We all know blind spots are dangerous when we're changing lanes at 70 mph on an interstate highway. But just as critical are the blind spots that block us from seeing the truth about ourselves and others. No one is immune to either kind. Blind spots are, by definition, invisible to us. No matter how often we're reminded to "check our blind spots," we can't—at least on our own. Our only hope is for God and others to come alongside us and help point them out. Once identified we can start becoming our best and most authentic self. Coauthors Tim Riddle and Fil Anderson help us learn how to recognize and avoid blind spots to become more like Jesus, remembering the Holy Spirit is the revealer and healer. By drawing on stories in Scripture and personal experience, the coauthors invite us to engage in an approachable, logical conversation about what blind spots are, why they exist, how to identify and remove them, how to keep them from returning, and how to point them out in others. In this practical resource full of biblical wisdom, Riddle and Anderson aim to lovingly guide readers toward spiritual growth to live fully and freely as God's dearly loved, completely forgiven, and forever free daughters and sons. Blind Spots helps us find concrete, biblical solutions to the problem of these shortcomings, cultivating a desire for godliness and a greater appreciation for the Spirit's work in our own lives.
Need a laugh? Who doesn't? Look inside for hundreds of jokes that will make you grin, giggle and guffaw. These are the kinds of jokes you can share with your kids, your maiden aunt and even your priest (if he or she has a sense of humour). This book collects some of the best jokes in the world, from many sources, comedy shows and my mates down the pub. OK, some have been 'cleaned', but the humour is still there which, I guess, shows that you do not need bad language to make you laugh. BUT political correctness and I do not get on well, so if you insist on calling a spade a pedally and manually operated ground reforming device, then that's your problem. You will find hundreds of jokes and riddle for all occasions. In fact you will find 645 jokes for all occasions. There are howlers, groaners, one-liners, quotes, foot-in-mouth, and some beyond all comprehension. Plus 62 brain-teasing riddles to get the old grey matter frothing. Go on - dip in and brighten your day - or someone else's.
Introducing Atticus Peale! A debut middle-grade novel featuring a savvy sleuthing heroine sends a powerful message about standing up for others. Atticus Peale is desperately trying to save the life of a dog in the animal shelter where she volunteers. And an alligator in the swamp who only allegedly tried to eat a fisherman. Her father named her after his favorite character, a lawyer in a famous book, but everyone calls her Atty, and no one, except her dad, stepmom, and stepbrother, thinks she's old enough to make a legal case for those who, as Atty points out, can't speak up for themselves. She's learning some law basics from her dad, who is defending an illiterate man in town on a murder charge. But when strange occurrences begin to threaten Atty's efforts, she isn't sure which is more difficult: coming to the defense of the voiceless, countering the sideways looks she and her biracial family get in their Alabama town, or navigating the social scene of middle school. But one thing she is sure of: Jethro Gersham did not kill anyone, and she is determined to find out who did. Full of grit, curiosity, and also all the awkwardness and anxiety that comes with turning twelve, readers will cheer for Atty's success .... and survival!
Who was Merlin? Is the famous wizard of Arthurian legend based on a real person? In this book, Merlin's origins are traced back to the story of Lailoken, a mysterious 'wild man' who is said to have lived in the Scottish Lowlands in the sixth century AD. The book considers the question of whether Lailoken belongs to myth or reality. It looks at the historical background of his story and discusses key characters such as Saint Kentigern of Glasgow and King Rhydderch of Dumbarton, as well as important events such as the Battle of Arfderydd. Lailoken's reappearance in medieval Welsh literature as the fabled prophet Myrddin is also examined. Myrddin himself was eventually transformed into Merlin the wizard, King Arthur's friend and mentor. This is the Merlin we recognise today, not only in art and literature but also on screen. His earlier forms are less familiar, more remote, but can still be found among the lore and legend of the Dark Ages. Behind them we catch fleeting glimpses of an original figure who perhaps really did exist: a solitary fugitive, tormented by his experience of war, who roamed the hills and forests of southern Scotland long ago.
The early church didn't have fancy buildings. They hadn't attended any church growth seminars. All they had was a simple faith, a determination to serve God with absolute abandonment, and a resolve to work together in unqualified unity to achieve the purposes of God. That church grew from 120 to over 5,000 in a matter of days. Their Christ-like character and their godly lifestyle allowed for the power of God to flow through them in their message and their ministry. The fruit of their lives bore the fruit of souls for the Kingdom of God. That's the way it is meant to work. Today's church is different. We have beautiful church buildings. We have the New Testament teachings in our Bibles. Workshops and seminars on how to grow a church and to be effective in evangelism are available to us continuously. Still, when we look at the impact of our lives and our churches we pale in comparison to that of the early church fathers. Fruit Loose and Fancy Tree offers biblical truths and principles that, when applied, will align our character and lifestyle with that of Christ's. When we are consistent in the application of these principles, the anointing of Christ will be released through our lives to fulfil the purpose we have been given as a church. That purpose is to bear spiritual fruit for the Kingdom and glory of God. We need to forget the fancy and bear the fruit. Tim has been in full time ministry since 1984. While most of those years have been in the pastorate Tim spent nearly five years in itinerant ministry, preaching and teaching Kingdom principles that would increase the church's impact on the community. Recently he and his wife founded Pillars of Wisdom Christian Ministries.
The author of Hidden History of Terre Haute and Wicked Terre Haute explores the home of sin in the Sin City. Home to uproarious saloons, swindling gambling dens, and thriving brothels, Terre Haute's infamous West End was so wild the Chicago Tribunecalled it "the scene of a hundred all night carousings." Pimps, pickpockets, and conmen roamed the crowded streets where legendary Madam Edith Brown's pleasure palace was the crown jewel of brothels. Yet more than a mere den in inequity, the West End was also a community that could put bickering differences aside and pull together to help their neighbors. And it wasn't only a place for seedy enterprise, but also a place for stores, cafes, and homes. Historian Tim Crumrin presents the first complete history of this legendary area and separates myth from reality to reveal the very human side of the West End.
How new is atheism? Although adherents and opponents alike today present it as an invention of the European Enlightenment, when the forces of science and secularism broadly challenged those of faith, disbelief in the gods, in fact, originated in a far more remote past. In Battling the Gods, Tim Whitmarsh journeys into the ancient Mediterranean, a world almost unimaginably different from our own, to recover the stories and voices of those who first refused the divinities. Homer’s epic poems of human striving, journeying, and passion were ancient Greece’s only “sacred texts,” but no ancient Greek thought twice about questioning or mocking his stories of the gods. Priests were functionaries rather than sources of moral or cosmological wisdom. The absence of centralized religious authority made for an extraordinary variety of perspectives on sacred matters, from the devotional to the atheos, or “godless.” Whitmarsh explores this kaleidoscopic range of ideas about the gods, focusing on the colorful individuals who challenged their existence. Among these were some of the greatest ancient poets and philosophers and writers, as well as the less well known: Diagoras of Melos, perhaps the first self-professed atheist; Democritus, the first materialist; Socrates, executed for rejecting the gods of the Athenian state; Epicurus and his followers, who thought gods could not intervene in human affairs; the brilliantly mischievous satirist Lucian of Samosata. Before the revolutions of late antiquity, which saw the scriptural religions of Christianity and Islam enforced by imperial might, there were few constraints on belief. Everything changed, however, in the millennium between the appearance of the Homeric poems and Christianity’s establishment as Rome’s state religion in the fourth century AD. As successive Greco-Roman empires grew in size and complexity, and power was increasingly concentrated in central capitals, states sought to impose collective religious adherence, first to cults devoted to individual rulers, and ultimately to monotheism. In this new world, there was no room for outright disbelief: the label “atheist” was used now to demonize anyone who merely disagreed with the orthodoxy—and so it would remain for centuries. As the twenty-first century shapes up into a time of mass information, but also, paradoxically, of collective amnesia concerning the tangled histories of religions, Whitmarsh provides a bracing antidote to our assumptions about the roots of freethinking. By shining a light on atheism’s first thousand years, Battling the Gods offers a timely reminder that nonbelief has a wealth of tradition of its own, and, indeed, its own heroes.
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