Book picks similar to
Loving My Actual Christmas: An Experiment in Relishing the Season by Alexandra Kuykendall
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Stuff Christians Like
Jonathan Acuff - 2010
Sometimes, you have to shot block a friend’s prayer because she’s asking God to bless an obviously bad dating relationship. Sometimes, you think, “I wish I had a t-shirt that said ‘I direct deposit my tithe’ so people wouldn’t judge me.” Sometimes, the stuff that comes with faith is funny. This is that stuff. Jonathan Acuff’s Stuff Christians Like is your field guide to all things Christian. In it you’ll learn the culinary magic of the crock-pot. Think you’ve got a Metro worship leader—Use Acuff’s checklist. Want to avoid a prayer handholding faux pas? Acuff has you covered. Like a satirical grenade, Acuff brings us the humor and honesty that galvanized more than a million online readers from more than 200 countries in a new portable version. Welcome to the funny side of faith.
Girls with Swords: Why Women Need to Fight Spiritual Battles
Lisa Bevere - 2013
Yet the Word of God is a sword we often are more comfortable studying than wielding. It’s time we give girls swords and watch them connect heaven to earth. Worldwide, women are the targets of prejudice, sex trafficking, abuse, and even gendercide. Lisa Bevere writes that these attacks say more about who women might be in the future than who they have been in the past. In Girls with Swords she explains a spiritual enemy is seeking to disarm women on every level. It’s time women become the heroes God created them to be and stand—courageous, discerning, forgiving, and wise. Creatively forging the imagery of swords, the Word of God, and the Cross, Girls with Swords will teach you: • How to speak the language of heaven on earth • What it means to intercede • What it means to carry your cross • What it means to be discerning • How to disarm the enemy • Why women are the enemy’s target—and why God needs them to be heroes It’s time to take up your sword and be a hero.
Freely and Lightly: An Invitation to Embrace Who You Are, Delight in Jesus, and Abound in Quiet Confidence
Emily Lex - 2021
This job is not as fulfilling as I dreamed. My marriage is not making me happy. I have a closet full of clothes with nothing to wear. I didn’t know parenthood was this hard. I don’t know who I am or who God is anymore.I’m dizzy, but if I stop for a second, the spinning plates will all come crashing down. If you find yourself dissatisfied, disappointed, or discouraged with life, you’re not alone. Prolific blogger and watercolor artist Emily Lex invites you to reclaim your God-given identity. Using Scripture from the book of Matthew to light the way along a path to a more vibrant and unhindered life, Emily shares stories of how she found recovery, rest, and refreshment at the feet of Jesus, and inspires you to do the same. This thoughtfully written and beautifully illustrated and packaged collection of essays will help you experience a profound sense of freedom, confidence, peace, and harmony, as you accept the gifts that God has already given you and become who He created you to be.If you long for a life that is unburdened and abundant, you can find it in Jesus. Will you accept His gracious invitation?
Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live.
David Platt - 2013
As a result, churches today are filled with people who believe they are Christians . . . but aren’t. We want to be disciples as long as doing so does not intrude on our lifestyles, our preferences, our comforts, and even our religion.Revealing a biblical picture of what it means to truly be a Christian, Follow Me explores the gravity of what we must forsake in this world, as well as the indescribable joy and deep satisfaction to be found when we live for Christ.The call to follow Jesus is not simply an invitation to pray a prayer; it’s a summons to lose your life—and to find new life in him. This book will show you what such life actually looks like.
Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession
Anne Rice - 2008
Begins with her childhood in NewOrleans, when she seriously considered entering a convent. As she grewinto a young adult she delved into concerns about faith, God, and theCatholic Church that led her away from religion. The author finallyreclaimed her Catholic faith in the late 1990s, realizing howmuch she desired to surrender her being, including herwriting talent, to God. Author: Anne Rice Format: 256 pages, hardcover, 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches Publisher: Random House ISBN: 9780307268273
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife
Eben Alexander - 2012
Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander knew that NDEs feel real, but are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.Then, Dr. Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness. The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion—and in essence makes us human—shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back.Alexander’s recovery is a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself.Alexander’s story is not a fantasy. Before he underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. Today Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.This story would be remarkable no matter who it happened to. That it happened to Dr. Alexander makes it revolutionary. No scientist or person of faith will be able to ignore it. Reading it will change your life.
Breaking Busy: How to Find Peace and Purpose in a World of Crazy
Alli Worthington - 2016
With refreshing candor, uproarious true stories, and a Christian worldview, Alli delivers truths that dismantle common happiness myths. Then she empowers listeners to get unstuck, to let go of the good to make way for the great, to know themselves and their Creator, and ultimately to find peace and purpose in this world of crazy.Learn how to stop chasing what leaves you empty and start doing what you were created to do. Identify the common lies you believe and how to strip their power from your life. Recognize how what you say no to determines what you can say yes to. With relatable anecdotes, Alli models for listeners real-life guidance on boundaries, relationships, and self-care, humbly examining her own mistakes and walking them through how she learned from her missteps and found peace in a world of busyness.If you long to find real connection in an age of over-connectedness, with both your loved ones and your Creator, Alli Worthington deftly balances intelligent humility and heartwarming humor to help you rediscover your path.
Gift from the Sea
Anne Morrow Lindbergh - 1955
Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, Lindbergh’s musings on the shape of a woman’s life bring new understanding to both men and women at any stage of life. A mother of five, an acclaimed writer and a pioneering aviator, Lindbergh casts an unsentimental eye on the trappings of modernity that threaten to overwhelm us: the time-saving gadgets that complicate rather than simplify, the multiple commitments that take us from our families. And by recording her thoughts during a brief escape from everyday demands, she helps readers find a space for contemplation and creativity within their own lives.With great wisdom and insight Lindbergh describes the shifting shapes of relationships and marriage, presenting a vision of life as it is lived in an enduring and evolving partnership. A groundbreaking, best-selling work when it was originally published in 1955, Gift from the Sea continues to be discovered by new generations of readers. With a new introduction by Lindbergh’s daughter Reeve, this fiftieth-anniversary edition will give those who are revisiting the book and those who are coming upon it for the first time fresh insight into the life of this remarkable woman.The sea and the beach are elements that have been woven throughout Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s life. She spent her childhood summers with her family on a Maine island. After her marriage to Charles Lindbergh in 1929, she accompanied him on his survey flights around the North Atlantic to launch the first transoceanic airlines. The Lindberghs eventually established a permanent home on the Connecticut coast, where they lived quietly, wrote books and raised their family.After the children left home for lives of their own, the Lindberghs traveled extensively to Africa and the Pacific for environmental research.
Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God
Dallas Willard - 1984
It is this second half of our conversation with God that is so important but that can also be so difficult. How do we hear his voice? How can we be sure that what we think we hear is not our own subconscious? What role does the Bible play? What if what God says to us is not clear? The key, says best-selling author Dallas Willard, is to focus not so much on individual actions and decisions as on building our personal relationship with our Creator. In this updated classic, originally published asIn Search of Guidance, the author provides rich spiritual insight into how we can hear God's voice clearly and develop an intimate partnership with him in the work of his kingdom.
Hello Mornings: How to Build a Grace-Filled, Life-Giving Morning Routine
Kat Lee - 2017
Join Kat Lee and thousands of women from countries around the world who have learned to maximize their mornings. In Hello Mornings, Kat introduces a simple yet powerful three-minute morning routine that integrates Bible study, planning, and fitness into a foundational morning habit that fits into every schedule. She then helps you build each of these core habits for life-long growth.Everyone can find three minutes. And instead of adding one more thing to the list, Hello Mornings lifts the weight off women by revealing a grace-filled way to establish a powerful morning routine that offersa simple way to incorporate the most-sought-after daily habits into a simple morning routine: God. Plan. Move.the latest research on habit formation and developmentpractical tools to help readers develop and grow their own personalized, adaptable plan for morningsstories of transformed mornings from women in every season and stage of lifeHello Mornings helps readers renovate their mornings to establish and grow a powerful daily routine—a long-term, Jesus-centered habit to anchor them in every season. Each morning can then become a launch pad into God’s amazing plan for their lives.
Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: A Memoir of Humor and Healing
Reba Riley - 2015
This was transformation by spiritual shock therapy. Reba would find peace and healing ... if the search didn't kill her first. During her spiritual sojourn without leaving home, Reba: Danced the disco in a Buddhist temple; Went to church in virtual reality, a movie theater, a drive-in bar, and a basement; Was interrogated about her sex life by Amish grandmothers; Got audited by Scientologists, mobbed by NPR junkies, and killed (almost); Fasted for thirty days without food - or wine, dammit!; Washed her lady parts in a mosque bathroom; Learned to meditate with an Urban Monk, sucked mud in a sweat lodge with a Suburban Shaman, and snuck into Yom Kippur with a fake grandpa; Discovered she didn't have to choose religion to choose God ... or good. For everyone who has ever needed healing of body or soul, this poignant, funny memoir reminds us all that transformation is possible, brokenness can be beautiful, and sometimes we have to get lost to get found.
Becoming Myself: Embracing God's Dream of You
Stasi Eldredge - 2013
We cannot heal ourselves. We cannot become ourselves by ourselves. But we are not by ourselves. The King of love wants to help us become. God desires to restore us—the real us. As he heals our inner life, he calls us to rise to the occasion of our lives. The most important journey any woman can take is the journey into becoming her true self through the love of God. It's a beautiful paradox. The more of God’s you become, the more yourself you become—the “self” he had in mind when he thought of you before the creation of the world. Discover your truest self—the woman God created you to be—in Becoming Myself.
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Richard Rohr - 2004
Richard Rohr seeks to help readers understand the tasks of the two halves of life and to show them that those who have fallen, failed, or gone down are the only ones who understand up. Most of us tend to think of the second half of life as largely about getting old, dealing with health issues, and letting go of life, but the whole thesis of this book is exactly the opposite. What looks like falling down can largely be experienced as falling upward. In fact, it is not a loss but somehow actually a gain, as we have all seen with elders who have come to their fullness.Explains why the second half of life can and should be full of spiritual richness Offers a new view of how spiritual growth happens?loss is gain Richard. Rohr is a regular contributing writer for Sojourners and Tikkun magazines This important book explores the counterintuitive message that we grow spiritually much more by doing wrong than by doing right.
The Pursuit of Holiness
Jerry Bridges - 1978
But holiness is something that is often missed in the Christian's daily life. According to author Jerry Bridges, that's because we're not exactly sure what our part in holiness is. In The Pursuit of Holiness, he helps us see clearly just what we should rely on God to do--and what we should accept responsibility for ourselves.
Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies about Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be
Rachel Hollis - 2018
Now comes her highly anticipated first book featuring her signature combination of honesty, humor, and direct, no-nonsense advice.Each chapter of Girl, Wash Your Face begins with a specific lie Hollis once believed that left her feeling overwhelmed, unworthy, or ready to give up. As a working mother, a former foster parent, and a woman who has dealt with insecurities about her body and relationships, she speaks with the insight and kindness of a BFF, helping women unpack the limiting mind-sets that destroy their self-confidence and keep them from moving forward.From her temporary obsession with marrying Matt Damon to a daydream involving hypnotic iguanas to her son's request that she buy a necklace to "be like the other moms," Hollis holds nothing back. With unflinching faith and tenacity, Hollis spurs other women to live with passion and hustle and to awaken their slumbering goals.