Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words: With Topical Index

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.

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.

In 1979 President Spencer W. Kimball challenged members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to “move forward in a major way. . . . We have paused on some plateaus long enough. Let us resume our journey upward and forward.”

Using the analogy of climbing a mountain, Bishop Glenn L. Pace, second counselor in the Church’s Presiding Bishopric, suggests three major plateaus, or comfort zones, on which the Saints may rest as they work toward developing their spirituality.

The first plateau, which Bishop Pace labels testimony, is the beginning of the trail. “Many Latter-day Saints look upon a testimony as the pinnacle of spiritual progress,” he writes, “but unless we do something about that testimony, we are barely out, and the world’s magnetic pull will tug forcefully on us.”

The second plateau, sanctification, pertains to receiving the ordinances of the gospel and remaining true to covenants. This process, which occurs over a period of time, is described as “coming unto Christ.”

The third plateau, spiritual graduate school, deals with mysteries, miracles, and signs, and their appropriate roles in spiritual development.

“The Lord loves each of us, and He stands at the top of the trail beckoning us,” Bishop Pace explains. “He also comes to assist us and encourage us even when-and perhaps especially when-we may have fallen. He says to each of us, ‘You can make it. I know it because I know you.'”

Spiritual Plateaus is a book for all who are willing to accept President Kimball’s challenge to resume their spiritual journey forward and upward.

“ANASTASIA”, the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing, Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfill Anastasia’s request and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once written, has become an international best-seller and has touched hearts of millions of people world-wide.