1208PODCAST: Recent Episodes
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We all know the verse—ask and you’ll receive, seek and you’ll find—but what if we’ve been asking the same things over and over? In this message, we talk about what it really means to trust that God is a good Father who wants to respond to us. Sometimes he answers right away, sometimes not, and sometimes in ways we don’t see coming. You’ll be challenged to mix it up in prayer—start asking questions you haven’t asked before and see what God might say.
In this message, Jamin explores the deep intimacy God desires to have with us — an intimacy so profound that the Bible often reaches for the language of romance and marriage to describe it. Drawing from Scripture, we consider how God’s love is not distant or mechanical, but passionate, personal, and covenantal. This message invites us to rethink our relationship with God not as mere duty, but as deep and abiding love.
This Easter, we marvel at the mystery of the Incarnation and Resurrection—the moment when heaven and earth kissed in the person of Jesus Christ. From eternity past, the Angel of the Lord—God’s very presence in visible form—walked among humanity. But in the womb of Mary, this divine figure took on true flesh, not just as a temporary theophany, but as a full union of the spiritual and earthly body. And in the resurrection, Jesus emerges not merely as a spirit or a corpse reanimated, but as something new: a glorified, resurrected, heaven-earth body. He is the prototype of what we shall become—embodied glory, still bearing scars, yet radiant with eternal life. The Resurrection is not the escape from the body, but the redemption of it. And in Him, we see our future: resurrected, transformed, and united with God forever.
In Jackson as it is in Heaven is a vision and a declaration—that the kingdom of God isn’t just something we wait for, it’s something we carry. Just as Heaven broke out of Jesus, the heavenly man, and transformed everything around him, so it does through us. This isn’t just spiritual—it’s supernatural, sociological, physical, and deeply personal. When Heaven breaks out, neighborhoods change. Bodies are healed. Relationships are restored. Systems shift. Hope rises. In this message, we explore what it looks like when the reign of Jesus breaks into Jackson, MI—through ordinary people filled with extraordinary love and power. Heaven isn’t distant. It’s breaking out.
In Matthew 6, Jesus warns against being a hypocrite—a word that originally meant a "play-actor." Too often, our spiritual lives can become performances, shaped by the approval of others rather than a genuine relationship with God. Whether in prayer, giving, or fasting, Jesus calls us to pursue a faith that is real, not rehearsed. In this message, we’ll explore how to cultivate an authentic spirituality—one that seeks God's presence over public recognition and prioritizes true transformation over outward appearances.
In Jesus’ time, people made promises in ways that gave them loopholes to break their word. But Jesus spoke strongly against this, calling for honesty and integrity. In this message, Jamin unpacks Jesus’ teaching on oaths, showing how He invites us to be people of truth—because anything less reflects something far from God’s heart.
Jesus spoke strongly and briefly about divorce. In this message, Jamin contextualizes Jesus' words and deals with some other difficult issues that leads to divorce, like abuse.
In this message, Jamin preaches on Jesus’ teachings on lust. What do we do with his intense instructions? How do we overcome lust? What lies have we been told about sex? What have our experiences taught us about sex? How has the church wrongly taught us about sex? Jamin dives into these questions and more to help us think more sanely as we try to overcome lust in ourselves once and for all.
In today's Bible passage, Jesus reminds us that hatred is something we must take care of immediately, lest we grow its fruit and fall prey to its consequences. Jamin also addresses anger in this message, helping us distinguish between healthy and unhealthy anger.NOTE: Sorry for the bad audio in this particular recording. We installed a new sound system this weekend and have a few tech bugs to finish working out :)
Right before Jesus starts to reframe the laws of the Old Testament, he calls himself "the fulfillment of the law." What does this mean, and how is it applicable to our lives today? What impact does it have on our understanding of Biblical law or modern law?
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to his followers as salt and light. We have been designed to be experienced by others in a way that allows others to see what God is like. Jamin takes us deeper into this passage as he invites us to become the most tasteful and bright versions of ourselves that we can be.
We all have a certain kind of person in mind when we hear the word "blessed." So did Jesus. However, the kind of people Jesus considered blessed were nothing like the kinds of people we have in mind. And that's exactly the point—for the blessed life is formed in the places we never thought to look.
In today's passage out of Philippians, Paul invites us to imitate him as he lives his life like a runner straining for the finish line, putting all he has into his pursuit of God. Jamin invites us into this same kind of straining as we allow the Spirit to perfect us more and more with each step.
Paul gets suddenly intense in his letter to the Philippians as he recognizes that Gentiles are being subjected to intense traditional rituals in order to be accepted as Christians. Jamin engages this biblical conversation and invites us to consider how the church continues to do the same thing today.
In Philippians, Paul refers to his friend as a fellow worker and fellow soldier. Jamin stops to expand on Paul's use of the word "soldier," giving us a glimpse into the Bible's larger picture of the Creator God Yahweh VS the little-g-god Satan. How did this dynamic come about and what is humanity's part in this war between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Hades? That and more in this message.
Paul tells us that Jesus emptied himself. What does this mean? In a previous message, Jamin analyzed this theme from a poetic angle about love. In this message, Jamin gives it another meaning by referring to how God emptied himself to become human. He was then empowered by the Holy Spirit to do supernatural works. What does this mean for us as Jesus' followers? A lot more than you might think.
The Bible has often been used to oppress and demean women, but the wider story of Scripture offers us a very different narrative. In this message, Jamin explains how sin threw off God's plan for men and women to work together as partners and how Jesus restores this partnership and shows us a better way forward.
Jamin preaches Mary's love for Jesus from birth to life to death. He also talks about how the miraculous can sometimes come with great pain and confusion.
In the chaos of the first Christmas, Mary and Joseph faced overwhelming challenges—unexpected journeys, divine interruptions, and unimaginable responsibilities. Yet, in the midst of it all, they found joy by following the signs and wonders God placed before them. In this episode, we explore how their story invites us to trust in God’s guidance, even when life feels unpredictable, and how the journey toward joy often requires faith in the miraculous.
When we look at the themes that Mary sang about in her Magnificat, we realize partially where Jesus' heart for prophetic justice came from.
In this message, Jamin lights the advent candle of hope and talks about how Mary embodied hope, gave birth to hope, and cultivated hope. How do we do the same?
In this message, Jamin explains Jesus' kenosis from a poetic and metaphysical perspective. He also hits on the difference between Jesus' humility and a false Christian humility.
Many Christians today misunderstand what it means to suffer for Christ, mistaking cultural disagreements or personal offenses for true persecution. Drawing on Paul’s experiences, the ministry of Jesus, and the dynamic between ancient and modern Christianity, we explore how authentic Christian suffering shapes us into either prophets or jerks.In this message, Jamin challenges us to reframe suffering not as a mark of opposition to others, but as an opportunity to live out the love, humility, and boldness of Christ. Along the way, we examine the danger of using suffering to justify hate, and the transformative power of enduring hardship for the gospel.
In Philippians, Paul talks about longing to be with God. Jamin uses this to talk about the Christian mystics of old, and their longing for the intimacy, presence, and experience of God. Where are our desires focused?
Paul addresses two types of Christians when writing from prison to the Philippians: Some are preaching the gospel because they like him, and some are preaching the gospel because they don't like him. Rather than turn it into a whole thing, Paul simply celebrates that they're preaching the gospel.The Bible reminds us that churches and church leaders should all be on the same team, working toward the same goal. But instead of doing this together, churches often get jealous of one another which leads to a myriad of problems. In this message, Jamin addresses the many problems that come with spiritual jealousy.
This message on the prodigal son came after a very special time in worship where many in our congregation were weeping about the love of God.
Faith goes a long way with God and comes with reward, both now and in the age to come. Do you want to level up to a place where God can trust you with more? Then how might you handle what he's entrusted you with in the here and now?
Jamin delves into the vital connection between faith and good works, exploring how the Bible weaves this truth throughout its teachings in compelling and surprising ways.
Pull out a journal and write along with us as Jamin gives us questions to reflect on concerning our identity in God. Oftentimes, our understanding of self is wrapped up with the lies we tell ourselves and low self-esteem that holds us back from being all we were designed to be. Jamin helps us navigate those thoughts to get back to the core of our identity in the image of God.
God is not a micromanager but empowers us to make decisions in the direction of Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven. Jamin expands on this point in this message.
While the Bible is not exhaustive in all of the spiritual gifts it lists, they range from very natural sounding to very supernatural sounding. In this message, Jamin explains why these gifts are important, the degree to which they might be practiced, and clarifies a few of the stranger ones.
In order to have your heart in the right place for God to cultivate it further, you need to choose where to set your eyes. If you set them on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then you will find yourself living in very backward, seemingly foolish ways. If you set it on the Serpent, Leviathan, and Behemoth, then you will fit right in with the natural ways of the world that we are all prone to. Jamin dives deeper into these themes in this message.
Forgiveness both is and isn't what you've been told. In this message, Jamin dives into the depths of this topic to undo some bad thinking and instill some thoughts you may not have considered before.
In the Bible, the heart is responsible for just about everything in a person's life. With this in mind, Jamin talks about the importance of ensuring one's heart is focused on God. If it's set off or influenced by other voices, it eventually will find itself in need of inner healing
In this message, Jamin looks over Jude's closing–one of the most beautiful benedictions in the Bible. Some forms of the gospel put our identity in sin, while Jude's gospel reminds us that we can rise above sin with the help of Jesus.
The Day of the Lord has been long prophesied and thought over. It has caused people to fall into extreme territories of thought and brought about a lot of confusion. For that reason, there's quite a bit to talk about on the subject. Why is it important? What's going to happen? Why does it matter to us today?Jamin helps us see this day more clearly by showing us how this day has already happened many times throughout history and can continue to happen through our actions as Christians.
The church leaders Jude addressed seemed to believe that there was no morality or law under Jesus and that everyone could live however they wanted. In this message, Jamin proposes a better way to understand the law and its dynamic in the New Testament.
Our very own Brian Knapp shares a message about Jonah and asks us some important questions about our own faithfulness.
The Book of Jude makes a very strange reference (likely to the Apocalypse of Abraham), where the Archangel Michael defends Moses' body from Satan. In this message, Jamin and the crowd at 1208 Greenwood Church survey all of the things that angels do in the Bible to get a better idea as to why the church Jude was writing to was out of line.
Jude not only references a strange story from Genesis 6, but he also references a book called 1 Enoch, which elaborates immensely on this strange story. Why does he jump into this content? Jamin helps us get a deeper understanding of this story and what it meant for Jude.
Among the many puzzling statements Jude makes, he says, "Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe."Out of all the Trinity members Jude could use in this statement, why did he choose Jesus? Being a lover of weird theology, Jamin gives a reason as to why this statement makes more sense than one might think.
Today we start a new short series on the book of Jude. In this message, Jamin calls Christians to calm down on blowing the heresy horn. Jude had to deal with false teachers who were building Christianity around immorality and rebellion. This is vastly different from how Christians fight over their different theological and doctrinal beliefs today. We must learn what is worth fighting about and what is okay to disagree on.
Ezekiel once had a vision of a deep stream of water flowing out of the temple into the Dead Sea, bringing life to everything it touched along the way. In this message, Jamin connects the stream to a few of Jesus' statements and explains why this vision is important for Christians today.
As Ezekiel 33 shows us, the prophetic role is a heavy one. While we may not all be prophets like Ezekiel was, the capacity to operate in prophetic gifting lies in each one of us since all Christians have the Holy Spirit. Jamin takes us deeper into this dynamic in this podcast episode.
Philip the Evangelist is sent by an angel and the Holy Spirit to evangelize a very ambiguous person in his time. Jamin uses this story as a springboard to explain how we must put down our walls and patiently reach all people, regardless of their differences. He pulls many stories from his own life along the way to illustrate this point.
We all claim to want the wisdom of God, but we are more prone to take out messengers of such wisdom when they come around. Though Jesus was wisdom itself, religious people remained very skeptical of him. Though Stephen spoke with the same kind of wisdom, he was martyred for his teachings.What wisdom does God want to speak to us through the Holy Spirit and will we listen when he does? Or will we join hands with the religious leaders who rejected such teachings?
It's easy to be in awe of God in the moments when he's very active, but we can often forget in time. Jamin talks about the importance of recording your story so that God can speak through experience.
While God goes ahead of us in evangelism, he also sends us ahead of him in evangelism. Jamin talks about this dynamic while he reflects on the passage of Jesus sending the 72 disciples out ahead of him.
For this Pentecost Sunday, Jamin tells many stories from his life with his college mentor Ken Brewer, who passed away this week. Ken operated as Jamin's own personal Pentecost event and changed the direction of his faith and pneumatology forever.
The Kingdom of Heaven works differently than the Kingdoms of Earth, and King Jesus gives us Heaven's disruptive strategies so we might subversively install his kingdom in our midst.
In Numbers 9, it's pretty clear that Israel didn't move unless God's cloud or fire led them somewhere else. But in Numbers 10, a team of Israelites sought a place to go next, and the cloud went with them. What do we do with these opposing stories? Jamin offers a suggestion based on the dynamic found throughout the rest of the Bible and in our own lives.
Few topics are messier than that of Christians and politics. Depending on what part of the Bible you read, you'll be told to listen to everything the government says or to challenge it prophetically. When do we challenge? How do we challenge? Why do we challenge? As Jamin wraps up his master's degree on theology and social justice, he uses 1 Peter as a springboard to look at the conversation from a physical and spiritual view and gives some points for action in the here and now.
Sometimes you have an experience of God that is so great that everything changes and revolves around that moment. Moses had plenty of such moments, but we often reflect on his experience on the mountaintop with God. In this message, Jamin gets into several topics related to cosmology, spirituality, theosis, the image of God, spiritual gifts, and, most importantly, the intimacy of God.
God is an artisan. When he told Moses to create a Tabernacle, he had very specific symbols, materials, and objects he wanted integrated into the space with different meanings attached. We, too, create atmospheres with the objects we have.In this message, Jamin talks about some of the objects he has and creates that help him focus on Jesus and engage in worship.
There's a strange story in the Old Testament where Moses brings water out of a rock. This turns into an even stranger story where that rock is said to move around and be Jesus himself. What's going on here? Jamin gives some insight into these passages and why they matter today.
Jamin, Aimee, and Kyle answer questions related to healing after preaching their messages at Reveal.
While we are supernaturalists who believe in healing, we are also naturalists who recognize we will all die this side of the resurrection. That being said, how do we die well? We asked Kyle Herrick, a local hospice chaplain, to educate us on this topic.
In this special message at Reveal Jackson, Aimee Coolbaugh shares about how healing ministry can go wrong.
In this teaching, Jamin engages the crowd at Reveal Jackson by having them read through healing stories in the gospels. Together, they tallied up the common themes they saw so that they could learn how Jesus healed.NOTE: Apologies, as our mic does not pick up comments from the crowd.
In this Easter message, Jamin pulls out a whiteboard to take us on a tour of the cosmos and explain how Jesus has become king of the whole thing.
The theme of God's kingdom arises throughout the entirety of the Bible. It is what God wants to install on the earth, is installing on the earth, and will install on the earth. But in this age, God's descendants often run up against the descendants of the serpent, who is trying to build his own kingdom through his own descendants.
We're often so lost in the wonder of the fiery bush that we don't notice how noncompliant Moses was. His combativeness caused God to offer him a concession that would complicate his future.
When Jacob goes to bless his grandsons, he flips his hands around in the tradition of the men of his line. Despite his many misunderstandings of God, he has come to learn something about him: God tends to do things differently.
We weren't really expecting the messiah to be an exorcist, but he was. Why did demons listen to him and why were they afraid of him? Jamin offers some ideas.
Hebrews gives us a long list of stories of Bible characters who saw miracles as they stayed faithful to God. Jamin shares some of these stories and more throughout history that have happened as people have remained faithful.
There is a heavenly temple and an earthly temple. The high priests were only allowed into the inner parts of the earthly temple, but Jesus walked into both. What does this mean for him and for us?
“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” In this message, Jamin speaks on how Jesus’ phrasing here worked on his heart.
It's hard to narrow the word glory down because it has a lot of meanings in the Bible. In this message, Jamin works off Matthew Bates' book, "Why the Gospel?," to describe God's glory in a way that implies fame. From this point of view, you actually have the ability to increase God's glory. Jamin explains what he means.
In Ephesians 5, Paul talks about light, darkness, and our place in it. Jamin dives into this theme on both a scientific and spiritual level.
God loves us just as we are. This is good theology. God wants us to grow. This is also good theology. In this message, Jamin identifies this dynamic and talks about how it played out in his life in a powerful way.
Mythology is a great genre of literature for telling true stories that didn't always happen—or at least didn't happen that way exactly. In this message, Jamin takes a look at the story of Noah's flood and offers a mythological perspective of the tale.
Many people are so focused on debating if the creation story happened literally or not and miss the many important statements it has to make about our identity and place in the world. Jamin hits on seven important points that get buried under the debate.
In this message Jamin gives us a chance to dive into the minds and lives of Mary and Joseph, whose miracle was both incredible and ostracizing. How far would we go to carry a miracle?
In this message, Jamin explains the importance of Jesus being fully God, but also the importance of him being made of both Heaven and Earth for resurrection purposes.
From the moment of birth, Jesus forces us to pay attention to the many injustices that face the poor. He then spent much of his ministry continuing to turn our attention there.
After Jesus was resurrected, he opened his disciple's eyes to see things in the Scriptures they had never seen before. The Bible is a complicated book that requires a spiritual and scholarly approach to understand it in its fullness. In this message, Jamin gives a few examples from some unusual passages to make his point.
One of the marks that caused the disciples to realize they had experienced the resurrected Jesus was that their hearts burned within them. In this message, Jamin talks about the importance of sensing and discerning the movement of the Holy Spirit through our bodies—be it in our physical senses or our emotional feelings.
Jesus prophetically relayed his coming death to his disciples several times, but it seemed to go in one ear and out the other. The angels reminded them at the tomb, saying, "Remember what he told you?" Jamin uses this statement to discuss the importance of holding onto prophetic words.
In this message, Jamin reads quite a bit of the ending of Luke in hopes of helping us feel everything that Jesus went through for us. This, of course, should encourage us to give everything we have to Christ in return. We must check the temperature of our lives so that Christ might find us hot—not lukewarm or cold.
When Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, he becomes desperate in prayer, asking God for another way. But he follows the signs and impressions he receives, including an angel sent to him at that moment. What signs are we following?
After a man calls Jesus, "Good Teacher," he responds strangely: "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." But Jesus is God, so why does he say this? On a more personal note, do we recognize God's goodness as Jesus did? How might it affect us if we don't?
Christians often demean themselves with degrading words, but the words Jesus uses to describe the resurrected are quite glorious. They are "considered worthy," "equal to the angels," and are "children of God." How do we see our identity? Does it line up with the way Jesus sees us? How might our lives be different if we did see ourselves this way?
A good cornerstone is crucial to constructing a building, but Jesus identifies himself as a rejected cornerstone. In this message, we look at some of the reasons why people might have rejected Jesus as a cornerstone and ask ourselves if we still do the same thing today.
Christians are known for declaring where the Kingdom of Heaven is, but Jesus said it couldn't be observed and that there's no way we could miss it when it finally came. But he also said the kingdom was within us right here and now. What does this all mean for us today?
Jamin reads three of Jesus' parables back to back, the most famous one being the Prodigal Son. Jesus tells these parables to defend himself against the Pharisees regarding why he hangs out with sinners. What might we learn from his actions?
It's a special Reveal Jackson 2023 episode! Ken Brewer dives into the Bible to show us what the gift of prophecy is and how it works.
Jesus tells three parables back to back in Luke about banquets, which teach us how to live and act in heavenly, backward ways. Dive into these parables with us as we discuss humility, the poor, and being "all in."
Instead of recognizing Jerusalem as the place where prophets are honored, he recognized it as the place where prophets go to die. Jamin homes in on this theme, setting us up early for Reveal Jackson 2023 on September 23rd.
In this message, Jamin shares several lists from Amy Kenny's book, "My Body is Not a Prayer Request," to help us get a better social understanding of what disabled people deal with in life and the church. Jamin then encourages us to love our disabled brothers and sisters in better, non-ableist ways—exactly as they are.
While rest and sabbath are important, we can sometimes turn such moments into apathy and laziness. As Christians, our job is to bring Heaven to earth, and we have all been gifted in unique ways to do so. Jesus expects that we are aware of this and that we will do something with what we've been given. In this message, Jamin tries to discern the difference between busyness, rest, gifts, and work.
Jesus tells us to not live in anxiety, which isn't always helpful when we're actually dealing with anxiety. But Jesus also shows us how to deal with anxiety with his own life decisions and spiritual practices. What can we learn from that?
The evil eye appears in several places throughout the Bible, including in Jesus' teaching. What is it and what was Jesus' point in mentioning it?
In this message, Jamin takes a look at the history between Jews and Samaritans to help us see further how powerful the parable of the Good Samaritan really is. The Samaritan seemed free of prejudice and racism and saw the stranger in front of him as a human to be loved.
The disciples were excited to discover that they could cast out demons, causing Jesus to respond that he "saw Satan fall like lightning." What does this curious phrase mean? Jamin traces the theme of Satan throughout the Bible to show how Satan has fallen like lightning, is falling like lightning, and will fall like lightning.
Heaven and Hell is a simple concept, right? Not exactly. While these seem to be the two end results of judgment on the Day of the Lord, Jesus talks about judgment in a wider sense than that. In this message, Jamin focuses on a few passages that don't exactly match the mold.
There are three stories intertwined in Luke about doing ministry. Twice Jesus sends his disciples out with a lack of provision for the job, yet they are cared for. But in the third story, Jesus calls them to do ministry the wrong way, which Peter readily embraces.
In this message, Jamin reads several stories from Luke back to back so that we can feel the immensity of what it must have been like to do ministry with Jesus. In this brief look, we see that there's nothing he can't do. Nature has no authority over him. Armies of demons are scared of him. Death obeys his words. Do we walk with such faith in our own Christian life and ministry?
In the parable of the seeds, Jesus describes the Christian life as he desires it to be: one that produces a hundredfold. This is a convicting passage for many of us as we consider the seeds we relate to most in this parable. Are we being all that we're supposed to be? What's stopping us from going further and reaping the rewards of Heaven and furthering the kingdom?
In this timely message, 1208 celebrates Juneteenth by using it as a stepping stone to talk about the church, social justice, diversity, and anti-racism.
We've recently found ourselves at 1208 pressing in for more of the Holy Spirit. In this message we continue to do so, crying out for God to meet us as we worship so that we might know and experience the greater depths of his Spirit and be continually anointed for his ministry.
The New Testament is full of empowered women, starting with Jesus' female disciples. Jamin dives into the Scriptures to show all the ways in which they served the church, be it as missionaries, evangelists, prophets, apostles, and more.
In this message, Jamin provides a narrative of 1208's spiritual journey over the last year and invites us to wait expectantly for the Spirit to pour out in a fresh and visible way.
When a known woman broke into a house where Jesus was, she began to wash his feet with her tears and hair, much to the dissatisfaction of the religious leaders among him. Jesus would likely face rumors in this moment, but he instead admired and appreciated the woman and lifted her up. How do we respond in such moments?
In the Old Testament, there's a character named Lady Wisdom. Who is she? How do the New Testament writers connect her to Jesus? And why does it matter to us?
In this message Jamin takes a look at the fruit the Holy Spirit produces in us and talks about discernment.
As Brian Knapp walked into his daughter's classroom, a biblical parallel entered his mind. He shares it in this message, calling us into faithful and expectant waiting upon God.
Jesus' teachings on responding to our enemies are entirely backward from ours. For him, love is the highest principle, and we are to engage with those who hurt us in pacifistic ways that turn the tables. Jamin dives into these themes in this message.
In this message, Jamin walks through stories of power and wealth throughout the Bible and then points us toward the grand socio-economic reversal that is to come.
In this Easter message, Jamin explains how the resurrected age that is to come is already breaking into the world around us today, and how Christians must holistically be a part of it.
In the final message of our Lenten "12:08 Prayer Initiative" series, Jamin preaches on the biblical importance of taking care of those around us via acts of service. He further connects this to Palm Sunday and invites us to listen to the Holy Spirit to figure out what to do next as a church.
In this message, Jamin looks at the wider picture of the Kingdom of Heaven and explains how evangelism fits into it.
This may be the most financially dangerous message Jamin has ever preached! Or if you catch the point of it, it may be the most financially empowering!In this message, Jamin explains how tithing is an Old Testament notion, not a New Testament one. Giving to the tabernacle and giving to the church are two different kinds of ideas, grounded in different customs and cultures. Christians are never called to "tithe 10%" per se, but to give generously as the Spirit leads them.Check out this message for more details or James D. Quiggle's book, "Why Christians Should Not Tithe," for all of the research this message is built upon.
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 in us and be perfected. Jamin explains more in this message.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
Kaytlin Turner brings us one last message before graduating and heading home. We love you Kaytlin!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Much of this content can be found in Jamin’s recent blog post: https://jaminbradley.com/2022/11/03/abortion-and-the-church/
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?
Kayla Knapp brings a special message on a theme near and dear to her heart: church unification.
Pastor Steven Hlatky follows up Reveal Jackson 2022 as a guest speaker for our Sunday service and leads us into the Scriptures to remind us of the mission and empowerment of the Church.
Jamin has been the lead pastor at 1208 Greenwood for 11 years. He has written 8 books, released several hours of music, and has helped launch unique expressions of the church here in Jackson, including Dinner Church, Nerd Church, and an online church. As an activist he has chaired, founded, and served in several different coalitions and organizations around Jackson, especially ones that look to help the poor and those dealing with addiction. He blogs and podcasts regularly at jaminbradley.com.
Gospel Recording Artist Shantelle Hawkins has laid and travailed on the altar for over 30 years to birth her music ministry career. Shantelle was given the name “Fearless Prophetic Worshipper,” because her prophetic praise echoes deliverance as she bravely goes to war against the powers of darkness and often hear the "Sounds of Victory". She has travelled across the states sharing platforms and pulpits with many of gospel greats. She describes her most valued and memorable moments being the time spent pursuing the presence of the Holy Spirit, witnessing the atmosphere shifting and yokes being broken off of God’s people through worship.
Steven is the lead pastor of The Foundery Church in Wellsburg, WV. His encounter with Holy Spirit as a teenager pushed him to search for and recognize God's workings in his life and those around him. He believes there is a (w)holistic approach to the ministry we do for the Kingdom of God.
It was the Holy Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. As we watch Jesus face off against Satan, we come to learn a few things about battling temptation in our own lives.
As John the Baptist starts his ministry, he calls the remnant of Israel into repentance. This mantle continues to be carried by Jesus after John's passing, and that message is now passed on to us here at 1208 as the Holy Spirit has called us to "repent to make space for new gifts."
As we begin a new series on Luke, we take a look at an incredible sign being given about John the Baptist's birth and his father's unbelief. How often have we been told exactly what to do and yet we want more proof and signs to point us toward it?
Why are we so intent in our new church model on physical and spiritual needs? Jamin explains that even though much of the church has seen good works as something separate or other than church, it's actually a core part of our identity.
At 1208 Greenwood we've reprogrammed church to work in a lot of unique ways. So why do we still incorporate a fairly standard worship service with music, preaching and more into our gatherings? We dive into 1 Corinthians 14 for more answers on that.
Why do we make a big deal about eating together when we gather on Sundays? Why do we incorporate communion into it? Is it just to be cool or is there a Biblical precedent to it? In this message Jamin explains how eating together connects to Jesus’ ministry and the gatherings of the early church and the prophetic and strategic messaging it carries when we still do it today.
Professor Mark Edwards wraps up his series on the replacement principles, hitting on the final two rules of communication.
The last few years have been a long journey. From the rise of dinner church to the crash of the pandemic, to the attempt to restart dinner church, to the pause to pray all summer. But now our board comes forward with a new direction that we think fits all of the words we’ve been hearing from the Spirit and something that matches our DNA as 1208 and as Church in general.
Professor Mark Edwards continues to help us understand how to replace bad habits. In this episode he gives us the first two rules of communication so that we can have better conversations and better establish what’s going on in our hearts and minds.
In this experiment, Professor Mark Edwards takes us deeper into the principles of getting rid of bad habits and replacing them with good ones. He sets us up for a conversation at our tables and then we come back together to talk about what we've learned.
In this experiment, Jamin takes a plethora of words, dreams, and visions given to 1208 over the years and tries to piece together the themes in front of everyone as we move into our next season.
There are two major streams of the prophetic in the church today. One form is of a more supernatural perspective, where God speaks to people and they speak out his word. The other form is of a more natural perspective, where the poor are preached about and actions are taken to provide for them. But these two streams shouldn't be separated. If God truly is supernaturally speaking to us, he will at some point speak to us about the poor. The prophetic life is both supernatural and natural—preaching and action.
As the mighty rushing wind of the Holy Spirit blows through the early church, their lives are empowered and transformed into something different. The new creation to come begins to burst out of these Christians in power, in character, and even sociologically.
As Jamin went to pray, a dream he had about 1208 that morning popped into his mind. As he reflected on it, he felt it important to lean into the themes found there. And out of those themes came this message, calling the post-pandemic church out of apathy.
In this message, Professor Mark Edwards brings us a great teaching on the importance of replacement. It doesn't work well for us to simply stop doing something—we must replace bad things with good things as the Holy Spirit grows his fruit in us. Mark takes these principles in directions that feed well into our sociology and our personal lives.
While Jamin's been engaging in spiritual warfare over the last few months, he's been reflecting on the importance of wearing the armor of God. In this message, he hones in on a few thoughts from Ephesians 6 that have come up along the way.
So often we do ministry without the Holy Spirit, but that was never Jesus's intent. In this message Jamin calls us to be faithful to the giftings the Holy Spirit has given us so that we can do ministry well and so that in our faithfulness, we might receive additional empowerment to do more.
To go deeper in this conversation, check out Jamin's blog: https://jaminbradley.com/2021/12/18/god-romantic-language-and-sex/
In this message, Jamin shares his emotional journey with worship music and then asks a few questions. Is it okay to be emotional in worship music? What's does the Bible say about that? Are people really feeling the Holy Spirit or is it just their own emotion?
Resurrection began on Easter as Jesus became the firstborn of the dead. But the Bible's wider portrait of resurrection shows us not only that we're the secondborn, but that resurrection has already begun in us now.
Most evangelicals preach that Jesus didn't come looking to take over through power, politics, and violence, but our actions the last few years have shown that we only believe this theologically, not practically. In this Palm Sunday message, Jamin reminds us what the upside down kingdom of world of Jesus is really like, and that if we are to truly treat him as King, we will have to live the same way.
The world of Contemporary Christian Music has changed over the last few decades into the world of the Worship Music Industry. While countless great worship songs have come out of this movement, so have many dishonest and theologically flawed songs. As worship music grows more and more plentiful, we must learn to be wise in the kind of worship music we expose ourselves and our churches too.
For many, worship music is just a thing we do before the message is preached. But in the Bible there are often supernatural components and manifestations that overlap with music. We take a look at a few of these Biblical stories as we kick off our new series on worship music.
Demon stories throughout the gospels are often quick and sometimes confusing. In this message Jamin explains deliverance ministry by using both Scripture and the common methods and traditions of practiced deliverance ministers—especially those with Ph.D's in counseling ministry.
In this episode, we had a brave soul that was willing to come up on stage and allow us to guide them through inner healing within their own mental sacred space. (We talked about how to create one of these spaces in our episode, "Creating a Sacred Space in the Mind," S14, E2.) As we did this, everyone got a chance to see how this space can be used to engage the Holy Spirit and how he can bring about inner healing as he guides us through our painful memories.
Everyone that believes in God eventually has to face a theological conundrum: God loves us and has all the power, yet unloving things happen to us that he could have technically prevented. This causes many to feel as though they need to forgive God.
But that can't be right because God cannot sin as it's against his very nature. Therefore, there's nothing we need to forgive him for, for he owes us no debt. How then, do we deal with the barriers we've created that hold God far away from us due to the pain and suffering we've endured in this world? How do we release him from a blame that doesn't belong on him? That's what we address in this message within our inner healing series—for if we want to get closer to the source of inner healing, we need to first break down the barriers we've put up between us and God.
There are some people who, for whatever reason, are quite capable of forgiving others but incapable of forgiving themselves. Such people might even need to ask others to constantly forgive them for something they've already been forgiven for.
In this message we talk about the spiritual importance of not just forgiving others for their sin, but forgiving ourselves too.
To summarize Jesus's teachings on forgiveness: do it always and do it quick. That's a hard lesson to learn and a difficult one to process. In this message Jamin talks more about what forgiveness is and isn't, and why it matters from a spiritual perspective.
In this deeply experiential message, Jamin leads 1208 in creating a sacred space to meet with God in the mind, which is a spiritual tactic that has proven itself effective for him and others over and over throughout the years.
To kick off our new series on inner healing, Jamin first talks about geographical locations and the authority we have as Christians to cleanse it and invite the Holy Spirit into it. This will lead to further discussion on cleansing our bodies as sacred space for the Holy Spirit.
In our last message on Romans, we hit on three quick themes: (1) Paul's women in ministry, (2) Paul's desire to take the gospel to the ends of the earth and (3) how the Holy Spirit brought the Old Testament to life for Paul and the other New Testament writers with fresh revelation.
In Bible school, students are taught to never take the Bible out of context when they quote it. Yet the Bible does this quite often. Why is that?
Some issues in the church are not worth fighting over and some are. In this episode, we see Paul address a few issues that aren't worth fighting over in the church.
Paul had clearly caught onto the vision of love as Jesus' central component of the gospel. Jamin addresses this in Romans 13 and then shares some of his own journey on this topic.
When we think of government, we often miss the much larger picture the Bible paints of the physical and spiritual worlds blending together. In this message, Jamin looks at Romans 13 (which is often misapplied for people to endorse anything their favorite political leader does) and sets it in the larger cosmological landscape of the Bible.
The same Paul that calls Christians to live in such loving ways in Romans is the same Paul that once persecuted the church. How did he undergo such transformation? We take a look at his story in today's episode of the 1208PODCAST.
When we think of the nations, peace is not typically the first thing that comes to our mind. Instead, we often think of wars fought and the things that make us different. But the Prince of Peace has come to change that.
In this message, we take a journey throughout the theme of priesthood and sacred space, and then we hone in on how the coming messiah was an instillation of hope into these themes.
Since the pandemic started, God has felt strangely distant to many. Is there any Biblical precedent to that or is it just the way we feel? Since God is omnipresent, should we always sense his presence to the fullest degree from one day to the next, or does he sometimes pull back to a certain extent? And if he does, then why? We cover these thoughts and more in this message.
Christianity is a story about resurrection which is good news when things around you feel like they're falling apart. Continue to pray with us as we get ready to gather tonight for church and re-envision what 1208 might look like in a post-pandemic world.
The foundation of 1208 is a multicultural one. How do we continue to grow in this way and continue to reach people of different cultures? Pray with us as we continue to imagine what a relaunched 1208 might look like.
In one Jesus' most overlooked parables, we're told about a farmer who sows seed and then harvests the crops when they're ready. Where should we be looking to sew seeds in Jackson? Where might we harvest? Let's pray about that as we continue to think about what a relaunched 1208 might look like.
There are many different things we can focus on in the faith, but if Jesus isn't at the center of it, everything else will get out of place. How do we create a church centered on Jesus? Pray with us on this as we get ready to relaunch 1208.
"In Jackson as it is in Heaven"—that's our mission at 1208. We hold this statement because it was central to Jesus' gospel. Let's think and pray into what this means as we get ready to meet on Sunday to discuss the relaunch of 1208 in the post-pandemic world.
The only glimpse we get of a church service in the Bible looks very little like the church services we hold today. As we pray and think about what a relaunch of 1208 might look like, how can we incorporate the Bible's church service values into 1208? And how can we use these values to free us from thinking of church in a traditional stage form? Pray with us as we get ready to meet on Sunday and discuss this further.
Last night at 1208's Sunday service we found ourselves in Romans 12 where Paul talks about the church being a body in which everyone participates. This is not exactly the most accurate description of the post-pandemic church across the United States, and we at 1208 want to start re-envisioning what a relaunch of 1208 might look like based on who we are, where we’ve been, and where we feel called to go next—recognizing that God desires our church to be successful in ministry.
So this week we’ll be emailing and posting daily devotionals so that we can all get our hearts ready for Sunday, where we’ll meet during our normal service, but spend the majority of time holding a vision meeting. We’re excited to hear what the Spirit lays on your heart on a personal level and on a congregational level.
In Romans 12 we come across a famous passage reminding us that the church is a body, not a building, a Sunday service, or a pastor. Therefore, if a church is going to work correctly, all who are a part of the church need to recognize that God has gifted them to be able to serve in the body in a unique way, and then plug in to serve. We talk about that and more in tonight’s service!
Paul gives us the beautiful illustration of an olive tree in Romans 11 in attempts to help the church see how they are all one, but also different. And being different is okay—in fact, it’s the point! Apples aren’t meant to become oranges, but rather, they are meant to remain themselves while being grafted into the same trunk and foundation.
And this is why Paul gets so frustrated with his Jewish brothers and sisters for trying to circumcise the Gentiles that were being grafted into the tree of God’s family: The nations are not to become Jewish—they are to remain their own nationality and be brought into the family of God nonetheless. If all the nations become Jewish, then multi-national Bride of Christ wouldn’t happen at all. We talk about this, it’s implications, and more in today’s message on Romans.
What does evangelism look like from a supernatural perspective? That's what we look like in today's Roman's passage.
In today's service we take a look at the themes of Romans 10, including the simplicity of the gospel, salvation by faith, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and how the gospel has somehow been declared to all people.
Romans 9 is a difficult passage to process. Is there free will or is everything predestined? How does judgment work? Jamin starts with the story of Pharoah in Exodus and then moves into Romans 9 to continue the conversation.
As Paul gets excited about our identity in Christ, he begins throwing out important adjectives that define our identity as Christians before exploding into an epic poem about Jesus' love for us.
In one of Paul's most beautiful passages on resurrection, he paints the whole of creation groaning alongside Christians as the Holy Spirit groans within us.
In this message Jamin breaks from preaching on Romans to talk about making sure we hear the tone of Jesus correctly. Then we spend the rest of service in a time of worship.
In this message we take a look at the four main characters of Romans 7: The Law, Sin, Humans, and Jesus. How the four interact have a lot to say about salvation and resurrection.
In Romans 5, Paul contrasts the old sinful humanity of Adam with the new resurrected humanity of Jesus. In this message we imagine other worlds where humanity never sinned and then face our actual reality, which ends up being both stranger than fiction and immensely beautiful.
We in the West tend to look at suffering and persecution as a negative thing, but people like Paul see it as a positive. For in our suffering is the cross, which is the crux of Jesus, who is the crux of everything.
When Paul tries to convince the Romans that the Gentiles can be brought into the covenant family of God without first being circumcised or being subjected to the law, he uses Abraham as his example why. By Paul's reasoning, Abraham was the original Gentile that God brought into the covenant and God considered him righteous not for his works or his circumcision or his following of the law (Abraham didn't yet know about such things), but for his faith. Therefore, faith is the definition of salvation for Paul and Abraham is the earliest example of proof. Though the law is good and upheld by the Christian (for it has not been abolished), obedience of the law is now found in the obedience of the law's ultimate interpreter, Jesus Christ, who has become the fulfillment of the law.
Therefore, we are saved by the same formula that God's people have always been saved by throughout history: God's grace given to sinners on behalf of their faith/faithfulness/belief/commitment/believing loyalty/allegiance to God. What has changed in this formula in the New Testament, however, is the crux upon which all of our faith now hangs: King Jesus Himself, who is the fulfillment of the original covenant made to Abraham, the forgiveness of sins, and the one who has paved the way for us to enter into the resurrection life of the new heavens and new earth, where we will live with new resurrected immortal bodies. We have been given evidence of all of this through the downpayment of the Holy Spirit, through which full resurrection will one day come, and has also already begun now inside of us. We can only receive these promises by our faithful allegiance to Jesus, for to be faithful to Jesus, is to be faithful to God—for Jesus is God-in-flesh.
Romans 3 is a monumental verse in the Bible that shifts the way we understand the law under the New Covenant. In this message Jamin takes a look at how the law was distributed in the Old Testament and what the law becomes in the New Testament.
In ancient times, religion and state were the same thing. Therefore, you can imagine how difficult it was for the Jews to understand their theology when (A) some started to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, (B) the Messiah wanted non-Jewish people to join their religion/state, and (C) those non-Jewish people didn't practice any of the boundary markers that the Jews had always practiced (ie. obedience to the law, circumcision, etc).
In the Book of Romans, Paul strives to help his Jewish brothers and sisters understand the theological impact Jesus has had on their religion/state so that they can welcome their non-Jewish neighbors in. And that's what we hit on in the first half of Romans 3.
In Romans 2, Paul calls attention to how God-followers have always said one thing and done another, and for that reason the world has made fun of God. How have we been bad witnesses to the character of God today? How did we witness to Jesus throughout the pandemic? In a lot of negative ways to be sure, giving people reason to make fun of God and doubt the church as an organization. It nearly seems like most people have given up on the church at this point.
And it's perhaps from organizations like Nintendo that we can learn something about the church, discipleship, and witness.
Romans has been used over the years to diminish evangelism to nothing more than "thinking" a certain way to be on the right side of judgment. But Jesus required good works of his followers if they were to be on the right side of judgment. In this message, Jamin looks to harmonize both sides of the Bible, recognizing that even the book of Romans expects good works if we are to be on the right side of judgment. If this true, then what is really needed is a better definition of what "salvation by faith" means, which we will get more into in the coming weeks.
After hours of working on his message, Jamin still wasn’t ready to preach it. Not only can the theology of Romans be a bit confusing, but it’s also deeply personal to Jamin’s own story. So in this short speech, Jamin asks for more time so that he can preach this message more effectively and reminds us that church is not all about preaching.
In the Silmarillion, Tolkien pictures God singing a song and Satan trying to improve on it until he's ultimately offering a different song. Paul sees something similar in the song of order being sung in Eden and the song that humanity has sang instead via Sin. We talk more about that in today's episode as we continue through Romans.
Paul uses the Greek word "Dikaiosyne" which Bible translations often translate as "Righteousness." But N.T. Wright suggests the phrase "covenant justice" may make more sense given Paul's context. Jamin explains why he agrees when it comes to Paul's gospel of which he is not ashamed.
There's a lot to be said in Paul's opening words in his letter to the Romans. In this episode, we just read the first few verses and take questions.
The letter of Romans is just that: A letter. And so to understand it correctly we must read it as we would a letter. And so, in our first service preaching on Romans, we come together and read straight through Paul's work so that we might hear it all within context. In this particular reading, we use N.T. Wright's "Kingdom" translation.
The Holy Spirit made life, continues to make life, and will make life again—and that's part of the celebration of Pentecost Sunday.
This Mother's Day, Jamin gives various glimpses into the Bible, illustrating its egalitarian view of women and men in ministry, ruling the world together with the same call and image.
Mark Edwards, history professor at Spring Arbor University brings a powerful message to 1208 as he preaches on the historical misuse of the Bible to endorse things like slavery and racism. Check it out in this special message.
And yes—those were gunshots close by our outdoor service. Everyone is okay. We reported everything that we saw to the local police and they have been investigating for the last few hours. Sometimes when this kind of stuff happens churches and congregants leave their communities, but this is exactly why we live and preach here. The gospel is much needed in our community and we will continue to share it with them.
Sometimes the disciples just don't get it. In this case, they are still fighting about which one of them is the greatest when Jesus' whole point is to be humble. Jamin talks about pride and humility in today's message.
According to Luke's gospel, If it wasn't for Jesus praying for Peter, we might have had a very different ending to Peter's denial of Christ.
We're all aware that Jesus ate with sinners, but sometimes we don't realize the kinds of things those sinners have done or why it would have stood out that he ate with them. Tax collectors, for example, we're quite oppressive. Let's take a look at the story of Zacchaeus and see how it might relate to today.
He is risen indeed! Jamin jumps into all things resurrection this Easter and then we baptize two 1208ers and watch the seeds of resurrection begin right in front of us!
Throughout the Old Testament, there was a cloudy manifest presence of God that led God's people and entered sacred places. In this message, Jamin looks at this theme through the eyes of Palm Sunday.
Ask any scholar what they think of Luke 16:1-13 and you'll get an entirely different nuanced answer. What is going on here? We ask 1208 what they think.
As we move out of our series in Isaiah, we move into select passages from Luke and highlight a few stories that we haven't hit on in the other gospels we've preached through over the years. In this case, we stop on a passage where Jesus teaches us to pray impudently.
Starting this week, Jamin moves his series on Isaiah to his blog and then hops into a one-off message on his cats—which yes, may sound weird—but has spiritual applications.
In Isaiah 27:1, God is seen slaying some kind of water dragon with a sword. What's going on here? The JXN Cloud team addresses this passage together live at 1208 Greenwood.
Jamin takes a break from our current series on Isaiah to share a poem about God's love.
We continue our pause in our series on Isaiah to ask another question: "If prophetic critique often creates division in the church, is Jesus not concerned with church unity?"
We take a break in our series on Isaiah to ask the question, "What exactly is a prophet anyways? What do they do?"
If you don't plan on returning in-person next week, you can watch our services online via an unpolished Facebook livestream. But if you'd like a more polished online church, check out our fully online church, JXN Cloud.
Today's passage is Isaiah 19, where the prophet begins to prophesy about Israel's enemies in a very intruiging way. Join us for another episode of 1208TV!
The popular passage found in Isaiah 11 describes the coming Messiah as a King anointed with wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge of the Lord, and fear of the Lord. His peace shall be so great that even the animal kingdom will be at peace with one another. In this message we take a deeper look at these attributes of the coming King.
In Isaiah 10, the prophet preaches a message that is fully at home among the messages of all the prophets: God expects humanity to take care of the oppressed among them. In today's service, we dive deeper into this prophetic word and its parallels with our world today.
Erick Ewaskowitz, Director of Coaching and Training in the Southern Michigan Conference brings us a special Christmas Eve message!
The prophecies said that a messiah would be born and that he would reign over all things. Not only did these things happen differently than expected, but they also happened more slowly than expected.
Our Nerd Church Pastor, Tylar Salter, brings a special message on discerning the practices that we have in Christmas.
Who is human/divine Son that is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace? Isaiah hints at something spectacular.
As we continue our series in Isaiah, the prophet calls out Israel's use of mediums and necromancy. The church often says "No," to these things, but rarely explains why. In today's message we explain why God forbids such things.
As cases rise, we've returned online to 1208TV! Join us for worship, new announcements and a message on conspiracy theories as we continue our series in Isaiah.
"For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread." (Isaiah 8:11-12)
In the divided kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom of Ephraim teamed up with the nation of Aram in order to protect themselves from the Assyrian Empire. In attempts to further ensure their protection, they tried to overtake the southern kingdom of Judah, which was when Isaiah showed up to the king of Judah with a prophetic word. What was it? We talk more about that in today's passage in our series on Isaiah.
As Isaiah approaches the throne room of God, he agrees to take on a task that God needs someone to fulfill. This brings about images of the divine council worldview of the Bible. But what is a human doing there? We talk more about that in this message.
Find a quiet place as we practice the prophetic art of visions and submerge ourselves into Isaiah's surreal vision of God's temple throne room.
In Isaiah 5 a song is sung about how God set the stage perfectly for His people, and yet they failed to produce. We dive deeper into this theme in today's message.
At the end of all things, Isaiah sees the fullness of God's presence being installed on the earth amidst those who have remained faithful to him. Jamin goes on to explain how we can catch glimpses of this manifest presence even today.
Isaiah 2 calls us to be humble and God Himself images that quality to us. As we zoom out across the universe in this message, we begin to see just how small we are—though also how big we are in the eyes of God.
*Jamin originally confused equatorial radius and circumference in this message. We tried to edit those parts out :P
In Isaiah 2, the rivers of all nations are flowing up God's mountain and people are turning their weapons into gardening equipment. What's going on here?
The prophets have been speaking for a long time. They are typically loved after they've passed, but hated while they're alive. Are we listening to the prophets today? We read Isaiah 1 and talk more about that in our new series on Isaiah.
There are two ways to pursue justice: (1) through the hatred and vengeance Satan offers us or (2) through the love and empathy Jesus offers us. The first is not actually justice, but something else. The second is an identifying mark of the Christian.
Jesus prayed for unity in the church, but he never meant for us to achieve it by us ignoring his difficult teachings. As 2020 continues to build pressure, the inner feelings of Christians have burst out all over the place, showing us that our peace and unity is more pretend than we thought and that we're not unified in Jesus. How should we react to this?
Jamin dives into the pacifistic ways of Jesus in this new message in our series on Jesus Justice. What will we choose to carry? A weapon or a cross?
As we continue our series on Jesus Justice, Jamin spends some time reading the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety to help us understand how to pursue justice the Jesus way.
You can't have proper Jesus justice without forgiveness and reconciliation. It helps to have a better understanding of Biblical forgiveness in order to see how all of these elements play together, which is what we cover in this message.
There is a huge difference in what it looks like for us to take justice into our own hands and to do justice as Jesus would have us do it. In Romans 12:14-21, Paul tells us what it means to live and act like Jesus in the midst of evil.
Prophecy means different things to different parts of the church. In starting our new series on Jesus Justice, we're going to talk about the importance of the prophetic illuminating and guiding our pursuit of social justice.
Today we take a break before a new series to talk about joy and have a few longer one-takes of worship.
It's hard to know what you stand for when you don't have a vision of where you're headed. In our final message on "God's Grand Framework," we address the ultimate vision of where Jesus has His followers going. And you might be surprised about where that is.
So Heaven has come and Jesus has won already, but the fullness of such things have yet to come to the earth. What do we do while we wait for the fullness?
What is the role of the Holy Spirit throughout history and our lives? This is the question we address in today's 1208TV episode.
Christians know that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, but when we're pressed for extra information as to why that changed the world, we don't always know what more to say. "What exactly did Jesus do?" we wonder. To find the answer to that question, we have to zoom out to get a view from the beginning to the end of the Bible. Join us for this episode of 1208TV as we continue our series on the great questions that make up "God's Grand Framework."
This blog post from Michael Heiser was referenced:
https://drmsh.com/genesis-12-and-the-gap-theory/
This Hugh Ross book was mentioned:
https://www.amazon.com/Improbable-Planet-Earth-Became-Humanitys-ebook/dp/B01HMPHEGI
This Andrew Parker book was mentioned:
https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Enigma-First-Scientifically-Accurate-ebook/dp/B002RCJC5S/
As we continue our series on, "God's Grand Framework," we address the question of why bad things happen if God is omnipotent and desires a world full of love and goodness.
In light of what the world is going through, we take a pause in our new series to talk candidly about racism in this episode of 1208TV.
Back in October of 2015, Jamin felt led to get into the topic of racism while preaching through the book of Acts. We re-release this episode now as we look to Jesus for direction and justice.
A lot of times we focus on the power of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. But notice what the Holy Spirit does when he shows up: He extends salvation to people across all nations. So today, while the world is literally burning, we turn to God who tells us to set aside our racism and love the other.
In our next question on "God's Grand Framework," we address a popular question: "Do we have free will?" We also address many other topics that go along with it like predestination, election, the once-saved-always-saved debate, and more.
Books for more info and the ones referenced:
Jamin Bradley, Alien Theology.
Walton, John H., and J. Harvey Walton. Demons and Spirits in Biblical Theology: Reading the Biblical Text in Its Cultural and Literary Context. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019. Print.
Walton, John H.. The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate (p. 195). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
Gay Robins, “Cult Statues in Ancient Egypt,” in Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East, ed. Neal H. Walls (Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2005), 1–2.
For more on Eden as a temple, see John H. Walton’s book, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate.
Heiser, Michael S. “Image of God.” Ed. John D. Barry et al. The Lexham Bible Dictionary 2016 : n. pag. Print.
Wink, Walter. Engaging the Powers. Kindle Location, 1980-1982.
See my excursus on “Women in Ministry” in my book The Rush and the Rest, for further discussion on these more complicated passages.
Keener, Craig S. Paul, Women, and Wives: Marriage and Women's Ministry in the Letters of Paul. Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2004, Kindle Locations 2142-2143.
Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. First Edition. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015. Print.
A group of pastors across the Jackson area have been meeting weekly over the last two months to discuss quarantine, coronavirus, and their plans to reach people during it and what to do after it. In this video, a small handful of the network were able to meet up with each other to discuss the pandemic.
Are you a pastor in the Jackson area and want to be a part of the network? Message us to get plugged in!
Our final episode on Revelation doesn't switch over perfectly to podcast form, but we put it here anyway. Our final episode was a bit of a rejourneying through the book of Revelation. We've featured two teachings from it in this podcast episode. (You'll have to excuse the sound of rain in the first half!)
Further reading:
For a deeper look at infallibility, see Greg Boyd’s book, Inspired Imperfection.
For a deeper look at the flood, see Tremper Longman III and John Walton’s book, The Lost World of the Flood.
For a deeper look at how evolution and the Bible can coexist, see Jamin Bradley's book, Alien Theology.
Today we take a look at the lake of fire in Revelation. What exactly is it? How does it connect with the rest of the Bible?
Jamin was excited to join 3 other pastors from across denominations on Dr. Michael Heiser’s The Naked Bible Podcast to discuss teaching the Bible’s divine council worldview in our churches.
Far too often we stop the story of Jesus at the cross. But the cross fails to do its job if there's no resurrection. It's time we start telling the whole gospel story.
Original, unpolished, messy worship—just like 1208. These songs were recorded for our online worship services during the COVID-19 quarantine.
It's another episode of The Erinvironment Podcast! She's a certified environmentalist and he's a certified pastor. Erin and Jamin talk about what resurrection actually is and why the environment matters so much in light of it. We'll dive deeper into this conversation in our Easter 1208TV premiere at 6pm on Sunday here on Facebook. You can also download the audio of this episode at
This week's longer 1208TV episode covers the last days of Jesus' life on earth (from Palm Sunday to the Easter resurrection) in a rather unique way. We'll be sharing a "radio theater" of sorts in which the Bible stories we all know so well will be retold in an allegorical-fantasy-esque kind of way.
Lady Babylon has a way of resurfacing in different nations all throughout the Bible—including God's own nation. This should speak volumes to us even 2,000 years later.
We've talked quite a bit on the Erinvironment about why we should take care of the environment—now Erin gives you some basic tips as to how to do so.
Need some audiobooks to get you through quarantine? I’m giving out free codes to any of my audiobooks, just comment or message me with which ones you want 📚 🎧
1208-Bit *Nerd Church still meets tonight—we're just doing so on Minecraft where we've built a virtual version of 1208 Greenwood! Minecraft is cross-platform so you can join us on any console.
With COVID-19 moving us to the internet, 1208TV launched with a special documentary-like message on Armageddon. Watch it on our Facebook page or listen to it here on the 1208PODCAST.
Jamin uses the technique of visions and imaginative prayer to illustrate how the Holy Spirit can lead us through counseling and inner healing.
Jamin and his breakout session audience talk about their own experiences in casting out demons, what they've learned, and what the Bible teaches on the subject.
Jamin holds a breakout session at Reveal Jackson on the spiritual gift of healing. What is it? What does the Bible have to say about it? How do we pray for others to be healed? Dive into the discussion.
Church isn't cancelled by COVID-19—it's just been moved online! Our first episode of 1208TV launches this Sunday at 6pm on both our Facebook and YouTube page.
Erin dives into the book of Job and explains how taking care of nature is a part of our religion while Jamin continually hijacks the conversation with comments on ancient thinking. Classic.
Guest Speaker Steven Hlatky stops by to preach about the baptism and refilling of the Holy Spirit.
Go deeper with Preston Sprinkle’s podcast series on this topic.
Preston Sprinkle’s The Annihilation View of Hell Pt 1
https://www.prestonsprinkle.com/theology-in-the-raw/2019/12/22/772-title
Preston Sprinkle’s The Annihilation View of Hell Pt 2
https://www.prestonsprinkle.com/theology-in-the-raw/2019/12/22/772-title-8nz7j
Preston Sprinkle’s The Annihilation View of Hell Q&A
https://www.prestonsprinkle.com/theology-in-the-raw/2020/2/10778-annihilation-view-of-hell-questions
Steven Hlatky closes out our second main session at Reveal Jackson on the topic of receiving the Holy Spirit to live the empowered life. (Sorry the audio quality is a bit lower than usual.)
Jamin kicks off Reveal Jackson's first main session with a message about Jesus' mission in the light of the Divine Council concept seen throughout the Bible.
Erin returns to Eden and a few other Bible passages to highlight the importance of creation care while Jamin tangents on things like resurrection and the like.
Erin and Jamin dive into Romans 1 and then talk about all things science on their pilot episode of The Erinvironment, a new section on the 1208PODCAST!
Reveal Jackson is right around the corner and what better message in our Fantasy IRL series at Nerd Church to get us ready for it than a message on the Holy Spirit’s role in the Trinity, the world, and our lives. Check it out in preparation for what God is going to do this weekend.
Angel of the Lord. Word of the Lord. Lady Wisdom. Call Him what you will, the New Testament seems to confirm that the physical being in the Old Testament who is but isn't God is the same person we call Jesus. In this message we dig into lots of passages to illustrate this theme.
Jamin divides Revelation 14 into 3 parts, trying to align it with the fuller and wider picture that Revelation has been telling and is continuing to tell.
The story of Satan is found in both the Old and New Testament, but it takes a bit of time and research to see how this character works out. In this 1208-Bit *Nerd Church message, we follow the progressive revelation the Bible relates to us on who the Satan is.
In Revelation 13, Satan raises up and empowers two beasts—and what they represent speaks uncomfortable volumes to the Christian today and in every generation before.
As Christians, we are monotheists—that is to say that we believe that there is only one God and He has created all things both physical and spiritual. However, there's a disconnect between the way we understand monotheism today and the way the Bible understood monotheism. For us today, it means that God is the only spiritual being with power and authority in existence. For the Bible writers of both the Old and New Testament, while God is the one and only God, He has distributed power and authority to other spiritual beings He created. These beings we know throughout the Bible as the false little-g-gods. While they are not anywhere near close to God because there is only one God, they are also not nothing. And that's the theme we dig into much more deeply in this message.
The dragon known as Satan in Revelation 12 is not only defeated by the archangel Michael and his angels, but he's also conquered by the most unexpected of people: the martyrs.
Goliath is not the only giant mentioned in the Bible. The story of giants is interwoven from the time of Noah all the way to David's reign and it's an important element that makes sense of a lot of confusing questions we still ask today.
In John-like fashion, the narrative of Revelation is interrupted again with another side story. But side stories are not unimportant. They help bring the whole narrative together. And just who are the main characters of this story and why are they important? That's what we cover in today's message.
Jamin shares his testimony of meeting the Holy Spirit with Ypsilanti Free Methodist Church.
It's sweet to receive a word from God, but it can be bitter to deliver it. You may want to read through Revelation 10 before listening to this episode.
In Revelation Christians are being persecuted and martyred. Last week we saw the martyrs ask God to respond. This week we see God do so as echoes of Egypt ripple throughout the narrative.
Jamin digs into the symbolism of Revelation 8:1-5 and talks about prayer and sacrifice.
Jamin shares a bit of his testimony and explains how it can be difficult for him to receive God's love while he has no problem dishing it out to others.
The four horsemen of the apocalypse are incredibly terrifying both on a visual level and a theological level. But understood correctly, it's not quite as theologically concerning as you might think—you just need to see it in the light John is painting.
We often sing songs about God being a lion and a lamb. This is all well and good as the Bible likens God to a lion throughout, but in John’s Revelation, there is no lion to be found. Yes, a lion is announced, but when John turns to see him, it is, in fact, a lamb—not a lion morphing into a lamb, but a lamb. And this speaks volumes to John’s message.
In a time where the nation is vocally divided on politics, it'd be nice to give the whole thing a rest for Christmas. But the truth is that Christmas is about a baby king being born in our midst—and kings tend to be political.
The gods of the Ancient Near East expected humanity to serve them and in return they would give humanity what they needed. The Hebrews, however, saw their God in a different light—and Christmas amplifies that light to an incredible degree.
Revelation 4 is a powerful scene of God's throne room and it's there that we find all kinds of strange things we don't know what to make of. But once we learn about these strange things we begin to see God glorified even more.
The letters John wrote to the churches of Revelation are not churches in the future. They were real churches that existed at the time he wrote them and they were specifically written to them in their context. Jamin explains how each letter related to their particular environment.
“‘It gets disheartening to never have answers for people’s big problems,’ Bradley said. So 1208GREENWOOD is working to launch Empowerment Houses…”
Revelation is a very confusing book, but it's more understandable than you might think if you come at it from the perspective of the scholars and theologians who know it best. In this introduction to our new series, Jamin invites to see this book as letter, prophecy, and apocrypha. He then answers any questions people have on the first chapter of Revelation.
The Bible is framed as a clash between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of this world. What does this mean for us, our expectations of the world, and our interaction with it? Jamin covers these questions in the close of his miniseries on social justice.
Last week Jamin showed his love for social justice and social activism. This week he offers some critique on the subject, for the way the world does social justice and the way that Jesus does social justice are grounded in very different themes.
Jamin begins a new miniseries on social justice. In this first message, he shares his own journey into the theme.
Did God make beings on other planets? And if he did, are they saved? Jamin offers some proposals to these strange questions at Nerd Church.
As a scholar once said, "The women are last at the cross and first at the tomb." Their faithfulness is deeply and counter-culturally rewarded.
The universe is big—like, 2 trillion galaxies big. And that’s just an estimate if there is in fact only one universe. Jamin takes us on a journey through the cosmos to see just how vast God’s creation is.
Matthew puts a detail in his gospel that the other 3 gospels do not: Some of the dead returned to life and walked around Jerusalem. And this is not the only time in the Bible or in history that the Holy Spirit has brought people back to life.
Jamin continues his 1208-Bit *Nerd Church conversation on the topic of the church and science and offers us a few suggestions as to how to read the Bible well.
Our very first 1208-Bit *Nerd Church conversation took us into all kinds of territories—even into some hot topics.
Abraham decides it's time to get Isaac a wife and sends a servant out to find her. Along the way, the servant comes in contact with God's providence in ways that seem to astonish him.
A lot of times when we think about Jesus being tempted we think about his time fasting in the desert. But if we pay attention we can see temptation continue on throughout his ministry. We even see Satan’s temptations come at Jesus in his final moments as he hangs upon a cross.
This Sunday we tried something a little bit different. Jamin read 2 chapters of Jesus' comments on the end times, and then using the webpage, Slido, he took and answered various questions on the confusing reading.
Audiobook coming soon. Paperback and Kindle options here: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Water-Kingdom-Jamin-Bradley/dp/1686681593/
Ask for a free PDF copy or audiobook code at http://www.1208greenwood.com/contact-us
After Sarah dies at an old age, Abraham tries to buy some burial ground for her—and there's something important going on here that we might easily miss if we don't pay attention.
The Pharisees are not remembered for good things and Matthew 23 reserves some of Jesus' harshest words for them. But even here there are a couple of good qualities Jesus draws attention to, and the rest of the New Testament paints a bigger picture for them as well. Yes, they miss the point time and time again, but perhaps they will eventually see this and repent. And perhaps, we today will see the same problems in our lives as Christians and repent as well.
Reading Genesis 22 feels a lot like watching a psychological horror movie. Fortunately, however, we find in this passage that God is a good God whose test illustrates many important theological points after Abraham passes it.
After the religious leaders try to trap Jesus into saying something stupid over and over again, Jesus decides to lead them to into saying something they would rather not admit.
Jamin shares his testimony with Chelsea Free Methodist Church about how coming to know the Holy Spirit completely changed his life.
Jamin teaches on a lesser read parable about a wedding banquet and explains the Biblical understanding of election.
Today we dive deep into Genesis 19 in attempts to extract as much information as possible on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Jamin preaches an—admittedly scatterbrained—message on how the cross was an attempt to shut Jesus’ prophetic words up and how we can do the same if we’re not careful.
God and two angels walk up to Abraham at his tent. It sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s actually a real Bible story that leads to an intriguing conversation in which Abraham tries to negotiate with God on an issue of judgment. We dive deep into this passage and find many curious Biblical themes at work in this passage.
Jamin has four Audiobooks up on Audible and has free promo codes for all of them. Would you like to download one?
Today we often name children after names we like the sound of. But in ancient times, names carried more meaning and weight. In today’s episode we dive deeper into the Scriptures to uncover some of the customs behind names and naming in ancient times.
What's the big deal with circumcision in the Bible? Jamin takes a look at it from an Old Testament and New Testament perspective.
In our first episode of the “1208-Bit” section of the 1208PODCAST, Jamin dives into his recent book, Kaiju of Biblical Proportions, to reveal that creatures like Godzilla are found in the Bible. But what are they exactly? Real? Mythical? Supernatural?
Jamin takes a brief look at all the healing stories in Matthew's Gospel and then talks about how he came in contact with a Holy Spirit who still heals today.
Our soap opera of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and now Ishmael continues with more family drama and supernatural experiences.
In today's passage, Jesus enters the sacred city Jerusalem and the city celebrates him like a king. But Jesus' inauguration is very backwards from the kind we know.
A giant crowd gathers around Jesus at Jericho, but Jesus' attention is on two blind guys on the fringes. Jamin shares some stories about going to the fringes and how we must strive to do so as Christians.
In today's Bible passage we see how Abraham and Sarah repeat the actions of Adam and Eve.
We recently expanded on our mission to “create space, foster growth, love people, and love God,” by implementing the longterm vision to plant churches inside of our building that create space to reach those we’re not currently reaching…
Guest speaker Pastor Ranay Brown takes us into the complicated question people have been asking for ages.
Covenants were a big deal in ancient times. And that's part of what makes the details of God's covenant with Abraham so interesting.
Our guest speaker, Pastor Ranay Brown, brings us a message from Isaiah that reminds us not to assume things about the people around us.
James and John, "The Sons of Thunder," seem to have possibly gained their nickname from their intensity, as exemplified in stories like the one we focus on here. But Jesus calls them to another way.
Abraham is told to "number the stars" as an analogy towards how many children he will have. But in Abraham's world, stars would have fed this analogy in another light—the same light that Paul is going to perceive it in later in Romans.
In one of Jesus' lesser known parables, we are reminded that Jesus extends the same generosity of salvation even to those who receive it late in life.
What Jesus says in Matthew 19:1-12 about relationships has a lot to say to us today in various scenarios.
Pentecost is not only about Holy Spirit empowerment, but it's also about what we're empowered to do: To go into the nations and pull people out of the grip of other spiritual entities and bring them into adoption as children of the one and only God. Here's how we at 1208 are looking to expand upon our own mission to reach even more for Christ in Jackson.
Melchizedek shows up briefly in Genesis 14, but then becomes an important character in the Psalms and later Jewish writing. Why? That is the question we address today with Hebrews' answer.
After his family introduced him to porn at age nine, Scott Smith eventually found his sex addiction sending him to Cell Block 7 of the Jackson State Prison with a life sentence. Intriguingly, this is where God got ahold of him quickly—so quickly that he was released from his life sentence in two years. Jamin got a chance to talk with Scott today to hear one of the most incredible testimonies he’s ever heard. Check it out for yourself in this week’s Midweek Edition of the 1208PODCAST.
Check out Scott’s book on Audible, Kindle, or grab a physical copy from Amazon.
In today's message we look at Jesus' parable about a man who was released from a great debt, just to go and force one of his own debtors pay him. In this parable, Jesus teaches us to forgive others whatever their debt, as many times as necessary, for God has forgiven us our incredible debt. But what exactly is forgiveness? A lot of people think it's forgetting or pretending something didn't happen. But that's not accurate. Jamin works off of R.T. Kendall's work to help us see what exactly forgiveness is and isn't.
While the Nephilim don't get mentioned again until Numbers 13, the Bible in its entirety show us that there are clans of giants mentioned by other names as early as Genesis 14—just a few chapters after their origin story in Genesis 6. Seeing this requires us to pay close attention to sections of the Bible we always ignored.
When the people closest to us suddenly vanish, we're often left with anger and a lack of desire to heal the relationship. But Jesus reveals something different in God's personality.
Abraham and Lot decide to separate and a new scenario is written that harkens back to Eden, the flood, and Babel. Check it out in this week's podcast.
The transfiguration is a strange story that has left many confused as they read it. But things start to make a little more sense once we understand "shininess" from a Scriptural and ancient Jewish understanding. Also, we expect to see that shininess on Jesus once we start recognizing his presence in the Old Testament.
A strange story repeats itself three times throughout Genesis—twice in Abraham's life and once in Isaac's. In reading it, we can't help but feel like the forefathers missed the mark.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were not what you would call great friends. They were separated on many fronts. But if there was one thing that unified them, it was their desire to put an end to Jesus. And perhaps this has more to speak to our world today than we first realize.
God has a weird way of just walking up to Abraham and talking with him. But since the Bible says you can't see God and live, what on earth is going on in these stories?
Some scholars have proposed an answer that makes sense of these strange passages. But it may take you some time to digest the possibility.
Many are quite familiar with the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000—but this isn’t the only time food is created supernaturally in the Bible.
Given today's technology, pregnancy and childbirth are much more efficient than they once were. As we gaze into the world of the Ancient Near East, we see that miscarriages and infant deaths were commonplace. We also see the cultural reasons as to why parents wanted children—and lots of them! Learning all of this helps us see the stories in the Bible a little more clearly.
Jamin starts at the beginning of the Bible to show the habits of humans behaving like animals and then moves into the gospels to show Jesus showing us what a true human being looks like and how the cross goes on to exalt him to the highest place.
God wasn't upset that human beings built a tall building. Modern archeology and Hebrew word studies reveal that there's a whole lot more going in the story of the Tower of Babel.
What we celebrate every Easter is not just the idea that Jesus died and went to Heaven—that's not what resurrection is. Resurrection is the putting on of a new body that's fit for the Kingdom of Heaven which God will one day establish on Earth when Jesus returns. And the Bible has a lot more to say about this important (and often ignored or misunderstood teaching) than we might think.
Sometimes geography is known in numbers. There are 50 states. There are 7 continents. For the ancients, geography was seen in the number 70, which was the number of the nations that made up the world after the great flood of Noah's time.
Why does this matter? Well, as we continue into the Bible, we find very surprising theological messages being communicated over this number.
After telling parable after parable, Jesus concludes with a short parabolic-like statement about a new kind of scribe that is informed by the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jamin has only heard one interpretation that makes sense of all the data when it comes to that strange episode of Noah passing out drunk and naked in his tent—and that interpretation is a bit odd.
Jamin shares two short parables and then illustrates them through the life of a man from history.
As Noah gets off the Ark, we begin to see the story of Eden repeat itself—but this time with a twist. It’s not as glorious of a picture as the real Eden.
Pastor Paul Jones of Journey of Hope Community Church in Taylor, MI, comes out our way to share a beautiful message on the prodigal son.
Noah’s Ark is a famous story that many Christians have heard over and over again. But our modern minds want to know: Was it fact or legend? Working off of the book The Lost World of the Flood, Jamin offers a conclusion that hybrids the two possibilities.
In a parable so short that Jesus said the whole thing in one sentence, the kingdom is compared to yeast. Jamin makes bread and elaborates.
Genesis 5 briefly tells us about a man named Enoch who apparently didn't die but was taken to be with God, while Genesis 6 briefly tells us about how the sons of God slept with the daughters of men and beget Nephilim/giants. We take a deep look into these passages by expounding upon them with a later Jewish writing called, "The Book of Enoch," in order to see what the Jews thought of this very strange story. While doing so, we see the New Testament surprisingly come alive with direct allusions to the "Book of Enoch," that we never saw before.
Jesus tells a parable about wheat and weeds and in doing so he reveals a little bit about why the world is the way it is.
Did Adam and Eve's children have to procreate with one another to bring about humanity or does Genesis offer another picture?
When Jesus tells us to take up His yoke, He's not just making an important statement, but also an important comparison.
Many of us have grown up with an "inerrantist" view of the Bible that explains the Scriptures as perfect in every single way, down to the very last comma. But many who have taken the Bible seriously have come across many discrepancies that seem to say otherwise. What does this mean? Is it perfect? Or is it something else? Jamin helps us see the sacred Scriptures in the light of Godly inspiration and human hands.
The Bible talks about forgiveness in a weird way that makes it look like a power of sorts that's been imparted to the church, partially for evangelistic purposes. Jamin elaborates using the Scriptures.
It's often been said that we can study the "Book of Nature" to learn about God. There's a lot to this. But the Bible also gives us fair reason to be discerning while doing so.
While technically this excerpt from my book, A Taste of Jesus, was published on their page about two years ago, it was just republished…
in Leviticus 16 there are two goats: one given to Yahweh, and one given to Azazel. But who’s Azazel? And why is he given a goat? And what does it have to do with a message in our series on the Gospel of Matthew?
Learn more about tonight’s message in Michael Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm, or in Hans Moscicke academic paper, "The Gerasene Exorcism and Jesus's Eschatological Expulsion of Cosmic Powers: Echoes of Second Temple Scapegoat Traditions in Mark 5.1-20."
Since many who expressed interest were missing for our introductory class, we've recreated it on the 1208PODCAST so that you can get caught up to speed before you join in! The first part of the episode is an introduction to the book of Revelation and the second part is a look at Revelation 1 so that you can get a feel for the kind of things we'll be talking about. Next week's class will be on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, so read those chapters so you're ready ahead of time.
Genesis 3:5 says “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” However, there’s probably a better way to interpret the Hebrew here—but it requires quite a bit of explanation.
Jesus sleeping through a storm while on a boat means a lot more once you understand the significance of the sea in an ancient's mind.
What was the serpent in the Garden of Eden? A talking snake? Satan manifested as a snake? A snake taken over by Satan? Something else?
Because the Bible later connects this snake to Satan, Jamin gives us some thoughts to think on about our cosmic enemy and his Biblical backstory.
The pharisees were full of pride and it twisted good things they did into bad things. Jesus calls them out on it in the Sermon on the Mount and Jamin expands on this criticism.
Today we take a look at what marriage is from the perspective of Genesis 1, which a perspective that Jesus reiterates himself.
So often we think only of Jesus as "the light of the world," but believe it or not, he called his followers "the light of the world" as well. Today we jump deeper into this theme.
The Tree of Life that we find in Eden is an important symbol in the Bible and something that all Christians will partake in down the road.
Today's passage shows us Jesus healing "every disease and every affliction," a common theme we found throughout the gospels. Jamin takes this theme into a wider scope to show us all the dimensions in which Jesus wants to bring healing into our lives and our world.
Today we focus on the fact that God rested after having made the world. And as we look closely into the culture of the Bible writers, we see the reasons as to why He rested and the importance of Sabbath and the presence of God.
Not only did Jesus beat temptation in the desert, but he beat it in every single way. That is not to say that temptation was easy for Jesus—just that he succeeded in beating the urge to sin. This should speak volumes to us, because often we think that God couldn't understand our temptations and addictions, when he had to face the same possibilities of sinning as we did.
In today's message, we continue to work with this logic to talk about a sin that all humans are known to struggle with: sex. We especially hone in on a conversation the church often does talk about within this topic, which is pornography. What we learn will help us work together to help each other.
In today’s midweek edition of the 1208PODCAST, Jamin brings pastor and biological-physicist, Kevin Eccles onto the mic to talk about evolution and the Genesis account. Can the two work hand-in-hand or must they be separated?
Audiobook listeners, We’re happy to finally release to you, “The Rush and the Rest.” See if the preview interests you and then dive into Scripture to learn more about these topics that often get ignored…
John the Baptist and Jesus had the same message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repentance is something we do not just when we become Christians, but as we continue to go throughout life.
While many have created a theology that says nature doesn't matter, Genesis is very much about humanity being put in charge of taking care of the planet. Jamin expresses a few reasons why he thinks Christians often aren't concerned with environmentalism and tries to show us some passages in a different light to help us think otherwise.
In the second half of the podcast, 1208er Erin Shott—who holds a masters in Environmental Management with a concentration in Conservation—calls in from Scotland to motivate us further into caring and acting.
Sometimes God tells us what to do very clearly and other times He doesn't. What do we do when He doesn't?
God’s command to “Be Fruitful and Multiply” is often used by pastors to talk about the goodness of marital sex (which is all well and good), but this ignores the mission at play in the command. As it ends up, there's a real reason for this command based on the fact that we are imagers of God, and so this command is still at play today in a way.
We also answer a question from Sunday’s message on refugees: “Is the fear that some have of foreigners, derived from societal constructs and national extremism? Or is it a lie straight from the devil?”
We often get so caught up in the joy of Christmas that it's easy to miss all the suffering. But when we do pay attention we find that the almighty God of the universe isn't just with us in Jesus, but He suffers with us as well.
There's a lot of talk today about building walls and keeping refugees, foreigners and outsiders away. But when we do this, we are pushing Jesus Himself away—for the beloved Christmas story reminds us that Jesus was a refugee.
Who's God talking to when He says, "Let us create man in our image"? Is He talking to the Trinity? Or someone else? Jamin covers this question in this week's midweek edition of the 1208PODCAST.
In her final message at 1208 before she leaves at the end of the year to go plant a recovery church here in Jackson, Myisha preaches on the different types of people at play in the Christmas story.
In this week's Midweek Edition episode, Jamin explains why the sun and the moon are labeled the greater and lesser light in the Genesis creation story. This launches us into conversations about ancient astrology and even takes us into the story of the wisemen in the Christmas story.
Just as a "Pedro" might today introduce his name to an English-speaking person as "Peter," so would a Hebrew "Joshua" have introduced himself to a Greek-speaking person as, "Jesus" in the New Testament era. This transliteration reminds us to focus in on the meaning of Jesus' name as the angel communicated it to Joseph in the Christmas story.
Today we launch a new series on the Old Testament called, "The Midweek Edition." Today we learn more about the "Ruah"—the Spirit of God—and we look at the places He's seen creating in the Bible, staring with Genesis 1:2.
A new series on the Gospel of Matthew kicks off just in time for the Christmas season. Jamin dives into some Greek and Hebrew to help us see the significance of Jesus being the Son of David.
Myisha acknowledges Paul's incredible ability to be content while in jail and challenges us to pursue our own contentment with God.
Today's verse once convicted Jamin and ruined his night and everyone else's. He shares his story and encourages us to pay attention to the worldly things we participate in that don't blend well with Christianity.
We learned last week that it's faith alone that saves us, but this week we learn that people have different ways of working this theology into their lives. One of these ways is Christian while the other way makes us an enemy of the cross.
The Bible tells us that faith in Jesus alone can save us and that is it. But then the Bible also paints pictures that say how we live our lives matters to salvation as well. So which is it? Is it faith alone? If so, then what part does good works play in the conversation?
Paul calls Jesus a "servant," a powerful image to the people of his time both from a cultural perspective and from within the world of messianic expectation. Jamin takes us deeper into the humility of Jesus that Christians are to imitate and takes us deeper into Isaiah's 4-5 servant songs to show us the prophetic words Jesus was fulfilling in his servanthood.
Philippians is one of Paul's four letters that he wrote from prison. In this particular letter, he is found celebrating the Kingdom work that is coming out of the imprisonment he's enduring. Jamin reminds us that the Spirit can call us into persecution and gives us the space to take joy in these moments.
Many of Paul's words often get used to demean women and other minorities, but Paul's instructions were quite progressive for his time—not regressive. It's important we take the whole Bible into account as well as the culture Paul was in to understand just how extraordinary his message was.
The conversation on women and the church continues all week at www.jaminbradley.com
When we accept Jesus we become a new creation that belongs with the new creation when the Kingdom of Heaven takes over the planet in Revelation. Jamin explains more as he makes his way through Colossians.
There are all kinds of things in life that tell us they have all the answers, but Paul understood that Jesus was the answer—for the fullness of deity was found in him. Therefore, all of the things we learn should be submitted and tested against Him.
Sean asks, "When evangelizing, how do we know when to use words instead of letting actions speak?”
Jamin recently spoke with The Free Methodist Church Radio Show about 1208’s new dinner church model. Download it on iTunes or catch it on the PodBean player above!
The cross reconciles all things and redeems us by submitting us to death to self and life in Christ. Myisha elaborates on this reconciliation and what it looks like for us.
It is a common statement that "Jesus was fully God and fully man," but it seems people rarely address how that works out. How can Jesus be fully God and fully man? If we take a close look, we see that the Bible actually explains this conundrum a little more fully than we thought at first glance.
Our final dinner church promo video is live on Facebook! Help us share it and get the word out to our neighbors that we launch THIS Sunday!
In our final message of season 3, Jamin reminisces about our summer's progression into the dinner church model and shares stories of what God has said and done along the way. Next week begins a new podcast season and a new chapter in 1208's life.
Jamin explains the spiritual background of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and gets into some confusing and often ignored passages along the way.
Myisha preaches on the importance of learning together and following the Spirit as he gives us all we need to do ministry. As she preaches we felt the Spirit grow in our hearts and pour out following her message.
After many years of teaching and preaching on spiritual gifts, Jamin has finally released a book on it all to help you grow in supernatural ministry. You can grab a physical or Kindle copy on Amazon.
In this message, Jamin reads a chapter about supernatural worship music from his new, yet-to-be-released book, The Rush and the Rest. As it ends up, the Bible gives us several stories about how music can be used to engage God and influence the spiritual realm.
Violence is accepted by most in some way, shape, or form, but Jamin searches the Scriptures to show us how Jesus refuses to endorse it and even goes so far as to disarm Christians. If we can embody this kind of radical peacemaking, then we'll be ready to make peace in all areas of our lives.
Jamin always struggled with praying and singing the Psalms, especially the more vindictive ones. In order to address today's question, he shares a bit from his own life and works off of C.S. Lewis' book, "Reflections on the Psalms," as well as the Lexham Bible Dictionary.
Myisha talks about the importance of being a church community and not practicing Christianity on our own. There are many essential things that Christian community can offer us that individualism cannot.
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 simple financial issues to find the deeper roots at play.
Myisha talks about the different kinds of needs that our new dinner church model is going to bring in and how we will have to work to help meet them.
Jamin explains how evangelism and spiritual growth often takes patience and how our culture can ruin reaching people by constantly pushing us to move too quickly.
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…
Jamin shares a plethora of Bible stories to demonstrate how God's view of people is very different from ours. If we truly want to change the world for Christ, then we have to learn to see people as He did and treat them the way that He did.
There’s a strange story in the Bible where the prophet Elisha seems to need a musician to engage the presence of God and hear His voice. (2 Kings 3:15). Using music for this purpose is one of my greatest joys as a musician…
Al and Diane Mellinger visit us from Bulgaria and inspire us to do outreach by sharing the stories of their work and by encouraging us to be the kind of disciples who breathe mission so much that they're not even fully aware of it.
Today's podcast takes place live at Annual Conference 2018 and features guest pastors from around the Southern Michigan Conference of the Free Methodist Church! Thanks to Paul Jones, Derik Heumann, Robbie Bolton, and Janae and Kevin Burchett for joining the podcast and sharing with us each in their own way.
In this episode we address things like prostitution in the Bible, if Judas ended up in Hell or not, and even suicide. We also spend some time sharing about some of the churches in our conference and revisiting some of the things we've learned at Annual Conference.
An important megachurch study back in 2007 found that large churches were doing a good job at getting people saved, but not so much at discipling them. Jamin explains the importance of Jesus' call to make disciples and not just "saved" people and invites us into the dinner church model as a means to disciple others.
Looking for the extended version of this podcast? Reach out to Jamin.
Today we had a special interview with Christian activist and author, Shane Claiborne. Shane is well known for his ability to bring communities together and impact them with the love and peace of Jesus. We were excited to talk with him about all kinds of things related to our work as a church and our direction into the dinner church model.
Jamin retells the narrative of 1208 thus far from a spiritual perspective and then shares where we believe the Spirit is moving us as we continue forward.
Thanks for all your questions! You can now submit them quickly and easily at the new www.1208greenwood.com. Today Jamin and Myisha talk over your questions. Is investing in crypto-currency like gambling? Why don't Christians seem to care about art anymore? If the people we love keep repenting and turning back to do the same things, what do we do? And why does it seem like everyone else is so much better at hearing God than ourselves? Furthermore, how do we hear him?
As we embrace the dinner church model we find ourselves admitting that it's going to take a bit more to do church then just showing up for a service. With that in mind, Myisha covers exactly why we even have to serve sacrificially in first place and how it makes our church and our spiritual lives healthy.
As we preached on food this past week and move towards the dinner church model this fall, we are uploading some old episodes reflecting on food to help train us for the change.
As we preached on food this past week and move towards the dinner church model this fall, we are uploading some old episodes reflecting on food to help train us for the change.
In his book, "Jesus the Temple," Nicholas Perrin notes that, "It is widely acknowledged that keeping varied and questionable company at dinner was one of the distinctive features of Jesus’ life."
In today's message, Jamin elaborates on the power food has in life and ministry and why 1208's is incorporating food into their new model.
As we gear up to alter our model this fall, it's important we talk about why we even need to change as a church in the first place. The answer is pretty easy to see if we just take a look at our ordinary everyday lives. Over time we all have the ability to pick up some pretty nasty habits, which, if not kept in check, will eventually hurt us or even kill us. The church is very much the same. If we do not stay healthy as a church by embracing community, mission and communion with God, we will eventually get hurt and we may even die. The body of the Bride of Christ must stay healthy just as our normal bodies must. And it's into this analogy that Jamin dives in this message.
It's our brand new Q&A podcast! In this first session, Jamin and Myisha take on the topic of gambling.
Is gambling ok if done recreationally and in moderation and all winnings are tithed to the church? (i.e. Is this different than the person who spends $80-100 a month on entertainment or hobbies?)
THIS EPISODE IS HAVING PROBLEMS ON ITUNES. IF YOU CAN’T LISTEN TO IS, VISIT 1208GREENWOOD.COM TO LISTEN TO IT THERE.
Much of modern misogyny in the church can be attributed to Paul’s comments on women in the Bible. But is misogyny really what Paul intended to communicate? In today's message, Jamin takes a look at Paul's comments in 1 Corinthians 11 and sorts out what's at the heart of Paul's message. As it ends up, from a cultural perspective he is simply trying to establish order in light of creation, cosmology and science. All three of these points go over the heads of modern people because we think entirely different on all three subjects. Therefore, we can only truly understand what Paul is saying by getting into a head 2,000 years older than ours.
So often the church takes Biblical truth and shoves it in people's faces without first submerging themselves into the world of those they're trying to reach. Such evangelism requires little sacrifice on our parts and ignores Paul's only evangelistic method to "become all things to all people." If we truly want to reach people, it often requires more effort than bold statements—though it doesn't mean we water down the Gospel either.
If in the end we are not relatable, then we can hardly be heard. God, of course, gives us the ultimate example of this truth: He puts on skin and comes and lives among us as Jesus to show us exactly what God looks like. He "chameleons" himself into the people He's reaching. He wears their skin, their culture, their understanding, their world, and in doing so, He clearly shows them who God is.
And so, this kind of chameleon evangelism is expected of us to an extent, too.
In today's passage Paul rhetorically asks, "Do you not know that we are to judge angels?"—as though we would nod our heads in agreement and understanding. But truthfully, most of us would put our hands up and respond, "Actually, Paul, we don't know what you're talking about."
To understand what the apostle is saying, we have to get our head into his world and understand the spiritual mindset he lived in. Jamin works off Michael Heiser's book, The Unseen Realm, in order to establish the Bible's picture of a divine council and give some backing to Paul's blatant statement. As it ends up, he does have a context and the Bible gives us the ability to understand what he's getting at.
Just as cities often gentrify (like our own Jackson seems to currently be doing), so do our churches. Myisha explains how this process often works so that we can keep an eye out for the problem.
Paul offers a metaphor that interprets in a rather surprising way: While Christians are saved only by faith and belief in Christ, our works as Christians play a part in a reward to come in Heaven. Working with this metaphor, Jamin surveys similar explanations of the afterlife through Jesus' teachings and then invites us to let Christianity get so under our skin that our focus becomes entirely Heaven-focused. We don't need to live lives full of earthly riches now, but lives aimed at Heavenly riches later. And if we let Heaven get under our skin enough, we may just find that even basic things like our sex drives can be called into question.
There are a few interesting Biblical callbacks it seems John is giving us as he paints for us Jesus' tomb—that is, the scene of the resurrection. As we look at these possible references, we retrace the presence of God throughout history and pinpoint it on Jesus. Furthermore, we come to see Jesus' role in and as the presence of God in an important light.
Because we're not used to going to temples to worship we often miss the significance of them throughout the Bible. For ancient people, temples were the places where their gods resided physically on the earth—and while Yahweh is omnipresent and everywhere, He still practiced this method of putting His concentrated presence in buildings. As it ends up, God's manifest presence has found a few homes throughout history: Eden, the tabernacle tent, Solomon's temple, Jesus, and us.
The theological impact of this message is crucial to understanding who we are as Christians, the supernatural ministerial power we can have, and the spiritual growth available to us. In today's podcast, Jamin starts at the very beginning and unfolds the story of God's temple throughout the ages and why all of this is important to us today.
I've been really surprised that my chapter on joy in A Taste of Jesus has gotten the most comments. Apparently we have widespread difficulty in making this a part of the Christian faith. Today I shared some thoughts on this topic with a group at the Grande Villa Retirement Home.