Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church through prose as accessible and concise as it is personal and engaging. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. Whether the person is Galileo, William F. Buckley, John Bunyan, or Isaac Newton, we are now living in the world that they created and understand both it and ourselves better in the light of their lives. Their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires uniquely illuminate our shared experience.HERO OR HERETIC? GENIUS OR BLASPHEMER?It's no mystery how profound a role Galileo played in the Scientific Revolution. Less explored is the Italian innovator's sincere, guiding faith in God. In this exhaustively researched biography that reads like a page-turning novel, Mitch Stokes draws on his expertise in philosophy, logic, math, and science to attune modern ears with Galileo's controversial genius.Emerging from the same Florentine milieu that produced Dante, da Vinci, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Amerigo Vespuci, Galileo questioned with a persistence that spurred his world toward an unabating era of discovery. Stokes confronts the myth that Galileo's stance on heliocentricity stood astride a church vs. science divide and explores his calculations for the dimensions of Dante's hell, his understanding of motion, and his invention of the pendulum clock.To read this volume is to journey through Galileo's remarkable life: from his inquisitive childhood to his dying days, when, although blind and decrepit, he soldiered on, dictating mathematical thoughts and mentoring young proteges.

    Les and Leslie Parrott dig below the surface to the depths of human interactions, offering expert advice and practical tools for improving the most important aspect of human life: relationships. Designed for college students, young adults, singles, and dating couples, this cutting-edge book teaches the basics of healthy relationships, including friendship, dating, sexuality, and relating to God. Newly updated and expanded to include the latest research on relationship building and vital information on social networking, it provides readers with proven tools for making bad relationships better and good relationships great. Real Relationships is filled with thought-provoking questions and links to its separate workbook. The workbook---integral to getting the most out of Real Relationships---contains dozens of self-tests and assessments that will help readers determine their relational readiness, the health of the home they grew up in, their understanding of gender differences, and much more. Real Relationships and the Real Relationships Workbook furnish an honest and timely guide to forming the rich relationships that are life's greatest treasure.

    Modern critical biblical scholarship often points out how the church's teachings about Jesus have become encrusted with tradition so that it is hard to see what the core documents--the New Testament--really say about him. Now, with the insight of 200 years of modern critical scholarship and assuming an audience that includes both the well-churched and the non-churched, how should the church present the story and identity of the central personality of their faith, Jesus of Nazareth? Many people will be surprised at the story they hear.

    This clear and concise guide shows how various thinkers and ideas have affected Christian belief and brings together the lessons Christians can learn from philosophy.

    Hywel Fletcher was born the day his father was killed in the pit, and is bitterly resented by his mother. And Huw Pettigrew is the much-loved and hard-working eldest child in a respected working family. Dot and Hywel dream of a contented future caring for their land, while Huw's dreams are more like nightmare . . . Yet when tragedy strikes it is Huw's vision which brings the three together and gives each of them, in the end, their heart's desire.

    These feasts are appointed by the Lord, and they are owned by the Lord. Together they form God's prophetic calendar, outlining the work of history's most important person...Jesus, the Messiah. As such, few themes are more timely or rewarding for God's people today.The Feasts of the Lord covers all aspects of the biblical feasts, including:historical backgroundbiblical observanceand prophetic significanceYet, this book is not just another reference book on the feasts. It is written from the Hebrew Christian viewpoint, helping you to see the feasts through Jewish eyes.The words of the Savior, His messianic claims, and Bible prophecy will all take on a rich, new relevance for you against the exciting backdrop of The Feasts of the Lord.

    Originally delivered as an address in 1911.

    . ." From that first sentence of Genesis, the story of salvation unfolds in strange and wonderful mingling of the commonplace and the miraculous, the human and the transcendent. But if you were born after the baby boom, chances are the Bible seems more like an item of passing interest than a book of depth and meaning for the twenty-first century. If you're not familiar with the Bible, it can be difficult to put into perspective the puzzle of kings and prophets, giants and seven-headed dragons, shepherd boys and itinerant preachers, Old Testament law and New Testament grace. Meet the Bible introduces you to the full, epic sweep of the Bible -- the characters, the places, the times, the stories, and the meanings of this Book of books -- and shows you that even the most obscure passage can hold relevance for your life once you understand what to look for. Award-winning writer Philip Yancey and author Brenda Quinn are your guides on this one-year reading tour of the Bible. Each day's reading includes Scripture, contemporary commentary, and questions for contemplation -- all designed to offer insight into how the passage fits into the overall story of the Bible, and how it can speak to your life today. Meet the Bible takes you through the twists and turns of the Bible's many narratives, the high points and the low points, the good characters and the bad, as well as the eternal thoughts and descriptions of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Here are stories to remember, images of real people and circumstances closer to your own life than you've ever imagined. By the time you've finished the year's worth of reading, you'll have gained a panoramic view of the whole Bible and a firm understanding of its ideas and teachings. If you've never read the Bible, or hardly know the Bible, or would just like to read the Bible in a fresh new way, Meet the Bible offers an inspiring mix of timeless wisdom and contemporary insight that will cause faith to ignite within you. Direct excerpts from Scripture give readers a panoramic tour of the Bible’s key passages, personalities, events, and ideas as the Old Testament sweeps into the New Testament. Culturally relevant commentary from Quinn and Yancey sheds light on each day’s passage, examining the twists and turns of the Bible’s many narratives, the high points and the low points, the good characters and the bad, as well as the eternal thoughts and descriptions of God and his Son. Reflections every five days provide life application for the week’s Scripture readings.

    The book elaborates on the apostolic role rooted in the five-fold ministry from Ephesians 4 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teacher), and its significance for the missional movement. It explores how the apostolic ministry facilitates ongoing renewal in the life of the church and focuses on leadership in relation to missional innovation and entrepreneurship.The authors examine the nature of organization as reframed through the lens of apostolic ministry.Shows how to view the world through a biblical perspective and continue the permanent revolution that Jesus started Outlines the essential characteristics of apostolic movement and how to restructure the church and ministry to be more consistent with them Alan Hirsch is a leading voice in the missional movement of the Christian West This groundbreaking book integrates theology, sociology, and leadership to further define the apostolic movement.

    Josh McDowell's timeless examination of the true nature of Christ and his impact on our lives is one of the best-selling Christian books ever. Written by a former skeptic of Christianity, it is a hard-hitting book for those who doubt Jesus' deity and his purpose.

    CHAPTER III - THE FRATICELLI CHAPTER IV - POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE CHURCH CHAPTER V - POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE STATE CHAPTER VI- SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS CHAPTER VII - WITCHCRAFT CHAPTER VIII - INTELLECT AND FAITH CHAPTER IX - CONCLUSION

    It does not simply remind us of our guilt, but points us to our great Savior, who has atoned for us and lovingly pursues us despite our wandering.These prayers open with a scriptural call of confession, confess specific sins, thank the Father for Jesus' perfect life and death in our place, ask for the help of the Spirit in pursuing holiness, and close with an assurance of pardon.Inspired by the Puritan classic The Valley of Vision, these prayers were developed for both personal devotions and church use

    S. Lewis’s mentorsC. S. Lewis was perhaps the greatest Christian thinker of the twentieth century. He delighted us in The Chronicles of Narnia, intrigued us in The Screwtape Letters, mystified us in The Space Trilogy, and convinced us in Mere Christianity. His influence on generations of Christians has been immeasurable. But who influenced C. S. Lewis? What were the sources of his inspiration? Who were his spiritual mentors? Who were his teachers?Drawn from Lewis’s personal library, annotations, and references from his writings, the selections in this book bring us into contact with giants such as Dante, Augustine, and Chaucer, as well as introduce us to more contemporary writers such as G. K. Chesterton, Charles Williams, George MacDonald, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Over 250 selections provide a vast array of inspiration from those who have shone forth as messengers of light in Lewis’s own thinking, writing, and spiritual growth.A rare glimpse into the intellectual, spiritual, and creative life of one of literature’s great writers, From the Library of C. S. Lewis is a treasury of insight and wisdom.

    While its influence is waning in some of its traditional Western strongholds, it is growing at a phenomenal pace in the global South. And yet this story has largely eluded the corporate news brokers of the West. Layered as it is with countless personal and corporate stories of remarkable faith and witness, it nevertheless lies ghostlike behind the newsprint and webpages of our print media, outside the camera's vision on the network evening news. Miriam Adeney has lived, traveled and ministered widely. She has walked with Christians in and from the far reaches of the globe. As she pulls back the veil on real Christians--their faith, their hardships, their triumphs and, yes, their failures--an inspiring and challenging story of a kingdom that knows no borders takes shape. This is a book that coaxes us out of our comfortable lives. It beckons us to expand our vision and experience of the possibilities and promise of a faith that continues to shape lives, communities and nations.

    As author Steve Brown explains in this brave new book, they prefer the security of rules and self-imposed boundaries, which they tend to inflict on other Christians. Brown asserts that real freedom means the freedom to be wrong as well as right. Christianity often calls us to live beyond the boundaries, bolstered by the assurance that we cannot fall beyond God's love. Freedom is dangerous, but the alternative is worse -- boxing ourselves up where we cannot celebrate our unique gifts and express our joy in Christ. Each of the book's eleven chapters explores a common pharisaic, freedom-stifling tendency, then opens the door to the fresh air of a remedial liberty. A reader's delight, A Scandalous Freedom sometimes shocks with challenges to prevailing wisdom, but it follows up with compelling validations of our need to celebrate real, unstinted freedom in Christ.