Restored in Him

The beginning of the Bible tells us that God created human beings in His image. But we’ve been tempted to reimagine God in our own image. The result? Believing that God is much less than who He really is. These misconceptions can make God seem more like a cartoon villain instead of the loving and gracious Creator that He is. So how can we truly see and understand the character of God? We look at the life of Jesus in the New Testament. The New Testament authors share…

Chris had his blood retested four years after his lifesaving bone marrow transplant. The donor’s marrow had provided what was needed to cure him but had left a surprise: the DNA in Chris’ blood was that of his donor, not his own. It makes sense, really: the goal of the procedure was to replace the weakened blood with a donor’s healthy blood. Yet even swabs of Chris’ cheeks, lips, and tongue showed the donor’s DNA. In some ways, he’d…

Who do people believe Jesus is? Some say He was a good teacher, but just a man. Author C. S. Lewis wrote, “Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.” These now-famous words from Mere Christianity propound…

There are many places in our lives that we have a yearning--a mysterious hunger for something we may not consciously recognize. Is it possible that our unconscious remembers what it was like to walk and talk with God in the Garden of Eden? Or maybe even more absurd--could we remember our very own spiritual creation-- the one that takes place "before I placed you in your mothers’ womb?" (Jer 1:5) Have you ever closed your eyes for a few moments and asked God…

When Apollo 11’s Eagle lunar module landed on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, the space travelers took time to recover from their flight before stepping onto the moon’s surface. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin had received permission to bring bread and wine so he could take Communion. After reading Scripture, he tasted the first foods ever consumed on the moon. Later, he wrote: “I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one…

Saving faith has three elements: knowledge, conviction, and trust. Today, let’s look at the first component: the knowledge required to believe in Jesus as our Savior. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God. At the request of God the Father, Jesus set aside His divine rights, took on human form, and dwelled on earth (Phil. 2:6-7). What did He accomplish? To be acceptable to God, sacrifices had to be without defect (Lev. 22:20). Jesus lived a perfect life, which qualified…

If you had a friend who called or dropped by your house only when he wanted something—who never reached out to show concern or to see if you needed help—it’s likely that the friendship wouldn’t last long. Why? Because there’s no intimacy there, no true relationship. We might be tempted to shake our heads at such selfishness, but it’s far too easy to treat God the same way. Sadly, many Christians reach out to Him in prayer only when they…

At an Alpha Conference, someone handed me a scrap of paper with a note describing what had happened to her friend: ‘Sue (who was not a Christian) was attending a rehab clinic for people with severe respiratory problems. She had a chronic condition (COPD: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) that was getting progressively worse. The clinic meets at our church building. She arrived for her clinic, but there was no one there. (She had got the wrong date!) She waited…

Is it not true that for most of us who call ourselves Christians, there is no real experience? We have substituted theological ideas for an arresting encounter; we are full of religious notions, but our greatest weakness is that for our hearts, there is no one there. Whatever else it embraces, true Christian experience must always include a genuine encounter with God. Without this, religion is but a shadow, a reflection of reality, a cheap copy of an original once enjoyed…