Making Rounds With Jesus

Have you ever wanted to study the Bible with a fresh understanding? If you were given the opportunity, would you want to spend time with Jesus as He goes about healing all those with needs while simultaneously teaching His disciples? If you were one of His disciples, what would you experience as you watched and listened to Jesus? Making Rounds with Jesus: A Physician Looks at the Ministry and Mission of Jesus will awaken in you a sense of being present as you read familiar Bible accounts and imagine yourself being an eyewitness. Watch and listen to Jesus as if you are present. See how He establishes rapport with almost every person He meets. Wonder at how He always knows the need and the correct diagnosis for each person He meets. See how He handles skeptics who don't recognize His identity as the promised Messiah. You will learn lessons from Jesus in new ways. You will find yourself progressing from being a reader to a witness to a learner to a participant. When Jesus describes the Great Commission to you, He promises that the Holy Spirit will empower you to embark on a new journey. Just as Jesus transformed the minds and actions of His disciples, so He will do the same for you as He prepares you to go forth as a trained ambassador for the kingdom of God on earth. This transformation process is a delightful new way to experience the Bible as you grow in your relationship with Jesus.

Have you ever wanted to study the Bible with a fresh understanding? If you were given the opportunity, would you want to spend time with Jesus as He goes about healing all those with needs while simultaneously teaching His disciples? If you were one of His disciples, what would you experience as you watched and listened to Jesus? Making Rounds with Jesus: A Physician Looks at the Ministry and Mission of Jesus will awaken in you a sense of being present as you read familiar Bible accounts and imagine yourself being an eyewitness. Watch and listen to Jesus as if you are present. See how He establishes rapport with almost every person He meets. Wonder at how He always knows the need and the correct diagnosis for each person He meets. See how He handles skeptics who don't recognize His identity as the promised Messiah. You will learn lessons from Jesus in new ways. You will find yourself progressing from being a reader to a witness to a learner to a participant. When Jesus describes the Great Commission to you, He promises that the Holy Spirit will empower you to embark on a new journey. Just as Jesus transformed the minds and actions of His disciples, so He will do the same for you as He prepares you to go forth as a trained ambassador for the kingdom of God on earth. This transformation process is a delightful new way to experience the Bible as you grow in your relationship with Jesus.

Abandon dead, dry, religious rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation with a passionate, provocative poem titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus." The 4-minute video became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). Bethke's message clearly struck a chord with believers and nonbelievers alike, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged. In his New York Times bestseller Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem--highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair, and hope. With refreshing candor, he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior. Along the way, Bethke gives you the tools you need to: Humbly and prayerfully open your mind Understand Jesus for all that he is View the church from a brand-new perspective Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he's not a pastor or theologian, but simply an ordinary, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. On this journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him with love beyond the props of false religion. Praise for Jesus > Religion: "Jeff's book will make you stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it--right to the feet of Jesus." --Bob Goff, author of New York Times bestsellers Love Does and Everybody, Always "The book you hold in your hands is Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz meets C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity meets Augustine's Confessions. This book is going to awaken an entire generation to Jesus and His grace." --Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, author of Limitless Life: Breaking Free from the Labels That Hold You Back

Remote villages in Africa and Asia, a war-refugee village in Guatemala, war-ravaged muddy Sudan, squatters camps in South Africa, slums in India, rugged country in Bangladesh, a tsunami-torn community in Sri Lanka, sweltering in Vietnam, inside a jail in Laos, pulling teeth in a prison in Uganda, under a tree in Cambodia, and in a bamboo gazebo in Thailand—following Jesus is never boring. God’s compassion compels us to go to the poor and needy all over the world. Dr. Helen Laib made a commitment to follow Jesus into medical missions at age sixteen. This didn’t come into reality until thirty years later with her first medical mission to Vietnam. Helen is the founder and president of Circle of Love Foundation, a medical mission organization based in Rockford, Illinois. Helen has organized and led over 110 short-term medical trips to seventeen countries, serving over 112,000 people and resulting in 30,000 people making commitments to also follow Jesus. Helen has compiled her trip reports so that others can see how faithful God has been in every situation. He makes all things work out for good.

Through the eyes of a modern medical missionary, who observes and notes everything from Christ's bedside manner to his diagnostic expertise, readers can understand Jesus in ways they have never considered Him before. Readers can experience the tension, risks, and awesome wonder of what God accomplishes in the midst of brokenness and seemingly impossible circumstances.

Do ancient religious practices help in healing today? Is prayer of benefit? If so, what kind of prayers? What about "laying on of hands" or "casting out demons?" Over three-fourths of patients entering a hospital wish that their health-care providers would consider their spiritual needs as part of their medical care. Yet, most patients-along with their health-care professionals-struggle to understand how to use this spiritual side in healing. Modern healthcare is based upon science and often sees religion as getting in the way of healing. However, when humans combine our religious and spiritual nature with the science of modern medicine, we have the most powerful tool for healing the world has ever known. This book dares to explore this very personal aspect of human life that has had very little written about it-the private spiritual beliefs that people share with their doctors, spiritual advisors, and families when they are ill, injured, or frightened about their health. Here are the true stories of how people have used their spiritual side for healing. Many will mystify and give us chills!

Millions of Christians have struggled with how to reconcile God's love and God's judgment: Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this "good news"? Troubling questions—so troubling that many have lost their faith because of them. Others only whisper the questions to themselves, fearing or being taught that they might lose their faith and their church if they ask them out loud. But what if these questions trouble us for good reason? What if the story of heaven and hell we have been taught is not, in fact, what the Bible teaches? What if what Jesus meant by heaven, hell, and salvation are very different from how we have come to understand them? What if it is God who wants us to face these questions? Author, pastor, and innovative teacher Rob Bell presents a deeply biblical vision for rediscovering a richer, grander, truer, and more spiritually satisfying way of understanding heaven, hell, God, Jesus, salvation, and repentance. The result is the discovery that the "good news" is much, much better than we ever imagined. Love wins.