New Bible Study

Genesis means beginning and as the first book of the Old Testament it is a fitting title. However, it is more than just the Bible’s opening book, since it is the proper place to understand what the whole of God’s Word is revealing. Therefore, it is the proper beginning for understanding the origin stories and the plan and purpose of God. It not only reveals the God of the Word, but the call of God, the understanding of faith and obedience and the need for humanity’s Savior. Please join me in seeing how a proper beginning is important.

The book of Jeremiah was written in a time when God’s people had abandoned their God for their own plan and purpose. That happened while the religious traditions of worship were still happening in Jerusalem. It was time similar to that of our own, when the nation and even the church pays lip service to God, but hearts are far from Him. This ancient prophecy is road sign for us today point the direction back to God for both the nation and the church. I hope you will join me in this Bible study, which speaks to the time when no one will listen.

When you saw the title for this book, what came to mind? Perhaps your thinking was drawn to the heroes of the Bible, who led extraordinary lives. Did you think about a religious duty or mission of biblical proportions? I would guess that one thing that was not in your thoughts was you. That is because we are given to thinking that God’s call is too immense, too demanding, and out of the reach of the average person. But what if I were to tell you that you are exactly, whom the Holy Spirit of God had in mind, when those words were penned. Would that spark your interest? I hope it goes ...

Jesus of Galilee taught through stories, which even today contain the power to startle us out of our prejudices and preconceptions. Now Father Andrew M. Greeley, one of America's most beloved storytellers, examines the parables told by Jesus in search of a fuller understanding of the man and his message. This engaging and informal collection of homilies reveals a Jesus whose simple parables carry profound lessons about the Kingdom of Heaven.

At a distance of 20 centuries, the figure of Jesus of Nazareth can seem impossibly obscure - indeed, some skeptics even question whether he existed. And yet we have an eyewitness account of his life, death, and resurrection from one of his closest companions, the sherman Simon Bar-Jonah, better known as the Apostle Peter. Peter's disciple Mark wrote down the apostle's account of the life of Jesus as he told it to the first Christians in Rome. The vivid, detailed, unadorned prose of the Gospel of Mark conveys the unmistakable immediacy of a firsthand account.

Between 50 and 90 CE, the various writings that comprise the New Testament were written, including the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and other letters to more general communities of the early Church. But what is recognized as the 26 books of the New Testament today, in literally hundreds of English translations, actually took several more centuries to be determined as "canonical" by the Church.

In the latest chapter of his best-selling Joshua series, Joseph Girzone offers fresh inspiration in this collection of fifty never-before-published contemporary vignettes that underscore the most important lessons of the gospel. In The Parables of Joshua, perhaps his most powerful since since the original Joshua, Girzone distills the essence of Christian teaching in entertaining and inspiring "bite-sized" tales set against the background of current society.

Church - the central identifying word that encompasses the entire religious spectrum. It is the buildings we go to, the sectarian ideology we adhere to, it is the core of our spiritual identity. Church - the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the called-out ones. Church - Evangelical, Pentecostal, Catholic, and Non-Denominational. Church - the guardian of doctrine, the ark for lost souls, the social bastion for the righteous. We have embraced and perpetuated a culture around this single word. A word never spoken by Jesus Christ. Church - a word that should have never existed for believers.

Rev. Richard D. Phillips digs into the early chapters of the Gospel of John to discover principles you can use for Christian outreach that were modeled by witnesses for Jesus and by Jesus Himself. Phillips unfolds biblical principles for evangelism by examining the ministry of John the Baptist and the calling of the first of Jesus’ disciples. Then, through a brief study of the Lord’s encounter with the Pharisee Nicodemus, he presents us with a theology of the gospel. Finally, he focuses in on Jesus' stirring encounter with the Samaritan woman to show exactly how Christ shared the good news.

Alexandria was the epicenter of Hellenic learning in the ancient Mediterranean world, yet little is known about how Christianity arrived and developed in the city during the late first and early second century CE. In this volume, M. David Litwa employs underused data from the Nag Hammadi codices and early Christian writings to open up new vistas on the creative theologians who invented Christianities in Alexandria prior to Origen and the catechetical school of the third century.

This dramatized audio version of Psalms and Proverbs in the NIV brings the Bible to life with true-to-text dramatization of God's Word. The fully orchestrated background enriches the text reading and enhances the total experience. Digitally engineered from start to finish, this audio Bible delivers an inspiring and uplifting encounter with the Word of God.

Here is Thomas Jefferson's classic abridgment of the Bible, in which Jefferson sculpted the words and ideas of Christ into a resounding moral philosophy. On and off for 17 years (including his term in the White House), Jefferson cut and pasted the philosophy of Jesus Christ, as recorded in Scripture, into one compact statement. He omitted any references to the virgin birth, miraculous healings, demonic possession, or supernatural events of any kind. His aim was to distinguish the moral philosophy of Christ from the religion that was later created around Christ.

The book of Judges is a historical account which investigates the lives of people who lived long ago. Some of those lives are going to be tales of caution, while others will be inspiring. Most are people who would not warrant a second look today and would be dismissed as valueless by most, but when viewed through the lens of God’s purpose, we will see that they became much more than they could have dreamed. They become exceptional stories in the greatest story ever told, that is still shaping lives today. Wouldn’t you like your own story to matter like that? Then maybe this study is for...

Have you ever longed for justice, desiring for a wrong to be righted or inequality to be avenged? I often think I am prone to desire justice, if justice does not hold me personally accountable. When it comes to justice, I rarely think about God dispensing justice, because after all that is somewhere in the future right? This study of the book of Ezekiel challenges my own thinking about justice by examining when God demands justice. If God’s justice were happening right now, would the scope of that interest you? Maybe it should.

This audiobook contains beautiful inspirational passages to energize your faith. These scriptural nuggets and the short meditations which follow will strike your heart and stay with you.

The Easter Story, performed by today's leading African-American actors, musicians, and clergy.

Have you ever had your life suddenly become a trainwreck? Maybe from a sudden death, a divorce, a turnaround in financial fortunes, a job loss, a bad diagnosis, or any other multitude of things that can happen, which can take a person by surprise, leaving them feeling devastated and broken. I would like to suggest that this book of the Bible was written for just such times. Right now, it seems that our world is turned upside-down. Many people are experiencing a loss of the familiar and face the uncertainty of what is to come. Historically, Daniel lived during the time when Jeremiah ...

Have you ever felt stuck in place emotionally, spiritually, or in your circumstances? You cannot move forward and going back is impossible. You are not even sure you want to, because this darkness that has captured your soul seems like an old friend. If you have ever been in that place, you are not alone and this study is dedicated to you. It is written so that you might gain the strength and courage to go on to your best life, since there is no going back.

The grace of God should always be the focal point of our freedom in Messiah. When we lose sight of that, we are in danger and may well find that ourselves trading away our freedom for that of a performance-based approach to God. Please don’t let that be you. The Apostle Paul wants us to enjoy what God has done for us in the person and work of His Son, so we might be known by Him and know Him. The letter to the Galatian churches is our declaration of independence for the church even today.

Have you grown weary and discouraged, waiting for the prophetic promises of God to be fulfilled in your life? Don’t despair! Don’t put those promises on the shelf! Your moment is almost here! Lana Vawser believes that we have entered a new era where we will see astounding answers to prayer. More than just a shifting of seasons, this next phase of history is a time when God will show his power like never before!