A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality for the Rest of Us


Larry Osborne - 2007
    "Contrarian thinking at its best simply asks, Is this really true? It speaks up when the politically correct answer or the conventional wisdom doesn't match reality - when things simply don't work the way everyone says they should."- Larry OsborneIf you don’t fit the mold…If you’re tired of adjusting to other people’s definitions of spirituality…If traditional spiritual disciplines just aren’t working for you…If all the standard answers aren’t enough…...but your deepest desireis to know God more…Here's Spirituality for the Rest of Us

Boundaries in Marriage: Understanding the Choices That Make or Break Loving Relationships


Henry Cloud - 1999
    Henry Cloud and John Townsend, counselors and authors of the New York Times bestseller Boundaries, teach us that healthy boundaries are the property lines that define and protect you and your spouse as individuals. Once you have them in place, a good marriage can become better, and a less-than-satisfying one can even be saved.Boundaries in Marriage will give you the tools and encouragement you need to:Set and maintain personal boundaries and respect those of your spouseUnderstand and practice two key ingredients to a successful marriage: freedom and responsibilityEstablish values that form a godly structure and architecture for your marriageProtect your marriage from different kinds of "intruders"Work with a spouse who understands and values boundaries--or with one who doesn'tIt's time to deepen your love by providing a better environment for it to flourish, and Drs. Cloud and Townsend are here to help. Discover how boundaries can make life better today!

Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts


Jerry Bridges - 1988
    And as you come to know Him better, you'll find yourself trusting Him more completely.

Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth


David Wilkerson - 1986
    But he also brings a message of courage and comfort--a call to return to God with all our hearts and to fulfill God's purposes for us as His beloved children.

A Grief Observed


C.S. Lewis - 1961
    S. Lewis's wife, the American-born poet Joy Davidman. In her introduction to this new edition, Madeleine L'Engle writes: "I am grateful to Lewis for having the courage to yell, to doubt, to kick at God in angry violence. This is a part of a healthy grief which is not often encouraged. It is helpful indeed that C. S. Lewis, who has been such a successful apologist for Christianity, should have the courage to admit doubt about what he has so superbly proclaimed. It gives us permission to admit our own doubts, our own angers and anguishes, and to know that they are part of the soul's growth."Written in longhand in notebooks that Lewis found in his home, A Grief Observed probes the "mad midnight moments" of Lewis's mourning and loss, moments in which he questioned what he had previously believed about life and death, marriage, and even God. Indecision and self-pity assailed Lewis. "We are under the harrow and can't escape," he writes. "I know that the thing I want is exactly the thing I can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace." Writing A Grief Observed as "a defense against total collapse, a safety valve," he came to recognize that "bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love."Lewis writes his statement of faith with precision, humor, and grace. Yet neither is Lewis reluctant to confess his continuing doubts and his awareness of his own human frailty. This is precisely the quality which suggests that A Grief Observed may become "among the great devotional books of our age."

What We Talk about When We Talk about God


Rob Bell - 2012
    His new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, will continue down this path, helping us with the ultimate big-picture issue: how do we know God? Love Wins was a Sunday Times bestseller that created a media storm, launching Bell as a national religious voice who is reinvigorating what it means to be religious and a Christian today. He is one of the most influential voices in the Christian world, and now his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, is poised to blow open the doors on how we understand God. Bell believes we need to drop our primitive, tribal views of God and instead understand the God who wants us to become who we were designed to be, a God who created a universe of quarks and quantum string dynamics, but who also gives meaning to why new-born babies and stories of heroes and sacrifice inspire in us a deep reverence. What We Talk About When We Talk About God will reveal that God is not in need of repair to catch him up with today's world so much as we need to discover the God who goes before us and beckons us forward. A book full of mystery, controversy, and reverence, What We Talk About When We Talk About God has fans and critics alike anxiously awaiting, and promises not to disappoint.

Pastor Dad


Mark Driscoll - 2009
    The important thing is that he is caring for his flock well. This book by Pastor Mark Driscoll looks at the ways that a father can raise his children well.

Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God


Tony Campolo - 1997
    With candor and insight, Tony Campolo passionately hits on hot button issues that impact the Christian life, including how to: protect yourself from technology without becoming Amish; have a devotional life without becoming a monk, and figure out the will of God without hearing voices from Heaven.

After God's Own Heart: The key to knowing and living God's passionate love for you


Mike Bickle - 2003
    God is raising up believers and giving them hearts as He did for that shepherd boy who tended sheep and played his makeshift harp on the backside of Bethlehem. You can become a student of God's emotions and learn how godly commitment and obedience help you form a mature love. God is a God of gladness and infinite joy, but He still gets angry at rebellion. Thankfully, He recognizes the difference between rebellion and immaturity. EXPERIENCING GOD IS NOT AN OPTION! It s time for you to develop a heart that is anchored and sustained by an outrageous love that comes only from Him. Experience a transition that gives you a new passion, resulting in the fulfillment of God's promises. That is just the beginning. Invest time in understanding the happiness found in God's heart for you, and your own heart will experience a glorious awakening.Format: HardBack

The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us from Drowning


Aaron Niequist - 2018
    He calls this third way practice-based faith.This book is about loving one's faith tradition and, at the same time, following the call to something deeper and richer. By adopting some new spiritual practices, it is possible to learn to swim again with a renewed sense of vigor and divine purpose.

The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It


Peter Enns - 2014
    But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that could neither be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction or accepted among the conservative evangelical community.Rejecting the increasingly complicated intellectual games used by conservative Christians to “protect” the Bible, Enns was conflicted. Is this what God really requires? How could God’s plan for divine inspiration mean ignoring what is really written in the Bible? These questions eventually cost Enns his job—but they also opened a new spiritual path for him to follow.The Bible Tells Me So chronicles Enns’s spiritual odyssey, how he came to see beyond restrictive doctrine and learned to embrace God’s Word as it is actually written. As he explores questions progressive evangelical readers of Scripture commonly face yet fear voicing, Enns reveals that they are the very questions that God wants us to consider—the essence of our spiritual study.

Single, Dating, Engaged, Married: Navigating Life and Love in the Modern Age


Ben Stuart - 2017
    This book unlocks each season's God-given purpose and shows you how to thrive within it.In a society where everyone is supposedly more connected, why do people feel so lonely? Even as marriage rates decline, recent studies find the overwhelming majority of single adults still hope to get married. But how can we navigate life and love in this disconnected culture? Has social media eroded the institutions that brought us together--and the deeper emotional intimacy they provided?Pastor and bestselling author Ben Stuart will help you navigate through the four stages of a relational life and show you how to look at the truths and intentions God has established for each.As you embark on this journey, you will discover how to:Use singleness to make an impact for the kingdom of GodPursue dating with clarity and purityUse the season of engagement wisely to prepare for marriageMaximize your life as a married couple for shared ministryContinually seek God and His will throughout each stageDiscover how to embrace God's design, invest your life in what matters most, and find meaning in whatever season of life you're in.

Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation


Ed Stetzer - 2011
    But for those who know that Christ is coming to establish a new and perfect order, ours is not just a world to endure but a world to invade. Believers have not been stationed here on earth merely to subsist but to actively subvert the enemy’s attempts at blinding people in unbelief and burying them under heartbreaking loads of human need.The kingdom of God changes all that.Ed Stetzer’s Subversive Kingdom is a personal call for Christians to reorient their thinking and lifestyle to match what Jesus described of His people in Scripture, while teaming up with other believers through their churches to bring light into a dying and darkening culture. Stetzer uses the parables of Christ to unlock the “kingdom secrets” that bring this mysterious concept within understandable reach, while urging Christians to turn this knowledge into practical, everyday, ongoing missions designed to set people free from lives headed for hopelessness.

Companions in the Darkness: Seven Saints Who Struggled with Depression and Doubt


Diana Gruver - 2020
    The depressed have often been ostracized or institutionalized. In recent years the conversation has begun to change, and the stigma has lessened--but as anyone who suffers from depression knows, we still have a long way to go. In Companions in the Darkness, Diana Gruver looks back into church history and finds depression in the lives of some of our most beloved saints, including Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King Jr. Without trying to diagnose these figures from a distance, Gruver tells their stories in fresh ways, taking from each a particular lesson that can encourage or guide those who suffer today. Drawing on her own experience with depression, Gruver offers a wealth of practical wisdom both for those in the darkness and those who care for them. Not only can these saints teach us valuable lessons about the experience of depression, they can also be a source of hope and empathy for us today. They can be our companions in the darkness.

Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human


Judah Smith - 2013
    How would you finish that sentence?The subject is there, and so is the verb, but what comes next? Your answer could shed light on the path to becoming who you were made to be. In these pages, Judah Smith fills out that sentence again and again, each time further revealing the character of Jesus. He writes as if to a friend, revealing the Jesus that somber paintings and hymns fail to capture. With passion, humor, and conviction, he shows that Jesus is life. Jesus is grace. Jesus is your friend. Jesus is a new and better way to be human.