Download or read book If You Want to Make God Laugh written by Bianca Marais and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rich, unforgettable story of three unique women in post-Apartheid South Africa who are brought together in their darkest time and discover the ways that love can transcend the strictest of boundaries. In a squatter camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg, seventeen-year-old Zodwa lives in desperate poverty, under the shadowy threat of a civil war and a growing AIDS epidemic. Eight months pregnant, Zodwa carefully guards secrets that jeopardize her life. Across the country, wealthy socialite Ruth appears to have everything her heart desires, but it's what she can't have that leads to her breakdown. Meanwhile, in Zaire, a disgraced former nun, Delilah, grapples with a past that refuses to stay buried. When these personal crises send both middle-aged women back to their rural hometown to heal, the discovery of an abandoned newborn baby upends everything, challenging their lifelong beliefs about race, motherhood, and the power of the past. As the mystery surrounding the infant grows, the complicated lives of Zodwa, Ruth, and Delilah become inextricably linked. What follows is a mesmerizing look at family and identity that asks: How far will the human heart go to protect itself and the ones it loves?

Download or read book Hum If You Don t Know the Words written by Bianca Marais and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy. Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, and shatters their worlds when Robin’s parents are left dead and Beauty’s daughter goes missing. After Robin is sent to live with her loving but irresponsible aunt, Beauty is hired to care for Robin while continuing the search for her daughter. In Beauty, Robin finds the security and family that she craves, and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty finds her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Her quest to make amends and find redemption is a journey of self-discovery in which she learns the harsh truths of the society that once promised her protection. Told through Beauty and Robin's alternating perspectives, the interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum If You Don’t Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family.

Download or read book God Must Like to Laugh written by Helen Rayburn Caswell and published by . This book was released on 1987-08 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Speculates in verse on the enjoyment God must have had as he created the wide variety of wonders in the animal world.

Download or read book God Loves Laughter written by William Sears and published by Oxford : G. Ronald, 1960, 1974 printing.. This book was released on 1960 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hilarious autobiography of an American television star who found the answer to his boyhood dream.

Download or read book I Heard God Laugh A Practical Guide to Life s Essential Daily Habit written by Matthew Kelly and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is Your Life Working? Most of us are trying to put together the jigsaw puzzle we call life without a very important piece. Over time this becomes incredibly frustrating. In this extraordinary book, Matthew Kelly powerfully demonstrates that we cannot live the life we have imagined, or experience the joy we yearn for, unless we learn to tend the soul. From there, with his classic style of practical wisdom, he teaches us how to remedy this problem. When our bodies are hungry, our stomachs growl. When our souls are hungry, we become irritable, restless, confused, overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, discontent, and tend to focus on the things that matter least and neglect the things that matter most.

Download or read book God s Gonna Make You Laugh written by Noel Jones and published by Destiny Image Publishers. This book was released on 2011-07-28 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone can relate to walking through very dark periods in life which seem will never end. Noel Jones is not speaking from a vantage point of one who has never suffered so his words of encouragement and promise carry weight and hope. Sorrow and adversity come, but they do not stay. This book conveys the message that suffering and endurance are preparations for the reward that will come to the one who holds on to and trusts in the faithfulness of God. That one will experience the laughter of triumph. Joy comes in the morning to those who endure.

Download or read book God Makes Me Laugh written by Joseph A. Grassi and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "God has made me Laugh and all who hear about it will laugh at me." These are the words of Sarah after she bore a child to Abraham when both were in advanced old age. Sarah named this child "Isaac" which means "laughter." Thus believers, as descendants of Abraham and Isaac are "children of laughter." Luke takes the theme of joy and laughter through his whole gospel. The angels at Jesus's birth announce "good news of great joy" to all the people. Jesus presents his teaching in the form of grace and surprise which prompt joy and laughter on the part of the gospel audience. Luke has before him the image of a "laughing Jesus." As a climactic story, Jesus visits Jericho near the Dead Sea. The chief tax collector for Rome, Zaccheus, a most unpopular man, small in stature and character as well, climbs a tree so he can see Jesus coming in spite of the crowds. Jesus spots him with laughter, and calls out, to the dismay of the crowd, "Zaccheus, hurry up and climb down, I'm going to have dinner at your house today." Luke's gospel presents Jesus as a comic contrast to many ultra-serious religious teachers by his concern for the outcast, strangers, and marginalized of society.

Download or read book We Plan God Laughs written by Sherre Hirsch and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2009-06-16 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The old Yiddish proverb, “We plan, God laughs,” expresses a truth everyone can relate to. At every stage of life we make plans, setting out where we want to go and imagining what we will be like when we have “arrived.” But things have a way of turning out not quite as we hoped or expected. In WE PLAN, GOD LAUGHS, Sherre Hirsch argues that too often our plans are limited to ones we think up at bedtime, or are devised by our parents, or by what looks good on a résumé. Addressing serious spiritual issues, Hirsch takes readers through ten basics steps for formulating a plan that reflects who we are now and who we want to be—a plan that is alive, organic, and in sync with God. Hirsch teaches the importance of letting go and recognizing that even the most ordinary life is extraordinary in the eyes of God. She makes no foolish promise that life will turn out as we plan, but shows that with hope, faith, and belief, we can change our lives for the better and make a positive difference in the lives of others.

Download or read book And Still She Laughs written by Kate Merrick and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kate Merrick examines the Bible’s gritty stories of resilient women as well as her own experience losing a child—a journey followed by more than a million on prayfordaisy.com—to reveal the reality of surprising joy and deep hope even in the midst of heartache. Is it possible live fully—even joyfully—in the middle of overwhelming pain? In the excruciating aftermath of her young daughter’s death from cancer, Kate Merrick struggled to find a way to live. Not just to survive or go through the motions, but to live fully. Faithfully. With real joy amid inevitable tears. To discover how, Kate delved into the stories in the Bible of real women who suffered deeply and emerged somehow joyful. How did Sarah, after twenty-five years of achingly empty arms, learn to laugh without bitterness? How did Bathsheba, defiled by the king who then had her husband killed, come to walk in strength and dignity, to smile without fear of the future? In her encounters with these heroines of the faith, Kate discovered how to have contentment—and even joy—whatever the circumstances. By turns heartbreaking and humorous, And Still She Laughs reveals the secret to finding hope in the midst of devastation. In the end, no matter what hardships we face, we can smile, cry, and come away full—laughing without fear and eagerly looking for what is to come. “And Still She Laughs is the terrifying, tearful, heartbreaking, heart healing and humorous, definitive true story of survival and triumph.” —Kathy Ireland, chair of Kathy Ireland Worldwide “Kate Merrick is one of those women that I always wish I had more time with—her honesty, sincerity, and messy straightforwardness are different, in the very best way. Her book, And Still She Laughs, is the same way. It’s one of those books I will keep coming back to it for truth and inspiration.” —Lindsey Nobles, COO of the IF:Gathering

Download or read book Eat Pray Love written by Elizabeth Gilbert and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2007-03-05 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Number One international bestseller, Eat, Pray Love is a journey around the world, a quest for spiritual enlightenment and a story for anyone who has battled with divorce, depression and heartbreak.

Download or read book Even the Angels Must Laugh Again written by Jan S. Doward and published by Pacific PressPub Assn. This book was released on 1997-08 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Laugh Your Way to Grace written by Rev. Susan Sparks and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laughter—the GPS System for the Soul Laughter was honored by the ancients as a spiritual healing tool and celebrated by the world's great religions. So why aren’t we laughing along the spiritual path today? What would happen if we did? In this personal and funny look at humor as a spiritual practice, Rev. Susan Sparks—an ex-lawyer turned comedian and Baptist minister—presents a convincing case that the power of humor radiates far beyond punch lines. Laughter can help you: Remove the fearful mask of a God who doesn’t laugh Debunk the myths that you don’t deserve joy Find perspective when faced with adversity Exercise forgiveness for yourself and others Reclaim play as a spiritual practice Heal—emotionally, physically, and spiritually Keep your faith when God is silent Live with elegance, beauty, and generosity of spirit Whatever your faith tradition—or if you have none at all—join this veteran of the punch line and the pulpit in reclaiming the forgotten humor legacy found in thousands of years of human spiritual history.

Download or read book I Love Jesus But I Want to Die written by Sarah J. Robinson and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Download or read book Rich Wounds written by David Mathis and published by The Good Book Company. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profound reflections on the cross that help you to meditate on and marvel at the sacrificial love of Jesus. This book can be used as a devotional, especially during Lent and Easter. These profound reflections on the cross from David Mathis, author of The Christmas We Didn’t Expect, will help you to meditate on and marvel at Jesus’ life, sacrificial death, and spectacular resurrection-enabling you to treasure anew who Jesus is and what he has done. Many of us are so familiar with the Easter story that it becomes easy to miss subtle details and difficult to really enjoy its meaning. This book will help you to pause and marvel at Jesus, whose now-glorified wounds are a sign of his unfailing love and the decisive victory that he has won: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) This book can be used as a devotional. The chapters on Holy Week make it especially helpful during the Lent season and at Easter.

Download or read book I Heard God Laughing written by Hafiz and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-09-26 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From bestselling poet Daniel Ladinsky, a rich collection that brings the great Sufi poet Hafiz to Western readers To Persians, the poems of Hafiz are not “classical literature” from a remote past but cherished wisdom from a dear and intimate friend that continues to be quoted in daily life. With uncanny insight, Hafiz captures the many forms and stages of love. His poetry outlines the stages of the mystic's “path of love”—a journey in which love dissolves personal boundaries and limitations to join larger processes of growth and transformation. With this stunning collection, Ladinsky has succeeded brilliantly in capturing the essence of one of Islam’s greatest poetic and spiritual voices. “If you haven’t yet had the delight of dining with Daniel Ladinsky’s sweet, playful renderings of the musings of the great saints, I Heard God Laughing is a perfect appetizer. . . . This newly released edition of his first playful foray into Hafiz’s divinely inspired poetry is essential reading. . . . Ladinsky is a master who will be remembered for finally bringing Hafiz alive in the West.” —Alexandra Marks, The Christian Science Monitor

Download or read book Making God Laugh written by Sean Grennan and published by . This book was released on 2014-02-03 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making God Laugh follows one typical American family over the course of thirty years' worth of holidays. Starting in 1980, Ruthie and Bill's grown children -- a priest, an aspiring actress, and a former football star -- all return home, where we learn of their plans and dreams as they embark on their adult lives. The empty-nester parents contend with their own changes, too, as old family rituals are trotted out and ancient tensions flare up. As time passes, the family discovers that, despite what we may have in mind, we often arrive at unexpected destinations.

Download or read book Hungry Heart Roaming written by Charles MOSELEY and published by . This book was released on 2020-11 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hungry Heart Roaming meanders between two 'in-between' places. It leaves one beach at the turn of the tide, and a young boy with his grandmother, and ends with a grandfather with another young boy, when the tide begins to make, on another beach. In between it wanders through a lost and perhaps more hopeful Europe before finally coming to brief peace in the knowledge of a longer journey still to be made, and a recognition that to know is uncertain and to understand can only be partial. Remembering with affection the ignorant and thoughtless visions of youth, the journey maps the loss of innocence and its replacement (perhaps) by something like understanding, and acceptance.