There is an unsettling solution for just about everything, and we can sum it up in one word. Grace. It’s the undeserved, unearned, unearnable favor that Jesus came to offer us. So why wouldn’t we want Christianity to be true? And where should you start if it’s a word that was never part of the equation for you?

We all want more. Even though we’re thankful for what we have, something inside us wants a little more from life. Believe it or not, there is a path that can lead us to the more we are looking for.

Maybe the most simple thing we’ve ever learned about God is also the most complex : God is love. It’s a hard truth for us to understand because we’re influenced by so many other views of him. So how does it work exactly? And what do we do with that transforming love once we recognize it?

Chances are good that if you’re reading this, you’re in the 1% club. By international standards, you’re rich! Of course, you may not feel rich, but the truth is it’s time to start giving while you’re living because what you’re holding is molding! This month we’re going to encourage each other to Be Rich by being extravagantly generous. After all, our extravagant generosity toward others is the most appropriate response to God’s extravagant generosity toward us.

The Bible did not create Christianity. Christianity is the result of an event (the resurrection) that created a movement (the church) that produced sacred and reliable texts that were collected and bound into a book (the Bible). But how do we approach not being at peace with everything we read in the Bible? Paul—the apostle, Pharisee, author, preacher, and church planter—offers us clarity and confidence to move forward.

The Old Testament chronicles God’s redemptive, sequential activity in history. It’s a fabulous, gritty, epic history of the Hebrew people in which, over and over, Israel is reminded that they are a divine means to an end. So, maybe instead of seeing the Old Testament as a spiritual guidebook or a storyline that needs to be tidied up, we should see it as something even better: the history of God preparing the world for a Savior.

“In the beginning. . . .” can be a loaded phrase—one that forces us into debate and doubt. But maybe we’re missing the point of Genesis 1:1—a point Moses made to a world where the violence and injustice of the gods justified and legitimized the violence and injustice of human rulers. Moses introduced a radically different, unparalleled, and untested worldview.

Most of us know some Bible stories, but very few of us know the story of the Bible. And you may be surprised to discover that it’s a story that doesn’t actually begin in the beginning. It begins with the accounts of a few men who sat down to record the death and resurrection of Jesus. It begins with the words of his followers who were compelled to document the events that had changed everything for them. Because they knew it could change everything for us.

Long before there were Christian Scriptures, there were Christians—men and women whose faith began with an empty tomb. These eyewitnesses to the resurrection experienced an event so extraordinary that it changed their lives and what they gave their lives to, forever. But now a generation is walking away from their faith as their confidence in the Bible is dismantled. They assume that as the Bible goes, so goes Christianity. Maybe it’s time we learned from the faith of those early eyewitnesses—faith that’s undeniable and, ultimately, irresistible.

Have you ever used a product or tried a new restaurant and immediately wanted to tell a friend? But sometimes no matter how much you try they don’t understand. The truth is, some things are hard to explain. They have to be experienced.