With Open Hands, Henri Nouwen's first book on spirituality and a treasured introduction to prayer, has been a perennial favorite for over thirty years because it gently encourages an open, trusting stance toward God and offers insight to the components of prayer: silence, acceptance, hope, compassion, and prophetic criticism. Provocative questions invite reflection and self-awareness, while simple and beautiful prayers provide comfort, peace, and reassurance. With more than half a million copies printed in seven languages, this spiritual classic has been reissued for a new generation with moving photography and a foreword by Sue Monk Kidd.
Born a slave in Georgia in 1818, Bridget "Biddy" Mason learned to survive in a harsh world. Taken from her parents as a young child, Biddy grew up to be self-reliant and hard working. When she and her children finally found freedom in California in 1855, she turned her nursing skills into a successful career as a midwife. Even after she became a wealthy landowner in Los Angeles, Biddy never forgot her basic philosophy of sharing with others: "The open hand is blessed," she always said, "for it gives in abundance, even as it receives."
Discover how yielding ourselves wholly to God, especially in the midst of challenging circumstances, lends new purpose to our lives. “Vivian Mabuni is a kind and trustworthy guide through one of adulthood’s secrets: life doesn’t go like you thought it would.”—Jen Hatmaker, New York Times best-selling author of For the Love and Of Mess and Moxie As women after God’s heart, we honestly desire to please God. We want to be used by Him and to experience the peace and fulfillment He wants for us. Yet it’s all too easy to fall into living mechanically, with a rule-based approach to the Christian life, or to focus on getting what we want when we want it. Even when we want to be willing, saying yes to whatever God asks often feels scary, and the distractions of this world get in the way. Vivian Mabuni knows this all too well, but she’s discovered that open-handed living starts with an intentional posture of the heart. Through surrender to His will, we draw closer to God in a way that makes our day-to-day lives more purposeful, powerful, and pleasing to Him. With Vivian’s warm encouragement in Open Hands, Willing Heart, you’ll learn how to step out in courageous trust as you invite God to give and take—and move and work—in your life as He sees fit. Along the way you’ll discover true joy and serenity that will carry you through every circumstance.
Any Christian response to today s ever-growing problem of poverty around the globe must be firmly rooted in the teaching of the Bible. While books on various aspects of wealth and poverty in the Old and New Testaments have been published, so far there has been no thorough study of Old Testament law on the topic. David Baker argues here that an understanding of that law is not only fundamental for interpreting the entire Old Testament but is also assumed by the writers of the New Testament. Tight Fists or Open Hands? fills this gap in Old Testament scholarship and lays a foundation for considering the relevance of these laws to everyday life in the twenty-first century. / The heart of this book is a study of all the Old Testament concerned with wealth and poverty. Baker groups these laws together by topic, considering the similarities and differences between the Decalogue, Book of the Covenant, Holiness Code, and Deuteronomic Laws. He places these in the wider context of ancient Near Eastern law in order to make clear which attitudes are distinctively biblical. / Each section of Tight Fists or Open Hands? includes an extended conclusion that summarizes the main ideas, considers relationships with other biblical texts, and points to the significance of the laws for today s world. Baker s combination of thorough exegesis and modern application makes this book relevant to pastors, scholars, and students in a variety of courses.
Along the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers, the archaeological remains of earthen pyramids, plazas, large communities, and works of art and artifacts testify to Native American civilizations that thrived there between 3000 B.C. and A.D. 1500. This fascinating book presents exciting new information on the art and cultures of these ancient peoples and features hundreds of gorgeous photographs of important artworks, artifacts, and ritual objects excavated from Amerindian archaeological sites. Drawing on excavation findings and extensive research, the contributors to the book document a succession of distinct ancient populations in the pre-Columbian world of the American Midwest and Southeast. A team of interdisciplinary scholars examines the connections between archaeological remains of different regions and the themes, forms, and rituals that continue in specific tribes of today. The book also includes the personal reflections of contemporary Native Americans who discuss their perspectives on the significance of the fascinating and beautiful prehistoric artifacts as well as their own cultural practices today.
In Open Wound, Open Heart, Open Hands, author Leta H. Montague uses the lives of some biblical personalities to discuss the issues of hurts and wounds in relationship moving toward healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation. It is a refreshing perspective that interposes personal vignettes with biblical truths, demonstrating that God can use the hurts and wounds to call, prepare, and transform people for use in his kingdom.
Closed Wounds Open Hands invites you to wrestle like Jacob—body and soul—with a God who wins. Ushering you into her personal story at a tender age, Kerri recounts the fall that left her face down in the mire of disordered eating. Disillusioned and ashamed, she hid her wounded soul behind hand-spun veils of control, avoidance, and doubt. It would take a season rife with physical struggle to rediscover a saviour whose own painful trials rendered the veil torn. More than just a compelling memoir, Closed Wounds Open Hands will raise the tumultuous seas of failure, hardship, and loss in your own life and lead you on dry ground towards a God whose goodness and power cannot be overshadowed by circumstance.
A tour de force of life on a journey with Jesus. By all means, take this journey if you can.—Chuck Colson, Founder, Prison Fellowship With our society’s sometimes unfavorable view of Christians, it is all the more important that believers display what Dr. David Jeremiah calls signs of life — signs that Jesus has transformed us and that we are committed to Him and His kingdom. They are signs that ought to be detected from across the street, over the fence, down the hall, throughout the office, or in the pews, for it’s not enough to just talk about Jesus. It’s also not enough to serve Him in secret with our acts of private devotion. We have to display the lifestyle of the Nazarene in the midst of a corrupt and darkened culture. In a world starved for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, honesty, relevance, and compassion, Christians should specialize in exactly those things through public expressions of private faith. It’s by our smile, our compassion in the face of misfortune, our friendliness, our simple lifestyle, our willingness to commit random acts of kindness, our social ministries, our tears, and our words that unbelievers recognize Who we represent. Signs of Life will lead you on a journey to a fuller understanding of the marks that identify you as a Christian. Signs that will advertise your faith. Personal imprints that can impact souls for eternity and help you become a person of influence who radiates relevancy, authenticity, generosity, and compassion every day — just like Jesus did.
Build basic skills through sign language with special-education learners in grades PK–K using Sing, Sign, and Learn! This 64-page resource teaches more than 230 American Sign Language signs through 25 songs. Build language and literacy skills and motivate young learners through their desire for constant movement while providing an atmosphere of play and fun. The book supports NCTE and NAEYC standards.
In this volume, the Gardners and their co-workers explore the continuity between human behavior and the rest of animal behavior and find no barriers to be broken, no chasms to be bridged, only unknown territory to be charted and fresh discoveries to be made. With the beginning of Project Washoe in 1966, sign language studies of chimpanzees opened up a new field of scientific inquiry by providing a new tool for looking at the nature of language and intelligence and the relation between human and nonhuman intelligence. Here, the pioneers in this field review the unique procedures that they developed and the extensive body of evidence accumulated over the years. This close look at what the chimpanzees have actually done and said under rigorous laboratory conditions is the best answer to the heated controversies that have been generated by this line of research among ethologists, psychologists, anthropologists, linguists, and philosophers.
