Summit Life on Oneplace.com

Thomas Jefferson once famously took a razor blade to his Bible and cut out the parts he disliked. And while most of us haven't literally chopped up our Bibles in that way, we often cut out certain passages in our minds, skipping past uncomfortable verses that talk about God's wrath and the punishment for sin. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Verses about God's love, like John 3:16, tend to get repeated and memorized. They stir up warm, sentimental feelings and make us feel good about ourselves. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Have you ever wondered why so many movies, books, and songs are focused on romance? It's because every one of us, in the deepest corners of our hearts, longs to feel loved and cherished. But if we're honest with ourselves, we also know that we don't deserve that kind of unconditional love. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

If you want to get to know someone, the first thing you do is introduce yourself, because knowing someone's name is an important part of your relationship with him or her. And you're never going to feel very close with someone if they always call you by the wrong name. So in this series, Pastor J.D. is helping us know God personally by knowing his name. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

What do you think God's most appealing attribute is? If you're like most people, you're probably attracted to his love and kindness, and you gravitate to verses that describe him as our Father and our shepherd. And God is definitely all of those things! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

What is the presence of God like? Is it just a warm, fuzzy feeling, or an emotional worship encounter? For something we all want to experience, why can it seem so elusive? On this edition of Summit Life, Pastor J.D. takes us back to Moses' encounter with God on Mount Zion. We'll see how the presence of God changed Moses' goals and desires forever. And it will change us, too. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Some people imagine God as an absentee “watchmaker in the sky” who set the world in motion and then stepped away. They think he's probably out there, but there's no way to know what he's like. Others think of God as an unknown, impersonal force, without thoughts or emotions. But on this edition of Summit Life, Pastor J.D. kicks off a brand new series that's all about knowing God intimately. He titled this series, The Name. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Like the disciples, we want to know the “how” and “what” of the Christian life. Pastor J.D. helps us see in this message that the Christian life, from start to finish, is a relationship with Jesus. Whatever you need, whatever you lack, wherever you are incomplete or broken, whatever you are missing in yourself or didn't get from someone else, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

These days, it's not exactly popular to claim the existence of absolute truth. It's even less popular to claim that such truth is embodied in the person of Jesus, the one who is the only way to salvation. In this week's message from John 14, Pastor J.D. shows us the importance of what is perhaps Jesus' most controversial "I am" statement: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Do you want to know how to find peace when you feel confused or afraid, when you don't know what to do with your finances or your kids or a big decision? Pastor J.D. continues to teach in this message how, when we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we can rest in his promise to give us peace and lead us in the way we should go. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Without shepherds to care for them, the threats posed to sheep run the gamut, from losing their way to being attacked by other animals. Simply put, sheep thrive under the guidance and protection of their shepherd. In this week's message from John 10, Pastor J.D. takes us through Jesus' claim to be the "good shepherd." To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Does it feel like you're in a long “second day” of waiting before resurrection? In this message, Pastor J.D. looks at the story of Lazarus to teach us why sometimes God seems to delay his help or deliverance. One day soon, this whole veil of tears we call life will end in resurrection, and we'll see that, even when life felt like meaningless chaos, Jesus was never absent in our pain. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

If we're honest, most of us have probably experienced disappointment with God at some point in our lives. We question why God didn't cure our friend's cancer, or why he didn't provide for us financially when we really needed it. Pastor J.D. walks us through Jesus' claim to be the "resurrection and the life," from John 11. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Most people think that surrender to Jesus means giving up our freedom. But when you surrender to Jesus and lean on him, it leads to freedom and abundance! Pastor J.D. continues in this message to show us how Jesus is a Good Shepherd who proved his commitment to us on the cross and now promises to use everything he lets into the pasture of our lives for good. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Doors and gates are things that we likely don't give much thought to until they are in need of repair—and while the truth is that they are usually constructed to keep people or animals out, they can also certainly be opened to let them in. In this week's message from John 10, Pastor J.D. explains perhaps the most overlooked of Jesus' "I Am" statements: "I am the door." To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Jesus said in John 8:12 that those who follow him will not walk in darkness, which means that our lives will radiate with his light. In this message, Pastor J.D. continues to share how to look to the light of Jesus to be saved and then live in a way that glows with the knowledge that you belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to you. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

No matter what side of the "daylight saving time" debate we find ourselves on, we all have to at least acknowledge that light is essential for life, for a myriad of reasons. So Jesus' declaration that he is "the light of the world" was truly a bold claim. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

If we were to trace some of our worst choices, our bad habits, our addictions, and even some of our emotional problems back to their source, we would find a deep and unsatisfied spiritual hunger. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

As humans, one of our most basic needs is food—when we don't have it, we experience discomfort, irritability, or even sickness or death. And yet, as unbearable as physical hunger can be, it is our spiritual hunger that we often neglect to address, to our own detriment. As we begin a series looking at the seven "I am" statements made by Jesus in the Gospel of John, this message from Pastor J.D. explores the first of these, from John 6. Jesus' claim to be the "bread of life" is a truth that we so desperately need in a world full of people who seek to satisfy their spiritual hunger with anything but Jesus. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Our emotions function like smoke from a fire—and just like you can follow a trail of smoke to figure out what's on fire in your house, you can follow the trail of your emotions to figure out what is on fire in your heart. Pastor J.D. concludes with the emotion of shame. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

We're in the final couple of days of our series on difficult emotions titled, “Smoke from a Fire.” Or, to change the analogy—each of these emotions—depression, anxiety, anger, envy, and now “shame”—functions like warning lights on the dashboard of our hearts, indicating what is going on in the engine of our souls. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Sociologists say that envy seems to be a bigger problem for our generation than any before us, because social media seems designed to play on it! But when we look at other people's lives on social media, we are seeing a filtered image. Pastor J.D. concludes his message on the difficult emotion of envy. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Envy surrounds us—and most of us don't realize the deadly poison that envy is. We think of envy as a kind of petty jealousy that just comes from wanting a little more. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

People seem queued up and ready to be angry—in the classroom, at work, on Twitter, and on the freeway. Pastor J.D. teaches how we can be angry like Jesus. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Remember that one time in the Bible when Jesus got angry? And he didn't hide it? And he didn't sin? Pastor J.D. is helping us see how we can be angry like Jesus, too. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

When it comes to money, parenting, career, and any of the other litany of things we worry about, God is not telling us to sit back and do nothing. He is saying that we need to do what we can, and trust him with the results. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

We worry most about what we are devoted to most. Jesus talks about the difficult emotion of anxiety by first challenging what we are most devoted to. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Whenever we struggle with depression, despair, or doubts about God, we think there's something wrong with us or maybe we just don't have enough faith. And it can be difficult to ask for help because we don't want anyone to see us as broken. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Pastor J.D. shows us that the aim of the Bible's teaching on emotions isn't to suppress them or even to manage them, but to read them accurately, express them honestly, and allow the gospel reshape them completely. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Death is never a comfortable subject, but in the back of our minds, we all know that death is eventually coming. So, what happens after? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Heaven is usually portrayed as this ethereal place in the clouds full of harps and chubby cherubim. But, is that really all we have to look forward to in eternity? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

As we walk through the book of Revelation, Pastor J.D. explains how God has pulled back the curtain to give us a glimpse of the spiritual reality. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

The book of Revelation has generated more curiosity and debate than any other book of the Bible. So, Pastor J.D. is helping us wrap our minds around the main point of this prophetic book. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

In our series called, The Whole Story, we've been traveling from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how every page is pointing to Jesus and revealing the gospel.  To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Everyone wants to feel like they've succeeded at life. But, what does “success” even mean? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

In this message, Pastor J.D. tackles a subject that can be a bit sensitive, but is vital to advancing the gospel. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Tragically, it's not uncommon to hear speakers and pastors who promise God's blessing in order to manipulate their audience into giving them money. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

When asked about their hopes for the future, 96% of teens in a recent survey said they want to make a difference in the world. Clearly, we all crave a greater purpose and for our lives to leave an impact. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

In this message, we're looking at a crucial moment that changed—not just the course of a single life—but the course of human history. And how you respond to this moment will change your eternity! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

In the unfolding story of God's redemptive plan for mankind, we've come to the climax of the story, the moment on which everything else hangs. It's a hope-filled message about the crucifixion. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Pastor J.D. reminds us of the ultimate purpose of prayer and why it matters. And when we catch sight of this vision, it'll give us a fresh excitement for prayer like never before! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Pastor J.D. challenges us to take a bold, public stance for our faith. He's calling us to step out of our comfort zone and make our private faith known to the world. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

It's much easier and more comfortable to keep our faith a private, personal thing. But Pastor J.D. is challenging us to get outside our comfort zone and make our faith known. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Even with all the comfort and luxury of modern life, happiness is still hard to come by. And all the self-care and positivity in the world can never truly satisfy our souls. So, what are we missing? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

We all crave happiness, and yet, it often seems elusive. So what's the solution? How do we escape the rat race and find true, lasting joy? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

When we picture Jesus, we often think of him as our gentle Good Shepherd. But Pastor J.D. is drawing our attention to another aspect of Jesus' character that we don't think about as often! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

We don't typically think of fear as a positive thing. However, when it comes to our relationship with God, fear is actually a good, healthy, and even essential emotion. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Have you ever prayed for a miracle? Sometimes, you might get the answer you were hoping for! But other times, it seems like God doesn't respond. So why is that? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Pastor J.D. walks us through the story of two people who came to Jesus looking for physical healing. But these stories are about so much more than just getting your prayers answered! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

Whether we're aware of it or not, we all face temptations on a daily basis. So, how do we find the power to overcome and keep resisting the constant enticement? To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29

When you hear the word, “sin,” impatience probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But Pastor J.D. explains that a lack of patience is at the root of a lot of sins. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1518/29