Tending The Garden Of Our Hearts

Are you looking for a way to keep your family engaged in the true spiritual nourishment Lent has to offer? Tending the Garden of Our Hearts offers family devotions based on the scriptures for each day of Great Lent, including questions to discuss and ponder and an appendix full of hands-on activities to bring the lessons of the season to life. Whether you use it every day or dip into it occasionally as time permits, this book will help the whole family get more out of this crucial season of the Orthodox year.

Are you disillusioned with the hustle and bustle of life as you know it? Do you yearn for an enlightened, liberating and life transforming perspective? Then it is essential for your own peace of mind and spiritual gratification that you read CRAZYWise. In this book, the author skillfully illustrates the quality of faith and the level of wisdom that is actualized when you embrace the gift of salvation, trust wholeheartedly in God and activate the power of Jesus in your lives. CRAZYWise also offers priceless affirmation and revelation about who you are in Christ, your true status as a believer as well as your purpose in God's amazing plan for His Children.

Welcome to My People Garden will introduce you to the parable of the sower in a different light where you find the applicability in today’s world. You will learn to explore and develop your relationship with in your own backyard, grow your relationship with yourself, with God, to develop better relationships with other people. When you work your people garden with intention of growth and harvest while working the ground, then you will discover that your relationships will be bountiful in ways you would never imagine. You too will find yourself saying, Welcome to my People Garden with pure unconditional joy and love in your heart.

Tending the Garden is a unique perspective and approach nurturing of Christian spirituality using the garden and gardening as a metaphor. Marshall and Julie Welch combine their experience and expertise in spiritual formation and gardening as an invitation to tending to one's spirituality. Whether an experienced or novice gardener, the reader will gain insight not only into the art of gardening, but Christian spirituality as well. Spirituality is presented as a relational way to grow compassion and sensitivity to self, others, the environment, and to God. The book can be read individually or as a small book club group. Guidelines for facilitating a small group discussion are presented in the introduction. Part I consists of 14 short, engaging chapters, with titles such as "Weeding: Spiritual Discernment," "Manure Happens: Desolation and Consolation," and "Thank You Very Mulch: Our Spiritual Security Blanket." The narrative is written in a very conversational voice. Each chapter begins with scripture and an inspirational quote and concludes with a series of reflection questions as well as tips on how to "cultivate" one's spirituality. The "tips" are easy-to-do activities that are grounded in a long tradition of spiritual exercises presented in a contemporary context. In Part II, the authors also use their experience as co-coordinators of a community garden in their own church congregation to present step-by-step suggestions on how other communities of faith can start and maintain their own garden. Church gardens are introduced as a unique form of spiritual formation through a sense of community with other gardeners and a form of mission and ministry.

"IT IS FINISHED." Our Lord Jesus spoke these words on the Cross not long before His death. Indeed, the promise of redemption that was given so long ago was finally fulfilled. Now all who would call upon the name of Jesus would be saved forevermore. Entering the rest of God was once again a reality. No more striving. No more toiling. In body, soul, and spirit, we could experience the presence and power of God. Yet how many Christians truly realize the fullness of their salvation? How many continue to live in fear, depression, condemnation, and lack? How many understand what was finished and who they truly are in Christ Jesus? Through the words in this devotional, you will find a beautiful unfolding of truth. You will come to understand what was God's heart and plan for you from the beginning, what really happened in the Garden of Eden, and who you truly are because of what Christ Jesus accomplished on the Cross. And as you read and grow each day in experiencing His love for you, you will come to know a joy and peace and victory beyond what you have even imagined. Truly, IT IS FINISHED."

Do you desire close fellowship with God but don’t sense His presence? Have you ever questioned the reality of the Christian faith, wondering why you don’t have the joy and peace promised in Scripture? As the daughter of a pastor and saved since age four, Naomi longs to follow God, but He seems distant and far away. Though she practices the disciplines of the Christian faith—Bible reading, prayer, and Scripture memory—these do not satisfy her thirst to know God.Beyond Head Knowledge is the true story of a young woman grasping the promise of Jeremiah 29:13–14, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,” and the discoveries of her heart she made along the way. To seek. To find. To know God.