Good News of Great Joy by John Piper invites Christians to make Jesus the center of the Advent season through 25 devotional readings.

"If prayer is so important, why is it so difficult?" Starting from this universal question, Neil T. Anderson, bestselling author of The Bondage Breaker, explores how readers can intimately connect with their loving heavenly Father, looking at the confidence believers can have in taking their struggles before God-and in interceding for others their release from bondage and the freedom they gain to walk in the Spirit the gracious way God leads them to love Him, not His blessings Liberating Prayer emphasizes the life-changing truth that prayer is relationship, not ritual-and that as already-accepted children, believers are free to be honest with their Father. End-of-chapter questions are ideal for group study and help readers immediately apply what they've learned in their own prayer lives. Based on material previously released in Praying by the Power of the Spirit.

This is a popular introduction, aimed at general readers, to prayer and the spiritual life in the tradition of Ignatius Loyola. A deep prayer life is not just something for mystics or religious specialists. It's for everyone, and everyone has a capacity for it. There is a great thirst for spiritual depth among Christians and seekers. This is a popular introduction to prayer and the spiritual life - a guide for Lent and the rest of the year - in the tradition of Ignatius Loyola. Simmonds also explores Ignatian influence on the life of the seventeenth-century Yorkshire woman, Mary Ward. The Ignatian tradition is hugely adaptable to different approaches. At its heart is personal encounter with Jesus, so The Way of Ignatius will help people to pray with the Scriptures in an imaginative way. It includes questions to aid reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter, and also looks at the way in which the Passion and resurrection of Jesus are woven into the patterns of human life.

Looking for a special card to give to your loved ones this Christmas? These cards are crafted with you in mind. Simple, special, personal and plainspoken - with their beautiful designs, these cards do all the talking. In packs of 10, sustainably sourced. Comes in 2 designs, featuring festive foliage with golden 'O Holy Night' text and 'Glory to the Newborn King' in red over an icy white and red flowery backdrop.

In a culture that prizes keeping one's options open, making commitments offers something more valuable. The consumerism and instant gratification of "liquid modernity" feed a general reluctance to make commitments, a refusal to be pinned down for the long term. Consider the decline of three forms of commitment that involve giving up options: marriage, military service, and monastic life. Yet increasing numbers of people question whether unprecedented freedom might be leading to less flourishing, not more. They are dissatisfied with an atomized way of life that offers endless choices of goods, services, and experiences but undermines ties of solidarity and mutuality. They yearn for more heroic virtues, more sacrificial commitments, more comprehensive visions of the individual and common good. It turns out that the American Founders were right: the Creator did endow us with an unalienable right of liberty. But he has endowed us with something else as well, a gift that is equally unalienable: desire for unreserved commitment of all we have and are. Our liberty is given us so that we in turn can freely dedicate ourselves to something greater. Ultimately, to take a leap of commitment, even without knowing where one will land, is the way to a happiness worth everything. On this theme: - Lydia S. Dugdale asks what happened to the Hippocratic Oath in modern medicine. - Caitrin Keiper looks at competing vows in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. - Kelsey Osgood, an Orthodox Jew, asks why lifestyle discipline is admired in sports but not religion. - Wendell Berry says being on the side of love does not allow one to have enemies. - Phil Christman spoofs the New York Times Vows column. - Andreas Knapp tells why he chose poverty. - Norann Voll recounts the places a vow of obedience took her. - Carino Hodder says chastity is for everyone, not just nuns. - Dori Moody revisits her grandparents' broken but faithful marriage. - Randall Gauger, a Bruderhof pastor, finds that lifelong vows make faithfulness possible. - King-Ho Leung looks at vows, oaths, promises, and covenants in the Bible. Also in the issue: - A young Black pastor reads Clarence Jordan today. - Activists discuss the pro-life movement after Roe and Dobbs. - Children learn from King Arthur, Robin Hood, and the occasional cowboy. - Original poetry by Ned Balbo - Reviews of Montgomery and Bikle's What Your Food Ate, Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man, and Bonnie Kristian's Untrustworthy - A profile of Sadhu Sundar Singh Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Exploring how the Bible may be appropriately used in practical and public theology, this book looks at types of modern practical theology with specific emphasis on the use of the Bible. Bennett juxtaposes the diversity of modern practical theology with the work of leading nineteenth-century public 'theologian', John Ruskin, and then assesses the contribution of this analysis to some modern issues of public importance in which the Bible is used. The final chapter offers a framework for a biblically informed critical practical theology which draws on the writer's experience and invites the readers to engage their own.

Most Christians have experienced the "laundry list" phase of spiritual life, in which praying means giving God an agenda of needs to handle. But how do you move to having real conversation with God? How do you hear what God is saying back to you? How can you make your experience of God's presence part of everyday life? In this six-session LifeGuide(R) Bible Study, Jan Johnson covers the disciplines of prayer and of practicing God's presence. Going deeper in these areas will help you to draw closer to God in everything you do. For over three decades LifeGuide Bible Studies have provided solid biblical content and raised thought-provoking questions--making for a one-of-a-kind Bible study experience for individuals and groups. This series has more than 130 titles on Old and New Testament books, character studies, and topical studies.

You want a vibrant, empowering connection with Jesus and this book will point the way. Whether youre launching or rebooting your secret place, lay down the essential building blocks that will give your prayer life longevity. Take the 20/20 challengedevote 20 minutes a day to prayer for 20 days. Discover the delight of an abiding relationship with Jesus and launch a prayer habit that will continue to grow all your days.

* Hopeful and uplifting in tone * Understands prayer as something which is actively 'lived' rather than as something 'set apart'

This is a sequel to two highly successful collections of short songs ("Come All You People" and "There Is One Among Us") for use in worship. Here the net is thrown wider with material from AIDs-ridden communities in the developing world side by side with recent products from the Wild Goose Resource Group. It is an ideal collection for small choirs, social justice enthusiasts, multiculturalists and all who regard themselves a global Christian.

Lent is not about giving up or taking up, but a radical opening up: the opening up of our lives to God's transformative kingdom. That is the challenge Trystan Owain Hughes sets in Opening Our Lives. Through practical daily devotions he calls on us to open our eyes to God's presence, our ears to his call, our hearts to his love, our ways to his will, our actions to his compassion and our pain to his peace.

Guidance for Leaders Seeking a Richer Way to Employ Worship Music Worship expert Constance Cherry offers comprehensive guidance to Christian leaders seeking a deeper, richer way to employ worship music in engaging ways for twenty-first-century worshipers. Following Cherry's successful book The Worship Architect, this work helps Christian leaders think theologically and act pastorally about worship music in their churches. It addresses larger issues beyond the surface struggles of musical styles and provides tools to critically evaluate worship songs. The book is applicable to all Christian traditions and worship styles and is well suited to both the classroom and the local church. Each chapter concludes with suggested practical exercises, recommended reading, and basic vocabulary terms.

This book offers a systematic, chronological analysis of the role played by the human senses in experiencing pilgrimage and sacred places, past and present. It thus addresses two major gaps in the existing literature, by providing a broad historical narrative against which patterns of continuity and change can be more meaningfully discussed, and focusing on the central, but curiously neglected, area of the core dynamics of pilgrim experience. Bringing together the still-developing fields of Pilgrimage Studies and Sensory Studies in a historically framed conversation, this interdisciplinary study traces the dynamics of pilgrimage and engagement with holy places from the beginnings of the Judaeo-Christian tradition to the resurgence of interest evident in twenty-first century England. Perspectives from a wide range of disciplines, from history to neuroscience, are used to examine themes including sacred sites in the Bible and Early Church; pilgrimage and holy places in early and later medieval England; the impact of the English Reformation; revival of pilgrimage and sacred places during the nineteenth and twentieth Centuries; and the emergence of modern place-centred, popular 'spirituality'. Addressing the resurgence of pilgrimage and its persistent link to the attachment of meaning to place, this book will be a key reference for scholars of Pilgrimage Studies, History of Religion, Religious Studies, Sensory Studies, Medieval Studies, and Early Modern Studies.

`It is strange that we can spend a lifetime sitting through church services and actually not really pray. I had spent years doing just that.' When Mary Kissell committed to getting up early every morning to spend time in prayer, she began a practice that would revolutionise her life. Daily developing her relationship with God, she grew in intimacy with the Holy Spirit and discovered how He speaks in whispers, glimpses and nudges - simple leadings that can have the profoundest outcomes. This rich and moving memoir tells the incredible story of how simply following the Holy Spirit's leading saw countless people impacted around the world and the most heart-rending situations transformed. Allow Mary's story of walking with the Holy Spirit inspire and encourage you to do the same, whatever season of life you are in.

Reconciling Christians offers 40 biblically-based meditations, with questions for reflection, for use at weekly gatherings (6 weeks) or for everyday devotion during Lent.

Claim your prophetic promise in the midst of the storm!

What do you do when you receive a promise from the Lord but it doesn’t come to pass? How do you get from promise to fulfillment?

When Ryan Johnson’s mother was diagnosed with cancer, God took him on a revelatory journey, showing him how prophetic promises are realized. In the midst of her grim diagnosis, Ryan’s mother was having recurring dreams of playing with her adult grandchildren. These dreams were prophetic signposts that the diagnosis would not be a death sentence. This gave Ryan faith to press into God for answers and contend for a miracle. Now his mother is healed and cancer free! During this process, the Holy Spirit revealed keys to activating faith and seeing promises come to pass, even when it seems like the situation is hopeless.

How to Contend for Your Miracle will show you how to…

• Use the dreams, visions, and prophetic words that God gives as anchors for your faith and weapons against the enemy.
• Activate the gift of faith to accelerate the fulfillment of your prophetic promises.
• Thrive in the midst of your struggle by standing on the Word of God.
  

Rise up! Contend for your miracle, so all of God’s promises can come to pass!