When He came to earth, Jesus Christ was rejected in every quarter in which He stepped. The Creator was rejected by His own creation. “He came to His own and His own received Him not,” said John. For this reason, Jesus Christ had “no where to lay His head.” There was one exception, however. A little village just outside of Jerusalem named Bethany. Bethany was the only place on earth where Jesus was completely received. God’s Favorite Place on Earth is a retelling of Jesus’ many visits to Bethany and a relaying of the message it holds for us today. Frank Viola presents a beautifully crafted narrative from the viewpoint of Lazarus, one of the people who lived in Bethany with his two sisters. This incomparable story not only brings the Gospel narratives to life, but it addresses the struggle against doubt, discouragement, fear, guilt, rejection, and spiritual apathy that challenges countless Christians today. In profoundly moving prose, God’s Favorite Place on Earth will captivate your heart with its beauty, charm, and depth. In this book you will discover how to live as a “Bethany” in our world today, being set free to love and follow Jesus like never before.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1867.

Over six thousand years ago in the regions of the third heaven, a Triune council of the Holies, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, brought about the creation of heaven and earth and all that was created in the six days as we have record of written in the Word of God. In the likeness of the Triune God was man created, being formed from the dust of the ground. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed. I have not the pen or vocabulary to describe the pristine beauty that this garden entailed prior to the first footprint impressed upon this sacred garden. Then God said. "it is not good that man should be alone", and He made a help meet for him, so the first parents perfect environment of no sin, no decay; a paradise for eyes to behold. But alas, sin entered and Adam and Eve were put out of the garden and we have the fall of mankind; the fall of no hope. It had become certain that death would reign and only the Triune God had made plans for the redemption of mankind, all knowing that man would sin and fall victim to sin and that redemption plan was already decided beforehand in the regions of the third heaven long before man was created. The redemption plan was provided to come into the world as the Son of God, the hypostatic union, meaning Christ's humanity and divinity in one hypostasis, or individual existence, being born by a miraculous entry into the world. We will never understand how God and man could unite in one person. The deep things and mysteries of God are far beyond our horizon. Although He was in the likeness of men, that refers to the human nature. He was sinless and He appeared as man in looks and dress but was unlike the natural man in that sin was not an integral part in his unfallen human nature. He had to become man in order to die on the cross for you and me. But He did not diminish the Person. The two natures in Christ are not fused together, they remain distinct and different. Let me say He did not give up Deity or the use of His attributes of Deity. Read Isaiah 53:12. He poured out His soul unto death. None of Christ's divine attributes were relinquished. However, He obscured His majestic glory while embodied by the earthly body. Recorded in the four Gospels is what we have of the life of Christ on this earth. There is no complete biography that could ever be written of the life of Christ on the earth because there are so many details not given. The four Gospels give its own emphasis of how they described the works and life of Christ. The false teachings of cults and critics and evolutionary of man becoming gods is not what our Bible says; it is opposite the false teachings. The Bible says God became man, who was Jesus Christ, both man and God.

Charles Dickens's other Christmas classic, with a new introduction by Dickens's great-great-grandson, Gerald Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord during the years 1846-1849, just about the time he was completing David Copperfield. In this charming, simple retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, adapted from the Gospel of St. Luke, Dickens hoped to teach his young children about religion and faith. Since he wrote it exclusively for his children, Dickens refused to allow publication. For eighty-five years the manuscript was guarded as a precious family secret, and it was handed down from one relative to the next. When Dickens died in 1870, it was left to his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth. From there it fell to Dickens's son, Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, with the admonition that it should not be published while any child of Dickens lived. Just before the 1933 holidays, Sir Henry, then the only living child of Dickens, died, leaving his father's manuscript to his wife and children. He also bequeathed to them the right to make the decision to publish The Life of Our Lord. By majority vote, Sir Henry's widow and children decided to publish the book in London. In 1934, Simon & Schuster published the first American edition, which became one of the year's biggest bestsellers.