Showing results for "Outsiders" in Spiritual Growth

Too often, cultural belonging becomes a battle, and its winners gain the world: access, comfort, safety, community. Yet for those on the margins—set apart from their culture by differences such as ethnicity, class, ability, and faith—God offers something even greater. The Gift of the Outsider celebrates the blessings found in unbelonging—and calls Christians of all backgrounds to love and listen to their community's outcasts. As a Christian, a Black American, a woman, and an expatriate, author Alicia J. Akins offers heartfelt reflections on her own experiences as an outsider.

Every man is being shaped by some kind of wisdom. However, the key question is – what type of wisdom is guiding us? Scripture doesn’t suggest every form of wisdom produces a better, more flourishing life. In fact, it warns us of the opposite condition – that we ought to be mightily aware of the possibility that we may be digesting and guided by worldly wisdom, which eventually leads to our own downfall, devastation, and death – yet it will feel so satisfying going down.

Jesus came to lift up the lowly. Throughout his ministry to his final days on the road to the cross, we find stories of his relationships with ordinary, flawed, and unexpected people. He met, dined, and traveled with people who were not perfect. Many of them were struggling, some were outsiders or even outlaws. Whoever they were, from those he healed to the outlaws with him at his crucifixion, Jesus brought the good news of God's kingdom to those who most needed to hear it. Adam Hamilton explores the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus as told in the Gospel of Luke.