Godwired


Book Description

Godwired offers an engaging exploration of religious practice in the digital age. It considers how virtual experiences, like stories, games and rituals, are forms of world-building or "cosmos construction" that serve as a means of making sense of our own world. Such creative and interactive activity is, arguably, patently religious. This book examines: the nature of sacred space in virtual contexts technology as a vehicle for sacred texts who we are when we go online what rituals have in common with games and how they work online what happens to community when people worship online how religious "worlds" and virtual "worlds" nurture similar desires. Rachel Wagner suggests that whilst our engagement with virtual reality can be viewed as a form of religious activity, today’s virtual religion marks a radical departure from traditional religious practice – it is ephemeral, transient, rapid, disposable, hyper-individualized, hybrid, and in an ongoing state of flux.




NIV, Great Rescue: Discover Your Part in God's Plan


Book Description

Be drawn into the epic adventure of experiencing God’s plan. This isn’t your typical sex, alcohol, drugs, and obey-your-parents devotional Bible. Instead, it takes an honest look at the messiness of living in a broken world and walking with God through it. Daily readings and book introductions for every book of the Bible paint a picture of the reality that the Bible teaches—that there is more going on in the world than meets the eye. As you explore what it means to have God himself living inside of you, you will learn how to hear his voice, follow his lead, and recognize him in the good, true, and beautiful in the world. The Great Rescue focuses on intimacy with God and a relationship with him in every area of life. The Bible tells us that God had a plan from the beginning of time, and that we were created for a purpose: to fulfill a unique role in his kingdom. It also tells us that there is a very real conflict going on in our broken world between God and his archenemy. God wants us to be a part of his grand story. He wants us to walk so closely with him that we begin to understand his way of life and to participate in the narrative that is God’s story. It's much more than a new way to act. It’s a new way to see. Devotionals from YW Magazine, an eight-time winner of EPA editorial awards of excellence.




God and Popular Culture


Book Description

This contributed two-volume work tackles a fascinating topic: how and why God plays a central role in the modern world and profoundly influences politics, art, culture, and our moral reflection—even for nonbelievers. God—in the many ways that people around the globe conceptualize Him, Her, or It—is one of the most powerful, divisive, unifying, and creative elements of human culture. The two volumes of God and Popular Culture: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Entertainment Industry's Most Influential Figure provide readers with a balanced and accessible analysis of this fascinating topic that allows anyone who appreciates any art, music, television, film, and other forms of entertainment to have a new perspective on a favorite song or movie. Written by a collective of both believers and nonbelievers, the essays enable both nonreligious individuals and those who are spiritually guided to consider how culture approaches and has appropriated God to reveal truths about humanity and society. The book discusses the intersections of God with film, television, sports, politics, commerce, and popular culture, thereby documenting how the ongoing messages and conversations about God that occur among the general population also occur within the context of the entertainment that we as members of society consume—often without our recognition of the discussion.




God's Unstoppable Breakthrough


Book Description

Experience God’s Unstoppable Breakthrough and Blessings! “I’ve never heard such powerful revelation about going over the wall of impossibilities in your life! It’s BIBLICAL, UNSTOPPABLE, and it WORKS!” —Sid Roth There are times when God dramatically breaks through the obstacles in our lives with His presence and power, bringing instant change and deliverance. His sovereign hand can move at any moment, and we should live in anticipation of that happening. But what can you do when the mountain doesn’t move, when God’s promises aren’t fulfilled right away, when the breakthrough doesn’t come instantly, even when you pray and stand in faith? When it looks like nothing is happening, God is still mightily at work to bring about change because He is unstoppable! When the mountain doesn’t move, He will raise you up so you can go over it! God’s Unstoppable Breakthrough gives you the answers you need to live in constant and consistent breakthrough. The trials of life have no power to keep you from being fruitful, receiving divine blessings, and fulfilling the plans God has for you. You can rise up over your mountains of difficulty, opposition, and hindrance. Every negative situation will divinely position you to be where you need to be in life. Then, your breakthrough will become a breakthrough and blessing for others, too, enabling them to rise over their own mountains of difficulty!




Why We Believe in God(s)


Book Description

In this groundbreaking volume, J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD, with Clare Aukofer, offers a succinct yet comprehensive study of how and why the human mind generates religious belief. Dr. Thomson, a highly respected practicing psychiatrist with credentials in forensic psychiatry and evolutionary psychology, methodically investigates the components and causes of religious belief in the same way any scientist would investigate the movement of astronomical bodies or the evolution of life over time—that is, as a purely natural phenomenon. Providing compelling evidence from psychology, the cognitive neurosciences, and related fields, he, with Ms. Aukofer, presents an easily accessible and exceptionally convincing case that god(s) were created by man—not vice versa. With this slim volume, Dr. Thomson establishes himself as a must-read thinker and leading voice on the primacy of reason and science over superstition and religion.




God Wired Jesus Inspired


Book Description

THE PRAYER OF THE INSPIRED Father God, thank you for your divine inspiration. With your Word, I am encouraged to continue on and fight the good fight. I am a conqueror because you showed me how to overcome. I am a defeater because you showed me how to defeat all my enemies. I am a lover because you showed me how love wiped away a multitude of sin. Through it all, I remain humble because I know where my help comes from. Thank you Lord for your undeserved kindness. From a small flower with a little bit of hope to an eager worm who desperately wants to experience the glorious transformation from God before his time, God Wired Jesus Inspired offers day-to-day encouragement to all in a new light.




Enjoying God in Everything


Book Description

Perhaps now more than ever our lives are in need of beauty! Why do our hearts thrill over a sunset or cry over a song? The experience of beauty does something profound and powerful within the heart and soul of every human being. We were made by God but also for Him and His beauty. Pastor Steve DeWitt invites us to taste and see how God is the beauty behind all beauty. Enjoying God in Everything explores how we were created to wonder at the myriad ways God has designed for us to partake in His beauty: Monet’s waterlilies, baby ducklings, that perfect line in a book, the Swiss Alps, a Pacific wave, that three-year-old’s toothy grin, that elderly couple’s love. Beauty creates wonder in us. It sparks joy. It causes us to weep. And ultimately, it's meant to lead us back to the One who delights in sharing Himself—who delights in giving and creating all that takes our breath away. Wonder is what we feel when we glimpse a reflection of God’s beauty. DeWitt brings readers to the source of all beauty and opens our eyes to beauty’s appointed end: worship! Nothing is more desirable than the beautiful one who saves: Jesus Christ. When we begin to grasp the beauty of Christ’s restoring, sacrificial love, then we begin Enjoying God in Everything.




Nine Ways God Always Speaks


Book Description

Whether Christian or not, many people have unusual experiences, conditions, or encounters that have left them wondering, Is God trying to tell me something? The truth is, God does communicate with us all the time. We just need to learn how to hear his voice. Using stories and examples from people throughout history and today, Herringshaw and Schuchmann show readers how they can better tune in to God's voice—everywhere and every day.




Life, the Universe and Everything: Investigating the God Debate in a Quantum Universe


Book Description

The science behind the debate raging in modern physics over the disconcerting and uncomfortable realization that just maybe there is, as astronomer Fred Hoyle put it, some sort of "superintellect that has monkeyed with the physics". Written with the non-scientist in mind, this exploration of Big Bang, Schroedinger's Cat, the Chaos of 9/11, the Complexity of the mimic octopus and the blister beetle, and the strong Anthropic Principle is accessible to anyone bright enough to be interested. Ultimately, tucked in here somewhere is a middle ground between evolution and creation that will leave nobody happy, but everyone intrigued.




Finding God's Life for My Will


Book Description

ECPA BESTSELLER • The lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist for award-winning contemporary Christian band Tenth Avenue North shows readers that by seeking God first and focusing on serving Him, we can live daily in His will. "Perhaps God isn't giving me the plan because He wants to be the plan." This was the aha moment for Mike Donehey after years of wrestling with his obsession to know God's specific plans for his life. He came to the realization that waiting for absolute certainty from God before making decisions may seem uberspiritual, but it can lead to a life of intense stress, paralyzing fear, and crushing regret--just the opposite of the freedom granted to those living a Christ-filled life. "This is my story...how I gave up begging to know God's will and began to ask His life to come and change my will." With his signature humor and relentless hunger for God, Mike will show you that discovering the Father's purpose and plan for our lives is not the shell game that we all too often make it out to be. If you're unsure what to do next, take heart and accept the ultimate invitation: learn to see God as the plan, not simply the formula to the plan.