In this six-session video-based small group Bible study, bestselling author Carol Kent gives proof that you can experience grace and joy during even the lowest moments of your life. This Participant's Guide helps you decide where you stand when you are caught between a rock and a hard place: Will you place yourself in a posture of humility and complete dependence on God, or will you just "try harder" and stumble over what could be a transforming encounter with grace? Carol Kent and her husband, Gene, are living what some would call a heartbreaking life-their son, Jason, a young man who initially had so much promise, is now living out a life sentence for murder in a maximum security prison. All their appeals have been exhausted. But despite their hopeless situation, the Kent's live a life full of grace. With hope, joy, and a sense of humor, Carol helps you find God's "grace places" in the midst of your worst moments. This Participant Guide provides individual and group activities, additional background material, and between-session personal studies that will enhance your experience of the video sessions. Sessions include: Grace in the Hardest of Places - Surprised by Faith Angels in Disguise - Surprised by Mercy Longing for a Better Me - Surprised by Contentment The Secret Power of Gratitude - Surprised by Thanksgiving Why Do You Weep? - Surprised by Joy Dwelling in the Great Place - Surprised by Freedom Designed for use with the Between a Rock and a Grace Place Video Study (sold separately).

Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the United States are known for their academic excellence, safety, discipline, good communication, and a Christ-centered focus that permeates the school culture. However, there many unseen challenges to maintain these hard-won benchmarks that school leaders face daily. Ever escalating costs and limited funding streams, rising expectations of families, divisive culture battles, conflicting and sometimes mutually exclusive views of Church teachings and beliefs chipping away at the core mission, a growing and hostile secularism all contribute to some of the challenges confronting this largest private school system. TheSurvivability of Catholic Schools: Vigor, Anemia, and a Diffident Flock guides readers through some of the undetected trials and joys of keeping Catholic schools faithful to their mission by candidly acknowledging some of the headaches while encouraging parents, alumni, and stakeholders to reinvigorate this pearl of great price.

This five-session small group Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately) by noted teacher and historian, Ray Vander Laan, is volume eleven of the That the World May Know filmed-on-location DVD and Discovery Guide series. In this study, God's story continues with the intense devotion of his people. Discover how their passionate faith prepares the way for Jesus and his ultimate act of obedience and sacrifice at the cross. Then, be challenged in your life to live as they did - by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Faith Lessons is a unique video series that brings God's Word to life with astounding relevance. By weaving together the Bible's fascinating historical, cultural, religious, and geographical contexts, teacher and historian Ray Vander Laan reveals unique insights into the Scriptures' significance for modern believers. Each lesson: Focuses on passages of Scripture explored in the DVD Includes sidebars, maps, photos and other study tools Features questions that facilitate discussion and inspire personal reflection Includes 25 personal Bible studies to help you deepen your learning experience between sessions, and turn lessons from the past into applications that impact how you live out your faith today. Filmed on location in Qumran, Machaerus, En Gedi, Jerusalem and Gethsemane, these illuminating "faith lessons" afford a new understanding of the Bible that will ground your convictions and transform your life. The Faith Lessons video series is ideal for use in small groups, personal and family Bible studies, and adult Sunday school. Individual believers and families will gain vital insights from long-ago times and cultures through this innovative approach to Bible study. Lessons include: The Way of the Essenes - Filmed in Quamran The Way of John the Baptist - Filmed in Machaerus Into the Desert to Be Tested - Filmed in En Gedi The Last Passover - Filmed in Jerusalem The Fifth Cup: Our Way of Hope - Filmed at Gethsemane Designed for use with the Early Church Video Study (sold separately).

Philip Schaff's The Creeds of Christendom is a massive set, originally published in three volumes and here reproduced across five volumes, cataloging and explaining the many different creeds from the myriad Christian denominations. The differences in belief between Calvinists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, for example, can often be subtle, so a thorough examination of the particulars as well as an explanation for how those different beliefs result in a different worldview is necessary. Volume One: Part II covers: . the Catechism of Geneva AD 1546 and 1541 . the Reformed Confessions of France and Netherlands . the Reformed Confessions of Germany . the Reformed Confessions of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary . the Anglican Articles of Religion . the Presbyterian Confessions of Scotland . the Westminster Standards . the Creeds of Modern Evangelical Denominations. (See Volume One: Part I for the Table of Contents for this volume.) Swiss theologian PHILIP SCHAFF (1819-1893) was educated in Germany and eventually came to the United States to teach at the German Reformed Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He wrote a number of books and hymnals for children, including History of the Christian Church and The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches.

Few know that the great St. Thomas Aquinas, although he was a towering intellectual, also wrote much that's well within the reach of ordinary believers. In The Aquinas Catechism you'll find his deeply insightful, straightforward, and clear explanations of the Apostles' Creed, the Commandments, and the Sacraments -- as well as of the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary.

In other words, this book will give you a basic course in the Catholic Faith, taught by the Church's greatest theologian. Let St. Thomas teach you how to explain, defend, and live your Faith . . . with the clear-sighted wisdom of a saint!

Rules for Romance That Can Help You Find the Love of Your Life Between singleness and marriage lies the journey of dating. Want to make your road as smooth as possible? Set and maintain healthy boundaries that will help you grow in freedom, honesty, and self-control. If many of your dating experiences have been difficult, Boundaries in Dating will revolutionize the way you handle relationships. Even if you re happily dating, the insights you ll gain from this much-needed book will help you fine-tune important areas of your dating life. Designed to accompany Boundaries in Dating, this workbook is your map for traveling the dating road. It s filled with pointed assessments, insights, questions for thought and discussion, and principles for you to put into practice in your relationships with the opposite sex. The Boundaries in Dating Workbook helps you deal with four critical concerns you face as a single person: You and Your Boundaries Whom Should I Date? Solving Dating Problems When You re Part of the Problem Solving Dating Problems When Your Date Is the Problem Written by the authors of the best-selling book Boundaries, this workbook can help you enjoy the kind of smart, rewarding dating that can take you from weekends alone to a lifetime with the soul mate you ve longed for."

Condensed into 31 accessible chapters, The Story Bible: The Bible As One Continuing Story Of God And His People sweeps you into the unfolding progression of Bible characters and events from Genesis to Revelation. Using the world’s most popular modern-English Bible, the New International Version, and printed in the exclusive Zondervan NIV Comfort Print® typeface, it allows the stories, poems, and teachings of the Bible to read like a novel. Like any good story, The Story is filled with intrigue, drama, conflict, romance, and redemption—and this story’s true!

Features:

• Selections from the accurate, readable, and clear New International Version (NIV)
• Events, characters, and teachings of the Bible are arranged chronologically
• Short transitions between each chapter to connect the reader to the continuing story
• Timelines of Bible events
• Foreword by Max Lucado and Randy Frazee
• List of characters and who they are
• Discussion questions for each chapter
• Exclusive Zondervan NIV Comfort Print typeface
• 11.5-point print size

With this new lectionary commentary series, Westminster John Knox offers the most extensive resource for preaching on the market today. When complete, the twelve volumes of the series will cover all the Sundays in the three-year lectionary cycle, along with movable occasions, such as Christmas Day, Epiphany, Holy Week, and All Saints' Day.

For each lectionary text, preachers will find four brief essays--one each on the theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical challenges of the text. This gives preachers sixteen different approaches to the proclaimation of the Word on any given occasion.

The editors and contributors to this series are world-class scholars, pastors, and writers representing a variety of denominations and traditions. And while the twelve volumes of the series will follow the pattern of the Revised Common Lectionary, each volume will contain an index of biblical passages so that nonlectionary preachers, as well as teachers and students, may make use of its contents.

"One of the first great events in Christian history was the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, convened to organize Christian sects and beliefs into a unified doctrine. The great Christian clergymen who wrote before this famous event are referred to as the Ante-Nicenes and the Apostolic Fathers, and their writings are collected here in a ten-volume set. The Ante-Nicenes lived so close to the time of Christ that their interpretations of the New Testament are considered more authentic than modern voices. But they are also real and flawed men, who are more like their fellow Christians than they are like the Apostles, making their words echo in the ears of spiritual seekers. In Volume VII of the 10-volume collected works of the Ante-Nicenes first published between 1885 and 1896, readers will find the writings of Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius Urbanus, Victorinus, and Dionysius. This volume also contains writing unattributed to any author, but nonetheless considered of great value. These writings include: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, The Second Epistle of Clement, The Nicene Creed, and Early Liturgies. "