Keeping Your Faith Through SoCrates's Journey


Book Description

Many of us believe in miracles, signs, and divine intervention. We are often both knowingly and unknowingly manifesting. Sometimes we get premonitions from our dreams which allows us to have deep connections with the universe. It's comforting for me to know that when I ask God for something in prayer along with a sign to assure me that my prayer will indeed be granted, God always sends me my sign. I also know that in my own life, all of the events that have happened and those still yet to come are being divinely orchestrated to lovingly guide me to where I am supposed to be and when I'm supposed to be there. If you look back at some of the events that have occurred in your life and connect them via "dots" from when the events started, you will see how each event allowed for the next event and how that event in turn allowed for the following event and so on. If you follow along in this manner, you will see why each dot was significantly important for the conclusion of the situation or event to take place as God and the universe intended. These concluding dots now allow for a new series of dots to begin so as God and the universe can once again lead you to the next conclusion. I call this concept "connecting the dots." Let me be clear about something: I believe that there are no coincidences in life, and everything happens to us for a reason. Although we all have free will to make the choices that we make every day, the destination we reach has already been lovingly predetermined by God. Whenever we do anything for the glory of God and which praises him, we will always achieve success, doors will be opened, and we will be blessed with everything good that God, our Father, wants and intends for us to have. God, our Father, wants all of his children to be happy, healthy, and enjoy an abundant life. These are the reasons that he made us in his image. We are all God's children, and he is our Father. Signs are all around us. They are not mere random occurrences that one could relate to any particular event. We only have to open our eyes, mind, heart, and soul to see that this is, in fact, the case. If we open ourselves in this way, it's easy to believe that these signs are real and meant for us. They are there to guide us along on our journey throughout our lives. It is sincerely my deepest desire that as you read the true to life stories of the many miracles granted to SoCrates and our family that you will be filled with hope and joy and be blessed with countless miracles just as we were. You only need to have faith in God and trust in him as I have learned to do. Ask and it shall be granted. Hope Isabella Lenkersdorf Smith







Dream of Reason: A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance (New Edition)


Book Description

"His book...supplant[s] all others, even the immensely successful History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell."—A. C. Grayling Already a classic, this landmark study of early Western thought now appears in a new edition with expanded coverage of the Middle Ages. This landmark study of Western thought takes a fresh look at the writings of the great thinkers of classic philosophy and questions many pieces of conventional wisdom. The book invites comparison with Bertrand Russell's monumental History of Western Philosophy, "but Gottlieb's book is less idiosyncratic and based on more recent scholarship" (Colin McGinn, Los Angeles Times). A New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Best Book, and a Times Literary Supplement Best Book of 2001.




Sophie's World


Book Description

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.




The Gospel Comes with a House Key


Book Description

What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically. With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home to show us how God can use this same "radical, ordinary hospitality" to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors. Such hospitality sees our homes as not our own, but as God's tools for the furtherance of his kingdom as we welcome those who look, think, believe, and act differently from us into our everyday, sometimes messy lives—helping them see what true Christian faith really looks like.




Socrates Meets Jesus


Book Description

Peter Kreeft imagines what would happen if Socrates woke up today and enrolled in divinity school. Kreeft's new introduction for this edition highlights the inspirations for the book and the key questions of truth and faith it addresses.




The Porch and the Cross


Book Description

Regardless of their sometimes ambiguous concepts of God, the Roman Stoic philosophers did acknowledge Him, but on the basis of reason alone, because they had not met Christ. Nonetheless, they did deduce from God's existence our need to live lives of virtue, honor, tranquility, and self-control--and they developed effective techniques to help us achieve this. Musonius Rufus the teacher, Epictetus the slave, Seneca the adviser to emperors, and Marcus Aurelius, the emperor himself, produced a practical technology we can use to integrate Christian ethics into our own daily practice. As Kevin Vost so wonderfully illustrates in his new book, The Porch and the Cross, the Stoics can help us learn--and remember--what is up to us, and what is up to God alone.




Man Seeks God


Book Description

Bestselling author of Geography of Bliss returns with this funny, illuminating chronicle of a globe-spanning spiritual quest to find a faith that fits. When a health scare puts him in the hospital, Eric Weiner-an agnostic by default-finds himself tangling with an unexpected question, posed to him by a well-meaning nurse. "Have you found your God yet?" The thought of it nags him, and prods him-and ultimately launches him on a far-flung journey to do just that. Weiner, a longtime "spiritual voyeur" and inveterate traveler, realizes that while he has been privy to a wide range of religious practices, he's never seriously considered these concepts in his own life. Face to face with his own mortality, and spurred on by the question of what spiritual principles to impart to his young daughter, he decides to correct this omission, undertaking a worldwide exploration of religions and hoping to come, if he can, to a personal understanding of the divine. The journey that results is rich in insight, humor, and heart. Willing to do anything to better understand faith, and to find the god or gods that speak to him, he travels to Nepal, where he meditates with Tibetan lamas and a guy named Wayne. He sojourns to Turkey, where he whirls (not so well, as it turns out) with Sufi dervishes. He heads to China, where he attempts to unblock his chi; to Israel, where he studies Kabbalah, sans Madonna; and to Las Vegas, where he has a close encounter with Raelians (followers of the world's largest UFO-based religion). At each stop along the way, Weiner tackles our most pressing spiritual questions: Where do we come from? What happens when we die? How should we live our lives? Where do all the missing socks go? With his trademark wit and warmth, he leaves no stone unturned. At a time when more Americans than ever are choosing a new faith, and when spiritual questions loom large in the modern age, Man Seeks God presents a perspective on religion that is sure to delight, inspire, and entertain.




Letter from Birmingham Jail


Book Description

A beautiful commemorative edition of Dr. Martin Luther King's essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail," part of Dr. King's archives published exclusively by HarperCollins. With an afterword by Reginald Dwayne Betts On April 16, 1923, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., responded to an open letter written and published by eight white clergyman admonishing the civil rights demonstrations happening in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King drafted his seminal response on scraps of paper smuggled into jail. King criticizes his detractors for caring more about order than justice, defends nonviolent protests, and argues for the moral responsibility to obey just laws while disobeying unjust ones. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" proclaims a message - confronting any injustice is an acceptable and righteous reason for civil disobedience. This beautifully designed edition presents Dr. King's speech in its entirety, paying tribute to this extraordinary leader and his immeasurable contribution, and inspiring a new generation of activists dedicated to carrying on the fight for justice and equality.