Books
Showing 4151–4200 of 35834 results
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Churches And The Crisis Of Decline
$29.99Add to cartCongregations often seek to combat the crisis of decline by using innovation to produce new resources. But leading practical theologian Andrew Root shows that the church’s crisis is not in the loss of resources, it’s in the loss of life–and that life can only return when we remain open to God’s encountering presence.
This new book, related to Root’s critically acclaimed Ministry in a Secular Age project, addresses the practical form the church must take in a secular age. Root uses two stories to frame the book: one about a church whose building becomes a pub and the other about Karl Barth. Root argues that Barth should be understood as a pastor with a deep practical theology that can help church leaders today.
This book pushes the church to be a waiting community that recognizes that the only way for it to find life is to stop seeing the church as the star of its own story. Instead of resisting decline, congregations must remain open to divine action. Root offers a rich vision for the church’s future that moves away from an obsession with relevance and resources and toward the living God.
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Pauline Epistles
$19.99Add to cartMany readers may agree with Peter in his second epistle, that Paul’s letters are “hard to understand” and easily distort (3:15-16, NIV). But as David Ackerman in this latest Reading and Interpreting the Bible volume expertly shows, a proper approach to interpretation will yield rich rewards. Ackerman introduces readers to the social world of Paul, his life, and his mission. The reader learns about competing religions, the structure of ancient letters, rhetorical devices, and the pastoral purposes of Paul’s writing. With clear explanations and illustrations using challenging texts, the reader is equipped with the tools needed to separate the timeless from the time-bound and to bridge the gap between Paul’s world and ours.
Reading the Bible with understanding is challenging. Without sound guidance, making sense of the different literary types, settings, and cultures found in the Scriptures can be overwhelming. The Reading and Interpreting the Bible Series opens the door to a proper and accessible method of biblical interpretation. Each volume concentrates on a specific literary type found in the Bible, highlighting its features and function. Social, political, and religious settings are examined, and a critical analysis of the biblical text brings to light its message and relevance for today. Readers will find in these volumes numerous illustrations of how to interpret specific texts, which can be used as a pattern for individual or group Bible studies.
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Recovering The Lost Tools Of Learning
$21.99Add to cartThirty years ago Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning was published so that Christian parents, instead of fretfully wringing their hands at the deterioration of American culture, would actually do something to resist it. Pastor and school-founder Douglas Wilson called on parents to reject public schools and to give their kids a completely different type of education, with the Lordship of Jesus Christ at the center.
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3 Minute Devotions For An Anxious Heart
$5.99Add to cartGot 3 minutes to spare?
You’ll find the spiritual pick-me-up you desire in 3-Minute Devotions for the Anxious Heart.
Written for women, this delightful devotional packs a powerful dose of comfort, encouragement, and peace into just-right-sized readings for readers looking for hope in the face of anxiety.
Minute 1: scripture to meditate on
Minute 2: a short devotional reading
Minute 3: a prayer to jump-start a conversation with GodTake time to pause, reflect, rejuvenate by reading scripture, encouraging words, and a prayer starter to begin a dialogue with God. No matter what your day brings, this just-right-sized inspiration is guaranteed to be just the pick-me-up you need in your faith walk.
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Good Guys Guide To Great Sex
$19.99Add to cartIf you ever wonder, Is this all there is to sex? or I wish I knew how to help my wife enjoy this more, you’ll appreciate this straightforward, helpful, and faith-based advice on how to have a better sex life.
Based on groundbreaking surveys of more than twenty-five thousand people, this highly practical, research-based book shows guys how to rock their wife’s world. The Good Guy’s Guide to Great Sex from popular marriage blogger and speaker Sheila Wray Gregoire and her husband, Dr. Keith Gregoire, will help you:
*Discover what your wife wants most from you in the bedroom
*Realize what can derail a couple’s sex life and how to get it back on track
*Find healing from past trauma, previous relationships, and porn addiction
*Understand your own sex drive and how to keep it revved
*Learn the secrets to giving your wife the most fulfilling sex she’s ever hadThis can-we-start-tonight? book about making sex wonderful explores how emotional, spiritual, and physical intimacy all work together. It will appeal to:
*Newly engaged couples who want to start their marriage off right
*Married couples who wonder if sex will ever become what they hoped it would be
*Readers of The Good Girl’s Guide to Great Sex
*Pastors and counselors seeking a resource for helping engaged and married couplesThe Good Guy’s Guide to Great Sex also features Couple Projects at the end of each chapter and very specific Good Guy Dares to help you woo your wife in and out of the bedroom as you find your way to a delightful, God-given passion.
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Divine Will And Human Choice
$42.00Add to cartThis fresh study from an internationally respected scholar of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras shows how the Reformers and their successors analyzed and reconciled the concepts of divine sovereignty and human freedom. Richard Muller argues that traditional Reformed theology supported a robust theory of an omnipotent divine will and human free choice and drew on a tradition of Western theological and philosophical discussion. The book provides historical perspective on a topic of current interest and debate and offers a corrective to recent discussions.
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Invisible Thread : The True Story Of An 11-Year-Old Panhandler, A Busy Sale
$18.99Add to cartStopping was never part of the plan…
She was a successful ad sales rep in Manhattan. He was a homeless, eleven-year-old panhandler on the street. He asked for spare change; she kept walking. But then something stopped her in her tracks, and she went back. And she continued to go back, again and again. They met up nearly every week for years and built an unexpected, life-changing friendship that has today spanned almost three decades.
Whatever made me notice him on that street corner so many years ago is clearly something that cannot be extinguished, no matter how relentless the forces aligned against it. Some may call it spirit. Some may call it heart. It drew me to him, as if we were bound by some invisible, unbreakable thread. And whatever it is, it binds us still.?
Now with new material that brings the life-changing story up to date for its tenth anniversary, An Invisible Thread is “a book capable of restoring our faith in each other and in the very idea that maybe everything is going to be okay after all” (Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay It Forward).
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Spark Of Love
$15.99Add to cartWhen a spurned suitor threatens her, heiress Alexandra Tarkington flees New York for Mesquite Springs in the Texas Hill Country, where her father is building a hotel. But the happy reunion she envisions is not to be as her father insists she return to New York. Instead, Alexandra carves out a niche for herself in town, teaching schoolchildren to paint and enjoying the company of Gabe Seymour, a delightful man she met on the stagecoach.
But all is not as it seems. Two men, each with his own agenda, have followed her to Mesquite Springs. And Gabe is an investigator, searching for proof that her father is a swindler. When a series of apparent accidents threaten her life, Alexandra and Gabe will have to work together to discover the truth. And perhaps along the way they will discover that the sparks of attraction they’ve felt from the beginning are more than sparks–they’re love.
Bestselling author Amanda Cabot invites you back to 1850s Texas for this exciting and heartwarming tale of treachery, love, and learning to trust.
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Old Testament Exegesis Fifth Edition
$30.00Add to cartFor years, Douglas Stuart’s Old Testament Exegesis has been one of the most popular ways to learn how to perform exegesis-the science and art of interpreting biblical texts properly for understanding as well as proclamation. This new edition includes a major revision and expansion of online and other resources for doing biblical research and updates past editions by including a helpful configuration of the format for the exegesis process. Stuart provides guidance for full exegesis as well as for a quicker approach specifically tailored to the task of preaching. A glossary of terms explains the sometimes-bewildering language of biblical scholarship, and a list of frequent errors guides the student in avoiding common mistakes. No exegetical guide for the Old Testament has been more widely used in training ministers and students to be faithful, careful interpreters of Scripture.
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Out Of The Dark
$26.95Add to cartGrammy award-winning music artist Mandisa tells an inspiring story of peaks and valleys, trials and joys, wins and losses. Through her gripping narrative, she shows that our choice to trust God can not only overcome our need to understand why bad things happen, but can help us to embrace a life of joy and freedom.
Out of the Dark is Mandisa’s exploration of the journey she’s taken from when she first became a Christian, to her rise as an American Idol finalist and receiving multiple Grammy and Dove Award nominations, as well as the dark and challenging times she experienced along the way. She writes personally and openly about the hardships she has faced and the way she felt betrayed by God, but also about how God has brought her out of the valley into His glorious light. Along the way, she also shares her struggles in learning how to love her body and care for her health.
Just as Mandisa’s Grammy-award winning song “Overcomer” was topping the Contemporary Christian Music charts, her friend for whom “Overcomer” had been written passed away. After losing this close friend to cancer, despite years of prayers on her behalf, Mandisa descended into depression, isolating herself and turning to her familiar friend, food, for comfort.
Throughout Out of the Dark, Mandisa uses her experiences to address the following themes:
*The pain of grief and loss
*Surviving abuse
*Embracing true beauty and a healthy body image
*Coping with severe depression
*Healthy–and disordered–eating
*The role of faith in hope and healing
*Letting go of shame
*Following your unique calling and passion
*How friends and family are crucial for healing
*The challenges of 2020, including protecting mental and emotional health while navigating a public health crisis; quarantining; and coping with racial injustice
*Trusting God daily for hope and healing
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In the darkness, Mandisa knew God was there — but she wondered if she could trust Him. Even at her lowest point where she saw no human way forward, God was at work, powerfully redeeming her story and calling her out of the dark.Mandisa tells her story with warmth and vulnerability, challenging us all to focus on God’s purpose for our lives, surround ourselves with friends who will fight for us, and face life’s challenges with courage and faith. If you’ve ever found yourself in a dark place as the result of grief, depression, or loss, Mandisa’s story will reassure you that even when you’re walking through dark valle
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Gods Covenant Partners
$14.95Add to cartDick Bernal presents God’s covenant plan for the redemption of all people. Beginning with Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, he traces the threads of covenant through them and the lives of the patriarchs, the making of a covenant people after the exodus and the judges and prophets and kings who governed them. In the New Testament, all the varicolored threads come together in a stunning, finished design that shows what lengths God went to in order to prove His love for us in the life, death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.
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Wait Is This Racist
$25.00Add to cartWait-Is This Racist? offers a “be-it-yourself” guide to anti-racism for churches by examining all operations of church life so that churches and church leaders can create a workable action plan to truly become more justice-oriented organizations.
A “Be-It-Yourself” Guide to Anti-racism for Churches and Church Leaders
Whether you have been an ally for years or just recently opened your eyes to racial injustice, guiding your predominantly white church toward anti-racism is a daunting task. Where do you even begin? White churches especially feel an urgency to respond but at the same time suffer a sense of overwhelmingness and futility, as if no one action, sermon series, or service project will solve the problem of racism in America. And they’re right. Instead, we must begin to look deeply at our organizations-our traditions, our ministries, our leadership, our ways of making decisions, our ways of interacting with the world beyond the church-to identify and address implicit biases and to discover how white pseudo-supremacy has been encoded into our way of “doing church.”
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Case For Faith Student Edition
$16.99Add to cartWhy is there suffering? Doesn’t science disprove miracles? What about hell-and the millions who’ve never heard of Jesus? Is heaven for real? Is God unjust? Lee Strobel decided to use his award-winning journalistic skills to investigate the idea of faith, and prove that placing our trust in things we cannot see is a solid bet. This updated The Case for Faith Student Edition adapts Strobel’s bestselling The Case for Faith to present hard-hitting findings as well as interviews with believers and skeptics alike in an easy-to-follow manner so you can make a decision about Christian faith for yourself.
The Case for Faith Student Edition:
*Is written for readers ages twelve and older
*Presents the arguments for and against having faith that teens and young adults often ask and encounter so they can see the real evidence and facts
*Uses logic and solid information to examine why Christians believe what they do
*Can also be used in the classroom, in group studies, or as part of a religious studies or comparisons class
*Contains infographics and charts to make the facts clear
*Pairs well with The Case for Christ Student Edition, The Case for a Creator Student Edition, The Case for the Real Jesus Student Edition, and The Case for Miracles Student Edition
Lee Strobel’s research provides:
*Scientific data, expert testimonies, and interviews
*Cross-religious comparisons
*Historical and archeological proofs he discovered during his investigationPrepare yourself for an eye-opening, no-punches-pulled investigation into eight of the toughest objections to Christianity. The answers will prove whether or not Jesus is who he says he is and if heaven is for real, leading you to a life-changing decision in your current case for or against Christianity. Even if you’re an atheist or just aren’t sure about Jesus, these stories will turn your whole world upside down. If you’re already a Christian, you’ll gain powerful insights that will reshape your understanding of the Bible and affect your life of faith like never before.
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What If Its Wonderful
$18.99Add to cartDon’t spend your life practicing disappointment and rehearsing tragedy when you can experience God’s gift of joy and celebration today.
Author and marriage and family therapist Nicole Zasowski knows that it’s difficult to trust joy and find the courage to celebrate when you have endured seasons of disappointment and despair. When God has been your faithful anchor in the storm, does joy then leave you unmoored? Nicole reminds us that we can stay tethered to the hope of Christ in seasons of celebration, because even joyful days hold the learning, growth, and intimate encounters with Jesus that our hearts crave.
What If It’s Wonderful? offers a new perspective. With a compelling psychological and spiritual case for the importance of embracing joy and celebration, even when it feels scary, it will help you:
*identify common barriers and hesitancies to experiencing joy, debunk their lies, and overcome your fears,
*confront toxic messages you have received about joy as you learn to see celebration as an avenue of growth and intimacy with God,
*approach life with an expectant heart, a receptive posture, and courage to trust God’s good gifts, and
*stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in seasons of joy and celebration.
Things don’t always have to be hard to find God and to stay close to him. Release your fears and accept his beautiful gift of joy and celebration.
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Start With Prayer
$19.99Add to cartDo you find it difficult to pray? Do you struggle to find the words to articulate how you are feeling and what you need? Max Lucado knows what it feels like to struggle with prayer. Start with Prayer will help you create a prayer routine and feel more comfortable when you communicate with God.
Start with Prayer is a prayer book that includes:
*240 prayers
*prayers on a variety of topics: anxiety, fear, forgiveness, grief, gratitude, hope, love, peace, strength, and much more
This book of prayers by New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado is perfect for:
*men and women wanting to create a habit of prayer
*beginners in prayer and seasoned prayer warriors
*birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduations, and holiday gifting
*anyone needing encouragement, coping with a challenging season, or searching for hope and strengthStart with Prayer is a resource that you can turn to no matter how you’re feeling or what season you’re going through. Max reminds us that starting with prayer is the answer to everything.
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You Can Rest
$16.99Add to cartIs your worry wheel spinning out of control?
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders affect 1 in 8 children. With constant access to technology, news cycles, and social media-and with heightened pressures to perform in all areas of life-kids’ brains are simply overwhelmed with worries and fears, and they don’t know how to slow down and rest.
Katy Boatman, who has worked with tween girls in ministry for 15 years, tackles this phenomenon head-on in You Can Rest, a 100-day devotional that takes an empathetic and honest approach to the topic of anxiety in the day-to-day. Structured with a Scripture to open, a devotional to ponder, a prayer to close, and a weekly journaling prompt, the book guides readers to reflect on everyday concerns from a biblical and hopeful perspective. You Can Rest addresses relevant topics such as:
*Anxiety about the future
*Making (and keeping) friends
*Getting sick
*Believing God
*Resolving conflict
*Being misunderstood
*Feeling isolated
*Even falling asleep!Katy is a friendly and comforting voice. She’s the mentor on the page, the one who has gone before the reader, wrestled with all of these issues too, and-despite still worrying plenty herself-can testify to the faithfulness of Jesus. She reminds the reader because of Jesus, we can rest, no matter what is going on in our lives. Packed with grace and truth and sprinkled with humor and delight, You Can Rest shows tween girls that their anxieties do not have the final say. Jesus does.
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Forgiveness : Overcoming The Impossible
$14.99Add to cartWhether giving or receiving, forgiveness is?the?key toward true healing and blessing.?
God says there are no limits to forgiveness toward others or ourselves. And when Matthew West set out on a journey asking people to share their true life stories, Renee shared about how she chose to forgive the drunk driver who hit and killed her daughter.?
This remarkable story and others like it bring peace and healing to the one needing and the ones giving forgiveness. Fifty powerful stories share forgiveness through divorce, betrayal, addiction, abandonment, death, and more. Each story ties into the promises of God’s faithfulness and healing, and ends with the story of God’s ultimate forgiveness through the message of salvation.
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Nothing Knew : Redemption Gray Series Book 2 Of 3
$29.99Add to cartNever jump on the back of a motorcycle with the devil just because you think he’s Jesus.
Redemption Gray has traveled fifteen hundred miles from home to find happiness-he gained it, made a bold declaration of faith, and immediately found himself stranded on the side of the road next to his father’s totaled car. When Longstoryshort pulled up moments later, he seemed like an answer to a prayer Redemption hadn’t even had time to speak.
From the back of that motorcycle, the world becomes a different place. Dependent on a stranger to help him get home, at first Redemption finds his rescuer fascinating, admirable, and wise. But as the miles pass beneath them, first impressions wear thin, and truth is hard to find.
When Longstoryshort finally shows his true colors, will Redemption have the strength and courage to break free, or will he be trapped in a life of unrestrained evil?
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Under The Sun (Revised)
$28.99Add to cartFrom its first page, Under the Sun is a riveting coming-of-age tale of discovery, of independence, of letting go, and of finding God. Young adult readers will find this book to be relatable, thought provoking, and challenging as they follow Redemption Gray on an unplanned cross-country journey from Dallas northward to the mountains of Montana, looking for .?.?. well, he doesn’t really know. Along the way, readers will find more than just an escape from the everyday world of school, friends, family, pressures, and expectations. They will also journey with Redemption inward into silence, solitude, deliberate thought, and the rewards of paying attention.
Far from being preachy, Under the Sun weaves important biblical themes and necessary elements of faith into the images and sounds the reader experiences, until they ultimately converge at the climax of the story. This 2018 Nautilus Silver Award winning work reflects the author’s appreciation for great American literature and his passion for the classics in general.
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Running On Broken Legs
$22.99Add to cartTake undersized five-year-old farm girl Elinor, give her the polio that not only cripples her but also nearly kills her, then give her an impossible dream. In her childhood and again as a college student she rebels against the plan. Finally, she embraces the dream, and it leads Elinor to one of the most primitive, rugged places on earth and to a life that brawny international explorers would envy.
For nearly eighteen years Elinor deals with murdering tribal people, a devastating earthquake and the relief efforts that follow, joys, triumphs, depression, peace, life-threatening illnesses, recovery, and friendship with the Kimyal tribal people, whom she comes to deeply respect and love. The Kimyal people give her the name Bad Legs, which to them reflects how her weak body shows them God’s love. Finally, the late effects of Elinor’s original polio force her to leave the place and people that her heart has embraced. She must find a way to say goodbye.
In typical Kimyal fashion, Elinor tells a story to picture a profound truth: our weaknesses can be the conduit of strength beyond our own.
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MaryLou Found A Really Big Shoe
$13.99Add to cartMarylou Butkiewitcz was outside playing one day when she noticed something strange off in the distance. When she came upon it, she realized it was a giant brown shoe. She was shocked to see such a sight. Little did she realize this shoe was magical and she was in for a world-wide adventure. She climbed up inside the shoe, and before she knew it, the shoe was taking her on a journey that children only dream about. She traveled to foreign lands and saw many amazing sights. Come along on Marylou’s adventure. You won’t be disappointed!
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Angels Everywhere : Poems
$19.00Add to cart“The word ‘angel’ means ‘messenger’ and the title poem of this book, ‘Angels Everywhere, ‘ presents the idea that what I often glimpse is a flicker of glancing light, as if a heavenly being is darting in and out of my viewing, allowing me entry into a realm beyond my physical, experiential world–brief revelatory messages from somewhere beyond. I’m hoping that as you read these poems, (more than once, aloud if possible) something like Wordsworth’s ‘intimations of immortality’ will enliven your own perceptions of the world as you experience it. Maybe your own fleet of angels will show up!” –Luci Shaw, from the Introduction
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Because You Prayed
$14.99Add to cartBecause You Prayed is a resource for all of those praying with desperate concern for prodigals. These thirty days of prayer and decrees have been selected from my journey and personal journal. The chosen themes represent the struggles I faced in believing for my family’s restoration and how a solid scriptural foundation helped put that faith in action through prayer.
I have set the stage for these days of prayer by telling our family’s story. As the entries indicate, there were often more challenges than celebrations. However, our story becomes a testimony to add an element of authentic hope.
The grand crescendo of the book is a thank you letter from my son. His lived experience, breakthroughs, and years of restored destiny will fan the flame of confident expectation for the readers. Because You Prayed will be a source of encouragement, enabling more individuals and families to also develop their own testimony.
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Jesus Calling For Moms
$19.99Add to cartGive the moms in your life this beautiful gift of encouragement and reassurance from Jesus Calling (R). Jesus Calling for Moms includes selected 50 devotions to celebrate mothers and their love, comfort, and strength.
With 50 themed selections, you’ll find devotions that include:
*the power of love
*the gift of strength
*courage in any season
*trusting Him during challenging times
*God’s guidance and comfort
*joyous reasons to celebrate mothers and motherhoodThis beautiful compilation of devotions from Sarah’s bestselling brand also includes:
*a new introduction and prayer for moms by Sarah Young
*journaling prompts and questions to encourage deeper growth
*space to write thoughts, prayers, and reflections
*stunning imagery
*written-out Scripture versesWhether a gift for your own mom or for a mom who means so much to you, this is the perfect gift for Mother’s Day, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, and more. Jesus Calling for Moms will be a cherished favorite for years to come.
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Sources Of The Christian Self
$58.99Add to cartUsing Charles Taylor’s magisterial Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity as a springboard, this interdisciplinary book explores lived Christian identity through the ages.
Beginning with such Old Testament figures as Abraham, Moses, and David and moving through the New Testament, the early church, the Middle Ages, and onward, the forty-two biographical chapters in Sources of the Christian Self illustrate how believers historically have defined their selfhood based on their relation to God/Jesus.
Among the many historical subjects are Justin Martyr, Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Julian of Norwich, Dante, John Calvin, Teresa of Avila, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, Christina Rossetti, Blaise Pascal, Sren Kierkegaard, C. S. Lewis, and Flannery O’Connor-all of whom boldly lived out their Christian identities in their varied cultural contexts. In showing how Christian identity has evolved over time, Sources of the Christian Self offers deep insight into our own Christian selves today.
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Preparing For Marriage (Revised)
$39.99Add to cartCreated by FamilyLife, one of America’s leading marriage and family ministries, Preparing for Marriage is a dynamic, comprehensive program designed to help you prepare for life together after the cake is cut and the guests head home. That is when the real adventure begins–the adventure of creating an intimate, lasting, and biblical marriage!
This third edition is again restructured and refreshed for today’s young couples, while still offering the solid, dependable information it has since first published.
Centered around five essential conversations about God, finances, sex, and more, inside you’ll find a fun, romantic study that will help you target areas for growth in your relationship. You can work through Preparing for Marriage as a couple or with a mentoring couple, pastor, or premarital counselor.
Don’t just plan your wedding . . . prepare for your marriage!
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Enchanting The Heiress
$29.99Add to cartHarriet Hancock likes to make the lives of those around her better whether they like it or not. So, she is surprised when her friend Sophia Whitworth has ideas of her own on how to make Harriet happier–by throwing her together with Sophia’s brother, stable hand Jonas Fitzroy. When Harriet discovers his natural way with words, she hatches a plan that would benefit them both.
Holding a grudge against Harriet for her meddling in Sophia’s life, it is only because of his sister that Jonas agrees to approach Harriet about a possible artistic project. What he doesn’t expect is for her to request his help writing a book.
As they work together, they start to see each other in a different light, but when the truth of Harriet’s schemes is revealed, she’ll find her good intentions for once have gone too far.
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Who Am I And Why Do I Matter
$12.99Add to cartSooner or later, kids ask big questions about themselves and their faith: Who am I? Where do I fit in? Am I good enough? What do people think of me? What does God think of me?
Christian Studies teacher and school chaplain Chris Morphew has been answering big questions from kids for over a decade. In this warm, empathetic book, he shows children how to embrace and enjoy their identity as those loved by God and made in his image. He also gives lots of practical advice on how to remember what God says about who they really are.
Lively stories and illustrations make this book easy for 9-13s to engage with. Readers will be helped to replace fear and anxiety with faith and confidence as they find their self-worth in what God says about them.
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Matthew : A Commentary
$90.00Add to cartIn this new critical commentary for the New Testament Library series, R. Alan Culpepper sets the Gospel of Matthew in the context of the competing Jewish and early Christian voices of the first century, bringing greater clarity to Matthew’s own proclamation of the gospel and inviting readers to give up perhaps long-held assumptions about the book.
In Culpepper’s treatment, Matthew emerges as a Gospel for a Jewish community, distinguishing itself from the Pharisees on one side and other early Christian traditions and leaders, especially Paul and his followers, on the other side. In this framework, Matthew calls his community to faithful observance of the law, a law-observant mission to both Jews and Gentiles, and repentance and the practice of forgiving in preparation for the coming judgment. Accordingly, Matthew takes readers back to an early period, before the separation of Jewish Christians from the synagogues. By taking seriously Matthew’s Jewishness, this volume also enables readers to hear the historical Jesus more clearly. Excursuses on Matthew’s social setting include Jesus as healer, Sabbath observance, Roman taxation, the Pharisees, the tithes, ancient weddings, and the Sanhedrin, as well as many shorter units on Second Temple Judaism, synagogues, and first-century Galilean society.
The New Testament Library series offers authoritative commentary on every book and major aspect of the New Testament, providing fresh translations based on the best available ancient manuscripts, critical portrayals of the historical world in which the books were created, careful attention to their literary design, and a theologically perceptive exposition of the biblical text. The contributors are scholars of international standing. The editorial board consists of C. Clifton Black, Princeton Theological Seminary; John T. Carroll, Union Presbyterian Seminary; and Susan E. Hylen, Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
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Who Moved My Neighborhood
$18.99Add to cartNeighborhoods are moving.
While neighborhood changes can mean exciting and fresh opportunities for some, the experience can be vastly different for long-time residents. The rapid movement of people means changes in employment, economics, landscape, demographics, and the feel of a community. Churches often experience the painful impact of these shifts. Depending on how a church navigates through these changes determines if it will either live, die, or be reduced to a tragic existence on life support. Mark Strong knows the obstacles connected with gentrification and the challenges it brings. As a pastor, he led his church through its own moved neighborhood in Portland. Strong shares the frustrations, surprises, and joys that his church experienced as their neighborhood shifted, and he provides the roadmap that his own church used to navigate the change. Who Moved My Neighborhood? gives insight to churches that need to heal from the wounds of gentrification and economic change, and revamp their mission amidst an uncertain future. Using the discussion guide included in the book, churches can discuss their own moved neighborhood and explore the unique next steps that God has for their community. There is hope and a future for congregations that face a moved neighborhood.
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Threads Of Hope
$18.00Add to cartTally Smucker’s quiet life of reading and quilting masks her sorrow over her mother’s declining health and the lack of a fulfilling future for herself. When her entire world is shaken by her free-spirited neighbor Danielle, who grew up Plain but joined the Army at eighteen, Tally’s instinct is to distance herself.
Yet she finds she can’t turn away when Danielle’s brother, Kenan, specifically asks for her help. She invites Danielle to visit Plain Patterns quilt shop with her, where owner Jane Berger begins telling a story set during World War I. The plight of a soldier and the girl he left behind resonates with both Tally and Danielle, but for different reasons.
When Tally’s mother suffers a stroke at the same time Danielle’s PTSD becomes unmanageable, it seems Tally’s efforts to aid them only make things worse. Can Jane’s story, along with the care of Kenan, help Tally accept the hope–for all of them–that waits just around the corner?
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Unleash Your God Given Healing
$19.95Add to cartGinny Brant’s diagnosis sent her on a quest to discover what caused her to contract cancer, what she could do to survive it, and how she could help others prevent it. She discovered we can help our doctors by changing what they have no control over-our lifestyle and health habits. By doing so we build our immune systems and reduce toxic loads.
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Friends At Springtime
$13.99Add to cartFriends at Springtime reminds us that regardless of our background and ethnicity, we can share a moment and space with each other. The laughter of friends or family having a great time with each other should be the achievement of our day.
Join in the festivities as Alex, Jada, Jenny, and Myles provide entertainment for a great friendship day.
Oh, and paint some eggs along the way.
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Good For Nothing Tree
$18.00Add to cartA tiny fig tree needs time to grow. But how much time? All four seasons go by . . . and there are no figs. The seasons pass again. Still no figs! Is the fig tree good for nothing?
Inspired by the parable of the Barren Fig Tree, The Good for Nothing Tree reminds us that the sweetest figs, like many other things, are worth waiting for. Not every tree–and not every child–grows at the same pace. Yet patience, care, and love can change everything, making what may appear good for nothing very good.
A note about the parable’s New Testament origins and a recipe are included.
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Caesar And The Church
$12.99Add to cart“RENDER UNTO CAESAR WHAT IS CAESAR’S!” BUT WHAT IS CAESAR’S? “OBEY CAESAR UNLESS IT’S SINFUL” HAS BECOME AN ALMOST UNIVERSAL INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13. BUT IS THAT CORRECT? WHEN THE GOVERNMENT SAYS, “JUMP!” DO WE SIMPLY SAY, “HOW HIGH?”
Since the arrival of Covid-19, governments around the world have been imposing mandates, lockdowns, and other restrictions. Churches were told to close, or, if they could remain open, to do so outside, or with masks, or social distancing, or without singing, or in limited numbers, or even all of the above. And yet despite that the response from churches has been incredibly varied.
CAESAR AND THE CHURCH takes us on a brief overview through the biblical teaching on authority, and in particular how it relates to the relationship between Caesar (that is, civil government) and the Church.
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Gods Word To Pastors Revised And Updated (Revised)
$26.99Add to cartA Handbook of Questions and Answers for Pastors
This quick-read handbook, packed with biblical wisdom and practical guidance from the pastoral trenches will equip and encourage you in the midst of ministry.
Bob Yandian, a veteran pastor of more than 30 years, provides answers to common questions relating to your everyday pastoral duties and personal life.
In God’s Word to Pastor’s Revised and Expanded, Bob covers topics such as…
*The first pastors conference in Acts 20
*Passion vs. calling
*Daily schedules
*Living a balanced life
*Wolves after your sheep
*The glorious church
*Pastors need pastors
*Whose flock do you pastor?
*Spiritual workaholics
*Family before ministry
*The pastor’s heart
*The bond of peaceBob will help you apply timeless biblical wisdom to the issues and dynamics of today’s pastoral ministry.
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Zero Percent Chance
$19.95Add to cartFind out how a U.S. special operations team led the fight to remove ISIS from Manbij, Syria, and how God stepped in to work miracles in the life of soldier Jon Turnbull after he is injured in a suicide bombing. Survival is just the beginning of the battle facing Turnbull and his wife Samantha in this book that celebrates freedom, faith, and heroes.
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Little Lump Of Clay
$17.99Add to cartA little lump of clay arrives in the Master Potter’s workshop, certain he’ll be molded into something magnificent-a fancy urn, an elegant vase, or a stylish serving tray for the most important occasions. After all, everything the Master Potter shapes is special! But he can’t understand it when he becomes just a plain, ordinary piece of pottery. How can he serve a special purpose like this? It takes an encounter with Jesus himself for the little lump to realize that being “ordinary” doesn’t mean he can’t serve the Lord in a way beyond anything he ever imagined.
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By The Sweet Gum
$16.99Add to cartShe’s bound by duty. He’s tethered to a dream.
In the beleaguered mill town of Sweetgum, Georgia, Genessee Taylor dreams of a life beyond running the mill-owned hotel with her family. Though the work is honest, the owner of the mill is not. Genessee and her father long to see stronger labor laws passed to protect the innocent children who are injured and dying in the mill. When the owner learns of their activity, he will stop at nothing to silence them.
Tommy Mack works at the mill and dreams of playing professional ball and marrying Genessee. When he’s contracted by a big-league team, his dreams are within grasp. Just as Tommy and Genessee’s wedding is on the horizon, tragedy strikes Sweetgum. Tommy can’t stay and Genessee can’t leave.
Is there any way for them to battle through loss, deception, and sacrifice to find their way back to each other?
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Napoleon Hills The Language Of Thought
$14.95Add to cartNapoleon Hill’s The Language of Thought is your guide to understanding, generating, and directing more powerful thoughts so that you can live and work with more intention, joy, and success.
The single most powerful tool available to human beings is not money, physical strength, influence, or a network; it is the mind. Our thoughts determine our outcomes in life, as well as our ability to enjoy the journey. In order to harness our thoughts to create material success, we do not require any personal advantage such as wealth, connections, or education. We simply need to utilize the mental resources already within our possession by cultivating a thorough understanding of the workings of the mind and the manner in which thoughts may be transformed into their physical counterparts.
In order to create positive change in our lives, we must learn to speak the language of thought, which has its own unique formula. This book contains Napoleon Hill’s best lessons on the components that make up the language of thought, as well as easy-to-follow, modernized instructions on how to leverage these elements to generate more powerful thoughts. In particular, you will discover how to:
*Magnetize your thought impulses with desire
*Refine your thoughts with definiteness of purpose
*Control and direct your emotions to productive ends
*Support your goals with a compelling network of motives
*Create positive thought habits through concentration and repetition
*Protect your mind from negative external influencesThe more you practice the principles outlined in this book, the more fluency you will gain in the language of thought. As your facility for this language develops, you will experience greater control over your thoughts and emotions, which will enable you to enjoy more success in the pursuit of your definite major purpose. There are no limitations to the mind conditioned for achievement. Are you ready to write your success story with more powerful language?
“You will attract to you…the very things, or the very station in life, that you create in your thoughts.” -Napoleon Hill
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Domestic Monastery : Creating A Spiritual Life At Home
$12.99Add to cartWhat is a monastery? A monastery is a place set apart–a place to learn the blessings of powerlessness, and that time is not ours but God’s. Our home and our duties can, just like a monastery, teach us those things. The vocation of monastic men and women is to physically withdraw from the world. But the principle is equally valid for those of us who cannot go off to monasteries. Certain vocations offer the same kind of opportunity for contemplation, and provide a desert for reflection.
In ten brief and powerful chapters, Fr. Ron explores how monastery life can apply to those who don’t live in a cloister:
– Monasticism and Family Life
– The Domestic Monastery
– Real Friendship
– Lessons from the Monastic Cell
– Ritual for Sustaining Prayer
– Tensions within Spirituality
– A Spirituality of Parenting
– Spirituality and the Seasons of Our Lives
– The Sacredness of Time
– Life’s Key Question -
Begin With A Question
$20.00Add to cartBegin with a Question explores how the life of faith is a continuous voyage, launched anew each bright day of the spirit or dark night of the soul. This is a book of contemplation and motion, a journey–often in stops and starts–toward the Divine, a pilgrimage paved with prayer, praise, pause, penitence, and (of course) questions. Urgent and universal, joyful or joyless, tinged with doubt or rinsed with hope, here are honest queries that probe, lift, and lead to discovery. Begin with a Question keeps us moving, seeking, reaching, lifting us out of ourselves to something beyond. Using a variety of fixed forms and free verse, the poet examines our relationship to the one who asks, “Who do you say that I am?” A book for seekers, doubters, and believers alike, these poems bring us face to face with anguish, anger, awe, and adoration. They give us permission not to demand answers, but to follow the questions that lead to the Alpha and Omega, to the I AM that keeps us spiraling along this twisting path toward God.
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Sports Shorts : 52 Stories Of Faith From All-Star Believers
$14.99Add to cartKids and sports fans of all ages always look up to their favorite player. It doesn’t matter if they can throw a ball 100 mph, hit a grand slam, or catch a winning touchdown pass–athletes have a big impact on their fans. But what’s more important than a players’ stats and likeability is that they show a godly example both on and off the playing field.
In Sports Shorts, you’ll get an inside look at what motivates a Christian all-star player. You will find out that they have problems just like you. But they also know where to find strength when they are tested.Professional athletes can serve God and be happy even when life throws them a curveball and so can you.
Sports Shorts will show you wonderful examples of all-star, major league Christian football and baseball players at their best so you can be inspired to be your best.
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Introducing The Pseudepigrapha Of Second Temple Judaism
$50.00Add to cart2020 Center for Biblical Studies Book Award (Reference Works)
This book introduces readers to a much-neglected and misunderstood assortment of Jewish writings from around the time of the New Testament. Dispelling mistaken notions of
“falsely attributed writings” that are commonly inferred from the designation “pseudepigrapha,”Daniel Gurtner demonstrates the rich indebtedness these works exhibit to the traditions and scriptures of Israel’s past. In surveying many of the most important works, Introducing the Pseudepigrapha of Second Temple Judaism shows how the pseudepigrapha are best appreciated in their own varied contexts rather than as mere “background” to early Christianity or emerging rabbinic Judaism. Foreword by Loren T. Stuckenbruck.
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No Turning Back
$29.99Add to cartFor many of us, believing in Jesus feels like the first step on a journey that can only get better and better with every step. Then trials come and it can be hard to keep walking. When faced with disappointment, disillusionment, doubt, and death, we may be tempted to turn back. The road ahead seems too hard, too long, too fraught with danger and difficulty.
With great passion and deep understanding of the struggles believers go through, Rashawn Copeland encourages and inspires you to stay the course. In No Turning Back he shares practical and productive ways you can experience true and lasting growth based on the promises God makes to those who follow him. He shows you how to apply the truths of Scripture to be transformed by God’s power, grow your identity in Christ, renew your mind, free yourself from your past, and become the person God has called you to be.
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More Than My Scars
$29.99Add to cartThe first thing you will notice when you meet Kechi Okwuchi is her scars. One of just two survivors of a devastating plane crash that killed more than 100 people, 16-year-old Kechi was left with third-degree burns over 65 percent of her body. More Than My Scars is her incredible story. A story of not just surviving impossible odds but thriving in a world that is too often caught up with how we look on the outside rather than seeing that our true value is within.
Now in her early 30s, Kechi has spent the last 16 years refusing to be defined by her trauma. Follow her as she decides for herself what role her scars will play in her life before society decides for her. Her strong sense of identity, rooted in seeing herself the way God sees her, has allowed her to live authentically in a world that constantly seeks to define us by its ever-changing (and ever-shallow) standards. Kechi’s story will inspire you to love and accept yourself as you are and confidently present your true self to the world.
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Men We Need
$29.99Add to cartThe world needs real men, real bad. And there are all sorts of conflicting ideas and messages about what a “real man” is (and is not). Is a real man one who hunts, loves sports, grills meat, fixes cars, and climbs mountains? Sure, sometimes. But that’s not really the point of being a man and it’s not the purpose for which men were made.
Into our cultural confusion, Brant Hansen paints a refreshingly specific, compelling picture of what men are made to be: “Keepers of the Garden.” Protectors and defenders. He calls for men of all interests and backgrounds (including “avid indoorsmen” like himself) to be ambitious about the right things and to see themselves as defenders of the vulnerable, with whatever resources they have.
Using short chapters loaded with must-have wisdom and Brant’s signature humor, The Men We Need explains the essence of masculinity in a fresh, thoughtful, and entertaining way that will inspire any man who dares to read it.
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How To Thrive As A Pastors Wife
$29.99Add to cartEvery pastor’s wife is a faithful servant and leader in her own right. She has great influence on her church, her community, her family, and her husband, and she finds joy in seeing God move in the lives of others. Yet she also faces unique challenges that too often go unnoticed and unaddressed. At times, a pastor’s wife may feel she can’t talk about her struggles even with those who are closest to her, which can leave her feeling alone, depleted, and misunderstood. She may settle for this way of living, but that’s not God’s desire for her.
Christine Hoover knows firsthand the unique struggles and opportunities afforded a pastor’s wife–she’s been filling that role for more than 20 years. Coming alongside as an understanding friend, she offers encouragement and guidance to the struggling pastor’s wife, showing her how to make meaningful personal relationships with God, her husband, her children, her church community, and other women–relationships that will sustain her and help her thrive.
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Fierce Mercy : Daring To Live Out God’s Compassion In Bold And Practical Wa
$29.99Add to cartAbby Johnson thought she knew what mercy was when she ushered desperate women toward abortion as the director of a Planned Parenthood facility. She was wrong. It wasn’t until she understood the blood on her hands that she personally experienced the power of God’s fierce yet tender mercy to transform her life. But she never imagined what could happen once she allowed that very mercy to infiltrate her life and spill out into a hurting world.
In Fierce Mercy, Abby calls you to experience a transformation of your own. Against the backdrop of her first decade involved in the pro-life movement, Abby helps you discover God’s unrestrained mercy at work in your own life and take steps toward becoming a channel of that life-changing mercy in the world around you. She shows you how to model God’s mercy, freely offer mercy to those who seem undeserving, respond with mercy when others err or offend, and bear witness to God’s unrestrained compassion so that others may know him.
This is Abby’s challenge to you: dare to do what is hard, what is right, and what is good. And do all of it in love.
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Why Would Anyone Follow Jesus
$16.99Add to cartOf all the gods, gurus, and good people out there, why Jesus? Why follow some ancient carpenter-turned-philosopher from a podunk town in the Middle East? A man whose own people didn’t believe in him for the most part. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Or does it?
With his signature insight and contagious enthusiasm, Ray Comfort walks you through twelve persuasive reasons to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was who he said he was, did the things the Bible records him doing, and explains why it matters to your life in the 21st century. He covers everything from the virgin birth to Jesus’s miracles and teachings, including his hard sayings, his detractors, his exclusive claims, and his commands to his followers. Through it all, Comfort shines a light on how Jesus stands out and stands above every other teacher, prophet, or historical figure out there.
If you struggle to articulate why you follow Jesus to your friends and family, or if you are a skeptic looking for some way to make sense of the whole Jesus thing, this book is for you.