S More Parables From Paradise

Hawai'i is more than tourist facilities on the sandy beaches of the blue Pacific Ocean. Behind the scenes there are real people, of diverse cultures with great historical sequences. S'more Parables from Paradise explores the people, the cultures, the flora and the fauna of the tropical islands. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Behind these parables of paradise are bits of spiritual sustenance that enable a person to grow spiritually. Join the author that through his eyes and ears you may experience a new Hawai'i. Fall in love with an Aloha that binds many together and makes Hawai'i a very special place and event.

Hawai'i is more than tourist facilities on the sandy beaches of the blue Pacific Ocean. Behind the scenes there are real people, of diverse cultures with great historical sequences. S'more Parables from Paradise explores the people, the cultures, the flora and the fauna of the tropical islands. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Behind these parables of paradise are bits of spiritual sustenance that enable a person to grow spiritually. Join the author that through his eyes and ears you may experience a new Hawai'i. Fall in love with an Aloha that binds many together and makes Hawai'i a very special place and event.

The early Christian church faced a plethora of religious fronts: a religious clergy that determined the way that Hebrew worship should go, with 10 commandments and 613 legal emendations; A state religion of the conqueror, Rome that elevated the emperor to almost divine status; pagan religions that hosted hundreds of deities; a secularism that permeated all of society and a disorganized group of seekers who kept searching for God’s will. To this world Jesus came to heal, teach and preach with parables. Forsaking argumentation and dependence upon present erudite culture Jesus told the same story that brought its salient point to the listeners, as simple parables marked Jesus theology. In the year 2009 we face a similar audience, along with the addition of the lure of the Internet. These parables speak to every group, but are not Scripture. Scripture leads every parable for it is the will of God that we seek, whether individually, as families, a nation or a world, that God speaks to us in stories The author invites you to continue in parables, finding your own.

Ken Smith, the author believes in Christian biographical novels. Working from Biblical passage to Biblical passage the story is told revealing culture, thoughts and feelings that dominated the lives of Biblical persons. James, the brother of Jesus is a fascinating person, a real person. Perhaps this story is the how, when, where and why of the fact that James was the titular head of the church of the Way in Jerusalem, the mother church of the Christian faith. With Peter and John, James is reputed, by Paul the Apostle to be one of the three pillars of the early church. He plays a fascinating part in the life of Jesus, the Messiah. Where others had to overcome a distance from Jesus to accept him as lord, James had to overcome a familial closeness to see Jesus as more than an older brother, or a good provider, or a skilled craftsman, or a first son, to know Jesus as the Messiah. With James, experience life in Jesus' family, the changes that were necessary as the teachings of Jesus became more than the creed of the early church. Walk with James through the early formation and controversies of the followers of the Way, that would become the Christian church.

What does God think of Homosexuality? After all He created it. He also created heterosexuality. This short book is an attempt to find out what God thinks and so we use as much scripture as we can to find out. Objectivity is difficult, when you are related to the subject. That has been the aim of the author. Also there is a willingness to abide by the conclusions. The author invites you on a journey through the Bible riding and abiding on the subject of sexuality.

In Parables in Changing Contexts, new venues in the comparative study of parables are addressed by scholars of Judaism, New Testament, Buddhism and Islam. Essays cover parables in the synoptic Gospels, Rabbinic midrash, and parabolic tales and fables in the Babylonian Talmud.

This study is concerned with the topographical layout of Bernard of Clairvaux's "Parables," It examines his treatment of such locations as Paradise, Egypt, and the bridegroom's chamber, and his reformulation of central monastic issues as navigations within spiritual landscapes.