“He Himself is the great Man of Sorrows who knows our ills, Who was called the son of a carpenter, though He was the Son of God and the great Healer of sick souls. Who laboured for 30 years in a humble carpenter’s shop to fulfil God’s will. And God wills that in imitation of Christ, man should live and walk humbly on earth, not reaching for the sky, but bowing to humble things, learning from the Gospel to be meek and humble of heart.”

~ Vincent van Gogh

David was anointed at Bethel to be king. Immediately afterwards, however, he returned to his ordinary life as a shepherd.

He didn’t get shipped off to some training school. Rather, it was in the sheep fields as a shepherd that David learned to exercise and build his faith in God.

There in the sheep fields, he tested his shepherd’s sling.

When the hour came when he would face Goliath, David used that which he had tested in secret as a shepherd.

He declined the sword and the shield, but used that which he experienced in the trials of ordinary life.

And so it is with every servant of God. Or so it should be.

Wherever God puts us in life is our training for reigning.

“If we endure, we will also reign with him . . .” 2 Timothy 2:12

Update: Jesus: A Theography is now available on Audiobook. Listen to the Introduction for free. Click here to order the Audiobook.

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Just when we think we’ve solved Jesus, He turns the tables on us.

Jesus often comes to us in unexpected ways and through unexpected means.

Just think about how He came to Earth. For centuries, Israel had waited for a political Messiah. They expected Him to lead a rebellion and free Israel from Roman oppression.

But how did the Messiah make His entrance into the world? He came in a way that made it easy for His own people to reject Him. He came as a frail baby, born in a feeding room for animals. There He was. The promised Messiah who was expected to overthrow the mighty Roman Empire and set Israel free from Gentile oppression. A needy Nazarene born in a manger.

When Jesus grew up, He ate and drank in their presence and taught in their streets (Luke 13:26). Yet they didn’t recognize who He was. He was unassumingly modest, of humble origin. A mere craftsman; the son of a craftsman.

He grew up in the despised city of Nazareth, fraternizing with the despised and oppressed. But more startling, He befriended sinners (Luke 7:34). As such, the people of God didn’t recognize Him. Why? Because He came in a way that made it easy for them to reject Him.

And what about the disciples? Read the story again. Jesus continued to break out of their expectations. He couldn’t be pinned down, figured out or boxed in. The Twelve were constantly confounded by Him. His teachings were offensive. His actions scandalous. His reactions baffling. Continue Reading…

Recently, Life Today with James Robison published the following excerpt from Jesus: A Theography on their website.

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“She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

~ Mark 14:8-9

We tend to forget that crucifixion was the ultimate form of torture. The science of exquisite torture has never been equaled, much less exceeded, than in crucifixion. The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth was no exception. Crucifixion was more than an ugliness blotted out by Easter, more than a speed bump on the road to resurrection.

Part of the cruelty of crucifixion was the emotional as well as physical torture.

There is no odor so bad

as that which arises

from goodness tainted.

—Henry David Thoreau

Yes, Jesus’ physical agonies were beyond imagining. But the emotional agonies were even worse—the humiliation of being stripped naked, with all bodily parts and functions exposed for the humiliating gaze of the public; the mixture of blood and sweat and urine and feces and refuse creating a nauseating stench, the smells of death that kept even the families of the crucified at a distance.

But what cut even deeper were the emotional agonies of Jesus’ spirit. The Bible unabashedly testifies to Jesus’ sense of total abandonment, defeat, rejection, and betrayal. In many ways, this was where Jesus was really crucified in spirit. Not on the cross but in the kiss. The cross crucified Him in body. The kiss crucified Him in soul. He was truly despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Jesus was really betrayed twice, first by the kiss of Judas, then by something that cut even deeper: the kiss-off of Peter. The disciple who stuck with Jesus the longest after Jesus’ arrest, when accosted by a servant girl in the courtyard of the high priest, denied he knew Him. Before the barnyard cock crowed, the second betrayal took place.

Of Jesus’ closest friends, one denied Him, all betrayed Him, and, save John, all ran away.

Now do you know why Jesus said to remember “her” (the woman who anointed His head with fragrant ointment)? Continue Reading…

“Every word of the God-breathed character of Scripture is meaningless if Holy Scripture is not understood as the witness concerning Christ.”

~ G.C. Berkower

All Scripture finds its organic center and unity in Jesus.

For this reason, the biblical narrative has its beginning in the creation of the universe through Christ, its middle in the earthly life and ministry of Christ, and its end in the reconciliation of all things in Christ.

There’s an overarching unity to both Testaments. And Christ is the unifying agent.

Part of that statement is not entirely accurate. While Genesis begins the scriptural narrative at the point of creation, the Second Testament tells us that the narrative actually begins somewhere else.

The Jesus story doesn’t begin in Bethlehem, Nazareth, or even Israel. According to the Second Testament (that is, the New Testament), it begins long before them. It begins in the dateless past, before angels or atoms.

In chapter 1 of my new book with Leonard Sweet, Jesus: A Theography, we narrate the Jesus story as it happened before creation and get a breathtaking glimpse of the preincarnate Christ—the eternal Son, the preexistent Word, Jesus before time, Christ before creation.

The Second Testament contains numerous texts that give us insight into Christ before time. And the First Testament (that is, the Old Testament) supports those texts.

Considering Jesus before the world began is mind-boggling. We feel we are fumbling in the dark, groping for words to express the inexpressible. Continue Reading…

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Be good anyway. Continue Reading…

Yesterday, I drove to an appointment. On the way there, I got stuck in traffic. The road I was on normally flows fine. But it was backed up for some reason.

The three cars ahead of me took a left-hand turn and went down a different road. One I’ve never been on before. I assumed it was a detour and these three people knew how to short-circuit the traffic to get on the main street where I was headed.

Well, after following them for a whole 5 minutes, they each broke in different directions. Each car ended up in different parking lots in the same neighborhood. Hmmm . . .

After about 10 minutes of getting lost in a maze of cul-de-sacs and dead ends, I found my way back to the very road I was stuck on. The traffic was gone this time (15 minutes later).

One of my spiritual disciplines is to ask the Lord why something out-of-the-ordinary happens . . . as I believe my “steps are ordered” and everything happens for a reason (Psalm 37:23). Continue Reading…

Today we stand on the edge of a new frontier—one of exploration, not fortification. One of discovery, not contentment. In this new frontier, we will navigate the unchartered waters of Jesus Christ, our all-sufficient Lord.

There is so much more of Christ to sail than we could ever imagine. But if the truth be told, we have been handed a shrink-wrapped Jesus.

Christ has become our once-a-week Mascot. We rally around Him on Sunday mornings, selfishly reaching for all we can get from Him—goodies and gifts, all for us. Then we push Him off to the sidelines the rest of the week.

But the game has never been about us; it’s always been about Him.

The gospel that’s so often preached today lacks a revelation of Jesus Christ. The contemporary gospel boils down to a fire insurance policy, a Santa Claus God, or a performance-based religion. As long as we stay on that plane, we’ll never see or comprehend the staggering enormity of our Lord.

Paul of Tarsus was a man who caught a glimpse of the excellencies of Jesus Christ. He preached such a high gospel that it turned illiterate, immoral pagans into full-pledged followers of Jesus who learned to live in authentic community—all in just a few months.  Continue Reading…

We live in a day when what sells best in the Christian world are books, sermons, and television programs that are aimed directly at you — This Is Your Day, You Are the Reason for the Season, Become a Better You, It’s Your Time, The Me I Want to Be, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, and similar titles orbiting around the Youniverse.

It’s time to take all the arrows that point to you and bend them back to our Lord.

Behold the ill-starred Nazarene who went about “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.”

Behold the artisan from Galilee, the one who called Himself the “Son of Man” (which means “son of Adam” — “the human being”).

Watch Him as He is taken before Rome’s delegates in the city of Jerusalem. See Him standing before Pilate — rejected, dejected, bludgeoned, beaten, spat upon. Behold Him who created the heavens, the Lord of the universe, suffering the most horrific, gruesome form of torture that was ever invented by the human imagination.

Observe Him hanging on a wooden stake, dying a slow, hideous death, covered with blood — naked, mocked, and shamed. The Messiah has become a public spectacle that elicits the spinechilling, gleeful laughter of satan himself.

Watch death, the child of sin, emerge from the pit. With open arms, it darkens the wood of the cross and takes the Prince of heaven into its silent, hopeless domain.

The powers of Rome may have defeated the suffering artisan two thousand years ago, but in the end, He shall triumph. Christ shall subdue all things and put them under His feet, for upon that bloody hill, Jesus of Nazareth — the spotless, sinless man — defeated the powers of darkness and won for Himself the keys of death, hell, and the grave. Continue Reading…

The entire Bible is fully inspired, but there are two letters that seem to have dropped straight out of heaven.

They are Ephesians and Colossians. High water marks in the written Word of God.

It is for this reason that I’ve often ministered out of these two letters.

A 6-part series that I delivered several years ago has been uploaded to the podcast. It takes a narrative approach to Paul’s amazing letter to the Colossians. The parts are as follows:

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part I – the historical background of the letter.

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part II – the main points of the letter with some practicals sprinkled in.

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part III – the big picture of Colossians 1 and 2.

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part IV – Colossians 1:24-29 expounded.

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part V – Colossians 3 to the beginning of 4 expounded.

Epic Jesus: The Christ You Never Knew – Colossians 1:15-22 unveiled.

You can freely hear these messages via iTunes, Podbean, or RSS below.

Note of Interest: I delivered most of these messages while I was writing Jesus Manifesto. And I sampled one of the more unique chapters from that book to the audience beforehand. You’ll hear it in one of the audios.

Plans are being laid for more exciting episodes for the podcast. Subscribe so you don’t miss any.

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In 1927, the famed British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote an essay entitled, “Why I Am Not a Christian.”

Russell’s essay inspired the title of this post.

By “Christian,” I mean someone who has trusted their life to Jesus Christ as Crucified Savior and Resurrected Lord and seeks to follow Him each day. (I’m keenly aware that the term “Christian” has been hijacked to mean different things, hence the need to define.)

Three things to keep in mind about this list:

1) This isn’t a list of theological reasons (e.g., God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world and the Holy Spirit revealed Christ to my heart).

2) This isn’t a list of why I am indebted to Jesus (He owns me; He bought me with His blood; He died for my sins, etc.) Instead, they are intellectual/emotional/experiential reasons why I trust in and follow Jesus.

3) This isn’t an exhaustive list (I can certainly list more reasons), and it doesn’t reflect any particular order or priority.

At the end of the list, I have a question for readers who aren’t following Jesus at the present time. And I’m really looking forward to hearing what they have to say.

So share this post via Facebook and Twitter using the links/buttons below. Continue Reading…