Summoned to Lead


Leonard Sweet - 2004
    But if you’re looking for something different, something that . . . approaches leadership as an art as well as a scienceinspires hope and expectation in those of us who aren’t born leaderschallenges those with leadership roles to explore new possibilities. . . then Leonard Sweet wants to help you discover a very different kind of leadership vision. It’s one you hear if your ears are open, and it could summon you at any time. When you respond, the puzzle pieces of who you are will fit together into a leader others follow because you’ve answered a call, not trained for a position.“The church has it all wrong. It is trying to train leaders. Instead, it ought to train everyone to listen and to develop their own soundtrack.”Leaders don’t see a vision, says Sweet, they hear one. “Sound becomessight. Leaders hear life.”For a sonogram of “acoustic leadership,” Sweet takes us inside the incredible account of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the celebrated polar explorer who led his entire crew of twenty-seven from disaster in the Antarctic to safety. Called “the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth, bar none,” Shackleton objectifies the goals of Sweet’s own exploration in search of wisdom for today and tomorrow’s truly compelling, voice-activated leaders.Right now, you may be leading many people or just yourself. But who knows what tomorrow—or a minute from now—will call forth in you. Are your ears open?

The One Year Book of Devotions for Preschoolers


Crystal Bowman - 2004
    Each reading includes a Little Blessings illustration with a short Bible verse and devotional thought that gets you and your child talking about the simple truths of Scripture. A fun, rhyming prayer completes each devotional.A great way to get young children interacting with Scripture daily.

An Introduction to New Testament Christology


Raymond E. Brown - 1994
    Catholic scholar on the Bible explores the identity of Jesus in the New Testament. +

The Prince Warriors


Priscilla Shirer - 2016
    They dodged out of the way as a blackened tree began to topple over, crashing to the ground in a shower of sparks. Evan felt his courage evaporate. If this was a dream, it was getting way too scary: the deadly lightning, the falling trees, the growing rumble that seemed to shake the forest to its roots, the ominous blackening of the sky. Evan wanted to wake up now.But somehow he knew. . . . He knew that this was real."Welcome to Ahoratos," said the strange little creature in the purple robe. "Earth is but a shadow of this unseen realm. This is the real world where the battles rage, where your true enemy lies.""How can we fight this enemy?" said Xavier, glancing at his little brother, Evan, in alarm. "We're just kids."Ruwach gave the slightest smirk. "Here in Ahoratos, you are warriors. Prince Warriors. "

In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood


Walter T. Brown - 1990
    The author, who received a PhD from MIT, carefully explains and illustrates scientific evidence from biology, astronomy, and the physical and earth sciences that relates to origins and the flood. The hydroplate theory, developed after more than 30 years of study by Dr. Walt Brown, explains with overwhelming scientific evidence earth's defining geological event - a worldwide flood. The book includes hundreds of illustrations, most in full color, an index, extensive end notes and references, technical notes, and 36 frequently asked questions on related topics. This revised 8th edition, 120 pages larger than the previous edition (2001) contains new material on almost every page.

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump)


Robert Jamieson - 1961
    It provides verse-by-verse exposition of most Bible passages in insightful, accurate, succinct, and easy to understand articles. Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, wrote about the JFB Commentary the following:It [the JFB Commentary] contains so great a variety of information that if a man has no other exposition he would find himself at no great loss if he possessed and used it diligently.OSNOVA’s Kindle edition offers the excellent formatting and navigation that Christians have come to expect from OSNOVA Kindle publications. The OSNOVA Kindle edition incorporates an active table of contents, a joystick navigation between chapters and books, and a cross-reference system between the commentary and the included Bible (with Direct Verse Jump 2), which makes it easy to locate any place within the Commentary or the Scriptures in seconds. The table of contents allows navigation to any chapter of the Scriptures, with the hyperlinked dot to the right of each chapter leading to the corresponding place in the Commentary. Each title and each verse number in the included Bible is hyperlinked to the corresponding passage in the Commentary, and each reference in the Commentary is hyperlinked to the corresponding passage in the Bible. The complete instructions on how to use all navigation aids in this publication are found at the beginning of the book.NOTE: Many features of this publication will not work on Kindle 1, Kindle Fire, software Kindles such as Kindles for PC, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry or Android. This edition is not TTS(text-to-speech)-friendly due to the way TTS works on the Kindle.

How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That's Great News


Peter Enns - 2019
    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.

The Mirror Bible


François Du Toit - 2012
     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

The Power of a Praying Wife


Stormie Omartian - 1996
    This uplifting resource is packed with practical advice on praying for specific areas of your husband's life, including his decision-making fears spiritual strength role as father, leader faith and future.If you desire a closer relationship with your spouse, you will appreciate the life illustrations, encouraging Bible verses, and the assurances of God's promises and power for your marriage.

What's So Amazing About Grace?


Philip Yancey - 1997
    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?

The Fruit of Her Hands: Respect and the Christian Woman


Nancy Wilson - 1997
    What power would God unleash through godly men who were respected in their homes? Wives, instead of focusing on your husband's problems and shortcomings, look at what you are supposed to be doing yourself. In the Song of Solomon we read, Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. So what is your perspective when you look at your husband? Is it biblical or does it stem from all those modern lies which surround us?

The Word on the Street


Rob Lacey - 2002
    David Trobisch, Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Bangor Theological Seminary For those who've never read the Bible, and for those who've read it too much. Rob Lacey's 'dangerously real' retelling of Scripture vividly demonstrates that the Bible is packed full of stories/poems/images that resonate with the big issues of today. This fresh paraphrase with running commentary brings the text alive: Bible stories are retold as mini-blockbusters; psalms as song lyrics; epistles as emails; Revelation as a virtual reality. Out with stale religious terms, here's a 'Bible' that talks today's language---gritty, earthy, witty. Enough of starting at Genesis with good intentions but getting lost in Leviticus. Lacey succeeds in revitalizing a classic work by focusing on the big picture: fast-forwards through the 'slow-moving' bits with pace, passion and energy to make the Bible a page-turner again. What's more, Lacey's award-winning* tour de force was created during a remarkable personal journey through terminal cancer: the stuff the Bible stories are made of. This life-experience injects Lacey's take on Scripture with authenticity and authority---resonating with Bible characters who also wrestled with the big questions. Purist alert: This is not THE Bible (capital B) ... but it might just get you reaching for one. *Book of the year (2004), Christian Booksellers Convention Ltd. (UK)

Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It)


Brian C. Jones - 2006
    Jones believes that the reason most Christians don't tell their friends about Jesus has nothing to do with not knowing how--it's because they don't think they need to. As Jones writes, the first four years he was a pastor, he didn't believe in hell himself. Today, he shares his story of discovering the truth that hell exists--and why many Christians are afraid to believe in it. "Hell Is Real "motivates Christians who have grown complacent in their view of hell. Drawing on the teachings of Jesus, Jones leads readers into a head-on collision with apocalyptic urgency--the all-consuming, inspiring conviction that will overcome readers when they realize that hell is real and they can help save people from going there.

Tales of a Magic Monastery


Theophane the Monk - 1981
    Like the parables of Jesus, these tales repeatedly unfold new levels of meaning if we are willing to sit with them.