Be really honest with yourself: Is this resurrection life the foundation you’re building on as your numbered days roll by?

Thomas brought all of his pain to God, and God took the invitation to encounter. He has a better story than jaded disbelief, the safety of cynicism, and a crowd of comforting, like-minded disenchantment for one reason alone: He had the audacity to tell God exactly what he thought. He didn’t dilute his theories. He didn’t filter the pain of his past

Real spirituality begins, though, when a person stops theorizing about God and begins actually attempting to know God. That’s how it’s always worked. Theory is safe and predictable because you get to remain in control. Theory happens on your terms. Relationship, on the other hand, is anything but safe and predictable. Relationship is to surrender

If you prefer to keep God at arm’s length, locked away in a cage of theory that never risks relationship, God usually gives you what you want. He rarely will overwhelm people with his presence who aren’t looking for him at all.

Why isn’t every three-day story a two-day story? Here’s my theory: because our whole lives happen on Saturday.

The way Jesus spent his fifty days on earth in a supernatural, resurrected body tells us everything we need to know about the heart of God. It would stand to reason that Jesus would make the biggest splash possible—appearing in Herod’s palace or Pilate’s courtroom or the Roman Colosseum. But you won’t find Jesus in any of those places. Instead, he

To say yes to Jesus isn’t to sign up for a reserved spot in the clouds behind the pearly gates; it is to join in the family of the redeemed, to collectively become a living preview of the promised future.

Divine power sharing with unqualified people is the way redemption grows. The fall came through human hands, and redemption is passed through human hands.

Jesus talks constantly about bringing heaven to earth, not getting people to heaven. His mission is not to get you into heaven; it’s to get heaven into you. Read every single recorded sermon in Acts, and you’ll notice a pattern: Not a single one focuses on salvation as a way to escape the fires of hell and book a room in a much more preferable