Jesus Is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered


Martin B. Copenhaver - 2014
    In the Gospels Jesus asks many more questions than he answers. To be precise, Jesus asks 307 questions. He is asked 183 of which he only answers 3. Asking questions was central to Jesus' life and teachings. In fact, for every question he answers directly he asks--literally--a hundred. Jesus is the Question considers the questions Jesus asks--what they tell us about Jesus and, more important, what our responses might say about what it means to follow Him. Through Jesus' questions, he modeled the struggle, the wondering, the thinking it through that helps us draw closer to God and better understand, not just the answer, but ourselves, our process and ultimately why questions are among Jesus' most profound gifts for a life of faith. A game-changer of a book.

Glory Hunger: God, the Gospel, and Our Quest for Something More


J.R. Vassar - 2015
    To a certain extent, this is natural and good, evidencing our God-given desire for meaning and purpose. However, our longing for significance can easily twist into an insatiable craving for approval, recognition, and praise--and, if left unchecked, this craving will enslave us. In Glory Hunger, pastor JR Vassar challenges Christians to reevaluate their priorities when it comes to leaving a legacy, pointing to the gospel as the key to freedom from the bondage of narcissism and insecurity. Addressing cultural obsessions such as physical beauty and the goal of cultivating a "perfect" digital reputation via social media, this book will help readers refocus on what really matters: living a life marked by the passionate pursuit of God's glory above all else.

Gospel Medicine


Barbara Brown Taylor - 1995
    In this new collection of sermons she practices the old-fashioned art of gospel home remedies like a true evangelist, summoning with piercing clarity and wit the Old and New Testament stories that have the power to mend our spirits, strengthen our weaknesses, and restore us to wholeness. Scripture comes to life in the contemporary people and places of which Taylor speaks. Georgia apple-growers become God's sharecroppers of the gospel parable; through Mary's embracing of her role as God-bearer we are dared to take risks in our own discipleship; in Jonah's angry stand-off with God we see reflections of our own struggles with a God who is more forgiving than we want him to be; with tender awe after years of waiting Sarah wipes her hands on her apron and goes to tell Abraham she is to bear a child. Through the stories of Scripture, Taylor addresses with moving simplicity the contemporary wounds of anger, abandonment, fear of judgment, and a longing for home, healing, and mercy.

A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament


Bruce C. Birch - 1999
    Giving increased attention to issues related to gender, race, and class, the book introduces the Old Testament both as a witness of ancient Israel and as a witness to the church and synagogue through the generations of those who have passed these texts on as Scripture.

The Holy Covenants: Living Our Sacred Temple Promises


Anthony Sweat - 2022
    

The Man God Uses


Henry T. Blackaby - 1998
    Uses scriptural analysis, prayer, and study questions to explore God's will and His process of refining an ordinary man into an extraordinary agent of God.

Core Christianity: What Is Christianity All About?


Elmer L. Towns - 2007
    Why? Because the media’s politically correct agenda has redefined historical religious terms. Meanwhile, liberal Christianity denies the supernatural and explains away anything miraculous. Dr. Towns attempts to answer these problems. He takes the Bible at face value and explains Christianity’s basic concepts beginning with the premise that Christianity is a Person—Jesus Christ. Then chapter-by-chapter, he builds a coherent and consistent case so the reader will correctly understand what Christianity is all about.•The book gives a rational overview of Christianity so the modern mind will interact with God’s claim upon its life. •The book gives a comprehensive coverage of Christianity so the reader will intelligently understand what Christians believe and how they should live.

30 Years a Watchtower Slave: The Confessions of a Converted Jehovah's Witness


William J. Schnell - 1956
    Schnell, even valuable as a way to develop his faith in God and pass it on to others. This book is Schnell's fascinating account of his involvement with the cult, which effectively enticed him in the 1920s and continues to lure countless individuals today. Readers will learn, as Schnell did, that the Jehovah's Witness religion he had joined was anything but innocent. For thirty years he was enslaved by one of the most totalitarian religions of our day, and his story of finally becoming free is riveting. Readers will be alerted to the inner machinations, methods, and doctrines of the Watchtower Society, arming them to forewarn others and witness to their Jehovah's Witness friends, relatives, neighbors, and the stranger at the door. With more than 300,000 copies sold, 30 Years a Watchtower Slave is truly one of the classic testimonies of freedom from a powerful cult.

The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart


Peter J. Gomes - 1996
    "The Bible and the social and moral consequences that derive from its interpretation are all too important to be left in the hands of the pious or the experts, and too significant to be ignored and trivialized by the uninformed and indifferent.

Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas


Elaine Pagels - 2003
    This book explores how Christianity began by tracing its earliest texts, including the Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945.When her infant son was diagnosed with fatal pulmonary hypertension, Pagels' spiritual and intellectual quest took on a new urgency, leading her to explore historical and archaeological sources and to investigate what Jesus and his teachings meant to his followers before the invention of Christianity. The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, along with more than 50 other early Christian texts, some unknown since antiquity, offers clues. She compares such sources as Thomas' gospel (which claims to give Jesus' secret teaching and finds its closest affinities with kabbalah) with the canon to show how Christian leaders chose to include some gospels and exclude others from the collection many call the New Testament. To stabilize the emerging church in times of persecution, church fathers constructed the canon, creed and hierarchy - and, in the process, suppressed many of its spiritual resources.Drawing on new scholarship - her own and that of an international group of scholars - that has come to light since the 1979 publication of The Gnostic Gospels, she shows that what matters about Christianity involves much more than any one set of beliefs. Traditions embodied in Judaism and Christianity can powerfully affect us in heart, mind and spirit, inspire visions of a new society based on practising justice and love, even heal and transform us.Provocative and moving, Beyond Belief, the most personal of her books to date, shows how the impulse to seek god overflows the narrow banks of a single tradition. She writes, "What I have come to love in the wealth and diversity of our religious traditions - and the communities that sustain them - is that they offer the testimony of innumerable people to spiritual discovery, encouraging us, in Jesus' words, to 'seek, and you shall find.'"CONTENTSFrom the feast of Agape to the Nicene CreedGospels in conflict: John and Thomas God's word or human words?The canon of truth and the triumph of JohnConstantine and the Catholic Church AcknowledgementsNotesIndex

Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus Christ Through Mary According to St Louis De Montfort


Hugh Gillespie - 2011
    Louis de Montfort's Act of Total Consecration give a beautiful expression to the fundamental thrust of his spirituality: Christianity that is fully alive is nothing less than a radical act of total self-surrender and self-gift to the Lord Jesus Christ who, in his redemptive Incarnation, has first given himself totally over to us, and for us.Recognizing that the Lord has first consecrated, completely given, himself to us, Fr. de Montfort rightly recognizes that one truly receives this gift in its fullness only by fully giving, that is consecrating, himself to its saving power. The great Apostle of Our Lady proposed on his masterwork, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, an outline of a process by means of which one might prepare himself to make just such a total self-gift to Jesus through Mary.This book, which has been prepared by the Company of Mary, the religious community founded by Fr. de Montfort himself, is both an introduction to his spirituality of total consecration and a guide for those who would prepare themselves to make his Act of Total Consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary. It is also the fruit of this same Act of Total Consecration lived out in years of missionary service of Our Lord and Our Lady in the Roman Catholic Church which we joyfully make available to the people of God.

Brother Francis of Assisi


Ignacio Larrañaga - 1979
    Francis of Assisi. This story has been told many times before, but Fr. Larranaga tells it with a new spirit, seamlessly combining a modern spirit with the freshness and sense of wonder of the Fioretti. When Francis Bernardone was held as a prisoner of war at the age of 20, he never dreamed that he would become a knight in the service of Lady Poverty. By the time he died 25 years later, he had become the Poor Man of God, the living image of the Crucified Savior.

Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely


Lysa TerKeurst - 2016
    . . left out, lonely, and less than.In Uninvited, Lysa shares her own deeply personal experiences of rejection—from the perceived judgment of the perfectly toned woman one elliptical over to the incredibly painful childhood abandonment by her father. She leans in to honestly examine the roots of rejection, as well as rejection's ability to poison relationships from the inside out, including our relationship with God.With biblical depth, gut-honest vulnerability, and refreshing wit, Lysa will help you:• Stop feeling left out by believing that even when you are overlooked by others you are handpicked by God.• Change your tendency to either fall apart or control the actions of others by embracing God-honoring ways to process your hurt.• Know exactly what to pray for the next ten days to steady your soul and restore your confidence in the midst of rejection.• Overcome the two core fears that feed your insecurities by understanding the secret of belonging.Uninvited reminds us we are destined for a love that can never be diminished, tarnished, shaken, or taken—a love that does not reject or uninvite.

Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective


William W. Menzies - 1993
    Based on the 16 fundamental truths of the Assemblies of God doctrinal statement, this study offers an opportunity for growth and stability in the faith.

Done.: What most religions don't tell you about the Bible


Cary Schmidt - 2005
    Where will you spend forever? You owe this question some investigation.