Curated by Dallas Willard's long-time colleague and friend Gary Moon, this medley of images, snapshots and "Dallas-isms" moves readers toward deeper experiences of God. Whether influenced by him as a family member, friend, professor, philosopher or reformer, contributors bring refreshing insight into his ideas, what shaped him and also his contagious theology of grace and joy.
The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.
The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.
How can we transmit a living, personal Catholic faith to future generations? By coming to know Jesus Christ, and following him as his disciples. These are times of immense challenge and immense opportunity for the Catholic Church. Consider these statistics for the United States. Only 30 percent of Americans who were raised Catholic are still practicing. Fully 10 percent of all adults in America are ex-Catholics. The number of marriages celebrated in the Church decreased dramatically, by nearly 60 percent, between 1972 and 2010. Only 60 percent of Catholics believe in a personal God. If the Church is to reverse these trends, the evangelizers must first be evangelized-in other words, Catholics-in-the-pew must make a conscious choice to know and follow Jesus before they can draw others to him. This work of discipleship lies at the heart of Forming Intentional Disciples, a book designed to help Church leaders, parish staff and all Catholics transform parish life from within. Drawing upon her fifteen years of experience with the Catherine of Siena Institute, Sherry Weddell leads readers through steps that will help Catholics enter more deeply into a relationship with God and the river of apostolic creativity, charisms, and vocation that flow from that relationship for the sake of the Church and the world. Learn about the five thresholds of postmodern conversion, how to open a conversation about faith and belief, how to ask thought-provoking questions and establish an atmosphere of trust, when to tell the Great Story of Jesus, how to help someone respond to God's call to intentional discipleship, and much more. And be prepared for conversion because when life at the parish level changes, the life of the whole Church will change.
God has entrusted humanity with His Word and He intends to demonstrate His character through His disciples. When our minds are focused on God and we are growing in the realization of the purity of Christ's heart and His wonderful strength and power, we will find that that same characteristic is being worked out in us. In this three-in-one-volume, Oswald Chambers writes, 'Sanctification must be the direct gift of God by means of the instrument of the most earnest, intense, and personal faith.' Chambers says no one can acheive sanctification; we must inherit and appropriate it through a vital relationship with God through Christ.
If you are serious about being a disciple of Jesus Christ—really, truly serious—a discipleship group can help you achieve that goal. Jesus established this model for us by forming and leading the first discipleship group—and it worked. The men who emerged from that group took the gospel to the world and ultimately laid down their lives for Christ. Discipleship groups can create an atmosphere for fellowship, encouragement, and accountability—building an environment where God can work. In Growing Up: How to Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples, Robby Gallaty presents a practical, easy-to-implement system for growing in one's faith. This guide offers a manual for making disciples, addressing the what, why, where, and how of discipleship. D-Groups, as Gallaty calls them, can teach you and others how to grow your relationship with God, how to defend your faith, and how to guide others in their relationships with God. Growing Up provides you with an interactive manual and resource for creating and working with discipleship groups, allowing you to gain positive information both for yourself and for others as you learn how to help others become better disciples for Christ.
An exciting action adventure for both the young and old. The serenity of a spring morning encompassing Ebony Castle and its surrounding village suddenly becomes chaotic when out of a clear blue-sky comes a fire breathing creature of destruction. The creature none other than a fabled dragon, a myth made up through the years by the old ones to awe and thrill the children. Yet here is the dragon belching tongues of fire that shatter the hard stones of the castle like they are made of sand. ******* When I return to check my snares the sun's dwindling light is casting long shadows of the trees across the crystallized snow and to my dismay I find five of the snares empty, but when I approach the sixth and find a rabbit caught in it I hurry forward to claim my dinner. Suddenly a sound causes me to glance up and see a gray shape launch itself from a mound of snow, when with a terrifying growl an enormous gray wolf, of almost my own weight, strikes me with enough force to splay me face down in the snow and clamp its jaws onto my shoulder. Suddenly an unbearable pain courses through me as the wolf's fangs dig deep into my flesh, two into my chest and two into my back, my complete right shoulder deep inside the wolfs maw. With a quick motion of his head the wolf tries to tear the flesh from my bones, and if it had not bitten over the bone it surely would have succeeded. The fear of what is happening arouses a strength in me I don't know I had, as I push to my knees and grab the snout of the wolf's open jaw and yank the fangs from my chest. While with the other hand I reached over my shoulder to claw and pull on the wolf's ear until I feel my thumb in the jelly like softness of its eye and squeeze. With a howl of pain the wolf jumps clear of me, but before I can make a move I am aware of at least four other gray shapes bearing down on me. Almost instantly a howl of pain escapes my own lips when another of the gray shapes clamps its jaws onto the calf of my left leg causing a river of fire to run through me, its fangs deep into the flesh trying to tear the meat away. Now everything seems to be moving in slow motion and I see the wolf, with the eye I gouged, limping away, while the huge gaping jaws of another is hurtling towards my head. Behind me, over my shoulder, I also ss the other wolf savagely tearing at the calf of my leg while my blood sprayed out to cover the snow for a large area around me. Suddenly a beam of bright light, about the thickness of a good staff, shoots from the pouch I carry the crystal in and strike the wolf hurtling towards my head. In that instant the gray form disintegrates in a shower of sparks and is no more. Over my shoulder the wolf tearing at my leg also disappears as in succession the beam lash out until all the wolves are vanquished and silence fills the forest. Astounded by this sudden turn of events I fall forward onto the snow as the pain wells up in me until I lose consciousness. Some time later I awake to find my body shaking uncontrollably with cold, the blood in my veins like it's turned to ice. In the darkness of the forest I can see where my blood stains the snow and realize I lost a lot of blood and my body is racked with fever. No matter I know I must move away from this place where the scent of the blood will attract more wolves, and with all the strength I can muster I crawl to a nearby tree and pull myself up only to find I can't put weight on my left leg, however I do manage to hold on and break a good size branch from the tree to use as a staff, then in my delirium hobble forward using the staff to help drag me along. *****
