Desirable God

Divine health and prosperity are better than divine healing and provision. If you live in divine health and prosperity, you wont need a miracle to get healed or to pay your bills. If you cant see the difference between the two, that may be one reason you only visit Gods best instead of truly living in it. Most Christians live in a place where...

The human fascination with images, and the idolatry or idolization of images as the source of desire, passion and terror, is treated in this book. The first part enters more deeply into religious idolatry, past and present. It treats the biblical, the early-Jewish as well as the Christian views on monotheism and the prohibition against images, as source of authentic humanism or as source of intolerance and violence. In the second part, the focus shifts onto a number of contemporary, profane idols and gods: the nationalist fascination for one's own land and people, and the fear or hate towards foreigners; the rampant preoccupation with (genetic) health, in a context of body culture and aestheticization, of which the postmodern sport idols have become the great 'icons'; the current image- and screen-culture and all forms of audiovisual exorcisms; and last but not least the ongoing process of economization and globalization, with an expanding culture of 'branding' logos.

Why is God's beauty often absent from our theology? Rarely do theologians take up the theme of God's beauty—even more rarely do they consider how God's beauty should shape the task of theology itself. But the psalmist says that the heart of the believer's desire is to behold the beauty of the Lord. In The Beauty of the Lord, Jonathan King restores aesthetics as not merely a valid lens for theological reflection, but an essential one. Jesus, our incarnate Redeemer, displays the Triune God's beauty in his actions and person, from creation to final consummation. How can and should theology better reflect this unveiled beauty? The Beauty of the Lord is a renewal of a truly aesthetic theology and a properly theological aesthetics.

We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

From back cover: True happiness for you no doubt means things like: loving and being loved; surrounding yourself with good friends; experiencing closeness to God; finding a meaningful career; enjoying the good things of life; living a life that truly matters. Those are the desire of just about every human heart. In God's Will, God's Best Josh McDowell and Kevin Johnson explain that God not only wants you to achieve those things, but He has a specific plan for you to experience each of them.

I was in a bad mood, pre-menstrual and bitchy. I had turned my cold back on my husband the night before. I had yelled at my kids. I felt disgruntled, and negative thoughts plagued me. I couldn’t be bothered to change the dogs’ water bowl, and I couldn’t be bothered to shower. I remained on the couch and looked to escape. I turned on the TV and watched the desperate or maladjusted reveal themselves to Jerry Springer. I watched the news: an assortment of third-world scarcity, including a load of sub-Saharan children who really didn’t care whether they lived or died, first-world surplus, deadly epidemics, warfare, terrorist attacks, suicide bombings, opiate addiction, youth rebellion, earthquakes, overcrowded schools, homelessness, identity theft, global warming, stock market uncertainly, out of control brush fires, unemployment, illegal immigration, and political corruption. It was all depressing. I then changed the channel and watched a surgeon prepare to separate Siamese-twins while their mother agonized over the fact that she’d had to choose. I changed it again and saw live coverage of a prison riot, and then I watched a documentary about the binge-drinking culture that is cursing my motherland. “Entertainment Television” was my last stop; here I learned about Hollywood’s most acrimonious divorces................“What a crap planet this is,” I said to God out loud. “Is this the best you could do?”

Solitude is not foreign to anyone. It is a universal reality that permeates all our experiences. But why write a book about it? One answer: God. God is the One we seek in solitude. Solitude, which is a listening to God, a being with God, an attentiveness to God’s word and wisdom, and a being-in-love with God, is worth the journey into it. Persons who enter into solitude and taste its fruits will no longer see as they saw before. Solitude offers another way of seeing. When we are open to discover and to receive, the mystery of solitude purifies the sight, the seeing, the beholding of each person. When solitude brings us to God, God brings us into new vision. This book is directed to all who seek God and who long to “see” God and to know God’s ways more truly. This book is for those who are so eager to be transformed in Christ that they are willing to wade into the waters of solitude. This book invites you to an exploration that begins with the desires to pray: to pray because the hunger for God pursues you; to pray because you believe the value of prayer. Solitude is a milieu of prayer: it beckons us to seek God. Prayer will lead you into the solitude God wants for you. Prayer opens the door to a solitude which will open you to God. Once you read this book, solitude will not be a solitude of emptiness; love will be near.