Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend


Ravi ZachariasJohn C. Lennox - 2008
    The most troublesome question of all, however, came from a Hindu friend. “If this conversion is truly supernatural,” he asked, “why is it not more evident in the lives of so many Christians that I know?” Beyond Opinion is Dr. Zacharias’s response.In addition to his own contributions, Ravi Zacharias brings together the global team of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, including Alister McGrath and John Lennox, to suggest a new vision for Christian apologetics in this century. Their aim is an apologetic governed by human relationship and committed to winning people rather than arguments.Speaking from their experiences and expertise, the contributors offer guidance on a broad range of topics, including:Postmodern Challenges and the BibleChallenges from AtheismChallenges from IslamConversational ApologeticsExistential Challenges of Evil and SufferingMore than a book of apologetics, Beyond Opinion will equip you intellectually, spiritually, and relationally “to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

Unbelievable?: Why after ten years of talking with atheists, I'm still a Christian


Justin Brierley - 2017
    Yet, recently, good conversations about faith have been increasingly squeezed out of the public sphere. Seeking to reopen the debate, Justin Brierley began to invite atheists and sceptics on to Premier Christian Radio to air arguments for and against the Christian faith. But how has ten years of discussion with atheists affected the presenter’s faith?Reflecting on conversations with Richard Dawkins, Derren Brown and many more, Justin explains why he still finds Christianity the most compelling explanation for life, the universe and everything. And why, regardless of belief or background, we should all welcome the conversation.

In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership


Henri J.M. Nouwen - 1989
    For a society that measures successful leadership in terms of the effectiveness of the individual, Father Nouwen offers a counter definition that is witnessed by a "communal and mutual experience." For Nouwen, leadership cannot function apart from the community. His wisdom is grounded in the foundation that we are a people "called."This beautiful guide to Christian Leadership is the rich fruit of Henri Nouwen's own journey as one of the most influential spiritual leaders of the 20th century.

Swipe Right: The Life-and-Death Power of Sex and Romance


Levi Lusko - 2017
    In fact, relationships are a matter of life-and-death importance. So how you can train today for the relationship you want tomorrow? In Swipe Right, Levi Lusko shares with raw honesty from his own life experiences and God’s Word how toregret-proof your marriage bed and your deathbedresist settling for instant pleasure by discovering what your heart really longs forlearn how to avoid and treat sexual scars by careful living todayturn the clumsy “sex talk” with your child into dialogue that leads to wise choicestransform a stagnant marriage by trading predictable nearness for mind-blowing intimacy God’s dreams for your life are not intended to kill your joy but to enhance it. Whether you’re fed up with dating and hooking up as usual, tired of being single, numb because of porn and casual sex, or curious about how to improve your marriage, this book is for you. Praise for Swipe Right “It’s my hope that whoever reads this will have their thoughts of the heart as seriously provoked as mine have been.”—Ryan GoodProducer, writer, and entrepreneur “It’s a perspective I believe we need now more than ever.”—Steven FurtickPastor, Elevation Church, and New York Times bestselling author “One day, someday, there will be a day where you will need the down-to-earth wisdom in this book like you will oxygen.”—Joel HoustonSongwriter, Hillsong United, and pastor, Hillsong NYC “Swipe Right isn’t just another book of how-not-tos but an honest, gritty, and real-time approach to navigating dating, sex, and romance with our souls and sanity intact.” —Judah SmithLead pastor, The City Church, and New York Times bestselling author of Jesus Is _____. “Swipe Right is a timely, wonderful, prophetic, and needed message for our generation.”—Christine CaineFounder of the A21 Campaign and bestselling author of Unashamed “If you are wondering what God’s plans are for your love life, or leading those in search of his plan for theirs, you need this book.”—Louie GiglioPastor of Passion City Church, founder of Passion Conferences, and author of The Comeback “This is a good book. Study it, ponder it, and, if you know a fifteen-year-old, tell them to read it.”—Max LucadoNew York Times bestselling author “We need the Swipe Right message now more than ever before.”—Lysa TerKeurstNew York Times bestselling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries “This is more than just a book; it’s a life jacket!”—Chris TomlinGrammy Award–winning musician and author of Good Good Father “Levi shows that God will light our way, if we allow him to.”—Carl LentzPastor, Hillsong NYC “Funny and engaging, while simultaneously practical and hard-hitting.”—Craig GroeschelPastor of Life.Church and author of From This Day Forward

The Long War Against God: The History & Impact of the Creation/Evolution Conflict


Henry M. Morris - 1989
    Henry Morris, long an opponent of Christian Compromise with evolution, presents in riveting detail the very old plan to undermine God's Word. Drawing from the text of the Greeks, Babylonians, and other ancient philosophers, Dr. Morris shows the path that has led to today's neo-Darwinists, and how evolution - the philosophy of death - is in itself dying.

The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction


Peter Rollins - 2013
    Life is difficult. You don’t know the secret. Whether readers are devout believers or distant seekers, The Idolatry of God shows that we must lay down our certainties and honestly admit our doubts to identify with Jesus. Rollins purposely upsets fundamentalist certainty in order to open readers up to a more loving, active manifestation of Christ’s love. In contrast to the usual understanding of the “Good News” as a message offering satisfaction and certainty, Rollins argues for a radical and shattering alternative. He explores how the Good News actually involves embracing the idea that we can’t be whole, that life is difficult, and that we are in the dark. Showing how God has traditionally been approached as a product that will render us complete, remove our suffering, and reveal the answers, he introduces an incendiary approach to faith that invites us to joyfully embrace our brokenness, resolutely face our unknowing, and courageously accept the difficulties of existence. Only then, he argues, can we truly rob death of its sting and enter into the fullness of life.

The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears


Mark Batterson - 2011
    Sharing inspiring stories from his own experiences as a prayer circle maker, Batterson will help readers uncover their heart's deepest desires and God-given dreams and unleash them through the kind of audacious prayer that God delights to answer.

Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth


Richard J. Foster - 1978
    Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found.Dividing the Disciplines into three movements of the Spirit, Foster shows how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life. The inward Disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward Disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate Disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration bring us nearer to one another and to God.Foster provides a wealth of examples demonstrating how these Disciplines can become part of our daily activities—and how they can help us shed our superficial habits and "bring the abundance of God into our lives." He offers crucial new insights on simplicity, demonstrating how the biblical view of simplicity, properly understood and applied, brings joy and balance to our inward and outward lives and "sets us free to enjoy the provision of God as a gift that can be shared with others." The discussion of celebration, often the most neglected of the Disciplines, shows its critical importance, for it stands at the heart of the way to Christ. Celebration of Discipline will help Christians everywhere to embark on a journey of prayer and spiritual growth.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design


Jonathan Wells - 2006
    Seventy-five years later, in Kitzmiller v. Dover, the ACLU sued to prevent the teaching of an alternative to Darwin’s theory known as "Intelligent Design"—and won. Why did the ACLU turn from defending the free-speech rights of Darwinists to silencing their opponents? Jonathan Wells reveals that, for today’s Darwinists, there may be no other choice: unable to fend off growing challenges from scientists, or to compete with rival theories better adapted to the latest evidence, Darwinism—like Marxism and Freudianism before it—is simply unfit to survive. Wells begins by explaining the basic tenets of Darwinism, and the evidence both for and against it. He reveals, for instance, that the fossil record, which according to Darwin should be teeming with "transitional" fossils showing the development of one species to the next, so far hasn’t produced a single incontestable example. On the other hand, certain well-documented aspects of the fossil record—such as the Cambrian explosion, in which innumerable new species suddenly appeared fully formed—directly contradict Darwin’s theory. Wells also shows how most of the other "evidence" for evolution— including textbook "icons" such as peppered moths, Darwin’s finches, Haeckel’s embryos, and the Tree of Life—has been exaggerated, distorted . . . and even faked. Wells then turns to the theory of intelligent design (ID), the idea that some features of the natural world, such as the internal machinery of cells, are too "irreducibly complex" to have resulted from unguided natural processes alone. In clear-cut layman’s language, he reveals the growing evidence for ID coming out of scientific specialties from microbiology to astrophysics. As Wells explains, religion does play a role in the debate over Darwin—though not in the way evolutionists claim. Wells shows how Darwin reasoned that evolution is true because divine creation "must" be false—a theological assumption oddly out of place in a scientific debate. In other words, Darwinists’ materialistic, atheistic assumptions rule out any theories but their own, and account for their willingness to explain away the evidence—or lack of it. Darwin is an emperor who has no clothes— but it takes a brave man to say so. Jonathan Wells, a microbiologist with two Ph.D.s (from Berkeley and Yale), is that brave man. Most textbooks on evolution are written by Darwinists with an ideological ax to grind. Brave dissidents—qualified scientists—who try to teach or write about intelligent design are silenced and sent to the academic gulag. But fear not: Jonathan Wells is a liberator. He unmasks the truth about Darwinism— why it is wrong and what the real evidence is. He also supplies a revealing list of "Books You’re Not Supposed to Read" (as far as the Darwinists are concerned) and puts at your fingertips all the evidence you need to challenge the most closed-minded Darwinist.

The God Who Loves You: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling


Peter Kreeft - 1988
    With unusual clarity, Kreeft points out that the man or woman who begins to glimpse the God who is Creator, Redeemer, and Lover of our souls, will never be the same. He describes Scripture as God's love story and then tells why divine love is the answer to our deepest problems and the fulfillment of our deepest desires.Posing the hard questions about love that rankle the heart, Peter Kreeft never settles for easy answers. He exposes today's superficial attitudes about love to lead people to a deeper understanding of what it means to be loved by God, addressing these issues and many more:• How can I really know God's love for me? • If God is love, why do bad things happen to good people?

Finding Faith: A Self-Discovery Guide for Your Spiritual Quest


Brian D. McLaren - 1999
    Finding Faith aims to help spiritual seekers progress through their spiritual search by confronting questions -- in non-Christian language -- about God, the nature of faith, truth, and religious life.

24/6: A Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life


Matthew Sleeth - 2012
    Our technological tools allow 24-hour productivity and connectivity, give us more control, and subtlety enslave us to busyness itself. Sabbath is about restraint, about intentionally not doing everything all the time just because we can. Setting aside a day of rest helps us reconnect with our Creator and find the peace of God that passes all understanding. The Sabbath is about letting go of the controls one day a week and letting God be God. So how do we do it?In "24/6, " Dr. Matthew Sleeth describes our symptoms, clarifies the signs, diagnoses the illness, and lays out a simple plan for living a healthier, more God-centered life in a digitally-dazed, always-on world. Sleeth shares how his own family was dramatically transformed when it adopted Sabbath practices and helps readers better understand how their own lives can be transformed - physically, emotionally, relationally and spiritually - by adopting the 24/6 lifestyle.

Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist


Dave Schmelzer - 2008
    Religion is usually about rules and codes, about “being good,” about what will get you embraced and what will get you shunned. But God, according to Dave, is all about how you can become a closer friend with him, with others, and with yourself.In the tradition of C. S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" and G. K. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" comes this illuminating collection of thoughts on faith in a postmodern world. "Not the Religious Type" bridges the gap between the two communities in which many of us live—the secular and the religious—and suggests a new, unexpected way of seeing the world and our place in it. Whether we're the religious type or not, there's a certain part of each of us that invariably wonders if it's true—if there's a God we can connect with who is alive and active, with the kind of perspective on our lives and futures that we could never have on our own. As Dave engagingly explores these most important questions, he invites his readers into “a new and warmer spring,” a way of thinking that will help both secularists who never imagined they would become people of faith and also people of faith who perhaps haven't experienced all from God that they've hoped.

Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality


Wesley Hill - 2010
    Yet many who sit next to us in the pew at church fit that description, says author Wesley Hill. As a celibate gay Christian, Hill gives us a glimpse of what it looks like to wrestle firsthand with God's "No" to same-sex relationships. What does it mean for gay Christians to live faithful to God while struggling with the challenge of their homosexuality? What is God's will for believers who experience same-sex desires? Those who choose celibacy are often left to deal with loneliness and the hunger for relationships. How can gay Christians experience God's favor and blessing in the midst of a struggle that for many brings a crippling sense of shame and guilt? Weaving together reflections from his own life and the lives of other Christians, such as Henri Nouwen and Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hill offers a fresh perspective on these questions. He advocates neither unqualified "healing" for those who struggle, nor their accommodation to temptation, but rather faithfulness in the midst of brokenness. "I hope this book may encourage other homosexual Christians to take the risky step of opening up their lives to others in the body of Christ," Hill writes. "In so doing, they may find, as I have, by grace, that being known is spiritually healthier than remaining behind closed doors, that the light is better than the darkness."

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power


Jeff Sharlet - 2007
    They consider themselves the new chosen—congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"Part history, part investigative journalism, The Family is a compelling account of how fundamentalism came to be interwoven with American power, a story that stretches from the religious revivals that have shaken this nation from its beginning to fundamentalism's new frontiers. No other book about the right has exposed the Family or revealed its far-reaching impact on democracy, and no future reckoning of American fundamentalism will be able to ignore it.