Download or read book Belovedness written by James Franklin and published by Church Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-17 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thought-provoking book for college students and those who minister with them deals with issues of faith, identity, sex, success, failure, and more, through the concept of belovedness. Every college student’s story is different, but they all have the same questions in common. Who am I? How do I make good choices? What does it mean to be successful? How do I navigate changing relationships with my family, my peers, my significant other? And how do I do all of this faithfully? This book approaches these topics through a fundamental inquiry: “What if I really, truly believed that I was beloved beyond all measure, and how would that influence what I do?” Along with the editors, eight campus ministers from across several denominations contributed to this volume to help students navigate questions of life and faith in the world of high-pressure college campuses. Telling it like it is with wit and wisdom drawn from scripture, tradition, and life experience, this book offers profound and practical reminders of what it is to be beloved.

Download or read book From Weary to Wholehearted written by Callie E. Swanlund and published by Church Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2024-05-07 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An empowering antidote to one of the leading challenges facing clergy and lay ministers today: burnout. Clergy and lay ministry professionals are exhausted. The past few years of collegial loneliness, ever-changing ministry practices, illness and death, and declining church attendance have led many to report finding less joy in their ministry. Suffering the effects of burnout and declining mental health, some clergy are contemplating a radical vocational change, or have already left traditional ministry altogether. From Weary to Wholehearted isn’t a quick fix, but a much-needed companion to remind faith leaders they are not alone, support them through sustainable tools for finding joy and rest, and re-ground them in spiritual nourishment. Swanlund calls readers to show up with their whole heart, vulnerably and courageously. Each section will address a source of weariness, including overwhelm, loneliness, comparison, lack of inspiration, and more. The book incorporates research in the fields of sociology and psychology, as well as Swanlund’s experience as a faith leader, spiritual companion, and Certified Daring Way facilitator. The chapters will contain scripture, personal meditation, reflection prompts, an invitation toward flourishing, and an original prayer. Drawing upon the rhythm of the liturgical calendar, From Weary to Wholehearted begins with the spiritual themes of justice and anticipation in Advent and moves through the sustainable practices invited by Ordinary Time. While not expressly a homiletic or liturgical resource, it will infuse new life into the ministry of emotionally impoverished preachers and lay leaders.

Download or read book Tending Tomorrow written by Leah Reesor-Keller and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2024-06-25 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The future is uncertain. But flourishing doesn’t have to be. We know without a doubt the power of humans to change the earth in lasting ways. Climate change is not a niche issue: it is the unfolding story of our embodied lives. As we join in with the groaning of creation, we wonder, How will we and coming generations make our home in an inhospitable future? In the face of environmental and social upheaval, Tending Tomorrow lays out a path for Christians worried about our collective future and seeking courage and inspiration for the journey ahead. Drawing on metaphors from the natural world, author Leah Reesor-Keller offers foundational, transformative practices for leaders and communities to foster healthier cultures during a time of ecological devastation. When we dig into the roots of faith and culture, and envision new interactions and patterns, we plant seeds of change. Seeds that ignite courageous imagination. Seeds that repair injustice. Seeds that nurture a tomorrow where possibilities bloom and people and planet flourish. Like mycorrhizal networks of fungi in a forest, we can build nourishing webs of connection to sustain ourselves and future generations. As we bravely and humbly cultivate healing and reconciliation, good, liberating, and flourishing things will emerge.

Download or read book Dear White Peacemakers written by Osheta Moore and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dear White Peacemakers is a breakup letter to division, a love letter to God’s beloved community, and an eviction notice to the violent powers that have sustained racism for centuries. Race is one of the hardest topics to discuss in America. Many white Christians avoid talking about it altogether. But a commitment to peacemaking requires white people to step out of their comfort and privilege and into the work of anti-racism. Dear White Peacemakers is an invitation to white Christians to come to the table and join this hard work and holy calling. Rooted in the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus, this book is a challenging call to transform white shame, fragility, saviorism, and privilege, in order to work together to build the Beloved Community as anti-racism peacemakers. Written in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Dear White Peacemakers draws on the Sermon on the Mount, Spirituals, and personal stories from author Osheta Moore’s work as a pastor in St. Paul, Minnesota. Enter into this story of shalom and join in the urgent work of anti-racism peacemaking.

Download or read book To Be Made Well written by Amy Julia Becker and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we be made well? From hurting bodies and souls to hurting relationships and communities, it’s clear that things are not as they should be. Some of us live with varying degrees of physical pain, and others of us harbor the emotional pain of loneliness, shame, and guilt. Looking at our culture more broadly, we see the harm of our social divisions and the unyielding reality and impact of injustice and inequity. The gospels brim with stories of Jesus healing people, but what does that mean for us today? In To Be Made Well, author Amy Julia Becker weaves together her own story with reflections on biblical accounts of Jesus’ healing work, providing fresh insight into both the nature of healing and the pathway to healing, then and now. This book is a powerful invitation to personal, spiritual, and social healing as we reconnect to our bodies and souls, to God, and to our communities. ​ For anyone struggling with pain or loss, for anyone concerned about the things that divide us, this book goes beyond wellness and beyond miraculous physical transformations to explore how we can—personally and collectively—be made well.

Download or read book Through the Red Door written by Dena Bearl Whalen and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2024-05-21 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “... Gripping story of determination, listening, dedication, and commitment. Through the Red Door is a witness to the people of God responding to God’s call. The Holy Spirit convicted individuals whose creative vision and courage awakened a people, a Diocese, a city, churches, and others to respond with compassion and commitment. It’s a story not only of passion but of leadership and equipping God’s people for service.” — The Rev. Dr. R. Scott White, Rector Trinity Episcopal Church, Asheville. Laughter, tears, a stolen guitar tracked down and returned, and music-the songs of lives touched by Jesus Christ in courageous unmasked community, where “give and receive” is exchanged from those on the streets as from those in the suburbs, Through The Red Door is a powerful portrait of Kingdom reality. What a blessing to us all it is to have glimpses into the beautiful lives of those who dare proclaim “He Is Risen” by the way they listen, learn and love. To God be the glory! Sue Carmichael Lay Vicar St. Mary’s Springfield Jacksonville, Florida 1982-2017

Download or read book Invitations to Abundant Life written by Trevor Hudson and published by Struik Christian Media. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invitations to Abundant Life ‘How can we live well?’ Trevor Hudson provides a practical guidebook to life as God intends it to be, answering this question by presenting Jesus as our model – the fully alive One who shows us how we can best live in this world – and helping us learn from Him how to live our everyday lives. Invitations to Abundant Life shows how we can live as apprentices of Jesus by exploring the fundamental aspects of his life of faith, including: Discovering who we are Sharing our hearts with God Overcoming the powers of evil Witnessing to the good news Stewarding faithfully what we possess Speaking words of life and power It is an invitation to a new way of seeing and understanding your life and a deeper, more fulfilling relationship with God.

Download or read book Beloved Mess written by Kimm Crandall and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God's Empowering Love for Us in the Midst of Our Mess Life is messy. And Christians are not exempt. Unfortunately, this is not the message we tend to hear. We're told to be moral, look good, and set a positive example. After all, as some people may tell us, we're the only Jesus some people see--so we better make him look good. That's a heavy burden. And so we work feverishly to hide our messes from each other and from God for fear of judgment . . . all the while wondering how we can ever be loved. But Christianity is not about being less of a mess. It's about admitting that we need to be saved from trying to clean ourselves up. In Beloved Mess, author and blogger Kimm Crandall frees Christians to live with the assurance that God loves us right here, right now. He's not waiting for us to clean up our act before we're worthy to come to him. He wants us to stop trying to fix the mess so that we can allow him to wash it away for us. Endorsements "Kimm unpacks the wonder of God's mercy with honesty and courage and shows how it reaches all the way down to every dimension of our hearts and lives."--Justin S. Holcomb, author, On the Grace of God "Read this short but life-changing book, go back to it again and again, and see yourself falling more in love with the One who loved us and gave himself for us."--Jessica Thompson, author of Everyday Grace

Download or read book Good Works written by Keith Wasserman and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over forty years, the community of Good Works, Inc., has shared life with its neighbors in rural southeastern Ohio, a region with high poverty rates and remarkably resilient people. Offering friendship to those without a support network and shelter, care, and community to people without homes, those involved with Good Works have made it their mission to embody the gospel in innovative ways. What insights can be gleaned from Good Works, and how might these lessons be applied to our own communities and churches? Keith Wasserman, the founder and executive director of Good Works, and Christine Pohl, a scholar of hospitality who has written extensively on church and mission, explore challenging insights from the story of Good Works and how it has grown over the years into a unique expression of discipleship in the body of Christ. At the heart of this community’s story are connection and mutuality. Good Works functions not as a charity or social service agency but as a place where everyone has the opportunity to both serve and be served. And although worship is a central paradigm for life at Good Works, Keith and the leaders of the community regularly partner with non-Christians from all walks of life who desire to help. Christians who hunger for lifegiving involvement in their local communities—wherever they might be, and in whichever circumstances—will find inspiration and guidance in this quiet but powerful Appalachian ministry. Short prayers and questions for reflection at the end of each chapter make this a book to be studied and shared among those who know that love of God and neighbor is the starting point, but who aren’t sure where to go from there.

Download or read book Discovering Our Spiritual Identity written by Trevor Hudson and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2011-03-17 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each chapter in this workbook by Trevor Hudson is peppered with "holy experiments," simple practices that bring us into God's presence and help us experience life as his beloved. At the end of each chapter is a set of questions which are ideal for discussion with one or two spiritual friends or a small group. This practical and winsome book covers topics such as hearing and speaking with God growing in spiritual friendship practicing stewardship of our work and play learning discernment approaching our death and the world beyond living now in the kingdom of God Wherever you may find yourself along the Way, a real and vital spirituality awaits you in these pages.

Download or read book The Shift written by Hanitra N. Ralaiarisedy and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-01-06 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Know thyself” is a leitmotiv throughout all great wisdom traditions. Inheriting from this principle, postmodern theories regard self-knowledge as the prerequisite to self-actualization and social transformations. While such a view is undeniably important, it cannot fully represent God’s justice and equity. Indeed, it is not given to everyone to know—or just to desire—to know oneself. This book proposes a Christian alternative to human flourishing. Shifting the paradigm of the ancient wisdom that humanistic psychologists and postmodern tools continue to rely on, Christ puts the existential quest of “who we are” aside. Instead, he leads the faithful towards the actualization of their “gifts,” transforming “uncreated energies” into co-creative opportunities for the betterment of their communities, organizations, and countries, regardless of who they are and how well they know themselves. Christ offers the path to the kingdom of God on earth (proposed in this book as the “nothing” from which creation emerges) and in which everyone has a role to play with no exception. Christ claims, “The kingdom of God is here: choose life and self-knowledge follows. Do not be afraid. I am with you!”

Download or read book Broken Heartbeats and Hope written by Connie J. French and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2022-09-14 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion broke my heart. A sectarian evangelical authority tore me away from my spiritual awareness of God, nurtured in childhood wonder by the Australian bush. It landed me in a war zone with my trusted inner self. Evil intruded into my picture of life. Trusted people became predators. I was ambushed by the Deep Sadness. This book is the story of my desperate search for some unknown relief from the grief of rejection, deception and the bullying that is spiritual abuse. When two words shone like a light from the text of the book I was studying for a Master’s degree, I was amazed. Enlightenment that required abandonment of current goals, gave wings of hope to my heart for the journey ahead.

Download or read book Addiction and Spirituality written by Oliver Morgan and published by Chalice Press. This book was released on 2012-11-09 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious and secular counselors from a variety of disciplines share their basic approaches in working with addicted persons and their understandings of the spiritual dimension in treatment and recovery.

Download or read book Routledge Revivals Classical Persian Literature 1958 written by A. J. Arberry and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1958, this work by one of Britain’s most celebrated Orientalist scholars, tells the story of the rebirth of national literature in Persia after the fall of the Sᾱsᾱnian empire in the seventh century. It traces the course of this literature’s development and full maturity from the ninth century to the end of the fifteenth century and looks at a number of important writers including the Saljῡq poets, Rῡmῑ, ῌᾱfiz and Jᾱmῑ. This work will be of interest to those studying Persian and Middle-Eastern literature and history.

Download or read book Goethe s Faust and the Divan of fi written by Hiwa Michaeli and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-10-21 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the poetic articulations of a shift from a transcendent to an immanent worldview, as reflected in the manner of evaluation of body and soul in Goethe’s Faust and Ḥāfiẓ’ Divan. Focusing on two lifeworks that illustrate their authors’ respective intellectual histories, this cross-genre study goes beyond the textual confines of the two poets’ Divans to compare important building blocks of their intellectual worlds.

Download or read book Abba s Child written by Brennan Manning and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-06 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you struggling to accept God's love? We've bought into the lie that we are worthy of God's love only when our lives are going well. But when life begins to fall through the cracks and things become less-than-perfect, we scramble to present a good front to the world--and to God. God longs for us to deeply believe and know that He loves us and accepts us as we are. He calls for us to remove our mask and establish an honest and deep relationship with Him. When we are our true selves, we can finally claim our identity as His own--Abba's child. Let go of the pressure of an impostor lifestyle and lean into the life-changing wonder of a truly loving relationship with God. Abba's Child will light the way to freely accepting your belovedness and being renewed by the reassurance of our Father's deep care for you--regardless of how perfect your life isn't. "Honest. Genuine. Creative. God hungry. These words surface when I think of the writings of Brennan Manning. Read him for yourself--you'll see what I mean!" --Max Lucado, New York Times bestselling author "I pray that Brennan Manning and the timeless voices . . . in this book might offer you hope. May they remind you that you are loved by the Father-Creator Himself. May they sing and speak into your life against the voices that tell you otherwise." --Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot

Download or read book NIV Bible for Women written by Zondervan, and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 1793 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daily devotions that inspire women to spend time with God What is on your heart today? Struggles at home or with a friend? The miracle and joy of a new birth? A misunderstanding with a boyfriend or spouse? Are you grieving a loss? Are you celebrating a new job? Or anticipating a move? Whatever you face, good or bad, the NIV Bible for Women is relevant to your joys and sorrows, worries, fears, pain and happiness. God loves you and gave you his Word, the Bible, so you could know him more. The NIV Bible for Women contains an inspiring foreword by Shauna Niequist and writings by women who want to share their experiences—their joys and their struggles—with you. Authors such as Naomi Zacharias, Alyssa Joy Bethke, Caryn Rivadeneria, Rachel Held Evans, Katie Davis, Enuma Okoro, Kathy Khang, Laura Ortberg Turner, Kristen Howerton (Rage Against the Minivan), Margaret Feinberg, Tsh Oxenreider (The Art of Simple), and Annie Downs share their thoughts on topics ranging from cultural issues like social justice, economic inequality, and social media addiction to personal needs like prayer, decision-making, relationships, infertility, career, and calling. These thought-provoking topics are easy to share on social networks to strengthen and inspire your circle of friends while creating meaningful conversation. The NIV Bible for Women will help your time spent with God grow deeper and richer as you dig into his Word, bask in his love, learn his ways and then in turn share your journey with others in all the situations you face. Features: Complete text of the accurate, readable, and clear New International Version (NIV) Enter into the presence of God through the devotions each weekday and the Myths for each weekend for a full year of readings Apply the "Reflect" questions and the "Pray" prompts so you can take what you have read and become more intimately connected with God Evaluate the culturally accepted myths that are presented in articles that challenge your previous notions with truth from God’s Word Topical index to enhance your personal study