In this concise volume, Brent Strawn addresses ten common "lies" or mistruths about the Old Testament, from perceptions of God's personality (the "angry Old Testament God") to the relevance of the Old Testament for Christians. Discover why stories and laws written thousands of years ago, centuries before Christ, are enriching and indispensable for modern Christians. Written by a leading scholar in Old Testament and designed for easy reading and group discussion, this book will expand your thinking about the Bible's First (and largest) Testament.

In this concise volume, Brent Strawn addresses ten common "lies" or mistruths about the Old Testament, from perceptions of God's personality (the “angry Old Testament God”) to the relevance of the Old Testament for Christians. Discover why stories and laws written thousands of years ago, centuries before Christ, are enriching and indispensable for modern Christians. Written by a leading scholar in Old Testament and designed for easy reading and group discussion, this book will expand your thinking about the Bible’s First (and largest) Testament.

Both our concept of God and our daily life as Christians are shaped by what we hear in church. Unfortunately, some of the things that are most repeated in church culture are also those things that are least true. Lies My Pastor Told Me confronts 18 of these church clichés with the gospel of Jesus Christ and shows how each one robs Jesus of the glory he deserves and rob his people of the true good he has for them. Cole Brown writes from his own experience, having heard, believed and even taught these lies. The arguments used in the book to correct these lies are the same lies he found in the Bible and heard from other Christians, and those that ultimately led him to abandoned what he believed and find freedom and joy in the truths of the gospel. Lies My Pastor Told Me is not a book against pastors (the author himself is a pastor). It is a book against lies. It aims to point us toward the Chief Pastor, the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who himself is the Truth who never lies. To help leaders, we have included a DISCUSSION GUIDE after each chapter.

Shares uplifting advice about the virtues of forgiveness, offering strategic and biblically based advice on how to achieve peace and personal fulfillment by letting go of past wrongs.

A number of musical misconceptions are explored and exploded in this humorous and lucid discussion of the relation between the human perception of music and traditional systems of music education. Drawing on his extensive background in the music world, the author marshals an informal yet rigorous logic to guide the reader through the practical experiences and careful thinking that led him to his conclusions. Updated and refined in the light of reader feedback and more recent thinking, nagging questions such as Why does formal musical training seem not to pertain to musical success?and Why is there such a dramatic disparity between what one is told about music and how one actually experiences it?are re-addressed.Seekers of musical truth stand to profit from this light-hearted assault on the more nebulous assumptions of the musical community.

This concise volume introduces readers to the three main sections of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and to the biblical books found in each. It is organized around two primary "stories": the story that scholars tell about the Old Testament and the story the literature itself tells. Concluding with a reconsideration of the Old Testament as more like poetry than a story, three main chapters cover: The Pentateuch (Torah) The Prophets (Neviʾim) The Writings (Ketuvim) With key summaries of what the parts of the Old Testament "are all about," and including suggestions for further reading, this volume is an ideal introduction for students of and newcomers to the Old Testament.

Old Testament scholar and interpreter Brent A. Strawn focuses on the importance of honesty in preaching, especially around three challenging Old Testament themes: sin, suffering, and violence. He makes the case that preaching honestly is critical in the church today. Without honesty regarding these topics, there is no way forward to reconciliation, health, and recovery. Further, it is imperative for today's preachers to deal with the questions of faith arising from these themes in the biblical text itself. In addition to key scripture passages, he turns to several contemporary authors and works as dialogue partners on the three themes. Asserting that keeping secrets can lead to a kind of sickness, Strawn uses texts from the Pentateuch and the Psalms to model honesty about sin, without which there can be no reconciliation, and honesty about suffering, without which there can be no healing. He also looks at the book of Joshua and various psalms to model honesty about violence, which can serve as a way to contain, limit, and ultimately transcend violence. Strawn frames these themes specifically for working preachers, so they can create sermons that speak to these thorny themes with depth and clarity.