Christmas

Unexpected Joy: The Birth of Jesus and Poverty of Spirit

In “Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable and Engineer the Unexpected,” Tania Luna and Leeann Renninger expound upon the science of surprise. Surprise: our reaction to unexpected and misexpected (Is it an emotion? A cognitive state? No one knows for sure. Surprise is mysterious like that.) Schema (plural: schemata): a mental framework for understanding something. Surprise sequence: …

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Unexpected Joy: The Beatitudes are an Autobiography of Jesus

For most people, Jesus the Messiah was unexpected. The Messiah would be revealed, but not now, not here, not like this, not from there.  The unexpected Jesus produced resistance and fear. A gift you receive for Christmas is wrapped beautifully and delicately.  Upon opening this exquisite package, you discover a completely unexpected gift.  You had …

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Jesus is Life!

In my message today I am seeking to bring our attention back to the Person, Jesus. Christianity has it’s propositions, but is not initially “Propositional Truth.”  The core essence of being a follower of Jesus is “Transactional Truth.”  Because Jesus is a Person, He must be known transactionally (two living beings transacting – or two …

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