Paying Ridiculous Attention to Jesus

Join Rick for the fourth episode in a new series—“JESUS-PEOPLE.” In this episode we’ll explore the heart of Jesus through the lens of a broken and traumatized woman who became one of those in Jesus’ inner circle. She’s important to focus on during Holy Week, because she was there at every step—along the Via Dolorosa, on Golgotha, at the tomb when He was buried, and at the tomb when He rose from th...

Join Rick for the third episode in a new series—“JESUS-PEOPLE.” In this episode we’ll explore the heart of Jesus through the lens of the man who calls himself “The Disciple Jesus Loved.” His name is John, brother of James and son of Zebedee and Salome. In the time of Jesus it’s a common humility to refer to yourself in the third person, but John could’ve tagged himself “the smart one” or “the fast...

Join Rick for the second episode in a new series “JESUS-PEOPLE.” We’ll be exploring the heart of Jesus through the lens of his friends and enemies. In this episode we encounter Nicodemus, who is an old man when he first meets Jesus. He’s a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the ancient equivalent to our Supreme Court. He is mentioned just three times in the Gospel of John. But his first meeti...

Join Rick for the first episode in a new series—“JESUS-PEOPLE.” We’ll be exploring the heart of Jesus through the lens of his friends and enemies. You can learn a lot about a person by paying attention to the people that love him and the people that hate him. Dr. Peter Kreeft, a Boston University professor and C.S. Lewis scholar, says: “The Greek word used to describe everyone’s reaction to [Jesus...

Join Rick and Becky for this “re-podcast” BEST-OF episode from two years ago—“What Is the Meaning of Life?” In the past three years, this episode had the most listeners. Next week, Rick will begin a new series called “Jesus People”—exploring the heart of Jesus through the lens of his friends and enemies. Meanwhile, in this BEST-OF episode Rick and Becky take on the big question that lurks in the b...

Join Rick for the 10th episode of the series KINGDOM COME. We’re coming out of a very active hurricane season, and weather experts warn we’re entering into another in 2021. Hurricanes are frightening because they’re dangerous and destructive. But it turns out that hurricanes keep our planet alive by roiling the waters of our oceans so deeply that their nutrients are widely redistributed, causing r...

Join Rick for the 9th episode of the series KINGDOM COME. Miracles are startling, because they're supposed to be impossible, right? And in this episode I tell a personal story that certainly qualifies as a miracle on every level. But the foundation of this miracle is not in the physical impossibility of what happened, but a revelation during my chance encounter with a man on a beach who reminds me...

Join Rick for the 8th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. We are magnetically drawn to stories of hope and perseverance. That’s because perseverance is both heart-breaking and inspiring. It’s almost impossible to ignore. So, what are the common threads in all our stories of perseverance? Desperation. Vulnerability. Dependence. But especially “Hope and Fear and Conviction.” Rick’s new daily dev...

Join Rick for the 7th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. Rick often uses a favorite phrase to describe the mission of Jesus: He came to make beauty out of ugly. Not “pretty”… Beauty. In a very real, practical, visceral way, beauty-making and beauty-revealing is exactly what Jesus is doing in the world, and in your life, right now… We need “beauty-fighters” in this season of ugly… And it’s alw...

Join Rick for the 6th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, whose life we celebrate this week, led during a time of great division and racial tension and disillusionment in the country—like our time today. He’d experienced pain and brutality from others, over and over. But he was much more than a civil rights leader—he was a pastor planting seeds of the Kingdom o...

Join Rick for the 5th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus launches His ministry by doing something He’ll never do again—simply “talking at” a large crowd of people for a long time. Why does He do this? There’s a clue at the end of Matthew 6, when He says: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”...

Join Rick for the 4th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. When we live inside the culture of the Kingdom of God—the way of living that Jesus came to plant, like a seed, in our broken reality—we are very aware of the influence of evil all around us, but we are not impressed by it. The goal of evil is to “kill, steal, and destroy,” and it is impersonal in its approach. We are not “persons,” in t...

Join Rick for the 3rd episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. In the Kingdom of God, storytelling is not only the highest form of art, it defines the mission and passion of Jesus. Jesus came to tell a new story in our life, and to invite us to do the same with others. But to understand what’s He’s doing, we have to explore the story’s setup, the plot twists, and the takeaway. As you come to unders...

Join Rick for the 2nd episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. What are some obvious differences between a democracy, like the one we live in, and living under the rule of a king? Most of us have no idea what it means to actually live in a kingdom, and we’ve never actually been in a close relationship with a king. So, even though Jesus tells us that he’s an ambassador for the Kingdom of God, even t...

Join Rick for the 1st episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. What did Jesus really come to do—what was His “mission”? We’ve been told that it’s basically a rescue mission. But our “rescue” is simply the epic fruit of a restored relationship, which is the passion of God. The mission of God, however, has to do with planting the culture of the Trinity in the broken and scarred garden that was once E...

Join Rick for the 8th episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll explore the challenges that darken our soul’s landscape and discover how Jesus works our ugly into beauty. In this episode we’ll explore… “Exhaustion.” Exhaustion can make us cowards; and it can lead us to the courage we need most. Let’s explore “the road less traveled” today, walking with Jesus on the road to courage in the mi...

Join Rick and Becky for the 7th episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll explore our looming life challenges and discover how Jesus works our ugly into beauty, like clay in His hands. In this episode we’ll explore… “Hope Deferred.” We tend to think about our hopes in the major categories of life, but we have hundreds of tiny, unrealized hopes crawling around our life every day. And those b...

Join Rick for the 6th episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll explore our looming life challenges and discover how Jesus is working to bring beauty in the swirl of our ugly. In this episode we’ll… “Consider the Birds.” It’s almost impossible for us to stop worrying—we all have concerns that dominate our thoughts. So how could Jesus possibly expect us to “not worry about everyday life” by...

Join Rick and Becky for the 5th episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll discover how Jesus upends the “default” way we respond to the challenges and issues we’re facing in this strangest of seasons. In this episode we’ll dive into—“Good Humor.” Doesn’t really sound like a “present concern,” right? But consider how our lack of good humor right now is a present concern. Could it be that goo...

Join Rick for the 4th episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll explore the challenges we’re facing in this strangest of seasons, discovering how Jesus leaned into similar issues. In this episode we’ll dive into—“Foolishness.” If you do something foolish it’s sort-of like saying you did something “silly,” right? But Solomon reminds us: “A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a thorny bran...

Join Rick and Becky for the 3rd episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll be exploring the issues and challenges we’re facing in this strangest of seasons, connecting them directly to how Jesus dealt with similar issues. In this episode we’ll dive into—“The Future.” Almost all Americans (83%) say that worrying about the future is a major source of stress in their life right now. So what is...

Join Rick for the 2nd episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll be exploring the issues and challenges we’re facing in this strangest of seasons, connecting them directly to how Jesus dealt with similar issues. In this episode we’ll explore—“FEAR.” It’s our everyday fears, not the spectacular supernatural fears of Halloween or horror movies, that are most compelling and most relevant to our...

Join Rick for the 1st episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll be exploring the issues and challenges that make up the wallpaper of our life today, connecting them directly back to how Jesus dealt with similar issues. In this kickoff episode we’ll explore—“Division.” It’s perhaps the word that best defines the last year, as Covid restrictions and fears, racial unrest and protests, and poli...

Join Rick for the 12th and final episode of the series IN HIS IMAGE. The tough, marginal, and challenging conditions that produce rare wine from stressed vines also produce martyrs and saints and “beautiful messes” like you and me. Paul tells us we are “struck down, but not destroyed... so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” Jesus will form in us a new capacity for loving o...

Join Rick for the 11th episode of the series IN HIS IMAGE. When you hear the cares and concerns of others, do you enter into their reality, or do you keep your distance (however subtly)? When a conniving Pharisee asks Jesus about the “most important” commandment, Jesus tells him what he already knows—“Love the Lord your God with all your heart…”—but then adds a second “equally important” commandme...