Christian Living

What begins as a tragic mystery quickly darkens into something far more sinister.
In Reverend Daniel Michaels' pocket is a flash drive. The files Claire left behind-journals, photos, recordings-implicate trusted leaders from a quiet Michigan town of an unspeakable dreadfulness.
They are names that Daniel knows. Faces that sit in his pews.
Now, Daniel stands at a line no seminary ever prepared him to cross. On one side, a pastor. On the other, something else entirely.
ASHES TO ASHES is a haunting and propulsive thriller about one man's descent into holy violence-a deeply theological, unflinchingly moral tale about evil hiding in plain sight, and a pastor who dares to become its reckoning.

Why is it important for today's Christians to know about the Church Fathers? What's important about the Sacraments, like Baptism and Communion? And why should today's Christians truly care about them? Grammy-nominated Christian rapper FLAME asked himself these questions before coming to Lutheranism and seeing, firsthand, how important it is to know the history of the church. Study the early Church Fathers, Scripture, and Christian history alongside FLAME's conversational voice to see for yourself why their teachings from Scripture are important to study, and live out, today.

From FLAME:

"Shouldn't we know who God is? The nature of God's existence? The true nature of Jesus, the Messiah? The difference between God's Law and His Gospel? The nature of these rites He established that have been called the Sacraments? How those Sacraments ought to be enjoyed and applied? If the Sacraments are important enough for Jesus to implement, then we would do right to wrestle with how they have been historically understood and practiced to see where they fit into the Christian life." -page 11

"The Christian life is about Jesus. It is about serving others as unto Jesus in the many ways God has designed you to serve. Loving others as we have been freely loved by Jesus. Growing more in our identity as the baptized into Christ Jesus. But we are not isolated, thinking only about ourselves. Baptism, as understood by the apostolic and church fathers, is all about identity in Christ Jesus and the community of the saints, that is to say, the church. The Lord's Supper is a communal meal whereby we are all united in our Lord and to one another. This is why we should not catch our cues from pop culture or pop-Christian culture, serving self over anything else or remaining isolated from others." -page 37

Amid continuing advances in medical research and treatment, Gilbert Meilaender's Bioethics has long provided thoughtful guidance on many of society's most difficult moral problems--including abortion, assisted reproduction, genetic experimentation, euthanasia, and much more. In this fourth edition, Meilaender updates much of the data referenced in the book and responds directly to recent developments, such as the CRISPR/Cas9 method of gene editing. Christians seeking discernment in this new decade will appreciate Meilaender's circumspect writing and his ability to address the nuances of each issue while maintaining strong and clearly stated moral convictions.

The Church is fracturing, revolution is brewing, and society is changing rapidly. Three authors who shaped this new world with their pens--Martin Luther, Desiderius Erasmus, and Philipp Melanchthon--will now be shaped by it in turn. When the pope and King Henry VIII of England pressure Erasmus to take a public stand against Luther, both authors will be forced to wrestle with literal and figurative demons. Erasmus is haunted by his illegitimate birth. Luther struggles with the rejection of the Church and his own father. Melanchthon, Luther's associate and a long-time admirer of Erasmus, is increasingly caught in the middle, forced to choose between two men he venerates or be torn asunder. The three men's lives and fears are woven together as events spiral out of their collective control.

This book is one of great significance, and anyone who claims to be at all an courant with modern theological thought will certainly wish to become familiar with it. --Time and Tide

Jesus's final command to his disciples at the Last Supper is a calling to an ethic of love. In Christian Ethics: A Short Companion, renowned ethicist Gilbert Meilaender makes the case that all Christian ethics are an outworking of this command to love one another.

Meilaender accordingly lays out a vision for the spirit and structure of the Christian life, while drawing directly upon theologians from the early church to the Reformation to today. He begins by examining the concept of sin and its profound impact on human life before moving to grace as an agent of pardon and power. He then lays out a framework for a Christian life characterized by a spirit of love, bound by wise limits and fostered through the community of the church.

Within this volume, Meilaender also includes excerpts from and commentary on:

Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520)

​Josef Pieper, About Love (1974)

H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (1951)

Christian Ethics: A Short Companion is a concise and illuminating exploration of the foundational aspects of Christian ethics. Readers will be empowered to live out their faith with wisdom, grace, and moral clarity--but most of all, with love.

The Essentials in Christian Ethics series, edited by C. Ben Mitchell and Jason Thacker, is designed to illuminate the richness and centrality of ethics to all of the Christian life. The series consists of short, introductory volumes written by renowned scholars in the fields of ethics, theology, and philosophy. Each volume explores a crucial element of Christian ethical reflection, approaching the subject from within the broader Protestant moral tradition.

Jesus' parting words to His disciples known as "The Great Commission" have been a prominent hallmark of American Christianity. But when these words, "Go therefore and make disciples..." are misunderstood or not put in proper context, they can turn into something they're not. In Clarifying the Great Commission, Rev. Daniel Christian Voth identifies common omissions from our collective understanding of Jesus' farewell discourse-omissions that turn Christ's promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation into a legalistic command. Come and discover a richer understanding of The Great Commission, either individually or in a group setting. Discussion questions follow each chapter.

In this provocative essay on that least understood virtue, compassion, the authors challenge themselves and us with these questions: Where do we place compassion in our lives? Is it enough to live a life in which we hurt one another as little as possible? Is our guiding ideal a life of maximum pleasure and minimum pain? Compassion answers no.

After years of study and discussion among themselves, with other religious, and with men and women at the very center of national politics, the authors look at compassion with a vigorous new perspective. They place compassion at the heart of a Christian life in a world governed far too long by principles of power and destructive control. Compassion, no longer merely an eraser of human mistakes, is a force of prayer and action -- the expression of God's love for us and our love for God and one another.

Compassion is a book that says no to a compassion of guilt and failure and yes to a compassionate love that pervades our spirit and moves us to action. Henri Nouwen, Donald McNeill, and Douglas Morrison have written a moving document on what it means to be a Christian in a difficult time.

Ditching the Checklist was written to help Evangelicals and other Christians who, due to grounding the assurance of their salvation in evidences of their new birth instead of Christ alone, struggle over whether or not they are saved. Evangelical leader J. D. Greear describes anxiety over whether or not one is saved as a major problem among Evangelicals. With ample testimony from Scripture and appealing to the thinking of Luther, this booklet addresses this anxiety head on. Mark Mattes argues that faith alone in Christ, and neither a decision for Christ nor altered manners, is both necessary and sufficient for salvation. Many Evangelicals struggle with the assurance of their salvation precisely because teachers like John MacArthur and John Piper add superfluous things on to Christ like moral improvement or pious feelings to secure sinners of their salvation. This booklet challenges such add-ons. Mattes encourages Evangelicals to place their trust in Christ alone, not themselves, and to help Lutherans understand that their cherished beliefs about salvation are grounded in Scripture. This booklet also shows Evangelicals, and Lutherans, unaware of it, that the Lutheran doctrine of baptismal regeneration as well as infant baptism are not holdovers from Roman Catholicism but are scriptural.

Who are you? Where did you come from? People today are obsessed with identity, yet they often have a difficult time identifying themselves.

Only one person knows you completely: God. And He has a lot to say about who you are.

Through Baptism, we are given our identity as part of God's family. Embracing Your Lutheran Identity will help readers understand their identity as children of God and connect with their " family history"--their Christian heritage as Lutherans.

​​​​​Author Gene Edward Veith Jr. will guide readers through that heritage, starting with the Early Church and moving through the Reformation to Lutheranism today. Readers will learn about key people in the history of Lutheranism, from two teenagers who were the first martyrs of the Reformation, through the Saxon immigrants who left everything behind so they could practice Lutheranism freely, to the Lutherans who have stood strong for the faith in our own day..

Breaking through the noise of our hyper-sexualized Western culture, Ethics of Sex is a much-needed, masterful compilation that speaks to the nature of Christian sexual ethics as simultaneously positive and prohibitive. Ten distinct yet interrelated essays invite us back to a way of life in harmony with the Lord's created order, an order that bears fruit in intimacy, compassion, love, and joy.

Embrace the wisdom and counsel of these words, reminding all that Jesus' love for His Church forgives sexual sin and restores His people to fellowship in the kingdom of heaven-young or old, married or single. Our identity remains in Christ.

Essay topics include:

Male and female sex differences

Marriage

Polygamy

Contraception

Sex education

Self-pollution

Homosexuality

Transgenderism