Surprised by Christ

Surprised by Christ

Author: A. James Bernstein

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 9781888212952

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Raised in Queens, New York by formerly Orthodox Jewish parents, Arnold Bernstein went on his own personal quest for the God he instinctively felt was there. He was ready to accept God in whatever form He chose to reveal Himself-and that form turned out to be Christ. But Bernstein soon perceived discrepancies in the various forms of Protestant belief that surrounded him, and so his quest continued-this time for the true Church. With his Jewish heritage as a foundation, he studied and evaluated, and eventually came to the conclusion that the faith of his forefathers was fully honored and brought to completion only in the Orthodox Christian Church. Surprised by Christ combines an engrossing memoir of one man's life in historic times and situations-from the Six-Day War to the Civil Rights Movement to the Jesus Movement in Berkeley-with a deeply felt examination of the distinctives of Orthodox theology that make the Orthodox Church the true home not only for Christian Jews, but for all who seek to who seek to know God as fully.


Surprised by Suffering

Surprised by Suffering

Author: R. C. Sproul

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Published: 1994-09

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780842366243

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With honesty, sensitivity, and concern for biblical truth, Sproul addresses the afterlife and the role of suffering in human experience.


Surprised by Hope

Surprised by Hope

Author: N. T. Wright

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2008-02-05

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 0061551821

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For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise. Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life. Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.


Surprised by Oxford

Surprised by Oxford

Author: Carolyn Weber

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Published: 2013-02-04

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0849949319

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When Carolyn Weber set out to study Romantic literature at Oxford University, she didn't give much thought to God or spiritual matters—but over the course of her studies she encountered the Jesus of the Bible and her world turned upside down. Surprised by Oxford chronicles her conversion experience with wit, humor, and insight into how becoming a Christian changed her. Carolyn Weber arrives at Oxford a feminist from a loving but broken family, suspicious of men and intellectually hostile to all things religious. As she grapples with her God-shaped void alongside the friends, classmates, and professors she meets, she tackles big questions in search of truth, love, and a life that matters. From issues of fatherhood, feminism, doubt, doctrine, and love, Weber explores the intricacies of coming to faith with an aching honesty and insight echoing that of the poets and writers she studied. Surprised by Oxford is: The witty memoir of a skeptical agnostic who comes to a dynamic personal faith in God Rich with illustration and literary references Gritty, humorous, and spiritually perceptive An inside look at Oxford University Weber eloquently describes a journey many of us have embarked upon, grappling with tough questions and doubts about the meaning of faith—and ultimately finding it in the most unlikely of places.


Surprise the World

Surprise the World

Author: Michael Frost

Publisher: NavPress

Published: 2016-01-14

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 1631465171

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Sharing your faith doesn’t have to be complicated. Christians are called to be a witness for Christ in daily life, to surprise people around us with the good news of the gospel. Yet putting that mission into regular practice can seem overwhelming. Author Michael Frost, a renowned expert on evangelism, offers refreshingly simple tactics to make evangelism fulfilling, exciting, and effective. Surprise the World teaches clear and practical tools for making evangelism part of your daily life. This short and easy read covers the BELLS method, along with thought-provoking questions and prompts for applying each habit. You’ll learn about each of the five habits: Bless others Eat together Listen to the Spirit Learn Christ Understand yourself as Sent by God into others’ lives Ideal for personal use or training groups on evangelism, the inspiring lessons in this book will transform your view of evangelism in daily life. “A timely wake-up call for believers. A concise and helpful encouragement to those seeking to live on-mission in their communities.” —Ed Stetzer, author and pastor “Eminently doable, entirely practical, and exceptionally effective!” —Felicity Dale, author of An Army of Ordinary People “If every believer developed a lifestyle that included these 5 habits, I’m convinced a great spiritual awakening would take place.” —Al Engler, mission director of Nav Neighbor


Witnesses for Christ

Witnesses for Christ

Author: Nomikos Michael Vaporis

Publisher: RSM Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 9780881411966

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"This, however, is not simply a collection of hagiographic stories. Here, the Lives are retold in a fluid, easy-to-read manner, and set in an historical context to make them more accessible to the reader. Also of great interest are the many translations of the dialogue between the Neomartyrs and the Ottoman judges (kadi), during the three interrogations that were mandated by Islamic law."--BOOK JACKET.


Jesus: Fallen?

Jesus: Fallen?

Author: Emmanuel Hatzidakis

Publisher: Orthodox Witness

Published: 2013-11-01

Total Pages: 688

ISBN-13: 0977897052

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Was Jesus Christ a fallen human being, like us? Was His human nature corrupt and sinful, inherently and necessarily subject to suffering and death? Did He inherit a fallen humanity? If His humanity was fallen how was He sinless? Did He have human ignorance? In what way was His human will involved in the plan of salvation? What effect did the hypostatic union have on His humanity? In Jesus: Fallen?, Emmanuel Hatzidakis, a Greek Orthodox priest, addresses these and other controversial questions pertaining to the human nature of Christ, which are debated in many Christian denominations, and in his own Church. The theology advanced in the book is the traditional theology of the historic Church. In all the modern confusio of multiple Christs, here we have the perennial image of the incarnate God, the Theanthropos Christ. The book should appeal to every serious Christian and student of theology, history of dogma and Church History who is comfortable neither with liberalism nor fundamentalism, but who is searching for the authentically true teachings of Christianity. Hatzidakis draws richly from the patristic inheritance of East and West in an original, refreshing, and accessible way. He refutes opinions formed by many eminent postlapsarian theologians. This pivotal study is the first to address this topic from an Eastern Orthodox perspective and in this regard it constitutes an important contribution to Christology. A well-researched study it sheds light from an Eastern Orthodox perspective on this intriguing and crucial topic. It maintains that the subject of Christ’s humanity and its understanding is neither a theologoumenon nor an abstract intellectual cogitation, but a matter of profound soteriological and anthropological import.


Christianity's Surprise

Christianity's Surprise

Author: C. Kavin Rowe

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Published: 2020-10-20

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1791008216

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At its beginning Christianity was surprising, powerful, creative, world-shaking. Today in the West it is many times familiar, common, and expected, losing its power to surprise and transform. We have developed societal amnesia and ignorance of what Christianity originally was – and what it still can be. We need to recover the surprise of Christianity. We need to ask the same fundamental questions as the early Christians, which will help us rediscover the surprising power of Christianity in our midst. Focusing on the surprise of the gospel message takes us into the heart of what it is to understand Christianity at all, and thus what it is to remember and relearn the life-giving power and witness that went with being Christian at the beginning. This remembering and relearning can, in turn, surprise us all over again and chart a course for our witness today.


Surprised by Jesus Again

Surprised by Jesus Again

Author: Jason Byassee

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2019-06-04

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1467456527

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A bold, historical, robust approach to reading Scripture and encountering Jesus anew No one expects to be surprised. Yet biblical interpretation can do exactly that. Christians expect to see Jesus as they read the Bible, but when and how Jesus actually speaks through Scripture can still surprise us! Drawing on the early church’s theological giants—Origen, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and more from the historical cloud of witnesses—author Jason Byassee models how we can recover ancient Christians’ multiple ways of reading the Bible to our benefit. As Byassee says, God himself is Jewish, Catholic, and Pentecostal—so much larger than our own little corner on the truth—and this book offers readers a refreshingly enhanced vision of the Bible and of Jesus himself.