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Sensitive Preaching to the Sexually Hurting
By Sam Serio. 2016
Today's church has sadly failed to minister to men and women deeply affected by porn, abortion, rape, casual sex, a…
sexless marriage, same-sex attraction, or childhood sexual abuse. Church leaders know these broken people sit in their pews. What they don't know is what to say to them. Those who would speak out directly from the pulpit worry that they will be unwise or insensitive, whatever their intent to the contrary. They may even fear being fired and losing their ministry altogether.The truth is that seminary curriculums rarely prepare preachers to talk about sex in their sermons. Despite the pervasiveness of sexual wounds in the church, preachers tend to either ignore them and say nothing or abhor them without nuance and condemn. Sam Serio posits a powerful and necessary middle ground: preaching that offers forgiveness, transformation, and restoration.Sensitive Preaching to the Sexually Hurting is a ready-to-use resource written from a preaching perspective. Serio examines the causes and consequences of the seven most difficult sexual issues of today. Moreover, he provides appropriate wording to use in crafting sermons, along with corresponding Scripture texts. He examines how preachers can prepare their churches, their hearts, and their sermons for the topic, and how these can all work together to build a healthier future for their congregations and the wider church body.In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World
By Joey Graceffa. 2015
A confessional, uplifting memoir from the beloved YouTube personality.It's not where you begin that matters. It's where you end up.…
Twenty-three year old Joey Graceffa has captured the hearts of millions of teens and young adults through his playful, sweet, and inspirational YouTube presence (not to mention his sparkling eyes and perfect hair). Yet, Joey wasn't always comfortable in his skin, and in this candid memoir, he thoughtfully looks back on his journey from pain to pride, self-doubt to self-acceptance. To his fans, Joey is that best friend who always captures the brighter side of life but also isn't afraid to get real. In the pages of his first book, he opens up about his years of struggling with family hardships and troubles at school, with cruel bullying and the sting of rejection. He tells of first loves and losses, embarrassing moments and surprising discoveries, loneliness, laughter, and life-changing forks in the road, showing us the incalculable value of finally finding and following your true passion in this world. Funny, warm-hearted, and inspiring, Joey Graceffa's story is a welcome reminder that it's not where you begin that matters, but where you end up.El poder de la cruz en tu vida
By Tony Evans. 2014
La mayoría de nosotros utilizamos diariamente equipos electrónicos para navegar por Internet, enviar correos y conectarnos con nuestros amigos en…
Facebook. Pero ¿qué pasaría si estos aparatos no estuvieran en funcionamiento? Contarían con todo lo imprescindible para llevar a cabo esas actividades, pero sin la fuente de energía serían inútiles. En este libro, el doctor Tony Evans te ayudará a entender cómo activar el poder de la cruz y tener acceso a todos los beneficios, bendiciones y energía que contiene en sí misma y por medio de ella, de modo que puedas vivir la vida victoriosa y llena de poder que Dios quiere para ti. Every day most of us use our gadgets to search the Internet, send out emails, and connect with friends on Facebook. But what would happen if these items were not powered on? They would still have everything necessary to provide us what we need for these activities. But without power, they'd be useless. In this book, Dr. Tony Evans will help you understand how to activate the power of the cross, gaining access to all of the benefits, blessings, and power contained within it and through it, so that you can live the empowered and victorious life God intended.El poder de los nombres de Dios
By Tony Evans. 2013
Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem
By Carol Delaney. 2011
FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER HE SET SAIL, the dominant understanding of Christopher Columbus holds him responsible for almost everything that…
went wrong in the New World. Here, finally, is a book that will radically change our interpretation of the man and his mission. Scholar Carol Delaney claims that the true motivation for Columbus's voyages is very different from what is commonly accepted. She argues that he was inspired to find a western route to the Orient not only to obtain vast sums of gold for the Spanish Crown but primarily to help fund a new crusade to take Jerusalem from the Muslims--a goal that sustained him until the day he died. Rather than an avaricious glory hunter, Delaney reveals Columbus as a man of deep passion, patience, and religious conviction. Delaney sets the stage by describing the tumultuous events that had beset Europe in the years leading up to Columbus's birth--the failure of multiple crusades to keep Jerusalem in Christian hands; the devastation of the Black Plague; and the schisms in the Church. Then, just two years after his birth, the sacking of Constantinople by the Ottomans barred Christians from the trade route to the East and the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem. Columbus's belief that he was destined to play a decisive role in the retaking of Jerusalem was the force that drove him to petition the Spanish monarchy to fund his journey, even in the face of ridicule about his idea of sailing west to reach the East. Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem is based on extensive archival research, trips to Spain and Italy to visit important sites in Columbus's life story, and a close reading of writings from his day. It recounts the drama of the four voyages, bringing the trials of ocean navigation vividly to life and showing Columbus for the master navigator that he was. Delaney offers not an apologist's take, but a clear-eyed, thought-provoking, and timely reappraisal of the man and his legacy. She depicts him as a thoughtful interpreter of the native cultures that he and his men encountered, and unfolds the tragic story of how his initial attempts to establish good relations with the natives turned badly sour, culminating in his being brought back to Spain as a prisoner in chains. Putting Columbus back into the context of his times, rather than viewing him through the prism of present-day perspectives on colonial conquests, Delaney shows him to have been neither a greedy imperialist nor a quixotic adventurer, as he has lately been depicted, but a man driven by an abiding religious passion.Gender, Violence, Refugees
By Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Ulrike Krause. 2017
Providing nuanced accounts of how the social identities of men and women, the context of displacement and the experience or…
manifestation of violence interact, this collection offers conceptual analyses and in-depth case studies to illustrate how gender relations are affected by displacement, encampment and return. The essays show how these factors lead to various forms of direct, indirect and structural violence. This ranges from discussions of norms reflected in policy documents and practise, the relationship between relief structures and living conditions in camps, to forced military recruitment and forced return, and covers countries in Africa, Asia and Europe.Called to Care
By Judith Allen Shelly, Arlene B. Miller. 2006
In Plain Sight: The Life And Lies Of Jimmy Savile
By Dan Davies. 2014
Dan Davies has spent more than a decade on a quest to find the real Jimmy Savile, and interviewed him…
extensively over a period of seven years before his death. In the course of his quest, he spent days and nights at a time quizzing Savile at his homes in Leeds and Scarborough, lunched with him at venues ranging from humble transport cafes to the Athenaeum club in London and, most memorably, joined him for a short cruise aboard the QE2. Dan thought his quest had come to an end in October 2011 when Savile's golden coffin was lowered into a grave dug at a 45-degree angle in a Scarborough cemetery. He was wrong. In the last two and a half years, Dan has been interviewing scores of people, many of them unobtainable while Jimmy was alive. What he has discovered was that his instincts were right all along and behind the mask lay a hideous truth. Jimmy Savile was not only complex, damaged and controlling, but cynical, calculating and predatory. He revelled in his status as a Pied Piper of youth and used his power to abuse the vulnerable and underage, all the while covering his tracks by moving into the innermost circles of the establishment.Church Of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler
By Mark Riebling. 2015
The Vatican’s silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has…
accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him “Hitler’s Pope. ” But a key part of the story has remained untold. Pius ran the world’s largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. When he learned of the Holocaust, Pius played his cards close to his chest. He sent birthday cards to Hitler—while secretly plotting to kill him. Church of Spies documents this cloak and dagger intrigue in shocking detail. Gun-toting Jesuits stole blueprints to Hitler’s homes. A Catholic book publisher flew a sports plane over the Alps with secrets filched from the head of Hitler’s bodyguard. The keeper of the Vatican crypt ran a spy ring that betrayed German war plans and wounded Hitler in a briefcase bombing. The plotters made history in ways they hardly expected. They inspired European unification, forged a U. S. -Vatican alliance that spanned the Cold War, and challenged Church teachings on Jews. Yet Pius’ secret war muted his public response to Nazi crimes. Fearing that overt protest would impede his covert actions, he never spoke the “fiery words” he wanted. Told with heart-pounding suspense, based on secret transcripts and unsealed files, Church of Spies throws open the Vatican’s doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. The result is an unprecedented book that will change perceptions of how the world’s greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history.Slimed!: An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age
By Mathew Klickstein. 2013
SLIMED! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age tells the surprisingly complex, wonderfully nostalgic, and impressively compelling story of how…
Nickelodeon -- the First Kids' Network -- began as a DIY startup in the late 70s, and forged ahead through the early eighties with a tiny band of young artists and filmmakers who would go on to change everything about cable television, television in general, animation, and children's entertainment, proving just what can be done if the indie spirit is kept alive in the corporate world. Get the real back story about all of your favorite Golden Age Nick shows: Everything from such classics as You Can't Do That On Television, Out of Control and Double Dare to early 90s faves like The Adventures of Pete & Pete, the original three Nicktoons, Clarissa Explains It All and more ... All from those who made it happen!Jewish Conscience of the Church: Jules Isaac and the Second Vatican Council
By Norman C. Tobias. 2017
This book presents the backstory of how the Catholic Church came to clarify and embrace the role of Israel in…
salvation history, at the behest of an unlikely personality: Jules Isaac. This embrace put to an end the tradition, more than fifteen centuries old, of anti-Jewish rhetoric that had served as taproot to racial varieties of anti-Semitism. Prior to Isaac's thought and activism, this contemptuous tradition had never been denounced in so compelling a manner that the Church was forced to address it. It is a story of loss and triumph, and ultimately, unlikely partnership. Isaac devoted his years after World War II to a crusade for scriptural truth and rectification of Christian teaching regarding Jews and Judaism. Isaac's crusade culminated in an unpublicized audience with Pope John XXIII--a meeting that moved the pope to make a last-minute addition to the Second Vatican Council agenda and set in motion the events leading to a revolution in Catholic teaching about Jews.Sometime in April 1285, five Muslim horsemen crossed from the Islamic kingdom of Granada into the realms of the Christian…
Crown of Aragon to meet with the king of Aragon, who showered them with gifts, including sumptuous cloth and decorative saddles, for agreeing to enter the Crown's service. They were not the first or only Muslim soldiers to do so. Over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Christian kings of Aragon recruited thousands of foreign Muslim soldiers to serve in their armies and as members of their royal courts. Based on extensive research in Arabic, Latin, and Romance sources, The Mercenary Mediterranean explores this little-known and misunderstood history. Far from marking the triumph of toleration, Hussein Fancy argues, the alliance of Christian kings and Muslim soldiers depended on and reproduced ideas of religious difference. Their shared history represents a unique opportunity to reconsider the relation of medieval religion to politics, and to demonstrate how modern assumptions about this relationship have impeded our understanding of both past and present.Sacred Humanism without Miracles
By Roy G. Saltman. 2012
The New Atheists' claim that religion always leads to fanaticism is baseless. State-backed religion results in tyranny. Sacred humanists work…
to implement their highest values that will improve this world; separation of church and state, eliminating denigration of nonbelievers, assuring just governance, and preventing human trafficking.Beyond Calvin
By Graeme Murdock. 2004
An international community of Reformed churches emerged during the sixteenth century. Although attempts were made by Calvinists to reach agreement…
over key beliefs, and to establish uniformity in patterns of worship and church government, there were continuing divisions over some ideas and differences between local practices of moral discipline and religious life. However, Reformed intellectuals developed common ideas about rights of resistance against tyrants, communities prayed, fasted and donated money to aid brethren in distress, and many Calvinists across the Continent developed a strong sense of collective identity. Beyond Calvin considers the Reformed churches of Europe in an international and comparative context from around 1540 to 1620. Graeme Murdock: - discusses how Calvinism operated as an international movement by looking at links between Reformed churches, communities and states - explains what Reformed churches across the Continent stood for - focuses on how Calvinists sought to purify the practice of Christian religion, and to renew European politics, society and culture - examines both the strengths and limits of the international Reformed communityCheer Up Love: Adventures in depression with the Crab of Hate
By Susan Calman. 2016
A WONDER WOMAN FULL OF JOY ON STRICTLY COME DANCING 2017'DEEPLY HONEST, SURPRISINGLY HILARIOUS AND UPLIFTING' The Pool 'HEART-WARMING: UNMISSABLE'…
Damian Barr, Metro Susan Calman is a well known comedian and writer who has appeared on countless radio and television programmes from The News Quiz and Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4 to hosting the quiz show, The Boss, Armchair Detective and now STRICTLY COME DANCING 2017 on BBC 1. Her solo stand up show, Susan Calman is Convicted, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and dealt with subjects like the death penalty, appearance and depression. The reaction to the show she wrote about mental health was so positive that she wanted to expand on the show and write a more detailed account of surviving when you're the world's most negative person. The Crab of Hate is the personification of Calman's depression and her version of the notorious Black Dog. A constant companion in her life, the Crab has provided her with the best, and very worst of times.This is a very personal memoir of how, after many years and with a lot of help and talking, she has embraced her dark side and realised that she can be the most joyous sad person you'll ever meet. CHEER UP LOVE IS FUNNY, POIGNANT AND (HOPEFULLY) INFORMATIVE.IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO TALK.Our Strangely Warmed Hearts: Coming Out into God’s Call
By Karen P. Oliveto. 2018
As John Wesley discovered his true spiritual identity, he experienced a strangely warmed heart. Through poignant stories and well-reasoned principles,…
Karen Oliveto discloses why and how spiritual renewal and a personal call to ministry emerge in the strangely warmed hearts of lesbian and gay Christians. In The United Methodist Church (and other Christian denominations), it is difficult or impossible for lesbian, gay, transsexual, and bisexual clergy or laity to become a visible and outward channel for God’s saving grace. This book traces the history of the church’s struggle with homosexuality, highlighting critical incidents in the culture and church polity which shape the church’s response. The controversy is deeply rooted in how God’s people are searching the scriptures, which are interpreted as a means of grace for some and as a rulebook for others. This book includes first-person narratives of LGBTQ persons faithfully serving in a denomination that denies their calls and—in some cases—their presence. These stories will show how the coming out process is deeply spiritual as one grows into an authentic, God-created and graced self. “You are the one who created my innermost parts; you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb. I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart. Your works are wonderful—I know that very well.” Psalm 139:13-14 (CEB) “Our Strangely Warmed Hearts is a breath of fresh air in the study of the United Methodist struggle and intense debate regarding human sexuality. Karen Oliveto lives in faithful witness and serves people with the heart of Christian leadership."—Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church. “Karen Oliveto offers a compelling window into the steadfast faith and the resilience of the LGBTQ Christian movement in the United States. After offering an extraordinary history of the LGBTQ equality movement in our society and in The United Methodist Church, she rightly asks, 'Is there any other group that we would marginalize in this way?' I wholeheartedly recommend Karen Oliveto's new book to everyone who is affected by the debate over the sacred worth and place of LGBTQ people in our lives and churches. This book inspires hope.” —Michael J. Adee, Ph.D., Director, Global Faith and Justice Project, San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, CA “Bishop Oliveto's story mirrors the experience of many LGBTQ ministers who are serving the Body of Christ openly, and not in the shadows. The integrity, courage, and deep faith of God’s LGBTQ people who are called into ministry have enriched the church and encouraged the outsiders who were always welcome at Jesus' table.”–Andy Lang, Executive Director, Open and Affirming Coalition, United Church of Christ “I loved it! It drew me in immediately and kept me strapped in on what I knew would be a roller coaster of painful history, sprinkled triumphs, and then stories that broke my heart, gave me cheer, and brought tears to my eyes. Bishop Oliveto takes readers on a fascinating trip through LGBTQ history, and into the often contentious collision with mainstream religion…and then brings it all together through the personal stories that make our past and present come alive! I applaud Bishop Oliveto’s book and will highly recommend it to the faithful and faith curious of all religions.”–The Reverend Marian Edmonds-Allen, Executive Director, Parity "[Bishop Karen Oliveto] is sharing the love of Jesus, and meeting people where they are, no matter who they are, and no matter what they think about her. She loves them." —Kent Ingram, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado.So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know
By Retta. 2018
In her hilarious book of essays, Parks and Recreation star Retta shares the stories that led to her success in…
Hollywood.In So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know, Parks and Recreation star Retta takes us on her not-so-meteoric rise from roaches to riches (well, rich enough that she can buy $15,000 designer handbags yet scared enough to know she’s always a heartbeat away from ramen with American cheese). Throwing her hard-working Liberian parents for a loop, Retta abandons her plan to attend med school after graduating Duke University to move to Hollywood to star in her own sitcom—like her comedy heroes Lucille Ball and Roseanne. Say what? Word. Turns out Retta might actually be on to something. After winning Comedy Central’s stand-up competition, she should be ready for prime time—but a fear of success derails her biggest dream. Whether reminiscing about her days as a contract chemist at GlaxoSmithKline, telling “dirty” jokes to Mormons, feeling like the odd man out on Parks, fending off racist trolls on Twitter, flirting with Michael Fassbender, or expertly stalking the cast of "Hamilton," Retta’s unique voice and refreshing honesty will make you laugh, cry, and laugh so hard you’ll cry. Her eponymous sitcom might not have happened yet, but by the end of So Close to Being the Sh*t, you’ll be rooting for Retta to be the next one-named wonder to take over your television. And she just might inspire you to reach for the stars, too.Mystery of the Magi
By Dwight Longenecker. 2017
"How utterly refreshing and encouraging to read Fr. Longenecker's extraordinary ruminations on something we all thought we understood, and obviously…
hardly begin to understand, until now. That he has dug so deep—so we can see things we have never seen before—is a testament both to his archaeological implacability and genius and to the happy fact that God has hidden endless treasures in the Scriptures for our benefit. —Eric Metaxas, New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Martin Luther Modern biblical scholars tend to dismiss the Christmas story of the “wise men from the East” as pious legend. Matthew’s gospel offers few details, but imaginative Christians filled out the story early on, giving us the three kings guided by a magical star who join the adoring shepherds in every Christmas crèche. For many scholars, then, there is no reason to take the gospel story seriously. But are they right? Are the wise men no more than a poetic fancy? In an astonishing feat of detective work, Dwight Longenecker makes a powerful case that the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem really happened. Piecing together the evidence from biblical studies, history, archeology, and astronomy, he goes further, uncovering where they came from, why they came, and what might have happened to them after eluding the murderous King Herod. In the process, he provides a new and fascinating view of the time and place in which Jesus Christ chose to enter the world. The evidence is clear and compelling. The mysterious Magi from the East were in all likelihood astrologers and counselors from the court of the Nabatean king at Petra, where the Hebrew messianic prophecies were well known. The “star” that inspired their journey was a particular planetary alignment—confirmed by computer models—that in the astrological lore of the time portended the birth of a Jewish king. The visitors whose arrival troubled Herod “and all Jerusalem with him” may not have been the turbaned oriental kings of the Christmas carol, but they were real, and by demonstrating that the wise men were no fairy tale, Mystery of the Magi demands a new level of respect for the historical claims of the gospel.Controlling Contested Places
By Christine Shepardson. 2014
From constructing new buildings to describing rival-controlled areas as morally and physically dangerous, leaders in late antiquity fundamentally shaped their…
physical environment and thus the events that unfolded within it. Controlling Contested Places maps the city of Antioch (Antakya, Turkey) through the topographically sensitive vocabulary of cultural geography, demonstrating the critical role played by physical and rhetorical spatial contests during the tumultuous fourth century. Paying close attention to the manipulation of physical places, Christine Shepardson exposes some of the powerful forces that structured the development of religious orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the late Roman Empire.Theological claims and political support were not the only significant factors in determining which Christian communities gained authority around the Empire. Rather, Antioch's urban and rural places, far from being an inert backdrop against which events transpired, were ever-shifting sites of, and tools for, the negotiation of power, authority, and religious identity. This book traces the ways in which leaders like John Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Libanius encouraged their audiences to modify their daily behaviors and transform their interpretation of the world (and landscape) around them. Shepardson argues that examples from Antioch were echoed around the Mediterranean world, and similar types of physical and rhetorical manipulations continue to shape the politics of identity and perceptions of religious orthodoxy to this day.My Battle Against Hitler
By John Henry Crosby, Dietrich Von Hildebrand. 2014
How does a person become Hitler's enemy number one? Not through espionage or violence, it turns out, but by striking…
fearlessly at the intellectual and spiritual roots of National Socialism. Dietrich von Hildebrand was a German Catholic thinker and teacher who devoted the full force of his intellect to breaking the deadly spell of Nazism that ensnared so many of his beloved countrymen. His story might well have been lost to us were it not for this memoir he penned in the last decades of his life at the request of his wife, Alice von Hildebrand. In My Battle Against Hitler, covering the years from 1921 to 1938, von Hildebrand tells of the scorn and ridicule he endured for sounding the alarm when many still viewed Hitler as a positive and inevitable force. He expresses the sorrow of having to leave behind his home, friends, and family in Germany to conduct his fight against the Nazis from Austria. He recounts how he defiantly challenged Nazism in the public square, prompting the German ambassador in Vienna to describe him to Hitler as "the architect of the intellectual resistance in Austria." And in the midst of all the danger he faced, he conveys his unwavering trust in God, even during his harrowing escape from Vienna and his desperate flight across Europe, with the Nazis always just one step behind. Dietrich von Hildebrand belongs to the very earliest anti-Nazi resistance. His public statements led the Nazis to blacklist him already in 1921, long before the horrors of the Third Reich and more than twenty-three years before the famous assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944. His battle would culminate in the countless articles he published in Vienna, a selection of which are featured in this volume. "It is an immense privilege," writes editor John Henry Crosby, founder of the Hildebrand Project, "to present to the world the shining witness of one man who risked everything to follow his conscience and stand in defiance of tyranny."From the Hardcover edition.