Discover new ways of connecting with God by understanding how he uniquely created you to worship him. The Sacred Pathways video study will help you learn: How you naturally express yourself in your relationship with God How to develop new ways of drawing near to him Key biblical figures who share your spiritual temperament How to understand others who connect with the Creator differently As believers in Christ, many of us today fall into the trap of thinking we have to approach God in a certain way. But our Creator made us all unique, and he designed us to connect with him in our own ways. For some, this might look like quiet contemplation. Others express praise through caregiving or theological discussions. It's important to discover the particular pathway that will best help you to experience God's presence. Bestselling author and speaker Gary Thomas reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments to give you insight into how you naturally worship and how your personal walk with God might look different from those around you. Unlike the Enneagram and other personality assessment tools, Sacred Pathways gives you tools to investigate how you naturally relate to God. You will discover the strengths and impulses in your devotional approach so that you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into scripted methods of worship and praise. There is one thing that each of us as Christians can do that nobody else can--give our personal love and affection to God. This Study Guide includes: Discussion questions, reflection questions, and a personal assessment test to discover your pathway Personal Bible study for between sessions A guide with best practices for leading groups Sessions include: The Journey of the Soul - Introduction to the Pathways Pathways of Wonder - the Naturalist, Sensate, and Traditionalist Pathways of Contemplation - the Intellectual, Ascetic, and Contemplative Pathways of Action - the Caregiver, Activist, and Enthusiast Tending the Garden of the Soul - How the Pathways Apply to Your Life Designed for use with the Sacred Pathways Video Study available on DVD or streaming video, sold separately.

A host of both very old and entirely new liturgical practices have arisen in digital mediation, from the live-streaming of worship services and "pray-as-you-go" apps, to digital prayer chapels, virtual choirs and online pilgrimages. Cyberspace now even hosts communities of faith that exist entirely online. These digitally mediated liturgical practices raise challenging questions: Are worshippers in an online chapel really a community at prayer? Do avatars that receive digital bread and wine receive communion? @ Worship proposes a nuanced response to these sometimes contentious issues, rooted in familiarity with, and sustained attention to, actual online practices. Four major thematic lines of inquiry form the structure of the book. After an introductory chapter the following chapters look at digital presence, virtual bodies, and online participation; ecclesial communities in cyberspace; digital materiality, visuality, and soundscapes; and finally the issues of sacramental mediation online. A concluding chapter brings together the insights from the previous chapters and maps a way forward for reflections on digitally mediated liturgical practices. @ Worship is the first monograph dedicated to exploring online liturgical practices that have emerged since the introduction of Web 2.0. Bringing together the scholarly tools and insights of liturgical studies, constructive theology and digital media theories, it is vital reading for scholars of Theology and Religion with as well as Sociology and Digital Culture more generally.

Jesus Calling® for Christmas is a heartwarming compilation of devotions from Sarah Young's bestselling brand. With 50 seasonally themed selections as well as high design and exquisite imagery that evokes the season, Jesus Calling® for Christmas makes a stunning addition to the Jesus Calling family of books.

Readers will enjoy devotions with select Scriptures as well as the Christmas story, Old Testament prophecies about the birth of Jesus, and lovely images with overlaid script. Whether a self-purchase to enhance readers' observation of Advent and the birth of the Christ child or a natural gift for friends and loved ones in the biggest shopping season of the year, Jesus Calling® for Christmas will be a holiday favorite for years to come.

Does the enemy have a claim on you?

Do you feel like your life is stuck in a vicious cycle? Have you been fervently praying for healing that has not manifested? Are you bound to an addiction that you can't overcome? Are you, or members of your family, caught in a generational pattern of sin and suffering?

On the cross, Jesus set us free to live a life full of peace, joy, and strength! However, in the courtrooms of the spiritual realm, the accuser brings legal claims against God's people. These charges can prevent us from securing the breakthroughs that Jesus has already purchased on our behalf.

When you pray bloodline prayers, you actively apply the power of Jesus' blood to your life!

Through bloodline prayers we can dissolve ancient spiritual covenants and claims that affect our daily lives. Praying over your bloodline will release you into truly living the life you are called to live.

Discover how to:

- Pray prayers that break the legal claims of curses off of your life and family.

- Step into the freedom and authority that the gospel makes available.

- Stop cyclical patterns of dysfunction in your family.

- Emerge into new areas of freedom and authority.

This revelatory teaching includes prayers to spiritually cleanse your bloodline. Get ready to see cycles powerfully reversed, and experience the full manifestation of Jesus' victory in your life!

"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner." These words from the Eastern Christian tradition have strengthened and comforted believers for centuries. In these pages, John Michael Talbot explores the roots of this Jesus Prayer along with the theological and practical meaning of each word for believers today. He ends each chapter with a brief practice using the prayer. Come discover how the Jesus Prayer can renew and enrich your spiritual life.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, over two thousand years ago. This event is so important that the world calculates the time of all other events based on it. But centuries before Jesus was born, the prophets of the Old Testament in the Bible spoke of his coming. In the centuries before Jesus' birth, belief in the coming of the Messiah was widely held, and these prophecies were fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Too often today the true story of Jesus' birth gets lost in the frantic Christmas sales messages that start earlier each year. "The Christmas Prophecies" was created to bring back some of the wonder that has been at the core of Christmas since its beginning. The story is told in verses quoted from the King James Bible (Authorized Version, 1769) with a modern text accompanying it and a glossary of terms that may be unfamiliar to modern readers. It is illustrated with classic paintings of the events by Raphael, Rembrandt, Del Sarto, Tintoretto, Bouguereau and many others, and case bound with full-color laminated covers.

The philosophical and theological study of aesthetics has a long and rich history, stretching back to Platos identification of ultimate goodness and beauty, together representing the eternal form. Recent trends in aesthetic theory, however, characterised by a focus on the beautiful at the expense of the good, have made it an object of suspicion in the Orthodox Church. In its place, Greek theologians have sought to emphasise philokalia as a truer theological discipline. Seeking to reverse this trend, Chrysostomos Stamoulis brings into conversation a plethora of voices, from Church fathers to contemporary poets, and from a Marxist political theorist to a literary critic. Out of this dialogue, Stamoulis builds a model for the re-appropriation of Orthodoxys patristic and Byzantine past that is no longer defined in antithesis to the Western present. The openness he proposes allows us to perceive afresh the world shot through with divinity, if only we can lift our gaze to see it. Dismantling the false dichotomy, philokalia or aesthetics, is the first step.

The date of Easter is different every year. Not only does the date change because Easter is always on a Sunday, but also because it's always the date of the first full moon after the spring equinox. That means it can be anytime between March 22 and April 25. Some people have argued that we should fix the date of Easter each year -- to the first or second Sunday in April -- so that school term dates, for example, could be consistent and predictable. This book explores the significance of keeping Easter as a movable festival. Based on his research into the importance of rhythm for human health and wellbeing, physician Walter Buhler demonstrates a profound connection between the complex rhythms of the sun and the moon and the historical events of Christ's death and resurrection. He argues that, in the same way the rhythm of day and night is reflected in waking and sleeping, celebrating Easter on a different date each year reflects the deep connection and harmony between human beings and the rhythms of the cosmos.

After resolving to become a Catholic Christian, Augustine spent a decade trying to clarify his understanding of 'contemplation,' the interior presence of God to the soul. That long struggle yielded his classic account in the Confessions. This study explores Augustine's developing understanding of contemplation, beginning with his earliest accounts written before his baptism and ending with the Confessions. Chapter One examines the pagan monotheism of the Roman Platonists and the role of contemplation in their theology. Augustine's pre-baptismal writings are then considered in Chapter Two, tracking his fundamental break from pagan Platonism. Chapter Three then turns to Augustine's developing understanding of contemplation in these pre-baptismal texts. Chapter Four concentrates on Augustine's thought during the decade after his baptism in 387, a period that encompasses his monastic life in Thagaste, and his years first as a presbyter and then as a bishop in Hippo Regius. This chapter follows the arc of Augustine's thought through these years of transition and leads into the Confessions, giving a vantage point to survey its theology of contemplation. Chapter Five concentrates on the Confessions and sets its most famous account of contemplation, the vision at Ostia from Book IX, into a larger polemical context. Augustine's defence of his transcendental reading of scripture in Confessions XII is analysed and then used to illuminate the Ostian ascent narrative. The book concludes with observations on the importance of Augustine's theology of contemplation to the emergence of Christian monotheism in late antiquity.

Advent is a time to remember and reflect on the Christmas story and the baby at its heart. But the virgin birth, the manger, the mysterious eastern visitors and their portentous gifts - all these hint at a much grander narrative. Come and explore the whole Christmas story, and find your place within it.

The Three Miraculous Prayers of King Hezekiah tells the story of the good Jewish King Hezekiah, who lived, ruled, struggled, prayed, and saw incredible miracles 2,700 years ago. King Hezekiah was a man desperate for God's help in ways that we can all relate to today. While you may not be a king-with all the benefits and troubles it brings-you probably have people who depend on you for guidance and protection. In today's world, you may find yourself unemployed, seriously ill, alone and facing great adversity, or dealing with all kinds of other troubles that seem way too big to handle on your own. In The Three Miraculous Prayers of King Hezekiah, author W. D. Crowder shares the story of King Hezekiah to illustrate how we can overcome odds that sometimes seem insurmountable in order to survive troubling times. Crowder explores how a seemingly obscure Jewish King of the tiny southern Israeli Kingdom of Judah dealt with and miraculously overcame many of the same issues that personally impact you today. The example of this good man King Hezekiah may astonish you. The Three Miraculous Prayers of King Hezekiah tells a fascinating, true story supported by the Bible and other historical records and addresses problems that are relevant to us today in these troubling times.

This book is a study of the complex nature of colonial and missionary power in Portuguese India. Written as a historical ethnography, it explores the evolving shape of a series of Catholic festivals that took place throughout the duration of Portuguese colonial rule in Goa (1510-1961), and for which the centrepiece was the 'incorrupt' corpse of Sao Francisco Xavier (1506-52), a Spanish Basque Jesuit missionary-turned-saint. Using distinct genres of source materials produced over the long duree of Portuguese colonialism, the book documents the historical and visual transformation of Xavier's corporeal ritualisation in death through six events staged at critical junctures between 1554 and 1961. Xavier's very mutability as a religious, political and cultural symbol in Portuguese India will also suggest his continuing role as a symbol of Goa's shared past (for both Catholics and Hindus) and in shaping Goa's culturally distinct representation within the larger Indian nation-state. -- .

Cancer. You hear the word and your heart stops. Unfair. Frightening. Life. Death. Fragmented thoughts ricochet around in your mind as you try to grasp this unthinkable diagnosis. How will she be able to fight it? How will I be able to help her? The diagnosis of cancer is devastating, leaving family and friends feeling helpless, wishing there was something they could do to alleviate their loved one's suffering. Thankfully, there is. Faithful Warrior offers an answer to those questions, equipping you with Scripture-based prayers for the person battling cancer. These simple yet heartfelt prayers are infused with the power of God's Word, inviting the faithful warrior to step out in belief and hope. Written to be perfectly blended with the reader's prayers and voice, the prayers focus on personal surrender and acceptance, continued hope and healing, and God's constant and abiding presence, equipping the reader with a means of tangible support while offering a deeper sense of involvement. The battle against cancer is intense, woven throughout with fear, anger, and doubt. Yet the compassionate voice of Faithful Warrior will comfort your heart and soul, arming you with strength and support during this fierce fight. Many people say, "I'll pray for you; it's the least I can do." No, Faithful Warrior, it is the most you can do. The sword is now in your hand. The question is...what will you do with it?

Cancer. You hear the word and your heart stops. Unfair. Frightening. Life. Death. Fragmented thoughts ricochet around in your mind as you try to grasp this unthinkable diagnosis. How will she be able to fight it? How will I be able to help her? The diagnosis of cancer is devastating, leaving family and friends feeling helpless, wishing there was something they could do to alleviate their loved one's suffering. Thankfully, there is. Faithful Warrior offers an answer to those questions, equipping you with Scripture-based prayers for the person battling cancer. These simple yet heartfelt prayers are infused with the power of God's Word, inviting the faithful warrior to step out in belief and hope. Written to be perfectly blended with the reader's prayers and voice, the prayers focus on personal surrender and acceptance, continued hope and healing, and God's constant and abiding presence, equipping the reader with a means of tangible support while offering a deeper sense of involvement. The battle against cancer is intense, woven throughout with fear, anger, and doubt. Yet the compassionate voice of Faithful Warrior will comfort your heart and soul, arming you with strength and support during this fierce fight. Many people say, "I'll pray for you; it's the least I can do." No, Faithful Warrior, it is the most you can do. The sword is now in your hand. The question is...what will you do with it?

Pilgrimage in the Western world is enjoying a growing popularity, perhaps more so now than at any time since the Middle Ages. The Pilgrim Journey tells the fascinating story of how pilgrimage was born and grew in antiquity, how it blossomed in the Middle Ages and faltered in subsequent centuries, only to re-emerge stronger than before in modern times. James Harpur describes the pilgrim routes and sacred destinations past and present, the men and women making the journey, the many challenges of travel, and the spiritual motivations and rewards. He also explores the traditional stages of pilgrimage, from preparation, departure, and the time on the road, to the arrival at the shrine and the return home. At the heart of pilgrimage is a spiritual longing that has existed from time immemorial. The Pilgrim Journey is both the colourful chronicle of numerous pilgrims of centuries past searching for heaven on earth, and an illuminating guide for today's spiritual traveller.