Do you want help figuring out who you are and why you're stuck in the same ruts? The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system with an uncanny accuracy in describing how human beings are wired, both positively and negatively. In The Road Back to You Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile forge a unique approach―a practical, comprehensive way of accessing Enneagram wisdom and exploring its connections with Christian spirituality for a deeper knowledge of ourselves, compassion for others, and love for God. Witty and filled with stories, this book allows you to peek inside each of the nine Enneagram types, keeping you turning the pages long after you have read the chapter about your own number. Not only will you learn more about yourself, but you will also start to see the world through other people's eyes, understanding how and why people think, feel, and act the way they do. Beginning with changes you can start making today, the wisdom of the Enneagram can help take you further along into who you really are―leading you into places of spiritual discovery you would never have found on your own, and paving the way to the wiser, more compassionate person you want to become.

    

    However, spiritual practices can sometimes make us less, not more, authentically human. We may be good Christians, but we aren't good human beings. How can we ensure that our spiritual journey is conducted in a way that allows us to become fully alive and deeply human?David Benner has spent thirty-five years integrating psychology and spirituality. Here he presents an expansive, psychologically informed understanding of spirituality, probing the contrasts between soulful and soulless spirituality, deep and shallow religion, and healthy and unhealthy relationships with God to affirm the vital role of human development in the spiritual journey. Benner then suggests soulful practices for cultivating the Christian spiritual life.This book will appeal to readers seeking depth and substance in their quest for authentic spirituality. It will also be a helpful resource for mental health professionals and spiritual directors. Reflection questions and exercises for individual or group use are included at the end of each chapter.d

    A force that is both fierce and majestic. A power that is nothing short of furious.Such is God's intense, consuming love for His children. It's a love that knows no limits, and no boundaries. A love that will go to any lengths, and take any risks, to pursue us.Renowned author and ragamuffin Brennan Manning presents a love story for the brokenhearted. For those who are burdened by heavy religion. For those who feel they can never measure up. It is a provocative and poignant look at the radical, no-holds-barred love of our Heavenly Father. It is a message that will forever change how you view God.

    It is we who have gone out for a walk." --Meister EckhartInComing Home to Your True Self, Albert Haase invites you to return home--and shows you the way to get there. "Home," he writes, "is the sacrament of the present moment. It is only living right now, right here, that we discover our lives and this world awash in the grace of God." Using the story of the prodigal son to illustrate the far country of our false self and the way back home to our true self in Christ, Haase introduces us to the spiritual disciplines that can help us find the path home to the Father. Rich with insights from Haase's experience as a spiritual director, this is a book for the weary, the lost, the regretful and guilty--essentially, a book for us all. No matter how long you've walked, God is still home.

    In the church, we’re not doing much better. On one hand, we give side hugs or instate six-inch rules. On the other, we find out—almost daily—about sexual misconduct, affairs, and abuse inflicted within our own walls.   Singles are staying single longer, dating is wrought with angst over purity, and marriages struggle to not interpret all forms of touch as sexual. We can’t even talk about touching our own bodies without the underlying assumption that it must be sexual. There is simply no place in our culture—and in the church—where touch doesn’t seem threatened or threatening.    In the laws within the Old Testament, there is a form of one statement made 38 times: “Do not touch.” Everything seems off-limits to the people of God. But a curious thing happens in the New Testament when Jesus comes into his ministry: He touches. Jesus touches the sick and the outcasts, the bleeding and the unclean.   What could it mean for families, singles, marriages, churches, communities, and the world to have healthy, pure, faithful, ministering touch? Somewhere in the mess of our assumptions and fears about touch, there is something beautiful and good and God-given. As Jesus can show us, there is ministry in touching.

    The soul is the key to our lives, binding our heart, our mind, and our spirit together. Shouldn't you get pretty clear on exactly what the soul is? And how to care for it? Taken from John Ortberg's book Soul Keeping, this booklet reveals what the soul's greatest need is, now and for eternity.Have you ever thought about why your soul is hurting and if that could be standing in the way of your spiritual growth? Ortberg writes that once your soul has been properly cared for, you will find your way back to God from hopelessness, depression, relationship struggles, and lack of fulfillment. Jesus said we could find rest for our souls. Ortberg points us in that direction.

    No man is free from exposure to it. So how can every man fight to get his dignity back? How can men band together to stop playing defense and start playing offense against the industry creating porn?The Death of Porn is a series of personal letters to young men, calling an entire generation to believe in their God-given royalty and to push back against the degrading porn industry. As men walk together in honesty, prayer, and activism, they can diminish the industry, pushing it out to the margins of culture, stigmatizing its image, choking its demand, calling its bluff, and reducing its income. Men standing together to lead the movement as champions of nobility can build a new world where all people are dignified as never before.

    It seems simple, but we are experts at complicating simple things. Instead of living lives characterized by love we find ourselves trapped in cycles of shame, violence, and addiction that steal our joy and keep us from loving others--so much so that, by all indications, Christians are living no differently than anyone else when it comes to abuse rates, use of pornography, alcohol and drug addiction, and more. Christian psychiatrist Dr. Timothy Jennings wants to release us from this prison. With powerful illustrations from case studies and from Scripture, Jennings shows believers who are stuck in addiction, violence, fear, and broken relationships how to experience true freedom through God's transforming love to experience greater health, fulfillment, and well-being.

    How do you stay open about your faith in the face of potential ridicule? A must-read for every college student, "How to Stay Christian in College" will guide you through the maze of campus realities, including dating, sex, honesty, and more.

    Love is one of God's most important gifts to anyone, yet there are many misunderstandings about how to make love work in our families, friendships, marriages and dating relationships. In Loving People, best-selling author Dr. John Townsend shows you that love can actually be learned, and gives you the steps and tools to become skilled in love.Using his trademark stories and illustrations to flesh out the important principles, Dr. Townsend covers: receiving love connecting love healing love confronting love romantic love surrendering loveThrough his teaching, readers will discover - and start enjoying - the words, actions, and experiences of authentic love."

    That evening, he asked his sister to smuggle in a bottle of gin, and gave in to addiction.But whether or not you've ever had a drop to drink in your life, we're all looking for ways to stop the pain. Like Seth, we're all seeking balms for the anxiety of what sometimes seems to be an absent, unresponsive God—whether it's through people-pleasing, shopping, the internet, food, career highs, or even good works and elite theology. We attempt to anesthetize our anxiety through addiction—any old addiction. But it often leaves us feeling even more empty than before.In Coming Clean, Seth Haines writes a raw account of his first 90 days of sobriety, illuminating how to face the pain we'd rather avoid, and even more importantly, how an abiding God meets us in that pain. Seth shows us that true wholeness is found in facing our pain and anxieties with the tenacity and tenderness of Jesus, and only through Christ's passion can we truly come clean

    That night, something impossible happened up on that mountain. Eternity broke through...Kathy and Joni were neighbors who became best friends as the years passed, and their children grew. Kathy, and her physicist husband Frank, held a pure allegiance to science. Joni and I held only a bold belief in God. Then came the fire.The last six cataclysmic days of October 2003 brought human tragedies in greater number than any firestorm in San Diego's history. Thousands of firefighters drove into the enormous inferno to defend what they could, but nothing could stop that fire. That night, as legions of horrified homeowners fled for their lives, flames the size of skyscrapers began burning directly below Kathy and Frank's five acre horse ranch. With the situation becoming more hopeless by the minute, Joni and our 9-year-old daughter each prayed for a miracle. On Tuesday evening October 28th, 2003, high up in the Cuyamaca Mountains of San Diego, deep within the fiery furnace of the Cedar Fire, there was a colossal manifestation of God's presence. It transformed all of our lives. Both families were shaken by what we saw— it staggered every one of us—believer, and nonbeliever alike. It will be the same for you should you decide to come along..."There are no words to describe how this book affected me. If you are a believer then this book will only reinforce that Miracles do happen everyday and that God is always not only with us but listening to our prayers. If you are a non believer then you should read this and see if you can explain the unexplainable.""Love True Stories, especially when they are about miracles of God. A simple BEAUTIFUL read. Happy ending. God is GOOD""Amazing story, and it's true! I could hardly put it down...cried, laughed, cheered all the way through. It's extremely well written.""All I can say is this is a wonderful true story! A must read for everyone, not just believers!""I cried and cried as I read this powerful true story. If you are in need of encouragement to give you hope on the journey that The Lord has called you on, this book will certainly be beneficial. I highly recommend it.""If you don't believe in miracles, read this book. If you believe in miracles, read this book. An incredible story of faith, prayer, and God's sovereign power over nature.""A powerful, awe inspiring book. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is almighty and is in control of all things. Glory to his name.""this book is a little slow at first but I can truly say that it changed my life. I am a Christian and have always believed in God's power and His miracles but I have never really seen or heard of any to this extent. God is real and He is in control of everything. Thank you Greg for writing this book.....I really needed it. Especially now.""I've read hundreds of books of all kinds and this is clearly one of the best and most interesting books I have read in years.""I loved it from start to finish, kept me reading and finished it in 2 days, I loved this book.""This is a must read for any one who is willing to open their mind to how great God is and how great His love is. This is a true story that boggles the mind when God does something that there is no explanation of how He did it nor any natural explanation of of how it could have happened. If you are looking for proof that there is a God and that He works in the affairs of mankind then read this book."

    In a moment of desperation, he cries out for God to show up and surprise him, and over the next year, God doesn't disappoint.In Jesus is Better Than You Imagined, Jonathan shares vulnerable, never-before-shared stories of how he learned to encounter Jesus in unexpected ways. Through a 60-hour vow of silence in a desert monastery, he experiences Jesus in silence. When a friend dies of a rare disease, he sees Jesus in tragedy. Through confronting childhood sexual abuse, Jonathan discovers Jesus in honesty. In an anti-Christian-themed bar, he finds Jesus in sacrilege. And when he's almost kidnapped in Haiti by armed bandits, he experiences Jesus in the impossible.Though Merritt finds himself in places he never dreamed of, he doesn't lose his way. Instead, these experiences force him back to the Bible, where he repeatedly offers fresh, sometimes provocative, interpretations of familiar passages. Along the way, he throws back the covers on the sleepy faith of many Christians, urging them to search for the Holy in their midst.Pointed and poignant by turns, Jonathan helps readers open their hearts to a mysterious God and a faith that sustains, guides, and most importantly, surprises. His fearlessly honest story invites us all to discover the messy mercy and crazy grace of a sometimes startling Savior.

      We need answers—not statistics. We need to understand and hear from people who are leaving church so we can find a way to turn around the trend. This book uses in-depth sociological research to get to the heart of the issue. The data is collected from interviews with real people about why they left and who they really are. These aren’t the “nones” who have no religious affiliation. They’re the “dones” who’ve been faithfully serving in local churches for years. This is their story.