Tired Of Apologizing For A Church I Dont Belong To

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Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don't Belong To

Author : Lillian Daniel
Publisher : FaithWords
ISBN 13 : 145559590X
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (555 download)

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Book Synopsis Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don't Belong To by : Lillian Daniel

Download or read book Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don't Belong To written by Lillian Daniel and published by FaithWords. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Lillian Daniel apologized to a total stranger for every bad thing that had ever been said or done in the name of Christianity, he was surprised that she was responsible for all that. "The Inquisition? Don't even raise it, I'm way ahead of you. I was mad about it before you even heard of it, that's how open-minded I am. Salem witch trials? I know! So embarrassing. Can I hang out with you anyway? You're too kind." "Religion is responsible for all the wars in history," they would say, and I'd respond, "You're so right. Don't forget imperialism, capitalism, and racism. Religion invented those problems too. You can tell that because religious people can be found at all their meetings." In this book, Daniel argues that it's time for Christians to stop apologizing and realize that how we talk about Christian community matters. With disarming candor laced with just the right amount of humor, Daniel urges open-minded Christians to explore ways to talk about their faith journeys that are reasonable, rigorous, and real. After the publication of the much talked about When Spiritual But Not Religious Is Not Enough: Seeing God In Surprising Places, Even the Church, Lillian Daniel heard from many SBNRs as well as practicing Christians. It was the Christians who scolded her for her forthright, unapologetic stand as one who believes that religious community matters. The Christians ranted that Christians, by definition, tend to be judgmental, condemning hypocrites, which is why people hate them. By saying religion matters, she was judging those who disagree, they said, proving the stereotype of Christians. Better to acknowledge all that's wrong with Christianity and its history, then apologize. In this book, Daniel shows why it matters how we talk about Christian community while urging open-minded Christians to learn better ways to talk about their faith.

When "Spiritual but Not Religious" Is Not Enough

Author : Lillian Daniel
Publisher : Jericho Books
ISBN 13 : 1455523100
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (555 download)

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Book Synopsis When "Spiritual but Not Religious" Is Not Enough by : Lillian Daniel

Download or read book When "Spiritual but Not Religious" Is Not Enough written by Lillian Daniel and published by Jericho Books. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The phrase "I'm spiritual but not religious" has become a cliché. It's easy to find God amid the convenience of self-styled spirituality -- but is it possible (and more worthwhile) to search for God through religion? Minister and celebrated author Lillian Daniel gives a new spin on church with stories of what a life of faith can really be: weird, wondrous, and well worth trying. From a rock-and-roller sexton to a BB gun-toting grandma, a church service attended by animals to a group of unlikely theologians at Sing Sing, Daniel shows us a portrait of church that is flawed, fallible -- and deeply faithful. With poignant reflections and sly wit, Daniel invites all of us to step out of ourselves, dare to become a community, and encounter a God greater than we could ever invent. Humorous and sincere, this is a book about people finding God in the most unexpected of places: prisons, airports, yoga classes, committee meetings, and, strangest of all, right there in church.

This Odd and Wondrous Calling

Author : Lillian Daniel
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1467434175
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (674 download)

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Book Synopsis This Odd and Wondrous Calling by : Lillian Daniel

Download or read book This Odd and Wondrous Calling written by Lillian Daniel and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2009-09-11 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Odd and Wondrous Calling offers something different from most books available on ministry. Two people still pastoring reflect honestly here on both the joys and the challenges of their vocation. / Anecdotal and extremely readable, the book covers a diversity of subjects revealing the incredible variety of a pastor’s day. The chapters move from comedy to pathos, story to theology, Scripture to contemporary culture. This Odd and Wondrous Calling is both serious and fun and is ideal for those who are considering the ministry or who want a better understanding of their own minister’s life.

Single, Gay, Christian

Author : Gregory Coles
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830890939
Total Pages : 132 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Single, Gay, Christian by : Gregory Coles

Download or read book Single, Gay, Christian written by Gregory Coles and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foreword INDIES Award Finalist IVP Readers' Choice Award In an age where neither society nor the church knows what to do with gay Christians, Greg Coles tells his own story. Let's make a deal, you and me. Let's make promises to each other. I promise to tell you my story. The whole story. I'll tell you about a boy in love with Jesus who, at the fateful onset of puberty, realized his sexual attractions were persistently and exclusively for other guys. I'll tell you how I lay on my bed in the middle of the night and whispered to myself the words I've whispered a thousand times since: "I'm gay." I'll show you the world through my eyes. I'll tell you what it's like to belong nowhere. To know that much of my Christian family will forever consider me unnatural, dangerous, because of something that feels as involuntary as my eye color. And to know that much of the LGBTQ community that shares my experience as a sexual minority will disagree with the way I've chosen to interpret the call of Jesus, believing I've bought into a tragic, archaic ritual of self-hatred. But I promise my story won't all be sadness and loneliness and struggle. I'll tell you good things too, hopeful things, funny things, like the time I accidentally came out to my best friend during his bachelor party. I'll tell you what it felt like the first time someone looked me in the eyes and said, "You are not a mistake." I'll tell you that joy and sorrow are not opposites, that my life has never been more beautiful than when it was most brokenhearted. If you'll listen, I promise I'll tell you everything, and you can decide for yourself what you want to believe about me.

Wilhelm Loehe and North America

Author : Craig L. Nessan
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1532686587
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (326 download)

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Book Synopsis Wilhelm Loehe and North America by : Craig L. Nessan

Download or read book Wilhelm Loehe and North America written by Craig L. Nessan and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-06-19 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wilhelm Loehe is one of the most significant nineteenth-century figures for North American church life and mission, whose influence continues into the present. Loehe is unique for joining together aspects of the Christian life often held to be antithetical: worship and mission, orthodoxy and pietism, evangelical proclamation and diakonia, and theological imagination and practical skill in administration. Already in the nineteenth century Loehe contributed a vital principle for advancing ecumenical understanding: the idea of "open questions." When the church confesses core teachings as one, there does not need to be agreement on all secondary matters in order to live together in church fellowship. This book explores Loehe's historical activity as a pastor, as a supporter of mission in North America, as an organizer (together with Friedrich Bauer) of theological education in North America, and as a founder of deaconess institutions in Neuendettelsau, Germany, that still exist today. The central themes represented by Loehe not only constitute a matrix that has significance for the church and its mission today but also constitute an agenda for the church of the future.

Naming Neoliberalism

Author : Rodney Clapp
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 1506472664
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis Naming Neoliberalism by : Rodney Clapp

Download or read book Naming Neoliberalism written by Rodney Clapp and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neoliberalism is the reigning, overarching spirit of our age. It consists of a panoply of cultural, political, and economic practices that set marketized competition at the center of social life. The model human is the entrepreneur of the self. Though regnant, neoliberalism likes to hide. It likes people to assume that it is a natural, deep structure--just the way things are. But in neoliberalism's train have come extreme inequality, economic precariousness, and a harmful distortion of both the individual and society. Many people are waking up to the destructive effects of this order. Anthropologists, economic historians, philosophers, theologians, and political scientists have compiled considerable literature exposing neoliberalism's pretensions and shortcomings. Drawing on this work, Naming Neoliberalism aims to expose the order to a wider range of readers--pastors, thoughtful laypersons, and students. Its theological base for this "intervention" is apocalyptic--not in the sense of impending doom and gloom, but in the sense of centering on Christ's life, death, and resurrection as itself the creation of a new and truer, more hopeful, and more humane order that sees the principalities and powers (like neoliberalism) unmasked and disarmed at the cross. The book carefully lays out what neoliberalism is, where it has come from, its religious or theological pretensions, and how it can be confronted through and in the church.

Part-Time is Plenty

Author : G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN 13 : 1611649935
Total Pages : 182 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (116 download)

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Book Synopsis Part-Time is Plenty by : G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Download or read book Part-Time is Plenty written by G. Jeffrey MacDonald and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Churches experiencing numerical and financial decline may dread the day when they can no longer afford a full-time pastor. Freeing up funds that would go to a full-time salary sure would help the budgetmaybe even enough to turn things aroundbut is it even possible to run effective ministries with just a half- or quarter-time professional? Journalist and part-time pastor Jeffrey MacDonald says yeschurches can grow more vibrant than ever, tapping into latent energy and undiscovered gifts, revitalizing worship, and engaging in more effective ministry with the community.Readers get a much-needed playbook forhelping congregations to thrive with a part-time ministry model. They learn to see the model in a new light: to stop viewing part-time as a problem to be eradicated and to instead embrace it as a divine gift that facilitates a higher level of lay engagement, responsibility, playfulness, and creativity.

The Future of American Christianity

Author : Laurene Beth Bowers
Publisher : The Pilgrim Press
ISBN 13 : 0829800719
Total Pages : 138 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (298 download)

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Book Synopsis The Future of American Christianity by : Laurene Beth Bowers

Download or read book The Future of American Christianity written by Laurene Beth Bowers and published by The Pilgrim Press. This book was released on 2023-11-15 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades of chasing revitalization programs and young pastors, American congregations are still plummeting in membership. Clergy are jumping ship. New generations aren’t interested. Revitalization programs are a stop-gap. Author and pastor Laurene Bowers asserts that churches need to shift to new communities with a grassroots focus on love of neighbor: developing relationships, reforming belief, and collaborating for justice. The Future of American Christianity is, against all odds, a book of hopeful vision for the impact of Christian faith communities.

Surprised by Jesus Again

Author : Jason Byassee
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1467456527
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (674 download)

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Book Synopsis Surprised by Jesus Again by : Jason Byassee

Download or read book Surprised by Jesus Again written by Jason Byassee and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold, historical, robust approach to reading Scripture and encountering Jesus anew No one expects to be surprised. Yet biblical interpretation can do exactly that. Christians expect to see Jesus as they read the Bible, but when and how Jesus actually speaks through Scripture can still surprise us! Drawing on the early church’s theological giants—Origen, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and more from the historical cloud of witnesses—author Jason Byassee models how we can recover ancient Christians’ multiple ways of reading the Bible to our benefit. As Byassee says, God himself is Jewish, Catholic, and Pentecostal—so much larger than our own little corner on the truth—and this book offers readers a refreshingly enhanced vision of the Bible and of Jesus himself.

Accidental Preacher

Author : Will Willimon
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1467457450
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (674 download)

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Book Synopsis Accidental Preacher by : Will Willimon

Download or read book Accidental Preacher written by Will Willimon and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lively, inspiring memoir of an eminent Christian preacher and leader In this book one of today’s best-known Christian leaders recounts—with his signature wit and humor—memorable moments from his rich and full preaching life. A personal and vocational memoir, Will Willimon’s Accidental Preacher portrays the adventure of a life caught up in the purposes of a God who calls unlikely people to engage in work greater than themselves. Beginning with his childhood in a segregated South and moving through his student years, Willimon gives candid, inspiring, and humorous testimony to his experiences as a seminary professor, rural pastor, globe-trotting preacher, bishop, and popular theologian and writer. Above all, he shows how God has constantly had a call on his life. By turns poignant, hilarious, and thought-provoking—but always irresistibly engaging—Accidental Preacher is sure to join the well-remembered, classic memoir of our time.

The God of the Dangerous Sermon

Author : Frank A. Thomas
Publisher : Abingdon Press
ISBN 13 : 1791020232
Total Pages : 132 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The God of the Dangerous Sermon by : Frank A. Thomas

Download or read book The God of the Dangerous Sermon written by Frank A. Thomas and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn to engage with a dangerous God, to preach the sermons your community needs today. Every sermon has a theology, and a god of that theology behind it. Preaching is more effective, and has more integrity when preachers understand the god behind their theology. Specifically, whether the god is a universal God, like the one expressed by Christ and the Christian faith, or a tribal god, which is sometimes dressed up to resemble Christianity but is something else entirely. Frank A. Thomas culminates his exploration of the Dangerous Sermon with this book, which leads readers through the process of identifying and understanding the gods behind theology, and their connection to preaching. The reader is equipped to discern the metaphors, symbols, and rhetorical indicators which point to the god a preacher is serving and calling others to serve. Praise for The God of the Dangerous Sermon Enlightening, vibrant, and memorable. A vital resource for anyone who seeks to preach substantive sermons. –Donyelle McCray, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT With dexterous and definitive argument, Thomas compels preachers to be accountable for the God behind their rhetoric. –Karoline M. Lewis, Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching, Professor of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN The God of the Dangerous Sermon and its two companion books will raise up the next wave of preachers who simultaneously nurture faith communities and bear witness to the God of justice we know in the face of Jesus Christ. –Gregory V. Palmer, Resident Bishop of the Ohio West Episcopal Area, United Methodist Church Warning to all preachers: Do not open this book by Frank Thomas unless you are ready to be changed. No one else lays out the promise and perils of preaching with such clarity and compassion. I know I do not live up to the call of the God of the Dangerous sermon every single Sunday, but Frank Thomas sure makes me want to. Great teachers and preachers will do that. –Lillian Daniel, senior pastor of First Congregational Church in Dubuque, IA; author of Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don’t Belong To In God of the Dangerous Sermon, Frank Thomas refines his theoretical vision of celebration in African American preaching and demonstrates how and why theological content is at the heart of his project. For Thomas, celebration is rhetorical theology made possible because of the actions and character of a God whose divine performance consists of healing the brokenhearted, liberating the oppressed, and refusing to be tribal. A legend in his time, this is Thomas at the height of his native genius and creative powers. –Kenyatta R. Gilbert, professor of homiletics, Howard University School of Divinity, Washington, DC; author of Exodus Preaching: Crafting Sermons about Justice and Hope from Abingdon Press

Finding Jesus in the Storm

Author : John Swinton
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1467460249
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (674 download)

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Book Synopsis Finding Jesus in the Storm by : John Swinton

Download or read book Finding Jesus in the Storm written by John Swinton and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People living with mental health challenges are not excluded from God’s love or even the fullness of life promised by Jesus. Unfortunately, this hope is often lost amid the well-meaning labels and medical treatments that dominate the mental health field today. In Finding Jesus in the Storm, John Swinton makes the case for reclaiming that hope by changing the way we talk about mental health and remembering that, above all, people are people, regardless of how unconventionally they experience life. Finding Jesus in the Storm is a call for the church to be an epicenter of compassion for those experiencing depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and related difficulties. That means breaking free of the assumptions that often accompany these diagnoses, allowing for the possibility that people living within unconventional states of mental health might experience God in unique ways that are real and perhaps even revelatory. In each chapter, Swinton gives voice to those experiencing the mental health challenges in question, so readers can see firsthand what God’s healing looks like in a variety of circumstances. The result is a book about people instead of symptoms, description instead of diagnosis, and lifegiving hope for everyone in the midst of the storm.

Northern Lights

Author : Jason Byassee
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1725264455
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (252 download)

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Book Synopsis Northern Lights by : Jason Byassee

Download or read book Northern Lights written by Jason Byassee and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-11-04 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You may have heard that churches in Europe are vanishing. Yet church growth in London has been steady for decades, fueled by such innovations as Alpha and Fresh Expressions. What about outside the capital? Some, both inside and outside the church, say churches “cannot grow.” But here they are—growing churches—in the north of England of all places. This is not only a story about England. It is about growing churches wherever you’ve heard they “can’t” grow. God is always up to something precisely where (we think) God shouldn’t be.

Religious but Not Religious

Author : Jason E. Smith
Publisher : Chiron Publications
ISBN 13 : 1630519014
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious but Not Religious by : Jason E. Smith

Download or read book Religious but Not Religious written by Jason E. Smith and published by Chiron Publications. This book was released on 2020-12-12 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Religious but Not Religious, Jungian analyst Jason E. Smith explores the idea, expressed by C.G. Jung, that the religious sense is a natural and vital function of the human psyche. We suffer from its lack. The symbolic forms of religion mediate unconscious and ineffable experiences to the field of consciousness that infuse our lives with meaning and purpose. That is why we cannot be indifferent toward the decline of traditional religious observance so widely discussed today. The great religions house the accumulated spiritual wisdom of humankind, and their loss would be catastrophic to the human soul. As human beings, we hunger for spiritual experience. To be “spiritual but not religious” is one possible response, but it often doesn’t go far enough. All too easily it can become a kind of do-it-yourself spirituality, which lacks the capacity to effect the kind of growth and transformation that is the true goal of all the religious traditions. Smith argues that we need to be “religious but not religious.” We need an approach to religion that recognizes the essential importance of the individual spiritual adventure while also affirming the value of collective religious tradition. He articulates an understanding of religion as a participation in the symbolic life as opposed to a mere content of belief. By recovering our personal sensitivity for symbolic experience together with a symbolic understanding of religion, we facilitate a profound encounter with life and with the human condition through which one may be tested, tried, and transformed.

So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore

Author : Wayne Jacobsen
Publisher : Windblown Media
ISBN 13 : 1935170015
Total Pages : 154 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (351 download)

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Book Synopsis So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by : Wayne Jacobsen

Download or read book So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore written by Wayne Jacobsen and published by Windblown Media. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jake Colsen, an overworked and disillusioned pastor, happens into a stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance (in manner) to the apostle John. A number of encounters with John as well as a family crisis lead Jake to a new understanding of what his life should be like: one filled with faith bolstered by a steady, close relationship with the God of the universe. Facing his own disappointment with Christianity, Jake must forsake the habits that have made his faith rote and rediscover the love that captured his heart when he first believed. Compelling and intensely personal, So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anything relates a man's rebirth from performance-based Christianity to a loving friendship with Christ that affects all he does, thinks, and says. As John tells Jake, "There is nothing the Father desires for you more than that you fall squarely in the lap of his love and never move from that place for the rest of your life."

Women's Voices and the Practice of Preaching

Author : Nancy Lammers Gross
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0802873227
Total Pages : 182 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (28 download)

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Book Synopsis Women's Voices and the Practice of Preaching by : Nancy Lammers Gross

Download or read book Women's Voices and the Practice of Preaching written by Nancy Lammers Gross and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Expert, practical help for women who preach or lead worship Many women preachers and worship leaders have trouble speaking; they struggle to fully use their physical voices. Maintaining that there is often a disconnect between the woman's self-understanding as a preacher and her own body, Nancy Lammers Gross presents not only techniques but also a theologically empowering paradigm shift to help women fully embody their God-given preaching vocations. Grounding her work in the biblical story of Miriam, Gross begins with a discussion of how women are instrumental in the work of God. She then tells stories, including her own, of women's experiences in losing connection to their bodies and their physical voices. Finally, Gross presents a constructive resolution with exercises for discovering and developing a full-body voice.

Let It Go

Author : T.D. Jakes
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416547339
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Let It Go by : T.D. Jakes

Download or read book Let It Go written by T.D. Jakes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-01-29 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shares uplifting advice about the virtues of forgiveness, offering strategic and biblically based advice on how to achieve peace and personal fulfillment by letting go of past wrongs.