They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily...BUT WHO DO YOU KNOW WHO LIVES LIKE THAT? DO YOU?In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus.Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment -- a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring.

    Increasing numbers of us don't believe in God anymore. We don't expect miracles. We've grown up and left those fairytales behind, culturally and personally.Yet five hundred years ago the world was very much enchanted. It was a world where God existed and the devil was real. It was a world full of angels and demons. It was a world of holy wells and magical eels. But since the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world, in the West at least, has become increasingly disenchanted.While this might be taken as evidence of a crisis of belief, Richard Beck argues it's actually a crisis of attention. God hasn't gone anywhere, but we've lost our capacity to see God.The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly changed our religious imaginations and led to a loss of the holy expectation that we can be interrupted by the sacred and divine. But it doesn't have to be this way. With attention and an intentional and cultivated capacity to experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives, Hunting Magic Eels, shows us, we can cultivate an enchanted faith in a skeptical age.

    The text contains fresh revelation and biblical information as well as stories from others related to the topic.

    Not in our school system, not in our synagogues, and not in our media. Nor do we have easy access to the New Testament. Jesus has been studiously avoided, and hidden from our people. Today in Israel, 99.7% of the Jewish population, reject Jesus as the Messiah. How did our country, where the gospel first took place, come to be so adamantly against it? Within Judaism over the last two millennia, any kind of spiritual message had to go through the “gate keepers”, the Orthodox Jewish Rabbis. The Rabbinic Judaism of the Orthodox comes directly from the sect of the “Pharisees”, whom Jesus rebuked: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:13) Ever since the days of Messiah, the Rabbis have set themselves in opposition to the gospel, blocking the message of Jesus from Israel. They deliberately prevent Jewish people from hearing about the free salvation offered to them in the death and resurrection of their own Jewish Messiah. They have gone to great lengths to conceal Jesus, and keep him the best kept secret in Judaism., keeping our people in spiritual darkness. But now the secret is out! After almost 2000 years, Jesus, or as we call him in Hebrew, Yeshua, can no longer be hidden from the people! Today, our ministry, ONE FOR ISRAEL, reaches Jewish and Arab Israelis exactly where they are – online. We no longer need the rabbis’ permission for anything. We can go straight into the smartphones, tablets, and computers of every Israeli, sharing the saving good news of Yeshua the Messiah! In the past, the message of the gospel came to Israel from outside our borders, delivered by people who didn’t understand our language, our culture, our heritage or our way of thinking. Today the messengers look very different. Now it is Jewish and Arab Israelis who are bringing the gospel back to where it started – back to our own people Israel. We can explain the gospel to our people in a way that makes sense to them, in our own native tongues of Hebrew and Arabic as only Israelis can, and help our people understand who Yeshua really is. The Orthodox rabbis in Israel operate an “anti missionary” organization called Yad L'Achim, specifically to fight against the spread of the gospel among the Jewish people. This very well-funded organization, works very closely with the Minister of Interior in the Israeli government. They seek to prevent Jewish people from leaving the confines of Rabbinic Judaism by any means necessary (not always legally), and relentlessly persecute us, the Jewish believers in Jesus in Israel. With over 90% of the names, photos and addresses of all the Messianic Jews in Israel on file, Yad L’Achim began sending a magazine called “Searching” to the homes of believers in Israel back in 2014. The magazine contains objections and refutations from Orthodox rabbis about the messiahship of Jesus, the credibility of the New Testament, and trying to ridicule and destroy the belief in Jesus. This caused several Jewish believers, even including some who had been missionaries, to deny their faith in Jesus and revert to rabbinic Judaism. Over the past five years, I decided to go over all of their magazines, books and videos, in order to answer their arguments and prove their objections false. Since 2015 we have released about 150 short videos where we share the gospel and directly refute these rabbinic objections to Jesus, New Testament and Christianity.

    “It's an amazing time to be an Episcopalian. Our church has a renewed sense of vision and leadership that’s all about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. We’re all about standing up for equal rights and the environment. We’re all about welcoming everybody to the table, preaching repentance and accepting forgiveness. We hold together modern thought and an ancient faith firmly rooted in Jesus Christ. We offer vital communities that help families, singles - countless people make sense of their lives and their places in the world. Jesus Was an Episcopalian (And You Can Be One Too!) is all about letting the world know who we are and who the Lord is calling us to be. Let’s face it, few people today know what an Episcopalian is (be honest – how many people have asked you how to spell it?), yet many of us who have found Christ through this wonderful tradition believe we have an incredible gift to share. That’s what this book is about. It’s an uplifting, breezy, down-to-earth apologia for a new generation. It’s for the church. It’s for the world. It’s one way for the church to love the world.” (Chris Yaw)

    Fun is still allowed, by all means, but the ultimate emphasis on maturing faith is simply essential.The anecdotal comparisons are current and on-target (Starbucks’ well-publicized decision to retrain baristas in coffee making introduces the idea that youth leaders might also be wise to revisit the gospel essence of their ministry). And case study data gleaned from small to mega churches and parachurch ministries will give every youth leader a relatable reference point from which to begin the successful metamorphosis to Simple.

    Who is the real Jesus? Do we remake him in our own image and then wonder why our spirituality is less than life-changing and exciting? Steve Chalke—a high-profile visionary in the United Kingdom and an evangelical recognized not only by Christians but by the general public as well—believes that the real Jesus is deeply challenging. And each new generation must grapple with the question of who he is, because only through a constant study of Jesus are we able to discover God himself. The Lost Message of Jesus is written to stir thoughtful debate and pose fresh questions that will help create a deeper understanding of Jesus and his message. It is an encounter with the real Jesus of his world—not the Jesus we try to mold to ours. Themes include: •The Kingdom of God—shalom—is available to everyone now, through Jesus •The world outside your own church needs to hear of the depth of God’s love and suffering •Jesus was a radical and a revolutionary! •Jesus offers immediate forgiveness, without cost, to anyone •Jesus shows us repentance isn’t a guilt-laden list of dos and don’ts, but an inspirational vision of a new way to live Focusing on some of the key episodes, events, and issues of Jesus’ life, we will see how too often the message we preach today has been influenced more by the culture we live in than the radical, life-changing, world-shaping message Jesus shared two thousand years ago.

    Collins speaks of what remains to be the most amazing thing that he or anyone else has encountered in a full lifetime. The fact that God would save wicked men and forgive their sins is truly amazing. But the grace of God does not stop there. Our whole life is filled with the manifestation of God's grace to us. Here you will find what grace is and how it affects us who know Christ.

    But joy often gave way to sorrow as she invested her heart fully in walking alongside people in the grip of poverty, addiction, desperation, and disease.After unexpected tragedy shook her family, for the first time Katie began to wonder, Is God really good? Does He really love us? When she turned to Him with her questions, God spoke truth to her heart and drew her even deeper into relationship with Him.Daring to Hope is an invitation to cling to the God of the impossible--the God who whispers His love to us in the quiet, in the mundane, when our prayers are not answered the way we want or the miracle doesn't come. It's about a mother discovering the extraordinary strength it takes to be ordinary. It's about choosing faith no matter the circumstance and about encountering God's goodness in the least expected places.Though your heartaches and dreams may take a different shape, you will find your own questions echoed in these pages. You'll be reminded of the gifts of joy in the midst of sorrow. And you'll hear God's whisper: Hold on to hope. I will meet you here.

    Instead of an awkward experience, sharing your faith can be a simple, everyday part of life. As you grow in your love for Jesus, sharing him with others will overflow into every conversation. Casual interactions will turn into significant moments that bring the gospel into all your relationships.

    It's time to try something new: Give up. Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung counsels Christians to settle down, make choices, and do the hard work of seeing those choices through. Too often, he writes, God's people tinker around with churches, jobs, and relationships, worrying that they haven't found God's perfect will for their lives. Or—even worse—they do absolutely nothing, stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting for clear, direct, unmistakable direction. But God doesn't need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He's already revealed his plan for our lives: to love him with our whole hearts, to obey His Word, and after that, to do what we like. No need for hocus-pocus. No reason to be directionally challenged. Just do something.

    What does it look like to help others become more like Christ?In this concise guide, pastor Mark Dever outlines the who, what, where, when, why, and how of discipling--helping others follow Jesus.Following the pattern found in Scripture, this book explains how disciple-making relationships should function in the context of the local church, teaching us how to cultivate a culture of discipling as a normal part of our everyday lives.Part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series.

    Portland is among the most unchurched and politically progressive cities in the nation. With its unique edge—from a popular television show dedicated to its eccentricity to hosting the country’s largest naked bike ride—you wouldn’t expect Portland to be home to one of the most successful partnerships between local government and area churches. But it is.In 2007, Kevin Palau and a few dozen pastors approached Portland’s mayor and posed the question: How can we serve you with no strings attached? Officials identified five initial areas of need—hunger, homelessness, healthcare, the environment, and public schools—and so began a partnership, CityServe, between the city and a band of churches seeking to live out the gospel message. Since then, the CityServe model has spread like wildfire, inspiring communities across the country to take up the cause in their own cities.Unlikely not only tells the story of the inception of CityServe, but also challenges readers to evaluate their understanding of the gospel. Today’s church finds itself torn between social justice and direct proclamation. Unlikely proposes a both/and scenario, showing how the gospel can truly penetrate a region—through word and deed.CityServe is proof that when differences can be put aside for a worthy cause, real change can be attained, and unlikely beauty is born.

    Now in this next-step book, he answers questions about how to deal with theological and organizational issues that come up. He talks about issues such has what to do with finances, children, heresy, leader training, and rituals and ordinances. Without the top-down structure of a denomination, even people who are proponents of this small, house-church model worry that they are not doing it right.Offers an important resource for anyone involved with or thinking of starting an organic or house church Addresses practical issues of theology, rituals, doctrinal heresy, how to handle children, finances, and other important questions Written by an acknowledged expert who is now and has been for over twenty years an organic church planter and practitioner A new Leadership Network title and follow-up to Organic ChurchChurch 3.0 offers solid information about organic churches based on Cole's extensive experience in starting, nurturing, and mentoring in the organic church movement.

    It is an invitation to the reader to put aside their traditional understanding of the Gospel of John and to replace it with another one more faithful to the original text perspective. The Jesus that will emerge will provoke to rethink most of what you knew about this gospel. The book is a well-rounded verse-by-verse illustrated rethinking of the fourth gospel. Here is the catch: instead of reading it, as if it was written for 21 century Gentile Christians, the book interprets it as if it was written for the first-century peoples of ancient Israel. The book proves what Krister Stendahl stated long time ago: “Our vision is often more abstracted by what we think we know than by our lack of knowledge.” Other than challenging the long-held interpretations of well-known stories, the author with the skill of an experienced tour guide, takes us to a seat within those who most probably heard this gospel read in the late first century. Such exploration of variety of important contexts allows us to recover for our generation the true riches of this marvelous Judean gospel. “A genuine apologetic is one that is true to the texts and the history, akin to the speeches of a defense attorney with integrity. Using the best of contemporary scholarship in first-century Judaic history and contributing much of his own, Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg has demonstrated that the Gospel of John is not an anti-Jewish, but a thoroughly Jewish book.” Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, University of California, Berkeley “Dr. Lizorkin-Eyzenberg places the text of John’s Gospel in its authentic context by examining the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, rabbinic literature, and suggesting innovative explanations for the nomenclature, ‘the Jews.’ His fresh analysis is sure to stir meaningful debate. His creative approach will make an enduring contribution to the discipline of New Testament studies.” Brad Young, Professor of Biblical Literature in Judeao-Christian Studies, Oral Roberts University “For some time, research on the Gospels has suffered from stagnation, and there is a feeling that there is not much new that one can say. In light of this, Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg’s new commentary on the Gospel of John, with its original outlook on the identity of the original audience and the issues at stake, is extremely refreshing.” Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Head of the Talmud and Late Antiquity Department, Tel-Aviv University.