Housewives and corporate executives. Young professionals and those who are retired. No matter their professions or responsibilities, women of all ages and all walks of life often struggle with an all-consuming issue-self-image. We as Americans are continually obsessed with the grass-is-greener, anything-else-is-better-than-what -we-have philosophy. And that is never truer for women than when it comes to our bodies and our self-images. The media and the world around us tell us that we should be perfect in every way. But this kind of scrutiny and obsession with perfection leaves women feeling unloved, unattractive, frustrated, and even depressed.In The Real Me, contemporary Christian singer and songwriter Natalie Grant is on a mission to especially help young women deal with this struggle and to find acceptance in how God created them. And this struggle is something that Natalie understands fully-she gives the reader an inside look at her own struggle with image issues that led her on the path to bulimia. In acknowledging her pain and sharing her struggle, she offers practical help and hope to women of all ages.

    You see, those Gospels were written for first century readers already familiar with many of the persons, places, parties, and politics that colored events in those long-past days. Not so modern readers, twenty centuries later! Which is why Fr. Ralph Gorman has here crafted for us a single detailed narrative out of the four Gospels, weaving into his narrative relevant Old Testament passages and prophecies, and facts from Jewish and Roman history, laws, beliefs, traditions, and practices, plus helpful first century military, political, geographical, and archaeological information. Faithful to the Gospels while drawing on the best commentaries on them in English, Latin, French, German, and Italian, these rich pages provide you a refreshing reading of the Gospels supplemented by reliable archaeological, historical, and theological information about the period, places, and persons involved. Plus, you have the benefit of Fr. Gorman's keen depictions of the Gospel places based on his three years' residence there.You can read this book straight through, or one chapter a day as spiritual reading before Mass or during Lent. Either way, you'll come to understand better the malice of the crowds, the dismay and confusion of Christ's friends, and the speed with which the deadly events unfolded. Most of all, you'll come to grasp anew the depths of Christ's love for you, awakening in you greater devotion to Him than ever before.

    It contains an extensive listing of topical scriptures relative to many areas of life and introduces one of many keys to effective prayer, that is simply to pray the scriptures, for spiritual growth, family, health, provisional needs and evangelism. Availing yourself to this prayer key can and will help you gain access to a divine response. That response will yield a greater relationship with God the Father, through His Son Jesus Christ, with the enabling assistance of the Holy Spirit. The cry of every man's heart is for protection, health and well-being. God has made a covenant--His Word--that guarantees that He is the one who can provide His joy, peace, protection, His provision, plan, solution and elevation to your life.

    In the Gospels Jesus asks many more questions than he answers. To be precise, Jesus asks 307 questions. He is asked 183 of which he only answers 3. Asking questions was central to Jesus' life and teachings. In fact, for every question he answers directly he asks--literally--a hundred. Jesus is the Question considers the questions Jesus asks--what they tell us about Jesus and, more important, what our responses might say about what it means to follow Him. Through Jesus' questions, he modeled the struggle, the wondering, the thinking it through that helps us draw closer to God and better understand, not just the answer, but ourselves, our process and ultimately why questions are among Jesus' most profound gifts for a life of faith. A game-changer of a book.

    Bishop Andy Doyle has mined the Baptismal Covenant and his own experiences leading the Diocese of Texas. The result is a heartfelt, smart and practical book that calls Episcopalians to wake up to the church s unique gifts and story, and equips them to share that witness in their neighborhoods and out in the world.

    Lifting up their voices in heartfelt gratitude, twelve writers consider the character and teachings of Jesus and share how He enriches and empowers them daily and how He wants to do the same for you. Every day you will enjoy a Scripture verse, a reflection on Jesus's words, and a faith step that inspires and challenges you in your daily walk of living a Christlike life.In just five minutes a day, Mornings with Jesus 2021 will help readers experience a closer relationship with Jesus. It's full of inspiring and lasting motivation and spiritual nourishment that fill readers with hope and direction.

    And there was emptiness where there should have been value. "I had a college degree, and soon a seminary degree to accompany it, yet I didn't know where to go or what to do." As he puts it, "I kept hoping a step would arrive when it was time to lift my foot." Disillusioned with his life, as well as with God, he heard this advice: fast from food for 40 days. Faithless and frazzled, Russ accepted the challenge, hoping for direction, reflecting on the past, and wrestling with issues like purpose, faith, and love. In this book, readers will find a fresh literary voice--an insightful thinker who meets people in their humanity while helping them to see they can be rescued from it. The journey of these forty days without food will help you explore what really matters in life.

    But maybe today could be different. What does your soul need? What do you long for? This path that you are on, where is it taking you? How do you fill your unscheduled moments? Is your heart content? Perhaps you feel as if you are missing something. If you want life to satisfy your soul, you have to start living the soul-satisfying life.  Maybe Today describes five holy patterns that, when lived daily, will lead to the soul-satisfying life.Tilt Your SoulLet Down Your BucketTune Your HeartTake Off Your ShoesBe All In

    Compiled and edited by Rev. Maurus Fitzgerald this prayer book has been updated in accord with the Roman Missal. With a helpful summary of our Catholic Faith, this useful prayer book will prove invaluable for making regular prayer easy and meaningful.

    In his next book, Jim takes the reader along into the wide open spaces of exploring and experiencing God beyond religion. Jim writes, "It is no secret that God can be lost beneath the waving banner of religion. Divine Nobodies is my story of how this happened to me. Sometimes you have to disentangle God from religion, even Christ from Christianity, to find the truth. With the help of some unsuspecting nobodies, I uncovered a new starting line with God. As I've put one foot in front of another, I've experienced God in ways that are deeply transforming."Each chapter revolves around a central question related to knowing God on fresh terms: Is God a belief system? Is the Bible a landing strip or launching pad? Can what we're feeling inside be God? Are we too religiously minded to be any earthly good?Brian McLaren wrote, "I am tempted to say that Jim Palmer could well be the next Don Miller, but what they have in common, along with an honest spirituality and extraordinary skill as storytellers, is a unique voice."The Library Reviews said of him, "Jim Palmer's casual, yet compelling writing style cuts through the religious rhetoric and gets to the real issues…readers will love this author! His sense of humor is alternately mixed with shocking sentences and poignant moments. Laced throughout is a refreshing honesty that ties his ideas together with a ribbon of reality…each turn of the page strips away a little more of the contrived mystery of Christianity until the simplicity and sincerity of it stands in realistic splendor."More and more people seek a deeper spirituality beyond status-quo religion. Others are left empty and weary from a shallow and narrow pop-Christianity. Palmer says that God's kingdom of love, peace, and freedom can be a present reality in any person's life. He proclaims that God is indeed in the process of birthing something deep and wide among unlikely people in unconventional ways, which is changing the world...one "nobody" at a time.

    It provides a glimpse into the life and spirituality of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, who has often been called "The greatest mystic of the 20th Century." More than thirty individuals, all who had met Padre Pio, were interviewed for this first edition book. The author and her husband, Deacon Ron Allen, have traveled to many parts of the United States in order to record the personal testimonies of Padre Pio's friends from near and far.

    Without even knowing it, people willingly inhale second-hand toxins poisoning their relationship with God and stunting their spiritual growth.Soul Detox examines the toxins that assault us daily including: toxic influences, toxic emotions, and toxic behaviors.By examining the toxins that assault us daily, this book offers the ultimate spiritual intervention with ways to remain clean, pure, and focused on the standard of God s holiness."

    Still, it seems reasonable that a supremely intelligent God would want you to use your God-given intellect on your spiritual journey as much as in any other aspect of your life. Faith may not stand on rational thinking alone, but a solid faith should walk hand in hand with intellectual integrity. Does it really matter what I believe? What is the relationship between faith and knowledge? Why are there so many religions? Do all paths lead to the same God? This book helps you sort through the questions, objections, and concerns you can t help but raise. A Search for What Makes Sense will help you think your way clearly and honestly to answers that satisfy because they re your answers conclusions you ve arrived at personally without manipulation, coercion, or game-playing. For faith to exist and grow it s got to make sense good sense, carefully-thought-out sense. And chances are it does.

    But even so, the Christian faith includes many controversial beliefs that non-Christians find hard to accept. This book explores 12 issues that might cause someone to dismiss orthodox Christianity--issues such as the existence of suffering, the Bible's teaching on gender and sexuality, the reality of heaven and hell, the authority of the Bible, and more. Showing how the best research from sociology, science, and psychology doesn't disagree with but actually aligns with claims found in the Bible, these chapters help skeptics understand why these issues are signposts, rather than roadblocks, to faith in Christ.

    Now The Forgotten Ways Handbook moves beyond theory to practice, offering ways for any missionally minded person to apply the ideas contained in The Forgotten Ways to their life and ministry.This intensely practical handbook includes many helpful tools: summary sections encapsulating the ideas contained in each chapter in a popular way; suggested practices to help readers embed missional paradigms concretely; and adult learning-based techniques and examples from other churches and organizations that enable readers to process and assimilate the ideas in a group context. EXCERPTMake no mistake about it; the scope of the change that is required to shift to the kind of movement described in The Forgotten Ways is nothing less than paradigmatic. Every element of mDNA poses a direct challenge to the prevailing ways of doing church and mission. When taken together, all six elements of Apostolic Genius make the task seem enormous. But we don't think it is actually as difficult as it seems. And it is certainly not impossible. The Chinese church proves that a highly institutionalized form of Christianity can become a remarkable movement given the right circumstances. And we don't believe that we have to have persecution to activate Apostolic Genius. Less intense forms of adaptive challenges can, and do, force the church to respond. What we are witnessing in our own day indicates that. Because the church carries the gospel as well as the full coding of Apostolic Genius in her, the potential for world transformation is always present in us. We can always draw upon latent resources and instincts. God is able and very willing to stir his church up. In fact we see this as one of the very special works of the Holy Spirit--to awaken God's people to their calling and destiny as a movement that can and will change the world.