Destination Church Spokane Podcast

We often don't see things clearly in the dark! When we're in the middle of a struggle, it can even be hard to recognize Jesus when he comes to us in ways and means we don't expect.  Jesus comes to his disciples while they are struggling forward in their boat and making painfully slow progress against the wind and waves, and they are terrified. (If you saw a figure walking on the wat...

Have you ever said, "I need a weekend after that weekend!" After the disciples' successful ministry, Jesus takes them away for some much needed rest. The culture that Jesus creates makes time for rest, and also makes time for people. "But I don't have time!" we may say to ourselves. Jesus can do more than we ever could on our own, and it is a faith challenge to actual...

Privilege. Power. Influence. Murder. When news of Jesus' miraculous ministry makes it to the halls of the rich and powerful we discover more than just political intrigue; we must also grapple with the current reality of God's kingdom colliding with our own privilege and influence, and our own agendas. What if we dare to get in step with God's kingdom purpose, and trust the result to...

While most Christians believe the church has a mission given by Jesus, the answers to how that looks may differ. When Jesus first sends out his twelve hand-picked disciples to represent him, how he sends them is telling: he sends them together in powerful community, carrying both his powerful mercy and his powerful message in the context of friendship. He sends us the same way, and we can expect s...

How do you honestly think you would respond if Jesus came to your town and you didn't know who he really was? In Mark 6:1-6 Jesus comes to his hometown, and the people are stunned. And offended. Jesus marvels at their unbelief, and soon moves on to other towns... but not before healing a few sick people.  No culture is so barren that Jesus can't bring healing to those who look to him. He...

When Jesus sails back across the sea he is quickly surrounded by a crowd, but it's the stories of two desperate people we are drawn into.  Jairus, whose twelve-year-old daughter's life is in the balance, and a woman whose illness throughout those same twelve years has left her penniless and alone.  We discover three kinds of faith:  Finding Faith, Focused Faith (both of which can be surp...

Can you imagine Jesus making a special trip just for you? In the middle of your messed up life, Jesus steps in just to set you free? This is what happens in the beginning of Mark 5 when Jesus sails across the sea and rescues one seriously oppressed man, and sends him home with a story to tell. And Jesus isn't afraid to wreck the status quo to loose this man's story! While the others in t...

"Why are you so afraid?" Jesus asks. After a long day of work, he has set out with his disciples to sail across the Sea of Galilee. While he slept in the back of the boat, a severe storm set in, and the disciples are afraid. Jesus does more than ask this question. He challenges, champions, and changes them through the storm, and he is still doing the same thing for us today. Who is this,...

Do you believe Jesus wants you to be able to understand His Word?  That He wants you to understand and trust in His kingdom?  He does!  If we learn to listen deeply to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Bible brings us so much life, and His word has power to produce his life in us.  Though his kingdom may seem to start small, it will grow, bringing God's purpose in God's perfect timing!

Do you ever feel like your heart is hard? Shallow? Full of stuff you don't want?  No matter how hard, how shallow or stony, how prickly or how stunted we may be (or feel), God is freely scattering and sowing the seed of the Good News of Jesus Christ into us. He intends this Good News to be fruitful, and He is committed to a fruitful harvest.  So how can we receive and participate fully with H...

The home is packed full of people gathered to Jesus, listening to His teaching. But is Jesus out of His mind? His mom and siblings are convinced that he is, and they've come to do something about it. Jesus' response is more than a little bit shocking! It's also an invitation to each of us to become part of his family, and he even tells us how to do it.

In Mark 3 Jesus is accused by religious leaders of being in league with the devil. Jesus responds to them face-to-face, and asks, "How can a divided kingdom stand?" He claims to be powerfully plundering the devil, not partnering with his domain. Is Jesus still plundering the kingdom of darkness today? Yes, and he is still bringing freedom to us!

It was dangerous business that Jesus was up to when he went up a mountain and appointed twelve men as his apostles.  The new community, the renewed Israel with Christ  Jesus at its center, would be extremely controversial!  (In fact, it still is!) These twelve men were hand-picked - although also very ordinary - and men in whom he took delight. Do you know today that if God has called you he also...

What purpose might Jesus have in calling us to withdraw with him?  When Jesus withdraws with his disciples by the sea, a massive crowd gathers to him, coming from not only from Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem, but from the non-Jewish culture of Tyre and Sidon, from Idumea in the south, and from Trans-Jordan to the east.  They come with needs, and they come because they want Jesus to set them free.  ...

You can almost taste the tension in the synagogue on this particular Sabbath.  A man with a real struggle, a debilitating issue, is there, but so are the hard-hearted legalists who are watching in order to trap Jesus.  The story begins with a man in the worship gathering who has a "withered" hand.  Will Jesus act according to their traditional Rabbinic law, leaving the man in his state?...

Do you know how to rest?  Could it be that there is physical, emotional, and spiritual rest for us in Christ?  When Jesus says a Day of Rest was created for us, we are wise to hear His words and take them to heart.

Do you enjoy Jesus? Is that even okay to ask? What happens when we substitute spiritual disciplines for relationship with Jesus? When he is asked a question about why his disciples don't fast, Jesus responds, "No one fasts while the bridegroom is with them." Discover how Jesus uses three common life examples to establish our spiritual disciplines on a healthy foundation.

Who are the kind of people we would like to see follow Jesus? Now, think about this: who is Jesus actually calling to himself? Jesus calls to sinners, choosing even those society despises! In a culture torn through sinfulness of all kinds, Jesus calls both to people just like "us", and to people who are also very different to us, inviting us all to sit and to find rest and freedom at the...

Is Jesus really accessible? Can He really forgive our sins and change our lives? When Jesus comes back to Capernaum and spends time teaching in the home where He is living, we see just how accessible He really is. Crowds fill the placee to overflowing, and four men show up at this impromptu meeting, bringing their friend who is paralyzed. They literally tear open the roof, interrupting Jesus as He...

During the Covid-19 pandemic a sense of being "untouchable" quickly permeated much of global culture, which brings up an important question. How does Jesus engage with the "untouchable"? In Mark 1:40-45 a man comes to him with a potentially contagious disease, and Jesus counter-culturally, physically touches him! A guy rejected by society, that the law demands be separated from...

We all desire to see God move in power. A good theology of His power is important - (The gates of hell cannot prevail against what he is building!) - but experiencing it tangibly in our lives is too! In Mark 1:29-39 we see Jesus moving in power in the lives of real people, bringing healing and setting people free from demonic oppression. He is moving today too in each of our lives, in our families...

Is the Good News powerful enough to change us, to set us free, and to make us like Jesus?  Can Jesus really do what he says he will do in our lives?  When calls us to turn and to trust him, can he follow through with his promise?  Absolutely.

Jesus has just heard the voice of his Father declaring, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased," and the Spirit of God has just descended upon him.  It's time to step into powerful ministry, right?  Wrong!  It's time for a 40-day quarantine, and the Spirit "drives" Jesus into the wilderness.  He will pass every test!  God is teaching us about spiritual te...

Mark's gospel is a fast-paced, action-oriented introduction to Jesus!  Who is Jesus?  Mark tells us right away, and then sets out to demonstrate it through his account.  Jesus' disciple Peter is behind the writing of this shortest of the four gospels, and in our introduction, we see the way Peter would have taught the story of Jesus' baptism, and Heaven's voice declaring over h...

Jesus was alive!  The shock must have been stunningly heart-pounding.  This would change absolutely everything, beginning with their hearts, and then affecting their entire lives.  Jesus' resurrection from the dead is still changing hearts and lives almost 2,000 years later, awakening hearts, changing our heading, and filling us with a radical hope of eternal inclusion with Christ!  (Mark 16:...