Recommendations based on "Hard to Believe"

Product Description An Ancient Murder Mystery On Sunday they jammed the streets celebrating his arrival. But on Friday they were screaming for his blood.What prompted this stunning reversal? Why did this man’s followers and friends demand his death?Crucify! reveals the motive behind the most heinous murder of all time. Timothy J. Stoner mines the Gospels to expose Jesus’s secret agenda and uncovers his dangerous and provocative mission. Is there something about this young Rabbi that we have failed to understand or appreciate?Answering these questions raises another—one that is more troubling: If we’d been there, would we have joined with the scandalized crowd crying Crucify? About the Author The son of missionary parents, Timothy J. Stoner grew up in Chile and Spain. After graduating from Cedarville University and attending Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, Stoner graduated from Cooley Law School in 1987. He is the author of several books, including The God Who Smokes and the recently released Warrior Poet: Before David was King. Timothy and Patty, his wife of over thirty years, have five children.

Abstract theology is overrated, for God can be found in even the most ordinary of things. Jesus used things like a lily, sparrow, and sheep to teach about the kingdom of God. And in the Old Testament, God repeatedly describes himself and his saving work in relation to physical things such as a rock, horn, or eagle. In God of All Things, pastor and author Andrew Wilson invites you to rediscover God in this way, too--through ordinary, everyday things. He explores the idea of a material world and presents a variety of created marvels that reveal the gospel in everyday life and fuel worship and joy in God--marvels like: Dust: the image of God Horns: the salvation of God Donkeys: the peace of God Water: the life of God Viruses: the problem of God Cities: the kingdom of God God of All Things will leave you with a deeper understanding of Scripture, the world you live in, and the God who made it all.

Marking a departure in our understanding of Christian views of the afterlife from 250 to 650 CE, The Ransom of the Soul explores a revolutionary shift in thinking about the fate of the soul that occurred around the time of Rome’s fall. Peter Brown describes how this shift transformed the Church’s institutional relationship to money and set the stage for its domination of medieval society in the West.Early Christian doctrine held that the living and the dead, as equally sinful beings, needed each other in order to achieve redemption. The devotional intercessions of the living could tip the balance between heaven and hell for the deceased. In the third century, money began to play a decisive role in these practices, as wealthy Christians took ever more elaborate steps to protect their own souls and the souls of their loved ones in the afterlife. They secured privileged burial sites and made lavish donations to churches. By the seventh century, Europe was dotted with richly endowed monasteries and funerary chapels displaying in marble splendor the Christian devotion of the wealthy dead.In response to the growing influence of money, Church doctrine concerning the afterlife evolved from speculation to firm reality, and personal wealth in the pursuit of redemption led to extraordinary feats of architecture and acts of generosity. But it also prompted stormy debates about money’s proper use―debates that resonated through the centuries and kept alive the fundamental question of how heaven and earth could be joined by human agency.

Professor of theology Stephen Wellum considers Christ's singular uniqueness and significance biblically, historically, and today, in our pluralistic and postmodern age. Christ Alone is a much-needed study and defense of the doctrine that provides coherency to the Christian faith. If the church is to proclaim the same Christ as the Reformers, we must understand and embrace solos Christus with the same clarity, conviction, urgency, and abundance of joy as the Reformers. To that end, Wellum: Recovers the Reformers' basic insights by focusing first on two teachings: the exclusive identity of Christ and his sufficient work. Follows the historical roots of the doctrine and its developments to show how the uniqueness of Christ has come under specific attack today. Retraces the storyline of Scripture, from Christ's unique identity and work as prophet, priest, and king, to the application of his work to believers and our covenantal union with him. Christ Alone seeks to recover a robust biblical and theological doctrine of Christ's person and work—and a renewed understanding that apart from Christ there is no salvation—in the face of today's challenges, unpacking why a fresh appraisal of the Reformation understanding of Christ alone is so important today. —THE FIVE SOLAS— Historians and theologians have long recognized that at the heart of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation were five declarations, often referred to as the "solas." These five statements summarize much of what the Reformation was about, and they distinguish Protestantism from other expressions of the Christian faith: that they place ultimate and final authority in the Scriptures, acknowledge the work of Christ alone as sufficient for redemption, recognize that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and seek to do all things for God’s glory. The Five Solas Series is more than a simple rehashing of these statements, but instead expounds upon the biblical reasoning behind them, leading to a more profound theological vision of our lives and callings as Christians and churches.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable.Newsweek called renowned minister Timothy Keller "a C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century" in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, Keller takes his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity and uses the parable of the prodigal son to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.

In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. A new introduction reviews the most recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history, and theology.

Emphasizing the historical distance between the New Testament and our contemporary culture, The Sermon on the Mount offers helpful contextual insights for those seeking to discern how to live out the Bible in today's world. This sermon is the moral portrait of Jesus' own people--yet the contrast between his vision and our lives is so stark that many theologians have tried to soften the demands it makes on us until it's been skewed beyond recognition in the minds of many Christians. The goal of this special volume of The Story of God Bible Commentary series is to investigate the Sermon on the Mount in light of the way Jesus meant it to be heard, requiring us to ask difficult questions about ethics, discipleship, and salvation. The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike. Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story: LISTEN to the Story: Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story. EXPLAIN the Story: Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting. LIVE the Story: Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students. Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.

According to Jakes, the church has a tremendous shortage of sold-out, unselfish Christians committed to the salvation and discipleship of the lost. In this work, he describes how to become an end-time laborer in the churchs finest hour.

The teaching pastor of one of America's largest megachurches gives a call to action: Study the mountains mentioned in Scripture. Learn what God reveals there about himself, and you. Then take those truths back to the people. An overview of the mountaintop experiences mentioned in Scripture where God met with his followers for the express purpose of greater clarity on two questions: Who is God? and Who am I? Each chapter provides the reader with a clear picture of God's character and how those attributes both challenge and encourage us. Praise for The Mountains Are Calling “What an incredible book to walk us through the mountaintop experiences God gave to so many of his saints in Scripture. If you’ve longed for a new kind of intimacy with God, a fresh experience of who he is and what he wants for you, this book is for you. It will, as Jarrett Stephens promises, change your perspective, first on who God is and second on who you are. You’ll love this book!” —J. D. Greear, PhD, pastor of The Summit Church, Raleigh-Durham, NC “Most of us have had a mountaintop experience that quickly loses its luster or exhausts its energy. In The Mountains Are Calling, Jarrett Stephens will equip and empower you to recognize God’s hand in those spiritual moments that can be a catalyst for your growth. Whether you are literally going to the mountains or just putting aside time for God, Jarrett will show you how God can use it.” —Kyle Idleman, pastor and author of Not a Fan and Grace Is Greater

Enlarged print edition now available! Making use of his scholar's understanding, yet writing in an approachable and anecdotal style, Tom Wright manages to unravel the great complexity of the extraordinary Gospel of John. He describes it as "one of the great books in the literature of the world; and part of its greatness is the way it reveals its secrets not just to a high-flown leaning but to those who come to it with humility and hope." Wright's stimulating comments are combined with his own fresh and inviting translation of the Bible text.Tom Wright has undertaken a tremendous task: to provide guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to include in them his own translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable discussion with background information, useful explanations and suggestions, and thoughts as to how the text can be relevant to our lives today. A glossary is included at the back of the book. The series is suitable for group study, personal study, or daily devotions.