What can James teach us about mission?

While books on a New Testament theology of mission abound, most of them focus only on certain tried-and-true books and passages while often ignoring the contribution of the General Epistles. In Reading Hebrews Missiologically and Reading 1 Peter Missiologically, we began to address this gap in missiological scholarship, and we seek to continue in the same vein in this work on the book of James.

Reading James Missiologically explores the missionary dimensions of the Epistle of James through three parts: the missionary motive is the reason behind missionary efforts (the why), the missionary message reveals what missionaries communicate (the what), and the missionary methods outline strategies for mission (the how). The global contributors examine James's profound call to action among the poor and inspire believers toward holistic engagement with the world as doers of the word, not hearers only (Jas 1:22 ESV).

We are all tempted to drift away from Jesus, but in the book of Hebrews God gives us an anchor: a detailed understanding of how and why Jesus is better than anything else.

Seminary professor Michael J. Kruger unpacks this rich book verse by verse. He explains the Old Testament background, gives plenty of application for our lives today, and shows us how Jesus is the fulfilment of all God's work on earth. He encourages us to live by faith in Jesus--the only anchor for our souls.

This accessible, absorbing expository guide opens up this book for new and mature Christians alike. It is less academic than a commentary, making it a great resource for personal devotion, as well as useful for leading small group studies or sermon preparation.

As hostility toward Christians spread, the early church was losing heart. Suffering and persecution marked their lives. Questions arose. Faith wavered.

Peter knew suffering, but Peter also knew Jesus. He had seen Him with his own eyes, sat under His teachings, and watched Him suffer as well. If there was anyone who could understand suffering and the call to steadfast faith, it was Peter. This is why his letters are an encouragement to anyone facing hardships and trials.

Peter's words are a reminder to them and us that we can be steadfast because our God is steadfast. And when we persevere, what awaits us in eternity is worth far more than anything this world has to offer.

This study is designed to provide a foundation for inductive Bible study and will help you:

- Release the bonds of a perfect quiet time to find deeper, richer time in the Word

- Build confidence as you learn how to study the Bible firsthand

- Discover truths about God and His character

- Connect the Old and New Testaments

- Grow in your faith and knowledge in a way that produces life change

The word feast is rooted in abundance, and that's what awaits us in Scripture: a table laid out before us, not only for our essential nourishment, but also for our enjoyment.

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For companion teachings, group discussion questions, and other resources, visit FeastingOnTruth.com/Peter.

The Bible Study Notes series provides a verse-by-verse look at the books of the Bible in an outline format with the purpose of giving readers a succinct and easy to read explanation of Scripture for use in their personal Bible studies and devotionals or in preparation for teaching or leading a class or discussion group. The Notes series includes insights into the meaning of the Scripture as well as practical application for daily life, along with discussion questions that can be used for class discussion or personal study.

About Contending for the Faith. In our time, there is no more relevant message for Christians than the message of Jude. As believers, he called us to contend for the faith, so it is essential we understand what we are fighting against and how to respond to those who attack the basic doctrines and teachings of the Christian faith.

There are two coexisting realities classified under New Testament eschatology: the temporal and spatial. While much scholarly attention has focused on the temporal, Luke Woo argues that the spatial aspect is either neglected or relegated to Platonic or cosmological categories. Woo thus seeks to provide a holistic understanding, by investigating these realities for believers under the heavenly tabernacle motif in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Woo posits that the author of Hebrews presents the heavenly tabernacle and all its high priestly activity in order to eschatologically situate, orient, and ground believers; thus enabling believers to actualize their heavenly, priestly identity by serving as priests on earth. Woo uses Edward Soja's Tripartite Critical Spatiality to analyze the heavenly tabernacle's Firstspace, Secondspace, and Thirdspace features found in Hebrews 4:14; 8:1-5; 9:1-14. He suggests that Christ, in his resurrection and ascension, enters an actualized, heavenly tabernacle, which allows believers to spiritually occupy that sanctuary space in the presence of God, establishing a spatial orientation for believers who can identify as heavenly priests and be motivated to serve as such as they live on earth.

The Catholic Epistles often get short shrift. But Darian Lockett contends that these seven letters provide a unique window into early Christian theology and practice. Emphasizing the epistles' interconnected vision, each chapter in this refreshing resource outlines one of the letters, traces its flow of thought, and explores shared themes with the other Catholic Epistles.

What are the key questions of the First Letter of Peter, how does it offer questions and challenges for us today and ultimately how does it speak to readers 2000 years after it was composed? Justin Welby, Jennifer Strawbridge and Abigail Harries Martin develop the expositions offered by Archbishop Justin at the 2022 Lambeth Conference to explore the key themes from 1 Peter and draw out questions and challenges from 1 Peter for today's church and world.

Acknowledging that key words and phrases from 1 Peter are understood differently in different contexts - such as language of suffering, definitions of holiness, and how we describe hope - this volume also innovatively draws in voices from more than 20 countries including Kenya, Mozambique, the USA, Malaysia, DRC, Pakistan, and New Zealand.

The volume concludes with five short reflections on the epistle from Isabelle Hamley, Paul Swarup, Esther Mombo and Godfrey Adera, Paulo Ueti and Jennifer Strawbridge.

New Life is a discipleship resource that's driven by Scripture and focused on making disciples of Jesus Christ who are equipped to live on mission to make disciples. New Life is a resource for discipleship groups in the church, and the material is designed for utilization in small, gender-specific discipleship groups of 3-5 people.

New Life Approach

Jesus said that everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). This problem isn't limited to only a few, but it's the problem of every person ever born into the world. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23 & 6:23a). Every person in the world is born into sin, and each person - in varying ways - quickly becomes enslaved to sin. As a result of these biblical truths, New Life recognizes that this spiritual condition can only be conquered by the saving power of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16, 6:23b, 5:8, 8:1-2, 10:9, etc.).

The gospel is the good news that although all of us are sinners, God has made a way for forgiveness and victory over sin through his Son, Jesus Christ. The gospel is the message of the sinless life of Jesus; the sacrificial death of Jesus for our sin; and the burial and resurrection of Jesus that brought victory over sin and death. This message is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, and it is the message that confirms the new life that's possible by God's grace through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:1-14).

New Life is based on the truth that the gospel is the only hope for those who are enslaved to sin and that the gospel is the only hope for transformation in a life that's been set free in Christ Jesus. There are no steps or processes that can replace the power of the Holy Spirit through the message of the gospel in the life of the one who believes. As a result, New Life focuses on the good news of the gospel that has the power to set someone free from slavery to sin (Galatians 5:1). Through the gospel, God made the way to give us a relationship with him and life with him. Through the gospel, God made the way for us to grow in our new life in Christ, changing us to desire his way over our way and transforming our thoughts by his truth (Galatians 2:20; Romans 12:1-2). This is the work of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the work of God in saving us by his grace through faith in Jesus, and it's the work of God in transforming us in his grace to look more-and-more like Jesus.

New Life is focused on an intense study of Ephesians 4 and 5, in a format that encourages believers to understand what God's Word means and to apply God's Word to their lives. The goal is growth in the Lord, taking off the old life and putting on the new life that's only possible in Jesus Christ.

The ascension of Jesus in the book of Hebrews remains an understudied theme in the scholarly literature on Hebrews. This study explores the relationship between the Sonship of Christ and his ascension in the book of Hebrews. Wading into recent debates by scholars over the nature Hebrews' Christology, this study argues that Hebrews 1 and 2 show the Son is both divine and human. As divine, the Son radiates the glory of God, and that glory is put on display in the ascension. Equally, as the incarnate human, the Son fulfills the telos of humanity in his ascension where he is crowned with glory and honor and becomes the first human to participate in the age to come, having effected this transition of the ages. He ascends as the glorified eschatological man as a forerunner for the sons of glory. This aspect of Hebrews' presentation of the Son can rightly be called a Second-Adam Christology. The Son fulfills the human vocation through his cries with loud tears in an exercise of Adamic-Davidic obedience and faithfulness. The Son's trust in the Father through his suffering qualifies him to receive the eschatological glory of Adam and ascend up to the divine throne. Thus, for Hebrews, the Son's ascension both confirms the Son's fulfillment of humanity's destiny and reveals the Son's divine identity.

When we think about Bible studies, we often pull topical aspects and devotions. There is nothing wrong with this method, but sometimes we miss some of the key pieces connecting the Scriptures.

While like a full commentary, Small Letters with a Big Impact is meant to help you in your personal study of a few of the epistles (letters) in the Bible. It goes chapter by chapter and verse by verse in an expository yet simplistic way to help you understand and absorb the truth in the passages.

Despite the letters' sizes, see how they amplified the truth of the Gospel by laying the foundation for what we understand today.

In early Judaism and Christianity, the apocalypse genre and related apocalyptic materials shared a common ideology that can be identified as apocalyptic eschatology. Religious communities employed apocalyptic eschatology in order to resist theological pluralism as it encroached upon them. Writers were capable of utilizing apocalyptic eschatology to dictate acceptable belief and practice in an effort to control and preserve a faithful community. Among the early Christian writings, Jude's use of this ideology follows the same exclusionary pattern, addressing theological pluralism that his ancient audience faced and that the contemporary church continues to face today. Through his polemic, Jude also reveals a cluster of worldview non-negotiables for the early church.

Paul's letter to the church at Galatia speaks largely to how important it was to Paul that the people embrace unity in Christ, no matter their differences. Galatians teaches that we're only justified by faith in Christ only and encourages us to pursue a life of holiness, not in our own strength, but in the knowledge of God's empowering grace in our lives.

In this comprehensive study tool, Joyce Meyer offers an in-depth look at Galatians and emphasizes that we are not only saved by faith, we must learn to live by faith as well.

Most scholars understand that the Day of Atonement ritual of Leviticus 16 provides the main template for understanding Jesus's death and exaltation in the argument of Hebrews. This study suggests that the perspective of Hebrews is much wider than that, conceiving of the ascension as the inauguration of Jesus' office as Son at the right hand of God. The title Son is the fulfillment of the promises made to David (2 Sam 7:12-15), which are claimed for Jesus explicitly in Heb 1:5 and 13. This connection to the Davidic covenantal traditions brings closer the theology of Hebrews and the theology of other New Testament documents, which opens new vistas for understanding early Christianity.

Most scholars understand that the Day of Atonement ritual of Leviticus 16 provides the main template for understanding Jesus's death and exaltation in the argument of Hebrews. This study suggests that the perspective of Hebrews is much wider than that, conceiving of the ascension as the inauguration of Jesus' office as Son at the right hand of God. The title Son is the fulfillment of the promises made to David (2 Sam 7:12-15), which are claimed for Jesus explicitly in Heb 1:5 and 13. This connection to the Davidic covenantal traditions brings closer the theology of Hebrews and the theology of other New Testament documents, which opens new vistas for understanding early Christianity.