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While Christianity draws many roots from the Old Testament, the early days of the New Testament church were marked by radical decisions that would set it on a new trajectory. These decisions continue to shape and challenge the church today.

Jesus was irresistible. People from all different backgrounds were attracted to Jesus. But is the Church irresistible? Do Jesus’ followers represent Jesus in a way that makes it irresistible for the onlooking world to be attracted to Jesus?

If you were raised on a version of Christianity that relied on the Bible as the foundation of faith, a version that was eventually dismantled by academia or the realites of life, maybe it’s time for you to change your mind about Jesus. Maybe it’s time for you to consider the version of Christianity that relies on the event of the resurrection of Jesus as its foundation. If you gave up your faith because of something about or in the Bible, maybe you gave up unnecessarily.

If you think Jesus was a great leader and teacher, but find it hard to believe in his resurrection, you’re in good company. Even his disciples were skeptical. But those same followers were the ones who would later become the spokesmen of a new movement: the church. They would maintain faith in the midst of incredible suffering. Many died still claiming that Jesus was their Savior. So what do we make of this defining event—the one that became the foundation of their faith . . . and of ours? 

Your past is a problem when it creates fear for your future. It limits your potential and gets in the way of a deeper relationship with God.

As a society, we have more anxiety now than we ever have before. We carry it around like a software virus. It slows us down and quietly keeps us from operating at our full potential.

Fear is an emotion caused by belief in a looming potential loss. It’s based in the future.  The source of our fears is usually something we’re going to lose or we’re afraid we won’t have in the future. Since we can never really know what’s the around the corner, is it even possible to live without fear?

What would God think about that? We all do things from time to time we know displease God. And our disobedience leads to discipline from God. But why does he discipline us at all? Why can’t he just look the other way?

What goes around often comes around. The powerless often find themselves in a position of power and the people who hurt us may someday need us. In the moments when we’ve got those people right where we want ‘em, what we say will say as much about us as anything else. If our words are stones, will we choose to throw them, or use them to pave the way forward?