This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Family Christian Stores. This week they’re giving away quite a cool prize—a series of DVDs and books called The Nature of God (click for details). There will be 5 winners and each winner will receive a copy of each of the DVDs and each of the books, which makes each prize valued at around $200.

All around us God has placed amazing creatures and habitats for us to explore, enjoy and care for. Join Peter Schriemer, host and creator of Smithsonian HD Channel’s Critter Quest!, as he takes your family on an interactive adventure to discover amazing animals and their natural environments.

Having created, written and produced many of his own projects as well as having worked on national video projects, Peter Schriemer is an award winning filmmaker who has received more than fifteen prestigious industry awards. Being America's hands-on naturalist, Peter enjoys exploring outside, assisting field biologists with research projects, and teaching children about God's wondrous creation. Peter received his B.A. in Film and Video Studies from the University of Michigan in 2005 and now resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Here is a trailer:

Also, here are a few sales you may like to take advantage of.

Use the online promo code 126382835 (30% off Any One Regularly-Priced Item) or take a look at these books (all 40% off):

• Kings Cross - Keller - $15.57 
• Doctrine - Driscoll - $10.79 
• Think - Piper - $11.99 
• Don't Call it a Comeback - DeYoung - $10.19 
• Reason for God - Keller - $9.60 
• Unchristian - Kinnman & Lyons - $11.39 

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Baker Books. Baker has just published the Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook and they’d like to give away some copies of it. I received a copy not too long ago and have quite enjoyed it as a reference volume. According to the publisher,

The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook offers the most up-to-date evangelical biblical scholarship in a format that is colorful, informative, and easy to understand. This book-by-book guide brings the Bible to life with more than:

• 1,100 full-color pages
• 500 color photos and illustrations
• 80 maps and charts
• 100 articles by leading evangelical scholars

You will discover how each part of the Bible reveals God’s overarching purposes, giving you a clearer understanding of God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation. And you’ll learn how to more effectively interpret the Bible and apply it to your life.

Baker has five prizes to give away today and each prize will contain 2 copies of the Handbook—one for you and one for a friend or for a church library; you’ll be able to put it to good use, I’m sure.

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by CBDReformed.com. They are offering up 5 prizes, each of which contains 3 books. So that means that 5 people will each win:

• The Reason For God: Belief In An Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller - Retail Price $16.00
• Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ by John MacArthur - Retail Price $22.99
• The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns - Retail price $22.99

Here’s a description of Slave: “Throughout the Bible, followers of Jesus are commanded to submit to Him as their King. They are told to obey and follow, faithfully and without hesitation. Every time Christians utter the word Lord, they make a subtle yet profound declaration-that God is their Master and that they belong to Him. In fact, the Bible describes believers as His slaves. They have been bought with a price and now live for Christ as a people for His own possession. What does it mean to be a Christian the way Jesus defined it? MacArthur says it all boils down to one word: Slave. We have been bought with a price. We belong to Christ. We are His own possession.”

In addition, CBD Reformed is offering a 4-day sale (September 16 - September 19) on the following two products. Anyone is free to take advantage of this offer:

• Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis - retail $13.99 / sale $6.99
• Heaven by Randy Alcorn - retail $24.99 / sale $12.99

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Reformed Book Services. Reformed Book Services is a not-for-profit organization with a mission statement to distribute books which “promote godliness, revival and reformation.” Two years ago they opened a retail book store in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and they also have a web presence. They are dedicated to promoting good Christian books to the Ontario and Canadian market.

But this giveaway is not just for Canadians. Here how this one is going to go. There are 10 prizes today instead of the usual 5. Half of those prizes will go to Canadian winners and the other half to international winners. Got it?

This week’s prize includes 2 books, both by David Murray: Christians Get Depressed Too and his brand new title How Sermons Work.

How do sermons work? How does a preacher get from the basic nuts and bolts of a few Bible verses to the delivery of a full sermon? That’s the question David Murray answers in this instructive and immensely practical book. He demonstrates that behind the thirty to forty-five minutes we see and hear on a Sunday morning are many hours of mental, spiritual and practical labour. Like all pastoral labour, it involves head, heart and hand.

Murray breaks up the sermon preparation process into a clear and simple step-by-step method, covering topics such as how to choose a text, how to introduce a sermon, how to explain a text, and how to apply it. It will provide an excellent refresher for experienced preachers and a reliable guide for those just starting out. It will also be extremely helpful to Bible class teachers, Bible Study leaders, or anyone who has to prepare a Bible message.

Each winner will receive a copy of this book, along with a copy of Christians Get Depressed Too.

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

Back-to-school seems like an appropriate occasion to mark with a giveaway, and especially so since I haven’t done one of these giveaways for a while. Crossway recently released the ESV Student Study Bible, an adaption of the ESV Study Bible that is targeted squarely at high school and college students. 

With 12,000 clear, concise study notes, the ESV Student Study Bible provides numerous new features--including nearly 900 "Did You Know?" facts, 120 new Bible character profiles, and 15 new topical articles. It also features a new glossary of key terms, more than 80 full-color maps and illustrations, an extensive concordance, and 80,000 cross-references. These and many other features make it the most comprehensive, colorful, and content-rich student Bible available today. Suited to high school and college students, the ESV Student Study Bible is also a versatile resource for anyone engaged in serious study of God's Word.

Created by an outstanding team of more than 100 evangelical Christian scholars, teachers, and pastors, the ESV Student Study Bible is adapted from the highly acclaimed and best-selling ESV Study Bible. With numerous new features, the ESV Student Study Bible is an invaluable resource. For high school and college students, but equally for all students of the Bible--for everyone who loves to read and learn more about God's Word. 

I have had the chance to look through one of these Bibles and I really like it. Those “Did You Know?” facts are actually very useful (and just happened to answer a question my son had asked just moments before—“Why does the book of Mark use the word ‘immediately’ so often?”). You can visit the ESV site to get more information, to watch a video, to download sample pages, and so on.

Today I am going to give someone 2 copies of the ESV Student Study Bible; the winner is free to keep them or to give them away. The winner will also take home a complete set of the Crossway Classic Commentary series—all 26 volumes. This series of commentaries offers some of the best historic Bible teaching on many of the books of the Bible and makes a great foundation for a reference library.

All you need to do to enter is input your information below. For this giveaway you’ll need to have a Facebook account. And don’t feel that you need to be a student to participate; it’s open to everyone. Even if you’re not a student, I know you’ll put those Bibles to good use.

If you cannot see the giveaway script, try refreshing your browser (or, if you’re reading via Facebook or RSS, click through to my actual site).

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Reformed Fellowship. Reformed Fellowship, Inc., is a group of believers in Jesus Christ who are committed to promoting the historic Christian faith as it is expressed in the Reformed confessions. We subscribe to the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confessions, the Canons of Dort, and the Westminster Confessions. We publishing books and Bible study guides, as well as a bi-monthly journal, The Outlook. For a limited time, an e-version of The Outlook is available free of charge. We also have curriculum materials for catechism instruction, including the new Life in Christ series for grades 5 through 8. You can visit their website at reformedfellowship.net to learn more.

Reformed Fellowship, Inc. is offering five prizes, each of which will contain a copy of the following two books:

• Meeting Jesus at the Feast: Israel's Festival and the Gospel by John R. Sittema 
• But for the Grace of God: An Exposition of the Canons of Dort by Cornelis P. Venema

Here is a word about Meeting Jesus at the Feast:

This book aims to tell you more about Jesus. Much more. By unpacking and explaining the ancient feasts, it aims to give modern people a fuller vision of the good news of God, reveal just what it means that Jesus is the Messiah, and explain how and why his coming changed the world.

For the feasts, commissioned twelve hundred years before Jesus came, were celebrations about him. First, they anticipated his coming. Then they defined his life and ministry. In fact, you cannot really comprehend what it means that Jesus is Messiah without knowing something about the feasts. All the significant moments in his ministry (both his earthly ministry and his ministry from heaven's throne after the ascension) were divinely structured around them.

You can learn more about But for the Grace of God right here.

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by CBD Reformed, a company that regularly sponsors these giveaways. This week they are offering 5 prizes, each of which contains the following 3 books:

• Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas - Retail price $29.99
• Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears  - Retail Price $22.99
• Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper -  Retail Price $13.99

Here’s a bit of information about the one that may interest you the most. “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is the first fully comprehensive biography of Bonhoeffer in more than 40 years. Written by best-selling NY Times author Eric Metaxes, he presents both sides of Bonhoeffer’s life, as theologian and as conspirator drawing them together to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil.”

“Presenting a deeply moving narrative, using previously unavailable documents—including personal letters, detailed journal entries, and first-hand personal accounts, Metaxas reveals dimensions of Bonhoeffer’s life and theology never before seen. Furthermore, Metaxas presents the fullest accounting of Bonhoeffer’s heart-wrenching 1939 decision to leave the safety of America for the lion’s den of Hitler’s Germany, and using extended excerpts from love letters and coded messages written to and from Bonhoeffer’s Cell 92, we are allowed to see for the first time the full story of Bonhoeffer’s passionate and tragic romance.”

In addition, CBD Reformed is offering a 4-day sale (August 26 - August 29) on the following three products: 

• Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem - retail $49.99 / sale $23.99
• The Great Commission: Evangelicals and the History of World Missions - retail $14.99 / sale $2.99
• Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook by William Mounce  - retail $21.99 / sale $5.99

Anyone can take advantage of those sales, regardless of whether you enter the giveaway and regardless of whether you win the giveaway.

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Baker Books, a name that is well-known, I’m sure. Baker publishes many of Michael Horton’s books and today they want to give some of them away. They are offering 5 prize packages and each of the 5 winners will be able to select 2 of the following titles:

• Introducing Covenant Theology
• The Gospel Commission
• Christless Christianity
• The Gospel-Driven Life

The Gospel Commission is the newest of these titles. Here is a brief description of it:

Many churches in America today want to be powerful, relevant, and influential in personal and social transformation. A plethora of programs for outreach, discipleship, and spiritual disciplines are available at any bookstore and on countless websites. Yet what we need most is a renewed understanding of and commitment to the Great Commission. We assume that we already know the nature of this commission and the appropriate methods of carrying it out.

But Michael Horton contends that it too often becomes our mission instead of God’s. At a time when churches are zealously engaged in creating mission statements and strategic plans, he argues that we must ask ourselves anew whether we are ambassadors, following the script we’ve been given, or building our own kingdoms with our own blueprint.

Pastors and church leaders will value this frank and hopeful next-step exploration of the Great Commission as a call to renewed understanding and good practice.

Each winner will also receive a copy of John Stott’s Through the Bible, Through the Year devotional, which Baker’s just released in paperback.

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by The Good Book Company they have another great offer for you. The brand new edition of Christianity Explored has been described by Michael Horton as "the best resource for group and personal evangelism available", and today we are offering 5 free starter packs sets, each worth $99. Each set includes all you need to start a Christianity Explored course at your church, in your neighborhood or home: 1 DVD, 3 Leaders' Guides, 9 Handbooks.

Christianity Explored is ideal as a way of introducing people to Jesus, or as a refresher course for your home group or entire congregation. By focusing on Mark's Gospel, it allows people to explore the person at the heart of the Christian faith - Jesus Christ. The new edition has been fully revised and updated and there are also editions for young people (CY) and those with English as a second language (English-made-easy) as well as a follow-up course called Discipleship Explored.

To learn more about how to run a CE course in your church check out this video.

What are people saying about this new edition? 

“I wish every Church, every Sunday School Class, and every Small Group would use Christianity Explored at least once a year. Then our churches might once again become what they were meant to be: God's evangelistic society and network of spiritual maternity hospitals where we live in expectation that new Christians will be born. I have rejoiced to see people come to faith in Christ through its ministry.”
Sinclair B Ferguson, First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, S.C.

“Christianity Explored used to be a great resource for introducing people to Jesus. Now it’s even better. Fresher, sharper, simpler. I love the way the whole course now revolves around Mark’s Gospel, completing the claim that people will meet Jesus from the pages of Mark’s account.”
Tim Chester, Author of Total Church and Pastor of The Crowded House, Sheffield

"Christianity Explored is a tremendous resource for churches who want to reach their community for Christ. It provides a welcoming, accessible, and unapologetically scriptural presentation of the gospel. It also serves as a practical, useable, model to equip and mobilize a congregation for evangelism. This new edition is superbly produced and can be easily used in small or large group contexts."
Rev. John Currie, Lecturer in Practical Theology and Director of Student Development and Alumni Relations, Westminster Theological Seminary

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is once again sponsored by our friends at CBD Reformed. As they always do, they are offering 5 prizes, each of which will contain 3 great books.

• Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem - Retail price $12.99
• Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ by John MacArthur - Retail Price $22.99
• Respectable Sins: Confronting The Sins We Tolerate by Jerry Bridges - Retail Price $19.99

In addition, CBD Reformed is offering a 4-day sale (August 5 - August 8) on the following three products. Anyone is free to take advantage of these deals:

• Heaven by Randy Alcorn - retail $24.99 / sale $14.99
• Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream by David Platt - retail $14.99 / sale $9.49
• ESV MacArthur Study Bible - retail $44.99 / sale $22.49

Remember that, as always, there will be 5 winners and each of the winners will take home 3 books.

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.