Download or read book Cultivating Christlikeness written by Dr. Paul W. Chilcote and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you ready to reclaim our inheritance as United Methodist Wesleyans? Our communities and the world are crying out for empathy, authenticity, and integrity. This book helps us choose ways of living that are grace-filled and redeeming. Cultivating Christlikeness is about the bold adventure of United Methodists celebrating and living into a grand vision that includes everyone in God’s extravagant embrace. Jesus invites us to partner in the work of transformation, new birth, and resurrection in every aspect of our lives. Together we can step into a future showered by God’s multiplying love. Paul Chilcote mines his decades of study, prayer, and devotion to Christian practices to share his vision for how we partner with God to make the world more loving and just. In Cultivating Christlikeness, he weaves the threads of insight and appreciation with special attention to Wesleyan ways of loving God and neighbor that can change us and change the world. With his gentle direction, we discover with new appreciation how 18th-century John and Charles Wesley illumine our 21st-century quest to befriend Jesus, who frees us to live into and by the grace of God. Chilcote’s book is a practical guide. He guides us with a mentor’s insightful nudge as we explore essential Wesleyan teachings about God and the beloved community. He helps us know how to share these understandings with our families and neighbors, and more importantly, he points us to ways to live out our commitments with purpose, courage, and joy. The framework and flow of Cultivating Christlikeness make it easily adaptable for group discussion and individual use. It includes a plan for a two-day retreat for those eager to join in a more intensive experience of mutual engagement to renew their spirits and discover fresh ways to grow in love and grace. The book is a companion to Chilcote’s, Multiplying Love (Abingdon Press), which casts the theological vision that animates this practical spiritual guide. And it is an updated and expanded revision of an earlier work entitled, Wesley Speaks on Christian Vocation, originally published by Discipleship Ministries, then reissued by Wipf & Stock.
Download or read book Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit written by Christopher J.H. Wright and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2017-01-21 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should Christians live? Some Christians stress the importance of keeping all the rules, while others see the Christian faith as setting us free from religious burdens. Inviting us to live a life in step with the Spirit, Christopher Wright teaches us how to feed on the Word of God, grow in Christlikeness, and live a fruitful life.
Download or read book Servants for His Glory written by Miguel Núñez and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being is greater than doing. We all come into the world with a certain emptiness in our lives—an emptiness that leads to a search for meaning. And the world tells us that search for meaning can be solved by doing. Unfortunately, an overemphasis on doing has led many people away from cultivating an interior life that allows them to sustain their exterior life. This explains the many failures we continuously see in day-to-day life. When a person’s inner life—who he or she is—is not prepared, that person's character does not have the maturity or the strength to sustain them in the long run. In this book, Miguel Núñez points us to Scripture and experience to show us how being is more important than doing. He teaches us how to cultivate the foundations of our lives, so that we can be what we need to be, in order to do what we need to do.
Download or read book Cultivating Christlikeness written by Paul W Chilcote and published by . This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you ready to reclaim our inheritance as United Methodist Wesleyans? Our communities and the world are crying out for empathy, authenticity, and integrity. This book helps us choose ways of living that are grace-filled and redeeming. Cultivating Christlikeness is about the bold adventure of United Methodists celebrating and living into a grand vision that includes everyone in God's extravagant embrace. Jesus invites us to partner in the work of transformation, new birth, and resurrection in every aspect of our lives. Together, we can step into a future showered by God's multiplying love. Paul Chilcote mines his decades of study, prayer, and devotion to Christian practices to share his vision for how we partner with God to make the world more loving and just. In Cultivating Christlikeness, he weaves the threads of insight and appreciation with special attention to Wesleyan ways of loving God and neighbor that can change us and change the world. With his gentle direction, we discover with new appreciation how 18th-century John and Charles Wesley illumine our 21st-century quest to befriend Jesus, who frees us to live into and by the grace of God. Chilcote's book is a practical guide, leading us through selected excerpts from the Wesleys, adding fresh insights and probing questions as we explore essential teachings about God and the beloved community. He helps us know how to share these understandings with our families and neighbors, and more importantly, he points us to ways to live out our commitments with purpose, courage, and joy. The framework and flow of Cultivating Christlikeness make it easily adaptable for group discussion and individual use. It includes a plan for a two-day retreat for those eager to join in a more intensive experience of mutual engagement to renew their spirits and discover fresh ways to grow in love and grace. The book is a companion to Chilcote's Multiplying Love (Abingdon Press, 2023) that casts the theological vision that animates this practical spiritual guide. And it is an updated and expanded revision of an earlier work entitled Wesley Speaks on Christian Vocation, originally published by Discipleship Resources then reissued by Wipf & Stock.
Download or read book Life on the Vine written by Philip D. Kenneson and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 1999-10-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philip Kenneson digs into the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23, combining rich, theologically grounded reflection on Christian life and practice with analysis of contemporary culture. He explores what each fruit means in its biblical context, then investigates how key traits of late modern Western culture inhibit the development and ripening of each fruit.
Download or read book Becoming Like Jesus written by Christopher J. H. Wright and published by Langham Publishing. This book was released on 2016-05-14 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last sermon he ever preached, John Stott echoed the Apostle Paul when he said that God’s greatest desire and plan for us is to become like his Son, Jesus Christ. BUT HOW? Stott prayed daily that God would bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his own life; a prayer clearly answered and evident in his Christlikeness. Chris Wright, a close friend of John Stott, reflects on all nine qualities that the Apostle Paul includes in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. He shows how they are rooted in the character of God, first revealed in the Old Testament, and modelled and taught by Jesus. With applications to encourage biblical growth with depth, and questions at the end of each chapter, this is an ideal resource for preachers, study groups and personal reflection. Many people rightly stress the importance of the gifts, power and ministries of the Holy Spirit, but easily neglect Paul’s command to live and walk by the Spirit and cultivate the fruit that only he can bear in our lives. Paying close attention to the beautiful and robust qualities that Paul includes in the fruit, and seeking daily to cultivate them with God’s help, is surely one way we can become more and more like Jesus.
Download or read book A Church Called Tov written by Scot McKnight and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Scot and Laura do an amazing job of teaching us what a good church looks like.” —Beth Moore What is the way forward for the church? Tragically, in recent years, Christians have gotten used to revelations of abuses of many kinds in our most respected churches—from Willow Creek to Harvest, from Southern Baptist pastors to Sovereign Grace churches. Respected author and theologian Scot McKnight and former Willow Creek member Laura Barringer wrote this book to paint a pathway forward for the church. We need a better way. The sad truth is that churches of all shapes and sizes are susceptible to abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse. Abuses occur most frequently when Christians neglect to create a culture that resists abuse and promotes healing, safety, and spiritual growth. How do we keep these devastating events from repeating themselves? We need a map to get us from where we are today to where we ought to be as the body of Christ. That map is in a mysterious and beautiful little Hebrew word in Scripture that we translate “good,” the word tov. In this book, McKnight and Barringer explore the concept of tov—unpacking its richness and how it can help Christians and churches rise up to fulfill their true calling as imitators of Jesus.
Download or read book Stories From The Glory written by Kevin Zadai and published by Destiny Image Publishers. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You are meant to live as a holy carrier of divine glory! There are people who walk in a dimension of Holy Spirit power and presence so strongly, that the very atmospheres around them are filled with Heavens glory. These men and women are living examples of what Christ offers to those who follow him. One such person was the late Ruth Ward Heflin, often called the gold dust preacher. Though Heflin has passed on, her assistant, Sister Ruth Carneal, remains with us, walking in the supernatural realm and seeking to help you unveil the mysteries of Gods glory in your life! Ruth Carneal has been a family friend of bestselling author and revelatory teacher, Kevin Zadai, for many years. In this groundbreaking book, Kevin and Ruth join together to share awe-inspiring testimonies and powerful teaching on how to live in Gods glory realm. You will learn: To open the glory realm through 8 supernatural access points: including altars, atmosphere, prayer, and others. To recognize the unique movements of Gods glory and how to partner with the supernatural. To live saturated in Gods glory through 5 essential steps. To be prepared for the End Time Glory Prophecies by living with Gods glory shaping your view of life and eternity. Its in Gods glory that we are transformed, and its through His glory we transform the world! Stories From The Glory is your handbook for operating in the glory realm, allowing Gods miraculous power to flow through your life in unprecedented, powerful ways!
Download or read book Under the Unpredictable Plant written by Eugene Peterson and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1994-06-27 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like Eugene Peterson's other books on pastoring, Under the Unpredictable Plant is full of stimulating insights, candid observations, and biblically grounded prescriptions. Yet this book emanates with a special poignancy out of Peterson's own crisis experience as a pastor. Peterson tells about the "abyss," the "gaping crevasse," the "chasm" that he experienced, early in his ministry, between his Christian faith and his pastoral vocation. He was astonished and dismayed to find that his personal spirituality, his piety, was inadequate for his vocation -- and he argues that the same is true of pastors in general. In the book of Jonah -- a parable with a prayer at its center -- Peterson finds a subversive, captivating story that can help pastors recover their "vocational holiness." Using the Jonah story as a narrative structure, Peterson probes the spiritual dimensions of the pastoral calling and seeks to reclaim the ground taken over by those who are trying to enlist pastors in religious careers.
Download or read book A Time to Mourn a Time to Dance written by Gary A. Anderson and published by Penn State University Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropologists have long known that different cultures give expression to their symbol systems through external mediums such as food and clothing, but they have not recognized as readily that cultures also mold emotional life to fit particular patterns of meaning. This prejudice against the role of behaviors in shaping the emotional and cognitive life is especially strong in the study of religion. Gary Anderson's study reveals that, in the Israelite culture (and later, the Jewish culture), mourning and joy as emotional experiences have visible behavioral components for both the individual and the community at large. The best evidence of this can be found in rabbinical texts that prescribe behaviors appropriate to joy and determine when this ritual state supersedes that of mourning. For example, on religious feast days, mourning is forbidden and joy is prescribed. Mourning cannot resume until after the festival. The terms "mourning" and "joy" so employed do not refer to simple emotional states, but rather constitute a discrete set of ritual behaviors. In fact, the types of discrete behaviors that constitute joy (eating, drinking, festal song, anointing with oil, festive attire, sexual relations) all have exact anti-types in the ritual of mourning (fasting, dirges, putting ashes on the head, rending one's garments or putting on sackcloth, sexual continence). Anderson shows that it is not only the rabbinical texts that use the terms "mourning" and "joy" in this way; rabbinic tradition is simply heir to a much older tradition, as witnessed in biblical and other ancient Near Eastern narratives such as the Gilgamesh Epic.
Download or read book Cultivating Christlikeness in and Through Suffering written by Katherine McLennan Kimball and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Pain and suffering are inevitable in this world. However, in a time where we have relatively easy and inexpensive access to over-the counter-painkillers, anesthesia, and opioids, it has become harder for us to know how to handle suffering when it cannot be medicated, numbed, or distracted away. The reality of suffering is particularly challenging for Christians who believe that suffering and death were defeated once and for all by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and who are yet called to live faithfully in the midst of suffering until the eschaton. In this thesis I offer St. Bonaventure's imaginative meditations on the passion (The Tree of Life and The Mystical Vine) as resources for the contemporary church. I argue that these texts are oriented towards transformation into the likeness of Christ. As the readers focus their attention on the suffering, death, and resurrection of the god-man Jesus Christ and grow in love for him, they become - by grace- sharers in what they see. More important than offering a subjective, internal experience of being joined to Christ, these texts offer a way to become real, embodied participants in his life, death and resurrection. This participation necessarily involves becoming like Christ in his suffering; suffering is part of the process of appropriating the victory over evil that Christ (the New Adam) accomplished on our behalf. While Bonaventure's invitation to suffer with Christ is uncomfortable, it is by no means masochistic: suffering is not valuable for its own sake, but because of its role in the process of becoming Christlike, that is, fit for the coming kingdom where suffering will have no place. Neither is Bonaventure's invitation hopeless: the same Christ who suffered and died was resurrected and glorified; those who join in the first will share with him the second. By reframing human suffering in the light of the Christian story, these texts train us to suffer faithfully in this world as we await the world that is to come." --Abstract.
Download or read book Habits of Grace written by David Mathis and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2016-02-12 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Christian life is built on three seemingly unremarkable practices: reading the Bible, prayer, and fellowship with other believers. However, according to David Mathis, such “habits of grace” are the God-designed channels through which his glorious grace flows—making them life-giving practices for all Christians. Whether it’s hearing God’s voice (the Word), having his ear (prayer), or participating in his body (fellowship), such spiritual rhythms of the Christian life have the power to awaken our souls to God’s glory and stir our hearts for lifelong service in his name. What’s more, these seemingly simple practices grant us access to a host of spiritual blessings that we can only begin to imagine this side of eternity—and the incredible joy that such blessings bring to God’s children today.
Download or read book A Communion of Love written by Jordan Stone and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few figures in church history that died before the age of thirty have left such a lasting legacy as Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813–43). His name is virtually synonymous with the pursuit of personal holiness. M’Cheyne was a living testimony to Scripture’s command to “let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim 4:12). His ardent praying, preaching, and progress in godliness continue to captivate countless Christians around the world. The model of piety found in M’Cheyne’s life and ministry provides needed encouragement for properly understanding biblical spirituality. What was the main fuel of his spirituality? Love for Jesus Christ. In A Communion of Love, Jordan Stone argues that rightly understanding M’Cheyne’s spirituality must begin with the fundamental issue of why he pursued the means of grace as he did, before reckoning with how he used those means. Such a reorientation reveals that loving communion with Christ was the all-consuming, driving force for M’Cheyne’s vision of the Christian life.
Download or read book Grounded in the Faith written by Ken Erisman and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The greatest challenge for the twenty-first-century church is the lack of catechesis--training in biblical and doctrinal knowledge. As J. I. Packer states, "where wise catechesis has flourished the church has flourished, and where it has been neglected the church has floundered." It is increasingly apparent that we are raising up generations of Christians who often have little idea what they should believe and why they should believe it. Grounded in the Faith takes up that challenge with twenty-four low-prep, in-depth sessions that will ground believers in the basics of their faith. This new innovative guide is a transformational disciple-making tool that leaders can immediately use to activate discipleship in the church. It presents individuals, small groups, and Sunday school classes with a cohesive understanding of historic, sound, biblical theology that serves as a catalyst for deeper intimacy with Christ. It is a user-friendly guide to growth in the Christian faith that covers important topics such as justification, overcoming temptation, sanctification, evidence for the inspiration of the Bible, the value of prayer, the guidance of God, the Trinity, the uniqueness of Christ, and the attributes of God.
Download or read book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life written by Donald S. Whitney (Professor) and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2014 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawn from a rich heritage, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life will guide you through a carefully selected array of disciplines. By illustrating why the disciplines are important, showing how each one will help you grow in godliness, and offering practical suggestions for cultivating them, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life will provide you with a refreshing opportunity to become more like Christ and grow in character and maturity. Now updated and revised to equip a new generation of readers, this anniversary edition features in-depth discussions on each of the key disciplines.
Download or read book Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered written by James C. Wilhoit and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most books on spiritual formation focus on the individual. But spiritual formation is at the heart of the church's whole purpose for existence. It must be a central task for the church to carry out Christ's mission in the world. This book offers an introduction to spiritual formation set squarely in the local church. The first edition has been well received and widely used as a textbook. The second edition has been updated throughout, incorporates findings from positive psychology, and reflects an Augustinian formation perspective. Foreword by Dallas Willard.
Download or read book A Guide to Christian Spiritual Formation written by Evan B. Howard and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2018-01-16 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evan Howard, a noted authority on Christian spirituality, provides a holistic, accessible, and informed introduction to Christian spiritual formation written from a broadly evangelical perspective. Howard joins Scripture with themes of community, spirit, formation, and mission in a single integrative guide. The book includes helpful features such as figures, charts, chapter overviews, and formation-focused questions. Its evangelical-ecumenical and global perspectives will appeal to a wide audience. Resources for professors and students are available through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources.
