But grace can.You already know because you’ve tried: repeated attempts to earn God’s love and approval get you nowhere and leave you exhausted. When performance taints our relationship with him, the Christian life can turn into an unholy hustle. It was never meant to be like this.In Saving the Saved, Pastor Bryan Loritts reveals the astonishing truth that God doesn’t want your spiritual scorekeeping. He simply wants your surrender. The punchline of the gospel of Matthew is just that—a message of grace and performance-free love to do-good, try-harder Jews who thought they had to earn their way into God’s favor. It’s an ancient message, yet it can be a lifeline to us today as we live in a world of performance metrics. Just as Matthew wrote to the Jews in his gospel, we were never meant to flounder under the pressures and anxieties of show Christianity. Make no mistake: we are called to live in obedience, but Jesus wants us to save us from the illusion that our actions can ever earn God’s acceptance of us.In Pastor Bryan’s relevant, uncompromising style, Saving the Saved proclaims the good news that once the pressure is off to perform, we are free to abide. Beyond the man-made rules and the red tape, there is a God who knows you by name. Come and meet him as you’ve never known him before.

    Simple Evangelism offers practical ways to connect people to God's amazing love. With three decades of outreach leadership, Kevin Harney provides tools that free you to set fear aside and walk boldly into the adventure of evangelism.

    Inside the Red Letter Challenge (RLC) workbook is everything you need to go on a 40-day life-changing discipleship experience. Unlike any other workbook, this workbook is filled with innovative exercises, engaging images, and a space to journal, scribble, and draw your discoveries. The RLC is unique because it takes Christ’s literal words and gives you practical daily challenges based on those words. The RLC will give you targets to shoot for to help you measure how you are practically following after Him. RLC believes that Jesus followers want to be the best Jesus followers that we can be not out of obligation, but out of gratitude for what Jesus has done for us! Do you have what it takes to really follow Jesus? To truly do what He said? I believe you do! The RLC will help you: 1) Have a deeper relationship with Jesus. 2) Receive God’s forgiveness in your life and give grace to others. 3) Give you a greater heart of service. 4) Help you become more generous. 5) Give you confidence to speak about what Jesus has done in your life. Ready to take the challenge?

    We grow up on a steady diet of fairy-tales and chick flicks that drive our dreams... and leave us with a sugarcoated version of reality. We want it all: the prince, the kiss, the proposal, the ring, the castle, and eventually, the kids in smocked rompers playing cheerfully on the perfectly manicured lawn. Our hopes and dreams are pinned on the world’s version of happily-ever-after.The problem is, the fairy-tales and chick flicks end where real life begins. We never see that follow-up scene where the prince and princess argue at 3 a.m. over who will get up with the colicky newborn. Or the princess reluctantly returns to work to help pay the bills and feels the stress of juggling work and family. And you certainly won’t see that part where the princess moves her last child into the dorm and realizes the bulk of her identity has been based on being a mother.The truth is, marriage and motherhood are hard. Few of us are prepared to handle the balancing act of being a good wife and a good mother, without one or the other getting the short end of the stick. No matter how much we give or how hard we try, we never quite feel like it’s enough. And heaven help us, we always imagine every one else is doing a much better job.In Ever After, best-selling author Vicki Courtney addresses the realities of marriage and motherhood, the difficulties and the blessings. It offers women a behind the scenes glimpse of what a fairy-tale really looks like on the average day for the average wife and mom. Poignant, funny, and even cathartic, Vicki shares mistakes made, lessons learned, and memories to keep. Most of all, she reflects the hope and promise that God meets us in the middle wherever we are in the journey.

    It's the only book specifically for parents that reveals the unseen forces that shape every interaction with your kids.- Identify which of the five love styles you have. - Discover the surprising dynamics that shape your parenting. - Get rid of your "buttons" so your kids can't push them. - Create a close connection with your kids that will last a lifetime. - Learn the seven gifts every child needs.Based on years of research in the area of attachment and bonding, How We Love Our Kids shows parents how to overcome the predictable challenges that arise out of the five love styles and helps parents cultivate a secure, deep connection with a child of any age. Retool your reactions and refocus on how you love. Start today. Watch your kids flourish and thrive as they receive what was missing in your love.With four self-assessments and powerful application tools to use with children of all ages.

    Yet often our most deeply felt longings—for meaning, for love, for significance—end up leading us away from, instead of toward, our Creator and the person he made us to be.  Finding Your Way Back to God shows you how to understand and listen to your longings in a whole new way. It’s about waking up to who you really are, and daring to believe that God wants to be found even more than you want to find him. It’s about making the biggest wager of your life as you ask God to make himself known to you. And it’s about watching what happens next.

    It is not, however, out of reach. The ability to identify the main themes of any passage is a skill you can learn, even as you seek to apply its truth to your own life. Covenant and Kingdom: The DNA of the Bible guides you on a Scriptural quest for knowledge and understanding. Stories and verse from the Old and New Testaments are woven together and cross-referenced, until the connections are clear and indisputable, like DNA from the Bible. Although the great Biblical themes of Covenant and Kingdom find their fullest expression in Jesus, Covenant goes all the way back to the beginning, when the only thing required was to maintain the "oneness" that God had created. After the Fall, the way was blocked; yet, God built a bridge, in Covenant, back to us. In Jesus, that Covenant was fulfilled, as on the cross, he offered himself as the ultimate blood sacrifice. The Bible is about God, our Father, inviting us to know him in a very real and personal way.Covenant and Kingdom: The DNA of the Bible provides guidance to the path of understanding that it will take to develop, to the fullest, your own individual relationship with God.

    Michael L. Brown's groundbreaking works are ready to challenge a new generation of Christians to combat the status quo of a compromised church and a godless society.Have you ever wondered why you rarely-if ever-see the kinds of miracles today that were so common in the Bible? "Whatever Happened to the Power of God?" explores why so few of the seriously ill are healed, why apparent encounters with God's supernatural power so rarely change lives, and why spiritual warfare seems to have little effect on society. This book asks the questions you have always wanted to ask and confronts you with answers that will change your life. Find out what's holding back the power of God!In "It's Time to Rock the Boat," Dr. Brown reveals the biblical pattern for changing society through preaching a confrontational gospel. The Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles, John the Baptist, and Jesus the Messiah Himself were not content to let society be dragged down by its sinful and destructive elements-they took a stand against an onslaught of degradation and made waves that rocked the world! God is calling each of us to be part of that world-shaking movement. It's time!

    T. Wright, are the very echoes of a voice we dimly perceive but deeply long to hear. In fact, these questions take us to the heart of who God is and what He wants from us.For two thousand years, Christianity has claimed to solve these mysteries, and this renowned biblical scholar and Anglican bishop shows that it still can today. Not since C. S. Lewis's classic summary of the faith, Mere Christianity, has such a wise and thorough scholar taken the time to explain to anyone who wants to know what Christianity really is and how it is practiced. Wright makes the case for Christian faith from the ground up, assuming that the reader has no knowledge of (and perhaps even some aversion to) religion in general and Christianity in particular.Simply Christian walks the reader through the Christian faith step by step and question by question. With simple yet exciting and accessible prose, Wright challenges skeptics by offering explanations for even the toughest doubt-filled dilemmas, leaving believers with a reason for renewed faith. For anyone who wants to travel beyond the controversies that can obscure what the Christian faith really stands for, this simple book is the perfect vehicle for that journey.

    This book helps readers match who they are--their unique spiritual gifts, passions, temperament, talents, and leadership style--with the ministry area for which God designed them. A practical guide, it takes dedicated Christians step by step through the process of reaching their full potential for Christ's kingdom. This new edition of Maximizing Your Effectiveness puts multiple tools, inventories, and worksheets in the hands of readers to empower them to minister according to God's unique design and purpose for their lives.

    These blessings have the power to resurrect your dead marriage, bring supernatural joy, and provide you peace of mind.”For God’s people, prophecy is a word of hope, deliverance, bounty, and richness for their life and family. When God blesses man, it is to bestow good health, abundant success, and prosperity, both materially and spiritually. Hagee shows how this powerful prophetic message of blessing flows throughout the Bible and can be used today to create an abundant and prosperous life. The Power of the Prophetic Blessing demonstrates your God-given power to prosper in challenging times. You were born to be blessed!

    But what about the rest of us? Other Christians, including introverted, reflective people, are left with feelings of guilt and fear and the desire to become more outgoing. The problem, says Mike Bechtle, is not their personality, but that they've been taught methods of evangelism that push them too far out of their comfort zone.In Evangelism for the Rest of Us, Bechtle shows readers how to share their faith in more comfortable ways by helping them discover and define their unique strengths within their personality type. With fresh, biblical insight, this much-needed resource renews a passion for sharing Christ with others, because telling the Good News does not have to be so intimidating.

    Change your heart, and you'll change your life.According to best-selling author Dr. Gary Smalley, nobody has to live by the destructive subtle lies or believe the distortions of truth this world holds out to us. There are steps, strategies, and beliefs people can bring to their lives to either totally transform them or quietly improve them-and it all starts with hiding God's Word in their hearts.Hiding God's Word in his heart radically changed the life of Smalley himself, and he is seeing it revolutionize the lives of people around him as well-from lust, materialism, selfishness, anger, stress, overeating, anxiety, and guilt, just to name a few. No matter a person's age, experiences, or previous patterns, this book will guide readers to the whys and hows of orchestrating their beliefs to forever change their lives and relationships.

    Too many growing up in Christian homes will not follow Christ as adults. Do you have a strategy for parenting in today's hostile culture?The Disciple-Making Parent will give you confidence in your journey.In the Disciple-Making Parent you will learn: The North Star to Guide Your Parenting The Process Second-Generation Christians Go Through The Reasons Young People Walk Away from the Faith Nine Powerful Influences Found in Wise Families How Your Example Can Commend the Gospel What Your Children are Watching at Home How to Explain Hypocrisy to Them Why the Heart is the Most Important Part of Them (and How to Stay Connected How Discipline Prepares Them for the Gospel How To Clearly Explain the Gospel to Little Children How to Nourish Them with the Word of God Different Ways to Have Family Devotions (and When to Stop) How to Cast a Vision of the World How to Pray for Your Children (and for Yourself) The Doubts Your Children Will Experience and What You Can Do How to Deal with the Electronics and Media Tsunami And Much More