The Authority of Love

The Authority of Love PDF Author: Greg Williams
Publisher: Greg Williams
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
"A 'wake up call for the modern-day American church' to restore the Biblical standards of marriage, family and the church which are still compelling and transforming." Bob Russell (Retired), Southeast Christian, Louisville, KY "Greg is...a down-to-earth practitioner of faithful Christian living. Love and Lordship is in touch with the real 'world, flesh and devil' and how each seeks to threaten and corrupt our daily walk with Christ." Ken Idleman, President (retired), Ozark Christian College Love...what we desperately seek. Authority...what we doggedly avoid...unless we're in control which is not real authority. The Authority of Love shows how to bring them together. Truth, love, authority, humility, a servant’s heart--all qualities of Christ--all qualities we aspire to as disciples of Christ. Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Christ (God) is Love. All Authority has been given to Him and in Him all things were made and exist by Him. He is the epitome of Humility. He displayed the purest of servant hearts. All of these tremendous traits and virtues are found in Him. Throughout the centuries we've tried to attain these as noble and good, and yet as is so often the case, we’ve defined them in our own terms, much to our detriment. We separate virtues in order to perfect them in and of ourselves. Christ had a better way and in His Kingdom we find that because He embodied and modeled all of these traits and qualities in perfection, He calls us to walk accordingly. Instead of following culture and separating them, attempting to perfect each, we would be wise to follow His example as our Lord and see them as inseparable and live them as He did. Separating these qualities as we are prone to do in our flesh has never worked. The Authority of Love points us to Christ and God’s Word and draws on real life stories to show us how Truth, Love, Authority, Humility and a Servant’s Heart are embodied in Christ and His Kingdom and how we can follow His lead in our life, marriage, family and in His Church to show the world a different way…His Way! If you are serious about walking with Christ as Lord in your life, marriage, family...every area of your life, this book is for you. As I wrote this book, we found ourselves in the middle of the first global pandemic in a century and political and social upheaval in the US like we’ve not seen in the last half-century. Our faith is being tested. I believe God is calling Christ’s Church to a spiritual awakening...not just simply to do church services differently, serve more people and accommodate the culture, thinking we will reach more. It is a call... ➢For personal and collective confession and repentance of idolatry and compromise; ➢For believers to absolutely make Christ Lord of every part of your life; ➢For men to be Godly relational servant leaders, as husbands who love their marriage, spouse and family above their own success, glory and desires, just as Christ did for His Bride, The Church; ➢For marriages to be a positive testimony to the Gospel of Christ so the world will see and know Him; ➢To husbands and wives to submit to one another out of reverence for and submission to Christ as Lord; ➢To disciple our children in our homes and, in all of the above, build loving relationships that strengthen Christ’s Church; ➢To move beyond drawing people into a weekly one-hour service or a couple hours of weekly activity to our communities or the world; ➢To disciples making disciples in loving relationships and holding each other accountable to obedience as we walk in His Love and Lordship; That call is the message of this book. Reader's say: "Greg Williams provides us with a much needed Spiritual gut check in “The Authority of Love” and the guidance we need to get back on track." "Greg is amazing speaker and author. This book is an essential book for our churches, and leaders to read and grow in the Lord's will for their life!!! Highly recommend."

The Authority of Love

The Authority of Love PDF Author: Greg Williams
Publisher: Greg Williams
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 189

Get Book Here

Book Description
"A 'wake up call for the modern-day American church' to restore the Biblical standards of marriage, family and the church which are still compelling and transforming." Bob Russell (Retired), Southeast Christian, Louisville, KY "Greg is...a down-to-earth practitioner of faithful Christian living. Love and Lordship is in touch with the real 'world, flesh and devil' and how each seeks to threaten and corrupt our daily walk with Christ." Ken Idleman, President (retired), Ozark Christian College Love...what we desperately seek. Authority...what we doggedly avoid...unless we're in control which is not real authority. The Authority of Love shows how to bring them together. Truth, love, authority, humility, a servant’s heart--all qualities of Christ--all qualities we aspire to as disciples of Christ. Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Christ (God) is Love. All Authority has been given to Him and in Him all things were made and exist by Him. He is the epitome of Humility. He displayed the purest of servant hearts. All of these tremendous traits and virtues are found in Him. Throughout the centuries we've tried to attain these as noble and good, and yet as is so often the case, we’ve defined them in our own terms, much to our detriment. We separate virtues in order to perfect them in and of ourselves. Christ had a better way and in His Kingdom we find that because He embodied and modeled all of these traits and qualities in perfection, He calls us to walk accordingly. Instead of following culture and separating them, attempting to perfect each, we would be wise to follow His example as our Lord and see them as inseparable and live them as He did. Separating these qualities as we are prone to do in our flesh has never worked. The Authority of Love points us to Christ and God’s Word and draws on real life stories to show us how Truth, Love, Authority, Humility and a Servant’s Heart are embodied in Christ and His Kingdom and how we can follow His lead in our life, marriage, family and in His Church to show the world a different way…His Way! If you are serious about walking with Christ as Lord in your life, marriage, family...every area of your life, this book is for you. As I wrote this book, we found ourselves in the middle of the first global pandemic in a century and political and social upheaval in the US like we’ve not seen in the last half-century. Our faith is being tested. I believe God is calling Christ’s Church to a spiritual awakening...not just simply to do church services differently, serve more people and accommodate the culture, thinking we will reach more. It is a call... ➢For personal and collective confession and repentance of idolatry and compromise; ➢For believers to absolutely make Christ Lord of every part of your life; ➢For men to be Godly relational servant leaders, as husbands who love their marriage, spouse and family above their own success, glory and desires, just as Christ did for His Bride, The Church; ➢For marriages to be a positive testimony to the Gospel of Christ so the world will see and know Him; ➢To husbands and wives to submit to one another out of reverence for and submission to Christ as Lord; ➢To disciple our children in our homes and, in all of the above, build loving relationships that strengthen Christ’s Church; ➢To move beyond drawing people into a weekly one-hour service or a couple hours of weekly activity to our communities or the world; ➢To disciples making disciples in loving relationships and holding each other accountable to obedience as we walk in His Love and Lordship; That call is the message of this book. Reader's say: "Greg Williams provides us with a much needed Spiritual gut check in “The Authority of Love” and the guidance we need to get back on track." "Greg is amazing speaker and author. This book is an essential book for our churches, and leaders to read and grow in the Lord's will for their life!!! Highly recommend."

The Rule of Love

The Rule of Love PDF Author: Jonathan Leeman
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433559668
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
God Is Love vs. Love Is God Our culture's view of love—with no boundaries or judgments or conditions— justifies whatever our hearts want and whatever our hearts feel, rejecting any authority that gets in the way. Falsely heralded as the only path to true selfexpression and self-realization, this kind of love diminishes—if not completely redefines—the holy love of God revealed in the Bible. In this book, Jonathan Leeman directs us toward a biblical definition of love by answering critical questions: How is love commonly misunderstood? What is God's love like and why is it offensive? And how does all of this relate to the church? In an age of consumerism, individualism, and tribalism, Leeman demonstrates how God showcases his holy love and authority to a watching world through the lives of his people living in true community with one another as the church.

You Are What You Love

You Are What You Love PDF Author: James K. A. Smith
Publisher: Brazos Press
ISBN: 1493403664
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Christianity Today Book Award Winner Martin Institute and Dallas Willard Center Book Award You are what you love. But you might not love what you think. In this book, award-winning author James K. A. Smith shows that who and what we worship fundamentally shape our hearts. And while we desire to shape culture, we are not often aware of how culture shapes us. We might not realize the ways our hearts are being taught to love rival gods instead of the One for whom we were made. Smith helps readers recognize the formative power of culture and the transformative possibilities of Christian practices. He explains that worship is the "imagination station" that incubates our loves and longings so that our cultural endeavors are indexed toward God and his kingdom. This is why the church and worshiping in a local community of believers should be the hub and heart of Christian formation and discipleship. Following the publication of his influential work Desiring the Kingdom, Smith received numerous requests from pastors and leaders for a more accessible version of that book's content. No mere abridgment, this new book draws on years of Smith's popular presentations on the ideas in Desiring the Kingdom to offer a fresh, bottom-up rearticulation. The author creatively uses film, literature, and music illustrations to engage readers and includes new material on marriage, family, youth ministry, and faith and work. He also suggests individual and communal practices for shaping the Christian life.

Love and its Critics

Love and its Critics PDF Author: Michael Bryson
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1783743514
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
This book is a history of love and the challenge love offers to the laws and customs of its times and places, as told through poetry from the Song of Songs to John Milton’s Paradise Lost. It is also an account of the critical reception afforded to such literature, and the ways in which criticism has attempted to stifle this challenge. Bryson and Movsesian argue that the poetry they explore celebrates and reinvents the love the troubadour poets of the eleventh and twelfth centuries called fin’amor: love as an end in itself, mutual and freely chosen even in the face of social, religious, or political retribution. Neither eros nor agape, neither exclusively of the body, nor solely of the spirit, this love is a middle path. Alongside this tradition has grown a critical movement that employs a 'hermeneutics of suspicion', in Paul Ricoeur’s phrase, to claim that passionate love poetry is not what it seems, and should be properly understood as worship of God, subordination to Empire, or an entanglement with the structures of language itself – in short, the very things it resists. The book engages with some of the seminal literature of the Western canon, including the Bible, the poetry of Ovid, and works by English authors such as William Shakespeare and John Donne, and with criticism that stretches from the earliest readings of the Song of Songs to contemporary academic literature. Lively and enjoyable in its style, it attempts to restore a sense of pleasure to the reading of poetry, and to puncture critical insistence that literature must be outwitted. It will be of value to professional, graduate, and advanced undergraduate scholars of literature, and to the educated general reader interested in treatments of love in poetry throughout history.

Why I Love the Apostle Paul

Why I Love the Apostle Paul PDF Author: John Piper
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433565072
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
"Besides Jesus, no one has kept me from despair, or taken me deeper into the mysteries of the gospel, than the apostle Paul." —John Piper No one has had a greater impact on the world for eternal good than the apostle Paul—except Jesus himself. For John Piper, this impact is very personal. He does not just admire and trust Paul. He loves him. Piper gives us thirty glimpses into why his heart and mind respond this way. Can a Christian-killer really endure 195 lashes from a heart of love? Can a mystic who thinks he was caught up into heaven be a model of lucid rationality? Can an ethnocentric Jew write the most beautiful call to reconciliation? Can a person who lives with the unceasing anguish of empathy be always rejoicing? Can a man's description of the horrors of human sin be exceeded by his delight in human splendor? Can a man with a backbone of steel be as tender as a nursing mother? If we know this man—if we see what Piper sees—we too will love him. Paul's testimony is a matter of life and death. Piper invites you into his relationship with Paul in the hope that you will know life, forever.

The Authority of Service and Love

The Authority of Service and Love PDF Author: Roger Payne
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1785354833
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
The challenge to all forms of authority has become particularly acute since the middle of the twentieth century and has had a profound impact on all aspects of society. It has affected relationships in the home, in local communities and in the world at large. It has tested parents as they seek to nurture their children. It has undermined the ability of teachers to manage their classes. It has forced the police to change their tactics. It has required hospitals to engage with patients. It has caused local and national politicians to amend legislation. Many of these changes have had positive outcomes but many others are negatively charged and some remain unresolved. Some issues of authority are not recognised or are simply ignored. Others are carelessly or insensitively handled. Some groups are in turmoil amongst competing voices of authority. Other groups suffer from arbitrary and imposed authoritarian solutions. This whirlwind of change has been rightly called a 'crisis of authority'. Religious communities have not been immune from all this and in some ways the 'crisis of authority' has been more acute for those with a religious disposition. Although the crisis applies to all religious groups, the purpose of this book is to consider the problems facing the Christian community in particular and to offer some thoughts on possible solutions.

Church Discipline

Church Discipline PDF Author: Jonathan Leeman
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433532360
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
More and more church leaders, pastors, and members are looking for guidance on how to practice church discipline in a biblical way. Here is a contemporary and concise how-to guide that provides a theological framework for understanding and implementing disciplinary measures in the local church, along with several examples of real-life situations. Drawing on both Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5, this brief hardback helps leaders face the endless variety of circumstances and sins for which no exact scriptural case study exists, sins which don't show up on any list and need a healthy framework to be corrected appropriately in love. This volume is part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series. Look for upcoming, quick-read formats of the following marks of a healthy church: expositional preaching, biblical theology, the gospel, conversion, evangelism, church membership, discipleship and growth, and church leadership.

Redeeming Power

Redeeming Power PDF Author: Diane Langberg
Publisher: Brazos Press
ISBN: 1493427563
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Power has a God-given role in human relationships and institutions, but it can lead to abuse when used in unhealthy ways. Speaking into current #MeToo and #ChurchToo conversations, this book shows that the body of Christ desperately needs to understand the forms power takes, how it is abused, and how to respond to abuses of power. Although many Christians want to prevent abuse in their churches and organizations, they lack a deep and clear-eyed understanding of how power actually works. Internationally recognized psychologist Diane Langberg offers a clinical and theological framework for understanding how power operates, the effects of the abuse of power, and how power can be redeemed and restored to its proper God-given place in relationships and institutions. This book not only helps Christian leaders identify and resist abusive systems but also shows how they can use power to protect the vulnerable in their midst.

Mercy for Today

Mercy for Today PDF Author: Jonathan Parnell
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
ISBN: 1535959266
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
You cannot make it without God’s mercy. Do we just need God’s grace in dark and shameful moments? Are prayers for mercy only for those times when we really mess up? Jonathan Parnell says we need God’s mercy all the time. In fact, contrary to many church cultures, Parnell shows that asking God for mercy should be as regular as asking God for our daily bread. There’s no doubt that David was in a terrible predicament when he first prayed the words of Psalm 51. It was a dark and shameful moment in the Bible, and one so dark and shameful it seldom feels relevant to us today. But David’s most desperate prayer is really a prayer for all of us—and not just for our worst moments, but for our every moment. In these pages, you'll discover: how to pray a daily, memorable prayer derived from Psalm 51 how to practice daily repentance and soul care how to pursue God and experience his joy in the Christian life This is God’s mercy, and it’s Mercy for Today.

His Love Endures Forever

His Love Endures Forever PDF Author: Garry J. Williams
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433550857
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
God is love—there are few more quoted statements from all of Scripture. Although wonderfully simple, the idea that God is fundamentally loving is incredibly profound. And yet, sometimes we confuse God's love with our human understanding of love—an understanding that is inherently imperfect, sometimes self-serving, and often fickle. Helping us walk in the belief that God is love—not that love is God—this book explores what the Bible actually teaches about how and what God loves. Readers will discover that, although we often misunderstand, misuse, and take for granted God's love, it's actually more wonderful, pure, and satisfying than we ever imagined.