Living Ministries

It isn't easy being a guy today. Maybe it never has been easy, but today the challenges to guys who want to be holy, who want to honor God with their minds and bodies, seem tougher than ever. You live at a time and in a culture that seems given over to sex. Perhaps you have only just begun looking at pornography or perhaps you've been doing so for many years. No matter your situation, this short guide will help you to discover God's plan for sex and sexuality.

Fear is the primary reason we fail to share the gospel with our friends, family, and coworkers. We're afraid of looking weird or out of touch. We're afraid we won't have the right answers to their questions. We're afraid that if they reject the gospel, they're really rejecting us. We don't want to make things awkward or strain our relationships. So we say nothing because our discomfort feels bigger than our loved ones' ultimate destination if they remain outside of the body of Christ. We know it's not, but it's just so hard to get over our fear.

What happens when we replace courage with compromise? What happens when we replace honesty with likability? What happens when we replace conviction with cliches? What happens when we replace discipleship to Christ with a devotion to nice? We live in a culture that prizes niceness as one of its highest virtues. Niceness keeps the peace, wins friends, gains influence, and serves our reputations well, but it also takes the teeth out of our witness and the power out of our faith.

A truly fulfilling marriage involves two people focusing on each other's needs rather than their own. Lysa TerKeurst, president of The Proverbs 31 Ministry, has written a practical guide for all spouses that will open their eyes to the needs, desires, and longings of the others. She offers eight essential criteria for capturing the heart of your spouse, with creative tips on how to accomplish them.

Now, as more families like Michael's are affected by a growing number of disorders and difficulties ranging from autism to food allergies, the need for programs and paradigm shifts is greater than ever. Beates thus seeks to motivate churches to pursue ministry to children and adults with developmental disabilities. He works through key Bible passages on brokenness and disability to develop helpful principles for believers and churches, teaching them first to embrace their own brokenness and then to embrace those who are more physically and visibly broken.

The Apostle Paul gave the Gospel the first place in his preaching, endeavored with all his might to proclaim it clearly, and even went so far as to pronounce a curse upon all those who would pervert its truth. Yet how sad it is that many, even among those considering themselves evangelicals, have reduced the Gospel message to a few trite statements to be repeated and view conversion as a mere human decision.

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.

Simon Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Jude, Simon, Judas, and Matthias - what happened to the men who answered Jesus' call to follow him? What impact did they have on the world? Where did they go and what did they do after Jesus' resurrection and ascension? In these fascinating profiles, Dr. McBirnie offers listeners a snapshot of the lives of each apostle.

Mandy Hale, the creator of The Single Woman, the social media movement that rewrote the rule book about singleness, challenges every woman to see that she is sufficient, acceptable, and complete. This audiobook is for any woman who wants to overcome heartbreak, claim her healing, and step into wholeness!

Who is Jesus Christ? You've never met him in person, and you don't know anyone who has. But there is a way to know who he is. How? Jesus Christ - the divine person revealed in the Bible - has a unique excellence and a spiritual beauty that speaks directly to our souls and says, "Yes, this is truth." It's like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light or tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet.

To the Christian's in Rome, the Apostle Paul says "I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome." (Romans 1:15). Evidently, Christians need to hear the gospel even after conversion: and A Gospel Primer for Christians is designed to help you do just that. By showing how you can preach the gospel to yourself each day, this book will help you savor the glories of God's love and experience the life-transforming power of the gospel in all areas of life.

We are called to a life of holiness. But, as any Christian can attest, the transformation from sinner to saint is rarely drastic or immediate. More often, it is a gradual process, found in the daily interactions of a spiritually-nourished heart. In Holiness: Day by Day, Jerry Bridges offers that nourishment in the form of concise daily devotionals. With conversational style and God-centered focus, Bridges provides practical, encouraging insight, pointing us towards the One who, alone, is holy.

John Piper shows us the blazing glory of Christ and urges us to set him as the sun at the center of our personal solar systems, so that each area of our life might orbit in the way it was designed to. When Christ is our supreme treasure, we are able to keep money, sex, and power in their proper place, enjoying them and glorifying God with them instead of rejecting them or worshiping them.

The whole Bible teaches truth and awakens emotions, but the Psalms are in a category of their own. They do not just awaken the heart; they put it in the foreground. They do not merely invite our emotions to respond to God's truth; they put our emotions on display. The Psalms are more than commanding-they are contagious. We are not just listening to profound ideas and feelings. We are living among them in their overflow.

In Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, best-selling author Pete Scazzero combines three decades of wisdom with hard lessons from his own ministry journey. He lays out what is required for church leaders to multiply deeply changed people who are growing in relationship with God, themselves, and others. Scazzero begins with four beneath-the-surface, systemic gaps that undermine serious discipleship. He provides a clear vision for a church culture that deeply changes lives and then practically unpacks the seven biblical marks of emotionally healthy discipleship.

Women: you're not alone in your marriage. You never have been, and you never will be. While it may not always feel like it, God desires for you to have a relationally healthy, emotionally engaged, and spiritually mature husband with whom you can share your days. In Loving Him Well, Gary Thomas builds on concepts from his best-selling book Sacred Marriage to reveal the inner workings of a man's heart and mind. He delves into Scriptures that help women gain biblical insight to influence their husbands.

Sometimes hard circumstances in life make it difficult for us to be all that God wants us to be. But Tony Evans urges men to stop looking at these things as excuses and instead see them as challenges and opportunities for success. Looking at men of God throughout the Bible such as Moses, Joseph, and David, Evans challenges men to put down our excuses, stop compromising, and fight to be men of commitment and character. Despite setbacks, failures, and pressures, we can still find purpose, meaning, and direction in life and be the men God calls us to be.

Modern medical advances save countless lives. But for all their merits, sophisticated technologies have created a daunting new challenge, namely a blurring of the expanse between life and death. The dying process is often hidden behind a complex web of medical terminology, statistics, and ethical decisions, making it difficult for patients and loved ones to know how to approach the end of life in a dignity-affirming, God-honoring, faith-filled way.

For anyone who has ever been betrayed; for anyone who has ever felt lost, abused, or abandoned; for anyone who has ever suffered a broken heart - there is healing! In this inspiring and life-changing book, Joan Hunter shares her challenging testimony of how she overcame rejection and the worst betrayal imaginable. No matter what your circumstances, God wants to minister to you through Joan’s insights and practical advice.

For years, Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection, and provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth".