Recommendations based on "The New Revelations: A Conversation with God"

“Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse.”So begins Letter to a Christian Nation…www.samharris.org

The Timeless Novel About a Bus Ride from Hell to HeavenIn The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis again employs his formidable talent for fable and allegory. The writer finds himself in Hell boarding a bus bound for Heaven. The amazing opportunity is that anyone who wants to stay in Heaven, can. This is a starting point for an extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment. Lewis’s revolutionary idea is the discovery that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’s The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.

Nearly 2, 000 years ago, Jesus started a movement that has grown like wildfire throughout history. Author and pastor Andy Stanley draws from Scripture and over 25 years of pastoral experience to bring to life the irresistible nature of this movement known as the Church.With surprising candor and transparency pastor Andy Stanley explains how one of America's largest churches began with a high-profile divorce and a church split.But that's just the beginning…Deepand Wide provides church leaders with an in-depth look into North Point Community Church and its strategy for creating churches unchurched people absolutely love to attend. Andy writes,"Our goal is to create weekend experiences so compelling and helpful that even the most skeptical individuals in our community would walk away with every intention of returning the following week…with a friend!"Later he says,"I want people to fall in love with the Author of Scripture. And while we can't make anyone fall in love, we can certainly arrange a date."For the first time, Andy explains his strategy for preaching and programming to "dual audiences": mature believers and cynical unbelievers. He argues that preaching to dual audiences doesn't require communicators to "dumb down" the content. According to Stanley, it's all in the approach.You'll be introduced to North Point's spiritual formation model: The Five Faith Catalysts. Leaders responsible for ministry programing and production will no doubt love Andy's discussion of the three essential ingredients for creating irresistible environments. For pastors willing to tackle the challenge of transitioning a local congregation, Andy includes a section entitled: Becoming Deepand Wide.If your team is more concerned with who you are reaching than who you are keeping, Deep & Wide will be more than a book you read; it will be a resource you come back to over and over!"Couldn't be prouder of my son, Andy. And I couldn't be more excited about the content of this book. I wish a resource like this existed when I was starting out in ministry."- Dr. Charles Stanley, Founder, In Touch Ministries" Deepand Wide pulls back the curtain for all of us to see what is required behind the scenes to build a prevailing church. I was both challenged and inspired by this book."- Bill Hybels, author of Just Walk Across the Room"The most common question I get from pastors is, 'How do I get the people in my church to be open to change?' From now on my answer will be, 'Read Deepand Wide by Andy Stanley'. Thanks Andy. Great book!"- Craig Groeschel, Pastor, LifeChurch.TV, author, It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It"No one has given me more practical handles for establishing a focused vision than Andy Stanley. Deepand Wide is a rich resource to help all of us stay intentional about the main thing - building a church that reaches people who are far from God."- Steven Furtick, Lead Pastor, Elevation Church

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.

The bestselling and prize-winning Israeli author Meir Shalev describes the many "firsts" of the Bible – the first love and the first death, to the first laugh and the first dream – providing a fresh, secular and surprising look at the stories we think we know.The first kiss in the Bible is not a kiss of love. The first love in the Bible is not the love of a man and a woman. The first hatred in the Bible is the hatred of a man toward his wife. The first laugh in the Bible is also the last. In Beginnings, Meir Shalev reintroduces us to the heroes and heroines of the Old Testament, exploring these and many more of the Bible’s unexpected "firsts." Combining penetrating wit, deep empathy, and impressive knowledge of the Bible, he probes each episode to uncover nuances and implications that a lesser writer would overlook, and his nontraditional, nonreligious interpretations of the famous stories of the Bible take them beyond platitudes and assumptions to the love, fear, tragedy, and inspiration at their heart. Literary, inquisitive, and honest, Shalev makes these stories come alive in all their complicated beauty, and though these stories are ancient, their resonance remains intensely contemporary.

Beutifully repackaged as part of the C.S. Lewis Signature Classic Range, Lewis addresses the question which tortures every generation -- Why must we suffer? For centuries people have been tormented by one question above all -- 'If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?' And what of the suffering of animals, who neither deserve pain nor can be improved by it? The greatest Christian thinker of our time sets out to disentangle this knotty issue. With his signature wealth of compassion and insight, C.S. Lewis offers answers to these crucial questions and shares his hope and wisdom to help heal a world hungering for a true understanding of human nature.

How to engage in productive conversations with those who challenge your Christian convictions.Gregory Koukl's best-selling book of practical apologetics, Tactics, wrote the game plan for discussing your Christian convictions with skeptics. In this follow-up, Koukl—a leader of clear-thinking Christianity—reveals the fundamental flaws in common, current challenges to Christian beliefs and values and provides step-by-step strategies to question and reveal those shortcomings.Street Smarts offers model questions and sample dialogues to help guide believers in persuasive conversations about hot-button issues like: Relativism The trustworthiness of Scripture The claims of the Gospel Abortion Marriage, sex, and genderThis book will teach you how to tackle those discussions that believers often avoid because they feel out of their element, vulnerable, or exposed. Lucid, well-organized, and easy-to-follow, Street Smarts provides a specific set of questions—the same questions Koukl uses in his own encounters—that are embedded in sample mini-dialogues that you can use to have fruitful debates with non-believers.

Through a discussion of Biblical texts, this book presents four perspectives on the role of works at the final judgment.The final judgment is the last and final act before God dwells with his people forever. Scripture makes that clear, but what function do our actions play in the final assessment of our souls--especially those of professing Christians?The contributors each state their case for one of four prominent views on the effect of works at the end of time: Robert N. Wilkin: Works will determine rewards but not salvation Thomas R. Schreiner: Works will provide evidence that one actually has been saved James D. G. Dunn: Works will provide the criterion by which Christ will determine eternal destiny of his people Michael P. Barber: Works will merit eternal lifeThis book allows each contributor to not only present the case for his view, but also to critique and respond to the critiques of the other contributors, allowing you to compare their beliefs in an open forum setting to see where they overlap and where they differ.The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.

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.

2019 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year: Apologetics • 2018 The Gospel Coalition Book Award: Evangelism & ApologeticsApologetics at the Cross describes a much-needed approach to defending Christianity that uses Jesus as a model and the letter of 1 Peter as a guiding text.This is a guidebook for how to defend Christianity with Christ-like gentleness and respect toward those who persecute the faith, making you a stronger witness to the good news of the gospel than many other apologetics books that focus on crafting unbreachable arguments.Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen first provide an introduction to the rich field of apologetics and Christian witness, acquainting students and lay learners with the rich history, biblical foundation, and ongoing relevance of apologetics. Unique in its approach, Apologetics at the Cross: Presents the biblical and historical foundations for apologetics. Explores various contemporary methods for approaching apologetics. Gives practical guidance in "how to" chapters that feature many real-life illustrations.But their approach pays special attention to the attitude and posture of the apologist, outlining instructions for the Christian community centered on reasoned answers, a humble spirit, and joy; rather than anger, arrogance, and aggression. Chatraw and Allen equip Christians to engage skeptics with the heart as well as the mind.Conversational in tone and balanced in approach, Apologetics at the Cross provides a readable introduction to the field of apologetics. You'll be informed and equipped for engaging a wide range of contemporary challenges with the best in Christian thought.