Should conservatives be clamoring for a Christie candidacy? - Ed Morissey

Tonight, Chris Christie will take the podium at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and give a speech on leadership, an event that some Republicans hope will turn into the launch of a bid for the GOP presidential nomination.  With Rick Perry taking a beating from the Right and Mitt Romney gamely holding onto his co-frontrunner status, some conservatives see Christie as a potential white-knight candidate.  New York Magazine’s Dan Amira takes a look at Christie’s record — and wonders whether Christie would solve any of the problems in the race, or compound them:

Did you hear the news? Chris Christie is going to save the Republicans from Rick Perry, who was supposed to save them from Mitt Romney but turned out to be a completely inept debater and a traitor on issues like illegal immigration and injecting little girls with mental retardation. Now, granted, Christie has said a hundred times that he isn’t ready to run for president and won’t do it. He’s even threatened to kill himself to show how serious he is. But with Perry proving himself less than ideal, the never-satisfied GOP elite is once again pining for a conservative savior who can unite the party (or at least the anti-Romney faction of the party) and defeat President Obama. According to various reports, Christie is telling donors that, public refusals notwithstanding, he’s open to reconsidering.

But if conservatives think Christie is the answer to their every prayer, they may be making the same mistake they made with Perry — allowing themselves to become enamored with the idea of Christie, while overlooking who he actually is. Conservatives know the New Jersey governor is a straight-talker who slashes budgets and takes on the public unions and yells at people on YouTube. Which is all great, obviously. But on some issues, Republican primary voters would be in for a rude awakening.

Interestingly, the list of issues looks a lot like the same issues on which conservatives are hammering Perry.  For instance, on immigration, Christie has insisted that the US has to come up with “a clear path to citizenship.”  As Amira notes, we already have a clear path to citizenship for legal immigrants, so this sounds more like an amnesty approach — a conservative heresy that Perry hasn’t committed.  Christie has also called illegal immigration an “administrative manner” rather than a crime, and proved it as a US Attorney with an unusually thin record of prosecutions in this area, which made Lou Dobbs lament Christie’s record as “an utter embarrassment.”

How about gun rights, another bedrock conservative principle?  Even Democrats don’t argue for gun control any longer, but Christie made the case for gun control at the state level — and on Sean Hannity’s show, no less, in October 2009.  Perry has come out adamantly against changing energy policy to accommodate “climate change,” while Christie says he believes that humans are changing the climate and says “it’s time to defer to the experts.”  Rick Perry and Mitt Romney traded jabs over Romney’s arguable support for Race to the Top, but Christie called Obama “a great ally” in education and applied to join the Race to the Top program.

So what would happen if Christie jumped into the race?  Well, the debates would certainly get more entertaining.  All of those who have launched attacks on Perry would have a new front open to them.  Christie’s position would inevitably make Perry and Romney look more conservative by comparison.

In truth, governing means having to do a significant amount of horse trading in order to win on overall goals and directions.  Christie would be no different than Perry or Romney in having to defend his record — except that his record seems to be even more divergent from the two front runners, and more problematic for a base that seems dissatisfied with them over arguably smaller heterodoxies.  Christie is smart enough to know this, and I suspect that the only news we’ll hear from tonight’s speech on leadership is that Christie intends to apply those principles exclusively in the Garden State for the foreseeable future.

via Hot Air

What is God like? #2 - God is merciful

God is Merciful


   Do you remember "mercy." It was that game that mean kids on the playground would play where they would grab your hands and bend them back until you cried out "Mercy"! It was called "uncle" in the movie A Christmas Story. This picture is humorous, but it does point out a problem with our sense of understanding the concept of mercy. Mercy is a kindness toward someone who is totally guilty, wrong, or weak and unable to help themselves. Mercy is compassion and kindness towards those who are in dire need. In the Holman Dictionary of the Bible, mercy is described as, "an action taken by the strong towards the weak, the rich towards the poor, the insider towards the outsider, those who have towards those who have not."
   About the best picture of mercy that I can think of is when you have a broken tooth or some other such pain and you finally get to the doctor and he administers the thing that takes away your excruciating pain. I was once in a head-on collision and felt a great pain in my chest, which was a broken sternum. The EMT gave me a shot of this thing called morphine, and whoosh!, the pain was gone, for a little while anyway. Of course, there are greater pains than the mere physical ones. Many of us have experienced great rejection, grief, and loss in our lives. We have been in great need of mercy. Mercy comes to us in large and small doses. A college professor knows your real potential and allows you to re-take a test that you failed and would have ended your career hopes. A spouse forgives an offense and stays to make a life worth living for the both of you. Your boss stands behind you even though you lost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars on your last project, because he really believes in you. 
    Jesus painted a couple of beautiful pictures of mercy. The first was that of the Good Samaritan. You probably know the story by heart, right? Well, that might be a problem, so let's reset the story for a modern audience. A man is robbed, beaten and left for dead along the side of the road. A preacher comes by and passes along. Then a Peace Corps executive walks by and then crosses the street to avoid the mess, because he has a meeting to go to and can't be late. Then a lowly McDonald's employee comes by, and loads the poor man into the back of her twenty-five year old Toyota truck, and maxes-out her credit cards to pay his hospital bills. She risks her own security, being an illegal alien, to visit him daily in the hospital until she is sure he is well.
    The other picture of God's mercy is of the story of the Prodigal Son. You probably know that story, too, right? A young man goes off and squanders his share of the family inheritance on partying and a wild lifestyle, and finally comes crawling back for food and shelter. How many of us would be like his older brother, ready with the shaming I-told-you-so's? But this Father is waiting continually for his son to come to his senses and come home, and as soon as the boy shows up his father restores all of the trust and stature that he had in the beginning. Total restoration for a total disaster: that is mercy!  
    It is God's nature to be merciful. He covered Adam and Eve with clothing after they felt ashamed in the garden. He provided a lamb for the sacrifice for Abraham's son, Isaac. He protected Cain, who had committed the first murder in history, by placing a mark of protection upon him. After the slave woman Hagar was rejected, God opened up a stream of water for her and her son, Ishmael, and promised him a great inheritance. He watched over Jacob and Joseph as they wandered through many situations and prospered them. Even though the children of Israel had seen great miracles in Egypt, when they got to the mountain they made idols of gold, and God showed His mercy by sparing them and leading them to a promised land, by feeding them daily with manna, and by leading with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Psalm 145:8 states that, "The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy." He gives us what we don't deserve. A new and living way and even life eternal. Ephesians  2:4-7 says,  "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."  

Country Music Airs America's woes - BBC

It's known for tackling some of life's grittier issues, among them loss, poverty and nostalgia. But today's country music lyrics are turning to the effects of economic hardship.

Country music and hard times. A cliche perhaps, but try telling that to legions of fans across the United States, many of whom are on the frontlines of economic struggles, seeking solace in the music.

Fans like 53-year-old Jim Yocius, from Windsor, Connecticut.

"For the first time in my life, I feel very vulnerable," he says outside the Comcast Theatre in Hartford, before a concert by Country star Toby Keith.

Barbecue smoke drifts over serried ranks of pickup trucks as fans enjoy pre-concert tailgate parties.

"I feel like that older white male who did everything right, and now I feel like the next generation really wants me gone," he says.

The music helps him by, especially Ronnie Dunn's latest hit, Cost of Livin', which describes an unemployed man's painful search for any kind of work.

"It gives me a spiritual lift, bizarrely enough, to hear that song and just go 'All right, pick it up, shut up, suck up and get going again'."

Read the rest of this story and check out the video.

Detente?

Will there be detente between Karl Rove and Rick Perry?

What is God like? #1 - God's goodness and love

God is Good! - Love
    
So far we have really emphasized God's creative work as a major way to see into His character and nature. We've seen that as the One who created us, He has given special access and even a little bit of His own nature, His image, to us. This is a simple point but, that is good, isn't it? Since God made us, we see that He is good. His love is the fuel that fans the flame of that goodness. It is His very nature to be good and loving. Twice in the first epistle of John the statement "God is love" is used. What we learn from this deceptively simple phrase is that God does not love in actions when He is in a certain mood, but rather that love is the very set of His being. The original Greek word for this God kind of love is "agape,"(pronounced "ah-gah-pay"). It is a unique word in the New Testament, because it was not a commonly used word until the Christians began to use it exclusively of the love of God. It is the kind of love that is absolutely given freely and without condition. It is a commitment kind of love, not having to do with happenings, but with great compassion and giving forth of the one loving. Think Mother Theresa and not Santa Claus. The Old Testament Hebrews had a word for the God kind of love, too. It was "hesed." "Hesed" is the word God used of His own kind of commitment to His friends, those that had a special relationship with Him called a covenant. A covenant, according to Bible teacher Malcolm Smith, is "an agreement between two parties for life or for death." The word that came to describe God's love became known and has been translated as "covenant love." So if you have a love commitment agreement with an eternal being, you have a covenant that will never break down, and a friend who really will "never leave you nor forsake you(Deut. 4:31, Heb.13:5)." So if we put this all together we have an unconditionally loving, totally committed, eternal covenant partner and friend who will never ever leave us or forsake us. 

Obama In Winter - Jonah Goldberg

A gossip Web site reports that The New York Times is working on a story that the president is depressed. That’s unconfirmed. But if he isn’t depressed, I’d hope the self-proclaimed “paper of record” would investigate why on earth he’s not.

According to the standard calendar, autumn is fast approaching. According to the White House calendar, we’re finishing up our second “Recovery Summer.” But for the president, this is darkest winter.

When Obama unveiled his first stimulus, he promised it would lift 2 million people out of poverty. Instead, the Census Bureau announced this week that 2.6 million more people fell below the poverty line last year, pushing the number of poor people to the highest level in a half-century.

That stimulus was also intended to jump-start a new economy, fueled by high-paying clean energy jobs. The crown jewel of that multibillion-dollar effort was a solar power company called Solyndra, which not only closed its doors and fired its workers, but has exposed the White House as at best politically incompetent and ideologically blinkered.

Now, in fairness, the Department of Energy considers the bankrupt company a winner. “The project that we supported succeeded,” Damien LaVera, a Department of Energy spokesman, told the Times. “The facility was producing the product it said it would produce, and consumers were buying the product. The company struggled because the market has changed dramatically.”

That’s true. If Obama had been able to pass cap-and-trade as the market once foolishly expected, things might have been different. He wanted to make electricity rates “skyrocket,” which could have made Solyndra’s expensive products profitable. As it is, Solyndra was only marginally more legitimate an enterprise than Paul Newman’s bookie parlor in “The Sting.” At least Newman only stung one mobster. With this green con job, we’re all feeling the bite.

Indeed, Vice President Joe Biden was right when he said Solyndra is “exactly what the Recovery Act was all about.” For instance, The Washington Post reported this week that $38.6 billion in loans have netted a “few thousand” jobs rather than the 65,000 Obama promised. So if the program had “succeeded,” that would amount to nearly $600,000 per job in government-backed loans.

Then there’s the politics. Tuesday afternoon, even as polls remained open in congressional elections in New York and Nevada, high-level Democratic donors and strategists gathered on a conference call. A participant in the discussion told Politico that the mood was “awful.” “People feel betrayed, disappointed, furious, disgusted, hopeless,” he added.

That was before the election results came in. In Nevada, the Republican crushed a top-flight female Democratic candidate by 22 points. In New York, the seat that once belonged to Geraldine Ferraro, Chuck Schumer and Anthony Weiner went to Republican Bob Turner -- the first time it has gone Republican since 1923. A liberal strategist put a rosy spin on it: “The mine hasn’t collapsed, but the loss in New York is definitely a dead canary.”

In both races, the Democrats used their trump card: scaring seniors by telling them the GOP wants to take away their Medicare and Social Security. It didn’t work.

This came against a backdrop of abysmal poll numbers showing Obama’s approval falling with every constituency, including Democrats, Independents, Hispanics and African-Americans. That might be why congressional Democrats are openly balking at his must-pass stimulus do-over.

But, please. Don’t share any of this with AttackWatch.com, the third and newest operation set up by this president inviting good and decent Americans to hand over the names of critics who say mean things about the president.

It seems ominous -- and would have been denounced as Orwellian if George W. Bush had done anything of the sort. But the truth is, it’s sad. The aim, I’m sure, is to inspire liberals -- who now hate Obama’s enemies far more than they love Obama -- to get involved in his re-election.

In 2008, the “politics of hope” campaign trained volunteers to testify about how they “came to Obama” the way one talks of “coming to Jesus.” Now they ask supporters to help build a digital enemies list. Which they’ll do, of course. But not because they love him.

JonahsColumn@aol.com



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/obama_in_winter_xGE1fA0MUHOUdfHaABQCAP#ixzz1YExXAJBG

Does Education Influence Religious Beliefs?

Does Education Influence Religious Beliefs?

Obama: "If You Love Me, You've Got To Help Me Pass This Bill"

Obama: "If You Love Me, You've Got To Help Me Pass This Bill"

Oh, the slings and arrows of conditional love and and megalo-obama-mania...

Paul Krugman: We're In A Depression

Paul Krugman: We're In A Depression

The smartest guy on the planet in his own mind, Paul Krugman,

candidly says that we are in "kind of a depression."

The Devil's Delusion - Interview with David Berlinski on Uncommon Knowledge

A very interesting interview with author and and mathematician David Berlinski at Uncommon Knowledge.

Worldview Video from Summit Ministries

God Is Here and hasn't lost His Voice

Three basic arguments for God's existence


    When we approach the subject of arguing for the existence of God, we tread on familiar, hallowed ground. It was the Apostle Peter who said,  "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect(1Pet 3:15)." It is the responsibility of every believer to at least be familiar with a few good arguments for the existence of God. You don't need to be a professor or a paid teacher or pastor to be able to give that answer of the hope within you. And it does help to remember the last part of that verse I mentioned before, the part about being gentle and respectful. I am guilty in the past of winning an argument against someone instead of helping them with the answer to their needs. So with this in mind, let's look at the three classic arguments for God's existence.


The Cosmological Argument


    The first one is called the Cosmological argument, and it goes like this: The universe had a beginning, and therefore the universe must have had a Beginner. This one has had a lot of help in the last few years from the scientific community, particularly those who have studied the red shift effect in the cosmos, and the studies of the discovery of the Big Bang theory. Both of these point to a singularity that started off all of the things we call the universe. But of course, it is really a logical argument more than a scientific finding. But, if you look into the creation with this view in mind, you will find that the creation itself points to a single point of origin, which implies a single Originator, which is the Supernatural Power behind the universe. 


The Teleological Argument


    The second classic argument for the existence of God is really pretentiously called the Teleological argument. This word comes from the Greek word telos, which just means design. This is the argument that holds that the apparent design of the universe points to a Designer. The first letter of Paul in the Bible, the book of Romans, says, " For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.(Romans 1:20) If you were lost in the desert and suddenly found a perfectly good, working GPS unit sitting in the sand, you would not conclude that it sprang up from the rocks and cactus, rather you would look at the immense complexity of an instrument like a GPS device and conclude that a person had made this, and then be really thankful that you had found it. It is the same with the Creation itself. With all of the beauty and such awesome intricacy and detail there must a great Designer, an intelligent being behind it all.


The Moral Argument


    The final classic argument for the existence of God we are going to look at is called the Moral Argument. I briefly presented this argument in the section on worldview and truth. The Moral Argument states that every moral law has a moral law giver, and therefore every absolute law must have an Absolute Law Giver. This stance holds that behind the absolute, non-material realities and principles and laws of the universe, there is One that, in His own being encompasses Truth, with a capital "T."   


It's Called Apologetics


    The subject of defending the beliefs of the Christian world and life view is a subset of theology called apologetics. It is a huge subject matter, with many different belief systems within itself. I recommend taking a class or reading some material in apologetics as a worthy goal for the furtherance of your own mind and heart and life of faith. I also feel that there is a reason that Peter says to us to defend our faith with gentleness and respect. The danger of being an expert in apologetics is that you would forget the real reason for your intense pursuit of study and knowledge, which is that you be established in your own understanding and that you may help others be encouraged at whatever level or place of faith or understanding they may be in at the time. 
    These above arguments are positive arguments, because they affirmatively argue for the existence of a Supreme Being. Another often used approach is to affirmatively argue and then negatively argue against the particular view you are dealing with. Often in the negative argumentative approach you will deal in the area called presuppositions. We mentioned this also briefly in the section on worldviews. People are often blinded by or controlled by things they believe to be true which in fact are not so. Intellectual factors, cultural conditioning, and just plain old spiritual blindness are some of the factors that are major parts of this activity of uncovering false presuppositions.
       
Humility and the cumulative case


    I can't say enough about the need to be loving and humble when telling people about the failure of their long held beliefs, and the possibilities of a life lived in God's power, presence, favor and love. And just in case you would be tempted to be harsh with people, remember that first of all God was really, really patient with you, and that God is the one that promises to convince "the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment(John 16:8)." So it is God's job to do the convicting and convincing work, and not ours. You can be sure that God is always working. In John 5:17 Jesus says  “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” He is always reaching out to people who need to hear from Him clearly. 
    Most people have a unique path to God, and you have intersected with them on that path for a reason. It usually takes a few witnesses on the stand before the case is completely closed. You and I are only called to be witnesses in the case, and not the lawyer. God will do the convincing work. It is also important to know that the cumulative case will work much better than just one good argument. Be available to those seeking the truth and when you don't have an answer to their particular question, don't feel like you've failed somehow. Just offer to help them find the answer with them, and then follow through on your promise. Your interest in them and care for them will do just as much as any information you may help them find. 

Rick Perry Scares the Media & Democrats to Death - Jack Kelly

By Jack Kelly

GOP consultant Doug MacKinnon says that the editor of a major newspaper told him, "We plan to declare war on Rick Perry and do all in our power to crush him."
Mr. MacKinnon was outraged. "No pretense of integrity, professionalism or of unbiased news gathering," he wrote in Investors' Business Daily.

But I doubt he was surprised. This is what the "mainstream" media did to Sarah Palin in 2008, and what likely is in store for anyone Republicans nominate.
But liberals will go after the Texas governor with special venom because he is anti- intellectual, prays in public, takes the Constitution seriously and sometimes carries a handgun,Walter Shapiro wrote in The New Republic.
"It's almost as if Perry's political persona was constructed by bundling together all the fears and phantoms in the left-wing anxiety closet." he said.
Some East Coast Republicans share these concerns. Mr. Perry's "primary flaw appears to be a chesty, quick-draw machismo that might be all right for an angry base but wrong for an antsy country," wrote Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal.
"He does very well with the alternative reality right," snarked David Brooks, the "conservative" columnist for The New York Times.
They were peeved with Gov. Perry for saying it would be "almost treasonous" for Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to create more money out of thin air.
Ms. Noonan has said of President Barack Obama that "he rose with guts and gifts." Mr. Brooks has praised his "superior temperament" and his "perfectly creased pant." Because of their girlish crushes on the president, they are regarded by few conservatives as good judges of character.
But Commentary editor John Podhoretz, who is made of sterner stuff, also said "suggesting that Mr. Bernanke's easy money policy was tantamount to treason is the opposite of handling an issue soberly. It's hyperbolic blatherskite."
Maybe. But if liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is right (which is about as often as a stopped clock has the correct time), this "blatherskite" performed a valuable service. The Fed chairman foreswore a third round of "quantitative easing" because Gov. Perry intimidated him, Mr. Krugman wrote.
Mr. Perry's hyperbole was deliberate, thinks a former communications director for the Texas GOP.
"While what Perry said struck some as over the top, it focused all the GOP primary attention on him and pulled the media into covering him, immediately," Bryan Preston said.
Liberals often say Republicans are stupid, but they really believe it with regard to Gov. Perry. For liberals, credentials and holding fashionable opinions are more important markers of intelligence than knowledge or accomplishment.
"Liberals revere high SAT scores," Mr. Shapiro wrote.
Gov. Perry scorns their opinions, and he went to Texas A&M, not Harvard or Yale. So when a new book said his is "the brainiest political operation in America," liberals were shocked.
"No candidate has ever presided over a political operation so skeptical of basic campaign tools and so committed to using social-science methods to rigorously test them," former Boston Globe reporter Sasha Issenberg told The New York Times.
Washington political consultants cost too much and deliver too little, Mr. Perry thinks. That's why some establishment Republicans oppose him, Mr. MacKinnon said. "For a few in the GOP consultant class, they'll gladly see Perry lose in November just to ensure they are not shut out of a Republican White House."
Sarah Palin in 2008 was unprepared for the viciousness of the media onslaught, and stumbled in her interview with Katie Couric (though not so badly as the way CBS edited the interview made it seem.)
Ms. Palin was a virtual unknown when John McCain selected her as his running mate, so she was easy to smear. Mr. Perry's been governor of the second-largest state for more than a decade, so liberals can't credibly say he's unprepared. And I doubt the president's supporters want to call attention to how his record of job creation compares to Mr. Perry's.
So expect lots of name calling. That may not work either. The "Texas cowboy" frightens Eastern liberals, but other Americans may find Gov. Perry's decisiveness a refreshing change from the wimp in the White House who's been described -- cruelly but accurately -- by New Hampshire's Manchester Union Leader as "the Last Responder."

Page Printed from: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/05/media_dems_fear_perry_so_they_smear_him_111206.html at September 05, 2011 - 07:05:55 PM PDT

Qaddafi wonders...What would Hitler do?

Perry's Record v/s Obama's Record on the economy...

God's attributes and acts prove that He can be trusted #5 - God Is A Redeemer

God is a Redeemer


    When I was a kid I would hunt around my neighborhood for bottles and then take them to my local market. I remember it was called the "Bissonet Superette," on Bissonet street in Houston, Texas. I would take my bottles and get money for them and then buy a nice, cold Dr. Pepper to enjoy on those hot, humid, dog days of the Texas summers. My goal was to enjoy a cool drink, but I was also learning about a very important thing about the nature of what it is to redeem something. These bottles were cast away, having served their purpose for the original buyer. 
    God redeems a lot of things, mostly people's lives. He leads them from darkness to light and takes the life that was deliberately wasted and causes all of the mess of it to be reversed and changed into something new. A bad habit that is changed into a virtue, an addiction transformed into grace and new life, a family, tribe, or even a nation changed by the influence of love and righteousness and justice; these are the works of a Redeeming God. 
    Just as I was searching out to find bottles to slake my thirst for Dr. Pepper and a reprieve from the Texas heat, God is searching for lives to redeem. He wants to buy us back from whatever ditch or side street we've been thrown into, and bring us back into alignment with God, ourselves, and others. Psalm 23, that song about God being a Shepherd and watching over us to lead us to green pastures and beside still waters is a great picture and metaphor for God's actions as a Redeemer. Many over the centuries have been quieted and comforted by the words of this most famous and familiar psalm of David. Jesus used this familiar word picture to name Himself and to describe His unique work on planet Earth, by saying " I am the Good Shepherd." And just as I was the "Shepherd  of the Bottles", redeeming and buying them back and giving them new life and purpose, God is in this business as well. His buyback plan is still in effect, and paying off for anyone who wants to participate in the program. He will take your messed up, mussed up, mucked up life in exchange for the perfect life of the Son of God. The Message version, a translation of the Bible in modern language by author Eugene Peterson translates the familiar passage John 3:16 this way: "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again." That's what it means to redeem, to put things right again.

25 Books Every Christian Should Read - by Renovare

1.  On the Incarnation  by St. Athanasius
2.  Confessions  by St. Augustine
3.  The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
4.  The Rule of St. Benedict  by St. Benedict
5.  The Divine Comedy  by Dante Alighieri
6.  The Cloud of Unknowing  by Anonymous
7.  Revelations of Divine Love (Showings)  by Julian of Norwich
8.  The Imitation of Christ  by Thomas à Kempis
9.  The Philokalia
10.  Institutes of the Christian Religion  by John Calvin
11.  The Interior Castle  by St. Teresa of Avila
12.  Dark Night of the Soul  by St. John of the Cross
13.  Pensées  by Blaise Pascal
14.  The Pilgrim's Progress  by John Bunyan
15.  The Practice of the Presence of God  by Brother Lawrence
16.  A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life  by William Law
17.  The Way of a Pilgrim  by Unknown Author
18.  The Brothers Karamazov  by Fyodor Dostoevsky
19.  Orthodoxy  by G. K. Chesterton
20.  The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins
21.  The Cost of Discipleship  by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
22.  A Testament of Devotion  by Thomas R. Kelly
23.  The Seven Storey Mountain  by Thomas Merton
24.  Mere Christianity  by C. S. Lewis
25.  The Return of the Prodigal Son  by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Many of these books are available for free on the web!

via: Renovare

Kingdom Quotes: Oswald Chambers - God's Purpose

Our Lord's teaching is always anti-self-realization. 

His purpose is not the development of a man; 

His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself,

 and the characteristic of the Son of God is self-expenditure. 

If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, 

but what He pours through us that counts. 

It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, 

but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us. 

Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, 

but only by what God pours through us, 

and we cannot measure that at all.

Oswald Chambers

First Person Camera's Eye View