. . irresistible. But that was then. Today we preach, teach, write, and communicate as if nothing has changed.  As if “The Bible says it,” still settles it.It’s time to hit pause on much of what we’re doing and consider the faith modeled by our first-century brothers and sisters who had no official Bible, no status, and humanly speaking, little chance of survival.What did they know that we don’t?What made their faith so compelling, so defensible, so irresistible?Buckle up . . . you’re about to find out. More importantly, Andy will invite you to embrace the version of faith that, against all odds, initiated a chain of events resulting in the most significant and extensive cultural transformation the world has ever seen. A version we must embrace if we are to be salt and light in an increasingly savorless and dark world.“More than any other book I’ve read in years, Irresistible has stretched my view of Scripture. I can’t hear or read a passage from the Old or New Testaments without thinking about Andy’s provocative insights. If you and I take this book seriously, our lives and our churches will never be the same.”—Kara Powell, PhD, executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute and coauthor of Growing Young“Irresistible is like a once-in-a-generation shot across the bow. Andy Stanley takes a lifetime of accumulated insight and wisdom about the Christian faith, history, and why the church isn’t connecting with our current culture, and combines them together in a masterpiece work.” —Carey Nieuwhof, author and founding pastor, Connexus Church“Warning: This book will set you and your ministry back—back to the first century and the approach to advancing the gospel modeled by Jesus and the apostles. Andy reminds us that the resurrection was at the center of the first-century apologetic. Then he challenges twenty-first century believers to reclaim it as the center of ours as well. I agree with Andy—this approach changed the world once. I’m convinced it could do so again. Read and apply now!”—Frank Turek, Christian author, public speaker, and radio host“This book challenged me to rethink my thoughts about the Old Testament, discuss with fellow believers what I was learning, do more connecting and less correcting of others, and be salt and light, making things better and brighter. I love how Andy loves people . . . ALL of them.”—John Maxwell, author of The 360 Degree Leader“It’s time for the church to rethink how it presents a timeless gospel to this generation. In Irresistible, Andy Stanley challenges us to make sure we handle the Scriptures with the kind of integrity that compels everyone to seriously consider following Jesus. Any Christian who reads this book will suddenly find themselves embracing the mission of Jesus with a new passion.”—Reggie Joiner, author; founder and CEO of Orange“Andy Stanley takes you on a historic journey to rediscover the first-generation passion of what it means to faithfully follow Christ. This book will knock you off center, push you out of complacency, and reawaken an unshakable faith that cannot be ignored.

    Grudem's work on the Epistle of I Peter is a contribution to the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, a popular series designed to help the general Bible reader understand clearly what the text actually says and what it means, without overdue dependence on scholarly technicalities.

    Every Christian generation turns to it for insight and guidance.In this volume, a recognized expert on the Gospels shows that the Sermon on the Mount offers a clear window into understanding God's work in Christ. Jonathan Pennington provides a historical, theological, and literary commentary on the Sermon and explains how this text offers insight into God's plan for human flourishing. As Pennington explores the literary dimensions and theological themes of this famous passage, he situates the Sermon in dialogue with the Jewish and Greek virtue traditions and the philosophical-theological question of human flourishing. He also relates the Sermon's theological themes to contemporary issues such as ethics, philosophy, and economics.

    . . .This is a five star recommendation." --Messenger

    By concentrating on the unifying elements, Alexander offers an in-depth look at this first section of the Old Testament, revealing the larger picture. With this accessible introduction he also identifies prominent themes and connections between the Pentateuch and the New Testament. (58)

    He is senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, TX and founder of The Urban Alternative, a ministry which promotes a kingdom agenda philosophy designed to enable people to live all of life underneath the comprehensive rule of God.   The Tony Evans Bible Commentary includes an introduction to each Bible book followed by passage-by-passage exposition of the entire Bible by Dr. Tony Evans. In addition, there is a special front matter section with introductory resources. The insights in this commentary will help explain God’s Word in a fresh way. Applying these truths will empower readers to have transformed lives that then transfer the values of the kingdom of God to others.   The Tony Evans Bible Commentary features the highly readable, highly reliable text of the Christian Standard Bible® (CSB). The CSB stays as literal as possible to the Bible's original meaning without sacrificing clarity, making it easier to engage with Scripture's life-changing message and to share it with others.

    The second edition of this Old Testament reference source focuses on the various books of the Bible, reflecting on each in terms of its own cultural and historical relevance.

    Hamilton surveys each major thematic unit of the Pentateuch and offers useful commentary on overarching themes and connections between Old Testament texts.

    Perfect for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and lay people alike, this highly anticipated series provides a clear and compelling exposition of the text in the context of the Bible’s overarching story. The authors move away from “application” language, which has been criticized as being too simplistic, encouraging instead a wider perspective and discussion of how the biblical story can be lived today. Offering a new type of application commentary for today’s context, the Story of God Bible Commentary series explains and illuminates Scripture as God’s Story, with each New Testament text examined as embedded in its canonical and historical setting, in order to foster discernment in living the story faithfully and creatively with and for the Church in the 21st Century.

    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.

    Bailey begins by surveying the development of allegorical, historical-eschatological, aesthetic, and existential methods of interpretation. Though figures like Julicher, Jeremias, Dodd, Jones, and Via have made important advances, Bailey sees the need to go beyond them by combining an examination of the poetic structures of the parables with a better understanding of the Oriental culture that informs the text. Bailey's work within Middle Eastern peasant culture over the last twenty years has helped him in his attempt to determine the cultural assumptions that the teller of the parables must have made about his audience. The same values which underlay the impact of the parables in Christ's time, Bailey suggests, can be discovered today in isolated peasant communities in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Because time has made almost no impact in these cultural pockets, it is possible to discern, for example, what it meant 2,000 years ago for a friend to come calling at midnight, or for a son to ask for his inheritance prior to his father's death. In addition to illuminating the cultural framework of the parables, Bailey offers an analysis of their literary structure, treating the parabolic section as a whole as well as its individual components. Through its combination of literary and cultural analyses, Bailey's study makes a number of profound advances in parabolic interpretation.

    The NIV First-Century Study Bible is designed to give you an overview of the cultures that influenced those living in Biblical times in order to help you engage the text with more understanding--even if you are not a full time scholar. The Jewish Contextual Bible allows you to understand God’s Word in its original cultural context, bringing Scripture to life by providing fresh understanding to familiar passages, beloved stories and all the Scripture in between. The Jewish Contextual Bible will introduce you to a world vastly different from your own, and as a result, you'll truly experience all the Bible has to say to you.

    In the modern church it tends to be the last part of the Bible that anyone looks at seriously. Because Leviticus is largely concerned with subjects that seem incomprehensible and irrelevant today — rituals for sacrifice and regulations concerning uncleanness — it appears to have nothing to say to twenty-first-century Christians. In this excellent commentary on Leviticus, Gordon Wenham takes with equal seriousness both the plain original meaning of the text and its abiding theological value. To aid in reconstructing the original meaning of the text, Wenham draws from studies of Old Testament ritual and sacrifice that compare and contrast biblical customs with the practices of other Near Eastern cultures. He also closely examines the work of social anthropologists and expertly utilizes the methods of literary criticism to bring out the biblical author’s special interests. In pursuit of his second aim, to illumine the enduring theological value of Leviticus, Wenham discusses at the end of each section how the Old Testament passages relate to the New Testament and to contemporary Christianity. In doing so, he not only shows how pervasive Levitical ideas are in the New Testament but also highlights in very practical ways the enduring claim of God’s call to holiness on the lives of Christians today.

    He points out that the Psalms are poems, intended to be sung, not doctrinal treatises or sermons. Proceeding with his characteristic grace, he guides readers through both the form and the meaning of these beloved passages in the Bible.

    Concise, pithy chapters with dozens of charts, highlighted summaries and study questions make Graeme Goldsworthy's introductory text enormously useful for understanding how the Bible fits together as the unfolding story of God's plan for salvation.