Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn from Them


Liz Curtis Higgs - 1999
    Most women (if they're honest) see the selfishness of Sapphira or the deception of Delilah. They catch of glimpse of Jezebel's take-charge pride or Eve's disastrous disobedience. Like Bathsheba, Herodias, and the rest, today's modern woman is surrounded by temptations, exhausted by the demands of daily living, and burdened by her own desires. So what's a good girl to do? Learn from their lives, says beloved humor writer Liz Curtis Higgs, and by God's grace, choose a better path. In Bad Girls of the Bible, Higgs offers a unique and clear-sighted approach to understanding those other women in Scripture, combining a contemporary retelling of their stories with a solid, verse-by-verse study of their mistakes and what lessons women today can learn from them. Whether they were Bad to the Bone, Bad for a Season, but Not Forever or only Bad for a Moment, these infamous sisters show women how not to handle the challenges of life. With her trademark humor and encouragement, Liz Curtis Higgs teaches us how to avoid their tragic mistakes and joyfully embrace grace.

Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything


Viktor E. Frankl - 1946
    Frankl held a series of public lectures in Vienna. The psychiatrist, who would soon become world famous, explained his central thoughts on meaning, resilience, and the importance of embracing life even in the face of great adversity.Published here for the very first time in English, Frankl's words resonate as strongly today--as the world faces a coronavirus pandemic, social isolation, and great economic uncertainty--as they did in 1946. He offers an insightful exploration of the maxim "Live as if you were living for the second time," and he unfolds his basic conviction that every crisis contains opportunity. Despite the unspeakable horrors of the camps, Frankl learned from the strength of his fellow inmates that it is always possible to "say yes to life"--a profound and timeless lesson for us all.

The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World


Desmond Tutu - 2013
    If you asked anyone what they thought was going to happen to South Africa after apartheid, almost universally it was predicted that the country would be devastated by a comprehensive bloodbath. Yet, instead of revenge and retribution, this new nation chose to tread the difficult path of confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation.Each of us has a deep need to forgive and to be forgiven. After much reflection on the process of forgiveness, Tutu has seen that there are four important steps to healing: Admitting the wrong and acknowledging the harm; Telling one's story and witnessing the anguish; Asking for forgiveness and granting forgiveness; and renewing or releasing the relationship. Forgiveness is hard work. Sometimes it even feels like an impossible task. But it is only through walking this fourfold path that Tutu says we can free ourselves of the endless and unyielding cycle of pain and retribution. The Book of Forgiving is both a touchstone and a tool, offering Tutu's wise advice and showing the way to experience forgiveness. Ultimately, forgiving is the only means we have to heal ourselves and our aching world.

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling


Andy Crouch - 2008
    Nor is it sufficient merely to critique culture or to copy culture. Most of the time, we just consume culture. But the only way to change culture is to create culture. Andy Crouch unleashes a stirring manifesto calling Christians to be culture makers. For too long, Christians have had an insufficient view of culture and have waged misguided "culture wars." But we must reclaim the cultural mandate to be the creative cultivators that God designed us to be. Culture is what we make of the world, both in creating cultural artifacts as well as in making sense of the world around us. By making chairs and omelets, languages and laws, we participate in the good work of culture making. Crouch unpacks the complexities of how culture works and gives us tools for cultivating and creating culture. He navigates the dynamics of cultural change and probes the role and efficacy of our various cultural gestures and postures. Keen biblical exposition demonstrates that creating culture is central to the whole scriptural narrative, the ministry of Jesus and the call to the church. He guards against naive assumptions about "changing the world," but points us to hopeful examples from church history and contemporary society of how culture is made and shaped. Ultimately, our culture making is done in partnership with God's own making and transforming of culture. A model of his premise, this landmark book is sure to be a rallying cry for a new generation of culturally creative Christians. Discover your calling and join the culture makers.

Ishmael


Daniel Quinn - 1992
    He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies. Ishmael is a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no other human being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time save. Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to come from within ourselves. Is it man's destiny to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny possible for him-- one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box


John Ortberg - 2007
    But what happens after that, asks bestselling author John Ortberg. You know the answer: It all goes back in the box. You don t get to keep one token, one chip, one game card. In the end, the spoils of the game add up to nothing. Using popular games as a metaphor for our temporal lives, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box neatly sorts out what s fleeting and what s permanent in God s kingdom. Being Master of the Board is not the point; being rich toward God is. Winning the game of life on Earth is a temporary victory; loving God and other people with all our hearts is an eternal one. Using humor, terrific stories, and a focus on winning the right trophies, Ortberg paints a vivid picture of the priorities that all Christians will want to embrace."

Effective Life Management


Amartyananda Swami - 2016
    How should we gain mastery over the enemies lurking within our own mind, so that we can enjoy a peaceful and prosperous life? This book published by Advaita Ashrama, a branch of Ramakrishna Math, gives practical guidelines to make life more meaningful — both on the individual and the collective level — by managing it in the right way, and thus achieve success and fulfillment.

Suffering Is Never for Nothing


Elisabeth Elliot - 2019
    She, having lived through great loss, taught on God’s grace in the midst of hardship, as well as teaching wives and mothers to fulfill the high calling of Titus 2. In her final book, Elisabeth Elliot describes how it is often through the deepest suffering that God teaches us the deepest lessons. As we trust Him through our trials, we come to a greater assurance of His love and sovereignty—even as He works all things together for the good of those who love Him.

Marianne Williamson On Miracles


Marianne Williamson - 1995
    Experience the energy and magnetism of Marianne Williamson with these recordings of Meditations, Commitment, Miracles, Spirituality, and also her perennial bestseller A Return to Love .

Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now


Walter Brueggemann - 2014
    In this volume, popular author Walter Brueggemann writes that the Sabbath is not simply about keeping rules but rather about becoming a whole person and restoring a whole society. Importantly, Brueggemann speaks to a 24/7 society of consumption, a society in which we live to achieve, accomplish, perform, and possess. We want more, own more, use more, eat more, and drink more. Keeping the Sabbath allows us to break this restless cycle and focus on what is truly important: God, other people, all life. Brueggemann offers a transformative vision of the wholeness God intends, giving world-weary Christians a glimpse of a more fulfilling and simpler life through Sabbath observance.

Hands That Heal


Echo Bodine - 1986
    This book, first published in 1985 by ACS, was Echo’s first book and is still her favorite. In her inimital manner, Echo explains to readers what energy or spiritual healing is and how a session works, including how it feels to the healer and the person being healed. Echo’s approach to healing could be seen as the traditional Christian "laying on of hands," though the healer sometimes uses their hands on the aura around a person and does not always touch them directly. Hands That Heal addresses concerns and questions that readers may have about healing. In fact, Echo describes such mundane aspects of the process as the room she uses, how people contact her, and how she uses music, incense, and color in her healing space. Details about releasing emotional blocks, avoiding dependency, the dangers of judging anyone’s illness, and absentee healing are also provided. Case studies of clients, and line drawings depicting the set-up and positioning of hands, further illustrate how healing works in people’s lives. She also provides exercises for the person wishing to test and develop their own healing hands.

The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation


Lodro Rinzler - 2014
    . ., wisdom for Generation Next on how to make your work meaningful, satisfying, and of benefit to others. Does it ever seem that a lot of the people you work with are, well, jerks This book is about how not to let work turn you into one of them. Apply the simple Buddhist teachings and practices Lodro Rinzler provides here to whatever you do for a living, and youll not only avoid jerk-hood, but youll be setting out on the path toward making your livelihood an expression of your inherent wisdom, honesty, and compassion. Youll discover practical ways to bring mindfulness into administrative support, cabinet-making, financial management, nursing, truck-driving, or latte-brewing. In the process, youll discover genuine empathy for the folks you once found so difficult. Youll also learn leadership skills that apply compassion to management in a way that increases happiness along with efficiency. This is career advice of the profoundest kind, geared toward todays twenty- and thirty-something workers and job-seekers whose employment outlook is radically different from that of a generation ago. As Lodro shows, even if the path of work shifts beneath your feet, its possible to make your livelihood a source of satisfaction and of deep meaning.

Not a Fan: Teen Edition


Kyle Idleman - 2012
    In short, you're a huge fan. But are you treating Jesus the same as the other people you admire? The truth is Jesus wants more than the church attendance, occasional prayer, and the ability to recite Scripture--the fan response. He's looking for people who are actually willing to sacrifice in order to follow him. In this teen edition of Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman uses humor, personal stories, and biblical truth as he challenges you to look at what it means to call yourself a Christian and follow the radical call Jesus presents. So, will you be a fan, or a follower?

The Message-MS


Anonymous - 2003
    With no distracting verse numbers or stiff, formal language, the 66 books of Scripture unfold like a gripping novel.

The Art of Happiness at Work


Dalai Lama XIV - 2003
    Of the many Dalai Lama titles on sale, THE ART OF HAPPINESS - written with western psychiatrist Howard Cutler - is by far the biggest bestseller of them all. A huge international success, it has sold over 2 million copies worldwide, with nearly 300,000 of these in the UK alone. Now, this inspirational new book brings the successful East-meets-West pairing together again to provide a practical application of Tibetan Buddhist spiritual values to the world of work. In this wise and practical book, the Dalai Lama shows us how to place our working lives into the context of our lives as a whole. Rather than striving to find a role which suits us, we should allow our work to arise naturally from who we are - and what is most important to us. From here we reach a pathway that can lead us to true life fulfilment and purpose.