The Spirituality Of Jesus

Jesus’ spiritual practices examied for today's believers to follow

Luke's Gospel was written to transform. Exploring Luke's portrait of the spirituality of Jesus, Catherine Wright focuses on the themes of simplicity, humility, and prayer in Jesus' life and teaching, considering how readers have understood and employed key Lukan passages for spiritual formation from the first century and the ancient church to today.

"An exciting vision of the future" --Michael Eric Dyson Everything Is Spiritual is an unexpected and compelling invitation to see your life in a whole new way. We have the great moments of our lives, the highs, those times when we soar, when it all makes sense, when it feels like it all has purpose and meaning. And then there are all those other moments—the lows and aches and failures and struggles and experiences that leave us wondering what the point of it all is. Are our lives ultimately bits and pieces and fragments—you try to find a little peace and hope and then it’s over? Or is there more going on here? In our increasingly polarized and disoriented world, Everything Is Spiritual gives us a radical new take on how it all fits together, how it works, how it’s all connected. Part memoir, part extended riff on the quantum nature of reality, part history of the universe, Rob Bell takes us back through the twists and turns and struggles of his story in order to help us see the larger story so that we can reconnect with our story.

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

Combining candor, curiosity and rare insight, the author explores four dimensions of the spirituality Jesus left in his wake--active, contemplative, biblical, and communal. Practical, engaging and compelling, this fresh illumination of an ancient path is both moving and thought provoking.

In A Journey with Jesus, spiritual director Larry Warner guides us through the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, similar to the way he's been leading people through them in person. Here's what he's observed: "The Spiritual Exercises helped people reconnect with Jesus and with themselves in life-giving ways. It was powerful." Ignatius wanted to help everyone, no matter what age or stage of life, experience Jesus. Through prayers and Scripture readings that largely focus on the life of Christ, the Spiritual Exercises that have been so powerful and growth-inducing for so many, including Warner, can be a tool for transformation in you as well. The exercises are designed to help you encounter the person of Jesus foster a deeper relational knowing of Jesus cultivate a greater desire and freedom to say yes to Jesus This book will guide you through Ignatius's traditional thirty-day retreat approach as well as the nine-month journey which allows you to take these practices into the "real world" each day. And you don't have to go on a retreat to do it. You can start now, and grow in Christlikeness right in the midst of your life. Are you hungry for Jesus and ready to do something about it? Are you committed to a sticking with a sustained journey of growth and formation in Christ? Then this book is for you. Open these pages, and let Warner guide you on the journey toward deeper intimacy with Jesus.

"Abide in me," Jesus tells us, "and you will bear much fruit." Yet too often we forget that fruit needs different seasons in order to grow. We measure our spiritual maturity by how much we do rather than how we are responding to our current spiritual season. In Spiritual Rhythm, Mark Buchanan replaces our spirituality of busyness with a spirituality of abiding. Sometimes we are busy, sometimes still, sometimes pushing with all we've got, sometimes waiting. This model of the spiritual life measures and produces growth by asking: Are we living in rhythm with the season we are in? With the lyrical writing for which he is known, Mark invites us to respond to every season of the heart, whether we are flourishing and fruitful, stark and dismal, or cool and windy. In comparing spiritual rhythms to the seasons of the year, he shows us what to expect from each season and how embracing the seasons causes our spiritual lives to prosper. As he draws on the powerful words of Scripture, Mark explores what activities are suitable or necessary in each season--and what activities are useless or even harmful in that season. Throughout the book, Mark weaves together stories of young and old, men and women, families, couples, and individuals who are in or have been through a particular season of the heart. As Mark writes, "I pray that this book meets you in whatever season you're in, and prepares you for whatever seasons await. I pray that it helps you find your voice, your stride, your rhythm, in season or out. Mostly, I pray that you, with or without my help, find Christ wherever you are. And that, even more, you discover that wherever you are, he's found you."

Jesus, My Mentor is about the spirituality of Jesus, how Jesus lived with God as described in the gospels, and how Jesus' way of relating to God and the world can be a positive and satisfying spirituality for us today. A spirituality modeled by Jesus offers us a way of coming to know the God of Jesus, not as a frightening or distant deity, but the God who opens a way when there seems to be no way, who is at home in the world we call home, and who welcomes us back whenever we are lost. With Jesus as mentor and guide, Kater takes readers on a modern pilgrimage to understand the good news as Jesus knew it. He explores the stories, parables, and prayers of the gospels in the context of their time and their message for us today. He seeks to dispel some popular misconceptions about the Christian understanding of God and the world, and shows us that Jesus' understanding is both easily visible and an attractive alternative. Focusing on how Jesus approached God and shared his understanding with others, Kater emphasizes Jesus' passion for life and the importance of hope and commitment for living fully. The spirituality of Jesus is not hopelessly out of date, but continues to offer a vision of life with a loving God that gives hope and meaning to us as it did to Jesus and his friends. When we let Jesus be our mentor, we do not find God in our solitude, but in community with one another.