Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study

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 se...

"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...

"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:...

"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...

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....

"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/...

"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 u...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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://peacefulscien...

"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 actu...

"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 ou...

"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 wh...

"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 ht...

"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'...

"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? Discove...

"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...

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 ep...

"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.thecrossingc...

"We have a tendency to minimize our sins. We have a tendency to be more sorry that we got caught than grieved over our sins." Ever heard the phrase "easier said than done"? Nowhere is that more true than with apologies. Sometimes simply saying "sorry" isn't enough. We teach kids how to apologize, but teaching them how to repent isn’t as easy. Learn what repentance really is (and isn't) from https:...

"They had to put family second in order to put Jesus first. And here we see that even Jesus had to do this. He had to put His parents second so that He could put His Heavenly Father First." Stating that family comes first—that nothing comes before family, that family means everything—sounds good, right? It sounds noble and virtuous. But that's not quite right. Family is pretty important, but it's...

"The last act is about to begin: God is about to console Israel. God is about to rescue them from exile. God is about to draw the Gentiles into His own family and to announce forgiveness for all people—Jew and Gentile alike." https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A21-40&version=NIV (Luke 2.21-40) stages the beginning of the end. The Bible contains two large books, the Old Testament...

"Oftentimes, it looks as if the kingdom of God is being defeated by the kingdom of Caesar, by the kingdom of this world, by the kingdom of whatever power is ruling." Sometimes it feels like Christianity is at war with the world and losing. But, despite years of persecution and pushback, Christianity has survived over two thousand years. It's been challenging the world since the very beginning and...

"Our culture is fixated on being great, but Mary says, 'God fixes the world through the lowly.' Our culture calls the thoughts of the proud and the powerful 'visions'—they're visionaries—but God calls the humble to build His vision of heaven on earth." Do you ever wonder why other people are chosen over you? Why did they get the job? Why did they get the recognition? Why did they get the opportuni...