Love Is an Orientation is the result of years of wrestling with this issue. In the book, Marin speaks out with compassion and conviction, elevating the conversation between Christianity and the GLBT community so that the focus is moved from genetics to gospel, where it really belongs.

    And we cannot move toward being a more just nation without understanding the root causes that have shaped our culture and institutions.In this prophetic blend of history, theology, and cultural commentary, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah reveal the far-reaching, damaging effects of the "Doctrine of Discovery." In the fifteenth century, official church edicts gave Christian explorers the right to claim territories they "discovered." This was institutionalized as an implicit national framework that justifies American triumphalism, white supremacy, and ongoing injustices. The result is that the dominant culture idealizes a history of discovery, opportunity, expansion, and equality, while minority communities have been traumatized by colonization, slavery, segregation, and dehumanization.Healing begins when deeply entrenched beliefs are unsettled. Charles and Rah aim to recover a common memory and shared understanding of where we have been and where we are going. As other nations have instituted truth and reconciliation commissions, so do the authors call our nation and churches to a truth-telling that will expose past injustices and open the door to conciliation and true community.

    Their gripping adventure begins in the ancient city of Jerusalem and takes them to the very spot in Galilee where Jesus taught the multitudes to pray. Along the way they discover a Hebrew version of the Lord’s Prayer, preserved in secret by Jewish rabbis for over a thousand years. The richness of meaning that the Hebrew unlocks reveals a powerful message of spiritual growth for Jew and Christian alike. Join them on this provocative exploration of the Hebrew origins of the Lord's Prayer!"Both Jews and Christians could learn a great deal from this book... I highly recommend it!" Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, Congregation Kol HaNeshama, Jerusalem"If you enjoy detective mysteries... this book is a veritable gold mine... as we discover hidden truths and marvel together with the authors..." Christine Darg, Exploits Ministry"I am so thankful to the Father for this book... I felt like I was on a spiritual journey with so many things confirmed and also revealed." James Thrash, NFL PlayerNehemia Gordon holds a Masters Degree in Biblical Studies and a Bachelors Degree in Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Gordon has worked as a translator on the Dead Sea Scrolls and as a researcher deciphering ancient Hebrew manuscripts. He has been invited to speak in synagogues and churches around the world and has led groups of pilgrims and visitors on tours of biblical sites. A native of Chicago, Nehemia has made his home in Jerusalem, Israel since 1993.Keith Johnson earned his Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and has spent nearly two decades in Christian ministry. As an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, Johnson has served as pastor of Park Avenue Church in Minneapolis and as chaplain of the Minnesota Vikings. Johnson was also chosen as one of only 40 chaplains from around the world to serve the athletes of the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta. Keith lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife and sons.

    Why has Christianity, a religion premised upon neighborly love, failed in its attempts to heal social divisions?  In this ambitious and wide-ranging work, Willie James Jennings delves deep into the late medieval soil in which the modern Christian imagination grew, to reveal how Christianity’s highly refined process of socialization has inadvertently created and maintained segregated societies.   A probing study of the cultural fragmentation—social, spatial, and racial—that took root in the Western mind, this book shows how Christianity has consistently forged Christian nations rather than encouraging genuine communion between disparate groups and individuals.Weaving together the stories of Zurara, the royal chronicler of Prince Henry, the Jesuit theologian Jose de Acosta, the famed Anglican Bishop John William Colenso, and the former slave writer Olaudah Equiano, Jennings narrates a tale of loss, forgetfulness, and missed opportunities for the transformation of Christian communities.  Touching on issues of slavery, geography, Native American history, Jewish-Christian relations, literacy, and translation, he brilliantly exposes how the loss of land and the supersessionist ideas behind the Christian missionary movement are both deeply implicated in the invention of race.Using his bold, creative, and courageous critique to imagine a truly cosmopolitan citizenship that transcends geopolitical, nationalist, ethnic, and racial boundaries, Jennings charts, with great vision, new ways of imagining ourselves, our communities, and the landscapes we inhabit.

    The Colson Way uses Colson’s legacy and wisdom to show Christians a way of living a public faith with conviction and generosity toward all. “A praiseworthy intellectual achievement and a gift to the Christian community.”—Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University “Required reading for any Christian seeking to engage in the public square.”—Frank Wolf, Senior Distinguished Fellow, 21st Century Wilberforce initiative “I was privileged to know and work with Chuck Colson in several respects. He was a man of character and conviction who understood that believers find themselves in ‘two cities,’ as Augustine wrote. As a member of the city of God, I have dedicated my life to strengthening the city of man. I am so thankful to see Owen Strachan’s The Colson Way celebrate this kind of vision. I commend it highly and urge pastors and churches to buy this book—and to share this vision with their people."—Mike Huckabee “An honest, enjoyable, and eye-opening look at one of the most significant Christian leaders of the twentieth century.”—Sean McDowell, Ph.D., author of The Fate of the Apostle

    Jesus gave his members a new way to deal with offenders, with violence, with money, with leadership, with a corrupt society. He gave them a new pattern of relationships between man and woman, and an enlarged understanding of what it means to be human.This is the original revolution: the creation of a distinct community with its alternate set of values and its coherent way of incarnating them. Such a group is not only a novelty, but is also, if lived faithfully, the most powerful tool of social change.

    With unusual clarity, Kreeft points out that the man or woman who begins to glimpse the God who is Creator, Redeemer, and Lover of our souls, will never be the same. He describes Scripture as God's love story and then tells why divine love is the answer to our deepest problems and the fulfillment of our deepest desires.Posing the hard questions about love that rankle the heart, Peter Kreeft never settles for easy answers. He exposes today's superficial attitudes about love to lead people to a deeper understanding of what it means to be loved by God, addressing these issues and many more:• How can I really know God's love for me? • If God is love, why do bad things happen to good people?

    Follow the faith journey of author and fellow disciplemaker Jen Hatmaker and rediscover Jesus among the least of us.

    In eight stirring meditations, Darrell Johnson shows how the Lord's Prayer sums up the essence of Christian faith and, when prayed in faith, draws us into draws us into the Triune God's work of transforming the world. Darrell W. Johnson is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A popular conference and retreat speaker, he has also served as the preaching pastor for a number of congregations in North America and the Philippines and Adjunct Professor of Preaching for the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. His other books include Experiencing the Trinity and Discipleship on the Edge: An Expository Journey through the Book of Revelation.

    But in a world affected by sin, false teaching is everywhere. Many people obscure, distort, or challenge what God has revealed in Scripture—even some leaders in the church. To be better prepared as witnesses for Christ, we must identify falsehood and the devastating harm it brings.By surveying prominent theological errors, cults, and world religions, this book can equip you to defend your faith against the dangers of false teaching. It can also help you more effectively respond to your friends, family, and neighbors with the hope you have in Christ.

    Billions of dollars are spent each year trying to retain or restore health. It is a basic desire of all mankind. Anyone who likes sickness must be mentally sick! Yet, religion has told us that God is the one who wants us sick. It even tries to make us believe that sickness is a blessing. That's just not true. God wants you well. Healing is in Christ's Atonement. Jesus died for our health just as much as He died for the forgiveness of our sins. This has to be the foundation of our faith for healing. Many Scriptures relate the healing of our bodies and the forgiveness of our sins in the same verse. Jesus went about healing all who were oppressed of the devil and told us to do the same. Jesus hasn't changed, it's the people who represent Him who have changed. What about Paul's thorn in the flesh? It is commonly believed that the apostle Paul had a sickness for which he besought the Lord for healing three times, and the Lord wouldn't heal him. From that assumption, people teach that God sometimes wants us sick. In this book, Andrew reveals what Paul's thorn in the flesh was, and it wasn't sickness. If it is God's will to heal everyone, then why isn't everyone healed? It's not because of God. And it's not just because we don't have enough faith. We do have the faith to be healed. Jesus said the problem is our unbelief - unbelief cancels out faith. Instead of trying to get more faith or bigger faith, we just need a pure faith that isn't negated by unbelief. There are laws that govern the spiritual world just as there are laws that govern the physical realm. Electricity has been around since the beginning of the world, but mankind didn't benefit from electricity until recently, not because it didn't work, but because of our ignorance of the laws of electricity. Likewise, God's healing is here and available. It's only our ignorance of the laws which control the flow of God's power that keeps us from benefiting from it.

    Innovative teachers Craig Gross and Jason Harper will separate the religious from the real as they show how this simple truth is worth our undivided attention. The authors weave Jesus' narrative with their own stories of serving among the "least of these" in this inspiring summons to world-changing faith. Join them as they encounter shut-ins, drunks, inmates, porn stars, and others while striving to follow Christ in their daily lives. Christian and non-Christian readers alike will experience God's love and be challenged to take seriously the call of Jesus. Individuals, small groups, congregations, and church classes will find the companion DVD an indispensable resource for learning about the world-changing love of Jesus through captivating stories and interviews. In these four films, viewers will meet face-to-face with some of the folks they encounter in the book Jesus Loves You . . . This I Know. Each film is three to five minutes long and is followed by questions for groups that wish to use the films as discussion starters. Also ideal for use in sermons.

    Never had any country sought to move forward from despotism to democracy both by exposing the atrocities committed in the past and achieving reconciliation with its former oppressors. At the center of this unprecedented attempt at healing a nation has been Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whom President Nelson Mandela named as Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. With the final report of the Commission just published, Archbishop Tutu offers his reflections on the profound wisdom he has gained by helping usher South Africa through this painful experience.In No Future Without Forgiveness, Tutu argues that true reconciliation cannot be achieved by denying the past.  But nor is it easy to reconcile when a nation "looks the beast in the eye." Rather than repeat platitudes about forgiveness, he presents a bold spirituality that recognizes the horrors people can inflict upon one another, and yet retains a sense of idealism about reconciliation. With a clarity of pitch born out of decades of experience, Tutu shows readers how to move forward with honesty and compassion to build a newer and more humane world.

    But it's the foundation of our faith. In this new 365-day devotional, Tullian Tchividjian reminds you every day that the gospel is good news. It's God's message that He loves us even when we don't deserve it. These short readings each contain a truth from God's Word that will set you on a solid foundation for the day—a foundation of God's grace, goodness, and unconditional love.

    But sometimes Jesus spoke words that followers then and now have found difficult. He instructs disciples to hate members of their own families (Luke 14:26), to act as if they were slaves (Matthew 20:27), and to sell their belongings and give to the poor (Luke 18:22). He restricts his mission (Matthew 10:6); he speaks of damnation (Matthew 8:12); he calls Jews the devil's children (John 8:44).In The Difficult Words of Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine shows how these difficult teachings would have sounded to the people who first heard them, how have they been understood over time, and how we might interpret them in the context of the Gospel of love and reconciliation.Additional components for a six-week study include a DVD featuring Dr. Levine and a comprehensive Leader Guide.