This is a continuation of our Close Up interview with Robert and Bobbie Wolgemuth on their Zondervan devotional, Couples of the Bible (April 2013).

Who did you have in mind when you put pen to paper?

Robert: Even though our hope is that couples use it, we’ve written it with the understanding that women will probably be the primary readers and the users. We’re actually teaching a Sunday school class with couples and we’re going through the book. We’ve had others actually use the manuscript to test some of the questions and some of the flow of the book, but our hope is that couples will do it together. Our expectation is that women will probably be the primary readers, but in the introduction, we talk about this and say at the very least on Friday, which is the prayer day, Their Legacy of Prayer, the husband and wife will sit down together. Most Christian couples know they ought to pray together. Many don’t, and this sort of helps, especially the man, with, here’s something that I can actually read that is a prayer that I can do with my wife. That’s the big idea.

Best-selling author Adam Hamilton continues his Close Up Q&A on new book The Way (Abingdon Press, December 2012).

No doubt readers will find some of your insights on the life of Christ intriguing. For instance, on "Palm Sunday," you state that there were two other processions—designed to show force—going on the same day. Where are those cited in history? We know that Pontius Pilate's primary residence was in Caeserea Maritima on the coast. Yet we know from the Gospels that he was in Jerusalem for the Passover. It is likely that he came over to keep peace in the city (the Passover was a particularly troublesome time for the Romans as the feast was a celebration of how God had delivered His people from slavery in Egypt—the hope of many Jews was that God would do this again, delivering them from Roman rule —hence the need to have Rome's governor present along with this troops to prevent an uprising).

We also know from the Gospels that Herod Antipas was in Jerusalem for the Passover. His primary residence was in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. He would have come in a royal procession with his own military to Jerusalem for the Passover. We cannot know exactly which day each of the other two processions would have arrived in the Jerusalem, but I suggest in the book that the three may have occurred on the same day. Jesus' processional, riding on a donkey, calling people to love their enemies, and surrounded by a ragamuffin band of followers would have stood in stark contrast to the other processionals.

There are sidebars in the book that take the reader to the Holy Land. What are some of the things that were instructive to you as you visited Israel? Often when tour groups go to the Holy Land the tour companies are trying to fit so much in that there is often not enough time for reflection and to experience the land. In groups that I lead over, we do less and experience more. The tours are also typically organized to take you first to Galilee and then to Jerusalem, or vice versa—this allows you to see and do more, but it does not allow you to experience the life of Jesus chronologically. On the tours I help lead, we start in Bethlehem with the birth of Jesus, then to the Jordan near the Dead Sea to recount his baptism. Then we head to the Judean Wilderness—I have the guides take us to a remote area on top of a desert mountain and we stop there and spend an hour in silent prayer, each pilgrim finding a quiet place alone, so that they can read the temptation story and spend time actually experiencing the story —walking in the wilderness where Jesus walked praying in silence. We then take people to Nazareth where Jesus grew up and was first rejected, and then on to Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee where we spend several days. I take groups atop Mount Arbel and we talk about Jesus' time on the mountains and then we hike down together. We take groups through the heart of the West Bank, to the town of Nablus which was ancient Sychar where we visit Jacob's Well, drinking from the well and remembering Jesus' concern for Samaritans and outcasts. Finally, we retrace the events of the last week of Jesus' life in Jerusalem, again trying to help people become a part of the story through a variety of experiences. One additional thing we do: We invite a Palestinian Christian leader and a Jewish leader to share with us their different perspectives on the conflict in the Holy Land. We spend part of our time in the Palestinian areas so that our time in the Holy Land builds bridges not walls and seeks to bless both Israelis and Palestinians.

Themes like the kingdom of God and life as a disciple come through in this book. Did these concepts have a new impact on you as you wrote about them? You can't talk the life and ministry of Jesus without speaking of the kingdom of God. This is the central theme of His teaching and preaching. Jesus' primary call upon those who heard him was to "follow me." My hope in The Way is to help readers understand more clearly what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God and what it looks like to faithfully follow Jesus. In the book I devote much of one chapter to walking through the Sermon on the Mount, for here Jesus gives the clearest picture of what our lives are meant to look like if God is our King. While none of us completely live up to His teachings there—in fact some would say it is impossible to do so—His words there are represent my highest aspirations for how I would live. And my inability to fully live up to them point to my need for Christ's saving work in my life.

Best-selling author of The Shack, William P. Young, has penned a new novel, Cross Roads (FaithWords), 

How does Cross Roads employ nontraditional manifestations of the Trinity like The Shack? The beautiful reality of imagery is that it employs word pictures, and as we all know, a good picture is worth. … Even in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, imagery is rampant and provocative. God is father, but also wind and breath, but also a mother hen who covers and protects her own, an eagle who rescues, a rock that is solid, a fortress that shields, a woman who loses a coin, a man who finds an abandoned baby girl and falls in love with her (Ezekiel, in case you were wondering). Idolatry is when one fastens upon a single image as a definition of God, and begins to assemble one’s life around that single facet. Imagery was never intended to define God, but like facets of a precious stone, each reflects the light of God’s character and the wonder of God’s nature in a way that we can perceive and sense and know. As a word-painter then, I am given freedom to express this magnificence in creative ways. God is not male or female, but all maleness and all femaleness is derived from the Beautiful One, who is a community of other-centered, self-giving love. So, part of the art is to craft metaphors and imagery that satisfies the heart, incompletely but partially, and bends the framework of our paradigms to allow for more space, more light, more love, more anger at all that damages and hurts, more beauty, more grace. The incarnation means that God fully joined our humanity. Jesus is the ultimate bridge birthed in bone and blood. I can touch and understand this man. God has found a son-language that I can comprehend. Can the Holy Spirit not come to me in a way that I can grasp, inside the wonder of a child or the honor of an elder? I think the landscape is open as we participate with the One who the creative.

Michelle Anthony, family ministry architect at David C Cook, answers further questions from Guest Editor Cris Doornbos, CEO of David C Cook:

Some parents have said that your concept of “creating environments” is freeing to them. What are these environments, and how do they bring spiritual health and freedom to parents?

The environments are described in my book Spiritual Parenting and really have to do with how we view our role as parents. If it is God’s role to do [handle?] the supernatural and bring about transformation in my child (at best, I can only control behavior), then it begs the question, “What is my role?” I see the role of parenting as one of creating an environment in my home where God can do what He does best—change hearts and lives.

It’s freeing because I am no longer the one trying to manufacture faith through good behavior or controlling circumstances, but rather focusing on a climate in my home that puts God and His character on display. My children simply get to live in the path of the divine, and it’s His divinity, through grace, that changes them.

 What do you feel is the greatest obstacle in parents assuming their God-given role to spiritually lead their families?

This obstacle is multifaceted because there are many contributing factors, but the greatest obstacle is that parents are not awakened to this God-given role. Christian parents have historically felt satisfied if they dropped their children off at a weekly Sunday school program, led and taught a moral life, and included prayer at meals and bedtime.

Biblically speaking, a Christian parent is one who is actively engaged in spiritual conversations and teaching in every moment throughout the week, erasing the line between sacred and secular, while choosing to disciple their children in active engagement of spiritual disciplines, which include prayer, reading and studying God’s Word, service, community, confession and worship, just to name a few. Unfortunately parents are too busy and ill-equipped to assume this type of a role and will need the church to come alongside to help them, with God’s Spirit to become awakened [in them].