In A Second Chance, Simon Williams’ tells his incredible story of how Jesus Christ transformed his life from a cycle of addiction and imprisonment to freedom and a meaningful future. A testimony of God’s unfailing and unending love and protection even before we know him. Simon Williams’ life was dominated by alcohol, illegal drugs, fraud and theft. After countless crazy escapades, including crossing a mine-field in a tractor, Simon found himself on trial in Israel.
This is Sean's personal story of a transformed faith alongside the broken, the story of the church he started and the European-wide growth of an unlikely bunch of biker missionaries. The thread that will run through it is the 'greater righteousness' that Christ was looking for - what can happen when our concern for the perfect performance is stripped bare and replaced with poverty of spirit.
God has always been interested in turning unlikely people into his most fervent followers. Prostitutes and pagans, tax collectors and tricksters. The more unlikely, the more it seemed to please God and to demonstrate his power, might, and mercy. America in the 1960s and 1970s was full of unlikely people--men and women who had rejected the stuffy religion of their parents' generation, who didn't follow the rules, didn't fit in.
Suffering is a high–stakes game; it can shipwreck your faith or bring unsurpassed maturity, joy and peace. As a biblical counselor, Janice Cappucci has come alongside people in their suffering, and knows how true stories can usher hope into desperate circumstances. Storm Clouds of Blessings will captivate, encourage, edify, and strengthen you for your walk. A perfect gift and a great resource.
From the Upper Room of Pentecost to Azusa Street in Los Angeles, God has used prayer movements throughout history to change the world. Over fifteen years ago, a group of students gathered for a prayer vigil in Chichester, England—and the prayers they started haven’t stopped. Out of that first meeting came 24-7 Prayer: an international movement of prayer, mission, and justice that has reached Chinese underground churches, Indian slums, Papua New Guinea jungles, ancient English cathedrals and more
At the age of 16, Emily was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2) and less than a month later, she was in hospital and fighting for her life. Over the coming years, NF2 would steal her education, her smile, her hearing, her ability to walk. With her life plans in ruins, Emily struggled to find meaning and identity. Good things in her life weren't good any more. Because they were no longer there. With gentle humour and heart-breaking honesty, Emily shares her story.
The Walled City has been demolished but Hong Kong's need for Jesus is as real as ever before ... With extra new material Jackie updates the story of her work in the infamous Walled City of Hong Kong, bringing God to the drug dealers, madams, prostitutes and the Triad gangsters who inhibited this man made hell.
Testimony
Fiction
Mack's youngest daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, still trapped in his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack. Against his better judgement Mack arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon. What he finds there will change his life forever.
There's never a dull moment at Hope Hall, as its rooms are filled throughout the day with gossipy grandmas, body-popping teenagers, temperamental dancing teachers, a choir without one decent singer to their name, knitters who natter, caterers who bake glorious cakes, slimmers nibbling chocolate, and a nursery group where it's the grown-ups who are near to tears! But it's all in a day's work for administrator, Kath, whose job it is to make sure Hope Hall offers something for everyone!
The Shadow Doctor isn't your usual kind of doctor. Sure, you can bring him your problems - but the chances are his solutions will blow your mind. This man can see into your soul, and the cures he prescribes don't come from the pharmacy. If you have fears you just cannot face, wounds you can't even bear to remember - if you've been abused, ignored, damaged by all life throws at you - the Shadow Doctor is here to help.
After Highland shepherd Colvin Munro disappears, a mysterious trail of his possessions is found in the Cairngorm mountains. Writing the eulogy for his memorial years later, his foundling-sister Mo seeks to discover why he vanished. Younger brother Sorley is also haunted by his absence and driven to reveal the forces that led to Colvin’s disappearance. Is their brother alive or dead? Set on a farming estate in the upper reaches of the River Spey.
Chosen as handmaid to Eostre, the Saxon goddess, Hild would spend a year serving the goddess before she was wed. Her future was mapped out - until her father was murdered, and King Edwin claimed her as kin. Hild's first love was given a key command in Edwin's forces, and vanished from her life, wed to her elder sister. That same day, the court was baptised, ending the people's fertility religion and Hild's role.
Jemmah has always thought of herself as perfectly ordinary . . . until she faces extraordinary circumstances. When her mother, the Persian king’s famous senior scribe, is kidnapped, Jemmah and her sister must sneak undetected into enemy territory to rescue her. But infiltrating their adversary’s lands proves easier than escaping them. Fleeing through dangerous mountain passes, their survival depends on the skills of a stranger they free from prison: a mysterious prince named Asher.
Littlemore College is in a picturesque village just outside Oxford. Its calm surroundings have seen generations of aspirant priests pray and train. As far as the outside world is concerned, human passions are restrained by devotion to a higher calling. But this is the 1990s and women are training for the priesthood for the very first time.
Two brothers are still young men, ambitious to make their marks on the world after the Great Plague of 1349, but they are driven apart, and master glazier Amalric is compelled to find a new and revolutionary vision for his craft. Now an old man, Amalric has a final journey to make. He sets out for York Minster to discover if his life’s labour has been in vain. Will Amalric find his pioneering ideas shunned or embraced? Will anyone be found to carry them on? And can the brothers be reconciled?
Driven by ambition and family expectation, young Henry de Brampton is determined to make his mark. Destined for a prestigious career in the Church, he readily embraces the chance to experience the world before taking his vows. But fuelled by selfish desire, he recklessly betrays those he loves, with devastating consequences. Overwhelmed with guilt, he seeks redemption among the Cistercians of Abbey Cwmhir and finds a new identity as Brother Hywel.
Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton, where he lives alongside his widowed mother - opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey - and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in the church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village.
Poetry
Mark Oakley explores the power of poetry to stir our settled ways of viewing the word and faith, shift our perceptions and even to transform who we are. Through some thirty selected poems, from the fourteenth century to the present day - to be read daily for a month, perhaps - The Splash of Words is a rich feast for those who already enjoy reading poetry and an infectiously enthusiastic introduction or those for whom poetry is an unknown country.
The opening words of Sylvia Plath’s poem for her newborn daughter are true of each one of us. Love is fundamental to our being, our growth, our development and our happiness. Love enables us to make meaning of our lives in the world, and it gives us hope for what lies beyond. It is completely humdrum and ordinary – yet mysterious beyond words. Beginning in the body, it points us to eternity.
Poet's Corner is Malcolm Guite's column in the Church Times. This collection of reflections, which draw together everyday events and encounters, landscape, journeys, poetry and stories, invite slow meditative reading.
This collection of poems by Wales' most famous poet-priest, R S Thomas, is interspersed with short reflections and questions for exploration that connect the timeless poetry to the landscape that inspired it. Originally produced locally for visitors to the North Wales village and church where R S Thomas was the parish priest, its appeal extends to all who know and love the raw honesty and sparse, striking style of the poetry, and whose own faith and questions are mirrored in it.
This inspiring collection, edited by Pádraig Ó Tuama, presents fifty poems about what it means to be alive in the world today. Each poem is paired with Pádraig's illuminating commentary that offers personal anecdotes and generous insights into the content of the poem. Engaging, accessible and inviting, Poetry Unbound is the perfect companion for everyone who loves poetry and for anyone who wants to go deeper into poetry but doesn't necessarily know how to do so.