Life Growth

There are as many paths to holiness as there are saints in Heaven . . . but you cant follow them all. Yet there's one thing every saint practices that you can imitate: the simple art of loving God, which the beloved St. Francis de Sales explains for you here. Under his wise and gentle guidance, you'll discover the secrets to growing holier through the simple things in life work, play, and rest. You'll learn to avoid the distractions (even religious distractions) that trouble and weary your soul . . . and you'll soon be able to focus your energy simply on loving God.

In life there is the ideal: fulfilling work, thriving relationships, financial security. Not to mention an orderly and beautiful home and children who never misbehave. And then there's reality: frustrations, illness, feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. We can wait around for our circumstances to change and in the process miss the goodness right in front of us. Or we can choose to love our actual lives, right here and now.

What is the 'Christian life' all about? Studying the Bible, attending church, cultivating a prayer life, witnessing to others---those are all good. But is that really what Jesus has in mind? The answer, says Scot McKnight in One.Life, lies in Jesus' words, 'Follow me.'What does it look like to follow Jesus, and how will doing so change the way we live our life---our love.life, our justice.life, our peace.life, our community.life, our sex.life---everything about our life.

Is our faith only about going to church, studying the Bible, and avoiding the most serious sins? Or does God expect more? Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it? More than twenty years ago, Rich Stearns came face-to-face with that question as he sat in a mud hut in Rakai, Uganda, listening to the heartbreaking story of an orphaned child. Stearns’s journey took much more than a long flight to Africa. It took answering God’s call on his life, a call that tore him out of his corner office, to walk with the poorest of the poor in our world.

What do you do when you are suddenly navigating a life you didn't sign up for? You never saw this pain coming, and you're facing a future you'd pass up if you could. Lisa Appelo understands deeply. She has experienced the raw emotions and uncertainty that come when everything falls apart. Lisa went to bed married and woke up a widow and single mom to seven children. She wrestled with impossible questions about her future—and then found life-changing answers that gave her the strength to move forward with true joy.

Eugene Peterson’s classic translation of the Bible, The Message, has brought God’s words to life for millions of listeners by seamlessly recreating the immediacy of Scripture in contemporary English. Now, in Living the Message, Peterson has created a devotional to help listeners engage more intimately with God’s message and put His teachings into practice. Peterson’s meditations on spiritual life, the Bible, prayer, community, and faith accompany daily readings from Scripture and speak explicitly to the relevance of God’s word to the concerns and conditions of our day.

Ask successful women what they want from their money and they'll tell you: independence, security, choices, a better world, and - oh yes - way less stress, not just for themselves but for their kids, partners, parents, and friends. Through a series of Happy Hour discussions (when money is the topic, wine helps) and one-on-one conversations, Jean Chatzky gets women to open up about the one topic we still never talk about. Then she flips the script and charts a pathway to this joyful, purpose-filled life that today's women not only want but also, finally, have the resources to afford.

The most vital and significant moments in life are moments of encounter. Whether we encounter ourselves, others, or God, these moments let us know that life is meaningful. And presence is what makes encounter possible. When we are truly present, everything that has being becomes potentially present to us.

We want to live with joy. But life is hard. Culture tells us to ignore the hard and focus on the positive. But science shows that actually makes us more depressed and physically ill. In her transparent, hopeful way, Jillian Benfield shows how we can live with the joy Jesus promises—not by ignoring our dark circumstances and emotions, but by practicing a truer way of living: embracing the "&" in life.

Twenty years ago, Jerry Sittser lost his daughter, wife, and mother in a car accident. He chronicled that tragic experience in A Grace Disguised, a book that has become a classic on the topic of grief and loss.

Now he asks: How do we live meaningfully, even fruitfully, in this world and at the same time long for heaven? How do we respond to the paradox of being a new creature in Christ even though we don’t always feel or act like one? How can we trust God is involved in our story when our circumstances seem to say he isn’t?

When Rebecca Kauffman's older sister, who left the Amish community when she was a teenager, dies in an automobile accident, Rebecca is left custody of her two modern non-Amish teenage nieces, Jessica and Lindsay. Will she be able to reconcile the two worlds in her home - or will the clash of cultures tear her world, including her marriage, apart?

Jack Chisholm is 'the people's pastor.' He leads a devoted and growing mega church, has several best-selling books, and a memorable slogan, 'We have got to do better.' Jack knows how to preach, and he understands how to chastise people into performing. What he doesn't know is anything about grace. This year, when it comes time for the Christmas sermon, the congregation at Grace Cathedral will look to the pulpit, and Jack will not be there. Of course, they will have seen plenty of him already - on the news.

If you are willing to investigate the claims of Jesus and the truths of the Bible, if you are a new Christian who wants to grow in your relationship with God, If you are a believer who wants to disciple others, Walk in Newness of Life was written for you.

While most of us have heard about Christians suffering for their faith, we tend to think "persecution" mainly impacts believers in times past or in hostile nations today, far removed from our daily lives. But this eye-opening book describes the various stages of persecution, revealing that persecution is something all followers of the Way can expect to face in this fallen world. Trouble on the Way will not only help listeners recognize persecution in all its forms but enable them to stand firm against it.

Author Bob Buford called them "code breakers". They are people age 40 and older who have pioneered the art of finishing well in these modern times, and who can teach us to do the same, starting today. Buford sought out 60 of these trailblazers - including Peter Drucker, Roger Staubach, Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard, and Dallas Willard - and has recorded their lively conversations in this audiobook so that they can serve as "mentors" for all of us.

Did you know that your brokenness could be a gift? Be the Gift, by New York Times best-selling author Ann Voskamp, will challenge and encourage you to listen to God and look for opportunities to be his gift to others.

Everything is beautiful in its time. Life is a journey through beautiful and varied seasons, with a dynamic cadence and full of continued discovery. Embrace each season of your life, and learn to live into it fully with grace and help from Joyce Meyer. How to Age Without Getting Old equips us to become wise enough to embrace God's changing grace and the evolution of our calling to the next season of life.

Without a doubt, the quest to attain sexual purity is the number one battle Christian men face in the 21st century. The message of this timely book is that you need not settle for a fear-driven form of freedom when an abundant life of victory in Christ is yours for the taking. The secret to victorious living is to tap into God's great storehouse of mercy for one's own needs, and then act as a conduit for that power, directing it toward the lives of others.

Stone by stone and brick by brick we are built into God’s likeness. God is working out His plan. Just as in the Old Testament when literal stones served as memorials, the events of our lives serve as memorials of God’s love for us; God’s deliverance, God’s supernatural intervention in the everyday moments of our lives. An event, a person, a lesson learned… Faithfulness, forgiveness, friendship.

This is a book about discovering what we really need. There are a lot of second-best options, but we weren't made to live a second-best life. Finding what we actually need is different than what we are often offered. There are many books full of opinions, steps and programs. This isn't one of them. This is about craving the things that matter. Things that don't just work, but last.