can be challenging, life-changing. And changing your life isn't easy! Get some tips from https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) and http...
Mar 05, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 66
"And here's what's crazy. Jesus treating the Sabbath as a day for blessing and giving life and freeing people, that led the Pharisees and teachers to want to kill him. Why?" Jesus broke the traditional Sabbath rules and observances, so does that mean the Sabbath doesn't matter anymore? It sounds like such an outdated thing from the early books of the Old Testament. Don't Sunday sermons replace the Sabbath? Inspired by Luke 6.6-11, https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick)...
Mar 04, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 54
"And so Jesus has come for all people, to call all people to repent and to believe in him, but only some people hear that as good news because only some people know that they are broken, that they are sinners. Some people are offended by Jesus." Have you ever tried to help someone who doesn't think they need help? They get mad at you! Instead of thanking you for the assistance, they get upset with you for "interfering." The Gospel is supposed the be the https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts...
Mar 02, 2020•13 min•Season 1Ep. 53
"I was putting my confidence and trust in the wrong sorts of things. For a long time, I would put my trust in human arguments against evolution. But that's not actually where God really wants us to really build our confidence." https://pathology.wustl.edu/people/joshua-swamidass-md-phd/ (Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass) is a professor at Washington University, founder of the platform https://peacefulscience.org/author/swamidass/ (Peaceful Science), and author of a new book, https://peacefulscience.org/g...
Feb 27, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 63
"God became a human. That means that God took on our human limitations." There just aren't enough hours in the day! How many times have you thought that? There's so much to do and never enough time. We try to be the responsible by getting things done and even getting ahead, but, as hard as it is to accept, we can't do everything. We have to prioritize, and sometimes our lived priorities don't actually represent our stated priorities. Sometimes the things we care about the most get the least of o...
Feb 26, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 52
"At that moment, Peter got a glimpse of who Jesus is. Whenever we see Jesus in all of his glory and beauty, whenever we get an accurate understanding of who he is, well, it causes us to see our own sin." Sometimes you think you know a person, and then they surprise you. If you've been a Christian for a long time, especially if you've grown up in church, it can feel like you have God all figured out, and he's pretty boring. But then he'll amaze you. Hear how that happed to one of Jesus's first di...
Feb 24, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 51
"Phillip Morris just wanted your lungs. The app store wants your soul." -Bill Maher Technology helps us go faster and get more done. But could speed and convenience cost us a meaningful life? Does going faster matter when we don't know what we're moving towards? Technology isn't the problem. Distraction is. But the constant stream of notifications, likes, emails, and text messages are precisely what distracts us from spending time on what we actually value. In this episode, https://www.thecrossi...
Feb 20, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 60
"Now you might begin to see why the message of the good news of the Kingdom [of God] could be dangerous, even subversive. It could even be treasonous." Do you ever wonder what the Gospel's all about? Is it a religious text telling us what to believe? Is it a historical document filled with scholarly information? Is it a literary book telling a story? What is the Gospel? Learn what it means from https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) as he studies a recurring them and c...
Feb 19, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 50
"If Osama becomes a Christian, that's no greater miracle than if you or I become a Christian." Jesus said to love our enemies, but what about genocidal dictators like Adolph Hitler or radical terrorists like Osama bin Laden? They don't just fight against people, they fight against the church. How do we respond to them? Gain insights from https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Keith's) reading of Luke 4.14-30 as we continue our series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-se...
Feb 17, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 49
"In the modern era, we tend to think about freedom as freedom to do what I want or to be what I want. Freedom means a complete lack of strictures and regulations. But the Jewish conception of freedom was very different." Freedom is one of the fundamental concepts that shape our world. It's one of our highest values. It's what many people live and die for. But what if we've gotten it wrong? Discover how to be free from https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) as he invest...
Feb 12, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 48
"Now when we are led into seasons of temptation, I can't tell you exactly what God's up to... But it gives me great comfort to know that God is in this, that God is with me, even when I'm being tempted." It's tempting to think that God's abandoned us when we're struggling. That's what temptation is all about: separating us from God. But Luke 4 shows that God still walks with us, even when we don't feel His presence. Learn how Jesus fought and overcame temptation and how we can do the same as htt...
Feb 10, 2020•12 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Our apologies - we posted an older recording on this topic. This is the updated recording. "Real relationships, real community, is always costly. Now it's worth it, but it costs. It costs me to die to myself and to put another person's needs in front of my own." Some people say that "dying is a part of living." Not only will we eventually die, we'll encounter death throughout our lives. In this episode, https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Keith) and https://www.thecrossingchurc...
Feb 07, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 55
"The god-man-emperor, Augustus, demonstrated his divinity by acts of power and violence. Luke didn't want his audience to think Jesus was that kind of king." How do you introduce yourself? First impressions are pretty important, and fancy titles like "CEO" or "Director" are pretty impressive. So why doesn't Luke introduce Jesus as the "Son of God" right away? Find out from https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) as he focuses on https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea...
Feb 05, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 46
