Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study

"Three times [Jesus] goes and prays and asks God to take this cup of judgment away from Him. And yet, every time he prays, 'not my will but Your will be done in my life.' You can hear Mary, can't you?" When Mary submits to God and becomes the mother of Jesus, she surrenders her entire life to Him. She doesn't just suffer the pain of childbirth and a compromised engagement. Gossip and scandal follo...

"I think what Luke is trying to help us see is that God doesn't care about your background; He doesn't care about your religiousness." In the last episode, https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Keith) talked about Zachariah's response when the angel Gabriel visited him. This time, Keith discusses Mary's response. God made great promises to both of Zachariah and Mary. He didn't care...

"The story of Zachariah is a warning to religious people." Sometimes Christians are clueless about what it means to be a Christian. When you've grown up in a Christian household and have been one for as long as you can remember, when it's all you've ever known, it can be hard to describe. You might think you get it, but you really don't. Zachariah was a priest, and his faith failed him. He demonst...

"There's kind of a disconnect between the way we talk about how somebody begins a relationship with Jesus and how Jesus actually talked to people. We make it about this moment of asking people to be our Savior, but that's not the way Jesus talks." If someone asks you how to become a Christian, what do you say? Do you tell them to pray a prayer that accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior? It's a common a...

"Casting our anxiety on God is a way to humble ourselves before Him. Or, another way to put it, worry is actually a form of pride." Join us in welcoming our first guest speaker! In addition to being an active church member and busy mom, https://thrivinghomeblog.com/about-thriving-home/ (Rachel Tiemeyer) is a co-founder of https://thrivinghomeblog.com/ (Thriving Home) and co-author of two cookbooks...

"One scholar calls this https://www.jstor.org/stable/43717700?seq=1 (bureaucratic terrorism). [...] They're not just ideas. No, these future possibilities represent human lives. As the king goes, so the people go. " Some people call this the Age of Terror. And some people distrust their leaders and the threat of an internal enemy even more than the threat of an external enemy. Leaders don't only s...

"I identify with David: I, too, am a mixed bag. But it reminds me that I can't read this story with the idea that I'm supposed to be like David." Leaders set examples. They become examples: ideals to respect and emulate. The Bible is full of leaders—like David, a man after God's own heart. Samuel tells the story of David, but that's just a couple of chapters in a big book. What about the whole Bib...

"It's an uncomfortable fact for a lot of Christians that the Bible is so comfortable taking God to court." Protesting demonstrates what you stand for and what you stand against. We live in a fallen world, surrounded by wrongs and injustices, so it's easy to feel helpless and hopeless. But we're not completely helpless. https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) explains why...

God's forgiveness reconciles us with God, but it does not erase or eliminate the consequences for the sins that we committed There's always a consequence for your actions. Sometimes it's a good consequence, like a little smile turning someone's entire day around and causing a ripple effect. But sometimes it's a bad consequence that can ruin someone's life —and also cause a ripple effect. Sin isn't...

You know the sad thing? Dysfunction seems to be the norm in most families. I mean, most of us, when we were kids, we made vows: "Oh, I'm not going be like my parents. Oh, I'll do things differently" Dysfunctional families are everywhere. Everyone has some sort of family dysfunction. No one believes the cover images of perfect, smiling families. There's always something going on in the background,...

"I think the trap we fall into is we try to pay God back, like 'I screwed up God, but I can make it right.'" How do you make it right with God? What can do you do to set things straight? When we mess up, it's instinctive to want to fix things. We made the mess, so we'll make it right again. That's what we do with our friends and family and coworkers. It's what we do with anyone any time we make a...

"Do you see the terrible problem that God, Himself, has to face? For Him to be good, for Him to be just, He has to destroy David." Now we get to the infamous story of David and Bathsheba. When David knowingly sins, he does the same thing Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden: he confronts God. When we sin, we're confronting God and His goodness. We're testing how His goodness reacts to our evil....

"It's a story that makes grace come alive. In this story, kindness means more than just being nice to someone" Christianity made kindness notorious for its lethal power. ("Kill 'em with kindness" came from Christ long before Selena made it a hit song.) But kindness should also be recognized for its redemptive power as well. God's grace elevates kindness from "just being nice" to becoming alive. In...

"And now, in 2 Samuel 7, God is making a promise to David that sounds a lot like His promise to Abraham ... But then He goes a step further" The Bible is a book of God's promises. It's a book containing every genre: supernatural conflict between God and the devil; romance between Him and the church; history behind God's promises; and mystery of how He'll resolve all the issues, which we're still w...

"Can we be honest? Few things come more naturally to us than using God." We don't really use the word "reverence" anymore. It sounds so old and severe. But it's really just another word for "respect." Patrick continues our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/david-in-22-stories/ (David in 22) series with a time when the Israelites showed God great irreverence. One of them died, and Da...

"It's ironic—to me, at least—that our currency in the United States says, 'In God We Trust.' We all know the truth" Why is faith important? It's fundamental to being a Christian, but do you know why? It's because Christianity is all about having a relationship with God, and you can't have a relationship without trust. Faith is trusting in God. You know it, but do you do it? Our money says, "In God...

"It's actually for that exact reason that God won't allow David to build His temple." Do you ever ask God why you're not allowed to have something? Do you ask why you're not allowed to do something? David asked God why he wasn't allowed to build the Temple, and the answer comes back to this chapter of https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+2&version=NIV (2 Samuel 2). David was askin...

"When a kid, who's not prone to much emotion or drama, starts crying on Christmas morning, you're like, 'Okay, something went terribly wrong.'" Some people love surprises, but some people hate them. The people who love surprises don't understand how you could possibly hate them, but the people who hate surprises know how terribly wrong things can go. (They probably have a few surprising stories of...

God can do amazing, shocking, crazy things. After all, He's God. Isn't that why we worship Him? It's what we expect from Him. But what about when God lets us down? What about when God doesn't do great things? Perhaps He doesn't even seem to do anything at all. Find out how to deal with being let down by God as https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Keith) continues our https://www.t...

We hail David as a great king, and rightly so, but he didn't do it alone. Sometimes we forget about the people who helped him along the way: people like Abigail. She was a wise woman who quelled the antipathy of two men "caught in the snare of foolishness." In this episode, https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) discusses how God speaks to David through Abigail. Discover...

If you're like me, you hate waste, and waiting usually seems like a huge waste of time. Time is one of our most important assets, and waiting can literally feel like we're wasting our lives away. God promised David he would be king, but David had to wait on God for decades before He fulfilled His promise. David's story shows that waiting on God is not passive but actually very active. Waiting on G...

Since its recent release, “Jesus is King,” the newest album from Kanye West, has gained both positive and negative reviews from a wide-ranging audience. In this episode, Keith and Patrick discuss the Christian response to the album and examine how, controversy aside, it points to a central truth of the Gospel. Want to learn more about how Jesus’ kingship is at the heart of the Gospel? Check out so...

When David runs from Saul, he does something really stupid: he runs to God. In today's world of hyperrationality, belief seems weak and foolish. Belief means not knowing and being okay with that. David believed that God would deliver him, even though he didn't know how. He trusted in God more than he feared Saul. Listen to https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) explain h...

Keith talks about a form of love which modern people too easily minimize and forget: friendship. If you live in the Columbia area, we hope you’ll join us in person. Our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/about/sundays/ (website) has all the info you’ll need. You can follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO/ (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram) or https://t...

What happens when it’s Thanksgiving dinner and conversations about disagreements in politics, culture, morals and religion start up? What about in the office? Among friends? Today it feels like it's impossible to talk about these things without an argument or causing offense. But Christians should be able to lovingly engage in conversation with others—no matter how impossible it feels. This episod...