They've settled for salvation someday, not realizing they can experience a fuller life today."Many Christians share a secret. Few of us dare to speak it out loud, because doing so would feel like taking a slap at God--and it wouldn't make us look good either. Yet this secret is affecting us painfully on the inside every single day.Here it is: Believing in Jesus has left us disappointed.At one point we were thrilled and hopeful about living a life of trusting in Christ. But over time our experience has failed to live up to our expectations or make the difference we thought it would. So we've begun to think: "This can't be all there is to being a Christian."If that's what you've been thinking . . . you're right.No Easy Jesus holds the key to moving forward when you're bored, disillusioned, and beaten down by faith-as-usual. It's a clarion challenge to wake up each day and choose Jesus all over again; to make the tough, gritty choices that align your way with His and lead to true fullness of life. Because when you decided to follow Jesus, you didn't sign up for what was easiest--you signed up for what was best.

    Readers will recognize themselves in her struggles with faith, fundamentalism, relationships and navigating the post-college years. As a result, they will walk through their questions with a greater hope for the future and a renewed faith in the God who writes their story.

    And Satan knows how susceptible we are to these negative thoughts that leave us frustrated and feeling defeated. However, the time-honored practice of Christian meditation can help us find victory in these spiritual battles."Transforming Your Thought Life" offers guided meditations and personal examples that will help you train your mind to stay grounded in God's Word. Each chapter examines a particular kind of negative thought pattern and provides key Bible verses and prayers for standing strong against it. Day by day, as you hide God's Word in your heart and mind, you will move closer to the heart and mind of God.

    Internalizing society’s devaluation of the feminine, some women are killing their own natural impulses to pursue a feminist ideal that bears no relation to God’s good design. Other women struggle to conform to a fundamentalist, feminine caricature, which requires denying their full humanity and gifting.Defying both feminists and fundamentalists, Julie Roys reveals God’s true, affirming, and compelling vision for women, showing them how to reclaim what is uniquely feminine, and become healthy, balanced women of God.

    The thing is, instead of resulting in a sense of accomplishment, this limitlessness merely has us doing more and trying harder--leaving us depleted and dissatisfied. With life and faith. So Ashley Hales invites us to discover a better way: a more spacious life. Contrary to what we've believed, the good life we crave is not accomplished through unfettered options or even hustle and hurry. In fact, it can only be found in the confines of God's loving limits. Ashley helps us recognize that when we live within these limits, we discover a life filled with purpose, joy, and rest. This is the spacious life--finding true freedom within the good limits given to us by our good God.

    But if moms and dads view their role through the lens of God's grace, they will see that the gospel must first shape how they parent before they can effectively shape their children. In this highly practical book, Paul David Tripp unfolds a more biblical perspective on parenting than merely adhering to a list of rules. He lays out fourteen gospel-centered principles that will radically change the way parents think about what it means to raise up a child, informing everything they do as a parent.

    With no hiking experience to draw on, they embarked on a journey of physical challenge, discovering just how far they could push themselves. For Nathan a parallel journey took him inside himself. Having grown up in the shadow of a famous father, Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline, Nathan had a lot of questions about who his father really was. Would hiking open the door for him to get to know this distant figure? As the one-time experiment evolved into a decade of challenging hikes up Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, the Fourteeners, Nathan navigated his twenties--finishing college, choosing a career, a possible cross-country move, the early years of marriage and a major personal crisis. Along the way he would discover exactly what his father could offer him. This book also includes an afterword by Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline and coauthor of Longing for God.

    The daughter of a pastor whose church was located in a rough-and-tumble area of Brooklyn, she witnessed the ravaging effects of the streets on the lives of the most desperate—drug addicts, derelicts, and other destitute people. Yet her own home was a haven of warmth, filled with affection and love.Then something happened that tore her away from it. With the flip of a switch, Chrissy fell deeper and deeper into deception where haunting images and songs pointed to one thing—perfection. Longing to be the girl in the song, she became entangled in an obsessive relationship. Before long, secret after secret led her down the path to becoming someone she didn’t even recognize. Locked in to an impossible life, Chrissy found release from a surprising direction.Girl in the Song tells the gripping, true story of a young woman whose choices led her to despair and incredible triumph. More than the story of one lost girl, Chrissy’s experience points to the power of hope to lead us away from destructive relationships and into a life that just might end happily ever after.

    When she finally emerged from the coma, she recognized everyone in her life except her husband, Kim. Starting all over, they built a new love and dedicated their lives to each other all over again.

    One sunny day when she was able to go outside and play with her sisters, she fell three stories headfirst inside an old, hollowed-out tree, a fall that may well have caused death or paralysis. Implausibly, she survived without a scratch. While unconscious inside the tree, with rescue workers struggling to get to her, she visited heaven. After being released from the hospital, she defied science and was inexplicably cured of her chronic ailment. MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN will change how we look at the world around us and reinforce our belief in God and the afterlife.

    However, it focuses on one truth from the Bible that a person can take with them, think about, and apply all day long. Each devotional includes the verse from the Bible, a truth from that verse, and a response to pray back to God. The Daily Devotional Series: The Gospel of John gives readers a brief introduction into using The Daily Devotional Series, a synopsis of the Gospel of John, and then twenty-one brief devotionals that cover each of the twenty-one chapters in the Gospel. Enjoy taking one devotional a day as you work your way through the Gospel of John as part of the Daily Devotional Series and "wake up" to God's truths from His word.

    The stories in this book reaffirm that godwinks happen to everyone. We just need to learn how to see them, allow them to unfold, and accept them as direct, person-to-person communications from God to each of us. As you’ll see, those so-called coincidences that you’d been dismissing so easily really do mean something. And you need to pay attention. They are like unopened gifts that have been placed upon your doorstep. You will be amazed to read how every joy, every hurt, and every worry that happens to you has already been written about in the Bible. Godwink Stories simply draws upon the parallel between the stories of real people and God’s wisdom in the scriptures. Godwink Stories can be read in various ways. You can read the book cover to cover. Or follow along each week for a year. It’s also perfect to read for a pick-me-up story that fits your need of the day. Whether you’re looking for encouragement in a time of need or a story that speaks of joy, there’s a godwink story just for you. *** Godwink Stories offers weekly readings of godwinks and miracles to encourage and inspire you in every situation. These true stories— from ordinary people—provide Messages of “don’t give up” Heartfelt need for love and guidance Hope in the midst of medical crises “Just in time” moments Peace in times of sorrow Tender love stories Amazing answers to prayer

    Like many kids, Justin was bullied as a child, but had a dream that kept him going. Fueled by the anger he felt toward his tormenters, Justin trained hard and propelled his dream of becoming a UFC fighter into reality. But the pain from his childhood didn't dissipate and Justin fell into a spiral of depression and addiction, leading him on a path toward destruction. After getting kicked out of his training community, his career was in shambles and he had nowhere else to go, so Justin attended a men's retreat, and it was there he found God.As Justin began piecing his life back together, he joined several international mission trips that opened his eyes and his heart to a world filled with suffering deep in the jungle of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There he came across the Mbuti Pygmy tribe, a group of people persecuted by neighboring tribes and forced into slavery. His encounter with the Pygmy tribe left him wondering who was there to help them and in that moment Justin stepped out of the ring and into a fight for the forgotten.From cage fighter to freedom fighter, Justin's story is a deeply personal memoir with a bigger message about a quest, justice, and the amazing things that can happen when we relinquish our lives to God.

    Even in the questions. Even in the hurt."I want to believe, I want to have hope, but . . ." Pastor and bestselling author Craig Groeschel hears these words often and has asked them himself. We want to know God, feel his presence, and trust that he hears our prayers, but in the midst of great pain, we may wonder if he really cares about us. Even when we have both hope and hurt, sometimes it's the hurt that shouts the loudest.In Hope in the Dark, Groeschel explores the story of the father who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus, saying, "I believe! Help my unbelief!" In the man's sincere plea, Jesus heard the tension in the man's battle-scarred heart. He healed not only the boy but the father too, driving out the hopelessness that had overtaken him. He can do the same for us today.As Groeschel shares his pain surrounding the health challenges of his daughter, he acknowledges the questions we may ask in our own deepest pain:"Where was God when I was being abused?""Why was my child born with a disability?""Why did the cancer come back?""Why are all my friends married and I'm alone?"He invites us to wrestle with such questions as we ask God to honor our faith and heal our unbelief. Because in the middle of your profound pain, you long for authentic words of understanding and hope. You long to know that even in overwhelming reality, you can still believe that God is good.Hope in the Dark is also available in Spanish, Esperanza en la Oscuridad.

    But what about us? What of the wounds that keep us from living the life we want to live?In Tattered and Mended, readers walk through a gallery of reclaimed and restored art as well as broken and restored lives of those who have gone before us. With a gentle touch and personable wisdom, Cynthia Ruchti shows how even the most threadbare soul can once again find healing and hope.