But holiness is something that is often missed in the Christian's daily life. According to author Jerry Bridges, that's because we're not exactly sure what our part in holiness is. In The Pursuit of Holiness, he helps us see clearly just what we should rely on God to do--and what we should accept responsibility for ourselves.

    What went wrong? Why wasn't my prayer answered? he asks. It is no longer an abstract question to me. What should we do and how should we respond when our prayers--prayers that seem right and true and good--go unanswered? In When God Doesn't Answer Your Prayer, Sittser continues exploring the issues he addressed in A Grace Disguised. He asks, Why doesn't God answer our prayers? What, if anything, can we do about it? Sittser is intensely committed to exploring the Christian faith, especially when it doesn't seem to work. In this thoughtful and beautifully written book, he moves beyond easy answers and religious formulas to explore the goodness and greatness of a God who cannot be controlled but can be trusted.

    We need to recover the practice of honest spiritual struggle that gives us permission to vocalize our pain and wrestle with our sorrow. Lament avoids trite answers and quick solutions, progressively moving us toward deeper worship and trust.Exploring how the Bible--through the psalms of lament and the book of Lamentations--gives voice to our pain, this book invites us to grieve, struggle, and tap into the rich reservoir of grace and mercy God offers in the darkest moments of our lives.

    Follow along in a three-part deconstruction of today's full-throttle existence to build the kind of life that Jesus modeled.

    The New Testament is commonly divided into the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s epistles, the general epistles, and the book of Revelation. The four Gospels—the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are accounts of the life of Christ. The book of Acts records the history of the Church and the Apostles, especially Paul’s missionary travels, after Christ’s death. Paul’s letters give instruction to Church leaders and members. The other letters were written by other Apostles and give additional counsel to the early Saints. The book of Revelation, which was written by the Apostle John, contains mostly prophecies pertaining to the last days.

    If you live in divine health and prosperity, you won’t need a miracle to get healed or to pay your bills. If you can’t see the difference between the two, that may be one reason you only visit God’s best instead of truly living in it.Most Christians live in a place where it’s just a matter of time before there’s a crisis in their lives and they need a miracle. You might think it would be wonderful to go from miracle to miracle, but that means you’d also be going from crisis to crisis! Miracles are great when you need one, but you weren’t meant to continually get by on them. God wants to change where you live. Let Andrew show you how to live in God’s best today!

    We hold our dreams close to our chest. But our passions have a purpose—they were engineered for God’s greater plan and he intends for us to use them for his glory and purposes.Do you feel like you’re missing something? What if this feeling wasn’t a bad thing? It could be a longing for more of God and a catalyst to living the life that was designed before the foundations of the earth were laid.In Restless, Bible teacher and fellow struggler Jennie Allen:Explores practical ways to identify the threads of your lifeHow to intentionally weave those threads togetherExplains how your gifts, passions, places, and relationships aren’t random; they’re deliberate and meaningfulSpeaks the truth about your suffering: it’s possible it has produced the very thing you want to give back to the worldUsing the story of Joseph, the dreamer, Jennie explains how his suffering, gifts, relationships—all of the threads of his life—fit into the greater story of God and how our stories can do the same. What would happen if God got bigger than your fear and insecurity, and you spent the rest of your life running without reservation after his purposes for you? You were created for more.To dive deeper into the Restless message, additional resources such as a DVD study and leader/participant guide books are available.

    Look no further than the twelve disciples whose many weaknesses are forever preserved throughout the pages of the New Testament. Jesus chose ordinary men - fisherman, tax collectors, political zealots - and turned their weakness into strength, producing greatness from utter uselessness. MacArthur draws principles from Christ's careful, hands-on training of the original twelve disciples for today's modern disciple - you.

    Instead of a biblically guided fear of the Lord, we fear others. Of course, the “fear of man” goes by other names. When we are in our teens, it is called “peer pressure.” When we are older, it is called “people-pleasing.” Recently, it has been called “codependency.” With these labels in mind, we can spot the fear of man everywhere. Diagnosis is fairly straightforward. - Have you ever struggled with peer pressure? “Peer pressure” is simply a euphemism for the fear of man. - Are you over-committed? Do you find that it is hard to say no even when wisdom indicates that you should? Are you are a “people-pleaser,” another euphemism for the fear of man ? - Do you “need” something from your spouse? Do you “need” your spouse to listen to you? Respect you? Think carefully here. Certainly God is pleased when there is good communication and a mutual honor between spouses. But for many people, the desire for these things has roots in something that is far from God’s design for his image-bearers. Unless you understand the biblical parameters of marital commitment, your spouse will become the one you fear. Your spouse will control you. Your spouse will quietly take the place of God in your life. - Is self-esteem a critical concern for you? This, at least in the United States, is the most popular way that the fear of other people is expressed. If self-esteem is a recurring theme for you, chances are that your life revolves around what others think. You reverence or fear their opinions. You need them to buttress your sense of well-being and identity. You need them to fill you up. - Do you ever feel as if you might be exposed as an impostor? Many business executives and apparently successful people do. The sense of being exposed is an expression of the fear of man. It means that the opinions of other people — especially their possible opinion that you are a failure — are able to control you. - Are you always second-guessing decisions because of what other people might think? Are you afraid of making mistakes that will make you look bad in other people’s eyes? - Do you feel empty or meaningless? Do you experience “love hunger”? Here again, if you need others to fill you, you are controlled by them. - Do you get easily embarrassed? If so, people and their perceived opinions probably define you. Or, to use biblical language, you exalt the opinions of others to the point where you are ruled by them. THE problem is clear: People are too big in our lives and God is too small. The answer is straightforward: We must learn to know that our God is more loving and more powerful than we ever imagined. Yet this task is not easy. Even if we worked at the most spectacular of national parks, or the bush in our backyard started burning without being consumed, or Jesus appeared and wrestled a few rounds with us, we would not be guaranteed a persistent reverence of God. Too often our mountain-top experiences are quickly overtaken by the clamor of the world, and God once again is diminished in our minds. The goal is to establish a daily tradition of growing in the knowledge of God.

    So much of the prophetic ministry is esoteric and a free for all in which people throw down the God card on anything they "feel," but this book brings balance without taking away the desire to see the powerful nature of God displayed. On top of that, it's biblically based and is supported by scripture throughout each story, driving home the book's message of activating the ability to hear God's voice for each reader. Through a thought-provoking prophetic ministry philosophy and Shawn's glorious successes and very real failures, you will be inspired and equipped to:learn how to hear God for yourself and othersgrow through simple focused steps, take great risks,stay accountable,love people well,grow in intimacy with the Lord.As an internationally known prophetic voice who has ministered to thousands—from political leaders to those on the streets—Shawn shares everything he has learned about the prophetic in a way that is totally unique and refreshing. Shawn aims for the higher goal of loving people relationally, not just pursuing the gift or information, and he activates you to do the same. Start to reshape the world around you with God’s love today.

    But in the hurriedness of December, sometimes we find ourselves sacrificing a sacred pace for hustle, leaving us feeling more stressed than blessed. What if you approached this Advent more open to the things of God? What if you decided to be expectant that God would move in your midst? What if you made room for the true joy found in the coming of our King? Prepare Him Room invites you to give God sacred space in your holiday season as you ponder the miracle of Christ within you and respond to His work in your life. As you begin your Christmas preparations this year, journey through Luke's account of Jesus' birth, life, death, and ultimate resurrection. God invites you to be still and let Jesus radically transform you this holy season. Let earth receive her King!

    Let's go. Right away. Now. Get up. Then ... Mark's narrative moves quickly and you sense the action in the story of Jesus' life. It's teaching presented as the gospel - good news powerfully announced in a world of bad news. This gospel emphasizes not only that Jesus is "the Son of God" (1:1; 15:39) but also that this fact demands a response. The Gospel of Mark highlights Jesus' unparalleled spiritual power and authority, leading us to consider for ourselves the question, "Who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:29) The Gospel of Mark: the Jesus we're aching for partners the compassion of Jesus with the passion of Christ. We see how the heart of God is moved by the heart of humanity and His response to our loud cry for help. We discover the world-changing result of being recipients of His compassion and the reason for His passion, all the way to the cross. Ultimately, Mark intends for the action-packed presentation of who Jesus is to lead us to acknowledge Jesus, find salvation in Him, and follow Him.

    Gordon alone survived. And forgave. He said of the bombers, ' I have lost my daughter, but I bear no grudge . . . I shall pray, tonight and every night, that God will forgive them.' His words caught the media's ears — and out of one man's grief, the world got a glimpse of grace. Grace is the church's great distinctive. It's the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else — for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world. In What's So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God's love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Yancey sets grace in the midst of life's stark images, tests its mettle against horrific 'ungrace.' Can grace survive in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust? Can it triumph over the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan? Should any grace at all be shown to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and cannibalized seventeen young men? Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, the racist, the child abuser. It loves today's AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus' day. In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks, How can Christians contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear? And he challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, What's So Amazing About Grace?

    Gotta be merciful. And when she compared her life to the standard they set, she always felt that she came up short. But through God's great mercy, she has come to see this passage instead as a roster of "When You Are's." When you are meek, there is a spiritual inheritance. When you are merciful, you will be shown mercy.This shift in thinking has led Thomas to understand that God does not require perfection, but rather our gracious obedience. In His eyes, our lives-complete with mistakes, blemishes, and imperfections-are A Beautiful Offering.

    Adoration is the simple practice Sara discovered for starting where you are, and letting the grit of your day greet the beauty of God's presence.Adoration is for the woman who feels frenzied and fearful in the middle minutes of her day. It is a simple practice for 7:37 a.m. when the children are waking and the dryer is already humming but also for the 12:17 p.m. lunch break and for 5:53 p.m. while stuck in traffic.Adoration is the place where we put how we feel in front of God's Word, and watch what happens to our insides. It's what you were made for. Join Sara in this soul-stirring journey through thirty attributes of God which you can walk through at your own pace. Learn how the simple habit of adoration--in the middle minutes of your day--can help you see God with fresh eyes, and talk to Him right there. Experience a new way of engaging with God in your everyday. Adore will show you how.