Everything is complicated. Or at least it feels that way, doesn't it? But Caleb Davis believes that Jesus is the one thing that shouldn't be. In fact, Caleb believes that the answer to one question can change everything: "What does it mean to Simply Love Jesus?"Open the pages of this book and go on a journey with Caleb to discover how this question not only helps us overcome the struggles in our world and in our life, but through it, we can discover how Jesus intended for His followers to live and how to be Good News to the world around us.
God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you there. He wants you to be just like Jesus. Can you think of a better offer? In Just Like Jesus, pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado reminds us that being just like Jesus feels like an impossible goal until we accept one simple truth: God loves us. Jesus felt no guilt; God wants you to feel no guilt. Jesus had no bad habits; God wants to do away with yours. Jesus had no fears; God wants the same for you. Jesus had no anxiety about death; you needn't either. God's desire, his plan, his ultimate goal is to make you into the image of Christ. Not only does God love each of us exactly as we are, he wants us, little by little, to become like him. He doesn't love us and leave us alone; he loves us enough to live within us, making our hearts his home. But doing so requires a bit of sprucing up, remodeling, refurnishing. Why? Because he wants us to have a heart like his too. Just Like Jesus will teach you how far God will go to transform us into his likeness. Along the way, Max addresses questions that might arise as you examine the peaceful, passionate, and pure heart of Christ, including: How do we know that God wants us to be made in his image? How does this change occur? If God wants me to be just like Jesus, why do I still seem just like me? In Just Like Jesus, Max gives you the tools you need to better understand God's gracious gift of transformation and restoration, so you, too, can start to live Just Like Jesus.
Until his death in 2012, Walter Wink was one of the most influential Christian intellectuals of our time. He was a pastor and theologian, a political activist and a writer. He first becme a practitioner of active nonviolence during the Civil Rights Movement in Selma Alabama, and continued to seek social justice for all under dictatorships in Chile and the apartheid in South Africa. Always through the lens of Jesus, Wink's life and work demonstrate just how important the need to understand "the Son of the Man" is in today's modern world. Wink shows us that inspiration and insight can come from any source: a Pentecostal Church in Oklahoma, dreams, Buddhist meditation centers, childhood traumas, an empty forest, illness, and the Gospels. Wink's work in social justice and his life as a theologian are inextricably entwined, finding evidence for nonviolent resistance in the Bible and seeing the need for Jesus in daily struggles. "An autobiography of my interest in Jesus, perhaps that is too ambitious," writes Wink. "What I have done here is far less grand. I have simply written down vignettes, or excerpts of my life's story that I find interesting. These autobiographical reflections are in no way exceptional. Everyone has a life story. My story may, at the very least, show why I theologically think the way that I do." Just Jesus is the jubilant autobiography of the man who sought justice in all walks of life, including his own.
How did the apostle John know that, two thousand years after he lived, your life would need a fresh touch from God? How did John know that, at the beginning of a new millennium, our lives would be so busy, our focus so divided, our bodies so tired, our minds so bombarded, our families so attacked, our relationships so strained, our churches so programmed . . . that we would be desperate for the simplicity and the purity, the freedom and the fulfillment of a life lived in Jesus’ name? John probably didn’t know. But God did. That’s why He gives us Jesus! And that’s why, as Anne Graham Lotz reveals, John’s eyewitness account of Jesus’ life is unmistakably relevant to your life today. The same Jesus who turned water into wine is the One who provides for your needs at this very moment. Enter into His life and find your soul refreshed with Living Water. This new edition of Just Give Me Jesus contains an in-depth devotional guide to help you explore the words of John in a personal and practical way, either on your own or in a group. You’ll find inspiration and revelation as you study the Scripture more closely and record your reflections in space provided at the back of the book.
Throughout his earthly life Jesus grew increasingly reliant upon three spiritual resources. These same resources are available to you today. Just Like Jesus explores Jesus' growth and humble reliance on: prayer, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit. Change is possible, but only as you trust in the resources Jesus used. He walked where you walk so that you can learn to walk just like him. The opening chapter examines Jesus' prayer life. Special attention is given to developing one's own prayer pattern based upon the Lord's instruction with his disciples (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4). The second chapter emphasizes essentials for growth through the Word. We are encouraged to: (1) study the Word for discovery; (2) apply the Word for change; (3) memorize the Word for instant retrieval. The final chapter looks at Jesus' dependence on the Holy Spirit. Jesus was both full of and led by the Spirit. What does it mean for us to depend on the Spirit of God in the same way that Jesus did? There is a special emphasis given on what it means to walk in the Spirit. The final pages read like a how-to-manual; giving practical suggestions to implement what you have learned. Help is offered for: prayer patterns, Bible study and reading guides, Scripture memory and dependence on the Holy Spirit.
When Jesse Christian, a mysterious biker, pulls up for the first time, a group of racetrack regulars are fascinated. Jesse seems to know the outcome of every race, and begins making a collection of career losers very rich. They form a tight knit group that every day drinks together, wins together, spends their lives together. Jesse fits in right away, and his strange, quiet spiritualism begins to make many of them think he is much more than just a terrific gambler. But the racetrack is full of con men and scam artists, and not everyone is convinced. And others want in on the winning. What starts as a group of lost souls finding their pot of gold soon evolves into a dark and twisted tale of organized crime, mysticism, jealousy and deep, dark secrets. Secrets that could easily lead to a tragic end for everyone.
All children are special, but God had extra-special plans for Caleb Brian Rodgers; he battles daily with a condition affecting the muscles of the body called cerebral palsy. Words may not flow freely from Caleb's mouth at this time, but God has given him a unique ability to communicate using a paper, hand-held version of a keyboard. It is through this special ability Caleb has been able to communicate messages of hope and healing to so many people throughout the last several years. With a special anointing from God, Caleb has communicated hope to local recovery programs on and off since the age of five. His mother relayed these messages, and his father recorded each one. Be Free in Christ, a devotional journal, offers a compilation of these encouraging messages. In 2020, Caleb spent time reflecting on these writings and paired them with questions in this devotional journal to bring freedom to those in bondage.
What if you could encounter the words of Jesus on their own, lifted up from the surrounding narratives and presented in their full power and mystery? That’s the question Phyllis Tickle—one of America’s most beloved writers on Christian spirituality—asked when she set out to write what she calls a “Sayings gospel.” In The Words of Jesus Tickle has compiled and arranged all the sayings of Jesus from the first four books of the New Testament and the first chapter of the Book of Acts in a way that creates an entirely new kind of encounter with the texts. And she has accompanied those sayings with her own personal reflections and commentaries not just on the words themselves but on the One who spoke them.
More than a devotional, this is a month-long journey with bestselling author Max Lucado that brings readers face-to-face with Jesus, each day bringing new discoveries about their faith and their Savior.
