Living Your Strengths
Albert L. Winseman - 2003
Even in a country as religious as the U.S., many people feel disengaged from their faith communities. More than half report that they really don't get the opportunity in their congregation to do what they do best. People just feel disconnected. Maybe it's because those faith communities make unwitting missteps: Pastors ask shy people to be greeters or recruit innately disorganized people to coordinate church events. The problem is simply this: Too many people's talents are going unappreciated. But it doesn't have to be this way. Living Your Strengths shows readers how to use their innate gifts to enrich their faith communities. The book — written by former pastors Albert Winseman and Curt Liesveld and Don Clifton, coauthor of the national bestseller Now, Discover Your Strengths — shows people how to identify and affirm their talents and how to use them for growth and service. Most importantly, Living Your Strengths helps people discover their true calling. The book includes an access code to take the CliftonStrengths assessment (formerly called Clifton StrengthsFinder) that reveals a reader’s top five talent themes. Spiritual enrichment begins with turning talents into strengths. Living Your Strengths is an indispensable guide to help readers to just that.
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.
Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness
Kathryn Greene-McCreight - 2006
With brutal honesty, she tackles often avoided topics such as suicide, mental hospitals, and shock therapy. Greene-McCreight offers the reader everything from poignant and raw glimpses into the mind of a mentally ill person to practical and forthright advice for their friends, family, and clergy. Her voice is a comfort to those who suffer from mental illness and an invaluable resource for those who love and support them.
Anxious for Nothing: God's Cure for the Cares of Your Soul
John F. MacArthur Jr. - 2006
So many things to worry about and so little time to worry! Christians obviously are not immune to the troubles of life, and when troubles do come, we're urged to rise above them and experience "peace that passes understanding." But how, in day-to-day life, does that really happen?While numerous books have been written on overcoming anxiety, "Anxious for Nothing" goes beyond pop psychology's temporary cures by returning us to our only true source of comfort and victory: Scripture.
I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations
Sarah Stewart Holland - 2019
People sitting together in pews every Sunday have started to feel like strangers, loved ones at the dinner table like enemies. Toxic political dialogue, hate-filled rants on social media, and agenda-driven news stories have become the new norm. It’s exhausting, and it’s too much.In I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening), two working moms from opposite ends of the political spectrum contend that there is a better way. They believe that we can choose to respect the dignity of every person, choose to recognize that issues are nuanced and can’t be reduced to political talking points, choose to listen in order to understand, choose gentleness and patience. Sarah from the left and Beth from the right invite those looking for something better than the status quo to pull up a chair and listen to the principles, insights, and practical tools they have learned hosting their fast-growing podcast Pantsuit Politics. As impossible as it might seem, people from opposing political perspectives truly can have calm, grace-filled conversations with one another—by putting relationship before policy and understanding before argument.
Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation
M. Robert Mulholland Jr. - 1993
Robert Mulholland Jr. defines spiritual formation. Compact and solid, this definition encompasses the dynamics of a vital Christian life and counters our culture's tendency to make spirituality a trivial matter or reduce it to a private affair between "me and Jesus." In Invitation to a Journey, Mulholland helps Christians new and old to understand that we become like Christ gradually, not instantly. Not every personality is suited to an early morning quiet time, so Mulholland frees different personality types to express their piety differently. He reviews the classical spiritual disciplines and demonstrates the importance of undertaking our spiritual journey with (and for the sake of) others. This road map for spiritual formation is profoundly biblical and down to earth. In the finest tradition of spiritual literature, it is a vital help to Christians at any stage of their journey.
Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith
Jen Hatmaker - 2009
Follow the faith journey of author and fellow disciplemaker Jen Hatmaker and rediscover Jesus among the least of us.
Thoughts in Solitude
Thomas Merton - 1956
Thomas Merton writes: "When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and consequently it is held together by a violent and abusive authority. But when men are violently deprived of the solitude and freedom which are their due, the society in which they live becomes putrid, it festers with servility, resentment and hate."Thoughts in Solitude stands alongside The Seven Storey Mountain as one of Merton's most enduring and popular works. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, is perhaps the foremost spiritual thinker of the twentieth century. His diaries, social commentary, and spiritual writings continue to be widely read after his untimely death in 1968.
Librarian note: there is an alternate cover edition of this book here
The Explicit Gospel
Matt Chandler - 2012
Sure, many will hear about Jesus, and about being good and avoiding bad, but the gospel message simply isn't there--at least not in its specificity and its fullness. Inspired by the needs of both the overchurched and the unchurched, and bolstered by the common neglect of the explicit gospel within Christianity, Matt Chandler has written this punchy treatise. He begins with the specifics of the gospel--outlining what it is and what it is not--and then switches gears to focus on the fullness of the gospel and its massive implications on both personal and cosmic levels. Recognizing our tendency to fixate on either the micro or macro aspects of the gospel, Chandler also warns us of the dangers on either side--of becoming overly individualistic or syncretistic. Here is a call to true Christianity, to know the gospel explicitly, and to unite the church on the amazing grounds of the good news of Jesus!
Rising Strong as a Spiritual Practice
Brené Brown - 2017
Brene Brown helped us realize that vulnerability is the birthplace for trust, belonging, joy, creativity, and love. Yet a willingness to be vulnerable means accepting that life will sometimes knock us down. Where do we find the strength to get back up? In her research for her breakthrough book Rising Strong, Brene discovered a key factor. Without exception, she says, the concept of spirituality emerged from the data as a critical component of overcoming struggle.On Rising Strong As a Spiritual Practice, Brene offers an in-depth exploration of this critical and oft-misunderstood aspect of wholehearted living. Here she defines spirituality as something not reliant on religion, theology, or dogma rather, it is a belief in our interconnectedness and in a loving force greater than ourselves. Whether you access the sacred through traditional worship, solitary meditation, communion with nature, or creative pursuits, one thing is clear: rising strong after falling is a spiritual practice that brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives."
With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God
Skye Jethani - 2011
Stop Living Your Life Under, Over, From and For God and Start Living in Communion With Him.
Learning to Walk in the Dark
Barbara Brown Taylor - 2014
Doesn’t God work in the nighttime as well? In Learning to Walk in the Dark, Taylor asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us “in the dark.” She argues that we need to move away from our “solar spirituality” and ease our way into appreciating “lunar spirituality” (since, like the moon, our experience of the light waxes and wanes). Through darkness we find courage, we understand the world in new ways, and we feel God’s presence around us, guiding us through things seen and unseen. Often, it is while we are in the dark that we grow the most.With her characteristic charm and literary wisdom, Taylor is our guide through a spirituality of the nighttime, teaching us how to find our footing in times of uncertainty and giving us strength and hope to face all of life’s challenging moments.
Own Your Life: How to Grow a Legacy of Faith, Love, and Spiritual Influence
Sally Clarkson - 2015
So now is the time to make each moment of your ordinary, everyday, beautiful existence count. It’s time to own your life.Sally Clarkson’s Own Your Life is a breath of fresh air into the life and soul of a busy woman. Like a faithful friend, Sally journeys with you to explore what it means to live meaningfully, follow God truly, and bring much-needed order to your chaos. Each page offers deeply personal, authentic, and practical guidance to help you build an intentional life. Discover what it means to own your life, and dare to trust God’s hands as He richly shapes your character, family, work, and soul.
Afraid of All the Things: Tornadoes, Cancer, Adoption, and Other Stuff You Need the Gospel For
Scarlet Hiltibidal - 2019
But life changed for Scarlet when she learned to hold the gospel up to her fears. She realized that though she can't fix herself or protect herself, Jesus walked into this broken, sad, scary place to rescue, love, and cast out her—and your—fear. Seeing life in light of the cross will help you avoid fear, overcome fear when you can’t avoid it, and live beyond fear when you don’t overcome it. You don't have to be afraid of all the things.
Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness
Andrew Murray - 1895
Andrew Murray calls this "our true nobility" and "thedistinguishing feature of discipleship." With insightful, penetrating clarity, Murray calls all Christians to turn from pride, empty themselves, and study the character of Christ to be filled with His grace. Often called the best work on humility ever written, this edition has been edited for today's reader.