'Becoming Children of God' offers a fresh and original commentary on the Gospel of John as a narrative inviting readers -- both in the evangelist's time and our own -- to a radical commitment to follow Jesus from within a spirit-filled community. This reading is grounded in a "poetics of biblical narrative" that balances attention to historical, ideological, and aesthetic aspects of John's Gospel while highlighting its relevance for today. By committing himself to a close analysis of the text as "symbolic action" Howard-Brook makes it clear how John's Gospel fairly bristles with references to societal conditions that demand a direct response. Throughout the commentary, his close attention to literary structure as well as social background yields new insights into the often-obscure message of the Fourth Gospel.

New York Times bestseller What is Jesus worth to you? It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily... But who do you know who lives like that? Do you? In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus. Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment -- a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring.

Questions run the breadth of the Mormon experience, including doctrinal questions as well as questions about the LDS lifestyle.

John Examines the Power of True Bible Doctrine Through the Lens of Love Before being exiled to the island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation, the apostle John penned three letters to the church at Ephesus. The Ephesian church was the largest in the ancient world and faced, as many churches of that time did, the dangerous doctrines of Jewish legalism and Hellenistic Gnosticism. The church was also dealing with false leaders more interested in gain and fame than in spreading the truth of the gospel. In response, John, who was the church's pastor for a time, wrote the Johannine epistles. And, as in his gospel, John addresses all of these issues through the lens of God’s love. Bob Yandian delves into John’s letters, verse by verse, using context and his own pastoral sagacity to illuminate John’s messages. In doing so, Pastor Yandian first provides historical and biblical background—including observance of the original Greek language—to bring alive the truths in John’s three letters. Pastor Yandian then encourages modern believers to apply these truths in response to God’s pure and unfailing love. Important Johannine themes Pastor Yandian explores in this commentary: The crucial differences between relationship and fellowship with God The reality of and remedy for sin in the believer’s life The outworking of sanctification The saving power of true doctrine The discerning power of the Holy Spirit within In this commentary, not only can readers expect valuable insight into the beloved apostle’s writings, they can also expect a gentle nudge to be more like Jesus and less like the modern church which, like the Ephesians, forgot their first love.

M. D. Faber presents a meticulous, unremitting inquiry into the psychological direction from which Christianity derives its power to attract and hold its followers. Becoming God's Children: Religion's Infantilizing Process was written, its author says, to alert readers to the role of infantilization in the Judeo-Christian tradition generally and in Christian rite and doctrine particularly. Because religion plays such an important role in so may lives, it is essential to understand the underlying appeal and significance of religious doctrines. To that end, Becoming God's Children offers the reader an in-depth account of human neuropsychological development, while unearthing the Judeo-Christian tradition's explicitly infantilizing doctrines and rites. This compelling perspective on the nature and meaning of religious behavior explores issues such as: to what extent religious faith is grounded in the mnemonic recesses of the worshipper's brain, whether believers are predisposed by both genetic makeup and environmental prompting to adhere to their religious convictions, and why some individuals are powerfully drawn to religious faith while others reject it. A final chapter explores the implications of religion's infantilizing process vis-a-vis the role of reason and scientific thought in the contemporary world.

This book gathers fourteen Catholic scholars to present, examine, and explain the often misunderstood process of ""deification"". The fifteen chapters show what becoming God meant for the early Church, for St. Thomas Aquinas and the greatest Dominicans, and for St. Francis and the early Franciscans. This book explains how this understanding of salvation played out during the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent. It explores the thought of the French School of Spirituality, various Thomists, John Henry Newman, John Paul II, and the Vatican Councils, and it shows where such thinking can be found today in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. No other book has gathered such an array of scholars or provided such a deep study into how humanity's divinized life in Christ has received many rich and various perspectives over the past two thousand years. This book seeks to bring readers into the central mystery of Christianity by allowing the Church's greatest thinkers and texts to speak for themselves, demonstrating how becoming Christ-like and the Body of Christ on earth, is the only ultimate purpose of the Christian faith.

APPROVED by the Diocese of Fresno, CA, and endorsed by Catholic apologist, author and radio host Gary Michuta (author of WHY CATHOLIC BIBLES ARE BIGGER and host of HANDS-ON APOLOGETICS), POWER TO BECOME CHILDREN OF GOD is the culmination of over 25 years' research and reflection on the Catholic Faith. Author Bryan Gesinger, whose work has appeared in the prestigious NEW OXFORD REVIEW (Berkeley, CA) and whom Gary Michuta interviewed twice on his show, HANDS-ON APOLOGETICS, conducted research for the present work over many years of discussions of Catholicism with individuals and groups of diverse ages, educational backgrounds, theological persuasions and personalities. Consequently, the book covers a wide range of topics of interest to Catholics and non-Catholics alike--such as the history and role of the Bible; the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist and the sacrificial character of the Holy Mass; the Communion of Saints, intercessory prayers, and the veneration of statues and icons of Our Lord and the saints; the doctrine of justification and the interrelation of faith and works versus Protestantism's tragic, novel error of "sola fide" (justification by faith alone); the primacy of St. Peter and the biblical and historical roots of the Papacy; and a sketch of the life and works of a great nineteenth-century convert from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church, John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), from whose brilliant, profound legacy we, in the 21st century, can so richly benefit. You are invited to consider this labor of faith, hope and love--to share in its fruits of research and reflections upon the graces through which Christ bestows power to become children of God.

Beloved Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe takes a fresh look at the basics of Christianity for new and mature believers, in this primer that helps build faith, teaches the ways of the Father, and points Christians toward maturity.