The Message Jesus Preached

Sheltering Mercy helps us rediscover the rich treasures of the Psalms--through free-verse prayer renderings of their poems and hymns--as a guide to personal devotion and meditation. The church has always used the Psalms as part of its prayer life, and they have inspired countless other prayers. This book contains 75 prayers drawn from Psalms 1-75, providing lyrical sketches of what authors Ryan Smith and Dan Wilt have seen, heard, and felt while sojourning in the Psalms. While each prayer corresponds to a particular psalm and touches on its themes and ideas, it is not a new translation of the Psalms or an attempt to modernize or contextualize their content or language. Rather, the prayers are responses to the Psalms written in harmony with Scripture. These prayers help us quiet our hearts before God and welcome us into a safe place amid the storms of life. This artful, poetic, and classic devotional book features compelling custom illustrations and beautiful hardcover binding, offering a fresh way to reflect on and pray the Psalms.

THINGS WERE DIFFERENT IN THE CHURCH JESUS STARTED We sing songs to Jesus. We pray to Jesus. But do we really know and understand what Jesus preached? Before you say, “Yes,” and move on, consider these shocking facts: • Most messages preached today have nothing to do with Jesus’ core message • Christian universities that train pastors, missionaries, and priests don’t have courses that teach what Jesus taught, and it’s been this way for hundreds of years • The majority of believers in Christ have little or no understanding of what Jesus said or what He meant when He said it God is realigning His church with the message Jesus preached, and He’s doing it to prepare us for Jesus’ return. Get ready for a journey through the Bible that will help you: • Challenge your Christian experience and knowledge of Jesus’ teachings • Learn the true heart of Christ’s teachings as recorded in God’s Word • Discover the Kingdom life Jesus provided for, exemplified, and taught • Shed any belief barriers that have inhibited your spiritual life to this point • Embrace and renew a walk with God that is alive, growing, fresh, and purposeful

For several months, prior to publication, some people were asking that we should write this book and that it be entitled, “The Message Of The Cross”. • I believed then and now that their request was from the Lord. Consequently, this book is the result of that need. • This Message, “The Message Of The Cross” is the single most important Message of the Word in any language. The Salvation of the soul and how we live for God is important beyond comprehension. • I feel every Believer will be greatly strengthened in the Word if they will avail themselves of this publication.

Over half of Americans believe in a literal heaven, in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. Ehrman shows that eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament, and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. He recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. Ehrman shows that competing views were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. -- adapted from jacket

The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.

Using the findings of historical Jesus studies, William Brosend asks, what is the rhetoric that characterized the preaching of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, and how may today's preaching benefit from it? This book for preachers and students of preaching helps the reader see four distinct aspects of the rhetoric of Jesus: dialogical (preaching in response to challenges and questions); proclamatory (making bold and authoritative statements); occasionally self-referential (though less so than in the Fourth Gospel); and persistently figurative (illustrating his message through metaphor). Brosend spends one chapter on each of these methods, closing each chapter with a sermon that models that approach and his analysis of it. Sample sermons are by well-known preachers including Fred Craddock, Michael Curry, Tom Long, and Barbara Brown Taylor. Brosend concludes with the implications for modern preaching and a sermon of his own.

What is the point of preaching? With so many agendas competing for pulpit time these days, it can be easy to forget the exact purpose of our Christian calling: to proclaim God's salvation through Jesus who died and is now resurrected. Preaching Evangelistically looks at the different elements of gospel preaching and how they are best used to effectively proclaim Jesus. They include: sermon setting, text selection, preparation, preaching with biblical authority, giving an invitation, and "hiding behind the cross as you preach." Also here are eyes-on text examples of evangelistic sermons from selected preachers. Cowriter Al Fasol states, "The purpose of our book is to provide information on preaching evangelistically with integrity, with biblical accuracy, with appeal to contemporary listeners, and absolutely for the glory of God."--Back cover.