“Faith without love to Christ is a dead faith.” So states Thomas Vincent in The True Christian’s Love of the Unseen Christ—a book whose sole stated purpose is to help the reader obtain love for Christ in truth and strength. Christian, if your love for Christ has gone cold, if you have lost your passion for serving Christ, this book will be a spark for rekindling that love again, and a bellows for fanning it into flame. Originally published in 1677, this classic treatise has been meticulously edited to benefit a new generation of Christian readers. Archaic language has been gently modernized, and helpful footnotes have been added to aid the reader. This edition includes a biographical preface and review questions designed to facilitate group discussion or personal reflection.

This is one of the most poignant books ever to come from a Puritan pen. Vincent wrote this priceless devotional based on 1 Peter 1:8, "Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love..." There is, of course, nothing more basic in Christianity than love to Christ. It is difficult to describe the passionate love for Christ that flows from every page of this treatment of the beauty of Christ. Here is a warm bath and spiritual encouragement for weary souls. "Our Savior sent an epistle from heaven to the church of Ephesus, wherein He reproved her because she had left her first love, and threatened the removal of her candlestick. He would take away her light--if she did not recover her love. By the same hand, at the same time, He sent another epistle to the church of Laodicea, wherein He reproved her lukewarmness, and threatened, because she was neither hot nor cold--that He would spew her out of His mouth, Revelation 2:45 and 3:15-16. And are professors in Britain under no such sin, in no such danger--when some scoff at the flames of love to Christ, like dogs that bark at the moon so far above them; when the most nominal professors are wholly strangers to this love? "The former looking upon it as but a fancy, the latter having it only in the theory and when, among those Christians who love Christ in sincerity, there are so few that know what it is to love Christ with fervor and ardency, when there is so general a decay of love to Christ in the land, Lord, what is likely to become of Britain! Have we not provoked the Lord to take away our candlestick? Have we not provoked the Lord to suffer worse than Egyptian darkness to overspread us again, and cover our light because it shines with such cold beams, because the light of knowledge in the head, is accompanied with so little warmth of love to Christ in the hearts of most Christians? Everyone will fetch water to quench fire in a general conflagration, and surely there is need in a day of such general decay of love to Christ, that some such fetch fire from heaven, and use bellows too; arguments, I mean, to enkindle and blow up the spark of love to Christ which seems so ready to expire. "Reader, the following discourse of the true Christian's love to the unseen Christ, is not finely spun and woven with neatness of wit and language. It is not flourished and set off with a variety of metaphors, hyperboles, rhetorical elegancies, or poetical fancies and fragments. It is not adorned and fringed with the specious show of many marginal quotations, excerpted out of divers authors. The discourse is plain--but the author has endeavored that it might be warm; his design being more to advance his Master, than himself, in your esteem; and if he has less of your praise, so that his Lord may have more of your love--his great end is attained."

How do we find contentment in God when we feel so hidden? Sara Hagerty unfolds the truths found in the biblical story of Mary of Bethany to discover the scandalous love of God and explore the spiritual richness of being hidden in him. Every heart longs to be seen and understood. Yet most of our lives is unwitnessed. We spend our days working, driving, parenting. We sometimes spend whole seasons feeling unnoticed and unappreciated. In Unseen, Sara Hagerty suggests that this is exactly what God intended. He is the only One who truly knows us. He is the only One who understands the value of the unseen in our lives. When this truth seeps into our souls, we realize that only when we hide ourselves in God can we give ourselves to others in true freedom--and know the joy of a deeper relationship with the God who sees us. Our culture applauds what we can produce, what we can show, what we can upload to social media. Only when we give all of ourselves to God--unedited, abandoned, apparently wasteful in its lack of productivity--can we live out who God created us to be. As Hagerty writes, "Maybe my seemingly unproductive, looking-up-at-Him life produces awe among the angels." Through an eloquent exploration of both personal and biblical story, Hagerty calls us to offer every unseen minute of our lives to God. God is in the secret places of our lives that no one else witnesses. But we've not been relegated to these places. We've been invited. We may be "wasting" ourselves in a hidden corner today: The cubicle on the fourth floor. The hospital bedside of an elderly parent. The laundry room. But these are the places God uses to meet us with a radical love. These are the places that produce the kind of unhinged love in us that gives everything at His feet, whether or not anyone else ever proclaims our name, whether or not anyone else ever sees. God's invitation is not just for a season or a day. It is the question of our lives: "When no one else applauds you, when it makes no sense, when you see no results--will you waste your love on Me?"

In The Unseen Realm, Dr. Michael Heiser examines the ancient context of Scripture, explaining how its supernatural worldview can help us grow in our understanding of God. He illuminates intriguing and amazing passages of the Bible that have been hiding in plain sight. You'll find yourself engaged in an enthusiastic pursuit of the truth, resulting in a new appreciation for God's Word. Why wasn't Eve surprised when the serpent spoke to her? How did descendants of the Nephilim survive the flood? Why did Jacob fuse Yahweh and his Angel together in his prayer? Who are the assembly of divine beings that God presides over? In what way do those beings participate in God's decisions? Why do Peter and Jude promote belief in imprisoned spirits? Why does Paul describe evil spirits in terms of geographical rulership? Who are the "glorious ones" that even angels dare not rebuke? After reading this book, you may never read your Bible the same way again. Endorsements "There is a world referred to in the Scripture that is quite unseen, but also quite present and active. Michael Heiser's The Unseen Realm seeks to unmask this world. Heiser shows how important it is to understand this world and appreciate how its contribution helps to make sense of Scripture. The book is clear and well done, treating many ideas and themes that often go unseen themselves. With this book, such themes will no longer be neglected, so read it and discover a new realm for reflection about what Scripture teaches." --Darrell L. Bock, Executive Director for Cultural Engagement, Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Howard G. Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Engagement "'How was it possible that I had never seen that before?' Dr. Heiser's survey of the complex reality of the supernatural world as the Scriptures portray it covers a subject that is strangely sidestepped. No one is going to agree with everything in his book, but the subject deserves careful study, and so does this book." --John Goldingay, David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament, School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary "This is a 'big' book in the best sense of the term. It is big in its scope and in its depth of analysis. Michael Heiser is a scholar who knows Scripture intimately in its ancient cultural context. All--scholars, clergy, and laypeople--who read this profound and accessible book will grow in their understanding of both the Old and New Testaments, particularly as their eyes are opened to the Bible's 'unseen world.'" --Tremper Longman III, Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies, Westmont College