Jesus Christ is the Hero of our story. In fact all of history is His Story. Before the cross it tells us of humanity’s fall and of God’s ways of preparing us for the Savior to come. Then for a brief moment in time Jesus left His divine powers behind, took the plunge into earth’s pain and darkness, and lived in our midst, becoming forever united to our humanity. At the cross He single-handedly redeemed us. After the cross and His ascension history reveals His slow, patient way of redeeming humanity through us. It is easy to miss it: easy to look at the world and not see a Creator; easy to look at our history and not see His Story. Seeing Him changes everything.
“Faith wants to become FACT!” That phrase was ringing in my ears as I awoke early on Easter morning. Clear as a bell, I knew Jesus was speaking to me about two facts. Fact #1: Jesus is alive! Fact #2: I know it for a fact! What others may see as my “faith” isn’t faith at all. It’s knowledge of the FACTS. Faith has nothing to do with it. An eternal truth was revealed to little old me. I was…
In full display before a watching world, Jesus suffered as no human being has ever suffered or will ever suffer again. Yet, no one looking on could see it. The scoffers certainly couldn’t see that it was their Messiah who was being crucified right before their eyes. However, even those who believed in Jesus couldn’t see the true extent of their Messiah’s suffering: Physical death …
Have you ever felt like the plug got pulled on your life in Christ? Like you’re cut off and drifting away, or worse, have taken a big hit and now are in free fall. Doesn’t feel very good does it? The peace of Christ becomes a faded memory, a host of weaknesses sap your strength and temptations you thought you’d finished with are back pounding on your spiritual door. Disconnected! It’s one of the easiest things to happen to a…
Jesus came down from heaven to be with us as one of us. That we can easily see. But His descent didn’t end there—with becoming like us. He descended further and became what we had always been meant to be. Then He descended even further to become what we had never been meant to be. We, on the other hand, can hardly wait to rise higher. We all too often hate and fear the descent, even though it is life-saving…