There are many complexities associated with ministering to another person. Where does a helper begin? What’s important to notice? Is there an overall ministry strategy that’s beneficial? Saints, Sufferers, and Sinners by author and counselor Michael R. Emlet outlines a model of one-another ministry based on how God sees and loves his people. Emlet helps readers use Scripture to find foundational categories for understanding and approaching one another, which serve as guideposts for wise care. Filled with everyday illustrations as well as counseling examples, Emlet demonstrates what it looks like to approach fellow believers simultaneously as saints, sufferers, and sinners. As part of CCEF's Helping the Helper series, this guide for ministry provides an overall framework for wisely helping any person, balancing all three aspects of our experience as Christians.

Much of what we see expressed in the church today is built on more than just the New Testament. It's built mostly on the Old Testament, Church culture, and Paganism. If we are to succeed in making disciples of all nations then we must go back to the "template" we find in the Bible. Let the reformation begin!

Asian religious traditions have always been deeply concerned with "sins" and what to do about them. As the essays in this volume illustrate, what Buddhists in Tibet, India, China or Japan, what Jains, Daoists, Hindus or Sikhs considered to be a "sin" was neither one thing, nor exactly what the Abrahamic traditions meant by the term. "Sins"could be both undesireable behavior and unacceptable thoughts. In different contexts, at different times and places, a sin might be a ritual infraction or a violation of a rule of law; it could be a moral failing or a wrong belief. However defined, sins were considered so grave a hindrance to spiritual perfection, so profound a threat to the social order, that the search for their remedies through rituals of expiation, pilgrimage, confession, recitation of spells, or philosophical reflection, was one of the central quests of the religions studied here.

"How many times have we heard the words "God loves you" and yet not believed them because we have made a wreck of our lives and felt unworthy of His love? We hear those words all the time, but how can we see them in action? We see them through God's power to redeem and repair broken lives. In Redeemed, adult Christians will find examples of God's redemption as they explore several key Bible characters who really messed things up. Readers will see how God forgave and restored these people, repaired the damage, and brought meaning and purpose in their lives. Though readers may feel that their failings have erected a permanent barrier between themselves and God, they will learn how God redeems His people time and time again-through the Word and Sacraments, their church, friends, family, and other circumstances"--

With her inimitable gift for describing the workings of the heart and mind, Edna O'Brien introduces us to a vivid new cast of restless, searching people who-whether in the Irish countryside or London or New York-remind us of our own humanity. In Send My Roots Rain, Miss Gilhooley, a librarian, waits in the lobby of a posh Dublin hotel-expecting to meet a celebrated poet while reflecting on the great love who disappointed her. The Irish workers of "The Shovel Kings" have pipe dreams of becoming millionaires in London, but long for their quickly changing homeland-exiles in both places. "Green Georgette" is a searing anatomy of class, through the eyes of a little girl; "Old Wounds" illuminates the importance of family and memory in old age. In language that is always bold and vital, Edna O'Brien pays tribute to the universal forces that rule our lives.

Sins and Sinners: Asian Perspectives brings together essays by leading scholars of Asian religions to explore the diversity of beliefs about sin and its remedies.

Pastor Brian Zahnd began "to question the theology of a wrathful God who delights in punishing sinners, and has started to explore the real nature of Jesus and His Father. The book isn’t only an interesting look at the context of some modern theological ideas; it’s also offers some profound insight into God’s love and eternal plan." —Relevant Magazine (Named one of the Top 10 Books of 2017) God is wrath? Or God is Love? In his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Puritan revivalist Jonathan Edwards shaped predominating American theology with a vision of God as angry, violent, and retributive. Three centuries later, Brian Zahnd was both mesmerized and terrified by Edwards’s wrathful God. Haunted by fear that crippled his relationship with God, Zahnd spent years praying for a divine experience of hell. What Zahnd experienced instead was the Father’s love—revealed perfectly through Jesus Christ—for all prodigal sons and daughters. In Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Zahnd asks important questions like: Is seeing God primarily as wrathful towards sinners true or biblical? Is fearing God a normal expected behavior? And where might the natural implications of this theological framework lead us? Thoughtfully wrestling with subjects like Old Testament genocide, the crucifixion of Jesus, eternal punishment in hell, and the final judgment in Revelation, Zanhd maintains that the summit of divine revelation for sinners is not God is wrath, but God is love.

Are men born sinners? Is sin innate, inborn, hereditary? Are men born into this world with a nature that causes them to sin & makes it impossible for them to obey God? ARE MEN BORN SINNERS?: THE MYTH OF ORIGINAL SIN gives a clear, unequivocal, biblical answer to the above questions. It shows conclusively that the doctrine of original sin is false. CONTENTS: 1. Are Men Born Sinners? 2. Proof-texts Used to support the Doctrine of Original Sin. 3. The Origin & History of the Doctrine of Original Sin. 4. The Biblical Doctrine of Sin. 5. Objections Answered. 6. How a False Doctrine Could Persist So Long. 7. Thirteen Reasons Why the Doctrine of Original Sin is False. 8. The Great Problem of Original Sin. 9. Original Sin Makes God Imperfect. 10. God Hates False Doctrine PLUS THE ANTHOLOGY: four Christian authors (Charles G. Finney, Henry C. Sheldon, Moses Stuart & Albert Barnes) who show the original sin doctrine to be false. ORDER FROM: Evangel Books, P.O. Box 9865, Long Beach, CA 90810.

The devastating evils of recent history have brought about renewed interest in the Christian doctrine of sin. This volume explores with fresh insight and great seriousness the contemporary plausibility, meaning, and relevance of the biblical understanding of the Fall and its effects. Marguerite Shuster argues that certain aspects of the traditional doctrine of the Fall, including the belief that it took place in time and space, cannot simply be set aside without serious consequences for our doctrine of God and our understanding of human identity, dignity, and responsibility. She explores the nature and extent of sin and examines such problematic issues as "degrees" of sin and culpability. Despite the seriousness with which Shuster treats these topics, her discussion is not despairing but instead points to the redemption that God has accomplished in Christ. Filled with contemporary allusions and completed with model sermons on the Fall and sin, this volume is one of the best available studies of this key Christian doctrine.