We all own a very special key. It is the key that unlocks all that we are and all that we could ever want and dream of wanting. Access to this key is so simple, yet we make it so hard. This key is always there, waiting for us to use it to unlock our treasure chest and to release the power within it. We all want so badly to be the winner of the big lottery, but little do we know we already are the winner. We think winning the lottery will give us the power to do what we want with our lives. If we only knew that all the power is already within us. They say that in the last days the hearts of many men will fail because of fear. Our hearts fail every time we make a decision based in fear, instead of believing to trust what is in our hearts. Our heart is each and everyones very own treasure chest that is open every time we choose to believe what is in it. Now if the key to all our happiness is in our treasure chest, which lies within our heart, wouldnt it make sense that our number one priority in life would be to discover our heart and what lies within it? Every time we make a decision aligned with our heart, we tap into our power and release a potent and invisible energy into the world. This energy in turn orchestrates the universe to reflect back into our lives that ultimately leads us to fulfill our purpose. We must believe that all of lifes experiences, situations, and relationships are there to take us on a great journey. A journey that creates opportunities for self-discovery and that promotes self-growth and awareness. One experience of life is death. However, it is not death in the physical sense, but in a spiritual sense. It is dying to who we thought we were and dying to what we thought we believed and to how we defined ourselves. A lot of what we thought really isnt even our own thoughts. They are actually thoughts we adopted from others. They are thoughts and beliefs imposed on us by others, beginning right down to when we were babies. In this process to self-discovery, we must cut off the junk we gathered in life that are not our own in order to become in alignment to who we are. God is the very essence of lifethe life within us and the life outside us. As we continue the path of self-discovery, happiness is sure to follow. The compass that should aid us in our journey is called bliss. Following our bliss is the key to what is in your heart and ultimately to be one with God. The key to our fulfillment in life is not to create separation between who God is and who we are. We are one with God. We are cocreators with God, and we have the power to create whatever we want.

After four years of college and six years in seminary, William Mills was ready for a parish--or so he thought. He didn't realize much of his time would be endless discussions about bagels and coffee, digging ditches, and parking lot condom patrols. For six years, community life was just humming along. Then disaster struck. Mills' life came crashing down when nearly a third of his congregation left in a public power play, causing him to question his faith in himself, in the church, and in God. Marva Dawn, a noted writer of spirituality and ministry, said that being a pastor is like being peppered with popcorn: after a while, you just get tired of it, pack your bags, and move on. However, as Mills himself says, "I was either too stubborn or stupid, so I stayed." Losing My Religion is about the ups and downs, ins and outs, choices and challenges of being a pastor in the twenty-first-century church. It's also about the redemptive power of community life and finding healing and wholeness in a broken world.

In this challenging and provocative book, Tom Frame, one of Australia's best - known writers on religion and society, examines diminishing theological belief and declining denominational affiliation. He argues that Australia has never been a very religious nation but that few Australians have deliberately rejected belief - most simply can't see ...

This book arises from twenty five years of study and a passion to see God¿s people grasp the extent and significance of the Kingdom of God and to apply it in their own lives. This message is not an addendum to the gospel but is in fact the gospel. Christianity is not a religion to be followed but is about seeing the rule of God extended to the earth in every aspect of life: 'Let Your kingdom come; let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven¿. It is not about adopting a philosophy but about renewing the world through the transformation of lives, beliefs, values and behaviours. This renewal extends to all poverty, injustice and the effects of the Fall in the social, political and economic environment of the World. As we grasp this we will see the gospel as the means through which the healing of our lives becomes the basis for the healing of the nations.Richard Bradbury is based in Beverley in East Yorkshire and leads Beverley Community Church, part of the Groundlevel Network of churches. Married with four children, his prime gifting is as a teacher to the Body of Christ.

Racy, unpredictable, romantic, and inspiring, this is a novel that is bound to get you addicted and stay with you forever. When gamer and entrepreneur Rishi Rai sets out to revolutionize the gaming industry, something somewhere goes terribly wrong and, like dominoes, the blocks of his life fall down one after the other. An unexpected meeting with Alex, an unpredictable, crazy American hippie, changes his life forever, as he decides to quit everything and join him on an unplanned, uncharted journey across India. From getting irrepressibly high in the mysterious Malana Valley in the Himalayas to starting a shack on the bewitching Om Beach on the West Coast, they do it all. But their adrenaline-charged adventure takes a turn when Rishi meets Kyra, a beautiful and enigmatic gamer. As passions surge and sparks fly, Rishi gets drawn to Kyra . . . unaware of who she is and where she comes from. What follows next is something nobody could have ever dreamed of . . . Who is Kyra and why are the paparazzi after her? Can Rishi connect the dots in his life to protect the love of his life? While the world becomes a spectator, can he mastermind the fall of a ruthless giant to become a global icon or will he become the biggest loser?

Former Southern Baptist pastor and Christianity Today editor-in-chief Russell Moore calls for repentance and renewal in American evangelicalism American evangelical Christianity has lost its way. While the witness of the church before a watching world is diminished beyond recognition, congregations are torn apart over Donald Trump, Christian nationalism, racial injustice, sexual predation, disgraced leaders, and covered-up scandals. Left behind are millions of believers who counted on the church to be a place of belonging and hope. As greater and greater numbers of younger Americans bleed out from the church, even the most rooted evangelicals are wondering, “Can American Christianity survive?” In Losing Our Religion, Russell Moore calls his fellow evangelical Christians to conversion over culture wars, to truth over tribalism, to the gospel over politics, to integrity over influence, and to renewal over nostalgia. With both prophetic honesty and pastoral love, Moore offers a word of counsel for how a new generation of disillusioned and exhausted believers can find a path forward after the crisis and confusion of the last several years. Believing the gospel is too important to leave it to hucksters and grifters, he shows how a Christian can avoid both cynicism and complicity in order to imagine a different, hopeful vision for the church. The altar call of the old evangelical revivals was both a call to repentance and the offer of a new start. In the same way, this book invites unmoored and discouraged Christians to step out into an uncertain future, first by letting go of the kind of cultural, politicized, status quo Christianity that led us to this moment of reckoning. Only when we see how lost we are, we can find our way again. Only when we bury what’s dead can we experience life again. Only when we lose our religion can we be amazed by grace again.

From John Philip Sousa to Green Day, from Scott Joplin to Kanye West, from Stephen Foster to Coldplay, The Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volumes 1 and 2 covers the vast scope of its subject with virtually unprecedented breadth and depth. Approximately 1,000 key song recordings from 1889 to the present are explored in full, unveiling the stories behind the songs, the recordings, the performers, and the songwriters. Beginning the journey in the era of Victorian parlor balladry, brass bands, and ragtime with the advent of the record industry, readers witness the birth of the blues and the dawn of jazz in the 1910s and the emergence of country music on record and the shift from acoustic to electrical recording in the 1920s. The odyssey continues through the Swing Era of the 1930s; rhythm & blues, bluegrass, and bebop in the 1940s; the rock & roll revolution of the 1950s; modern soul, the British invasion, and the folk-rock movement of the 1960s; and finally into the modern era through the musical streams of disco, punk, grunge, hip-hop, and contemporary dance-pop. Sullivan, however, also takes critical detours by extending the coverage to genres neglected in pop music histories, from ethnic and world music, the gospel recording of both black and white artists, and lesser-known traditional folk tunes that reach back hundreds of years. This book is ideal for anyone who truly loves popular music in all of its glorious variety, and anyone wishing to learn more about the roots of virtually all the music we hear today. Popular music fans, as well as scholars of recording history and technology and students of the intersections between music and cultural history will all find this book to be informative and interesting.

Meet “the Nones”—In this thought-provoking exploration of secular America, celebrated journalist Katherine Ozment takes readers on a quest to understand the trends and ramifications of a nation in flight from organized religion. Studies show that religion makes us happier, healthier and more giving, connecting us to our past and creating tight communal bonds. Most Americans are raised in a religious tradition, but in recent decades many have begun to leave religion, and with it their ancient rituals, mythic narratives, and sense of belonging. So how do the nonreligious fill the need for ritual, story, community, and, above all, purpose and meaning without the one-stop shop of religion? What do they do with the space left after religion? With Nones swelling to one-fourth of American adults, and more than one-third of those under thirty, these questions have never been more urgent. Writer, journalist, and secular mother of three Katherine Ozment came face-to-face with the fundamental issue of the Nones when her son asked her the simplest of questions: “what are we?” Unsettled by her reply—“Nothing”—she set out on a journey to find a better answer. She traversed the frontier of American secular life, sought guidance in science and the humanities, talked with noted scholars, and wrestled with her own family’s attempts to find meaning and connection after religion. Insightful, surprising, and compelling, Grace Without God is both a personal and critical exploration of the many ways nonreligious Americans create their own meaning and purpose in an increasingly secular age.