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Is there an answer for suffering? Sometimes suffering is explicable, sometimes inscrutable, but even when there are no answers, there are responses. The Odyssey outlines one family's journey when their five-year-old daughter suffered a severe brain injury from viral encephalitis. Along the way, The Odyssey explores biblical responses to suffering, including laments, Job's suffering, faith healing, the devil, natural evil, discipleship, the ways God's glory may be revealed in suffering, and how we can bear each other's burdens. The Odyssey is not an easy path through suffering but an open and honest account of struggles buoyed by Jesus's presence, reflecting the love and pain experienced in God's pursuit.

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Since the day Jesus ascended into heaven, the church has eagerly awaited his second coming. And during the intervening years too many Christians have focused their study of the Bible entirely on discovering the end-time signs of his coming. Does Jesus expect us to focus on dates and signs, or does he want us to instead develop a healthy and mature apocalyptic spirituality as we await his coming and the culmination of his plan of redemption and restoration?
Many of today's Christians lack a basic understanding of apocalyptic spirituality or do not understand God's mission through the church. Consequently they fail to see and appropriate the rich truths that can be learned and applied to their lives today. Yes, Revelation is a book for today!
This book begins by explaining how the historic misinterpretation of end-time Biblical literature has distracted Christians from their true spiritual development and mission. It then explains how developing a proper apocalyptic spirituality can lead believers to healthy applications of end-time teachings. Discover how apocalyptic Biblical literature can help you see the redemptive work that God has in store for us today while we await his imminent return.

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O'er All the Weary World is a lively collection of short stories for the Christmas season. These thought-provoking and resonant stories recount moments of enlightenment, incarnation, decision, and revelation–moments to which all human beings, by the grace of God, have access. With one exception, the stories are related to traditional Scripture lessons found in the common lectionary during the season of Advent. Each story may be used for contemplative reading, family storytelling, adult study groups, and in the worship setting.

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The Sage of Time and Chance is a work of fiction based on Ecclesiastes, the most skeptical book in the Bible. Ecclesiastes was written by a Hebrew sage called Koheleth who had the courage to wonder whether human beings were different from animals, and why the mind was limited in its ability to comprehend life. In The Sage of Time and Chance, Koheleth summons translators from all the corners of the Earth to review his provocative manuscript before he dies. The story is set in Jerusalem in the third century BCE, a peaceful period rich in cultural exchange and scholarship. Among the translators who come to the council are a monk from India, a Scythian warrior, and a shaman. Bitter rivalries and misunderstandings make reaching consensus difficult and dangerous. So also does the presence of actual translators of Ecclesiastes from the future, including Jerome (Latin) and Saadia ben Yosef (Arabic). The most unusual translator is a silent child who understands more than all the others what it means to be human–the essential question that drives Koheleth. Led by the child, Koheleth navigates around the pitfalls of cynicism and finds his way back to joy.

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The story of the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew is told in eight verses. Embedded in this short narrative is «Joseph's dilemma.» Listeners are told that, «When Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit» (1:18). What happens next has long been debated. We are made to assume that Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant, but that he does not know that she is with child from the Holy Spirit. This information is made known to Joseph later by an angel of the Lord who appeared to him in a dream. In the meantime, Joseph must decide what he will do with Mary. We are told, «Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly» (1:19). The discussion of this verse generally focuses on two questions. First, did Joseph suspect Mary of adultery? Second, if he did suspect Mary of adultery, what were his options? While there is some diversity in the way that these questions are answered, the majority of modern interpreters envision only one option–that of divorce. The dilemma, then, is whether Joseph will divorce Mary «publicly» or «privately.» While these questions are important, neither adequately addresses Joseph's dilemma. In this book, Matthew J. Marohl argues that early Christ-followers understood Joseph's dilemma to involve an assumption of adultery and the subsequent possibility of the killing of Mary. Worded differently, Joseph's dilemma involves the possibility of an honor killing. If Joseph reveals that Mary is pregnant she will be killed. If Joseph conceals Mary's pregnancy, he will be opposing the law of the Lord. What is a «righteous» man to do?

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"The Common Market is going to be the kingdom of the Antichrist!" "Jesus will return within 40 years of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948!" "The Battle of Armageddon will come when the Soviet Union invades Israel over oil!"
Those newspaper mileposts passed and the Soviet Union fell.
The faithful Christian has his faith shaken every time prophetic teaching based on the New York Times fails. Critics have a field day with each wrong interpretation. Then a new theory that fits the daily news better than the last one pops up. Each time, the sensational new speculation fails. Could it be that prophecy writers are listening to CNN more than to God? When a careful Christian reads a scholarly work, it can be about as interesting as reading the telephone book. Scholars do great research, but their books generally are written to other scholars, not to the rest of us. Isn't there a better choice? You're holding it. A Primer on the Book of Daniel is designed for you. It's written in your language, not the almost-foreign jargon of the scholar. At the same time, it's drawn from the work of scholars who have studied the Bible carefully for years. Their work has been assembled and translated so you can understand what the Bible says when it's allowed to interpret itself. Using plain language, Daniel gets to explain himself.

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Ethical discourse about the institution of voting rarely includes the option of abstaining for principled reasons. This collection of nine articles widens the discussion in that direction by giving readers a new question: At what point and on what grounds might one choose not to vote as an act of conscience? Contributors offer both ethical and faith-based reasons for not voting. For some, it is a matter of candidates not measuring up to high standards; for others it is a matter of reserving political identity and allegiance for the church rather than the nation-state. These writers–representing a wide range of Christian traditions–cite texts from diverse sources: Mennonites, Pentecostals, and pre-Civil Rights African Americans. Some contributors reference the positions of Catholic bishops, Karl Barth, or John Howard Yoder. New Testament texts also figure strongly in these cases for «conscientious abstention» from voting. In addition to cultivating the ethical discussion around abstention from voting, the contributors suggest alternative ways beneficially to engage society. This volume creates a new freedom for readers within any faith tradition to enter into a dialogue that has not yet been welcomed in North America.

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Becoming God's Beloved in the Company of Friends offers a fresh perspective and invites persons to develop a personal and communal Christian spirituality. It offers a way to deepen commitment to live as a disciple of Jesus personally and with others. It bridges the gap between a first-century biblical text and twenty-first-century readers who hunger for genuine spirituality today. Each chapter focuses on a few stories and a few teachings to illustrate a particular characteristic of becoming a disciple.

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Suicide, depression, eating disorders, and other mental health illnesses have dramatically increased among adolescents in recent decades. Our American culture demands high levels of success and propagates a «feel good» attitude that denies pain, loss, and failure. Churches contribute to these distressing realities among youth. Our theology associates «being happy» with «true faithfulness» to God, overemphasizing praise and thanksgiving while neglecting lament, even though lament comprises the largest number of Psalms. There is much good in the lives of today's adolescents, but there is also much grief and woundedness.
Helping Youth Grieve exposes the warped view of God modeled and taught to our young people. This book portrays a God who yearns to hear the honest cries of our youth, even when that involves blaming God! Spiritual caregivers will discover good news in biblical lament for its role in pastoral care and faith formation of adolescents.

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Grace. Do we really comprehend the implications of that small, one-syllable word? Do we realize how much we have been graced? More importantly, do we understand how God intends us to use that grace throughout the world? Everyone, no matter their location, time of life, or economic circumstances, has been graced greatly by God, and that can be a difficult thing for us to grasp in our more-is-better American culture. We want to believe that we haven't really been graced until we have more of this or enough of that. In this book, Dr. Wallace Webster delves into the mystery of grace. We learn that grace isn't just something conveyed on a favored few; God lavishes it on all of us in ways we may not even realize. We see how those with the least often understand that they have been graced the most. And we learn that we, as citizens of Christ's kingdom, have the great privilege of spreading that grace throughout the world in many amazing ways.

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