The Gospel of John Cowboy Style: A Paraphrase of the Gospel in Cowboy Language steps into the boots of countless books, compositions, paintings, and sculptures that have, over the centuries, turned to the gospels for inspiration and to particular cultures for means of expression. Author Mel Hooten, drawing upon personal history and long experience, retells the gospel of John in the lingo of the cowboy. From start to finish, including both the gospel writers narrative and every figures words, this retelling presents the gospel afresh through the straight-talking dialect of the Texas Panhandles traditional cowboys. With this approach, The Gospel of John Cowboy Style presents familiar passages in a new light. In John 3:16, for example, Jesus says, Ya see, God loves this world so much, that He gave His one and only Son to die, so that every man, woman, boy, and girl who believes in Him will not die, but will be a-livin forever. If you struggle with unfamiliar words in traditional translations of the Bible, The Gospel of John Cowboy Style offers an easy-to-understand retelling of the good news of Jesus Christ. Whether you love the heritage of the American West or enjoy the thrill of hearing the gospel in new ways, this paraphrase will rope you in with its powerful mixture of cowboy culture and gospel content.

Searching Heart & Scripture presents familiar passages in a new light by including paraphrased Scripture text from The Gospel of John Cowboy Style. Whether you love the heritage of the American West or enjoy the thrill of hearing the gospel in new ways, this paraphrase will rope you in with its powerful mixture of cowboy culture and gospel content. However, the study questions included in Searching Heart & Scripture can be used with any Bible translation and indeed those participating in this study will need to have their Bible close by because it requires searching out many Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments. The Scripture text in this cowboy Bible study guide will delight you and the questions will search your heart, strengthen your faith, and deepen your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism—or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.

The gospel of Jesus has not always been good news for Native Americans. But despite the far-reaching effects of colonialism, some Natives have forged culturally authentic ways to follow Jesus. In his final work, Richard Twiss surveys the complicated history of Christian missions among Indigenous peoples and voices a hopeful vision of contextual Native Christian faith.

Celebrated western artist Jack Terry captures the essence of cowboy living in this collection of stories, prayers, and insights from life on the trail. Drawing on his many hours in the saddle and the life of his cowboy granddad, Jacks reveals how the cowboy code applies to life today: trust God to provide look for God's majesty in His creation realize a person's value is in what he or she gives stand up for what is right be content with what you have don't just talk humility--live it see trials as opportunities to grow stronger Readers will enjoy this riding-the-range wisdom that makes life rich and meaningful whether they live in the city, country, or somewhere in-between.

John Paul II, the most charismatic religious leader of our time, is a man whose actions truly reflect his beliefs. At the dawn of the new Millennium, AN INVITATION TO JOY brings together a selection of John Paul's messages with the most poignant photographs documenting his life both before and after his election to papacy. For the first time, here is an illustrated devotional keepsake album that distills the essence of his message and shows the intimate connection between his words and deeds. Three main sections, THE HUMAN FAMILY, THE PEOPLE OF GOD, THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON, encompass the themes that are most important to the Pontiff. Resonant passages on everything from love and family, suffering and evil, freedom and human rights, other religions and the role of women are coupled with striking photographs. A fourth section, A LIFETIME OF DEVOTION, provides a portrait of the Pope's entire life in pictures, from his early childhood to his current day-to-day activities in the Vatican. Reflecting the Pope's all-embracing outreach to people around the world, AN INVITATION TO JOY will inspire both those inside and outside the Catholic Church.

This timely book investigates the increasing visibility and influence of evangelical Christians in recent American politics with a focus on racial justice. Peter Goodwin Heltzel considers four evangelical social movements: Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals, Christian Community Development Association, and Sojourners. The political motives and actions of evangelical groups are founded upon their conceptions of Jesus Christ, Heltzel contends. He traces the roots of contemporary evangelical politics to the prophetic black Christianity tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the socially engaged evangelical tradition of Carl F. H. Henry. Heltzel shows that the basic tenets of King's and Henry's theologies have led their evangelical heirs toward a prophetic evangelicalism in a shade of blue green--blue symbolizing the tragedy of black suffering in the Americas, and green symbolizing the hope of a prophetic evangelical engagement with poverty, AIDS, and the environment. This fresh theological understanding of evangelical political groups shines new light on the ways evangelicals shape and are shaped by broader American culture.

There’s Good News for the Weary Call it burnout, a spiritual breakdown, or a personal crisis, the toll of Bill Tell’s decades of successful ministry finally caught up with him. Incapacitated and depressed, he found that the road to recovery began at the cross. To his delight, healing opened new freedoms as he embraced the gospel in new ways. Lay It Down: Living in the Freedom of the Gospel is a bold declaration of the overwhelming grace of God. More than merely saving us in our sin, by grace God delivers us from it, making us new creations and treating us accordingly—no matter what. For a generation of Christians who have learned a gospel of performance and striving, Lay It Down offers the good news of the grace that is already ours in Christ.