Living Ministries

It's easy to get discouraged by the headlines. It can often feel as if God has left the building, like we are on our own. We want to believe God's promises to us, and we search for signs of his continuing restoration of the world in which we live. Now, with passion and heart, two leading experts on Christianity and culture cut through the chaos and uncertainty to show listeners how God is powerfully active and intensely engaged in fulfilling his promise to restore all things unto himself.

We need companions on our spiritual journey. The modern world has taught us to value autonomy and individualism. Our churches often see spirituality as personal and private. But we cannot go long in our Christian pilgrimage before realizing that isolation leads to spiritual barrenness. We soon discover that our souls long for accompaniment, intimacy, and spiritual friendship. As a result, many Christians today are rediscovering the ancient practice of spiritual direction.

In This Beautiful Truth, Sarah Clarkson shares her own encounters with beauty in the midst of her decade-long struggle with mental illness, depression, and doubt. In a voice both vulnerable and reflective, she paints a compelling picture of the God who reaches out to us in a real and powerful way through the "taste and see" goodness of what he has made and what he continues to create amid our darkness. "To recognize and trust God's gift in pain," she writes, "empowers us to create and love as powerful witnesses to God's healing love in a hopeless world."

Life-Study of Genesis presents the book of Genesis in a completely new light. Strictly speaking, Genesis is neither a book of creation nor a book of biographies. It is a book of life. God uses the record of creation to show the matter of life. God uses the biographies of eight persons to show how he needs a life to fulfill his purpose.

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' most inspiring and challenging description of the Christian counterculture. John Stott's teaching on this timeless text shows how its value system, ethical standard, religious devotion, and network of relationships clearly distinguish it from both the nominal church and the secular world. In this volume, Stott's The Message of the Sermon on the Mount is condensed into brief readings, suitable for daily use, that take us passage by passage through the scripture text.

With great gentleness, sensitivity and support, Andrew Murray describes the necessity of obedience, its enabling means, and its benefits. The School of Obedience is a pastoral encouragement that exudes tender humility, warmth and a magnanimous spirit.

Eugene H. Peterson considers all the ways that Jesus is the Way compared to the distorted ways the modern American church has chosen to follow. Arguing that the way Jesus leads and the way we follow are symbiotic, Peterson begins with an extensive study of how the ways of those who came before Christ - Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah of Jerusalem, and Isaiah of the Exile - revealed and prepared the "way of the Lord" that became complete in Jesus.

Beloved author Sally Clarkson ( The Lifegiving Home, Own Your Life, Desperate) believes that meals lovingly served at home - and the time spent gathered together around the table - are a much-needed way to connect more deeply with our families and open our kids' hearts. Food and faith, mingled in everyday life, become the combination for passing on God's love to each person who breaks bread with us.

Christianity has tended to focus on right beliefs and right choices as the keys for personal growth. But biblical evidence and modern brain science show that our character is shaped more by whom we love than what we believe. Through conversations he had with Dallas Willard at the Heart and Soul Conference shortly before Dallas' death, Jim Wilder shows how we can train our brains to relate to God based on joyful, mutual attachment - which leads to emotional and spiritual maturity as our identity and character are formed by our relationship with God.

We are constantly being formed by the world around us. To be formed by Jesus will require us to become his apprentice. To live by what the first Christian disciples called a Rule of Life—a set of practices and relational rhythms that slow us down and open up space in our daily lives for God to do what only God can do—transforms the deepest parts of us to become like him.

In the best-selling and critically acclaimed Darwin on Trial and Reason in the Balance, Phillip Johnson took on the academic elites and exposed the misleading claims of evolutionary naturalism. Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds provides a new and powerful treatment of these issues for high-school students, parents, teachers, pastors, youth advisers, and ordinary listeners. Johnson aims not just to defeat a bad theory, but to defeat it in the right way - by opening minds to the truth.

True manhood, polished by the hand of God, is nothing short of an awe-inspiring gift to womanhood. Contrary to the vibe that a title like God’s Gift to Women gives off, this audiobook is not merely about how men can more effectively relate to women. Men can never hope to become a gift to women, until they gain a complete vision of Christ-built manhood.

Prodigy Akiane Kramarik shares her artwork, poetry, and the fascinating story surrounding her talent. Growing up in a home with an atheistic mother and a non-participating Catholic father did not stop four-year-old Akiane Kramarik from finding God. This girl's dreams began a conversation in the home that has eventually brought them all to Christianity and the world's attention. Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry is a collection of the best of Akiane's full-color paintings and poetry created from ages 4 to 10.

When Tenzin Lahkpa is 15 years old, his parents give him over to a local temple in Tibet as an offering. Unable to change his fate, he wholeheartedly embraces his life as a monk and begins a quest for full enlightenment through the teachings of Buddhism. But his desire to go deeper only grows, leading him to unexpected conclusions.... Follow the fascinating, never-before-told, true story of what causes a highly dedicated Tibetan Buddhist monk to make the radical decision to walk away from the teachings of Buddha and leave his monastery to follow Jesus Christ.

A seminal work of Spanish mysticism, Teresa of Avila's The Way of Perfection describes the practices and qualities of a prayerful life devoted to Christ. Although it was written over 500 years ago solely for the nuns of her convent, her devotion continues to instruct and inspire believers today.

The healthy Christian life is one of continuing spiritual, emotional, and relational growth. But so many of us feel stuck or stagnated at one stage of the journey. It's not always clear to us where or why we are stuck, making it difficult to take the next step on our journey of the soul. That's where Bill and Kristi Gaultiere come in. After decades in private practice as counselors and therapists, they have developed a unique model for growing in grace.

Luke’s Gospel reveals God among men in his saving grace given to fallen mankind. Its purpose is to present the Savior as a genuine, normal, and perfect man. It gives a complete genealogy of the man Jesus, from his parents back to Adam, the first generation of mankind, and shows that he is a genuine descendant of man–a son of man.

The Gallup Poll reports that one in 25 people has had a near-death experience. Their heart stopped beating, their brain waves ceased; they claim they were more alive than ever. With improved medical resuscitation, more and more verifiable evidence indicates that life doesn't end with our last breath - it's just beginning. Drawing out the similarities found by studying over 1,000 accounts of near-death experiences around the globe, John Burke unfolds a compelling and comforting vision of a world where we are free from pain; we feel fully known and accepted; we are greeted by loved ones.

A husband's God-given responsibility to his wife is to be her shepherd: to love her, serve her, comfort her, protect her, provide for her, sacrifice for her, and lead her. Like the Shepherd guides men on how to embrace the role of shepherd, drawing on the wisdom of the Bible to give men practical, powerful advice on how to take responsibility for their relationships and realize the Christian ideal of a healthy, happy marriage.

Christians know what Jesus Christ has done — but who is he? What is his deepest heart for his people, weary and faltering on their journey toward heaven? Jesus said he is "gentle and lowly in heart." This audiobook reflects on these words, opening up a neglected yet central truth about who he is for sinners and sufferers today.