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And Live Rejoicing
by Huston Smith Phil CousineauSpiritual trailblazer Huston Smith has written comprehensive books about religion and a memoir of his own life, but nowhere has he merged the two elements of seeking and experience with such storytelling flair as he has in these pages. Few have done as much as Smith to explore and illuminate the world's religions and spiritual traditions, and none have done it with such accessibility, wonder, and delight. In this joyous volume, he looks back on his extraordinary life, describing riveting scenes with unforgettable characters in India, Africa, Tibet, and Japan. Smith's charm and exuberance come through on every page.
And Man Created God: A History of the World at the Time of Jesus
by Selina O'GradyAt the time of Jesus' birth , the world was full of gods. Thousands of them jostled, competed and merged with one another. In Syria ecstatic devotees castrated themselves in the streets to become priests of Atargatis In Galilee, holy men turned oil into wine, healed the sick, drove out devils, and claimed to be the Messiah. Every day thousands of people were leaving their family and tribes behind them and flocking into brand new multi-ethnic cities. The ancient world was in ferment as it underwent the first phase of globalisation, and in this ferment rulers and ruled turned to religion as a source of order and stability. Augustus, the first emperor of Rome (though he never dared officially to call himself so) was maneuvering his way to becoming worshipped as a god – it was one of the most brilliant makeovers ever undertaken by a ruler and his spin doctors. In North Africa, Amanirenas the warrior queen exploited her god-like status to inspire her armies to face and defeat Rome. In China the usurper Wang Mang won and lost his throne because of his obsession with Confucianism.To explore the power that religious belief has had over societies through the ages, Selina O'Grady takes the reader on a dazzling journey across the empires of the ancient world and introduces us to rulers, merchants, messiahs, priests and holy men. Throughout, she seeks to answer why, amongst the countless religious options available, the empires at the time of Jesus ‘chose' the religions they did? Why did China's rulers hitch their fate to Confucianism, a philosophy more than a religion? And why was a tiny Jewish cult led by Jesus eventually adopted by Rome's emperors rather than the cult of Isis which was far more popular and widespread? The Jesus cult , followed by no more than 100 people at the time of his death, should, by rights, have disappeared in a few generations. Instead it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Why did Christianity grow so quickly to become the predominant world religion? What was it about its teachings that so appealed to people? And Man Created God looks at why and how religions have had such an immense impact on human history and in doing so uncovers the ineradicable connection between politics and religion - a connection which still defines us in our own age. This is an important, thrilling and necessary new work of history.
And One Was a Priest: The Life and Times of Duncan M. Gray Jr.
by Araminta Stone JohnstonThe story of the civil rights movement is not simply the history of its major players but is also the stories of a host of lesser-known individuals whose actions were essential to the movement’s successes. Duncan M. Gray Jr., an Episcopal priest who served various Mississippi parishes between 1953 and 1974, when he was elected bishop of Mississippi, is one of these individuals. And One Was a Priest is his remarkable story. From one perspective, Gray (1926–2016) would seem an unlikely spokesman for racial equality and reconciliation. He could have been content simply to become a member of the white, male Mississippi “club.” Gray could have embraced a comfortable life and ignored the burning realities around him. But he chose instead to use his priesthood to speak in unpopular but prophetic support of justice and equality for African Americans. From his student days at the seminary at the University of the South, to his first church in Cleveland, Mississippi, and most famously to St. Peter’s Parish in Oxford, where he confronted rioters in 1962, Gray steadfastly and fearlessly fought the status quo. He continued to work for racial reconciliation, inside and outside of the church, throughout his life. This biography tells not only Gray’s story, but also reveals the times and people that helped make him. The author’s question is “What makes a good person?” And One Was a Priest suggests there is much to learn from Gray’s choices and his struggle.
And Rachel Was His Wife
by Marsi TabakRabbi Akiva's devoted wife is the heroine of this historical, fully annotated novel, based on Talmudic sources.
And Show Steadfast Love: A Theological Look at Grace, Hospitality, Disabilities, and the Church
by Lewis H. MerrickA collection of essays about the church's relationships with people with disabilities.
And So I Walked: Reflections on Chance, Choice, and the Camino de Santiago
by Anne GardnerAnne Gardner, writer, minister, adventurer. "And So I Walked" recounts her journey, mostly by foot, along the 500-mile Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Using the famed pilgrimage path as a backdrop, Gardner's memoir weaves together her personal narrative with the physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges presented by the Camino. Inspirational, and at times heart-wrenching, "And So I Walked" explores how faith, family, and friendship both change us and sustain us.
And Social Justice for All: Empowering Families, Churches, and Schools to Make a Difference in God's World
by Lisa Van EngenEquips parents to inspire kids to take on social injustice--at any ageWith the constant barrage of difficult stories through news and social media, today's kids are increasingly aware of the real problems real people confront every day. And they're quicker than ever to come to parents and other trusted adults to ask how they can help--or why they're not already doing so. And Social Justice for All equips Christian families to tackle social justice issues together. It inspires them to bring light and love to a dark and scary world.Educator and mom Lisa Van Engen creates innovative resources to engage kids in understanding and responding to fourteen justice issues such as clean water, creation care, immigration and refugees, hunger, race, and poverty. After placing each issue in kid-friendly context, she offers interactive features:High-interest conversation starters for each age group to challenge thinking and assumptionsA family devotional to anchor each social justice issue in God's WordEngaging, age-tiered activities for reading, playing, observing, creating, connecting, and experimenting in God's worldTips and internet links to extend awareness and invest resources in social justiceThroughout each chapter, children speak their own thoughts about injustice and what they think God is calling them to do.By looking at both the roots of injustice and what Christians can do right now to help, And Social Justice for All empowers both adults and children to encounter a broken world with insight and empathy. Simple yet powerful, it lights the path for families to make a real, God-directed difference together.
And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems
by Maya AngelouMaya Angelou&’s unforgettable collection of poetry lends its name to the documentary film about her life, And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS&’s American Masters. Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I&’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model&’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I&’m telling lies. I say, It&’s in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I&’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That&’s me. Thus begins &“Phenomenal Woman,&” just one of the beloved poems collected here in Maya Angelou&’s third book of verse. These poems are powerful, distinctive, and fresh—and, as always, full of the lifting rhythms of love and remembering. And Still I Rise is written from the heart, a celebration of life as only Maya Angelou has discovered it. &“It is true poetry she is writing,&” M.F.K. Fisher has observed, &“not just rhythm, the beat, rhymes. I find it very moving and at times beautiful. It has an innate purity about it, unquenchable dignity. . . . It is astounding, flabbergasting, to recognize it, in all the words I read every day and night . . . it gives me heart, to hear so clearly the caged bird singing and to understand her notes.&”
And Still She Laughs: Defiant Joy in the Depths of Suffering
by Kate MerrickKate 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. Kate Merrick faced the crippling grief that life can bring when her five-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Three and a half years of suffering followed, accompanied by fervent prayer, hospital stays, emotional agony, and teeth-grinding fear. And in the end, her baby girl was gone. How was Kate to believe again, to hope again? To find out, she turned to stories in the Bible of real women who dealt with pain and survived. How did Sarah, after twenty-five years of achingly empty arms, learn in the end 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 And Still She Laughs, Merrick writes poignantly and transparently about finding joy in sorrow and shows how we—just like the ordinary women seen in the Bible—can rise above unbearable circumstances and live fully. In the middle of whatever hardships we face, we can smile, cry, and come away full—laughing without fear and eagerly looking for what is to come.
And The Journey Begins
by Cyril Axelrod<P>This life story of deafblind priest, Father Cyril Axelrod, makes compelling reading. A man of such spirituality, humanity, gentleness, compassion, humour, leadership and vision, he has worked tirelessly for others throughout his life and has become a worldwide ambassador for deaf and deafblind people. <P>He gives a remarkably poignant and tender account of his childhood as the profoundly Deaf child of an orthodox Jewish family in South Africa. He describes the wrenching spiritual journey that follows in his twenties and led him eventually to become a Catholic priest in order to serve deaf people. He tells too of his own painful transition from deafness to deafblindess as his sight deteriorates in middle age as a result of Usher syndrome. <P>Despite this, his remarkable pastoral work continues, using over eight different indigenous sign languages, in countries as varied as South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Australia, USA, China, Singapore, Macau, Ireland, and finally Britain. His work and his love for deaf and deafblind people transcends colour, creed and faith and has been recognised throughout the world. <P>This is the story of a remarkable man.
And Then Came Spring
by Margaret BrownleyIt all started with an ad in a mail-order bride catalogue . . .Mary-Jo has traveled halfway across the country to meet her match, arriving just in time for his funeral. Returning home seems like her only option until her would-be brother-in-law proposes a more daring idea.
And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures In A Cloistered Life
by Jane Christmas&“The best kind of memoir, revealing, refreshing, and reflective enough to make readers turn many of the questions on themselves.&” —Booklist (starred review) With humor and opinions aplenty, a woman embarks on an unconventional quest to see if she is meant to be a nun. Just as Jane Christmas decides to enter a convent in mid-life to find out whether she is &“nun material,&” her long-term partner Colin, suddenly springs a marriage proposal on her. Determined not to let her monastic dreams be sidelined, Christmas puts her engagement on hold and embarks on an extraordinary year-long adventure to four convents—one in Canada and three in the UK. In these communities of cloistered nuns and monks, she shares—and at times chafes and rails against—the silent, simple existence she has sought all of her life. Christmas takes this spiritual quest seriously, but her story is full of the candid insights, humorous social faux pas, profane outbursts, and epiphanies that make her books so relatable and popular. And Then There Were Nuns offers a seldom-seen look inside modern cloistered life, and it is sure to ruffle more than a few starched collars among the ecclesiastical set. &“A lovely, heartfelt tale. Get thee to a bookstore and buy it.&” —A. J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically &“In fluid and often playful prose, she introduces women and men (she spent a week at a monastery on the Isle of Wight) who have devoted their lives to prayer, including a skydiving 90-year-old nun.&” —Maclean&’s
And Then There Were Two (Dani Ross Mysteries, #2)
by Gilbert Morris"J.T. Denver is finding out in more ways than one that money doesn't do you a whole lot of good if you're dead. Dani Ross gets an unbelievable assignment for her detective agency--protect the wealthy J.T. Denver while finding his potential assassin. Not an easy task when so many want him dead. A ruthless businessman, J.T. has made more than a few bitter enemies in his lifetime--including his own family. And though he recently made a life-changing spiritual decision, letting his old nature die is as difficult for him as finding the potential assassin is for Dani. J.T.'s attempt to set things right brings the only woman he ever loved back into his life--but she has some surprising secrets of her own that will make the tangled web around J.T. even harder to unravel.
And Then We Work for God: Rural Sunni Islam in Western Turkey
by Kimberly HartTurkey's contemporary struggles with Islam are often interpreted as a conflict between religion and secularism played out most obviously in the split between rural and urban populations. The reality, of course, is more complicated than the assumptions. Exploring religious expression in two villages, this book considers rural spiritual practices and describes a living, evolving Sunni Islam, influenced and transformed by local and national sources of religious orthodoxy. Drawing on a decade of research, Kimberly Hart shows how religion is not an abstract set of principles, but a complex set of practices. Sunni Islam structures individual lives through rituals—birth, circumcision, marriage, military service, death—and the expression of these traditions varies between villages. Hart delves into the question of why some choose to keep alive the past, while others want to face a future unburdened by local cultural practices. Her answer speaks to global transformations in Islam, to the push and pull between those who maintain a link to the past, even when these practices challenge orthodoxy, and those who want a purified global religion.
And Then the Rain Came
by Evelyn W. MinshullA compelling saga of the pagan world before the great flood and how four remarkable women choose to follow the one true God no matter what the cost. It is a dark time for the earth. Faith has degenerated into pagan worship, and God has found only one man, Noah, who is righteous. He and his family still worship the true God, Yaweh. Ridiculed for their faith in a God who cannot be touched or seen, the women of the ark stand with Noah as the time of reckoning approaches. In the last days before the flood, the women of Noah's family come to know themselves and their God as never before. As they struggle with their daily lives and their very human emotions, these four women face personal doubts as well as fears for the loved ones who must be left behind. And as they make final preparations to enter Noah’s ark and leave the only world they know, each must find her own refuge in the unfailing love of Yahweh. As the doors of the ark close, they realize there’s no turning back...they are about to embark on the most extraordinary journey any woman has ever made.
And They Shall Be My People: An American Rabbi and His Congregation
by Paul WilkesRabbi Jay Rosenbaum is devoted to his congregation of mostly middle- and upper-middle-class Conservative Jews — yet their lax observance frustrates and saddens him. Competing daily with an increasingly secular culture, Rosenbaum struggles to show his congregation the riches and fulfillment of an observant Jewish life. Exploring the rabbi's sometimes troubled, sometimes joyful leadership, And They Shall Be My People presents a complex and human portrait of American Judaism in our modern age. "A striking and valuable book.... A powerful, haunting story for a society easily seduced by new emphases and values." — Gerald I. Wolpe, The Philadelphia Inquirer; "To call this 'a revealing portrait' is an understatement. It is a mirror of organized Jewish life." — Robert L. Wolkoff, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
And They Shall Be My People: An American Rabbi and His Congregation, First Edition
by Paul WilkesPaul Wilkes spent a year with Rabbi Rosenbaum--silently observing his life and work, getting to know his congregation, listening in as he performed the myriad tasks both spiritual and practical that occupy a rabbi's long day. This book is an intimate portrait of a year in a rabbi's life and a vivid account of the state of American Judaism today.
And They Shall Prophesy
by Ed Finch IIIAlthough some people believe the prophetic ministry died with the apostles, God still uses prophets to speak to His people. Pastor Ed Finch provides a practical, comprehensive approach to modern prophecy in the church. He discusses several facets of the prophetic ministry, including types of prophecies and the responsibilities of the modern-day prophet, as well as the dangers of false prophecy. And They Shall Prophesy will encourage you to study the Word of God. You will learn to develop your own gifts, so you can operate in the incredible power that God has available for you, His modern-day prophet.
And Twelve Chinese Acrobats
by Jane YolenFor Wolf, there is no one in the family-or in the whole village-quite like his own oldest brother, Lou. It is Lou who filches ribbons at the fair for the serving girls, and Lou who steals raspberry pies from Mama's kitchen to share with the peasants. But when Lou lets the lambs loose in the village, and they get into the mayor's garden and eat everything up, Papa has had enough. He sends Lou away to military school. Before long, Lou's letters back home stop, and the family finds out Lou has run away. Wolf worries and waits, and is richly rewarded when his brother finally comes home-along with a tumbling, flipping, rollicking surprise. This retelling of the author's father's large family's life in the Ukraine before Lou was the first of them to establish himself in the United States where he became a reporter, married and had children reads like a folk tale though it is based on fact. It is about the difficulties to fit in and survive of a lovable boy who can't conform, but ultimately demonstrates his ability and strength of character. Family life of a Jewish family living in Ukraine in 1910 is showcased. It's a wonderful tale to be read or read aloud by older children to adults.
And We Are Changed: Encounters with a Transforming God
by Priscilla ShirerIt is troubling how often we cease to be amazed at the transforming power of God in people's lives. When we meet Jesus, we are supposed to be changed. Jesus' death not only saves us and secures heaven for us, it is the power by which we can live a victorious Christian life here on earth. In And We Are Changed, Priscilla Shirer challenges readers to walk in freedom, throwing off the chains that have kept them from fully following Christ. She helps readers discover how to let the Word of God set us free, transforming us for His glory.
And We Are Changed: Encounters with a Transforming God
by Priscilla ShirerIt is troubling how often we cease to be amazed at the transforming power of God in people's lives. When we meet Jesus, we are supposed to be changed. Jesus' death not only saves us and secures heaven for us, it is the power by which we can live a victorious Christian life here on earth. In And We Are Changed, Priscilla Shirer challenges readers to walk in freedom, throwing off the chains that have kept them from fully following Christ. She helps readers discover how to let the Word of God set us free, transforming us for His glory.
And You Call Yourself A Christian (Still Divas Series #1)
by E. N. JoyOut of all the divas at New Day Temple of Faith, Unique has to be the most colorful one--she and her mother Lorain, that is. Never one to hold her tongue in the name of keepin' it real, it's no surprise that Unique has not been saved all her life. It's safe to say that Lorain wasn't born on the church pew either. Let the church folk tell it, the apple hasn't fallen too far from the tree when it comes to Unique. Lorain--once known as the tight skirt, V-neck blouse, too much makeup-wearing leader of the New Day Singles Ministry--claims she's there to look out for her daughter and try to keep her in check. But how in the world does Lorain think she can even begin to keep her daughter on the straight and narrow with her own crooked life?Some might say Lorain has failed miserably as a mother when Unique ends up in jail for three counts of murder. One who would agree is the woman who raised Unique while Lorain was out living her life freely. As an all-out war takes place between Unique's birth mother and the woman who raised her, will Unique have any support while she fights for her life behind bars? Will all forsake her while they are too busy with their own agendas? Only God holds the answer to this one.
And You Invited Me In
by Cheryl Moss TylerWhen Alex Marshall left his stifling small town behind, he felt freedom for the first time in his life. Rejected by his conservative Christian hometown for his homosexuality, Alex becomes a successful lawyer, active in the gay community and committed to his partner, Scott. But tragedy strikes in the form of AIDS, as it rips away Alex's dignity and crushes his body. He is near the end of his life. Annie Whitley, Alex's sister, is faced with a difficult choice when a call from Alex comes out of the blue. Should she travel to care for her estranged brother -- who represents the lifestyle she's been taught to hate and fear -- or stay away, deny him, and follow what the town demands? Choosing Alex, she begins to see how her decision impacts the entire community. And You Invited Me In addresses the moral dilemma that many face: how can people accept or even tolerate a way of life so different from anything they have been taught to believe is acceptable? This interwoven tale speaks of love, compassion, and true belief, as a family reconciles and a town comes to understand the truth of its faith, and is resonant with the hymn of equality. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. -- Matthew 25:35
And You Shall Be My Witnesses: 31 Devotionals To Encourage A Spirit Of Everyday Evangelism
by Alex SibleyDesigned as a 31-day devotional, this book presents focused expositions of select Scripture passages from the Gospels and Acts pertaining to evangelism. When read along with an open Bible, these devotionals will illuminate the Scripture's teaching on various aspects of the evangelistic task, highlighting how the likes of Paul, Peter, John, Stephen, Philip, John the Baptist, and even Jesus himself went about proclaiming the message of God's salvation for the world. Leading readers in application-based study of the Scripture and providing points of guided prayer, these devotionals will speak directly to the personal evangelist's heart, encouraging readers to share the Gospel every day, everywhere, with everyone they meet.