Blessing Or Curse

Life's trials and triumphs can seem accidental. One person may feel that life is a constant struggle in which pitfalls abound and someone seems out to get him. Another may feel that every day is a gift from God with special blessings just for her. That's because forces are at work in our lives: the blessings of a loving God or the curses of our spiritual adversary. This hugely popular classic work of Derek Prince helps readers recognize if there are curses at work in their lives and shows them how to get out from under those curses to live under God's blessings. This third edition of Blessing or Curse includes an extensive new study guide for small group or individual use.

To enjoy the benefits of God's blessings and be protected from curses, we need to understand how these forces work.

The "magical power of the spoken word" is a topic that often comes up in a discussion of biblical blessings and curses. What is the source of social and linguistic power behind these blessings and curses? Many theologians would agree that God can and does bless, but does God also curse? If so, what does that mean to the biblical theology of the Old Testament and the Christian church? Anderson's The Blessing and the Curse applies speech act theory as one way to understand the performative function of blessings and curses. The concept of speech acts provides a method of recognizing the potent social power of language to accomplish certain ends, without drawing a hard line of distinction between word-magic and religion. Even though the chief concepts and practices of blessings and curses are deeply rooted in the broad cultural environment of the ancient Near East, tracing specific trajectories of Old Testament blessings and curses as theological themes conveys broad, inescapable implications for the biblical narrative and the Christian church.

Each affordable book in the Biblical Truth Simply Explained series examines a vital aspect of the Christian faith. The books are written by a variety of authors, all in a way that presents the message of the Bible clearly and simply. British editions of this series, published by Sovereign World, have sold more than a million copies in all.

Ksenija Magda traces the impact of the curse of Genesis and the temptation to choose the world and its power over the servant-hearted humility of Christ, on the church's interaction with women. The question of how we view, treat, oppress or empower women is not peripheral to the gospel but foundational.

An erudite and accessible survey of Jewish life and culture in the twentieth century, as reflected in seminal texts. Following The People and the Books, which "covers more than 2,500 years of highly variegated Jewish cultural expression" (Robert Alter, New York Times Book Review), poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch now turns to the story of modern Jewish literature. From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience. Kirsch surveys four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reimagine Judaism as a modern faith. With discussions of major books by over thirty writers—ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow—he argues that literature offers a new way to think about what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. With a wide scope and diverse, original observations, Kirsch draws fascinating parallels between familiar writers and their less familiar counterparts. While everyone knows the diary of Anne Frank, for example, few outside of Israel have read the diary of Hannah Senesh. Kirsch sheds new light on the literature of the Holocaust through the work of Primo Levi, explores the emergence of America as a Jewish home through the stories of Bernard Malamud, and shows how Yehuda Amichai captured the paradoxes of Israeli identity. An insightful and engaging work from "one of America’s finest literary critics" (Wall Street Journal), The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life.

Has God's judgment fallen upon America after pressuring Israel to make land concessions? Is God fulfilling the promises to Abraham before our very eyes? Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

“It feels like I take one step forward, two steps back. Yet some people seem to move from one golden opportunity to the next.” Could these remarks be observations of the effects of modern-day curses and blessings? The Bible has much to say on the subject. Bless, and Curse Not will open your understanding to the Biblical principles of blessings and curses. In it, you will learn of the destructive power of generational curses, hereditary curses, word curses, and self-curses. You will also learn how to change, for the better, the circumstances of those you love by the power of blessings. Subjects covered include: Curses need to be removed The cause of a curse must be removed Our responsibility in removing curses The power and authority of the believer to bless What blessings can we make? Whom should we bless? Identify curses operating in your life Identify your own special familial blessings Containing over three hundred pages of Scriptural curses and blessings arranged in tabular form by symptoms, this book allows you to pinpoint the curses hindering you and your family and the blessings to replace them. Bless, and Curse Not by Gary W. Grout is comprehensive in its coverage of the subject, clear in its presentation, and practical in its application to our lives.