Spirituality In Season

Gods supernatural work often follows a seasonal pattern. If youre not careful, you can miss the seasonal processes of the Spirit, and the blessings that accompany them. These seasons impact everything in life: relationships, workplace, and connection with God. If you are to flourish in every season, its vital to recognize and partner with the flow of Gods work. Spiritual Seasons will help you discern Gods unique seasonal movements and align yourself with Him, so that you can receive every promise and provision released by His supernatural grace. In this inspiring message, Dr. Evon Horton helps you to recognize what season youre in, embrace Gods specific path for this time, and flourish in His abundance no matter what circumstances youre encountering. Learn to navigate each spiritual season: Winter: stand fast and prepare for breakthrough. Spring: see the promises of souls. Summer: position yourself for miracles. Fall: anticipate Heavens provision and blessing. God has a good plan for every season of your life. Partner with Heaven and watch His purposes unfold!

It would be impossible to have spirituality without prayer, of course, but it is certainly possible to pray without having a spirituality at all. A life of value is not a series of great things well done; it is a series of small things consciously done.

"Abide in me," Jesus tells us, "and you will bear much fruit." Yet too often we forget that fruit needs different seasons in order to grow. We measure our spiritual maturity by how much we do rather than how we are responding to our current spiritual season. In Spiritual Rhythm, Mark Buchanan replaces our spirituality of busyness with a spirituality of abiding. Sometimes we are busy, sometimes still, sometimes pushing with all we've got, sometimes waiting. This model of the spiritual life measures and produces growth by asking: Are we living in rhythm with the season we are in? With the lyrical writing for which he is known, Mark invites us to respond to every season of the heart, whether we are flourishing and fruitful, stark and dismal, or cool and windy. In comparing spiritual rhythms to the seasons of the year, he shows us what to expect from each season and how embracing the seasons causes our spiritual lives to prosper. As he draws on the powerful words of Scripture, Mark explores what activities are suitable or necessary in each season--and what activities are useless or even harmful in that season. Throughout the book, Mark weaves together stories of young and old, men and women, families, couples, and individuals who are in or have been through a particular season of the heart. As Mark writes, "I pray that this book meets you in whatever season you're in, and prepares you for whatever seasons await. I pray that it helps you find your voice, your stride, your rhythm, in season or out. Mostly, I pray that you, with or without my help, find Christ wherever you are. And that, even more, you discover that wherever you are, he's found you."

The fruit of her determined prayer for a way to give her spirit time to catch up, this pithy reflection on the qualities of time will introduce highly respected biblical scholar, professor, pastor, widow, friend, and author Bonnie Thurston to a wider audience - everyone who is time-pressed and deadline pressured. The news is good: Time is the creation of a generous God who always provides not only the bare essentials, but usually a feast. As the writer of Ecclesiastes mused: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. It is with her trust in this abundance that Thurston explores the mystery of time and the rediscovery of the Judeo-Christian understanding of time as God's sacred and bountiful gift. She looks at time from both a historical and a theological perspective; she studies seasons as measured by the liturgical cycle, the monastic day, the jubilee year, and the Sabbath; and she ponders the meaning of time participles - familiar phrases such as finding time, making time, spending time, and marking time. With her encouragement, the reader will discover that there is enough time - if we redeem the time by reclaiming the Sabbath, the time built into the rhythm of creation by God for rest and re-creation. 'To Everything a Season' offers reflection exercises to help us understand both how we think about and how we use time, as well as suggestions for ways of making Sabbath in the midst of our own crowded lives. The result is an invitation and a recipe for living in the present moment, in God's eternal Now.

We are used to making Lent a special time for renewal, but much less has been written on the other seasons of the year. This resource explores the traditions that have shaped each season, the lectionary readings, and the liturgies observed across the ecumenical spectrum.

Ruth Haley Barton's award-winning, practical introduction to the spiritual practice of silence and solitude is an invitation to you to journey into the real presence of God and hear and his voice. Much of the Christian faith is about words - preaching, teaching, talking with others. But the hectic demands and noise of daily modern life can drown out God's words, and keep us from fully meeting him. Taking the story of Elijah the prophet as inspiration and example, Invitation to Solitude and Silence explores the power of quietness and stillness in connecting with God. Filled with practical exercises that draw on Ruth's own experience, it encourages and challenges us to rethink how we see silence and solitude and to use them to invite God deeper into our lives. Invitation to Solitude and Silence is ideal for anyone looking for spiritual disciplines to help them connect more fully with God and practices to aid their spiritual formation. Ruth's gentle wisdom will expand your idea of what prayer can be, and help you find time to rest and renew your faith so that your relationship with God is strengthened. Helpful and hopeful, this book is a reminder that God does not push himself where he is not wanted but waits for us to respond from the depths of our desire. Will you say yes?

Many of us have endless demands and stifling daily routines. Learn why Sabbath is essential to our full humanity and faith, a rhythm of work and rest set by God that if restored to our lives will bring prolonged life, enriched relationships, increased fruitfulness, and abundant joy. We are waylaid by endless demands and stifling routines. Even our vacations have a panicky, task-like edge to them. “If I only had more time,” is the mantra of our age. But is this the real problem? Pastor Mark Buchanan believes that what we’ve really lost is the rest of God—the rest God bestows and, with it, that part of himself we can know only through stillness. In The Rest of God, you’ll: Form a deeper relationship with God by understanding Sabbath’s true purpose Learn how Sabbath allows us to live more fully into our status as free people, released from the grueling, incessant demands of life Connect Sabbath to the ultimate rest—heaven Receive practical advice for restoring Sabbath in your life With this book, Buchanan reminds us that Sabbath is about much more than going to church on Sunday. It's about the much-needed time to be still. The gift of Sabbath is essential to our full humanity and faith. God, knowing that and knowing how easily we might neglect it, made it a command. Begin your own journey of restoration and renewal!