Download or read book Tending the Soul s Garden written by Denise Rushing and published by Brian Rushing. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Tending the Souls Garden Denise Rushing gives full expression to her vision of a better world for the children. Drawing on her many gifts as a poet and politician for the earth, Denise invites us onto a joyful and practical path of harmony, hope and transformation. This timely book is a must read for these challenging times. Jim Conlon Holy Names University/Sophia Center, Oakland, CA "This Book is a Must Read" --Steve Elias Tending the Souls Garden is an introduction to applied permaculture, offering an innovative way to engage in the difficult and transformative work of our time. It is dedicated to cultivating the soil of our inner garden so that we may bring forth abundance in our lives and our world. Permaculture, also known as ecological or regenerative design, offers a path-- a design for living in complex changing systems using principles found in nature.

Download or read book Sacred Pathways written by Gary Thomas and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sacred Pathways reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments--and their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies--to help you improve your spiritual life and deepen your personal walk with God. It's time to strip away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and discover a path of worship that frees you to be you. Experienced spiritual directors, pastors, and church leaders recognize that all of us engage with God differently, and it's about time we do too. In this updated and expanded edition of Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas details nine spiritual temperaments and--like the Enneagram and other tools do with personality--encourages you to investigate the ways you most naturally express yourself in your relationship with God. He encourages you to dig into the traits, strengths, and pitfalls in your devotional approach so you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into rigid methods of worship and praise. Plus, as you begin to identify and understand your own temperament, you'll soon learn about the temperaments that aren't necessarily "you" but that may help you understand the spiritual tendencies of friends, family, and others around you. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it's not by accident. It's by the design of a Creator who knew what he was doing when he made you according to his own unique intentions. If your spiritual walk is not what you'd like it to be, you can change that, starting here. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God. A Sacred Pathways video Bible study is also available for group or individual use, sold separately.

Download or read book Tending Your Own Garden written by Dr. Ed Fleming and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While having private devotions in October 2018, I came across a verse in Song of Solomon 1:6. God’s Spirit spoke very powerfully to me on that day. Being a person who loves to be busy serving in ministry (i.e., tending others’ gardens), I had forgotten the importance of “tending my own garden,” (i.e., remembering the priority of personal piety, or holiness). I confessed my sin that day and am seeking to keep a guard over my soul. At the same time, I was praying about a topic for a pastors’ conference in South Africa in June 2019. The Holy Spirit confirmed that what was necessary in my life could be a challenge and blessing to other pastors. The night before I left to return to the USA, two of the pastors at that conference encouraged me to put the material in book form. Tending Your Own Garden is the fruit of their encouragement.

Download or read book Tending the Garden written by Marshall & Julia Welch and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tending the Garden is a unique perspective and approach nurturing of Christian spirituality using the garden and gardening as a metaphor. Marshall and Julie Welch combine their experience and expertise in spiritual formation and gardening as an invitation to tending to one's spirituality. Whether an experienced or novice gardener, the reader will gain insight not only into the art of gardening, but Christian spirituality as well. Spirituality is presented as a relational way to grow compassion and sensitivity to self, others, the environment, and to God. The book can be read individually or as a small book club group. Guidelines for facilitating a small group discussion are presented in the introduction. Part I consists of 14 short, engaging chapters, with titles such as "Weeding: Spiritual Discernment," "Manure Happens: Desolation and Consolation," and "Thank You Very Mulch: Our Spiritual Security Blanket." The narrative is written in a very conversational voice. Each chapter begins with scripture and an inspirational quote and concludes with a series of reflection questions as well as tips on how to "cultivate" one's spirituality. The "tips" are easy-to-do activities that are grounded in a long tradition of spiritual exercises presented in a contemporary context. In Part II, the authors also use their experience as co-coordinators of a community garden in their own church congregation to present step-by-step suggestions on how other communities of faith can start and maintain their own garden. Church gardens are introduced as a unique form of spiritual formation through a sense of community with other gardeners and a form of mission and ministry.

Download or read book Tending Your Garden written by Denise Sproul and published by Tolle Lege Press (WV). This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sacred Pathways written by Gary Thomas and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-09-17 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sacred Pathways reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments--and their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies--to help you improve your spiritual life and deepen your personal walk with God. It's time to strip away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and discover a path of worship that frees you to be you. Experienced spiritual directors, pastors, and church leaders recognize that all of us engage with God differently, and it's about time we do too. In this updated and expanded edition of Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas details nine spiritual temperaments and--like the Enneagram and other tools do with personality--encourages you to investigate the ways you most naturally express yourself in your relationship with God. He encourages you to dig into the traits, strengths, and pitfalls in your devotional approach so you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into rigid methods of worship and praise. Plus, as you begin to identify and understand your own temperament, you'll soon learn about the temperaments that aren’t necessarily "you" but that may help you understand the spiritual tendencies of friends, family, and others around you. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it's not by accident. It's by the design of a Creator who knew what he was doing when he made you according to his own unique intentions. If your spiritual walk is not what you'd like it to be, you can change that, starting here. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God.

Download or read book Tending the Garden of Our Hearts written by Elissa Bjeletich and published by . This book was released on 2019-02-10 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you looking for a way to keep your family engaged in the true spiritual nourishment Lent has to offer? Tending the Garden of Our Hearts offers family devotions based on the scriptures for each day of Great Lent, including questions to discuss and ponder and an appendix full of hands-on activities to bring the lessons of the season to life. Whether you use it every day or dip into it occasionally as time permits, this book will help the whole family get more out of this crucial season of the Orthodox year.

Download or read book Moments Elsewhere written by Adrian Cox B.Sc. and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2024-02-21 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Step into a world where each page is a portal to another realm, where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, and where the mundane transforms into the magical. Welcome to "Moments Elsewhere" by Adrian Cox, a captivating collection of short stories that will transport you to realms beyond imagination. In this spellbinding anthology, Cox weaves tales that defy convention and challenge the boundaries of reality. From the enigmatic allure of "Synthia" to the pulsating energy of "Sonic Rebellion," each story in this collection is a testament to Cox's unparalleled mastery of the craft. Embark on a journey of self-discovery in "Guiding Light," where the search for identity takes unexpected turns. And delve into the depths of the subconscious in "The Nexus of Being," where dreams and reality intertwine in a mesmerizing dance. But the wonders of "Moments Elsewhere" extend far beyond the confines of the known universe. Lose yourself in the ethereal beauty of "Embrace of the Ethereal Seas," where the boundaries between land and sea blur into oblivion. With titles like "Ephemeral Ecstasy" and "Harmonic Revolution," each story promises a unique and unforgettable experience. Cox's prose is as lyrical as it is profound, inviting readers to ponder the mysteries of existence and the nature of reality itself. Whether you're a seasoned explorer of the unknown or simply seeking an escape from the ordinary, "Moments Elsewhere" promises to take you on a journey like no other. So, dare to dream, dare to explore, and dare to lose yourself in the pages of this extraordinary book. Your adventure awaits.

Download or read book My Garden Book written by Jamaica Kincaid and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2001-05-15 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of our finest writers on one of her greatest loves. Jamaica Kincaid's first garden in Vermont was a plot in the middle of her front lawn. There, to the consternation of more experienced friends, she planted only seeds of the flowers she liked best. In My Garden (Book) she gathers all she loves about gardening and plants, and examines it generously, passionately, and with sharp, idiosyncratic discrimination. Kincaid's affections are matched in intensity only by her dislikes. She loves spring and summer but cannot bring herself to love winter, for it hides the garden. She adores the rhododendron Jane Grant, and appreciates ordinary Blue Lake string beans, but abhors the Asiatic lily. The sources of her inspiration -- seed catalogues, the gardener Gertrude Jekyll, gardens like Monet's at Giverny -- are subjected to intense scrutiny. She also examines the idea of the garden on Antigua, where she grew up. My Garden (Book) is an intimate, playful, and penetrating book on gardens, the plants that fill them, and the persons who tend them.

Download or read book Tending the Epicurean Garden written by Hiram Crespo and published by Humanist Press. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Be Smart About Being Happy Gods may exist, but they’re too far removed to care about humans. So our best purpose in life is not to please gods, but to be happy. Which is not as easy as it sounds, since short-term pleasures and selfishness create longer-term misery. Thus taught Epicurus, 2,300 years ago. Hiram Crespo brings the Epicurean passion for maximum happiness into the modern age with this practical guidebook. Step one in what Crespo calls the “hedonic calculus” is to rein in desires, so they become easier to satisfy – just the opposite of the luxurious indulgence so often incorrectly associated with Epicureanism. From there, he offers a blizzard of ideas, from healthy recipes that stimulate natural “feel-good” chemicals in the brain to the journaling of positive events, even on a bad day. The highest attainable happiness, though, is communing with friends – it just doesn’t get any better than that. Being smart about being happy means using the best knowledge and tools available. Tending the Epicurean Garden is an excellent place to start.

Download or read book Nourish written by Katie Farrell and published by FaithWords. This book was released on 2017-12-19 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nourishwill provide you with encouragement and practical knowledge for living a healthy lifestyle, both physically and spiritually. Nourish is not another health or diet book; the message of this book is unique as it addresses all three aspects of health: spirit, soul, and body. The practical and spiritual tools provided in this book are what sets it apart from the rest of its kind. Too many people give up on their journey to health because they have a plan that addresses only the physical aspect of health. However, this book encourages the reader to first pursue health at a heart level, bringing lasting change that comes from the inside out. In this book, you will discover how the health of your soul is the foundation to your overall health. Katie shares how to renew your mind and study God's word, which will change the perspective on how you see yourself, making loving yourself (and your body) possible. You will learn how to replace lies with the truth and shift your focus from what the world says to what God's Word says. In addition to the spiritual truths, you will learn how to nourish your body with clean eating foods and get practical tools that make healthy living enjoyable and maintainable. Nourish will provide you with encouragement and practical knowledge for living a healthy lifestyle, in addition to providing a balance of spiritual and physical nourishment. This book will inspire you to get healthy from the inside out.

Download or read book 365 Meditations for Young Adults written by Sally Sharpe and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book offers a year's worth of short daily devotional readings written specifically for today's young adults. Though this is a diverse group with a variety of needs and interests, they are sojourners together on a common journey-one that includes many similar experiences, stages, and transitions that each of them has been through, is currently going through, or will go through at some time in the future. The young adult years are a time of change and challenge, a time of seeking and searching, a time of exploration and discovery-in short, a time of tremendous opportunity for personal and spiritual growth. As readers make their way through the book, encountering a different writer or team of writers each month, they will find practical and spiritual insights, encouragement, and a sense of camaraderie for the journey."

Download or read book Becoming Human written by Brian C. Taylor and published by Cowley Publications. This book was released on 2005-04-25 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christians and non-Christians alike have long recognized that Jesus’ life was characterized by vibrancy, love, commitment, clarity, and joy. We all yearn to share in these traits, and by studying Jesus we can discern that he sees in us the potential to become as he was. After all, Jesus didn’t go around asking people to believe certain things about him—he invited them to follow him into the abundant life he wanted to share. Brian C. Taylor focuses on the fresh, immediate, liberating quality of what Jesus had to say about life. “His guidance about how to live struck me to the core,” Taylor writes. Taylor’s succinct summations of what Jesus taught—Don’t worry; Love everybody; Help the poor; Become simple; Face into conflict; Change the world; Forgive yourself for being human, and so on—provide the basis for this series of reflections on the transformative wisdom that inspired those who had ears to hear to drop everything and follow him. Jesus continues to astonish and transform those who hear him, and Becoming Human is a deep well of wisdom for any who wish to give glory to God by becoming fully alive.

Download or read book Who in Fact You Really Are written by Cosmic Awareness and published by Cosmic Awareness. This book was released on 2008-10-28 with total page 776 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever wonder about the meaning of life? Why we're here? What the Universe is all about? The force that expressed itself through Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, Edgar Cayce and other great avatars who served as channels for what is commonly referred to as God communicates again today as the world begins to enter a period of Spiritual Ascension with a new consciousness and awareness. This force, which refers to itself as Cosmic Awareness, has dictated this book as a set of 144 carefully structured lessons that took over 10 years to create. They are designed to lead you, step by step, from where you are to where you want to be. This amazing information begins with Cosmic Awareness explaining what It is, how the Universe was created, and leads you through birth, childhood, adulthood, magic, sex, death and far beyond into other dimensions - explaining all of the mysterious "Secrets of the Universe" that everyone is looking for the absolute answer of "Who, In Fact, You Really Are."

Download or read book A Time to Grow written by Kara Eidson and published by Presbyterian Publishing Corp. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Eden to Gethsemane to the garden in which Jesus was buried and raised, our story of faith wanders through much fertile soil. But in our current world of fast food and to-go meals, we often do not make time to explore where our food comes from and how we break bread together. Journeying through the season of Lent with this in mind, A Time to Grow encourages readers to slow down, move through the painstaking process of growth, and end together with great feasting and celebration of the resurrection. Themes of soil, water, light, time, fasting, feasting, and more guide the way from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Readers will explore the intricacies of how faith is required to produce food and how that faith can lead us all to feast at the table on Easter morning. Additional elements are included to enhance communal spiritual practice for small groups or the entire congregation during Lent. These elements include sermon prompts, liturgies with communal responses, altar art ideas for decorating worship spaces, and prompts for children's time in worship.

Download or read book Ruby Slippers written by Jonalyn Grace Fincher and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-08-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonalyn Fincher wants to show that women can be both fully human and fully feminine. Traditionally, femininity has been a role women play, a role defined by culture and simplistic sermons. The author encourages women to look at the feminine roles or boxes that pinch their souls: mother, fashion devotee, working wife, intellectual. Does God treat femininity as a role, a judgement, or a gift? And when Jesus redeemed women, what was it exactly that he redeemed? Even after Eden, Fincher points out, God planned to redeem both men and women. But for centuries, women have been taught to devalue the very aspects of their souls that are unique and irreplaceable. Femininity itself runs deeper than aprons, frills, or romance. It begins with feminine souls who are living cameos of the triune God.In Ruby Slippers, Fincher takes a fresh, direct look at the challenges she faced on her search for the feminine soul. She goes step by step through what it means to be a woman and how to cultivate her soul, choosing not to shy away from psychology, theology or personal transparency. In her journey she discovers an understanding of femininity that is timeless and groundbreaking. The roles melt away into something like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, something women have always had—the souls to walk today with freedom and femininity.

Download or read book U vacharta Ba chayim written by David Birnbaum and published by New Paradigm Matrix. This book was released on with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In one of his most famous poems, Robert Frost imagines himselfstanding at a crossroads in a “yellow wood” and having to decidewhich path forward to choose. The poem turns on the fact thatneither path clearly recommends itself as the “better” one to choose:both are covered in yellow autumnal leaves, one is “just as fair” as theother, and both lead to destinations that Frost cannot see.1 In justtwenty lines, the poet thus suggests the plight of moderns who mustmake decisions in life that may eventually be perceived as mattersof great importance, but that feel hardly even to matter much whenthey are actually being made. That is surely a challenge we all face,but how exactly to deal with it is challenging to say. It surely seemsexaggerated to conclude from the poet’s reverie that our decisionsin life don’t really matter at all simply because we cannot say at theoutset where they may ultimately lead us—much less that they haveno real importance because we will end up in the same place anyway.Those conclusions both feel just a bit irrational, but neither shouldwe read the poem’s famous conclusion—that the poet’s decision totravel the path less taken has ended up making all the difference inhis life—as suggesting that the wisest choices in life are invariablythose spurned by the majority. Surely, for all the oylem may be agoylem, it can’t always be unwise to make some specific decision inlife merely because many others have previously chosen to make it!2 Martin S. Cohen(The Yiddish aphorism, one of my own father’s favorites, conveys thesame message as the one attributed, possibly spuriously, to AlexanderHamilton according to which “the masses are asses.”)The Torah offers a different take on the decision to choose onepath forward in life over another. Speaking from the edge of his ownlife, Moses begins by imagining two paths stretching forth beforethe Israelites as they contemplate their future. And he knows theirnames, too: they are the paths of blessing and of curse, “a blessingif you obey all the commandments of the Eternal, your God, thatI am commanding you this day, and a curse if you do not obey thecommandments of the Eternal, your God, and swerve off the paththat I am commanding you today…” (Deuteronomy 11:26–28).Later in his speech, Moses returns to that same trope and describesthat same choice in far greater detail:Behold, by commanding you today to love the Eternal,your God, and to walk in God’s ways and to keep God’scommandments and statutes and laws, I am placing beforeyou today, on the one hand, life and goodness, and, on theother, death and evil. And so shall you live and flourish as theEternal, your God, blesses you in the land that you are nowentering to possess. If, however, your heart should turn awayand you stop obeying—such that you actually turn to apostasyand prostrate yourself before alien gods and worship them—then I am telling you clearly today that you shall surely perish,that you will not live for long on the land that you are aboutto cross the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven andearth on this day as my witnesses that I am placing beforeyou life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life, so thatyou live, you and your progeny. And love the Eternal, yourGod, by obeying God’s voice and by cleaving unto God—forit is God who grants you your life and who determines howlong shall last the days you dwell on the land that the Eternal3 Prefaceswore to grant to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob(Deuteronomy 30:15-20).The title of the volume you are holding is taken from the end ofthis very passage, where the Torah presents Moses instructing thepeople how to deal with the choice that lies before them. U-vaḥartaba-ḥayyim (“choose life”), he commands—and his meaning feelsclear and unambiguous: to secure a long life for yourself and yourprogeny, choose to live in God’s service, choose to devote yourself toobeying God’s voice, and choose to cleave unto God all the days ofyour life. And the aggregate result of all that wise choosing will leadto the greatest choice of all: the choice to embrace life at its fullestand richest, both as individuals linked personally to the Almightyin covenantal intimacy and as citizens of a nation linked to theAlmighty in exactly the same way.There are countless ways to respond to the injunction to chooselife, and each of the authors in this volume has chosen one to explorein his or her essay. Some are theoretical in nature and deal with thelarger notion of how choice and obligation interact in the context ofreligion. Others are more practical and treat of the specific ways inwhich individuals might respond to the biblical obligation to chooselife in the context of the consequential decisions that we find ourselvesfaced with in life. Still others are rooted in history and presentthe way the injunction to choose life was understood by differentthinkers at different moments in Jewish history. And some haveused the scriptural injunction to choose life as a jumping-off pointfor considering the notion of free will itself, and pondering how thetheological notion that God is all-knowing can be reconciled withthe sense people have of being able freely to make real, meaningfulchoices in life.The authors who have contributed essays to this volume address4 Martin S. Cohenall of these questions. Our authors come from a wide range ofbackgrounds: many are congregational rabbis, while others areteachers and academics, and still others work in the Jewish world indifferent capacities. They are a disparate group, our authors: men andwomen, older and younger, staunchly traditionalist and more liberallyoriented, Israelis and Diaspora-based. Yet, for all they are different,they are also united by the common belief that the written word,and particularly in the form of the essay, is a useful and satisfyingmedium in which to explore Judaism and Jewishness itself in a deepand meaningful way.This is not a book solely for Jews of any particular spiritualorientation; nor, for that matter, is it a book solely for Jewish readers.Rather, we hope that this anthology may open a door for all whopossess the kind of curiosity about Jewish religion and culture thatcannot be dealt with effectively by platitudes or even heartfelt opedpieces, but rather by thoughtful, text-based studies intended toinform, to persuade, and to inspire. I feel privileged to present thework of these authors to the reading public and I hope our readerswill likewise feel that this is a remarkable collection.Unless otherwise indicated, all translations here are the authors’own work. Biblical citations of the NJPS refer to the completetranslation of Scripture first published under the title Tanakh: TheHoly Scriptures by the Jewish Publication Society in 1985. The fourletterHebrew name of God is rendered in this volume almost alwaysas “the Eternal” or “Eternal God” (although authors have sometimesdeparted from this convention, as dictated by the constraints of theirown writing).I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the othersenior editors of the Mesorah Matrix series, David Birnbaum andBenjamin Blech, as well as Saul J. Berman, our associate editor. Theyand our able staff have all supported me as I’ve labored to bring this5 Prefacevolume together and I am grateful to them all.As always, I must also express my gratitude to the men andwomen, and particularly to the lay leadership, of the synagogueI serve as rabbi, the Shelter Rock Jewish Center in Roslyn, NewYork. Possessed of the unwavering conviction that their rabbi’s bookprojects are part and parcel of his service to them (and, throughthem, to the larger community of those interested in learning aboutJudaism through the medium of the well-written word), they areremarkably supportive of my literary efforts as author and editor. Iam in their debt, and I am pleased to acknowledge that debt formally,here and whenever I publish my own work or the work of others.