Preaching is a relational act. This book explores the relationship between the preacher and the assembly as a spousal relationship. Written by a parish pastor with a doctorate in preaching and rooted in the Roman Catholic notion of the priest as bridegroom of the church, this work examines characteristics of the spousal relationship between husband and wife and then provides an analysis of the ministerial priesthood through this nuptial lens. This nuptial reflection on the ministerial priesthood is then applied to preaching. This book presents a nuptial hermeneutic or vision for preaching and the implications of this vision for the assembly, the preacher, the homily, and the homiletical method. The appendices include a one-page strategy for preaching summarizing the homiletical method, a rubric for homily evaluation by members of the assembly, and two sample homilies.

Church history has witnessed many expressions of outpouring and revival, but nothing like the days ahead! Prophetic voice, Paul Keith Davis, has good news: there are great days ahead for the Church, and for you! "Though the western church may look like a valley of dry bones, the Lord sees her as an exceedingly great army." In The Voice of the Bride, Paul Keith shares prophetic insight into how God is preparing His Bride for the coming harvest. This is the place of divine assignment, for it's in God’s army that you will discover your destiny! Receive prophetic insight and preparation on: Heaven’s Armory. The Seven-Fold Spirit of God. The Waves of End-Time Awakening. Prophetic Types and Shadows. Your Role in Heaven’s End-Time Army. Prophetic Forerunners and Prototypes for End-Time Glory. Signs of the End of the Age Harvest. The Bride of Christ, the Tabernacle of God. Discerning the Mysteries and Prophetic Timelines of Biblical Cycles. Like the rest of the church, you may have walked through difficult seasons in the past, but God has been preparing you. It’s time to rise up and take your place in His end-time revival army!

Reprint of the original, first published in 1840.

In Jesus the Bridegroom, Brant Pitre once again taps into the wells of Jewish Scripture and tradition, and unlocks the secrets of what is arguably the most well-known symbol of the Christian faith: the cross of Christ. In this thrilling exploration, Pitre shows how the suffering and death of Jesus was far more than a tragic Roman execution. Instead, the Passion of Christ was the fulfillment of ancient Jewish prophecies of a wedding, when the God of the universe would wed himself to humankind in an everlasting nuptial covenant. To be sure, most Christians are familiar with the apostle Paul's teaching that Christ is the 'Bridegroom' and the Church is the 'Bride'. But what does this really mean? And what would ever possess Paul to compare the death of Christ to the love of a husband for his wife? If you would have been at the Crucifixion, with Jesus hanging there dying, is that how you would have described it? How could a first-century Jew like Paul, who knew how brutal Roman crucifixions were, have ever compared the execution of Jesus to a wedding? And why does he refer to this as the "great mystery" (Ephesians 5:32)? As Pitre shows, the key to unlocking this mystery can be found by going back to Jewish Scripture and tradition and seeing the entire history of salvation, from Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary, as a divine love story between Creator and creature, between God and Israel, between Christ and his bride--a story that comes to its climax on the wood of a Roman cross. In the pages of Jesus the Bridegroom, dozens of familiar passages in the Bible--the Exodus, the Song of Songs, the Wedding at Cana, the Woman at the Well, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and even the Second Coming at the End of Time--are suddenly transformed before our eyes. Indeed, when seen in the light of Jewish Scripture and tradition, the life of Christ is nothing less than the greatest love story ever told.