Best Clergy

Heroism and Genius presents some of these formidable men: Fathers of Western Culture, of free-enterprise economics, and of the institution of chivalry; leaders of nations, statesmen, and defiers of tyrants; music composers, pioneers of universal education, and architects of some of the world’s loveliest buildings; and, enigmatically, the clandestine revolutionaries behind the explosion of the culture of romantic love bonded to Christian marriage whose aura still enchants the air of the West. Historians Have Spoken: The Verdict. Priests: Channels. of. Lifeblood. Milestones of the Catholic Struggle to Build a New Civilization, circa a.d. 200-1300. Chapter 7: Fathers of Chivalry: A New Type. of. Warrior. Chapter 8: Clandestine Revolutionaries. of. Romanticism. Chapter 9: Men with Music, Artistry, and Drama in. Their. Souls Chapter 10: Founders of. Free-Market. Economics. Conclusion: Standing on the Capitoline: Gazing toward Past and. Future. Horizons Afterword:May the Long Line Never. Be. Broken!

The homilies cover a wide variety of important topics on the priesthood, all deeply rooted in Scripture, including acting in persona Christi , becoming an offering with Christ for the salvation of mankind, being there for God's mercy, and witnessing Christian joy. We see that he is a man who embodies holiness, a man of peace, a man of God.

Both tragedies and magnificent gestures are chronicled here--from the terrifying forced march in 1942 to the heroic voluntary confinement of those dying of typhoid to the moving clandestine ordination of a young German deacon by a French bishop. "A frank, even touching, account of the thousands of clergy in the three barracks reserved for them at Dachau. I highly recommend it to understand much of the present crisis of secularism in our contemporary world." "Like the more famous saints of the concentration camps, these men had to learn the meaning of the words of Christ to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors.

Visioneering, according to bestselling author Andy Stanley, is “a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be.” With warm, down-to-earth practicality, Andy Stanley explores the ordinary life of Nehemiah and his God-given vision for accomplishing the extraordinary. Whether you’re a parent with a vision for your children or a CEO pursuing a corporate vision, Visioneering is the perfect tool to help you develop and maintain God’s unique purpose for your life. Andy Stanley is a pastor, communicator, author, and the founder of North Point Ministries (NPM). Andy and his wife, Sandra, live in Alpharetta, Georgia, and have three children. On December 17, 1903, at 10:35 a.m., Orville Wright secured his place in history by executing the first powered and sustained flight from level ground. For twelve gravity-defying seconds he flew 120 feet along the dunes of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But what most children abandon to the domain of fantasy, Orville and Wilbur Wright seized upon as potential reality. Wilbur described the birth of their vision this way: Our personal interest in it [aviation] dates from our childhood days. Late in the autumn of 1878, our father came into the house one evening with some object partly concealed in his hands, and before we could see what it was, he tossed it into the air. It was a little toy, known to scientists as a “hélicoptère,” but which we, with sublime disregard for science, at once dubbed a “bat.”. It was a light frame of cork and bamboo, covered with paper, which formed two screws, driven in opposite directions by rubber bands under torsion. A toy so delicate lasted only a short time in the hands of small boys, but its memory was abiding. This childhood experience sparked in the boys an insatiable desire to fly. In doing so, they stumbled upon the principles of physics that would pave the way to their first successful manned flight. If I were to boil it down to a formula, it would look something like this: VISIONEERING = INSPIRATION + CONVICTION +. ACTION + DETERMINATION + COMPLETION Destinations Life is a journey. Where you will end up in the various roles you play; what you will accomplish personally, professionally, domestically, and spiritually. A clear vision, along with the courage to follow through, dramatically increases your chances of coming to the end of your life, looking back with a deep abiding satisfaction, and thinking, I did it. Without a clear vision, odds are you will come to the end of your life and wonder. And let’s face it, much of what we do doesn’t appear to matter much when evaluated apart from some larger context or purpose. But take the minutia of this very day, drop it into the cauldron of a God-ordained vision, stir them around, and suddenly there is purpose! It is the difference between filling bags with dirt and building a dike in order to save a town. Building a dike gives meaning to the chore of filling bags with dirt. Too many times the routines of life begin to feel like shoveling dirt. Specifically, vision weaves four things into the fabric of our daily experience. The thing that makes daydreaming so enjoyable is the emotion that piggybacks on those mind’s-eye images. When we allow our thoughts to wander outside the walls of reality, our feelings are quick to follow. A clear, focused vision actually allows us to experience ahead of time the emotions associated with our anticipated future. Even the most lifeless, meaningless task or routine can begin to “feel” good when it is attached to a vision. Through the avenue of vision, the feelings reserved for tomorrow are channeled back into our present reality. Being the preacher’s son, my primary realm of influence (and acceptance) was church. So I would put up with the traffic, the gas bills, and even leaving their houses early enough to be home by curfew. I was committed to what could be (being on the other side of Atlanta) as opposed to what was (sitting at home in Tucker). The details, chores, and routines of life become a worthwhile means to a planned-for end. Find me a man or woman who lacks motivation and I’ll show you someone with little or no vision. Vision is a big part of the reason you completed college or graduate school. Think of all the seemingly wasted hours of study and class time. Even then you knew that much of what you were memorizing for tests was a waste of time and effort. long years you endured science labs, European history, research papers, and lectures. Like most serious musicians, I accumulated quite a collection of gear: recording equipment, guitars, keyboards, drum machines, and several miles of cable. When Sandra and I were married, she allowed me the luxury of setting up a small studio in the basement of our condominium. It was not unusual for me to retreat to my studio after dinner and emerge just in time for breakfast. As Andrew began to look less like a baby and more like a little boy, I started to give serious thought to my relationship with my children. Having spent ten years working with teenagers, I had a frighteningly clear picture of what could be and what should not be! My vision for my family dictated that I put musical pursuits on hold. There was no way I would be able to develop the relationship I envisioned with my children while pursuing my musical aspirations. A clear vision has the power to bring what’s most important to the surface of your schedule and lifestyle. A clear vision makes it easy to weed out of your life those things that stand in the way of achieving what matters most. A vision makes you an important link between current reality and the future. The Divine Element Granted, you have probably heard or read this type of stuff before. Honoring God involves discovering his picture or vision of what our lives could and should be. With that in mind, rethink the implications of this familiar verse: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. And through Christ he has brought about, and continues to bring about, changes in you in accordance with his picture of what you could and should be. More to This Life All that to say, as Christians, we do not have a right to take our talents, abilities, experiences, opportunities, and education and run off in any direction we please. Missing out on God’s plan for our lives must be the greatest tragedy this side of eternity. Granted, this world offers a truckload of options when it comes to possible visions to pursue. But you were tailor-made, carefully crafted, minutely detailed for a selected divine agenda. His individual vision for your life is a small part of a plan he envisioned and put in motion long before you or I came on the scene—but now I’m jumping ahead. Without God’s vision, you may find yourself in the all too common position of looking back on a life that was given to accumulating green pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them. But let’s face it, at each milestone in your pursuit of more stuff, you feel like you did as a kid after all the presents were opened on Christmas morning. This is why it is imperative that you discover and participate in God’s multifaceted vision for your life. Your uniqueness and individuality will reach its pinnacle in the context of your pursuit of God’s plan for your life. _ _ _ In the pages that follow, you will encounter several features that will assist you in establishing or clarifying God’s vision for your life. Here is where you can start laying down the details of a plan that will insure activation of your vision. Finally, at the end of the book is a small group discussion guide. A small group will help you sharpen your vision and provide accountability as you pursue God’s plan for your life. Let’s face it, if we could heal at will, part the Red Sea with the flick of a wrist, or walk on water, it would make the process of accomplishing our goals much simpler. Vision is born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. It is this element that catapults men and women out of the realm of passive concern and into action. Vision requires visionaries, people who have allowed their minds and hearts to wander outside the artificial boundaries imposed by the world as it is. Once upon a Time… Around 587 BC, the Babylonians invaded Judah and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, along with Solomon’s temple. On all three occasions the Babylonians took a number of Israelites as captives and resettled them in Babylon. Under the leadership of a man named Zerubbabel, these exiled Jews returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple. But the people refused to turn away from. the very sins God had judged their ancestors for in the days of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews continued to adopt the religious practices and culture of the surrounding nations. By the time our story begins, the political, social, and spiritual conditions in Jerusalem were deplorable. Meanwhile, back in Persia, a Jewish fellow named Nehemiah heard about the plight of his homeland—and he felt something. Little did he know these deep feelings were the initial birth pains of a vision that people would be reading about thousands of years later. In fact, for anyone trying to clarify the right vision to pursue, a good question to ask is simply this: “What breaks my heart?” Most social reform movements that have made a positive impact in the world began with a broken-hearted leader. I think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his heart for the oppressed in black America. Every significant nonprofit organization that has positively impacted this world began with a brokenhearted leader. He then went on to found World Vision so the same kind of help could be offered to needy children around the globe. But neither did he allow his daily responsibilities to distract him from the burden that had gripped his heart. Developing or discovering a vision for a particular area of our lives takes time. But it is a process that yields a product worth every bit of the agony along the way. Revving our vision engines at the starting line feels like a waste of time. This sense of “time is awasting” is the very thing that compels people To move out too soon. Time allows us to distinguish between good ideas and visions worth throwing the weight of our life behind. Waiting gives us a chance to examine our emotions and sort our minor concerns from major ones. Knowing these guys as well as I did, I’m sure that if they had had the opportunity to sign up and ship out on the day they sensed God’s call on their lives, they would have both headed for the airport. During the process of finishing college, Chip slowly began to lose interest. But Chip followed through with that vision and became active in his local church and effective in the ministry of lifestyle evangelism. Let’s face it, a good motivational speaker can cast such a compelling vision that before you know it you feel like it is your own. As we wait, God will shape and mature ideas into visions that can survive in the real world. If you saw The Empire Strikes Back, you remember the scene in which Luke wants to go rescue his friends before he has finished his Jedi Knight training. They are my friends; I must help them.”. Yoda finally issues a dire warning, “If you leave now, help them you could, but you will destroy all for which they have fought and suffered.”. But Luke is determined to go. In the case of a divinely ordered vision God goes to work in you to prepare you for what he knows lies ahead. Maybe that’s why he inspired the apostle to write the next phrase: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing” (verse 14). My guess is that without a vision, our willingness to allow God to prepare us would be greatly diminished. Who would suffer the headache of college or graduate school without the vision of job opportunities? Now I don’t know if he actually sat down and calculated how long it would take to deliver Israel by killing one Egyptian at a time. It took Moses forty years to grow into the vision God had designed for him. Meanwhile, back in Egypt, another generation or two dies at the hands of Egyptian taskmasters. As the story unfolds, it becomes evident his service to the king of Persia was in fact his desert experience. For this was a man with immense leadership ability who awoke every day to do a job that tapped little or none of those skills. Do you wake up every day to circumstances that have absolutely nothing remotely to do with the vision you sense God is developing in you? David, the teenage king, spent years hiding in caves. And Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the very king whose ancestors had destroyed the city he longed to rebuild! But from what I read in the Scriptures, I would guess the time required for God to grow you into his vision for your life will be somewhere between four months and forty years. There seems to be a correlation between the preparation time and the magnitude of the task to which we are called. Leading God’s people out of four hundred years of slavery required more than a four-year degree. In the case of a divinely ordered vision, God is working behind the scenes to prepare the way. Ultimately, we are taking part in a massive assault that began one dark afternoon on a hill just outside of Jerusalem. Apart from his intervention and preparation, you and I are incapable of pulling off even our small part of the operation. And he knew that apart from divine intervention there was no way in the world he would be able to take part in the reconstruction of Jerusalem. In fact, as we will see in the next chapter, he went so far as to think through exactly what it would take to pull off a project of that magnitude. Once they feel their idea is from God, they assume all systems are go and they need to quit their jobs, step out on faith, and begin. But the story of Nehemiah, along with numerous other biblical accounts, illustrates the truth that a clear vision does not necessarily indicate a green light to begin. In fact, I have witnessed a good many people with what seemed to be God-ordained visions charge out of the starting gates too early. As a pastor I have counseled with dozens of men and women who were in the process of determining the source of a concern or burden they carried. While developing the material for this book I interviewed several Christian men and women who have visioneered ideas into successful enterprises. If it is God who has begun painting a picture of what could and should be on the canvas of your heart, over time you will begin to sense that not to follow through would be tantamount to an act of disobedience. Time allows your heavenly Father to transition what begins as an idea into a moral compulsion. A second indicator is that there will always be alignment between a divinely originated vision and God’s master plan for this age. As we said at the outset, at Calvary we lost our right to devise our own plans and pursue our own agendas. All divinely inspired visions are in some way tied into God’s master plan. Whether it is loving your wife, investing in your kids, witnessing to your neighbor, launching a ministry, or starting a company, every divinely placed burden has a link to a bigger picture. It was Israel’s strategic role in God’s plan that made Nehemiah’s vision so compelling. Visions are often born in the soul of a man or woman who is gripped by a tension between what is and what should be.

In this practice the spirit of prayer was regarded as of first importance and the best form of prayer, for living prayer is the characteristic of genuine spirituality. 'When used slowly, for meditation and prayer, these pages have often been used by God's Spirit to kindle my dry heart.'. ' The Valley of Vision is a wonderful collection of Puritan prayers which both help to shape and inform our own private devotions and, perhaps more importantly, aid pastors as they seek to lead their congregations in prayer and into the presence of God.'. 'I cannot commend enough The Valley of Vision , which is a compilation of over two-hundred pages of Puritan prayers (each of which are one page in length). Indeed, these prayers will also teach one how to pray, and, at the same time, they teach theological truth.

In this practice the spirit of prayer was regarded as of first importance and the best form of prayer, for living prayer is the characteristic of genuine spirituality. 'When used slowly, for meditation and prayer, these pages have often been used by God's Spirit to kindle my dry heart.'. ' The Valley of Vision is a wonderful collection of Puritan prayers which both help to shape and inform our own private devotions and, perhaps more importantly, aid pastors as they seek to lead their congregations in prayer and into the presence of God.'. 'I cannot commend enough The Valley of Vision , which is a compilation of over two-hundred pages of Puritan prayers (each of which are one page in length). Indeed, these prayers will also teach one how to pray, and, at the same time, they teach theological truth.

Each day's devotion is filled with practical advice and help from Joyce along with life-changing promises from God's Word that you can quickly and easily apply in your own life. Joyce Meyer is one of the world's leading practical Bible teachers, with her TV and radio broadcast, Enjoying Everyday Life , airing on nearly 450 television networks and 400 radio stations worldwide, including ABC Family Channel, Trinity Broadcast Network, Daystar, and the Word Network.

The essence of his dynamic ministry is relived through the complete volume of his life teachings.Sermons have been gathered from archives around the world to create this unequaled treasure. Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947), known as the Apostle of Faith, had an international evangelistic and healing ministry.

In a moving example of unconditional love in dif­ficult times, the Jesuit priest and bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart , Gregory Boyle, shares what three decades of working with gang members in Los Angeles has taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of kinship. In his first book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion , Gregory Boyle introduced us to Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world . Now, after the suc­cessful expansion of Homeboy Industries, Boyle returns with Barking to the Choir to reveal how com­passion is transforming the lives of gang members. It's written by Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest in Los Angeles who has worked with (and loved) gang-members for decades. “If you’re in the market for genuine inspiration, I urge you to read Barking to the Choir by Gregory Boyle, a book that shows what the platitudes of faith look like when they’re put into action.” —Ann Patchett. It is lovely and tough and tender beyond my ability to describe and left me in tears of both sorrow and laughter." "One of the bravest, most humane, heartbreaking, brilliant, and hopeful stories I’ve read in ages. Father Greg, the Gandhi of the Gangs, fills Tattoos with unquenchable soul force and down-to-earth love." Boyle somehow maintains an exuberant voice that celebrates the strength, compassion and humanity of people often demonized. Boyle intersperses his narratives about gang members and his work with them with theological and spiritual reflections from a variety of theologians, poets and other writers. By introducing book-buying, highly educated readers to people we may never otherwise encounter, Boyle aspires to "broaden the parameters of our kinship.'". Boyle approaches each person as a child of God and fully deserving of love and compassion.

Offering more than a rush of caffeine, best-selling author Paul David Tripp wants to energize you with the most potent encouragement imaginable: the gospel. “We have always resonated with Robert Robinson’s hymn ‘Come Thou Fount,’ especially the line, ‘Prone to wander—Lord, I feel it—prone to leave the God I love.’ We feel the pull daily away from God’s goodness and toward a pursuit of our own, away from God’s gracious acceptance and toward the exhausting, impossible weight of trying to tip the scales in our favor. If you’re prone to wander, this book is for you.”. — Matt and Lauren Chandler. , Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Dallas, Texas; President, Acts 29 Church Planting Network; and his wife Lauren, writer; speaker; singer.

Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. Catechism of the Catholic Church is the first new edition of the catechism in 400 years.

Jesus Calling is a devotional filled with uniquely inspired treasures from heaven for every day of the year. “I’ve given this beautiful book to so many people I love, and I’ve come back to it myself again and again. “Jesus Calling has been such an inspirational tool in my daily walk with Jesus.

It tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man whose search for peace and faith leads him, at the age of twenty-six, to take vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders--the Trappist monks. Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was born in France and came to live in the United States at the age of 24.