Our Lord often used common illustrations to teach great truths. He used ordinary objects, relationships, and events to communicate extraordinary principles. Much of Paul's instructions, too, were given through metaphorical language to which his hearers could relate. Analogies and metaphors help us grasp larger truths because they take us from our everyday experiences and lead us to what God desires to be daily realities in our Christian walk. In this curriculum, we will examine thirteen metaphors that will help define, clarify, and instruct us in specific aspects of our relationship with the Lord. As we examine the basic characteristics of each, we will more thoroughly understand our responsibilities as Christians and learn how to successfully fulfill God's design for our lives.

Transform Lives and Change the Course of HistoryMany countries are facing possibly the greatest crises of their entire history. What a tragedy it would be if we Christians failed to make any positive effect on the needs of the nation in which we live! Yet victory is the destiny of God’s people. Be part of His plan to transform your life, the lives of other people, and the very life of your country. Jesus Christ never encountered a situation in which He said, “I’m sorry. There is nothing to be done.” Instead, He taught that believers are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. The world is in desperate need of change, and we are the people who must bring about that change. Best-selling author and Bible teacher Derek Prince outlines our strategic position as Christians in the world—including both our privileges and responsibilities to impact individual lives, communities, and entire nations. He provides timely teaching on how to… Take spiritual initiative in your area of influence Identify with God’s purposes and extend His kingdom in the world Wage spiritual warfare and defeat the schemes of the devil Utilize the weapons of prayer, fasting, praise, and testimony Become a history changer for a better world We have the means to alter the course of events in our cities and nations according to God’s will—transforming lives and changing the course of history.

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

Synopsis: Enormous challenges and opportunities face the Christian church in our globalized, rapidly changing world. It is becoming increasingly clear that the church and its leaders need a missional self-understanding. In this volume, Graham Hill asks: "What does it mean for the church to be truly missional?" This book outlines the thought of twelve leading thinkers, and puts their thinking into conversation with a missional understanding of the church. Most of the missional literature of the past twenty years is practical, telling us how to be a missional church, rather than why certain theological themes compel the church toward a missional self-understanding and existence. This book takes a different approach. It outlines a basic missional understanding of the church by engaging theology and Scripture. It examines some of the key theological themes that are foundational for a missional church, and does this in conversation with twelve leading thinkers. This book provides indispensable foundations for a Christ-centered, gospel-shaped, theologically informed, and systematic missional view of the church. Endorsements: "Graham Hill ranges far and wide in order to construct a viable ecumenical, but distinctly missional, ecclesiology. In so doing, he provides us with a classy, intelligent, and passionate contribution to one of the defining issues of our time." --Alan Hirsch Author of The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church "It is increasingly clear to me that Christian understandings of both the nature and the mission of the church are in considerable disarray today. Graham Hill's highly important book offers the beginnings of a profoundly important exploration of both questions, together. Salt, Light, and a City is must reading." --David P. Gushee Mercer University "Graham Hill writes from a Protestant evangelical perspective, but this is a broadly based study, drawing on insights from all the historic traditions as well as biblical understandings and on case studies that highlight the experience of those who are operating on the missional edge today. This is a significant contribution to the ongoing discussions about missiology and ecclesiology that will take the conversation forward in creative and well-informed directions." --John Drane Author of After McDonaldization: Mission, Ministry, and Christian Discipleship in an Age of Uncertainty "Salt, Light, and a City is no cloying attempt at a simplistic universal model for the missional church. Graham Hill insists we do the hard work of engaging Trinitarian theology, contemporary missiology, and broad understandings of ecclesiology to find a way forward. In brief, it is an invaluable addition to any library of research into the missional paradigm." --Michael Frost Morling College (Sydney, Australia Author Biography: Graham Hill is Professor of Leadership and Pastoral Theology at Morling College in Sydney, Australia (affiliated with the MCD University of Divinity). His ministry experiences include church planting, pastoring in a large growing congregation, and coaching pastors and planters of missional experiments.

It's another scary day at the Black Lagoon. . . . There's a new gym teacher transferring over from the junior high, and Hubie is worried. The junior high students say he's big, mean, and blows his whistle a lot. Will Hubie really have to run a lap around the world to pass Mr. Green's class? Will he be able to lift Mr. Green's pickup truck and climb up a rope while it's on fire?Hubie doesn't want to go to gym class anymore!

This book will equip Christian parents to navigate the increasingly secular public school system with the aim to help their kids stand firm in their faith, uphold a Biblical worldview and shine a light for Christ. There are also powerful resources for anyone involved in public education on campus: teachers, administrators, volunteers, and pastors.

This New York Times–bestselling book upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for people who think differently. What is autism? A lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more—and the future of our society depends on our understanding it. Wired reporter Steve Silberman unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who became famous for discovering it, and finds surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years. Going back to the earliest days of autism research, Silberman offers a gripping narrative of Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, the research pioneers who defined the scope of autism in profoundly different ways; he then goes on to explore the game-changing concept of neurodiversity. NeuroTribes considers the idea that neurological differences such as autism, dyslexia, and ADHD are not errors of nature or products of the toxic modern world, but the result of natural variations in the human genome. This groundbreaking book will reshape our understanding of the history, meaning, function, and implications of neurodiversity in our world.

The hidden seeds of the Christian renewal in China today include the outstanding Chinese Christians in Salt and Light 2, a dozen new life stories with lively anecdotes and photographs. These reformers made lasting contributions that shaped modern China. Working out of the limelight in their professions, they had quiet but powerful influence on early twentieth-century civil society. Motivated by their faith, they modeled essential virtues. This series helps recover a lost Christian heritage linked closely to a legacy of East-West cooperation in an earlier global era.

The workplace can be very rewarding for the Christian worker. But let's face it--the workplace can also be the most challenging place to be "salt and light" as Jesus commands in Matt 5:13-16. It is daunting to consider that on average, we work 90,000 hours over the course of our working lives. Living Salty and Light-filled Lives in the Workplace gives Christian workers some practical ways to be "salt and light" in the workplace. It will help the Christian white- and blue-collar worker live salty and light-filled lives in the workplace.