Did you know that you have a huge inheritance and that you serve a King who exposes His plans, purposes, power, and deepest secrets to you as a citizen in His Kingdom? In Touching the Heart of God you will learn about this King and His Kingdom—its order, its benefits, and the privilege afforded to its citizens in celebrating the greatest military and spiritual victories in recorded history. The God of all creation actually keeps a calendar that celebrates His activity in the history of mankind and encourages our participation in the feasts. Whether you are a Messianic or Gentile believer in our amazing Messiah, you will find new and empowering insights in this book, which will build your faith and provoke your participation.

"You are not far from the reign of God," Jesus tells the scribe. Not far? In this collection of engaging essays, author and vocation consultant Mary Sharon Moore encourages fellow Christians to boldly travel through their own life experience from the disengaged edges to the living core of the reign of God. Drawing from Scripture's most challenging teachings as well as unexpected moments of testing and grace, Touching the Reign of God breaks open the transformative power of the reign of God, which is not far at all but intimately near--pervading every aspect of daily life. Thought-provoking questions at the end of each essay guide individual and study group formation in the practice of theological reflection, the work of discerning God's movement in life's circumstance. As Moore reveals through story and insight, touching the reign of God is not optional work for those who profess Christian faith; rather, it is a vital participation in the redeeming work of the risen Christ. This brilliant collection of essays models the journey into the reign of God, which every one of us must take.

The volumes is a study in the Christian doctrine of the kingdom of God. It is done from the Evangelical viewpoint and biblical texts, the history of the doctrine, and contemporary theology.

Hyper-spiritual approaches to finding God's will don't work. It's time to try something new: Give up. Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung counsels Christians to settle down, make choices, and do the hard work of seeing those choices through. Too often, he writes, God's people tinker around with churches, jobs, and relationships, worrying that they haven't found God's perfect will for their lives. Or-even worse-they do absolutely nothing, stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting...waiting...waiting for clear, direct, unmistakable direction. But God doesn't need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He's already revealed his plan for our lives: to love him with our whole hearts, to obey His Word, and after that, to do what we like. No need for hocus-pocus. No reason to be directionally challenged. Just do something.

The most celebrated story collection from “one of the true American masters” (The New York Review of Books)—a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark that includes the iconic and much-referenced title story featured in the Academy Award-winning film Birdman. "Raymond Carver's America is ... clouded by pain and the loss of dreams, but it is not as fragile as it looks. It is a place of survivors and a place of stories.... [Carver] has done what many of the most gifted writers fail to do: He has invented a country of his own, like no other except that very world, as Wordsworth said, which is the world to all of us." —The New York Times Book Review

Announcing the Kingdom provides a comprehensive survey of the biblical foundation of mission. It investigates the development of the kingdom of God theme in the Old Testament, describing what the concept tells us about God's mission in creation, the flood, and the covenant with Abraham. It then describes God's mission through the nation of Israel during the exodus, at Mt. Sinai, and through the kings of Israel. The book then examines God's mission as Israel is sent into exile and the stage is set for the Messiah's coming. Finally, the book considers the fulfillment of the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ and the church. It examines Jesus' parables and ministry, his proclamation of God's kingdom among the nations, and the work of the Holy Spirit through the church. Announcing the Kingdom is the product of Arthur Glasser's more than thirty years of teaching and has been used by thousands of students at Fuller Theological Seminary. Now revised by Glasser's colleagues, this study provides mission workers and students with a new understanding of their calling and its biblical foundation.

Two billion people today identify as Christians, with the implication that Jesus is the focus of their relationship with God, and their way of living in the world. Such followers of Jesus are now more numerous and make up a greater proportion of the world's population than ever before. Despite its decline in the West, Christianity is rapidly increasing in areas such as Africa and China. Richard Bauckham explores the historical figure of Jesus, evaluating the sources and concluding that they provide us with good historical evidence for his life and teaching. In order to place Jesus in his proper historical context, as a Jew from Galilee in the early first century of our era, Bauckham looks at Jewish religion and society in the land of Israel under Roman rule. He explores Jesus' symbolic practices as well as his teachings, looks at his public career and emphasises how his actions, such as healing and his association with notorious sinners, were just as important as his words. Bauckham shows that Jesus was devoted to the God of Israel, with a special focus on God's fatherly love and compassion, and like every Jewish teacher he expounded the Torah, but did so in his own distinctive way. With a discussion about the way Jesus understood himself and what finally led to his death as a criminal on a Roman cross, he concludes by considering the significance Jesus has come to have for Christian faith worldwide. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.

Why are people the way they are? Why are some cultures and nations progressive, while others seem to be perpetually mired in backwardness and poverty? What were the original foundations upon which Western culture thrived? What are the current effects of secularism on the West and the rest of the world? What would it be like if Christians not only prayed for God's Kingdom to come but heeded Jesus' teaching to live out the truths of His Kingdom on earth? Worldview and the Kingdom of God is an easy to read book for the ordinary man on the street that challenges the worldview of Christians. Based on the original good news of the Kingdom that Jesus and His disciples preached; not the popular gospel of salvation to go to heaven that most Christians preach, it calls for a paradigm shift from a "salvation from this world" worldview to a "God's Kingdom on earth" worldview. Beginning with the premise that the world is ruled by ideas, and that ideas have consequences, the message invites the reader to examine his worldview and reflect on what has been influencing and shaping it. The concept of worldview is explained in simple terms and the reader is invited to reflect on the worldviews of animism and secularism and its consequences, and examine how much of his worldview is still rooted in animism and/or influenced by secularism. God's Kingdom is then introduced and contrasted against Satan's kingdom and man's kingdom. In the light of the Biblical teaching of the three kingdoms, the call is for Christians to discard their "salvation from this world" worldview if they are to get beyond themselves and "Church as we know it", to get on with God's agenda for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven.