Is death optional? No, but the fear of it is. Instead of denial, let Christ exchange your ultimate fear for his ultimate homeland security: heaven.

Why is it that something as inevitable as death is the last thing we talk about? We seem to be in the grip of an ultimate fear. The Bible calls it a "lifelong slavery." The good news is that God is the great emancipator of this slavery to fear. He sets us free and gives us instead the assurance of heaven. I have called it "forward nostalgia." We long to be where we have never been.

Once we allow God to remove this fear we can be ready to...

The paradoxes of Jesus seem like contradictions, and they are. For example, Jesus says that we receive by giving; we find by losing; we rule by serving; we rest by laboring; we live by dying.

However, the surprise is that out of these contradictions a new and profound truth emerges, one which might escape our notice. A British theologian put it this way: "Paradox is truth standing on its head trying to get our attention."

Are you ready to tackle some of Jesus' most puzzling paradoxes? I have chosen ten to examine. Learn in these chapters how to substitute the upside down, back to...