He pulls you close. In Embraced, beloved Bible teacher and bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst offers 100 devotions that will resonate with women in all stages of life by giving you a godly perspective on the issues you face each day.A real embrace indicates an intimate level of closeness. It's not a high five or a casual handshake. The best kind of embrace is when someone we know deeply loves us, flings their arms wide open, and pulls us in close.Through these 100 devotions, daily scriptures, and prayer prompts, you will be equipped to:Begin finding freedom from the struggles that have held you hostage by learning new ways to experience God's love.Surrender your deepest hurts by processing them in a godly way with Lysa, a friend who understands your pain.Hear the Lord speak intimately to your heart by learning how to seek His direction.Release the tension of wondering, If God is near why does He sometimes feel far away? by spending guided time with Him each day.Embraced will be a treasured keepsake for you, and a meaningful gift for those you love, with:An exquisite cloth cover you'll want to leave out for others to see and for easy accessHighly designed interior with Scripture, call-outs, and quotesRibbon marker to keep your placeOur hearts were made for this kind of love and security, but for many of us, we know more about the pain of heartbreak and fear than the unconditional love for which we were created. In Embraced, Lysa shares her own struggles, doubts, and heartbreaks while pointing to the ultimate embrace: God opening His arms wide on Calvary through Jesus so that He could pull us close for all of eternity, welcoming us into the safety and hope of His grace, love, and embrace.Look for additional bestselling books from Lysa TerKeurst: Forgiving What You Can't Forget It's Not Supposed to Be This Way Uninvited The Best Yes

    Let’s face it: making decisions is hard—especially when it comes to the big stuff like, Should I marry this person? Am I in the wrong job? What should I do with my life? We know that God has a plan for us, but how are we supposed to know what that plan is?In What Is God’s Will for My Life?, bestselling author John Ortberg helps us understand: If God’s will for my life is so important, why doesn’t he just tell me what it is? How can I learn to recognize God’s voice? If I miss God’s guidance on an important decision, am I stuck with “plan B” for the rest of my life? God does have a plan for your life! It’s time to discover what it is.

    As a father he took his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren't good enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean's office for seven days until they finally let him enroll.Bob Goff has become something of a legend, and his friends consider him the world's best-kept secret. Those same friends have long insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm shifts, musings, and stories from one of the world's most delightfully engaging and winsome people. What fuels his impact? Love. But it's not the kind of love that stops at thoughts and feelings. Bob's love takes action. Bob believes Love Does.When Love Does, life gets interesting. Each day turns into a hilarious, whimsical, meaningful chance that makes faith simple and real. Each chapter is a story that forms a book, a life. And this is one life you don't want to miss.Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn from Bob's life and attitude just might inspire you to be secretly incredible, too.

    In Destined to Win, he passes on the lessons that will help readers discover who they really are, overcome destructive behaviors, and become equipped for their kingdom purposes.Confronting the challenges that limit Christians—such as living shackled by past pain, fear, and unforgiveness—Vallotton offers practical solutions to the of­ten-complex problems that undermine their destinies and derail their pur­poses. With personal stories and biblical teaching, Destined to Win combines practical wisdom and profound revelation to unlock the latent potential present in each person.

    Some are true--but many are false. James Bryan Smith believes those thoughts determine not only who we are, but how we live. In fact, Smith declares, the most important thing about a person is what they think about God. The path to spiritual transformation begins here. Turning to the Gospels, Smith invites you to put your ideas to the test to see if they match up with what Jesus himself reveals about God. Once you've discovered the truth in Scripture, Smith leads you through a process of spiritual formation that includes specific activities aimed at making these new narratives real in your body and soul as well as your mind. At the end of each chapter you'll find an opportunity for soul training, engaging in spiritual practices that reinforce the biblical messages on your mind and heart. Because the best way to make a complete and lasting change is to go through the material in community, small group discussion questions also accompany each chapter. Those who are leading apprentice groups will also find additional help and opportunities to interact with other leaders at the Apprentice website, www.apprenticeofjesus.com. This deep, loving and transformative book will help you discover the narratives that Jesus lived by--to know the Lord he knew and the kingdom he proclaimed--and to practice spiritual exercises that will help you grow in the knowledge of our good and beautiful God.

    This book equips readers with principles of interpretation, then moves on to apply those principles to specific genres and contexts. This second edition now contains an updated bibliography, a new chapter on inspiration and canon, and new exercises.

    We struggle so much, work so hard, and fail so often that we frequently sense something in the equation of life must be missing.Tullian Tchividjian argues that what we are missing is the gospel--a fuller, more powerful understanding of Jesus and what his finished work means for everyday life.During a year of great turmoil, Pastor Tchividjian discovered the power of the gospel in his own life. Sharing his story of how Jesus became more real to him, Tchividjian delves deeply into the fundamentals of the faith, explaining the implications of Christ's sufficiency--a revelation that sets us free and keeps us anchored through life's storms.Ultimately, Tchividjian reminds us that Jesus is the whole of the equation as he boldly proclaims that Jesus plus nothing really is everything.

    Sins such as jealousy, anger, pride, judgmentalism, and unthankfulness are addressed in this booklet. Jerry writes not from a height of spiritual accomplishment but from the trenches of his own battles with sin. In his admonitions, Jerry offers a message of hope in the profound mercy of the gospel and the transforming grace of God as the means to overcome our subtle sins.

    With over 300,000 sold, this revised and expanded edition of Living by the Book will remove the barriers that keep Scripture from transforming your life. In a simple, step-by-step fashion, the authors explain how to glean truth from Scripture. It is practical, readable, and applicable. By following its easy-to-apply principles, you'll soon find yourself drawing great nourishment from the Word—and enjoying the process! The Living by the Book Workbook is the perfect compliment to provide practical application of lessons.

    Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text. For example:When Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to "dress modestly," we automatically think in terms of sexual modesty. But most women in that culture would never wear racy clothing. The context suggests that Paul is likely more concerned about economic modesty--that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair and gold jewelry.Some readers might assume that Moses married "below himself" because his wife was a dark-skinned Cushite. Actually, Hebrews were the slave race, not the Cushites, who were highly respected. Aaron and Miriam probably thought Moses was being presumptuous by marrying "above himselfWestern individualism leads us to assume that Mary and Joseph traveled alone to Bethlehem. What went without saying was that they were likely accompanied by a large entourage of extended family.Biblical scholars Brandon O'Brien and Randy Richards shed light on the ways that Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. They identify nine key areas where modern Westerners have significantly different assumptions about what might be going on in a text. Drawing on their own crosscultural experience in global mission, O'Brien and Richards show how better self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences in language, time and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways. Getting beyond our own cultural assumptions is increasingly important for being Christians in our interconnected and globalized world. Learn to read Scripture as a member of the global body of Christ.

    To truly know God, this must become our life’s driving desire as well… our Soul Obsession. And when we fall obediently in step with God, we’ll see Him perform miracles through us to rescue people and give them new life.In his powerful new book, internationally known author Nicky Cruz shares powerful personal stories of faithful obedience, even in the midst of difficult circumstances–including the amazing story of his mother’s deathbed conversion and healing. You, too, can move past doubts, understand both the natural and supernatural worlds, and develop a faith that can move any mountain, no matter how high or wide or difficult.“Do we truly understand the power we have at our fingertips? Do we grasp the significance of the message that we bring to a lost world? Do we comprehend how easily evil can be beaten and revoked by simply opening ourselves up to the moving of the Holy Spirit among us? Do we know what God is capable of doing among us?“If you want to change the world, begin by letting God change you. By letting the passion of Jesus become your passion. By letting the Holy Spirit be your only guide and mentor, every step, every minute of the day. By allowing God to set your heart on fire with a Soul Obsession!”–Nicky Cruz

    Kevin Watson has written a fresh new guide to the theory and practice of the Wesley class meeting, an essential element of truly Wesleyan spirituality. This book is for clergy and congregations who are looking for ways to develop deeper discipleship. The class meeting is made workable without losing its essential dynmic as a gospel-based accountable community. Watson has resurrected the class meeting and given it new meaning, showing its relevance for the church today and how it may be a perfect means for church renewal.

     Any sincere student of classical music would sensitively seek to capture and interpret the piece so as not to distract from the original sound of the composition. To form an accurate conclusion in the study of our origin would involve a peering over the Creator's shoulder as it were, in order to gaze through his eyes and marvel at his anticipation. His invisible image and likeness is about to be unveiled in human form. The incarnation celebrates the fact that the destiny of the Word was not the page but tangible human life! The word of truth accurately preserve's God's original idea in the resonance of our hearts. 3:2 Instead of an impressive certificate framed on my wall I have you framed in my heart! You are our Epistle written within us, an open letter speaking a global language; one that everyone can 1read and recognize as their mother tongue! (1Anaginosko, to know again; to read with recognition.) 3:3  The fact that you are a Christ-Epistle shines as bright as day! This is what our ministry is all about. The Spirit of God is the living ink. Every trace of the Spirit’s influence on the heart is what gives permanence to this conversation. We are not talking law-language here; this is more dynamic and permanent than letters chiseled in stone. This conversation is embroidered in your inner consciousness. (It is the life of your design that grace echoes within you!) People who have stopped reading the Bible or never even read it before say about The Mirror, "I have never read anything that touched me so deeply, it is a brand new Bible, I cannot wait to give it to all my friends!"  The Mirror Bible is a paraphrase from the original Greek text. While the detailed shades of meaning of every Greek word have been closely studied, this is done taking into account the consistent context of the entire chapter within the wider epistle, and bearing in mind the full context of Jesus as the revealer and redeemer of the image and likeness of the invisible God in human form, which is what the message of the Bible is all about. To assist the reader in their study, the author have numerically superscripted the Greek word and corresponded it with the closest English word in the italicized commentary that follows. This is to create a direct comparison of words between the two languages. Many words used in previous translations have adopted meanings in time that distract from the original thought. Individual words can greatly influence the interpretation of any conversation. For years deliberate as well as oblivious errors in translations were repeated and have empowered the religious institutions of the day to influence, manipulate and even abuse masses of people. Consider the word metanoia, consisting of two components, meta, together with, and nous, mind, suggesting a radical mind shift. This word has always been translated as "repentance," which is an old English word borrowed from the Latin word, penance. Then they added the "re" to get even more mileage out of sin consciousness. Re-penance. This gross deception led to the perverted doctrines of indulgences, where naive, ignorant people were led to believe that they needed to purchase favor from an angry god. Most cathedrals as well as many ministries were funded with guilt money. The Bible is a dangerous book! It has confused and divided more people than any other document. Scriptures have been used to justify some of the greatest atrocities in human history. People were tortured, burned to death and multitudes murdered based on somebody's understanding of the scriptures! Jesus, Paul and believers throughout the ages faced their greatest opposition from those who knew the scr

    Gordon alone survived. And forgave. He said of the bombers, ' I have lost my daughter, but I bear no grudge . . . I shall pray, tonight and every night, that God will forgive them.' His words caught the media's ears — and out of one man's grief, the world got a glimpse of grace. Grace is the church's great distinctive. It's the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else — for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world. In What's So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God's love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Yancey sets grace in the midst of life's stark images, tests its mettle against horrific 'ungrace.' Can grace survive in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust? Can it triumph over the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan? Should any grace at all be shown to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and cannibalized seventeen young men? Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, the racist, the child abuser. It loves today's AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus' day. In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks, How can Christians contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear? And he challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, What's So Amazing About Grace?

    For many Christians, the Bible is a how-to manual filled with literal truths about belief that must be strictly followed. But the Bible is not static, Peter Enns argues. It does not hold easy answers to the perplexing questions and issues that confront us in our daily lives. Rather, the Bible is a dynamic instrument for study that not only offers an abundance of insights but provokes us to find our own answers to spiritual questions, cultivating God’s wisdom within us.“The Bible becomes a confusing mess when we expect it to function as a rulebook for faith. But when we allow the Bible to determine our expectations, we see that Wisdom, not answers, is the Bible’s true subject matter,” writes Enns. This distinction, he points out, is important because when we come to the Bible expecting it to be a textbook intended by God to give us unwavering certainty about our faith, we are actually creating problems for ourselves. The Bible, in other words, really isn’t the problem; having the wrong expectation is what interferes with our reading.Rather than considering the Bible as an ancient book weighed down with problems, flaws, and contradictions that must be defended by modern readers, Enns offers a vision of the holy scriptures as an inspired and empowering resource to help us better understand how to live as a person of faith today.How the Bible Actually Works makes clear that there is no one right way to read the Bible. Moving us beyond the damaging idea that “being right” is the most important measure of faith, Enns’s freeing approach to Bible study helps us to instead focus on pursuing enlightenment and building our relationship with God—which is exactly what the Bible was designed to do.