A rabbi in Jerusalem once told evangelist Perry Stone that high priests who entered the Holy of Holies in biblical times spoke to God in a heavenly language. This launched the best-selling author into a deep study of the Holy Spirit, including little-known details of how the Spirit worked in Old Testament times.

Director of the international outreach Voice of Evangelism, Stone used his research to write The Code of the Holy Spirit: Uncovering the Hebraic Roots and Historic Presence of the Holy Spirit (978-1-621-36261-6, $16.99), which Charisma House releases March 5. 

The Code of the Holy Spirit closely examines the Scriptures, including the Greek and Hebrew meanings of the text, to help readers understand not only who the Spirit is, but also how He works in and through believers.

Stone begins by discussing God’s triune nature. He also shares nine lessons he believes the Holy Spirit has taught him, including, “You must pray continually in the Spirit.” In addition, he includes a chapter of FAQs with questions such as, “Is there a difference between being ‘filled’ with the Spirit and being ‘baptized’ with the Spirit?” 

He writes that speaking in tongues “accompanies the initial filling of the Spirit” and concludes with a chapter on how to receive the baptism of the Spirit based on his witnessing more than 74,000 believers receive this baptism. 

Stone encourages readers to study the Spirit in great detail and to listen open-mindedly to the testimonies of “believers who have received the Spirit.”

For more information, visit www.charismahouseb2b.com. To order, call Charisma House at 800-283-8494.

Leading theologian-educator offers new biography upon the 50th anniversary of the apologist’s death

Pastor and best-selling author David Platt examines the cost—and indescribable joy—of discipleship

Alabama pastor David Platt knows former Muslims whose conversions to Christ could get them killed. To them, and to the New Testament disciples, the price of following Jesus is dramatic and obvious. Yet many who call themselves Christian, according to Platt, neither understand the cost nor truly follow Christ.

“With good intentions and sincere desires to reach as many people as possible for Jesus, we have subtly and deceptively minimized the magnitude of what it means to follow him,” writes Platt in his new Tyndale House Publishers book, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live.

A New York Times best-selling author, Platt has long urged readers and his congregation at The Church at Brook Hills to radical living. His book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream sold more than a million copies and challenged Christians to reject postmodernisms that are antithetical to the gospel.

Follow Me explores both “the gravity of what we must forsake” and “the greatness of the One whom we follow,” Platt writes. 

He calls Jesus the “Great Initiator” who invites us into relationship with Him in spite of our sin and says that following Him includes self-denial, commitment to a local church and making disciples. 

In following Jesus, “we experience a desire for him and pleasure in him that totally transforms everything about us,” Platt writes. 

Platt also seeks to “uncover potential dangers hiding behind popular clichés.” For example, he says we cannot make Jesus our Lord and Savior because “Jesus is Lord regardless of what you or I decide.”

The final chapter poses questions leading readers to make specific plans for following Jesus and being fishers of men.

For information or to order Follow Me, call 800-323-9400 or visit www.tyndalebooksellers.com.

A simple conversation with his young daughter changed Kyle Idleman’s life. There was one commandment she was sure she had not broken—because she had never carved an idol. Yet Idleman, best-selling author of Not a Fan, knew that while we might not bow before graven images, false gods battle to rule the believer, whether they realize it or not. Viewing his life “through the lens of idolatry” improved Idleman’s relationship with God dramatically.

Idleman helps readers recognize and dethrone idols in Gods at War: Defeating the Idols That Battle for Your Heart (978-0-310-31884-2, $14.99) releasing this month from Zondervan.

Teaching pastor at the fourth-largest U.S. church, Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., Idleman has discovered that people discuss symptoms rather than what truly ails them. He writes: “What if I told you that every sin you are struggling with, every discouragement you are dealing with, even the lack of purpose you’re living with are because of idolatry?” 

Idleman says that Christians often worship at the temples of pleasure, power and love, which impede intimacy with God. While many things believers value are not evil, they are problems if they become more important to us than God, he asserts.

To uncover heart issues, Idleman asks questions like, “What disappoints you?” and “What do you complain about?” He tells true stories of those who have struggled with gods of food, sex, achievement and more, and includes QR codes so readers can hear more.

For more information or to order Gods at War, call Zondervan at 800-727-1309, or visit www.zondervan.com.

Craveable: The Irresistible Reflection of Jesus in Me ($14.99, softcover) examines Jesus’s key attributes that made Him craveable to his first-century followers: loving the unlovable, accepting all the unacceptable and demonstrating a life of faith and joy. Artie Davis, pastor and founder of The Sticks Network, a church-planting movement, draws on his experience in building multicultural church communities to guide readers in changing perceptions of the church from unlikeable to craveable. Craveable releases this month from Passio, an imprint of Charisma House Book Group.

Following the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, Hilary Alan’s family responded to God’s specific call to them, giving up everything and moving overseas as community developers in a devastated Muslim province. Alan has captured her family’s story of radical faith in Sent: How One Ordinary Family Traded the American Dream for God’s Greater Purpose. Available this month from WaterBrook Press, Sent retails for $14.99.

Recording artist Jeremy Camp recounts the journey that ignited his faith and inspired some of his most beloved songs in his memoir releasing this month, I Still Believe ($14.99, softcover, Tyndale House Publishers). The book shares the name of one of Camp’s hit singles and includes details from his poor childhood and rebellious teen years, his spiritual awakening in college, the loss of his first wife to cancer and his second chance at love. Previously self-published, I Still Believe has been thoroughly revised and includes significant new material.

Jim Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners and editor in chief of Sojourners magazine, exhorts Christians to reclaim the oft-neglected idea of the common good in On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good. Releasing this month from Brazos Press/Baker Publishing Group, the $21.99 hardcover shows readers how to transcend politics and lead on moral grounds, making the case that Christianity involves not only eternal destiny, but also how believers live in this world.

Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing’s Billy Graham & Me: 101 Inspiring Personal Stories From Presidents, Pastors, Performers, and other People Who Know Him Well by Steve Posner ($24.95, hardcover) releases this month. A collection of true stories about renowned evangelist Billy Graham and the effects of his worldwide ministry over more than 60 years, contributions come from prominent pastors as well as leaders from other faiths, celebrities and ordinary citizens.

A best-selling author of almost 20 books related to end-time prophecy, Mark Hitchcock tackles the escalating tensions in the Middle East in his latest work, Iran and Israel: Wars and Rumors of Wars ($13.99, softcover). Hitchcock assesses the current state of affairs and answers, from a biblical perspective, questions like, “Will this put us on the road to Armageddon?” and “What can we expect next?” Harvest House Publishers releases Iran and Israel this month.

In Refuse to Do Nothing: Finding Your Power to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery, authors Shayne Moore and Kimberly McOwen Yim expose the realities of the modern global slave trade and show readers how to help defend the powerless. Moore is a board member of Growers First, an organization partnering with rural farmers to fight poverty, and Yim is founder of Abolitionist Mamas based in San Clemente, Calif. Retailing for $16 in softcover, Refuse to Do Nothing releases this month from InterVarsity Press imprint IVP Crescendo.

Psychologist, New York Times best-selling author and television personality Kevin Leman reveals the biblical truths that helped him grow from a hardheaded young man into a successful, joyful man in The Way of the Wise: Simple Truths for Living Well ($15.99, hardcover, Revell/Baker Publishing Group). Retelling stories from his own life, Leman illuminates 10 life principles from the words of King Solomon in Proverbs to help readers jump-start their own spiritual lives.

Latest project: Pursuing Justice: The Call to Live & Die for Bigger Things (978-0-849-96466-4, $19.99, hardcover, Thomas Nelson).

Why did you write this book? God has continually placed the content of Pursuing Justice on my heart over the past 10 years. The book articulates lessons I’ve learned about the nature of justice and God’s heart for the vulnerable. Through story, theology and philosophy, I hope to help people understand God’s call to us to give our lives away on behalf of others. To pursue justice. To ultimately live and die for bigger things. 

We hear stories of “social justice” quite a bit in the media. How does that concept relate to the message of your book? Any robust theology of biblical justice must address concerns that exist in the social arena. The media only give us a sliver of what social justice really is. Most of what we hear regarding social justice is political and focused on money, poverty and the welfare system—and thus our highly charged conversation about social justice is pinned between two rival economic ideologies. The way governments handle money is definitely part of social justice, but social justice is bigger than that. Just as there should be justice in the criminal arena, justice in the business arena and justice in the international arena, there should be justice in the social arena—that’s what social justice means. That includes things that matter to God, like proper treatment of workers, healthy immigration policies, wholesome treatment of the poor and weak in our society and more. All of these are very real social concerns that are relevant to a proper understanding of biblical justice. 

You write that the word justice needs to be redeemed “to its full significance.” What is a biblical understanding of justice? Another problem with modern notions of justice is the tendency to reduce all of justice to simply criminal justice—crime and punishment, the legal system, police, judges and courts. We also tend to see justice issues more clearly from a distance. For instance, we know poverty and corruption in the Third World is a problem of injustice. But what injustices are we blind to in our own backyard—or even inside our own hearts? Justice means a right relationship with God, self, others and creation, everywhere. That goal is broad, deep and multifaceted. 

You are the founder of The Justice Conference. Could you explain its purpose? Our dream is to help change the world through an annual conference that educates, inspires and connects a generation of men and women around a shared concern for the vulnerable and oppressed. The idea of the conference was always simple. We wanted it to be affordable and accessible to everyone. We wanted to attract a wide cross-section of people. We wanted attendees to learn about the theology of justice as well as the practice of justice. And we wanted to facilitate networking, partnership and collaboration. 

How does an understanding of justice affect one’s daily life? Understanding the full meaning of justice changes everything. It will change where we shop and what we shop for. It will change the way we vote. It will change the way we read the Bible. It will change the way we give money to charity and buy Christmas presents. It will change the way we love our friends and neighbors. It will change the way we respond when we get cut off in traffic. It will change the assumptions we have about other people. In short, understanding justice will lead us to a foundational commitment to choose others before ourselves even as it magnifies the gospel as the standard of justice and spotlights our need for grace. 

Pursuing Justice includes more than a dozen “Interludes.” What are they and why did you include them? The Interludes are short, artistic elements like poems, drawings and stories, many provided by artists I have the privilege of knowing. One of the main arguments in the book is that justice is multifaceted and complex, so inserting Interludes between chapters allows for fun, creative and even surprising conversations on different aspects of justice from multiple voices.

You write that justice is “far broader than a single life can hope to capture, no matter how well it is lived.” Could you explain that further? Justice is the establishment and enactment of what ought to be. It is a just society, a just community and a fully just life. A single life can contribute much to justice, be a part of a just society and help bring about a just community. But a single life is also characterized by unjust actions and uncharitable instances. In addition to helping, we often also hurt our communities and are a part of unjust structures in society. The totality of justice requires more than what any one of us can fully muster. This is why God says in Isaiah that he will work justice by his own right arm. Only in salvation and redemption is justice fully restored. Additionally, only in being sustained and covered by grace are we truly able to pursue justice on an ongoing basis and successfully as individuals. 

What is the difference you see between justice and effective justice? Effective justice is justice that is successful for the one needing justice. It is justice that works or fixes. Doing justice, as we often talk about in culture today, can reduce down to simple actions I do, things I give or ways I sacrifice. Often, however, what I’m doing says more about me than it does about the vulnerable or oppressed person meant to receive justice. Talking about effective justice. Justice measured by the goodness received by the one needing it, is a way to put the focus back on the vulnerable or oppressed and say that true justice is triumphalistically not merely the gift given, but the benefit received.

What invitation do you issue to readers? Justice is big. Justice is deep. Justice is broad. Justice is a story and an invitation to living a life for bigger things than consumerism and individualism. The invitation in Pursuing Justice is to hear the call and be able to join the pursuit—not triumphantly, but humbly and graciously. It is also an invitation to find God, life and happiness, each one a God given desire, in the pursuit of justice. For, as Jesus said, “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” 

How can Christian retailers best promote Pursuing Justice? Placement is key with all products. This book falls in line with other titles such as The Hole in our Gospel and Radical that help people find their walk humbly with their Creator. Promoting Pursuing Justice doesn’t mean targeting a niche interested in justice per se. We’re called, as the subtitle says, to “live and die for bigger things,” because that’s how God designed us to find true fulfillment, and I believe that’s a message that resonates with everyone!