A passionate expositional commentary, Isaiah is a valuable resource for pastors, teachers, and personal Bible study.

    It recounts the history of Israel as it moved from no king, to the king it demanded, to the king God knew his people needed.But its greatest excitement lies not in the events and characters, but in the person they all point to. 1 Samuel presents us with a wonderful picture of Jesus. Seeing him in and through this Old Testament book enables us to see him with fresh color and texture, and see afresh what it means for us to follow him today as our Ruler and Rescuer. 1 Samuel is a book about ancient times, that speaks directly into ours.Written for people of every age and stage, from new believers to pastors and teachers, 1 Samuel For You can be used to:- READ: As a guide to this wonderful letter, exciting and equipping you to live out the truth in your life.- FEED: As a daily devotional to help you grow in Christ as you read and meditate on this portion of God's word.- LEAD: As notes to aid you in explaining, illustrating and applying 1 Samuel as you preach or lead a Bible study.

    We are not reading someone else's mail--as though reading the Bible had to do foremost with recovering an ancient meaning intended for someone else and then translating its principles for use in our own lives. When we recall that we are the people of God to whom the Bible is addressed as Scripture, we realize that the fundamental transformation is not the transformation of an ancient message into a contemporary meaning, bur rather the transformation of our lives by means of God's Word. This means that reading the Bible as Scripture has less to do with what tools we bring to the task, however important these may be, and more to do with our own dispositions as we come to our engagement with Scripture. We come not so much to retrieve facts or to gain information, but to be formed and ultimately, transformed. Scripture does not present us with texts to be mastered but with a Word, God's Word, intent on mastering us, on shaping our lives.

    But the variety of the testimony can be lost by limiting one's interpretations or application of the prophetic word. Interpreting the Prophetic Word helps readers understand the harmony of the voices that reveal God's purposes in redemptive history. Dr. Willem VanGemeren explains clearly and fully the background of the prophetic tradition. He then interprets the message of the major and minor prophets, using historical context and literary form and structure as tools in his analysis. He concludes with an explanation of the relevance of the prophetic word today. Dr. VanGemeren's extensive research and scholarship is presented in a readable way to unlock the door of prophecy for readers. He helps them to interpret prophecy and invites them to listen to the prophets and to lives the prophetic word.

    Now revised and updated to include all the book of the Old Testament.

    In it, John Barclay led readers through a recontextualized analysis of grace and interrogated Paul’s original meaning in declaring it a “free gift” from God, revealing grace as a multifaceted concept that is socially radical and unconditioned—even if not unconditional. Paul and the Power of Grace offers all of the most significant contributions from Paul and the Gift in a package several hundred pages shorter and more accessible. Additionally, Barclay adds further analysis of the theme of gift and grace in Paul’s other letters—besides just Romans and Galatians—and explores contemporary implications for this new view of grace.

    In "Traveling Light," Eugene H. Peterson, who is translator of "The Message Bible," explores the free life in Christ that we must both receive as a gift and practice as a skill. In an engaging, often passionate dialogue in which Paul's letter to the Galatians faces off against the crises of modern life, he offers both encouragement and challenge to men and women trapped in the anxieties and determinism of our age. Eugene H. Peterson was pastor of Christ Our King United Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, for nearly three decades, then served as professor of spirituality theology at Regent College, Vancouver, BC. Dr. Peterson is translator of "The Message" and author of numerous other works, among them "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction" and "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places." "Like a skilled eye doctor, Eugene Peterson turns the lens that clears our vision and enables us to discriminate between reality and fantasy, to see what satisfies and what leads to bondage." -- Rebecca Pippert

    But it is not God's Word that has changed. Indeed, its relevancy and its power to transform lives are intact. What has changed is the number of people who consult it. Now more than ever the need to read the Bible, to understand the big picture of its storyline, and to grasp the relevance this has for your life is critical.As with its companion volume, For the Love of God-Volume 2, this devotional contains a systematic 365-day plan, based on the M'Cheyne Bible-reading schedule, that will in the course of a year guide you through the New Testament and Psalms twice and the rest of the Old Testament once.In an effort to help preserve biblical thinking and living, D. A. Carson has also written thought-provoking comments and reflections regarding each day's scriptural passages. And, most uniquely, he offers you perspective that places each reading into the larger framework of history and God's eternal plan to deepen your understanding of his sovereignty-and the unity and power of his Word.

    The contributors, all respected scholars in their respective fields, suggest that classic premillennialism offers believers a more coherent and viable approach to understanding eschatology. Their studies, which examine eschatology from biblical, theological, historical, and missiological approaches, provide a broadly accessible argument for returning to the perspectives of historic premillennial eschatology.

    Are these seemingly vindictive prayers acceptable in the mouths of Christians? How is a pastor supposed to preach these texts?James E. Adams wants us to embrace God's Word in its entirety, and that means examining the parts that make us uncomfortable. In short, helpful chapters, Adams answers a number of questions: Are these psalms from God? Who is the speaker in the psalms? May we pray these psalms today? It turns out that the Prince of Peace has much to teach us about war, and even the imprecatory psalms may be prayed with the merciful goal of conversion.Twenty-fifth anniversary edition—includes a new epilogue and additional chapter.

    

    He points out that the Psalms are poems, intended to be sung, not doctrinal treatises or sermons. Proceeding with his characteristic grace, he guides readers through both the form and the meaning of these beloved passages in the Bible.

    He carefully opens the literature of the books, sketching a narrative filled with historical realism but also bursting with an awareness that more than human action is being presented.

    Michael Morales examines the key elements of three major redemption movements in Scripture: the exodus out of Egypt, the second exodus foretold by the prophets, and the new exodus accomplished by Jesus Christ. We discover how the blood of a Passover lamb helps us grasp the significance of Jesus' death on the cross, how the Lord's defeat of Pharaoh foreshadowed Jesus' victory over Satan, how Israel's exodus out of Egypt unfolds the meaning of the resurrection, and much more.The second volume in the ESBT series, Exodus Old and New reveals how Old Testament stories of salvation provide insight into the accomplishments of Jesus and the unity of God's purposes across history.Essential Studies in Biblical Theology (ESBT), edited by Benjamin L. Gladd, explore the central or essential themes of the Bible's grand storyline. Taking cues from Genesis 1-3, authors trace the presence of these themes throughout the entire sweep of redemption history. Written for students, church leaders, and laypeople, the ESBT offers an introduction to biblical theology.

    John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators." ~ G.K. Chesterton The book of Revelation was written to do just that: reveal. But most commentaries nowadays either engage in bizarre speculations about the future, or they keep an embarrassed distance from all the apocalyptic events that the apostle John says will “shortly take place.” In this commentary, Douglas Wilson provides a passage-by-passage walkthrough of the entire book, showing how John’s most notorious prophecies concern the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Explaining symbols and characters as he goes, Wilson shows from the text that not only is this book not an elaborate code, but that Revelation is not even ultimately concerned with the end of the world as we know it. Revelation is about the triumph of the Church, which always happens when the Man comes around.