Faith
Grow Your Christian Faith
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The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Silence in the face of evil is evil itself… Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act - Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
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Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the Bible and his Spiritual Awakening
What’s the point of living? The story of Robinson Crusoe is profound and based upon the true story of a Scot, Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned for years on a Pacific Island in 1704.
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The Brothers Karamazov and the Faith of Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov is a complex theological drama, diving into questions of faith, doubt, justice, revenge, repentance and forgiveness, all set in the mystery of an unsolved murder.
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Can God speak through sand?
The Bible compares our lives to grains of sand; a temporary reprieve from the call to eternity. What will you achieve with your brief life for Christ? Slava Borecki, a Ukrainian artist, has moulded 150 tonnes of sand into a sculpture with an eternal message of peace.
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Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, the Brontë Sisters, and their Faith in the Bible and Christianity
Wuthering Heights is a tragic love story between Heathcliff and his childhood love Cathy, set on the ghostly Yorkshire Moors, amid a brooding culture of revenge. Emily Brontë concludes Heathcliff’s problems stem from his refusal to live by Christian values.
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The Bible, Art and J.M.W. Turner – The Painter of Light
As a child, Turner was sent to a Methodist school in Margate, where he formed a love of Scripture and came to believe in God as the Creator. For Turner, catching a sunset on canvas was like opening one’s eyes to the Divine.
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L.S. Lowry, Faith and Art
Lowry observed those with ragged clothes, worn shoes and dirty labouring faces. He saw the cruelty, laughter, darkness and beauty in working class lives. He painted the story of those forgotten by society: the mill workers, terraced streets and industrial towns. Raised in a Christian household, he went to Sunday School...
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Christianity, the Bible & Parliament: The Palace of Westminster
‘Except the Lord build the House, they labour in vain that build it.’ These words in Latin from Psalm 127:1 are inscribed in the stone floor of the Central Lobby, at the very heart of Britain’s Parliament. As part of my research for my books, I undertook an exploration of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. I found the Palace of Westminster to be full of Christian symbols and I will share a small part of the indagation. It was on this site the death knell for the slave trade was served and laws to protect working people and produce democracy were passed. The modern Palace of Westminster is…
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Post-Impressionism: Christian Belief and Art Explored
“Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31) We live in an unrelenting world of pressure; our calendars are full, schedules are overloaded and stress levels reach new highs. In our busy lives, we can forget to chart something important to God – come aside and rest. Be at peace, be still! We must not allow ourselves to become indefinitely busy, that we cannot hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.
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The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it” – Brother Lawrence You can feel God in the kitchen. You can sense the Lord at work. You can know the presence of Jesus in menial chores. This was the message of Brother Lawrence, a peasant soldier who became a monk in seventeenth century France. Through patience, Lawrence learnt to still his mind and focus on God’s presence in all his dealings. He struggled at first with tedious chores in the monastery; travelling into the village for goods,…
