The nation of Israel tells its story of the rise of kings not once but twice (Joshua–2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles); and during this period, they wrote Psalms and gathered together their wise sayings. Then, plunged into the darkness of exile, they had to discover again who God was and what kind of life he called them to live. In the same way, Christians read these texts today for what they share about a promised Messiah and how they explain what life with God looks like in all its complexity.

God reveals his true nature in the first five books of the Bible. While the broader story of the Bible is known to many Christians, careful readers of the Pentateuch still have many questions. The origin story of the Jewish nation is one of hardship and loss. The Transforming Word will encourage you to examine the Scriptures and discover the God who sustains everything.

The life and work of Jesus Christ must not be overlooked. Born under Roman occupation, Jesus lived his entire life without writing anything down. His earliest followers, the Christians that were shaped by his life and teachings, carefully recorded his words as good news. They also experienced his resurrection and believed that he had entrusted them with a mission to transform the world.

Look to Christ, the ultimate revelation of God. The letter to the Hebrews asks questions aimed at the heart of what it looks like for Christians to walk in Christ's footsteps. How should Christians relate to the Old Testament? What are we to make of the New Testament's urgent pleas to persevere in the faith? Can we really lose our salvation? How does Jesus model both humility in his humanity and the glory of God through his earthly life? These questions continue to be fiercely debated by Christians. The ancient letter to the Hebrews answers all by focusing on Christ's magnificent love and greatness. In Christ Above All, Adrio König puts readers in the shoes of the original audience of Hebrews and shows how, in a world full of competing claims to power and authority, Christ--in all his glory and humanity--really does surpass all others. In the Transformative Word series, you'll read the Bible with a global cast of church leaders and scholars. In conversational tone, contributors from around the world explain the importance of a biblical book, showing how it can transform your life.

This e-book is Volume 2 of the 101 C2-Proficiency Key Word Transformation quizzes series written to help you improve paraphrasing skills. It contains 101 sentence transformations in total, many of which are based closely on some of the most common test items in past exam papers. For those preparing for the C2 Cambridge English Proficiency examination (previously known as the CPE), the book provides you with further practice for Part 4 of the Reading & Use of English paper. Prior to using this book, you should acquaint yourself with basic knowledge of some sophisticated grammar forms in English, which appear to be commonly tested in this part of the paper. These include inversion or inverted sentences, subjunctives, cleft sentences, emphatic structures, conditionals, comparatives and superlatives, relative clauses, nominal clauses, phrasal verbs and phrasal nouns, prepositional combinations, etc. A firm grasp of collocations and idiomatic expressions is also essential in helping you make full use of this book. Before checking out the other volumes of the series, it would be advisable for you to attempt Volume 1 and Volume 2 as they are aimed at helping you revise the key language features mentioned above as well as lay the foundation for more complex quizzes in the later volumes.

The ancient book of Ruth speaks into today's world with astonishing relevance. In four short episodes, readers encounter refugees, undocumented immigrants, poverty, hunger, women's rights, male power and privilege, discrimination, and injustice. In Finding God in the Margins, Carolyn Custis James reveals how the book of Ruth is about God, the questions that surface when life falls apart, and how God reaches into the margins and chooses two totally marginalized women who, in the eyes of the patriarchal culture, are zeros. Against the backdrop of disturbing issues in today's world, this bracing narrative puts on display a radical gospel way of living together as human beings that shouts the Kingdom of God, foreshadows Jesus' gospel, and raises the bar for men and women, then and now.