Throughout history, God has been depicted variously as a judgmental tyrant, a grand conciliator, and even as a rather low-key comic, portrayed by the cigar-smoking George Burns in the movie Oh God! The question thats begging to be answered is: Who is God? This devotional evolved out of one persons desire to portray God in a truer light. In the Book of Job, God reprimanded Jobs friends for failing to speak truthfully about Him. They misrepresented His character. Job, on the other hand, understood His Maker and was, therefore, the single voice of truth in an otherwise corrupt world. Can you honestly say that you know your Creator? Can you speak truthfully about Him? This devotional will help you get to know the real God, who is neither the judgmental tyrant nor the light-weight movie character. He is, if nothing else, a God of love and compassion. At the conclusion of your devotionals, I have formulated a Love Quotient (L.Q.) test to measure the depth of your love. The questions are designed to be thought-provoking and insightful. You may also find them a bit daunting and uncomfortable. Answer each question according to your beliefs. There are no wrong or right answers. It is my hope youll find this little exercise revealing and instructive of how you love. The answers and Key is also included. Your heart is what youre all about. May you understand Gods love for you.

Make no myth-take-this book is indispensable. The Complete Idiot's Guide to World Mythology explores the gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, monsters and angels of the myths from every corner of the globe. Additionally, it explores the parallels between every culture and the striking similarities in mythic figures and the structure, action, wording, and result of the stories themselves. * Covers Egyptian, Celtic, Teutonic, Norse, Japanese, Mexican, Native American, and other myths * Features information on The Hero's Journey-the cycle of myth according to Jung, Campbell, and others * Appendixes include a glossary of terms and both a general and a subject Index

What words come to mind when we think of God? Merciful? Just? Compassionate? In fact, the Bible lays out God’s primary qualities clearly: jealous, petty, unforgiving, bloodthirsty, vindictive—and worse! Originally conceived as a joint presentation between influential thinker and bestselling author Richard Dawkins and former evangelical preacher Dan Barker, this unique book provides an investigation into what may be the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Barker combs through both the Old and New Testament (as well as 13 different editions of the “Good Book”), presenting powerful evidence for why the Scripture shouldn’t govern our everyday lives. This witty, well-researched book suggests that we should move past the Bible and clear a path to a kinder and more thoughtful world.

The political crises and upheavals of our age often originate from the periphery rather than the center of power. Figures like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning acted in ways that disrupted power, revealing truths that those in power wanted to keep hidden. They are thorns in the side of power, troublemakers in the eyes of the powerful, though their actions may be valuable and lead to positive changes. In this important new book, Dieter Thomä examines the crucial but often overlooked function of these figures on the margins of society, developing a philosophy of troublemakers from the seventeenth century to the present day. Thomä takes as his starting point Hobbes’s idea of the puer robustus (literally “stout boy”), meaning a figure who rebels against order and authority. While Hobbes saw the puer robustus as a threat, he also recognized the potential, in the right conditions, for figures to rise up and become agents of positive change. Building on this notion, Thomä provides a rich survey of intellectuals who have been inspired by this idea over the past 300 years, from Rousseau, Diderot, Schiller, Victor Hugo, Marx, and Freud to Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, and Horkheimer, right up to the recent work of Badiou and Agamben. In doing so, he develops a typology of the puer robustus and a means by which we can evaluate and assess the troublemakers of our own times. Thomä shows that troublemakers are an inescapable part of modernity, for as soon as social and political boundaries are defined, there will always be figures challenging them from the margins. This book will be of great interest not only to students and scholars in the humanities and social sciences but to anyone seeking to understand the crucial impact of these liminal figures on our world today.

Our origins as a slave species and the Anunnaki legacy in our DNA • Reveals compelling new archaeological and genetic evidence for the engineered origins of the human species, first proposed by Zecharia Sitchin in The 12th Planet • Shows how the Anunnaki created us using pieces of their own DNA, controlling our physical and mental capabilities by inactivating their more advanced DNA • Identifies a recently discovered complex of sophisticated ruins in South Africa as the city of the Anunnaki leader Enki Scholars have long believed that the first civilization on Earth emerged in Sumer some 6,000 years ago. However, as Michael Tellinger reveals, the Sumerians and Egyptians inherited their knowledge from an earlier civilization that lived at the southern tip of Africa and began with the arrival of the Anunnaki more than 200,000 years ago. Sent to Earth in search of life-saving gold, these ancient Anunnaki astronauts from the planet Nibiru created the first humans as a slave race to mine gold--thus beginning our global traditions of gold obsession, slavery, and god as dominating master. Revealing new archaeological and genetic evidence in support of Zecharia Sitchin’s revolutionary work with pre-biblical clay tablets, Tellinger shows how the Anunnaki created us using pieces of their own DNA, controlling our physical and mental capabilities by inactivating their more advanced DNA--which explains why less than 3 percent of our DNA is active. He identifies a recently discovered complex of sophisticated ruins in South Africa, complete with thousands of mines, as the city of Anunnaki leader Enki and explains their lost technologies that used the power of sound as a source of energy. Matching key mythologies of the world’s religions to the Sumerian clay tablet stories on which they are based, he details the actual events behind these tales of direct physical interactions with “god,” concluding with the epic flood--a perennial theme of ancient myth--that wiped out the Anunnaki mining operations. Tellinger shows that, as humanity awakens to the truth about our origins, we can overcome our programmed animalistic and slave-like nature, tap in to our dormant Anunnaki DNA, and realize the longevity and intelligence of our creators as well as learn the difference between the gods of myth and the true loving God of our universe.

"In the NIV Leadership Bible, you’ll learn from both ancient and contemporary experts in leadership theory. This Bible is designed around 52 “Home Pages” that offer topical studies divided into three categories: personal development, relationships, and skills. It’s true! You can spend just 15 minutes a day to increase your leadership effectiveness. Plus, it’s organized so that you can easily look up related verses when you’re looking for guidance on a specific topic. Each week, you'll cover a specific leadership topic. One week, you’ll study a personal quality such as Courage, Humility, or Vision. Another week will hold lessons about practical skills like Conflict Management or Systems Thinking. You’ll also find relevant topics relating to interpersonal relationships such as Healthy Alliances, Power and Influence, and Servant Leadership. This edition includes helpful tools to help you grow as you lead others: Complete NIV text • Book Introductions underscore key leadership concepts • Home Pages and Daily Studies offer 52 weeks of studies on important leadership topics • Study Windows reinforce your understanding of Biblical leadership • Character Profiles show how personal attributes of biblical characters affected their relationships • Topical Index helps you find verses on particular subjects • Character Profile Index • Bibliography Order your NIV Leadership Bible today, and reinvigorate your leadership skills day by day. This Bible offers supplemental information on the following topics: Character, Commitment, Courage, Dependence, Humility, Integrity, Obedience, Priorities, Purpose, Self-discipline, Values, Vision, Wisdom, Encouragement, Exhortation, Alliances, Interpersonal Relationships, Power, Leadership, Accountability, Change, Innovation, Communication, Conflict Management, Decision Making, Double-loop Learning, Empowerment, Justice, Organization, Long-range Planning, Human Resources, Problem Solving, Excellence, Rewards, Situational Leadership, Stress Management, Structure, Organization, Systems Thinking, Team Building, Time Management"

The very human need for religion and magic as supplements to scientific and technological knowledge is the subject of this work. In 1942 Hsu witnessed a cholera epidemic in a small rural settlement in Yunnan province, China, and found that, contrary to anthropological expectations, the Chinese responded to the crisis with a combination of conciliatory rituals and practical hygienic measures. More than thirty years later, he witnessed the elaborate ritualistic prepartions for another epidemic in the Shatin sub-division of Hong Kong and found the supernatural/empirical response to be virtually the same as in 1942. The author argues that, in spite of technological and intellectual sophistication, the human psychic need for magic and religion persists. He pursues this contention in a longitudinal analysis of this phenomenon in the South Seas, East Africa, and Indian and white America.

"Married hell in a London suburb ... A truly superior thriller." — The New Yorker. In this suspenseful novel, Mary's gossiping friends can't soothe her obsession with the strange man haunting their neighborhood.

Jake Dee is your average private detective. Finding lost items, doing background checks, not getting himself murdered, the usual. Except he’s an independent wizard in a world of Covens that will not tolerate his existence if they ever find him out. One spring day at sunset, he sees an angel fall right in front of him. She’s everything he ever wanted in a leading lady: beautiful, cold and probably dangerous. He immediately elects himself to protect her, whether from demons who want a fight or his best friend, Lucifer Morningstar, the First of the Fallen and a terrible flirt. Finding her shoeless and homeless, he takes her to his apartment. She’s new to Earth and has a lot to learn, and Jake’s the one who’s more than willing to teach her. So what sparks will fly between a boy with a private license and a girl with black wings?