Download or read book Seeking What Is Right written by Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies Iain Provan and published by . This book was released on 2020-11 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of the good life--what it looks like for people and societies to be well ordered and flourishing--has universal significance, but its proposed solutions are just as far reaching. At the core of this concern is the nature of the good itself: what is right? We must attend to this ethical dilemma before we can begin to envision a life lived to the fullest. With Seeking What Is Right, Iain Provan invites us to consider how Scripture--the Old Testament in particular--can aid us in this quest. In rooting the definition of the good in God's special revelation, Provan moves beyond the constraints of family, tribe, culture, state, or nature. When we read ourselves into the story of Scripture, we learn a formative ethic that speaks directly to our humanity. Provan delves into Western Christian history to demonstrate the various ways this has been done: how our forebears identified with the narrative of God's people, Israel, and how they applied the Old Testament to their particular times and concerns. This serves as a foundation upon which modern Christians can assess their decisions as people who read the whole biblical story from the beginning in our time. Provan challenges us to grapple with ethical issues dominating our contemporary culture as a people in exile, a people formed by disciplines steeped in the patterns and teachings of Scripture. To come alongside ancient Israel in its own experiences of exile, to listen with Israel to the utterances of a holy God, is to approach a true picture of the good life that illuminates all facets of human existence. Provan helps us understand how we should and should not read Scripture in arriving at these conclusions, clarifying for the faithful Christian what the limits of the search for what is right look like. --Carol M. Kaminski, Professor of Old Testament, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Download or read book The Good Life in the Old Testament written by R. Norman Whybray and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2002-09-18 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can we know how the ancient Israelites lived 'the good life'? In his last work, Norman Whybray brings his considerable learning to this question in a social and theological study of the Hebrew Bible. He discovers that far from giving a faint or undifferentiated picture of 'the good life', the books of the Old Testament each yield a distinct impression of what this life entails, underpinned by divine guidance and protection. Comprehensive in scope, and marked by Professor Whybray's lucid thought and style, this book is a fitting addition to the work of an illustrious scholar. It will richly reward any reader interested in the social world as depicted in the Bible, and in God's relationship with it.

Download or read book Giving Is the Good Life written by Randy Alcorn and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ECPA 2020 Christian Book Award Finalist! Wouldn’t it be great if we could do what pleases God, helps others, and is best for us—at the same time? Can we live the good life without being selfish? In Giving Is the Good Life, bestselling author Randy Alcorn teaches life-changing biblical principles of generosity and tells stories of people who have put those radical principles into practice. Each story is a practical application that can help stimulate your imagination and expand your dreams of serving Jesus in fresh ways. These real-life models give you not just words to remember but footprints to follow. Giving Is the Good Life reveals a grander view of God and generosity—one that stretches far beyond our imagination and teaches us what the good life is really all about.

Download or read book The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness written by Brent A. Strawn and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars of the social sciences have devoted more and more attention of late to the concept of human happiness, mainly from sociological and psychological perspectives. This volume, which includes essays from scholars of the New Testament, the Old Testament, systematic theology, practical theology, and counseling psychology, poses a new and exciting question: what is happiness according to the Bible? Informed by developments in positive psychology, The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness explores representations of happiness throughout the Bible and demonstrates the ways in which these representations affect both religious and secular understandings of happiness. In addition to the twelve essays, the book contains a framing introduction and epilogue, as well as an appendix of all the terms used in reference to happiness in the Bible. The resulting volume, the first of its kind, is a highly useful and remarkably comprehensive resource for the study of happiness in the Bible and beyond.

Download or read book Paul and the Good Life written by Associate Professor of Humanities and Theology Julien C H Smith and published by . This book was released on 2020-11 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Salvation and human flourishing--a life marked by fulfillment and well-being--have often been divorced in the thinking and practice of the church. For the apostle Paul, however, the two were inseparable in the vision for the good life. Drawing on the revolutionary teachings and kingdom proclamation of Jesus, Paul and the early church issued a challenge to the ancient world's dominant narratives of flourishing. Paul's conviction of Jesus' universal Lordship emboldened him to imagine not just another world, but this world as it might be when transformed. With Paul and the Good Life, Julien Smith introduces us afresh to Paul's vision for the life of human flourishing under the reign of Jesus. By placing Paul's letters in conversation with both ancient virtue ethics and kingship discourse, Smith outlines the Apostle's christologically shaped understanding of the good life. Numerous Hellenistic philosophical traditions situated the individual cultivation of virtue within the larger telos of the flourishing polis. Against this backdrop, Paul regards the church as a heavenly commonwealth whose citizens are being transformed into the character of its king, Jesus. Within this vision, salvation entails both deliverance from the deforming power of sin and the re-forming of the person and the church through embodied allegiance to Jesus. Citizenship within this commonwealth calls for a countercultural set of virtues, ones that foster unity amidst diversity and the care of creation. Smith concludes by enlisting the help of present-day interlocutors to draw out the implications of Paul's argument for our own context. The resulting conversation aims to place Paul in engagement with missional hermeneutics, spiritual disciplines, liturgical formation, and agrarianism. Ultimately, Paul and the Good Life invites us to imagine how citizens of this heavenly commonwealth might live in the in-between time, in which Jesus's reign has been inaugurated but not consummated.

Download or read book The Year of Living Happy written by Alli Worthington and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a daily step toward joy and contentment and ditch stress, overwhelming thoughts, and boredom with encouraging and biblical messages from Alli Worthington. You do your best to live life well—you work hard to be present in the moment, take care of the people in your life, knock it out of the park at work and home. And yet, somehow, you still have days (perhaps more than you'd like to admit) where you're simultaneously stressed and bored, and you wonder if you even know how to be happy. Is happiness a worthy goal? Does happiness matter to God, or does He only care about holier things? Alli Worthington gets it. As a wife, mother of five boys, author, speaker, and entrepreneur, she knows a thing or two about being busy, stressed, and happy in the midst of a crazy world! Over the years, she's seen how happiness gets a bad rap in Christian circles, and now she is standing up to shout the good news from the roof (or the internet, as the case may be): You are allowed to be happy! Yes, you! You can be happy right now! Join Alli for The Year of Living Happy: Finding Contentment and Connection in a Crazy World, and find the roots of your happiest life yet. Each of the 100 short and inspirational entries includes a thoughtful message from Alli, based on God’s Word practical ways to make your life happier day by day a journaling section This gorgeous book is an empowering gift for yourself or any woman you love. It can be used as a daily devotional or as a guided journal. Be part of this exciting message: Happiness and holiness can coexist for a beautiful life. Don’t miss the great big adventure God has for you. Let this be The Year of Living Happy!

Download or read book Living Life Backward written by David Gibson and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if it is death that teaches us how to truly live? Keeping the end in mind shapes how we live our lives in the here and now. Living life backward means taking the one thing in our future that is certain—death—and letting that inform our journey before we get there. Looking to the book of Ecclesiastes for wisdom, Living Life Backward was written to shake up our expectations and priorities for what it means to live "the good life." Considering the reality of death helps us pay attention to our limitations as human beings and receive life as a wondrous gift from God—freeing us to live wisely, generously, and faithfully for God's glory and the good of his world.

Download or read book Good Book written by David Plotz and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-02-20 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Hilarious. . . . It’s Cliff Notes for Scripture—screenplay by Plotz, story by God. . . . In the end, though, the book is made by the spirit of the writer.” — The New York Times Book Review “Like the Bible itself, Good Book contains multitudes—it is by turns thought-provoking, funny, enlightening and moving.” — A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically “Plotz is a genius writer.” — Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World A whip-smart, laugh-out-loud tour through the most important book in the world, a book most people have never read: the Bible.

Download or read book Holy Bible NIV written by Various Authors, and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 6793 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

Download or read book Ancient Wisdom for the Good Life written by Ralph Hawkins and published by Hendrickson Publishers. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Ancient Wisdom for the Good Life, Ralph K. Hawkins turns our attention to the Bible’s Wisdom Literature (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs) and how it can correct us, train us in righteousness, and ultimately empower us for successful living. These are some of the most inspired writings on the Good Life the world has ever known, in which ancient Israel’s sages wrote about how to live stable, harmonious, productive, and joyous lives. Together, they interlock to cover the entire field of wisdom, providing contemporary readers with the tools to develop a unified world view with God at the center. Ancient Wisdom for the Good Life culls out the guidance of ancient Israel’s sages for a modern society that has been cut adrift from its moorings. Full of wisdom and practically written, this book could be used as a supplementary text in an undergraduate or seminary course in the Wisdom Literature, and it would certainly be useful for pastors in their sermon preparation or even just general reading. Table of Contents: Winning and the Wisdom Literature A Mindset of Integrity A Mindset of Community A Mindset of Communication A Mindset of Cause-and-Effect A Mindset of Goal-Setting A Mindset of Work A Mindset of Health A Mindset of Abundance A Mindset of Joy About the Author Ralph K. Hawkins (PhD, Andrews University) is professor of religion and director of the Program in Religion at Averett University. He is co-director of the Jordan Valley Excavation Project (JVEP) and the author of several books, including The Iron Age I Structure on Mt. Ebal: Excavation and Interpretation (Eisenbrauns), How Israel became a People (Abingdon Press), and Discovering Exodus: Content, Interpretation, Reception (SPCK/Eerdmans). An Anglican priest, Hawkins has also written pastoral books, including While I Was Praying: Finding Insights about God in Old Testament Prayers (Smyth & Helwys), and Leadership Lessons: Avoiding the Pitfalls of King Saul (Thomas Nelson).

Download or read book Unlocking the Bible written by David Pawson and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2012-06-14 with total page 1038 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Pawson presents a unique overview of both the Old and New Testaments.

Download or read book The Good Life written by Burton F. Porter and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2001 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Good Life contains an exposition and critique of the various ideals in living that have been advocated by major philosophers and schools of thought. In addition, the ethical problems of egoism, determinism, and relativism are explained and evaluated in both their classic Greek form and in the deconstruction of post-modernism. The ideals that are discussed include hedonism as described by the Cyrenaics and Epicureans, and the Utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill; the naturalistic ethic of the Stoics, the Transcendentalists, the evolutionists, and the back-to-nature movement; the biblical ethic of Judaism and Christianity as well as the Eastern religions of Confucianism and Buddhism; and the Kantian ideal of duty and virtue ethics, including feminist theory. To illuminate various conceptions of the good life, multiple examples are drawn from contemporary life, including the abortion issue, racism, capital punishment, and multiculturalism.

Download or read book No More Faking Fine written by Esther Fleece Allen and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2017-01-10 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scripture reveals a God who meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be. No More Faking Fine is your invitation to get honest with God through the life-giving language of lament. If you've ever been given empty clichés during challenging times, you know how painful it is to be misunderstood by well-meaning people. When life hurts, we often feel pressure--from others and ourselves--to keep it together, suck it up, or pray it away. But Scripture reveals a God who lovingly invites us to give honest voice to our emotions when life hits hard. For most of her life, Esther Fleece Allen believed she could bypass the painful emotions of her broken past by shutting them down altogether. She was known as an achiever and an overcomer on the fast track to success. But in silencing her pain, she robbed herself of the opportunity to be healed. Maybe you've done the same. Esther's journey into healing began when she discovered that God has given us a real-world way to deal with raw emotions and an alternative to the coping mechanisms that end up causing more pain. It's called lament--the gut-level, honest prayer that God never ignores, never silences, and never wastes. No More Faking Fine is your permission to lament, taking you on a journey down the unexpected pathway to true intimacy with God. Drawing from careful biblical study and hard-won insight, Esther reveals how to use God's own language to come closer to him as he leads us through our pain to the light on the other side, teaching you that: We are robbing ourselves of a divine mystery and a divine intimacy when we pretend to have it all together God does not expect us to be perfect; instead, he meets us where we are There is hope beyond your heartache, disappointment, and grief Like Esther, you'll soon find that when one person stops faking fine, it gives everyone else permission to do the same.

Download or read book Old Testament Theology written by John Goldingay and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2006-10-26 with total page 892 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This, the second of three volumes in John Goldingay's Old Testament Theology, examines the theology of the Old Testament under the major rubrics of God, Israel, The Nightmare (judgment), The Vision (hope), The World, The Nations and Humanity.

Download or read book Jesus the Great Philosopher written by Jonathan T. Pennington and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of us tend to live as though Jesus represents the "spiritual part" of our lives. We don't clearly see how he relates to the rest of our experiences, desires, and habits. How can Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity become more than a compartmentalized part of our lives? Highly regarded New Testament scholar and popular teacher Jonathan Pennington argues that we need to recover the lost biblical image of Jesus as the one true philosopher who teaches us how to experience the fullness of our humanity in the kingdom of God. Jesus teaches us what is good, right, and beautiful and offers answers to life's big questions: what it means to be human, how to be happy, how to order our emotions, and how we should conduct our relationships. This book brings Jesus and Christianity into dialogue with the ancient philosophers who asked the same big questions about finding meaningful happiness. It helps us rediscover biblical Christianity as a whole-life philosophy, one that addresses our greatest human questions and helps us live meaningful and flourishing lives.

Download or read book Biblical Theology of Life in the Old Testament written by Albert J. Coetsee and published by AOSIS. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life is a primary theme in Scripture, expressed in the rich diversity of the various books, corpora and genres of Scripture. Much has been published on what Scripture teaches about life and death. To date, however, no comprehensive biblical theology in which the concept of life is traced throughout the different books and corpora of the Old and New Testament has been published. It is this lacuna that this book aims to fill, assuming that such an approach can provide a valuable contribution to the theological discourse on life and related concepts. The primary aim of this book is to give an indication of the different nuances of the concept of life in the various books and corpora of the Old and New Testament by providing the reader with a book-by-book overview of the concept of life in Scripture. The secondary aim is to give an indication of the overall use and function of the concept of life in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Scripture as a whole. The latter is provided by using the findings of the book-by-book overview of the concept of life in Scripture to draw the lines together.

Download or read book Truth for the Good Life in the Postmodern World written by Robert P. Lightner and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2005-05-24 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Is Truth? Pilate asked this monumental question a long time ago, but it didn't start or end with him. It has been the penetrating question in the thinking of thousands almost from day one. It reverberates in cloisters and classrooms alike. It mystifies youth and eludes the aged. It tease the philosopher and haunts the skeptic. Fortunately, there is an answer. Dr. Robert P. Lightner of Dallas Theological Seminary points to the truth and shows how it opens the door to life at its best - The Good Life.