The Aperture of God

The Incarnation is the most significant event in history, and it will remain as such into the infinite future.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was sent in the flesh to rescue us from eternal destruction and to bring us into a participation in His kingdom.  He remains as undiminished deity and perfect humanity.  His personality is extravagant and revolutionary.  From Bethlehem’s manger to the cross in Jerusalem, we meet a disturbing and provocative Jesus who wants to radically transform our lives and stretch our faith.  No one who meets this Jesus will ever be the same.  He will shake your presuppositions and make you ask yourself the hard questions if you want to bear His name and follow Him.  Join with these suggested authors as they pursue insight into this fascinating, brilliant, challenging, compassionate, winsome, and very wild and unpredictable God-man.

  1. The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey.  He puts preconceptions aside to take a long look at the Jesus of the Gospels.
  2. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg.  A documentation of Jesus in the first century Jewish context.
  3. God Came Near by Max Lucado.  Travel back in time and relive Christ, the Son of God, becoming a man.
  4. Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola.  This is their attempt to restore the realities of supremacy and the sovereignty of Christ as we perceive him.
  5. Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright.  The Jesus – that we might discover if we really looked – is larger, more disturbing, and more urgent than we had ever imagined.  It is we, the churches, who have been the reductionists.
  6. The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning.  He discusses the purity of the Gospel and the scandal of the cross.
  7. The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren.  Jesus did not come to start a new religion, but instead to initiate a revolution.
  8. Jesus, Mean and Wild by Mark Galli.  The author is focused on the militancy of a Christ who makes us feel decidedly uncomfortable.
  9. The Challenge of Jesus by N.T.Wright.  He poses a double-edged challenge: to grow in our understanding of the historical Jesus within the Palestinian world of the first century, and to follow Jesus more faithfully into the postmodern world of our times.
  10. Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell.  Keep exploring, keep arranging, keep shaping, and keep forming new perspectives about what it means to live in Christ and with each other.
  11. The incomparable Christ by Oswald Sanders.  Comprehending the harmony of Christ’s person and His mission.
  12. Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias.  He graciously and firmly attacks current pluralism about various faiths as well as subjective attitudes toward the truth.
  13. Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldridge.  Jesus said the most outrageous things.

Jesus said and did many things.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25)