Perhaps human beings are animals, driven by the will to survive and reproduce, perhaps responsibility is a useful fiction and religion is the opium of the masses. Perhaps death is the end, life is ultimately meaningless, brutish and short. Perhaps man is the measure of all things and beauty, truth and justice are open to interpretation. Or, perhaps not. God matters. The choice over whether and what to believe is inescapable because it determines how we live our lives. Nothing matters more. This book encourages and enables students and general readers to ask fundamental questions about the nature and meaning of human life in an open, engaging but academically rigorous way. Centuries of scholarship in the Philosophy of Religion, from Jewish and Muslim as well as Christian traditions, are put in context and critically evaluated. Examples from art, film, and literature show the contemporary relevance of debates which have raged throughout human history. www.what-matters.org provides recommendations for further reading, a rich anthology of primary texts, questions for discussion and related activities.

It's hard to say that God is good when God isn't always what we expect good to be. A good father wouldn't make it so difficult to get to know him, would he? And if God is all-powerful, wouldn't he ensure that we never suffered? Either our understanding of God is incorrect, or our definition of good is inadequate. In a world that is messy and a church that is imperfect, it's easy to let our faith be lost. But that doesn't mean we have to lose God. It means we must consider the fact that perhaps our idealized expectations are just plain wrong. With transparency about his own struggles with cynicism and doubt, pastor Luke Norsworthy helps frustrated Christians and skeptics trade their confinement of God in an anemic definition of good for confidence in the God who is present in everything, including our suffering.

Can we truly believe God is active and good amidst such rampant evil? Are there satisfying answers as to why our creator has allowed so much evil to flourish? We tend to believe either God must not be loving or must not be actively involved. Yet throughout history, believers and nonbelievers alike have pressed forward to respond to this great challenge at the core of all life. From Lenin, to Mao and Hitler, to Tolstoy, Gandhi, and MLK Jr., adjunct professor of biblical studies Jered Gritters details how some of the worst evil has not prevented the greatest solution the world has ever seen from having its impact. Applying the Sermon on the Mount, an all-important “relational approach” demonstrates how anyone can help to solve the problem of evil in any time or place. With empirical evidence backed up by history and a biblical foundation, the existence of evil is shown not to be the unsolvable conundrum many tend to think it is. Solidly researched and carefully translated, Gritters collects the historical theology and philosophy to demonstrate how God is actively pursuing a solution to evil and inviting us to participate with him in it. Exploring why God allowed evil in the first place, Present Evil, Active God brings fuller context and needed synthesis to what God has always been doing—deeply engaging in bringing about his intended solution to our inescapable struggle with evil. In the end, those with eyes to see will recognize with new clarity the masterful plan designed to satisfy our existential crisis once and for all.

Two separate stories appear in this book, and each can be read front to back by turning the book upside down. When opened, the pop-up and pull tab images hide the upside-down text of the other story.

THE objective of WORKING FOR GOD is first of all to remind all Christian workers of the greatness and the glory of the work in which God gives a share. It is nothing less than that work of bringing men back to their God, at which God finds His highest glory and blessedness. As we see that it is God’s own work we have to work out, that He works it through us, that in our doing it His glory rests on us and we glorify Him, we shall count it our joy to give ourselves to live only and wholly for it. WORKING FOR GOD at the same time aims to help those who are laboring in vain, to find out what may be the cause of such struggles. God’s work must be done in God’s way and in God’s power. It is spiritual work, to be done by spiritual men and women, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The more precise our insight into God's Word, and the more complete our submission to God’s laws of work, the surer and the richer will be our joy and our reward in it. Along with this, WORKING FOR GOD can be a great help for those who have struggled in finding their part in the service of their Lord. Murray and Andrews seek to help ones understand that the chief characteristic of the Divine life in God and Christ is love and its work of blessing men. The Divine life in us can show itself in no other way. They have sought to show that it is God’s will that every believer without exception, whatever be his position in life, gives himself wholly to live and work for God. WORKING FOR GOD will also focus on teaching the imperative duty, the urgent need, the Divine blessedness of a life given to God’s service, and to waken within the consciousness of the power that works in them, even the Spirit and power of Christ Himself.

WHAT A WORLD, WHAT A GOOD GOD This is an inspirational book that has explored some aspects of the issues of life and discussed the decadence and chaos in our world today and in the lives of people because of sin and human selfishness. But it has also gone on to highlight the mercy and goodness of God towards mankind and how God is waiting for people to turn their lives around from evil to godliness by repenting of their sins and praying to Him for forgiveness. In this book, you will find that People can be set free from every evil bondage and strongholds and be transformed into becoming better persons as they have faith in God and make every effort to change their sinful ways, thereby making the world to be a better and safer place for all to live in.