Book picks similar to
Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises by Jon Bloom
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Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today
Greg Laurie - 2018
Prostitutes and pagans, tax collectors and tricksters. The more unlikely, the more it seemed to please God and to demonstrate his power, might, and mercy. America in the 1960s and 1970s was full of unlikely people--men and women who had rejected the stuffy religion of their parents' generation, who didn't follow the rules, didn't fit in. The perfect setting for the greatest spiritual awakening of the 20th century.With passion and purpose, Greg Laurie and Ellen Vaughn tell the amazing true story of the Jesus Movement, an extraordinary time of mass revival, renewal, and reconciliation. Setting fascinating personal stories within the context of one of the most tumultuous times in modern history, the authors draw important parallels with our own time of spiritual apathy or outright hostility, offering hope for the next generation of unlikely believers--and for the next great American revival.Those who lived through the Jesus Revolution will find here an inspiring reminder of the times and people that shaped their lives and faith. Younger readers will discover a forgotten part of recent American history and, along with it, a reason to believe that God is not finished with their generation.
It's Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered
Lysa TerKeurst - 2018
Some events may simply catch us off guard for a moment, but others shatter us completely. We feel disappointed and disillusioned, and we quietly start to wonder about the reality of God’s goodness.Lysa TerKeurst understands this deeply. But she's also discovered that our disappointments can be the divine appointments our souls need to radically encounter God. In It's Not Supposed to Be This Way, Lysa invites us into her own journey of faith and, with grit, vulnerability, and honest humor, helps us to:* Stop being pulled into the anxiety of disappointment by discovering how to better process unmet expectations and other painful situations.* Train ourselves to recognize the three strategies of the enemy so we can stand strong and persevere through unsettling relationships and uncertain outcomes.* Discover the secret of being steadfast and not panicking when God actually does give us more than we can handle.* Shift our suspicion that God is cruel or unfair to the biblical assurance that God is protecting and preparing us.* Know how to encourage a friend and help her navigate hard realities with real help from God's truth.
Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels
J. Warner Wallace - 2013
A. County homicide detective and former atheist, Cold-Case Christianity examines the claims of the New Testament using the skills and strategies of a hard-to-convince criminal investigator. Christianity could be defined as a “cold case”: it makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little forensic evidence. In Cold-Case Christianity, J. Warner Wallace uses his nationally recognized skills as a homicide detective to look at the evidence and eyewitnesses behind Christian beliefs. Including gripping stories from his career and the visual techniques he developed in the courtroom, Wallace uses illustration to examine the powerful evidence that validates the claims of Christianity. A unique apologetic that speaks to readers’ intense interest in detective stories, Cold-Case Christianity inspires readers to have confidence in Christ as it prepares them to articulate the case for Christianity.
Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life
Emily P. Freeman - 2011
Instead of clinging to grace, we strive for good and believe that the Christian life means hard work and a sweet disposition. As good girls, we focus on the things we can handle, our disciplined lives, and our unshakable good moods. When we fail to measure up to our own impossible standards, we hide behind our good girl masks, determined to keep our weakness a secret.In Grace for the Good Girl, Emily Freeman invites women to let go of the try-hard life and realize that in Christ we are free to receive from him rather than constantly try to achieve for him. With an open hand and a whimsical style, Emily uncovers the truth about the hiding, encouraging women to move from hiding behind girl-made masks and do-good performances to a life hidden with Christ in God.
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
Madeleine L'Engle - 1980
In this classic book, Madeleine L'Engle addresses the questions, What makes art Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian artist? What is the relationship between faith and art? Through L'Engle's beautiful and insightful essay, readers will find themselves called to what the author views as the prime tasks of an artist: to listen, to remain aware, and to respond to creation through one's own art.
The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction
Justin Whitmel Earley - 2019
We yearn for the freedom and peace of the gospel, but remain addicted to our technology, shackled by our screens, and exhausted by our routines. But because our habits are the water we swim in, they are almost invisible to us. What can we do about it?The answer to our contemporary chaos is to practice a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. The Common Rule offers four daily and four weekly habits, designed to help us create new routines and transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor. Justin Earley provides concrete, doable practices, such as a daily hour of phoneless presence or a weekly conversation with a friend.These habits are “common” not only because they are ordinary, but also because they can be practiced in community. They have been lived out by people across all walks of life—businesspeople, professionals, parents, students, retirees—who have discovered new hope and purpose. As you embark on these life-giving practices, you will find the freedom and rest for your soul that comes from aligning belief in Jesus with the practices of Jesus.
No Other gods: Confronting Our Modern Day Idols
Kelly Minter - 2007
Relationships. Family. Financial security. Private hopes and dreams.Most of our desires are healthy. Yet these longings can become passions we not only pursue, but worship. And while idol worship may seem like ancient history, we still face the modern-day equivalent [version], as natural needs slowly consume our hearts and minds, competing with God’s rightful place in our lives.No Other Gods offers a revealing look at the heart of a woman. Author Kelly Minter explores what happens when good desires become false gods, robbing us of an intimate relationship with our heavenly father.So discover the freedom in surrender. The healing in worship. And the joy found in exchanging everyday gods for the one true God.Listen to two samples from Kelly Minter's worship CD Finer Day.Finer Day:First In My Heart:Buy Finer Day here »
Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace
John Mark Comer - 2021
Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it's a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies.The problem isn't so much that we tell lies but that we live them. We let them into our bodies, and they sabotage our peace. All around us in the culture and deep within our own body memories are lies: deceptive ideas that wreak havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being, and deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life truly is.The choice is not whether to fight or not fight, but whether we win or surrender.Ancient apprentices of Jesus developed a paradigm for this war; they spoke of the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Live No Lies taps into this ancient wisdom from saints of the Way and translates the three enemies for the modern era, with all its secularism and sophistication. As a generation, we chuckle at the devil as a premodern myth, we are confused by Scripture's teaching on the flesh in an age where sensual indulgence is a virtue not a vice, and we have little to no category for the New Testament concept of the world.In this provocative and practical book, bestselling author John Mark Comer combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation. He identifies the role lies play in our spiritual deformation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them.Do you feel the tug-of-war in your own heart, the inner conflict between truth and lies? The spirit and the flesh? The Way of Jesus and the world? It's time to start winning. It's time to live no lies...
The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life
Ann Voskamp - 2016
It can find you in the everyday. Learn to walk in a way that glorifies Jesus and receive freedom, not beyond your fear and pain, but within it.We are fragile and we know it. Sometimes, living with Christ in a messed-up world feels less like victory and more like walking uphill. Ann Voskamp, the New York Times bestselling author of One Thousand Gifts, sits at the edge of her life and her own unspoken brokenness and asks: What if you really want to live abundantly before it's too late? What do you do if you really want to know abundant wholeness?This one's for the lovers and the sufferers. This one's for the busted ones who are ready to bust free, the ones ready to break molds, break chains, break measuring sticks, and break all this bad brokenness with an unlikely good brokenness. You could be one of the Beloved who is broken—and still lets yourself be loved.Ann desperately wants you to know:God is attracted to the broken, the sin-sick, and those in needThe very things people are most ashamed of are the exact broken things that draw God to his peopleYou can live in the face of your unspoken painYou can discover and trust this broken way—the way to not be afraid of broken thingsThe Broken Way is simple in presentation, written in Ann’s unique style—a new way for desperate Christians in need of a fresh revelation of the grace of God.
Spurgeon's Sorrows: Realistic Hope for those who Suffer from Depression
Zack Eswine - 2014
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."
George Macdonald
George MacDonald - 1947
MacDonald was a major Christian writer of the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries. He influenced nearly everyone who was a major twentieth century writer (including Lewis Carroll, WH Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, and CS Lewis. Not only was he a pioneer in the fantasy fiction genre, laying the path for people like Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings, but also a major Christian thinker, which influenced Lewis profoundly. Lewis, in fact, wrote that MacDonald was his 'master', and said 'I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.' These words will challenge and uplift you, and illuminate the faith which underpins all of CS Lewis's popular and enduring writing.
Disciplines of a Godly Man
R. Kent Hughes - 1991
This inspiring, popular book has been speaking to the hearts of men for the past 10 years, and its words are still relevant. Using engaging illustrations, scriptural wisdom, practical suggestions and study questions, Kent Hughes offers a frank biblical discussion on major areas of Christian manhood: family, godliness, leadership, ministry and more. This newly revised edition is for every man who wants to know what it means to be a Christian in today's world.
Dangerous Prayers: Because Following Jesus Was Never Meant to Be Safe
Craig Groeschel - 2020
He wants more for us than a tepid faith and half-hearted routines at the dinner table. He's called you to a life of courage, not comfort.This book will show you how to pray the prayers that search your soul, break your habits, and send you to pursue the calling God has for you. But be warned: if you're fine with settling for what's easy, or you're OK with staying on the sidelines, this book isn't for you. You'll be challenged. You'll be tested. You'll be moved to take a long, hard look at your heart.But you'll be inspired, too.You'll be inspired to pray boldly. To pray powerfully. To pray with fire. You'll see how you can trade ineffective prayers and lukewarm faith for raw, daring prayers that will push you to new levels of passion and fulfillment. You'll discover the secret to overcome fears of loss, rejection, failure, and the unknown and welcome the blessings God has for you on the other side.You'll gain the courage it takes to pray dangerous prayers.
Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free
Tullian Tchividjian - 2012
Or it could be something more mundane (but no less real) like resentment, loneliness, or disappointment. But there’s unfortunately no such thing as a painless life. In Glorious Ruin, best-selling author Tullian Tchividjian takes an honest and refreshing look at the reality of suffering, the ways we tie ourselves in knots trying to deal with it, and the comfort of the gospel for those who can’t seem to fix themselves—or others. This is not so much a book about Why God allows suffering or even How we should approach suffering—it is a book about the tremendously liberating and gloriously counterintuitive truth of a God who suffers with you and for you. It is a book, in other words, about the kind of hope that takes the shape of a cross.
Seamless: Understanding the Bible as One Complete Story
Angie Smith - 2015
Participants will gain an overarching understanding of the fundamental layout and meaning of God's Word. Seamless helps replace insecurity that holds participants back with clarity and helping them move forward with confidence in their understanding of Scripture. Each week of study features key information that ties all of scripture together into the seamless truth of the gospel message and is accompanied by maps, general Bible facts, and word studies.