"In the small Illinois town of Bradbury, change doesn't come often, and it certainly doesn't come easily. So when Pastor Fletcher hires Emily Duke as the new choir director at Zion Lutheran Church, he unknowingly sets in motion a chain of events that turns the life of his congregation upside down. The crusty church secretary, Mrs. Scheinberg, must learn to adjust her curmudgeonly ways. Zion's talented but pompous organist, Evan Ebner, must recognize his shortcomings. Emily must come to terms with her past. Even Pastor Fletcher must face reality when his world is shaken by the baggage Emily brings and by the handsome Zachary Brandt who pursues her."--Amazon.
Throughout the ages Creation has been groaning for its true identity, dominion, and ultimately restored intimacy and communion with the Father. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation. We are made in His image. But what does it mean to be made in His image? Who am I as a new creation? What is my destiny? Desperately seeking on her own journey of identity, author Marie Fowler spent twenty-five years researching the tribes of Israel to answer these questions. Our heavenly Father designed us for one sole purpose: habitation. God chooses to build His house through His family. Living Stones is a love letter in which you will discover your place within God's family. Worship (intimacy) reveals identity. One does not come face-to-face with someone and remain unaltered. As we encounter the Father with unveiled faces, we become like Him. Our utmost destiny is that we might take on His reflection found in the embodiment of habitation. Join Marie in her fascinating and biblically grounded study of the tribes of Israel as foundational keys to reveal every believer's identity in Christ. Watch in wonder as the author explains with amazing prophetic and revelatory insight how the characteristics of each tribe fit together as living stones displaying the facets of the Father's nature and character thereby building His holy habitation. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (I Peter 2:5).
During his travels as a missionary, David Livingstone beheld many previously unknown wonders of the African interior. He put Victoria Falls and Lake Ngami on the map, and was the first white man to cross the African continent. Diaries, reports and letters are combined to create a wonderful narration of Livingstone's travels in a widely unknown continent. Included in this harrowing tale is Livingstone's narrow escape from a lion's wrath, his negotiations with an African chief, and his account of the Portuguese slave traders brutally punishing slaves after their attempt to escape. The Life and African Explorations of Livingstone also reveals Livingstone's deeply-rooted Christian beliefs and the strength he took from them, strength that allowed him to live and thrive amid the hardships of equatorial Africa.
Growing up as a pastor's daughter, Becoming Living Stones author Denae Haas gained a broad knowledge of Scripture and its interpretation. Knowledge and understanding without relationship, though, is ineffective. It lacks life. When Denae's knowledge of God, of the Holy Spirit, became relational--experiential--a greater bond formed and new life blossomed. When her belief in God collided with doubt, a faith struggle began. Here the Holy Spirit began to cultivate experiential knowledge of His presence, His love, and the ability to truly know His constant transformative working in our lives. In this groundbreaking book, readers both witness this transformation in Denae and are led into their own journey with God. A journey both rooted in Scripture and alive in the Spirit. The result is a deepening relationship with God, emerging from a broader understanding of God's immense personal love for His children. Ultimately, this growing faith and relationship bring healing and restoration. Denae's experience of the Holy Spirit combined with knowledge is rich soil from which readers are drawn and invited to meditate and pray for their own transformation--for new life in the Spirit.
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Sharon Stone tells her own story: a journey of healing, love, and purpose. • “Not your typical Hollywood autobiography. Brutally honest, restless and questing.” —O, The Oprah Magazine Sharon Stone, one of the most renowned actresses in the world, suffered a massive stroke that cost her not only her health, but her career, family, fortune, and global fame. In The Beauty of Living Twice, Stone chronicles her efforts to rebuild her life and writes about her slow road back to wholeness and health. In a business that doesn’t accept failure, in a world where too many voices are silenced, Stone found the power to return, the courage to speak up, and the will to make a difference in the lives of men, women, and children around the globe. Over the course of these intimate pages, as candid as a personal conversation, Stone talks about her pivotal roles, her life-changing friendships, her worst disappointments, and her greatest accomplishments. She reveals how she went from a childhood of trauma and violence to a career in an industry that in many ways echoed those same assaults, under cover of money and glamour. She describes the strength and meaning she found in her children, and in her humanitarian efforts. And ultimately, she shares how she fought her way back to find not only her truth, but her family’s reconciliation and love. Stone made headlines not just for her beauty and her talent, but for her candor and her refusal to “play nice,” and it’s those same qualities that make this memoir so powerful. The Beauty of Living Twice is a book for the wounded and a book for the survivors; it’s a celebration of women’s strength and resilience, a reckoning, and a call to activism. It is proof that it’s never too late to raise your voice and speak out.
“A superb biography, not to be missed either by armchair explorers or students of human nature…reveals the famed missionary and explorer as he really was.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer David Livingstone is revered as one of history’s greatest explorers and missionaries, the first European to cross Africa, and the first to find Victoria Falls and the source of the Congo River. In this exciting new edition of his biography, Tim Jeal, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Stanley, draws on fresh sources and archival discoveries to provide the most fully rounded portrait of this complicated man—dogged by failure throughout his life despite his full share of success. Using Livingstone’s original field notebooks, Jeal finds that the explorer’s problems with his African followers were far graver than previously understood. From recently discovered letters he elaborates on the explorer’s decision to send his wife, Mary, back home to England. He also uncovers fascinating information about Livingstone’s importance to the British Empire and about his relationship with the journalist-adventurer Henry Morton Stanley. In addition, Jeal here evokes the full pathos of the explorer’s final journey. This masterful, updated biography also features an excellent selection of new maps and illustrations. “Fascinating.”—Los Angeles Times “A thrilling and in the end moving work…The Livingstone who emerges is a man of terrifying dimensions.”—Irish Press
This sixth Faith Lessons volume takes you to Galilee in Israel where Jesus called his first disciples to follow Him. Then on to Priene and Didyma in Turkey where their disciples learned what it meant to follow the Rabbi.
From Scotland to East Anglia and internationally in Australia and America all ages are riveted by this story. The unique style of using the journey back to England as a frame to tell the deeper story is proving to be a great enticement to those of East Anglia as their acts of kindness are revealed. Helen Eadie, Member of the Scottish Parliament, writes in the forward "Jon ... provides insight into a way of life that is beyond most of our experiences". "From barren rocks ... to living stones" is an incident packed memoir that covers eighteen months in the teenage life of the author in the nineteen sixties. It is seen originally from a young person's perspective; and, as the writer matures and shares his experiences, in turn the reader gains from his reflections on the people and the places, beginning in Colonial era Aden, where he has lived. The book is a meditative postscript to the twentieth century bringing some perceptive insights. The story reveals a life that swings from the sadness to the times of joy, times of humour and times of thoughtfulness, times of tragedy and times of tenderness. The story faces the dual challenges of a western youth culture in a home in the East. Like wise there is the contrast of an Islamic and Christian culture side by side. However, deep concerns of middle eastern terrorism of the sixties also brings a topical aspect into the learning from the events as we begin the 21st century with strong concerns about the dangers of living with the threat of terrorism. This is the true story of one person's journey in life that brings lessons for so many in their own journey of life.
