Music has been my poetry. While I’ve read Shakespeare, Whitman, and Frost, it was the rhythmic, soulful sounds of a group called Heatwave that reached my heart in ways that words alone couldn’t. Sitting in our living room as a high school junior, listening to our stereo system fill the air with their music, I found myself drawn to the opening lines of their hit “Mind Blowing Decisions“:

Mind-blowing decisions cause head-on collisions…

At the time, with so many stressful decisions weighing on my life, this song helped me feel less alone in the chaos.

It came to mind again during my sophomore year of college when I first encountered Jesus in Scripture—not the sanitized version from movies, but the real Jesus of the Bible. This Jesus blew my mind and called me to make the most mind-blowing decision I have ever made: to believe in God and let him transform my life from selfish to serving, conformist to courageous, emotionally suppressed to emotionally alive, hollow to whole.

Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

Acts 4:13 NASB

Acts 4:13 reveals that this same transformative power changed the lives of the first disciples through their experience of being with Jesus. They grew from insecure and fearful to confident and courageous. Even Jesus’s enemies weren’t immune to this power—like the guards who went to arrest him but were instead arrested by the uniqueness of his message:

“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

John 7:46 NIrV

This is what’s meant to happen to everyone who hears the calling and purposes of God through Jesus Christ—not only at our first meeting with him, but for the rest of our lives as the “Morning Star” shines in our hearts:

For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes…[19] Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place-until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts.

2 Peter 1:16, 19 NLT

Yet somewhere along the way, many of us lose that transformative edge. The Jesus who once felt revolutionary begins to feel routine. The presence that once shook our foundation settles into familiarity. We drift from the very source of our spiritual life.

They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Colossians 2:19 NIV

Whenever we fail to experience Jesus in this life-changing way, we can reclaim his power by reimagining him—clearing away the baggage that suppresses his inspiration and strength, and rediscovering who he actually is beneath our assumptions, traditions, and expectations.

Reimagining Jesus isn’t just revising what we think we know. It’s a spiritual reaction to who Jesus truly is, a reaction that changes every fiber of our being. It’s how we begin the chemical process of rediscovering God’s power and God’s presence..

This edition of our Chemistry Lab newsletter is your invitation to that rediscovery. It’s your invitation to experience the transformative effects of Jesus again, to grow deeper, stronger, more purposeful in any area where you need a breakthrough. The key is learning to see Jesus fresh—as the force of transformation he has always been.

Let’s explore how to begin that experiment.

Reimagining the power of Jesus

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. [2] This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. [3] We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. [4] We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

1 John 1:1-4 NLT

Reimagining the power of Jesus begins with making him real in our lives. As John writes, the apostles’ mission was to make Jesus real for the generations to come. John emphasizes these sensory details—”heard,” “seen,” “touched”—because these details convey a very real Jesus who walked on this earth. He conquered the darkness and broke free from the human limits of this life.

This Jesus teaches us that walking with God is about defying the darkness, living in the light, and being free from human limits so God can make the impossible possible through us. An historical example of defying darkness and being empowered by this very real and tangible Jesus is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Though he experienced threats, fear, doubt, and weakness, Dr. King still searched for God’s voice and made breakthroughs possible. If we want to reimagine the power of Jesus, we can look to MLK’s life to do it.

The threat

Martin Luther King’s extraordinary courage—empowered by Jesus—can be seen during the Civil Rights Movement, as he describes in his autobiography:

One night toward the end of January I settled into bed late, after a strenuous day. Coretta had already fallen asleep and just as I was about to doze off the telephone rang. An angry voice said, “Listen, n****, we’ve taken all we want from you; before next week you’ll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery.”

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

Dr. King describes his response to this threat:

I hung up, but I couldn’t sleep. It seemed that all of my fears had come down on me at once. I had reached the saturation point.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

We may not be experiencing a threat to our lives, but many of us experience fear that doesn’t let us sleep. This saturating fear can either make us quit or can lead us to breakthrough.

The wrestling

Dr. King goes on to describe his emotional and spiritual wrestling—something we all can understand regardless of our circumstances.

I got out of bed and began to walk the floor. I had heard these things before, but for some reason that night it got to me. I turned over and I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn’t sleep. I was frustrated, bewildered, and then I got up. Finally I went to the kitchen and heated a pot of coffee. I was ready to give up. With my cup of coffee sitting untouched before me I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing a coward.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

He thought about the price he might have to pay:

I sat there and thought about a beautiful little daughter who had just been born. I’d come in night after night and see that little gentle smile. I started thinking about a dedicated and loyal wife, who was over there asleep. And she could be taken from me, or I could be taken from her.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

Then he began to draw near to God by admitting his weakness, turning away from self-reliance or reliance on people to relying on God:

And I got to the point that I couldn’t take it any longer. I was weak. Something said to me, “You can’t call on Daddy now, you can’t even call on Mama. You’ve got to call on that something in that person that your Daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way.”

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

Whenever we reach out to God in this way, prayer becomes like breathing—we do it reflexively in response to the stress. Like Dr. King, we discover God’s power in our greatest moments of weakness:

With my head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory: “Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I think I’m right. I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now, I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage. Now, I am afraid.”

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

The voice

After wrestling with his fear and coming to God in weakness, he finally heard God’s response: 

It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you. Even until the end of the world.”

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

Dr. King wasn’t hearing voices, but experiencing the presence of God. 

The breakthrough

Then came the breakthrough. Dr. King spoke about his own reimagining of Jesus as an experience of his presence like nothing ever in his life before:

I tell you I’ve seen the lightning flash. I’ve heard the thunder roar. I’ve felt sin breakers dashing trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me alone. At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson

Regardless of your religious beliefs or view of Martin Luther King Jr., what we should all learn is that our experience of Jesus will determine our ability to overcome weakness, fear, and the temptation to run from our destiny. 

Reimagining the power of Jesus unlocks our ability to conquer the threats and fears of this life. Rather than avoiding our purpose when it becomes frightening, we can embrace and fulfill it while relying on God’s power in the same way Jesus did:

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

Hebrews 5:7 NIV

Reimagining the presence of Jesus

No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

John 1:18 NLT

Jesus came to this earth so we would see God. He came so we would experience the actual presence of God in our lives. 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 8:37 NIV

How do we experience the presence of God and his promise of making us more than conquerors in this life? How do we experience what Martin Luther King Jr. experienced and more? How do we conquer our own fears and challenges through the victorious presence of Christ in our lives, as described in 1 John 5?

Loving God means obeying his commands. And God’s commands are not too hard for us, [4] because everyone who is a child of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world-our faith. [5] So the one who conquers the world is the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

1 John 5:3-5 NCV

Experiencing the presence of Christ in this way must be made practical, otherwise we risk becoming disillusioned by the powerlessness of reflection without action. Below are steps we can take to reimagine the presence of Jesus in our lives.

The priority

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Mark 1:35 NIV

Reimagining the presence of Jesus in our lives begins with making our relationship with God a priority. This means practicing the discipline and sacrifice necessary to rise early enough to pray without distraction. Starting our days this way ensures we will be aware of the presence of God in our lives.

The conversation

“But the time is coming-indeed it’s here now-when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. [24] For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

John 4:23-24 NLT

Jesus teaches us about worship, which goes beyond a morning devotional or quiet time. The devotional or quiet time involves reading the Bible and praying, which are necessary and important. Worship is different. 

Worship involves emotional honesty. When we are reading the Scriptures and praying, we are having a deep conversation with God. This means we must be spiritually and emotionally engaged (spirit) and honest (truth). This is what Jesus is talking about when he says we must worship in spirit and truth. To be spiritually and emotionally engaged, we need to access the deepest part of ourselves and search for insight into who God is. But we must remember that these insights are meaningless unless we are telling God and ourselves the truth. 

We experience the presence of God in our lives only when we have a conversation with him that is both spiritually and emotionally engaging (spirit) and honest (truth).

The calling

Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. [35] You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.

John 4:34-35 NLT

We know we have made God a priority and are worshipping him in spiritual and emotional honesty when we are motivated by the purpose and mission God has for our lives. This is the opposite of being consumed by selfish ambition. It is what transforms us from living for ourselves to living for others, which is our true calling.

When we are walking with God in this way, we are experiencing the presence of God in our lives through Jesus Christ. We are living up to the calling which God has given each of us who believe in and follow him—the calling to make God’s voice audible and inspire those we love with the love, hope, and power of God through faith which can transform any and every life.

Priority + conversation + calling = the chemistry of connection

The chemistry of connection happens when we experience the powerful interaction of God, Jesus, and the Spirit in our lives as we prioritize him, worship him, and respond to his calling. Miracles occur when we live our faith in this way. My greatest fear is losing this personally, and I hope you will join me in that concern.

The most significant symptom indicating our need to reimagine Jesus is when we fail to personally experience this chemistry of connection between ourselves and God through the active awareness of his presence in our lives.

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! [10] For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” [11] So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God.

Acts 18:9-11 NLT

This spiritual chemistry—this dynamic interaction between our hearts and God’s Spirit—is what transforms ordinary believers into extraordinary forces for good. It’s the same chemistry Martin Luther King Jr. experienced in his kitchen, the same presence Paul felt in Corinth in Acts 18, the same power the disciples carried that amazed the religious leaders.

Scripture promises that this chemistry is available to us:

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

Matthew 28:20 NIV

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” 

Matthew 18:20 NIV

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” 

John 14:18 NIV

Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus creates this chemistry of connection with every believer. We experience his presence through prayer, worship, and Scripture. His presence brings the same things Paul received in Acts 18: inspiration, conviction, guidance, protection, and courage. While manifestations of God’s presence in our lives may vary (including everything from confidence, peace, wisdom, strength, divine calling, and more) the reality of his transformative presence remains constant.

Where to begin

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. [2] Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. [3] How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Galatians 3:1-3 NLT

The church in Galatians had lost its way and had forgotten the power and presence of Jesus in their lives. This led to them trying to change with human effort what could only be changed by God and his Spirit. To help them reimagine Jesus, Paul reminded them of Jesus’s death on the cross. If we want to reimagine Jesus in our everyday lives, we too must start with the power of the cross and resurrection.

When we do this, our lives become more inspired, powerful, and capable of a transformative effect on those with whom we come in contact. Together with others who live in the presence of God throughout their days, we will change the world.

For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you.

2 Corinthians 13:4 NIV

We want everyone to have access to the power that comes from understanding Jesus, his death on the cross, and his resurrection. That’s why our team developed an experiment this week that you can do right where you are. It will open your eyes to discover Jesus and his journey to the cross in a way that transforms you from the inside out. 

All you need is a Bible (or a Bible app) and the thoughtfully crafted reading plan we put together for you, which is full of thought-provoking questions and ways to put your reading into practice.

As always, we recommend that you pick a lab partner and do this together so you can talk about what you discover. 

Five days to a deeper understanding of Jesus 

Over the next five days, we invite you to experiment and discover. Here’s an overview of what you can expect each day: 

• 📖 Read: Key passages of the Bible to read
• ▶️ Watch/Listen: A video or podcast that explains the meaning of the passage
• 💭 Think: A key takeaway from the passages we read
• ❓ Ask: A reflective question that will add depth to our understanding
• 💫 Act: A transformative way to take action on what we read

Day 1: Discovery

Who is Jesus? 

Even if you think you know the answer to this, I hope you will question yourself. This is what we do in The Chemistry Lab; sometimes we let go of what we think we know to discover something new.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. 

John 1:18 NIV

Our reading plan will start with (just a few) key passages from Jesus’s life and deep questions that will lead us to new truths about him and ourselves.

Day 2: Connection

Why did Jesus die on the cross?

… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:23-24 NIV

As he sacrificed his life, Jesus was writing a new story for each of us, a story of an intimate connection with God. The second day of our reading plan will help us understand why Jesus had to sacrifice his life for us to have a personal connection with God.

Day 3: Healing

What happened spiritually when Jesus died on the cross? 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. [7] Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. [8] But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:6-8 NIV

On the third day of our experiment, we’ll discover the spiritual impact of Jesus’s sacrifice and the healing it brings to our relationship with God. 

Day 4: Transformation

How does Jesus’s resurrection apply to me?

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, [19] and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength [20] he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms … 

Ephesians 1:18-20 NIV

Jesus’s story doesn’t stop with his death on the cross. On the fourth day of our experiment, we’ll learn about the power that Jesus released into our lives when God raised him from death.

Day 5: Impact

What do I do now? 

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. [15] And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NIV

Jesus’s followers changed the world in their time because he had changed them from the inside out. Once we truly understand Jesus and his love, we too have the mission of no longer living for ourselves. We’ll close our reading plan with a deeper understanding of the purpose and impact we can have as we follow Jesus. 

If you’d like, you can also use our “How to Have a Deep Quiet Time” guide to help you deepen your reading and prayer as you navigate through each day.

We hope you enjoy the process of discovering a deeper understanding of Jesus. 

Reply or reach out

As always, we need your help. We love to hear your thoughts about the topics and tools that are resonating with you. Your insights are not just feedback—they’re fuel for future experiments.

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