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New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all your creation, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A Liturgy for Morning Prayer," Upper Room Worshipbook

Used by permission from the Book of Common Worship, © 2018 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. This prayer appears in “A Liturgy for Morning Prayer” in Upper Room Worshipbook.

Let Me Ask You a Question

Conversations with Jesus

Matthew Croasmun • July 2018

BUY Print $9.99

BUY eBook (Available in ePub or Kindle) $9.99

We often think of Jesus as someone with all the answers. But over and over in scripture, he asks questions, seeking to engage with people and genuinely interested in their responses.

Matthew Croasmun challenges readers to consider this book as an experiment—an opportunity to see whether God is real. He invites us to enter into conversation with Jesus by answering the questions Jesus asks in scripture. The goal is not to come up with what we think are the right answers but to respond honestly to Jesus' questions.

Each chapter of this six-week study contains five readings. Each reading follows this format:

  • A Bible passage with a question Jesus asks in bold type
  • A short reflection designed to help you engage with Jesus’ question as he asked it in the Gospels and as he asks it of you now
  • Space for you to continue the conversation with Jesus.

Written in a warm, encouraging style, this thought-provoking and imaginative book will certainly give readers entry points into conversation with God, and they may find themselves experiencing a deeper relationship with the divine than they ever thought possible.


Matthew Croasmun is associate research scholar and director of the Life Worth Living program at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School. Teaching is his calling—in the church and in the university setting. He also serves as staff pastor of Elm City Vineyard Church, a dynamic, diverse, urban church in New Haven, Connecticut.

ISBN: 978-0-8358-1799-8

Kindle ISBN: 978-0-8358-1800-1

EPub ISBN: 978-0-8358-1801-8

Imprint: Upper Room

Pub Date: July 2018

Trim Size: 7.5 in (w) x 9.25 in (h) x 0.313 in (d)

Page Count: 144

BISAC Categories: RELIGION / Christian Ministry / Discipleship

BISAC1: REL023000

BISAC2: REL108000

BISAC3: REL006000

“This beautiful book is an invitation into dialogue, disclosure, and true discipleship by Jesus himself through disarmingly honest questions. We hear Jesus ask surprising, death-defying, life-giving questions that offer transformation through a call to transparency. If, like me, you read this book for the first time in a coffee shop, don’t be surprised if you find yourself seated by the Spirit in Jesus’ very presence, riveted as the deep places of your heart meet the depths of God’s love. Such an authentic, truth-telling encounter may cause you to answer him aloud. It did me.”
—Cherith Fee Nordling, Associate Professor of Theology at Northern Seminary

“Croasmun draws us into dialogue with the living Jesus, whose questions challenge us, encourage us, and ultimately lead us into lives of deeper faith.”
—Miroslav Volf, Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School; Founding Director, Yale Center for Faith & Culture; and author of Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace

“Sadly, in our driven pursuit of answers today, we seem to have lost sight of the fact that perhaps what we really need to find are better questions. Matt skillfully leads us to those questions and sensitively encourages us to linger there. A timely book masterfully crafted!”
—Gary Best, Author of Naturally Supernatural: God May Be Closer Than You Think

“This book makes a case for a Jesus who is alive and at work in the world, one who desires relationship and the sort of two-way conversation that flows from it. Let Me Ask You a Question paints a winsome picture of a totally real and unreligious Jesus, open to questions and ready for dialogue. What a breath of fresh air!”
—Eleanor Mumford, Pastor, church planter, and co-coordinator of the Vineyard International Executive

“Rather than a Jesus who is interested in our knowing the right answers, this book introduces us to Jesus who is more interested in a dialogue with us. So many have been afraid to move toward Jesus, and this book helps show how truly approachable he is.”
—Jay Pathak, Pastor of the Mile High Vineyard and coauthor of The Art of Neighboring

“Can you really talk to God? Is God really speaking back? Matt Croasmun invites us to the adventure of finding out if God talks. What a challenge to seekers and responders alike! A must read book for both Christians and agnostics.”
—Martin Bühlmann, Leader of the Vineyard movement of churches in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

“A book of questions. How refreshing! And not just any questions: Jesus’ questions. In a world quick to offer unsatisfying answers, you’ll cherish the chance, day by day, to see how Jesus’ questions can shape the questions you ask—and the answers you find. So grab a cup of coffee or tea, settle yourself in a comfy chair, and, with Matt’s help, contemplate the power and profundity of Jesus’ questions.”
—Jack Levison, W. J. A. Power Chair of Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and author of Forty Days with the Holy Spirit