This work takes the peoples and events described in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and places them in a geographic setting. Author Lawrence (a research assistant at the U. of Liverpool's School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, UK) generally treats the events of the book literally and shies away from academic theoretical debates. He proceeds book by book through the Bible, presenting maps showing where particular places were located; outlining the borders of various kingdoms and empires; describing the military movements of important battles; and illustrating such events as the Exodus of the Israelites or the travels of Jesus and his apostles. In addition to the various maps, a number of other photographs and illustrations provide some perspective on what important cities and buildings looked like, temple and fortress layouts, and similar matters. First Published in English under the title The Lion Atlas of Bible History by Lion Hudson PLC, Oxford, England. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Much of the Old Testament seems strange to contemporary readers. However, as we begin to understand how ancient people viewed the world, the Old Testament becomes more clearly a book that stands within its ancient context as it also speaks against it. John Walton provides here a thoughtful introduction to the conceptual world of the ancient Near East.Walton surveys the literature of the ancient Near East and introduces the reader to a variety of beliefs about God, religion, and the world. In helpful sidebars, he provides examples of how such studies can bring insight to the interpretation of specific Old Testament passages. Students and pastors who want to deepen their understanding of the Old Testament will find this a helpful and instructive study.

A collection of jokes about school and education.

A collection of jokes about farm animals.

The legendary coach talks about his life, his players, and his winning philosophies in this bestselling autobiography

John Wooden's dedication and inspiration made him America's 'winningest' coach. His beliefs in hard work and preparedness brought the UCLA Bruins an unparalleled 10 NCAA basketball championships. Now in this bestselling autobiography--with a Foreword by Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton--the college basketball legend reflects on his record-breaking career, his life behind the scenes, and how his top players went on to shape and change the NBA.

From the everyday basics to important life lessons ('It's not how tall you are, but how tall you play'), Wooden shares his worldly wisdom on and off the court to offer a personal history of an unforgettable time in college basketball, answering the most-asked questions about his life, his career, and the players who made his teams unbeatable.

'They Call Me Coach is grass-roots Americana, a story bigger than basketball. One of those rare sports books that is must reading for everyone.'
--Chicago Tribune

'What Knute Rockne was to football, Connie Mack to baseball, and Wilbur and Orville Wright to flying, John Wooden is to basketball. This book captures the full flavor of the man, the philosophies that work in life, and the philosophies that work on the court. I commend it to people who want to succeed at either--or both.'
--Los Angeles Times

The Bible begins and ends with a revelation of God that gives redemption its basis. From the first verse of Genesis, the book of origins, we encounter a God of personality, character, purpose, and activity. Only in the light of what he shows us of himself as the Creator of our world and the Interactor with human history does the salvation story assume its proper context. Genesis sets things in order: God first, then us. In the words of the general editor's preface, 'Especially after the Tower of Babel it became evident that people had forgotten who God was. They needed reminding. The moves God made were essentially concerned with putting himself in front of the world's peoples.' Today, perhaps more than ever, we need God to put himself in front of us---to remind us who he is, and that he is. With characteristic creativity and uncommon depth, John H. Walton demonstrates the timeless relevance of Genesis. Revealing the links between Genesis and our own times, Dr. Walton shows how this mysterious, often baffling book filled with obscure peoples and practices reveals truth to guide our twenty-first-century lives. Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from our world to the world of the Bible. But they leave us there, assuming that we can somehow make the return journey on our own. They focus on the original meaning of the passage but don't discuss its contemporary application. The information they offer is valuable---but the job is only half done! The NIV Application Commentary Series helps bring both halves of the interpretive task together. This unique, award-winning series shows readers how to bring an ancient message into our postmodern context. It explains not only what the Bible meant but also how it speaks powerfully today.This series promises to become an indispensable tool for every pastor and teacher who seeks to make the Bible's timeless message speak to this generation. Billy GrahamThe NIV Application Commentary is an outstanding resource for pastors and anyone else who is serious about developing 'doers of the Word.'Rick Warren, Saddleback Valley Community Church

Preaching's Preacher's Guide to the Best Bible Reference for 2014 (General Reference)How can we account for the 'Book of the Law' suddenly being discovered during Josiah's renovation of the temple (2 Chron 34:14)? We know from Egypt and Mesopotamia that it was common to seal important documents--including theological documents--in the masonry or foundations of a palace or temple in order to inform a future king who might undertake restoration of the building.What might the psalmist have had in mind when praising God for removing our transgressions 'as far as the east is from the west' (Ps 103:12)? In an Egyptian hymn to Amun-Re, the deity is praised for his judgment of the guilty. As a result of the god's discernment the guilty are assigned to the east and the righteous to the west.What is meant by God 'weighing the heart' (Prov 21:2)? In Egyptian religious tradition we find the notion of the dead being judged before the gods. As the soul is examined, the dead person's heart is weighed in a scale against a feather symbolizing Truth. If the answers are correct and the heart does not outweigh the feather, the soul may enter the realm of everlasting life.The narratives, genealogies, laws, poetry, proverbs and prophecies of the Old Testament are deeply rooted in history. Archaeologists, historians and social scientists have greatly advanced our knowledge of the ancient world of the Bible. When we illuminate the stories of Abraham or David, the imagery of the Psalms or Proverbs, or the prophecies of Isaiah or Jeremiah with this backlight of culture and history, these texts spring to new life.The unique commentary joins The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament in providing historical, social and cultural background for each passage of the Old Testament. From Genesis through Malachi, this single volume gathers and condenses an abundance of specialized knowledge--making it available and accessible to ordinary readers of the Old Testament. Expert scholars John Walton, Victor Matthews and Mark Chavalas have included along with the fruits of their research and collaborationa glossary of historical terms, ancient peoples, texts and inscriptionsmaps and charts of important historical resourcesexpanded explanations of significant background issuesintroductory essays on each book of the Old TestamentThe IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament will enrich your experience of the Old Testament--and your teaching and preaching from Scripture--in a way that no other commentary can do.

You have a picture in your head. A picture of yourself with your practically perfect dog. You've always preferred big dogs, and your ideal dog is sturdy, strong, and energetic. At the same time, you envision a dog who is gentle and completely in tune to your needs, your whims, and your every move. That perfect dog is likely a Labrador Retriever. After all, the Labrador Retriever is the most popular dog in the United States, according to American Kennel Club registrations. Labs are beautiful, friendly, adaptable, easygoing, brave, loyal, dependable, and intelligent. What could be better?

Labrador Retrievers For Dummies is a useful guide to have if you're thinking of getting a Lab or even if you already own one. Perhaps you're just curious about this popular breed. This handy reference is for you if you want to

• Find out if a Lab suits your lifestyle
• Know what to look for in Lab pups
• Determine if a breeder meets high standards
• Understand health and nutrition needs
• Handle emergencies with a cool head
• Train your dog with the lure-and-reward technique
• Show off your Lab in competitions

You can live a fulfilling life with your Lab by making sure she is socialized, healthy, and well trained. What better task for humans and dogs than to be great companions for each other? However, you may need some help in knowing how to get the most out of your relationship with your Lab. This friendly guide offers that help with the following topics and more:

• Exercising your pup and older Lab
• Choosing the right veterinarian
• Exploring spaying/neutering
• Keeping your Lab beautiful with good grooming
• Helping your dog deal with divorce, a new baby, moving
• Managing barking and whining
• Housetraining your new puppy
• Traveling to dog-friendly vacation destinations
• Choosing a pet sitter or boarding kennel
• Volunteering your lab as a therapy dog

Labrador Retrievers are big, energetic, and sometimes boisterous (especially as puppies), and they don't take care of themselves. They need you. Don't let them need you unless you're ready to be needed.

Strategic Negotiations makes a significant contribution to the literature on strategic choice (the explicit structuring by management and labor of business and bargaining strategies that use the economic and political environment as a framework to create bargaining power). The authors intentionally build upon previous work in A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations, but this book also is a successful application of the three-tiered collective bargaining theory first developed in The Transformation of American Industrial Relations. Although scholars have identified strategic initiatives in the collective bargaining relationship, recent research has continued to emphasize economic explanations. This book provides an alternative framework of analysis. . . . [Strategic Negotiations] provides abundant evidence, both theoretical and empirical, that the traditional concerns of industrial relations researchers are still relevant.—Industrial and Labor Relations Review

John Donne (1572-1631) is best known as the greatest English metaphysical poet. But there was another dimension to Donne's life and writing that, if less well known, is no less profound and beautiful.

Born into an aristocratic Catholic family, Donne joined the Church of England at the age of twenty-one out of fear of persecution. At the age of forty-three, he gave up his preoccupations with secular prestige and devoted himself utterly to religion. It was eight years later when, battered with fever, the deaths of his beloved wife, several of his children, and many dear lifelong friends, he composed Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. There is both trauma and great drama in this extended meditation on the meaning of mortality, the possibility of salvation, and the true nature of the passage of eternal life. With a new introduction by poet and biographer Andrew Motion, one of the most revered books of Christian devotion speaks to us again of the higher aspirations of man and the always-present possibility of a relationship with God.

This long out of print edition also contains Donne's last sermon, "Death's Duel" as well as the short colorful biography of him written by his contemporary Izaak Walton.

Meet a genuine American folk hero cut from the homespun cloth of America's heartland: Sam Walton, who parlayed a single dime store in a hardscrabble cotton town into Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world.  The undisputed merchant king of the late twentieth century, Sam never lost the common touch.  Here, finally, inimitable words.  Genuinely modest, but always sure if his ambitions and achievements.  Sam shares his thinking in a candid, straight-from-the-shoulder style.

In a story rich with anecdotes and the 'rules of the road' of both Main Street and Wall Street, Sam Walton chronicles the inspiration, heart, and optimism that propelled him to lasso the American Dream.

"Don't you think there is a certain resemblance between the mystery of the Mass and what I am trying to do?...To give people some kind of intellectual pleasure or spiritual enjoyment by converting the bread of everyday life into something that has a permanent artistic life of its own."

-- James Joyce, in a letter to his brother

With these fifteen stories James Joyce reinvented the art of fiction, using a scrupulous, deadpan realism to convey truths that were at once blasphemous and sacramental. Whether writing about the death of a fallen priest ("The Sisters"), the petty sexual and fiscal machinations of "Two Gallants," or of the Christmas party at which an uprooted intellectual discovers just how little he really knows about his wife ("The Dead"), Joyce takes narrative places it had never been before.

The text of this edition has been newly edited by Hans Walter Gabler and Walter Hettche and is followed by a new afterword, chronology, and bibliography by John S. Kelly. Also included in a special appendix are the original versions of three stories as well as Joyce's long-suppressed Preface to Dubliners.

Charts provide visual organization that is ideal for teaching, learning, and review. Facts, connections, parallels, and contrasts can be grasped easily at a glance. This revised edition of Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament includes 42 new charts and 18 revised charts. The charts cover historical, literary, archaeological, and theological aspects of the Old Testament, its background, and biblical studies. Among the 100 charts are: - Genealogies . . . - Comparative Ancient Near-Eastern Chronology - Parallels between Law and Wisdom The Kings of Judah and Israel . . . - Treaty Format and Biblical Covenants - Dynasties of the Northern Kingdom . . . - Principles for Word Studies - Messages of the Pre-Exilic Minor Prophets . . . - Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament

This unique book surveys within the various literary genres the parallels between the Bible and the literature of the ancient Near East. Each section begins with a survey of the available ancient literature, continues with a discussion of the literature, and concludes with a discussion of cases of alleged borrowing. The genres covered are - cosmology - laws - historical literature - wisdom literature - apocalyptic literature - personal archives and epics - covenants and treaties - hymns, prayers, and incantations - prophetic literature

As one of the most prominent themes in Scripture, the covenant is crucial to all Christian theological systems, from dispensationalism to covenant theology to theonomy to liberation theology. One would think that by now all controversies have been exhausted, but an issue of this magnitude can never finally be laid to rest. Because disagreements persist, there is room for yet another attempt to study the covenant and improve our understanding of it. This book proposes that the path toward an evangelical consensus is not to be found in building another modified systematic theology, but in a biblical theology approach. Grounded in this approach, John Walton's perspective is that while the covenant is characteristically redemptive, formulated along the lines of ancient treaties, and ultimately soteric, it is essentially revelatory. This view in turn has implications regarding the continuity or discontinuity of the covenant phases, the conditionality of the covenant, and our understanding of the people of God. And this ultimately affects the way the Old Testament is preached and taught. Walton's thesis is an important contribution to the discussion of the covenant and the attempts to find common ground among evangelicals of diverse theological traditions.