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CrossReads Short Takes
When Heaven Sighs
by Susan Guinn
Beneath layers of glamourous country music stars and professional athletes, deceit and brutality stalk the city sidewalks of Nashville, Tennessee in the form of assassins sent by a secret society to find and destroy a missing Dead Sea Scroll. On a steamy day in August, a young man dies from the Ebola virus on a downtown sidewalk. Close to midnight on the same day, tires screech and a young girl screams as the body of Father Tom McClarin smacks against the hard, cold asphalt in front of the cathedral where he serves. Both men’s destinies have been bound together by their mutual belief in the ancient scroll which possibly contains a unique message for today’s churches. Detective Hayden Douglan and Samual Thomas, a local pastor, follow the clues piling up and conclude both deaths are homicides. Faith and courage will be tested as the investigation leads from corruption in the highest levels of the religious community and police department to a powerful mystic cloistered behind the walls of beautiful Saint Alaric Monastery near Vienna, Austria. After Samual is also attacked and shot in the chest, he is healed by angels sent to enlist his help in convincing the religious community to believe the message of the scroll. Despite death threats and the struggle to contain an Ebola outbreak, Douglan and Samual work alongside and against powerful forces at work in Nashville: forces seeking to destroy the scroll and opposing forces strong enough to save anyone connected with bringing the scroll to the attention of the city’s spiritual leaders.
Kingdom Leadership
Leading God’s Way To Fulfill Purpose
by Dr. Monteic A. Sizer
As human beings, we will inevitably come to a point in life when we ask ourselves who am I, why was I born, and what is my purpose. The answers to these profound questions are found in God. God gives us specific gifts and talents to be used for His ultimate glory. It is through doing the will of God that we find true happiness, peace, and meaning.
In Kingdom Leadership: Leading God’s Way To Fulfill Purpose, you will discover the reasons for your gifts and talents, and what they are to be used for. God created you for His purpose. His purpose created you. And when you find your purpose, you find the God who created you.
An unrevealed purpose leads humanity to chase fleeting and temporal pleasures as a substitute for God’s intentions and revealed plans. No amount of worldly consumption and praise can give peace or eradicate humankind’s innate drive towards God, its creator.
The world is filled with brokenness and too many unrealized dreams. Nations are consumed with war and rumors of war. Too many individuals are burdened with excessive poverty and disease. Racial and ethnic conflicts polarize societies. Still, others are trapped by unconstrained moral conflicts, various forms of addiction, consumerism, power grabs, and religious strife. All of these things above are futile attempts at gaining a relationship, purpose, and meaning from life. They are a result of humanity, not knowing God and God’s purpose for their lives.
For people to find peace, purpose, and fulfillment in life, it must come through communing with God and living according to God’s Word, rules, and principles. God seeks to be reconciled with what He created. God is always available to His creation if sought. It is one’s pursuit and obedience to God’s will after many meaningless activities and disappointments that will reestablish one to their original and intended purpose.
