But if a church is on a downward trend, how can it turn around? Taking Your Church to the Next Level explains the impact of age and size on churches and outlines the improvements that must be made at each point for a church to remain fruitful and faithful to its mission. McIntosh deftly describes the cycles of fruitfulness and the importance of continual improvement to diminish destructive forces that keep a congregation from its mission. Church leaders, pastors, and all who care about the church and desire to see it experience biblical growth will benefit from the sage wisdom offered in these pages.

    Written more than 2,000 years ago, this work is a map to the fast track to enlightenment. They derive from an ancient oral tradition, when Devi, the Divine feminine, was worshiped. Yet, today, the Yoga Sutra is taught by priests and scholars from a masculine Hindu tradition that obscures the simple wisdom in it. Yoga, Power, and Spirit shows us that the Sutra is pre-Hindu, and that the power of Devi and enlightenment are available to us at all times, without guru, temple, or decades of study.       Yoga is the direct path to enlightenment. Patanjali taught that all knowledge was acquired directly from the Source. This book reveals how the power of Devi can guide the practitioner of yoga to sure and inevitable self-realization. Alberto Villoldo is a shaman who has practiced Yoga for 25 years, and embraced the way of the Divine feminine. He has traveled to the source of India's holy rivers in the Himalayas to rediscover the wisdom of the Sadhu, India’s ancient shamans. He brings to life the spiritual teachings of yoga in a pure, practical, and irreverent way—stripped of dogma and brimming with poetry and spirit.

    Aren’t there days when you wish you could sit down with an expert on parenting—somebody who really understands what you’re going through and knows just what advice and counsel to give you? Good news: The parenting wisdom you need is here—in one complete volume! In The Dr. James Dobson Parenting Collection, you’ll find three bestselling books ( The New Dare to Discipline , The New Strong-Willed Child , and Parenting Isn’t for Cowards ) containing the straightforward, practical, biblical truths you need—from Dr. James Dobson, the world’s foremost authority on parenting.

    . . the list goes on. Still, we believe the Bible has something important to say. How can we read it in a contemplative and intelligent way?

    Its portable size in no way compromises the readability of both text and critical apparatus, which retains a bold, clear font.

    My first reaction was that it was an excellent book for women, but as I continued to read I realized it would be of equal value for men to help them ex-perience the feminine within themselves and the Divine....Barbara Baker, psychologist in private p.

    But according to that same Bible, everyone can know God directly through an actual relationship with Jesus. Jesus Unbound is an urgent call for the followers of Jesus to know Him intimately because the Gospel is not mere information about God, but a transformational experience with a Christ who is closer to us than our own heartbeat.

    What can be done to stop this? Cardinal Timothy Dolan explains the need for all Americans to embrace a new culture rooted in what Blessed John Paul II called the Gospel of Life where the sacredness of all human life, and the freedoms that are their birthright, are upheld, respected and protected by law.

    In each case, the words were "infused" into her by her spirit guide Francine, and of course, by God. Granted, these words are a passive mode of prayer, yet the goal is to recharge your spiritual battery so that you'll be able to go out into the world and do God's work. "Over many years of public work, people have often asked me how to pray. My answer is simple, 'Just talk to God, and make your life a living prayer." "These prayers will lift your soul and let you magnify the Lord. They have done so for me and thousands of others. Many miracles have occurred by the power of prayer, and now I want to share these commanding words with you."

    Driver, and Charles Briggs--spent over twenty years researching, writing, and preparing "The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon." Since it first appeared in the early part of the twentieth century, BDB has been considered the finest and most comprehensive Hebrew lexicon available to the English-speaking student. Based upon the classic work of Wilhelm Gesenius, the "father of modern Hebrew lexicography," BDB gives not only dictionary definitions for each word, but relates each word to its Old Testament usage and categorizes its nuances of meaning. BDB's exhaustive coverage of Old Testament Hebrew words, as well as its unparalleled usage of cognate languages and the wealth of background sources consulted and quoted, render BDB and invaluable resource for all students of the Bible.

    S. Lewis for the twenty-first century" in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, he uses one of the best-known Christian parables to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.Taking his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity, Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.Look out for Timothy Keller's latest book, The Songs of Jesus, coming from Viking on November 10, 2015.

    Companion to The Revelation of Jesus Christ, this major contribution to prophetic research emphasizes the value and genuineness of Daniel. It considers alleged historical inaccuracies, difficult-to-interpret phrases, apocryphal additions, major textual problems, use of Persian and Greek words, historical background of Bible events, and past and future fulfillments of specific prophecies. Daniel goes beyond a mere presentation of the author's interpretation of Old Testament prophecy. It quotes Bible scholars from different corners of the theological ring to help the reader discover the meaning of Scripture for himself. Unusually thorough and well outlined, this commentary captures the heartbeat of a young prophet who spoke boldly for God.

    Many of these documents were as important to shaping early-Christian communities and beliefs as what we have come to call the New Testament; these were not the work of shunned sects or rebel apostles, not alternative histories or doctrines, but part of the vibrant conversations that sparked the rise of Christianity. Yet these scriptures are rarely read in contemporary churches; they are discussed nearly only by scholars or within a context only of gnostic gospels. Why should these books be set aside? Why should they continue to be lost to most of us? And don’t we have a great deal to gain by placing them back into contact with the twenty-seven books of the traditional New Testament—by hearing, finally, the full range of voices that formed the early chorus of Christians?To create this New New Testament, Hal Taussig called together a council of scholars and spiritual leaders to discuss and reconsider which books belong in the New Testament. They talked about these recently found documents, the lessons therein, and how they inform the previously bound books. They voted on which should be added, choosing ten new books to include in A New New Testament. Reading the traditional scriptures alongside these new texts—the Gospel of Luke with the Gospel of Mary, Paul’s letters with The Letter of Peter to Philip, The Revelation to John with The Secret Revelation to John—offers the exciting possibility of understanding both the new and the old better. This new reading, and the accompanying commentary in this volume, promises to reinvigorate a centuries-old conversation and to bring new relevance to a dynamic tradition.

     John Wesley's explanatory notes on the Old Testament were written several years after his notes on the New Testament, and are based on the earlier works of Matthew Henry's 'Exposition of the Old and New Testaments', and Matthew Poole's 'English Annotations on the Holy Bible'. Extracts from both of these works are paraphrased and abridged by Wesley for the Explanatory Notes on the Old Testament, unlike the Explanatory Notes on the New Testament, which were entirely of his own composition. The Notes Upon The New Testament is considered to be one of John Wesley's principal works, and its readability, influence and popularity has remained since the time of its publication until today. First printed in 1755 by William Bowyer, John Wesley's Notes Upon The New Testament were entirely his own work, written during a period of illness which forced him to abandon his usual routine of travel and preaching. He would write from 5 am - 9 pm every day, unless he was riding, eating, or taking his personal devotion time (5 - 6 pm each evening). Charles Wesley assisted in some ways, including his translations of the gospels and in other unspecified ways. Wesley cites his influences for the New Testament Notes as the Gnomon Novi Testamenti of Bengel, the Paraphrase of Dr Guyse, the Theological Lectures of Dr Heylin and the Family Expositor of Dr Doddridge. The fourth and fifth editions of the Notes contained corrections by John & Charles Wesley and others. This edition features active table of contents and sub-menus optimized for e-readers, for ease of navigation to the specific book and chapter required. This is a very large book, please be patient when downloading.

    You'll have a definitive answer about what the Bible teaches.