On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned about Serving the Common Good ~ Jim Wallis

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side.”–Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln led America through one of the most tumultuous times in our nation’s history. Reading his words today, it is clear we still have much to learn concerning what it means to be on God’s side.

Bestselling author, public theologian, and leading Christian activist Jim Wallis speaks directly into our current context, revealing the spiritual compass we need to effect lasting change in our society. He explains how the good news of Jesus transforms not only our individual lives but also our public lives. Jesus’s gospel of the kingdom of God helps us recover a personal and social commitment to the common good and shows us–in concrete ways–how to be both personally responsible and socially just. Working together, we can reshape our churches, society, politics, and economy.

Releasing in the wake of the 2012 election cycle, this book seeks to move beyond the current media and political warfare and bring together a divided country. Wallis explores how Jesus’s agenda can serve the common good, what it takes to sustain a lifelong commitment to social justice, and how reading the Bible as well as the culture can shape our lives for genuine transformation.

Contents

Part 1: Inspiring the Common Good
1. A Gospel for the Common Good
2. The Lion, the Word, and the Way
3. Who Jesus Is and Why It Matters
4. Lord, Help Us to Treat You Well
5. The Good Samaritan Goes Global
6. The Beloved Community Welcomes All Tribes
7. Surprising Our Enemies
Part 2: Practices for the Common Good
8. Conservatives, Liberals, and a Call to Civility
9. Redeeming Politics
10. Economic Trust
11. A Servant Government
12. Making Things Right
13. Healthy Households
14. The World Is Our Parish
Epilogue: Ten Personal Decisions for the Common Good
Index

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New York Times best-selling author Jim Wallis thinks our life together can be better. In this timely and provocative book, he shows us how to reclaim Jesus’ ancient and compelling vision of the common good — a vision that affects and inspires not only our politics but also our personal lives, families, churches, neighborhoods, and world.

On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good

New York Times Bestselling Author Jim Wallis discusses the themes of his latest book, On God’s Side.

Special thanks to Matt Willingham for extra video footage.

Einstein’s God Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit ~ Krista Tippett (Author)

Summary of Einstein’s God
Albert Einstein did not believe in a personal God. And his famous quip that “God does not play dice with the universe” was a statement about quantum physics, not a statement of faith. But he did leave behind a fascinating, largely forgotten legacy of musings and writings-some serious, some whimsical-about the relationship between science and religion and his own inquisitive reverence for the “order deeply hidden behind everything”. Einstein’s self-described “cosmic religious sense” is intriguingly compatible with twenty-first-century sensibilities. And it is the starting point for Einstein’s God.

Drawn from American Public Media’s extraordinary program Speaking of Faith, the conversations in this profoundly illuminating book explore an emerging interface of inquiry-if not answers-between many fields of science, medicine, theology and philosophy. In her interviews with such luminaries as Freeman Dyson, Paul Davies, V. V. Raman, and Mehmet Oz, Krista Tippett draws out the connections between these realms, showing how even those most wedded to hard truths find spiritual enlightenment in the life of experiment and, in turn, raise questions that are richly theologically evocative. Whether she is speaking with celebrated surgeon and author Sherwin Nuland about the biology of the human spirit or questioning Darwin biographer James Moore about his subject’s religious beliefs, Tippett offers a rare look at the way our best minds grapple with the questions for which we all seek answers.

A journalist and former diplomat, Krista Tippett has created, hosted, and produced the popular public radio program Speaking of Faith since it began as an occasional feature in 2000, before taking on its current form as a national weekly program in 2003. She came up with the idea for Speaking of Faith while consulting for the internationally renowned Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

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Creationism vs. Darwin [4/4] – Krista Tippett of “Speaking of Faith”

CNN’s Jonathan Mann interviews Krista Tippett, host of “Speaking of Faith,” about the increasing popularity of creationism in the U.S. and asks if Americans have simply lost their senses.

Infinite Self: 33 Steps to Reclaiming Your Inner Power By Stuart Wilde

In Infinite Self: 33 Steps to Reclaiming Your Inner Power, Stuart Wilde teaches you how to consolidate your inherent power and transcend all limitations by releasing yourself from the constraints of your ego. Your ego traps you, according to Stuart, and it is never happy for long, always wanting more, whether it’s a new job, new relationship, or bigger bank account.

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The Eternal Now – Stuart Wilde. Mix by James Wild

Striking fractal slide show with narration from Stuart Wilde meditation. Music by James Wild. Audio is from the Quiet Earth production Meditations for Inspiration and Affirmation.

In Loving Memory of Stuart Wilde
World Renowned Author & Metaphysical Teacher Stuart Wilde Dies, Age 66

Friends & Family sadly announce the passing of globally respected Author & Metaphysical Teacher Stuart Wilde. Wilde suffered a fatal heart attack on a scenic drive through Ireland on Wednesday May 1st, 2013.

As Author of over 20 books (translated into 27 languages and selling millions of copies) on Spirituality & Personal Development, Wilde was considered by many to be one of the greatest metaphysicians that ever lived. Many famous New Age, New Thought writers & teachers privately studied with him including Deepak Chopra & Dr. Wayne Dyer.

Waking Up in Heaven A True Story of Brokenness, Heaven, and Life Again By Crystal McVea and Alex Tresniowski

On December 10, 2009, Crystal McVea, a thirty-two-year-old mother of four, stopped breathing. Her face turned a dark shade of blue, then black. Her mother screamed for help, and a nurse tried to revive her . . . to no avail. Today, Crystal does not remember what happened in that hospital room during the nine minutes she was unconscious and unable to breathe on her own. She has no memory of the panic and the rushing nurses and the loud cries of “Code Blue.” She simply remembers drifting off.

And she remembers waking up in heaven. For most of Crystal’s broken life, she felt utterly beyond the reach of God— if God was even real. Then came December 10—and the nine minutes that changed everything. Waking Up in Heaven invites readers along on a journey to witness the relentless pursuit of God in a life that was shattered and seemingly beyond hope, an awe-inspiring account of love, forgiveness, and redemption, and the healing power of God’s presence.

Crystal Leigh McVea was born in southwest Oklahoma and still lives there today. She is a schoolteacher and has four lovely children. Crystal and her husband Virgil, a US Army veteran, are devout Christians and active in their local church.

Alex Tresniowski is a former human-interest writer at People and has written several books, most notably The Vendetta, which was purchased by Universal Studios and used as a basis for the movie Public Enemies. His most recent book, An Invisible Thread, has spent more than twenty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

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Waking Up in Heaven

The remarkable story of an everyday woman, plagued with guilt and skepticism, who was dramatically changed by the nine minutes she spent in heaven.

Waking Up In Heaven Author Crystal McVea on FOX & FRIENDS

Waking Up In Heaven’s Author Crystal McVea’s interview on FOX&FRIENDS – 4/2/2013

The New Kitchen Mystic: A Companion for Spiritual Explorers by Mary Hayes Grieco

Filled with timeless insights and poignant personal stories, The New Kitchen Mystic offers healing words of wisdom about enlightenment, fulfillment, and hope.Written in the tradition of Rachel Naomi Remen’s Kitchen Table Wisdom and Ann Morrow Lindbergh’s Gifts from the Sea, The New Kitchen Mystic is the perfect companion for anyone on a journey of self-healing, personal illumination, or purposeful world service.

Drawing from real life stories, this instructional collection of essays is part philosophy, part how-to, and part storytelling. You’ll learn how to engage spiritually and cultivate love, peace, and creativity. You’ll also learn that anything and everything we do in our daily lives can become a spiritual practice.

A perennial, inspirational guide for hope and healing, The New Kitchen Mystic is the perfect companion book to Grieco’s previous work, Unconditional Forgiveness. Whether it’s a gift or for you or someone you love, The New Kitchen Mystic is sure to be a beloved classic for any spiritual seeker.

Mary Hayes Grieco has taught her powerful method of forgiveness in a wide variety of venues since 1990. With her background in psychology, and her ten years of intensive personal training with Dr. Edith Stauffer PhD, Mary has refined her method of forgiveness, as well as the way it is taught in workshops, making this life-changing process accessible to everyone. This consistently effective program has transformed thousands of lives.

Mary has offered workshops in the United States, Ireland, and Germany, where she demonstrates the process of forgiveness to a network of 150 therapists who work with veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. She spoke at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in 2005 and is currently scheduled to present her forgiveness work in Kuwait in March, 2012.

Mary has served on staff at the Hazelden Treatment Center for over sixteen years, and at The University of St. Thomas’ Management Center. She is the director and lead trainer of The Midwest Institute for Forgiveness Training, providing programs for the general public, for mental health professionals, for future trainers of this work, and serious students of self mastery.

Click here to listen to Mary’s The New Kitchen Mystic.

The Rebirth of the Hero: Mythology as a Guide to Spiritual Transformation ~ Kieron Le Grice

The portrayal of the hero in classical myths and modern films continues to exert a compelling influence on the collective imagination, entertaining and inspiring audiences the world over. On a deeper level, the myth of the hero’s adventure is recognized as a fundamental pattern of human experience itself, a symbolic expression of the individual’s struggle for greater consciousness, psychological wholeness, and spiritual realization.

In The Rebirth of the Hero, Keiron Le Grice draws on the ideas and life experiences of C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Friedrich Nietzsche to explore the spiritual journey of the modern self, from existential crisis and the “awakening of the self” to the dramatic encounter with the underworld of the psyche and the arduous labor of spiritual transformation. In a work of wide-ranging scope and penetrating insight, Le Grice analyzes scenes from a number of popular films—Jason and the Argonauts, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Pan’s Labyrinth, and more—to illuminate the themes and stages of psychospiritual rebirth and individuation, helping to make the deepest of transformative experiences more readily accessible and intelligible to us all.

Drawing interchangeably on classical Greek myths, Christianity, alchemy, Romanticism, and depth psychology, the author also relates the individual’s personal journey of transformation to the relationship in Western civilization between spirit and nature, reason and instinct, and masculine and feminine. In so doing, The Rebirth of the Hero demonstrates the critical significance of the archetypal pattern of the hero not only for the individual, but also for cultural renewal and the wider spiritual transformation of our time.

Keiron Le Grice, Ph.D., is a guest lecturer in Jungian and Archetypal Studies at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, and adjunct faculty in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the author of The Archetypal Cosmos and Discovering Eris, and the founding editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology. Keiron was educated at the University of Leeds (B.A. honors Philosophy and Psychology) and the California Institute of Integral Studies (M.A. and Ph.D. Philosophy and Religion). In 2006, he was awarded the inaugural Joseph Campbell Research Grant from the Opus Archives at Pacifica Graduate Institute (in association with the Joseph Campbell Foundation) for furthering the work of Campbell, C. G. Jung, and James Hillman. Keiron currently lives in Wales with his wife and son.

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The Only Thing That Matters by Neale Donald Walsch

The interesting thought that ’98% of the world’s people are spending 98% of their time on things that don’t matter’ opens the latest book from seven-time New York Times bestselling author Neale Donald Walsch, who says with gentleness that this is the reason so many lives are filled with sadness and turmoil, and that the world itself seems continually on the brink of calamity.

This circumstance, Walsch says, is nobody’s fault. We simply haven’t been told or taught what does matter – or, if that question has been answered for us, the answers we’ve been given have not been accurate.

Yet now, the author declares, the human race is receiving an invitation from Life Itself, in the form of a palpable energy shift in 2012 and beyond, to address the question directly – and people everywhere can feel it. Some sense this shift much in the way they can sense, in the sleepy hours of the morning, that it is time to wake up. Others experience frustration at how things are going right now, but they also feel a muted excitement stirring deep within, a restless readiness to respond to a soft but persistent inner voice that has lately been saying: it doesn’t have to be this way.

Walsch says that this inner voice is correct. One’s life does not have to be a series of worrisome and challenging crises involving finances or relationship or health or family, and neither does the world at large have to be a container of constant calamity surrounding its governance and ecology and culture. In his latest book, The Only Thing That Matters, he offers a formula, elegant in its simplicity, that will immediately uplift the life of anyone who embraces it – and that could change the World Entire.

In addition to authoring the renowned “With God” series, Neale Donald Walsch has published 12 other works, as well as a number of video and audio programs. Available throughout the world, each of the Conversations With God books has made the New York Times Bestseller list, Conversations with God-Book 1 occupying that list for over two and half years.

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The Only Thing That Matters by Neale Donald Walsch

Something very unusual is occurring on this planet right now. You have no doubt noticed it. It may be producing a more than normal amount of challenge and disjointedness in your life, and perhaps even some major upheavals. You are probably noticing it in the lives of others as well.

For a while you may have thought that this was all just your mind playing tricks on you; that things were not really happening any differently, and that you’re just a little tired, a little overcommitted, a little oversensitive.

But now, as each day presents itself with obstacles mounting and challenges increasing and more and more personal issues coming up to be faced and healed, it is apparent that all of this is not an illusion, not an exaggeration. So you may be asking, “Why is all this happening? What am I doing wrong?”

And here’s the answer . . .

You’re doing nothing wrong.

AND . . . there is something very unusual going on right now in your life, and all over the planet.

Book 2 in the Conversations with Humanity Series

Listen here to an audio interview.

In his latest book release, The Only Thing that Matters,Neale Donald Walsch shares a startling message: “98% of the world’s people are spending 98% of their time on things that don’t matter.”

Personal happiness seems mysteriously and frustratingly elusive. Even when people achieve it, they can’t hold onto it. And according to Walsch, that’s the surest sign something’s amiss. In this interview about his new book, Walsch shares concrete tools and offers questions that he invites, and actually dares, people to ask themselves throughout their day. Questions like, “What does what I am doing right now have to do with the agenda of my soul?”

He says such questions can redirect one’s life energies in such a way that life itself is changed forever for the better—and the World also begins to change. Don’t miss it.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE DEAD: A Former Atheist Interviews the Source of Infinite Being ~ Sondra Sneed

“As for the skeptic or fundamentalist, I have no interest in the exhaustive attempt to prove that I talk to the creator of the universe, or even that this great being talks to me. I leave that up to my reader to decide. To believe or not believe that I have had a discussion with the supreme nature we call God does not affect the content of this book.”

What to Do When You’re Dead is a fascinating dialogue between the creator of the universe and a 46-year-old woman who, in her life, has been to hell and back. Imagine finding out that you may hold the secret to man’s survival. Imagine also learning for the first time why you were born and that your work on earth is already recorded in the book of life. It happened to Sondra Sneed, and you get a front row seat to the life of a reluctant messenger bringing forth a message that could save humankind . . . if humans are willing to listen.

What you are about to read will change the way you think about your life. You will remember that you are a process of God. And when you discover what you are, God discovers you. You will find in this book the very reason you were born, and why it is so important to find your place on that path. This is not a touchy-feel-good spiritual guide as much as it is an awakening with a warning about man’s self destruction. The warning comes with a unique responsibility however, and that is to learn why death is not real, and that our experience of crossing over to the other side is directly linked to our state of mind while on earth before passing. Darkness must be overcome, or the soul will remain trapped in the past and attached to things of the world, rather than following spirit to the light of God.

Available Soon

Sondra Sneed is a science and technology writer for industry, and a former atheist with a secret. All the years she spent interviewing scientists and engineers, translating their high-minded knowledge for lay persons, she has also been interviewing the highest mind, the Creator of the Universe. She is also the author of two as yet unpublished books, The Real Story of the Garden of Eden, and The Meaning of Life’s Design
My books came today

Intro: WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE DEAD, upcoming book by Sondra Sneed

To introduce her recently completed manuscript, WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE DEAD, this video essay describes branching, inter-connected networks as being the indications of life, and they work to facilitate flow. This manuscript was produced, she says, when Sneed sat down to write a book “for the rest of the world,” after seven years “in secret communion with God.” She comes forward with “great reluctance” because, she says, these messages have evolved from profound, spiritual teachings to all out warnings about the future of humankind. These warnings are that human beings are “on a path of self-destruction and may not make it past the next two generations.”

In the course of her years as a godscribe, Sneed noticed a pattern that repeats itself throughout nature. She says this pattern reveals nature as a creative being and becoming. She also says that while some of us can think of this essence as God, it is just as easily modeled through the lens of evolution by way of observing its processes. She believes these processes have meaning and indicate consciousness, but not the way humans think of cognition.

ON VIABILITY

“In this pattern there are mechanisms that uncover a process of life creating life,” she says. Sneed also says it is within this life-creating-life cycle that we have disrupted an ancient, bifurcating pattern, a replication of nature’s systems. As such we are now killing off our future as a viable species on the planet. This pattern, dubbed in 1996 as the constructal law of physics, is formed by the distribution of supplicating nutrients. “These nutrients are a product of the ‘will of being’ constructing a never-ending pathway toward the nature of becoming,” she says.
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Her next video will reveal disturbing news about the conditions facing humankind today that may result in self-destruction in less than a few generations.
Are Humans Wiping Themselves Off the Planet?

Here are the issues facing humankind today, according to God and Science:

• We are choking ourselves off from our resources and the source of all life;
• We are depleting the oxygen levels that are essential for sustaining human life;
• We are making a big mistake to think fossil fuels are causing the planet to heat-up, what’s causing this is the destruction of the biosphere, and the elimination of trees that enable water cycles
• We are also poisoning our own food supply

Contemporary Spirituality for an Evolving World: A Handbook for Conscious Evolution – From Personal to Global Tranformation By Nicolya Christi

A practical guide to conscious evolution for personal, spiritual, and global transformation

• Provides spiritual practices to manifest a meaningful connection between Self and God/Source/Creator and psychological exercises to heal the shadow self

• Offers an in-depth overview of religion and spirituality, both the old paradigm and the evolving new one

• Includes the first fully written account of the First Nations Peoples’ oral wisdom teachings on the 7 Dark, 7 Light, and 7 Rainbow Arrows for evolving consciousness

We are living in an unprecedented time of change, a new epoch with a new consciousness. We have reached Zero Point in our personal and collective consciousness and are now in a phase of accelerated conscious evolution and manifestation of personal and collective vision. As the current political, economic, and social systems begin to collapse, people are instinctively and intuitively reevaluating their lives and asking what has real meaning and value and what brings them true peace and happiness. Humanity is now poised to establish a unified, co-creative new world that reflects the evolved consciousness of awakened hearts and minds, of collaboration, and of peace.

Presenting a guide for these auspicious times, Nicolya Christi offers psychological and spiritual tools to accelerate conscious and global evolution and initiate a New Consciousness for the post–December 21st, 2012, epoch. She gives an in-depth overview of religion and spirituality, both the old paradigm and the evolving new one, and explains how all trauma results from “empathic disconnection,” which hinders our spiritual growth. She provides spiritual practices to manifest a meaningful connection between Self and God/Source/Creator as well as psychological exercises to heal and integrate the shadow self and dissolve psychological wounds. She offers the first fully written account of the First Nations Peoples’ oral wisdom teachings on the 7 Dark, 7 Light, and 7 Rainbow Arrows for evolving consciousness. She also writes in depth about the evolution of relationship and aspiring to a higher love and sexuality.

Detailing several maps and models for conscious and global evolution, this handbook inspires each of us toward a consciously evolving spirituality and a true and authentic relationship with God/Source/Creator.

Related links/

Soul to Soul with Panache Desai – Super Soul Sunday – Oprah Winfrey Network

Published on Feb 24, 2013
It’s an aha! moment a minute in this round of Soul to Soul! Find out spiritual teacher Panache Desai’s definition of God, what prayer means to him and why he says we all have a little piece of Harry Potter inside of us.

Q&A with Panache Desai: How to Care for an Elderly Parent and Stay Present – Super Soul Sunday – OWN

Janet from Chicago is caring for her mother, who is in the final days of her life. Janet wants to know how to balance her grief with staying open to the lessons this time can teach her. Watch as spiritual teacher Panache Desai shares why staying present in times like these is so important.

Published on Feb 24, 2013

Otilia from California would like a job with more personal fulfillment and wants to know if jobs are part of our spiritual purpose in life. It’s a question spiritual teacher Panache Desai is often asked. Watch as he explains how our jobs are a great excuse to love other people but that personal fulfillment comes from within.