Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions


Gregory Koukl - 2000
    Gregory Koukl demonstrates how to get in the driver's seat, keeping any conversation moving with thoughtful, artful diplomacy. You'll learn how to maneuver comfortably and graciously through the minefields, stop challengers in their tracks, turn the tables and—most importantly—get people thinking about Jesus. Soon, your conversations will look more like diplomacy than D-Day. Drawing on extensive experience defending Christianity in the public square, Koukl shows you how to:- Initiate conversations effortlessly- Present the truth clearly, cleverly, and persuasively- Graciously and effectively expose faulty thinking- Skillfully manage the details of dialogue- Maintain an engaging, disarming style even under attackTactics provides the game plan for communicating the compelling truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.

Living in God's Two Kingdoms: A Biblical Vision for Christianity and Culture


David VanDrunen - 2010
    Many Christians have reflexively embraced this view, enticed by the socially active and engaged faith it produces.Living in God's Two Kingdoms illustrates how a two-kingdoms model of Christianity and culture affirms much of what is compelling in these transformationist movements while remaining faithful to the whole counsel of Scripture. By focusing on God's response to each kingdom--his preservation of the civil society and his redemption of the spiritual kingdom--VanDrunen teaches readers how to live faithfully in each sphere.Highlighting vital biblical distinctions between honorable and holy tasks, VanDrunen's analysis will challenge Christians to be actively and critically engaged in the culture around them while retaining their identities as sojourners and exiles in this world.

A Defence of Calvinism


Charles Haddon Spurgeon - 2010
    When people are always shifting their doctrinal principles, they are not likely to bring forth much fruit to the glory of God. It is good for young believers to begin with a firm hold upon those fundamental doctrines which the Lord taught in his Word.

Tough Topics: Biblical Answers to 25 Challenging Questions


Sam Storms - 2013
    Drawing on nearly 40 years of teaching and ministry experience, pastor-scholar Sam Storms answers 25 challenging questions Christians are often too afraid to ask, addressing thorny issues ranging from the eternal destiny of infants to the roles of demons and angels.The robust, thoughtful answers provided in this book offer a helpful alternative to relying on simplistic explanations, and will encourage you in the search for truth and clarity on such tough topics.

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?

Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation


Ed Stetzer - 2011
    But for those who know that Christ is coming to establish a new and perfect order, ours is not just a world to endure but a world to invade. Believers have not been stationed here on earth merely to subsist but to actively subvert the enemy’s attempts at blinding people in unbelief and burying them under heartbreaking loads of human need.The kingdom of God changes all that.Ed Stetzer’s Subversive Kingdom is a personal call for Christians to reorient their thinking and lifestyle to match what Jesus described of His people in Scripture, while teaming up with other believers through their churches to bring light into a dying and darkening culture. Stetzer uses the parables of Christ to unlock the “kingdom secrets” that bring this mysterious concept within understandable reach, while urging Christians to turn this knowledge into practical, everyday, ongoing missions designed to set people free from lives headed for hopelessness.

The Finished Work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1-8


Francis A. Schaeffer - 1998
    Luther. Wesley. These great leaders of the church all traced their spiritual awakenings to the book of Romans. To this day Paul’s letter continues to amaze and awaken those who seek to plumb its depths, including one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the 20th century, Francis Schaeffer.In his landmark commentary on the first eight chapters of Romans, Schaeffer expounds on the foundational doctrines that undergird the core of Christian teaching, offering us vital insights into the message of Romans and an arresting perspective on our own times.

The Heidelberg Catechism


Zacharias Ursinus
    Scripture references are listed in footnotes.

Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today


N.T. Wright - 2005
    T. Wright gives new life to the old, tattered doctrine of the authority of scripture, delivering a fresh, helpful, and concise statement on the current “battles for the Bible,” and restoring scripture as the primary place to find God’s voice.In this revised and expanded version of The Last Word, leading biblical scholar N. T. Wright shows how both evangelicals and liberals are guilty of misreading Scripture and reveals a new model for understanding God’s authority and the Bible.

Gospel-Centered Discipleship


Jonathan K. Dodson - 2012
    Some people emphasize evangelism—sharing their faith. Still others promote a hierarchical system for spiritual growth, a way for older Christians to pass on best practices to younger believers. Yet, both ideas are incomplete. Real discipleship is so much more.Avoiding extremes and evaluating motives, Jonathan Dodson insists on a way of following Jesus that re-centers discipleship on the gospel.This book helps us understand and experience the fullness of discipleship as God intended. It combines the mess and the weight, the imperfection and transformation, the honesty and wonder of being a disciple who revolves around Jesus. Here is a practical guide to discipleship that is Spirit-filled, Christ-centered, field-tested, and easily implemented.

A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times


Kim Riddlebarger - 2003
    Recognizing that the study of future things is a complicated and controversial subject, Riddlebarger provides definitions of key terms and a helpful overview of various viewpoints.

Dug Down Deep: Unearthing What I Believe and Why It Matters


Joshua Harris - 2010
    This is book shows a young man who rose quickly to success in the Christian evangelical world before he realized his spirituality lacked a foundation—it rested more on tradition and morality than on an informed knowledge of God. For the indifferent or spiritually numb, Harris's humorous and engaging reflections on Christian beliefs show that orthodoxy isn't just for scholars—it is for anyone who longs to know the living Jesus Christ. As Harris writes, "I've come to learn that theology matters. It matters not because we want to impress people, but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. Theology matters because if we get it wrong then our whole life will be wrong."Whether you are just exploring Christianity or you are a veteran believer finding yourself overly familiar and cold-hearted, Dug Down Deep will help you rediscover the timeless truths of Scripture. As Harris challenges you to root your faith and feelings about God in the person, work, and words of Jesus, he answers questions such as:    • What is God like and how does he speak to me?    • What difference does it make that Jesus was both human and divine?    • How does Jesus's death on the cross pay for my sins?    • Who is the Holy Spirit and how does he work in my life? With grace and wisdom, Harris will inspire you to revel in the truth that has captured his own mind and heart. He will ask you to dig deep into a faith so solid you can build your life on it. He will point you to something to believe in again.

Secondhand Jesus: Trading Rumors of God for a Firsthand Faith


Glenn Packiam - 2009
    Yet so often, we too easily settle for someone else's descriptions, the Cliff notes from another's spiritual journey. We are content for "God-experts" to do the heavy lifting and then give us the bottom line. And like any secondhand information, after enough times through the grapevine, the truth about God deteriorates and crumbs of rumor are all that remain.But when life derails, and things don't go as we had planned, our thin view of God is challenged. In those critical moments, we can choose to walk away from God, or to let our questions lead us home. When we choose to wrestle with God, to engage Him for ourselves, we-like Jacob and Job and David-will see rumors die and revelation come alive.It's time to hear the magnificent, Divine Invitation. It's time to take God up on His offer and embrace the mystery and majesty of knowing Him for ourselves.

What is Faith?


J. Gresham Machen - 1992
    

The Potter's Freedom: A Defense of the Reformation and a Rebuttal of Norman Geisler's Chosen But Free


James R. White - 2000
    Geisler warning the Christian community about in his book, Chosen But Free? A new cult? Secularism? False prophesy scenarios? No. Dr. Geisler is sounding the alarm about a system of beliefs commonly called "Calvinism." He insists that this belief system is "theologically inconsistent, philosophically insufficient, and morally repugnant." This book is written as a reply to Dr. Geisler, but is much more; it is a defense of the very principles upon which the Protestant Reformation was founded.