The moment things stop growing, they start dying. Not only is that true of every living thing, it is also true of the Christian life. So whether we have been a Christian for a short time or for many years, we need to keep growing; and if we don’t, we have already started dying. It is to help with this essential need for ongoing growth that The Spiritual Growth Bible™ has been created.

The informative articles, book introductions, character profiles, topical ties and cross-references will guide believers in this process of spiritual growth through increasing their knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Based on the New Living Translation text, respected for its clarity and faithful rendering of the message of the original texts of Scripture in contemporary language, this Study Bible will be a practical and invaluable resource for both new and seasoned believers, Bible students, church leaders, pastors, personal or group Bible study and family devotional times.

Features:

• The complete text of the New Living Translation (NLT).
• Introductions to each book of the Bible, which provide a bird’s-eye view of each book’s content and key themes.
• 800+ sidebar articles will make the message of Scripture passages more understandable and highlight the lessons for spiritual growth.
• 80+ full-page articles focus on key aspects of spiritual growth and fundamental theological truths to help readers grow in their faith. Topics include God’s covenant with his people, the importance of worship, spiritual vitality, dealing with temptation, overcoming doubt, using money wisely, the parables of Jesus and prophecies that were fulfilled.
• 40+ character profiles of men and women in the Bible, such as Adam and Eve, Solomon, John the Baptist, Judas and Paul, explain what can be learned from their strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures.
• 2300+ topical ties connect articles and Scripture passages that share a theme or spiritual growth topic.
• 1700+ cross-references indicate themes relating to spiritual growth.
• Topical index at the back of the Bible.
• Index of articles and authors acknowledge the Bible’s many authoritative contributors.
• 8.65-point font size.
• Presentation page.
• Two ribbon markers

In The Qumran Manuscripts of Lamentations: A Text-Critical Study, the first large-scale investigation of the topic, Gideon Kotze establishes how the four Lamentations manuscripts from Qumran present the content of the biblical book. Kotze takes as his point of departure the contributions of the Dead Sea scrolls to the discipline of Old Testament textual criticism and treats the Qumran manuscripts of Lamentations, the Masoretic text and the ancient translations as witnesses to the content of the book and not only as witnesses to earlier forms of its Hebrew text. By focusing the analysis on variant readings and textual difficulties, the study arrives at a better understanding of these manuscripts as representatives of both the text and the content of Lamentations.

Walter Brueggemann has been one of the leading voices in Hebrew Bible interpretation for decades. His landmark works in Old Testament theology have inspired and informed a generation of students, scholars, and preachers. These chapters gather his recent addresses and essays, never published before, drawn from all three parts of the Hebrew Bible-Torah, prophets, and writings-and addressing the role of the Hebrew canon in the life of the church. Brueggemann turns his critical erudition to those practices-prophecy, lament, prayer, faithful imagination, and a holy economics-that alone may usher in a humane and peaceful future for our cities and our world, in defiance of the most ruthless aspects of capitalism, the arrogance of militarism, and the disciplines of the national security state.

Evolutionary science teaches that humans arose as a population, sharing common ancestors with other animals. Most readers of the book of Genesis in the past understood all humans descended from Adam and Eve, a couple specially created by God. These two teachings seem contradictory, but is that necessarily so? In the fractured conversation of human origins, can new insight guide us to solid ground in both science and theology? In The Genealogical Adam and Eve, S. Joshua Swamidass tests a scientific hypothesis: What if the traditional account is somehow true, with the origins of Adam and Eve taking place alongside evolution? Building on well-established but overlooked science, Swamidass explains how it's possible for Adam and Eve to be rightly identified as the ancestors of everyone. His analysis opens up new possibilities for understanding Adam and Eve, consistent both with current scientific consensus and with traditional readings of Scripture. These new possibilities open a conversation about what it means to be human. In this book, Swamidass untangles several misunderstandings about the words human and ancestry, in both science and theology explains how genetic and genealogical ancestry are different, and how universal genealogical ancestry creates a new opportunity for rapprochement explores implications of genealogical ancestry for the theology of the image of God, the fall, and people "outside the garden" Some think Adam and Eve are a myth. Some think evolution is a myth. Either way, the best available science opens up space to engage larger questions together. In this bold exploration, Swamidass charts a new way forward for peace between mainstream science and the Christian faith.

Die Psalms is ongetwyfeld een van die mees geliefde boeke in die Bybel. Dit daag uit, aanbid en bevestig God se bemoeienis met die mens.

Elias P Nel deel in 'n outentieke stem tekste uit die Psalms en ander Bybelboeke in die taal van sy kinderjare, Boesmanlandse Afrikaans. Hy bevestig God se herderskap in ons lewe. Hierdie herskryfde tekste is hartgebeure wat op papier gesit word.

Tekste wat oorgeskryf is sluit die Psalms, Spreuke, Lukas, Johannes, Handelinge, Romeine en Openbaring in.

It is imperative for every growing Christian to study the Bible. Volume one of this new series will enrich both the believer’s knowledge and life with its survey of the Old Testament.

Chapters conclude with projects, questions and exploration activities that not only test readers’ grasp of the materials but also provide opportunity for more detailed and intensive study.

This well-executed work does much to acquaint people with the Old Testament’s major divisions and its amazing unity as a whole–all of which can lead to a deeper faith.

What does it look like to read the texts we now call the gospels like first- and second-century readers? There is no evidence of anyone regarding the gospel as a book published by an author until the end of the second century. So, put differently, what does it mean to read the gospels "before the book"? For centuries, the ways people discuss the gospels have been shaped by later ideas that have more to do with the printing press and modern notions of the author than ancient writing and reading practices. In Gospels before the Book, Matthew D. C. Larsen challenges several subtle yet problematic assumptions about authors, books, and publication at work in early Christian studies. He then explores a host of under-appreciated elements of ancient textual culture such as unfinished texts, accidental publication, post-publication revision, and the existence of multiple authorized versions of the same work. Turning to the gospels, he argues that the earliest readers and users of the text we now call the Gospel according to Mark treated it not as a book published by an author, but as an unfinished, open, and fluid collection of notes (hypomnmata). In such a scenario, the Gospel according to Matthew would not be regarded as a separate book published by a different author, but as a continuation of the same unfinished gospel tradition. Similarly it is not the case that, of the five different endings in the textual tradition we now call the Gospel according to Mark, one is "right" and the others are "wrong." Rather each represents its own effort to fill a perceived deficiency in the gospel. Larsen offers a new methodological framework for future scholarship on early Christian gospels.

Micah Kiel discusses the overly simplistic nomenclature ('Deuteronomistic') given to Tobit's perspective on retribution and attempts to show, by coordinating it with Sirach and parts of 1 Enoch, how the book's view is much more complex than is normally asserted. Kiel argues that the return of Tobit's sight is a catalyst that ushers in new theological insight, specifically, that the world does not run to the tightly mechanized scheme of act and consequence. Kiel's close comparison between Tobit and selected contemporaneous literature provides context and support for such narrative observations. Sirach and parts of 1 Enoch demonstrate how authors at the time of Tobit were expressing their views of retribution in the realm of creation theology. The created order in Tobit is unruly and rises up in opposition to God's righteous characters. By way of this quirky tale, the author of Tobit suggests that God does not function strictly according to old formulae. Instead, a divine incursion into human reality is necessary for the reversal of suffering.

This collection of eighteen essays addresses critical theological and ethical issues in the book of Job: (1) Prologue: From Eden to Uz; (2) Job and His Friends: "What Provokes You that You Keep on Talking?"; (3) Job and the Priests: "Look At Me and Be Appalled;" (4) Traumatizing Job: "God Has Worn Me Out;" (5) Out of the Whirlwind: "Can You Thunder with A Voice Like God's?"; (6) Preaching Job and Job's God: "Listen Carefully to My Words;" (7) Epilogue: "All's Well That Ends Well" ... or Is it? The lead essay raises the question that lingers over the entire book: What are we to think of a God who is complicit in the death of seven sons and three daughters "for no reason"?