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.

    The problem is, this struggle often involved a great deal of confusion and worry." ?Chuck SwindollMany people have the idea that if they could just somehow find that single planned direction, they would be effortlessly swept through life. But life is not like that. Probably the most misunderstood factor of discovering God's will is the thought that, If I do this, the struggles will end, the questions are over, the answers come, and I live hapily ever after. But that's not reality.Does that mean that God's will must remain opaque to us?that we must muddle and grope blindly through life with no clue to what He wants for us? "Not at all," says Charles Swindoll.In this groundbreaking book, Swindoll invites us to join him on a spiritual quest. "I believe God's will for us in this life is not some black-and-white objective designed to take us to an appointed destination here on earth as much as it is about the journey itself . . . and what matters to Him in our lives."The Mystery of God's Will overflows with practical insights, humor, and unforgettable stories that will de-mystify, clarify, and put your mind at ease.

      “Beauty begins. That’s the point of this book. Our understanding of beauty got started somewhere and somehow, and probably due to someone. Now that may have been a good start, but then again it may not have. But regardless of what your past looks like, we want to offer up this word of hope: it’s never too late to make peace with your reflection.”   We live in a culture that’s obsessed with beauty. Walk by any magazine stand, turn on a television, or visit the local shopping mall, and you’ll be bombarded with the images and ideals that our culture believes are the epitome of what it means to be beautiful. And if you’re like most women, you’ve probably spent countless hours trying to measure up to this standard of beauty whether you realize it or not.  But if you don’t make peace with your reflection, you’ll end up declaring war on yourself.   That’s where mother-daughter team, Chris and Megan Shook, want to help. In Beauty Begins, they explore the origins of beauty (hint, it didn’t start with a fashion magazine) and challenge each of us to trade the pressure of perfection for God's perfect love.   Poignant, relevant, and relatable, Beauty Begins is for every woman who wants to reclaim what it means to be truly beautiful.  Do you feel beautiful?  When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Others may tell you that you’re beautiful, but do you believe them? Why not? Don’t let another day go by without believing and knowing that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.   It’s time for you to exchange society’s cookie-cutter suggestions for what is beautiful and instead discover and reclaim what true beauty looks like – and the One who created it. In Beauty Begins, Chris and Megan Shook share with you their own experiences and struggles with appearance and body image, as well as equip you with the wisdom to distinguish what’s artificial beauty and what’s real. Filled with heartfelt encouragement, insightful challenges, and undeniable truth, after reading Beauty Begins, you’ll never look in the mirror the same way again.

    But what causes the fervor of those experiences to translate into a consistent life pattern?Pastor and author James MacDonald believes that the better we understand God, the better we understand ourselves, and the less likely we are to favor our own will over God's. He writes, "God is not safe and He will not be squeezed into some neat, respectable Sunday discussion... No. To know God at all is to watch Him explode any box we put Him in with His terror, majesty, and indescribable wonder.'"Expounding upon Isaiah's encounters with God, MacDonald prods snoozing saints to rediscover the wonder of God's attributes. He also shares candidly from his experiences in life and ministry where God proved Himself to be the Great I AM.This book will spur new and seasoned believers alike to detest mediocrity in their spiritual walks. Ideal for individual or small group study.

    This beloved psalm can breathe new life into women who are weary and unsure of their next steps. It's more than a psalm that comforts in death; it gives confidence in life.In this 7-session study by Jennifer Rothschild, gain fresh insight and encouragement from Psalm 23. Explore the depths of God's compassionate care while debunking the self-reliance myth. Learn how your vulnerability is not a liability because you can trust the Shepherd's goodness throughout each season of life.Features: Leader helps to guide questions and discussions within small groupsPersonal study segments to complete between 7 weeks of group sessionsSeven teaching videos, approximately 25-30 minutes per session, available for purchase or rentBenefits: Explore the depths of God's compassionate care.Trade the myth of self-reliance for the truth of God's providence.Learn to view your vulnerability as a strength essential to relying on God.Banish fear as you trust the Shepherd's goodness in every season of life.

    Its much-needed message remains strong and hopeful in an age when doing whatever "feels right" is common practice. Using her own life as an example, Elisabeth Elliot guides singles of both genders and of any age on how to put their love lives under the authority of Jesus Christ. Passion and Purity covers dating issues such as: -how to know which person is the right one to marry-loving passionately while remaining sexually pure-the man's and woman's role in relationships-putting God's desires ahead of personal desires-how far is too far, physically This best-selling book now has a new cover, an updated interior design, and a foreword from popular author Joshua Harris. Quest for Love will be redesigned in a similar manner to help readers identify the books as a pair. While Passion and Purity shares the love story of Elisabeth and Jim, Quest for Love is a compilation of stories on how other men and women discovered love through God's direction. Together, these two remarkable books accentuate our need to commit daily to Christ all matters of the heart and to wait on his timing.

    The forgiven life. The grace-filled life. It begins with an embrace. Wherever you are spiritually, whatever you have been through emotionally, you are already enfolded in the arms of One who believes in you, supports you, treasures you.He is waiting for you to embrace him in return. To accept the gift he's offering you. To listen for the whispered words you've longed a lifetime to hear: You are loved. All is forgiven.

    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.

    TOC:Beholding God: The great attraction! --Beholding God: Clearing the way for our return --Beholding God in the Bible --Beholding God in the face of Jesus Christ --Beholding God in the work of salvation --Beholding God and the response of personal holiness --Beholding God: Restoring worship in our lives --Beholding God and evangelism --Beholding God and our Christian service --Beholding a lesser God? --Beholding God: Avoiding the lies of pragmatism --Seeking the God we are beholding --Appendices: Theological dictionary --Suggested reading.

    But many churches tend to be extroverted places where introverts are marginalized. Some Christians end up feeling like it's not as faithful to be an introvert. Adam McHugh shows how introverts can live and minister in ways consistent with their personalities. He explains how introverts and extroverts process information and approach relationships differently and how introverts can practice Christian spirituality in ways that fit who they are. With practical illustrations from church and parachurch contexts, McHugh offers ways for introverts to serve, lead, worship and even evangelize effectively. Introverts in the Church is essential reading for any introvert who has ever felt out of place, as well as for church leaders who want to make their churches more welcoming to introverts. Discover God's call and empowering to thrive as an introvert, for the sake of the church and kingdom.

    Sarah Bessey was in her sweet spot: a popular author, sought-after speaker and preacher, and an active and engaged mother of four, married to the love of her life. Raised within the Word of Faith and prosperity movements, which declared that obedience to God led to untold blessings, her life seemed to prove the preachers of her childhood were right. Then she was in a car accident with life-shattering consequences, and everything she thought she knew about God and faith was upended.Weaving together theology and memoir in her trademark narrative style, Sarah tells us the whole story of the car accident that changed her body and ultimately changed her life. The road of healing leads to Rome where she met the Pope (it’s complicated) and encountered the Holy Spirit in the last place she expected. She writes about her miraculous healing, learning to live with chronic pain, and the ways God unexpectedly makes us whole in the midst of suffering. She invites us to a path of knowing God that is filled with ordinary miracles, hope in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, surprising holiness, and other completely reasonable things.Insightful, profound, and unexpected, Miracles and Other Reasonable Things is a wild spirit-filled story of what it means to live with both grief and faith in our hands as we wrestle with God.

    Because many of us have set aside hope and the inspired imagination that drives it, Dekker says we have been lulled into a slumber of boredom, even despondency. Our faith wanes, the joy at having been liberated fades, and we feel powerless. "The Slumber of Christianity" explores what robs us of happiness and how we can rediscover it and live lives that rekindle hope. The pursuit of pleasure is a gift to all humans-a function of the Creator himself, who is bent upon our happiness.It's time for Christians to reclaim our inheritance of pleasure. "The Slumber of Christianity" will inflame hearts toward full-fledged, mind-expanding encounters with hope, through the imagination. "

    She felt like a single parent raising her four young daughters alone. She finally told her husband, “I quit,” and left the thriving church he pastored, beginning a journey that transformed her and her marriage for the better.In The Emotionally Healthy Woman, Geri provides you a way out of an inauthentic, superficial spirituality to genuine freedom in Christ. This book is for every woman who thinks, “I can’t keep pretending everything is fine!”The journey to emotional health begins by quitting. Geri quit being afraid of what others think. She quit lying. She quit denying her anger and sadness. She quit living someone else’s life. When you quit those things that are damaging to your soul or the souls of others, you are freed up to choose other ways of being and relating that are rooted in love and lead to life.When you quit for the right reasons, at the right time, and in the right way, you’re on the path not only to emotional health, but also to the true purpose of your life. "QUITTING WILL SET YOU FREE!Not a typical message heard in the church today, especially among 'nice, Christian women," but one that has been needed for years! By refusing to cling to a shell of pretension, the true freedom of our new lives in Christ is realized, and Geri shows us how. A fast, informed read, this book breaks down the walls of the false ideals we cling to in and shows us that by quitting these idols, we re-discover God's love. I was supposed to read this book. I needed to read this book. Thank you, Geri."Kim de Blecourt, Short-term Adventure Specialist with Food for Orphans and author of "Until We All Come Home: A Harrowing Journey, a Mother's Courage, a Race to Freedom"

    But you don't think you have the time or ability. Along comes Reach Out. Gather In.Through devotionals and practical tips, New York Times bestselling author Karen Ehman will inspire you to put love into action in this 40-day journey of hospitality. Karen will help you with the how to and why of reaching out to others in meaningful ways. This book--part devotional, part practical handbook--will help you find loving ways to feed both the bodies and souls of the people whom God has placed in your life. In Reach Out. Gather In., Karen will share- some of her favorite recipes and hospitality traditions- ideas for menu planning and themed gatherings- sorta-from-scratch shortcuts for busy days when you need something delicious in a snap- motivating stories and biblical inspiration- space for answering reflective questions so you can journal your own 40-day excursion- sidebars on decluttering and cleaning strategiesThis beautiful book highlights the why of hospitality, so that your home and life will grow to be a place where the gospel is displayed, drawing others closer to Christ and making a difference for eternity.

    Lose It for Life is a uniquely balanced program that not only deals with the physical issues of overeating but also focuses on the emotional, mental, and often-missed spiritual factors related to weight loss to help readers achieve permanent results.