Knowing and Doing the Will of GodA study of the Bible encouraging us to see God at work and join Him as He reveals

    Borg & John Dominic Crossan reveal a radical & little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to & responded to questions about Mel Gibson's blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. Using Mark's gospel as a guide, they present a day-by-day account of Jesus' final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The 1st entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The 2nd heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced herein is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings. The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice & to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged & inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages & invites us to follow him.

    In rescuing the Apocalypse from those who either completely misinterpret it or completely ignore it, Michael Gorman has given us both a guide to reading Revelation in a responsible way and a theological engagement with the text itself. He takes interpreting the book as a serious and sacred responsibility, believing how one reads, teaches, and preaches Revelation can have a powerful impact on one’s own—and other people’s—well-being. Gorman pays careful attention to the book’s original historical and literary contexts, its connections to the rest of Scripture, its relationship to Christian doctrine and practice, and its potential to help or harm people in their life of faith. Rather than a script for the end times, Gorman demonstrates how Revelation is a script for Christian worship, witness, and mission that runs counter to culturally embedded civil religion."With an exceptional blend of scholarly insight and confessional grounding, this book restores Revelation to relevance for the mission of the church. Gorman joins John of Patmos to inspire us with a risky and lofty vision of following the Lamb in radical and nonviolent witness in the world. This accessible volume is a theological wellspring for preachers, teachers, and any disciples seeking a reliable alternative to the scare-mongering eschatology that clogs airwaves and bookstores."--J. Nelson Kraybillauthor of Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of Revelation "Sometimes I think there are only two kinds of Christians in America: those who've never read Revelation and those who read almost nothing else. This book can help either kind. With careful use of scholarship and an evident love for the Lamb who was slain, Michael Gorman demystifies a book that's meant to clarify what's at stake when we say, 'Jesus is Lord.'"--Jonathan Wilson-Hartgroveauthor of The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile CultureMichael J. Gorman is Professor of Sacred Scripture and Dean of the Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary's Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland. His recent books include Reading Paul (Cascade 2008) and Inhabiting the Cruciform God (2009).

    This influential work presents the background of the New Testament with broad strokes and with a focus on specific books including the Gospels, Acts, and Paul and his letters. Originally written in an easy-to-understand style and form, Lea’s text continues to unlock the message of the New Testament for both new students and seasoned scholars.

    Bock provides a substantive yet highly accessible commentary on Acts in this latest addition to the acclaimed BECNT series. With extensive research and thoughtful chapter-by-chapter exegesis, Bock leads readers through all aspects of the book of Acts--sociological, historical, and theological. His work blends academic depth with readability, making it a useful tool for students, teachers, scholars, and pastors alike. A user-friendly design with shaded text and translations of the Greek text make this commentary engaging and easy to use. The result is a guide that clearly and meaningfully brings this important New Testament book to life for contemporary readers.

    Understanding the Times offers a fascinating, comprehensive look at the how the tenets of the Christian worldview compares with the five major competing worldviews of our day: Islam, Secular Humanism, Marxism, New Age, and Postmodernism.Understanding the Times is a systematic way to understand the ideas that rule our world. While the material is expansive, the engaging, easy-to-understand writing style invites you to discover the truths of God – and our world. This classic should be on the shelf of every Christian home, on the desk of every pastor, and in the hands of every Christian student headed off to college.

    I will show you how to waste your life. Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader's Digest: A couple 'took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. . . .' Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: 'Look, Lord. See my shells.' That is a tragedy."God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives."Most people slip by in life without a passion for God, spending their lives on trivial diversions, living for comfort and pleasure, and perhaps trying to avoid sin. This book will warn you not to get caught up in a life that counts for nothing. It will challenge you to live and die boasting in the cross of Christ and making the glory of God your singular passion. If you believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain, read this book, learn to live for Christ, and don't waste your life!

    Tracing the significance of the concept of "covenant" through both the Old and New Testaments, this book charts a middle way between covenant theology and dispensationalism--exploring the covenantal framework undergirding the history of redemption.

    It introduces the Gospel of Mark as a unified composition, laying bare the narrative thread as well as the basic motifs. It is marked throughout by clarity, freshness, and a lively style.

    And yet his remarkable life remains shrouded in mystery. In this probing new book, John B. Polhill scrapes away the myths about this great man and uncovers the truth of his life and thought.Using Acts, the Pauline epistles, and reliable traditions from non-canonical sources, Polhill weaves together the remarkable story of Paul's transformation from persecutor to persecuted, producing a dynamic account of his entire ministry. By placing each of Paul's letters in its proper historical context, Polhill brings new light to these foundation stones of the Christian faith. He follows Paul from his early years in Tarsus and Jerusalem to his imprisonment and eventual martyrdom, painting a detailed, comprehensive portrait of Paul that will serve as an indispensable resource for students, teachers, and pastors alike.

    Without bogging down readers with technical terminology, Burridge brings to bear his research comparing the Gospels with classical biographies and offers a clear interpretation of each Gospel author's portrait. A striking feature is his use of the ancient symbols for the Gospels -- human face, lion, ox, and eagle -- to represent each book's unique picture of Jesus. This second edition incorporates the latest scholarship on the historical Jesus, a new section on how the Gospels have been read throughout history, and an expanded discussion of how to teach and preach the Gospels through the lectionary. Burridge also tackles the question of how these ancient writings bear on today's hot-button issues of unity and diversity. Four Gospels, One Jesus? will be appreciated by teachers, pastors, students, and other readers wanting to understand Jesus more fully. " Praise for the first edition: " ""A rare merger of the very best of modern biblical scholarship with a readable and engaging telling of the Gospel portraits of Jesus particularly aimed at a popular audience." -- Anglican Theological Review " ""A fine introduction to the distinctive portrait of Jesus provided by each of the Gospels. . . . Should prove to be a very helpful window into Gospel scholarship for many readers." -- Reformed Theological Review " ""An engaging approach to reading each Gospel as a unique portrait of Jesus." -- Toronto Journal of Theology "

    50+ illustrations. Free audio excerpt download.

    Such thorough exegetical work lies at the heart of these volumes, which contain detailed verse-by-verse commentary preceded by general comments on each section and subsection of the text. An important aim of the NIGTC authors is to interact with the wealth of significant New Testament research published in recent articles and monographs. In this connection the authors make their own scholarly contributions to the ongoing study of the biblical text. The text on which these commentaries are based is the UBS Greek New Testament, edited by Kurt Aland and others. While engaging the major questions of text and interpretation at a scholarly level, the authors keep in mind the needs of the beginning student of Greek as well as the pastor or layperson who may have studied the language at some time but does not now use it on a regular basis.

    Do you have questions about the meaning of life and spirituality? Maybe it is time to go right to the source and rethink your relationship with the Creator? "Isaiah 53 Explained" will help kick start your personal pilgrimage and introduce you to a chapter in the Scriptures that has the potential to revolutionize your life! "Isaiah 53 Explained" makes the story of the Bible understandable, practically and simply explaining how you can have a soul-satisfying relationship with God and revealing the surprising key that makes this relationship possible.

    This book develops all language-related skills including reading, listening, speaking, writing, and cultural knowledge; immediately incorporates extensive use of authentic materials for reading, listening, and grammatical practice, relating abstract grammatical concepts to practical skills; presents narrative-based content through audio and video media rather than written text to develop meaning-focused language processing skills, utilizing two main characters and their extended family; develops readings skills through the use of composed texts derived from the main narrative and authentic texts from newspapers and journals; introduces grammar using the techniques of spiraling and inference, challenging learners to discover the grammar of the language by means of analogy, problem solving, and educated guessing; introduces Egyptian colloquial Arabic through scenes based on the main narrative to promote the use of shared vocabulary and structure of the two registers, increasing listening comprehension skills; and contains Arabic-English and English-Arabic glossaries and reference charts as well as a grammar index.