Updated and Expanded Edition of a Landmark Text on an Urgent Topic Now updated and expanded, this landmark text reveals God's purposes for his covenant people in these times--and how this revelation is impacting the church. Unlike Ruth in the Old Testament, many of us have turned our backs on the Jewish people, the relatives of the Messiah, and we share the collective guilt for centuries of their persecution. These pages remind us that now, more than ever, we must confess, embrace, and intercede for the chosen people of God, aligning our prayers with God's plan. Once again, Israel and her people are center stage at a crucial moment in world history, and this book shows why the church must effect reconciliation and why our prayers are vital in this hour. If we will make the same covenant pledge to Israel that Ruth made to Naomi, the church will never be the same!

Noticing a frequently used Bible phrase often precedes a breakthrough in understanding Scripture's teaching on key Bible topics. But computer-based searches and single-word concordances quickly overwhelm learners with raw, unconnected data. This phrase concordance compiles over 5,000 Bible expressions, giving their exact Scriptural quotations complete with surrounding sentences. Additionally, their alphabetical listing offers the chance to explore similar and related topics without starting a new search. Find It Fast in the Bible presents the exact chapter-and-verse locations of specific passages where the same wording expresses a Bible theme, such as "Day of the Lord," "Kingdom of Heaven," and "I tell you the truth." This handy reference resource contains Over 5,000 best-loved and most-used Bible phrases The New King James Version as the primary translation Cross-references to other major translations (NIV, NRSV, KJV, and NASB) An alphabetical arrangement by the first word in the phrase More than 30,000 references An extensive Key Word Index These features make Find It Fast in the Bible a trusted, time-saving companion resource and stand-alone aid for personal and group discovery.

Grace touches on many issues of life including: Following Gods plan for your life Heartaches of divorce Challenges of Second marriages Difficult children Racial prejudice & issues of the 60s Meaning of ancestry North vs. South A.L.S. illness

The book of Ruth is a love story. Like all love stories it has twists and turns, tension and resolution, and a happy ending. But it's far more than that because it reveals to us a God who is deeply committed to caring for his people. In Boaz, God provides Ruth with a loving husband to free and provide for her, pointing us to the Bible's grand story of redemption and David’s greatest son, Jesus. Tony Merida's compelling story-telling and Christ-centered insights make this both an accessible and absorbing expository guide to the book of Ruth. It can be used for personal devotions, or for leading small-group studies, or for sermon preparation.

2017 ECPA Christian Book Award Finalist (Bibles category) Scripture memorization grounds kids in the faith, equips them for the future, and solidifies relationships with Christ, family, and others. The Hidden in My Heart Scripture Memory Bible was created to encourage kids not only to read God's Word but also to hide it deep within their hearts. One hundred of the Bible's core verses have been set to music by renowned children's author and song writer Stephen Elkins. The 100 songs include a variety of genres and are available in the New Living Translation, New International Version, and King James Version, and all songs are free with the purchase of the Bible. Additional interactive features encourage school-age kids to engage with the Word in every place of their life.

Telling Narratives analyzes key texts from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African American literature to demonstrate how secrets and their many tellings have become slavery's legacy. By focusing on the ways secrets are told in texts by Jessie Fauset, Charles W. Chesnutt, Pauline Hopkins, Frederick Douglass, and others, Leslie W. Lewis suggests an alternative model to the feminist dichotomy of "breaking silence" in response to sexual violence. This fascinating study also suggests that masculine bias problematically ignores female experience in order to equate slavery with social death. In calling attention to the sexual behavior of slave masters in African American literature, Lewis highlights its importance to slavery’s legacy and offers a new understanding of the origins of self-consciousness within African American experience.

Here is a comprehensive, one-volume commentary on what the Bible really says about women. In this well-documented topical review, every positive biblical reference about women is quoted in full, set in context, and provided with a brief exposition. Over 350 specific topics are examined.

The Midrash: An Introduction sets forth the way in which Judaism reads the Hebrew Bible. In this masterful presentation, the reader is introduced to the classics of Jewish Bible interpretation, with special attention to the way in which the ribbis of Talmudic times read the Pentateuch, the Book of Ruth, and Song of Songs. The seven Midrash compilations are introduced with a lucid account of their main points, accompanied by selections that give the reader a direct encounter, in English, with the Bible as Judaism understands it. The word midrash, based on the Hebrew root DaRaSH (“search”), means “interpretation” or “exegesis.” Midrash also more formally refers to the compilations of such interpretations of Scripture. As Dr. Jacob Neusner explains, these compilations “reached closure and conclusion in the formative stage of Judaism, that is, the first seven centuries of the Common Era, the time in which the Mishnah (ca. 200), Talmud of the Land of Israel (ca. 400), and Talmud of Babylonia (ca. 600) were written.” Midrash is not so much about Scripture as it is a subordinate part of Scripture: “They did not write about Scripture,” Dr. Neusner says. “They wrote with Scripture … much as painters paint with a palette of colors.” The Midrash: An Introduction is the second volume in Dr. Jacob Neusner’s series of introductory volumes on classical rabbinic literature. As with the first volume – The Mishnah: An Introduction – this book offers the layperson a concise description of the religious literature and, drawing on Dr. Neusner’s own translations of the texts, walks readers through the selections, providing them with firsthand experience with the document itself. As Dr. Neusner says in his preface to The Midrash: An Introduction, “In these pages I mean to make it possible for readers to know one such compilation from the other and so to begin studying their own.”

A unique combination of sermons, essays and storytelling, Queerly Lutheran provocatively examines the roots of Lutheran tradition and delivers Good News to Lutherans of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Using the sex life of Martin Luther as a model, Queerly Lutheran invites readers and the contemporary church to reexamine our past and work towards a more welcoming future. This text includes an Extraordinary Prayer Calendar for congregations and individuals who would like to include queer saints (past and present) to their prayer life.