Where do our finances fit into God's big plan? Here is a Godly and simple model for money management that can be adapted and used today, whatever our financial circumstances.
602
Naked Spirituality Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words
Christianity is in crisis. Many sincere Christians feel their traditional Christian practices are in danger of becoming irrelevant, empty rituals. In his previous book A New Kind of Christianity, Brian D. McLaren offered new biblical models for how we understand the central ideas of a faith that provides hope for restoring and reinvigorating the power of the gospels to transform us and our communities.
In Naked Spirituality, McLaren takes his prophetic work a step further by confronting how the lack of a simple, doable, durable spirituality undermines the very transformation God is calling us to undergo. As a result, our religious structures become tools to maintain the status quo and not catalysts for personal and social change. McLaren presents a four-stage framework for understanding the spiritual life, and he unfolds spiritual practices appropriate to each stage. Each practice is rooted in a simple word: here, thanks, O, sorry, help, please, when, no, why, behold, yes, and silence. Naked Spirituality offers accessible, practical wisdom for living a truly spiritual life. Staying true to Jesus's core message while engaging faithfully with our postmodern world, McLaren presents a proven spiritual program for engaging in and sustaining a meaningful relationship with God.
In The Pastor, Eugene H. Peterson, the translator of the multimillion-selling The Message and the author of more than thirty books, offers his life story as one answer to the surprisingly neglected question: What does it mean to be a pastor?
When Peterson was asked by his denomination to begin a new church in Bel Air, Maryland, he surprised himself by saying yes. And so was born Christ Our King Presbyterian Church. But Peterson quickly learned that he was not exactly sure what a pastor should do. He had met many ministers in his life, from his Pentecostal upbringing in Montana to his seminary days in New York, and he admired only a few. He knew that the job's demands would drown him unless he figured out what the essence of the job really was. Thus began a thirty-year journey into the heart of this uncommon vocation—the pastorate.
The Pastor steers away from abstractions, offering instead a beautiful rendering of a life tied to the physical world—the land, the holy space, the people—shaping Peterson's pastoral vocation as well as his faith. He takes on church marketing, mega pastors, and the church's too-cozy relationship to American glitz and consumerism to present a simple, faith-filled job description of what being a pastor means today. In the end, Peterson discovered that being a pastor boiled down to "paying attention and calling attention to 'what is going on right now' between men and women, with each other and with God." The Pastor is destined to become a classic statement on the contemporary trials, joys, and meaning of this ancient vocation.
604
Made to Crave Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food
According to bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst, craving isn't a bad thing, but we must realize God created us to crave so we'd ultimately desire more of Him in our lives. Many of us have misplaced that craving, overindulging in physical pleasures instead of lasting spiritual satisfaction.For a woman struggling with unhealthy eating habits, Made to Crave will equip her to:* Break the 'I'll start again Monday cycle' and start feeling good about herself today* Stop beating herself up over the numbers on the scale and make peace with the body you've been given* Discover how weight loss struggles aren't a curse but, rather, a blessing in the making* Replace justifications that lead to diet failure with empowering go-to scripts that lead to victory* Eat healthy without feeling deprived* Reach a healthy weight goal while growing closer to God through the processMade to Crave session titles include:Session 1: From Deprivation to EmpowermentSession 2: From Desperation to DeterminationSession 3: From Guilt to PeaceSession 4: From Triggers to TruthSession 5: From Permissible to BeneficialSession 6: From Consumed to CourageousBonus Session: Moving the MountainThe Made to Crave DVD is designed for use with the Made to Crave Participant's Guide.
605
One Thousand Gifts One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
Just like you, Ann Voskamp hungers to live her one life well. Forget the bucket lists that have us escaping our everyday lives for exotic experiences. 'How,' Ann wondered, 'do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long---and sometimes even dark? How is God even here?'In One Thousand Gifts, Ann invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts. It's only in this expressing of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we've always wanted ... a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved --- by God.Let Ann's beautiful, heart-aching stories of the everyday give you a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of being present to God that makes you deeply happy, and a way of living that is finally fully alive.Come live the best dare of all!
606
What was lost What Was Lost: A Christian Journey Through Miscarriage
United Methodist pastor Elise Erikson Barrett draws on her own painful experiences, as well as on interviews with others who have gone through the devastation of miscarriage, in an effort to help women grieve and, in time, to think theologically about pregnancy loss. Barrett also offers some much-needed practical advice about breaking the news to others, coping with insensitive comments, and grieving what is often a private loss, unmarked by the world.
607
Poetic Theology God and …… Poetic Theology God and the Poetics of Everyday Life
What are the poetics of everyday life? What can they teach us about God? Art, music, dance, and writing can certainly be poetic, but so can such diverse pastimes as fishing, skiing, or attending sports events. Any and all activities that satisfy our fundamental need for play, for celebration, and for ritual, says William Dyrness, are inherently poetic and in Poetic Theology he demonstrates that all such activities are places where God is active in the world. All of humanitys creative efforts, Dyrness points out, testify to our intrinsic longing for joy and delight and our deep desire to connect with others, with the created order, and especially with the Creator. This desire is rooted in the presence and calling of God in and through the good creation.
608
The Power of Prayer and Fasting The Power of Prayer and Fasting: God's Gateway to Spiritual Breakthroughs, Revised and Expanded
Pray to God? Sure! But fasting? Sharing compelling real-life experiences, the host of Ronnie Floyd Winners shows how these two disciplines together have changed lives! In this updated edition, you'll learn how to renew your spiritual walk with simple, practical plans for a one-, 3-, 7-, or 40-day fast. Includes a new chapter about church-wide participation.