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What lasting words might a grandfather say to his grandson that would be lasting? What might develop from such a conversation?Bruce Epperly, author, pastor, and theologian, set out to write regular letters to his grandson during the first year of the child's life. Letters to my Grandson is a love story describing the relationship between a grandfather and his grandson. It celebrates the love of a family, including events of great joy and even grief. The author shares his revelation that the love of a grandson can grow into love for every child of this earth, a lesson taught by a child.This is also a book of many adventures, common to us all but often overlooked in the frenetic pace of our everyday lives. Dr. Epperly, a self-professed "aging baby boomer" is finding renewal on his hands and knees as he crawls alongside his grandson, sings remembered childhood songs and looks at the world through those infant eyes."Love grows wings and enables our hearts to soar in so many ways every day. Jewish wisdom says that there is an angel whispering 'grow, grow' over every blade of grass. I am sure that an angel is whispering to my grandson Jack, 'grow, grow.' Creative wisdom, moving well beneath his consciousness and mine, lures him forward moment by moment on this amazing adventure of becoming a child of God on this good Earth." - Bruce EpperlyYou might want to read this to develop your own understanding, or at the appropriate time, share these thoughts with your own child or grandchild.

In Healing Marks (Energion Publications, 2012), Dr. Bruce Epperly challenged Christians to take the healings of Jesus seriously as a pattern for how we can become healing communities. Now he turns to the book of Acts as a pattern for the church in the 21st century. He says, "I believe that Acts of the Apostles provides a fluid, open-spirited, and holistic faith for twenty-first century people as well as a vision for congregational transformation and renewal. Anything can happen to those who follow Jesus. Life is adventurous, surprising, and interesting. Worship leads to mission and mission challenges narrow-mindedness and self-imposed limitations. For those who embrace the spirit of Acts of the Apostles, worship will never be boring and every day will be a holy adventure." This book is not just an exposition of the book of Acts. It is a call to action. But it is more than that. It draws from the lessons of the early church a plan of individual and communal action to live an adventurous life of faith and to change the world. Each chapter includes activities to help you apply the content to your life and mission. Labeled "Transforming Acts" these point to the transforming acts you can take in your personal or congregational life . Acts is a story of a small group of people who set out to do what appeared humanly impossible - change their world. In this book you are invited to become a part of that story, to attempt the humanly impossible, and to bring transformation and renewal to the church and to the entire world.

A questioning approach lies at the heart of our relationship with God. That''s how God engages us. In fact, questioning (or free inquiry), is central to our being human.Yet the major monotheistic religions vary markedly on this matter. In The Questioning God, Dr. Greenham examines the three major monotheistic religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, to see how they relate to questioning, including questions that God asks us and the questions that we ask about God. His goal is to develop a biblical theology of questioning, avoiding a loss of direction and focus that results from selective questioning, and also a loss of humanity that results from bypassing our questions through an inappropriate submission.The examination is wide ranging, including chapters on questioning in Islam, Judaism, mainline and evangelical Christianity, along with an examination of the consequences of a non-questioning culture. He ends the book with a proposal for a biblical theology and a look at the practical implications-just what it means to pursue a questioning culture.The author finds that questions are not just valuable, they are essential for serious human interaction. "As questioning beings," he concludes, "there is no limit to what we might ask, but our questions must always be anchored in the questioning God''s enduring concern to engage us."

Much of the text in the Bible is in the form of stories. From Old Testament tales of the patriarchs to the parables of Jesus, the reader is confronted with a variety of narratives. Even in those places where Bible writers are making and explaining statements of fact, there is a story in the background. What do these stories mean?Bible teacher, writer, and publisher Henry Neufeld thinks that''s the wrong question to ask. (Yes, there are bad questions!) We spend a great deal of time trying to reduce Bible stories to a series of statements of fact, sucking the life out of them in the process. We don''t understand one of the parables of Jesus better when we''ve come up with a moral for the story. In fact, we''ve lost some of the meaning.Instead, Henry suggests learning to think more in the form of stories. In fact, he even asks us to consider looking at the stories behind the various statements of fact in the Bible, finding similarities in our own stories, and even weaving new stories from our imaginations. This, he teaches, is the best way to learn to make scripture come alive and to live it.This collection of short stories is not presented primarily as stories to read, but as a challenge to put your imagination to work as you study the Bible-to write your own stories. When you''ve let your imagination break the bounds of your life the Holy Spirit can then show you how to live new stories in your own life and in your relationships with family, friends, church, and the entire world.This book includes 25 short stories. All but two of these stories were originally published on the Jevlir Caravansary fiction blog. Two new stories, "The Magic Sword" and "The Juror''s Oath" were written just for this collection. Scripture references and thought questions have been provided for each story to help small groups use them in discussions.Come join the story!