What would you do for twenty-four hours if the only criteria were to pursue your deepest joy?

Dan Allender's lyrical book about the Sabbath expels the myriad myths about this "day of rest," starting with the one that paints the Sabbath as a day of forced quiet, spiritual exercises, and religious devotion and attendance. This, he says, is at odds with the ancient tradition of Sabbath as a day of delight for both body and soul. Instead, the only way we can make use of the Sabbath is to see God's original intent for the day with new eyes. In "Sabbath," Allender builds a case for delight by looking at this day as a festival that celebrates God's re-creative, redemptive love using four components:

Sensual glory and beautyRitualCommunal feastingPlayfulness

Now you can experience the delight of the Sabbath as you never have before--a day in which you receive and extend reconciliation, peace, abundance, and joy.

The Ancient Practices

There is a hunger in every human heart for connection, primitive and raw, to God. To satisfy it, many are beginning to explore traditional spiritual disciplines used for centuries . . . everything from fixed-hour prayer to fasting to sincere observance of the Sabbath. Compelling and readable, the Ancient Practices series is for every spiritual sojourner, for every Christian seeker who wants more.

If we're honest, most of us feel bored, distracted, or discouraged in prayer. We look for resources to give us the "right" words or teach us the "right" technique and are disappointed when they don't seem to help. What we fail to realize is that prayer isn't a place for us to be good or right, and it isn't a place for us to perform or prove our worth. It's a place for us to be honest, present, and known--a place for us to offer ourselves and receive God. Spiritual formation experts Kyle Strobel and John Coe want to show you what you've been missing when it comes to prayer. In this down-to-earth book, they show you how to fearlessly draw near to a holy God, pray without ceasing (and without posturing), and delight in the experience of being fully known and fully loved. Each chapter ends with prayer projects or practices to help you see a difference in your prayer life, starting now.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Every person has a mission and a God-given potential to impact the world, whether they recognize it or not. But the stuff of life—the loss of a job, the death of a friend or a loved one, the inability to focus due to bad moods or self-sabotaging tendencies — presents challenges and traps us in a helpless, hopeless loop of anxiety and fear.

These are the kinds of things we face that turn on the dark for any thoughts of a future.

In this book bestselling author and pastor Levi Lusko gives a step-by-step process to take back your life, which includes

• a new introduction and perspective from Pastor Levi
• stories and testimonies from those whose lives have been changed by his messages, and
• an action plan with journaling space to turn your thoughts into real change.

With a unique blend of message and practical tools, using themes and teachings from his bestselling Through the Eyes of a Lion and the more recent I Declare War, Lusko gives readers an interactive forty-day journey of learning how to think right so they can live right.

This ESV Prayer Journal will guide you in a study on peace over 6 weeks, leading you to write and pray about finding peace with God, other people, and within our own hearts and minds.

God has a more effective prayer life for you than you ever dreamed possible. Let this volume be your open door to wonderful answers to prayer. Here is your personal guide to a life of mighty prevailing prayer. Let this book speak to your heart, take you to your knees, and help you obtain prayer answers in difficult and resistant situations. Evangelist Leonard Ravenhill calls it an encyclopedia you will want to read and refer to again and again. The evangelical church is guilty of the sin of prayerlessness. Wesley Duewel has provided exactly what we need: a biblically sound exposition of prevailing prayer and practical suggestions for ways to prevail in prayer.

Outreach 2022 Recommended Resource (Spiritual Growth) All fruitful doing must begin with being. For many Christians, it's easy to be swept up into the fast pace of modern life, desiring to do much for God. But we struggle to slow down and be with God. According to pastor, Enneagram teacher, and author AJ Sherrill, being with God is what empowers doing for God. Sherrill shares his own journey from "busy" Christianity to the ancient paths of contemplative practices. He equips readers to integrate rhythms of stillness, silence, and solitude, offering step-by-step guidance and examples of finding solitude both personally and on retreats. Sherrill warns that making these changes appears absurd in a society where time is money, productivity is central, and hurry is a way of life. He guides readers gently through the beginning and often confusing stages of contemplative practice. Citing timely insights from the world of neurology and mental health, he shows that solitude is crucial not only for Christian growth but also for holistic flourishing. Foreword by Rich Villodas. Readers will emerge, centered in Christ, well on their way to this goal: slow down, pay attention, be still, and be loved.

Online churches are Internet-based Christian communities, pursuing worship, discussion, friendship, support, proselytization, and other key religious goals through computer-mediated communication. The first examples appeared in the mid-1980s, but this genre of online activity has been revolutionized over the last decade by considerable institutional investment and the rise of new low-cost social media platforms. Hundreds of thousands of people are now involved with online congregations, generating new kinds of ritual, leadership, and community as well as new networks of global influence.

Creating Church Online is the first large-scale sociological investigation of this area, offering a significant and timely advance in the study of religion, media, and culture. Five ethnographic case studies are presented, based primarily in the UK, USA, and Australasia, providing levels of detail, scope, and variety previously unexplored by researchers in this field. Comparative analysis of these case studies demonstrates the emergence of intriguing new hybrids of digital, local, and institutional religion, reflecting major shifts in contemporary patterns of religious commitment. Author Tim Hutchings constructs a rich account of the culture and practice of five online churches, emphasizing worship, leadership, and community and the relationship between online and everyday life. Through such in-depth analysis, this book explores the significance and impact of online churchgoing in the religious and social lives of participants, as well as the relationship between online and everyday life, in search of a new theoretical framework to map religious users engagement with new media."

Praise for Windows of the Soul Every once in a while a book comes along that makes you stop and think-and then think some more-like Ken Gire's wonderful book Windows of the Soul. -John Trent in Christian Parenting Today Ken Gire has created a book that gently pours forth, like water out of a garden bucket, cleansing our thoughts and opening the petals of our spirits, providing us with a new sense of clarity in our search for God. -Manhattan (KS) Mercury Each word, each phrase, is painstakingly wrought, loaded with thoughts and prayer, and filled with new glimpses of God's love, grace, and strength. -The Christian Advocate Windows of the Soul will surprise you with the many and varied windows God uses to speak to us. With the heart of an artist, Ken Gire paints word pictures in prose and poetry that will thrill your heart. -Mature Living Windows of the Soul is a rare book, resounding with the cry for communion that is both ours and God's. With passion, honesty, and beauty, Ken Gire calls us to a fresh sensitivity to God's voice speaking through the unexpected parables that surround us. -Christian Courier

This fun little book, containing 200 fantastic facts about the Christmas season as well as 90 illustrations, will delight readers everywhere this Christmas.

Incredible stories and the inspiration behind the most popular Christmas songs, including Jingle Bells, Mary, Did You Know?, The First Noel, O Holy Night, Silver Bells, and White Christmas. Ringing along with the chimes in Silver Bells. Laughing along with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Holding a candle while singing a chorus of Silent Night. The songs that you've sung since you were a child continue to bring Christmas to life each year. Now, you'll learn how your favorite Christmas songs came to be. Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas reveals the surprising and fascinating origins of secular and religious Christmas hits. Here are spiritual insights, heartwarming stories, and tales of the humble men and women of decades past who wrote what remain the most beloved Christmas songs today. Discover how: Iconic artists such as Judy Garland and Nat King Cole were influenced and inspired to record instant classics like Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and The Christmas Song. God-inspired words given to an unlikely musician became Mary, Did You Know? One of the oldest Christmas songs still sung today, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, changed from a hymn sung in Latin only in Catholic masses to a carol embraced by every Christian denomination in the world. The songs of Christmas reveal the true joy to be found in the celebration of Christ's birth and the spirit of the season that is anticipated each year all over the world. These stories will warm your heart and bring extra significance to the carols you sing each December.

"At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Genesis 4:26 ESV). From this first mention of prayer in the Bible, right through to the end, when the church prays "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20), prayer is intimately linked with the gospel?God's promised and provided solution to the problem of human rebellion against him and its consequences. After defining prayer simply as "calling on the name of the Lord," Gary Millar follows the contours of the Bible's teaching on prayer. His conviction is that even careful readers can often overlook significant material because it is deeply embedded in narrative or poetic passages where the main emphases lie elsewhere. Millar's initial focus is on how "calling on the name of the Lord" to deliver on his covenantal promises is the foundation for all that the Old Testament says about prayer. Moving to the New Testament, he shows how this is redefined by Jesus himself, and how, after his death and resurrection, the apostles understood "praying in the name of Jesus" to be the equivalent new covenant expression. Throughout the Bible, prayer is to be primarily understood as asking God to deliver on what he has already promised?as Calvin expressed it, "through the gospel our hearts are trained to call on God's name" (Institutes 3.20.1). This New Studies in Biblical Theology volume concludes his valuable study with an afterword offering pointers to application to the life of the church today. Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

Written as the First World War was finally drawing to a close, A. Clutton-Brock's reflections on the Kingdom of Heaven examine this challenging theological concept in light of the great religious, political and moral uncertainties thrown up by the conflict. In particular, Clutton-Brock contends that historically Christian orthodoxy has not sufficiently emphasised the role of the Kingdom in salvation, given its importance in the ministry and teaching of Christ. To preserve a religious vision capable of interacting with the modern, industrial world, Christian orthodoxy must carefully consider the scope and importance of political practice, the role of the individual in the realisation of the Kingdom, and the profound implications of reconciling the facts of the universe with the most sincerely held beliefs.

'We are the Beloved. We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children and friends loved or wounded us. That's the truth of our lives. That's the truth I want you to claim for yourself. That's the truth spoken by the voice that says, "You are my Beloved."' - Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved Henri Nouwen, priest, professor and writer, devoted much of his later ministry to emphasising the singular concept of our identity as the Beloved of God. In an interview, he said that he believed the central moment in Jesus' public ministry to be his baptism in the Jordan, when Jesus heard the affirmation, 'You are my beloved son on whom my favour rests.' 'That is the core experience of Jesus,' Nouwen writes. 'He is reminded in a deep, deep way of who he is ... I think his whole life is continually claiming that identity in the midst of everything.' You Are Beloved is a daily devotional created from the very best of Nouwen's writings, paired with daily Scripture readings, that reveals our identity as children of God, and which encourages us to live out that truth in our daily lives. Nouwen is at once refreshingly accessible, unafraid to wrestle with challenging questions, and above all an encouraging and sympathetic voice along the way.

William Wey, fifteenth-century Devon priest, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and Bursar of Eton College, made three pilgrimages between 1456 and 1462 - to Compostella, Rome and the Holy Land. Prompted by his friends to write an account of these pilgrimages, he describes in vivid detail his travels through seas patrolled by Turkish galleys across Europe which at that time was embroiled in turmoil from local conflicts. The complete text of his narrative has never before been translated into modern English. For students of this period, which bridges the medieval and early modern worlds, Wey's account adds a new dimension to the phenomenon of pilgrimage. He himself is an attractive and intriguing person of many talents, practical, adventurous and highly observant, and eminently resourceful. While waiting for the pilgrim galley to sail to Jaffa, for example, Wey spent over a month in Venice and gives a colourful account of that city in its heyday. His biblical knowledge is formidable and his use of sources exact and apposite. He provides practical and homely advice on kit, conduct and currency. He also includes comparative English, Latin, Greek and Hebrew vocabularies, gazetteers of places, roads and distances, and two poems. Medieval pilgrim accounts are relatively rare and The Itineraries provides a fascinating insight into travel, religious faith and the topography of fifteenth-century Europe and beyond.

Everyone experiences difficult seasons in life. Loss, pain, anxiety, and frustration can lead to discouragement and sometimes a feeling of hopelessness. 'Fear Not: Prayers & Promises for Difficult Times' incorporates more than 70 themes to help you find the assurance you need in the promises of God's Word. Uplifting prayers offer an opportunity for deeper reflection and connection with your heavenly Father. By staying connected to God, and believing the promises of his Word, you can live a fulfilling, blessed life in spite of your challenging circumstances.