Our differences are our greatest blessings and our greatest challenges, maintains William Kondrath, Episcopal priest and seminary professor. Theologically and ecologically, differences foster life and growth, but discord within denominations and congregations frequently have to do with the inability of individuals and groups to deeply understand and value differences. In God's Tapestry, Kondrath shows us how to embrace our multiculturalism--our differences of race, culture, gender, age, theology, language, sexual identity, and so forth. He does this by exploring differences on four levels--personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural. He also demonstrates a threefold process for becoming multicultural: recognizing our differences, understanding those differences and their significance and consequences, and valuing or celebrating those differences. While ministry is the work of the faith community, not only ordained or professional staff, it is critical that leaders learn the art and skill of recognizing, understanding, and valuing differences. Then the congregations and agencies they serve, having learned and practiced the art and skill of celebrating differences, can be the yeast that brings this awareness of God's diverse blessings to the wider world.

In this engaging book aimed at pastors, teachers, and laypeople in Christian churches, author and Old Testament scholar Gene March helps the reader develop theological clarity about how to live in a religiously diverse society, by delving into specific biblical texts in ways that correct misinterpretations and long-held misunderstandings.

It had seemed like an eternity since The Artist was given the plan for the tapestry. He'd been waiting for this moment""the exact moment He would be given the opportunity to begin weaving. He had planned for this, but until He was given permission, He could only anticipate what He could do and how it would look. Now was that time. He stepped in front of the tattered and worn-looking tapestry. It wasn't at all what He had intended. In fact, it was quite the opposite. What should have become beautiful and vibrant over time was instead deteriorating and coming apart. Who had done this? The Artist knew exactly what needed to be done. No question. He would have to start over . . . with a new canvas. The tapestry was ready to be dismantled so that the true condition of the canvas could be revealed. He began to methodically and precisely remove each strand of thread so as not to cause even more damage to what had already been done. The tapestry was fragile now. Strand by strand, the dismantling continued until finally The Artist had uncovered all the hidden imperfections. It was just as He thought it would be""stained, torn, and tattered. Years of neglect and abuse to the tapestry had left it damaged, so damaged that in an amateur's eyes, it would have been discarded. But this was The Artist . . . would He be able to repair what had been done? What would He determine? Did the canvas have any value? The Artist had the plan, and what He could do with this canvas would be beyond what anyone could imagine. He was about to create His masterpiece.

When reading the Bible and focusing on particular chapters, books or verses it is easy for us to get immersed in the details and to momentarily lose our appreciation for the Bible as a whole. It is not prudent to take out one chapter, one verse or even one book and focus on it in isolation. Such a practice often leads to conflicting opinions and bitter debate. Understanding and studying the Bible as a whole is very important, because every chapter and every verse was written with the intention that it be read in context, in relation to the whole. God revealed the Bible to us as a text, not a picture or a scientific formula. The word text comes from the Greek word textus from which we get the word textile closely related to fabric. As is the case in a piece of fabric, all of the fibers of this text are woven together. The finished product can be considered a tapestry composed of many threads, which portrays an entire story. It is a story that moves in a linear fashion. One way to study the Bible is to examine the tapestry up close and to investigate and study each knot, every dye, perhaps even inspecting the reverse side to see how the knots have been tied. Many Bible scholars focus on each knot and every dye and are able to extract a great wealth of information out of each element. Our purpose in this study is to take a step back and look at the tapestry in its entirety. This is admittedly a limited view, but is also one of the many approaches to studying the Bible. Together the two volumes of the Bible Tapestry offer the reader the opportunity to complete the study covering the entire Bible in 365 daily readings. Volume I consists of days 1 through 208 covering the Books of Genesis through I & II Kings of the Old Testament and the Gospels through the Book of Romans in the New Testament.Volume II consists of days 209 through 365 covering the Books of I & II Chronicles to the Book of Malachi ending the Old Testament and the Books of I & II Corinthians to the Book of Revelation ending the New Testament.

When reading the Bible and focusing on particular chapters, books or verses it is easy for us to get immersed in the details and to momentarily lose our appreciation for the Bible as a whole. It is not prudent to take out one chapter, one verse or even one book and focus on it in isolation. Such a practice often leads to conflicting opinions and bitter debate. Understanding and studying the Bible as a whole is very important, because every chapter and every verse was written with the intention that it be read in context, in relation to the whole. God revealed the Bible to us as a text, not a picture or a scientific formula. The word text comes from the Greek word textus from which we get the word textile closely related to fabric. As is the case in a piece of fabric, all of the "fibers" of this text are woven together. The finished product can be considered a tapestry composed of many threads, which portrays an entire story. It is a story that moves in a linear fashion. One way to study the Bible is to examine the tapestry up close and to investigate and study each knot, every dye, perhaps even inspecting the reverse side to see how the knots have been tied. Many Bible scholars focus on each knot and every dye and are able to extract a great wealth of information out of each element. Our purpose in this study is to take a step back and look at the tapestry in its entirety. This is admittedly a limited view, but is also one of the many approaches to studying the Bible. Together the two volumes of the Bible Tapestry offer the reader the opportunity to complete the study covering the entire Bible in 365 daily readings. Volume I consists of days 1 through 208 covering the Books of Genesis through I & II Kings of the Old Testament and the Gospels through the Book of Romans in the New Testament. Volume II consists of days 209 through 365 covering the Books of I & II Chronicles to the Book of Malachi ending the Old Testament and the Books of I & II Corinthians to the Book of Revelation ending the New Testament.

With honesty, humor, and strength Joni Parsley walks readers through the ups and downs of her life, inspiring them to "get real with God and with others and live with faith."

Around the year 1100 a genius mind—woman or man—created an image, which has not lost its meaning even to this day. It was made by hundreds of busy hands as a colorful goblin most likely used originally for centuries as a canopy in the Romanesque Cathedral of Gerona, North east of Spain. The original tapestry showed all the signs of a mandala: a big circle surrounded by a square with a central symbol and many interesting details. What makes this mandala unique, is the fact that it unites pagan symbols in the form of nature gods (rivers, winds, the year), as well as the genesis of the Jewish Tora (the creation myth), the holy cross of Christianity held by the roman emperor Constantine the Great and according to Muslim tradition the tapestry as a whole and its mandala shape. In 1982, author Hansueli Etter visited the Cathedral of Gerona in Catalonia (Spain) as a tourist. There he met the Creation Tapestry for the first time. He hoped to find an answer to the following questions: why the Creation Tapestry fascinated him as well as thousands of annual visitors and why this medieval image still enthralls today, going far beyond an art-historical curiosity. After extensive studies he dared to reconstruct the missing parts at the bottom of the picture, since the basic concept is undoubtedly a mandala. The added images should fit sensibly into the essential statement of the Creation Tapestry. Nowadays a part at the bottom of the tapestry is missing, but the still visible iconographic details and the understanding of its meaning allowed a full reconstruction of the image. To discover the symbolic meaning of the rich iconography of the Creation Tapestry opens up an insight in the common background of all religions back to the roots of shamanism, which use mandalas in dance as well as in images. To create or meditate on mandalas is till today a healing process and affects the human psyche deeply. Mandalas enforce the tendencies to unite the opposites, which is so crucial in our time.

This unique and supremely readable textbook recounts the thought of nine influential twentieth-century theologians in the light of biblical narrative to better understand the Christian life. By drawing upon the achievement of major thinkers--Rosemary Ruether, Gustavo Gutierrez, Reinhold Niebuhr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Rahner, Jurgen Moltmann, Hans Kung, Yves Congar, and Wolfhart Pannenberg--and rooting it within the rich fabric of its biblical context--Creation, Exodus, Conquest, Exile, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, Pentecost and the End of Time--The Tapestry of Christian Theology traverses a landscape both historical and spiritual, one that traces and encourages a new understanding of both perspectives, and illumines a greater insight into our own lives. Here is a rigorous and wide ranging textbook for college theology courses, also suitable for the general reader.

“‘Who Will Tell About His Descendants, Since His Life Has Been Taken From The Earth?’” (Acts 8: 32,33, JNT, NLT) Centuries, Later, Untold Stories Would Come Out In A Trickle... For Much Danger Lurked Around Them, And Those Associated With Them. Then, Later, As Freedom of Speech Would Not Be Silenced, These Stories Began Flowing In A Steady Stream Spoken In Secret By Key Witnesses. Stories...Told Now.... Lost Years, Hidden, Protected, and Bound... Some, Unearthed In The 20th And 21st Centuries... Others, Still Entombed In Vatican Vaults...Pyramids... Stories “Too Hot To Handle” Not Included In Sacred Scripture.... “Lost” Stories Received And Written Through The Lens of Unknown Courageous Hearts