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eBooks 1c-March2020

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY BELOW

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The hole in our holiness is that we don't care much about holiness. Or, at the very least, we don't understand it. And we all have our reasons too: Maybe the pursuit of holiness seems legalistic. Maybe it feels like one more thing to worry about in your already overwhelming life. Maybe the emphasis on effort in the Christian life appears unspiritual. Or maybe you've been trying really hard to be holy and it's just not working! Whatever the case, the problem is clear: too few Christians look like Christ and too many don’t seem all that concerned about it.

This is a book for those of us who are ready to take holiness seriously, ready to be more like Jesus, ready to live in light of the grace that produces godliness. This is a book about God's power to help us grow in personal holiness and to enjoy the process of transformation.

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eBooks 1b-March2020

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY BELOW

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God, in His goodness and love, has not called us to be Christians alone. Though we individually sin, and are called out of the world individually, we are also called to come together in a local assembly. This assembly is called, in the New Testament, a church. Today many books on the market and speakers on the circuit are asserting that almost every conceivable attribute, worship style, computer program, book, sound system, seminar, ministry, education, program, group, philosophy, methodology, doctrine, virtue, spiritual encounter, parking lot design or management structure is the key to a successful church. Who is right? How can you tell if a church is healthy? How can you tell if your church is healthy? What can you do to encourage biblical, sustainable, God-glorifying growth? This little book is a tool to change churches. In it I suggest nine distinguishing marks of a healthy church. These are not the only attributes of a healthy church. They are not everything one would want to say about a church. They are not even necessarily the most important things about a church. For example, baptism and communion are essential aspects of a biblical church, yet they are not directly discussed here. That is because virtually every church at least intends to practice them. The nine attributes discussed here are marks that may set a church apart, that may distinguish a sound, healthy, biblical church from many of its more sickly sisters. The nine marks discussed here are found too rarely today, and are therefore in special need of being brought to our attention and cultivated in our churches.

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eBooks 1a-March2020

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY BELOW

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In a world with so many religions, why Jesus?

We are living in a time when you can believe anything, as long as you do not claim it to be true. In the name of “tolerance,” our postmodern culture embraces everything from Eastern mysticism to New Age spirituality. But as Ravi Zacharias points out, such unquestioning acceptance of all things spiritual is absurd. All religions, plainly and simply, cannot be true.

Jesus Among Other Gods provides the answers to the most fundamental claims about Christianity, such as:

Aren’t all religions fundamentally the same?

Was Jesus who He claimed to be?

Can one study the life of Christ and demonstrate conclusively that He was and is the way, the truth, and the life?

In each chapter, Zacharias considers a unique claim that Jesus made and then contrasts the truth of Jesus with the founders of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism with compelling insight and passionate conviction. In addition to an impressive breadth of reading and study, he shares his personal journey from despair and meaninglessness to his discovery that Jesus is who He said He is.

“In Jesus Among Other Gods, Ravi Zacharias demonstrates that he is one of the most intellectually gifted as well as spiritually sensitive writers of today’s leading apologists for the Christian faith. Zacharias brings alive the unique power of the claims of Jesus about himself and the utter relevance of his message today for the human condition.”

— David Aikman, author of Great Souls

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MF-Keeping the Go in the Gospel

The imperative in the great commission according to Matthew 28:16-20 is to make
disciples or call people to commit to Jesus Christ as Master and Lord. Making
disciples was the central focus of Jesus’ commission to His disciples then, and
it is to us today. As the resurrected Lord, Jesus calls upon His followers to
make disciples of all people groups on the earth. This is done by going with
the gospel of the kingdom and preaching it among unreached people, baptizing
Christ-followers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which
identifies them with the church, and teaching them all that Jesus commanded us
to obey. Teaching is the emphasize of Matthew because it is the method by which
Jesus’ followers are transformed to be more like Christ. In His risen state,
Jesus exercises total and absolute authority throughout heaven and earth, and
He promises to be with His followers as we obey Him. We are not on a fool’s
errand. People may think those who obey Jesus by going with the gospel to the
nations are foolish, but we are not. We “get it” because we have been captured
by God’s love. He has poured His love for all people into our hearts and we
cannot stay back. By God’s calling upon us, we are sent by His people, who also
“get it.”

Why do I briefly go through Matthew’s version of the great commission? Because
we, the church, can become overfamiliar with this text and be complacent about
our lives in Christ and ho-hum with our ministries. We can become overly
focused on ourselves inside our church, home or support group, Sunday school
class or worship service, which are all necessary means of God’s grace, and
lose concern about those who are perishing outside the church. We must keep the
“go” in the gospel by making disciples among all people groups whether they are
across our street or around the world. Leaders lead others from the front. They
lead the way forward by both word and deed. Is there an unreached people group
that the Spirit has imprinted in you? Perhaps it’s not an unreached people
group but a group of people who are hard to reach with the gospel like street
kids and their families. Maybe you are not called to go, not everyone is, but
you can help send those who are by praying for them and giving to their
support. Maybe you are stirred to be an advocate for an unreached or
hard-to-reach people group. Do it now. The perishing need you. We, the
harvesters, also need you.

Today I read 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance.”