Faith, Vow, Love and Commitment


Book Description

You are cordially invited to read a true love story! This is the story that my eyes witnessedmy familys trials through darkness, hope, and faith and a vow made until death doeth us part. This is about the strength and endurance of their wedding vows. Read how my family conquers the inevitable death with love and faith. The stars of this love is William and Dorothy, and their union was September 29, 1943. Through sickness and health, the wedding vows illuminated togetherness. It bonded two hearts, becoming one devoted loving heart in commitment. In sickness, in health until death doeth us part. Vision how their love, family, devotion, and faith commit their undying love. As an artist paints a canvas, a wedding ring encircles. Their love never dwindled, the flame glowed, and flickering love remained. Two faithful people devote in harmony as a violinist plays melodic music, seeing two in love. Family and friends hear their music playing. Memories lasted, faith endured, their strength was stronger, and love prevailed. Until death doeth us part. Love never withered; instead it united their love. A wife stroked her husbands forehead, while he lay in intensive careno response. Dad had suffered a stroke on life support. Read how a mans eyes closed, with the body laying lifeless. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide in response to his loveDorothy. Fingertips of love, she whispered, Bun, I love you. The children love you. We need you. The nurse witnessed their love as he responded. He must be a man in love! Please continue as they were in lovea couple in love. Dads body was twisted from a stroke. He rushed to aid and rescue his love, his wife, dear Dorothy. He appeared almost as a man walking on stilts, gliding. His limp arm dangled; his physical prowess faded. Emerging, buffering, softening, he lifted her from harm. This is a story of protecting two love birds, two doves in love. This story will engage you as you sigh, perhaps cry. Fall in love with a couple, William and Dorothy, my parents. Experience their journey, their vows! This is about family sickness, pain, love, and death as faith endures and children honoring their parents, giving back the love they feel. This is about a couples union and their children, grandchildren, son-in-law, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends. Remember the artists canvas, wedding rings, vows, and violins play as the wedding rings bond their love. Mr. and Mrs. William Stoness love is exclusive. Thank you for accepting my invitation!




A Practical Wedding


Book Description

A companion to the popular website APracticalWedding.com and A Practical Wedding Planner, A Practical Wedding helps you sort through the basics to create the wedding you want -- without going broke or crazy in the process. After all, what really matters on your wedding day is not so much how it looked as how it felt. In this refreshing guide, expert Meg Keene shares her secrets to planning a beautiful celebration that reflects your taste and your relationship. You'll discover: The real purpose of engagement (hint: it's not just about the planning) How to pinpoint what matters most to you and your partner DIY-ing your wedding: brilliant or crazy? How to communicate decisions to your family Why that color-coded spreadsheet is actually worth it Wedding Zen can be yours. Meg walks you through everything from choosing a venue to writing vows, complete with stories and advice from women who have been in the trenches: the Team Practical brides. So here's to the joyful wedding, the sensible wedding, the unbelievably fun wedding! A Practical Wedding is your complete guide to getting married with grace.




Missional Renaissance


Book Description

Reggie McNeal's bestseller The Present Future is the definitive work on the "missional movement," i.e., the widespread movement among Protestant churches to be less inwardly focused and more oriented toward the culture and community around them. In that book he asked the tough questions that churches needed to entertain to begin to think about who they are and what they are doing; in Missional Renaissance, he shows them the three significant shifts in their thinking and behavior that they need to make that will allow leaders to chart a course toward being missional: (1) from an internal to an external focus, ending the church as exclusive social club model; (2) from running programs and ministries to developing people as its core activity; and (3) from professional leadership to leadership that is shared by everyone in the community. With in-depth discussions of the "what" and the "how" of transitioning to being a missional church, readers will be equipped to move into what McNeal sees as the most viable future for Christianity. For all those thousands of churches who are asking about what to do next after reading The Present Future, Missional Renaissance will provide the answer.




Sacred Pathways


Book Description

Sacred Pathways reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments--and their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies--to help you improve your spiritual life and deepen your personal walk with God. It's time to strip away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and discover a path of worship that frees you to be you. Experienced spiritual directors, pastors, and church leaders recognize that all of us engage with God differently, and it's about time we do too. In this updated and expanded edition of Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas details nine spiritual temperaments and--like the Enneagram and other tools do with personality--encourages you to investigate the ways you most naturally express yourself in your relationship with God. He encourages you to dig into the traits, strengths, and pitfalls in your devotional approach so you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into rigid methods of worship and praise. Plus, as you begin to identify and understand your own temperament, you'll soon learn about the temperaments that aren't necessarily "you" but that may help you understand the spiritual tendencies of friends, family, and others around you. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it's not by accident. It's by the design of a Creator who knew what he was doing when he made you according to his own unique intentions. If your spiritual walk is not what you'd like it to be, you can change that, starting here. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God. A Sacred Pathways video Bible study is also available for group or individual use, sold separately.




Rich Wounds


Book Description

Profound reflections on the cross that help you to meditate on and marvel at the sacrificial love of Jesus. This book can be used as a devotional, especially during Lent and Easter. These profound reflections on the cross from David Mathis, author of The Christmas We Didn’t Expect, will help you to meditate on and marvel at Jesus’ life, sacrificial death, and spectacular resurrection-enabling you to treasure anew who Jesus is and what he has done. Many of us are so familiar with the Easter story that it becomes easy to miss subtle details and difficult to really enjoy its meaning. This book will help you to pause and marvel at Jesus, whose now-glorified wounds are a sign of his unfailing love and the decisive victory that he has won: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) This book can be used as a devotional. The chapters on Holy Week make it especially helpful during the Lent season and at Easter.




Divergent Church


Book Description

New faith communities are appearing across the U.S.. Many of them bear little resemblance—on the surface—to ‘church’ in its conventional form. But when we look a little deeper we see striking continuity with the most deeply rooted practices of the Christian faith in community. What are those practices? What do these unconventional, alternative faith communities look like? How are they, perhaps, indicators of a hopeful new future for the church? And what can we learn from them? Authors Kara Brinkerhoff and Tim Shapiro spent more than a year researching and exploring these questions, closely examining the life of a dozen alternative faith communities across the country. They include new monastic communities, food-oriented communities, affinity group communities, house churches, hybrid churches and others. They are creative, ingenious, innovative, clever, dynamic and transformative. But they represent human expressions of activities that have always been part of human religious congregations: hospitality, learning, storytelling, care, leadership, worship and honoring place. This fascinating book goes beyond simply analyzing current trends. It reveals how innovative Christians are engaging in time-honored practices, creating new types of communities, which will shape the church to come. Further, it shows us how we too might innovate while holding true to the essential practices of our gathered faith. This is an instructive picture of Christian community, past, present and future.




Forty Days on Being an Eight


Book Description

"Fósforito! The explosion happened so quickly there was no stopping it. My mother called me 'tiny match' when she would see this fire exploding from me." This is how Latina pastor, activist, and worship leader, Sandra Maria Van Opstal, describes her experience as an Enneagram Eight. In these forty daily readings, Sandra offers insight from her ethnic journey alongside Enneagram wisdom.




The Irrational Season


Book Description

The bestselling author of A Wrinkle in Time contemplates the true meaning of faith in the third installment of her series of memoirs. Upon her death, the New York Times hailed Madeleine L’Engle as “an author whose childhood fables, religious meditations and fanciful science fiction transcended both genre and generation.” L’Engle has long captivated and provoked readers by exploring the intersection of science and religion in her work. In this intimate memoir, the award-winning author uncovers how her spiritual convictions inform and enrich the everyday. The Irrational Season follows the liturgical year from one Advent to the next, with L’Engle reflecting on the changing seasons in her own life as a writer, wife, mother, and global citizen. Unafraid to discuss controversial topics and address challenging questions, L’Engle writes from the heart in this compelling chronicle of her spiritual quest to renew and refresh her faith in an ever-changing world and her ever-changing personhood. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Madeleine L’Engle including rare images from the author’s estate.




The Vow


Book Description

When three best friends come together for their sorority sister's tony wedding on New Year's Eve, they make a vow at the stroke of midnight to get married within one year. As the three women embark on their search to find their soul mates, they navigate the full-contact sport known as being a SSBFDLA (successful, single, black, female dating in L.A.) and negotiate the shark-infested waters of making a name for themselves in Hollywood. Can Trista, the hyper-driven celebrity agent, find the time to schedule a meaningful romance? Will Amaya, the sexy starlet, convince the married hip hop–label exec she has been seeing to leave his wife and slip a ring on her finger or will the NBA star steal her heart in the final seconds? After undergoing a complete makeover, will Vivian, the jaded gossip columnist, win back the father of her child? Set against the seductive backdrop of money, power, and sex, The Vow follows these women as they discover that their desire to find a husband isn't as important as finding themselves.




The Vow


Book Description

In his first release since the best-selling There is More to the Secret, Ed Gungor challenges the church to return to authenticity and community. Over and over again in scripture Christians are encouraged to "make vows to the Lord" (e.g., Psalm 76:11). Is it possible that making vows-- intentionally inserting various Christian practices into our lives-- would have great value to 21st-century Christians? What if we thoughtfully and publicly articulated vows before God and those we love? Would it help our lives take on the tone of the eternal? Has something been lost in the openness of the 21st century? The answer is yes! Gungor says: "Vow-making is an old trail that was very familiar to the ancients who have gone before us, but is virtually unknown for we moderns. As I have wandered down this path, it has been both intriguing and empowering, and, on another level, just plain dangerous. But I really think it's leading somewhere. That's the why of this writing."