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ABCs of Healthy Grieving: A Companion for Everyday Coping Review

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Author Harold Ivan Smith is an accomplished speaker, writer and counselor. If you've read his other books on grief and grieving (do a search right here on Amazon for several other very strong titles) you know that's he's right-on-target, wise, insightful and readable.
This book is organized into small sections. It's not intimidating; it isn't "too much" to deal with. Pick up a section at a time --- you'll be hooked by the quotes, the stories, and the author's gift with words.
Sensitive and timely, this is an excellent book for anyone who is mourning a loss. Buy it for yourself and your won't be disappointed.
Dr. David Frisbie
The Center for Marriage & Family Studies
Author of Moving Forward After Divorce: Practical Steps to * Healing Your Hurts * Finding Fresh Perspective * Managing Your New Life

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Nationally recognized grief educator Harold Ivan Smith brings over twenty-five years of professional experience in grief recovery to ABCs of Healthy Grieving. Seventy-two brief suggestions for healthy grieving, each two-pages in length and titled starting with a letter of the alphabet followed by an "I Can" statement, encourage those suffering the loss of a loved one to grow through grief spiritually and emotionally. One particular aspect of living with grief day-to-day is introduced with relevant quotes and short excerpts. Readers can read ABCs of Healthy Grieving cover to cover, or choose a single topic to help them through their day.

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How to Be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job: An Invitation to Oblate Life (Voices from the Monastery) Review

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It seems like the fad of the day is for aspiring Christian authors to visit monasteries and write about their experiences. It is almost as if the very surroundings of a cloister will rub off and increase one's spiritual depth. But something about the call of the monastery is more than just a fad. An increasing number of people are adopting monastic spirituality for themselves. According to Br. Tvedten there are currently an estimated 24,155 Oblates of St. Benedict in the world. I am among their number. This almost equals the 25,255 vowed Benedictine men and women. The invitation to Oblate life is being answered by many people today. This book was written for them.
This easy to read book offers an excellent introduction to the vocation of the Oblate. The book is straight forward, respectful and unpretentious. Oblates who read this book will come away with a warm inspirational glow that their calling is appreciated. Those who are interested in lay monasticism will learn enough from this volume to understand what the movement is all about.
Several have commented that this little book (111 pages) is aimed more at those interested in formal ties with a monastic community than those who wish to practice Benedictine spirituality on their own. There is a reason for this, private Benedictine monastic spirituality is an oxymoron. To be Benedictine is to be part of community. This is even true of Benedictine hermits. One may be a contemplative or a mystic alone. One might pattern a personal devotional life after Benedict's Rule. One might even create a private prayer chapel. But these are not the same thing. I played around the edge of monasteries for years before I realized I had to take the plunge or forever be on the outside peeking through the windows.
Is this book for you? The answer is plain. If the title is catchy enough that you are reading this review then you should also read the book. You have already passed the "interest test".

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Padre Pio's Words of Hope Review

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(More customer reviews)I actually got this book by accident. When it first arrived it wasn't what I had expected. Once I began to look and read I discovered it was BETTER than what I had originally thought it would be. The outside back cover is quite explicit in summarizing what is inside. In the book, each page begans with a scripture quote. It is the next paragraph, the second that readers may want to read first. It is one of those paragraphs that will be the one to have our innermost feelings or thoughts that needs our attention on that day. ie. "Why should I praise God when so much has gone wrong in my life". It is then Padre St. Pio on the remainder of the page expresses his assurances of God's love for us and brings us hope by his revealation of God's own messages of encouragement, inspiration and blessing. The bottom of the page suggests a prayer we can use. This book has helped me pray in a way to experience the peace and help that God intends for us.

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The Rules of Engagement Review

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(More customer reviews)Firstly, let me begin by stating that anything by Dr. Cindy Trimm is always amazing, she is one of the most articulate speakers and writers in the nations today. This book is a culmination of the three previous volumes on the rules of engagements as well an extensive and exorbitant amount of advice and wisdom concerning the Kingdom of God, The Kingdom of Darkness and prayer and spiritual warfare.
If you have all of the other books, you NEED this one (in it she provides alot of information not contained within the other volumes (though they also contain alot of revelation)
If you do not understand prayer and spiritual warfare then THIS IS THE BOOK for you. Within the pages of this book, Dr. Trimm will teach and train you to become a warrior and an indomitable force in prayer and spiritual warfare (I can testify that this is what happened to me)
GET THIS BOOK, it is an EXCELLENT addition to your prayer arsenal
elexio :)

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Beat the devil at his own game and wage warfare with confidence!

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To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings Review

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(More customer reviews)John O'Donohue died peacefully in his sleep on January 8 of this year. He was working on a book on the late medieval mystic Meister Eckhart. Hopefully, enough of it was completed to warrant a posthumous publication. In the meantime, his To Bless the Space Between Us is O'Donohue's parting gift.
The book is a collection of blessings. That doesn't necessarily sound too exciting until one recognizes the deep-down meaning of a blessing, and O'Donohue's introduction provides some guidance. In our overly busy culture, he writes, we frequently race over the "crucial thresholds in our life" without pausing to take note of their significance. We no longer have "rituals to protect, encourage, and guide us as we cross over into the unknown" (p. xiv). A blessing is precisely one of those protecting, encouraging, and guiding rituals. It memorializes our transitions, connects us with a wider community (since none of us really ever travels alone), and strives to "present a minimal psychic portrait of the geography of change it names" (ibid).
Blessings, then, are all-important. They serve to orient us in our life's journey, establish fellowship with fellow travelers, and remind us of what we too often forget: that we are pilgrims, not haphazard wanderers.
Because there are all kinds of thresholds that lead to new stages of the journey, O'Donohue has written all kinds of blessings: for obvious thresholds such as birthdays, parenthood, adulthood, old age, and death; for interior thresholds such as courage, grief, addiction, suffering, loneliness; for the thresholds of callings to the priesthood, marriage, farming; and for the thresholds that our yearnings for love, peace, and friendship can nudge us towards. Some of the blessings O'Donohue gives us are breath-takingly beautiful; others, not so much. As he himself confesses, blessings are difficult things to write. They're not poems, because they're not oblique, but rather are direct addresses "driven by immediacy and care." Yet they're not utterly unpoetic, either, because in their immediacy they must also be evocative.
Given O'Donohue's passing, it's not amiss to quote a bit of one of his most beautiful and haunting blessings (p. 72): "For Death."
From the moment you were born,
Your death has walked beside you.
Though it seldom shows its face,
You still feel its empty touch
When fear invades your life,
Or what you love is lost
Or inner damage is incurred...
That the silent presence of your death
Would call your life to attention,
Wake you up to how scarce your time is
And to the urgency to become free
And equal to the call of your destiny.
That you would gather yourself
And decide carefully
How you now can live
The life you would love
To look back on
From your deathbed.

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Reaching for the Invisible God Review

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(More customer reviews)"How do I relate to a God who is invisible when I'm never quite sure he's there," Philip Yancey asks.
One of my favorite things about this man is that he shows no fear in asking the tough questions that many in Christian circles would prefer to pretend were non-existant. The enigma of how physical beings can know a spiritual God is one that has plagued humankind since the fall of Adam. In life's most difficult moments God more often than not still remains silent and apart. Why does this happen? Is this normal, and does the fact that I feel so distant mean that there's something missing in my relationship with Him? These are some of the hard questions that Yancey tackles in REACHING FOR THE INVISIBLE GOD. Some of the material here was reminiscent of DISAPPOINTMENT WITH GOD, since both deal with faith in the midst of hardship. But here Yancey elaborates and breaks new ground, emphasizing the journey and nature of a maturing faith in God.
Perhaps the most helpful thing for me about this book was how he dealt with that questions of "feeling" and intimacy, on a personal level. Most Christians usually have at least one "mountain top" experience in their life where they feel a deep sense of God and His love. But those feelings always fade and eventually the mountain top gives way to hills and valleys. Yet for some reason we tend believe that a person who is walking closely with God will also FEEL close to Him. And when we lose that feeling and live without it for some time questions can arise; especially in times of crisis. Yancey carefully peels back those misconceptions and replaces them with a realistic picture of what it truely means to know and walk with our unseen God. His words shatter the myth of feelings and I found an incredible sense of renewal and freedom, knowing that what I was feeling, or not feeling, was in no way abnormal or wrong.
In a modern culture of Christianity that too often emphasizes emotions, here is a book that will tear away the false conceptions and breathe life back into those who may be disillusioned. Here you will find insight and answers about the nature of God, man, and what true faith on our part consists of. While WHAT'S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE continues to be Yancey's high water mark, REACHING FOR THE INVISIBLE GOD is a powerful work that once again showcase's his incredible ability to summarize and present the profound in ways that anyone can understand and absorb. Five Stars.

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The Empty Chair: Finding Hope and Joy: Timeless Wisdom from a Hasidic Master, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov Review

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(More customer reviews)This little book contains such timeless wisdom. My personal favorite goes something like "all the world is a narrow bridge. The secret is not to look down." I find myself going back to it again and again, particularly at times when I feel lost or in need of an insight. I usually find something to renew my hope. I have given it as a gift many times. Even those who do not come from a Jewish background will find something to touch their hearts. Truly a treasure.

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The Art of War for Spiritual Battle: Essential tactics and strategies for spiritual warfare Review

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(More customer reviews)I would like to extend a heartfelt "Thank you" to Cindy Trimm and her publisher for sending me a copy of "The Art of War for Spiritual Battle" to review for them. I am truly grateful for this generosity. I really appreciate the time, effort and expense it takes to make a reviewer copy available to me.
"The Art of War for Spiritual Battle" by Cindy Trimm is an incredible book that takes prayer to a brand new level - COMBAT! Regardless of the season of life that you're in, this book will open your eyes to the absolute necessity for all Christians to be on their knees! Cindy Trimm draws battle concepts from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and reveals Biblical support of those techniques designed to turn your prayer time into victorious spiritual skirmishes.
This book is a powerful tool that leads back to scripture and inspires the reader to not only spend more time in prayer, but also to spend their prayer time more effectively. When I need God desperately, I seek Him earnestly. But when things are going well, I can forget to spend the quality time with Him that I should. If you're anything like me, and you're not in a desperate season, I urge you to read this book and put its teaching into practice. If you're like me and in a desperate season, I'm guessing you're already on your way to pick it up. Either way, you will not be disappointed. This book will help to draw you nearer to God and the act of praying His will.

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This new book by best-selling author Cindy Trimm, The Art of War for Spiritual Battle will become the "go-to" manual for preparing Christians to have victory in today's spiritual battles with the enemy through strategic spiritual warfare and powerful intercessory prayer. Using occasional relevant quotes from the classic book, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, long a manual of wisdom for handling conflict of any kind, Trimm teaches the necessary disciplines for a modern-day prayer warrior. The principles in this book include tactics for organizing prayer, protocols for enforcing your authority as you wage your prayer campaign, and strategies for establishing and expanding God's kingdom wherever you are.

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Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the sort of book that you want to give to all of your family members who have reached the age of 45.
The author captures the way Western society works, with its focus on the first half of people's lives. This percipient sociological analysis is just a starting point for his exploration of the second half of life.
As an aside, our obsession on the first half of life is growing stronger -- we care about courtship, career choice, finding a mate, establishing ourselves, and this is the subject that too many 60 year old people worry at, fantasize over, concentrate on, well past the day that they should let this half of their lives go... and think about the second half.
In this second half, people know they will suffer, that they will enter the "shadowlands", that this part of life can be about suffering and diminution. This author outlines how this half of life can be about joy, about falling upward in a spiritual sense, about the second half of life being about opening yourself. A book like this can help center a reader on the need to get past embarrassment, get past a concern for the material, and begin to understand what faces you, and what you are...
There is God in this book, and the book is frank about being a guidebook, a road map, towards salvation. That is inherent in the entire theme, the idea that a second half of life, with travails, can open to something more.
So many people I know are concerned with retirement, but not what to do in retirement, about a lake home, but not a better self... There is a sense that an obsession with retirement, in this second half, will then relegate health problems, money problems, pain, the death of friends.. into painful shocks. This book tells you that these painful days can be something more, a new journey.
Well written, with a gentle, funny, and open style, this is a book that actually can change your life.

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The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of The Cross (Hodder Christian Paperbacks) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the best books I've ever read. The author includes verses from John of the Cross, then analyzes and synthesizes, extracting the heart of what John is saying. The book is not at all "heady", it is extremely useful for the spiritual life of anyone in high school-on-up. This is one of the only books I've ever read that clears the way for deep communion with God literally every time I pick it up. I've read chapters 5-8 over and over again... the author talks about blockages to our relationship with God, and how to overcome them in a practical yet powerful way. The author shows how far and how deep a relationship with God can go. Anyone who desires to make serious advances in their spiritual life needs to read this book.

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As a monk in 16th-century Spain, the life St. John of The Cross was one of suffering and imprisonment, but also of great joy. His poetry and prose tackle questions of faith with humility and wisdom, and this text examines John's spirituality, finding an echo of Christ throughout his life.

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His Princess: Love Letters from Your King Review

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(More customer reviews)I have many devotional books, but very few have found their way into my morning quiet-time ritual. But from the first day I began "His Princess" I knew this was a book I wanted to read every day. Encouraging and insightful, this book reminds me how special I am to my Lord. I love this book!

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This beautiful four-color book opens the eyes of women to see themselves the way God sees them. Many don't even know that they are daughters of the King - chosen to be His Princess. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, they trade in their fairy-tale dreams of being cherished for a tarnished identity fashioned by their own insecurities and the mixed-up messages of the media. Now, these tenderly adoring letters written from God's persepective demonstrate that every woman is beautiful just the way she is. Walking in confidence toward her God-given purpose, every woman can bless others - even future generations.

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Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of those books where I found myself taking an hour to read a paragraph, which I had previously read. I just needed to ruminate on Lewis' thoughts. It's not theological in the sense of Mere Christianity or The Four Loves- he is clear here and elsewhere that he does not want to write a devotional book and indeed thinks he has little to offer on the subject, as he is untrained in these areas. So while he covers the same areas as Richard Foster's Prayer, this book has a decidedly different feel. It is personal, as if it were a collection of real letters.
And thus these are just letters. Often Lewis doesn't fully explain his ideas in an understandable way, to make it appear as if he is not writing to the general public, but only to Malcolm- a friend with whom he has a lot in common, with that secret language that all friends have. I appreciated too how personal asides were imagined, like "Your son is very welcome. We do *not* dress for dinner normally." and "Please tell Betty I do not need a bed downstairs, I am feeling much better." and, contrary to what Walter Hooper would have us believe, references to his conjugal life with his former wife.

Lewis' musings have the advantage of coming at the end of his life, with the full wisdom available. I especially liked his thoughts on getting whatever we ask for in faith vs. Jesus prayer in Gethsemane, difficulties in prayer focus, and the effectatiousness of our prayers. In the end, we want to be heard, even more than having our prayers answered. Lewis is simultaneously so deep and so clear. As he said, he wrote for the common man. So as I read him, I find myself constantly thinking, "Yes, I didn't believe that before, but I see that now."

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In the form of warm, relaxed letters to a close friend, Lewis meditates on many puzzling questions concerning the intimate dialogue between man and God. Lewis also considers practical and metaphysical aspects of private prayer, petitionary prayer, the Lord's Prayer, and other forms of prayer. "A beautifully executed and deeply moving book" (Saturday Review).

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