We are only happy when we pursue a transcendent purpose, something larger than ourselves. This pursuit involves a deeply meaningful relationship with God by committed participation in the spiritual disciplines. The Lost Virtue of Happiness takes a fresh, meaningful look at the spiritual disciplines, offering concrete examples of ways you can make them practical and life-transforming.
No matter what you are feeling, you are not alone. This book, written by teenager girls for teenage girls, will help you lean into your emotions and develop an attitude of exploration and adventure when it comes to discovering what Jesus is doing in your life. These devotions and prayers provide a real, accessible, and down-to-earth way of inviting Jesus into whatever emotions you are experiencing. Whether you get one for yourself or for a teenager you love, this resource is an invitation to take a small step toward following Jesus in every emotion. INSIDE YOU'LL FIND: ★ Real Emotions Five teenage girls, ages 13 to 19, chose the emotions for this book and then wrote openly and honestly about how they experience these emotions in their everyday lives. ★ Real Encouragement Are you frustrated? Are you tired? Are you lonely, or hopeful, or confident, or carefree? Whatever you are feeling, you are not alone. ★ A Real Jesus Time and time again, these young women help you invite Jesus into your experience. This is no quick fix book on how to stop feeling what you feel. This is a sing at the top of your lungs, shout out your prayers, or talk to the ceiling fan if God doesn't seem to be listening kind of book. Be real. Be you. And you'll find a real Jesus walking right beside you the whole time. INVITE JESUS INTO YOUR EMOTIONS The teenage authors of this book chose six emotions for each of six key emotional experiences. In the Emotion Wheel on the front cover, you can find all 36 of the emotions covered in this devotional book in the second ring of emotions. Each of the authors brings her unique perspective and her unique experiences to these emotions. Their honest joys and struggles invite other teens to experience themselves and their emotions fully, and to invite Jesus into that experience. Each devotion includes a helpful description of an emotion, including some of the ways that emotion gets expressed in physical ways. After sharing a carefully-selected Bible verse and their own, personal experience of the emotion, each author also searches Scripture to find a Bible character who might have gone through something similar. That People Like Me section of each devotion helps highlight the fact that, whatever you are feeling, you are not alone. Each emotion devotion ends with a personal prayer, and the invitation to add your own thoughts and your own personal prayers. Brief faith experiments and reflection questions extend that invitation beyond the devotion and into the rest of your day or week. PRAISE FOR THE EMOTIONAL DEVOTIONAL As a Deaconess, Licensed Counselor, accomplished author, and mom, Heidi Goehmann knows a thing or two about teenagers, emotions, and following Jesus. Here's what Heidi had to say: The Emotional Devotional offers teens a space to explore the many and complicated emotions that are a beautiful and frustrating part of life here on this earth, within a framework of Creation, Grace, and Redemption in Christ Jesus. This resource uniquely offers the normalizing impact of one teen talking to another teen, reading and learning together, around who they are in this body and who they are in Christ. Thank you to the teens for being willing to share their voices and their experiences. The reader will benefit from both! Get one for yourself or for someone you love!
Jesus longs to be present with us when we are in emotional distress. God never meant for his children to hide from their shame, pretend they're not angry, run away when they're scared, or anesthetize their sadness. Our emotions serve a purpose, by design! By gaining an understanding of our emotional makeup through a biblical perspective in Mood Food, Dr. Hanna reveals God's original design for human emotions. He shares proven, scripture-based strategies to transform your emotional life, redirect your emotions to move you into a deeper relationship with God, and help accomplish His purposes for your life.
Bad moods. Sad moods. Weak moods. Bleak moods. Poor moods. Bored moods. Dark moods. Stark moods. Mood altering. Mood faltering. "I am not in the mood!" has become the motto of fallen man. Jesus is here to rescue and redeem the word "mood." Mood is about to become a rainbow label of many glorious colors. Light moods. Bright moods. Sure moods. Pure moods. Strong moods. Song moods. The Jesus Mood replaces all man-made moods of failure with His God-made mood of faith. The importance of our mood cannot be overstated. Mood is everything. Your mood is the absolute fuel gauge of your faith's fervency in God. It's the thermometer that reveals your current passion levels for life. When it comes right down to it, your mood is the most practical and basic thing you can offer to God. This book reveals how to renew your each and every mood in Christ. The Jesus Mood unveils the enormity of Jesus' gift to all of us - He sent His perfect mood of faith in the Father to live and operate in us at all times. Your growing certainty of this great truth is the way out of bad moods - forever!
Twice as many women as men will experience depression sometime in their lifetime, and episodes for women are likely to start at earlier ages, last longer, and recur more frequently, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. Many women are given medication to treat the disease, but medication alone does not always address the underlying emotions which trouble the mind and spirit. Counselor Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dr. Laura Hendrickson provide biblical guidance on how to balance medical intervention with biblical encouragement.
The Best Children's Books of the Year 2014, Bank Street College On "Mood Monday," students describe their moods after the weekend. But Theo doesn't know what to say because he has a new baby sister and is feeling so many emotions all at once. It's Mood Monday and Miss Cady's class is sharing how they feel after the weekend. But Theo doesn’t know whether he’s in a good mood or a bad mood. He has a new baby sister, and he isn’t just happy like Eric who got a new bike or sad like April who lost her dog. As Theo’s classmates discuss all their feelings, he realizes he’s not in a good mood or a bad mood—he’s both those things!
As Christian women, we desire to put Jesus first. We want to prioritize him above all, knowing instinctively that when we do, everything else in our lives will fall into alignment. Yet life feels complicated, and the demands of our daily lives leave our priorities out of order and our hearts longing for more. Author, speaker, and Bible teacher Lisa Whittle is passionate about helping people pursue Jesus for life, grow deep roots of faith, and walk strong in a world that so often seems to have gone crazy. In Jesus Over Everything, Lisa shares eight statements of choice to help us grow in our understanding of what it means to put Jesus first amid the craziness our days bring, including choices such as commitment over mood, steady over hype, holiness over freedom, service over spotlight, and more. Jesus Over Everything is a practical, compelling picture of what we crave yet struggle to define as we seek to give God his rightful place in our everyday lives.
LECTURE SNIPPET: You will find tonight's message a very practical one. I don't think it will disturb anyone, but there are adjustments to be made concerning what man believes God to be, and what God really is. We are told in Scripture, in the birth of the twins, which begins the great drama as told in Scripture, "In your limbs..." and I am speaking now, not of anyone, but of you individually:
Between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the west central African kingdom of Kongo practiced Christianity and actively participated in the Atlantic world as an independent, cosmopolitan realm. Drawing on an expansive and largely unpublished set of objects, images, and documents, Cecile Fromont examines the advent of Kongo Christian visual culture and traces its development across four centuries marked by war, the Atlantic slave trade, and, finally, the rise of nineteenth-century European colonialism. By offering an extensive analysis of the religious, political, and artistic innovations through which the Kongo embraced Christianity, Fromont approaches the country's conversion as a dynamic process that unfolded across centuries. The African kingdom's elite independently and gradually intertwined old and new, local and foreign religious thought, political concepts, and visual forms to mold a novel and constantly evolving Kongo Christian worldview. Fromont sheds light on the cross-cultural exchanges between Africa, Europe, and Latin America that shaped the early modern world, and she outlines the religious, artistic, and social background of the countless men and women displaced by the slave trade from central Africa to all corners of the Atlantic world.
True faith is hard. More than mere sentimentalism, faith often calls for a deep and resilient trust in God—especially when the going gets tough and the road is dark. In Things Not Seen, author Jon Bloom encourages readers with 35 imaginative retellings of stories from the Bible that illustrate the importance of living by faith. A follow-up to the author's previous book, Not by Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith, this inspiring volume explores the lives of Abraham, Moses, Saul, John the Baptist, and more—helping readers remember God's promises, rely on his grace, and follow his leading regardless of the circumstances. The book includes a foreword by popular author and blogger Ann Voskamp.
