Understanding that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him has made all the difference for John Piper-and can transform your life as well.Here Piper passionately demonstrates the relevance of Edwards's ideals for the personal and public lives of Christians today through his own book-length introduction to Edwards's The End for Which God Created the World. This book also contains the complete essay supplemented by almost a hundred of Piper's insightful explanatory notes. The result is a powerful and persuasive presentation of the things that matter most in the Christian life.

    The mighty act of Christ did not come to a halt soon after the events recorded in the book of Acts. In every century since the first, the Almighty has been at work and believers can trace his footsteps by studying the way that Christians of a previous generation faced the challenges that confronted them.The first in a series of four volumes, which covers the history of the church from the earliest days up till modern times. Pastors and preachers will undoubtedly gain much from this series, and those who already have an interest in church history will find the four books useful additions to their library. Nevertheless, the series is written in a style that will appeal to the non-specialist and any modern Christian will find it challenging and stimulating to be introduced to men and women who loved and served the same Saviour that he loves and serves. This volume deals with the age of the Early Church fathers and includes, together with many more, the stories of martyrs such as Blandina and Polycarp, theologians like Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo, and preachers like John Chrysostom.

    Through his simple yet inspiring words, you will find out how to…Deal with evil powersUse your spiritual gifts wiselyMinister healing to othersGuard against false words of guidanceReceive God’s wisdom for your lifeServe others in Christ’s loveFollow the leading of the Holy SpiritLearn from Smith Wigglesworth’s personal experiences in ministering to thousands through the power of the Holy Spirit! By discovering how to receive and operate in the gifts of the Spirit, you can be the instrument God uses to transmit His love and miracles to others.

    These included the restoration of hearing and sight, the creative formation of missing limbs, the disappearance of cancerous growths, the recovery of mental wholeness by the violently insane, and the raising of several people from the dead. His words continue to provide spiritual, financial, emotional, and physical healing as they inspire and build faith. In these riveting messages, Smith Wigglesworth reveals the privileges that believers have and how they can claim their rich inheritance in Christ. These pages will inspire your faith and explode your vision as you learn how to…Secure God’s favor on your lifeObtain freedom from sinPractice the presence of GodTake authority over SatanLive in the joy of the LordExperience the miraculousReceive divine wholeness and healthDiscover the power that is available to you right now through Christ, and change from ordinary to extraordinary living as God’s grace transforms your life.

    Compiled and organized for devotional use by C. Frederick Barbee and Paul F. M. Zahl, Cranmer's Collects are each followed by succinct commentary on their historical context and an insightful meditation crafted with contemporary Christians in mind.

    Now available in paperback, Raymond E. Brown's masterful study examines every detail of the four Gospel stories of the final agonizing days of Jesus' life. Where others simply describe the accounts of the death of the Messiah as if they were one seamless whole, Father Brown reads and explains each Gospel on its own terms and elucidates the themes that make each one unique. "The Death of the Messiah" is the ideal complement to Brown's Birth of the Messiah, as thorough and expert in its handling of the Passion narratives as his book on the infancy narratives of the Gospels.

    The patristic commentary tradition on Matthew begins with Origen's pioneering twenty-five-volume commentary on the First Gospel in the mid-third century. In the Latin-speaking West, where commentaries did not appear until about a century later, the first commentary on Matthew was written by Hilary of Poitiers in the mid-fourth century. From that point the First Gospel became one of the texts most frequently commented on in patristic exegesis. Outstanding examples are Jerome's four-volume commentary and the valuable but anonymous and incomplete Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum. Then there are the Greek catena fragments derived from commentaries by Theodore of Heraclea, Apollinaris of Laodicea, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Cyril of Alexandria. The ancient homilies also provide ample comment, including John Chrysostom's ninety homilies and Chromatius of Aquileia's fifty-nine homilies on the Gospel of Matthew. In addition, there are various Sunday and feast-day homilies from towering figures such as Augustine and Gregory the Great, as well as other fathers. This rich abundance of patristic comment, much of it presented here in English translation for the first time by editor Manlio Simonetti, provides a bountiful and varied feast of ancient interpretation of the First Gospel.

    

    Lutzer examines various controversies that exist within the broad spectrum of Christianity, presenting the historical background of the issue and the biblical understanding of the doctrine. Chapters include "Predestination or Free Will?" "Justification by Faith."

    

    Scripture is then related in positive or negative ways to tradition, reason, and experience. Such projects mistakenly locate the canonical heritage of the church within epistemology, and Abraham charts the fatal consequences of this move, from the Fathers to modern feminist theology.

    

    Presents the biblical teaching on which our understanding of revival should be based and faces questions raised by a comparison between the church of today and that of New Testament times.

    Bergeron traces the history of the Gregorian revival from its Romantic origins in a community of French monks at Solesmes, whose founder hoped to rebuild the moral foundation of French culture on the ruins of the Benedictine order. She draws out the parallels between this longing for a lost liturgy and the postrevolutionary quest for lost monuments that fueled the French Gothic revival, a quest that produced the modern concept of "restoration."Bergeron follows the technological development of the Gregorian restoration over a seventy-year period as it passed from the private performances of a monastic choir into the public commodities of printed books, photographs, and Gramophone records. She discusses such issues as architectural restoration, the modern history of typography, the uncanny power of the photographic image, and the authority of recorded sound. She also shows the extent to which different media shaped the modern image of the ancient repertory, an image that gave rise to conflicting notions not only of musical performance but of the very idea of music history.

    Conciliar developments, however, did not emerge in a vacuum; they were the result of years of hard work that involved thousands of people across the United States and the world.As a social history of the liturgical movement, The Unread Vision introduces readers to the movement's pioneers and promoters and to the issues that emerged from the movement in the U.S. in the years 1926-1955. The Unread Vision explores the foundational years of the movement and its major themes and discusses how the movement, its goals and principles, was received by the broader community of American Catholics.Chapters include The European Roots:1833-1925," "The Beginnings of a Movement: Toward Full and Active Participation in the Liturgy," "The Liturgical Movement and Social Justice," "The Liturgical Movement and Education," and "The Liturgical Movement and the Arts. "Biographies on leading figures of the liturgical movement, as well as histories of related organizations, are also included.Keith F. Pecklers, SJ, is professor of liturgical theology and history at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, Rome, Italy. He is also the author of "Liturgy from Trent to Vatican II" included in theHandbook of Liturgical Studies published by The Liturgical Press."

    The eminently practical side of the Puritans is seen by his directions on how to live after receiving the Lord's Supper.

    Bender, famous for his influential Anabaptist Vision, devoted much of his life and energy to the care and direction of Mennonite institutions.He provided leadership to Mennonite World Conference, Mennonite Central Committee, Goshen Biblical Seminary, and other church organizations. With Bender's guidance these institutions became modernizing agents, helping Mennonites navigate the unsettling changes they encountered in the 20th century.

    

    Taking into account the full range of witnesses to continuing native piety--from papyri and saints' lives to archaeology and terracotta figurines--and drawing on anthropological studies of folk religion, David Frankfurter argues that the religion of Pharonic Egypt did not die out as early as has been supposed but was instead relegated from political centers to village and home, where it continued a vigorous existence for centuries.In analyzing the fate of the Egyptian oracle and of the priesthoods, the function of magical texts, and the dynamics of domestic cults, Frankfurter describes how an ancient culture maintained itself while also being transformed through influences such as Hellenism, Roman government, and Christian dominance. Recognizing the special characteristics of Egypt, which differentiated it from the other Mediterranean cultures that were undergoing simultaneous social and political changes, he departs from the traditional "decline of paganism/triumph of Christianity" model most often used to describe the Roman period. By revealing late Egyptian religion in its Egyptian historical context, he moves us away from scenarios of Christian triumph and shows us how long and how energetically pagan worship survived.

    An essential tool not only in the understanding of Calvin's commentaries, but of biblical study in general in the sixteenth century.

    

    This book provides a witty an lucid examination of the origins and development of these movements and considers their continuing legacy today. Pearse charts the rise and progress of continental Anabaptismboth evangelical and hereticalthrough the 16th century. He then follows the story of those English people who become impatient with Puritanism and separatedfirst from the Church of England and then from one anotherto form the antecedents of later Congregationalists, Baptists and Quakers.

    In Volume 1, The Biblical Period, Old begins his survey by discussing the roots of the Christian ministry of the Word in the worship of Israel. He then examines the preaching of Christ and the Apostles. Finally, Old looks at the development and practice of Christian preaching in the second and third centuries, concluding with the ministry of Origen.