One-Minute Aquinas: The Doctor's Quick Answers to Fundamental Questions


Kevin Vost - 2014
    Thomas wrote, then turn to The One-Minute Aquinas, the fast-paced book that provides busy readers with simple, readable explanations of the truths that, for 750 years now, have caused the works of St. Thomas to be sought out by kings and popes, scholars and saints, as well as by ordinary souls like you — hungry to know God and to love him more and more.In this book’s lucid pages, author Kevin Vost gives you small, digestible portions of St. Thomas’s life-giving wisdom that you can enjoy one minute at a time. Tables and graphics will help you grasp and remember St. Thomas’s key ideas with a minimum of time and effort.Best of all, in The One-Minute Aquinas you’ll find quick, sure refutations of the countless relativistic, secular, and pseudoscientific ideas that are so influential in our culture today — and so shallow, contradictory, and wrong!Pope John Paul II declared that “the Church has been justified in consistently proposing St. Thomas as a master of thought and a model of the right way to do theology.” Now The One-Minute Aquinas enables even those with limited time and only a modest education to benefit from the wisdom of this great saint.Here, with minimal effort and among scores of other things, you’ll finally come to know and understand:--Why God permits evil--Heaven: what it is (and is not)--Five simple proofs that God exists--Why God became man--Why Jesus let himself be tempted--How you can grow quickly in virtue--Why all souls need the sacraments--Why Jesus let himself be crucified--The causes of lust--The natural law and the Commandments--The soul, free will, sin, and damnation--The angels, their ranks, and their powers--How God governs (and refrains from governing)--God’s power and its limits--The Bible: why didn’t Jesus just write it himself?--The surprising qualities of our resurrected bodies

Be Still and Know: Reflections from Living Buddha, Living Christ


Thich Nhat Hanh - 1987
    Be Still and Know uses selections from his groundbreaking work to create a handbook of meditations and reflections that reawaken our understanding of both religions--and enrich our daily lives through personal contemplation. It is an inspiration to all who embrace its universal message of peace--a profound and moving work that illuminates the world's greatest traditions of spiritual thought, written by a man who is considered by many to be a "living Buddha."

Walking with Purpose


Lisa Brenninkmeyer - 2013
    As a mother of seven, she knows we don t just need to be told what kind of women we should be. We need some help getting there.Drawing from her own experience of balancing marriage, motherhood, and work inside and outside the home, Lisa helps you uncover the key to living a busy life with inner calm. What's the secret? Identifying key priorities, and doing first what matters most. With humor and wisdom, Lisa will help you: Stop striving and rest in God's unconditional love. Experience new hope in your marriage. Reach your child's heart. Create clarity in a cluttered home. Find friendships that go below the surface and satisfy. Discover your passion and purpose. Once in awhile, things may seem as if they re under control, but we want to walk with purpose regardless of our circumstances. God wants us to daily experience the joy and contentment that comes from knowing we have given our all to what he considers most important. The abundant and purposeful life we were created to live is just around the corner.

A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey


Brian D. McLaren - 2001
    This stirring fable captures a new spirit of Christianity--where personal, daily interaction with God is more important than institutional church structures, where faith is more about a way of life than a system of belief, where being authentically good is more important than being doctrinally "right," and where one's direction is more important than one's present location. Brian McLaren's delightful account offers a wise and wondrous approach for revitalizing Christian spiritual life and Christian congregations.If you are interested in joining a discussion group devoted to a A New Kind of Christian please visit groups.yahoo.com/group/NKOC.

Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi


Amy-Jill Levine - 2014
    Life in first-century Palestine was very different from our world today, and many traditional interpretations of Jesus’ stories ignore this disparity and have often allowed anti-Semitism and misogyny to color their perspectives.In this wise, entertaining, and educational book, Amy-Jill Levine offers a fresh, timely reinterpretation of Jesus’ narratives. In Short Stories by Jesus, she analyzes these “problems with parables,” taking readers back in time to understand how their original Jewish audience understood them. Levine reveals the parables’ connections to first-century economic and agricultural life, social customs and morality, Jewish scriptures and Roman culture. With this revitalized understanding, she interprets these moving stories for the contemporary reader, showing how the parables are not just about Jesus, but are also about us—and when read rightly, still challenge and provoke us two thousand years later.

Calvary and the Mass


Fulton J. Sheen - 2008
    An excellent book for use with the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

How Jesus Saves the World from Us


Morgan Guyton - 2016
    But today what Christians need saving from most is the toxic understanding of salvation we've received through bad theology. The loudest voices in Christianity today sound exactly like the religious authorities who crucified Jesus.This is a book for Christians who are troubled by what we've become and who want Jesus to save us from the toxic behaviors and attitudes we've embraced. Each of the 12 chapters proposes an antidote for the toxicity that has infiltrated Christian culture, such as Worship not Performance, Temple not Program, and Solidarity not Sanctimony. Each chapter includes thought-provoking discussion questions, perfect for individual or group study.There are many reasons to lose hope about the state of our world and our church, but Guyton offers one piece of good news: Jesus is saving the world from us, one Christian at a time.

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church


Rachel Held Evans - 2015
    The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals--church culture seemed so far removed from Jesus. Yet, despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing her back to Church. And so she set out on a journey to understand Church and to find her place in it.Centered around seven sacraments, Evans' quest takes readers through a liturgical year with stories about baptism, communion, confirmation, confession, marriage, vocation, and death that are funny, heartbreaking, and sharply honest.A memoir about making do and taking risks, about the messiness of community and the power of grace, Searching for Sunday is about overcoming cynicism to find hope and, somewhere in between, Church.

Passion & Purpose: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World


Jimmy Seibert - 2014
    Now, in the book PASSION & PURPOSE: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World (Clear Day Publishing), Jimmy Seibert, Senior Pastor of Antioch Community Church and Founder & President of Antioch Ministries International, tells the firsthand account of a church that is cultivating a global impact. With an intentional focus on intimacy with Jesus, discipleship, church planting and evangelism, Antioch Ministries International has become one of the fastest growing evangelical movements in the country as well as a common case study among students of church planting and mission work. Based out of the Antioch Community Church of Waco, TX, the Antioch Ministries International movement is spearheaded by Seibert. After deciding to follow Jesus at any cost, Seibert started Antioch Community Church in one of poorest, most crime-ridden and drug-infested part of Waco. Along with a small group of likeminded believers, Seibert embarked on a journey to simply say "yes" to the next thing God was doing. The result has been an astounding adventure of walking with the Holy Spirit, building intimate community, and living with radical intentionality. "God has called us to be a people who passionately pursue Him with all our hearts and are deeply committed to His purposes. Nothing more. Nothing less. Now after 26 years, we feel like we can tell our story with integrity," explains Seibert, when asked about the timing of this book about Antioch and his personal journey. Seibert speaks with humility. A leader who has purposefully avoided the spotlight, Seibert prefers the role of teacher who seeks to encourage and motivate the church. "We have a heart for the body of Christ to believe in the church again, and to know that Jesus is enough." The once small gathering has turned into a network of 78 churches around the world in 24 nations, with 30 churches in the United Stated alone. At the original Waco, Texas home base, more than 3,000 people now attend regularly, with 170 Lifegroups meeting in members' homes across the city. Since its infancy, the church has focused on growing in relational and spiritual depth at home, and sending the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. The movement has inspired hundreds of Antioch members to leave their lives of comfort to proclaim the Gospel around the world, often in remote and even hostile environments. Currently, Antioch has more than 200 long-term missionaries who are active around the globe. In 2001, two of Antioch's missionaries who were in Afghanistan, Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, were arrested and held prisoner by the Taliban. The captivity-and the missionaries' miraculous rescue-became a major international news story after the 9/11 attacks, bringing Antioch's evangelical intentionality into the international conversation. PASSION & PURPOSE: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World chronicles the movement's humble beginnings, shares testimonies of powerful encounters with God along the way, and inspires with its rock-solid belief that the local church is God's "Plan A" for reaching the corners of the earth with the good news of Jesus Christ. The book explains Antioch's vision to be a people with "a passion for Jesus and His purposes in the earth." Early responses to PASSION & PURPOSE have begun pouring in. The book foreword is written by Max Lucado who has been acquainted with Seibert and the vision for Antioch Community Church for many years., In the foreword, Lucado states, "To visit Antioch Community Church is to visit the book of Acts; To hear their passion is to hear the heart of God; To listen to their stories of global impact makes you realize...it can happen today!"

The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore


Deepak Chopra - 2008
    There is not one Jesus, Chopra writes, but three.First, there is the historical Jesus, the man who lived more than two thousand years ago and whose teachings are the foundation of Christian theology and thought. Next there is Jesus the Son of God, who has come to embody an institutional religion with specific dogma, a priesthood, and devout believers. And finally, there is the third Jesus, the cosmic Christ, the spiritual guide whose teaching embraces all humanity, not just the church built in his name. He speaks to the individual who wants to find God as a personal experience, to attain what some might call grace, or God-consciousness, or enlightenment. When we take Jesus literally, we are faced with the impossible. How can we truly “love thy neighbor as thyself”? But when we see the exhortations of Jesus as invitations to join him on a higher spiritual plane, his words suddenly make sense.Ultimately, Chopra argues, Christianity needs to overcome its tendency to be exclusionary and refocus on being a religion of personal insight and spiritual growth. In this way Jesus can be seen for the universal teacher he truly is–someone whose teachings of compassion, tolerance, and understanding can embrace and be embraced by all of us.

Enter Wild: Exchange a Mild and Mundane Faith for Life with an Uncontainable God


Carlos Whittaker - 2020
    You are not meant to wait until heaven to experience His best. Even in the midst of our broken world's traumas and trials, you can- learn to lower the volume of life and truly hear God- experience what it means to speak God's Word over yourself for real victory- discover how to pray His promises instead of praying over the problemsWith his trademark blend of humor and transparency, gifted storyteller Carlos Whittaker shares his personal struggle in coping with crippling anxiety--and how the key to his freedom was rediscovering a wild faith. That key can be yours, helping you open the door to leave mild and enter wild.

Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel


Rowan Williams - 1982
    Why is it 'good news' to say 'Jesus is risen'? This text sets out to show how the experience of the resurrection was from the first one of forgiveness and of the healing of memories of injury, guilt or failure.

The Prophetic Imagination


Walter Brueggemann - 1978
    Here he traces the broad sweep from Exodus to Kings to Jeremiah to Jesus. He highlights that the prophetic vision and not only embraces the pain of the people but creates an energy and amazement based on the new thing that God is doing.

Sacred Tears: Simple Reminders That God Sees You and Loves You


Lindsey Wheeler - 2021
    You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8 NLT Whatever you are going through as you read this, you need to hear these words: God sees you, He loves you, and your story is not over. Every tear you shed is precious to Him. Your suffering is not in vain. This collection of heartfelt essays, eye-catching word art, inspiring Scripture verses, honest prayers, and uplifting photography will meet you in your place of pain, offering solace and refuge for your weary soul. Lovingly written by Lindsey Wheeler, a pastor’s wife and adoptive mom who lives with chronic pain, Sacred Tears will bring you the blessed respite you’ve been longing for and remind you that you are never alone. You’ll discover what to do when you feel far from God, how to trust Him even when you don’t understand His plan for you, and how to handle the difficult decisions that often accompany painful situations. All this and more await inside. Experience the hope and comfort only God can provide.

The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three: Discovering the Radical Truth at the Heart of Christianity


Cynthia Bourgeault - 2013
    And as usual, she reveals it to be something we hadn't expected at all. She finds in the idea of the Holy Trinity a striking vision of the nature of reality. What she claims, in a nutshell, is that embedded within this theological formula that Christians recite mostly on autopilot lies a powerful metaphysical principle that could change our understanding of Christianity and give us the tools so long and so sorely needed to reunite our shattered cosmology, rekindle our visionary imagination, and cooperate consciously with the manifestation of Jesus's "Kingdom of Heaven" here on earth. She looks to the history of Christian theology, to her own years of contemplative practice, and to the ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff. Her tone is, as ever, as accessible as it is compelling, and it's a wild ride. "I will do my best to make the ride as smooth as possible," she says, "but in the end, my commitment is to getting there, because I know beyond all personal doubt that there is indeed a ham radio concealed inside this Trinitarian tea cupboard. And in the midst of this long winter of our Christian discontent, when spiritual imagination and boldness are at an all-time low and the church itself hovers at the edge of demise for lack of an animating vision, perhaps now more than ever the time is ripe to remove the packing boards from this tea cupboard and release its contents."