Soldier Of Christ

Debates over the legacy of Pope Pius XII and his canonization are so heated they are known as the “Pius wars.” Soldier of Christ moves beyond competing caricatures and considers Pius XII as Eugenio Pacelli, a flawed and gifted man. While offering insight into the pope’s response to Nazism, Robert A. Ventresca argues that it was the Cold War and Pius XII’s manner of engaging with the modern world that defined his pontificate. Laying the groundwork for the pope’s controversial, contradictory actions from 1939 to 1958, Ventresca begins with the story of Pacelli’s Roman upbringing, his intellectual formation in Rome’s seminaries, and his interwar experience as papal diplomat and Vatican secretary of state. Accused of moral equivocation during the Holocaust, Pius XII later fought the spread of Communism in Western Europe, spoke against the persecution of Catholics in Eastern Europe and Asia, and tackled a range of social and political issues. By appointing the first indigenous cardinals from China and India and expanding missions in Africa while expressing solidarity with independence movements, he internationalized the church’s membership and moved Catholicism beyond the colonial mentality of previous eras. Drawing from a diversity of international sources, including unexplored documentation from the Vatican, Ventresca reveals a paradoxical figure: a prophetic reformer of limited vision whose leadership both stimulated the emergence of a global Catholicism and sowed doubt and dissension among some of the church’s most faithful servants.

Keith Pate has been saved since he was about twelve years old; when faced with the reality of his parents divorce. He didn’t really begin noticing or fully understanding the impact that God was having in his life until he was in the fight for his life. In Soldier for Christ, Pate, a retired Army National Guard Captain, recounts his testimony and narrates how an unexpected circumstance drastically changed his life. He journeys through his time as a high school and college athlete, time in the military, and then a life-altering and unexpected stroke in 2010 at age twenty-nine. He nearly died twice. What followed was a long road of recovery and rehabilitation. In this memoir, Pate recalls how God has used his circumstance to benefit his kingdom. Soldier for Christ narrates an inspiring testimony of Pate’s real-life struggle and survival of an unexpected challenge. He shares a true example of how all things are possible through Christ.

What does it mean to be a conqueror in Christ's army? In fact, the question really is, what does it mean to be not only a conqueror, but more than a conqueror and good soldier in Christ's ranks? Oakes, in this wonderful work on answering that question, dives deep into Paul’s statement in Romans 8:37, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” The truth proclaimed by Oakes is that there is a “more than ordinary triumph” over all those enemies that oppose themselves against the progress and advancement of a Christian in his way to the fruition of the sweet fruits of the everlasting love of God in Jesus Christ. That all true believers have a transcendent, and incomparably glorious conquest and victory in all their severe engagements with the enemies of their peace and happiness, through the love of God in Christ Jesus. Every true believer is a soldier, and engaged in a warfare. Every true believer has a constant fighting work before God, and there is no end of his war in this world, not any time in which he can stop fighting. Yet, a true believer is never totally and absolutely conquered in any engagement with the enemies that war against him. Every true believer manages a successful war, and is sure of a conquest. A believer’s victory and conquest are incomparably glorious. Every believer obtains this glorious victory and conquest through the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God in Christ is the absolute first cause of those victorious proceedings, and this infallible conquest of believers. These believers are the greatest soldiers who have ever lived, and are comforted in their fight by the blessings of Almighty God through Christ. All believers must know and consider that they are soldiers in Christ’s army, and have a fighting work, a warfare, before them until they reach heaven. They must, as faithful soldiers, improve their skill in fighting, and harness the spiritual power of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus for their victory. We wait, and pray, and look, and long for that glorious day, when our warfare shall be ended, and we shall go out of the field victorious, and triumphant, as absolute conquerors. This work is not a scan or facsimile, has been carefully transcribed by hand being made easy to read in modern English, and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.

Statistics for addictions and moral failures are shockingly similar between Christians and non-Christians alike. This is disturbing because one who submits their life to Christ should have no need for a false idol such as alcohol, drugs, sex, porn, etc. The problem isn't with the freedom Jesus offers, but rather our application of that freedom.Jesus Frees Us challenges you to consider what it means to be set free. What are you freed from and why? Discover the ways and reasons that Christ has redeemed you and learn how to walk in that freedom. Join me as I reveal how I've broken free from my chains of bondage through Christ along with numerous testimonies of others who are now living in victory over their flesh and the sins that used to enslave them.

What did the early church believe about killing? What was its view on abortion? How did it approach capital punishment and war? Noted theologian and bestselling author Ron Sider lets the testimony of the early church speak in the first of a three-volume series on biblical peacemaking. This book provides in English translation all extant data directly relevant to the witness of the early church until Constantine on killing. Primarily, it draws data from early church writings, but other evidence, such as archaeological finds and Roman writings, is included. Sider taps into current evangelical interest in how the early church informs contemporary life while presenting a thorough, comprehensive treatment on topics of perennial concern. The book includes brief introductions to every Christian writer cited and explanatory notes on many specific texts.

One of today's best-selling study Bibles--the NIV Life Application Study Bible--has been updated and expanded. The newly revised edition includes over 300 brand new Life Application notes, 350 note revisions, 16 new personality profiles, updated charts, and a Christian Worker's Resource make this study Bible even better. Features: * The bestselling NIV translation * Over 10,000 in-text application notes -- including 300 new notes and significant revisions to nearly 350 others * Over 100 personality profiles with sixteen new ones * Most charts revised to clarify meaning and importance, plus eight all-new charts * New information on the intertestamental period * Christian Worker's Resource, a special supplement to enhance the reader's ministry effectiveness, includes: How to Become a Believer, How to Follow Up with a New Believer, Mining the Treasures of the Life Application Study Bible, So You've Been Asked to Speak, and Taking the Step to Application

Extremely well researched and unique in its approach, citing nine individual Confederate soldiers and the impact of the Civil War on their Christianity. These case studies, largely drawn from their own words in letters and diaries, give a personal and individual perspective that has largely been overlooked in other similar works.