Throughout the ages Creation has been groaning for its true identity, dominion, and ultimately restored intimacy and communion with the Father. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation. We are made in His image. But what does it mean to be made in His image? Who am I as a new creation? What is my destiny? Desperately seeking on her own journey of identity, author Marie Fowler spent twenty-five years researching the tribes of Israel to answer these questions. Our heavenly Father designed us for one sole purpose: habitation. God chooses to build His house through His family. Living Stones is a love letter in which you will discover your place within God's family. Worship (intimacy) reveals identity. One does not come face-to-face with someone and remain unaltered. As we encounter the Father with unveiled faces, we become like Him. Our utmost destiny is that we might take on His reflection found in the embodiment of habitation. Join Marie in her fascinating and biblically grounded study of the tribes of Israel as foundational keys to reveal every believer's identity in Christ. Watch in wonder as the author explains with amazing prophetic and revelatory insight how the characteristics of each tribe fit together as living stones displaying the facets of the Father's nature and character thereby building His holy habitation. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (I Peter 2:5).

In The Living Stones, the British surrealist painter and writer Ithell Colquhoun drifts through Cornwall in search of an artist's studio and sanctuary from the modern world. Her finely wrought and learned observations of festivals, fairs and druidic rituals, quickly establish her as the reader's gnostic guide to the county. She paints a land of ghosts, pedlars, borrowed saints and holy sites, charmed wells and crumbling megaliths, and finds in the city emigrants a prefiguring of hippie culture. Above all, Colquhoun connects us with the eerie, numinous beauty of the Cornish countryside, quietly insisting that we see the Cornwall she sees: an ancient land of myth and legend.

"In the small Illinois town of Bradbury, change doesn't come often, and it certainly doesn't come easily. So when Pastor Fletcher hires Emily Duke as the new choir director at Zion Lutheran Church, he unknowingly sets in motion a chain of events that turns the life of his congregation upside down. The crusty church secretary, Mrs. Scheinberg, must learn to adjust her curmudgeonly ways. Zion's talented but pompous organist, Evan Ebner, must recognize his shortcomings. Emily must come to terms with her past. Even Pastor Fletcher must face reality when his world is shaken by the baggage Emily brings and by the handsome Zachary Brandt who pursues her."--Amazon.

A full generation has passed since black theology burst onto the American religious scene, ignited by the powerful work of James H. Cone. Now an illustrious group of theologians takes the measure of black theology's legacy and explores the radically new context - ecclesial, social, global, and interreligious - that is setting the black theological agenda for tomorrow.

Growing up as a pastor's daughter, Becoming Living Stones author Denae Haas gained a broad knowledge of Scripture and its interpretation. Knowledge and understanding without relationship, though, is ineffective. It lacks life. When Denae's knowledge of God, of the Holy Spirit, became relational--experiential--a greater bond formed and new life blossomed. When her belief in God collided with doubt, a faith struggle began. Here the Holy Spirit began to cultivate experiential knowledge of His presence, His love, and the ability to truly know His constant transformative working in our lives. In this groundbreaking book, readers both witness this transformation in Denae and are led into their own journey with God. A journey both rooted in Scripture and alive in the Spirit. The result is a deepening relationship with God, emerging from a broader understanding of God's immense personal love for His children. Ultimately, this growing faith and relationship bring healing and restoration. Denae's experience of the Holy Spirit combined with knowledge is rich soil from which readers are drawn and invited to meditate and pray for their own transformation--for new life in the Spirit.

In every church building, art and architecture become the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the local community, in preparing a place to receive God's Word and to enter more fully into communion with him. In this volume, the bishops offer instruction on how to design places of worship that are dignified, beautiful, and "suited to sacred celebrations."

This sixth Faith Lessons volume takes you to Galilee in Israel where Jesus called his first disciples to follow Him. Then on to Priene and Didyma in Turkey where their disciples learned what it meant to follow the Rabbi.

The Breastplate of the High PriestUnlocking the Mystery of the Living Stones Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritualsacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Peter 2:5 Have you ever wondered what the stones in the breastplate of the High Priest represent?Since we are a royal priesthood and called by God to be living stones, we should knowabout the jewels of beauty that we have now become to the Lord. I was reading Ezekiel28:13 where it talks about Lucifer before the fall: he had nine stones as his covering.The Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart and asked me a thought provoking question.He said, Lucifer had nine of the twelve stones on the breastplate of the high priest whatrow was he missing So began this journey to discover what each stone and row meansin our lives; and as a living priesthood of believers, how we can appropriate this and shineas stones of beauty, for His glory. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, thesardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was preparedin thee in the day that thou wast created. Ezekiel 28:13

The heroine of this story (described only as "I") is compelled to visit a mysterious uncle who turns out to be a black magician who lords over a kind of Prospero's Island that exists out of time and space. Startled by his bizarre behavior and odd nocturnal movements, she eventually learns that he is searching for the philosopher's stone. When his sinister attentions fall upon the priceless jewel heirloom in her possession, bewilderment turns into stark terror and she realizes she must find a way off the island. An esoteric dreamworld fantasy composed of uncorrelated scenes and imagery mostly derived from medieval occult sources, Goose of Hermogenes might be described as a gothic novel, an occult picaresque, or a surrealist fantasy. However one wants to approach this obscure tale, it remains today as vividly unforgettable and disturbing as when it was first published by Peter Owen in 1961.

What if we could resolve the exhausting struggle between work, family, and spiritual life? What if we recognized a deep connection between faith and business? What if biblical values weren't roadblocks but actually the source of successful business? What if the real goal of business were more noble than maximizing profit? What if we could see our everyday work as having spiritual value? What if we could approach it as ministry? What if it were our calling, a calling as high as that of a pastor or missionary? What if God cared deeply about our work and wanted to be involved? And what if we could even partner with him in our business? Many of us believe the key to resolving the tension between work and faith lies in a more balanced life. Pursuing balance is important, Eldred explains, but that noble effort still leaves us with compartmentalized lives. We still sense that all those prime hours of our day have little or no spiritual significance. Integration is the key to changing that mindset and thus "redeeming" the vast majority of our time, the hours devoted to work. When our work is a holy calling and a ministry, it's loaded with spiritual significance. All that time we spend at work has spiritual value. So while balance alone might redeem some hours, integration can redeem far more! Ken Eldred reveals how to find a deep integration between our work and faith such that all areas of our lives further God's kingdom, glorify him, and fulfill our life mission. As we integrate our lives, he explains, we can experience the abundant life that Jesus offers us. The author takes on pervasive misconceptions stemming both from business and from church. He debunks these misguided beliefs and attitudes that hold us back and reveals a transformational new paradigm for purpose-driven work. Eldred explains that we have a threefold ministry in our work life: pointing those around us to God (a ministry at work), serving and creating via the work itself (a ministry of work), and redeeming the practices, policies, and structures of institutions (a ministry to work). That's a pretty lofty charge for those of us in the marketplace! This book offers a powerful picture of the integrated life in which our faith impacts every sphere, including our work in the marketplace. Drawing on his own experience and the example of others, Eldred lays out practical applications that lead to abundant living through a far deeper connection between work and faith.