SEEING JESUS
Philly Thompson lives alone with his cat, Irving, in a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago. He worries about his weight, frets about his job, longs to get back with his ex-girlfriend, and wishes his ma would stop nagging him.
To you and me, a pretty average guy. To Jesus, the raw material for a miracle . . . or two. When this ordinary guy stumbles into an extraordinary experience, everything seems possible, except staying stuck in that same dull life.
Seeing and hearing Jesus right beside him rocks Philly’s world and reaches beyond him to his coworkers, his girlfriends and his family. Too bad no one else can see or hear Jesus there.
Will Philly be rejected yet again? Will they just decide that he’s crazier than they imagined? Or will they let Philly’s contact with the Divine lift them out of their suffering and light their lives with hope?
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HEARING JESUS
Gladys Hight lives alone in a cozy little house in southeastern Wisconsin. Occasionally, her family has heard her speaking with Harry, her husband, who died four years ago. Her daughter, Patty, the type-A opposite of Gladys, worries about her mother’s sanity. At seventy-eight, even Gladys has her doubts.
When she assumes she’s alone in the house one Sunday, a stranger suddenly appears and begins talking to her as if he has known her forever. In spite of discovering an unexpected man in her house, Gladys is not frightened, though she does wonder anew if she’s losing her marbles. Complicating her self-doubt is the fact that the man smiling at her in her hallway looks just as she imagines Jesus would. Further, she discovers that no one else can see him or hear him as she can.
In the days and weeks that follow, Gladys’s friend convinces her that he is real, and that he is Jesus. More than that, he shows her how much he loves her, as he squires her through her formerly lonely days and accompanies her into wounds from her past. Not only does Gladys receive emotional healing, but she also serves as Jesus’s messenger for people around her, both family and strangers.
Though she had never wished for such a rare experience, nor even imagined such a thing possible, nothing in all her life impacts Gladys more profoundly than actually seeing and hearing Jesus.
SHARING JESUS
What could be better than marrying your soulmate, with whom you can share the rest of your life? Sharing Jesus with that person.
Kayla and Jason have been married for three months when she begins to hear a disembodied voice. After Jason contemplates putting her away quietly, for her approaching insanity, he hears it too.
What follows is the story of two people meeting Jesus, in a visceral and life-changing way, and doing it as a couple, newly married and still forming the fringes and foundations of their dreams--together and separately.
Inspired by SEEING JESUS, and now the third book in the Seeing Jesus Series, SHARING JESUS explores the boundaries of belief and imagination, while revealing that Jesus’s grace and love have no boundaries.
FINDING JESUS
This fourth book in the SEEING JESUS series, introduces Karl Meyer, whose retirement becomes a lonely prospect when his wife leaves him and his dog dies. Such losses might test one’s sanity.
That’s what Karl assumed was happening when he began to hear noises, and then voices, in his old house. Though dizzying at times, what follows fills Karl’s home with beloved companions and hope for the future.
HOLDING JESUS
Trudy Jensen has been caring for other people for over twenty years, their broken hearts, broken lives and broken relationships. Now she’s thinking about her own relationships, particularly with men. Should she try online dating? What if one of her counselling clients found her online?
Even as she stalls over these questions she meets an intriguing man. Does she recognize him? Is he only friendly and not really dangerous?
Is he who he claims to be?
Accompany Trudy as she wakes to a smiling face, cries on a reliable shoulder and discovers that God is real in her daily life.
HOLDING JESUS is the fifth book in the SEEING JESUS series.
HOSTING JESUS
Philly Thompson once met Jesus on a city bus. After that extraordinary visit, Philly’s life didn’t go back to being ordinary. The intervening years, however, have been more tragic than magic. In that time, he lost loved ones, lost another job, and lost much of his faith. Jesus didn’t promise him a story filled with magic. But he did offer himself, a continued connection with Jesus, his dearest friend.
That friend is talking to Philly again, and inviting him back into conversation and back into helping people in need. By now, Philly has settled into a new life full of hope and possibilities. Will it be full of Jesus? How can he include Jesus in his life again?
A direct sequel to Seeing Jesus, the most popular book by Jeffrey McClain Jones, Hosting Jesus invites you into Philly’s ongoing story and includes news of characters from other Seeing Jesus books.
Hiding Jesus
In 2003 Tildy Hawkins is wondering if she can trust her friend A.J. with all her secrets. Can she tell A.J. that she lives with her grandma because her mother is in drug rehab? Can she tell her that her irresponsible dad abandoned her? Can she explain what it feels like to be neither white nor black? And can she tell A.J. that she’s tempted to try cutting herself?
All that is too much to tell, too much to trust to another eleven-year-old. And when Tildy accepts that there is no one she can tell all her secrets, reveal all her pains, she gets a visit from an impossible man. He seems to come out of her closet, like one of those monsters in Monsters Inc.
She stares at the man who looks a lot like her idea of Jesus. And she wonders why she doesn’t scream and run away. Unless … he actually is Jesus.
Now she has another secret. How could she possibly tell her grandma that Jesus is hiding in her closet … sort of?
Hiding Jesus is the seventh book in the SEEING JESUS series, which began with the book by that title. It is the story of an encounter between an ordinary person and an extraordinary savior, a savior who shows up right where he’s needed most.
Plaing Jesus
He’s afraid his mom and her church will discover his sins. Maybe more afraid of facing the secrets he’s been trying to hide from himself. That’s too much to delve into alone. But what if he’s not alone?
Paul Baily is a daytime TV actor in Hollywood. His faith has been on hold for a few years as he focuses on his career. And he hasn’t been following all the rules church people generally expect. He’s still reeling from his father leaving when he was a kid, his brother overdosing and his sister succumbing to a mysterious illness. His faith was always too fragile to help him fully recover from any of that.
Paul goes home to comfort his mother after his sister’s death. His mom is all he has left. To please her, he takes the starring role in her church’s annual passion play. Jesus is someone Paul believes in. He can pretend to be him for his mother and for her big church.
Then one Saturday Paul discovers he is not alone in his small apartment. And the entire day is turned upside down by his astonishing visitor. Paul is sure no one will believe what’s happening to him. He’s not fully convinced himself. Until he meets a young woman who seems to recognize what he confesses to her.
The eighth novel in the Seeing Jesus series, Playing Jesus tells the story of an ordinary person having an extraordinary experience, an experience he has to see to believe.
Serving Jesus
Her grandmother has told her so many stunning, miraculous stories. Now it’s her turn to live with that same wonder, to see some miracles of her own.
Bethany Hight has followed her heart toward a dream of her own and away from her mother’s ambitions for her. Instead of bright lights on shiny stages, Bethany aspires to teach music to children. She will have to pursue her own dream without the support of her mother, including working in a diner.
She does, however, have the support of her dad, her friends, her church and her grandma. When that grandmother develops heart trouble late in Bethany’s semester, she must decide whether to skip finals to be at Grandma’s side. But an astonishing visitor assures her that her grandma will be fine as she finishes the school year. And that stranger accompanies her on a fateful visit to Bethany’s favorite relative.
Serving Jesus is the ninth book in the Seeing Jesus series. It tells the story of Bethany, who is Gladys Hight’s granddaughter—Gladys the focus of book two, Hearing Jesus.
Facing Jesus
He has won fortunes and lost them, found love and lost it. Now he might be losing his mind … or his soul.
Alone again and working another meaningless job, Johnny Bailey gets an invitation to his son’s wedding. The last time he talked to his son was to see if he could borrow money from him again. Maybe he’ll pay him back before attending the wedding. Maybe.
Bad luck. That’s what it is. The theme of Johnny’s life. The antidote for that bad luck was usually drinking or some kind of drug, legal or otherwise.
But he’s been clean for almost a year. He goes to the meetings. Yet he is clearly losing his mind. Because in his apartment is a man … or not really a man … not just a man. Johnny’s in his kitchen looking at the one he knew he would have to face at the end. After the end.
Is he dead now? He must be dead. Because he is clearly facing the judgement. Facing Jesus.
Facing Jesus is the tenth book in the Seeing Jesus series.