Jesus

Reading the Gospels over, it is clear that Jesus could see in portrait mode. Of course, he could also take in a panorama! But over and over again, as Paul Miller points out, we see him “see” people, move toward them in compassion, and act on their behalf.

God is the one taking action in Jesus’ resurrection. The Apostle Paul is pointing out something that's really important for love: we do the dying, but God does the resurrecting. This doesn't mean that we’re completely passive in resurrection. But the energy, ideas, and the people that help—all of that is from the father. It's the father's gift to us...

We are living in a season of sadness. This is true globally at multiple levels, but it's also true for the Church as we enter Lent. For many of us, sadness is frightening because we don’t know how to enter it without drowning.

A few years ago, I started to feel uncomfortable with my then lower elementary aged kids' lack of engagement in our worship service. There was no pressure around us to make a change; my discomfort didn't feel like embarrassment or guilt, but a nudge from the Lord to take action!

Philippians 2:5-8 is like an x-ray of Christmas – it’s the story behind the story of the manger. In this passage, Paul describes four steps to what we're calling the descent of love that help us understand not only Jesus' love for us, but also our love for others.

In modern business terms, Jesus was a movement leader with twelve staff that needed to be recruited. Most leaders are quick to acknowledge that recruiting good staff is challenging. Let's watch Jesus do HR work -- and manage by prayer.

As the training for a group of leaders in Arizona was coming to a close, one of the senior leaders asked me two questions that hushed the room: “Where do you think the American church will be in 50-100 years?... Is there any hope?”

Do you anticipate a somewhat turbulent Thanksgiving or Christmas? The J-Curve is no guarantee of smooth skies (in fact doing the work of love often makes them bumpier) but it can steady you and bring the joy of fellowship with Christ into the darkest of places.

In the midst of a hard season with a friend, our Director of Communications, Liz, had an epiphany: Don't flee from the truth, welcome it. Since then, she's been immensely helped by watching how Jesus "does" honesty in "The Person of Jesus" study's second unit, "Honesty."

Julie Courtney, our Developmental Editor, has taught "The Person of Jesus" material for over 30 years, and she has been using her extensive knowledge of the material to update it for release as five individual studies including the second unit, "Honesty."