Study Commentaries

Some of the Most Holy Sacraments in our Scriptures include Plants & Herbs: What Can We Learn by Studying Them? Written for The laity in Christ who are seeking a greater understanding of prayer, healing, and wholeness in Christ

Carrying only basic camping equipment and a collection of the world's great spiritual writings, Belden C. Lane embarks on solitary spiritual treks through the Ozarks and across the American Southwest. For companions, he has only such teachers as Rumi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters, demonstrating how being alone in the wild opens a rare view onto one's interior landscape, and how the saints' writings reveal the divine in nature.

In Patient Zero, Richard A. McKay presents a carefully documented and sensitively written account of the life of Gaetan Dugas, a gay man whose skin cancer diagnosis in 1980 took on very different meanings as the HIV/AIDS epidemic developed - and who received widespread posthumous infamy when he was incorrectly identified as patient zero of the North American outbreak.

Acts is a book of action. But whose actions does it follow? The most obvious answer is the Apostles’. The book’s full name is the Acts of the Apostles, for it recounts their efforts to take the gospel to the nations. Yet we can also think of it as the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Poured out like a mighty rushing wind (Acts 2:2), the Spirit empowered the Apostles’ witness and opened hearts to believe. In this volume, Dr. R.C. Sproul offers an in-depth study on the Spirit’s work through these Christians and in the growth and spread of the early church.

The Bible is the world’s most influential book, but do we really know what it says? Every day across social media and in homes, businesses, and public spaces, people try to cut debate short by claiming that "the Bible says so!" However, they commonly disagree about what it actually does and doesn't say, particularly when it comes to socially significant issues. For instance, does the Bible say we should be on the lookout for an antichrist associated with the number 666? Does it say women shouldn’t wear revealing clothing? Does it say it’s okay to hit your kids?

A vast readership wants better access to the ancient words and ideas of the Bible. In The Bible Doesn't Say That, Dr. Joel M. Hoffman walks the listener through dozens of instances of mistranslations, misconceptions, and other misunderstandings about the Bible. In 40 short chapters, Hoffman covers fundamental theology, morality, lifestyle, and biblical imagery.

In this comprehensive exposition, a leading New Testament scholar explores the unfolding theological unity of the entire Bible from the vantage point of the New Testament. G. K. Beale, coeditor of the award-winning Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, examines how the New Testament storyline relates to and develops the Old Testament storyline. Beale argues that every major concept of the New Testament is a development of a concept from the Old and is to be understood as a facet of the inauguration of the latter-day new creation and kingdom.

If you start at the beginning of the New Testament and read straight through, first you’ll find three similar accounts of Jesus’ life. Then you come to the gospel of John. From recounting Jesus’ signs to recording His famous I am statements, John puts a spotlight on Jesus’ redemptive work so that others will believe and be saved. In this volume, Dr. R.C. Sproul provides an introduction to John in his accessible, conversational style. Each chapter is packed with insights and exhortations to draw you closer to the life and light of the Savior.

Reading Revelation Responsibly is for those who are confused by, afraid of, and or preoccupied with the book of Revelation. In rescuing the Apocalypse from those who either completely misinterpret it or completely ignore it, Michael Gorman has given us both a guide to reading Revelation in a responsible way and a theological engagement with the text itself. He takes interpreting the book as a serious and sacred responsibility, believing how one reads, teaches, and preaches Revelation can have a powerful impact on one's own—and other people's—well-being.

Jesus said that the psalms spoke about him (Lk 24:44). Christ's birth, betrayal, agony, death, resurrection, ascension, coming again in glory, and his worldwide reign - all are pictured in inspired vividness. They constitute irrefutable testimony to the divine inspiration of the Scripture.

For many, the Gospel according to "the Beloved Physician" is the most readable and complete account of the life of Christ. Known for its historical detail and precision, Luke was chosen by the Holy Spirit to communicate the Gospel to an educated and technological culture. The evidences of the truly "human" nature of Jesus Christ are littered throughout this treatise.

Do "In God We Trust", the Declaration of Independence, and other historical "evidence" prove that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles? Are the Ten Commandments the basis for American law? A constitutional attorney dives into the debate about religion's role in America's founding.

One way of reading the Bible is to take an individual book and read the verses while taking notes. In this book, Holland has picked individual verses from the books of Nehemiah, Ezra and Esther and expanded on them, drawing out lessons as they reveal themselves. This is not a commentary on these books, but a special devotion on the selected verses. When you study these verses, they will stick with you for the rest of your life without the need to cram them. They will flow out of your life and you will apply them in your life. Just dive into the book and find out for yourself...

In a world that is “woke”, how many Christians are actually awake? This short theologically sound primer is a resource for pastors, ministry leaders, community leaders, and other thinking Christians that explains carefully and clearly what critical race theory and wokeness truly are, what the Bible teaches about race and ethnicity, why wokeness is distinct from Christianity and should be rejected, and how the church can work for unity based in the gospel of grace.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than 60 years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects.

The appearance, more than 60 years after the Spanish Civil War ended, of mass graves containing victims of Francisco Franco's death squads finally broke what Spaniards call "the pact of forgetting" - the unwritten understanding that their recent, painful past was best left unexplored. At this charged moment, Giles Tremlett embarked on a journey around the country and through its history to discover why some of Europe's most voluble people have kept silent so long.

In World War II, 59,000 women voluntarily risked their lives for their country as US Army nurses. For more than half a century these women's experiences remained untold, almost without reference in books, historical societies, or military archives. After years of research and hundreds of hours of interviews, Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee have created a dramatic narrative that at last brings to light the critical role that women played throughout the war.

"What did Jesus preach?" asks this esteemed Harvard pastor, who believes that excessive focus on the Bible and doctrines about Jesus have led the Christian church astray. To recover the transformative power of the gospel, "the good news", Gomes says we must go beyond the Bible and rediscover how to live out Jesus' original revolutionary message of hope.

Este maravilloso libro comunica la infalibilidad del amor de Dios e inspira el renuevo, desde la perspectiva de la mujer, y conecta a la mujer de hoy con la fuente de toda realización que sostuvo a sus hermanas en los tiempos bíblicos, la relación con Dios.

In this anthology of 26 essays and other writings, Huxley discusses the nature of God, enlightenment, being, good and evil, religion, eternity, and the divine. Huxley consistently examined the spiritual basis of both the individual and human society, always seeking to reach an authentic and clearly defined experience of the divine.