Here are ways to make the key virtues that lead you to God a permanent part of your character.

    The authors seek to explain the unique moral role of the minister and the ethical responsibilities of the vocation and to provide "a clear statement of the ethical obligations contemporary clergy should assume in their personal and professional lives." Trull and Carter deal with such areas as family life, confidentiality, truth-telling, political involvement, working with committees, and relating to other church staff members. First published in 1993, this edition has been thoroughly updated throughout and contains expanded sections on theological foundations, the role of character, confidentiality, and the timely topic of clergy sexual abuse. Appendices describing various denominational ministerial codes of ethics are included.

    Innovative teachers Craig Gross and Jason Harper will separate the religious from the real as they show how this simple truth is worth our undivided attention. The authors weave Jesus' narrative with their own stories of serving among the "least of these" in this inspiring summons to world-changing faith. Join them as they encounter shut-ins, drunks, inmates, porn stars, and others while striving to follow Christ in their daily lives. Christian and non-Christian readers alike will experience God's love and be challenged to take seriously the call of Jesus. Individuals, small groups, congregations, and church classes will find the companion DVD an indispensable resource for learning about the world-changing love of Jesus through captivating stories and interviews. In these four films, viewers will meet face-to-face with some of the folks they encounter in the book Jesus Loves You . . . This I Know. Each film is three to five minutes long and is followed by questions for groups that wish to use the films as discussion starters. Also ideal for use in sermons.

    What does it mean to find and follow our personal calling? Howdo we distinguish between the "still, small voice" of our authentic vocation and all of the other competing counterfeit voices in our hearts and the needs of our world? Drawing widely on the wisdom of saints, sages, and the traditions of spiritual direction, Neafsey describes a path to living in the place, as Frederick Buechner has put it, "where our deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

    Great literature increases knowledge of and desire for the good life by showing readers what virtue looks like and where vice leads. It is not just what one reads but how one reads that cultivates virtue. Reading good literature well requires one to practice numerous virtues, such as patience, diligence, and prudence. And learning to judge wisely a character in a book, in turn, forms the reader's own character.Acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior takes readers on a guided tour through works of great literature both ancient and modern, exploring twelve virtues that philosophers and theologians throughout history have identified as most essential for good character and the good life. In reintroducing ancient virtues that are as relevant and essential today as ever, Prior draws on the best classical and Christian thinkers, including Aristotle, Aquinas, and Augustine. Covering authors from Henry Fielding to Cormac McCarthy, Jane Austen to George Saunders, and Flannery O'Connor to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Prior explores some of the most compelling universal themes found in the pages of classic books, helping readers learn to love life, literature, and God through their encounter with great writing.In examining works by these authors and more, Prior shows why virtues such as prudence, temperance, humility, and patience are still necessary for human flourishing and civil society. The book includes end-of-chapter reflection questions geared toward book club discussions, features original artwork throughout, and includes a foreword from Leland Ryken.

    My hope is that this marriage resource motivates you to intentionally pray and petition for your wife and your marriage on a daily basis through the power of prayer. There is even free writing space for you to add your own thoughts and prayers to each marriage prayer, to make them your own, and to lift up specific prayer requests your wife may have. I urge you to consider the importance of being a husband of faithful prayer, to commit to praying for your wife and marriage daily, and watch God move in both your hearts! If you have been blessed by the marriage book, "Power of a Praying Husband by Stormie Omartian", you will also be inspired by 31 Prayers For My Wife.This compilation of marriage prayers was carefully composed based on areas of life that almost every wife faces. As you use this resource to pray over your wife you will: Be encouraged to pray for specific areas of her life. Be challenged to make prayer a priority in your marriage. And your heart desires will align with God's "

    The book of Isaiah is an enormous collection of prophecies described as “The Vision.” It is not simply a teaching or a historical record; it is the overarching vision of the heart of God revealed to His seer-prophet. This vision spans the ages and touches every nation on earth, becoming a collective overview of all that God has planned. The prophecies are vast and their grand themes are unrivaled in all of Scripture. With panoramic insight, Isaiah preaches about the virgin birth of Christ, the Bride of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. These prophecies also present a description of the cataclysmic judgments, the survival of a holy remnant emerging in Zion, and the canopy of glory that is coming to earth. The poetic message of Isaiah is one of victory, hope, comfort, and restoration of all things. Explore the vision of a man who saw the glory of God and spoke with burning lips, for true prophetic ministry flows from this “vision” until it grows into a burden.

    

    Budziszewski presents and defends the natural-law tradition in what is at once a primer for students and a vigorous argument for scholars. Written on the Heart expounds the work of the leading architects of theory on natural law, including Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and John Locke. It also takes up contemporary philosophy, theology and political science, colorfully running against the intimidating tide of advanced pluralism that finds natural law so difficult to tolerate.

    The end result of this conversation, Dark hopes, will be a better understanding that there is a reality more important, more lasting, and more infinite than the cultures to which we belong, the reality of the kingdom of God.

    It differs from moral philosophy in that biblical ethics is distinctively Christian, and it is more specific than Christian ethics proper because it specifically focuses upon the application of the moral law -- as it is revealed in Scripture -- to daily living. Introduction to Biblical Ethics explains the nature, relevancy, coherency, and structure of the moral law as revealed throughout the Bible. In addition to covering the foundational elements of biblical ethics, major issues investigated in this volume include: different types of law in Scripture, the relationship between the law and the gospel, and issues related to the prospect of conflicting moral absolutes. Additionally, after a discussion of ethical methodology, and using the Ten Commandments as a moral rubric, author David W. Jones explores the place of the moral law in the lives of believers. In the final chapters, the events surrounding the giving of the Decalogue are surveyed, and the application of each of the Ten Commandments to Christian living is explored.

    One of the most important theologians of the twentieth century illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus in this classic text on ethics, humanism, and civic duty.What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.

    Again and again, he shows us how we are the living temples of the Holy Ghost and how our souls are God's greatest masterpiece—because they are made in His own Image and Likeness. Of the Divine Tenant we possess within us, Fr. O'Sullivan says, “The Holy Ghost does not only give His wonderful help to Apostles, to martyrs, to missionaries, but to all Christians without exception, if only they will ask Him as they should." (Page 39). The greatest tragedy, he points out, is that many Christians never pray to this Divine Guest within their souls. Therefore, it is to help us understand, at least a little, the Incomparable Treasure we Christians possess within ourselves as a result of Baptism that the author has written this book – but also to teach us how to help ourselves in the most unfailing way by praying often and fervently to the Holy Ghost for assistance in all our needs.

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    His philosophy directly inspired Napoleon Hill, James Allen, Wallace D. Wattles, and Elbert Hubbard. Today's inspirational leaders, like Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Rhonda Byrne, and Oprah Winfrey, are equally indebted to Emerson. "We are the Builders of Our Fortunes" is the first-ever collection of Emerson's essential writings on success. In these ten essays, Emerson will teach you: How to develop your inner genius; How the power of thought shapes our world; How the universe responds to our every action; Why wealth is a spiritual phenomena; Why economies rise or fall; What defines human greatness; and much more. Includes an introduction by Charles Conrad, who also selected "Emerson's Keys to Success" after each chapter.