And I've wanted her on the podcast for ages because she does such important work' - Elizabeth Day______________You would be forgiven for thinking 2020 was not the year for a book about good news. But now might be the time we need it most. Ruby Wax is here to reassure us with her brand new book, And Now For The Good News. This is her positivity prescription, showing us the green shoots of optimism and change forcing their way up and into the sunlight.She has spent the last three years speaking to the inspiring people who are spearheading the latest innovation and influencing a brighter future for humanity. From the communities being designed to eradicate loneliness and the companies putting their employees' happiness first, to the AI technology teaching children with learning difficulties and taking literacy to levels higher than ever before.Ruby's here to show you that behind the clouds, the sun still shines. So, do you want the good news?______________'A new book by Ruby is in itself Good News! It sounds like a tonic for the universal malaise' - Ian McKellen on Twitter 'In a world of relentlessly worrying news, finally a moment of good. I adored reading And Now for the Good News - truly there is hope' - Emma Freud on Twitter 'This book couldn't be more needed right now!' - Nigella Lawson on Twitter 'I am reading and finding on every page a delicious morsel' - Celia Imrie on Twitter

    A major reason is because it is not arranged in chronological order. Paul's letters, for example, are arranged by size rather than chronologically. This makes the New Testament a bit like a Chinese puzzle! For this reason, one famous Bible scholar said that reading the New Testament letters is like hearing one end of a phone conversation. The book you hold in your hands reconstructs the other end so that you can understand virtually every word."The Untold Story of the New Testament Church" is a unique Bible handbook that weaves Acts and the Epistles together chronologically . . . creating one fluid story. This epic volume gives readers a first-hand account of the New Testament drama that is riveting and enlightening. It includes dates, maps, and background information about the people, the cities, and the events of the first-century church using a "you-are-there" approach.Get up-close and personal with apostles Paul, Peter, James and John and learn of their personal struggles. Understand the circumstances behind each inspired letter they penned. Watch the chaotic swirl of first-century people and events fall into place before your very eyes. Discover what Paul's "thorn in the flesh" really was. Learn what happened to all the apostles after the book of Acts was finished. Be ushered into the living, breathing atmosphere of the first century and uncover the hidden riches found in God's Word.

    In Susan Perabo's world, nothing can be taken for granted: here, a retired grocer takes up jewel theft in his twilight years; a data processor squanders her inheritance on one of Princess Diana's gowns; a mugging victim feigns amnesia to win back his wife. In the tradition of Lorrie Moore, Susan Perabo's slightly off-center lens looks hard at the banal and the bizarre, and at the human condition, where she finds extraordinary magic within the smallest of gestures. Sharply written and overlaid with a mischievous wit, Who I Was Supposed to Be is an unforgettable homage to laughter, love, and wonder.

    If you did not fear death. If you did not fear life and what it might bring. If you did not fear any man, or woman, or any living creature. How would you go about your days differently?In Life Without Lack, Dallas Willard revolutionizes our understanding of Psalm 23 by taking this comfortably familiar passage and revealing its extraordinary promises: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. . . . I will fear no evil." The psalmist claims to live without any need and without any fear. How is that possible?Written with Willard's characteristic gentle wisdom, Life Without Lack helps readers experienceGod's presence,his abundant generosity, andpeace and freedom from worry.Based on a series of talks by the late author and edited by his friend Larry Burtoft and by his daughter, Rebecca Willard Heatley, Life Without Lack will forever change the way you understand and apply the most well-known passage in all Scripture.

    John MacArthur takes you step by step in a discovery of who and how to worship. From the existence of God and His attributes, to instruction on the right and wrong ways to worship God, MacArthur never strays from teaching and explaining what the Bible says. This book makes it Biblically clear that worship is all about how we prioritize and live our daily lives to honor and glorify God. Make worship your ultimate priority!

    Forget the bucket lists that have us escaping our everyday lives for exotic experiences. How, Ann wondered, do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long and sometimes even dark? How is God even here? In One Thousand Gifts, Ann invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts. It s only in this expressing of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we've always wanted, a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved by God.Let Ann's beautiful, heart-aching stories of the everyday give you a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of being present to God that makes you deeply happy, and a way of living that is finally fully alive. Come live the best dare of all!

    Once we repent and believe in Jesus, God’s Spirit helps us recover and pursue His design. God is the one who created the world and every human being in it. Authors Jimmy Scroggins and Steve Wright outline a reproducible method of sharing the gospel that has been tested in the real world. Turning Everyday Conversations Into Gospel Conversations is a simple strategy to train new and seasoned believers to join God in His reconciliation work. Turning Everyday Conversations Into Gospel Conversations equips believers to use the innovative "3 Circles," a user-friendly evangelistic tool for a new generation. Scroggins and Wright train readers to incorporate the biblical metanarrative, as well as our own personal stories, to tell the good news that Jesus has made a way out of the broken places we find ourselves. Churches around the world are training people to share the gospel using this method. It has proven appeal across generations and cultures. They've heard stories about an 8-year-old boy leading his 26-year-old cousin to repent and believe in Jesus and a 70-plus-year-old church member, who had never before shared his faith, leading his Spanish-speaking neighbor to Christ. It’s been used to train the Mixtec in Mexico, Maasai Warriors in Kenya, and prisoners in America. It’s been presented on napkins, in concrete, in the sand, and using tortillas. The 3 Circles work, and this book will train you and your church members to use it. It doesn’t matter if you have been a Christian for decades or days, you can learn to do what God asks us to do—to make His appeal to others through us (2 Cor. 5:20). This short training manual will empower and inspire millions of Christians to turn hundreds of millions of everyday conversations into gospel conversations.

    They witness to the magnitude of his heart and humanity. Translated and edited by his wife, the abridged journals reveal his recollections and experiences, and record much of his formative creative thought on all manner of subjects between January 1973 and June 1983.

    Jesus used things like a lily, sparrow, and sheep to teach about the kingdom of God. And in the Old Testament, God repeatedly describes himself and his saving work in relation to physical things such as a rock, horn, or eagle.In God of All Things, pastor and author Andrew Wilson invites you to rediscover God in this way, too--through ordinary, everyday things. He explores the idea of a material world and presents a variety of created marvels that reveal the gospel in everyday life and fuel worship and joy in God--marvels like:Dust: the image of GodHorns: the salvation of GodDonkeys: the peace of GodWater: the life of GodViruses: the problem of GodCities: the kingdom of GodGod of All Things will leave you with a deeper understanding of Scripture, the world you live in, and the God who made it all.

    Francis's call is a call to return to the basics of Christianity. It is a call to Christians to reach back to their roots so that their spiritual lives can draw strength from the pure waters of the Gospel instead of being choked by manmade traditions and worldly concerns. In the words of G. K. Chesterton, the coming of Francis "marked the moment when men could be reconciled not only to God but to nature and, most difficult of all, to themselves. ... his whole function [was] to tell men to start afresh and, in that sense, to tell them to forget" (124). While St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most beloved saints in history, the relevancy of St. Francis for our times in light of the election of Pope Francis has yet to be explored. This book is written with the intention of filling that gap. While it is biographical in nature, it also freely explores themes that relate to St. Francis but are not a part of his life. This book is about more than the life of St. Francis of Assisi; it is about the impact this beloved saint has had through his imitation of Christ, his love of poverty, the Franciscan movement, and his profound influence on Pope Francis.

    Even though he was pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do:Avoid conflict in the name of ChristianityIgnore his anger, sadness, and fearUse God to run from GodLive without boundariesEventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health, a relationship with Jesus, and the classic practices of contemplative spirituality. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution, utterly transforming him and his church.In this book Scazzero outlines his journey and the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Then he provides seven biblical, reality-tested ways to break through to the revolutionary life Christ meant for you.“The combination of emotional health and contemplative spirituality,” he says, “unleashes the Holy Spirit inside us so that we might experientially know the power of an authentic life in Christ.”

    The life of a woman today isn't really all that different from that of Mary and Martha in the New Testament. Like Mary, you long to sit at the Lord's feet...but the daily demands of a busy world just won't leave you alone. Like Martha, you love Jesus and really want to serve him...yet you struggle with weariness, resentment, and feelings of inadequacy. Then comes Jesus, right into the midst of your busy Mary/Martha life-and he extends the same invitation he issued long ago to the two sisters of Bethany. Tenderly he invites you to choose "the better part"-a joyful life of "living-room" intimacy with him that flows naturally into "kitchen service" for him. How can you make that choice? With her fresh approach to the familiar Bible story and its creative, practical strategies, Joanna shows how all of us -Marys and Marthas alike- can draw closer to our Lord, deepening our devotion, strengthening our service, and doing both with less stress and greater joy. This book includes a twelve-week Bible study. Also look for the ten-week DVD study pack companion product to this book, which includes three DVDs and a separate, revised and expanded study guide.

    and how to start choosing happiness again!Are you happy? It may be the wrong question. Most of us think we are relatively happy, while at the same time knowing that we could be happier—maybe even a lot happier. Ordinary people and the finest philosophers have been exploring the question of happiness for thousands of years, and theories abound. But this is not a book of theory. Resisting Happiness is a deeply personal, disarmingly transparent look at why we sabotage our own happiness and what to do about it.Are you overwhelmed? Do you procrastinate? Do you sometimes feel like you are your own worst enemy? Are you ignoring your dreams? Have you lost the courage to truly be yourself? Do you feel that your life lacks meaning and purpose? Do you find yourself avoiding the real issues in your life and focusing on the superficial?We all experience these feelings and doubts from time to time. But do you know what to do when you experience them? In this fascinating book, Matthew Kelly, uses his signature combination of the profound and the practical, to help us understand why we feel these things and how to rise above them.Breaking through resistance, Kelly tells us, is essential to becoming the-best-version-of-ourselves and living with passion and purpose.What is resistance? It's that sluggish feeling of not wanting to do something that you know is good for you. It's the inclination to do something that you unabashedly know is not good for you. It's the desire and tendency to delay something you should be doing right now.It is resistance that stands between you and happiness. In these pages you will learn not only what it is, but how to recognize and conquer it in your own life.

    Somehow we have managed to lose sight of the prime directive given to us by Jesus to go and make disciples of all the nations. There is hope. We can still fulfill the great commission in this generation, but we will need to get back the power that spread the gospel across the globe in the first century. We will need to see multiplication of disciples occur among all those in the church. Cultivating a Life for God takes an in-depth look at a tool called Life Transformation Groups and explains how this tool can release the awesome power of multiplication in your Church.