Have you ever felt like an underdog? Like you don’t have the ability or confidence to pursue your dreams? The Bible is full of ordinary people the world considered underdogs. Yet God chose them to do his work. In God of the Underdogs, pastor Matt Keller tells his own story of being an underdog as well as the stories of the underdog heroes in Scripture. Men and women like Moses, Esther, King David, Samuel, Joseph, Paul the Apostle, and even Jesus. The stories and scriptures you’ll read will inspire you to face down the excuses holding you back, and you will be free to pursue your destiny as never before! Maybe you’re thinking, My past is too dark. “But it’s your past,” Matt assures you. God of the Underdogswill show you that the Creator of the universe wants you to accomplish great things for him. He wants to use your life in a way he will use no one else’s. Don’t shrink back from your destiny; lean into it. The Bible says you are a friend of God. Beloved. Highly esteemed. Known. More than conquerors. God sees your potential. It is your inability, not your perfection, that makes you an underdog worth using in God’s eyes. So rise up, underdog! God has a special plan for your life.

Have you felt like the odds were against you when it came to achieving success. In this detailed memoir, Shelley "Butch" Anthony III, provides an awe-inspiring example that God can use ordinary people to do extraordinary things

A Christianity Today 1999 Book of the Year Every reader of the Bible has encountered the powerful, comforting and sometimes puzzling imagery of Scripture. These concrete pictures with their hidden force have struck sharp and lasting impressions on our minds. Their imprint has etched itself on the language and grammar of Christian faith and Western culture. Why then do traditional Bible dictionaries and reference works offer so little help to explorers of the Bible's galaxy of verbal pictures? They excel in describing the climate, borders and location of Galilee or Sinai. But they are often blind to the artistic expressions and deaf to the musical meanings that echo from within the world of the biblical text. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery is the first contemporary reference work dedicated to exploring the images, symbols, motifs, metaphors and literary patterns found in the Bible. More than that, it examines the Bible's universal archetypes or master images--including the plot motifs and character types that recur throughout life, literature and the Bible. This unique dictionary explores the dazzling variety in which the Word of God comes dressed in clothes of everyday life. It traces the trail of images from Eden to the New Jerusalem. It captures the plotted patterns of biblical narrative. It surveys the imaged texture of each book of the Bible. In short, The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery is an inviting, enlightening and indispensable companion to the reading, study, contemplation and enjoyment of the Bible.

Treating Old Testament stories as the product of an oral traditional world, A Prelude to Biblical Folklore sets biblical narrative in a broad cross-cultural context and reveals much about the richness and complexity of the ancient Israelite civilization that produced it. Using a unique combination of biblical scholarship and folklore methodology, Susan Niditch tracks stories of biblical characters who become heroes against the odds, either through trickery or through native wisdom, physical prowess, and the help of human or divine agents. In this volume, originally published as Underdogs and Tricksters, Niditch examines three cross-sections of the Old Testament in detail: stories in Genesis in which patriarchs pretend that their wives are really their sisters; the contrasting stories of two younger sons, the trickster Jacob and the earnest underdog Joseph; and the story of Esther as a paradigm of feminine wisdom pitted against unjust authority. Linking these Old Testament heroes to the legendary tricksters and underdogs of other cultures, Niditch shows how the Israelites' worldview and self-image are reflected in the way biblical authors tell their stories. Through a thoughtful analysis of style, content, narrative choices, and attitudes to issues of gender and political authority in biblical narrative, A Prelude to Biblical Folklore draws persuasive conclusions about the identity, location, and provenance of the stories' authors and their audiences.

One major party in American politics, the Democrats, has consciously identified itself with underdogs. This book analyzes the relationship between the party and the main political ideology of its base: liberalism.

The greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution, in a brilliant new translation by an award-winning translator The Underdogs is the first great novel about the first great revolution of the twentieth century. Demetrio Macias, a poor, illiterate Indian, must join the rebels to save his family. Courageous and charismatic, he earns a generalship in Pancho Villa’s army, only to become discouraged with the cause after it becomes hopelessly factionalized. At once a spare, moving depiction of the limits of political idealism, an authentic representation of Mexico’s peasant life, and a timeless portrait of revolution, The Underdogs is an iconic novel of the Latin American experience and a powerful novel about the disillusionment of war.

Bible study and journaling questions guide women through Ruth and Esther, and help them apply biblical truths to their lives. With 12 weeks' worth of material that is perfect for small-group or individual use, the volumes in the Women's Bible Journal series contain more material than many small-group Bible studies.