This is a basic Bible study book for Doing the Word. If we are to do God's word as well as talk about it, we need a vision to guide our doing and acting. Church folk already have a number of visions to be found in the Bible, but we need them interpreted, explained and applied to our daily lives to guide our attempts to work for justice, mercy and peace. - from Editor's Preface to the First Edition.
In this volume Walter Brueggemann explores biblical texts from the story of the exodus to Jesus' teachings about peace and the reign of God. He specifically addresses the witness of Jesus and Jesus' proclamations about God's desired future more than in his other books, clarifying a full biblical theology of peace and an understanding of what God has done in Jesus and is doing in the church today.
According to George Barna, uncovering God's vision for your ministry is not an option. It's essential for the most productive ministry that will accomplish God's goals for building his kingdom. Ministry leaders with a clear picture from God of where they are headed are much more likely to experience a successful journey. In this book, Barna uncovers how God has shared his vision throughout history, how vision is different from mission, common practices and beliefs that inhibit true vision, practical steps toward experiencing and carrying out God's unique vision for them, and ways to share and promote congregational ownership of the vision.The Power of Vision
Vision Decoded and Made Simple! The Vision Guided Life is the way every change agent touches his or her generation. To live any other way is to live beneath your full potential. To accomplish your destiny, you need insight. This insight is the basis for all worthwhile endeavors. This book was written for those who want to live at their maximum God-given potential. How does your future look? Your insight determines your future. If your vision is limited, you will accomplish very little with your purpose. Vision is God’s redemptive revelation. Vision applies to the individual, family, business, Church and a nation. To lack vision, is to lack a future. In this book you will discover: • How to accurately define vision • How to grasp God’s vision for your life • How to write and state your life’s mission • Misconceptions about vision and how to dispel them • How to go from thought to application One of the most important qualities of a ‘change agent’ is the ability to take responsibility and step out to achieve a desired outcome. Nothing changes until someone takes responsibility for change. In this book you will gain insight and learn practical principles that will move you to discover and live out, The Vision Guided Life. About the Authors Identical twins, Kay and Olu Taiwo are international speakers, ministers, consultants, featured authors, and licensed Pharmacists. With over 20 years of speaking experience, their ministry has impacted audiences in the Ukraine, Nigeria, England, Philippines, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Canada, and across the United States of America. They conduct Vision, Identity, & Purpose (VIP) Seminars. They are blazing a trail around the world in the mobile app industry and are reaching thousands of people by promoting biblical literacy through mobile technology.
The North American church is struggling. Our society seems to be coming apart at the seams and Christianity appears on the verge of losing its voice, its leadership, and its youth. The church’s calling is to cooperate with her Creator in the repair of the world. Instead, we struggle in the loss of the simplicity of the natural images of Jesus which compel us to engage tension, dependency, and the lesson of being on the margins. Until we learn to take our cues from a world we did not build, our actions will continue to prop up a society struggling from the weight of its own ethos. Part history, part cultural dialogue, part travelogue—always in conversation with the ancient and compelling biblical vision of shalom—Landscape of the Soul will encourage you to see beyond the shells of your constructed world to those places where dynamic spiritual rhythms can still be found.
While focusing on his core mission to preach the gospel worldwide, T.D. Jakes has seen many good people not spend enough quality time with family, friends, and God. They have gotten so swept up in the daily grind that they have failed to live the rich life that God desires for each of His people. In his new book, Jakes provides readers with strategies that will help them rejuvenate their life and turn their "busyness" into a "business." All readers-not just entrepreneurs-will benefit from Jakes' insightful advice so that they can use the days God has blessed them with wisely and finish each day strong!
In this timely and powerful book of reflections, Father Philip Linder shares his personal struggles and experiences of God in light of 9/11. God speaks through Father Linder in a way that invites others into a closer and more profound relationship with God. These short reflections point to the simple and poignant ways that we may come to know and experience God, and finally live in God in the midst of both war and peace. Philip Linder, a noted teacher of the spiritual life, opens his heart and inner thoughts to assist all who travel the spiritual path. At once theological and personal, A Priest's Journal of Hope --God and 9/11-- allows us to see our own questions of faith identified, as well as the possibility for new inquiries--all of which have the potential for transforming our collective 9/11 experiences into a deeper life in God.
Darkness will not last forever. Together we can climb toward the light. They were as troubled as we, our ancestors, those who came before us, and all for the very same reasons: fear of illness, a broken heart, fights in the family, the threat of another war. Corrupt politicians walked their stage, and natural disasters appeared without warning. And yet they came through, carrying us within them, through the grief and struggle, through the personal pain and the public chaos, finding their way with love and faith, not giving in to despair but walking upright until their last step was taken. My culture does not honor the ancestors as a quaint spirituality of the past but as a living source of strength for the present. They did it and so will we. In the same voice that has comforted and challenged countless readers through his daily social media posts, Choctaw elder and Episcopal priest Steven Charleston offers words of hard-won hope, rooted in daily conversations with the Spirit and steeped in Indigenous wisdom. Every day Charleston spends time in prayer. Every day he writes down what he hears from the Spirit. In Ladder to the Light he shares what he has heard with the rest of us and adds thoughtful reflection to help guide us to the light Native America knows something about cultivating resilience and resisting darkness. For all who yearn for hope, Ladder to the Light is a book of comfort, truth, and challenge in a time of anguish and fear.
In this unique and exhilarating autobiography, Allan Jones – Canada’s first blind diplomat – vividly describes how an untreatable eye disease slowly decimated his visual world, most challengingly during his postings in Tokyo and New Delhi, and how he discovered and took to heart the revelatory Indian philosophy that changed his life. Advaita Vedanta, the most iconoclastic and liberating of the classical Indian philosophies, profoundly altered the author’s experience of self and world. He found that the true self, as distinct from the individual ego, far exceeds the boundaries of individuality. It lies beneath sightedness or blindness and is absolutely unaffected by the latter. This welcome shift of perspective was reinforced by startling discoveries in contemporary physics, evolutionary biology, and developmental psychology that are fully consistent with Advaitic metaphysics. As for the practical applications of metaphysics, this book demonstrates step by step how Advaitic insight and practice significantly reduce physical and psychological tension. The most telling examples have to do with adjustments compelled by extreme circumstances. Thus Jones describes how he drew upon Advaitic mindfulness techniques to maintain his white cane mobility skills in the teeth of permanent spinal, nerve, and muscle pain. The arc of Beyond Vision moves from the claustrophobically personal to the openness of the transpersonal. It begins in a dysfunctional family background, breaking out into a full life encompassing an adventurous foreign service career, spiritual exploration, and an unconventional kind of marital love.
The guide to shortening your execution cycle down from one year to twelve weeks Most organizations and individuals work in the context of annual goals and plans; a twelve-month execution cycle. Instead, The 12 Week Year avoids the pitfalls and low productivity of annualized thinking. This book redefines your "year" to be 12 weeks long. In 12 weeks, there just isn't enough time to get complacent, and urgency increases and intensifies. The 12 Week Year creates focus and clarity on what matters most and a sense of urgency to do it now. In the end more of the important stuff gets done and the impact on results is profound. Explains how to leverage the power of a 12 week year to drive improved results in any area of your life Offers a how-to book for both individuals and organizations seeking to improve their execution effectiveness Authors are leading experts on execution and implementation Turn your organization's idea of a year on its head, and speed your journey to success.
