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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Religious & spiritual
Succeeding Ronald Blythe's Word From Wormingford, one of the most
beloved columns in contemporary journalism, was always going to be
a formidable challenge for any writer. Yet the new occupier of the
back page slot of the Church Times, the priest-poet Malcolm Guite,
immediately gained the affections and loyalty of a discerning
audience accustomed to literary excellence. His lucid, perceptive
and imaginative musings follow a similar pattern to the sonnets for
which he is so renowned. In his own words, he treats these 500 word
essays 'a little in the spirit of the sonnet, with a sense of
development, of a 'turn' or volta part way through, and a sense
that the end revisits and re-reads the opening'. These draw
together everyday events and encounters, landscape, journeys,
poetry, stories, memory and a sense of the sacred, and fuses them
to create richly satisfying portraits of the familiar that at the
same time opens a doorway in to a new and enchanted world.
Seven Letters To Heaven - Award-Winning Finalist in the "
Spirituality: Inspirational" category of The USA "Best Books 2011"
Awards. Author Felicita Terry Robinson found herself at a spiritual
crossroads as she was faced with the daunting task of uprooting
herself and her family from their native Jamaica. For her, writing
her prayers down gave her a sense of solace and the strength to
accomplish her goals.
In her new book, Seven Letters to Heaven A True Story of Faith
and Answered Prayers (published by iUniverse), Robinson shares with
readers seven of 21 personal letters of prayer she wrote as a way
of communicating to God to seek His help with the small day-to-day
problems she was experiencing. After looking back on her letters,
she realized that not only were her prayers answered, her faith was
also strengthened, leading her to wanting to share her experience
with others. I have always felt that there was something missing
that I needed to so spiritually other than being a good Christian,
said Robinson. I realized that the actual publishing of my personal
letters was the missing piece that I needed, not only to help
others, but in order to help me grow spiritually.
Taking place during the last four months Robinson was in Jamaica
prior to relocating to the U.S., Seven Letters to Heaven is about
the trials and tribulations that came as a result of leaving home
to start a new life, and the problems inherent with moving from one
country to another. The book focuses on Robinson s written letters
of prayers to God, sharing her day-to-day problems as well as poems
and biblical quotations, and finding peace through her powerful
faith. The story behind Seven Letters to Heaven is a simple one;
however the message is very powerful. This book will take readers
on a walk of faith that shows God can truly become a real friend to
anyone and most importantly, He does answer prayers, in His own
way, in His own time and at His own will. Review Comment by Rev.
Basil Aguzie, MSP follows:
"Faith, hope and courage are virtues every Christian on a
spiritual journey with God must have. Seven Letters to Heaven
confirms this. This book is not just about communicating with God
through letter writing but also, it is a spiritual process of
seeking God in one s situation and recognizing His hands at work in
one s life; firstly in the means by which God answers one s
prayers, and secondly the times when He actually does so. What is
remarkable about this book is that it not only serves as a guide,
but also an easy to read spiritual companion. This is why I would
recommend it to anyone searching for a deeper intimacy with
God."
I was hospitalized for six days. After Dr. Michael Friedman, M.D.,
F.A.C.S., my urologist, studied the test and he said that I had a
bladder infection, cyst on my kidneys, and my prostate was enlarged
which would have to be surgically removed. The medical term is BPH
(Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy). I did not have the surgery. In a
follow-up appointment, Dr. Friedman and his nurse did a Cystoscopy.
Before finishing, he turned and asked, "What did you do? The
prostate is completely healed. It has returned to its normal size "
I answered, "I did the same as I did about my heart - I prayed " I
shared my testimony with a lady, my age and gave her a tract. When
I saw her the next month, the first thing she said was, "Mr.
Graham, I want to thank you for sharing your faith. It has truly
affected my life, and I want you to know it. Thanks. I had not read
my Bible or prayed in years, but I began doing both that day and I
continue each day." Jesus said, "whoever acknowledges me before
man, I will also acknowledge before God." Matthew 10: 32. Vicki
Caldwell had typed 80% of my original manuscript. She has worked on
it, making changes, additions, corrections etc. from the first word
to it's ending, several times. One day as I gave the last
handwritten copies of three Chapters to her, Vicki reached out and
touched my hand. Looking at me, she said, "R.C., I was born Greek
Orthodox and raised in Catholic schools, but I want you to know I
have learned more about the Bible through talking with you and
typing your manuscript than I have through my entire church life.
Thanks."
'My Confession' is Tolstoy's chronicle of his journey to faith; his
account of how he moved from despair to the possibility of living;
from unhappy existence to 'the glow and strength of life'. It
describes his spiritual and philosophical struggles up until he
leaves the Orthodox Church, convinced that humans discover truth
not by faith, but by reason. The story begins when at the age of
50, Tolstoy is in crisis. Having found no peace in art, science or
philosophy, he is attacked by the black dog of despair, and
considers suicide. His past life is reappraised and found wanting;
as slowly light dawns within. 'As gradually, imperceptibly as life
had decayed in me, until I reached the impossibility of living, so
gradually I felt the glow and strength of life return to me... I
returned to a belief in God.' Here is a quest for meaning at the
close of the 19th century - a time of social, scientific and
intellectual turbulence, in which old forms were under threat.
Tolstoy looks around at both old and new alike, and like the author
of Ecclesiastes, discovers that 'All is vanity'. His spiritual
discoveries first take him into the arms of the Orthodox Church;
and then force his angry departure from it. 'My Religion' carries
on from where 'My Confession' left off. Describing himself as a
former nihilist, Tolstoy develops his attack on the church he has
left. He accuses them of hiding the true meaning of Jesus, which is
to be found in the Sermon on the Mount; and most clearly, in the
call not to resist evil. For Tolstoy, it is this command which has
been most damaged by ecclesiastical interpretation. 'Not everyone,
' he writes, 'is able to understand the mysteries of dogmatics,
homilectics, liturgics, hermeneutics, apologetics; but everyone is
able and ought to understand what Christ said to the millions of
simple and ignorant people who have lived and are living today.'
Here is Tolstoy's religion; and non-violence is at its heart.
""Robert Y. Ellis' A Collision of Truths is a beautifully written
and insightful autobiography of one man's journey of faith. Ellis
was raised a Christian Scientist but later both rejected and
appropriated many of its central beliefs. Ellis narrates the role
Christian Science played in providing balance and meaning in his
life while questioning its hostility to critical inquiry and modern
medicine. Through sensitive description of the arc of his own life,
Ellis calls his readers to re-examine their basic values and
commitments amidst the complexities of daily existence in a digital
world where knowledge increases exponentially. A genuine
achievement and must read for fellow travelers who are looking for
meaning and hope in our time.""
-Mark I. Wallace, PhD, Professor of Religion, Swarthmore College,
Author of "Finding God in the Singing Rive"r
"A man would be singularly inert if he were not to find this
account vastly tantalizing. What an extraordinary tale The way
Ellis proceeds through his life from earliest childhood on keeps a
reader wanting to know what comes next. And his prose is a blessed
relief to anyone who loves good English prose.""
-Thomas Howard, PhD, author "Christ the Tiger"
This narrative is the first to reveal one Christian Science
family's story, their faith's underpinnings and those singular
episodes that collided with Ellis' beliefs including his Christian
Science mother being treated by a beam of protons at the Harvard
University cyclotron, his father's unsolved murder in Harlem, and
the religious tensions in his childhood home that ultimately
exploded. Ellis' sometimes painful, always captivating journey will
inspire everyone being challenged by today's extraordinary
scientific discoveries which appear to leave no room for God.
Out of the generation that grew up in the Great Depression and
World War II, thousands of young Christians felt called by God to
the ends of the earth. Pauline A. Brown, with her husband Ralph,
and two other families, went to the Sindh Province in southern
Pakistan in 1954 -- their goal, to share God's message love with
Muslim Sindhis. This book is not just about North Americans abroad,
but about a fellowship of ordinary people crossing cultural and
linguistic barriers to take on the extraordinary challenge of
establishing the Church in the Sindh desert. Jars of Clay is a
story of laughter and tears, of danger and deliverance, of despair
and hope, of victory and defeat. Above all, it is a story of
perseverance in the face of great odds. The story of how the Church
of Jesus Christ, small and fragile as it is, is taking root in the
barren desert soil of Sindh in Pakistan, an Islamic Republic, is
relevant more than ever in our post 9/11 world.
THIS IS A SPIRITUAL BOOK BASED ON MY LIFE AND OBSERVATIONS, ALSO
CALLED THE 3L'S / LAW-LOVE-LIFE / OR "LLL." I HOPE / PRAY THAT THIS
HELPS ALL OF YOU AND HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS BOOK.
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