Costly Obedience

Though we often hear about the "gay problem" today, there is an even deeper problem in the church today--one that we often overlook. The call to follow Christ is a call to costly obedience for all, not just for gay Christians. Far too often, the church has elevated homosexuality above other sins and required a costly obedience from gays that it is unwilling to demand of others. And yet, the answer is not to weaken the demands of obedience. Instead, gay Christians who make the difficult choice to align their lives with the biblical view of sexuality are a gift to the church, reminding all of us that spiritual growth and maturity is costly. There is a price to pay in following Christ and devoting our lives to the call of the gospel, and it is one that we all must pay--gay and straight Christians alike. Through the stories and struggles of gay Christians who are reorienting their lives around the costly obedience required to follow Christ, Mark Yarhouse and Olya Zaporozhets call the church to reorient as well, leaving behind the casual morality that is widespread today to pursue the path of radical discipleship. Unlike any other book on homosexuality and the church, this is a call to examine your life and consider what God is asking you to lay down to take up your cross and follow him.

This edition of the CBA bestseller features a new Foreword by the author, as well as a new "Reflections on the Seven Realities" section with thoughts by Max Lucado, Beth Moore, Tony Evans, and others.

Wise Sheep Among the Wolves All Christian disciples have one thing in common: as they carry the gospel across the ocean and across the street, persecution will become the norm for those who choose to follow Jesus. How believers respond in the face of persecution reveals everything about their level of faith and obedience. The Insanity of Obedience is a bold challenge to global discipleship. Nik Ripken exposes the danger of safe Christianity and calls readers to something greater. The Insanity of Obedience challenges Christians in the same, provocative way that Jesus did. This book dares you—and prepares you—to cross the street and the oceans with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Some of Jesus’ instructions sound uncomfortable and are potentially dangerous. We may be initially encouraged by His declaration, “I am sending you out.” But how are we to respond when He then tells us that He is sending us out “like sheep among wolves"? In light of the words of Jesus, how can modern day believers rest comfortably in the status quo? How can we embrace casual faith in light of the radical commands of Jesus which are anything but casual? Ripken brings decades of ministry experience in some of the most persecuted areas of the world to bear on our understanding of faith in Jesus. The Insanity of Obedience is a call to roll up your sleeves . . . and to follow and partner with Jesus in the toughest places on this planet. "We have the high privilege of answering Jesus’ call to go," Ripken says. "But let us be clear about this: we go on His terms, not ours. If we go at all, we go as sheep among wolves." Jesus gives us Himself. And He gives us the tools necessary for those who dare to journey with Him.

THIS HIGHLY GIFTABLE DELUXE EDITION OF THE BESTSELLER INCLUDES THREE ALL-NEW CHAPTERS Motherhood is hard. In a world of five-step lists and silver-bullet solutions to become perfect parents, mothers are burdened with mixed messages about who they are and what choices they should make. If you feel pulled between high-fives and hard words, with culture’s solutions only raising more questions, you’re not alone. But there is hope. You might think that Scripture doesn’t have much to say about the food you make for breakfast, how you view your postpartum body, or what school choice you make for your children, but a deeper look reveals that the Bible provides the framework for finding answers to your specific questions about modern motherhood. Emily Jensen and Laura Wifler help you understand and apply the gospel to common issues moms face so you can connect your Sunday morning faith to the Monday morning tantrum. Discover how closely the gospel connects with today’s motherhood. Join Emily and Laura as they walk through the redemptive story and reveal how the gospel applies to your everyday life, bringing hope, freedom, and joy in every area of motherhood.

In this book, the author, Z.T. Fomum, highlights the need for God to have men and women determined and committed to the triumph and glory of God. He's looking for people who are ready for critical battles requiring faith and obedience. The author explains that the Lord is looking for groups of individual overcomers that He will use. Ultimately, He wants the whole Body, the Bride of His Son, to be committed to establishing the kingdom of God on earth through their lives of sacrifice and total surrender. All this is illustrated by the life of Gideon and the 300 overcomers, the life of an individual overcomer like Caleb, an overcomer at work like Joshua, and then, finally, the church and the overcomers. This book is a real instrument of revival in order to lead each saint to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to overcome the flesh and its desires, overcome the world and its desires, overcome the devil and his inspired desires.

Perhaps Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s most radical book, this reading of the Sermon on the Mount has influenced many Christians throughout the world over the last 50 years.

NEW FOREWORD BY ERIC METAXAS Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century, illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus in this classic book on living as a Christian. What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the government worker? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life." The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.

A passionate opponent of Nazism, Karl Barth was required to serve in the Swiss army. At the age of 54, he helped guard the Swiss border at Basel from German intruders. Some would suggest this is all we need to know in order to understand Barth's views on Christianity and war. John Howard Yoder begged to differ. "Karl Barth and the Problem of War" is an essay in which Yoder articulates the views of his former teacher on war, these views comprising a position he refers to as "chastened non-pacifism." Through a rigorous examination of Barth's ethical method, Yoder seeks to show how the logic of Barth's basic theological commitments makes him even closer to pacifism than is often noticed. Here five additional essays, three of which have never before been published, join this long essay. These essays offer further reflections on Barth's "chastened non-pacifism," as well as offering some of Yoder's fruitful use of Barth's theology for social ethics.