Believe me, my friends, it takes long years, too, and much training from God and from Christ, the King of kings, to make a nation. Everything which is most precious and great is also most slow in growing, and so is a nation. The Scripture compares it everywhere to a tree; and as the tree grows, a people must grow, from small beginnings, perhaps from a single family, increasing on, according to the fixed laws of God's world, for years and hundreds of years, till it becomes a mighty nation, with one Lord, one faith, one work, one Spirit.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

In this 3 series of Unspoken Sermons, George MacDonald states his theological views and among other things. The work itself is a Christian classic spoken of highly by C.S. Lewis. In his introduction to George MacDonald: An Anthology, C. S. Lewis wrote of MacDonald's theology: "This collection, as I have said, was designed not to revive MacDonald's literary reputation but to spread his religious teaching. Hence most of my extracts are taken from the three volumes of "Unspoken Sermons." My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another: and nearly all serious inquirers to whom I have introduced it acknowledge that it has given them great help-sometimes indispensable help toward the very acceptance of the Christian faith." Never one to shy away from a difficulty, MacDonald explores some of the most challenging and perplexing passages in the Gospels, each time rising to newer heights in his elucidation of the mysteries of Gods Love.

The Day I Met God is a collection of unique, powerful stories told by Americans with one thing in common. Young and old, rich and poor, famous and infamous -- they were all searching for something to fill a void in their lives, and they all found it in a personal, life-changing encounter with God. Their amazing stories show how God used the circumstances of their lives -- good, bad, and worse -- to arrange a meeting with Himself. Through miraculous visions, quiet revelations, life and death situations, or gentle persuasion, these people met God, and He filled their empty hearts with freedom, joy, and hope.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Have you ever wondered why some biblical characters act the way they do? How could Joseph forgive his brothers after they sold him into slavery? What gave Mary the courage to say "yes" to God when she might have been stoned to death? Fascinating people of faith emerge from the pages of scripture, telling tales of faith and doubt, healing and hope. For years, the Rev. Dr. Sally Stevens Smith has been bringing them to life for congregations in first person story/sermons. The sermons in Voices from the Story are based directly on biblical texts, supplemented by scholarship, faith and imagination. Dr. Smith enters the stories of the characters and relates their feelings and experiences to ours. We share Cain's pain when God rejects his gift, and remember how rejection can affect us. We rejoice when the bent woman stands up straight after 18 years, and think of ways people are bent over today. Though the inhabitants of the Bible lived long ago and far away, they share our humanity. Like them, we wonder what God is doing in this aching world. Like them, we ask how we can be healed and what it means to live in faith. This book invites you to step into the biblical story and discover that it is your own.

In every stage of life, we are in search of truth. We want to know what life is about and how to get a handle on it. This book is designed to offer help from the Bible to enlighten us on important issues in life and transform our character. Leader's Guide and Student's Workbook available.

I Saw a Man is the journey of Vera Mills' search for God after being left motherless at 11 months old. Near death at the age of 5, Vera sees a man enter her room. Who is the man and why is she miraculously healed? She sees this man many times until at 18, in astounding detail, she is introduced to him by her deceased mother. Her unwavering and dedicated walk with her Lord is manifested by visions, healings, and gentle stirrings from the Holy Spirit. The stories unfold as her life's puzzle intricately woven with the Holy Scriptures to confirm what she has seen.

Will main line churches disappear within twenty five to forty years as religious authorities now predict? What is behind this crisis so suddenly facing religious communities? Why does the chance of survival of religion decline as a nation becomes more highly developed? An historian, not a theologian, examines the political/religious environment in which the Gospels were written. Within that environment, why were they written? What was the motive of each writer? How did they write? How did the political/religious environment determine their different approaches to their Gospels? What were readers in that environment supposed to discover when reading those versions? Were there any clues? In a clear jargon-free exposition Can Religion Survive Worship clarifies the difference between worshiping the messenger and studying the message. If rituals, processes, and procedures are put aside, what is to become of churches and clergy that have existed primarily to preside over those rituals, processes, and procedures? What, if any, will then be the vehicle carrying the message? Warren Hickman has thrown down the gauntlet. It needs to be picked up?

The Baha'i Children's Workbook is designed to assist children to learn about essential Baha'i teachings and community life. The workbook supports children's growing understanding and love of the Baha'i Faith through child-oriented learning activities that exercise reading, writing, math, drawing, coloring, and geography skills, along with other fun stuff like mazes, connect-the-dots, and riddles. With ten thematic sections, more than 140 exercises and an answer key included, parents and teachers of Baha'i children's classes will find The Baha'i Children's Workbook a comprehensive, flexible and child-friendly resource for introductory Baha'i education.

While many pastors and ministry leaders desire to increase their congregation's participation in missions, many lack the knowledge or management tools to do it effectively. This book will expand your vision and help give you the confidence to fully participate in Kingdom work. You will be equipped to: Make better ministry decisions with clarity and objectivity. Develop and define ministry vision, purpose, goals and results. Create standards of excellence that reflect God's high ideals. Discover God's special purpose for your church or missions program. Increase awareness, inspire enthusiasm and encourage volunteer commitment. Foster a team environment of mutual respect, responsibility and accountability. Because this book: Provides simple, yet proven and effective examples of ministry guidelines. Shows missions teams how to flexibly respond to changes on the missions field. Outlines techniques to improve communication between church ministries. Provides specific examples of how to increase missions funding & involvement. Instructs churches and teams how to make plans, set goals and define success. By combining the gifts God has given you with proven tools and methods, you will become a more effective leader and your ministry teams will be more successful, enabling you to be both faithful and fruitful.

We now pick up our story by returning to the Bible and the book of Genesis. 16:3 and Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 16:11 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. 16:12 and he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand will be against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. It should be noted at this point that Ishmael was the firstborn son of Abraham. Borne to him by his WIFE Hagar. This is a very important fact which is usually overlooked in the reading of the Bible. We will now advance 13 years to the circumstances of the more noted second son. Again in Genesis we read; 17:15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 17:16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her .

This book is a step by step guide of how to study the Bible. You begin with a look at how the sequence of events and the background context determines the main lesson God intends for the passage. Next you learn how to find additional passages about any Bible subject and how to find the root meaning of them. The last part of this seminar shows you how all physical, mental, spiritual things can be understood and determined by three simple principles, and ends on how to apply the Bible to your daily life. Anyone can study and learn from the Bible even if they have had very little education.

An Introductory Christian Vocation Discovery Program and Process

Just outside downtown Newark, New Jersey, sits an abbey and school. For more than 150 years Benedictine monks have lived, worked, and prayed on High Street, a once-grand thoroughfare that became Newark's Skid Row and a focal point of the 1967 riots. St. Benedict's today has become a model of a successful inner-city school, with 95 percent of its graduates-mainly African American and Latino boys-going on to college. Miracle on High Street is the story of how the monks of St. Benedict's transformed their venerable yet outdated school to become a thriving part of the community that helped save a faltering city. In the 1960s, after a trinity of woes-massive deindustrialization, high-speed suburbanization, and racial violence-caused an exodus from Newark, St. Benedict's struggled to remain open. Enrollment in general dwindled, and fewer students enrolled from the surrounding community. The monks watched the violence of the 1967 riots from the school's rooftop along High Street. In the riot's aftermath more families fled what some called "the worst city in America." The school closed in 1972, in what seemed to be just another funeral for an urban Catholic school. A few monks, inspired by the Benedictine virtues of stability and adaptability, reopened St. Benedict's only one year later with a bare-bones staff . Their new mission was to bring to young African American and Latino males the same opportunities that German and Irish immigrants had had 150 years before. More than thirty years later, St. Benedict's is one of the most unusual schools in the country. Its remarkable success shows that American education can bridge the achievement gap between white and black, as well as that between rich and poor. The story of St. Benedict's is about an institution's rise and fall, resurrection and renaissance. It also provides valuable insights into American religious, immigration, educational, and metropolitan history. By staying true to their historical values amid a continually changing city, the downtown monks, in resurrecting its prep school, helped save an American city. Some have even called it the miracle on High Street.

Drawing on more than 30 Church source documents, this full-color book outlines six major themes that form the heart of the Church's teaching regarding faith, parents, and Catholic schools.

"Things You Should Know Before & After Becoming a Minister" is a financial manual written exclusively for Ministers and Church Officials. It covers the information Ministers and Church Officials need to know and it is updated annually

Section one of this International Handbook attends to the philosophical and theoretical aspects of inter-religious education. The authors who contribute to this section critique current religious educational practice and offer skills, information and criteria for theory building in the area of inter-religious education. Among the contributors to this section of the International Handbook, one is from the United Kingdom, five are from the Untied Statures of America, two from Africa, and there is one contributor from each of Canada, Latvia and Norway. Two contributors are from the Jewish tradition, one from Islam, one from Orthodox Christianity and the others from a range of different Christian orientations. Their theories and philosophies of inter-religious education are informed by a range of perspectives including human rights, feminist theory and the perspective of Jewish-Christian and inter-religious dialogue.

Section two deals with religious education for inter-religious engagement. The body of scholarship contained in this section argues that religious education needs to provide an empathetic understanding of people, their histories and contexts, and the role of religion in their lives. Of the thirteen scholars who will contribute to this section, one is from the United States of America, two are from Ireland, two are from the United Kingdom, two from Canada and the remaining are from Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Israel, Australia and India. Much of this section draws on recent empirical research and it covers such diverse topics as fundamentalism and ecumenism, critical reflexivity, dialogue between Judaism and Islam, Islamic values and the role of Buddhism in promoting inter-religious education.

Section three analyses the connection between inter-religious education and the promotion of social justice and peace. Indeed a concern for justice and peace is common to all religions and can be the focus of inter-religious education. Among the scholars who will contribute to this section, four are Australian, two are German, and the remaining are from Norway, the United Kingdom, India, the Netherlands and Mumbai. Motifs in this section of the International Handbook cover suffering as a lens for understanding the history of religions, inter-religious tolerance, fundamentalism and fanaticism, peace education, theology and the role and critique of all of these in inter-religious education for social justice and peace.

Section four Inter-religious education for citizenship and human rights brings together a number of religious educators, expert theorists, empirical researchers and those working in international educational policy to examine the role of inter-religious education in promoting citizenship and human rights. Scholars will contribute to this section from Switzerland, England, Australia, France, Finland, Russia, Norway, the United States of America, Germany, Sweden and Japan. The chapters in this section will cover the specifically religious dimensions of policy and practice in human rights and citizenship and will draw on the policies and works of international bodies such as UNESCO as well as providing more local perspectives.

HEROES: GREAT CHARACTERS OF THE BIBLE is a series of forty-five Bible based lessons that can be adapted to any age level or any size study group. It focuses on such topics as: * Service * Salvation * Recovering from doubt * Maintaining victory * Gratitude * Worship * Faithfulness * Loyalty * Duty * And a host of other life applications Character studies from both the Old and New Testament are used. Familiar and less familiar Bible characters comprise "Heroes: Great Characters of the Bible."

Towards a Philosophy of Education is the sixth volume of Charlotte Mason's six part homeschooling series, a series that is considered one of the finest ever written on education. Towards a Philosophy of Education gives the best overview of Mason's teaching philosophy. Written years after she was able to see her teaching methods in action she is able to give further examples and directions. Mason's method of education shows its strength through its widespread use today by private schools and homeschooling families. It is flexible and includes first-hand exposure to ideas through books in art, music, and poetry, nature observation as the primary means of early science teaching, use of manipulatives and real-life application to understand mathematical concepts and learning to reason, rather than rote memorization, and an emphasis on character and on cultivating and maintaining good personal habits. The complete collection of Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series includes: Volume 1 - Home Education Volume 2 - Parents and Children Volume 3 - School Education Volume 4 - Ourselves Volume 5 - Formation Of Character Volume 6 - Towards A Philosophy of Education

Fingerprints of God is drawn from the author's experience during 50 years of parish ministry to a broad spectrum of worshippers, from teen-agers to senior citizens, from farmers to physicists, from blue collar workers to PhDs. All shared a common hunger to know God as an eternal reality in a world of change and pursued a quest to find reasons for faith. Evidence for the presence of God can be found in history, human experience and in Holy Scripture. Fingerprints of God relates contemporary situations to biblical precedents and personalities from Genesis to Revelation in search of Truth. The author follows the footsteps of others who found the "fingerprints" of God's hand in their lives. With illustrations from literature, biography, and his own personal experience, he shares insights of pastors and teachers who guided his own faith journey. The reader follows the foibles and faith of Old Testament characters leading to the person and work of Jesus Christ, "the finger of God" among us (Luke 11:20). The significance of his life and death and resurrection as the foundation for our faith are the focus of the concluding chapters. The author makes no claim to be profound or prophetic. Each chapter is a simple attempt to answer some question or address a current issue or need in the life of ordinary people. None of the featured topics purport to be "the last word" on the subject under consideration. Like the words and works of Jesus, much more could be said which is "not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:30-31.