Living Religions

There are many blessings that come with age: retirement, grandchildren, travel, and life experience. Today's culture, however, marginalizes old age, often portraying it as burdensome and hopeless. Many older women can feel like an encumbrance rather than a blessing to their friends and family members. In response to these struggles, Sharon Betters and Susan Hunt encourage women to find hope through both real-life and biblical accounts of women who rediscovered gospel-rooted joy later in life.

Jesus warned that deception would grow worse as we draw nearer to the end times, saying, "Take heed that no one deceives you" (Matthew 24:4). Distinguishing truth from error has become an increasingly challenging task—even in the church. We live in a time when falsehoods assault us from every direction. Packaged with just enough truth to make them appear trustworthy, these counterfeits have grown more and more difficult to detect and avoid. Living in the Daze of Deception explores the many ways error is masquerading as truth—and how you can discern the difference.

It should come as no surprise that misunderstandings about the gospel message and the nature of true conversion result in a problem with genuine assurance of salvation. A pseudo-gospel of easy believism has led many into careless presumption, and a poor understanding of salvation has abandoned tender consciences to near spiritual despair.

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.

Best-selling author, Thom S. Rainer, guides listeners toward a practical framework and game plan for making a difference for those who visit their church to help make churches more hospitable to guests.

In this young adult's edition of her bestselling book, Joyce Meyer helps kids navigate through the complex world of the mind, providing easy-to-understand insights and valuable tools on topics such as recognizing and understanding thoughts and feelings, and training our minds to dwell on all the goodness God has planned for us.

Life often looks so very different than we hoped or expected. Some events may simply catch us off guard for a season, but others shatter us completely. We feel disappointed and disillusioned at best and overwhelmed and hopeless at worst. We quietly start to wonder about the reality of God’s goodness and why he allows us to suffer and experience grief and loss. Lysa TerKeurst understands this deeply. But after many tears, godly counseling, and prayerful seeking, she's also discovered that our disappointments can be the divine appointments our souls need to radically encounter God.

Seeing yourself as God sees you is essential to overcoming your deepest struggles, having healthy relationships, living in freedom, and fulfilling your life purpose. Yet most of us look at ourselves with warped mirrors, believing lies that lead to shame, guilt, fear, insecurity, and spiritual stagnation. The lies of our past keep us stuck, struggling with the same issues and habits for years. But according to the first three chapters of Ephesians, that's not how God sees us at all.

God is good and powerful and wants the best for your life. He has big plans for you. You believe these things are true. But what is your own responsibility as a man when it comes to becoming all God created you to be? How can you walk in victory and faith and make an impact on others for God? Kingdom Men Rising challenges men to foster personal discipleship and apply discipleship skills and a leadership mindset to all areas of life.

Suppose you could ask God the most puzzling questions about existence, and God would provide clear, understandable answers? It happened to Neale Donald Walsch. Conversations with God is Neale Donald Walsch's account of his direct conversations with God, beginning in 1992 while Walsch was immersed in a period of deep depression. He composed a letter to God in which he vented his frustrations, and much to his surprise, even shock, God answered him.

Carrying only basic camping equipment and a collection of the world's great spiritual writings, Belden C. Lane embarks on solitary spiritual treks through the Ozarks and across the American Southwest. For companions, he has only such teachers as Rumi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters, demonstrating how being alone in the wild opens a rare view onto one's interior landscape, and how the saints' writings reveal the divine in nature.

Susie Larson's newest devotional, Prevail, guides us through the arc of the Scriptures while encouraging us to feel and trust in his presence in our everyday lives. Using practical Scripture passages, thought-provoking questions, and her very own Bible-margin notes, Susie offers 365 days' worth of opportunities for us to strengthen our walk in faith while finding a new level of freedom and redemption.

Can we know if Jesus actually lived? Have Jesus' followers been a force for good or evil in history? A respected journalist set out to find the answers - not from opinion but from artifacts. The evidence led him to an unexpected conclusion: Jesus really existed and launched the greatest movement for social good in human history. A first-of-its-kind audiobook for a new generation, Jesus Skeptic takes nothing for granted as it explores whether Jesus actually lived and how his story has changed our world.

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.

One of the problems with being a Christ follower is that we can substitute religious expressions and religious behaviors for authentic experiences and encounters without even know we are doing it. The longer we go to church the more we know the right words to say and the right things to do, but we can easily say those words and do those things without transformational intimacy with Jesus? We can start with significant, transformational encounters with God, and end up with dusty old religion.

The Christmas season is often one of the busiest and most stressful times of the year, and it’s easy to lose sight of what makes it special. Helping us refocus on what’s truly important, well-known pastor and author John Piper leads readers through twenty-four short meditations on Advent. The devotionals - drawn from Piper’s extensive preaching and teaching ministry - lead readers to ponder afresh the birth of Jesus, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah and the Savior of the world.

"The greatest story ever told" is more than just a cliché. God goes to great lengths to rescue lost and hurting people, and that is what The Story is all about: the story of the Bible, God’s great love affair with humanity. Filled with intrigue, drama, conflict, and redemption, this dramatized edition sweeps you into the stories, poems, and teachings of the Bible.

In the revised edition of his hit book The Sacred Search, author Gary Thomas helps single people of all ages make wise marital choices, in large part by rethinking what basis those choices should be made on. Listeners are encouraged to think beyond finding their “soul mate", an idea that has its roots in the philosophy of Plato, and instead adopt a more biblical search for a “sole mate” - someone who will walk with them on their spiritual journey.

"Why me, Lord?" Amid the toddler tantrums, the mealtime melees, and the backseat blowups, have you found yourself asking God that same question? Maybe even screaming it into a couch pillow? You're not alone. Your most trying moments as a parent can quickly spiral into discouragement, hopelessness, and sometimes even resentment toward God or your family. Abbie Halberstadt, author of the bestselling M Is for Mama, shares scriptural wisdom and lessons learned from her own challenges as a mama of ten to help shift your perspective on the hardships of parenting and of life, in general.

Our world constantly tells us to "do what feels good", especially when it comes to issues related to sexuality. Sadly, this mind-set always leads to guilt, pain, and heartache. And yet, in the gospel, there is good news for the sexually broken. Pointing listeners to the grace of Jesus Christ, longtime counselor and teacher David Powlison offers hope for both the sexually immoral and the sexually victimized: all brokenness will one day be transformed.