A Bargain with God

A Bargain with God
Author: Thomas Savage
Publisher:
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1953
Genre:
ISBN:

Elderly priest tries to save his church and playground for his poverty-stricken parishoners.

Disappointment with God

Disappointment with God
Author: Philip Yancey
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1988
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310517818

"Is God listening? "Can he be trusted?" In this book, Yancey tackles the questions caused by a God who doesn't always do what we think he's supposed to do.

Good Or God?

Good Or God?
Author: John Bevere
Publisher: Messenger International
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2015-08-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1933185961

These days the terms good and God seem synonymous. We believe what’s generally accepted as good must be in line with God’s will. Generosity, humility, justice—good. Selfishness, arrogance, cruelty—evil. The distinction seems pretty straightforward. But is that all there is to it? If good is so obvious, why does the Bible say that we need discernment to recognize it? Good or God? isn’t another self-help message. This book will do more than ask you to change your behavior. It will empower you to engage with God on a level that will change every aspect of your life.

Birdie's Bargain

Birdie's Bargain
Author: Katherine Paterson
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-10-19
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1536215597

In a poignant and unflinching new realistic novel from the Newbery Medal–winning author of Bridge to Terabithia, a ten-year-old girl makes a deal with God for her father's safe return from the Iraq War. Birdie has questions for God. For starters, why couldn’t God roll history back to September 10, 2001, and fix things—so the next day was an ordinary sunny day and not the devastating lead-in to two wars? Daddy has already been to Iraq twice. Now he’s going again, and Birdie is sure he’ll die. At the very least, she won’t see him again for a year, and everything will not be OK. (Why do grown-ups lie?) To save money, she, Mom, and baby Billy have moved to Gran’s, where shy Birdie must attend a new school, and no one but bossy Alicia Marie Suggs welcomes her. Doesn’t God remember how hard it was for Birdie to make friends at Bible Camp? Counselor Ron taught about Judgment there—and the right way to believe. Has Birdie been praying wrong? Why else would God break their bargain? Readers of all faiths and backgrounds, especially children of military families, will identify with and root for the unforgettable Birdie, given inimitable voice by a master storyteller.

The Sheep Queen

The Sheep Queen
Author: Thomas Savage
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2009-08-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316076716

An epic family saga set on the sprawling, beautiful ranches of the American West, from the author of The Power of the Dog, "a masterful novelist working at the peak of his form" (Washington Post). A Western family story at once intimate and epic, this rich, compelling, emotionally charged novel tells the story of the Sweringen family of Idaho: Emma, the matriarch, known as the Sheep Queen ("surely one of the most fascinating characters in current fiction" —Publishers Weekly); the daughter who disappoints her; the grandson who adores her; and the granddaughter, given up for adoption, who spends nearly half her life finding her way back to her family. "The Sheep Queen is marvelous...Her reign has a mythic grandeur." —New York Times Book Review "A fine novel...A sense of family as anchor and root and self-definition [gives] the book its considerable strength...Savage is a writer of the first order, and he possesses in abundance the novelist's highest art — the ability to illuminate and move." —The New Yorker

Arguing with God

Arguing with God
Author: Anson Laytner
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 338
Release: 1998
Genre: Covenants
ISBN: 0765760258

As an old proverb puts it, "Two Jews, three opinions." In the long, rich, tumultuous history of the Jewish people, this characteristic contentiousness has often been extended even unto Heaven. Arguing with God is a highly original and utterly absorbing study that skates along the edge of this theological thin ice--at times verging dangerously close to blasphemy--yet also a source of some of the most poignant and deeply soulful expressions of human anguish and yearning. The name Israel literally denotes one who "wrestles with God." And, from Jacob's battle with the angel to Elie Wiesel's haunting questions about the Holocaust that hang in the air like still smoke over our own age, Rabbi Laytner admirably details Judaism's rich and pervasive tradition of calling God to task over human suffering and experienced injustice. It is a tradition that originated in the biblical period itself. Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and others all petitioned for divine intervention in their lives, or appealed forcefully to God to alter His proposed decree. Other biblical arguments focused on personal or communal suffering and anger: Jeremiah, Job, and certain Psalms and Lamentations. Rabbi Laytner delves beneath the surface of these "blasphemies" and reveals how they implicitly helped to refute the claims of opponent religions and advance Jewish doctrines and teachings.

Beyond Thingification

Beyond Thingification
Author: Markus Watson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2020-02-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9781082805363

Beyond Thingification will help you get clear on your church's mission and help your church do ministry that really matters. Leading churches is so much harder than it used to be. You used to be able to grow a church simply by starting one. Or by improving the preaching or the music or the children's ministry. That's just not the case anymore. We try to attract people to our churches with new programs. Occasionally it works. Most of the time it doesn't. That's frustrating! And it makes us feel like failures. Eventually, most of us realize that getting our churches to be bigger and better is not God's top priority. We begin to understand that what God really wants is to heal the world. And we want that, too. We want to help our churches bless our communities and restore shalom in the world. The problem is...it's so hard to know how to do that today. In Beyond Thingification: Helping Your Church Engage in God's Mission, Markus Watson: -Describes the historical background that got us to where we are... -Explores the mission to which all of us have been called, and... -Presents a practical way to discern how God is calling your particular church to participate in the healing of the world. As you and your church read Beyond Thingification and implement what Markus Watson terms "Vocational Connection Groups," you will: -Help your church meaningfully engage in God's mission. -Escape the hamster wheel of doing the same old-but now ineffective-ministry programs. Beyond Thingification will help you move: -From confused about the church's purpose...to clear about the church's mission. -From frustrated about your church's ineffectiveness...to excited about what God is doing through your people. -From distracted by meaningless measures of success...to focused on faithfulness as the true measure of success. If you're ready to get clear on how God is calling your church to engage in the mission of God in your unique context, Beyond Thingification will help you do just that.

Sinners in the Hands of a Good God

Sinners in the Hands of a Good God
Author: David Clotfelter
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2004-10-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 157567517X

Are heaven and hell real? How does God's election correspond to our freedom? Why did Jesus have to die? Why doesn't God save everybody? These are questions most believers and seekers have asked, and they are biblically answered by author David Clotfelter. Contrasting the theologies of Jonathan Edwards with George MacDonald, the author reconciles the difficult doctrines of divine judgement and predestination. Sure to be thought-and discussion-provoking message.

The Earl's Secret Bargain

The Earl's Secret Bargain
Author: Ruth Ann Nordin
Publisher: Ruth Ann Nordin
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2014-07-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Lord Davenport and Lord Pennella have just made a bet for the hand of Miss Regina Giles. The gentleman she chooses wins the loser’s estate. It’s the most daring wager at White’s, and quite possibly the most foolish. Toby York, the Earl of Davenport, knew it was a mistake to make the wager when Lord Pennella stormed into White’s bragging that he could get any lady he wished. Toby really should have kept his mouth shut. But he didn’t. And now there are only three things he can do to protect Miss Giles. One, he must get her to choose him instead of Pennella. Two, he must make sure she never finds out about the wager. And three, he must quietly break off the engagement so that she is free to marry a gentleman worthy of her. As long as he doesn’t fall in love with her, there should be no problems. Too bad things never work out the way they’re planned.