Backstabbers. Slanderers. Unfaithful Spouses. Thieves. Molesters. Terrorists.How do some people manage to truly forgive their arrogant and remorseless offenders? Are we to sit by while our loved ones suffer and expect the violator to go unpunished? Do we struggle to forgive-or vow to bring the offender to justice? Do we see life as unfair and wonder, "Where is God in all of this?" When wronged the saints in Bible days poured out their hearts to God, pleading to Him for retribution and vindication. But how can we pray in the same way, and still forgive as Christ taught? Theologian and author Doug Schmidt brings you into the vortex of this astounding paradox. Be prepared to learn the life-changing keys to forgiving the unrepentant through a new-found confidence in God's willingness to accomplish justice on your behalf. Find out how forgiveness and justice can abide as one in this gripping book!
If you call the light, you will inevitably battle the darkness. Brady is a high school senior, the champion of the outcast and bullied, who becomes the unwitting recipient of a gift that is both beautiful and terrifying. He discovers he can talk to angels and draw down a magnificent and mysterious light from the Blessed Virgin. However, Brady soon realizes that such power comes at a price: If you call the light, you will inevitably battle the darkness. Indeed, a malevolent darkness is racing toward a small town outside of Dayton, Ohio - transported in a rusted, white conversion van. Its driver brings a palpable evil, unique in its seemingly aimless cruelty. Arrogant and vicious, Ray has no idea of the role he plays in his Master’s plan. This evil has the purpose of snuffing out a holy foe before it grows stronger. 1970s Beavercreek, Ohio is a small, Air Force base town. With lots of folks continually moving in and out, the community is slow to take notice when teenage girls start disappearing. However, as darkness descends and violence intensifies around him, Brady realizes that he is in a life-and-death struggle - not against school bullies, nor merely flesh and blood - but against a strange man with a leering smile who carries Satan in his soul. In an epic battle of good versus evil, Brady will fulfill a prophecy that is hidden in the vaults of the Vatican...but only if he follows the laws of the Prayer of Vengeance.
A biblical teaching about one of the roles of the Holy Spirit in the last days is to execute vengeance and recompense against the enemies and spiritual forces resisting God's people based on a love for justice.
Jesus died with a psalm on his lips. For millennia, humans have been shaped by the Psalms. And before the Nazis banned him from publishing, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer published this book on the Psalms. What comfort is found in the Psalter? What praise, and what challenge? What threat? In the pages of Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, discover the richness this book of Scripture held for Bonhoeffer, and learn to pray psalms along with Christ. First published in 1940, this classic reveals how the Psalms are essential to the life of the believer and offers Bonhoeffer's reflections on psalms of thanksgiving, suffering, guilt, praise, and lament. Now with an introduction by Walter Brueggemann and excerpts from the Psalms, Bonhoeffer's timeless work offers contemporary readers ancient wisdom and resources for the living of these days. Includes a biographical sketch of Bonhoeffer written by his friend and biographer Eberhard Bethge.
We call it justice—the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the incarceration of corrupt politicians or financiers like Rod Blagojevich and Bernard Madoff, and the climactic slaying of cinema-screen villains by superheroes. But could we not also call it revenge? We are told that revenge is uncivilized and immoral, an impulse that individuals and societies should actively repress and replace with the order and codes of courtroom justice. What, if anything, distinguishes punishment at the hands of the government from a victim’s individual desire for retribution? Are vengeance and justice really so very different? No, answers legal scholar and novelist Thane Rosenbaum in Payback: The Case for Revenge—revenge is, in fact, indistinguishable from justice. Revenge, Rosenbaum argues, is not the problem. It is, in fact, a perfectly healthy emotion. Instead, the problem is the inadequacy of lawful outlets through which to express it. He mounts a case for legal systems to punish the guilty commensurate with their crimes as part of a societal moral duty to satisfy the needs of victims to feel avenged. Indeed, the legal system would better serve the public if it gave victims the sense that vengeance was being done on their behalf. Drawing on a wide range of support, from recent studies in behavioral psychology and neuroeconomics, to stories of vengeance and justice denied, to revenge practices from around the world, to the way in which revenge tales have permeated popular culture—including Hamlet, The Godfather, and Braveheart—Rosenbaum demonstrates that vengeance needs to be more openly and honestly discussed and lawfully practiced. Fiercely argued and highly engaging, Payback is a provocative and eye-opening cultural tour of revenge and its rewards—from Shakespeare to The Sopranos. It liberates revenge from its social stigma and proves that vengeance is indeed ours, a perfectly human and acceptable response to moral injury. Rosenbaum deftly persuades us to reconsider a misunderstood subject and, along the way, reinvigorates the debate on the shape of justice in the modern world.
After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.
A lyrical, captivating retelling of the Palm Sunday and Easter story from National Book Award nominee Mitali Perkins, author of Rickshaw Girl, that is sure to become a beloved tradition for families of faith. Little Wind and the trees of Jerusalem can't wait for Real King to visit. But Little Wind is puzzled when the king doesn't look how he expected. His wise friend Bare Tree helps him learn that sometimes strength is found in sacrifice, and new life can spring up even when all hope seems lost. This story stands apart for its imagination, endearing characters, and how it weaves Old Testament imagery into Holy Week and the promise of Jesus's triumphant return. While the youngest readers will connect to the curious Little Wind, older children and parents will appreciate the layers of meaning and Scriptural references in the story, making it a book families can enjoy together year after year.
Discusses the experiment in Jewish autonomy in Ukraine that began with the February democratic revolution in Russia, showing how common interests between Ukrainians and Jews, especially intellectuals, led to political rights for Jews. However, the experiment was a disastrous failure. One of the reasons was the failure to stem extensive pogroms in Ukraine. In contrast to the traditional post-1927 view that has considered the Ukrainian government as the instigator of most of the pogroms, concludes that Petlyura was responsible, by default, for not doing enough to stop the hooligans, while Jewish political leaders bore some responsibility for failure to agree on Jewish self-defense.
Satan prowls around, ready to pounce on our every weakness, fill us with fear, and destroy our intimate relationship with Christ. But we are not defenseless. We have weapons of warfare enabling us to be spiritually aggressive and face the devil head on. Rather than lose ground in our faith, we can live armed and dangerous! In this handbook of militant prayers, evangelist and ex-satanist John Ramirez helps you prepare for and move into advanced combat. He covers topics such as · strengthening your position as a warrior · opening your spiritual eyes · releasing the thunder of God against the devil · loosing God's blessings · and more! We have the authority and the mandate to destroy the works of the devil. Let's do it!
Does God’s command to love your enemy include forgiving the drunk driver who killed your only child? It’s Christmas Eve, but Frank and Elizabeth Morris have no reason to celebrate. Joy, peace on earth, and good will toward men have been replaced by heartbreak, hatred, and bitterness. Their beloved only child, eighteen-year-old Ted, has just died from injuries sustained in a horrific automobile accident. Days later, they would learn that their son had been killed at the hands of a drunk driver. The Morrises’ strong Christian faith is shaken to its foundations as grief chokes every bit of hope from their lives. They demand the death penalty for their son’s killer, a young alcoholic named Tommy Pigage. When the charges are reduced from murder to manslaughter, they are outraged by the injustice of it all—and anguished by God’s seeming indifference to their suffering. Tormented by their inability to “love their enemy”, they continue to stumble through dark days and darker nights. It isn’t until Elizabeth opens up her car door—and her heart—to the troubled young man who killed her son that the light of God’s transforming love begins to seep through the cracks of their broken lives. Includes Study Guide with Questions for Classes written by New York Times bestselling author Teresa Medeiros “One of the most moving true life stories I’ve ever read. A genuine life-changer. Should be required reading for every teen before they get their driver’s license so they can witness firsthand the true cost of drunk driving.”—Teresa Medeiros, New York Times bestselling author
