This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Zondervan Academic, who also sponsored the blog this week. They are giving away FIVE sets of Wayne Grudem’s Christian Beliefs, Revised Edition, and Christian Beliefs Study Guide.

Here is more about the books:
Christian Beliefs, Revised Edition
Not every Christian needs to go to seminary, but there are certain teachings of the Bible that every Christian should know. Whether you’re a relatively new believer in Jesus or a mature Christian looking for a better understanding of the basics of the faith, Christian Beliefs are for you.
This readable guide to twenty basic Christian beliefs condenses Wayne Grudem’s award-winning book Systematic Theology, prized by pastors and teachers everywhere. He and his son, pastor Elliot Grudem, have boiled down the essentials of theology for everyday Christians and made them both clear and applicable to life. Each brief chapter concludes with questions for personal review or group discussion.
In this revised and updated edition of Christian Beliefs, you will learn about:

The Bible and its authority for our lives
The characteristics of God
The importance of prayer
Angels and the reality of spiritual warfare
What it means that we are created in the image of God
What God has done for us in Christ
The purpose of the church
What will happen when Christ returns
The biblical understanding of heaven
And much more

Christian Beliefs is the ideal book for every Christian who wants a solid foundation for understanding the most basic and essential teachings of the Bible.
 Christian Beliefs Study Guide
Whether you’re a relatively new believer in Jesus or a mature Christian looking for a better understanding of basics of the faith, the Christian Beliefs Study Guide can help you reflect on and deeply internalize the core teachings of Christianity
Chapter by chapter, this STUDY GUIDE will lead you to examine and reflect on Christian Beliefs, revised edition, by providing:

Summary: A short summary of the chapter to help remind readers what they read.
Key terms: Definitions of important terminology introduced in the chapter.
Key quotes: Selection of one or two key quotes from the chapter.
Central Scripture Passage: An important biblical passage related to the chapter for reflection or memorization.
Content Questions: Questions that reflect on the theological content of the chapter.
Practical Application Questions: Questions that help tie the theological content of the chapter to real-life situations.
For Further Reading: Lists where to find more information on theological topics in Systematic Theology, second edition, by Wayne Grudem so readers know where to go for a deeper dive into specific subjects they want to know more about.

Go here to find out more about Christian Beliefs.

Enter Here
Again, there are five packages to win. And all you need to do to enter the draw is to drop your name and email address in the form below.
Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. 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. If you are viewing this through email, click to visit my site and enter there.

This week Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Zondervan Reflective. They are giving away five copies of The Great Love of God.

There is a Divine Love that heals our hurts, fears, and loneliness, but have we lost sight of it?
Nothing is more obvious about our world than the reality of how far we have slipped from the ideal of divine love. We live in a society that has sunk into the depths of desperation. An avalanche of problems overwhelms us. Hatred and animosity have reached a state of emergency, and a powerful display of infinite love is our only hope. Isolated in a crowded universe, the only rescue from our loneliness is found in the acceptance of the One Person whose great love we most need, but stubbornly reject. Our quest for the perfect human leader has failed, but there is a perfectly trustworthy Leader in heaven who wants to share his love that never fails, never betrays, and never abuses. As we squint through the darkness of chaos and anxiety, our only hope is to see the blazing light of the One whose infinite love alone casts out our fear.
Sharing his own story of an encounter with God’s deep love, pastor and counselor Heath Lambert articulates what the Bible teaches about the love of God, capturing the beauty of this love while helping readers see and experience how the truth that sets us free from the sickness of hatred, loneliness, and fear so prevalent in our world today.
Now more than ever, and more than anything, people need to find their way into the compassionate embrace of their Father in heaven. An embrace that makes us better, stronger, and wiser as he reveals himself to us as the God of great love. The Great Love of God provides an accessible, passionate exploration of how the divine love casts out fear, provides ultimate hope, and never fails.
Enter Here
There are five copies to win. All you need to do to enter the draw is to enter your name and email address in this form, which will add you to Heath Lambert’s mailing list.
Sweepstakes Rules: You may enter one time. Winners will be notified by email on June 16th, 2023.
Heath Lambert is giving a copy of The Great Love of God to five randomly selected winners who sign up for the mailing list below.

It was on this day 24 years ago that I became a dad. I suppose I had already been a dad for the past nine months and 10 days—a full term of pregnancy plus a few extra days of waiting. But on March 5, 2000, I finally got to meet my firstborn, my boy, my sweet Nick. I watched with wonder as he emerged into this world. I took him in my arms for the first time and gently kissed his forehead. I studied him from the tip of his toes to the crown of his head and declared him perfect. I marveled at what God had given me, at what he had given us, at what he had given the world.
I watched that baby grow into a boy, and that boy grow into a man. I watched him grow not just in stature but in character, not just in age but in wisdom. I watched him profess faith and be baptized, fall in love and get engaged. I watched him begin to prepare himself for a life dedicated to pastoral ministry. I watched with joy and delight.
Twenty times March 5 came with great gladness and sweet memories—with gifts, treats, and celebration. And four times it has come with a combination of gladness and sorrow and with memories that are both sweet and bitter. Four times it has come with Nick no longer here to celebrate or to be celebrated.
March 5, 2021 was the hardest. Nick had been gone for just four months and we were still so new to grief, still so raw. We had been warned that the first would be the hardest and those warnings proved true. That was a hard, hard day. March 5, 2022 was a little easier and March 5, 2023 a little easier still. By then the sharpness of the pain had settled into something more like a dull ache. We had better learned how to cope with our grief and to come to terms with it. Perhaps better said, we had further submitted it to the Lord and further bowed the knee to him—to the God who is sovereign and kind, to the God whose purposes are always and only good.
And now we have come to the fourth birthday in which Nick is in heaven and we are on earth, the fourth March 5 we have faced with this combination of sorrow and joy. We grieve that we cannot see him, hug him, speak to him, express our love to him. We grieve that his presence has been replaced with absence, that our memories of him are always accompanied by the sorrow that we have no more memories to make, at least on this side of heaven.

March 5 through the years
But we also rejoice that we had the privilege of knowing him and loving him. We rejoice that he lived a life worthy of the gospel and that he has now been delivered from all sin, suffering, and sorrow. And we rejoice, of course, that we will see him again. It’s a strange place to be—this place of already and not-yet, this place of faith and not sight, this place of promise but not fulfillment. Yet we are content knowing that it is God himself who led us here and God himself who will eventually lead us out. We have confidence in him, in his love, in his purposes, in his goodness and glory.
I don’t know if birthdays are a thing in heaven. I don’t even know if and how time passes there. But I do know that right here a few of us continue to count it special because we continue to love the one who was given to us on this day, 24 years ago.
This poem is on my mind today and seems a fitting way to close.

Whate’er we fondly call our ownBelongs to heaven’s great Lord;The blessings lent us for a dayAre soon to be restored.
’Tis God that lifts our comforts high,Or sinks them in the grave;He gives; and when He takes away,He takes but what He gave.
Then, ever blessed be His name!His goodness swell’d our store;His justice but resumes its own;Still we the Lord adore.