Download or read book Jesus Circles written by Peter R. Lawson and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2004-07-13 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Jesus Circles....... ..........Peter Lawson says it is possible to imagine and create a new social order in which the abundance of the earth is justly shared and the domination system with its inherent reliance on violence is no longer sanctioned . The new social order is based on the movement Jesus started among marginalized peasants in Galilee; a movement that undermined the Roman/ Judean system of domination and violence. His program incarnated an alternative community in which oppressed common folk experienced healing, wholeness and abundance even in the midst of a system of extreme violence. Many of us have moved away from the notions of God that prevailed in the ancient world. Many of us have found that even those concepts of God that survived the enlightenment no longer fit the demands of 21st century thought and culture. We long for a progressive religious expression that recognizes many religious paths to the life of abundance we all desire and that concepts of spirituality are culturally conditioned. Those of us who come out of a Christian heritage find we can no longer say the creeds in a meaningful way. We cant accept or ascribe to beliefs about a blood sacrifice that appeases an angry God. We are offended by the human violence and the violence of God that pervades the Bible. We no longer take the Holy Scriptures as definitive historical documents and rightly treat them as fictionalized accounts of (sometime barely discernible) events. Yet out of what we reject, the powerful figure of a Galilean sage has emerged and seized our imaginations. Many of us find ourselves liberated by the recent Third Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Biblical scholarship which follows the same strategies.. Through sophisticated developments in archeology and cultural anthropology in the last half of the 20th century, we know more about the politics, economics and cultural life of the Mediterranean basin in the 1st century CE than its inhabitants could know. We now have, for example, spectacular new awareness of the sociological structure of agrarian societies It appears that most of the literature of the New Testament is the interpretive works of upper class men (sic) trying to fit the radical Jesus into their Greco-Roman cultural frame. Listen to these words In the half-century before the creation of the first narrative gospel - the Gospel of Mark ... (Jesus) a visionary sage was transformed from an iconoclast to an icon and his radical vision of Gods domain dissipated in debates about divinity. With all of this scholarship we can now look behind the editorial embellishments of early Christian literature. We can peer deeply into Jesus message and mission in the context of his own social reality. We know, better than ever, how his radical stance so mightily offended the ruling powers of Galilee and Judea that they sought his assassination. We know how his healing and teaching enthused and energized marginalized Jewish peasants in Galilee. If we are to have any worthwhile life in our own world, dominated as it is by violence, we must begin to explore ways to embody today the nonviolent message and program of Jesus. Our first task is to get as many of the interpretive notions of those upper class literate Gospel writers out of the way so we can see Jesus as he himself spoke and acted, knowing our vision will still be a bit blurry. Because the differences between the first-century culture of the Mediterranean world and ours of the twenty-first century are radical, our second task is to look at and listen to the specific things Jesus said and did in the context of his culture. That will enable us to unpack the impact

Download or read book Three Circles Teen Bible Study Book written by Jimmy Scroggins and published by Lifeway Church Resources. This book was released on 2020-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever struggled to share your faith with someone? Have you felt ill-equipped to talk about Jesus as the answer to our problems, issues, and concerns? The experience is more common than you think. For all sorts of reasons, whether good or bad, we struggle to find the right words in the right moment. We don't quite know how to turn the conversation to the gospel and the hope we have because of Jesus. The realities of God's design, brokenness, and the gospel give us a framework to talk about our faith with others. We can have spiritual conversations without the pressure of knowing it all or getting it all right. This framework allows us to focus on the choices we all have to make to repent and believe the gospel so we can recover and pursue God's design for our lives. This Bible Study Will Help You... Trace the greater story of redemption found in Scripture. Understand important biblical concepts like God's design, sin, brokenness, repentance, belief, and the gospel. Consider ways to use the 3 Circles to talk about your faith with others. Also Available, 3 Circles Leader Kit includes resources for leading a six-session group study: one Bible study book, one DVD, digital downloads, and extra leader resources. Digital Resources, eBook and digital leader kit available at LifeWay.com/3circles Book jacket.

Download or read book Turning Everyday Conversations Into Gospel Conversations written by Jimmy Scroggins and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Authors Jimmy Scroggins and Steve Wright outline a reproducible method of sharing the gospel that has been tested in the real world. Turning Everyday Conversations Into Gospel Conversations is a simple strategy to train new and seasoned believers to join God in His reconciliation work. Turning Everyday Conversations Into Gospel Conversations equips believers to use the innovative "3 Circles," a user-friendly evangelistic tool for a new generation. Scroggins and Wright train readers to incorporate the biblical metanarrative, as well as our own personal stories, to tell the good news that Jesus has made a way out of the broken places we find ourselves.

Download or read book Concentric Circles of Concern written by Carolyn T. Ritzman and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 1999-09-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this stylish re-issue of W. Oscar Thompson's classic book on evangelism, Thompson shows Christians how to spread the love and good news of Christ by building and repairing personal relationships. Too often the only kind of evangelism encouraged is the preaching to strangers, anonymous crowds, and foreign countries. This book hits readers where they live, teaching them that the most effective way to witness is through a simple plan of meeting the needs of close family first, then friends, and then all others.Published post-humously, this book is a living testament of the brilliance of Oscar Thompson and his innovative method. It will be a perfect guide to lifestyle evangelism for church study groups, conferences, and the classroom.

Download or read book How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God written by Larry W. Hurtado and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2005-11-02 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Larry Hurtado investigates the intense devotion to Jesus that emerged with surprising speed after his death. Reverence for Jesus among early Christians, notes Hurtado, included both grand claims about Jesus' significance and a pattern of devotional practices that effectively treated him as divine. This book argues that whatever one makes of such devotion to Jesus, the subject deserves serious historical consideration. Mapping out the lively current debate about Jesus, Hurtado explains the evidence, issues, and positions at stake. He goes on to treat the opposition to -- and severe costs of -- worshiping Jesus, the history of incorporating such devotion into Jewish monotheism, and the role of religious experience in Christianity's development out of Judaism. The follow-up to Hurtado's award-winningLord Jesus Christ (2003), this book provides compelling answers to queries about the development of the church's belief in the divinity of Jesus.

Download or read book Jesus and John Wayne How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation written by Kristin Kobes Du Mez and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism—or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.

Download or read book Life on Mission written by Dustin Willis and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2014-08-26 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you had a ladder made of splinters, would you stand on it? Unfortunately, the mission practices of most churches stand on weak foundations. Life on Mission gives gospel-centered, biblical, practical foundations for how missions was meant to be: an everyone-together effort. Life on Mission is a thorough yet simple guide for everyday missionaries—electricians, lawyers, church planters, students, etc.—that equips them with truths and practices for living out the gospel within their own community. Adaptable to any context, Life on Mission functions great as both an individual and small-group study. Threaded with engaging stories and probing reflection questions, Life on Mission will help you and your community take bold steps to living life on mission.

Download or read book The Circle Maker written by Mark Batterson and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2016-12-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With over one million copies sold, New York Times bestseller The Circle Maker is a must-read for revolutionizing your prayer life. Get ready to experience new breakthroughs, knowing that bold prayers honor God and God honors bold prayers. Do you ever sense that there's far more to prayer than what you're experiencing? Are you praying over your impossible dreams and greatest fears? Do you feel like something is holding you back in your prayer life? It's time you learned from the legend of Honi the Circle Maker. When his land was drought-stricken in ancient times, Honi ha-M'agel drew a circle in the sand, stepped inside it, and wouldn't budge until God answered his petition for rain. Honi's story transformed author Mark Batterson's own experience with prayer and inspired him to document his journey to praying more powerful prayers in The Circle Maker. Sharing inspiring stories from modern-day circle makers as well as his own experiences, Mark imparts the timeless wisdom and encouragement you need to: Discern God's will for your life Uncover your heart's hidden desires Pursue God-sized dreams Connect with God in fresh ways Deepen your faith and your relationship with prayer Draw prayer circles around your family, your community, your challenges, and your dreams This updated and expanded edition of The Circle Maker also includes new insights about the ways that God answers prayer along with stories that add convincing proof to the reality that God is able to do exceedingly far greater than all we could ask or imagine. Learn for yourself that drawing prayer circles around our dreams isn't just a way that we accomplish great things for God--it's a way that God accomplishes great things in us.

Download or read book Finding God Faithful Bible Study Book written by Kelly Minter and published by Lifeway Church Resources. This book was released on 2019-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trace the path of Joseph's life in the Book of Genesis to observe how God's sovereignty reigns, even in our darkest moments. Learn to recognize when God is working during periods of waiting, trust God's plan when life doesn't make sense, and rest in the sufficiency of His presence in every circumstance. His provision is enough, His presence is constant, and His purpose is unstoppable. (8 sessions) Features: Leader helps to guide questions and discussions within small groups Personal study segments to complete between 8 weeks of group sessions Teaching videos, approximately 35 minutes per session, available for purchase or rent Benefits: Place your hope in the God who is with you. Learn to trust God's purposes when life doesn't make sense. Recognize how God is working in your waiting. Rest in the sufficiency of God's presence in every circumstance.

Download or read book The World s Student Christian Federation written by World's Student Christian Federation and published by . This book was released on 1898 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Circles of Thorns written by Justin Lewis-Anthony and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-11-13 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlike Bosch's better-known, fantastical, 'proto-surrealist' paintings, Christ Mocked is small, still and sombre, and yet, with a little effort of knowledge and interpretation, it reveals a depth of understanding of both the Passion, and of human nature, that speaks as much to the twenty-first century as it did to the sixteenth. By exploring the political, scientific, psychological and devotional world of early modern Europe, and applying those insights to our own time, the author shows how Bosch used his sophisticated artistic skills to convey a similarly sophisticated understanding of humanity. In Christ Mocked -- a painting "500 years old but passionately modern" -- Christ's Passion is so portrayed as to make us reassess the cosmic significance of Christ's death, and its profound implications for what we think it means to be human.

Download or read book A Case for the Divinity of Jesus written by Dean L. Overman and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2009-10-16 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether Jesus was really the Son of God or not is a central question for Christians—and one that has provoked heated debate since the time of Jesus' birth. Dean L. Overman examines the earliest Christian records to build a compelling case for the divinity of Jesus. Addressing questions raised by books such as Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus and Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels, Overman builds a carefully reasoned case for Jesus truly being the Son of God.

Download or read book Reading Writing and Bookish Circles in the Ancient Mediterranean written by Jonathan D.H. Norton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-06-30 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By integrating conversations across disciplines, especially focusing on classical studies and Jewish and Christian studies, this volume addresses several imbalances in scholarship on reading and textual activity in the ancient Mediterranean. Contributors intentionally place Jewish, Christian, Roman, Greek and other reading circles back into their encompassing historical context, avoiding subdivisions along modern subject lines, divisions still bearing marks of cultural and ideological interests. In their examination, contributors avoid dwelling upon traditional methodological debates over orality vs. literacy and social classifications of literacy, instead turning their attention to the social-historical: groups of people, circles and networks, strata and class, scribal culture, material culture, epigraphic and papyrological evidence, functions and types of literacy and the social relationships that all of these entail. Overall, the volume contributes to an emerging and important interdisciplinary collaboration between specialists in ancient literacy, encouraging future discussion between two currently divided fields.

Download or read book Circles and the Cross written by Loren Wilkinson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-08-21 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Circles and the Cross is an invitation to explore two mysteries. One is the miracle of the cosmos: why is there something and not nothing? The other is the miracle of consciousness: why should this collection of stardust be an I and not just an it? Our basic response to those mysteries is wonder, and from wonder have grown the three great trees of human culture: religion, art, and science. This exploration is undertaken in the light of a third mystery: the cross of Christ is the clearest picture we have of the triune Creator of both cosmos and consciousness. That self-emptying of the Creator out of love for the creation helps us understand the pleasures, paradoxes, and pains of science; it helps us understand how “evolution” can be another name for creation; it casts light on the Enlightenment and Romanticism. In particular, it illuminates the environmental movement: an ethic in search of a religion. Loren Wilkinson, drawing on fifty years of teaching and writing about our relationship to creation, invites you to join this journey into understanding how the cross of Christ sheds light on the mysteries that surround us—and gives us hope in a difficult age.

Download or read book Reports of Student Christian Movements written by and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Reports of Student Christian Movements written by World's Student Christian Federation and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Building Circles of Grace written by Catherine Bird and published by ACU Press. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Building Circles of Grace, moms and daughters will explore what it means to build and sustain Christ centered relationships that we develop beyond our relationship with God. Some of the toughest experiences we encounter as young girls (and moms, too) are a result of the people we choose as friends. How do you respond with grace to a bully? How do you cope with the loss of a friendship? Can you really make a difference by putting Jesus first when it is not the cool thing to do? Building Circles of Grace invites moms and daughters to discuss all of these questions and more.