Grace S Dream

This is an invitation to a conversation on the pastoral life from one of America's most respected clergy. Dean Lueking shares the fruits and foibles of his 50 years in parish minstry, 44 of them in the same congregation, Grace Lutheran in River Forest, Illinois. A lively storyteller, Lueking writes as the wise friend and colleague every pastor would hope to have. He gives life to a truth many congregational leaders will recognize: a congregation never stands still but is at once new and old, vexing and inspiring, lively and dull. It is life-giving year after year, in quiet moments and in open view. Lueking writes out of gratitude for the colleagues in ministry who over the years offered him a listening ear and an understanding heart. His words affirm what pastors are already doing while sparking dialogue about his suggestions and provoking new insights and understanding. This volume offers a glimpse of a larger vision for one's life and ministry that comes not from within but from God. Lueking joins theological reflection with the realities of congregation and community. Recalling the spiritual and intellectual exchanges with other authors that have enriched him throughout his ministry, he offers encouragement to all who serve congregations.

This book contains 70 true stories about prayers that were answered, healings, visions, signs from deceased loved ones, out-of-body experiences and other unexplained wonderful occurrences. Heidi made it her mission to confirm, and accurately maintain, the individuality of each story as it was told to her. Each contributor somehow felt the subtle grace of God because his or her personal experience was beyond coincidence. You will be filled with faith, awe, wonder, peace and the realization that miracles occur more frequently than you believed possible. You will discover three miracles that occurred in Lana's bedroom. What did the radiologist see on Maddie's X-ray? Was it a mishandling error of some kind or something divine? You decide. Can a woman be healed from the incurable condition of torticollis? Is there really a tunnel of light we enter as we near death? Can a child heal herself from hydrocephalus? Read the stories "Peggy Ann" and "The 14th Hole" to find out if angels exist. Observe the power of prayer in the story "Trisha's Lump." All of the royalties from this book will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. This book was a "Finalist" in the 2012 International Book Awards in the category of Religion:Christian Inspirational. It was also an honorable mention in the Spiritual category in the 2012 San Francisco Book Festival.

For Elena del Río, extreme cinema is not only qualitatively different from the representations of violence we encounter in popular, mainstream cinema; it also constitutes a critique of the socio-moral system that produces (in every sense of the word) such violence. Drawing inspiration from Deleuze's ethics of immanence, Spinoza's ethology of passions and Nietzsche's typology of forces, The Grace of Destruction examines the affective extremities common in much of global, contemporary cinema from the affirmative perspective of vital forces and situations-extremities such as moral/religious oppression, biopolitical violence, the pain involved in gender relations, the event of death and planetary extinction. Her analysis diverges from the current literature on extreme cinema through its selection of films, which include key international examples, and through its foregrounding of relational, affective politics over representations of sexuality and graphic violence. Detailed formal and philosophical analyses of films like The White Ribbon, Dogville, Code Unknown, Battle in Heaven, Sonatine, Fireworks, Dolls, Takeshis', Inland Empire and Melancholia are meant to move us away from the moral appraisal of violence and destruction, and to compose an ethological philosophy of cinema based on Deleuze's idea that, “when truth and judgment crumble, there remain bodies, which are... nothing but forces.”

Becoming the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, a bandit and a duke's son become the rival leaders of separate factions with very different ideas about justice and politics.

From bestselling author Carol Kent comes a riveting journey of facing the impassible obstacles of life and discovering the last thing ever expected---the sweet spot of grace.

When Eleanor Pfaehler and I met, we stood on opposite sides of an invisible, and seemingly insurmountable, wall," Sheila Walsh writes. "Eleanor and I talked over this wall. At times we reached up to hug. But the wall was always there. "Then Eleanor was diagnosed with liver cancer. Finally, by the grace and mercy of God alone, the wall came crashing down. Eleanor and I found ourselves swimming in the river of mercy with our arms around each other, holding each other, willing to give our lives for each other." Unexpected Grace is a tender account of the relationship between a mother and daughter-in-law and how they discovered extravagant grace in the midst of what could have been the most tragic experience of their lives. Their story will encourage you and help you see how God can bring good out of even the bleakest circumstances. Previously published as Stories from the River of Mercy.

A personal account of Polish society in the 1980s beginning with the author's introduction to a Polish resistance champion.