Reading The Word Of God In The Presence Of God

Biblical interpretation is typically viewed as concerned with understanding the human author’s intended meaning. However, for Christians, the Bible is first and foremost God’s Word and must be understood in that light. Helping Christians approach the Bible with God in mind, this book sets forth a more nuanced approach to biblical interpretation that pays attention to both the human and divine origins of these sacred texts. Whether it’s reviewing the three basic steps of interpretation or emphasizing the importance of paying attention to the Christ-centered character of both the Old and New Testaments, this book is a much-needed resource for the church as it wrestles to defend the authority of Scripture in our increasingly relativistic world.

The Practice of the Presence of God is a spiritual classic written by Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century Carmelite monk. This small but impactful work is a compilation of letters and conversations attributed to Brother Lawrence, offering profound insights into cultivating a continuous awareness of the presence of God in everyday life.

"God is with us." We say this in our sermons, prayers, and songs, but what does it really mean? For many Christians, the whole notion of God's presence remains vague and hard to define. Exploring both the Old and New Testaments, professor J. Ryan Lister seeks to recover the centrality of the presence of God in the whole storyline of Scripture—a theme that is too often neglected and therefore misunderstood. In a world that longs for—yet struggles to find—intimacy with the Almighty, this book will help you discover the truth about God's presence with his people and what his drawing near means for the Christian life.

Fifteen years after its original publication comes a thoroughly revised edition of the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Every article from the original edition has been revisited. With some articles being removed, others revised, and many new articles added, the result is a completely new dictionary covering systematic, historical, and philosophical theology as well as theological ethics.

For too long the Christian community has been told five, ten, fifteen minutes with God is enough, but God wants to stir within us ways to worship him anew. This book will help you accelerate your relationship with Christ, where living in the presence of God is a lifestyle. You will gain a fresh understanding of how to seize every opportunity to be immersed in Gods presence and where the focus is to worship the Creator, not the created. Through dreams and visions, see firsthand how God taught Teresa new ways of spending time with her Lord. Follow her journey as she learns how worshipping anew opens the windows of Heaven into the tangible presence of God, where miracles began. The treasures within the pages of this book will help you appreciate and embrace what it means to worship God and stop the cycle of a stagnant walk with him. As you read, experience what can happen in the physical and spiritual world when we surrender our entire being and are submerged into the beautiful, supernatural presence of God.

The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people—as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more. A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits—but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.

Discovering true joy in your life can be as simple as spending 31 days journaling through the Pure Joy Bible reading plan. This Bible reading plan and journal provides 31 Scripture references for a month-long adventure of cultivating a happy heart. The daily focus word and simple memory statement will remind you of the rich depth God's Word provides. Specifically designed to help you remember to spend time with God each day and enjoy his love letter to you., the simplicity of this Bible reading plan and journal makes it one you'll long to share with others. Give God's Word the opportunity to soak into your soul and help you remember all the reasons you should be glad!