Following Jesus in the Modern World


Book Description

He was only one Man, and He only had a short time. Perhaps three and a half years. Maybe forty two months, give or take. And in that time, Jesus would change the world forever. He could have done it alone, but He chose to include others to be with Him when He turned the world upside down. The first thing He did as He began His work was to call twelve men to His side. He didn't advertise for them, He didn't hire a headhunter, He didn't open the positions to applicants. He just said, "Follow Me." Twelve men began to walk with Him, and eleven stayed with Him to the end ... and the new beginning. He says the same thing to you ... right now. "Follow Me. Walk in My footsteps. Do what I do, say what I give you to say, and go with Me wherever I go." That path won't always lead you along a garden strewn with daisies. But there is no better path anywhere in the whole world. Following Jesus is the best life that could ever be lived. Book jacket.




Following Jesus in a Digital Age


Book Description

We were told technology would make our lives easier and more convenient, but technology just seems to have made it more complicated and confusing. As Christians, what does our faith have to do with these pressing issues of life in a digital age? In Following Jesus in a Digital Age, you will not only be challenged on how technology is shaping your walk with Christ, but you will also be equipped with biblical wisdom to navigate the most difficult aspects of our digital culture—including the rise of misinformation, conspiracy theories, social media, digital privacy, and polarization. God calls his people to step into the challenges of the digital age from a place of hope and discernment, grounded in His Word. How will you follow Him in the digital age?




Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear


Book Description

Fear has taken on an outsized role in our current cultural and political context. Manufactured threats are advanced with little to no evidence of danger, while real threats are exaggerated for self-interested gain. This steady diet of fear produces unhealthy moral lives, leading many Christians to focus more on the dangers we wish to avoid than the goods we wish to pursue. As a fearful people, we are tempted to make safety our highest good and to make virtues of suspicion, preemption, and accumulation. But this leaves the church ill-equipped to welcome the stranger, love the enemy, or give to those in need. This timely resource brings together cultural analysis and theological insight to explore a Christian response to the culture of fear. Laying out a path from fear to faithfulness, theologian Scott Bader-Saye explores practices that embody Jesus's call to place our trust in him, inviting Christian communities to take the risks of hospitality, peacemaking, and generosity. This book has been revised throughout, updated to connect with today's readers, and includes new discussion questions.




Following Jesus in the Modern World


Book Description

Chosen to FollowAre you a follower of Jesus Christ? It isn't an easy thing to be in the twenty-first century. It wasn't easy for Matthew, either. He gave up everything when Jesus looked at him and said, "Follow Me." God has called you as well to be in fellowship with Him, but what does that look like today? Based on Following Jesus in the Modern World, this eight-lesson Bible study by evangelist Greg Laurie digs deeply into Scripture to show what it meant to follow Jesus while He lived and what it looks like now. Includes questions for study, application, and reflection as well as leader's notes.




One.Life


Book Description

What is the “Christian life” all about? Studying the Bible, attending church, cultivating a prayer life, witnessing to others—those are all good. But is that really what Jesus has in mind? The answer, says Scot McKnight in One.Life, lies in Jesus’ words, “Follow me.” What does it look like to follow Jesus, and how will doing so change the way we live our life—our love.life, our justice.life, our peace.life, our community.life, our sex.life—everything about our life. One.Life will open your eyes to the full, compelling immensity of what it means to be a Christian. “Jesus offers to us a kingdom dream that transforms us to the very core of our being,” says Scot McKnight. “His vision is so big we are called to give our entire life to it. His vision is so big it swallows up our dreams.” Discover exactly what Jesus meant when he announced the arrival of God’s kingdom. Equipping you with a new understanding of that kingdom’s radical nature, One.Life shares profound, challenging, and practical insights on how to demonstrate its reality in your life. In many ways, what The Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer challenged Christians to do in earlier generations, One.Life will do for a new generation. One.Life will call you beyond the flatlands of religiosity toward a kingdom vision that will shape everything you do.




I Am a Follower


Book Description

In this examination of leadership and followership, Sweet proposes an intentional shift from leadership cults to followership cultures. He critiques the issue of leadership obsession but focuses on reigniting a passion for the "follow me" theme found throughout the gospels and the entire New Testament.




Kingdom Ethics, 2nd ed.


Book Description

Comprehensive update of the leading Christian ethics textbook of the 21st century Ever since its original publication in 2003, Glen Stassen and David Gushee's Kingdom Ethics has offered students, pastors, and other readers an outstanding framework for Christian ethical thought, one that is solidly rooted in Scripture, especially Jesus's teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. This substantially revised edition of Kingdom Ethics features enhanced and updated treatments of all major contemporary ethical issues. David Gushee's revisions include updated data and examples, a more global perspective, more gender-inclusive language, a clearer focus on methodology, discussion questions added




An Unhurried Life


Book Description

How do we find balance between our sense of calling and the call to rest? Spiritual director and "recovering speed addict" Alan Fadling leads readers in a meditation on the unhurried life. Following Jesus' earthly life, this revised edition from Fadling shows how the work of "unhurrying" ourselves is central to our spiritual development.




Hard to Believe


Book Description

Jesus Christ did not die on the cross so you and I could have a nice day. Ministers and teachers who water down the gospel of Christ in order to make it more popular and appealing may be leading their fun-loving audiences down the road to eternal punishment. This book is John MacArthur's unflinching, unapologetic treatise on the modern tendency to alter the true message of Christianity in order to meet the whims and desires of a culture hoping for nonconfrontational messages, easy answers, and superficial commitments. Too many people just want a Madison Avenue Jesus to make them well, make them happy, and make them prosperous. But Jesus Christ isn't a personal genie. He is the Savior. He died in agony to satisfy the wrath of a holy God and to forgive the sins of humankind. Faith in Him demands a willingness to make any sacrifice He asks. The hard truth about Christianity is that the cost is high, but the rewards are priceless: abundant and eternal life that comes only from faithfully follwing Christ.




God and Gadgets


Book Description

Technologies are deeply embedded in the modern West. What would our lives be like without asphalt, glass, gasoline, electricity, window screens, or indoor plumbing? We naturally praise technology when it is useful and bemoan it when it is not. But there is much more to technology than the usefulness of this or that artifact. Unfortunately, we tend not to consider the inherently social and moral character of technology. As a result, we are prone to overlook the effects of technology on our spiritual lives. This book investigates the role technology plays in helping and hampering our Christian practice and witness.