. . . I did have stories. I hadn’t dared to tell many people about them, but I definitely had had what I believed to be encounters with the Divine. I wondered if many other people had stories too. What happened next surprised me most. I realized that a Divine intelligence that many people call God is connecting with millions of people every day. These are their stories.” —from the IntroductionIn God Stories, Jennifer Skiff shares the extraordinary experiences of people who have felt the power of God’s presence in their lives and been forever changed. A doctor opens the chest of a dying heart patient to discover her heart is healed; Marines watch as a fellow soldier in Iraq is hit by a powerful explosion only to discover, when the dust settles, that he is still standing and has no injuries; a struggling couple receive an answer to a prayer and are prevented from making a mistake that could cost them their children; a young woman loses her boyfriend on 9/11 and receives a message that brings her peace.Reassuring, hopeful, and unforgettable, these amazing confirmations of divine intervention will lift your spirit and leave you wondering—and even remembering—when your life was touched by a miracle.

    Clergy and church leaders will find the evidence and answers in this book provocative, eye-opening and actionable.What if members of your congregation were 13 times more likely to have invited someone to participate in your church in the past month? Three times as satisfied with their lives? Spent more than two hours per week serving and helping others in their community? And tripled their giving to your church? What would your church — your parish — look like? And how would you go about creating this kind of change? One thing is certain: Church leaders are never going to inspire more people to be actively and passionately involved in their congregations by doing the same things over and over again. Pastors and lay leaders need something fresh. Something new. The last thing they need is “just another program” or to set up a laundry list of new activities for members. In this compelling and insightful book, Al Winseman — who has led thriving churches, including one he built from the ground up — explores how churches and parishes can dramatically increase members’ participation, service to the community, giving and even life satisfaction. But the solutions Winseman offers are not the “magic pill” many leaders have come to expect. Rather, he shows leaders how to reach and inspire the hearts, minds and imaginations of their people. Based on solid research by Gallup, Growing an Engaged Church will appeal to Protestant and Catholic clergy and lay leaders who are looking for a way to be the Church instead of just “doing church.”

    

    He shows you how to let go of the anxiety-producing areas of life in order to find the lasting peace that comes from trusting God. During the season of Lent, Catholics and other Christians frequently give up something they enjoy as a measure of penance or self-discipline—and often fall back into old habits at the first “Alleluia!” In Give Up Worry for Lent!, Zimak offers fellow worriers practical, scripture-centered advice on how to relinquish the need to control the uncontrollable—not just for Lent but for good—and how to find peace in Christ. From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, Zimak guides you to ponder a scripture passage and to apply it to your own life by following four simple steps: read reflect respond pray As you continue to meditate on scripture and practice the simple action steps at the end of each reflection, you will find it easier to replace old worries with new messages of hope and to change your life forever.

    Here’s what you will learn in this book; you will learn about the Buddha, history of Buddha and Buddhism, teachings of Buddha, about Buddhist philosophy, the 3 universal truths, noble truths, sufferings, eight fold path, divisions of Buddhism, the 5 precepts, how to practice Buddhism and more.Download your book today and learn Buddhism plain and simple.

    Confident that seminary equipped them with the tools they need for the journey ahead, they find themselves discouraged when the realities of their first call don't line up with what they came to expect from assigned readings and classroom discussions. This book, with contributions from fifteen veteran pastors, including Daniel L. Akin, Juan Sanchez, Phil A. Newton, Scott Sauls, offers real-world advice about the joys and challenges of the first five years of pastoral ministry--bridging the gap between seminary training and life in a local church. Armed with wisdom from those who have gone before them, young pastors will find encouragement to stand firm in the thick of the realities and rigors of pastoral ministry.

    In Daring to Ask for More, Melody Mason has shone the light of God’s Word on the path to true revival—Holy Spirit-inspired, daring, audacious prayer. I know this book will be a tremendous blessing to many.Doug Batchelor, President and Speaker, Amazing Facts If prayer is “the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven’s storehouse” as Steps to Christ declares, then Melody Mason’s new book is long overdue. Daring to Ask for More is precisely God’s strategic appeal to this generation living on the edge of eternity. Daring to Ask for More indeed! May our hearts be stirred up as never before to seek God through prayer as never before, while there is still time.Dwight K. Nelson, Senior Pastor, Pioneer Memorial Church, Andrews University Melody Mason’s new book, Daring to Ask for More, is driving me to my knees. My needs are so great and my resources so few, what self-righteousness it is to pray so little. Thank you for that push!Frank Fournier, President, ASI

    He has been hailed as a pioneer in helping ordinary Christians find God in their daily lives. Moved as a teenager by footprints of a barefoot Carmelite priest in the snow, Josemara felt called to greater generosity in the priesthood and in his struggles to build up Opus Dei during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. This latest biography is the most extensively researched work on his family history, childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. The reader benefits from an enormous wealth of details in extensive notes and appendices. Accompanying them are excerpts from his correspondence, spiritual writings and testimonials from dozens of friends and acquaintances. The remarkable story continues in volumes II and III.

    Addresses such topics as learning how to know, love, and trust God; recognizing the purpose of this life; the importance of daily prayer and meditation; and service to mankind. The Divine Art of Living is a source of inspiration and encouragement towards developing a positive perspective on life.

    And you can claim it beginning now. The well know Bible story of David and Goliath is the back drop that Steven A. Cramer uses to show how we can enlist the aid of the Lord in overcoming any of our problems. In our day, we do not have to face nine-foot giants physically, but often our Goliaths come in the form of spiritual giants that will not yield to a stone or sword.

    The method employed is to take the obscurantist vocabulary of monotheism and translate it into plain language. In doing so, the book attempts to show that god worshippers themselves do not understand the things they claim to believe, and by which they live their lives. For the reader who believes in god, this polemical little volume may help them to understand why secularists get so frustrated and infuriated when in debate with god worshippers. For the secularist, this book is a reminder that not everyone is susceptible to reasoned argument. The reminder is a timely one for those who live in an era of the resurgence of Islamic Jihad. A clear understanding of the irrationality of monotheism is something which matters urgently when confronted by the global rise of religious fascism. What is said in this little book will no doubt be found impolite and overly-provocative by those authoritarian people within the politically correct establishment who conflate morality with niceness. They will probably utter the familiar refrain that we ought not to denigrate other people’s deeply and sincerely held beliefs. Instead we should live in a permanent state of apology for the crime of having minds of our own. But religions are no more above criticism than any other ideologies. They have no entitlement to a privileged status. Besides which, large numbers of god worshippers feel free to denigrate and insult everyone else’s deeply and sincerely held beliefs, so why should they have special permission to be hypocrites? Topics covered: 01. God 02. Prayer 03. Worship 04. God the Infinite 05. Immortality and Heaven 06. Soul / Spirit 07. Salvation 08. Faith 09. Spreading The Word 10. Theocracy 11. Theocracy and Nuclear Armageddon 12. God, Guilty of Genocide 13. Religion and Morality are Mutually Exclusive 14. God worship is Immoral 15. God worship is Obscene 16. Everything is God’s Fault 17. If it’s in The Book, then it Must be True 18. Claiming Incomprehensible Beliefs 19. Is Islamism the New Fascism? 20. The Moderates

    The New Testament is commonly divided into the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s epistles, the general epistles, and the book of Revelation. The four Gospels—the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are accounts of the life of Christ. The book of Acts records the history of the Church and the Apostles, especially Paul’s missionary travels, after Christ’s death. Paul’s letters give instruction to Church leaders and members. The other letters were written by other Apostles and give additional counsel to the early Saints. The book of Revelation, which was written by the Apostle John, contains mostly prophecies pertaining to the last days.

    In the past 500 years, millions of people have faced persecution, torture, and even death after being accused of practicing Witchcraft. For many people the word "Witch" still conjures up images of secret spells and diabolical midnight rituals. So what exactly is Witchcraft (also called Wica or Wicca), and how did it evolve into one of today's fastest-growing religions? "Witchcraft From the Inside "presents the history of Witchcraft—from its roots in ancient fertility religions, to the madness of the "Malleus Maleficarum" and the European Witch trials, to the growth of modern Wicca in Britain and the United States. Essays contributed by leading Wiccan authorities explore the present state of Wicca and provide a glimpse into the future of this peaceful nature religion. Author Ray Buckland studied Witchcraft under Gerald Gardner, the man largely credited for the revival of Witchcraft and the establishment of Wicca as a modern religion. Mr. Buckland was instrumental in bringing Gardnerian Witchcraft from England to the United States and is considered to be one of the leading American authorities on Witchcraft. In the following excerpt, Mr. Buckland explains the mundane truths behind the seemingly horrific ingredients of the legendary "witches' brews." We know, from Shakespeare and other sources, that the Witches threw into their pots the most gruesome ingredients, right? There were things like the tongue of a snake, bloody fingers, catgut, donkey's eyes, frog's foot, goat's beard, a Jew's ear, mouse tail, snake head, swine snout, wolf's foot, and so on. Pretty disgusting by the sound of it—if you take them at face value! In fact these were all the most innocuous of ingredients: normal plants and herbs. Today all plants have a Latin name, so that they may be distinct and positively identified. Yet years ago they were known only by common, local names. A plant or herb might be known by one name in one part of the country and a quite different name in another part of the country. And these names were colorful ones, frequently given to the plant because of its looks, color, or other attributes. In the above list, adder's tongue was a name given to the dogtooth violet ("Erythronium americanum"); bloody fingers was the foxglove ("Digitalis purpurea"); catgut was the hoary pea ("Tephrosia virginiana"); donkey's eyes were the seeds of the cowage plant ("Mucuna pruriens"); frog's foot was the bulbous buttercup ("Ranunculus bulbosus"); goat's beard was the vegetable oyster ("Tragopogon porrofolius"); Jew's ear was a fungus that grew on elder trees and elm trees ("Peziza auricula"); mouse tail was common stonecrop ("Sedum acre"); snake head was balmony ("Chelone glabra"); swine snout was the dandelion ("Taraxacum dens leonis"); and wolf's foot was bugle weed ("Lycopus virginicus"). So the seemingly fearsome concoctions that the Witches mixed up in their cauldrons were nothing more than simple herbs going into a cookpot!

    Like the Elvises who roam the streets of Vegas, these counterfeit christs look and sound like Jesus, but they couldn’t be further from the real deal.In Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? 12 False Christs, author Matthew Richard exposes these false christs for what they are . . . mere impostors. Richard reveals to readers who the real Jesus of the Bible is, but also reveals to us twelve false christs who are embraced, loved, promoted, and revered, even by well-meaning Christians.“My hope is that readers will connect with the different stories in this book, but will do so in a way that they can see how people’s false theology and bad presuppositions lead to taking up false christs,” says Richard. “In other words, this book attempts to combine the art of story and the discipline of theology, so that the reader can see flesh-and-blood examples of how easy false theology can lead someone into idolatry.”

    The solutions presented are inspiring and highly practical. Best of all, the keys to fruitfulness shared are universal principles that work in the “real world.” These principles will help you multiply generations of disciples, wherever you find yourself!BECOME A REPRODUCER: • Don’t just make disciples. Learn to reproduce disciple-makers! • Gain an overview of the discipling process and how to move new believers to maturity and reproduction. • Grasp the keys to successful evangelism and multiplication in the context of a disciple-making team.