Why I Believe


D. James Kennedy - 1980
    For new believers and seasoned Christians alike, this book will strengthen their faith by answering that all consuming question, "Why?"

Diamond Mind: Psychology Of Meditation


Rob Nairn - 1999
    With clarity and humour he guides us to understand how we ourselves generate the clouds of anxiety, desire and anger that obscure our happiness. We learn to recognise these obscurations, how they came about and how to release and dissolve them. The innate wisdom and brilliance of the mind then naturally manifest. The title contains guidelines and practices for meditators.

Happily (N)ever After: Essays That Will Heal Your Broken Heart


Thought Catalog - 2016
    When your heart breaks, there's nothing more comforting than realizing that you aren't alone—that others can relate to the gut-wrenching pain of saying good-bye to a relationship that once felt so right. Each of us is bound to enter into a relationship or two that doesn't work out, but that doesn't make those months or years spent caring for an ex a total failure. Every heartbreak is a chance to learn, grow, and heal.

Facing the Music: My Story


Jennifer Knapp - 2014
    This is her story: of coming to Christ, of building a career, of admitting who she is, and of how her faith remained strong through it all.At the top of her career in the Christian music industry, Jennifer Knapp quit. A few years later, she publicly revealed she is gay. A media frenzy ensued, and many of her former fans were angry with what they saw as turning her back on God. But through it all, she held on to the truth that had guided her from the beginning.In this memoir, she finally tells her story: of her troubled childhood, the love of music that pulled her through, her dramatic conversion to Christianity, her rise to stardom, her abrupt departure from Christian Contemporary Music, her years of trying to come to terms with her sexual orientation, and her return to music and Nashville in 2010, when she came out publicly for the first time. She also talks about the importance of her faith, and despite the many who claim she can no longer call herself a believer, she maintains that she is both gay and a Christian.Now an advocate for LGBT issues in the church, Jennifer has witnessed heartbreaking struggles as churches wrestle with issues of homosexuality and faith. This engrossing, inspiring memoir will help people understand her story and to believe in their own stories, whatever they may be.

Eye of the Heart: A Spiritual Journey into the Imaginal Realm


Cynthia Bourgeault - 2020
    It is invisible to the physical eye, but clearly perceptible through the eye of the heart. The imaginal realm has long been associated with the personal world of dreams, prophecy, and oracles, and it also points toward a higher vision of our human purpose that is both evolutionary and collective. Bourgeault explores both aspects of imaginal reality and shows readers how we can cooperate more fully with its guidance in our lives.Expertly blending her own lived experiences with research on the imaginal realm, Bourgeault explores how her personal relationships have helped to bring these teachings into sharper focus and the role this realm plays in Christian and other mystical traditions. She delves into the connections between our inner consciousness and what happens in the world, exploring the transformative energy and governing conventions that make the manifestation of this realm possible. Eye of the Heart presents Bourgeault's spiritual journey with the imaginal realm and encourages readers to attune their hearts for the well-being of the world.

Becoming Amish: A family's search for faith, community and purpose


Jeff Smith - 2016
    No more architectural or medical careers. Instead, the Mosers drew close with their children, built pallets for money, wore homemade clothes, and bonded with people of their Amish faith and community. Here, in Becoming Amish, they offer a modern couple's honest perspective on that separate and seemingly cloistered world, a perspective that is uniquely insider and outsider at the same time.The Mosers' journey is rich and fascinating all on its own as we learn about the inner workings of the Amish faith, ways and culture—what their church services are like, how their businesses succeed at such a high rate, how they are so remarkably connected on a human scale (without Facebook!), how they balance technology in their lives, and more.But though the couple's decision can seem extreme, it can also serve as a mirror that helps us reflect upon our own choices, our own beliefs and values. If we were to be as intentional about our lives, how would we realign our choices big and small to achieve a fulfilling life?Becoming Amish rounds out the Mosers' tale with interviews, vignettes, and information that adds context, perspective and insight into the Amish community. The reader learns of a startlingly violent book—published in 1660—that is central to this pacifist people’s belief and is in nearly every Amish home. The reader visits a “plain” community in the hills of Kentucky—a community that lives even more simply than most Amish—to discuss “the whys” of a low-technology life and faith. The reader contemplates an interview with the Lutheran minister who helped lead the Supreme Court case back in 1972 that allowed the Amish to pull their children from public school after 8th grade—what compelled him to do that? becomingamish@gmail.com.

The Inheritance of Shame


Peter Gajdics - 2017
    Kept with other patients in a cult-like home in British Columbia, Canada, Gajdics was under the authority of a dominating, rogue psychiatrist who controlled his patients, in part, by creating and exploiting a false sense of family. Juxtaposed against his parents’ tormented past — his mother’s incarceration and escape from a communist concentration camp in post-World War II Yugoslavia, and his father’s upbringing as an orphan in war-torn Hungary — Gajdics’ story explores the universal themes of childhood trauma, oppression, and intergenerational pain. Told over a period of decades, the book shows us the damaging repercussions of conversion therapy and reminds us that resilience, compassion, and the courage to speak the truth exist within us all.

Praying the Rosary Step-by-Step


Rita Bogna - 2013
    It is undoubtedly the most popular and common Marian devotion due to its simplicity, the ease with which it can be learnt and the profound and sublime character of its prayers and meditations.The Rosary has been variously described as “an epitome of the Old Testament,” “an abridgement of the New Testament,” “a compendium of the Gospel,” “the Breviary of the laity,” “the catechism of youth,” “a beautiful system of popular theology,” “an inexhaustible book of meditation for our greatest theologians” and “a whole badge of Christian piety.””Apart from the Eucharist and other Sacraments of the Church, the Rosary is probably the most powerful means of sanctification. It is a key to the most intimate knowledge of Jesus and Mary, and is an effective way to attain to the perfection of Christian charity.As Blessed Pope John Paul II pointed out in his great Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, published at the beginning of the Year of the Rosary in October 2002, “to recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.”As the title suggests, this book is a step-by-step guide to praying the Rosary. The layout of a standard Rosary bead set is imitated, so that each section of the Rosary begins on a new page. The active Table of Contents contains hyperlinks to every prayer in the book.The Introduction includes sections on the origins of the Rosary, the Rosary today, Our Lady's 15 promises, the prayers of the Rosary, and how to pray the Rosary. In addition to the complete Rosary, the book contains the Angelus, the Memorare of Saint Bernard, the Magnificat and the Thirty Days Prayer for obtaining graces, an Act of Consecration to Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, the Prayer to Saint Joseph for the October devotions, and the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel.The Bibliography contains an extensive list of Papal Encyclicals related to the Rosary. Clicking on the title of an encyclical will open a web browser and take the reader directly to the official English text of the Encyclical on the Vatican web site.Interest in the Rosary has been rekindled since Blessed Pope John Paul II proposed the addition of a new decade comprised of the five 'Mysteries of Light' which he described as “a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus.”In addition to the traditional Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries, the Luminous Mysteries (which have never been officially incorporated into the Rosary) have been included in this book for those who like to recite them.To supply a scriptural foundation and greater depth to the meditations on each mystery, suitable Bible passages are provided before the commencement of each decade.The Biblical texts chosen by the author refer not only to the subject-matter of the particular mystery, but also to the spiritual grace which the mystery is believed to confer. The spiritual grace is specified, as is the day on which the subject-matter of the mystery is commemorated by the Church.To give the user's meditation even further depth, and to help focus his or her attention on the mysteries of the Rosary, the beautiful woodcut engravings of Gustave Doré which were made for the English translation of the Bible of 1866 are included to illustrate the mysteries.As Sister Lucia of Fatima said, "There is no problem ... no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.

Found Art: Discovering Beauty in Foreign Places


Leeana Tankersley - 2009
    After a whirlwind courtship, a move across the world, and the unexpectedly difficult re-entry from a year overseas, Leeana finds her life (and her soul) has been changed forever.With an artist’s eye, Tankersley uses each chapter to piece together moments and memories from her journey—a handwritten note from Kuwait, a braid of fringe from a Persian rug, an original poem, a bit of basting thread, a swatch of black silk from a borrowed abaya, a mesquite leaf, a Navy SEAL trident, a receipt from the Russian-Georgian restaurant on Louisiana Street—to create a work of unexpected beauty.Found art emerges … a literary collage created from salvaged stories of loss, hope, and belief that just might change your soul, too.

The Control Freak: Coping with Those Around You. Taming the One Within.


Les Parrott III - 2000
    Forceful. Impatient. Always in a hurry. And they're usually ready to tell others how to do their jobs "better." Control freaks. Maybe you know one. Maybe you are one. What are you to do? Psychologist Les Parrott (a recovering control freak) helps readers relate better to the control freaks around them. And if you are a control freak, Les will help you become willing to lose the control you love. The book includes self-tests and a lifelong prescription for healthier relationships.

Finding Faith in the Dark: When the Story of Your Life Takes a Turn You Didn’t Plan


Laurie Polich Short - 2014
    And more than helping you find your way out, this book will help you find your way through that place.

Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free


Linda Kay Klein - 2018
    Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls—resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—and trapped them in a cycle of shame. This is the sex education Linda Kay Klein grew up with. Fearing being marked a Jezebel, Klein broke up with her high school boyfriend because she thought God told her to, and took pregnancy tests though she was a virgin, terrified that any sexual activity would be punished with an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. When the youth pastor of her church was convicted of sexual enticement of a twelve-year-old girl, Klein began to question the purity-based sexual ethic. She contacted young women she knew, asking if they were coping with the same shame-induced issues she was. These intimate conversations developed into a twelve-year quest that took her across the country and into the lives of women raised in similar religious communities—a journey that facilitated her own healing and led her to churches that are seeking a new way to reconcile sexuality and spirituality. Sexual shame is by no means confined to evangelical culture; Pure is a powerful wake-up call about our society’s subjugation of women.

I Know His Name: Discovering Power in the Names of God (InScribed Collection)


Wendy Blight - 2016
    This study is for any woman who wants to move beyond simply knowing about God to really knowing God in a very personal way. Join Wendy as she teaches how the very names of God reveal His character and heart.This study will help women to:  Realize their infinite worth as they explore the nature of the God who created and formed them.  Live with bold assurance that their God is a personal God who sees them, hears them, and knows them by name.  Walk confidently in knowing both who they are and Whose they are.  Arm themselves with seven tools to pray more confidently and effectively in any situation or circumstance.  Transform their walk with Jesus as they discover how He fulfills the Old Testament names of God. This book includes biblical and historical background insights, practical application, and a memory verse for each chapter. The study may be completed individually or with a small group. Chapters Include: Elohim: The One Who Created You El Roi: The One Who Sees You Jehovah Nissi: The One Who Stands Guard Over You Jehovah Rapha: The One Who Heals You More Magnificent Names Can be used alone or with I Know His Name: A DVD Study (9780310089018).Inscribed is a collection of Bible studies that lead women to not just survive but thrive by encouraging them to immerse themselves in the Word of God.

Cheats, Cons, Swindles, and Tricks


Brian Brushwood - 2000
    As seen on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (twice!) as well as 2 dozen other TV programs, Brian's now the host of the popular online series "Scam School," (downloaded over 1 million times a month, and named by iTunes as a "top video podcast" of 2008 and 2009). ...And THIS is the book that started it all.With 57 killer tricks (and 8 bonus scams), any one of these tricks could win you the cost of a free drink or more... and yet your investment will be LESS THAN 2 CENTS PER TRICK!Short enough to digest in an evening, yet powerful enough to score you free drinks for the rest of your life... "Cheats, Cons, Swindles and Tricks" could be the single best investment of 99 cents you'll ever make.

As The Days of Noah Were: The Sons of God and The Coming Apocalypse


Dante Fortson - 2010
    During our journey we will explore stories from Babylon, Greece, Ireland, Ethiopia, and various other cultures to fill in the missing pieces to one of the biggest mysteries on our planet. This 2nd Edition includes 40+ hours of additional audio and video content for your enjoyment. Make sure you download a free QR code scanner for your smart phone or tablet so you can take full advantage of the features in this book.