Books published by Resource Publications (CA)

The Apostle Paul leaves no stone, teaching, or truth untouched as he continues developing a pathway for each of us built upon the foundation of the Triune God. He has carefully and prayer-fully utilized the words in this magnificent letter to clearly, concisely, and forcefully relate the truths revealed to him by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Paul, in this illuminating sixth chapter of Ephesians, weaves together enlightening commands and counsel that will enhance the lives of people Walking With Jesus. He tells the believers what to do and what not to do in simple, straightforward language. He succinctly describes Christlike conduct, before expounding upon the lifestyles of those who will have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God and Christ. These tough words make one stop and think. At least, they should. The Apostle continues Walking With Jesus by urging Christ's followers to walk wisely and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. After building this part of God's pathway, Paul focuses our attention on the two most important relationships in one's life: (i) marriage; and (ii) Christ and His church. The truths presented by the Apostle provide Christ's companions, as the walk together, with an increasing faith plus joy, knowledge, love, strength, and wisdom. May we ask for nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else.

Sooner or later every person faces questions about death and whether there is anything beyond it. This little book consists of personal and sometime private letters between three brothers who realize their own lives may soon come to an end. The wisdom they offer is not only for their own families and friends left behind, but for others who have faced the loss of loved ones. Writing from different religious perspectives, the letters are nonetheless spiritual in the way they seek to wrest from a life lived in the face of death some wisdom for one another as well as others who have shared their struggles with life's deepest questions. When he was asked about the essence of his philosophy, Plato reportedly said, "Practice dying." These letters take his wisdom to heart in a series of heartfelt exchanges over the course of a year, concluding with each author's request for what his memorial service would be like.

Star Death is a science-based fiction book depicting ""sun death"" as revealed by the Prophets and as depicted by the Apostle Peter in the Holy Bible. It also parallels scientific estimations of solar entropy as forecast by major astrophysicists who have pushed Relativity Theory to its applicable limits. This book, based on real scientific theorization, is fresh in perspective and presents the laws of thermodynamics in a way never entertained before. The sun, reacting to inputs from the outer reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, must therefore ""negotiate"" the ""tugs of entropy""; it stretches its electromagnetic curtain to envelop the whole heliosphere into tumultuous radiation eruptions that extend even to the outer periphery of the solar system. Jupiter, Mercury, and the Earth convulse under tremendous pressures that impinge upon their mass and magnetic fields, respectively, to produce turbulence and perturbations uprooting the relative tranquility of the solar system. On the Earth, there is life, human life. Gravi-metric processes become chaotic and erratic so as to disrupt the daily routine of productive life. With impending ""star death"" came the imperative necessity to create a permanent, safe, space habitation for the human family. As ""sun death"" affected the whole human species, countries undertook to cooperate internationally in order to alleviate human suffering in the light of the possible extinction of the family of Man.

Wondering about what you need to know before entering into ministry? Bothered about what the call of God entails? Or do you desire an evaluation of your life and work as a minister? If your answer to any of the above questions is ""yes,"" then ""Fifteen Ps For Every Minister"" is a must read for you. This book examines all the essentials of ministry, providing detailed answers to previously unanswered questions and making propositions that will rock your boat, all from the very words of Jesus found in just one chapter of the Bible-Matthew 10.Reading this book may be the beginning of a radical change in your walk with and work for God.

Description:What do talking donkeys, fasting lions, and wolves playing with sheep have in common? They are all found in the Bible. Author Tripp York and illustrator Zak Upright bring to life eight different stories about animals as discovered in Scripture. York spins a different account on these stories (such as the flood, Jonah, as well as Daniel and the lion's den), by attempting to imagine what it might mean to understand these narratives from the perspective of the animals. Though the short stories in this collection are written for children, adults will take much from them as they attempt to provoke the readers to new ways of understanding some of the most popular stories in the Bible.Endorsements:""With this book Tripp York participates in that venerable 'truth-by-parable' Christian tradition, in which sage storytelling trumps both clever systematic logic and avalanches of information. The literary genre may be 'fiction,' yet York's non-human eye-witnesses reveal again the genius of the biblical narrative. Readers are, therefore, invited to see once more the scandalous biblical message-a gospel too 'absurd' for the self-assured, too 'weak' for the self-reliant, and too 'unsophisticated' for the self-righteous.--Dr. Richard C. GoodeLipscomb University""In the playful spirit of Aesop, and with a touch of Lewis's 'deeper magic,' Tripp York imaginatively glimpses the eternal through this strangely familiar menagerie of talking animals--fellow creatures in our great journey with God. York's quirky, contemporary narrative voice and his creative openness to the teleology of God's ubiquitous movement among His creation offer readers a rare and meaningful opportunity to reconsider the power of God's Word with fresh eyes and responsive hearts.""--Jeffrey D. FrameTrevecca Nazarene UniversityAbout the Contributor(s):Tripp York is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University, in Elon, North Carolina. He is the author of The Purple Crown: The Politics of Martyrdom (2007) and Living on Hope while Living in Babylon (Wipf & Stock, 2009).

What really happens to human consciousness at death?How might love and immortality be related?What is purgatory and do most religions teach the concept of purgatory?What is spirituality?Is the essence of the mystery we call ""God"" the same for the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, and Muslim?Is it more important what my religion teaches me to believe, or is it more important that my religion enables me to become more loving and compassionate?How might one practice a reverence for life by our food choices?How do we balance work and spirituality?How do we balance spirituality and social-justice work?In this collection of sermons and reflections, Floyd Vernon Chandler suggests that there are many valid spiritual paths to Enlightenment and Holiness. Understanding the mystery we call ""God"" is akin to the story of five blind men touching different parts of a huge elephant. Each man's description and understanding of the elephant will vary based upon the location of his touch. The importance of any religion is determined by how much our respective spiritual paths lead us to grow in love and compassion for one another and for all other forms of life on this planet. The sermon and reflections found in Beyond the Grave: Love and Immortality express a Universalist theology that all souls will eventually be reunited with the mystery we call ""God."" Inherent in this collection of writings is the belief that there is truth in all religions and that there are many valid spiritual paths. No religious dogma or ideology has a monopoly on truth.

In this day of increasing uncertainty and fear, faith in God is needed more than ever before. In addition to its incalculable other benefits, faith in God brings peace, comfort, and overflowing joy to those who put their trust in God. But not any kind of ""faith"" can procure these benefits, only biblical faith can. When understood in its biblical authenticity, and then put into action, faith always leads to triumph in that it enables us to experience what God ordained for us to obtain, perform, and become. In light of this, it is extremely important that we--the people of God--possess a comprehensive, biblically-based, practical tool to aid us in achieving this understanding.Real Faith in Action is that tool! It presents an unconventional, multi-dimensional view of faith, revealing many aspects usually not discussed in other works, through nine principles that are clearly laid out by the Holy Spirit in what is unquestionably the most comprehensive reporting of the working of faith in all of Scripture--the roll call of faith in Hebrews 11. The principles are thus illustrated through the real life experiences of fellow humans who dared to believe God for the impossible. Accordingly, the book goes beyond explaining faith to demonstrating faith. It is designed to captivate and draw the reader into the world of the faith heroes of the past, thus inspiring him or her to do likewise. Furthermore, in that real life experiences are discussed, any thought of being incapable of doing the same should be vanquished, knowing that others succeeded in their accomplishments by utilizing the same faith to which we also have access.

A car crashes, and Maggie Kast, at the peak of a modern dance career, loses a three-year-old daughter. Raised without religion and now mired in grief, she senses a persistent connection to the little girl, a love somehow more powerful than the brute fact of death. This awareness leads her, over three years, to the Catholic Church. After the accident, her marriage is greatly stressed by the entrance of religion into married life, and she and her husband each accuse the other of being too religious or too secular at various times. Despite conflict, dialogue keeps the marriage intimate and vital.Following study of liturgy at Catholic Theological Union, she teaches and tours sacred dance nationally and internationally, exploring the arts as a spiritual path. Moving forward and looking back at once, she discovers early hints of religious experience in childhood celebrations, encounters with art, and marriage. Her husband dies. Now a single parent of a ten-year-old and a developmentally disabled teenager, as well as college-aged sons, she continues her search.

Christian Coalition experienced a meteoric rise in American politics in the 1990s only to see its profile and impact vanish into embarrassing irrelevancy at the end of the decade, leaving many to ask, ""Whatever happened to the Christian Coalition?""Joel Vaughan offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Christian Coalition, once the pre-eminent, conservative grassroots political organization in America. Working closely with founder Pat Robertson, President Don Hodel, and wunderkind Executive Director Ralph Reed, the author reveals in a captivating manner the factors that caused the rapid growth of this astonishingly successful organization, and the internal strife that led to its tragic and rapid decline.Containing useful insights for leaders about organizational dynamics and grassroots movements of any kind, The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition shows how people of faith can become more effective at making their voice heard in local, state, and national elections, as well as many obstacles and ambitions to avoid.Gilbert and Sullivan wrote a song about a young man who went to work for the British Admiralty and ""polished up the handles so carefully"" that he became ruler of Queen Victoria's Navy. Joel Vaughan rose from volunteer to Deputy Field Director and, ultimately, to the dual positions of Assistant to the President and Director of Administration. He brings an insider's intimate knowledge of the explosive growth and the ultimate crisis in leadership of Christian Coalition.Full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and revelations, this book is a ""must read"" for every person interested in American politics who wants a better idea of the pro-family movement and its foremost organization, as well as those interested in the Do's and Don'ts of running a nonprofit organization.

Quilly Hall weds fiction and history in this powerful story, set in the 1940s in the Holston Valley near the town of Abingdon, Virginia. Daniel Boone twice camped here. The town itself served as a rail hub during the Civil War and cared for the wounded in its hospitals. The novel's title refers to a statuette whose presence in the old home's hallway haunts the story. Farley's novel traces the life of Thomas Edmonds, an only son whose father was killed in the battle for Guadalcanal, and who is raised by a bevy of family who regale him with their proud past. One of his ancestors--a veteran of the Battle of Chickamauga--is alleged to have buried a treasure under a rock in the fabled Knobs above the home place. Foray after foray is mounted in search of this rock and its secret. A favorite uncle and scruffy farmhands become Tom's mentors until he matures, attends Harvard, marries, and leaves for Vietnam. Farley's style and his story are gripping, compelling, and melodic. You will fall in love with each character and grieve as one by one they pass on.

Dying Is Not Death examines from a traditional humanistic position the act of dying. The author views death as a universal experience that can and perhaps should force us to explore various technological intrusions upon it. Each chapter is an independent narrative, and some chapters tell stories of those struggling to die when confronted with the medical system's technological artifacts. Recounting different persons' experiences of death, Lee Hoinacki suggests that the medical system's conventional approaches to dying and death can distort our preparation for this most important experience.Borrowing from Jacques Ellul and Ivan Illich, Hoinacki acknowledges technology as an all-embracing system with powerful symbolic effects on the human condition and argues to a conflict between faith and technology. Indeed, with Ellul, he holds that in order to criticize technology, one must find some ""place"" outside the technological milieu that would act as a kind of Archimedean lever. One must somehow get to the Beyond to judge where one stands in the world.

With simple, heartbreaking detail, Das Maddimadugu recalls the joys and tragedies of his childhood in a destitute family of the untouchable caste, nearly sold into slavery, and "adopted" by a single Mennonite missionary woman. In her care, he was taught about Jesus' love and given the opportunity to discover his gifts for wide-ranging study, loyal friendship, community organizing, and dreaming redemption for those at the bottom of society's heap. The God "for whom nothing is impossible" used the moves of Das and Doris Maddimadugu's lives to weave together a network of friends in places like Vietnam; Newton, Kansas; Winnipeg; New Haven; Chicago; Korea; Taiwan; and Shanghai. This collaboration of friends has become an innovative partnership in Jesus' mission of "good news to the poor" for thousands of students, hundreds of orphans, a score of churches, and a series of disaster relief projects that have brought hope to the lives of countless persons on the margins, such as Das once was. On the wash line of his life story are hung colorful testimonies of a dozen mission partners in Asia and America that reflect on this innovative way of doing mission, following in the footsteps of indigenous leadership.

Like many young Christians, Kevin Brown had what he believed to be a strong faith, one that provided answers to all the questions he had and might encounter. He even attended a Christian college and considered becoming a youth minister. While there, though, he began having doubts about his faith, began asking questions that came from discussions both in and out of the classroom--questions he couldn't find answers to. When the church told him he shouldn't be asking those questions, he left the church and his faith behind. He kept asking questions, though, and kept looking for a faith that would allow him to have questions and doubts, yet still believe. What he found may offer an answer to the religious divide in our society--one that separates evangelical from progressive Christians, one that separates sacred from secular.In this memoir, Brown describes his spiritual journey from his first faith to the loss of faith to the way he found back to a Christianity where he can ask those questions, a different way than he knew before. He still has questions and doubts, but he also has faith, in spite of and because of those questions and doubts.

The emotional experience of the Christian is usually a mixture of sorrow and joy, pleasure and pain, hope and discouragement, peace and turmoil. This full range of emotional experience is common to God's people and is plentifully recorded in Scripture. These poems span the range of that experience in the life of their author, D. E. Young. The aim of this collection is to provide comfort--drawn from Biblical words--for those in distress, offering hope by remembering that our God will bring His people through both the difficult and delightful providences that we face until we cross the "finish line" in glory.

Parktails is an adventure that takes place in the aftermath of a great forest fire. Once the fire is extinguished, the animals of Geyser District, led by Zornova and Gondzor, are forced to confront numerous difficulties. Many of these displaced animals become despondent as a result of the loss of homes, relatives, and friends. As part of their attempts to find answers, they send parties of their representatives to oracles in search of answers and wisdom. While searching they confront a variety of dangers and obstacles, which they must overcome for the sake of their community. Unfortunately, the answers are not always clear, so they work together to interpret these ambiguous nuggets of wisdom.

We achieve immortality by living. Every minute of our lives, every thought of our minds, and each action we perform no matter how insignificant are recorded immemorial. We are living entities and the story of our lives can never be taken away. The most significant feature of this book is how it captures our innermost sensitivity to life. A Pen Named Man: Our Purpose appeals to anyone who has ever wondered about his or her purpose in life. This book describes the underlying nature of reality, meaning to life, and value of the human experience on Earth.The book tells us what God is made of. The essence of Existence is described as consisting of three constituents, i.e., the domain, substance, and quality of being. Reality is examined from a top-down approach with the Animate Form of Life identified along with its major component, the universe of galaxies, stars, and planets. Every organism has a role to play in the story of animate life. Throughout the book, the human species is examined relative to the subject matter under review. That is, man's relationships to God, the universe, the world, and other species of life are evaluated.This book tells us why we are here. The importance of the human experience is emphasized with man identified as God's representative on Earth and assigned the role of gardener and governor of Nature.

In this compact, fluently written survey of logical fallacies, Adam Murrell provides myriad examples of ways we go about being illogical--how we deceive ourselves and others, how we think and argue in ways that are uncritical, disorganized, or irrelevant. From billboards to bumper stickers to radio to television, fallacious arguments are seemingly everywhere we look. Reclaiming Reason was designed to teach people how to counter this trend, how to reason with clarity, relevance, and purpose at a time when passions and emotion frequently override sound judgment. This concise handbook is essential for Christians as they study logic, the art of reasoning well--of learning to think God's thoughts after him. A book of remarkable sensibility, Reclaiming Reason is unassumingly relaxed, informal, and easily digestible.

Description:Love and Revolutionary Greetings: An Ohio Boy in the Spanish Civil War is the story of Sam Levinger, a young man who went to Spain in 1937 to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Civil war raged in Spain as the fascist army of Francisco Franco sought to overthrow the democratically elected Republic. Levinger, a dedicated idealist, made the commitment to go to a foreign country to fight fascism. Love and Revolutionary Greetings is placed in the historical context of the 1930s, when freedom everywhere was threatened by Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini.The book is based on Sam Levinger's letters, poems, and stories that he sent home from Spain, interspersed with those of his mother, Elma Levinger. Told in the words of a soldier son and his mother, as well as other members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the book offers an eyewitness account of the hardships and the politics of the times. Men and women from all over the world went to Spain to fight with the International Brigade to defend Spanish democracy. Twenty-eight hundred men and women from the United States joined the International Brigade. Sam Levinger was one of them. Sam died in Spain when he was twenty years old. The author, Sam Levinger's niece, traveled to Spain to search for his unmarked grave. Love and Revolutionary Greetings tells the emotional and political story of American involvement in the Spanish Civil War in the language of people who lived it.Endorsements:""The story of the 2,800 Americans who defended the Spanish Republic against fascism in the 1930s has sparked many compelling accounts, but few as moving as this one. Laurie Levinger has unearthed a cache of stunningly powerful testimony, most of which has never been published, and carefully crafted a . . . multi-voiced tapestry that takes us from the Depression years in Columbus, Ohio, to the Spanish trenches.""--Sebastiaan Faber Chair, Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives""Levinger's book is a compelling collage in which love and memory illuminate fascinating fragments of American social history. It tells of twenty-year-old Sam Levinger, who died in 1937 fighting Franco's Nazi-backed rebels in Spain . . . Sam, the gifted, writerly boy who lives again now in Levinger's book through his letters home-their crystalline prose, shot through with wry humour, hints too at the sparse intensity of a soldier's experience.""-Helen GrahamAuthor of The War and Its ShadowAbout the Contributor(s):Laurie Levinger is a freelance writer. She is the author of two books, What War? Testimonies of Maya Survivors and Just a Dropped Stitch.

And Grace Will Lead Me Home is gift for new and seasoned journal writers alike. Using the insights of pilgrimage theology and practice, this guide serves faithful integration for students and others involved in service learning, study abroad, and immersion programs. The prompts spur expanded awareness and description so writers notice the breadth of their experience. Bible verses and quotations from pilgrims across the ages support journaling with perspective, wisdom, and wit. The progression of the guide encourages attentiveness before travelers depart, validates the disconcerting reality of culture shock and liminal spaces, and then supports claiming God's presence and gifts in new discoveries and transformations. And Grace Will Lead Me Home has been tested by undergraduates and seminarians, pastors and lay leaders in a myriad of travel and service opportunities. Journal writers consistently acclaim that the guide serves both breadth and depth in writing and reflection.

Have you ever tried to understand what real love is in your life? Have you looked through all of the clinical books, watched documentaries, and even looked in all of the wrong places? Well, there is one place you may have forgotten to look. The book I am referring to provides advice on sex, marriage, friends, and even money. The book we forget to look to for advice many times is the Bible, and it has a lot to say on many of these topics, including love. Love Is will take you on one man's journey to find out what love really is. It will explore his life, the stories of others, and take a close look at the greatest love story ever told. So open yourself to a different and very real way of understanding what love is. After reading this book, you will have found one of the greatest things in life, which is love.

Gnostic Trends in the Local Church lays out the basic tenets of ancient and modern Gnosticism. Though there are various authors who have written about Gnosticism over the past two decades, many of them deal with New Age teaching, or in a more limited manner, to answer the momentary surge of The Da Vinci Code and the Gospel of Judas. Instead of going in those directions, Gnostic Trends in the Local Church focuses on the more likely place one will meet Gnosticism: in their own home congregation.Michael W. Philliber shows what the trends look like within a congregation and offers ways to remedy them, while abstaining from alarmism. This is an important book for pastors and other congregational leaders for providing them with tools (modern, ancient, and biblical) that will help them guide their people more firmly into the historic Christian faith.

The task of preparing and delivering a weekly homily can paralyze even the bravest seminarian. Sermons that Connect can help. A simple, nuts-and-bolts guide, it provides new preachers with a simple and effective model for powerful and compelling sermons. It then shows preachers how to flesh out sermons in a simple step-by-step process that is insightful and painless. As a beginner's guide, it provides in one sitting everything someone will need to create meaningful sermons for years to come. For those who have been preaching for a while, it will be equally instructive, helping preachers polish their sermons into even more effective works of art, providing invaluable suggestions for recognizing and articulating the essential elements of good sermons.

Join Jody Seymour as he leads us on a journey through the Gospel of Mark. A Senior Minister in the United Methodist Church for many years, Jody has drawn from his learning and his lively imagination to introduce-or reintroduce-you to the hero of this Gospel. This devotional commentary will, when read alongside the Gospel itself, give you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the story of Jesus' life and come closer to the heartbeat of God. Let the words of this first and oldest Gospel make a mark on you, as you discover in a fresh way its power to transform. Includes a guide for personal reflection or group discussion.

The 365 poems in this collection, one for every day of the year, are a journey through prayer. The objective of the poems is to serve as an accompaniment to prayer, silently, in the form of a verse. The initial inspiration of these writings was from the Psalms, but there is referenced material throughout the Scriptures, as well as events that occurred in history and in the author's daily life. With only a few exceptions, the prayer/poems are not date specific, denomination specific, or even specific to the author only, but to everyone. The poems speak of subjects such as faith, death, nature, freedom, love, beauty, and history. Each poem is intended to be able to stand on its own, independent of the others. These poems are unique in that they are prayers first, poems second, and could be considered daily devotions, spiritual meditations, or as a resource for pastors of all Christian denominations. They are written so that they could also be ""crossover"" poetry, and could be attractive to secular tastes as well. The monumental task of writing this many poems brought the author's attention to prayer itself, and to the nature of artistic expression, which cannot be forced, but must come of its own. The succeeding ""visitations"" of the ideas or inspirations gave reason to believe that, not surprisingly, the author had help from the very ONE being written to, and about.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul takes you on a journey through the Synoptic Gospels and the Epistles providing a new solution to a literary puzzle that has vexed biblical scholars for over two-hundred years--The Synoptic Problem. When the Synoptic evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke sat down to write their gospels did they have copies of some of the epistles? This book examines the Synoptic Gospels, Hebrews, and Paul's Epistles finding many intriguing similarities, suggesting that the Synoptic evangelists used extensive parts of the epistles to weave into their stories of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. David Oliver Smith then compares these epistle-based passages to the theoretical lost gospel Q and finds that a large portion of what many New Testament scholars consider to be contained in Q may have its inspiration in the Epistles.