The author draws on his own hard-earned wisdom for this series of reflections on spirituality and mental health. He covers a range of experiences including: upsides, downsides, recovery, balance, loving life and spirituality. Bringing together wisdom from psychology and spirituality, he acknowledges the enormous benefit of psychological tools for wellness as well as a spirituality that aims to tell a different story. Ignatian Spirituality is a consistent thread throughout that offers a psycho-spirituality of great depth and awareness. This is a gentle introduction to spirituality and mental health. The real-life examples show that there is no dividing line between mental illness and normality. Everyone is somewhere along the mental health continuum and God is with them every step of the way.
"Finding God Beneath The Ashes" is unique in style. Each chapter has a section of Bible verses in a poetic form, with occasional comments to encourage or explain, placed like stepping stones across a flowing mountain stream. A foundation for the book is laid by presenting quotes from the Founding Fathers, their acknowledging their need of God in giving birth to our nation. When all seemed lost, they called upon God! In our nation's first stepping stones they wrote the words, "We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights!" This book is to help you to recover that God! In the dangers of our present time, in the aftermath of the ashes of 9/11, where and how are we to find God? It is written with the purpose of helping you to discover God by pondering Biblical themes and comments as helps to you along the way. The verses were collected much the way you would gather brightly colored leaves on a Fall day, freely picking and choosing leaves of different shapes, colors and sizes. The collection then is gathered into clusters about God to speak to your mind and heart. This Book is not intended to be a quick read. It's like a walk in the woods. It's sitting on a ledge, looking across a great canyon. In places, it is a trip down the rapids. It's a place where you can argue with God about what is written, a place to share your sorrow or loss, where you can cry out, "why?" It is a place where you can find quiet pastures along a gently flowing stream, or safety through the valleys of the shadows of death. It's designed to help you find the peace of God. This book begins with the silence of God before time or space through His mighty words and deeds in history. From beginning to end it covers the major themes: God in the chaos of the beginning, His giving of safe boundaries for living, the strong things God stands for like love and justice. The book introduces you to the names of God which will show you what He is really like, what we are to call Him‐ His name introduces Him to us and the wonder of who He is. We come to Jesus as our Friend. Like the fireman at 9/11 He gave His life in the smoke and ashes to save us. In Jesus we see God come down to earth. The ending of the book gives lines from the poetry of The Psalms with indicated places to pause and be alone with God and with your own thoughts without comments by the writer. What else can you expect from within these pages? You can expect explanations on how the Bible is put together, illustrations and examples from the lives of people who are living their faith with others, how to live out the model of Jesus through friendship with others. The Book can be used over and over again, a chapter at a time‐ a section now and then. It can be used with others in groups or with just two or three together. It's a book designed for you, a place to find God in the dangers, brokenness, in the joys and in the ashes of living.
Philip Yancey has a way of confronting our most cherished but misguided notions about faith. In The Bible Jesus Read, he challenges the perception that the New Testament is all that matters and the Old Testament isn't worth taking the time to read and understand. Yancey admits that, like many Christians, he usually avoided the Old Testament. After all, why bother with writings that can be so baffling, boring, even offensive to the modern mind? But a surprising discovery awaited Yancey when he began to explore how the Old Testament related to his life today. Those seemingly irrelevant Hebrew Scriptures took on a startling immediacy, portraying a passionate relationship between God and people against the broad backdrop of human experience. Like nothing else, the Old Testament depicts the cries, the complaints, the deep, insistent questionings of the heart, the stuff of life we all must contend with. With his candid, signature style, Yancey interacts with the Old Testament from the perspective of his own deeply personal journey. From Moses, the amazing prince of Egypt, to the psalmists' turbulent emotions and the prophets' oddball rantings, Yancey paints a picture of Israel's God--and ours--that fills in the blanks of a solely New Testament vision of the Almighty. Probing some carefully selected Old Testament books--Job, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and the Prophets--Yancey reveals how the Old Testament deals in astonishing depth and detail with the issues that trouble us most. The Old Testament in fact tackles what the New Testament often only skirts. But that shouldn't surprise us. It is, after all, the Bible Jesus read. The Bible Jesus Read will give you abundant new insights into the heart of God the Father. And as you read with a fresh eye the prayers, poems, songs, and bedtime stories that Jesus so revered, you will gain a profound new understanding of Christ. "The more we comprehend the Old Testament," Yancey writes, "the more we comprehend Jesus."
God. Family. Work. Church responsibilities. Volunteer work. Finances. Friends. Relationships. Do you ever get overwhelmed trying to juggle all the facets of your life? Do you ever push God out of the picture because you don't feel like you have time to spend with Him in your hectic day? Well, it's time to make a change. It's time to start your day with God and spend time being spiritually fed through His Word and thoughts that point to Jesus. Fear Not! Is There Anything Too Hard For God? Trusting His Love When You Cannot See His Hand takes you on a daily journey into the Word of God, providing object lessons, inspirational stories, personal testimonies, and thought-provoking insight to start your day. We have nothing to fear with God by our side, but we must develop a personal relationship with Him if we want to have peace and security in our chaotic world. Make a commitment today to spend time with God each day by reading Fear Not! Is There Anything Too Hard For God? Trusting His Love When You Cannot See His Hand and seeking a deeper relationship with the best Friend anyone could ever ask for. Take this challenge, and you will be forever changed!
This publication deals with a biblical theology of prayer based on the New Testament. It forms the second of a two-volume publication on a biblical theology of prayer, dealing with the concept of prayer in the Old and New Testament, respectively. This New Testament volume begins with an introduction on prayer and worship in early Jewish tradition, followed by eleven chapters dealing with New Testament corpora. It concludes with a final chapter synthesising the findings of the respective investigations of the Old and New Testament corpora to provide a summative theological perspective of the development of the concept of prayer through scripture. Prayer forms a major and continuous theme throughout the biblical text. Prayer was an integral part of the religious existence of God’s people in both the Old and New Testament. It underwent its greatest developments during, after and as a result of the Exile and was deepened and transformed in the New Testament. In both the Old and the New Testament, God is the sole ‘addressee’ of his people’s prayer. This conviction continued into the New Testament, but was broadened with Trinitarian elements of worship, adoration and intercession. A biblical theological investigation is chosen as methodology. Since all the biblical books form part of one canonical text, the assumption is that the various theologies about prayer being displayed in these books can be synthesised into a developing meta-theology about prayer. As the Old and New Testament form part of the canonical text, the results about prayer in the Old Testament can be brought into play with the results about prayer in the New Testament. This eventually leads toward an overarching biblical theology of prayer.
A major book on the subject of heaven, this expanded edition examines the hunger for heaven that is so strong in all of us. Fascinating and upbeat, Heaven, the Heart's Deepest Longing thoroughly explores the psychological and theological dimensions of this search for total joy and for the ultimate reality that grounds it.
Religion today is in competition with the leisure and entertainment industries. Gen Y, the postmodern generation, is open to spirituality; but most of todays young adults have not been born into faith communities where they feel any lasting allegiance. Studies suggest that for the young, belief in God is an optional matter, a virtual consumer choice. As a result, different trends in worship and worship styles are offered by different churches to suit lifestyles, attitudes, and personal taste.
