Living The Faith

We all face stress and tension in our daily lives. We might even wonder why our God of abundant goodness doesn’t remove the everyday struggles we face. Jesus’ interactions with Martha and Mary in the Gospel provide us the key to understanding how God shows us his love by allowing tensions in our lives. As we follow the sisters’ transformative journeys through their own struggles, reflecting on what transpires between Scripture verses, we see their initial tension become the catalyst that drives both Mary and Martha to the feet of Jesus — the place where all discover peace. Grace in Tension explores the areas where stress arises in our own lives. Each chapter ends with a thought-provoking prayer to inspire us to go to God with our problems, followed by questions for reflection to help us see all the ways he’s working for our good. God doesn’t create any of it, but he does show up amid life’s difficulties, ready to lead us through. No matter how big or small our struggle, when we seek him out, he reveals what we need to do to resolve our tension, transforming it into grace. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Claire McGarry is the founder of MOSAIC of Faith, a ministry for mothers of infants to school-aged children to explore their faith through motherhood. She contributes regularly to CatholicMom.com and blogs at ShiftingMyPerspective.com. She is the author of Lenten devotional With Our Savior, and her work has appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Keys for Kids, These Days, and Focus on the Family magazine. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.

Puzo tells the story of Domenico Clericuzio, a ferocious old man who is determined to secure his family's future in an era of legalized gambling, motion-picture investments and the threat of government informers.

The archbishop of Denver addresses the difficult question of what it means to be a Catholic in the twenty-first century.

"Living by faith" is much more than a general Christian precept; it is the fundamental posture of believers in a world rife with suffering and injustice. In this penetrating reflection on the meaning of "justification," Oswald Bayer shows how this key religious term provides a comprehensive horizon for discussing every aspect of Christian theology, from creation to the end times. Inspired by and interacting with Martin Luther, the great Christian thinker who grappled most intensely with the concept of justification, Bayer explores anew the full range of traditional dogmatics (sin, redemption, eschatology, and others), placing otherwise complex theological terms squarely within their proper milieu -- everyday life. In the course of his discussion, Bayer touches on such deep questions as the hidden nature of God, the hope for universal justice, the problem of evil, and -- one of the book's most engaging motifs -- Job's daring lawsuit with God.

Derek Prince answers your questions about faith in this resource for every Christian who wants to receive the promises of a faith-filled life.

"Margarita Mooney's path-breaking book, Faith Makes us Live, is the first-ever comparative study of how religious faith and practice affect immigrant adaptation and assimilation. Her imaginative analysis of Haitian immigrants in Miami, Montreal, and Paris shows how religious faith serves to mediate culturally between immigrants and their host societies, but also reveals that by itself faith is not enough to achieve successful integration. Host societies must also be receptive to the religious institutions that serve immigrants if integration is to be achieved. Her book is essential reading for students of both religion and immigration."—Douglas S. Massey, Princeton University "Margarita Mooney's research on Haitian Catholic immigrants in three settings is elegant in design, assiduous in execution, and compelling in presentation. Mooney's immigrants bring a deep piety with them across the ocean, but the different contexts of reception they encounter in Miami, Montreal, and Paris significantly influence their differential adaptation to their new homes in the U.S., Canada, and France. Faith Makes Us Live is an essential contribution to the growing body of literature on religion and immigration."—R. Stephen Warner, University of Illinois at Chicago "Faith Makes Us Live is one of those rare books that succeeds in making a valuable contribution on at least three fronts: it extends the literature on religion and immigration by showing how religious organizations serve as mediating structures between immigrants and their host communities, it demonstrates to scholars interested in faith-based service organizations that the larger relationships between church and state must be considered carefully through a comparative framework, and it provides students of religion with a compelling, up-close-and-personal account of how faith matters in the daily lives of Haitian immigrants."—Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University "What excites me most about Faith Makes Us Live is that it analyzes the role played by the Catholic Church in immigrant incorporation while taking into consideration the distinctive challenges met by Haitians in three societies that treat the poor, immigrants and people of color quite differently. The comparison between Miami, Paris, and Montreal is particularly felicitous given differences in the position and influence of the Church, the characteristics of the Haitian populations, and the public resources available to immigrants across these three contexts. By showing how religion sustains resilience and empowerment for a particularly vulnerable group of individuals, Mooney demonstrates the crucial role of meaning-making matters for immigrant incorporation."—Michele Lamont, Harvard University. "This book teaches us an important lesson: When immigrants are religious—and so many are—pragmatic cooperation between church and state can hasten their acculturation and improve their well-being. Faith Makes Us Live is essential reading for those who want to better understand the role of religion and religious institutions in immigrants' lives."—Mark Chaves, Duke University "An examplar of theory-driven ethnographic research. Professor Mooney provides an ambitious, comparative study at once rich in detail and grand in scope. By systematically comparing three countries on two continents, this book uncovers crucial patterns of relationships among church, state, and civil society and how they affect immigrants on the ground. This is what ethnography should be: rooted in the lived experience of everyday life and yet motivated by the need to understand human social processes in general."—Andy Perrin, University of North Carolina "Thoroughly sociological in design and analysis, this study opens new vistas for the field of religion and immigration. Leaving behind celebratory or critical accounts of the role of religious beliefs in the adaptation of immigrant minorities, Mooney makes clear that processes and outcomes depend on the interaction between religious institutions and the broader socio-political context. An original contribution, made even more valuable by its focus on one of the most downtrodden groups in the migrant world."—Alejandro Portes, Princeton University

What is faith, and how do we receive it and grow in it? We live in a society that is virtually devoid of faith. Since most people don't read the Bible, they don't know much about God or believe He even exists. What about you - do you lack the faith to believe in God? Having true faith will help you make sense out the troubling and confusing world you live in. It will give you the confidence you need to move forward with your life despite trials and setbacks. How do you get faith? Growing in faith requires believing in God and maintaining a close relationship with Him. You can have this relationship with God through daily prayer, Bible study and applying what God says in the Scriptures in your personal life. Learn more about how to grow in Christian faith by reading this Bible study aid ebook, You Can Have Living Faith, and start building that close relationship with God today! Chapters in this ebook: -- Introduction: You Can Have Living Faith -- What Is Faith? -- The Meaning of Faith -- The Book of James: An 'Epistle of Straw'? -- Examples of Living Faith -- When It Seems God Doesn't Hear or Answer -- Enemies of Faith -- Growing in Faith Inside this Bible Study Aid ebook: "Lack of faith—an active, living trust in and relationship with God—is a widespread problem affecting every nation and virtually every individual." "If we want to better our lives, our model for living faith should be Jesus Christ." "Many people don't have the faith described in the Bible because they do not believe or practice what Jesus said: "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15)." "The Bible tells us salvation is by God's grace and is not earned by good works "lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). But we are saved by grace through faith. The danger we face is that our faith will die if we neglect our salvation by not living a life of obedience to God (Hebrews 2:1-3)." "The examples and testimonies of the men and women we read about in Hebrews 11 show us we can believe God." "We should pray to God for faith, and we should pray often for it (Luke 18:1)." "Living a life of prayer, Bible study and humble obedience to God clarifies and strengthens our faith."

Help Your Tween Become a Girl Who Lives Her Faith Bestselling author and trusted Bible teacher Elizabeth George wants to help your tween daughter, age 8-12, understand what God's Word is saying and how it applies to everyday life. In this interactive and guided study of the book of James, your tween daughter will discover short chapters with helpful sections, such as Heart Check-up—a series of insightful prompts designed to help her write about and internalize what she's learned from each day's devotion A Prayer to Pray—heartfelt words she can use when she talks to God Gems from James—powerful Scripture verses from the book of James she can study, memorize, and apply to her life Each chapter will bring your tween daughter a greater understanding of the many life lessons to be learned in James and encourage her to be a girl after God's own heart.

* Portraits of three of the most important and effective activists of the last 60 years

Don't Forget to Eat; Making Mistakes; Desperately Wicked —these are a few of the chapters presented in this compelling collection of articles by Elders Waggoner and Jones. Vivid, brief, intense, and full of warning and comfort, Living By Faith presents practical concepts enabling you to live a victorious Christian life. You can't afford to pass it by!