"God did not make us," he says. "We made God." He explains the ways in which religion is immoral: We damage our children by indoctrinating them. It is a cause of sexual repression, violence, and ignorance. It is a distortion of our origins and the cosmos. In the place of religion, Hitchens offers the promise of a new enlightenment through science and reason, a realm in which hope and wonder can be found through a strand of DNA or a gaze through the Hubble Telescope. As Hitchens sees it, you needn't get the blues once you discover the heavens are empty.

    There are many books in English which present Sufi doctrine, but few which can be used as practical travel guides along the Path. Originally written in Classical Arabic, the aptly-named Book of Assistance is today in widespread use among Sufi teachers in Arabia, Indonesia and East Africa. The author, Imam al-Haddad (d. 1720), lived at Tarim in the Hadramaut valley between the Yemen and Oman, and is widely held to have been the "spiritual renewer" of the twelfth Islamic century. He spent most of his life in Kenya and Saudi Arabia where he taught Islamic jurisprudence and classical Sufism according to the order (tariqa) of the BaAlawi sayids.

    S. Lewis's wife, the American-born poet Joy Davidman. In her introduction to this new edition, Madeleine L'Engle writes: "I am grateful to Lewis for having the courage to yell, to doubt, to kick at God in angry violence. This is a part of a healthy grief which is not often encouraged. It is helpful indeed that C. S. Lewis, who has been such a successful apologist for Christianity, should have the courage to admit doubt about what he has so superbly proclaimed. It gives us permission to admit our own doubts, our own angers and anguishes, and to know that they are part of the soul's growth."Written in longhand in notebooks that Lewis found in his home, A Grief Observed probes the "mad midnight moments" of Lewis's mourning and loss, moments in which he questioned what he had previously believed about life and death, marriage, and even God. Indecision and self-pity assailed Lewis. "We are under the harrow and can't escape," he writes. "I know that the thing I want is exactly the thing I can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace." Writing A Grief Observed as "a defense against total collapse, a safety valve," he came to recognize that "bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love."Lewis writes his statement of faith with precision, humor, and grace. Yet neither is Lewis reluctant to confess his continuing doubts and his awareness of his own human frailty. This is precisely the quality which suggests that A Grief Observed may become "among the great devotional books of our age."

    This book seeks to spiritually unite by highlighting similarities in the texts. It sheds new light and dispels many preconceived ideas in separating what belongs to Revelation from what is the product of error or human interpretation

    She wants help and healing. She wants to hear and be heard, to see and be seen. She wants things set right.   She wants to know what is true—not partly true, or sometimes true, or almost true. She wants to see Truth itself, face-to-face. But here, now, these things are all cloudy. Hope is tinged with hurt. Faith is shaded by doubt. Lesser, broken things masquerade as love.   How does she find something permanent when the world around her is always changing, when not even she can stay the same? And if she finds it, how does she hold on?    She Reads Truth tells the stories of two women who discovered, through very different lives and circumstances, that only God and His Word remain unchanged as the world around them shifted and slipped away. Infused with biblical application and Scripture, this book is not just about two characters in two stories, but about one Hero and one Story. Every image points to the bigger picture—that God and His Word are true. Not because of anything we do, but because of who He is. Not once, not occasionally, but right now and all the time.   Sometimes it takes everything moving to notice the thing that doesn’t move. Sometimes it takes telling two very different stories to notice how the Truth was exactly the same in both of them. For anyone searching for a solid foundation to cling to, She Reads Truth is a rich and honest Bible-filled journey to finally find permanent in a world that’s passing away.

    Ever wondered if there's a practical way to lead a productive lifestyle that combines the best of Islamic tradition and modern psychology and science? In "The ProductiveMuslim" Mohammed Faris, the founder of ProductiveMuslim[dot]com, provides this practical framework that helps urban global Muslims lead a productive lifestyle ­ Spiritually, Physically, and Socially.

    In Wicca, 21-year-old Harmony Nice--a YouTube and Instagram star with 700,000 followers--offers modern readers a guide to overcoming obstacles and maximizing happiness. She offers practical guidance on:using crystals, wands, tarot cards, and magical toolssetting up an altarintroductory spells for health and protectionfinding your own witchy path--solitary or with a covenWith beautiful illustrations throughout, Wicca offers readers spiritual authenticity, a hint of glamour, and a perfect guide to infusing their lives with spiritual purpose, confidence, and resilience.

     His starting point is moral intuition—the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong. Haidt shows us how these intuitions differ across cultures, including the cultures of the political left and right. He blends his own research findings with those of anthropologists, historians, and other psychologists to draw a map of the moral domain. He then examines the origins of morality, overturning the view that evolution made us fundamentally selfish creatures. But rather than arguing that we are innately altruistic, he makes a more subtle claim—that we are fundamentally groupish. It is our groupishness, he explains, that leads to our greatest joys, our religious divisions, and our political affiliations. In a stunning final chapter on ideology and civility, Haidt shows what each side is right about, and why we need the insights of liberals, conservatives, and libertarians to flourish as a nation.

    We hear about the awesome power of God the Father. We marvel at the miracles of Jesus. Then off we go, never expecting those living waters of the Holy Spirit to flow through us in the here and now. That's exactly what this author did, until one day she was confronted with a stunning possibility: that wonders of biblical proportions can and do still happen, even in the lives of the humblest among us.The challenge? It meant getting to know the Holy Spirit, that enigmatic Third Person of the Trinity she'd heard so little about in traditional teaching. It meant braving controversy, searching the Scriptures, and venturing into new waters in faith.Let's be honest. Even wading toward the depths of the Holy Spirit may seem scary. It may even sound kind of kooky or off-base. You don't want to get in over your head. You fear drowning in error or emotionalism. Still, you may long to deepen your experience with God. You may be asking:What happened to the power Jesus promised to believers?Why has the Holy Spirit become such a taboo subject?Are modern miracles of biblical proportions still happening?How can I access the extraordinary power of God?Does the Holy Spirit have spiritual gifts for me? Which ones?THE HOLY SPIRIT: Amazing Power for Everyday Peopleis a step-by-step guide for how to grow in dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit. It explores how even the most ordinary believer can experience the miracle-working power of God in everyday life.This scripturally-referenced "how to" book with workbook-style applications is ideal for individual or group Bible study, geared at building a highly accessible, scriptural foundation for the Person and supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.Tackling tough questions with straight answers, this book tracks an everyday believer's journey into what may be Christianity's best-kept secret. It dives deep into the oftenmarginalized mysteries of the Holy Spirit, mingling scriptural examples with numerous contemporary anecdotes of the amazing power of God in the lives of everyday believers.CHAPTERS IN THIS BOOK:1 Father, Son, and Holy Who?2 Why I Hadn't Heard This in a Thousand Sermons3 Introducing the Holy Spirit4 Sensing the Spirit without Getting Weird5 Getting Our Feet Wet in God's Powerful River6 Going Deeper without Going over the Deep End7 Passing the Spirit's Torch to You8 Opening Your Spiritual Gifts9 The Word of Wisdom10 The Word of Knowledge11 The Gift of Faith12 Gifts of Healing13 Effecting of Miracles14 Distinguishing of Spirits15 Various Kinds of Tongues16 Interpretation of Tongues17 Prophecy18 Prophetic Visions19 Prophetic Dreams20 Hearing Aids for All God's SheepADDITIONAL DETAILS:Genre: Christian Nonfiction, PneumatologyLength: 394 pagesFormats: Kindle eBook and Paperback EditionsAuthor Photo by Jean-Louis DarvilleThis comprehensive Bible Study is Book 1 of 2 on this subject. Please see Book 2 (ASIN: B06XF2JKQP) for the continuation of this study.

    This work, originally written in Arabic, represents a synthesis of the Islamic intellectual disciplines authoritative in the 18th century. In order to argue for the rational, ethical, and spiritual basis for the implementation of the hadith injunctions of the Prophet Muhammad, Sh?h Wal? All?h develops a cohesive schema of the metaphysical, psychological, and social knowledge of his time. This work provides an extensive and detailed picture of Muslim theology and interpretive strategies on the eve of the modern period and is still evoked by numerous contemporary Islamic movements.

    Where do we even begin?Shannan Martin offers a surprisingly simple answer: uncover the hidden corners of our cities and neighborhoods and invest deeply in the lives of people around us. She walks us through her own discoveries about the vital importance of paying attention, as well as the hard but rewarding truth about showing up and committing for the long haul, despite the inevitable encounters with brokenness and uncertainty. With transparency, humor, heart-tugging storytelling, and more than a little personal confession, Martin shows us that no matter where we live or how much we have, as we learn what it is to be with people as Jesus was, we'll find our very lives. The details will look quiet and ordinary, and the call will both exhaust and exhilarate us. But it will be the most worth-it adventure we will ever take.

      Written to coincide with the release of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, this book was originally published as a book-length feature in a national magazine. The issue sold out within days, triggering thousands of letters and creating a storm of interest that grew into a worldwide phenomenon.  "The optimum computing machine is a subject which many of us have studied. It might be somewhat astonishing, at first, to conceive of such a computer. But the fact is, the machine is in existence. There are billions of them in use today and used in the past. In fact, you've got one. For we are dealing with the human mind." —L. Ron HubbardFind out how the optimum computing machine—the mind—really worksLearn how wrong answers enter into the mind and cause further wrong answers  Discover your mind and how it works.

    Though tragic, it is also a story of triumph that scarcely has an equal. It is one of history's great witnesses of the power of faith and sacrifice. Although this story is one of the most frequently told of all Mormon pioneer accounts, it is also among the least understood. This book provides the most comprehensive and accessible account of these pioneers' epic 1856 journey. In addition to painting a broad perspective of the trek, it includes dozens of personal stories from the pioneers themselves. Woven into the larger story of the journey west, these stories inspire, build faith, recount miracles, and reveal how these pioneers were able to endure such adversity. The book also includes chapters on the lives of many of these pioneers after the handcart trek. Immerse yourself in the challenges and miracles of this astounding odyssey as never before!

    

    . . the list goes on. Still, we believe the Bible has something important to say. How can we read it in a contemplative and intelligent way?