HT: JF
December 3, 2010
Featured Books
Buy now from these online retailers:In this fierce essay, leading Bible scholar Scot McKnight tells the story of Junia, a female apostle honored by Paul in his Letter to the Romans—and then silenced and forgotten for most of church history. But Junia’s tragedy is not hers alone. She’s joined by fellow women in the Bible whose stories of bold leadership have been overlooked. She’s in the company of visionary women of God throughout the centuries whose names we’ve forgotten, whose stories go untold, and whose witness we neglect to celebrate.
Buy now from these online retailers:Contemporary evangelicals have built a 'salvation culture' but not a 'gospel culture.' Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. In the Beginning was the Gospel ends with practical suggestions about evangelism and about building a gospel culture.
Buy now from these online retailers:The real Mary was an unwed, pregnant teenage girl in first century Palestine. She was a woman of courage, humility, spirit, and resolve, and her response to the angel Gabriel shifted the tectonic plates of history.
Join popular Biblical scholar Scot McKnight as he explores the contours of Mary’s life, from the moment she learned of God's plan for the Messiah, to the culmination of Christ's ministry on earth. McKnight dismantles the myths and also challenges our prejudices. He introduces us to a woman who is a model for faith, and who points us to her son.
Buy now from these online retailers:In the candid and lucid style that has made McKnight's The Jesus Creed so appealing to thousands of pastors, lay leaders, and everyday people who are searching for a more authentic faith, he encourages all Christians to recognize the simple, yet potentially transforming truth of the gospel message: God seeks to restore us to wholeness not only to make us better individuals, but to form a community of Jesus, a society in which humans strive to be in union with God and in communion with others.
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Buy now as e-book for immediate download:What is the 'Christian life' all about? Studying the Bible, attending church, cultivating a prayer life, witnessing to others---those are all good. But is that really what Jesus has in mind? The answer, says Scot McKnight in One.Life, lies in Jesus' words, 'Follow me.'
What does it look like to follow Jesus, and how will doing so change the way we live our life---our love.life, our justice.life, our peace.life, our community.life, our sex.life---everything about our life.
Buy now from these online retailers:This book examines conversion stories as told by people who have actually undergone a conversion experience, including experiences of apostasy. The stories reveal that there is
not just one "conversion story." Scot McKnight and Hauna Ondrey show that "conversion theory" helps explain why some people walk away from one religion, often to another, very different religion. The book confirms the usefulness--particularly for pastors, rabbis, and priests, and university and college teachers--of applying conversion theory to specific groups.
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Buy now as e-book for immediate download:Parakeets make delightful pets. We cage them or clip their wings to keep them where we want them. Scot McKnight contends that many, conservatives and liberals alike, attempt the same thing with the Bible. We all try to tame it.
McKnight's The Blue Parakeet has emerged at the perfect time to cool the flames of a world on fire with contention and controversy. It calls Christians to a way to read the Bible that leads beyond old debates and denominational battles. It calls Christians to stop taming the Bible and to let it speak anew for a new generation.
Buy now from these online retailers:Scot McKnight here explains the Letter of James both in its own context and as it may be seen in light of ancient Judaism, the Graeco-Roman world, and emerging earliest Christianity.
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Buy now as e-book for immediate download:The gravity point of a life before God is that his followers are to love God and to love others with everything they've got. Scot McKnight now works out the "Jesus Creed" for high school and college students, seeking to show how it makes sense, giving shape to the moral lives of young adults. The Jesus Creed for Students is practical, filled with stories, and backed up and checked by youth pastors Chris Folmsbee and Syler Thomas.
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Buy now as e-book for immediate download:"When an expert in the law asked Jesus for the greatest commandment, Jesus responded with the Shema, the ancient Jewish creed that commands Israel to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. But the next part of Jesus' answer would change the course of history.
Jesus amended the Shema, giving his followers a new creed for life: to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, but also to love others as themselves. Discover how the Jesus Creed of love for God and others can transform your life.
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Buy now as e-book for immediate download:"Scot McKnight stirs the treasures of our Lord's life in an engaging fashion. He did so with The Jesus Creed, and does so again with 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed. Make sure this new guide for living is on your shelf." --Max Lucado
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And...love your neighbor as yourself."
Scot McKnight has come to call this vital teaching of our Lord the Jesus Creed. He recites it throughout the day every day and challenges you to do the same. You may find that, if you do, you will learn to love God more creatively and passionately, and find new ways to love those around you.
Buy now from these online retailers:What was spiritual formation like during the time of Jesus? As Scot McKnight points out, the early Christians didn't sing in the choir or go to weekly Bible studies, and yet they matured inwardly in relationship with God as well as outwardly in their relationships with each other. How did this happen?
In The Jesus Creed DVD, explore with Scot how the great Shema of the Old Testament was transformed by our Lord into the focal point for spiritual maturity. According to the Jesus Creed (found in Mark 12:29-31), loving God and loving others are the greatest commandments.
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Buy now as e-book for immediate download:Is the practice of faith centered solely on the spirit? Is the body an enemy, or can it actually play a role in our pursuit of God? In this installation of the Ancient Practices Series, Dr. Scot McKnight reconnects the spiritual and the physical through the discipline of fasting.
The act of fasting, he says, should not be focused on results or used as a manipulative tool. It is a practice to be used in response to sacred moments, just as it has in the lives of God's people throughout history. McKnight gives us scriptural accounts of fasting, along with practical wisdom on benefits and pitfalls, when we should fast, and what happens to our bodies as a result.
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Buy now as e-book for immediate download:McKnight discusses the value of the church's atonement metaphors, asserting that the theory of atonement fundamentally shapes the life of the Christian and of the church. This book, the first volume in the Living Theology series, contends that while Christ calls humanity into community that reflects God's love, that community then has the responsibility to offer God's love to others through such missional practices of justice and fellowship.
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Buy now as e-book for immediate download:Discover not only the original meaning of Galatians, but also how the message of Galatians can speak powerfully today.
Buy now from these online retailers:Learn not only what Peter said to his audience in the first century but also how what he taught can be applied today in this volume of the NIV Application Commentary Series.
Buy now from these online retailers:Scot McKnight, best-selling author of The Jesus Creed, invites readers to get closer to the heart of Jesus' message by discovering the ancient rhythms of daily prayer at the heart of the early church. "This is the old path of praying as Jesus prayed," McKnight explains, "and in that path, we learn to pray along with the entire Church and not just by ourselves as individuals."
Praying with the Church is written for all Christians who desire to know more about the ancient devotional traditions of the Christian faith, and to become involved in their renaissance today.
Articles at the Evangelical Portal at Patheos- Ben Witherington
- Karen Spears Zacharias
- Philosophical Fragments
- Euangelion
- Roger Olson
I don’t know whether to laugh or roll my eyes…..
For now, I’m laughing!
Comment by Luke — December 3, 2010 @ 2:14 pm
Funny and amazing what a guy or gal with photoshop can do. Maybe that’s obvious to people but just in case someone believes it, the signs are all the same light, angle, and while I can believe church sign posters could be this petty, I don’t think they could be this clever.
Comment by Greg Taylor — December 3, 2010 @ 2:19 pm
Yeah – from a site that constructs bogus church signs. But it is still funny.
Comment by rjs — December 3, 2010 @ 2:24 pm
I kind of wish that were real.
Comment by JoeyS — December 3, 2010 @ 2:45 pm
Really demonstrates the power of humor & imagination over against taking ourselves too seriously.
Comment by Mike Blyth — December 3, 2010 @ 2:56 pm
This is pretty funny stuff. I love the irony of the first posting on the Presbyterian sign, “Only humans go to heaven, read your Bible”
Comment by Richard — December 3, 2010 @ 2:58 pm
But mosquitos go to hell, right?
Comment by Andy Holt — December 3, 2010 @ 3:06 pm
Don’t we wish that we can discuss out our difference on the church sign? Well, maybe not!
Comment by Craig Querfeld — December 3, 2010 @ 3:10 pm
What is this all the fuss about heaven anyway? The question is who will stand at judgment and live on the new heaven and new earth. I don’t see any reason to think that there won’t be dogs on the new earth.
Comment by Ed Gentry — December 3, 2010 @ 3:17 pm
My cat is definitely in hell….I tried to cast the demon out of her on several occasions. Alas, I failed.
Comment by Nick — December 3, 2010 @ 3:49 pm
Nick, I thought all cats go to hell.
Comment by smcknight — December 3, 2010 @ 3:56 pm
That’s great stuff!
Comment by Foshizzle — December 3, 2010 @ 3:59 pm
That’s absolutely hilarious.
Comment by Carson Clark — December 3, 2010 @ 4:11 pm
This manufactured “debate” is humorous, but only slightly less inane than some arguments of the past, and dare we say present?
Comment by Dan Coggins — December 3, 2010 @ 4:13 pm
Blogs are the new church signs.
Comment by JoeyS — December 3, 2010 @ 5:04 pm
@15 Great one, Joey.
Comment by John Shelton — December 3, 2010 @ 5:16 pm
LOL, enjoyed the humor and creativity.
It will break my wife’s heart if no cats show up in heaven. Actually, I envy cats, that they are able to eat and then lie down and take a peaceful nap in the sun. I am at a time in life where that sounds like heaven to me!
Comment by MatthewS — December 3, 2010 @ 5:27 pm
…let’s give the cats a break here, McK! ;^)
Comment by Peggy — December 3, 2010 @ 5:40 pm
I’ve used the church sign generator when I was feeling particularly sarcastic–it was quite theraputic. I wish this blog allowed pasting in the pictures. My favorite: “Me First Presbyterian–a budget driven church”
Comment by Barb — December 3, 2010 @ 6:56 pm
#11
“Nick, I thought all cats go to hell.”
Isaac is sitting beside me at the computer, hissing at Jesus Creed.
Comment by Michael W. Kruse — December 3, 2010 @ 7:17 pm
Puff and Dusty are joining Isaac in the hissing attack.
Comment by rjs — December 3, 2010 @ 7:35 pm
Missy is eating and will soon take a nap. She may or may not hiss later…
Comment by MatthewS — December 3, 2010 @ 7:39 pm
#11 Now I know why I love this blog…..
Comment by Lived in Wien! — December 3, 2010 @ 9:21 pm
This is definitely photoshop. The same white car is parked on the left over multiple days with the same lighting.
Comment by bvoi — December 3, 2010 @ 11:49 pm
The pictures then the comments just made my day!
Comment by Jonathanblake — December 3, 2010 @ 11:56 pm
This was pretty funny. I hope the folks at both churches were laughing. This is worth passing on. Thanks for a good laugh.
Comment by Dale Roach — December 4, 2010 @ 9:10 pm
There may not be housecats in heaven, but there are big cats (specifically a lion)
Comment by Brian — December 7, 2010 @ 4:17 pm
http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/dogheaven.asp
Comment by Esteban Vázquez — December 8, 2010 @ 1:25 am