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"Is God calling me to become an adoptive parent?" «Which path to adoption would be best?» Through simple introductions to the various kinds of adoption, thoughtful presentations of relevant biblical teaching and theological principles, and the sharing of the stories of ten adoptive families, Thinking About Adoption: A Practical and Theological Handbook for Christians Discerning the Call to Parent by Adoption is a must-read resource for Christians seeking answers to these questions. Read and reflect individually, as a couple, or in fellowship with other believers, and discover what God may (or may not) have for you!

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The Daniel Fast is essentially a spiritual exercise with numerous health benefits. With millions of Christians across the globe partaking in this fast every year, especially in the month of January, there is need for sound doctrinal teaching on the fast. This type of teaching will incorporate the dual nature of the fast, which includes spiritual and health benefits. Jesus instructs us as his followers to fast. As an international corporate fast, the Daniel Fast is the best way of fulfilling our master's instruction. Due to its health benefits, the Daniel Fast is suitable for people who are diabetic, hypertensive, and obese. This book provides valuable information on how these people can partake in the fast without compromising their health. Even the elderly and teenagers are given special consideration. Most importantly, this book gives a special focus on Christian doctrinal bases of the Daniel Fast. This book therefore is for those who want to experience the words of Christ in John 10:10, «I have come so that they may have life, and have it in abundance.»

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We are in a society that is constantly on the move. We want what we want, and we want it right now without any exceptions. The first thing we should grab in the beginning of our days is a word from the Lord. The desire of most believers is to have time set apart from the hustle and bustle of the day. Consider This on This Day will allow you to take the first few moments of your morning reading a text, and then discover new applications for overcoming the stresses of the daily grind.
All this will take is for you to test one week of the Bible lessons contained within to find new avenues to face those giants in your life. Try it and leave with a renewed mind.

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Praying in the Spirit of Christ offers contemporary readers a compelling and holistic vision of what life in Christ can mean for them. It draws from the broad array of spiritual and theological literature that John Wesley considered most significant for growth in Christian discipleship. In this volume, author Paul Chilcote utilizes the same method or approach of his earlier devotional work, Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit. He has transposed brief excerpts from Wesley's fifty-volume Christian Library into fluid prayers that are written in contemporary language, yet faithful to the spiritual insights of the classical sources. A hymn by Charles Wesley accompanies each prayer, and a passage of Scripture frames the topic for each devotional reading. The prayers help readers ponder themes like the desire of the heart, liberty in Christ, thirst for God, resurrection joy, and unbounded love. These devotions engage head and heart and seek to shape the lives of those who pray in the spirit of Christ.

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Drawing on recent scholarship on the Pauline tradition within early Christianity, this book examines Paul's theology of baptism and highlights its practical application in ministry today. It considers what the rite represented and effected, in the light of the social and cultural milieu in which his letters were written, and of his strategies for mission and the formation and nurture of new Christian communities. The need to integrate recent scholarship with contemporary pastoral issues, and to do so in a theologically reflective way, is acute. Using a wide range of social scientific approaches to the ancient world and Christian origins, including identity, religious conversion, and ritual, the book explores the implications of this reconstruction for contemporary issues of baptismal practice, pastoral care and mission, aiming to bring the insights of specialists to those working on the frontline of pastoral practice.

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Everyday Thoughts is a devotional for thinking Christians, for those who seek to hear and know God in the present through contemplation on scripture and reality. Each essay is preceded by a poem or an inspirational piece. In relation to each essay's subject matter, these poems set the mood for the reader as the simplicity of poetry is combined with insights born from the author's years of study. The intent of the author is that the reader might enjoy the impact of each piece for a prolonged period of time after their initial reading. Everyday Thoughts is for people interested in both contemplation and living their faith in the real world of pain and suffering.
The poems and essays reflect the personal struggles of the author to come to terms with the Christian faith in a world larger than the small town of his rearing. A theological education is not necessary for reading Everyday Thoughts. What is necessary is an open heart that is prepared to hear scripture's message from a wounded soul who withstands death with all the resources of theology, imagination, and experience available to him. The conviction of an immovable faith is behind each essay.

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"Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Questions by their very nature are provocative: they provoke answers. Questions emerge from the desires of the human spirit. Questions lead to insight into the new, but those insights can be blocked by preconceptions that obscure present experience, including experience of the divine presence. At the same time, human beings cannot make progress in understanding without some amount of belief, which liberates understanding. Jesus faced these concerns in the people around him, and we face them in ourselves today. By examining the role of questions in the Gospels of Mark and John, we see Jesus's capacity to orient his listeners in their search for meaning, and thus cultivate in ourselves a willingness to believe what we have inherited as well as an openness to new experience, its call to reinterpret beliefs and, if necessary, to change.

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Deeper Waters is a sermon collection–but also a manifesto. Its sermons sound forth a call for Christian preaching that is evangelical and emancipatory: unashamed of the good news about Christ's death and resurrection and resolute in resistance to white supremacy, male domination, and redemptive violence. The author, pastor Nibs Stroupe, is a white son of the segregated South, nurtured in its twin traditions of anti-black white racism and Christian faith. But through the courageous witness of black Americans engaged in the Civil Rights movement, Stroupe experienced conversion to a new theological vision. God's loving claim on humanity in Jesus Christ abolishes oppressive idols and breaks down dividing barriers. This conviction propelled Nibs into a lifelong ministry of gospel proclamation and antiracist struggle. For thirty-four years, Stroupe pastored at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, a multiracial congregation in metropolitan Atlanta. The sermons of this collection present the mature fruit of that ministry, and they offer a gift and example to the next generation of preachers and workers summoned as witnesses of Jesus Christ to the American context.

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Just as «generals are always fighting the last war» my experience as a chaplain at Oxford University has taught me that the church often «speaks to the last generation.»
The statistics provided by the Pew Research Center say it all. The people of Generation Y are less likely to go to church, believe in God, or identify themselves as «religious» than any previous generation, yet they still have a deep and abiding interest in «spiritual» things. If the church is going to reach this group of «seekers» with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it will have to do it on their terms, speak their language, and understand their concerns. If we try to «fight the last war» with Generation Y, we will lose it.
Instead, church leaders must seriously examine how we relate (or not) to Generation Y and change our tactics accordingly. This book is a reflection on my personal experience of ministry to Generation Y, combining pastoral care, mentoring, and «postmodern apologetics» in ways that are equally applicable to parochial, academic, and/or secular settings.

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Genesis Ideology explores the purpose of stories in the book of Genesis as building blocks for ancient Israelite culture. This book exposes the intersection of the author's ideological agenda and the contemporary reader's interpretive practice. This volume, written for a general readership, is informed by contemporary scholarly approaches to biblical literature as well as questions of contemporary relevance.

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