Spiritual Biography

Every woman knows it's easy to lose sight of the heavenly power of God at work in our lives during times of hardship, exhaustion, stress, and change. But no matter the situation - whether it's our health, marriage, finances, family, or vocation - God has equipped all women with the power and influence to live freely and confidently. With warmth and a welcoming style, speaker and award-winning writer LaTan Roland Murphy illuminates 11 courageous women in the Bible and shows how each was uniquely positioned for success because of her courageous choices.

Once a trained athlete in peak condition, Joanne Moody suffered a postpregnancy injury that sidelined her for the next 14 years. Not one to give up easily, Moody fought to find an answer to her pain year after year. Countless doctors attempted to treat her until, finally, one recommended a surgeon in France. Joanne and her sisters made the trek only to stare death in the face again. At the moment of greatest pain, God reached down and gave her a promise.

Moses never wanted to be a leader. Jonah ran away from his mission's call. And when Marcia Moston's husband came home with a call to foreign missions, she was sure God had the wrong number. His call conflicted with her own dreams, demanded credentials she didn't have, and required courage she couldn't seem to find. She promised to follow where God led, but she never thought the road would lead to a Mayan village on a Guatemalan mountainside.

Becca Stevens calls herself a "snake oil salesman" - in a positive sense. The social enterprise she founded, Thistle Farms, provides purpose and employment to abused women, providing them with the economic well-being to begin new lives. The natural body-care products that Thistle Farms manufactures - balms, soaps, and lotions, whose ingredients include essential oils - bring healing comfort to the company's customers, too.

Many of us would say it takes guts and a little bit of crazy to step toe-to-toe with a powerful, 1700-pound bull. For hall-of-fame bullfighter, Jeremy Sparks, it took faith. Sparks' remarkable and illustrious journey began at a young age when he received a God-given calling to become a professional bullfighter.

When the oldest of Kate Braestrup's four children was 10 years old, her husband, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car accident. Stunned and grieving, she decided to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a Unitarian minister. She eventually began working with the Maine Game Warden Service, which conducts the state's search-and-rescue operations when people go missing in the wilderness.

Lance’s dream had finally come true. He was in a rock band that took music seriously. But he never expected that meeting a toe-sock-wearing Texan would change the course of his life for eternity. Go on an exciting, personal journey with Lance Mosher, where he questions everything he thought he knew about Christianity, faith, and salvation - the very essence of who he thought he was.

Growing up in a family where everyone was just fine, Don Follis learned early on to keep his arms crossed and his emotions at bay. While his spiritual life groaned for development, the land of numb held him back. He didn’t think about the connection between his emotional and spiritual lives.

टी. लोबसांग रम्पा के भाग्य में लिखा था कि उसे एक तिब्बती लामा बनना होगा, यह उसके सितारों की ओर से एक ऐसा संकेत था, जिसे अनदेखा नहीं किया जा सकता था। जब वह अपने संपन्न परिवार को छोड़कर लामामठ में दाखिल हुआ, तो उसका मन बहुत दु:खी था। उसकी आँखों के सामने जीवन में मिलनेवाले कठिन आध्यात्मिक प्रशिक्षण व शारीरिक श्रम का आभास भरा था…।

यह है, तिब्बती चिकित्सा मंदिर चकपोरी के भीतर, उसके जाग्रत होने की एक खूबसूरत और गहरी प्रेरक यात्रा!

As a college professor, Dr. Arik Greenberg had studied religion all his life, earning advanced academic degrees in his field. But none of this would sufficiently prepare him for his true spiritual journey. In The Exile, the first book of a trilogy, his challenge would be to rescue the family home from his mother’s deadly compulsive hoarding, and to protect his parents from their mental illnesses, borne out of a family legacy of abuse.

Home is Never the Same centers largely around the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies. It is about my heritage, hard work, and simple living with our struggling poor family and my connections with nature and God. It is a true account of my parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends growing up on Big Plum Creek Road, surrounded by the rural farming areas of Kentucky. As a young boy, I searched for the spirit of God while wandering in the woods and walking along the edges of the creeks. I was at peace with nature. But one day, I had to leave Big Plum Creek Road and follow a different path.

Discover spiritual truths from the smash Broadway hit "Hamilton" that will transform your life. "Hamilton" - the hip-hop musical about a forgotten founding father - is the most compelling musical of our time. God and Hamilton impressively weaves together insights from the musical itself, the lives of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton, and the story of Scripture into a tapestry that challenges people of faith to reexamine their lives.

In You Are Loved, artist Alex Cook intimately relates his creative and spiritual adventures in his quest to create beauty and know God. Anyone longing to bring their own precious vision into reality will find solace and inspiration in these very human stories of a life dedicated to following inspiration. This inspiring collection of stories paints the heartfelt, personal journey of an artist who experiences and observes his inner life with unflinching honesty and strives to live his outer life just as honestly.

In desperate need to rid herself of a life lived in bondage to a negative ego, Ameille Zay Marcotte found yoga, or, rather, yoga discovered Marcotte. Through her practice, in conjunction with sobriety, she found the ability to let go and opened her mind to a world of infinity. Marcotte’s deeply personal account demonstrates how the application of spiritual principles unfolded in her life and illustrates the unimaginable healing that occurred through faith and forgiveness.

Evangelical pastor Ed Dobson chronicles his year of living like Jesus and obeying his teachings. Dobson's transition from someone who follows Jesus to someone who lives like Jesus takes him into bars, inspires him to pick up hitchhikers, and deepens his understanding of suffering. As Dobson discovers, living like Jesus is quite different from what we imagine.

Before May 31, 2008, September Vaudrey's life was beautiful. But on that day, with one phone call from the ER, her whole world - everything she knew and believed - was shaken to the core. Katie, her 19-year-old artist daughter, had been in a car accident and would not survive. How does a family live in the wake of devastating tragedy? When darkness colors every moment, is it possible to find light? Can God still be good, even after goodbye?

“Keep me real. Sometimes, I am standing right beside you. I haven’t gone anywhere. Just keep me real.” This message was clearly relayed to the author in a session with a medium shortly after her brother’s death. Over the next two years, Cathryn navigated through her grief, doubt, and fear to do just that. The result is this spiritual memoir. Is it real...or imagined?

When Cindy moves to Thailand with her husband and teenage son, she finds herself strangely adrift in a foreign culture, unprepared for the challenges she encounters there. On an impulse, she signs up for a conference where she unexpectedly meets a Thai Buddhist nun, Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, who leads her on a spiritual journey from which there is no turning back. Along the way, she discovers the beauty of the Thai people and culture.

In this cuttingly poignant memoir, Susan Isaacs chronicles her rocky relationship with the Almighty - from early childhood to midlife crisis - and all the churches where she and God tried to make a home: Pentecostals, Slackers for Jesus, and the über-intellectuals who turned everything, including the weekly church announcements, into a three-point sermon. Casting herself as the neglected spouse, Susan faces her inner nag and the ridiculous expectations she put on God.

Join former NBC newsman and Meet the Press moderator David Gregory as he probes various religious traditions to better understand his own faith and answer life's most important questions: Who do we want to be, and what do we believe?