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Messy Outreach
With the new realization that Gentiles would be entering into Christianity, the early Christians had to become generous enough to partner with the Holy Spirit and give their faith away to outsiders. Since most of us are not Jewish, but Gentile, this seems like a petty detail to us, but it wasn’t at the time.…
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The Shortest Psalm
Psalm 117 says, “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!” That wasn’t just a verse from Psalm 117—that was Psalm 117. Not only is it the shortest Psalm in the Bible, but it’s also…
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Q&A Ep 5: What Are the Psalms For?
I always struggled with praying and singing the Psalms, especially the more vindictive ones. In order to address today’s question, I share a bit from my own life and work off of C.S. Lewis’ book, Reflections on the Psalms, as well as the Lexham Bible Dictionary. Check out today’s episode on 1208GREENWOOD’s webpage or simply…
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Simply Committed
I was always taught growing up that promises were big deals and that if you made one, you were expected to follow through. Outside of promises, however, I’ve found words to be cheap. Unless a person promises me they’ll be at something, it seems that I never know what exactly to expect until the day…
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The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth
I absolutely love the Sermon on the Mount. Everything Jesus says there is radical, unapologetic, and to a certain extent, incomplete. In his preaching he does not stop to explain the fine details of what he is saying, he just says it. There are so many what-if questions we want to ask him, but he’s…
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Why We Empower People
Working off of Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett’s book, When Helping Hurts, and his own experiences, Jamin explains the importance of empowering people. Poverty comes into our lives in many other ways and if we want to bring wholistic healing to each other, we must look beyond financial issues to find the deeper roots at play.…
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Impatient Evangelistic Shortcuts
Sometimes we lead people to Christ, feel good about ourselves and then back away and never talk to them again, effectively turning them into a project. But as Bill Johnson says, “Who wants to be the project of some religious zealot so he can feel good about his devotion to God? No one wants to…
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Jesus as the Fullest Revelation of God
Last night I preached a message that got unnecessarily complicated—in fact, I think it was probably the most scatter-brained message I’ve ever preached. I cringe as I even try to listen back to the recording. Truth be told, some things are just easier to write out or teach in a Bible study than to preach…
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A Tribute to Grandpa
After Grandpa passed, I had two voicemails from him on my phone. One of those voicemails was a return call from him, thanking me for leaving a voicemail that prayed for his healing. Unfortunately he couldn’t say much because someone came in the room and he had to hang up, but I ended up using…
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3 Reasons Why I “Get Political” for Jesus
I’ve been told throughout the years to not bring politics into the church, which seemed like a semi-reasonable request to me at first because I was really only interested in talking about Jesus. But over time…
