Parakeets make delightful pets. We cage them or clip their wings to keep them where we want them. Scot McKnight contends that many, conservatives and liberals alike, attempt the same thing with the Bible. We all try to tame it. McKnight's The Blue Parakeet calls Christians to stop taming the Bible and to let it speak anew to our heart. McKnight challenges us to rethink how to read the Bible, not just to puzzle it together into some systematic belief but to see it as a Story that we're summoned to enter and to carry forward in our day.

A budgie, as the common parakeet is typically called, is the subject of this Complete Care Made Easy pet guide that presents new and experienced bird keepers with insight into every aspect of selecting, caring for, and maintaining well-behaved happy pet birds. Angela Davids has written an ideal introductory pet guide, with chapters on the characteristics of the irresistible budgie, the history of budgies in the wild, selection of a healthy, typical pet bird, housing and care, feeding, training, and health care. The selection chapter offers potential owners excellent advice about selection of the color and sex, suitability of the delicate budgie with families, children, and other pets. In the chapter on housing and care, the author discusses selection of the right cage, placement of the cage, and the purchase of toys, cups, perches, and more. A bird’s diet is critical to its ongoing health, and the chapter devoted to feeding the budgie gives the reader all the info he or she needs about choosing the best diet, different types of seeds, greens, fruits, veggies, grit, as well as human foods to avoid. The chapter “Training Time” addresses finger training, towel training, perch training, and offers an easy-to-follow primer on teaching a budgie to talk. The final two chapters of the book will be useful for bird fanciers interested in learning more about the breeding and the basic color variations and genetics of this perfect beginner’s bird. The book concludes with an appendix of bird societies, a glossary of terms, and a complete index.

What is the “Christian life” all about? Studying the Bible, attending church, cultivating a prayer life, witnessing to others—those are all good. But is that really what Jesus has in mind? The answer, says Scot McKnight in One.Life, lies in Jesus’ words, “Follow me.” What does it look like to follow Jesus, and how will doing so change the way we live our life—our love.life, our justice.life, our peace.life, our community.life, our sex.life—everything about our life. One.Life will open your eyes to the full, compelling immensity of what it means to be a Christian. “Jesus offers to us a kingdom dream that transforms us to the very core of our being,” says Scot McKnight. “His vision is so big we are called to give our entire life to it. His vision is so big it swallows up our dreams.” Discover exactly what Jesus meant when he announced the arrival of God’s kingdom. Equipping you with a new understanding of that kingdom’s radical nature, One.Life shares profound, challenging, and practical insights on how to demonstrate its reality in your life. In many ways, what The Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer challenged Christians to do in earlier generations, One.Life will do for a new generation. One.Life will call you beyond the flatlands of religiosity toward a kingdom vision that will shape everything you do.

"In this elegant narrative, celebrated naturalist Ted Floyd guides you through a year of becoming a better birder. Choosing 200 top avian species to teach key lessons, Floyd introduces a new, holistic approach to bird watching and shows how to use the tools of the 21st century to appreciate the natural world we inhabit together whether city, country or suburbs." -- From book jacket.

Contemporary evangelicals have built a "salvation culture" but not a "gospel culture." Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. The King Jesus Gospel ends with practical suggestions about evangelism and about building a gospel culture.

"Eugene Peterson maintains that how we read the Bible is as important as that we read it. The second volume of Peterson's momentous five-part work on spiritual theology, Eat This Book challenges us to read the Scriptures on their own terms, as God's revelation, and to live them as we read them. Countering the widespread practice of using the Bible for self-serving purposes, Peterson here serves readers with a nourishing entrée into the formative, life-changing art of spiritual reading." - from the back of the book.

FIRST came the bestselling book. Then the popular blog. Now essential Christian formation for anyone between 16 and 22. The gravity point of a life before God is that his followers are to love God and love others with everything they have. Scot McKnight calls this "The Jesus Creed." Now, he's worked it out with high school and college students, seeking to show how this double commandment to love makes sense and gives shape to the moral lives of young adults. The Jesus Creed for Students aims to demonstrate a simple truth - that followers of Jesus, follow Jesus. (Also, its practical, filled with stories, and backed up and checked by youth pastors.)

“Make sure this new guide for living is on your shelf.” —Max Lucado This 15th anniversary of the bestselling classic The Jesus Creed invites us to rediscover the core of biblical Christianity: Loving God and Loving Others. Memorizing the Great Commandment is one thing, but living by it is quite another. One of today’s most engaging and sought-after Biblical scholars, Scot McKnight demystifies this ancient creed and reveals its power to transform the lives of believers today. He explores how Jesus connected the ancient Jewish commandments to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself” to become the foundation of his ministry. In The Jesus Creed, his seminal work, Scot invites followers of Jesus to step back into the world in which Jesus lived and to hear his core teachings like we’ve never heard them before. And just like his disciples, we discover how praying the Jesus Creed will close the gap between the people we are right now and the people God created us to be. In The Jesus Creed, you will: Learn about the identities, hopes and struggles of the people closest to Jesus – Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, Peter, and John Discover how Jesus's radical acts of compassion restore those who are marginalized, oppressed, or grieving Discover how the Jesus Creed can shape society to grow in justice, faith, and joy Discover how the Jesus Creed deepens our love for Jesus, leading to healing, forgiveness and wholeness in our personal lives

In this compelling book about diversity and community, McKnight shares his personal experiences and his study of the Apostle Paul to answer this significant question: What is the church supposed to be? Local churches matter far more than we often know because they determine what Christian life looks like for you. The church McKnight grew up in was a fellowship of sames and likes. Mostly white, same beliefs about everything, same tastes in music and worship and sermons and lifestyle. But the church God designed, says McKnight, is meant to be a fellowship of di­fference and di­fferents. A mixture of people from all across the map and spectrum: men and women, rich and poor, black and white, and everything in between. A Fellowship of Differents explores the church as God’s world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the table to share life with one another as a new kind of family, showing the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be.

Women have played significant roles in ministry and leadership throughout the history of the church and the pages of the Bible. Today, women make up more than half the church, and do much of the mission, ministry, and discipleship in the life of the church. But women have often been held back from ministry roles. Graham Joseph Hill outlines the biblical vision for women in ministry and leadership. He offers a biblical and passionate call for women to be released to teach, to lead, to preach, to serve, to pastor, and to minister in every area of the church. The Bible paints a radical vision of women, empowered and emboldened for full ministry participation in Christ's church. The biblical vision for women and for their role as teachers, witnesses, disciplers, and leaders transforms not only personal lives, but also the church and the world. This book offers a biblical case for women teaching and leading in the church. Hill then explores practical ways that we can empower and release more female leaders in the church, and ways that we can amplify the voices and honor the gifts of women in the way Jesus intended. Together women and men can revitalize the church and renew the world.