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Permission to Dream: How to be Radically Resilient and Hopeful
by Christine CaineDo you have a dream God has put on your heart? A desire to change the world around you for the better? As you pursue those dreams and your purpose in this life, you will encounter moments where you feel unworthy, ill-equipped, or like you're not enough. And when you do, it is important to know that God is for you. The highs and lows are part of your story, but they aren't the whole story. With God's help, you can build the resilience to keep pushing forward and hold onto hope--even in the face of setbacks or obstacles.Permission to Dream by bestselling author Christine Caine will:teach you about resiliency and how to be strong despite the challenges.help you listen and tune into God's calling so you can overcome previous pain.provide you with steps on how to overcome feelings of unworthiness.teach you strategies to help you manage disappointment and maintain hope.This book is for anyone who:knows their purpose but isn't sure how to take the next step forward.questions their value.feels like they're not enough.is wondering what God has planned for them.Curated from messages shared in Unstoppable, Undaunted, and Unexpected, along with new insights and encouragement, Permission to Dream is a reminder that you are needed in this world, and you matter. Your purpose is bigger than you know, and God has created you to do something that will reflect his light in the world, and he has qualified you to do it. With his help, you can fulfill all that He's created you to do.
Perseverance: The Determination of the Bodhisattva (Wisdom Culture Series)
by Lama Zopa RinpocheDive deep into perseverance, one of the core practices of the bodhisattvas, with beloved teacher Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a guide.Awakening depends on fortitude; because, without fortitude there is no merit, as there is no movement without wind. —Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva&’s Way of Life Perseverance, or virya, is also translated as &“energy,&” &“fortitude,&” or &“vigor.&” One of the six perfections, or paramitas, it is one of the trainings of the bodhisattvas and a deeply necessary quality for the Buddhist path. But it&’s far from the kind of head-down, stubborn determination the name could imply; instead, it&’s joyful energy that enables us to practice. Rinpoche&’s commentary is structured around the fifth and seventh chapters of the beloved Guide to the Bodhisattva&’s Way of Life by the eighth-century philosopher-poet Shantideva. Interweaving his teaching with Shantideva&’s verses, Rinpoche elucidates this prerequisite for enlightenment, explaining what it is and how to cultivate it: guard your mind, gather virtue, work for others—and find incredible joy in these things. &“When we have perseverance, we will have no obstacles, which means obstacles to any happiness, especially to ultimate happiness, the freedom from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and most importantly to peerless happiness, the state of the omniscience that is enlightenment.&” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Personal Narrative of Occurrences During Lord Elgin's Second Embassy of China, 1860
by Baron Henry Brougham LochIn 1860, James Bruce (1811-63), the eighth Earl of Elgin, embarked upon a second embassy to China which aimed to obtain ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin and finally conclude the Second Opium War on terms favourable to the British. Accompanying Elgin as his private secretary was the enterprising army officer Henry Brougham Loch (1827-1900). Originally published in 1869, Loch's first-hand account of the mission reflects sustained concern over Britain's strained trading relationship with China in the nineteenth century. Notwithstanding his views regarding the need for European influence to shape China's future success in government, his clearly written narrative illuminates contemporary diplomacy and the events surrounding the Convention of Peking in October 1860. Prior to this outcome, Loch had been captured, imprisoned and brutally tortured by Chinese officials. His chapters detailing this experience and his eventual release are especially noteworthy.-Print ed.
Persuasions of God: Inventing the Rhetoric of René Girard (RSA Series in Transdisciplinary Rhetoric)
by Paul LynchThe nations of the global north find themselves in a post-secular or post-Christian period, one in which the practice, expression, and effects of religion are undergoing massive shifts. In Persuasions of God, Paul Lynch pursues a project of “theorhetoric,” a radical new approach to speaking about the divine. Searching for new religious forms amid the lingering influence of Christianity, Lynch turns to René Girard, the most important twentieth-century thinker on the sacred and its expression within the Christian tradition. Lynch repurposes Girard’s mimetic theory to invent a post-Christian way of speaking to, for, and especially about God. Girard theorized the sacred as the nexus of violence, order, and sacralization that lies at the heart of religion. What Lynch advocates in our current moment of religious kairos is a paradoxically meek rhetoric that conscientiously refuses rivalry, actively exploits tradition through complicit invention, and boldly seeks a holiness free of exclusionary violence. The project of theorhetoric is to reinvent God through the reimagined themes of meekness, sacrifice, atonement, and holiness. From these, Persuasions of God offers religion reimagined for our post-secular age.An interdisciplinary mix of philosophy, sociology, rhetorical studies, and theology, this book draws on mimetic theory to answer the question of where religion goes next. It will be valued by religious studies and communications scholars as well as anyone interested in the future of Christianity in our modern world.
Peter L. Berger on Religion: The Social Reality of Religion (Key Thinkers in the Study of Religion)
by Titus HjelmPeter L. Berger on Religion provides an overview and critical assessment of the work of one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century.Situating Berger’s writings on religion and secularisation in the broader framework of social constructionism, the book argues that neither he nor the research influenced by him consistently followed the constructionist paradigm. This assessment is informed by a close examination of The Sacred Canopy (1967), in particular. The volume also offers a Berger‑inspired constructionist framework for the study of religion.This book is an excellent resource for students and researchers interested in the intersection of religion and social theory.
Philosophy and the Spiritual Life (The British Society for the Philosophy of Religion Series)
by Victoria S. Harrison Tyler Dalton McNabbThis book breaks new ground for the philosophy of religion by showcasing work that engages with the lived reality of the spiritual life. It demonstrates that philosophy’s relationship with spirituality is more than a historical curiosity and that, in the twenty-first century, it is still meaningful to think about philosophy in connection with spirituality. The chapters are organised around the following themes: spiritual practice and philosophical understanding; philosophical reflections on living a spiritual life; philosophical problems concerning the spiritual life. The first part discusses whether or not the topic of spirituality should be given a more fundamental role within the philosophy of religion, and, if so, how that might be accomplished. The second part addresses fundamental issues concerning human beings, their lives, and their self-understanding in relation to the spiritual life. The final part considers philosophical problems that emerge when discussing the spiritual life. By bringing together discussions of these topics, this volume constitutes a valuable resource for scholars in disciplines in which the spiritual life is a focus of interest, particularly philosophy, theology, and religious studies.
Pious Labor: Islam, Artisanship, and Technology in Colonial India (Islamic Humanities #5)
by Amanda LanzilloA free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, working-class people across northern India found themselves negotiating rapid industrial change, emerging technologies, and class hierarchies. In response to these changes, Indian Muslim artisans began publicly asserting the deep relation between their religion and their labor, using the increasingly accessible popular press to redefine Islamic traditions "from below." Centering the stories and experiences of metalsmiths, stonemasons, tailors, press workers, and carpenters, Pious Labor examines colonial-era social and technological changes through the perspectives of the workers themselves. As Amanda Lanzillo shows, the colonial marginalization of these artisans is intimately linked with the continued exclusion of laboring voices today. By drawing on previously unstudied Urdu-language technical manuals and community histories, Lanzillo highlights not only the materiality of artisanal production but also the cultural agency of artisanal producers, filling in a major gap in South Asian history.
Place Experience of the Sacred: Silence and the Pilgrimage Topography of Mount Athos
by Christos KakalisThis book explores the topography of Mount Athos, emphasizing the significance of silence and communal ritual in its understanding. Mount Athos, a mountainous peninsula in northern Greece, is a valuable case study of sacred topography, as it is one of the world’s largest monastic communities and an important pilgrimage destination. Its phenomenological examination highlights the importance of embodiment in the experience of religious places. Combining interdisciplinary insights from architectural theory, philosophy, theology and anthropology with archival and ethnographic materials, the book brings a fresh contribution to both Athonite studies and scholarship on sacred space. By focusing on the interrelation between silence and communal ritual, it offers an alternative to the traditional art historical, objectifying approaches. It reintroduces the phenomenological understanding of place, investigating also how this is expressed through a number of narratives, such as travel literature, maps and diaries.
Plans For Your Good: A Prime Minister's Testimony of God's Faithfulness
by Scott MorrisonScott Morrison, Australia's 30th Prime Minister (2018-2022), offers a unique insider's account of a Christian who was open about his faith and operated at the top level of politics for more than a decade. During one of the toughest periods since the second world war, covering drought, wildfires, a global pandemic and recession, he chronicles God's faithfulness throughout, win or lose, public criticism or public success.Less political memoir and more pastoral encouragement, Morrison is passionate about encouraging others to discover how they can access and see the many blessings of God in their own lives, no matter their circumstances, drawing on Jeremiah 29:11, that God's plans are for our good and not our harm, to give us a future and a hope. In each section Morrison asks the questions all of us are looking to find answers to:Who am I? Discovering your purpose.How should I live? Finding your pathway.What should I hope for? Embracing your future. Full of fascinating insights into the handling of some of the most significant global events and issues of our time Morrison's honest, vulnerable and reflective answers offers a unique lens to better understand your relationship with God and the blessing that can flow from such a relationship.Alongside an account of high-level politics in a new media age where cancel culture, identity politics and deep secularization is taking hold across so many western societies, creating a truly post Christian west, Morrison testifies to the faithful love and blessings of God.
Playing with Scripture: Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism)
by Andrew JuddThis book puts a creative new reading of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and literary genre theory to work on the problem of Scripture. Reading texts as Scripture brings two hermeneutical assumptions into tension: that the text will continually say something new and relevant to the present situation, and that the text has stability and authority over readers. Given how contested the Bible’s meaning is, how is it possible to ‘read Scripture’ as authoritative and relevant? Rather than anchor meaning in author, text or reader, Gadamer’s phenomenological model of hermeneutical experience as Spiel (‘play’) offers a dynamic, intersubjective account of how understanding happens, avoiding the dead end of the subjective–objective dichotomy. Modern genre theory addresses some of the criticisms of Gadamer, accounting for the different roles played by readers in different genres using the new term Lesespiel (‘reading game’). This is tested in three case studies of contested texts: the recontextualization of psalms in the book of Acts, the use of Hagar’s story (Genesis 16) in nineteenth-century debates over slavery and the troubling reception history of the rape and murder in Gibeah (Judges 19). In each study, the application of ancient text to contemporary situation is neither arbitrary, nor slavishly bound to tradition, but playful.
Playing with Scripture: Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism)
by Andrew JuddThis book puts a creative new reading of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and literary genre theory to work on the problem of Scripture. Reading texts as Scripture brings two hermeneutical assumptions into tension: that the text will continually say something new and relevant to the present situation, and that the text has stability and authority over readers. Given how contested the Bible’s meaning is, how is it possible to ‘read Scripture’ as authoritative and relevant? Rather than anchor meaning in author, text or reader, Gadamer’s phenomenological model of hermeneutical experience as Spiel (‘play’) offers a dynamic, intersubjective account of how understanding happens, avoiding the dead end of the subjective–objective dichotomy. Modern genre theory addresses some of the criticisms of Gadamer, accounting for the different roles played by readers in different genres using the new term Lesespiel (‘reading game’). This is tested in three case studies of contested texts: the recontextualization of psalms in the book of Acts, the use of Hagar’s story (Genesis 16) in nineteenth-century debates over slavery and the troubling reception history of the rape and murder in Gibeah (Judges 19). In each study, the application of ancient text to contemporary situation is neither arbitrary, nor slavishly bound to tradition, but playful.
Poet-Monks: The Invention of Buddhist Poetry in Late Medieval China
by Thomas J. MazanecPoet-Monks focuses on the literary and religious practices of Buddhist poet-monks in Tang-dynasty China to propose an alternative historical arc of medieval Chinese poetry. Combining large-scale quantitative analysis with close readings of important literary texts, Thomas J. Mazanec describes how Buddhist poet-monks, who first appeared in the latter half of Tang-dynasty China, asserted a bold new vision of poetry that proclaimed the union of classical verse with Buddhist practices of repetition, incantation, and meditation.Mazanec traces the historical development of the poet-monk as a distinct actor in the Chinese literary world, arguing for the importance of religious practice in medieval literature. As they witnessed the collapse of the world around them, these monks wove together the frayed threads of their traditions to establish an elite-style Chinese Buddhist poetry. Poet-Monks shows that during the transformative period of the Tang-Song transition, Buddhist monks were at the forefront of poetic innovation.
The Poetry and Essays of Uri Zvi Grinberg: Politics and Zionism (ISSN)
by Tamar Wolf-MonzonThis book focuses on the complex network of relationships between the poet Uri Zvi Grinberg and the Labor Movement in Mandate Palestine from 1923 to 1937.Making use of letters found in the Uri Zvi Grinberg Archive at the National Library of Israel (NLI), the author reconstructs the characteristics of Grinberg’s pioneer readership, attesting to their special relationship with his poetry. In the 1920s, it is argued, they considered Grinberg’s poetry an authentic expression of their complex spiritual world and especially of the reality of their lives. On his side, Grinberg accepted the pioneering ethos as the ideological basis of his works, becoming an outstanding poet of the Labor Movement. The chapters of this book track the various phases of Grinberg’s life and poetry, from his emigration to Palestine through to the 1930s, when he joined the Revisionist Movement and became increasingly ostracized from the Labor Movement. The story of Grinberg’s relations with the pioneers was emotionally charged—a mixture of enchantment and rejection, spiritual closeness and repulsion. Ultimately, this book analyzes the intensity of this connection and its many contradictory layers.This book will interest researchers in a range of fields, including Hebrew poetry and reception theory, as well as anyone interested in Israeli studies and the history of the Labor Movement in Palestine.
Politeness (Berenstain Bears Gifts of the Spirit)
by Mike BerenstainGramps loves to play his violin, but unfortunately, he isn't very good! Brother, Sister and Honey Bear learn that being polite is more than just saying 'Please' and 'Thank you' in this humorous Berenstain Bears Gifts of the Spirit storybook!Kids ages 3 to 7 will enjoy this sweet, faith-based story filled with fun, colorful illustrations—it&’s the perfect read-aloud for any day! The Berenstain Bears Gifts of the Spirit series celebrates the joy of faith, family, and friends—values essential to a wholesome and fulfilling life!This 32-page hardcover storybook, created by Mike Berenstain, son of Stan and Jan Berenstain, includes a soon-to-be classic story about being polite. When Gramps finds his old violin, the cubs are happy to listen. But when they hear Gramps play, they must learn how to choose kind words and be polite!
Political Theology in Chinese Society (Transforming Political Theologies)
by Joshua MauldinThis book provides an itinerary for studying political theology in Chinese society, including mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It explores the changing role of religion in Chinese history, from the rise of Buddhism alongside Confucianism and Daoism, through the arrival of Christianity and Islam, to the suppression of religion under communism. Since the reform and opening period beginning in 1978, China has experienced a resurgence of religiosity, with powerful societal implications. Governing authorities have sought to regulate religious practice in line with their governing system. Political theology in Chinese society is very much in flux and the chapters in this volume provide an array of windows through which to view the evolving reality. They include historical approaches and descriptive analyses, with an interdisciplinary and international range of perspectives by contributors based in and outside China. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of theology, religious studies, and contemporary China studies.
Politicizing Islam in Austria: The Far-Right Impact in the Twenty-First Century
by Farid Hafez Reinhard HeinischAmong its Continental peers, Austria has stood out for its longstanding state recognition of the Muslim community as early as 1912. A shift has occurred more recently, however, as populist far-right voices within the Austrian government have redirected public discourse and put into question Islam’s previously accepted autonomous status within the country. Politicizing Islam in Austria examines this anti-Muslim swerve in Austrian politics through a comprehensive analysis of government policies and regulations, as well as party and public discourses. In their innovative study, Hafez and Heinisch show how the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) adapted anti-Muslim discourse to their political purposes and how that discourse was then appropriated by the conservative center-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). This reconfiguration of the political landscape prepared the way for a right-wing coalition government between conservatives and far-right actors that would subsequently institutionalize anti-Muslim political demands and change the shape of the civic conditions and public perceptions of Islam and the Muslim community in the republic.
Politics, Identity and Belonging Across The British South Asian Middle Classes: Between Privilege and Prejudice (Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series)
by Rima SainiThis book will discuss the growing socio-economic and political diversity of the groups that comprise the British South Asian diaspora, with a focus on the formation of the British South Asian "middle classes". They will be framed within this work as a heterogenous sub-population, but this book is be the first comprehensive effort to define them sociologically as a distinct ethnoracial collective with a unique political profile. It does this with reference to secondary statistical data and primary interview data, and engages with relevant academic and non-academic literature. It describes the ways in which socially mobile South Asian migrants and particularly their descendants in the UK relate to their racial, ethnic, religious, classed and gendered identities, their relationship with ‘Britishness’, and their politics. It will therefore be of interest to students and researchers of political sociology, particularly those specialising in race, processes of racism and racialisation, ethnic and ethno-religious identity, class and social mobility amongst ethnic minority groups, and the interaction between minority identity and political identity.
The Politics of Grace in Early Modern Literature
by Deni KasaThis book tells the story of how early modern poets used the theological concept of grace to reimagine their political communities. The Protestant belief that salvation was due to sola gratia, or grace alone, was originally meant to inspire religious reform. But, as Deni Kasa shows, poets of the period used grace to interrogate the most important political problems of their time, from empire and gender to civil war and poetic authority. Kasa examines how four writers—John Milton, Edmund Spenser, Aemilia Lanyer, and Abraham Cowley—used the promise of grace to develop idealized imagined communities, and not always egalitarian ones. Kasa analyzes the uses of grace to make new space for individual and collective agency in the period, but also to validate domination and inequality, with poets and the educated elite inserted as mediators between the gift of grace and the rest of the people. Offering a literary history of politics in a pre-secular age, Kasa shows that early modern poets mapped salvation onto the most important conflicts of their time in ways missed by literary critics and historians of political thought. Grace, Kasa demonstrates, was an important means of expression and a way to imagine impossible political ideals.
Pop Islam: Seeing American Muslims in Popular Media
by Rosemary PenningtonIn the West, Islam and Muslim life have been imagined as existing in an opposing state to popular culture—a frozen faith unable to engage with the dynamic way popular culture shifts over time, its followers reduced to tropes of terrorism and enemies of the state. Pop Islam: Seeing American Muslims in Popular Media traces narratives found in contemporary American comic books, scripted and reality television, fashion magazines, comedy routines, and movies to understand how they reveal nuanced Muslim identities to American audiences, even as their accessibility obscures their diversity. Rosemary Pennington argues that even as American Muslims have become more visible in popular media and created space for themselves in everything from magazines to prime-time television to social media, this move toward "being seen" can reinforce fixed ideas of what it means to be Muslim. Pennington reveals how portrayals of Muslims in American popular media fall into a "trap of visibility," where moving beyond negative tropes can cause creators and audiences to unintentionally amplify those same stereotypes. To truly understand where American narratives of who Muslims are come from, we must engage with popular media while also considering who is allowed to be seen there—and why.
The Popes on Air: The History of Vatican Radio from Its Origins to World War II (World War II: The Global, Human, and Ethical Dimension)
by Raffaella PerinThe story of the origin of Vatican Radio provides a unique look at the history of World War IIThe book offers the first wide-ranging study on the history of Vatican Radio from its origins (1931) to the end of Pius XII’s pontificate (1958) based on unpublished sources. The opening of the Secret Vatican Archives on the records regarding Pius XII will shed light on the most controversial pontificate of the 20th century. Moreover, the recent rearrangement of the Vatican media provided the creation of a multimedia archive that is still in Fieri.This research is an original point of view on the most relevant questions concerning these decades: the relation of the Catholic Church with the Fascist regimes and Western democracies; the attitude toward anti-Semitism and the Shoah in Europe, and in general toward the total war; the relationship of the Holy See with the new media in the mass society; the questions arisen in the after-war period such as the Christian Democratic Party in Italy; the new role of women; and anti-communism and the competition for the consensus in the social and moral order in a secularized society.
Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self: The Production of Dwellspace
by Les RobertsIn Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self, Les Roberts extends his earlier work on spatial anthropology to consider questions of time, spaciousness and the phenomenology of self. Across the book’s four main chapters – which range from David Bowie’s long-standing interest in Buddhism, to street photography of 1980s Liverpool, to the ambient soundscapes of Derek Jarman’s Blue, or to the slow, contemplative cinema of Tsai Ming-Liang – Roberts lays the groundwork for the concept of ‘dwellspace’ as a means by which to unpick the shifting spatial, temporal and experiential modalities of everyday mediascapes. Understood as a particular disposition towards time, Roberts’s foray into dwellspace proceeds from a Pascalian reflection on the self/non-self in which being content in an empty room vies with the demands of having content in an empty room. Taking the idea of posthuman Buddhism as a heuristic lens, Roberts sets in motion a number of interrelated lines of enquiry that prompt renewed focus on questions of boredom, distraction and reverie and cast into sharper relief the psychosocial and creative affordances of ambience, spaciousness and slowness. The book argues that the colonisation of ‘empty time’ by 24/7 digital capitalism has gone hand-in-hand with the growth of the corporate mindfulness industry, and with it, the co-option, commodification and digitisation of dwellspace. Posthuman Buddhism is thus in part an exploration of the dialectics of dwellspace that orbits around a creative self-praxis rooted in the negation and dissolution of the self, one of the foundational cornerstones of Buddhist theory and practice.
Power Moves: Ignite Your Confidence and Become a Force
by Sarah Jakes RobertsUnleash the superpower of being yourself. Sarah Jakes Roberts, bestselling author of Woman Evolve, will help you craft a language toward your issues with intentionality.Stripping our minds of the expectations that inundate our world has never been more difficult. One quick scroll of our phones and we're consumed by other people's projections of how we should be feeling or responding.The ability to determine your truth without judgment is the beginning of harnessing authentic power in Christ. When we do the work of embracing where we are, we create space for God's love to meet us in our most raw form and then polish us to shine like never before. Power does not lie in success, achievement, or performance. Power rests in humility, honesty, and the commitment to continuous growth.Power Moves will help you to qualify whether you're living life authentically or if you've found a way to maintain status quo. It will reveal the principles required to tap into the most powerful version of who you are, then lead you in how to introduce your authentic self to the world around you. Sarah will help yougive language to your changing needs,acknowledge and applaud your growth,refuse to bear the weight all at once or all alone, andrelease your power. Open your eyes to the way that God sees you and awaken your boldness to effect change in the world by living out the truth of who God says you are with confidence.
The Power of Du'a
by Aliyah Umm Raiyaan'Empowering....of great benefit to those who want their doors flung open by Allah' - Mufti MenkWhat seems impossible can become possible through du’aIn The Power of Du’a, Sunday Times bestselling author and revert, Aliyah Umm Raiyaan takes you on a journey that shows how faith and practising du’a (a personal supplication) can transform your life.Featuring inspirational real-life stories from those who have experienced miraculous results from living with du’a, this book is a comforting guide to revive and develop a close relationship with Al Mujeeb – The One Who Responds. Through life’s challenges and struggles, with tools from the Qur’an and Sunnah, you will learn how to:Sincerely prepare your heart before du’aAsk of Allah from a place of certainty, during du’aMove forward in faithful trust after He respondsYou will learn how to prepare your heart and then ask of Allah from a place of sincerity and certainty. This book provides tools to navigate the response to your du’a, developing a close and trusting relationship with The Most High.Deeply moving and uplifting, The Power of Du’a is for anyone looking to reflect, reshape their dialogue with the Divine and walk in complete faith – embracing the perfect plans Allah has for each and every one of us.
The Power of the Blessing: 5 Keys to Improving Your Relationships
by John Trent Gary SmalleyIn this newly revised and abridged version of John Trent and Gary Smalley's bestseller The Blessing--more than one million copies sold--learn how the biblical gift of "The Blessing" is key to your self-worth and emotional well-being. People of every age long for the gift of The Blessing--the unconditional love and approval that comes from healthy relationships with your family and with the world around you.This life-changing gift is essential for instilling a deep sense of worthiness and unshakable emotional well-being. In The Power of the Blessing, you'll learn about these five keys to improving your relationships:Meaningful, encouraging touchA confirming spoken messageAttaching high valuePicturing a special futureAn active commitmentOffering solid, practical advice and a fresh perspective on making this gift a bigger part of your family, The Power of the Blessing effectively communicates these biblically based elements as necessary to prepare you for positive future relationships, including your relationship with a loving God.Written for women and men alike, The Power of the Blessing offers five keys to create a lifestyle of blessing others, including your family and those you love. Your words are powerful, and they have the power to crush or edify. God has always been interested in blessing his people, and we are called to bless others. Choose to speak the power of the blessing today!
Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.
by John Mark ComerNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry calls us to rediscover the path that leads to a deeper life with God. &“One of the most important books I have read in a decade . . . If we would all follow in this way, our lives would change and the world would change.&”—Jennie Allen, author of Get Out of Your Head and Find Your People We are constantly being formed by the world around us. To be formed by Jesus will require us to become his apprentice. To live by what the first Christian disciples called a Rule of Life—a set of practices and relational rhythms that slow us down and open up space in our daily lives for God to do what only God can do—transforms the deepest parts of us to become like him. This introduction to spiritual formation is full of John Mark Comer&’s trademark mix of theological substance and cultural insight as well as practical wisdom on developing your own Rule of Life. These ancient practices have much to offer us. By learning to rearrange our days, we can follow the Way of Jesus. We can be with him. Become like him. And do as he did.