Most of us have become accustomed to the constant preaching and teaching of guilt and condemnation. This slowly but surely pulls our eyes off of the loveliness of the finished work and onto the unfinished areas of our lives. We know that we are flawed; we don't need someone screaming at us to figure that out. Our problem is not the absence of knowledge that we need help. Rather, it is the utter inability to help ourselves. Calvary was God's intervention in all of our issues. By relieving us of the punishment of sin, He is freeing us from the weight of guilt and the fear of death. The author of Hebrews said that when Jesus died, He did so to "deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15). Jesus has delivered us from fear of eternal punishment by being punished in our place!
A broadly experienced trio of rising church leaders share substantive research on churches and individuals that will help readers foster a culture wherein people intentionally grow in their Christian faith.
In this fascinating book, Mary Terhune shares her personal journey of spiritual awakening, mystical encounters, and visions, as well as the universal truths revealed to her in the process. During a life crisis, she spontaneously received revelations from Jesus that transformed her conscious awareness, changing her life forever. A profound experience of self-realization brought her the message that divinity is humankind’s natural state—one we need to reclaim. She then had an encounter during meditation that showed her, beyond any shadow of doubt, that birth and dying are actually illusions. Mary went on to have an amazing introduction to homeopathy, which expanded her training as a registered nurse into a different understanding and approach to disease, prevention, curing, and healing. Mary urges us all to become mindful of our omniscient essence—and embrace paradigm shifts in preventive and curative medicine as we awaken to consciousness as the primary force of life. Out of the Blue inspires every reader to live as an awakened being and a knowledgeable master of one’s own destiny and well-being.
As Christians, we know that we are new creations in Jesus. So we try to act differently, hoping this will make us more like Him. But changing our outward behavior doesn’t change our hearts. Only by God’s grace can we be transformed internally. Renovation of the Heart lays a biblical foundation for understanding what best-selling author Dallas Willard calls the “transformation of the spirit”—a divine process that “brings every element in our being, working from inside out, into harmony with the will of God.” This fresh approach to spiritual growth explains the biblical reasons why Christians need to undergo change in six aspects of life: thought, feeling, will, body, social context, and soul. Willard also outlines a general pattern of transformation in each area, not as a sterile formula but as a practical process that you can follow without the guilt or perfectionism so many Christians wrestle with. Don’t settle for complacency. Accept the challenge Renovation of the Heart offers to become an intentional apprentice of Jesus Christ, changing daily as you walk with Him.
Recognized as a modern spiritual classic and perhaps Dietrich von Hildebrand's greatest work, this sublime and practical study gives a penetrating analysis of the true path to holiness for those who love Christ. The first requisite is the person's desire for change, and with that fundamental attitude in mind, von Hildebrand devotes a chapter to each of the successive spiritual attitudes necessary for those who strive for Christian perfection. The Beatitudes are treated with beauty and depth in an uncompromising challenge to every serious Christian to put into practice these teachings of Christ. "A magnificent treatise by a distinguished philosopher on the pursuit of spiritual perfection." -Publishers Weekly "A major contribution to the only important question: the transformation of our soul in Christ." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen "A masterpiece of modern spirituality: eminently practical and highly recommended." -Fr. John Hardon, S.J. "A solid and penetrating analysis of the Christian virtues, and their application in the struggle toward Christian perfection." -Library Journal
The book, From Revelation to Revolution: iClouds of Witnesses for Developing and Driving Your Mind to Success in Career and Business, shows how entrepreneurs, career professionals, freelancers, and the faithful can develop and drive their minds to get revelations and simultaneously turn them into revolutionary products and services benefitting the producer and consumers. It's a faith-driven book propelled with the mindset of reason and science, precisely psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, etc. Beginning with his own successful life-transforming experiences driven by his grit mindset and the resilient spirit of God at work in him, the author draws from similar experiences of icons of success such as Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, Tony Elumelu, Mark Zuckerberg, Serena Williams, Anderson Cooper, Arianna Huffington, etc., to show that in this COVID-19-proplelled global economy and even beyond, you can still turn your revolutionary revelations and ideas into trailblazing products and services for the good of humanity by practicing the time-tested principles detailed in this book. The principles are God-ordained for humans to succeed in their chosen fields or endeavors. No matter the field of your career--from technology to theology or from architecture to agriculture--these principles will enable you to revolutionize your ideas and visions into products, thereby earning you huge success while benefiting the public. The author asserts that if the success icons he refers to as "Clouds of Witnesses" succeeded with these principles; in spite of the storms and uncertainties of the global marketplace; you can also win with these principles. This book is for career professionals, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and everyone desiring mind transformation from all walks of life. It's specially made for Christians and faith-propelled people who need moral, rational, and psychological boosts to get up and running with their revolutionary ideas and visions to pacesetting attainments in the COVID-19-driven economy and beyond.
A better world is within our grasp, let art show you the way. A collection of radically beautiful and provocative images from one of the world's most-followed and best-loved digital curators Stephen Ellcock. The Book of Change is designed to provoke reflection, revelation and action, an indispensable treasury of visual tools that will aid, promote and inspire personal and political transformations. This new collection of extraordinary images is structured as a journey beginning with mankind's origins. Our path is marked by words and images reflecting our talent both for creativity and conflict. Ultimately Stephen Ellcock leads the reader to the current, turbulent point in time. A time of global unrest, inequality and--yet--potential for change. Ellcock draws on both well-known and entirely unknown artists, Renaissance paintings, counter-cultural iconography, occult and esoteric imagery, documentary photography and traditional and contemporary art, craft and design from every continent and cultural tradition. This is an eye-opening, mind-blowing awakening to the vast shared potential and creative energy of mankind.
The book of Revelation is one of the most rewarding books to study in all Scripture. But the problem for many today is that they have no idea what the book means or how to determine what it means. Follow the Lamb goes a long way in helping the student of Revelation grasp its richness and heed its exhortations. Dalyrmple's guide provides key principles in reading Revelation responsibly. The first key is that the book is about Jesus—his supremacy and sovereignty. The second key is that the language and images used in the book of Revelation derive from the Old Testament. Though many readers get caught up in the mire of John's imagery and efforts to discern what the symbols mean, this principle simplifies the search for meaning. Each chapter in Follow the Lamb concludes with an important For Further Study section, making it an ideal resource for individual or group study. These questions and exercises and reflection guides make personal application of Revelation meaningful and rich. The book of Revelation contains an important message for the people of God, both then and now—namely, that the people of God must emulate Jesus and faithfully proclaim the kingdom of God, even to the point of death. This means they are called to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:4).
New York Times bestselling author and Bible expert Bart Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church. The claim at the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. But this is not what the original disciples believed during Jesus’s lifetime—and it is not what Jesus claimed about himself. How Jesus Became God tells the story of an idea that shaped Christianity, and of the evolution of a belief that looked very different in the fourth century than it did in the first. A master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, Ehrman reveals how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty, Creator of all things. But how did he move from being a Jewish prophet to being God? In a book that took eight years to research and write, Ehrman sketches Jesus’s transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus’s followers had visions of him after his death—alive again—did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God. And what they meant by that was not at all what people mean today. Written for secular historians of religion and believers alike, How Jesus Became God will engage anyone interested in the historical developments that led to the affirmation at the heart of Christianity: Jesus was, and is, God.
By re-examining the central themes of Reformation theology, Chung clearly and carefully describes the fundamental shape of Reformation thinking and introduces the reader to what was and is at stake in the Reformation's insistence on the centrality of the Gospel.
