Abiding

Abiding is not a word we have much use for in everyday conversation. Yet Ben Quash shows that this one concept is central to the Christian life. Abiding, as Quash demonstrates, has the sense of full personal commitment, a quality of solidarity that 'waiting' just cannot convey. It speaks of the centrality of order, consistency and continuity in the Christian tradition, of God's commitment to us and ours to our communities. On the other hand, the kind of 'abiding' that Jesus calls his followers to is one of relinquishment, openness and change, living a life out of one's own control so as to 'abide' in Him. Drawing on the wisdom and imagery of modern fiction, film and art, as well as examples of key figures in the classical Christian tradition, Quash skilfully and creatively explores the implications that 'abiding' has for our bodies and minds, our relationships and communities, and our spiritual lives.

Abide in me as I abide in you. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.

Abiding Mission presents the discipline of abiding as the first priority of the Christian and the base methodology of mission. Based on an exegesis of John 15, Abiding Mission illustrates the definition of abiding by examining the abiding mission lives of seven key pioneers in mission to Muslims in North Africa, including Daniel Comboni (Catholic), Samuel Zwemer (Presbyterian), Oswald Chambers (YMCA/Pentecostal League), Lillian Trasher (Assemblies of God), Lilias Trotter (Algerian Missions Band), Douglas Thornton (Anglican-CMS), and Temple Gairdner (Anglican-CMS). The work continues by looking at the operationalization of abiding as developed from interviews from current missionaries to Muslims in North Africa.

The church's cycle of scriptural readings for the liturgy offers believers an opportunity to immerse themselves in the word of God. It is a very real and tangible way of responding to the call of Jesus: Remain in me, as I remain in you." In Abiding Word, Barbara Reid, OP, takes the Sunday experience to every day with accessible weekly meditations on the Lectionary readings of the year. This collection of articles, which includes Scripture readings for Sundays and solemnities followed by reflections, allows readers to meditate on the connection between the sacred text and their daily lives. Living with the word day by day invites us into a closer relationship with Christ, the God who became flesh. Barbara Reid is known for her contributions to The Word, a widely read column in America magazine. Abiding Word showcases some of her finest entries.

Abiding in God is the secret of Christian life. It is therefore essential for us to learn how to abide in Him. Both Old and New Testament authors have emphasized the importance of abiding in God; for such is the secret of walking with Him. Indeed, let us notice that Moses, Joshua and Caleb in Old Testament times and the apostle John in New Testament times have laid stress on that fact. How, then, can we abide in God? It is not by our human effort but by the mercy of God. He has made the provision and the possibility of our abiding in Him. First, God gave us His Son, the Lord Jesus, to make it possible to abide in Him. And then He sent His Holy Spirit to abide in us so as to make it possible for us to experience this blessed abiding. Accordingly, we as the recipients of this blessed abiding must continually thank God for the Spirit's blessed abiding in us. It is therefore essential for us to learn the secret of how to abide in God. It requires us to give up our self-life in order that we may experience this abiding life. May all of us be willing to do so.

Do you have a passion to fulfill God's purpose in your life, yet find yourself repeating the same old patterns? Do you long to move in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, yet continue to hit wall after wall? Offering healthy doses of hope and help, global prophetic leaders Chuck D. Pierce and Alemu Beeftu reveal that the key to a life of purpose and power lies in the hidden path to abiding in Christ. Through sound biblical teaching, prophetic insight, and real-world application, they guide you through the process of walking with him and remaining in his Presence, including how to · be set apart · pay the price of obedience · seek his face persistently · link godly desire to faith · embrace your covenant relationship with God · overcome the deception of the enemy In the coming days, it's vital that we, as the Body of Christ, learn to abide, making Presence-driven lives our reality--and bearing the supernatural fruit this world so desperately needs.

Calm Abiding and Special Insight presents an intimate and detailed picture of the intricacies of meditation so vividly that the reader is drawn into a Tibetan worldview of spiritual development. Geshe Gedün Lodrö, one of the foremost scholars of Tibet, reveals methods for overcoming afflictive states and disorders to create a mind which is stable, calm, and alertly clear. This book illustrates the mind's potential for profound transformation. The dangers of not recognizing states contrary to successful meditation are great, and the possibilities of implementing the wrong antidote, or of overextending an appropriate one until it becomes counterproductive, are many. Through such detail, Geshe Gedün Lodrö makes vividly clear a Tibetan approach to meditative transformation. This is a completely revised new edition of Walking Through Walls.

Australian theologian Scott Cowdell explores how "having faith" has changed under the influence of modernity and post-modernity in the West. He returns faith from pious sentimentality and arid philosophy of religion to the realm of "participating knowing," "paradigmatic imagination," and personal transformation where it belongs as a "form of life," shaped by encounter with Jesus Christ and worked out through the Eucharistic community. This is shown to have been the typical understanding of faith from Saint Paul to the Fathers to the medieval monastic theologians. Since the rise of nominalism, however, modern individuals reflecting a God newly remote from the world have struggled to maintain this participatory vision of faith as a formative habitat. Mysticism is as close as modernity got, while "officially" faith was annexed by modern Western culture, coming to share its anxious need for certainty and control--systemic, exclusive, and violent-tending. Scott Cowdell has written a wide-ranging book, bringing together several normally separate debates while tackling the problem from a distinctive perspective. He explores faith against the backdrop of secularization, the collapse of community, and the encroachment of an intentionally destabilizing consumer culture. He expounds the nature of desire in terms of imitation and rivalry, and the violent false-sacred roots of cultural formation evident in the modern West's many victims, all according to the uniquely comprehensive vision of Rene Girard. Finally, he dismisses today's growing mood of militant religious skepticism as philosophically outdated and out of its depth before the resilient confidence of a genuine living faith. What Cowdell calls "abiding faith" emerges as a venerable yet strikingly contemporary possibility. This is good news for today's "homeless hearts"--there is the gift of a secure identity and a mature spirituality on offer, within a liberating, inclusive, world-affirming, ecclesial form of life.