The First to Follow: The Apostles of Jesus

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 160 pages
• Published by: Morehouse Publishing March 1, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0819222968
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0819222961
• Book Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 8.8 ounces

Product Description
One of the first things that Jesus did in his ministry was to reach out to twelve individuals and draw them into a circle of close companionship with him. This series is about those twelve apostles, their relationships with Jesus and with each other, and what the dynamics of that community can teach us. By studying those whom Jesus selected and what he did for them, to them, with them, and through them, we can learn much about how we can we experience the Holy in our own day. Jesus did not wait for people to be perfect in order to call them into the circle of God s love. As we look at those that Jesus called, and consider ourselves as part of that enlarging circle, we gain not only a deeper sense of our own reality, but also a deeper sense of how Christ would like to work with us.

Reader Reviews
We owe a great debt to Ann Wilkinson Claypool! She has edited and collected the Sermons, John delivered in places from St Luke's Church in Birmingham to Chautauqua! Ann has relied on the helpful sources of many of John's friends and family. I have already underlined a dozen of his names and quotations from Walter Brueggemann, M Gandhi, C.S. Lewis, Paul Tillich, Carlyle Marney, Sam Keen, Anthony DeMello, Simone Weil, William James! These and other sources, I heard John deliver while in his Theology Classes at McAfee. I have noted that John favored Andrew, Peter, Thomas and John as his most prolific disciples! I saw insights from John's Sermons which revealed new facts about the disciples: "Jesus and Andrew had both grown up in the northern part of Palestine called Galilee. Andrew was probably surprised that a fellow from his hometown turned out to be the One whom God had chosen to do the messiannic work. Andrew was one of three pairs of brothers that became part of the intimate circle of Jesus' disciples. These brothers were James and John, Andrew and Simon Peter, and Matthew and James. In his sermons John repeats some of his wonderful stories of Anthony de Mello. One of those is about the Holy Man who passed off the diamond as large as a man's head to the villager. The man could not sleep and came early the next morning to return the diamond, "so that the Holy Man could give him the wealth that makes it possible for you to give away this diamond so easily!" In my position as a prison Chaplain, I used this story in sermons dealing with the new hopes and aspirations of inmates who would be released into the world with this exact same desire and need! This was one example of how John's stories were passed on to men in great need and hunger for a change in their new life. With Gratitude to Ann & John Claypool From Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood.