The Next Step


Book Description

When you received Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you made the most important decision of your life. The Next Step will help you be more effective in your Christian walk. Not meant to take the place of your Bible, it will teach you basic steps to a strong and healthy Christian life. It's an excellent discipleship tool to give to those you lead to the Lord. Chapters include: 1. Birth Of The Bible How the Scriptures came to be, and how Satan has attacked them for almost 1,500 years. 2. Don't Read That Book You won't last long without food, and neither will any Christian last long without the Word of God. This Bible reading program will give you a balanced diet of spiritual food, every day of your life. But it will cost you something! 3. Prayer Do you want to get RESULTS when you pray? Here are the keys to effective prayer, and how to deal with the things Satan uses to stop you. 4. Love Some people are hard to love. Yet for some people, real love is the only way to reach them. 5. The Enemy Every Christian has a mortal enemy. His goal? He wants you dead and in hell. Learn some of his many faces, and how he attacks Christians. He hates us all, because he knows that there is a day coming, when he will be cast into hell. 6. Pitfalls Be careful! Things that can destroy your Christian testimony can be small, or unexpected. 7. Called Out Being a Christian doesn't mean you're better than everyone else. It means you're forgiven. But you can't be the same as everyone else, either. God wants you to live in a way that is different, so you can have the same result as the Christian in this chapter. 8. Warn Them Everyone who hasn't accepted Christ is on his way to hell, just like you were. Now that you have forgiveness, it's up to you warn your friends. If witnessing chokes you up, or you don't think you know enough of the Bible yet, here is a simple plan to help you be a real witness. You can't save anyone ... but Jesus will! Here's an easy way to tell them.




The Next Step in Religion


Book Description




Teaching Religious Education in Catholic Schools


Book Description

In an era characterised by diversity, uncertainty, and numerous education reforms, Catholic school educators are faced with many challenges and also new opportunities. Teaching Religious Education in Catholic Schools has been written to address many of these challenges, as well as offering a fresh perspective and helpful guide which is informed by scholarly research and practical insights. This book models solutions for religious education teachers -- and pre-service teachers -- and will assist in planning and implementing a contemporary religious education program for students.




Coming Out Spiritually


Book Description

In these times of dramatic social change, when the highly charged issue of homosexuality is undeniably causing controversy in many arenas--religion, marriage, politics, education, the military--Christian de la Huerta, founder and director of Q-Spirit, offers a fresh outlook on gay spirituality and how to assert it.A spiritual awakening is occurring in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community, as in much of the world. In this encompassing guidebook, de la Huerta looks at Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Taoism, Sufism, New Thought, New Age, and Earth-based religions, including Native American. Cogently investigating these traditions' attitudes, teachings, and policies toward homosexuality, the author gives the queer reader a foundation from which to begin building a spiritual connection. Coming Out Spiritually also synthesizes ten spiritual roles or archetypes people we now call gay or queer have often assumed and continue to enact today: creators of beauty, consciousness scouts, mediators, shamans, and healers, among others. Drawing on these models while acting as a guide to the queer community, the author shows how to look deeper inside; to reach higher than ever before; to step forth more fully into a rightful self. An impassioned call to action, Coming Out Spiritually alternatively touches, challenges, encourages, and supports the queer community to fully reclaim its spiritual heritage.




Delight!


Book Description

You bring God joy.And God intends the feeling to be mutual. This book will help you lean into Joyful Delight, Thoughtful Delight, Playful Delight, Delicious Delight, and Desirable Delight in your life with God. Delight! invites you into a real, accessible, and down-to-earth way of experiencing the adventure of following Jesus. Of course you will know struggle and failure. Of course you will know grief and shame. But you don't have to carry the burden of getting your faith walk right; you already make Jesus jump for joy and sing his happy song. The Creator of the Universe thinks you're something special. Even when life is confusing or difficult, the Spirit is shaping you with care and delight. Are you tired of religion? Are you beat down by anxiety or doubt? Do you long for something more in your life of faith? Let go of your burden. Take a deep breath. And let's explore what it means to follow Jesus on the adventure of your life-an adventure marked by challenge and repentance and difficulty, but marked most fundamentally by mutual delight! The LORD will take great delight in you; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3:17) "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." (John 15:11) From the Book "Following Jesus isn't supposed to weigh you down; it's supposed to make you dance. Following Jesus isn't supposed to limit your fun; it's supposed to open you up to freedom you have never known before. Following Jesus isn't a burden to carry, even when you carry your cross; to follow Jesus is certainly to know suffering and trouble and dying to self and struggling with doubt, but fundamentally-fundamentally!-following Jesus is about delight. Jesus delights in you; and Jesus loves it when you feel the same about him. That's what following Jesus is all about." What People Are Saying In Delight!, Justin Rossow widens our lens for understanding grace as he explores the delight God has in us and the delight God gives to us. The impact will ripple into every area of your spiritual walk. Delight! brings both lightness and depth to the Scriptures and to our relationships with our Great God. HEIDI GOEHMANN, author of Altogether Beautiful: A Study of the Song of Songs Have we lost our sense of delight? Today delight seems to be reduced to each person's version of personal happiness. Or delight is simply missed altogether because we are too busy and anxious to notice it. In a deeply reflective and devotional way, Rossow puts delight back on the agenda of the theology of the Christian life. Taking us on a biblical journey of discovery around God's vision of delight for us, he invites us to receive this gift, revel in it, and, yes, delight in it! LEOPOLDO A. SANCHEZ M., author of Sculptor Spirit: Models of Sanctification from Spirit Christology I have spent a great deal of my life believing in my head that Jesus loved me, yet living practically as if I were always on the verge of being in big trouble. This book offers a refreshing, biblical vision of how to live a life captivated and covered by the love of God. Even more astonishing is the discovery of a God who is full of delight. JAMIE WIECHMAN, cofounder of Breathe Life Ministries




Surviving Religion 101


Book Description

"I can't imagine a college student—skeptic, doubter, Christian, struggler—who wouldn't benefit from this book." —Kevin DeYoung For many young adults, the college years are an exciting period of selfdiscovery full of new relationships, new independence, and new experiences. Yet college can also be a time of personal testing and intense questioning— especially for Christian students confronted with various challenges to Christianity and the Bible for the first time. Drawing on years of experience as a biblical scholar, Michael Kruger addresses common objections to the Christian faith—the exclusivity of Christianity, Christian intolerance, homosexuality, hell, the problem of evil, science, miracles, and the reliability of the Bible. If you're a student dealing with doubt or wrestling with objections to Christianity from fellow students and professors alike, this book will equip you to engage secular challenges with intellectual honesty, compassion, and confidence—and ultimately graduate college with your faith intact.




Crazy Faith


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Relationship Goals . . . Will you be remembered as a person who claimed to follow God but liked to play it safe? Or as a person who lived your life out on the limb and trusted God enough to live in crazy faith? Noah looked crazy when he started building the ark . . . until it started raining. It was crazy for Moses to lead a nation of people into the desert away from Egypt . . . until the Red Sea parted. It was crazy to believe that a fourteen-year-old virgin would give birth to the Son of God . . . until Mary held Jesus in her arms. There are many things that seem normal or average today that at one point in time seemed absolutely crazy. Smartphones, Wi-Fi, and even the electric light bulb were all groundbreaking, history-making inventions that started out as crazy ideas. Our see-it-to-believe-it generation tends to have a hard time exercising true faith—one that steps out, takes action, and sees mountain-moving results. Many of us would rather play it safe and stand on the sidelines, but it’s crazy faith that helps us see God move and reveals His promises. In Crazy Faith, Pastor Michael Todd shows us how to step out in faith and dive into the purposeful life of trusting God for the impossible. Even if you have to start with baby faith or maybe faith, you can become empowered to let go of your lazy faith, trust God through your hazy faith, and learn to live a lifestyle of crazy faith. With powerful stories of modern-day faith warriors who take their cues from biblical heroes, Michael Todd equips you to • believe for the impossible • choose hope over fear • be alert to the voice of God • cope with loss and doubt • develop a deeper level of trust in God • speak faith-filled declarations • inspire crazy faith in others God’s not looking for somebody to give Him all the reasons why His plans can’t happen. He’s looking for somebody to believe they will happen. In fact, He has so much He wants to do through you. The question is, Are you crazy enough to believe it?




The Spirit-Led Leader


Book Description

In our postmodern, experience-oriented culture, people are longing for greater authenticity, integrity, and depth in their pastors and leaders. Board directors, church members, and staff alike are all eagerly seeking leaders who effectively integrate their spirituality and leadership. Pastors and executives, however, often struggle with knowing how to integrate their spiritual values and practices into their leadership and management roles. Designed for pastors, executives, administrators, managers, coordinators, and all who see themselves as leaders and who want to fulfill their God-given purpose, The Spirit-Led Leader addresses the critical fusion of spiritual life and leadership for those who not only want to see results, but who also desire to care just as deeply about who they are and how they lead as they do about what they produce and accomplish. Geoffrion creates a new vision for spiritual leadership as partly an art, partly a result of careful planning, and always a working of the grace of God




What's Next?


Book Description

No matter where you are in your journey, What's Next? is the guide you need to find your way and discover the joy that comes walking the road of richer faith. A deeper and more intimate relationship with God is closer than you think. Have you ever felt as if something were missing from your life? Are you longing for a clearer sense of purpose? Do you feel stuck in a spiritual rut? In What's Next?, bestselling author Chris Hodges offers a practical guide to all those looking for clarity and direction and reveals the four steps to spiritual maturity: know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference. He demonstrates how each step is part of both a linear path and a cycle leading to deeper levels of faith. Accessible and clear, concise and profound.




Religion


Book Description

What do we talk about when we talk about "religion"? Is it an array of empirical facts about historical human civilizations? Or is religion what is in essence unpredictable--perhaps the very emergence of the new? In what ways are the legacies of religion--its powers, words, things, and gestures--reconfiguring themselves as the elementary forms of life in the twenty-first century? Given the Latin roots of the word religion and its historical Christian uses, what sense, if any, does it make to talk about "religion" in other traditions? Where might we look for common elements that would enable us to do so? Has religion as an overarching concept lost all its currency, or does it ineluctably return--sometimes in unexpected ways--the moment we attempt to do without it? This book explores the difficulties and double binds that arise when we ask "What is religion?" Offering a marvelously rich and diverse array of perspectives, it begins the task of rethinking "religion" and "religious studies" in a contemporary world. Opening essays on the question "What is religion?" are followed by clusters exploring the relationships among religion, theology, and philosophy and the links between religion, politics, and law. Pedagogy is the focus of the following section. Religion is then examined in particular contexts, from classical times to the present Pentacostal revival, leading into an especially rich set of essays on religion, materiality, and mediatization. The final section grapples with the ever-changing forms that "religion" is taking, such as spirituality movements and responses to the ecological crisis. Featuring the work of leading scholars from a wide array of disciplines, traditions, and cultures, Religion: Beyond a Concept will help set the agenda for religious studies for years to come. It is the first of five volumes in a collection entitled The Future of the Religious Past, the fruit of a major international research initiative funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.