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Author: Troy D. Ehlke Publisher: Xlibris Corporation ISBN: 1469102986 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 217
Book Description
Have you ever felt a dissonance between the joy-filled Sunday school messages and the difficult sayings attributed to Jesus in the scriptures? There is a movement in American churches today that separates the Gospel into two parts: attractive and repulsive. It is probably surprising for many to know that there is more in the latter category than in the former. Church leaders know that preaching about suffering and demanding personal sacrifice for the sake of discipleship is not going to win over many converts. In fact, people tend to leave and seek out worship centers that portray Christ in kinder, gentler ways. After all, how many of the most applauded preachers of the present generation focus on Jesus teaching of self-sacrifice? More likely, sermons emerge from a prosperity gospel where God will reward the faithful and give bountifully to those who believe. The problem with this movement is that it makes Christianity one-dimensional and shallow. When hardship becomes an unwelcome visitor in our lives, the gospel of rewards doesnt hold up or provide the slightest degree of comfort. Crossroads of Agony is an anti-thesis to the current trends in American Christianity by revealing the call to suffering that Jesus gives to all who wish to follow him. True discipleship must contend with all sides of the faith, not just the ones that make us smile or feel warm and fuzzy inside. Jesus came not to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34)! As believers, we need to embrace suffering and see the value that comes with hardship undertaken for the sake of the Gospel. This book launches its readership into an investigation of the early church through a survey of scripture, historical events, and emerging literature. Without studying the foundations of the church, contemporary communities of faith are adrift without a dependable point of reference. As Woodrow Wilson said, Those who do not know their past are doomed to repeat it. Our heritage is rich with tradition and reveals the highs and lows of human achievement. Our past is the key to unlocking a future that is keeping with Gods will. Crossroads of Agony exposes readers to a side of Christianity few opt to know about it, let alone use to guide their faith. Those with an adventurous spirit and a thirst for knowledge will discover that suffering is recast in a different light through Jesus message. What most of us have been trying to run away from is in fact something Christ is calling us towards: a life of suffering for the sake Gods message of salvation. We run because we do not find any value in hardship, but instead see it as something life-draining. Jesus, on the other hand, finds immense value in suffering and even life-producing when undertaken with a spiritual purpose. Jesus puts his life on the line for this truth: Suffering yields lifelife that is everlasting. Crossroads of Agony is a look into the darker side of the faith, one meant for advanced Christians. The deepest truths of the faith are not attractive to the world (1 Corinthians 1:18-19), but are quite repulsive. Only when we find ourselves in the pitch black darkness of our faith heritage are we able to emerge into the light of the Gospel that shatters illusions and unites our souls with the divine. If we run from suffering, the best we can achieve is a superficial relationship with God because it means we still value our life above the Gospel. Jesus demands the opposite: the saving Word of God above all else. This level of faith development requires a new understanding of suffering, one where this world is seen as a testing ground, not the end. Reverend Troy Ehlke writes this text in the hopes that people will read it in small groups, devote time to discuss the questions at each chapters end, and develop a renewed sense of call to labor for the kingdom of God. While we experience distress in this lifetime, it is not without reward. In this world, we have the satisfaction that results from spreading the Wor
Author: Troy D. Ehlke Publisher: Xlibris Corporation ISBN: 1469102986 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 217
Book Description
Have you ever felt a dissonance between the joy-filled Sunday school messages and the difficult sayings attributed to Jesus in the scriptures? There is a movement in American churches today that separates the Gospel into two parts: attractive and repulsive. It is probably surprising for many to know that there is more in the latter category than in the former. Church leaders know that preaching about suffering and demanding personal sacrifice for the sake of discipleship is not going to win over many converts. In fact, people tend to leave and seek out worship centers that portray Christ in kinder, gentler ways. After all, how many of the most applauded preachers of the present generation focus on Jesus teaching of self-sacrifice? More likely, sermons emerge from a prosperity gospel where God will reward the faithful and give bountifully to those who believe. The problem with this movement is that it makes Christianity one-dimensional and shallow. When hardship becomes an unwelcome visitor in our lives, the gospel of rewards doesnt hold up or provide the slightest degree of comfort. Crossroads of Agony is an anti-thesis to the current trends in American Christianity by revealing the call to suffering that Jesus gives to all who wish to follow him. True discipleship must contend with all sides of the faith, not just the ones that make us smile or feel warm and fuzzy inside. Jesus came not to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34)! As believers, we need to embrace suffering and see the value that comes with hardship undertaken for the sake of the Gospel. This book launches its readership into an investigation of the early church through a survey of scripture, historical events, and emerging literature. Without studying the foundations of the church, contemporary communities of faith are adrift without a dependable point of reference. As Woodrow Wilson said, Those who do not know their past are doomed to repeat it. Our heritage is rich with tradition and reveals the highs and lows of human achievement. Our past is the key to unlocking a future that is keeping with Gods will. Crossroads of Agony exposes readers to a side of Christianity few opt to know about it, let alone use to guide their faith. Those with an adventurous spirit and a thirst for knowledge will discover that suffering is recast in a different light through Jesus message. What most of us have been trying to run away from is in fact something Christ is calling us towards: a life of suffering for the sake Gods message of salvation. We run because we do not find any value in hardship, but instead see it as something life-draining. Jesus, on the other hand, finds immense value in suffering and even life-producing when undertaken with a spiritual purpose. Jesus puts his life on the line for this truth: Suffering yields lifelife that is everlasting. Crossroads of Agony is a look into the darker side of the faith, one meant for advanced Christians. The deepest truths of the faith are not attractive to the world (1 Corinthians 1:18-19), but are quite repulsive. Only when we find ourselves in the pitch black darkness of our faith heritage are we able to emerge into the light of the Gospel that shatters illusions and unites our souls with the divine. If we run from suffering, the best we can achieve is a superficial relationship with God because it means we still value our life above the Gospel. Jesus demands the opposite: the saving Word of God above all else. This level of faith development requires a new understanding of suffering, one where this world is seen as a testing ground, not the end. Reverend Troy Ehlke writes this text in the hopes that people will read it in small groups, devote time to discuss the questions at each chapters end, and develop a renewed sense of call to labor for the kingdom of God. While we experience distress in this lifetime, it is not without reward. In this world, we have the satisfaction that results from spreading the Wor
Author: Gary Gallant Publisher: Christian Classics Reproductions ISBN: Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
Many believers neglect to study the Old Testament because they find it confusing or because they assume that it is less important to the Christian faith than the New Testament. We cannot understand Jesus or His gospel without a proper grounding in the Old Testament Scriptures. Thus, we need to read and study the whole counsel of God. Let us not neglect the study of either testament. Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events in detail many years, sometimes centuries, before they occur. Approximately 2,500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2,000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter—no errors. (The remaining 500 or so reach into the future and may be seen unfolding as days go by.) Since the probability of any one of these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance averages less than one in ten (figured very conservatively) and since the prophecies are for the most part independent of one another, the odds for all these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance without error is less than one in 102000 (that is 1 with 2,000 zeros written after it)! God is not the only one, however, who uses forecasts of future events to get people’s attention. Satan does, too. Through clairvoyants (such as Jeanne Dixon and Edgar Cayce), mediums, spiritists, and others come remarkable predictions, though rarely with more than about 60 percent accuracy, never with total accuracy. Messages from Satan, furthermore, fail to match the details of Bible prophecies, nor do they include a call to repentance. The acid test for identifying a prophet of God is recorded by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:21-22. According to this Bible passage (and others), God’s prophets, as distinct from Satan’s spokesmen, are 100 percent accurate in their predictions. There is no room for error. The New Testament indicates that what happened at the cross and on it was what the prophets had predicted would happen long before. Details of Jesus’ life and death were written in divine prophecy hundreds of years before He was born in Bethlehem. Throughout the Gospels, this amazing truth is emphasized. As Jesus and His apostles left the upper room for the Garden of Gethsemane, He said to them, “You will all fall away because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered’” (Mark 14:27). After Judas’ betrayal, Jesus rebuked Peter for drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of Malchus and said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. . . How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?” (Matthew 26:52–54). On the cross Jesus waited until He saw that “all things had already been accomplished” before He uttered His only physical request, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28). Later, the spear was thrust into Jesus’ side, and blood and water came out. We read, “For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, ‘Not a bone of Him shall be broken.’ And again, another Scripture says, ‘They shall look on Him whom they pierced’” (John 19:36, 37). The angel who was at the tomb on the morning of the resurrection said, “. . . Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rises again” (Luke 24:6, 7). When Jesus met with the apostles and disciples Sunday evening, the same day He arose from the dead, He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. . . . Thus, it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:44–47). In Jesus’ affirmation to those Sunday night witnesses, He referred to all three divisions of the Hebrew Old Testament—the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms —as He described the prophecies that had been fulfilled in Him. It has been said that if one reads any part of the Bible and does not see Jesus in it, he should go back and reread it, for he has missed something very important! In Peter’s first gospel sermon on the Day of Pentecost, he declared that Jesus had been delivered into the hands of godless men to be put to death “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). In his second sermon in Acts, Peter covered in one sweeping sentence the prophecies of the whole Old Testament, saying that Jesus’ sufferings on the cross fulfilled all that had been prophesied: “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:18).
Author: M. Brett Callaway Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1532653824 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 156
Book Description
Not so long ago it was taken for granted that God exists. Today, there is a blindness to him even though he makes his presence known to all. The book begins by showing how better to recognize his presence and understand how he reveals himself to us. The next three chapters discuss how we move from an awareness of his presence to beginning to know him, and through a knowledge of him, begin to know what his purpose is for us and how our lives are shaped by that knowledge. Having seen how he reveals himself to us and how we know the world and see the world through different eyes, we then look at how to apply our new view in the face of a society that remains blind to this knowledge. Chapters 5–7 explore truth first from the standpoint of its existence, then in how to recognize its counterfeits, and finally to understand the consequences of its loss. Chapters 8–10 look at how and why being able to see God’s hand in all aspects of life, and to center life on him by faith in his son Jesus Christ, completely changes life for the better. Non-Christians often hear this claim made by evangelists. If they ask why, too often the answer is in “Christian-speak” that is foreign to them. The intent is to bridge from the place where they are and explain how Christians have found peace in times of suffering, even joy in the most horrific circumstances, enabling them to give thanks in all things. In a sense, the book finishes where it started, by looking at who we truly are, what kind of world this is, and how God has made all into his glorious plan.
Author: Mitchell B. Merback Publisher: Reaktion Books ISBN: 1861898258 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 354
Book Description
Christ's Crucifixion is one of the most recognized images in Western culture, and it has come to stand as a universal symbol of both suffering and salvation. But often overlooked is the fact that ultimately the Crucifixion is a scene of capital punishment. Mitchell Merback reconstructs the religious, legal, and historical context of the Crucifixion and of other images of public torture. The result is a fascinating account of a time when criminal justice and religion were entirely interrelated and punishment was a visual spectacle devoured by a popular audience. Merback compares the images of Christ's Crucifixion with those of the two thieves who met their fate beside Jesus. In paintings by well-known Northern European masters and provincial painters alike, Merback finds the two thieves subjected to incredible cruelty, cruelty that artists could not depict in their scenes of Christ's Crucifixion because of theological requirements. Through these representations Merback explores the ways audiences in early modern Europe understood images of physical suffering and execution. The frequently shocking works also provide a perspective from which Merback examines the live spectacle of public torture and execution and how audiences were encouraged by the Church and the State to react to the experience. Throughout, Merback traces the intricate and extraordinary connections among religious art, devotional practice, bodily pain, punishment, and judicial spectatorship. Keenly aware of the difficulties involved in discussing images of atrocious violence but determined to make them historically comprehensible, Merback has written an informed and provocative study that reveals the rituals of medieval criminal justice and the visual experiences they engendered.
Author: Stephen L. Bryant Publisher: Tate Publishing ISBN: 1615665455 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
Paddy O'Doul, a popular and upstanding Irish pub owner, was brutally murdered after closing one night. No one he knew could have wanted him dead. Even more mysterious were the large sums of money that he left in his will. Reeling from the baffling events, his family attempts to uncover the truth. Annie, O'Doul's daughter and a brilliant lawyer, Macklin, a unique private investigator with a dangerous past, and Rusty, a skillful undercover cop, are brought together by these troubling events. Together, they begin to uncover the truth behind Paddy's untimely death. What follows is a whirlwind of chaos as an unknown evil reveals sweeping plans for their community. With no limits to power, corruption, or wealth, The mysterious entity known only as B.A. crushes all opposition to its dark undertakings. When the plot behind the recent murders is revealed to be more wicked than imaginable, and when the lust for death goes far deeper than a single, Irish pub owner, can anyone possibly stand against the evil that is descending upon them? Only God knows, and he does in fact have a plan.
Author: Max Brand Publisher: Serapis Classics ISBN: 3962558675 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 315
Book Description
When he accidentally commits murder and is stalked by a dangerous assassin called El Tigre, Dix teams up with the dangerous and beautiful Jacqueline "Jack" Boone, who is rumored to have bested one of the most notorious gunmen in decades.
Author: Troy D. Ehlke
Author: Troy D. Ehlke
Author: 
Author: Gary Gallant
Author: Winnie Roach Oliphant
Author: M. Brett Callaway
Author: Mitchell B. Merback
Author: Charles B. Hodge, Jr.
Author: Stephen L. Bryant
Author: Max Brand
Author: Library of Congress. Copyright Office