Liz Hoare's list of twelve great spiritual writers includes famous and lesser known women whose writings have touched her heart, illuminated her mind, and sharpened her spiritual vision. Liz believes they can do the same for you - which is why she has written this book. Each of these great writers - novelists, poets, preachers, philosophers and theologians - contributes something special to our understanding of the spiritual life today. With key extracts from each writer's best-loved books, and with suggestions for personal reflection or group discussion, here is an exceptionally rich resource that you will want to return to time and time again, wherever you may be on your journey.

A Crisis Is a Privileged Time to Be Alive

Times of disaster are unavoidable. We don’t get to choose whether or not to live in such times. We can only choose what to do with the time that we live. Will we let fear and darkness overwhelm us, or will we choose to shine the light of hope?

In HOPE in Any Crisis, pastor and best-selling author Bill Johnson reveals the powerful divine protection offered to you as a believer, three responses you can experience in times of uncertainty, and your responsibility to have hope in all things. You’ll discover the following:

• Kingdom solutions that bring hope in times of crisis
• How to stay sane in the midst of craziness and bring peace to a fearful world
• How to rest in God’s protection as you pray the authority of Scripture

As Christians, we have the answers the world is looking for, and times of crisis give us the opportunity to show them just how good God is.

After reading this book, you will find rest in the safety of God’s protection and be inspired to share His peace and comfort with others who are gripped by fear during uncertain times.

The Confessions, Proslogion, and Consolation of Philosophy, like the Divine Comedy, all enact Platonist ascents. Each has a pilgrim figure, guided dialogically on a journey of understanding. Each rises to progressively higher levels of understanding and culminates in a supreme intellectual vision. The higher levels contain and surpass earlier understandings and thereby reconfigure them, but implicitly, for the questing pilgrim rarely stops to reflect on the stages of his ascent. Augustine's conclusions about time in book 11, for example, embrace memory as ""time past,"" but he does not reconsider his account of memory in book 10 from this new perspective. He leaves this task for his reader's meditation, as a spiritual exercise. In this way, a Platonist ascent generates implied meditative meanings, which scholars have explored only in part. Each work calls us to read forward, on its journey of understanding, and to meditate backwards on the stages of the ascent and the relations between them. Augustine, Anselm, Boethius, and Dante wrote for readers experienced in meditating on the Bible, adept at exploring relations between far distant passages. They designed these works as spiritual exercises for the same kind of reading and meditation. Understanding the Medieval Meditative Ascent uses literary analysis to discover new philosophical meanings in these works. Clearly written in nontechnical language, its account of their literary structures and of the hidden meanings they generate will inform nonspecialist and specialist alike.

WHAT NOW?

When the World Stops is a timely yet timeless message for God’s people that provides
practical tools for not only weathering this current crisis, but emerging from it with a
strengthened faith and deeper appreciation for the things that matter most. Like a
reassuring hand on your shoulder, Dr. Michael L. Brown helps point the way forward
for those seeking answers to questions like:

• Is this pandemic the final plague talked about in the Book of Revelation?
• Are we indeed in the final days before Jesus’ return?
• Who or what sent the virus?
• How do I balance my family’s needs with the faith to live for Christ in crisis?
• Should we submit to the government’s guidelines?
• How can I steward my health in a biblical way?

Dr. Brown brings biblically sound and clear answers for staying healthy, living with
wisdom, and maintaining your faith. As we move forward with wisdom in the power of
the Holy Spirit, we must understand that "the darkness is the divine setup for the
light. The sickness is the divine setup for the healing. The current crisis is the divine
setup for the church to arise and shine and make a difference. We must seize this
moment before it passes. We must milk it to the full, for the glory of God. Does your
heart bear witness to my words?"

This book will help you see how you can be the hands and feet of Jesus during
this world's dark hour. It provides a God-calibrated compass for the turbulent
uncharted waters we find ourselves in and sifts through the dizzying array of
information regarding this current crisis, separating fact from fiction, prudence
from pandemonium and faith from fear.

'Prayers & Promises for Men' incorporates more than 70 themes to help you receive inspiration found in the promises of God's Word. Uplifting prayers offer the opportunity for deeper reflection. By staying connected to God, and believing the promises of his Word, you can live a fulfilling, blessed life in close relationship with God.

Large Church Pastor and Bestselling Author Offers Keys to a God-Centered Life
After several bestselling books and more than 25 years of ministry in Hawaii, Wayne Cordeiro knows how to touch the hearts of Christians. Too often people can get distracted by various programs and unimportant details of the faith, but in this book Wayne places the focus directly on drawing near to Jesus. And from that core focus, all other aspects of life will fall into place.
Filled with encouragement, stories, and practical guidelines, this book will help believers simplify their walks with the Lord a welcome message for readers looking for simplicity and peace in their anxious, overscheduled lives. Includes a built-in study guide for individuals and small groups.

As recent events have unfolded, not only America but the entire world has been brought to the precipice of the most challenging moments of our lifetimes. But while these times seem unprecedented and unchartered to us, they are not to God. Much like He said to Joshua and the children of Israel standing on the edge of the Promised Land, God now says to us: “You have never been this way before” (Josh.3:4). God’s word is tender, challenging, and scary. God knows where we’ve been and where we are going. As we cope with extraordinary new outbreaks of disease, racism, and cultural upheaval, we have been forced to recognize that we are not prepared for this. Nobody is.

Yet there is hope. In this timely message, trusted theologian R. T. Kendall helps you navigate the way forward by exploring how God led His people in the past. Along the way, he answers questions such as:

• Where is God in all this?
• What do Christians have to offer the rest of the world during these times?
• Did the devil cause these things? Did God cause them?
• If God allowed these things to happen, then why?

Just like today’s Christians, the people of great faith listed in Hebrews 11 had to grapple with things that had not been encountered before. They needed unprecedented faith to accomplish God’s purpose in unprecedented times. Join R. T. Kendall on this journey to understand what God is saying to His people in this critical hour, the ways He has already equipped you to face these uncertainties, and how to know His plan for your future.

This book will help you understand what God is saying to us during this time of uncertainty and change.

Using the biblical idea of pilgrimage, Sally Welch walks alongside us as leader and guide, but also fellow traveller, to explore how we can understand this biblical principle and make it our own. This book is divided into sections of a journey, beginning with the preparations necessary before setting out, exploring the obstacles which might be put in our path and sharing ways in which the journey can be made easier and more productive. At the end of each reflection there is a suggestion for an activity or prayer to enable the reader to apply the learning to their own life.

God did not create men to be nice boys. He created us to live a life of passion, freedom and adventure. To be dangerous men living in a really big story.

God designed men to be powerful. Simply look at the dreams and desires written in the heart of every boy: to be a hero, a warrior, to love a beauty, to live a life of adventure.

But sometime between boyhood and the struggles of yesterday, most men lose heart. All those passions, dreams, and desires get buried under deadlines, pressures, and disappointments. Christianity feels irrelevant to the recovery of their heart. No wonder most men leads lives of quiet resignation, meanwhile looking for a little “life” on the side. In this provocative book, Eldredge invites men to wholeheartedness by

• recovering their true masculine hearts;
• healing the wounds and trauma in their stories; and
• delighting in the strength and wildness they were created to offer the world.

In this updated and expanded edition of the timeless, bestselling classic, John Eldredge calls men―and the women who love them―to discover the true secret of a man’s soul and embrace the danger, passion, and freedom God intended for every man.

""Grace. ""It's what we crave most when our guilt is exposed. It's the very thing we are hesitant to extend when we are confronted with the guilt of others--especially when their guilt has robbed us of something we consider valuable."""

"Therein is the struggle, the struggle for grace. It's this struggle that makes grace more story than doctrine. It's the struggle that reminds us that grace is bigger than compassion or forgiveness. That struggle is the context for both. When we are on the receiving end, grace is refreshing. When it is required of us, it is often disturbing. But when correctly applied, it seems to solve just about everything. This struggle is not new; it has been going on since the beginning.""

"--Andy Stanley"

We find in the pages of Scripture that the stories found there often mirror our own stories, and that we too need the very thing we do not deserve: "the grace of God."

From the beginning, the church has had an uneasy relationship with grace. The gravitational pull is always toward graceless religion. The odd thing is that when you read the New Testament, the only thing Jesus stood against consistently was graceless religion. The only group he attacked relentlessly was graceless religious leaders.

Even now as you think about grace, there might be a little voice in your head whispering, ""It can't be that easy ""

"What about obedience?"

"What about disobedience?"

"What about repeated misbehavior?"

"What about bad habits?"

"What about justice?"

"What about repentance?"

It's this tension that makes grace so slippery. But that's the beauty and the truth of grace. We don't deserve it. We can't earn it. It can't be qualified. But God gives it to us anyway because he loves us unconditionally.

The story of grace is your story. And as you are about to discover grace plays a larger role than you imagine.

This work lays out the theoretical background to Saint Thomas Aquinas' spirituality. It shows that his theology is clearly oriented towards contemplation and is as deeply spiritual as it is doctrinal. The text quotes often from Thomas' own texts and presents a clear understanding of Aquinas' views on nature, the person, human society, politics, and our ultimate end in communion with God and one another. It makes apparent why the Catholic Church thinks of Aquinas not only as a great Christian intellectual, but also as a saint.

From best-selling author and theologian R. T. Kendall...

Will you continue to sit back and take sides?

This book will help you unite the power of the Holy Spirit with the knowledge of God's
Word, and anticipate a last-days revival because of this union.

In October 1992 while pastoring Westminster Chapel in London, England, R. T. Kendall
organized a conference around a series of sermons prophetically describing what God
may have in store for His people in these last days. The series proclaimed an
outpouring much deeper than anything we have ever experienced—an awakening not
based on feelings or emotions but inspired through the irrevocable truth of God's
Word, fulfilled through the conviction and direction of the Holy Spirit.

In Word and Spirit best-selling author and theologian R. T. Kendall challenges your
traditions, emotions, convictions, and maybe even your faith. Kendall shares his vision
of the future—of a holy unity of the Word and the Spirit that leads to a last-days
revival.

There are those who live their spiritual lives by biblical explanation only. Meanwhile,
others base their theological dispositions on “signs and wonders” characterized by the
Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. In this exciting and controversial book R. T.
revives his original messages, adding new insights into what they mean for us today
and revealing everything we need to know about the coming move of God.

First published in 1937, Letters by a Modern Mystic is a compilation of excerpts from letters Christian missionary Frank C. Laubach wrote to his father. Within them, Laubach shares his findings of the greatest experiment of his life: attempting to live in moment-by-moment communication with God. Short, simple and extraordinarily powerful, this little book offers a profoundly challenging but life-changing way of living. Laubach's letters are thoughtful and honest, documenting his failings and struggles with this spiritual discipline - but also showing the joy, wonder and transformation he experienced by connecting with God and living in communion with him every minute of the day. Easy to read and full of wisdom, Letters by a Modern Mystic is essential reading for anyone seeking to deepen their connection with God or wanting to make their spiritual formation part of their everyday life. With a foreword by Pete Grieg show its continued relevance for today, it will challenge you to see that it is possible to live in communion with God in every moment and change the way you approach your faith. Included at the back of this book is 'The Game with Minutes', the practical guide Laubach developed to assist others in applying the principles and spiritual practices in his letters. It is a game that has transformed countless lives - and it is time for a new generation to play.

Would it surprise you to know that Joanna Gaines, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Oprah, Jerry Seinfeld, C. S. Lewis, Max Lucado, and Meryl Streep are all introverts? Even though introverts make up half the population, most people still don't fully understand what it means to be one. Research shows the qualities introverts may see as struggles can be their greatest strengths. Introverts don't need to act more like extroverts to thrive, lead, and make a difference. Instead, they need to truly understand who God created them to be so they can avoid pitfalls like insecurity or anxiety and bravely offer their gifts to the world. In this transformative book, Holley Gerth dives into the brain science behind introversion to help you understand the psychological, relational, and spiritual aspects of being an introvert. She explores how introverts can make meaningful connections, experience quiet confidence, cultivate soul-filling solitude, exercise unexpected influence, and much more. If you're an introvert, or if you love, lead, or share life with an introvert, you need this empowering, insightful book!