LITMIR.BIZ

For centuries the New Testament book of Hebrews has been interpreted as though it had been written for Jewish Christians in danger of lapsing back into legalism and religious ceremony. This view is now being challenged by current scholarship. Rather than attacking the Old Testament and Judaism, the author of Hebrews praises the person and work of Jesus through a series of comparisons on which he bases exhortations and warnings to the present people of God. Hebrews urges God's people to learn from past mistakes and failures, and to take up the challenge in difficult times to live faithfully in the new relationship to God through Jesus, God's Son.
In The Second Chance for God's People: Messages from Hebrews, Quaker pastor and professor Timothy W. Seid encourages today's church to respond to the challenge of Hebrews: first individually by progressing in spiritual and moral maturity, and second collectively by being God's faithful people in the world. In the light of ancient Greek language and rhetoric after having extensively researched Hebrews, Seid interprets the text of Hebrews section by section in an accessible and nontechnical way while also illustrating and applying the meaning of the text for the contemporary church.

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Written in the high art style of prophetic witness, The Scroll of Anatiya reveals a new kind of biblical heroine who is fiercely passionate and sensual. In this first-person, honest, and vulnerable account of an orphaned, passion-driven disciple of Jeremiah–perhaps a prophetess in her own right–Anatiya reveals herself to be a rare window into an incredible world and a beautiful mind. Out of a century of war, wrath, starvation, and exile, Anatiya's epic love poem unleashes a timeless theology of love. In this unique work, the contemporary imagination of Rabbi Zoe Klein meshes seamlessly with the world of Jeremiah in an unforgettable story of passion, poetry, and love.

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Robert Rollock is best remembered today for the role he played in the development of Reformed covenant theology, a role defined especially by the uniquely mature treatment of a pre-fall covenant of works discovered in his thought. However, scholarship on Rollock's covenant thought has until now been based almost entirely on an early modern English translation of Rollock's Tractatus de vocatione efficaci (1597), and has overlooked discussion of the covenant of works found both in Rollock's 1596 Quaestiones et responsiones aliquot de Foedere Dei, deque Sacramento quod foederis Dei sigillum est and his 1593 Romans commentary. This volume offers the first complete English translation of Rollock's 1596 catechism as well as English translations of relevant sections from his Romans commentary that deal with the subject of God's covenants with man. Thus this volume stands to offer students of Reformed covenant theology a better understanding of Rollock's thought and the contribution he made to the evolution of Reformed theology, particularly on the matter of God's covenant with humankind before the fall.

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Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889) was born and reared in a Jewish home in Vienna. He was given a New Testament while studying medicine at the University of Pest (Budapest) and soon afterwards came to believe in Jesus as his Messiah. He held several teaching positions in the United Kingdom before settling at the University of Oxford. From 1882 until his death, he was Grinfeld Lecturer on the Septuagint. He is still considered a leading authority on Jewish life and customs in the time of Jesus. He wrote many books on a variety of topics, most famously The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.
The Wisdom of Alfred Edersheim includes hundreds of quotations from his various works, many of which are rare and out of print. Edersheim is remembered and loved for his devotional commentary as much as for his scholarship.

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In Christians and Jews Together, Stuart Dauermann challenges Christians and Jews to discover new ways to partner together in serving what God is up to in the world. He imaginatively connects the thinking of Paul the Apostle with the Prophet Ezekiel, forming a previously unexplored bridge between Jews and Christians. This is an excellent resource for Christians seeking new ways to understand and share their faith within the context of deep respect for their Jewish neighbors, relatives, and friends.

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The great burden of Al Baker's life, that which drives him in Christian ministry more than anything else, is to see the church of the Lord Jesus Christ rise up and become mighty as she has been so often in past years. One thing has become very clear to Baker–the western church is in big trouble. Many pastors are terribly discouraged in their ministries. So are their people. Pastors have been told that they can model their ministries after whoever the latest and hottest preacher is, and all will be well with them, that they can expect exponential growth in their churches. With few exceptions, this has not been their experience. They have attended the seminars and read the latest books, but they have little to show for their efforts. As a pastor, Baker is heartbroken over the vastness of people's problems in today's church–everything from incest, child molestation, homosexuality, pornography, severe depression, suicide, divorce, wayward children, adultery, fornication, and more. The pastoral problems are epidemic. The Christian faith in American churches is woefully lacking. Church people are generally no different from those of the world. What are we to do? We need revival. We need a revival culture in the western church. We need, like Israel laboring under Egyptian bondage, to become intolerable of our circumstances. Israel cried out to the Lord when their slavery became intolerable to them. May God move us to divine discontent, to be dissatisfied with the status quo!

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This collection of poetic reflections is a rich resource for a faithful imagination. Michael Coffey's poems explore the deep questions and joyful affirmations of Christian faith. Never settling for easy answers or straight-forward interpretations, Coffey's writing invites the reader into new spiritual territory where the strange and unexpected, the beautiful and painful, become an encounter with the holy.
Anyone preparing to preach or teach on biblical texts will find here words that inspire, challenge, and create new inroads for faith. Anyone seeking meditative or devotional readings of Scripture will find a companion for thoughtful reflection and prayer. Covering most of the Sundays and primary festivals of the church's liturgical year, these writings will enrich all who plan, prepare, and participate in worship that spans the vast themes of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and the ordinary Sundays.

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What, pray tell, does a faithful urban ministry require if not a triadic relationship of prayer, justice, and hope? Could such a theologically conjunctive relationship of prayer, justice, and hope fortify urban ministry and challenge students and practitioners to ponder and practice beyond the box? Frequently, justice is collapsed to charity, hope into wishful thinking or temporarily arrested despair, and prayer a grasp at quick-fix interventions. An urban ministry's steadfast public and prophetic witness longs for the depth and width of this triad. Via three countries' decades of endeavors, one chapter brainstorms urban ministry practices while another's literature survey signals crucial convictions. Amid many, seminal theologians are summoned to ground urban ministry intimations and implications: Niebuhr on justice, Moltmann on hope, and Merton on contemplative prayer. Evident is passion that fuels compassion in the service of justice, hope that engages despair, and prayer that draws from the contemplative center of it all–thankful resources for long haul ministry. The triad presses to illumine a concrete ministry's engagement of relentless, forced option issues yet with significant networks resourcing. Contrast-awareness animates endurance. The summary exegetes the original grace-based serenity prayer. Hence, hope vitally balances realism's temptation to cynicism. Realism saves hope from irrelevancy.

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In the final days of World War II, early one frosty morning, a young German pastor was taken from his cell by his Nazi captors and led to his place of execution. Coming from one of Berlin's leading families, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's already brilliant academic and church career was thus brutally terminated. Bonhoeffer found himself in such a strange place for a theologian, being one of the very few in the German Church who stood resolutely opposed to the Nazis to the point where he, as a one-time pacifist, became deeply involved in the conspiratorial plot to kill Hitler and bring down the regime. This course of action saw him enter the murky sphere of secrecy and duplicity as a member of the conspiracy, while two-timing the Nazis as a member of military intelligence. Using that official role, Bonhoeffer was able to travel and communicate with his international ecumenical contacts as part of the conspiracy's attempt to strike a deal with the Allies to end the war. From a dark period, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, brave and resolute, stands as a bright and shining light.

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What the scientific community dismisses as a mental disorder, Christians have often labeled «demon possession.» While classifications may offer limited help in explanation, the Reverend Dr. Harold Ristau explores the nature and meaning of demonic activity by drawing from his own experiences with exorcism. Ristau shares life lessons, spiritual applications, and religious wisdom from his personal encounters with the dark realm. Primarily intended for clergy, his reflections offer a springboard intended to stimulate critical thinking, challenge metaphysical presuppositions, and inspire a belated conversation on a topic that has traditionally been avoided, not because of a lack of empirical evidence, but due to the fear that it incites inside of us. Yet if the claims of the historic Church are true–that demons do in fact exist and seek our destruction–then an honest examination of the phenomenon, and its impact on the ways in which we live and reason, is an essential endeavor for any practitioner of the ministry of deliverance.

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