Pathways Press.com

Written by Jami Amerine, a contemporary author.

When I found out I wasn’t following the real Jesus, I was totally undone. The hard work of making Jesus fit my brain, answer when I called, and label me righteous was a full-time job that robbed me of peace. When I finally fell into the loving arms of the real Jesus, I began a genuine relationship with the Savior of the world—the One who died for me. He is everything He promised and so much more. Our culture presents us with so many versions of Jesus, letting us make Him in our own image. Maybe you’ve come to depend on a false Jesus and didn’t even realize it. False versions of Jesus people keep falling for include: a mean Jesus, a political Jesus who would vote one way, a genie in a bottle Jesus, an I’ll punish you Jesus, a Jesus who brings struggles you can’t handle, a distant Jesus, a church Jesus you lose faith in when a church fails, a transactional rule-based Jesus, and a confused Jesus. If you are struggling to find peace, consider what Jesus said about Himself and test your beliefs against the truth from Scripture.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. [2 Timothy 4:3-4]

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Written by Susan Monk Kidd, a contemporary American writer.

As I stood inside the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta waiting to interview Coretta Scott King, I gazed at an exhibit of the travel bag Dr. King had used on his fatal trip to Memphis. Inside the bag were two books. The one on top was entitled Strength to Love. It reminded me of his audacious belief that loving one’s enemies, not violence, held the power to transform society. Was he right? I wondered. Could simply acting in love in the face of hostility really make a difference? Later I asked Mrs. King. “Let me tell you a story,” she replied. “One January night in 1956 while Martin was away, I sat home with our baby. Suddenly there was a thunderous blast. A bomb had been tossed onto the front porch. The baby and I were unharmed, but an angry crowd of our friends, wanting revenge, had gathered around the house when Martin got home. “It was the first test of his theory,” she continued. “Martin hushed the crowd and said, ‘I want you to go home and put down your weapons. We must meet violence with nonviolence. We must meet hate with love.’” “What happened?” I asked. “The anger melted and the crowd faded into the night,” she said with a smile. “You see, the power of love is a mighty force.”  As I left I stopped by the exhibit one more time. I wanted to see the title of the other book in Dr. King’s bag. It was Where Do We Go From Here? I thought about the hostility in our world, the conflicts between neighbors, even the angry situations in our own houses. The question on the book followed me all the way home. Lord, on this Martin Luther King’s Birthday—and every day—give me the strength to love even when I am wronged.

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. [Matthew 5:39]

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Written by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), a British writer, scholar, and Anglican lay theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “Mere Christianity.”

Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambition and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [Matthew 6:33]

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Written by N. T. Wright, a contemporary theologian, author, and Anglican bishop and Michael Bird, a contemporary theologian and Anglican priest.  This is an excerpt frm their book “Jesus and the Powers.”

Whatever your age, ableness, sex, education, limitations, fears, stage of life, or self doubts, you have something to contribute to the coming kingdom. Why else is the spirit given, other than to convict us, inspire us, and empower us to do what we would not ordinarily be able to do ourselves? Let your heart be burdened by the needs you see about you. Let your mind be haunted by a great missionary task that remains unfinished Let your conscience be pricked by a grave injustice that goes on blighting your land…We live in interesting times, dire times, dangerous time, tragic and terrible times. What will you do with your life? Give it over into staring into a luminous screen or do something that echoes in God’s new creation? The world needs kingdom-minded Christians now more than ever. Find some friends to meet with and pray the words of Psalm 31 for families of Ukraine. Join a group to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Email your local Member of Parliament or Congress and tell them your most pressing concerns. Find out which organization best assist those recovering from addiction in your town and make a generous contribution. Mentor a university student who lives far from family. Ask your pastor how you might pray for him or her and where you could potentially serve given your abilities and interests. Put your faith where your fear is; fill your mind with thing of love, not the love of things.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. [1 Peter 4:10-11]

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Written by Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), a minister, scholar, theologian, author, and poet. This is an excerpt from his book “Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading.”

Holy Scripture is a. . . fenced-in acreage of words and sentences of many different sorts and kinds, but all of them integral to the work that is being done, working in long, steady rhythms in which we, the readers, participate but don’t control. We meditatively enter this world of words and give obedient and glad assent. We submit our lives to this text that is “endlessly bringing together / heaven and earth.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. [2 Timothy 3:16-17]

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Written by Rich Lewis, a contemporary author.

There are many areas of my life that call for focus: work, my website, my wife and children, my mother, siblings, friends, health, relaxation, learning, and growth. There’s always so much to do—and never quite enough time to do it all…Lately, I’ve also been learning to let go of expectations—how I think life should go—and simply embrace the present moment for what it is. When I get frustrated because things didn’t unfold my way, I’m reminded: that’s when I’ve stepped out of the present moment. The present moment is exactly as it needs to be. Everything really is okay. This moment leads to the next, and life has a way of unfolding when we keep moving forward with trust and action. My role is simply to be fully in it. That doesn’t mean I don’t have goals or dreams. It means I trust that God is here, now, guiding me as I take each step. When I sit in the silence of centering prayer, I sit with God. When I rise, I walk with God. We partner in life. God is always in the present moment—it’s I who sometimes wander into the past or worry about the future.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. [Psalm 118:24]

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Written by the Lead Like Jesus team, an organization founded by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges that promotes a transformational leadership model based on following Jesus.

How many times were people surprised by Jesus? Repeatedly, He surprised, not only the crowds, but His disciples, as well, with His counter-cultural perspective and actions. Loving the unlovely, believing in the potential of unlikely followers, offering grace and forgiveness instead of judgment, serving instead of demanding to be served, preferring solitude and the companionship of friends to popularity and the public spotlight. Do you surprise people, too? How are your attitudes and actions different from the world?

Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. [Matthew 13:54]

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Written by Theodyssey, an organization that helps people encounter God and be radically changed by the truth of His love. This is an excerpt from their study “When We Pray.”

At first glance, the Lord’s Prayer could be seen as a simple prayer, asking God to give us what we need for our lives. The focus could remain on us. Upon deeper reflection, we realize that God is asking us to fully surrender our lives, be completely dependent on Him, and trust Him wholeheartedly. God is asking us to deny ourselves, at least our own desires and plans. What if both are true? Participating in the Kingdom is trusting that God’s story for our lives is greater than anything we could script for ourselves. That dying to ourselves and fully trusting God opens up the possibility of becoming who God created us to be — to be conformed into His image for the sake of others. This is the Kingdom. This is the greatest adventure — the opportunity of a lifetime.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. [Matthew 6:13]

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Written by John Stott, a contemporary English  preacher and evangelist. This is an excerpt from his book “Basic Christianity.”

At its simplest Christ’s call was “Follow me.” He asked men and women for their personal allegiance. He invited them to learn from him, to obey his words, and to identify themselves with his cause.  Now there can be no following without a previous forsaking. To follow Christ is to renounce all lesser loyalties. In the days when he lived among men on earth, this meant a literal abandonment of home and work…Today, in principle, the call of the Lord Jesus has not changed. He still says “Follow me,” and adds, “whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” In practice, however, this does not mean for the majority of Christians a physical departure from their home or their job. It implies rather an inner surrender of both, and a refusal to allow either family or ambition to occupy the first place in our lives…Jesus does not call us to a sloppy half-heartedness, but to a vigorous, absolute commitment. He calls us to make him our Lord…To make Christ Lord is to bring every department of our public and private lives under his control. This includes our career. God has a purpose for every life. Our business is to discover it and do it…If Christ is our Lord, we must open our minds to the possibility of a change.

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. [John 10:27]

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Written by Brian Morykon, a contemporary writer.

A certain degree of certainty is needed to function well… Certainty certainly has its shadow side: some Christians, sure of their rightness, hold beliefs with a harmful rigidity. Then again, so does uncertainty: other Christians, seeking to be nonjudgmental, try to keep an open mind about just about everything. But at some point that breaks down, too. To quote Chesterton, “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”  What causes hostility and harm between us isn’t being certain but being excessively certain, not having boundary lines but holding them with animus. This is true on a geopolitical scale and a personal scale. We must be relatively certain about some things, we must have reasonable boundaries in some areas —but Christ calls us to hold both certainty and boundaries in a loving way… Develop tender and true hearts. Be vulnerable… Hold boundaries and certainty with great humility.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. [Romans 12:9-12]

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