Living Religions

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.

Is Christianity a bland, domesticated religion, unthreatening and easy to grasp? Or is it the most exotic, unexpected, and uncanny of religious paths? For the mystics and saints - and for Robert Barron, who discovered Christianity through them - it is surely the strangest way. "At its very center", writes Barron, "is a God who comes after us with a reckless abandon, breaking open his own heart in love in order to include us in the rhythm of his own life." What could be more compelling?

In a 50-day reading plan journey, Welch unpacks anger while encouraging and teaching listeners to respond with patience to life's difficulties. This biblically wise resource is a useful tool for pastors, counselors, and lay helpers who are working with people who struggle with a short fuse. In A Small Book about a Big Problem, Welch invites listeners to consider how everyone can find anger in their actions and attitudes, but Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is the only one who can empower his people to grow in patience, peace, and wholeness.

In Boundaries in Marriage, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, counselors and authors of the New York Times bestseller Boundaries, teach us that healthy boundaries are the property lines that define and protect you and your spouse as individuals. Once you have them in place, a good marriage can become better, and a less-than-satisfying one can even be saved.

If you feel overwhelmed, you're not alone. Three out of five people admit to doing more than they can manage. Thinking God requires this, we say, "I must be everything to everyone". Then we struggle and feel selfish and guilty when we say no, grow weary, or snap at someone out of sheer exhaustion. Is this what God desires? Somewhere along the line of being a good Christian, wife, daughter, or friend we lose sight of who we are in Christ.

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.

What Wild at Heart did for men, Captivating is doing for women: setting their hearts free. This groundbreaking audiobook shows listeners the glorious design of women before the fall, describes how the feminine heart can be restored, and casts a vision for the power, freedom, and beauty of a woman released to be all she was meant to be.

Because obeying God makes sense to us, in most cases, His laws appear reasonable and wise, and even when we don’t want to obey them, we usually concede that they are good for us. But the circumstances we find ourselves in often defy explanation. When unexpected situations arise that appear unjust, irrational, or even dreadful, we feel confused and frustrated. And before long, we begin to doubt God’s concern for us or His control over our lives.

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.

R. T. Kendall invites you to discover what it means to be in the presence of God. In this fresh, new look at God's presence Kendall explores everything from the omnipresence of God to the tangible manifestation of His presence. You will discover why God might at times withhold a sense of His presence while at other times you might experience an acute sense of awe or reverence of God that drives you to your knees in prayer, leads you into spontaneous worship of Him, or brings about healing and other miracles.

I Am N reminds us that we are each "N", as radical Muslims in Iraq identify followers of Jesus the Nazarene. Wherever we live, we have camaraderie with those who are persecuted. So come meet their families. Listen to their stories. Deepen your faith in a God who gives us the courage to shine in a dark and hurting world.

We live in a culture that more and more questions authority, truth claims, and traditional beliefs. So what are we to believe about the authority and trustworthiness of a book that is thousands of years old? Is God's word truly inerrant? How is it different from other religious texts? Why should we trust its claims?

In For Married Women Only, pastor and author Tony Evans explores these three principles in a straight-forward yet encouraging manner. He unpacks the touchy topic of submission and lays out the rewards inherent in this biblical model. On seduction, Evans looks at the quality of attractiveness and how embodying it can be pleasing to your spouse and to God. And with surrender, readers will examine why a wife is the perfect helpmate for her husband and how to combat attitudes opposed to God's design.

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed by the mixed messages of what it means to live well. Kendra Adachi, the creator of the Lazy Genius movement, invites you to live well by your own definition and equips you to be a genius about what matters and lazy about what doesn’t. Everything from your morning routine to napping without guilt falls into place with Kendra’s 13 Lazy Genius principles.

Fear is the devil's favorite tool in the toolbox of schemes he uses to destroy God's good plan for you. He uses it to hold you back and prevent progress in your relationships, career, and more. In Do It Afraid, Joyce Meyer explains that fear is everywhere and affects everyone. It rules many people, but it doesn't have to rule you any longer.

Through Redeeming Love, millions have experienced the captivating love story of Angel and Michael Hosea that illustrates God's power to redeem even the most lost among us. Redeeming Love: The Companion Study invites you to enter more fully into both the classic novel's eternal message and the biblical story that inspired its writing.

Drawing on her extensive research into women of the Old Testament, novelist Jill Eileen Smith shows us how we can glean wisdom and strength from our trials just like women such as Miriam, Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, Abigail, Bathsheba, and more.

One of the greatest crimes of this generation of Christians is its neglect of the Gospel, and it is from this neglect that all our other maladies spring forth. Absent from too many pulpits are the essential themes that make up the very core of the Gospel: the justice of God, the radical depravity of man, the blood atonement. In The Gospel's Power and Message, Paul Washer addresses these essential elements of Christ's good news and provides a guide to help us rediscover the Gospel in all its beauty, scandal, and saving power.

Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism's most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or "paths for coming to union with God."

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.