How to grow in love for your church. God calls us to be "devoted to one another in love" (Romans 12:10). What does this look like for us today? How can we be the kind of church member who makes a real difference? This engaging book by Tony Merida explores what church is, why being part of it is exciting, and why it’s worthy of our love and commitment. He sets out eight privileges and responsibilities of a church member: to belong, to welcome, to gather, to care, to serve, to honour, to witness and to send. As we see how wonderful it is to belong to God’s family and be a part of his amazing witness to both the earthly and the heavenly realms, we’ll grow in our love for and commitment to our local church. This is a great book for every churchgoer to read, whether they’re new or have been attending for some time but need re-energising with God’s vision for the local church. With a discussion guide at the end of the book, Love Your Church is also a great resource for small groups.

A masterpiece in the tradition of the Decameron and the Canterbury Tales, Juan Ruiz's fourteenth-century Spanish narrative poem combines the comic and the serious, the bawdy and the practical, the satiric and the tender, the devout and the blasphemous. In a first prose translation, Professors Mignani and Di Cesare succeed in conveying the vitality and sly humor of the original. The poem consists of a loosely unified series of fourteen amorous adventures of the Archpriest of Hita, interlaced with debates, fabliaux, fables, and exempla. Ruiz suggests that while man ought to seek buen amor (true love, or love of God), he is prone to loco amor, or worldly love. The Book proposes to show human folly so that men may be forewarned of the bad and choose the good. The episodes related in the stanzas and in songs in various lyrical styles parody such conventions as courtly love, epic battle, or church ritual. Ruiz was clearly fascinated by the concrete, as well as the allegorical, for his episodes have dates and actual settings, and popular speech is incorporated into his verses. In their introduction, the translators survey the major scholarly studies of the poem and offer their own critical reading of it. Their annotated bibliography and notes to the translation will be useful to students as well as scholars.

"From the time of the great Greek philosophers, the good, true, and beautiful were seen as inseparable. Beauty is always good and true. It can be the still, small voice crying in the wilderness, calling us to higher things. Jimmy Mitchell communicates this with an eloquence and elegance which is itself a thing of beauty." — Joseph Pearce, Biographer of Shakespeare, Solzhenitsyn, Tolkien, and Chesterton In an era marked by rampant secularism and endless noise, the ten principles of Let Beauty Speak empower Christians to evangelize the world by bringing beauty to the forefront of their lives and reminding the world what it means to be human. This book is particularly timely given the social unrest, political upheaval, and cultural strife of our times. The world's problems cannot be solved by worldly solutions. Politics, medicine, technology, and other secular fields have their place in society, but the deepest existential questions of the human heart can only be answered by the beauty of holiness found in the lives of the saints. From cave diving in Austria to summer camps in New Zealand, Let Beauty Speak is full of personal stories and rich theology that will inspire you to become a great saint as you apply the book's principles to your own life. Each chapter is organized into beautiful, bite-size sections that make it easy for non-academics to enjoy. Each chapter also concludes with practical tips and recommendations that give you an opportunity to further personalize the principles and transform your day-to-day life. From embracing childlike wonder to integrating prayer, work, and leisure into your everyday life, this is your how-to guide for evangelizing others by first living your humanity well. If not you, then who? If not now, then when? Turn these principles into a way of life, and you'll join the long line of saints whose holiness was the remedy for the isolation, confusion, and meaninglessness of their times.

Is it possible to embrace suffering as a privilege, rather than a punishment? Beloved authors Katherine and Jay Wolf offer readers the bold invitation to trust a known God with an unknown future, as well as practical insights into surviving anything by redefining how we think about everything. After miraculously surviving a near-fatal brainstem stroke at age 26, as told in their memoir, Hope Heals, life for Katherine and Jay Wolf changed forever - and so did the way they viewed God, the world, and themselves in it. There was no going back to normal after such a tragedy. Yet Katherine and Jay learned that suffering is not the end, but rather the beginning of a new story. In Suffer Strong, they invite us into this new story as they share universal lessons and helpful practices that will help us to: Recognize we are being equipped for an uncommon assignment, not cursed by our story. Transform our unmet expectations into brave anticipations. Disrupt the myth that joy can only be found in a pain-free life. Rewrite the narrative of hard circumstances by turning our definitions of suffering into declarations of strength. And, ultimately, thrive even in the lives we never imagined living.

Iris Murdoch is a philosopher, as well as a prominent and prolific novelist. Although she has not provided a systematic account of her moral philosophy, Murdoch's ideas have nevertheless influenced certain practitioners of feminist philosophy, including Marilyn Frye and Sara Ruddick. Murdoch's ideas also have appeared in the writings of Lawrence Blum and Charles Taylor, among others. This volume gives a developed account of Murdoch's position, making it more accessible by fitting ideas from her lesser-known works into a systematic picture of her moral philosophy as a whole. The book also argues for a connection between Murdoch's novels and her philosophy, seeing in both her deep concern with attention, love, and the Good. Readers of Murdoch's fiction and those intrigued by her philosphy will find much of interest here.

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

From learning his letters and shapes with Grandma first thing in the morning to snuggling up with Daddy after a bath, one little boy loves time spent reading a good book with his loved ones. But, he has a secret! Can you guess his favorite way to read a good book? Jump into the pages of this delightfully tasty book to find out what makes reading so great!

Scripture reveals a God who meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be. No More Faking Fine is your invitation to get honest with God through the life-giving language of lament. If you've ever been given empty clichés during challenging times, you know how painful it is to be misunderstood by well-meaning people. When life hurts, we often feel pressure--from others and ourselves--to keep it together, suck it up, or pray it away. But Scripture reveals a God who lovingly invites us to give honest voice to our emotions when life hits hard. For most of her life, Esther Fleece Allen believed she could bypass the painful emotions of her broken past by shutting them down altogether. She was known as an achiever and an overcomer on the fast track to success. But in silencing her pain, she robbed herself of the opportunity to be healed. Maybe you've done the same. Esther's journey into healing began when she discovered that God has given us a real-world way to deal with raw emotions and an alternative to the coping mechanisms that end up causing more pain. It's called lament--the gut-level, honest prayer that God never ignores, never silences, and never wastes. No More Faking Fine is your permission to lament, taking you on a journey down the unexpected pathway to true intimacy with God. Drawing from careful biblical study and hard-won insight, Esther reveals how to use God's own language to come closer to him as he leads us through our pain to the light on the other side, teaching you that: We are robbing ourselves of a divine mystery and a divine intimacy when we pretend to have it all together God does not expect us to be perfect; instead, he meets us where we are There is hope beyond your heartache, disappointment, and grief Like Esther, you'll soon find that when one person stops faking fine, it gives everyone else permission to do the same.

Harriet talks about love, how one can love someone but still be angry, and some of the ways to show love.

Turning to the Gospels, James Bryan Smith invites you to compare your ideas about God with what Jesus himself reveals about his Father. In this Good and Beautiful Series book, Smith leads you through a process of spiritual formation that includes activities aimed at making these new narratives real in your body and soul as well as your mind.