Deus Misereatur

The Art and Science of Staff Fighting: A Complete Instructional Guide by Joe Varady My rating: 5 of 5 stars Most martial art streams teach some form of staff fighting and forms. Sometimes there’s rationale given, and at other times it’s simply, “Do this and make it look good.” The value of learning the staff varies from school to school. Joe Varady, award winning martial artists, instructor and accomplished author, has pulled together this 203 page softback manual, “The Art and Science of Staff Fighting: A Complete Instructional Guide” to strengthen the ability of the karateka. It is a how-to handbook that covers bo staff, quarter staff, disarming techniques, and unarmed-against-a-staff. “The Art and Science of Staff Fighting” takes the learner through nine progressive levels of staff training, beginning with the fundamentals and traveling all the way to the use of a spear, because a spear “is simply a staff equipped with a power multiplier” (159). Clear pictures, directional arrows...

A Shared Mercy: Karl Barth on Forgiveness and the Church Jon Coutts IVP Academic A division of InterVarsity Press PO Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 www.ivpress.com ISBN: 978-0-8308-4915-4; $39.00; September 2016 Busy with Barth; 4 Stars of 5 Forgiveness is such a tricky event since there are several consequential questions attached to it: “Does this mean I forget what he did and allow him access again?” “I may have said the words of forgiveness to her, but I can’t bring myself to trust her. Does this make me unforgiving?” “After all he did to us, if I forgive him now doesn’t that mean he gets off scot-free?” There are lots of despairs and disgraces swimming around forgiveness, making it a hot and heartrending subject. John Coutts, tutor of theology and ethics at Trinity College in Bristol, England, and ordained in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, approaches this needful topic in his new, 244 page paperback, “A Shared Mercy: Karl Barth on Forgiveness...

The End of Protestantism: Pursuing Unity in a Fragmented Church Peter J. Leithart Brazos Press A division of Baker Publishing Group PO Box 6387 Grand Rapids, MI 49517-6287 www.brazospress.com ISBN: 9781587433771; $21.99; October 2016 Diagnostic and Prognostic;  5 Stars of 5 From early on as an ordained Presbyterian minister, I have cultivated friendships across denominational lines. While standing out in front of an abortion clinic in Texas every week for ten years, I made good friends with Roman Catholics. I was a member of a ministerial alliance for several years, even functioning as the President for two of those years. For the last two years I have met monthly with Baptist, Nazarene, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Disciples of Christ ministers to pray for one another, our churches and our city. Just recently I invited a dear friend, an African-American United Methodist minister, to preach at my Installation service where I was installed as the new Senior Pas...

Blessed are you, O Sovereign Lord, God of our ancestors: to you be praise and glory forever. You called the patriarchs and matriarchs to live by the light of faith and to journey in the hope of your promised fulfillment. May we, similarly, be obedient to your call and be ready and watchful to receive your Son, and live forward in hope-filled trust and joy. Thank you that in the fullness of time you sent your Son, born of a woman, born under the law, born into a low condition, who, from early on, underwent the miseries of this life. Therefore, we implore you to look in on those who find this time of year a grief and hardship due to painful memories, sorrowful losses, adversarial family relations, broken promises, and impending privations…may the Gospel-hope ricocheting around the walls and halls in the Christmas carols, lift their hearts and faces to look up to you and rejoice in Spirit-breathed confidence. As your Son was born in a time of great conflict, of oppression, of ...