John! Episode Three


Book Description

This is the third episode in the adventures of teenager John, the youngest apostle of Jesus. He became known as the disciple Jesus loved (John 13:23) and later wrote the Bible books of the Gospel of John, three Letters of John, and the Revelation of John. In the last years of the first century AD he was known as John the Elder, the revered leader of the Church of Ephesus. As with any teen, John and the other teens among the disciples would make mistakes and be unsure of themselves. But they had Jesus and the older disciples to rely on, including Johns married brother Peter and the former tax collector Matthew. Danger and death threats followed in the tracks of Jesus throughout his travels in AD 29, and John was close by his side most of the time. This is historical fiction. It is historical, for it strives to be true to all that is known about the characters, their locations, and their actions from the Bible, from archaeology, and from other historical sources. It is fiction, for it fills in the blanks with a tale told by the author. Endnotes refer to the Bible verses which contain the stuff that really did happen. Enjoy the story, but remember that it is only part nonfiction, and the rest is in the realm of possibility.




All Things New


Book Description

New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge offers readers a breathtaking look into God’s promise for a new heaven and a new earth. This revolutionary book about our future is based on the simple idea that, according to the Bible, heaven is not our eternal home--the New Earth is. As Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew, the next chapter of our story begins with "the renewal of all things," by which he means the earth we love in all its beauty, our own selves, and the things that make for a rich life: music, art, food, laughter and all that we hold dear. Everything shall be renewed "when the world is made new." More than anything else, how you envision your future shapes your current experience. If you knew that God was going to restore your life and everything you love any day; if you believed a great and glorious goodness was coming to you--not in a vague heaven but right here on this earth--you would have a hope to see you through anything, an anchor for your soul, "an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God" (Hebrews 6:19). Most Christians (most people for that matter) fail to look forward to their future because their view of heaven is vague, religious, and frankly boring. Hope begins when we understand that for the believer nothing is lost. Heaven is not a life in the clouds; it is not endless harp-strumming or worship-singing. Rather, the life we long for, the paradise Adam and Eve knew, is precisely the life that is coming to us. And that life is coming soon.




Live No Lies


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry equips readers to recognize and resist the lies that seek to rob them of peace and freedom. “Live No Lies is brilliant, deep, scriptural, and will equip you to face the enemy and fight.”—Jennie Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head We are at war. Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it’s a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies. The problem isn’t so much that we tell lies but that we live them. We let them into our bodies, and they sabotage our peace. All around us in the culture and deep within our own body memories are lies: deceptive ideas that wreak havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being, and deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life truly is. The choice is not whether to fight or not fight, but whether we win or surrender. Ancient apprentices of Jesus developed a paradigm for this war; they spoke of the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Live No Lies taps into this ancient wisdom from saints of the Way and translates the three enemies for the modern era, with all its secularism and sophistication. As a generation, we chuckle at the devil as a premodern myth, we are confused by Scripture’s teaching on the flesh in an age where sensual indulgence is a virtue not a vice, and we have little to no category for the New Testament concept of the world. In this provocative and practical book, bestselling author John Mark Comer combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation. He identifies the role lies play in our spiritual deformation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them. Do you feel the tug-of-war in your own heart, the inner conflict between truth and lies? The spirit and the flesh? The Way of Jesus and the world? It’s time to start winning. It’s time to live no lies...




Jonah


Book Description

The six sessions in this study examine the book of Jonah using 15 minute video segments and a study guide.




The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin


Book Description

“I cannot remember ever reading a work of history and biography that is quite so fluent, so perfectly composed and balanced . . .” —The New York Sun “Exceptionally rich perspective on one of the most accomplished, complex, and unpredictable Americans of his own time or any other.” —The Washington Post Book World From the most respected chronicler of the early days of the Republic—and winner of both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes—comes a landmark work that rescues Benjamin Franklin from a mythology that has blinded generations of Americans to the man he really was and makes sense of aspects of his life and career that would have otherwise remained mysterious. In place of the genial polymath, self-improver, and quintessential American, Gordon S. Wood reveals a figure much more ambiguous and complex—and much more interesting. Charting the passage of Franklin’s life and reputation from relative popular indifference (his death, while the occasion for mass mourning in France, was widely ignored in America) to posthumous glory, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin sheds invaluable light on the emergence of our country’s idea of itself.




Good Profit


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Learn how to apply the principles of Charles Koch’s revolutionary Market-Based Management® system to generate good profit in your organization, company, and life “This book helps show you the way to good profit—whether you work for an international supermarket chain, a medium-sized regional business, or your own start-up.”—John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO, Whole Foods Market The technological innovations, extreme politics, civil unrest, cyber attacks, demographic shifts, and global pandemic that have affected all businesses since this book was published have only confirmed Charles Koch’s belief that “the only reason a business should exist (and the only way it can legitimately survive long term) is to create value in a responsible way.” Hence, the principles in Good Profit are more important today than ever before. What exactly does Koch Industries, Inc., do and why is it so remarkably profitable? Koch’s name may not be on your home’s plywood, vehicle’s grille, smartphone’s connectors, or baby’s ultra-absorbent diapers but it makes them all. And Koch’s Market-Based Management® (MBM) system is what drives these innovations and many more. The core objective of MBM is to generate good profit. Good profit results from products and services that customers vote for freely with their dollars. It results from a bottom-up culture where employees are empowered to act entrepreneurially to discover customers’ preferences and the best ways to improve their lives. Drawing on six decades of interdisciplinary studies, experimental discovery, and practical implementation across Koch businesses worldwide, Charles Koch walks the reader through the five dimensions of MBM to show how to apply its framework in any business, industry, or organization of any size. Readers will learn how to: • Craft a vision for how to thrive in spite of increasingly rapid disruption and ever-changing consumer values • Select and retain a workforce possessing both virtue and talent • Create an environment of knowledge sharing that prizes respectful challenges from everyone at every level • Award employees with ownership and decision rights based on their comparative advantages and proven contributions, not job title • Motivate all employees to maximize their contributions by structuring incentives so compensation is limited only by the value they create A must-read for any leader, entrepreneur, or student, as well as anyone who wants a more civil, fair, and prosperous society, Good Profit is one of the greatest management books of all time.




Eight Kingdoms


Book Description

There are eight types of kingdoms mentioned in the Bible. Two of those kingdoms-the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven-constitute the central message of the New Testament. If all the text that speaks directly of these two kingdoms were removed from the New Testament, there wouldn't be enough left to fill up a single page in the newspaper. Yet the kingdom message is completely unknown by a large majority of ministers and their congregations all across this land. There has never been anything spoken so much, yet understood so little. The errors of reformed theology and Armenianism alike are rooted in a misunderstanding of the kingdoms. Most cults, and many of the denominational differences today, can be traced to a lack of understanding of the mystery of the kingdoms. The key to understanding the entire Bible is found in knowing the differences among the eight kingdoms, but especially these two-the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. When readers finish reading this book, they will assuredly know the difference.







Child Psychotherapy and Research


Book Description

Child Psychotherapy and Research brings together some of the most exciting and innovative research activity taking place within psychoanalytic child psychotherapy today. Drawing on the expertise of an international range of contributors, this book describes work at the cutting edge of research in psychoanalytic child psychotherapy and related areas. It presents many of the emerging findings while also illustrating a whole range of methodologies – both quantitative and qualitative – that have been developed to investigate this field. The book examines the historical and philosophical background of child psychotherapy research and shows how research illuminates different clinical phenomena, the processes of psychotherapy, its evaluation and outcome. Recent developments in therapeutic work with children, including the increased focus on evidence-based practice, make research a much higher priority in the field than ever before. With this increasing significance, a whole new generation of clinicians are required to become familiar and competent with research methods and research literature. Child Psychotherapy and Research will be a vital resource for anyone involved in research and training related to psychotherapy and child mental health, as well as of great interest to a range of mental health professionals.




Discourse Analysis and the New Testament


Book Description

The volume contains contributions by many of the major discourse analysts of the New Testament, including E.A. Nida, W. Schenk, J.P. Louw and J. Callow. Some of these essays deal with methodology, raising necessary questions about what it means to analyse discourse. Others demonstrate an already committed approach by reading specific texts. A 'state-of-the-art' volume for all scholars interested in this increasingly important area of New Testament research.