They provide relaxed and informal settings which facilitate growth in grace and understanding. Orlando Saer provides a realistic and practical guide for anyone leading or wanting to lead such a group. This book will give you the tools you need as a leader to see your group thrive.

    Defines the nature of true worship and discusses the key issues surrounding this controversial topic within the church.

    Now the revision to the compact, perennial bestseller includes a provocative new concluding chapter depicting God asking a believer questions about his stewardship over material resources.Jesus spent more time talking about money and possessions than about heaven and hell combined. But too often we've overlooked or misunderstood his most profound teaching on this topic, from his words in Matthew 6. Jesus offers us life-changing investment advice. He actually wants us to store up treasures for ourselves--just not here on earth. Instead, he urges us to store our treasure in heaven, where they will await us, and last forever. We can't take it with us--but we can send it on ahead!Readers are moved from the realms of thoughtful Bible exposition into the highly personal arena of everyday life. Because when Jesus told His followers to "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven," He intended that they discover an astounding secret: how joyful giving brings God maximum glory and His children maximum pleasure. In The Treasure Principle, you'll unearth a radical teaching of Jesus--a secret wrapped up in giving.Once you discover this secret, life will never look the same. And you won't want it to be."Supercharged with stunning, divine truth! Lightning struck over and over as I read it." - John Piper, Senior Pastor, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis

    As a movement, it is clearly headed the wrong direction. And it is growing at an unprecedented rate.From the Word of Faith to the New Apostolic Reformation, the Charismatic movement is being consumed by the empty promises of the prosperity gospel. Too many charismatic celebrities promote a “Christianity” without Christ, a Holy Spirit without holiness. And their teaching is having a disastrous influence on a grand scale, as large television networks broadcast their heresies to every part of the world.In Strange Fire, MacArthur lays out a chilling case against the modern Charismatic movement that includes:Rejecting its false prophets.Speaking out against their errors.Showing true reverence to the Holy Spirit.Clinging to the Bible as the inerrant, authoritative Word of God and the one true standard by which all truth claims must be tested.

     Meditation is the way to develop your spirit man. It helps get our minds better prepared for prayer. We are better able to focus and worship God in spirit and in truth. As you meditate on God’s word, you help your spirit, soul, and body become more detached from the influences of the world; you detach your affections from what’s not necessary and re-channel them to the most important things of life. You open yourself up to divine encounters that will establish your destiny. When you “meditate” on God’s words, they become “His sayings.” That is, God begins to talk to you through them. The Holy Spirit amplifies the Words inside of you and gives you details that could have only come from God. You gain direction. This small booklet will show you: =>What is bible meditation? =>10 benefits of meditating on the word of God. =>The 7-step method for effective Bible meditation. =>Biblical meditation techniques. =>How to meditate and talk to God. =>How to meditate on the word of God daily. =>Meditate on God's word day and night scriptures. If you desire to grow in the knowledge of God and enrich your prayer life, then this book will certainly guide you on that path.

    Dynamic Bible teacher Megan Fate Marshman will help you discover how to stop discounting yourself from a hopeful future, start living in active dependence on God, and find your way to the good plan He has for you. With authenticity and revelatory insights into the character of God, Megan shares an engaging and fresh look at the core themes within the well-loved scripture of Jeremiah 29:11-14. Through winsome and inspiring stories, Meant for Good will show you how to trust God in your daily life and, more importantly, how to trust God's definition of good above your own. You will discover:That your not-enoughness is exactly enough for God, and that in fact, you have everything you need to take that first step into the life God has for you.How to stop counting yourself out, because Jesus never has. God is up to something really good, and He's inviting you to join Him.How to hear and respond to God's voice, and intentionally grow a personal, intimate relationship with Him.How to defeat anxiety, trust God with all you're carrying and worrying about, and experience a life of freedom in relying on God daily.God has a good plan for you--a plan to give you a hope and a future. Are you ready to believe it?

    This Missing Pieces: Real Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense - Bible Study Book provides a personal study experience for this video-driven women's Bible study. Explore these and other questions in this realistic look at the messy, mysterious uncertainties of faith. God's ways don't always make sense, but He is trustworthy. Come close to Him. Trust Him more than your feelings. God will reveal Himself and fill in your missing pieces.Participants who take this study will:Experience unexpected peace in spite of unexpected heartacheHang on to God's answers when you feel you are at the end of your ropeMove forward when you feel stuck in your circumstancesHave a greater sense of peace through every storm you faceStrengthen your faith when you feel beat down by lifeSurvive unexpected storms knowing God is in your boatExperience stability when tidal waves of emotion hitTrust God more than your feelings

    The idea of our own “righteous anger” is a myth. It is the number one problem in our societies today and, as Dallas Willard says, Christians have not been taught out of it. But what if Christians were the most unoffendable people on the planet?In Unoffendable you will find concrete, practical ways to live life with less stress, including: Adjusting your expectations to fit human natureReplacing perpetual anger with refreshing humility and gratitudeEmbracing forgiveness and beginning to love others in unexpected waysIn a humorous and conversational style, Unoffendable seeks to lift religious burdens from our backs and allow us to experience the joy of gratitude, perhaps for the first time, every single day of our lives—flourishing the way God intended.

    Arriving in minutes, I find the family imploding with grief having just discovered their son hanging in the garage. In a moment of unshakable pain, he jumped off the ladder and into eternity. And I will never shake the look in their eyes when I asked why he hadn't called a church. "Why would he do that?" Across town, a pool of tears on my kitchen table as an out of town guest feels the weight of his infidelity, despairing that his famished soul finds no refuge and that he has to board a plane to feel fellowship. "Has your church tried to help you?" And the Christian leader confesses he hasn't been to church in years." Infighting, backbiting, heartbreaking, frustrating ... church. Though exceptions do exist, the reality is that church in America is failing one life at a time. Somewhere between pathetically predictable and shamefully entertaining, sadly sentimental and rarely authentic, church has become worst of all ... godless. "Vertical Church "points to a new day where God is the seeker, and we are the ones found. In "Vertical Church "God shows up, and that changes everything. If you want to experience God as you never have before and witness His hand at work, if you want to wake up to the first thought, "Thank God it's Sunday," if you're ready to feel your heart beat faster as you drive to your place of worship ... then devour and digest the lessons of "Vertical Church.

    Kendall explains how easy it is for us to make assumptions in the natural and run on ahead of the Holy Spirit.  When you find yourself ahead of God's timing and moving forward with your own personal plans, you must stop and go back!  You can find the road back from anywhere, and that road is called repentance! It points you in the direction of peace!

    In the Bible the picture can seem equally confusing: Is fear a good thing or a bad thing? And what does it mean to "fear the Lord"?In Rejoice and Tremble, Michael Reeves clears the clouds of confusion and shows that the fear of the Lord is not a negative thing at all, but an intensely delighted wondering at God, our Creator and Redeemer.

    He didn't see an outcast from society, he saw a child of Israel. He didn't see a sinner, he saw a person in the image of the Creator. Are we able to see others with the eyes of Jesus? Seeing rightly is the beginning of renewal, forgiveness, healing and grace. Seeing rightly, says Mark Labberton, is the beginning of how our hearts are changed. Through careful self-examination in the Spirit, we begin to bear the fruit of love toward others that can make a difference. Here is a chance to reflect on why our ordinary hearts can be complacent about the evils in the world and how we can begin to see the world like Jesus. With each chapter broken into brief segments punctuated by questions, this book is ideal for both personal reflection and group discussion. See what happens when you take a chance on the dangerous act of loving your neighbor. Your vision might just be changed forever.

    These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits―and devices―that distract and "buffer" us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls "a secular age"―an age in which all beliefs are equally viable and real transcendence is less and less plausible. Drawing on Taylor's work, Alan Noble describes how these realities shape our thinking and affect our daily lives. Too often Christians have acquiesced to these trends, and the result has been a church that struggles to disrupt the ingrained patterns of people's lives. But the gospel of Jesus is inherently disruptive: like a plow, it breaks up the hardened surface to expose the fertile earth below. In this book Noble lays out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt our society's deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to the transcendent grace and beauty of Jesus. Disruptive Witness casts a new vision for the evangelical imagination, calling us away from abstraction and cliché to a more faithful embodiment of the gospel for our day.

    Depression is not new though, indeed the "Prince of Preachers" C.H. Spurgeon struggled with depression and talked openly about it. Here Zack Eswine draws from Spurgeon's experiences to encourage us. What Spurgeon found in his darkness can serve as a light in our own darkness. This is not a self-help guide, but rather "a handwritten note of one who wishes you well."

    We continually demand that life be fair, yet we’re well aware that it’s not. Life can leave you at a loss for words. It has a way of suddenly casting you into the darkness of doubt. In these desperate moments, you find your soul being drained dry . . . you’re empty . . . and faith just doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Faith loses out when you realize that God could have done something . . . and He did nothing. Your life is further emptied when you realize that even if you live the “Christian” life, things don’t always turn out the way you’d like them to . . . and that’s not the way you hoped faith worked. You don’t want God to comfort you in your troubles . . . you want Him to take them from you. As God continually frustrates our faith with His constant inconsistency and ridiculously draining unpredictability, we resolve in the truth that He is the only one who understands our hurting hearts, empty lives, and searching souls. We find the ongoing trials of life continually draining us and . . . we’re thirsty. Yet, through our endless efforts to quench our undying thirst, nothing satisfies. Our souls seem to be insatiable, and we know we desperately need something to fill us, completely . . . but it’s not what we think. You’ve been waiting for God to show up, yet He’s actually been waiting for you. He’s ready to meet with you . . . one on one . . . at the well.