No other gods. No graven images. Don't take God's name in vain. Those are the commandments that focus this first volume of our series for small group study: Exploring Justice: The Ten Commandments. Do you think idols are merely statues from a false religion? Think again. In this first volume, you'll think about the primary values of your faith and learn the history behind some of today's difficult issues: When did the Pledge of Allegiance change and why? How did Charles "Lucky Lindy" Lindbergh taint the original "America First" movement? Who was the first monarch in history to grant the full freedom of religion and which Christian minister made it happen? Then, with exercises that encourage dialogue rather than division, the group sessions in the separate Leader's Guide will help you think about whether we're really putting God's values first when engaging issues from the NFL protests and Confederate monuments to the Pledge of Allegiance, the First and Second Amendments, separation of church and state, White nationalism, flags in churches, and more. This Leader's Guide provides the step-by-step lesson plans you need to run a group study of volume one. Student books sold separately.
What's in your God-box? Each of us, says author Anne Robertson, builds our own way of understanding God-our God-box-- and fills it up with bits of scripture, wisdom, and our experiences of God at work in our lives. It's a perfectly good way to puzzle out what God means to us. Encountering God through our human limitations, we learn something about the meaning of Incarnation. But to say that our experience of God is the only valid one is to put a lid on the box and create an idol. This book is about examining our God-boxes and bursting them wide open. Blowing the Lid Off the God-Box starts with the ministry of Jesus - who blew the lid off everyone's God-box by constantly challenging his followers with the unexpected. Subsequent chapters examine the God-boxes we create with scripture, worship, and political and social agendas.
Robertson suggests that Christians may be the only Jesus some people ever meet. She draws correlations between a mother's response to a crying child and how that teaches the infant that God's provision can be trusted.
And she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger." Jesus is the central figure of the New Testament and this third volume in the popular Exploring the Bible series examines Jesus in three distinct ways: A man like other men, a Jewish rabbi, and the Christ of Christian faith. Then it's on to the cantankerous Paul, the other New Testament authors, and the wild and baffling book called Revelation. Learn what Nazareth was like in the first century, discover what scholars know and don't know about Jesus as a historical figure, and explore how Paul really wrote all those letters. And who is the Antichrist anyway? Read, think, dialogue, and learn either on your own or in a small group setting. A Leader's Guide with lesson plans for six group sessions sold separately. Learn more about the series at exploringthebible.org.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
No other gods. No graven images. Don't take God's name in vain. Those are the commandments that focus this first volume of our series for small group study: Exploring Justice: The Ten Commandments. Do you think idols are merely statues from a false religion? Think again. In this first volume, you'll think about the primary values of your faith and learn the history behind some of today's difficult issues: When did the Pledge of Allegiance change and why? How did Charles "Lucky Lindy" Lindbergh taint the original "America First" movement? Who was the first monarch in history to grant the full freedom of religion and which Christian minister made it happen? Then, with exercises that encourage dialogue rather than division, the group sessions in the separate Leader's Guide will help you think about whether we're really putting God's values first when engaging issues from the NFL protests and Confederate monuments to the Pledge of Allegiance, the First and Second Amendments, separation of church and state, White nationalism, flags in churches, and more. Read this book on your own or get the Leader's Guide and gather a group to better understand the issues we face and turn division into dialogue. PRAISE FOR PRIORITIES "Anne Robertson has written an astonishing exposition of the second of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not make graven images. Her study is deeply grounded in scripture. But her work is to mobilize her expansive imagination in order to show the demanding contemporaneity of this innocent-looking mandate from Moses. Amid her work she offers a trenchant critique of our idolatry of nationalism with an eye on our "worship of the flag," and our idolatry of guns with a knowing riff on the NRA. Her work exhibits her acute skills as an educator as she provides effective prompts and cues for critical engagement. "This book is the launch volume of a projected multi-volume work on the Ten Commandments. The series promises to be a state-of-the art offer, the best resource we have on the commandments and their contemporary pertinence for a life of faith. As executive of the Massachusetts Bible Society, Anne continues and extends the strong legacy of the Society in its engagement with scripture as a primary way in which to empower the faithful life of the church." Walter Brueggemann Columbia Theological Seminary
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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