Your Unique Image of God

Christians are often found saying things like, "All of you God and none of me." While the sentiment of such a statement can be appreciated, it's not exactly a Biblical perspective of who we are as humans. God is not looking for Christians to become a homogenous group of people that are unidentifiable from each other. Rather, God wants to help us become a full expression of his image, while maintaining our unique identity. This means some things will be chiseled out of us. Other things will be grown in us. Spiritual gifts will be allotted to us. And other qualities will stay and be perfected in us. Jamin explains more in this message.

Partners, Deacons and Pastors

This year we are praying that we raise up 26 new partners, 1 new deacon (which we’ve already started developing!), and 1 new local ministerial candidate for pastoring. Jamin explains some of the spiritual, biblical, and practical reasons behind these needs at 1208.

There Shall Be No Poor Among You

While all humans were made in God's image with equal authority, sin has pushed us to thrive at the expense of another, creating a vast dividing line between the rich and the poor. God saw this in humanity and created laws to make sure humanity took care of one another, but as we can see, that didn't happen. God continued to show this theme when he came to earth as Jesus.

Jamin traces this line through the Bible and then illustrates how benevolent ministry can be messy, but is still essential for Christians nonetheless.

Prayer and the Divine Council View

Many are used to an intercessory kind of prayer where you simply say the same thing over and over again in different ways, but the Bible invites us to pray quite differently than that. Jamin gives a few ideas on how to pray personally and corporately for 1208 during this Lenten season.

An Invitation to Fast

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.

A New Name

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?

The Heart of the Law

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?

Choose the New Thing

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.

Evangelistic Multiplication

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.

Forgiveness is a Power

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?

Holy Spirit

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

Skin

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.

Speak from the Heart

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

The "Will" of Jesus

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.

Casting Nets

Peter's miraculous catch of fish had more to say about ministry than it does about fishing. In this message, Jamin explains what this story can teach us about the relationship between Jesus, evangelism, and the church.

The Healers of Heaven

There are many ways to think of healing, but have you ever framed it in the light of Heaven and the resurrection life breaking through into our lives today? Jamin throws an "On earth as it is in Heaven" spin on a topic we've frequently visited here at 1208.

The Exorcists of Exorcists

Exorcism existed before Jesus came around, but no one was as wildly successful at it as Jesus was. Throughout his ministry, he shows time and time again that he is the name above all names and that removing demons requires nothing more than a word from him.

Walking in Faith

Our intern Kaytlin preaches on a theme God has been laying on her heart.

A Bigger Pro-Life Ethic

With the coming election, many are conversing about abortion. There is much to be said on this topic, but it is often covered up by everyone’s yelling. While being a pro-life Free Methodist himself, Jamin brings a message that convicts the church for the poor ways in which we’ve handled the conversation and calls us to a wider ethic of walking out our pro-life faith. If the church wakes up to the many other pro-life issues that feed abortion, we might actually be able to diminish the number of abortions that happen via our radical neighborly love. He also takes a look at how abortion has been around since the earliest pages of the Bible, how the early Judeo-Christian world addressed it, and how their actions might apply to us today.

If you prefer to read, much of the information in this podcast episode can be found in Jamin's recent blog post here.

The Already But Not Yet of Jubilee

In Jesus' mission statement is a reference to Jubilee. What does that have to do with his mission? What else might we see in this reference?