God’s Will For Your Life

The Past, Present and Future of the Holiest City
Why has a symbol become such a tremendous political issue? Whence the insistence on the part of the religious nationalists on keeping Jerusalem as the permanent and exclusive capital? And why the insistence by Palestinians on having it as their capital, which it never was in the past?
Why are people who do not want to live in Jerusalem willing to die for it?
Praise for Walter Laquer from the New York Times:
“Among the last of a remarkable generation of German Jewish intellectuals, Walter Laquer has seen and survived much of this century’s agitated history. He has also written cogently, even preciently, about it for more than 40 years.”
(Review of Facism: Past, Present, Future)
“Walter Laquer–a deeply learned polygot historian, whose expertise ranges from 19th-century Germany to 20th-century Egypt–has for decades stood out as one of the very few sober and intelligent voices in this undistinguised crowd.”
(Review of No End to War: Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century)
“One of our most distinguished scholars of modern European history.”
(Review of Black Hundred: The Rise of the Extreme Right in Russia)

This is a book for pacesetters — church leaders who desire to help their churches break free of the things that turn them in on themselves and keep them from being outward-looking and outward-moving communities of Jesus Christ. The ingrown church is a common phenomenon. It is the “norm” for contemporary evangelical and Protestant churches. But ingrownness is a pathology. It can destroy the vital spiritual health of a church. It must, therefore, be combated with the norms of Scripture. And that is why this book was written. Outgrowing the Ingrown Church is a masterful mix of biblical principle, objective analysis, and personal experience. It traces the author’s own growing awareness of the problem of ingrownness in his calling as a pastor, seminary professor, and evangelist/missionary. In his own discovery of the power and presence of God he discovered the tendency of the church to live by its own power and resources. This is a book written to help change churches by changing the individuals who read it. It offers one an unparalleled challenge to be evaluated, revitalized, and then used by God for the work of ministry. Thus it is a book not merely for pastors, but for the whole body of Christ. “I have never been as excited about any book concerning church growth as when I read this book . . . . (His biblical) principles, if followed, transform individual lives and then lead to a movement within a church to change the whole congregation,” writes John Guest in the foreword.

In what are billed “culture wars,” people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. But in this New York Times-bestselling masterpiece, Garry Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that. In a fresh reading of the gospels, Wills explores the meaning of the “reign of heaven” Jesus not only promised for the future but brought with him into this life. It is only by dodges and evasions that people misrepresent what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. But Wills is just as critical of those who would make Jesus a mere ethical teacher, ignoring or playing down his divinity. An illuminating analysis for believers and nonbelievers alike, What Jesus Meant is a brilliant addition to our national conversation on religion.

The Ten Commandments are the crystallization of God’s law – but how do we apply them, and how do they relate to the gospel of sins forgiven? The church exists in a kind of moral limbo where we say we live under grace, yet still know that the commandments have to have a role in our lives somewhere.Where should we place them in our everyday lives, motives and attitudes?The commandments are an expression of God’s character – this means that they provide foundational principles for how we relate to God and his plan for our lives.