After they sinned, Adam and Eve made clothes out of fig leaves to hide their shame. That was the first religious attempt to cover up sin with human righteousness and merit. But, they could not truly hide their shame (sin) with these fig leaf garments. God took away their fig leaf garments and gave them tunics made from the skin of a sacrificed lamb. These tunics symbolize God's righteousness, which perfectly and forever hides human shame (sin). The offerings of Adam's sons, Cain and Abel, show the difference between human and God's righteousness. God accepted Abel's offering of the "firstborn of his flock and of their fat" (Genesis 4:4), but He did not receive Cain's gift of "the fruit of the ground" (Genesis 4:3). Religion is about trying to show off human righteousness, which Satan encourages. On the other hand, faith is about trusting in and following God's righteousness, which He has made perfect and gives us as a gift. From the start of Genesis, the Bible tells us that only those who trust and follow God's righteousness are born again by receiving the remission of their sins to enter the everlasting rest that God has prepared.

Encountering Jesus: A Life-Changing Look at the Son of God helps you discover or recapture the miracles of Jesus as they were first experienced by eyewitnesses to the Savior s power and compassion. The Gospel writers Matthew, Mark, and John provide documented accounts of these events, which left an impact on people then and continue to touch lives today.

This Leader's Guide will enable both the experienced and novice group leader to help adults review and apply the material found in Encountering Jesus: A Life-Changing Look at the Son of God. While both the book and the study guide can be used in independent devotions and studies, this manual will help make the Bible learning experience even more meaningful as participants discover the joys of fellowship and acquiring insight in group settings.

Personal, experiential faith is seldom given a seat at the table of academic theology and biblical studies. David Crump, however, with the assistance of Sren Kierkegaard's religious philosophy, claims that "authentic understanding, and thus authentic Christian commitment, can only arise from the personal commitment that is faith." Examining the various biblical, historical, cultural, theological, and academic hurdles demanding a truly Kierkegaardian leap of faith before one can meet the resurrected Jesus, Crump's Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture provides a very insightful discussion of key New Testament texts and issues revealing how Truth is discovered only through the subjectivity of faith.

His Eminence Robert Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, recently commented on the fire at Notre Dame cathedral. He said, “the Church is only of interest because she allows us to encounter Jesus. She is only legitimate because she passes on Revelation to us. When the Church becomes overburdened with human structures, it obstructs the light of God shining out in her and through her. The Church should be like a cathedral. Everything in Her should sing to the glory of God. She must unceasingly direct our gaze toward him, like the spire of Notre-Dame pointed toward heaven.” Encounter Jesus! Transforming Catholic Culture in Crisis is a call to rebuild a Catholic culture that has wandered from her spiritual root system. In the West and the United States, the light that shined, starting in the Acts of the Apostles, has become dim and in some places extinguished. The specifics to what apostolic spirituality embodies will convict, challenge, and call the clergy, consecrated religious, and laity to take seriously what it means to be a catholic Christian. Just as architects design the rebuilding of the Notre Dame Cathedral, may this book serve as a blueprint for transformation in the culture of the church.

Is Revelation really worth the effort? Does its message resonate with followers of Jesus in the here and now? Encountering Jesus in Revelation offers pastors and laypeople an accessible tool for studying Revelation within the local church. It situates Revelation in its ancient context while stressing how its apocalyptic nature addresses God’s people at every point in history, including our own. It does this by introducing apocalyptic writing as a form of literature and then surveys the alternative perspective Revelation offers on the world of its readers. That perspective is one in which we encounter Jesus and his call to leave behind the often-unrecognized beasts and monsters that inhabit our world. Readers who find themselves reluctant to study Revelation because of the confusing nature of its contents—and of academic books written about it—will find that Encountering Jesus in Revelation offers accessible and applicable insights as it explores how Revelation addresses its readers today.

In the past thirty years, the Sino-Jewish encounter in modern China has increasingly garnered scholarly and popular attention. This volume will be the first to focus on the transcultural exchange between Ashkenazic Jewry and China. The essays here investigate how this exchange of texts and translations, images and ideas, has enriched both Jewish and Chinese cultures and prepared for a global, inclusive world literature. The book breaks new ground in the field, covering such new topics as the images of China in Yiddish and German Jewish letters, the intersectionality of the Jewish and Chinese literature in illuminating the implications for a truly global and inclusive world literature, the biographies of prominent figures in Chinese-Jewish connections, the Chabad engagement in contemporary China. Some of the fundamental debates in the current scholarship will also be addressed, with a special emphasis on how many Jewish refugees arrived in Shanghai and how much interaction occurred between the Jewish refugees and the resident Chinese population during the wartime and its aftermath.

This book began when the author realised that, when people said they were fascinated by particular biblical passages, they were usually ones that presented dramatic encounters between people and between God and people. Such are the passages interpreted in this book. They usually set a vivid scene that heightens the dramatic nature of the encounter, and animated dialogue often directly ad- dresses the reader. There is also animated action that is vividly striking and often sudden and unexpected. These features involve the readers themselves and may question them about what they expect. Indeed the dramatic encounters provocatively lead to unex- pected new life in the future.

John’s writings are both ethereal and practical. On the one hand he deals with some of the most profound truths of the Christian gospel and then brings us up short with his black and white statements concerning who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’. The dialogues between Jesus and the Pharisees in this gospel sound very harsh to a Western ear – there are no punches pulled. But these are surrounded by miracles and healings, and the profound ‘I Am’ statements that fall from the pages and cause us to watch and listen in awe and wonder. We see the same contrast of profundity and practicality in John’s letters as he speaks of Jesus in hushed tones and then condemns those who reject Jesus as ‘antichrist’. John makes the purpose of his gospel clear (John 20:31). He does it in such a way that tells and paints an unmistakable portrait of Jesus: that people come to know who He is and put their faith in Him. In his letters, John aims to deal with error concerning the person of Jesus and to ensure the church remains on track. At the centre of all John’s writings is a simple message to the Church: love one another.