Are you struggling to connect with your church community? Do you find yourself questioning the core beliefs that you once held dear? Searching for Sunday, from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans is a heartfelt ode to the past and a hopeful gaze into the future of what it means to be a part of the modern church. Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn't want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals--to her, it was beginning to feel like church culture was too far removed from Jesus. Yet, despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing Evans back to church. Evans found herself wanting to better understand the church and find her place within it, so she set out on a new adventure. Within the pages of Searching for Sunday, Evans catalogs her journey as she loves, leaves, and finds the church once again. Evans tells the story of her faith through the lens of seven sacraments of the Catholic church--baptism, confession, holy orders, communion, confirmation, the anointing of the sick, and marriage--to teach us the essential truths about what she's learned along the way, including: Faith isn't just meant to be believed, it's meant to be lived and shared in community Christianity isn't a kingdom for the worthy--it's a kingdom for the hungry, the broken, and the imperfect The countless and beautiful ways that God shows up in the ordinary parts of our daily lives Searching for Sunday will help you unpack the messiness of community, teaching us that by overcoming our cynicism, we can all find hope, grace, love, and, somewhere in between, church.

If the Bible isn't a science book or an instruction manual, what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? When New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans found herself asking these questions, she embarked on a journey to better understand what the Bible is and how it's meant to be read. What she discovered changed her--and it can change you, too. Evans knows firsthand how a relationship with the Bible can be as real and as complicated as a relationship with a family member or close friend. In Inspired, Evans explores contradictions and questions from her own experiences with the Bible, including: If the Bible was supposed to explain the mysteries of life, why does it leave the reader with so many questions? What does it mean to be chosen by God? To what degree did the Holy Spirit guide the preservation of these narratives, and is there something sacred to be uncovered beneath all these human fingerprints? If the Bible has given voice to the oppressed, why is it also used as justification by their oppressors? Drawing on the best in biblical scholarship and using her well-honed literary expertise, Evans examines some of our favorite Bible stories and possible interpretations, retelling them through memoir, original poetry, short stories, and even a short screenplay. Undaunted by the Bible's most difficult passages and unafraid to ask the hard questions, Evans wrestles through the process of doubting, imagining, and debating the mysteries surrounding Scripture. Discover alongside Evans that the Bible is not a static text, but a living, breathing, captivating, and confounding book that can equip us and inspire us to join God's loving and redemptive work in the world.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The beginning of the Bible tells the story of how God separated the waters, pushing some of them below to make oceans, rivers, dew drops, and springs. God then spoke the language of water, turning the rivers of enemies into blood. #2 I was baptized by my father, who was a pastor but not a preacher, as a perk to having a father who was ordained but not a pastor. I knew I was pushing the limits of the age of accountability, the point at which kids no longer ate for free at O’Charley’s or got into heaven based on their parents’ faithfulness. #3 The church that adopted me was evangelical and obsessed with college football. Under the leadership of Gene Stallings, the Alabama Crimson Tide was rolling toward its twelfth national championship, so on Sunday mornings after game day, the traditional pews of Bible Chapel in Birmingham were mottled with red and white hair bows, neckties, sports jackets, and blouses. #4 I had no idea that evangelicalism was a specific, recent expression of Christianity with roots in eighteenth-century Pietism and the American Great Awakenings. I understood evangelical to be an adjective synonymous with real or authentic. I thought everyone else was lukewarm and in danger of being spewed out of God’s mouth.

Preaching pastors, ministers, and priests know how quickly Sundays come and go. The Lectionary Commentary will not slow the pace of the weekly calendar, but it will help assure that sermon preparation begins with a solid engagement with Scripture. Designed to "jump start" the difficult task of sermon preparation, this indispensable three-volume work gathers exegetical essays on biblical texts from the Revised Common Lectionary. Covering every Sunday of the three-year liturgical cycle, as well as Christmas Day, Epiphany, and Ascension Day, the readings are arranged in canonical order so as to be of use to all preachers. Seventy-eight pastors, priests, and teachers from a variety of Christian traditions have contributed their insights to The Lectionary Commentary. Designed to answer the question What does the preacher need to know about this text in order to preach a faithful sermon from it?, each of their essays closely considers its specific biblical text, all the while remaining alert to the contemporary context in which the sermon will be spoken and heard. The result is an invaluable resource that will aid in the difficult task of facilitating a meaningful encounter between Holy Scripture and our modern world. This volume, The Third Readings: The Gospels, provides exegetical commentary on the lectionary readings for the witnesses to Jesus Christ written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Also unique to this volume is an excellent essay by C. Clifton Black on Augustinian preaching and the nurture of Christians. Consulting Editors: Richard A. Burridge Thomas W. Gillespie Colin E. Gunton Robert W. Jenson James F. Kay Hughes Oliphant Old Fleming Rutledge Marguerite Shuster

O' seekers of spiritual intellectuality! Let left rational brains dance... with intuitive right brains, to the melody of Yang, Yin... to enjoy the Journey with Nevean through Effictism poetry.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1871. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.