Most of my life I thought every person had already heard the good news, done a little research, and then said “No.” I spent many years tiptoeing around people because I assumed they had already had a bad experience with a “weird” Christian, and talking about Jesus would be off limits. The older I get the more testimonies I hear of people who were “waiting” and “ready”…

Jesus is looking for people who have come to the end: “I’m done.” They just cannot content themselves with hypocritical leaders and abusive religion, or lifeless structures anymore.

Life is like walking up the down escalator. There is resistance to life isn’t there? There is a constant drip of difficulty that makes things hard on the best days and unbearable on the worst ones.

I remember first discovering Dallas Willard in my early 20’s and thinking, “Why has nobody ever taught me this stuff about the Kingdom?” I felt like Willard was describing a whole new Christian life from what I had learned thus far. 

When Jesus came to Earth, the Jewish people had been longingly waiting for God's promised Messiah. Because they lived in a land under Roman occupation, many expected a Messiah to come and free their nation and people from this occupation and oppression. Instead, God had a much more glorious and far-reaching plan.

“Jesus walked…with the joyful message of God’s kingdom realm” and so should we—this should be our posture as we look forward with hope and expectation for what the Lord can and will do through us.

“Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.” –Acts 5:42

This passage is one of the stories that might have shaped my call and passion to become a missionary.

Shame is a powerful tool of the enemy. Do you think of it this way?

The epic good news of all eternity was and will always be about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the Kingdom he has put within our reach. 

Today we begin a 50 day journey looking at this world-changing, joy-filling, never-ending story of good news we call the gospel. What is it? What isn’t it? If it’s good news, what makes it good? How is it for all people? And what does great joy have to do with it anyway?