Discover the Immeasurable Love of Christ God's grand plan for the redemption of his creation has been in motion since before time began. The book of Ephesians lays out this glorious vision, revealing what Christ's redemptive work means for the people of God and showing us how we should live in light of that reality. Alive in Him draws us into the main themes in the book of Ephesians, showing us how the blessings we have received in Christ empower our obedience and love for God. Designed to be read alongside an open Bible, Alive in Him helps us apply Paul's letter to our daily lives, reminding us of our purpose on earth and directing our gaze to the love of Jesus Christ—a love that has the power to transform how we live.
The principal doctrines defining Mormonism today often bear little resemblance to those it started out with in the early 1830s. This book shows that these doctrines did not originate in a vacuum but were rather prompted and informed by the religious culture from which Mormonism arose. Early Mormons, like their early Christian and even earlier Israelite predecessors, brought with them their own varied culturally conditioned theological presuppositions (a process of convergence) and only later acquired a more distinctive theological outlook (a process of differentiation). In this first-of-its-kind comprehensive treatment of the development of Mormon theology, Charles Harrell traces the history of Latter-day Saint doctrines from the times of the Old Testament to the present. He describes how Mormonism has carried on the tradition of the biblical authors, early Christians, and later Protestants in reinterpreting scripture to accommodate new theological ideas while attempting to uphold the integrity and authority of the scriptures. In the process, he probes three questions: How did Mormon doctrines develop? What are the scriptural underpinnings of these doctrines? And what do critical scholars make of these same scriptures? In this enlightening study, Harrell systematically peels back the doctrinal accretions of time to provide a fresh new look at Mormon theology. “This Is My Doctrine” will provide those already versed in Mormonism’s theological tradition with a new and richer perspective of Mormon theology. Those unacquainted with Mormonism will gain an appreciation for how Mormon theology fits into the larger Jewish and Christian theological traditions.
Inspiration from the book of Hebrews on how to live by faith in Jesus. As Christians, we experience great joy in knowing God through Jesus and great hope in the promise of an eternity spent with God. Yet we still get weary in this life and can feel discouraged. Whether it's personal disappointment, opposition or just the costly grind of church life that gets us down, we all need help to keep going. This wonderfully encouraging book by Bible expositor Richard Coekin will spur you on to live by faith in Jesus as you examine the witnesses of Hebrews 11. The refreshing honesty of their stories will help you manage your expectations in a world of lies and spin. They will remind you of the glory and blessing that await you at the finishing line. And they will encourage you to see that Jesus is the real Hero of the faith and that his Spirit will enable you to endure through exhaustion, opposition and discouragement. Ideal for private devotional reading for those in need of refreshment, a timely gift for a discouraged Christian friend, and useful background reading to a small-group study of Hebrews 11.
The first rule of combat is: know your enemy. We don’t talk a lot about sin these days. But maybe we should. The Puritans sure did—because they understood sin’s deceptive power and wanted to root it out of their lives. Shouldn’t we want the same? Though many books have been written on the “doctrine of sin,” few are as practical and applicable as this one. In Knowing Sin, Mark Jones puts his expertise in the Puritans to work by distilling the vast wisdom of our Christian forebears into a single volume that summarizes their thought on this vital subject. The result isn’t a theological tome to sit on your shelf and gather dust, but a surprisingly relevant book to keep by your bedside and refer to again and again. You’ll come to understand topics like: Sin’s Origin Sin’s Grief Sin’s Thoughts Sin’s Temptations Sin’s Misery Sin’s Secrecy and of course . . . Sin’s Defeat! None of us is free from the struggle with sin. The question isn’t whether we’re sinful, it’s what we’re doing about it. Thanks be to God, there is a path to overcoming sin. And the first step on that path to victory is knowing what we’re up against. Start Knowing Sin today!
Equipping the church to recover from sexual confusion In After the Revolution, David J. Ayers provides the Christian heirs of the sexual revolution a resource to understand their challenges and social context to find a way forward. Drawing on social sciences and history, Ayers traces recent worldview shifts in North America and Europe. The historic Christian understanding of sex and marriage has been supplanted. And sexual confusion has infiltrated the church, especially influencing younger Christians. The church can uniquely and compassionately support sexual faithfulness and flourishing, but we need to reject formulas, surefire methods, and judgmentalism. Instead, we must recover a positive vision for Christian sexuality, singleness, and marriage that is firmly grounded in God's word.
In this important study Hays argues against the mainstream that any attempt to account for the nature and method of Paul's theological language must first reckon with the centrality of narrative elements in his thought. Through an in-depth investigation of Galatians 3:1-4:11, Hays shows that the framework of Paul's thought is neither a system of doctrines nor his personal religious experience but the "sacred story" of Jesus Christ.
One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives. The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk - a heat source, rather than an astronomical object. The moon is gone, but tides remain. Not only have the world's artificial satellites fallen out of orbit, their recovered remains are pitted and aged, as though they'd been in space far longer than their known lifespans. As Tyler, Jason, and Diane grow up, space probe reveals a bizarre truth: The barrier is artificial, generated by huge alien artifacts. Time is passing faster outside the barrier than inside - more than a hundred million years per day on Earth. At this rate, the death throes of the sun are only about forty years in our future. Jason, now a promising young scientist, devotes his life to working against this slow-moving apocalypse. Diane throws herself into hedonism, marrying a sinister cult leader who's forged a new religion out of the fears of the masses. Earth sends terraforming machines to Mars to let the onrush of time do its work, turning the planet green. Next they send humans...and immediately get back an emissary with thousands of years of stories to tell about the settling of Mars. Then Earth's probes reveal that an identical barrier has appeared around Mars. Jason, desperate, seeds near space with self-replicating machines that will scatter copies of themselves outward from the sun - and report back on what they find. Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.
THE SUNDAY TIMES MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR A DAILY TELEGRAPH BEST MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR A TELEGRAPH BEST MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR A NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Faith, Hope and Carnage is a book about Nick Cave’s inner life. Created from over forty hours of intimate conversations with Seán O’Hagan, it is a profoundly thoughtful exploration, in Cave’s own words, of what really drives his life and creativity. The book examines questions of faith, art, music, freedom, grief and love. It draws candidly on Cave’s life, from his early childhood to the present day, his loves, his work ethic and his dramatic transformation in recent years. From a place of considered reflection, Faith, Hope and Carnage offers ladders of hope and inspiration from a true creative visionary.
Julius Caesar Augustus, founder of the early Roman Empire, replaced the estate of the late Roman Republic and raised taxes in conjunction with the glorious incarnation of Christ. Christ’s ministry lasted the few days of three and a half years, culminating in his atoning death for the kingdom of sinful human nature. Humanity in faith was individually summoned to accept Christ as the antitypical lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world in fulfilment of Gen. 3:15. Systems of faith/belief arms would develop for believers to join. Wars of words broke out between churches and civil states regarding the nature of Christ and other traditions. Some systems of faith/belief operated within the Ten Commandments hedge, while others did not. Roman Catholicism did not operate within that hedge, disregarding the fourth commandment, thus showing contempt for the law. Believers in the Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Reformation, and post-Reformation eras broke away from the Roman Catholic Church system to follow Bible truth, causing people to give their lives and even die for their faith.
