Delivering a faith-filled and solidly principled message to fellow Christians, author Anne A. Odion makes an impressive debut with her recently published, Treasures in Heaven, in which she divulges her heart - felt, spiritually dedicated point of view.
Author Odion is passionate about sharing her message of Gods existence and believes in being an active Christian, and the building of “Treasures” for life in heaven. She refers to bible passage Matthew 6:19 -21, which generally relates to building a stronger spiritual connection with God by living a life that is enhanced by spiritual growth rather than one enhanced by accumulated material items, thus building treasures for one 's heavenly life.
Comprised of ten well thought out and adeptly written chapters, each chapter encompasses a particular aspect of Christian belief that will lead to building a better spiritual life and relationship with God. Although there is something to be learned by Christians in each chapter, as a spiritual person, I personally found Chapter 3 - City of God, to be particularly intriguing and thought provoking. In this chapter, she discusses her dream of heaven in limpid detail. All of us, no matter what religion or spirituality you embrace, want to know if a “life” exists after we die and this chapter embodies that topic.
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Author Odion shares an ardent, and multi-faceted perspective. Covering varied aspects of the Christian faith she expounds on topics like: proof of God 's existence, reconciling to God, God 's plan for his believers and the very real existence of heaven of which, she claims to have irrefutable proof provided through an astounding spiritual experience in which she was shown by
Each of who is seeking new life shed on them. Whether they are searching Christ or not, they are undoubtedly searching for and absence or void in their lives to be filled. Thus sets the plot for this work that guides readers on a journey to what it means to tell the truth and
In the novel The Lovely Bones written by Alice Sebold, 14 year old Susie Salmon is brutally raped and murdered by her next door neighbor, Mr Harvey. In heaven, Susie can see the people she loved struggling with not knowing the answers to what had happened to her, but she could also see her killer interacting with the ones she loved. While her family deals with their grief, Susie deals with new and hard decisions; Her experience with exile is both alienating and enriching but creates something so much bigger towards the end. Susie’s main desire in her heaven was to grow up. She watched her killer walk the streets free and her family slowly fall apart.
How do you allow God to take control of your life and entrust that everything will be okay? This was the type of question author Anne Lamott (2006) baffled with in these next few chapters. Lamott (2006) shares her personal life story of entrusting God in her book Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. This paper will provide a summary of chapters two thru four, combined with a personal reflection, and conclude with a few desired questions that ideally could be answered by Lamott.
However during her illness, a young African boy gives her a small box for her soul for when she dies. He tells her to imagine a safe place for her soul to go to so that when she dies, she will
Doña Margarita says that once everyone “recognize we are all the children of God,” (471) it will lead to happiness because she believed that God is the almighty figure that has the ability to enlighten the world. In conclusion, Villaseñor’s book is filled with elements regarding family, love, and determination. Furthermore, Villaseñor uses religion to connect these elements to religious faith. The lack of books using religious connections makes this book unique.
Many may believe that reading a book about religion would be challenging to accomplish for someone who is not religious. But those people have never read Anne Lamott’s, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. If one were to ask non-religious college students to read a book by a random author about spirituality and “Finding God” through conversion, they would most likely roll their eyes and bear through it. In Lamott’s series of essays, one does not have to “suffer through the readings” because her writing style is one of a kind. She has strategically chosen every word because she is aware of how important her spiritual experiences are to so many people, religious or not.
Basic Christianity is a crucial foundation that must be deeply entrenched within the hearts and minds of believers. The essential and basic principles aid every Christian by showing and teaching them how great God’s love is for us. In John Stott’s Book, “Basic Christianity,” he reveals insight on what it is to be a Christian. He also dispels many erroneous teachings that have been brought into the Christian community. Stott states in the beginning of his book that many have held the assumption that God sits on His throne, aloof, distant, and unconcerned for our needs and problems (Stott, pg. 17).
McDowell begins the book with an anecdote of his life; a familiar story of the sceptical university Agnostic, ready to fire back a retort at the slightest mention of God, Christianity, and anything (or anyone) within. He recounted the all too common feeling of a meaningless life, the seemingly innate itch of human existence, and how it brought him to various places in his life—until he stumbled upon a particular group of people and was changed forever. This introduction, though short, is crucial to understand, for it sets the stage for the remainder of the book. It tells not only the story of a former non-believer, but the story of everyone—it presents us the life of Jesus Christ, not as a gentle sermon or a feel-good retelling, but as an assertive, rational reply to the accusation: ‘Christianity is a myth, and so is your God.’
But God loved his people so much that his Son, Jesus Christ came to earth to make them right with God by dying on the cross to wash away all of their sins, and through God’s grace, they received salvation and restored their heart relationship with God. In this paper, I will discuss within the context of the Christian worldview who God is, what
A common questioning of a higher power beyond the physical realm lingers in society: Who and what is God?. However, many of these theological questions cannot be answered until we, of course, die. Due to human’s innate curiosity to understand the forces beyond their own, especially in terms of religion, humans find their own reasons to believe in God in the process of discovery. Religion is a sense of belief and worship to praise a higher power (God), and it provides a guide for human beings to have the opportunity to come together and live as one image of God’s children. “Imagine There’s No Heaven” is an article in which Salman Rushdie, the author, presents an atheistic view where religion is pointless, and a higher being is non-existent.
There are fundamental questions that are posed in everyone’s life. The most asked, as well as the most daunting one is perhaps what happens when we die, and what is heaven like? Billy Collins in his poem “Question About Angels”, attempts to pose and answer such questions. As the poem is a statement on the outlook of how religion in interpreted, and how angels are perceived through the use of repetition, symbolism, and irony. Billy Collins attempts to show the reader a sense of mystery and unfamiliarity that leads to chaos when he is trying to describe how angels are perceived.
Unlike Jane, Helen endures the hardships in her life without complaint because she believes God will reward her by accepting her into heaven. While she sits on her deathbed, she says, “I am very happy, Jane; and when you hear that I am dead, you must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about. We all must die one day, and the illness which is removing me is not painful; it is gentle and gradual: my mind is at rest … By dying young, I shall escape great sufferings” (Brontë 93). Despite not having lived a full life, Helen welcomes death.
This is knowledge which grants eternal happiness and meaning cannot be philosophized by the castaway; it must arrive in the form of news, which is the Absolute Paradox. By faith, this news must be heard and heeded. The Christian faith is neither knowledge nor science nor a “miraculous favor which allows one to… believe the impossible” (146). Faith is a form of communication from God, which is delivered by an apostle whose message, while transcendental and paradoxical, is believable and necessary. Jesus, who comes to bring news across the seas does so with authority and steadfastness to the point of martyrdom.
Both Bradstreet and Edwards are puritan writers, they are both believe in a higher more powerful God. In their writings “Upon the Burning of Our House”, by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, by Jonathan Edwards they both talk about the higher being of God. They both are powerful writers and have a way of getting their points across, but they do it differently. They are both great writers and even though they have different religious views and different writing styles both of their poems, “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, have the same goal of converting people.
These experiences are concerned with three topics. 1) “Similarly between religious experiences and how do they support the existence of God? 2) What philosophical problems are there that these experiences can give us knowledge about God? 3) Is there alternative explanation for experience?” William James described religious experiences as the heart of every religion.