LITMIR.BIZ

To read and visualize the transfiguration of Christ is to enter its mystery and encounter its hope. Like the Gospel writers and the disciples who climbed the mountain with Jesus, we struggle to tell the story and explain its meaning. Yet this astounding event reveals God's ultimate purpose in sending his Son–the complete restoration of humanity and all creation–our transfiguration in Christ. The light and glory of that moment reveal a destiny that is infinite and eternal, made possible by the power of grace. Transfiguration is the trajectory and goal of our spiritual journey. Across time and space, Christians have reflected on the mystery and hope epitomized in the transfiguration, yet their voices have been heard primarily within their own cultural and ecclesiastical contexts. This study gathers many of those voices from the panorama of Scripture and church history and finds in them the common theme of radical transformation in Christ. The point of this theological conversation is spiritual transfiguration and hope for each of us as we reach toward the future Christ has shown us in himself.

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Jesus the Everlasting Hope of Humankind: Biblical Theology Prompted by Visions and Dreams from the Holy Spirit begins with a vision that came to Don Eckhart of two persons: one a Spirit-filled Christian and the other in the lake of fire. The vision depicts Jesus saving the desperate one crying out for mercy. Eckhart enrolled in seminary where he studied the Bible and the history of Christian theology, especially eternal punishment, a topic seldom examined since Augustine in the fifth century. Uniquely unfolding in the book are visions and dreams prompting an insightful study of Scripture and a biblical theology developed as the hope of Christ-mediated salvation for all. The effects are far-reaching but not complicated. This coherent theology includes afterlife correction and purification for nonbelievers, as well as for believers who never fully devoted to Jesus Christ. This purification compares to Catherine of Genoa's vision in the early sixteenth century. The book demonstrates how God's desire that all be saved can be accomplished according to Scripture. God's sovereignty and human free will coalesce, as every tongue joyfully confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Good News may be even better than we thought!

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We tend to look for God in the grand and spectacular, but most of our lives are filled with ordinary moments and routines: drinking coffee, reading a book, driving to work. Can we find God in the banalities of everyday life? In Finding God in the Ordinary, the author shows that we can, and that we must. Our world is not an ordinary world. Because it was spoken into being and maintained by the word of God's power (Heb 1:3), everything around us is always revealing the nature and character of the triune God. Our world is extraordinarily ordinary, always calling our attention to the God of glory and his work in the commonplace.

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Knowing when God is speaking to you is sometimes easier said than done. Indeed, many people question how God speaks to believers today or, in some cases, if he does at all. Yet, for the believer, hearing God's voice is vital for direction in one's life and for spiritual development. In this book, Peterson offers a practical guide for hearing God's voice by presenting numerous anecdotal accounts demonstrating how this has played out in his own life. At the same time, Peterson's instruction is securely anchored in the precedent of Scripture.

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What is your hope for your first five years of ministry? Thousands of people graduate every year from seminaries and divinity schools in the United States and immediately encounter a whole range of possibilities, issues, and decisions. Many new pastors experience stymied creativity, an endless list of tasks, the intransigence of church systems, personal and professional isolation, and the pressure that comes with dealing with the expectations of other people. As a result, many do not remain in ministry. How new pastors navigate the transition into ministry can determine their temperament and patterns for the rest of their pastoral careers. In Like Stepping Into A Canoe, Kincaid seeks to help new pastors stay connected to their call, to understand change and transitions, to value both restlessness and resilience, and to find fulfillment in the early years of their ministry. Kincaid's five practices of nimbleness correspond to the common transition into ministry issues:
For the stymied creativity, the practice of curiosity. For the barrage of tasks, the practice of clarity. For the intransigence of church systems, the practice of agility. For the isolation and loneliness, the practice of proximity. For the expectations of others, the practice of temerity.

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Redemption and Relationship is an edited collection of essays written by Wycliffe College faculty, originating as homilies within the morning prayer chapel service. Each meditation follows the narrative in the book of Exodus, centering on two principal aspects of Israel's experience with Yhwh during this significant period in its national life: their redemption from Egypt and their discovery of Yhwh's identity through their relationship with him. At the end of each meditation the reader will find several questions which help facilitate further reflections for one's devotional life or a small group setting.

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The church's witness to the world falters in an age of doctrinal uncertainty, emerging experiments of life forms and behavior norms, and consequent cultural pressures. Against the disturbing influences that result, two questions demand response as the church's relation to conflicting intellectual fashions is brought under scrutiny. First, on the level of belief foundations, what is to be understood as the deposit of truth that has been entrusted to the church in the gospel it has historically been set to declare? Second, on the level of actual testimony and procedure, to what extent is the doctrinal foundations it professes reflected in the statements the church inserts into the competing complex of explanatory systems. What, it is to be asked, is the place, office, function, and authority of the church in the cultural nexus into which the divine mandate that defines the church has placed it?
In Belief and Evangelism Douglas Vickers addresses insightfully many of the relationships that result from the bearing of those questions on the integrity of the church in its professed belief and evangelism. Numerous questions that arise from those relationships demand expanded consideration in a full-orbed statement of the gospel.

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The «summer sermons» have been delivered in the Presbyterian Church of Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, over a period of fifteen years. When someone first arrives in Eagles Mere for the summer, people ask how their «winter» has been–winter meaning the whole time that has elapsed since the previous summer. In the author's case, «winter» means Nashville, Tennessee, where he has lived since 1965 when he joined the faculty of Vanderbilt Divinity School, retiring after thirty-eight years.
"Winter Thoughts" consists of autobiographical reflections on three topics: lives, theologies, and politics. The lives are those of Peter and Eva Hodgson. The longest section, «Theologies,» describes the various influences and directions the author's work has taken in systematic and historical theology. «Politics» reflects on the decline of the liberal democratic consensus. The whole is loosely held together by an underlying question: How is God efficaciously present in history without violating the fabric of history?

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This book explores the deep and abiding human need for contemplation, for coming to terms with and standing in awe of the nature and character of the God revealed in the Scriptures. When so much is wrong in the world, when our lives are troubled by so many threats, both real and imagined, we must learn to look to God and to see all things, including ourselves, in the light of who he is. A life of faithful contemplation begins to free us from the bad desires, false expectations, and corrupting illusions that bind us against our will and keep us from the fullness promised in the gospel.

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Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life looks at both ends of the telescope: the unfathomable reaches of cosmic space and the excited stirrings within the human psyche. It takes a scientist to explain what we are looking at. It takes a theologian to understand who is doing the looking. This book's scientific authors update readers on astrobiology's search for extraterrestrial life. Theologians add to the science a theological analysis of the place of space in understanding God's creative work, the prospects of sharing God's creation with extraterrestrial neighbors, and the question of whether one or many incarnations are required for cosmic redemption. Finally, these scholars lay the foundations for an ethic of space exploration. This book introduces a comprehensive astrotheology with an accompanying astroethic.

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