Focusing on the life of the mind helps us to know God better, love him more, and care for the world. Along with an emphasis on emotions and the experience of God, we also need to practice careful thinking about God. Piper contends that "thinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God." So how are we to maintain a healthy balance of mind and heart, thinking and feeling?Piper urges us to think for the glory of God. He demonstrates from Scripture that glorifying God with our minds and hearts is not either-or, but both-and. Thinking carefully about God fuels passion and affections for God. Likewise, Christ-exalting emotion leads to disciplined thinking.Readers will be reminded that "the mind serves to know the truth that fuels the fires of the heart."

    The Gospel-Centered Life will challenge you to develop authentic relationships as the gospel moves you to love and serve others. Each lesson is self-contained, featuring clear teaching from scripture and requires no extra work outside of the group setting. Developed by experienced church-planting pastors, the material is designed to promote transformational conversations among groups of mature Christians, new Christians, and even non-Christians. The self-explanatory The Gospel-Centered Life Leader's Guide contains directions and added material to help small group and discipleship leaders clearly explain and apply the material.

    Some of the topics you will find in this book are: Renew your bonds of love with other believers. Participate in the partnership of the gospel. Contribute your spiritual gifts to help others. Share your possessions according to God's plan.

    Whether it’s relationship drama, the constant pull of our sinful nature, a health issue, or any variety of unmet dreams, Jordan turns readers to God’s Word as the ultimate wilderness survival guide.Conversational and self-deprecatingly confessional in her delivery, this young writer finds ways to have fun with delicate subject matters, using wilderness analogies to great effect in chapters titled "Drink Plenty of Water," "Seek Shelter," and "Don’t Eat the Red Berries."

    It’s the clash between our sense of stubborn self-sufficiency and God’s call to recognize that we’re really nothing without Him. It’s pride versus humility. And it’s a fight we can’t win without looking repeatedly to Christ and the cross. C. J. Mahaney raises a battle cry to daily, diligently, and deliberately weaken our greatest enemy (pride) and cultivate our greatest friend (humility). His examination clarifies misconceptions, revealing the truth about why God detests pride and turns His active attention to the humble. Because pride is never passive, defeating it demands an intentional attack. The blessing that follows is God’s abundant favor. “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit.” —Isaiah 66:2, ESV God clearly states that He is drawn to the humble. He’s also clear that He opposes the proud. These two, humility and pride, cannot coexist. Where one is fostered, the other is defeated. Which will you pursue?

    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

    Unflinchingly honest yet unfailingly hopeful, Rev. Sarah is a genre unto herself. You've never had this much fun going to church

    We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church?Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church's greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus's Great Commission.

    What if she told you that you don’t have to go looking for God’s presence? What if she told you that God’s presence is something you can enjoy all the time? God’s presence among his people set him apart from the pagan gods of ancient times. His presence on earth as God Incarnate split history in two. And today his presence is one of the most significant means of his goodness to us. Glenna’s own awakening to God’s presence began in the depths of winter. Rereading her journal, she realized that for six months she’d been cataloging all the ways God had abandoned her as she suffered from chronic pain. What if that . . . wasn’t true? Something had to change. Interweaving her own story of faith and doubt amid suffering, Glenna traces the theme of God’s presence from Genesis to Revelation and shows what it means for us in our own daily joys and struggles.

    Extreme Prayer taps into that longing for connection with God when we need it most by teaching us to pray the kinds of prayers Jesus promised to answer with unlimited power. It's not about how to pray more . . . it's about praying differently, and intentionally tapping into all of Jesus's open-ended promises in a way that achieves maximum Kingdom impact. In Extreme Prayer, Greg Pruett searches the Scriptures to discover the kinds of prayers that God has promised to answer, challenging you to access their power and see His immeasurable glory unleashed in your prayer life.

    In this short book, a highly respected biblical counselor and successful author offers practical guidance for all Christians--pastors and laypeople alike--who want to develop their "helping skills" when it comes to walking alongside hurting people.Written out of the conviction that friends are the best helpers, this accessible introduction to biblical counseling will equip believers to share their burdens with one another through gentle words of wisdom and kind acts of love. This book is written for those eager to see God use ordinary relationships and conversations between ordinary Christians to work extraordinary miracles in the lives of his people.

    Conference Theme: No Greater Love. Dr. Willard explains the importance of the Apostle Paul's teaching on love: "It is Paul who really helps us to understand the love of which Jesus and the New Testament speak. There is, needless to say, much confusion about love, and what Paul says about it, as well as his practice, can help us to get agape love—and therewith all the other 'loves' of the Greek and other languages—right." This paper is being sold on Kindle in order to fund ongoing work of the Dallas Willard family to continue his legacy through publishing his unpublished works and making his ideas accessible to the broadest possible audience.

    In fourteen powerful chapters, the authors explore such topics as How Jesus managed power. The intentional decisions necessary to move down. The uplifting nature of true humility. Abundant life through dying to self. The ambush of joy. Moving down is never an easy matter that can be reduced to a formula. It involves a life committed to discipleship. Descending into Greatness introduces you to the touching stories of modern men and women committed to advancing the kingdom of God: from the pro football player, to the medical missionary, to a businessman wrestling with the priorities in the world of finance. Descending into Greatness asks tough questions and gives hopeful answers. Now, this powerful, urgent message also includes a discussion guide so that you can follow through, too. "Like Christ, we must descend-into self-abandonment, unconditional giving, sacrifice, and death to self. And, like Christ, we will then ascend-into fulfillment, blessing, joy, and purpose."

    It's hard to keep up, to keep our balance. It's hard to keep trusting in God. And it's especially difficult when the changes we're faced with are unwanted: the death of a loved one, a child leaving home, an illness, a frustrated dream. Craig Barnes knows the dark side of change. As a pastor, he has counseled many Christians through tough times of transition. And he has been challenged by unwanted changes--interruptions--in his own life. At times it seems as though God has moved far, far away. But Barnes has discovered that just the opposite is true: during times of change and seeming abandonment, God is right at our side offering to lead us in a new direction, offering us new life. He writes, A young widow can outlive her grief and decide her life may never be the same but is far from over. A lost job can become the beginning of a new vocation. Here is the book for all who have known disappointment, bereavement or the shattering of faith, a book all the more valuable because it promises hope without denying despair. In When God Interrupts a sensitive, insightful pastor shows us how we can be found by God in the middle of unwanted change.

    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.