First Religion

Yeshua Matters is the story of a pastor who discovers that Jesus Christ was not just a Jewish person, but a practicing Jew, a teacher of Judaism - a rabbi, known during his earthly ministry as Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth. Yet despite this emerging scholarly consensus, Jesus has lost his Jewishness in the collective heart and mind of the church. We simply don't imagine, interpret, or follow him as a part of the broader tapestry of Jewish life and history.

Western Christianity's long-standing support of Israel has, perhaps unintentionally, nurtured a prejudice against Arab people—the descendants of Abraham's first son, Ishmael. Author Tony Maalouf contends that this bias differs dramatically from the biblical portrayal of Ishmael and the nations that have sprung from him. With meticulous research and theological astuteness, Maalouf surfaces the positive portrayal of the Arab people in ancient and prophetic history, clearly showing that the Israeli-Arab conflict is a recent development in history.

The four canonical gospels contain little information about the childhood of Jesus. To provide details of this period, a number of infancy gospels were composed in the second century, the text of this recording being one of the most notable. In this book, the sketchy infancy narrative of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke is embellished in great detail. The events of Jesus’ boyhood days, richly garnished with tales of miraculous feats and the occasional visitation of punishment on unfortunate delinquents, are also described.

A scientist and former evangelical argues that holding onto a belief in a literal, historical Adam has forced many Christians to reject science and become intellectually isolated from the modern world.

The Book of Genesis describes the birth of the world and how God created Adam and Eve - but the portrayal of life in the Garden of Eden and the events that followed is short on detail…What if we could hear the story in Adam's own words? To know what it felt like to become conscious as God breathed his spirit into lifeless clay, to understand the wonder that Adam felt as God taught him about the world and how to live in it, to feel what it was like to be so blessed as to walk in the Garden of Eden at God's side?

A rip roaring, hair raising, edge-of-your-chair saga of the first-century believers. From the day of Pentecost, on through the first seventeen years, every historical figure of that age is there: alive, vivid, believable.

Reasoned Resiliency: A Rational Devotional for First Responders is unique in that it combines a spiritual message with practical advice for a daily dose of uplift. Nondenominational and applicable to all spiritual philosophies, it probes the spiritual values of the listener and encourages them to grow in their resilience and wellness.

For most Christians, God is He. That’s the unnoticed wallpaper of our Christian lives, impacting our understanding of both God and ourselves. Finding God’s Feminine Side is an invitation to discover the beautiful, but often overlooked feminine imagery for God in the Bible and an exploration of why our view of God has been so masculine, why that imbalance might be a problem and what we might want to do about it. Entering this territory inevitably raises difficult questions.

The year was 1922: World War I had just come to a close, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, and Asa Jennings, a YMCA worker from upstate New York, had just arrived in the quiet coastal city of Smyrna to teach sports to boys. Several hundred miles to the east in Turkey's interior, tensions between Greeks and Turks had boiled over into deadly violence. Mustapha Kemal, now known as Ataturk, and his Muslim army soon advanced into Smyrna, a Christian city, where a half a million terrified Greek and Armenian refugees had fled in a desperate attempt to escape his troops.

Familiarity and dishonor kill the anointing. The Jews, being the fathers and mothers of the faith, were dishonored and replaced by other church fathers that, along with Emperor Constantine, crafted a religious system that dishonors the Jews and all things Jewish. As a result, the anointing left, and miracles ceased. This distorted religious system affects many Christians until this day.

Amy Bloch, accomplished psychiatrist, busy and fully in control of her professional and family life, was dealt what she thought was a devastating, insurmountable set-back when her daughter Emily was born with a severe brain malformation. Amy tried desperately to “fix” Emily and exhausted herself in her efforts to deal with the “problem” using her intellect, going at it brain-first, the way we tend to approach any challenge in our society. Emily, by default, lives completely heart-first: She simply doesn’t have the capabilities to approach life brain-first.

This book is for Christians and everybody else who takes himself too seriously! Buckingham, renowned storyteller and master satirist, goes behind the scenes to name names and talk about hilarious incidents in his life, and the life of others close to him. No one escapes his pointed pen. The big shots, the unknowns, his wife, his kids, his mother, friend, and foe - all are targets of his humor. He even pokes fun at himself - his weight, his balding head, and his often fumbling methods to represent God.

In 1997, Atlanta businessman Os Hillman began writing a daily e-mail devotional featuring 4-minute meditations on faith and work life. For men and women in the workplace, this was just what they needed: practical help in applying their faith to their work life; encouragement to live out their faith; empowerment to be more effective in their jobs; support to become powerful witnesses at work; and examples of others who experienced the presence of God at work.

Em outubro de 2017, cientistas de um dos maiores observatórios espaciais do mundo — localizado no topo de um vulcão dormente no Havaí — detectaram um objeto transitando por nosso sistema solar. A primeira hipótese foi a de que se tratava de um mero asteroide, como tantos outros que cruzaram e seguem cruzando nossa galáxia. Mas os dados coletados pelo telescópio Pan-STARRS1 revelaram detalhes curiosos, e bem anômalos, no comportamento desse visitante.

When wounded people come to church, we often do one of two things, with the best of intentions: We minimize or discount their pain, or we try to "fix" them by being the therapist. Both just cause more damage. And the worst part is, we don't know we're causing damage. We want to help. We have the right heart. We've just never been trained how to receive wounded people effectively. By doing it wrong we make it clear we don't understand their pain, and they keep it secret for their own protection. Because we aren't safe. But what if there's another way?

After the Berlin Wall fell, a group of Christian colleges in the US seized the opportunity to begin strategic faculty and student exchanges with universities inside the Soviet Union. They could not have foreseen the doors that would open next. During a 1990 visit to Russia, John Bernbaum and his colleagues received a surprising invitation from a Russian government official: come help build a faith-based university in Moscow. Thus, after 70 years of fierce religious persecution under communism, the Russian-American Christian University (RACU) was born.

On March, 13, 2013, 115 cardinals elected for the first time a pope from outside of Europe. Pope Francis, a native of Argentina, is not just the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere; he is also the first Jesuit to ever hold the Chair of Peter. Now, a leading expert on the papacy provides the ultimate introduction to this new pope, including biographical information and an absorbing collection of Jorge Mario Bergoglio's most persuasive words.

It's time to start over from zero. What happened to the Western church? Why are we losing the generation under thirty and reaching so few nonbelievers? In Church Zero, Peyton Jones examines one of our biggest problems: squeezing our leaders into a mold that cuts their hair and drains away their commando strength. Scripture lays out a leadership model that worked explosively in the first century.

God...is the master of beginnings. Your circumstances may overwhelm you - but not God, who created everything from nothing. God lovingly offers relief, hope, and renewed energy for every beginning in your life. Join Steve Wiens on a paradigm-shifting walk through the seven days of creation, where he reveals how to apply the genesis of life to every one of your transitions. Discover your place in the creation process and how God longs to work in and through every change you encounter.

Popular author and presenter Patrick Madrid draws Life Lessons from the many interesting, funny, instructive, and poignant experiences of his life. Grounded in scripture and a firm moral foundation, Patrick shows how the smallest stories that make up your life are clear pointers to the greater story of God's work in your life. The laughter, the tears, and the beauty of life come alive through Patrick's insightful and clear style. These life lessons will inspire you to look anew at your everyday experiences - and see the wonder of God.