Hard Living People & Mainstream Christians PDF Download

Author: Tex Sample
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780687179312
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
"Through stories of hard-living people and pastors who minister with them, Tex Sample challenges mainline churches to break the yoke of middle-class captivity and join with the Christ who lives among the poor and marginalized".--Kenneth L. Carder, Resident Bishop, United Methodist Church.

Author: Dane C. Ortlund
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433566168
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Christians know that God loves them, but can easily feel that he is perpetually disappointed and frustrated, maybe even close to giving up on them. As a result, they focus a lot—and rightly so—on what Jesus has done to appease God’s wrath for sin. But how does Jesus Christ actually feel about his people amid all their sins and failures? This book draws us to Matthew 11, where Jesus describes himself as “gentle and lowly in heart,” longing for his people to find rest in him. The gospel flows from God’s deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering. These chapters take readers into the depths of Christ’s very heart for sinners, diving deep into Bible passages that speak of who Christ is and encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people. His longing heart for sinners comforts and sustains readers in their up-and-down lives.

Author: Adam S. McHugh
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830889272
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Have you ever felt out of place as an introvert in an extroverted church culture? With practical illustrations from church and parachurch contexts, McHugh offers ways for introverts to serve, lead, worship, and even evangelize in ways consistent with their personalities. This expanded edition is essential reading for introverted Christians and church leaders alike.

Author: Alyce M. McKenzie
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664226978
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
In this Gospel, Matthew tells the story of Jesus, who is the presence of God and has come to call the faithful to a new level of righteousness. He challenges his disciples to live each day as participants in God's kingdom--be poor in spirit and pure in heart, turn the other cheek and love one's enemies. Through his teachings and healings, Jesus breaks the bonds of evil and sin and frees each one for a life rich in celebration and service. By his resurrection, Jesus continues to be present, even until the end of the age. Interpretation Bible Studies (IBS) offers solid biblical content in a creative study format. Forged in the tradition of the celebrated Interpretation commentary series, IBS makes the same depth of biblical insight available in a dynamic, flexible, and user-friendly resource. Designed for adults and older youth, IBS can be used in small groups, in church school classes, in large group presentations, or in personal study.

Author: Rhonda Whitney Bandy PhD
Publisher: WestBow Press
ISBN: 1973674653
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This is the story of how God took one of His children of little faith and showed her His almighty love and reliability. This is a story of extreme growth with God. But most of all, this is God’s story. There may be times as you read these stories, when you will imagine Him crying with his children, then hear Him burst into glorious booming song as He pours out outrageous, and unexpected blessings. If you believe in “it was meant to be,” you’ll find fate unfolding in serendipitous ways. If you believe in a living God who knows when the tiny sparrow falls and stays intimately involved with His precious children, your faith will be exponentially rewarded. Miracles still happen. These transparent stories candidly tell it all, the good, the bad, and the astounding.

Author: David M. McCarthy
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725217953
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
McCarthy is a masterful writer with an astute eye for the encapsulating anecdotes of our everyday lives. Digging in the garden of consumerist America, his spade roots out many economic and romantic assumptions, revealing the shallow but tenacious grip that many of those 'weeds' have on our lives. McCarthy invites us to cultivate a garden bearing real fruit, a fruit we often do not even realize we want, but when tasted, draws us on. --John Berkman, The Catholic University of America With style, warmth, and humor, David Matzko McCarthy challenges us to bring the gospel into our homes. His stories of spouse, children, neighbors, and friends help us remember that Christians can rise above personal foibles and social pressures to enjoy surprising generosity, love, and grace. --Lisa Cahill, Boston College How can we resist the empire's demand for our allegiance? This remains a fundamental question for Christian discipleship, and in 'The Good Life', McCarthy poses it afresh. But now the empire is not Rome but the market, and the arena of challenge is not the coliseum but Wal-Mart. He offers challenging wisdom to those of us in minivans who are trying to discern what God's disruptive grace means for our friendships, our neighborhoods, and our consumer habits. --James K. A. Smith, Calvin College A splendid theological analysis of everyday life for people who live ordinary, middle-class realities. McCarthy illumines everyday life with beautiful interpretations of scripture and the creed. He is clearly the best theologian today writing on the vocation of parenting and neighborly existence. --D. Stephen Long, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Don't let the charm of his style or his mastery or the telling detail mislead you. McCarthy's 'The Good Life' is both a sustained critique of the consumerism that enslaves and a profound account of how God's graciousness can set us free. This is theology at its best. A 'how to' book about something that matters. --Elizabeth Newman, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond A wonderful book. Rooted in Scripture, informed by the Christian tradition, perceptive in its analysis of contemporary American culture, 'The Good Life' is full of practical wisdom for middle-class Christians seeking to live more faithfully in their relationships to people, places, and things. Take up and read! --Steve Bouma-Prediger, Hope College 'The Good Life' provides middle-class Christians a rich resource for theological reflections. McCarthy writes like a pastor and has a gift for making resistance to mainstream American culture seem both necessary and possible. --Julie Hanlon Rubio, author of A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family

Author: Mary Eberstadt
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press
ISBN: 1599474298
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In this magisterial work, leading cultural critic Mary Eberstadt delivers a powerful new theory about the decline of religion in the Western world. The conventional wisdom is that the West first experienced religious decline, followed by the decline of the family. Eberstadt turns this standard account on its head. Marshalling an impressive array of research, from fascinating historical data on family decline in pre-Revolutionary France to contemporary popular culture both in the United States and Europe, Eberstadt shows that the reverse has also been true: the undermining of the family has further undermined Christianity itself. Drawing on sociology, history, demography, theology, literature, and many other sources, Eberstadt shows that family decline and religious decline have gone hand in hand in the Western world in a way that has not been understood before—that they are, as she puts it in a striking new image summarizing the book’s thesis, “the double helix of society, each dependent on the strength of the other for successful reproduction.” In sobering final chapters, Eberstadt then lays out the enormous ramifications of the mutual demise of family and faith in the West. While it is fashionable in some circles to applaud the decline both of religion and the nuclear family, there are, as Eberstadt reveals, enormous social, economic, civic, and other costs attendant on both declines. Her conclusion considers this tantalizing question: whether the economic and demographic crisis now roiling Europe and spreading to America will have the inadvertent result of reviving the family as the most viable alternative to the failed welfare state—fallout that could also lay the groundwork for a religious revival as well. How the West Really Lost God is both a startlingly original account of how secularization happens and a sweeping brief about why everyone should care. A book written for agnostics as well as believers, atheists as well as “none of the above,” it will permanently change the way every reader understands the two institutions that have hitherto undergirded Western civilization as we know it—family and faith—and the real nature of the relationship between those two pillars of history.

Author: Cathy C. Campbell
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780814629383
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
A Scripture-based exploration of the Christian story of salvation as a food story which provides nourishment for those engaged in living out the food and justice challenges of the Gospel. The book highlights the power of our Biblical and theological traditions to name the root issues of our day, shape our hope and define the horizons for action. It is a resource for study and prayer. The author explores in her ministry how individuals and parishes may live out the food and justice dimensions of the Gospel.

Author: George Barna
Publisher: Gospel Light Publications
ISBN: 9780830718603
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
George Barna reveals nine critical habits proven to make a church an effective local body. The Habits of Highly Effective Churches dispels popular myths and wrong beliefs as to what constitutes a thriving church in today's society and is an excellent resource for ministry leaders who are seeking or willing to re-evaluate and restructure a church.

Author: Frank Burch Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195158724
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Christians frequently come into conflict with themselves and others over such matters as music, popular culture, and worship style. Yet they usually lack any theology of art or taste adequate to deal with aesthetic disputes. In this provocative book, Frank Burch Brown offers a constructive, "ecumenical" approach to artistic taste and aesthetic judgment--a non-elitist but discriminating theological aesthetics that has "teeth but no fangs." While grounded in history and theory, this book takes up such practical questions as: How can one religious community accommodate a variety of artistic tastes? What good or harm can be done by importing music that is worldly in origin into a house of worship? How can the exercise of taste in the making of art be a viable (and sometimes advanced) spiritual discipline? In exploring the complex relation between taste, religious imagination, and faith, Brown offers a new perspective on what it means to be spiritual, religious, and indeed Christian.