Inspirational

page 1 of 10
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 

Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

by Mitch Albom from Broadway

This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil has soared to the bestseller list for many reasons. For starters: it reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. It also plays out a fantasy many of us have entertained: what would it be like to look those people up again, tell them how much they meant to us, maybe even resume the mentorship? Plus, we meet Morrie Schwartz--a one of a kind professor, whom the author describes as looking like a cross between a biblical prophet and Christmas elf. And finally we are privy to intimate moments of Morrie's final days as he lies dying from a terminal illness. Even on his deathbed, this twinkling-eyed mensch manages to teach us all about living robustly and fully. Kudos to author and acclaimed sports columnist Mitch Albom for telling this universally touching story with such grace and humility. --Gail Hudson

It’s been ten years since Mitch Albom first shared the wisdom of Morrie Schwartz with the world. Now–twelve million copies later–in a new afterword, Mitch Albom reflects again on the meaning of Morrie’s life lessons and the gentle, irrevocable impact of their Tuesday sessions all those years ago. . .

_____

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.

For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.

Before You Do: Making Great Decisions That You Wont Regret

by T.D. Jakes from Atria

In Before You Do, best selling author T.D. Jakes turns his attention and teachings to the topic of relationships and the issues that need resolving once you've learned to use the spiritual and psychological tools for reevaluating your place in life and for repositioning yourself for a life without limits.

Relationship decisions come down to five crucial components, according to Bishop Jakes:

Research: gathering information and collecting data

Roadwork: removing obstacles and clearing the path

Rewards: listing choices and imaging their consequences

Revelation: narrowing your options and making your selection

Rearview: looking back and adjusting as necessary to stay on course

Before You Do gets you on the right track to making decisions that you'll be proud of and reap the benefits of for the rest of your life, as will the generations that follow you. He gives you insight on how to reflect, discern, and decide the next step to take to have a strong and enduring love, marriage, and family.

The Bishop takes a spiritual and practical approach to inherently emotional issues such as the outside influences on our relationships, e.g., in-laws, friends, and former spouses; coping with anger; parenting; financial concerns; negotiating high-profile lives; and so many more of the issues people face every day. His special brand of counseling and teaching appeals to the faith-based community and beyond, reaching millions who receive his wisdom in all media, especially books.

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition]

by Julia Cameron from Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam

With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity.

This book links creativity to spirituality by showing how to connect with the creative energies of the universe, and has, in the four years since its publication, spawned a remarkable number of support groups for artists dedicated to practicing the exercises it contains.

The Artist's Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist's life. Still as vital today-or perhaps even more so-than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work. In a new introduction to the book, Julia Cameron reflects upon the impact of The Artist's Way and describes the work she has done during the last decade and the new insights into the creative process that she has gained. Updated and expanded, this anniversary edition reframes The Artist's Way for a new century.

Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

by Richard J. Foster from HarperSanFrancisco

When Richard Foster began writing Celebration of Discipline more than 20 years ago, an older writer gave him a bit of advice: "Be sure that every chapter forces the reader into the next chapter." Foster took the advice to heart; as a result, his book presents one of the most compelling and readable visions of Christian spirituality published in the past few decades. After beginning with a simple observation--"Superficiality is the curse of our age.... The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people"--Foster's book moves to explain the disciplines people must cultivate in order to achieve spiritual depth. In succinct, urgent, and sometimes humorous chapters, Foster defines a broad range of classic spiritual disciplines in terms that are lucid without being too limiting and offers advice that's practical without being overly prescriptive. For instance, after describing meditation as a combination of "intense intimacy and awful reverence," he settles into such down-to-earth topics as how to choose a place and a posture in which to meditate.

Perhaps most interesting and useful is Foster's chapter on the controversial Christian discipline of submission. According to Foster, submission does not demand self-hatred or loss of identity. Instead, it simply means growing secure in the conviction that "our happiness is not dependent on getting what we want" but on the fulfillment that naturally flows from love of one's neighbors. Such wise and encouraging suggestions have helped many readers to discard the idea that discipline is an onerous duty and to move toward a liberating and simpler idea of discipline--whose defining character, as Foster never forgets, is joy. --Michael Joseph Gross

In the twenty years since its publication, Celebration of Discipline has helped over a million seekers discover a richer spiritual life infused with joy, peace, and a deeper understanding of God. For this special twentieth anniversary edition, Richard J. Foster has added an introduction, in which he shares the story of how this beloved and enduring spiritual guidebook came to be.

Hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality, Celebration of Discipline explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith. Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found.

Dividing the Disciplines into three movements of the Spirit, Foster shows how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life. The inward Disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study, offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward Disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate Disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration, bring us nearer to one another and to God.

Foster provides a wealth of examples demonstrating how these Disciplines can become part of our daily activities-and how they can help us shed our superficial habits and "bring the abundance of God into our lives." He offers crucial new insights on simplicity, demonstrating how the biblical view of simplicity, properly understood and applied, brings joy and balance to our inward and outward lives and "sets us free to enjoy the provision of God as a gift that can be shared with others." The discussion of celebration, often the most neglected of the Disciplines, shows its critical importance, for it stands at the heart of the way to Christ. Celebration of Discipline will help motivate Christians everywhere to embark on a journey of prayer and spiritual growth.

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

by Immaculee Ilibagiza from Hay House

The Noble Wilds

by The Supreme Master Ching Hai from Love Ocean Creative International Company, Ltd.

With a rhythmic, meditative tone, the words of The Noble Wilds flow gracefully along the pages, complemented by the luminous photos of God s creations in nature. Turning the pages, one is transported to Amoura, the place where the lady lives and is visited by cherished beings of the wild. The lady is none other than Supreme Master Ching Hai, and The Noble Wilds is yet another of Her simple but deeply touching gifts. Written, photographed and compiled personally by Master, this precious gem opens the door to a world of unique beauty. Here, the reader can witness firsthand the noble spirit and dedication of our co-inhabitants whose homes are under the open sky the swan, the goose, the squirrel, the beaver and even a tiny garden snail. Although generally shy of humans, these animals allow themselves to be photographed, and indeed can even be seen eagerly approaching the lady s gentle offering of favorite foods. The love conveyed is unlike any other full of dignity and grace, yet as deep and enduring as the eternal. All books are printed by ''Soy Ink for Environmental protection''. Such ink is not only nontoxic but also very helpful for environment of the mother earth which is an good example of ''time to act''....

He Loves Me! Learning to Live In the Father's Affection

by Wayne Jacobsen from Windblown Media

Do you find yourself picking through circumstances like children plucking daisy petals attempting to figure out whether or not God loves you? If you find yourself least certain of his love in those critical moments when you most need to trust him, there is hope for you. Where? At the one event in human history that forever secured your place in the Father s hear--the cross where Jesus allowed sin and shame to be consumed in his own body so that you could freely embrace a relationship with his Father. There you will discover that what he always wanted was not the fearful subservience of slaves, but the loving affection of sons and daughters. If your spiritual life feels more like performance than freedom, like an empty ritual rather than a joyful journey, let Wayne help you discover a Father who loves you more than anyone on this planet ever has or ever will and how you can rest in the confidence of his affection for you through whatever circumstances you face.

Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life

by John McCain from Ballantine Books

“Courage,” Winston Churchill explained, is “the first of human qualities . . . because it guarantees all the others.” As a naval officer, P.O.W., and one of America’s most admired political leaders, John McCain has seen countless acts of bravery and self-sacrifice. Now, in this inspiring meditation on courage, he shares his most cherished stories of ordinary individuals who have risked everything to defend the people and principles they hold most dear.

“We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear but the capacity for action despite our fears,” McCain reminds us, as a way of introducing the stories of figures both famous and obscure that he finds most compelling—from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to Sgt. Roy Benavidez, who ignored his own well-being to rescue eight of his men from an ambush in the Vietnam jungle; from 1960s civil rights leader John Lewis, who wrote, “When I care about something, I’m prepared to take the long, hard road,” to Hannah Senesh, who, in protecting her comrades in the Hungarian resistance against Hitler’s SS, chose a martyr’s death over a despot’s mercy.

These are some of the examples McCain turns to for inspiration and offers to others to help them summon the resolve to be both good and great. He explains the value of courage in both everyday actions and extraordinary feats. We learn why moral principles and physical courage are often not distinct quantities but two sides of the same coin. Most of all, readers discover how sometimes simply setting the right example can be the ultimate act of courage.

Written by one of our most respected public figures, Why Courage Matters is that rare book with a message both timely and timeless. This is a work for anyone seeking to understand how the mystery and gift of courage can empower us and change our lives.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

by Freedom Writers from Main Street Books

Straight from the front line of urban America, the inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students.


As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”

With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.

With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students.

The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers.

Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day

by Joel Osteen from Free Press

Book Description
Joel Osteen reaches one of the largest audiences in the U.S. and across the globe--more than 42,000 people attend his church every week, and millions more tune in by television to hear his words of inspiration and wisdom. His first book, Your Best Life Now, has sold over 4 million copies and is available worldwide in 17 languages. His message of hope is helping people find a closer connection with God by learning to apply the principles of Scripture to their everyday lives.

In this new book, Become a Better You, Joel Osteen offers seven simple yet profound action steps that will help readers discover the better things they were born for... their individual purpose and destiny. As charming and passionate on the page as he is in person, Osteen incorporates key biblical principles, devotions, and personal testimonies that will uplift and enlighten readers. He speaks directly to the hearts and concerns of people from every walk of life. People love Joel Osteen--they love to be in his presence, to hear him speak, and to read what he's written--they just can't get enough of him.

Become a Better You will encourage and inspire readers to reach their full, unique and God given potential.

---

A Word from Joel Osteen

Dear Amazon Customer,

I am very excited to be working with Amazon.com as an online bookseller and partner for the publication of my new book, Become a Better You. As a leader in e-commerce, Amazon.com is an informative and innovative online resource. Get ready to embark on a remarkable journey. One that will help you break free from the past and realize your full potential as a spouse, parent, or friend. Whether you realize it or not, miracles are happening all around you. I'm confident that reading this book will lead you to accept the gift of who you were meant to be and live a life filled with more hope, joy, and victory.

Believing for God's Best,

Joel Osteen

---

An Interview with Joel Osteen

Q: Do you have a hero?

A: Of course, my greatest hero is Jesus Christ. He should be everyone's greatest hero. However, among men, I have two real heroes. My father, John Osteen, was not only the best father anyone could ever have, but was my best friend as well. He was a man of great integrity, and he taught me how important it was to incorporate Jesus Christ into every part of my life. Another of my heroes is Billy Graham who throughout the years has remained true to that which God called him to do and has done so with the utmost dedication, humility, and integrity.

Q: In today's conflicted world, how do you encourage people to maintain their faith?

A: As believers we should be assured that Jesus said He would never leave us nor forsake us. We should adopt a mindset that God wants to be involved in our everyday lives, through good times and difficult times. We should communicate with God throughout our day (to pray without ceasing), not just when we are in crisis. He cares about our lives even in the small things. There is no part of our lives that are insignificant to Him.

Q: What did working behind the scenes at Lakewood during your father's ministry inform how you preach today?

A: Really it all started for me when I was born. Our family never missed church; Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night, week in and week out. However, for 17 years I did produce and edit my fatherÂ’s sermons for television. I often joke that I attended one year of college and 17 years of seminary. For those 17 years, I would have to study my father's weekly sermons and then cut them down to a 28-minute TV program while maintaining the message. I guess I've listened to at least 1,500 of my fatherÂ’s messages.

Q: Your ministry reaches millions each week through television and the Internet. How has technology changed how people worship today?

A: Through telecommunications technology, especially the web, more Christian programming is available than ever before. Not only do people have more choices in Christian programming, but they can get as much as they want whenever they want it. I think that our use of technology results in people spending more of their time thinking about the things of God. However, I don't see technology replacing worship in the traditional sense--that is worshipping with other believers in a church. Everyone should belong to a good Bible-based church.

Q: In our busy lives, what is your advice for how we can slow things down and find peaceful moments?

A: Personally, I take time each morning to spend with God. I have a quiet place in my home or I find a quiet place if I am traveling where I pray and seek guidance from God. I think that is the best way for anyone to start their day; it really sets the tone for each day.

Q: As a father, what advice would you share with parents struggling with our fast-paced culture?

A: Victoria and I decided a long time ago that our family takes priority over most everything else. I tell people all the time that their families should be their first mission field. Today, it takes a great deal of our time and energy to make a living. We need to make sure our families don't get the short end of the stick and we need to make time for them. And, I am talking about "quality time"; no cell phones, no business calls, no outside distractions, just family.

---

More to Explore

Your Best Life Now

Become a Better You [Abridged Audio CD]

Scriptures and Meditations for Your Best Life Now

---