Böcker utgivna av Resource Publications (CA)

In his book Faithonomics, K. Brad Stamm brings together the Scriptures, basic economic principles, and popular culture in an entertaining way, appealing to the informed and the uninformed about economics and Christian worldview. If you want to learn about a topic more talked about than the weather, or if you want to reflect on your spiritual life from a new perspective, Faithonomics is a book that will encourage, enrich, and bring new insight.

Travel through the back roads and country lanes of the British Isles with a pastor and his wife celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary. Journey to London and witness the special blessing experienced by Barry and Coleen Blackstone as they take their very first 'alone' vacation since starting into the pastorate. Visit the famous sites of England's fabled capital, including a night on the town with the human animals of the musical "The Lion King." Your stops will include Hampton Court, Salisbury Cathedral, the city of Bath, the chimes of Chester, Strafford-upon-Avon, Edinburgh Castle, the ancient walls of York, the colleges of Cambridge, and many more famous British sites. Ride with the honeymooners on a narrowboat ride through the canals of Wales; eat the best meal of your life at the George in Scotland; ride through the rain in the midlands of England, and tour the Britannia, once the queen of England's private ocean liner. Walk the streets of London town and ride its famous underground after a shopping spree at Harrods, the world's most famous department store. Window shop in Stamford, listen to Scottish bagpipe music under the Firth of Forth railroad bridge, buy jewelry in Jedburgh, sweaters in Scotland, and walk under the shadow of the stones at Stonehenge. Learn what it means to rekindle an old love, the simple joy of being two people alone on an island in the North Sea for ten days, and the spiritual lessons one can learn on a journey to Scotland!

As the world hurtles towards urbanization at an ever-increasing pace, there arises the need for further theological reflection on the city. Globalization, international immigration, and densification in cities are having a transformative impact on the urban landscape. Urban mission is at the forefront of many denominations, church planting networks, ministries, and mission organizations yearning for citywide transformation. How are we to think biblically and theologically about the city? View from the Urban Loft will take readers through the development of cities throughout history, act as a guide to navigating the current forces shaping urban environments, and seek to uncover a theology of the city that gives Christians a rationale and a biblical understanding of the meaning and purposes of the city and then how to live in it for the glory of God.

People Want Answers to Their Questions!Who made God? Has the Bible been corrupted? What is the unpardonable sin? How can a loving God send people to hell?Did Jesus really preach in hell?As a Bible scholar, church planter, and senior minister of a rapidly growing congregation, Steve Crane receives many questions from believers and skeptics alike. His concise, biblical answers get right to the heart of the matter. Crane not only answers your questions, but will help equip you to ""give the reason for the hope that you have"" (I Peter 3:15).Staying true to the original ""Email"" format, questions and answers have been organized into eight separate categories: Questions about God, Questions about Christ, Questions about the Bible, Questions about Salvation, Bible Questions, Bible Difficulties, Questions about End Times, and Objections to Christianity. This format allows readers to choose the issues that are most pertinent to their interests and needs.

If you sit in a pew, Sunday by Sunday, you will hear parts of Matthew's Gospel read. But you might never have read it yourself from start to finish. And if you are not a churchgoer, you might not think to read any of it. Yet it has been, and continues to be, an important part of our heritage. This book considers a group of people who meet, week by week, to try to untangle what Matthew is about. A complete text of the Gospel is included in this book and many questions are raised, the kind that you and I might ask. Some conclusions are reached; many issues remain. But no one goes away unchanged.

Out of a deep concern for our nation and its drift away from its Christian roots, Glover Shipp presents powerful proofs that it was founded on faith in God. He begins with the earliest colonial document, the Mayflower Charter, and traces the God theme throughout our history. In doing so, he draws on historical documents, monuments, songs, poems, and statements by well-known figures in our society. Unlike some other books of this kind, In God We Trust . . . or Do We? presents inaugural speeches by many of our presidents, private correspondence by leading figures in our nation, the constitutions of our fifty states, Supreme Court decisions that influence church-state relations, and references to God on our national monuments, in our national hymns, and in our poetry. Above all, Shipp points out the inconsistency between interpretations of The Establishment Clause and what really goes on in government.You will find In God We Trust . . . or Do We? a valuable resource for considering and defending the spiritual principles upon which our nation was founded.

Men have been spit up onto shore by whales and great fish since the beginning of time. This has been going on for forever; perhaps, even longer than forever. This may be true.It may also be true that men have spit whales and great fish up onto shore since the beginning of time. This has also been going on or forever; perhaps, even longer than forever. Which of these happened first, I cannot say. Who knows; who can say? Regardless, before being spit up on land both men and fish sat idly by inside the bellies of their captors, ruminating on their fate-wondering what it all meant-what it all means. Men and fish and everything alive wonder about life, and how they fit into it and it into them; as much as they are able to wonder. Some men I have met seem to wonder less than some fish I have met. Who knows; who can say?Our lives are about wondering: wondering about our lives. Each and every living thing yearns toward growth. This longing is nothing but an eternal search, an eternal wondering about everything that is. At some point we lose the beginning into the end; and what came first is dissolved into the ongoing process. Fish then man, or man then fish, no one can say which came first. All we know is that we are held captive, we ruminate, and then we are spit out into a rebirth.Our mythic journeys as men are like this. Sometimes you cannot tell which came first, the idea that you are a man and that you should do a certain thing because of that; or the doing of a certain thing and then later realizing or deciding that you did it because you are a man. Which came first the fish or the man? You cannot be sure and when you think you have become sure, things shift.

In Giving Voice to the Silent Pulpit, author Barry Blood explores the many differences that exist between Popular Christianity, (the doctrine as taught from the pulpit) and Academic Christianity, (the doctrine as taught in our colleges and seminaries). He contends these are startling differences that may shock the average Christian layperson.The author reveals how these differences have created an intellectual gap between the church and our present day worldview of reality, a gap which has contributed to the decline in Christian membership rolls worldwide. He contends that exposing these known doctrinal differences will create a more intellectually honest Christianity, and-he believes-will build a church that can be a more engaging choice for the educated populace of the twenty-first century.

Music, like romance, is the language of the soul. Music allows us to express ourselves, and in so doing makes us feel alive. Jazz music, the only art form created by Americans, reminds us that the genius of America is improvisation; a good beat, a contagious rhythm, an emotional ballad, creative improvisation, jazz has it all. Jazz is the story of extraordinary human beings, black and white, male and female, children of privilege and children of despair, who were able to do what most of us only dream of doing: create art on the spot. Their stories are told in Blue Notes.Blue Notes contains profiles of 365 jazz personalities, one for each day of the year. Each vignette tells a story, some heartwarming, others tragic, but all memorable. The daily entries also provide valuable information on jazz styles, jazz history, instruments and instrumentalists, and such related topics as jazz and religion, women in jazz, drug and alcohol abuse, and racism. These topics can be referenced through an extensive set of indexes. The book's appendix includes helpful background information, a concise overview of jazz music, and even a quiz on jazz biography.While Blue Notes is written for jazz fans in general, experts will value its comprehensive nature. So whether you are curious about jazz or simply love and appreciate music, Blue Notes will provide daily moments of discovery and help you recognize what the rest of the world already has, a music so compelling that it can be said to define the human being in the twentieth century.

Sometimes we want to walk outside of ourselves. We want to stretch our imaginations by strolling in someone else's shoes for a few minutes. Of Man and Animals is a book for looking through other people's eyes. In these twenty fictional short stories, the reader is invited to laugh, cry, ponder, fear, love, and hate with a series of different characters.These stories emphasize the interconnected essence of our lives and how each particular moment carries an array of interesting experiences. They will bring the reader into the small, yet impacting, minor moments in other people's lives, and leave you with questions to ponder such as: What is the world around us really like? How do we act as we experience the world around us? How do we rationalize and connect our experiences and thoughts? And why do we act without even realizing our own motivations and desires on some occasions?This book is a book for pondering while at the same time enjoying a few moments apart from the daily lives we lead.

The Light in the Mirror focuses on Richard Hawkins, raised by his Uncle Mac, following the death of his family. A car accident plunges Richard into a coma, and into a dream world where he is reborn in to the family he never knew; he grows up in the turbulent 60s and 70s. Awakening in the hospital, he tells his uncle and girlfriend, Melissa, how real his life in the coma seemed. The experience gives him a new understanding of how the 60s and 70s changed our society. He deals successfully with the debilitating effects of the coma, drawing on his faith in God. Weakness on one side of his body requires him to walk with a cane. An unexpected effect is a temporary psychic ability. Regaining his health, Richard enters the business world of Dallas, and then events propel him into politics in his hometown. In a mayoral race, he opposes a former hippie of the 60s and 70s. Melissa confronts a dangerous stalker, and throughout the story, Richard seeks God's purpose for his life.

Divorce, the termination of marriage, currently affects approximately one out of two marriages in the United States. There is no guarantee for those attending church required marital preparation classes or by celebrating a religious ceremony that the union will not conclude in the tragedy of divorce. As the Church lists marriage as a vocation (a call from God), it is quite evident that in many cases God is not a part of the lived out experience of many married couples. Though much literature has been written on this topic, December Roses details the thought processes associated with the planning and execution of a divorce and the painful emotions and feelings which occur, while at the same time providing a means of prayerful healing for those involved in the divorce situation.Divorce touches many issues and feelings. As marriages die and friendships are broken, the pain cries out for healing. Pastorally, through case study, reflection, and prayer, the issues inherent in any divorce are brought forward to the healing movements of God.As a priest for twenty-six years, I have witnessed, counseled, and cried with family, friends, and parishioners as divorce took its toll on very good people. This book is written with the faith that God is greater than our human moments of grief. Through God's compassion, healing is possible.

There is something wrong with our politics that elections cannot solve. In recent years, we have had a Republican Congress with a Democratic president, a Republican Congress with a Republican president, a Democratic Congress with a Republican president, and a Democratic Congress with a Democratic president. The "New Democrat" of 1992 produced a "Republican Revolution" in 1994. We cleansed ourselves of Clinton Administration corruption in 2000 only to have to punish Republican corruption in 2006. "Hope and Change" triumphed in 2008, while "Change That Matters" flopped in 2010. For nearly twenty years, the American people have tried to mind their own business at home while carrying on a seemingly futile search for the right combination of R's and D's in Washington. That search will not end until we address the roots of our political disorder: the progressive abandonment of our republican principles and heritage. Only a political reformation calling us back to the wisdom of our fathers and the founding documents of our nation can truly free us from the deeply-entrenched, bipartisan ruling class that is bankrupting and degrading us. Only a political reformation can "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity . . ."

The poems in Old Testament Lore, are imaginative rhapsodies on themes inspired by the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Writings of the Old Testament as well as those of the Apocrypha.

Chuck Queen writes, ""Advent is more than a memory of what took place in the past or an expectation of what is to occur in the future. Certainly Advent's invitation includes both remembrance and anticipation, but the light that was and will be is now, shimmering against the backdrop of our existence. The presence of Christ is for the present.""With scriptural wisdom, theological reflection, and pastoral insight, Chuck invites the reader to encounter Advent as a transformative experience. He utilizes film, literature, and contemporary experience to draw readers into spiritual reflection on the Christian's sacred story, exploring the redemptive possibilities of the Christmas season. Chuck writes in the Introduction, ""It is my hope that amid all the glitter, glamour, gladness, and grief of the Christmas season, you will find some shimmers of light in these spiritual reflections that will enlarge your vision of God's kingdom, expand your love for all persons, and evoke your creative participation with God's project to heal and transform our world.""

Sermon structure has been deemed an important component of preaching throughout the history of preaching by preaching instructors and practitioners alike. Many have made a case for the bearing that sermon structure has for the effective preaching of Scripture. However, sermon structure when incorporated in a sermon often is not as serviceable as it could and should be! This book provides instruction for how sermon structure can serve to principlize Scripture by using statements of theological principle in the sermon outline. Therefore, the timelessness and the timeliness of Scripture are prioritized through statements of theological principle providing doctrinal accuracy and personal relevance which are apparent in the outline of the sermon. How Effective Sermons Advance provides a thorough and comprehensive treatment on the highly significant matter of sermon structure.

Apostles! Didn't they all die out at the end of the first century? Didn't I hear a person using that title on my radio? Today, this theological debate rages: in these last days, is God again raising up apostles with first-century capabilities? Certainly Bertril Baird knows the answer. In a ministry spanning five decades, this ""Admiral"" has brought hope and deliverance throughout the Caribbean region, the Americas, Africa, and India. God has uniquely prepared him to take up this debate. Thanks to his countless stories, in-depth biblical and historical knowledge, as well as balanced perspective, you will gain fresh insights into the mindset, outcomes, and supernatural tools needed to exercise the Admiral Gift.

Metrospiritual: The Geography of Church Planting is about church planting in the city. There is an outpouring of new expressions of church being started throughout metro areas across North America. Where are these new churches being started? Maybe a more subterranean question is, "Why"? Why are churches being started where they are and why is there is a bias towards one part of the city and an overall neglect of other parts? Metrospiritual explores these questions and more as it builds off of recent research and surveys of hundreds of church planters in seven large cities in the United States and Canada. There is a deeper look at pivotal issues such as gentrification, the Creative Class, community transformation, urban renewal, and the role new churches play in all of these.

The Fly in My Eye is a reflection of an illusion. It is the mirror of my creature self declaring itself as real to the eye of the beholder. Yet the human self would fade away into its parent nothingness but for the trance of the image it beholds. Enamored of its own appearance, regardless the truth of the echo, the affair with the dream continues. Narcissus sees himself time after time in the clouded pond and falls for it; hook, line and sinker. He is king in his own mind only. They say it's great to be the king, but of what, I say. If it be a ragged throne in a hellish realm, of what value to the soul is it? I have chosen to stand beside my King, instead of displacing Him. The position is not as exalted by the world, but instead of the king of hell, I claim Prince of the eternal Kingdom. I inherit now, and forever, the gifts of joy, peace, wholeness, and freedom. I relinquish title to the nightmare dream; giving up only pain, guilt, discord, and death. I choose to accept the reality of my eternal being and deny, once and for all time, the temporal, chaotic, and completely insufficient life of the world of man. I will stay for awhile, but only to convince you, my brothers and sisters, to join me and journey to a better reality. Know the fly you see in your eye is but a frail wisp of a dream, destined to fade away into the illusory mysts from whence it sprang, dissolving now as we lean in the direction of truth. Clear the reflecting fly from your eye and see henceforth with the one, eternal Mind that unifies us as brothers in Christ.

What if there were seven people who could walk you through steps to have an effective ministry through your church? What if these seven people were all definitively instructed by God? What if the directions had been written down in a clear manual for you to follow?Would you be willing to read those instructions?Seeing from the Summit presents seven biblical character-models direct from the pages of Scripture to help you and your church leaders to understand a clear model for building effective ministry in God's Church. Beginning with David and moving through Noah, Joseph, Ruth, and others, you will come to understand a systematic, scriptural model to better understand the purpose of the church, the calling of leaders, and the need to seek God's direction. Rather than presenting empty promises to build a church numerically, Seeing from the Summit deals in concrete, biblical, and spiritual concepts that grow individuals together in unity and launch them from the church in missional activity.

If life were easy, there would be no need for mentors, friends, or family. Inspiration and motivation would come naturally. Everything we ever wanted would simply come to us. But the reality is that life is a difficult journey we must travel. Sometimes the road will be smooth with a gusty wind at our back. At other times we will find ourselves mired in the mud. During those travels we use a map to find our way to the destination. This book is also a map to help guide you to that destination. It aims to inspire, motivate, and pull you from being mired in the mud. The stories you will find inside are like the many different routes on a map. While each has purpose and meaning, like the many different routes on a map, the stories will have different meanings for each of us. Simply allow the stories to be a guide for you to choose your own path. And while we may be on different paths; we each have the same destination in mind, which is a great life we all seek. So grab hold of the stories and allow them to be your guide as you travel through life. Live the journey and experience all the goodness that you pass along the way.

A foundational law promoting worship of the God of the Exodus (the Decalogue's First Commandment) has little meaning without a government policy permitting such worship. Robert Kimball Shinkoskey discusses policies in the Bible which enact freedom of religion for prophets and other dissidents who work to restore worship of the God of their ancestors. In the process, he challenges the theological idea of the cessation of prophecy. New revelation from God is necessary to rescue ancient Israel from backsliding and restore her to a place of security and tranquility in a Mediterranean world gone mad with imperial war-making.

Are you intrigued by the idea of faith? Are you searching for answers to questions about God as you try to make sense of the circumstances of your life? Have you ever wondered what it means to experience religious conversion? In Out of the Fog, Into the Sun, Jo Kinnard shares her personal story of life transformation. She talks freely about what it means to be brought into faith through Christ as an older adult, after being born and raised Hindu. As someone who has a background in religion and philosophy, and holds a doctorate in one of the main schools of Indian Philosophy underlying Hinduism, Dr. Kinnard is able to articulate questions that seekers have about God and faith. Her story makes a powerful confession of the Gospel in a world marked by religious pluralism, atheism, and agnosticism. It is written for individuals and for discussion groups--exploring what it means to be a Christian today from both an ""outsider"" and an ""insider"" perspective--and underlining that in Christ, there are no walls.

When our Father of Faith is tempted to sacrifice his sense of humor on the Altar of God's Demands, God intervenes in a surprising way that really makes Abe laugh. This is the same God whose hungry servant, Elijah, is fed by ravens way out on the ragged edge and towards whom Moses manages a sidewise glance while on the lookout for greener pastures.Then along comes another tough act to follow--the Wild Man of Judea appearing in the Galilee Theater and baptizing Jesus of Nazareth in the Jordan River of God's Transforming Power and Hope. Then, in the very next scene, Jesus ben Dios, the Number One Draft Choice in all of Baseball, hops a trial-ways bus to intensive-training camp where he comes face to face with the temptations and adversities of the real world. Fortunately, Jesus has his Spring Training Manual handy for quick reference.Jesus then launches his teaching and healing career in many forms: as a dance instructor, farmer, chef--and even as a flamboyant pyromaniac-arsonist who comes ""not to bring peace to the world"" but to set it on fire. For who can forget Marshal Jesus out along the Border of Sin and Forgiveness encountering the Ten Men-yon? Or the homefolks' chant, ""Dr. Jesus, he's our man! If we can't use him, nobody can!""? Because when Anglo-Catholic Father Jesus meets an average parishioner at the Holy Water Basin and asks her to bless him with it, their engaging conversation prompts students of the bible and pillars of the church to take a second look in order to watch ordinary altar candles suddenly take on more beauty and meaning than they have ever imagined before.So, for those who have eyes to see: Look!

My First Introduction to the New Testament is for young readers of middle school age who may cherish the presentation Bibles given to them when they were younger but wonder just how to engage with biblical literature. Church school teachers may want to use it for a yearlong class because most chapters can be covered in one session. College students and even graduate students will find this book an easy way to refresh and review.

Designed for daily use as well as for retreats, Digging for God is an invitation to linger in the gardens of the Bible and the gardens of the heart. Using the passages concerning five biblical gardens, and then her own experiences distilled into poetry, Higgins provides meditative ideas and questions as springboards to prayer. For all who have labored and loved their backyard gardens, Higgins' poems will nudge memories. For all who are, as May Sarton said, "hopeful gardeners of the spirit," this volume offers fertile ground for prayer and reflection.

This memoir invites readers to explore stages of their own spiritual journey. Bianchi graphically describes his path from an Italian immigrant family on the West Coast, through twenty years as a Jesuit, to being a professor of religious studies at Emory University. As he develops a more this-worldly inner life, Bianchi struggles with church teachings about Christ, sexuality, and authority. He candidly reveals how failed marriages gave him a humbler grasp of meeting the transcendent in everyday problems. He embraces a contemplative spirituality that links Buddhist and Taoist practices with western mysticism. With a foot in Christianity, he shows how to walk a way of inter-spirituality as a meaningful road for the contemporary seeker. For Bianchi this involves becoming a metaphorical Christian as he moves away from religious certitudes of early life to find spirit in nature and humanity. Bianchi, a well-known writer on spiritual aging, challenges Baby Boomers to craft a contemplative life that works for them today. With his wife and two cats, he discovers a home for body and spirit along the banks of the Oconee River in Athens, Georgia.

It's hard to say, exactly, what's meant by the ""modern world,"" but Henry Buckberry never really hooked into it. Born before the First World War and the oldest boy in a family of thirteen kids, he left the open, rolling, potholed prairie of North Dakota in 1921 for the dark, dense, dangerous woods of northern Wisconsin, where he learned to fish, trap, hunt, lumberjack, and farm. Although he lived into the twenty-first century (the second volume of these stories, A Windfall Homestead, will inch us closer to the information super-highway), it could be said that Henry played hooky from the twentieth. With a few allowances for a little new technology, like the Model T, Henry's life represents the end phase of a rural folk culture that has its roots in the Neolithic. Through Henry's stories it's possible to see a long way into the past and then to turn the telescope around in order to put the present under an improvised microscope.Henry didn't have an easy life, but he had a vivid life, a life amazingly free of boredom, aimlessness, or distraction, and his stories convey that vividness from beginning to end. Henry's son Charles Darwin Buckberry--also known as C.D. or Seedy Buckberry--interviewed Henry and arranged the stories in some sort of more or less working order. (Seedy insists he put those stories down with complete fidelity, although he refuses to take a lie-detector test or submit to a Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory analysis.)Henry's life, as conveyed here, is also a way to measure the intellectual bulimia (or is it the intellectual anorexia?) of present-day empire consumerism. Here is life before Wal-Mart. Here is life that lives in nature with intense and even fierce physicality. Here is life that sings.

With the onslaught of books on how to do worship, Dr. David Adams' conversational book, Lifestyle Worship, is a breath of fresh air. Highlighting the current concept of worship, Dr. Adams explains the contrast and similarities of biblical worship within our contemporary definition of worship. Sprinkled with humor, Lifestyle Worship gets to the heart of what true worship is and offers practical suggestions to deepen your walk with God. With years of research behind him, Dr. Adams is quickly garnering attention as one of the leading authorities on worship and cultural theology.

Large and successful organizations seem to emulate the trajectory of a skipping stone. First they slow, and then they sink. Why does this happen over and over again? Most organizations come to believe that their problems stem from doing the wrong things. They are unfortunately looking in the wrong place. The problem with the demise of large and successful organizations is not related to what they are doing. The problem is rather in what they have actually become. And they simply fail to see it. It is only in understanding "who we are" that the sinking trajectory of large and successful organizations can be reversed. Mind-Head Soul-Head addresses this insidious situation and provides a "human prescription" as the cure.