Powerful and Free: Confronting the Glass Ceiling for Women in the Church


Danny Silk - 2012
    Nursery Worker B. Children's leader C. Pastor D. It's complicated If you are like most your answer would be, "It's complicated". Many believers are still confused about the proper place for women in the church. Powerful and Free is a call to address the structural message of inequality.It is not a theological treatise on the biblical case for female leaders (there are many excellent resources for this already). It is not a political program to implement some kind of affirmative action in our leadership teams, because that doesn't work. Rather, it is an appeal to the hearts of men and women to recognize the existence of the glass ceiling for women and to challenge themselves to align more fully with a Kingdom vision for gender-blind leadership in the Body and equal male-female partnership in the home.

Fear and Trembling


Søren Kierkegaard - 1843
    He is regarded as a leading pioneer of existentialism and one of the greatest philosophers of the 19th Century.In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard wanted to understand the anxiety that must have been present in Abraham when God commanded him to offer his son as a human sacrifice. Abraham had a choice to complete the task or to forget it. He resigned himself to the loss of his son, acting according to his faith. In other words, one must be willing to give up all his or her earthly possessions in infinite resignation and must also be willing to give up whatever it is that he or she loves more than God. Abraham had passed the test -- his love for God proved greater than anything else in him. And because a good and just Creator would not want a father to kill his son, God intervened at the last moment to prevent the sacrifice.

It's Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered


Lysa TerKeurst - 2018
    Some events may simply catch us off guard for a moment, but others shatter us completely. We feel disappointed and disillusioned, and we quietly start to wonder about the reality of God’s goodness.Lysa TerKeurst understands this deeply. But she's also discovered that our disappointments can be the divine appointments our souls need to radically encounter God. In It's Not Supposed to Be This Way, Lysa invites us into her own journey of faith and, with grit, vulnerability, and honest humor, helps us to:* Stop being pulled into the anxiety of disappointment by discovering how to better process unmet expectations and other painful situations.* Train ourselves to recognize the three strategies of the enemy so we can stand strong and persevere through unsettling relationships and uncertain outcomes.* Discover the secret of being steadfast and not panicking when God actually does give us more than we can handle.* Shift our suspicion that God is cruel or unfair to the biblical assurance that God is protecting and preparing us.* Know how to encourage a friend and help her navigate hard realities with real help from God's truth.

Read Me or Rue It


Paul O'Sullivan - 1936
    Francis de Sales). However, we can begin today to make good this neglect by using the powerful spiritual means described in this inspiring book. In Read Me or Rue It the very popular priest writer, Fr. Paul O'Sullivan, tells many true stories about the Poor Souls in Purgatory. He relates incidents from the lives of the Saints to show their great sufferings, our obligation to help them, as well as the many helps and graces which they obtain for their benefactors in return. This already-famous little book needs to be spread far and wide. It will lead to a powerful link between ourselves and the "Church Suffering," our brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer the torments of Purgatory - a powerful bond of charity whereby we shall please God, send souls to Heaven, and obtain for ourselves and our families a host of priceless graces and blessings.Don't miss the companion booklet, "How to Avoid Purgatory": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...