Advent devotional for Christmas that will stir hope and inspire worship. As dawn broke on that first Christmas morning, the sun rose on a new era: God's king had come to earth to bring about his kingdom. Join Sinclair Ferguson as he opens up the first two chapters of Matthew's Gospel in these daily devotions for Advent. Each day’s reflection is full of insight and application, and will help you to arrive at Christmas Day awed by God's redeeming grace and refreshed by the hope of God’s promised king.
The Microsoft interdisciplinary scientist largely credited with popularizing virtual reality reflects on his lifelong relationship with technology, showing VR's ability to illuminate and amplify our understanding of our species and how the brain and body connect to the world. By the author of You Are Not a Gadget. --Publisher.
The James Code helps believers go from knowing about God to living for God. Bestselling author of The Joshua Code and The Jesus Code, O.S. Hawkins is back with a new book that is all about putting your faith into action. The James Code is practical, personal and action-packed straight from one of the most popular books of the Bible. Once readers have devoted themselves to Scripture memory in The Joshua Code, and have equipped themselves to give answers in The Jesus Code, The James Code challenges readers to give feet to their faith. Hawkins gives applicable truth from the book of James emphasizing that an effective Christian life is not about faith and works, but is about faith that works. As with The Joshua Code and The Jesus Code, all author royalties will go to Mission:Dignity, whose mission supports retired pastors and their spouses living near the poverty level.
After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.
“Venter instills awe for biology as it is, and as it might become in our hands.” —Publishers Weekly On May 20, 2010, headlines around the world announced one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in modern science: the creation of the world’s first synthetic lifeform. In Life at the Speed of Light, scientist J. Craig Venter, best known for sequencing the human genome, shares the dramatic account of how he led a team of researchers in this pioneering effort in synthetic genomics—and how that work will have a profound impact on our existence in the years to come. This is a fascinating and authoritative study that provides readers an opportunity to ponder afresh the age-old question “What is life?” at the dawn of a new era of biological engineering.
Some friendships that last a lifetime do so in spite of secrets. Some are interrupted when that secret is discovered, others continue unconditionally. Blackjack dealers are daily exposed to and confronted with the best and worst in character. The interactions with others in circumstances that try patience and empathy can well be documented life experiences for philosophical and psychiatric knowledge and speculation.
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation. For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike—either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself. Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there. If humans did not spend 95 percent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume. The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action. Includes Black-and-White Illustrations
What if the presence of God became so real in people's hearts that it revived the church and ushered in the next Jesus Movement? From the Upper Room in Jerusalem to the Moravian community in Germany, God's personal presence always changes everything. Awaken the Dawn chronicles the story of a movement of day-and-night worship, prayer, creativity, and mission that is impacting America and the nations by bringing the presence of God into our cities and campuses. This story is part of the same movement David pioneered when he served as the greatest king in Israel's history and that the Book of Acts chronicles as God's presence filled communities. It's time for a generation to find their voice in the symphony of creative worship, prayer, and gospel proclamation that God is orchestrating. Jesus' way of changing the world is surprising and exhilarating and is certainly the opposite of the systems of the world. This book will help you find your part in Jesus' plan by discussing: What God's presence is and how it changes our hearts Incredible stories of God's activity in the nation and what He is saying through them God's values and how He brings transformation and mercy Why Jesus is central to all that the Holy Spirit is doing This book will equip you to be a part of Jesus' astounding storyline for a great spiritual awakening. It will give you hope and keys on how God is unfolding his mission of mercy and transformation and how you can be a part of it.
The second of four comic-style books providing an introduction to the beginning of time. Cartoon illustrations accompany text to retell the story of the Big Bang, evolution, dinosaurs and the beginning of mankind. Events are explained in simple terms with statistics and time lines included.
In a groundbreaking look at Christ's "agony and ecstasy", Dr. Swindoll uncovers the meaning of the resurrection. From the poignant interactions of The Last Supper through the despairing events of Gethsemane and the seven last words of Jesus on the cross, this volume challenges readers with a new perspective on the atoning work of Christ.