Showing results by author "Avlon" in All Categories

George Washington's Farewell Address was a prophetic letter from a "parting friend" to his fellow citizens about the forces he feared could destroy our democracy: hyper-partisanship, excessive debt, and foreign wars. Once celebrated as civic scripture, more widely reprinted than the Declaration of Independence, the Farewell Address is now almost forgotten. Its message remains starkly relevant. In Washington's Farewell, John Avlon offers a stunning portrait of our first president and his battle to save America from self-destruction.

As the tide of the Civil War turned in the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln took a dangerous two-week trip to visit the troops on the front lines accompanied by his young son, seeing combat up close, meeting liberated slaves in the ruins of Richmond, and comforting wounded Union and Confederate soldiers.

I think in some ways we are all aware that there is an unseen world that exists simultaneously with ours. So the question is not whether it exists or not. But rather, how much does it affect our lives? Does our personal belief system affect these unseen forces? Or is it all pretty much out of our hands?

Whats a wingnut? A wingnut is someone on the far-right or far-left wing of the political spectrum professional partisans, unhinged activists, and paranoid conspiracy theorists. Barack Obama campaigned as an antidote to the politics of polarization, promising to transcend the old divides of left and right, black and white, red states and blue. But in the first year of his presidency, he is presiding over an eruption of hate and hyper-partisanship that threatens to mock the promise upon which he was elected.

If you gave me this book at age seven and told me the last couple of chapters would be my life one day, I would have said you were crazy and that you have the wrong family in mind. Because my mom and dad would still be married and living in a normal house with normal cars. We would have a golden retriever named Zach and a ginger cat named Ginger. A picture-perfect family. But that all came crashing down for me. No one should have to go through the things we did....

Ephesians 6 tells us that we are fighting against spiritual forces in heavenly realms. It also says to put on the whole armor of God in order to defeat these forces. Most Christians don’t like to talk about demons and unclean spirits, let alone admit they may actually have a few inside of them. The problem is that if we don’t face this truth, we will never walk in the freedom Christ died to give us. Isn’t that just sad?

In this true-life story of Shade Reed, we get to see that in many ways we suffer collectively. So often we feel alone, when there are literally thousands of people experiencing our exact same pain. It’s a little ironic if you think about it. Because of this loneliness, this abandoned feeling often leads us down slippery roads. Which really just makes things worse. The truth is, at the end of the day, not a single one of us is alone! Shade found that out the hard way.

Hi. I am Paul. I died and went to the other side. Then I came back. And now I know things that people don't normally know.

Hi I’m Paul. I have a gift. I see people inside out. Not literally - that would be gross! Good people shine. They have light under their skin, and bad people have shadows. The shadows are scary and evil. Now I can hear them, too! The shadows are always whispering suggestions to be bad. Most shadow people don’t know that they have a choice. They don’t actually have to listen to those suggestions.

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like, you know, to walk a mile in another man’s shoes? The devil is laughing alright! Not only am I practically a junkie again, but I’m also cheating on my wife with a married woman. This isn’t backsliding. This is diving headfirst into a bucket full of shit. And I’m so numb I can’t even smell it". Somehow, everything had just kind of snowballed, and David didn’t even know how it got that bad. But the devil did!

Hi, I'm Paul. I'm not sure what happened, but I woke up, and everything in my world was different. I don't quite know what to make of it. Everyone else is acting like this is normal. Like this is the way it has always been. I seem to be the only one who knows that it's not. I just don't know what to do about it. It's all a bit weird.

We never have to live in bondage or darkness. Each and every one of us has the ability to lift ourselves out of the darkness of circumstance and into the light. But how do we do that when our marriages are falling apart or our finances are a mess - or, when poverty, crime, illness, and death surround us daily? How do we find the light?

Based on the true story of a boy who was institutionalized at the age of two. He suffered brutal abuse and heartbreaking tragedy. Unable to process the depths of his own reality, he became lost. Lost and meaningless. And just when it seemed he would drown in despair, someone started looking for him....

Hi, I'm Paul. I'm a little different to most people. I kind of have a gift that enables me to see people inside out. I know that sounds weird. But basically, I see what's in their heart first and then I notice the box it's wrapped in. To be honest, most of the time, I think it would be better if the whole world could see people this way.

On any given day the streets are busy with the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Too many cars causing angry frustrated road-rage. People packed like sardines at the pedestrian crossing focused on where they need to go. Overpopulated to the point you could smell the sweat on the sardine next to you, and if you are lucky maybe you'd get a whiff of perfume. Beggars and homeless searching through trash cans for a desperate meal. This is a normal day in the pulsating energy of city life. Until...Everyone went home. Even the homeless went home.

How the Best Did It is an accessible and insightful explanation of how the most important leadership traits from America's eight greatest presidents can be implemented by today's leaders.

From bondage to breakthrough. McKenzie McAdoo spent 15 years in some of the world's toughest prisons. That kind of time changes a man.