Book picks similar to
Called: My Journey to C. S. Lewis's House and Back Again by Ryan J. Pemberton
christian
memoir
biography
religious
Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity
Alisa Childers - 2020
Some Think that It Is a Much-Needed Progressive Reformation. Others Believe that It Is an Attack on Historic Christianity.Alisa Childers never thought she would question her Christian faith. She was raised in a Christian home, where she had seen her mom and dad feed the hungry, clothe the homeless, and love the outcast. She had witnessed God at work and then had dedicated her own life to leading worship, as part of the popular Christian band ZOEgirl. All that was deeply challenged when she met a progressive pastor, who called himself a hopeful agnostic.Another Gospel? describes the intellectual journey Alisa took over several years as she wrestled with a series of questions that struck at the core of the Christian faith. After everything she had ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Bible had been picked apart, she found herself at the brink of despair . . . until God rescued her, helping her to rebuild her faith, one solid brick at a time.In a culture of endless questions, you need solid answers. If you or someone you love has encountered the ideas of progressive Christianity and aren't sure how to respond, Alisa's journey will show you how to determine--and rest in--what's unmistakably true.
The Cost of Discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - 1937
One of the most important theologians of the twentieth century illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus in this classic text on ethics, humanism, and civic duty.What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.
Orthodoxy
G.K. Chesterton - 1908
Many critics complained of the book because it merely criticised current philosophies without offering any alternative philosophy. This book is an attempt to answer the challenge. It is the purpose of the writer to attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian Faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it. The book is therefore arranged upon the positive principle of a riddle and its answer. It deals first with all the writer's own solitary and sincere speculations and then with the startling style in which they were all suddenly satisfied by the Christian Theology. The writer regards it as amounting to a convincing creed. But if it is not that it is at least a repeated and surprising coincidence.
Sober Mercies: How Love Caught Up with a Christian Drunk
Heather Harpham Kopp - 2013
Even as her career and marriage teetered on the brink, Kopp couldn't get a grip, desperately hiding the true extent of her drinking from the rest of the world--her husband included. During the day she wrote books about God and prayer and family. At night she'd locked herself in her bathroom to guzzle chardonnay.For her, as for many Christians who struggle with addiction, overwhelming shame and confusion only made things worse. Why wasn't her faith enough to save her? Why didn't repentance, Bible reading and prayer work? Where was God?Meanwhile, as she watched in horror, her grown son descended into his own nightmare of drugs and alcohol. She feared for his life, yet she couldn't stop drinking long enough to help him--or find a way out for herself.Until the day everything changed.Engaging, funny and bracingly honest, Kopp shares her remarkable journey into darkness...and back to the light again. Her story reveals the unique challenges and spiritual conundrums Christians face when they become ensnared in an addiction, and the redemption that's possible when we finally reach the end of ourselves. If you love Jesus but shop too much, drink too much, eat too much, crush on men who aren't your husband, or otherwise fixate on doing things you hate but can't stop doing, SOBER MERCIES is for you.As you follow Kopp's sincere, stumbling journey toward freedom and a deeply satisfying relationship with God, you'll find renewed hope--and practical steps of recovery--for your own journey.
Glimpses of Heaven
Trudy Harris - 2008
Through the eyes of former hospice nurse Trudy Harris, you'll experience more than forty true stories that paint a reassuring picture of life's end.You'll marvel at how patients received exactly what they needed to see or hear in order to die peacefully and well. And you'll find great hope and peace in knowing that God goes to great lengths to redeem, comfort, and prepare His children to come home.Whether you are facing the death of a loved one or confronting a terminal disease, Glimpses of Heaven will touch your heart and reassure you of the great love and peace God longs for you to receive.
Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn from Them
Liz Curtis Higgs - 1999
Most women (if they're honest) see the selfishness of Sapphira or the deception of Delilah. They catch of glimpse of Jezebel's take-charge pride or Eve's disastrous disobedience. Like Bathsheba, Herodias, and the rest, today's modern woman is surrounded by temptations, exhausted by the demands of daily living, and burdened by her own desires. So what's a good girl to do? Learn from their lives, says beloved humor writer Liz Curtis Higgs, and by God's grace, choose a better path. In Bad Girls of the Bible, Higgs offers a unique and clear-sighted approach to understanding those other women in Scripture, combining a contemporary retelling of their stories with a solid, verse-by-verse study of their mistakes and what lessons women today can learn from them. Whether they were Bad to the Bone, Bad for a Season, but Not Forever or only Bad for a Moment, these infamous sisters show women how not to handle the challenges of life. With her trademark humor and encouragement, Liz Curtis Higgs teaches us how to avoid their tragic mistakes and joyfully embrace grace.
Red Like Blood: Confrontations with Grace
Joe Coffey - 2011
It is told through the lives of two men a prodigal and a pastor's kid whose broken lives are forever stained the color of grace as they are confronted by the One who meets them in their hopelessness and despair, bringing redemption and healing. Red Like Blood chronicles the power of the gospel in all of its life-changing fullness. It is a story that should challenge, encourage and empower us all.
You Are Free: Be Who You Already Are
Rebekah Lyons - 2017
We measure our worth by what others think of us. We compare and strive, existing mostly for the approval of others. Pressure rises, anxiety creeps in and we hustle to keep up.Jesus whispers, I gave my life to set you free. I gave you purpose. I called you to live in freedom in that purpose. Yet we still hobble through life, afraid to confess all the ways we push against this truth, because we can’t even believe it. We continue to grasp for the approval of anyone that will offer it: whether strangers, friends, or community.Christ doesn’t say you can be or may be or will be free. He says you are free. Dare you believe it?In You Are Free, Rebekah invites you to:• Overcome the exhaustion of trying to meet the expectations of others and rest in the joy God’s freedom brings.• Release stress, anxiety and worry, to uncover the peace that comes from abiding in His presence.• Find permission to grieve past experiences, confess areas of brokenness, and receive strength in your journey towards healing.• Throw off self-condemnation, burn superficial masks and step boldly into what our good God has for you.• Discover the courage to begin again and use your newfound freedom to set others free.Freedom is for everyone who wants it—the lost, the wounded, and those weary from all of the striving. It’s for those who gave up trying years ago. It’s for those angry and hurt, brilliant and burnt by the Christian song and dance. You are the church, the people of God. You were meant to be free.
Waking Up: How I Found My Faith By Losing It
Ted Dekker - 2015
A journey full of inconsistencies that are unsustainable and eventually lead to a fractured worldview. And yet that same journey can lead to a radical rediscovery of love, peace and identity in a world blurred by confusion, unworthiness and anxiety. "If there is one elephant in the room among most of us who call ourselves Christian, it is that what we think and say we believe and what we actually experience are all too often two, radically different realities," the author writes. "Ironically, we ourselves are often the last to see this disparity." We claim to be saved in the next life, but can we find peace in the storms that rise up against us in this life? The answer is an unequivocal yes. But that yes means looking at ourselves and the world around us differently which leads to a new way of being in the world. So take a look. See what millions of Christians are now seeing. This short booklet is an invitation for all who can relate with the author’s writing to take the journey themselves through A.D 33, a radical novel of discovery, and The Forgotten Way Meditations, 21 short reflections on life that will change the way you see yourself and the world.
Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
Mark Batterson - 2012
As thousands of readers quickly became many tens of thousands, true stories of miraculous and inspiring answers to prayer began to pour in. These testimonies will light your faith on fire and help you pray with even more boldness.In Draw the Circle, through forty true, faith-building stories of God’s answers to prayers, daily Scriptures and prayer prompts, Batterson inspires you to pray and keep praying like never before. Begin a lifetime of watching God work. Believe in the God who can do all things. Experience the power of bold prayer and even bolder faith in Draw the Circle.
I Grew Up Little: Finding Hope in a Big God
Patsy Clairmont - 2004
She soon began to suffer from agoraphobia and became a prisoner in her own home. But to look at her now, walking back and forth across a stage talking to thousands of women, it's quite obvious that something has changed! I Grew Up Little is the story of how that transformation took place and how God can change each of us, as well.I Grew Up Little is Patsy Clairmont's amazing story-told here in its entirety for the very first time. Her journey from a life filled with dark despair and depression to one of hope and complete transformation delivers a powerful message of hope and possibility to women of all ages.
Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made In My Darkest Hour
Gayle Haggard - 2010
In the days and months ahead, everything in Gayle’s life was at stake—her beliefs, her marriage, and her relationship with the church community she had been a part of for more than 20 years. In "Why I Stayed," Gayle walks us through the choices she made in her darkest hour and shares her renewed passion for the central message of the Bible—the liberating message of forgiveness and love. "Why I Stayed" reminds us of what less-than-perfect people desperately need—a community of family and faith that offers healing love and a path to restoration.
Confessions of a Prayer Slacker
Diane Moody - 2010
Most of us are clueless at praying. Why is that? And how come we've never done anything about it? In Confessions of a Prayer Slacker, author Diane Moody traces her own personal prayer journey with a touch of humor and a healthy dose of transparency. ''I want my readers to stop the merry-go-round of prayerlessness, quit acting like a bunch of spiritual babies, and get serious about this thing called prayer. Without it, we'll never experience the warm, one-on-one relationship God desires to have with each one of us.''
My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife: A One-Year Experiment...and Its Surprising Results
Sara Horn - 2011
Or is it? Join Sara as she heads into a one-year domestic experiment and offers full access to see if this biblical model can be embraced by a modern woman—even one who can’t sew.With humility and humor, Sara sets out to pursue the Proverbs 31 characteristics through immersing herself in all things domestic, but when her family's situation changes and she must return to a full-time job, she's forced to look at the Proverbs 31 woman with a whole new viewpoint. Through it all, she and readers discover:what it means to be a godly woman and a wifehow investing in family and faith refines priorities as a spouse and a parenthow mistakes are opportunities for growthThis thought-provoking, surprising, and entertaining personal account will inspire women to try their own experiments in living out God’s purpose for their lives.
Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk
Dale Fincher - 2010
Seems like there are as many different styles of faith as ways to order your latte. How does a Christian have normal conversations about Jesus without accidentally sounding offensive, bigoted or intolerant? You will find the tools you need for meaningful, tolerant, and respectful conversations about your faith with friends who don’t share your views. Forget the “fire and brimstone” approach and the awkward insistence to get other people “saved.” You will discover how to be yourself without alienating others. You’ll learn: How to walk in another person’s shoes. Ways to gently invite others to share. The buzz words that will stop a conversation cold. How to navigate today’s hot-topics. Tools to recover the true meaning of Scripture often obliterated by spiritual writers. How to talk about Jesus as a unique spiritual leader. You will discover how to invite people to become fully who Jesus wants them to be through this coffee shop approach to friendships in your community.