NOW WITH OPEN EYES The title of this book declares a point in time when darkness and confusion ruled body and soul. The poems that fi ll the pages of this book reveal the various struggles and challenges that life requires after decisions are made. The many ups and downs that sometimes brings us happiness, sadness, or rage are sometimes determined by the roads we choose to follow in life. Eventually, we should mature to the point of sight for clarity, patience, and love for our fellow man.

He left KoRn to help himself. He went back to help others. And along the way, he nearly lost everything. A life-changing spiritual awakening freed Brian “Head” Welch from a stranglehold of drugs and alcohol and prompted him to leave the highly successful nu-metal band KoRn in 2005. What followed was a decade-long trial by fire, from the perils of fathering a teen lost in depression and self-mutilation to the harsh realities of playing solo and surviving the shattering betrayal of a trusted friend. In this intensely inspiring redemption saga, perhaps most inspiring is Brian’s radical decision to rejoin KoRn and reconcile with the tribe of people he once considered family in the metal music scene. Brian returned to his musical roots with a clear head and a devoted heart. Though his story is wild, hilarious, and deeply poignant, the message is simple: God will love you into the freedom of being yourself, as long as you keep the relationship going and never, ever quit.

Reflecting on the practice of disciple making in young adult, college, graduate, and local church contexts, Jonathan Dodson has discerned some common pitfalls. For many, discipleship is reduced to a form of religious performance before God. For others, it devolves into spiritual license and a loose adherence to spiritual facts. Both approaches distort biblical motivations for Christian obedience and are in need of reform. By explaining various motivations for discipleship, Dodson charts a biblically faithful, grace-driven alternative. Additionally, he provides a practical model for creating gospel-centered discipleship groups—small, reproducible, missional, gender-specific groups of believers that fight for faith together. This book blends both theology and practice to inspire and equip Christians to effectively fight sin, keep Jesus central, and make gospel-centered discipleship a way of life. Both new and growing Christians will learn to trust the gospel in community as they fight together for holiness as well as how to start gospel-centered community groups in any local church.

Mia It was so close, I'd tasted it-the freedom. But the only thing I could taste now was the end. Over the last two years, I'd let all outside forces dictate my life, my feelings, my head. I'd allowed everyone to control what my punishment should be for all my wrong-doings. I'd been tested and learned my lesson.I'd paid my dues and suffered long enough. Because in the end, even the once-upon-a-damned deserved to be happy too. Ollie How far are you willing to go? I'd asked myself this very question countless times. But never in my wildest dreams thought I'd go back in time, chasing ghosts from my past for a chance to save our future.So, there was no limit. No boundaries. I'd cross time, the world, my morals. Yes, I'd even double-cross myself.So, how far would I go? The answer had always been simple.I'd go an eternity plus a day past crestfallen.

In this New York Times bestseller, Isaac Lidsky draws on his experience of achieving immense success, joy, and fulfillment while losing his sight to a blinding disease to show us that it isn’t external circumstances, but how we perceive and respond to them, that governs our reality. Fear has a tendency to give us tunnel vision—we fill the unknown with our worst imaginings and cling to what’s familiar. But when confronted with new challenges, we need to think more broadly and adapt. When Isaac Lidsky learned that he was beginning to go blind at age thirteen, eventually losing his sight entirely by the time he was twenty-five, he initially thought that blindness would mean an end to his early success and his hopes for the future. Paradoxically, losing his sight gave him the vision to take responsibility for his reality and thrive. Lidsky graduated from Harvard College at age nineteen, served as a Supreme Court law clerk, fathered four children, and turned a failing construction subcontractor into a highly profitable business. Whether we’re blind or not, our vision is limited by our past experiences, biases, and emotions. Lidsky shows us how we can overcome paralyzing fears, avoid falling prey to our own assumptions and faulty leaps of logic, silence our inner critic, harness our strength, and live with open hearts and minds. In sharing his hard-won insights, Lidsky shows us how we too can confront life's trials with initiative, humor, and grace.

"He is the radiance of the glory of God..." - Hebrews 1:3The most glorious news in all of reality is that the God for whom we--and all things--exist is communicated to his creation with definitive authority in the incarnate Son (John1:14,18), and with climactic finality in the revelatory redemption of the cross (John 8:28, 17:1,5). Knowing and enjoying the One True God in the crucified and risen Jesus is the wellspring of our love (1 John 4:19), the substance of our sanctification (2 Corinthians 3:18), and the heart of eternal life (John 17:3), and this book is an attempt to help you do just that. "Full of Eyes" is a daily devotional containing 100 examples of visual exegesis. Each picture is designed to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in his crucified and risen Son. As the Scripture in this book illuminates the pictures so that the pictures can shine back to exegete the Scripture, may you be ever more deeply enamored with the all satisfying excellence of who God has declared himself to be for us in Jesus.

In rhyming text, a child wonders how, when and where is the perfect way to say a prayer and realizes that there is no wrong time or place.

All proceeds of Dying With Open Eyes will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association.

Dreaming with Open Eyes examines visual symbolism in late seventeenth-century Italian opera, contextualizing the genre amid the broad ocularcentric debates emerging at the crossroads of the early modern period and the Enlightenment. Ayana O. Smith reevaluates significant aspects of the Arcadian reform aesthetic and establishes a historically informed method of opera criticism for modern scholars and interpreters. Unfolding in a narrative fashion, the text explores facets of the philosophical and literary background and concludes with close readings of text and music, using visual symbolism to create readings of gender and character in two operas: Alessandro Scarlatti's La Statira (Rome, 1690), and Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's La forza della virtù (Venice, 1693). Smith’s interdisciplinary approach enhances our modern perception of this rich and underexplored repertory, and will appeal to students and scholars not only of opera, but also of literature, philosophy, and visual and intellectual cultures.

Journeys with Open Eyes is not a travel book although it provides a wealth of information about places far-away and sometimes very close to home, both locationally and psychologically. Nor is it a history book, although the author, Hugh Roberts, was present in or around many of the world's trouble spots immediately before or after some of the epoch-making events of the 20th and early 21st centuries. This is a book about people. As such, it is concerned with Hugh's empathetic approach to members of the human race, be they indigenous residents of the High Andes, Soviet functionaries, Arab princes, white South Africans of the Apartheid era or numerous others. There can be no doubt that empathy helped him in his career as an international Urban Planner but empathy like this is only found in those with a genuine love for humankind. Hugh judges systems of government but rarely the people operating or imposing them. As a result, he invariably gets the best out of his fellows whether as friends, work colleagues or chance acquaintances. Journeys with Open Eyes will entertain and educate the reader in full measure and should be required reading for all who care for the inhabitants of this planet.