Jesus clarified the requirements of every believer. He simply said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). Sounds simple enough...until you begin to break it down. In today's affluent society, most are not accustomed to denying themselves anything, even if they don't have the means to pay for it. Personal responsibility is at an all-time low. When tragedy strikes, we look for someone or something to blame. Certainly not my fault. Jesus requires us to take up a cross. Well, that's easy enough...gold, silver, or platinum? But don't forget the cross is not jewelry to be worn; on the contrary, it is an instrument of death. Our death. Have an addiction that you are struggling with? Perhaps you have concluded that God made you to live as a homosexual. God's fault there. And that alcohol or drug addiction, well, it's a disease. Not my fault there either. So open the pages and take a look. Dare you. The hard truth for all is that the Bible, God's Word, is a mirror. You and I must see ourselves, in light of His Scriptures, as He sees us. But read on. The Bible contains all the power and tools you and I need to obey Jesus' command. So take up your cross and follow Him!

Webster's dictionary defines myth as aEURoea thing having only an unverifiable or imaginary existence.aEUR How fitting, then, to refer to this widely accepted concept of spiritual death as a myth. Over thirty years ago, I came to a place of understanding where the concept seemed to fit the events of the Garden of Eden. Admittedly, I never really challenged the teaching. Today, most Christian believers have accepted spiritual death as the fulfillment of God's warning to Adam and Eve: aEURoeFor in the day that thou eat thereof thou shalt surely dieaEUR (Genesis 2:17). And if spiritual death is a reality, then the requirements that Jesus told Nicodemus to be aEURoeborn again to see the kingdom of GodaEUR (John 3:3) seem to fit as well. Man has spiritually died and now needs to be born again of the spirit. With our limited intellect, we simply love to have everything figured out, boxed up, and placed on the shelf. For the believer, as you spend time in the Word of God, you soon realize that much is unclear and most is left to faith. Thankfully, there are times when the person of the Holy Spirit speaks a nugget of truth into our spirits and a clearer revelation bursts forth. Perhaps you will find nothing new in this discourse; perhaps it will shake up your theology just a bit. It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will illuminate your spirit to the truth of what was really lost in the garden transgressions and what Jesus Christ requires of each of His disciples. Secondly, that you will discover God's intentions for the marriage relationship. And finally, stir your spirit to more diligently and prayerfully study your Bible, like the Bereans found in the book of Acts, and aEURoesearch the Scriptures daily whether those things be soaEUR (Acts 17:11 KJV).

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Explore this stunning quality of God’s grace: It never ends! In this revision of a foundational work, John Piper reveals how grace is not only God’s undeserved gift to us in the past, but also God’s power to make good happen for us today, tomorrow, and forever. True life for the follower of Jesus really is a moment-by-moment trust that God is dependable and fulfills his promises. This is living by faith in future grace, which provides God's mercy, provision, and wisdom—everything we need—to accomplish his good plans for us. In Future Grace, chapter by chapter—one for each day of the month—Piper reveals how cherishing the promises of God helps break the power of persistent sin issues like anxiety, despondency, greed, lust, bitterness, impatience, pride, misplaced shame, and more. Ultimate joy, peace, and hope in life and death are found in a confident, continual awareness of the reality of future grace.

When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative views of the Bible. Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible. Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.

Pastor John Piper shows how to sever the clinging roots of sin that ensnare us, including anxiety, pride, shame, impatience, covetousness, bitterness, despondency, and lust in Battling Unbelief. When faith flickers, stoke the fire. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it offers some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us, until we believe that God is more desirable than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Only the power of God’s superior promises in the gospel can emancipate our hearts from servitude to the shallow promises and fleeting pleasures of sin. Delighting in the bounty of God’s glorious gospel promises will free us for a less sin-encumbered life, to the glory of Christ. Rooted in solid biblical reflection, this book aims to help guide you through the battles to the joys of victory by the power of the gospel and its superior pleasure.

None But Christ by the Puritan John Wall is 33 chapters on Paul's statement, "I determined to know nothing among you save Christ and Him crucified." In typical Puritan fashion Wall exhausts his subject, that nothing but Christ matters, and why that is so. It is a God-honoring, Christ-exalting book that will help you fall more deeply in love with the Savior.