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Fourth Dawn (A. D. Chronicles, Book 4)

Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

a must read 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Imagine living in a country ruled by an evil king. When you see his soldiers brutalize people daily, you wonder, Who will punish the wicked? You plead, When will this world be set right?
Imagine receiving a visit from an angel while you're milking a cow in your barn. What this angel says is so shocking, your life will never be the same. Would you think you were dreaming? Or would you believe the message? What if the message were true? Would you ask yourself, If I told others about it, would they believe me?
Imagine just before you are to be married you hear that your betrothed has been unfaithful. How would you respond?
You have now entered the world of Fourth Dawn.

Excerpt from the introduction to Digging Deeper into Fourth Dawn

Taking a drastic step thirty years back in time from where Third Watch, the previous book in the A.D. Chronicles series, leaves off, Fourth Dawn places the reader into the lives of those whom every Christian holds in high esteem. We unconsciously put them in a place of reverence for the roles in which they partook in the Messianic prophecies as they were fulfilled one by one over 2,000 years ago. But they were people, just ordinary people who were used by God in an extraordinary way.
Brock and Bodie Thoene delve into what their lives must have been like and put their own insightful thoughts onto paper in the most amazing history lesson for us to enjoy.
How must Zachariah have felt when, while fulfilling his Levitical duties in the Holy of Holies, he learns his elderly barren wife is to conceive? What about Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist? Haven't you always wanted to know what thoughts must have kept them awake at night as they saw themselves being used of God in such a personal way?
Mary is so young to bear such a burden for her people, to carry the Christ-child. Wouldn't you doubt your capabilities? Wouldn't you buckle under the weight of such responsibility?
In love with the sweetest girl in Nazareth, Joseph dreams of the day he'll take Mary to his marriage bed. He spends his days preparing his home to receive her, the home where they will raise children and grow old together. How must he have felt to know that he must not touch his beloved, that the child she carried was the Child?
Fourth Dawn will take you on their journeys of shock, fear, doubt, and acceptance. Other well-loved fictional characters from the series also make a re-appearance. The reader is swept into their pasts and shown what events made them who we know them to be from the first three books.
Onias, propelled by the urgency of the times, secretly, fervently scours the writings of the prophets searching, wondering...when will the Messiah come? What are the signs we must look for? Surely the hour is at hand! But who is that around that dark corner? Whose footstep does he hear at his back? Herod, that insane king of the Jews, would like nothing more than to see Onias staked to a cross, as well as any other who hungers for the coming of Messiah, the true King of the Jews.
The Thoenes uncover history as you've never seen it before revealing the God-ordered patterns and paths of the stars and planets and demonstrating how God used even those to point the world toward his Son.
Fourth Dawn's Jerusalem is teetering on the verge of earth's most magnificent and impacting event, and it's waiting for you to take part. This is a read that will deeply impact you and move you to pick up a copy of the Scriptures and study it out for yourself.
I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Editorial Review:

In their most dramatic, ambitious, and significant historical series to date, Bodie and Brock Thoene once again transport readers back in time to first century AD and the most critical events in the history of the world. In Fourth Dawn, Herod, the king of Judea, plunges deeper into madness as people wonder, Where is the promised liberator? As signs appear in the heavens, Mary of Nazareth receives an unusual visitor. What he tells her will change everything about her life . . . and impact all those in Judea and beyond for eternity!

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

Chogyam Trungpa

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Spiritual Classic 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Essential reading for anyone of any religious or spiritual persuasion who fancies her/himself a spiritual aspirant or truth seeker. Reveals the need to be constantly aware of the tendency we have to fashion our spirituality into a commodity that actually bolsters egoism rather than liberating us from it. Gives many examples of how this process takes place. This book forced me toward a deeper honesty about the motivations behind my own spiritual quest.

Editorial Review:

In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. The universal tendency, he shows, is to see spirituality as a process of self-improvement—the impulse to develop and refine the ego when the ego is, by nature, essentially empty. "The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use," he said, "even spirituality." His incisive, compassionate teachings serve to wake us up from this trick we all play on ourselves, and to offer us a far brighter reality: the true and joyous liberation that inevitably involves letting go of the self rather than working to improve it. It is a message that has resonated with students for nearly thirty years, and remains fresh as ever today. This new edition includes a foreword by Chögyam Trungpa's son and lineage holder, Sakyong Mipham.

A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Selected from the World's Sacred Texts

Leo Tolstoy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Prophetic 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Immediately upon purchasing this book, I ordered another and sent it to my cousin who subsequently purchased 3, one for her husband who had opened the one I sent to her and begun highlighting passages and the other 2 she gave to her children who are in college. I know that Tolstoy viewed this as one of his greatest accomplishments in life and read from it every day. I read it cover to cover in about a week and then went back and picked up so that I can study each day. I never say that books change my life. I do think that I am the type of person who, when presented with something that resonates with my soul, I immediately align my actions with whatever it happens to be. There are many passages in this book that resonate with me, some of which elevated my thoughts and actions to a new level. I think that is why it meant so much to Tolstoy to leave this as his final work.

Editorial Review:

This is the first-ever English-language edition of the book Leo Tolstoy considered to be his most important contribution to humanity, the work of his life's last years. Widely read in prerevolutionary Russia, banned and forgotten under Communism; and recently rediscovered to great excitement, A Calendar of Wisdom is a day-by-day guide that illuminates the path of a life worth living with a brightness undimmed by time. Unjustly censored for nearly a century, it deserves to be placed with the few books in our history that will never cease teaching us the essence of what is important in this world.

The Radical Cross: Living the Passion of Christ

A. W. Tozer, Ravi Zacharias (Foreword)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Nothing but the Cross 5 out of 5 stars.
28 of 30 people found this review helpful.

This is simply a Great book by a Great author about a Great subject. This book is written for Christians that either want to be inspired or be reminded of the Christian Cross to stir up the passions within one's soul.

A concern was that the writing may be stilted, dated or out of style and therefore a drudgery to read but that was the furtherest from the truth. This book will certainly cause you to view the Cross with a passion that you may never have experienced and I write as a minister with over 30 years experience.

There are 7 sections each with 4 or 5 chapters that stand alone and therefore could be read as a devotional that is dedicated to the Radical Cross.

Chapter titles such as: The Cross is a Radical Thing; No One Wants to Die on a Cross; Coddled or Crucified; Dead in Christ and What Easter is About.

I challenge ANY believer to read this book that would like to have a new fire in their faith because it will be impossible not to be affected with this author's writing and understanding.

This is not a theological book, though there is theology, this is an inspirational book.

Read it and be inspired!!!

Editorial Review:

"The cross of Christ demands from each of us identification. It is of no use to us unless we make it our own and enter into his death and resurrection." A. W. Tozer

The Radical Cross is a powerful compilation of A. W. Tozer's inspired impressions on the cross of Christ. Arranged thematically, this thought-provoking book discusses The Radical Cross and its promises, its price, its purpose, its pain, its provisions and its paradox. It is a book that will challenge you to make the cross your own and to live the passion of Christ.

Tao te Ching

Lao Tzu

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Disappointing 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

At a superficial level, this book looks amazing; introductory notes, translation, verbatim translation, notes on the translations, a long commentary on the first verse, and a collection of early translations of the first verse.

After reading the introductory notes, I was looking forward to what promised to be a very beautiful and insightful translation. Unfortunately, I found this translation to be contradictory at times (as opposed to paradoxical; there is a difference!) and, quite frankly, dull. Most of the notes on the translation and commentary on Verse One seemed to push an alternative view to Tao as being the consciousness behind all human beings which is consistent with Hindu religion, NOT a Taoist philosophy. Indeed, the vast majority of the "notes" in this book are quotes taken from Hindu texts such as Bhagavad Gita, and rather than noting, for example, interesting parallels between the two, Star seems to suggest that Tao Te Ching supports the other texts, which is similar to how Blakney seemed to use his translation to support the Christian faith. Personally, I don't think this is appropriate.

As for the positives, this book is definitely value for money. It is nicely printed, and contains a large verbatim translation of each character in Tao Te Ching. While it would be foolish to think you could interpret your own meanings based on this system (as the blurb claims), it still is quite interesting to get an insight into how the various translations of Tao Te Ching may have developed. Unfortunately (for me anyway, although a lot of people seem to really dig this translation) the bad points outweigh the positives, and, to be honest, if this was the first translation of Tao Te Ching I had read, I would have been turned off.

Editorial Review:

This unique edition of the Tao Te Ching features:

* the first comprehensive verbatim translation of the entire text of the Tao Te Ching;
* literal character definitions that allow the reader to create his or her own interpretation;
* a concordance section that enables the reader to track the different ways a single character is used throughout the work;
* grammatical and interpretive notes on individual terms and verses; * a unique commentary on the first verse, which represents a complete spiritual teaching in itself; and
* a literary translation of the Tao Te Ching that can be read on its own or compared with the verbatim translation.

Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History

Joseph Telushkin

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Total reviews: 79 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1988, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin undertook a mission to heal "Jewish ignorance," an affliction whose symptoms include the ability to name the three components of the Trinity, coupled with an inability to explain mitzvah. Telushkin's contribution to the cure is his wide-ranging, entertaining Jewish Literacy. First published in 1991, Jewish Literacy contains almost 350 entries on subjects ranging from the Ten Commandments to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Entries are numbered (for easy, encyclopedia-style reference) and organized topically (to smooth the experience of reading each page straight through). And the revised edition contains several new entries (including articles about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the vice-presidential nomination of Joseph Lieberman) as well as numerous corrections, enlargements, and updates. One might expect Rabbi Telushkin's project of inspiring Jewish literacy to be overly earnest, but the author's understated wit adds considerable levity to most entries. The entry on "Sodom and Gomorrah," for instance, ends this way: "A number of years ago, some Israeli promoters of tourism suggested transforming the modern city of Sodom into a tourist haven with casinos, nightclubs, and even strip shows. The Chief Rabbinate in Israel sharply demurred, warning that there was nothing to prevent God from destroying the city a second time. The plan was dropped." --Michael Joseph Gross

Keys to the Deeper Life

A. W. Tozer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The high, clear call of the Spirit in a deadly quiet world. 5 out of 5 stars.
33 of 34 people found this review helpful.

"I believe we are under positive spiritual obligation to pray effectively till the present veil is torn away and the face of God is seen again by believing men," Tozer writes.

There is an irony that A.W. Tozer is more prolific and widely-read today than when he was alive. How I wish I could sit at his elbow and ask him about today's events, the future of the church, the coming King...In some ways, he answers those questions in "Keys to the Deeper Life."

Smith Wigglesworth once referred to the gifts of salvation, baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the deeper life as "Good, better, best." I think Tozer would agree.

Never afraid to speak truth, the first chapter sets the tone for the enitre book: "Leaning into the wind". Just like him. Eschewing the hypocritical, the false glory found in man's praise, and the shallow life, Tozer puts the trumpet to his lips to issue a clear call of the Spirit, to engage God at a deeper level. He urges believers to "1.)surrender, 2.)ask, 3.) obey, and 4.)believe in order to recieve the fullness of God, the Holy Spirit.

In the chapter, "Touching Heaven in Prayer", Tozer writes:
"What then shall we do?
We must deny self, take up the cross and count ourselves expendable.
We must cease to exercise the world's judgements and try to think God's thoughts after Him.
We must rekon ourselves dead to gain and glory and allow ourselves to become inextricably invloved with the cross of Christ and the high honor of God."

Putting God first and ourselves dead last.
What a concept.
Sounds like Christ.

Editorial Review:

In this revised and expanded collection of Tozer's most popular essays readers will discover the way to a vital, personal Christianity as they read commentary on revival, renewal, and much more.

Home By Another Way

Barbara Brown Taylor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Seldom Do I Choose Sermons about Lectionary Year 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 36 people found this review helpful.

Not long ago I confessed to a dear friend. I reminded Milly that I review some sermon books without reading every sermon! After she had gasped, uttering words of disbelief, I explained that few books of even short sermons contain equally good sermons. On first hearing Barbara Brown, attending the Lectionary Homiletics Conference I remember how I was stirred emotionally, mentally, and spiritually with her dramatic imagination. I was seized by her creative images from the stories in whatever passage of scripture she had chosen.

On hearing her lectures about Job, I definitely looked forward to reading "Home By Another Way." Here I found one earlier excerpts, entitled, "Out of the Whirlwind." This is one of a few sermons in which she quotes from two sources, in those early lectures. I was impressed by friend, John Claypool's tributes to her "rare constellation of gifts: intellectual carefulness and depth," all coupled with an artistic sense of image-making. That alone speaks volumes!

With my usual skipping over a few sermons, I was most attracted to: "God's Beloved Thief, Home by Another Way, God's Ferris Wheel, Lenten Disciples, A Tale of Two Heretics, Life Giving Fear(from time in CPE) "It Is Finished, Out of Whirlwind, Bothering God." Most were notable for looking up-close at her perspective with intimate viewpoints by using tough disclaimers! They often appeared in beginings, mid-way or near her ending. There is one unique hitch in her re-telling the basic story: she often adds a touch of creative imagination to develop the problem with clever resolution relating to basic forgivness of weakness, judgement, or justice,

Placed within all ten books, I designate this one in being near the top of her Lectures and Sermons. From a semi-retired admirer and retired Chaplain, Fred W Hood

Editorial Review:

In this selection of new sermons, Barbara Brown Taylor walks us through the church year, from the expectancy of Advent to the fires of Pentecost and beyond.

The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living

Joseph Telushkin

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Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Book of Jewish Values requires great commitment from its reader, and it promises great reward. "[F]or ethical teachings to carve a way into our hearts, we must study and practice them ... day after day after day," explains Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in the book's introduction. The book is structured as a daily guide to living, with scriptural lessons, meditations, and exercises covering topics ranging from "the first trait to look for in a spouse (Day 17)" to "how to change negative patterns of behavior (Day 150)." At the end of each week, Rabbi Telushkin provides a special Sabbath review of the prior six days' teachings, to ensure continuity among the book's many lessons. This simple, straightforward approach to religious and ethical teaching is an ancient and proven one. As Rabbi Telushkin points out, great teachers through the ages have always said that diligence is the beginning of virtue. (Consider, for instance, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav: "If you are not going to be better tomorrow than you were today, then what need have you for tomorrow?") --Michael Joseph Gross

Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior

Chogyam Trungpa

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Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this practical guide to enlightened living, Chögyam Trungpa offers an inspiring vision for our time, based on the figure of the sacred warrior. In ancient times, the warrior learned to master the challenges of life, both on and off the battlefield. He acquired a sense of personal freedom and power—not through violence or aggression, but through gentleness, courage, and self-knowledge. The Japanese samurai, the warrior-kings of Tibet, the knights of medieval Europe, and the warriors of the Native American tribes are a few examples of this universal tradition of wisdom. With this book the warrior's path is opened to contemporary men and women in search of self-mastery and greater fulfillment. Interpreting the warrior's journey in modern terms, Trungpa discusses such skills as synchronizing mind and body, overcoming habitual behaviors, relaxing within discipline, facing the world with openness and fearlessness, and finding the sacred dimension of everyday life. Above all, Trungpa shows that in discovering the basic goodness or human life, the warrior learns to radiate that goodness out into the world for the peace and sanity of others. The Shambhala teachings—named for a legendary Himalayan kingdom where prosperity and happiness reign—thus point to the potential for enlightened conduct that exists within every human being. "The basic wisdom of Shambhala," Trungpa writes, "is that in this world, as it is, we can find a good and meaningful human life that will also serve others. That is our true richness."