Book Summary: To God Be The Glory

In chapter seven, “The Land That God Forgot,” the author Wes Moore talks about different paths and how it influences the lives of both Weses. He clearly provided an example of a different course the other Wes took and how this worked out for him. The other Wes found Cheryl, his third and fourth children’s mother, unconscious on the couch from a drug overdose. He discovers that she has been addicted to drugs and was even using drugs during her pregnancy.

Pastored in 1952 by Alice Lavern Riles, known as Mother Sheppard, The Church of Columbus remains today within the city of Columbus, Georgia. From a tiny building on 49th Street, to the over a million-dollar facility today, The Church of Columbus has gone through its share of change. Growing up, the church was called the First United Pentecostal Church, but once the church moved locations, Pastor renamed it The Church of Columbus. Located on 2001 Double Churches Road, there lies my second home, with its grand 36,000 square feet structure. Growing up, I was always at the church, whether it was for practice, or just to play sports such as volleyball and football with my lifelong friends that I had made throughout my attendance at the church. According the church’s website, “the church has grown from a Sunday morning attendance of sixty-one in 1985, to a consistent attendance of over 400 in 2013” (The Church of Columbus). The church’s motto is “Loving all to Christ”. The motto refers to the church’s ultimate goal of reaching the 290,000 souls of the Columbus, Phenix City, Fort Benning area (The Church of Columbus). A church member, Lisa Gail Stringer-Johnson described the church; “The first thing you feel when you walk through the doors is an outpouring of Love and God’s presence.” I am extremely grateful that I have such a tremendous place to call my second home.

Award-winning journalist, Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ to retrace and enlarge his journey toward becoming a Christian. Strobel once atheist, and now Christian, shares how he began to look upon the Bible and God. As an atheist, Strobel lived the life of selfishness and only worried to please himself. When his wife began to go to church he wasn’t very pleased until after he saw the positive and attractive change in her. This is the start of his curiosity and investigation about Christianity. He wanted to understand what changed her like this. He wanted to relate with his wife so he decided to study about this and attend church services with her. Strobel began his journey and interviewed thirteen leading scholars who defended their views concerning the historical reliability of the New Testament. Strobel splits the case for Christ into three basic sections: Examining the Record, Analyzing Jesus, and Researching the Resurrection.

Book 3 of Mere Christianity contains 12 separate chapters, which has far too great a scope to address properly here, so a glimpse will have to suffice. In the first, Lewis examines three components of morality; the relations between men, the interior moral mechanics of a man, and the relationship between a man and the God who made him. Lewis makes the case that, since we are destined to live forever in one state or another, it is desperately important that we pay attention to the sort of Being we are becoming. Lewis points out that most of humanity can agree that keeping relations between men running smoothly are important, but varying world views and religions-or lack of religion, have produced some disagreements on the necessity of keeping one’s own ship in order, as it were, and it completely breaks down when the relationship between a man and his Maker are addressed, as there is virtually no agreement there.

Award-winning journalist, Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ to retrace and expand his journey toward becoming a Christian. Strobel once declared atheist, and now Christian, shares how he began to look upon the Bible and God. As an atheist, Strobel lived the life of selfishness and only worried to please himself. When his wife began to go to church he wasn’t very pleased until after he saw the positive and attractive change in her. This is the start of his curiosity and investigation about Christianity. To relate with his wife he decided to study about this and attend church services with her. Strobel interviewed thirteen leading scholars who defended their views concerning the historical reliability of the New Testament.

We have now come to the fourth and final book of Mere Christianity. In this book, the author takes us to the place in our Christian growth where we begin to rely more heavily on the power of God and less on ourselves to become the being that God originally intended for us to be — a son of God. He begins with an explanation of the difference between “making” and “begetting.”

Often times we are at a loss for words when it comes to talking about the person of the Holy Spirit. Beth Felker Jones in her work entitled “God the Spirit” serves as an introduction to the study of the Holy Spirit in a distinctly Wesleyan and Ecumenical Perspective. Jones is working against the notion that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is often the most neglected of all Christian teachings (1). She recognizes her experience within the Wesleyan tradition as one that shapes her pneumatology and this book. She asserts that one of Wesleyan Christianity’s special gifts is it’s “leaning against any tendency to neglect the Spirit” (4). Even with this framework she aims to place the Wesleyan perspective in a larger ecumenical milieu that shows the continuity of a Wesleyan pneumatology with the Tradition of the Church. Overall, her approach is very accessible, as she assumes very little and writes in such a way that allows her to cover large dogmatic topics clearly and concisely. By merit of simply being an introduction only style book, there is the risk of glossing over topics and not providing enough in depth discussion to fully understand and comprehend the doctrine discussed. A reader should feel confident that Jones has indeed provided us with a solid introduction to Wesleyan pneumatology that has the ability to bear fruit and initiate growth in the life of the believer.

Chrisleine Temple is an eighteen-year-old student at Williams College from Sierra Leone. Before coming to Williamstown, she participated in Pentecostal services with her family every Sunday morning “unless on her death bed” and attended a Jesuit preparatory school. Asked about the presence of a God in her life, she told this story:

The message of my work is to try and highlight the importance of showing how a person’s faith can have a positive and life-changing impact on their lives. I have done this by looking into the lives of two early Christian missionaries and portray how they would 've felt about their journeys, who they met and what they were teaching others. In doing so, I try to portray, to the best of my ability and knowledge, the apostle 's thoughts and just how strong their conviction and faith in God was.

Other marks such as a scar or tattoo may have some meaning behind it such as what the person had experienced or endured.

As a child Mary’s mother, Hazel was a chartered member of “Beulah Seventh Day Adventist Church” (currently City Temple SDA Church). This is where Mary gained she introduction and devotion for Christ and the Adventist Faith. Attended Sabbath School, prayer meetings, Friday evening vespers and church school along with her older brother, Marvin was a foundation of life; Church was family and family was church. With her mother an active matron within the church, singing in the choir and serving in the Dorcas Society, tagging along to these activities quickly ignited in her a desire to sing and serve. A recognized desire for Family, church, friends, singing, and service that would remain

In this reflective narrative piece, Brooke Logan recounts her mission trip to Cuba. Some use of vivid language was evident in the piece for example, when Brooke was talking about how the roads were made of huge rocks instead of just saying rocks. This could have been improved upon by saying that the rocks were ginormous boulders or something along those lines. She did include at least one form of figurative language by saying that the “teams grew like weeds”. The use of the simile really shows how fast the teams were growing. The main theme of this paper is that even in the hard times, you can make it through with God. Brooke does an amazing job of getting that point across by mentioning several times that she was on a mission trip and the

In the early 1930’s, Mrs. Tillery was born on a small farm located in the rural area of the Alabama town of Troy. She is now in her early eighties and a resident of Noble Manor Troy, AL. Mrs. Tillery is the wife of the late Mr. Tillery and mother of one (son). She has led an eventful life while traveling with her husband during his career, being a mother, and perfecting her relationship with Christ. Our interview session was conducted on the topics of the social, political, and technological changes that she has undergrown within the many decades of her life.

Our goal is to help out in the freedom school in Mount Zion Methodist Church in Longdale. With a lot of courage and inspiration, I couldn’t wait. However, when I reached the church, I entered a comprehensive state of shock; I couldn’t believe my eyes. The freedom school was burned down. As a devoted Christian, I couldn’t believe that someone would burn down a church, the place of God! I stood there

Growing up in a tight box that I always had to try to fit into, I never knew any different. The expectations, the standards, the cruel words and the harsh stares. Being an outcast amongst others or being verbally battered for reasons I could never fully understand. These were all aspects that were prevalent in my life because I was the Pastor’s daughter, and they were problems I had always viewed as a normality.