There is only ONE accurate version of the truth of your worth and that is the Father's truth, because you are His creation. Only He really understands you and the things that have fought hard to wound your soul and steal your confidence. He sees you through eyes uncluttered by human hindrances and social sentiment. God loved Adam so much, He created the greatest, most inspiring work of art He could for him--Eve! She was the expression of the Father's love. A priceless treasure, indeed! In woman, the Father created His Magnum Opus, His work of art--the grand finale of His creation masterpiece. In the Father's grand design for humanity, you are His magnum opus!~I dreamt I was atop a dark and lonely hill awaiting the return of the prodigal sons and daughters. Carrying a torch in my hand, I desperately tried to light the way for them to come home. But my light alone was much too dim to light the way for their safe return. I cried out to God, "Make my light brighter, Lord!"When I opened my eyes, I saw the entire hillside was lit up with a great light. As I looked around, I saw it was covered with a large crowd of women all holding their torches high into the night's sky to guide the lost home. "The Lord announces the word, and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng: 'Kings and armies flee in haste...'" Psalm 68:11-12. The Father is rallying His great Army of Women--Will you join Him?
MAGNUM OPUS DEI:of God and Greed + +Based on a True Story of An Ex-Opus Dei Priest + +VOLUME ONEINSIDE OPUS DEI,by Dr. Luis Esteban LatorrePart 1. I was a priest of the Opus DeiI was a priest of the Opus Dei for twenty long years. My parents also joined the Opus Dei, donated to the religious organization, now called "Personal Prelature," three pieces of real estate (the best of their properties), and donated also their only children, two sons, myself and my brother Bobby, both of whom became priests of the Opus Dei. My father was the only surviving son among daughters in his family and with both his sons as celibate priests in the Opus Dei, future generations would no longer bear his family name. I never regretted having joined the Opus Dei, I am still very much a conservative Catholic. But in the long run, its disciplines and practices conspired to alienate my basic instincts and led me to resign voluntarily from the Prelature and risk the acrimony of my friends and my brother. I was treated like a spiritual leper by Opus Dei members, despite the fact that I remained a priest in the diocese of Malolos, Bulacan. My parents resented this treatment and resigned from the Opus Dei. Before my father died, he extracted a promise from me to write about my experiences in the Work, as we call the Opus Dei. This I will do in these series of articles. I did more than that, I decided to leave the priesthood, get married, and give my father a grandson to carry on his name. I studied grade school and high school in La Salle, continued in Ateneo (Associate of Arts, Dean's List); in the University of the Philippines (Bachelor of Arts, cum laude), and in the University of Navarre in Spain and Rome (Ph.D. in Theology, sobresaliente cum laude, after getting my MA in History and Philosophy). In La Salle, I belong to a class that was accelerated by skipping grade seven and going straight to high school, after a rigid IQ test. As such I really belonged to three batches in La Salle, including the class we left behind and the class we were promoted to. And this is the generation that is already taking over the leadership of our country: The class we left behind, from the not-so-bright sections, included Teddyboy Locsin, Aquino's press secretary, now publisher of Globe; Quinito Henson, TV sports commentator and Danding Cojuangco's campaign manager; Joaquin "Wacky" Trillo, and "Doctor" Andy Jao, PBA sportcasters; Tommy Manotoc, sportsman and husband of beauty queen Au-Au Pijuan and Imee Marcos. The class which was accelerated included; Anthony Aguirre, Harvard man and heir presumptive to Banco Filipino; Vincent Tan, president of Jaime Zobel's Ayala Land; Bertie Lim, brother of Cheche Lazaro and president of Andrew Soriano III's Anscor holding company [later became Tourism Secretary]; Louie Ysmael, owner of of Euphoria disco; Celso Lobregat III, loverboy, now Zamboanga congressman; Charlie Rufino (real-estate magnate), Digoy Fernandez (nephew of Jobo), valedictorian Rhett Pleno, and myself. The class we were promoted to included Jose Miguel Cuisia who looks like his brother Joey Cuisia; Mariano and Joey Velez, brothers of Bobong Velez, owners of Faces Disco and Do�a Nena restaurant; Atty. Tony Arellano, son-in-law of KBL stalwart Conrado Estrella, ex Sec. of Agrarian Reform; Delfin DC Gonzalez, comptroller of San Miguel Corporation; Boy Feria, son of SC Justice Feria; and Rogelio "Babes" Singson, later became DPWH Secretary. The Work's idea of lay apostolate attracted me. I started frequenting the only Opus Dei Study Center then called Maynilad. Others who went with the same enthusiasm were Ernie Ordo�ez, undersecretary of Trade and Industry; Cayetano Paderanga, Cory's NEDA secretary; Jose "Boy" Kalaw, now head of Technology and Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC); and Manila Standard economist and columnist Calixto Chikiamko -- most of whom were active in the Student Catholic Action, but never joined the Opus Dei.(excerpts)
Persuaded of the singular vision of the Pentateuch, Old Testament professor John Sailhamer searches out clues left by the author and the later editor of the Pentateuch that will disclose the meaning of this great work. By paying particular attention to the poetic seams in the text, he rediscovers a message that surprisingly brings us to the threshold of the New Testament gospel.
Starting with the doctrine of the Trinity, Vern Poythress addresses six significant challenges concerning God's attributes, helping us to appreciate more deeply the mystery that lies in each of them.
Beginning in childbirth and entered like a multiple dwelling in motion, Women and Men embraces and anatomizes the 1970s in New York - from experiments in the chaotic relations between the sexes to the flux of the city itself. Yet through an intricate overlay of scenes, voices, fact, and myth, this expanding fiction finds its way also across continents and into earlier and future times and indeed the Earth, to reveal connections between the most disparate lives and systems of feeling and power. At its breathing heart, it plots the fuguelike and fieldlike densities of late-twentieth-century life. McElroy rests a global vision on two people, apartment-house neighbors who never quite meet. Except, that is, in the population of others whose histories cross theirs believers and skeptics; lovers, friends, and hermits; children, parents, grandparents, avatars, and, apparently, angels. For Women and Men shows how the families through which we pass let one person's experience belong to that of many, so that we throw light on each other as if these kinships were refracted lives so real as to be reincarnate. A mirror of manners, the book is also a meditation on the languages, rich, ludicrous, exact, and also American, in which we try to grasp the world we're in. Along the kindred axes of separation and intimacy Women and Men extends the great line of twentieth-century innovative fiction.
Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. But Christopher Wright boldly maintains that mission is bigger than that--there is in fact a missional basis for the Bible! The entire Bible is generated by and is all about God's mission. He provides a missional hermeneutic in response to this claim.
New from Best-Selling Author John Piper From Genesis to Revelation, the providence of God directs the entire course of redemptive history. Providence is "God's purposeful sovereignty." Its extent reaches down to the flight of electrons, up to the movements of galaxies, and into the heart of man. Its nature is wise and just and good. And its goal is the Christ-exalting glorification of God through the gladness of a redeemed people in a new world. Drawing on a lifetime of theological reflection, biblical study, and practical ministry, pastor and author John Piper leads us on a stunning tour of the sightings of God's providence—from Genesis to Revelation—to discover the allencompassing reality of God's purposeful sovereignty over all of creation and all of history. Piper invites us to experience the profound effects of knowing the God of all-pervasive providence: the intensifying of true worship, the solidifying of wavering conviction, the strengthening of embattled faith, the toughening of joyful courage, and the advance of God's mission in this world.
Only the most naïve or tendentious among us would deny the extent and intensity of suffering in the world. Can one hold, consistently with the common view of suffering in the world, that there is an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God? This book argues that one can. Wandering in Darkness first presents the moral psychology and value theory within which one typical traditional theodicy, namely, that of Thomas Aquinas, is embedded. It explicates Aquinas's account of the good for human beings, including the nature of love and union among persons. Eleonore Stump also makes use of developments in neurobiology and developmental psychology to illuminate the nature of such union. Stump then turns to an examination of narratives. In a methodological section focused on epistemological issues, the book uses recent research involving autism spectrum disorder to argue that some philosophical problems are best considered in the context of narratives. Using the methodology argued for, the book gives detailed, innovative exegeses of the stories of Job, Samson, Abraham and Isaac, and Mary of Bethany. In the context of these stories and against the backdrop of Aquinas's other views, Stump presents Aquinas's own theodicy, and shows that Aquinas's theodicy gives a powerful explanation for God's allowing suffering. She concludes by arguing that this explanation constitutes a consistent and cogent defense for the problem of suffering.
Explorations of how midrash originated and how it is still used today are presented in a study that offers new translations and interpretations of more than twenty midrash texts.
The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man: Comprehending a Complete Body of Divinity by Herman Witsius, first published in 1803, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.
