A Return to the Upper Room continues to be an in-depth study into the Holy Spirit, who is not a mere force. He is not energy. The Holy Spirit is a person and part of the Trinity along with the Father and the Son. God is Sovereign, and just so God wills and moves according to His will. Just so, the Spirit of the Lord moves and acts never out of His own accord, but always follows the leading of the Father. So the Spirit is interdependent, as there is a mutual dependency within the Trinity. The work of the Spirit is far greater in scope than merely the spiritual gifts, for the Spirit of the Lord leads us in our calling on the narrow path to the glory of the Lord. It is of utmost necessity for the Church to be one that is utterly and completely Spirit-filled and not led by the flesh. For only in the Spirit can we fulfil the Great Commission, be true disciples and walk in His truth, His way and His life. This volume of work explores in greater depth the Holy Spirit’s role in the church, thus in the life of disciples. It explores how revival is directly connected to the flow of the Spirit.

King David writes in “Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” As believers of God, we need to yearn, seek and desire to dwell in the presence of God, for in His presence we know God and in that knowing, we can thrive, overcome, prosper and grow spiritually. We need a cry of the heart that we need the presence of God daily for as believers of God we cannot truly function or be alive with His presence! A life of spiritual victory is only possible in God’s presence as we walk in His glory. We need to cry out to God that surely we don’t want to go anywhere or do anything without His presence. For in His presence is life, hope, joy, strength deliverance and healing.

God is calling for a remnant that is completely and utterly set apart for His Kingdom. This volume of work is a collection of prophetic understandings and insights as led by the Spirit of God. It is designed to make us ponder, consider, and reflect on our walk with God. For there is without a doubt an urgent cry from heaven for SEPARATION, meaning we cannot continue looking, behaving, and acting like the world. It says if something looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. The test implies that a person can identify an unknown subject by observing that subject's habitual characteristics. The problem these days is discerning whether someone is from the world or serving God. On the one hand, so many tend to behave like the world, so based on their habitual characteristics, you would say they are from the world. But then something funny happens – the “duck” is no longer quacking but making other “strange noises”, known by some as praise, worship and prayer! So is this a duck, a hybrid, or something completely different? In other words, are we true followers of Christ or a hybrid product that serves God and the world?

The gospel of Luke presents an ecological symphony that reveals a Jesus connected to Earth. His ministry touches all aspects of creation, human and non-human, and invites disciples into an ecological asceticism. This same spirit continues in the Acts of the Apostles. In this Earth Bible Commentary on Acts, Michael Trainor allows our environmental concerns to shape his interpretative approach, and thus ecological nuances emerge. Luke's household of disciples, imbued with the spirit of the risen Jesus, to embrace the world and bring to it a word of reconciliation, embark on this mission. This formally begins at Pentecost with their reception of God's creative and renewing Spirit that empowers them as Earth's children. From this moment an explosion of activity moves them over Earth's lands, beginning in Jerusalem, Earth's navel (Acts 1.1-8.1), into Samaria, the space in-between that navel and Galilee, the garden of God's earthly delights (Acts 8.2-11.17), to the ends of Earth, Rome (Acts 11.18-28.33). As we trace Luke's vast geographical journey around the Mediterranean, key moments highlight fresh environmental insights that offer new hope for contemporary disciples seeking ecological affirmation at this particular time in world history.

Imagine getting a certified letter dated 1919 from your great, great, grandmother that said you were named by an angel four generations earlier.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2013 'Dazzling' Sunday Times 'Magnificent' Guardian 'Sparkling' Daily Telegraph In the spring of 1839, Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the high mountain passes and re-established on the throne Shah Shuja ul-Mulk. On the way in, the British faced little resistance. But after two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into violent rebellion. The First Anglo-Afghan War ended in Britain's greatest military humiliation of the nineteenth century: an entire army of the then most powerful nation in the world ambushed in retreat and utterly routed by poorly equipped tribesmen. Using a range of forgotten Afghan and Indian sources, William Dalrymple's masterful retelling of Britain's greatest imperial disaster is a powerful parable of colonial ambition and cultural collision, folly and hubris. Return of a King is history at its most urgent and important. 'As taut and richly embroidered as a great novel ... this book is a masterpiece' Sunday Telegraph

A comparison of the message of Acts transmitted by Codez Bezae with that of the more familiar Alexandrian text, represented by Codex Vaticanus. For each section of Acts, there is a side by side translation of the Bezan and Alexandrian manuscripts, followed by a critical apparatus and, finally, a commentary that explores the differences in the message of the two texts. It is concluded that the Bezan text, with its interest in internal Jewish affairs and its focus on the struggles of the early disciples to free themselves from their traditional Jewish expectations and to achieve, despite their mistakes, a more accurate understanding of their master's teaching, is the earlier of the two texts. LNTS 302

A profound inquiry into what prompts human beings to act morally Most foundational texts on theological ethics address either the person or society. In The Moral Life, James F. Keenan, SJ, posits that these two are inextricably linked. He presents eight stages of preparing for the moral life, describing vulnerability as the foundation for contemporary ethics. He understands vulnerability to be what establishes the human capacity for recognizing and responding to others rather than a compromised state of being. Mutual recognition emerges as the first moral act of the vulnerable human. He shows how conscience guides the activity of one who has first vulnerably recognized others. The Moral Life offers scholars and students of Christian ethics a novel perspective on what we need to know not only to be and live morally but also to teach and share with others what they need to know.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A dazzling debut collection spanning a century of Black American and Afro-Latino life in Puerto Rico, Pittsburgh, Louisiana, Miami, and beyond—and an evocative meditation on belonging, the meaning of home, and how we secure freedom on our own terms Profoundly moving and powerful, the stories in When Trying to Return Home dig deeply into the question of belonging. A young woman is torn between overwhelming love for her mother and the need to break free from her damaging influence during a desperate and disastrous attempt to rescue her brother from foster care. A man, his wife, and his mistress each confront the borders separating love and hate, obligation and longing, on the eve of a flight to San Juan. A college student grapples with the space between chivalry and machismo in a tense encounter involving a nun. And in 1930s Louisiana, a woman attempting to find a place to call her own chances upon an old friend at a bar and must reckon with her troubled past. Forming a web of desires and consequences that span generations, McCauley’s Black American and Afro–Puerto Rican characters remind us that these voices have always been here, occupying the very center of American life—even if we haven’t always been willing to listen.

“Kingdom Verses” is the first of The Kingdom Books collection to be released and has a CD that accompanies it. “Kingdom Verses” comprises a collection of poems with a religious element, and some of which bring awareness to the disturbing current political culture and everyday life situations that many people face. The lifespan of these poems embraces over four decades, and has recently taken momentum. “Happiness” was the first among them and was compiled in “Collected Whispers”, The International Library Of Poetry, 2008”. “Kingdom Verses” implies that it originates from God; a gift to His humble servant. It aspires to bring hope, comfort, and peace to people, to help face these troublesome times in a globalized culture of changes and challenges. Over the years, the poems evolved from the Traditional style poem, to the more Contemporary poetic prose. It is my desire and expectation that “kingdom Verses” will powerfully serve the purpose for which it was designed.