Holiness


J.C. Ryle - 1877
    Ryle served the Lord in ministry in the Church of England for almost the entire length of the Victorian Age. Although Ryle was committed to all forms of evangelism, his heart beat strongest for mass evangelism in the cities. Much of his immediate influence on Victorian evangelism stemmed from his prolific number of tracts. Several million copies of his more than 200 different tracts were distributed in a variety of languages throughout the Land.Bishop Ryle's desire, and his answer to the issues of his day, was the pursuit of personal revival of Scriptural holiness. This holds just as true for today, as it was in his time.

Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God: The Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News


Brian Zahnd - 2017
    Three centuries later, Brian Zahnd was both mesmerized and terrified by Edwards's wrathful God. Haunted by fear that crippled his relationship with God, Zahnd spent years praying for a divine experience of hell. What Zahnd experienced instead was the Father's love--revealed perfectly through Jesus Christ--for all prodigal sons and daughters. In Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Zahnd asks important questions like Is seeing God primarily as wrathful towards sinners true or biblical? Is fearing God a normal, expected behavior? And where might the natural implications of this theological framework lead us? Thoughtfully wrestling with subjects like Old Testament genocide, the crucifixion of Jesus, eternal punishment in hell, and the final judgment in Revelation, Zanhd maintains that the summit of divine revelation for sinners is not God is wrath, but God is love.

Dance, Stand, Run: The God-Inspired Moves of a Woman on Holy Ground


Jess Connelly - 2017
    But it's not cheap—true grace compels us to change. That’s where holiness comes in.Beloved writer, speaker, and bestselling coauthor of Wild and Free Jess Connolly will be the first to admit that not long ago, like many women, she grasped grace but she had forgotten holiness. Dance, Stand, Run charts her discovery that holiness was never meant to be a shaming reminder of what we “should” be doing, but rather a profound privilege of becoming more like Christ. That’s when we start to change the world, rather than being changed by it.Dance, Stand, Run is an invitation to the daughters of God to step into the movements of abundant life: dancing in grace, standing firm in holiness, and running on mission. Through story and study, Jess casts a fresh vision for how to live into your identity as a holy daughter of God, how to break free of cheap grace and empty rule-keeping, and finally, how to live out your holy influence with confidence before a watching world. Spoiler alert: it’s a beautiful thing.For anyone longing to take their place in what God is doing in the world, Dance, Stand, Run will rally your strength, refresh your purpose, and energize your faith in a God who calls us to be like Him.

Into the Depths of God: Where Eyes See the Invisible, Ears Hear the Inaudible, and Minds Conceive the Inconceivable


Calvin Miller - 2000
    A profound book of spiritual insight that helps believers live a deep life in God beneath the turmoil of our hurried business.

Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road


Donald Miller - 2005
    But our friends back home live an existence under the weight and awareness of times; a place we are slowly escaping; a world growing fainter by the hour and the mile."Day 13: "It feels again that we are leaving who we were, moving on into the people we will become, hopefully, people with some kind of answers, some kind of thing to believe tht makes sense of beauty, of romance. Something that would explain the red glow against Paul's face, the red glow that seems to be coming off the console . . . 'Did you notice the engine light is lit, bud?' I ask . . ."Day 83: "I sit in the van, waiting for her to come out when I notice a window in one of the classrooms open, and a backpack comes falling out, spilling a few books onto the lawn. After the backpack comes Elida, falling atop the pack and laying low, peeking back into the window to see if the teacher noticed. She gathers her books, reaches into the classroom and closes the window, then runs toward the van as though this were a prison break."As you read Through Painted Deserts, you'll soon realize this is not just one man's account of finding light, God, and beauty on the open road. Rather, this book maps the journey you're already traveling . . . or soon will be.

Drawn Into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John


Jean Vanier - 2004
    Thoroughly personal and inspiring, Drawn into the Mystery challenges all Christians to encounter the fullness of life lived in close communion with God. Vanier writes: "These insights that I share in this book come from the life of Jesus in me . . . They also flow from my life with people who are weak and who have taught me to welcome Jesus from the place of the poverty in me." Jean Vanier was a friend and influential mentor to the late Henri Nouwen. Toward the end of his life, Nouwen left Harvard to live and work at one of Jean Vanier's L'Arche communities. This was perhaps the most profound experience of Christianity Nouwen experienced. The thought and spiritual direction/discipleship of Jean Vanier is available to all in Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus-through the Gospel of John. +

Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President


Jimmy Carter - 2011
    Based on more than three decades of practical Bible teaching, these readings draw from the riches of God's Word and the compelling experiences of Mr. Carter's own life. Whether through fascinating glimpses into behind-the-scenes activity at the White House, or insightful remembrances of his career in the U.S. Navy, Mr. Carter never ceases to connect the wisdom of Scripture with your own crucial place on the stage of life. Frank, honest, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and always relevant, Through the Year with Jimmy Carter challenges readers to be more Christ-like every day of their lives.

Merton's Palace of Nowhere


James Finley - 1977
    Spiritual identity is the quest to know who we are, to find meaning in life and to overcome that sense of 'is that all there is?' In this book, Merton describes an awareness of the false and illusory self as the way to a realization of the true self.

Welcome to the Book of Common Prayer


Vicki K. Black - 2005
    As we use the Book of Common Prayer, Black says, "we discover we are not alone, and this liturgical current of worship, prayer, and praise will indeed take us where we want to go-union with the God we seek to love." Welcome to the Book of Common Prayer shows readers everything from where to find the Sunday collect to how to pray the Daily Office. But it's more than a how-to. It offers history and background that help make the prayer book a more meaningful part of the worship life of individuals and congregations.With thoughtful reflection questions, this is a perfect volume for parish study groups.

What Every Christian Ought to Know: Essential Truths for Growing Your Faith


Adrian Rogers - 2005
    Without these essentials—the basic truths of the faith—they will never establish strong roots or bear fruit. Adrian Rogers has written a book designed to give new believers the nurture and care their faith needs to blossom and grow. What Every Christian Ought to Know seeks to give intellectual truth, and also to provide the “spiritual nutrients” required to produce mature faith.

Praying God's Promises: The Life-Changing Power of Praying the Scriptures


Linda Evans Shepherd - 2018
    But what is God's will in any given situation? How can we know it? And if we don't know it, how can we pray it?Linda Evans Shepherd shows readers that God's will is not a mystery--it's clearly laid out in his Word through his many promises. Through stories, practical application, examples of prayers, and guided reflection, Shepherd leads readers toward a more powerful prayer life. Arranged by topic for ease of use, this book shows how to pray God's promises- of his presence- of love- of peace- of joy- of hope- for provision- for health- for breakthroughs- for our relationships- over children and loved onesShepherd includes a chapter on God's powerful answers to prayer that will inspire readers to search the Scriptures, pray God's will, and wait expectantly for his promised answers.

Uncommon Gratitude: Alleluia for All That Is


Joan D. Chittister - 2010
    In this book, Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, and Archbishop Rowan Williams offer us a sweeping set of things and circumstances to be grateful for 'things for which we can sing alleluia," "praise and thanks be to God."Some are things we naturally feel grateful for: God, peace, wealth, life, faith, and unity. But when these are set alongside other things we would never think to sing alleluia about 'death, divisions, sufferings, and even sinners 'we begin to see, as Joan Chittister says in her introduction, that "Life itself is an exercise in learning to sing 'alleluia ' here in order to recognize the face of God hidden in the recesses of time. To deal with the meaning of 'alleluia ' in life means to deal with moments that do not feel like 'alleluia moments' at al."In this series of reflections it becomes clear that singing "alleluia" is not a way to escape reality but receptivity to another kind of reality beyond the immediate and the delusional, of helping us understand what is now and what is to come.Joan Chittister, OSB, is a Benedictine nun and international lecturer who has been a leading voice in spirituality for more than thirty years. She has authored forty books, including her most recent, The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life, published by Thomas Nelson.Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, is acknowledged internationally as an outstanding theological writer, scholar, and teacher. He has been involved in many theological, ecumenical, and educational commissions and has written extensively across a wide range of fields of professional study ' philosophy, theology, spirituality, and religious aesthetics. He has also written on moral, ethical, and social topics and, since becoming archbishop, has focused more intently on contemporary cultural and interfaith issues."

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment


Jeremiah Burroughs - 1648
    This book remedies this spiritual disease in practical biblical ways.

Its Not about Me Journal


Max Lucado - 2004
    In his latest book this message, though still present, has moved to the background. A Copernican revolution is in order, Lucado says: it is time to understand that life revolves around God, not ourselves. The God he describes is neither Santa Claus nor a kindly, reassuring grandpa. He is a God of glory and holiness, eternal and unchanging. "To seek God's glory is to pray, 'Thicken the air with your presence; make it misty with your majesty. Part heaven's drapes, and let your nature spill forth. God, show us God.' " Our role, once we have seen God's glory, is simply to reflect it. We do this by proclaiming his message, using our bodies the way he intended, trusting him in the midst of suffering and acknowledging him as the author of our success. Even our salvation "showcases God's mercy. It makes nothing of [our] effort but everything of his." Sterner generations of Christians memorized the answer to the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." Lucado brings this concept to life with his trademark breezy style, good humor, homey anecdotes and passion. His fans may be surprised by this new emphasis, but they will not be disappointed.

Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice


Belden C. Lane - 2014
    Lane embarks on solitary spiritual treks through the Ozarks and across the American Southwest. For companions, he has only such teachers as Rumi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Dag Hammarskj�ld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters--Bell Mountain Wilderness with S�ren Kierkegaard, Moonshine Hollow with Thich Nhat Hanh--demonstrating how being alone in the wild opens a rare view onto one's interior landscape, and how the saints' writings reveal the divine in nature.The discipline of backpacking, Lane shows, is a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Just as the wilderness offered revelations to the early Desert Christians, backpacking hones crucial spiritual skills: paying attention, traveling light, practicing silence, and exercising wonder. Lane engages the practice not only with a wide range of spiritual writings--Celtic, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sufi Muslim--but with the fascination of other lovers of the backcountry, from John Muir and Ed Abbey to Bill Plotkin and Cheryl Strayed. In this intimate and down-to-earth narrative, backpacking is shown to be a spiritual practice that allows the discovery of God amidst the beauty and unexpected terrors of nature. Adoration, Lane suggests, is the most appropriate human response to what we cannot explain, but have nonetheless learned to love.An enchanting narrative for Christians of all denominations, Backpacking with the Saints is an inspiring exploration of how solitude, simplicity, and mindfulness are illuminated and encouraged by the discipline of backcountry wandering, and of how the wilderness itself becomes a way of knowing-an ecology of the soul.