Religious Growth

Easter weekend, eighteen years earlier, an ordinary workday turned into a nightmare when Ema McKinley passed out and was left hanging upside down in the storage room. Rather than improving, Ema's body became progressively bent and disfigured. Doctors diagnosed Ema with reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), an extremely painful trauma-induced disease which led to Ema's hand and foot deformities, painful sores, insomnia, gastrological distress, curvature of the neck and spine, heart and lung failure, and permanent confinement to a wheelchair.

Chapata’s warm delivery speaks to the multitude of lessons in his books: sharing universal experiences of love and loss, a touching narrative that celebrates humanity for its undeniable worth, and how to find our way back to the path of self-love, no matter how far we veer from it. Narrated by the author, this audio-only edition of his work will resonate in the listener’s mind long after the final chapter ends.

Waves of Faith depicts the author’s personal journey shared through hardships of faith, struggles, and victory obtained; because for better or worse, every human being is born into a family that shapes who and what we become. The Lord has seen Dorothea through joblessness, poverty, homelessness, and separations. Through her story, she hopes future listeners will see that new love can be developed and experienced through nurturing a Christian family.

God's Arm is Not Too Short is a collection of true stories revealing the very real and active presence God had in Cindy's life. Blossoming from a believer to a knower that God is real, her world was transformed. She weathered through her terrible marital storm and not only found the chance to continue her education and obtain her degree in psychology, but met the man who would become the love of her life.

Many bemoan the decline of the church. We hear a steady stream of reports about how droves of people, especially younger generations, are abandoning Christianity. But new research shows that unchurched Americans are surprisingly more receptive and open to the Christian faith than is commonly assumed. Researcher and practitioner Rick Richardson unveils the findings of the Billy Graham Center Institute's groundbreaking studies on the unchurched.

In How the Nations Rage, political theology scholar and pastor Jonathan Leeman challenges Christians from across the spectrum to hit the restart button by shifting our focus from redeeming the nation to living as a nation already redeemed, rejecting the false allure of building heaven on earth while living faithfully as citizens of a heavenly kingdom, letting Jesus’ teaching shape our public engagement as we love our neighbors and seek justice.

Benjamin L. Corey thought he was suffering a crisis of faith, but it turned out to be a spiritual awakening. Corey became aware that the constant fear of hell and judgment that defined his Christian faith was out of sync with the idea that God acts from love and promises to deliver us from fear. In the wake of this realization came newfound insights - from reading the Bible to reexamining American life and the church's role in the wider world.

To many who have discovered his books, C. S. Lewis is more than simply a writer; he has been a spiritual mentor. Here, over 50 Christians share how meeting the mind and imagination of Lewis in his books sparked the beginning or changed the course of their spiritual journey. These inspiring reflections have been shared by ordinary laypeople as well as many well-known leaders and writers.

"I don't want to live anymore!" my sister admitted to my parents when she was 14 years old. This cry for help increased with time, and I would not fully grasp her inner demons until years after she died. Was it suicide, was it an accident, was it pre-planned or in the moment? At 24 years of age, my sister's life suddenly ended, and all I have left are my broken memories.

When we are in painful circumstances, we tend to want to escape at any cost. Yet in doing so, we can miss the greatest opportunities of our lives. Writing about her own valleys - including loving a struggling son and reeling from the untimely death of her husband - Yolanda Cohen Stith shares hard-won insights. In the midst of her most painful experiences, Stith discovered that God shows up in the valleys in ways he doesn’t on the mountaintops. She came to believe that we need valleys to recognize our desperate need for God.

The deeper I grow in my own faith as a Christian, the greater my desire to explore. My faith whets my appetite for discovering what God is doing in and through the world each and every day. This book is a chronicle of some of the most important lessons I have learned thus far. I write to encourage my fellow nomads who, like me, so often feel alone in their wanderings yet are a part of a much larger caravan of fellow wanderers seeking to discover for ourselves the meaning and mysteries of life.

Becky Powell faced the unthinkable on May 16, 2013. Her husband, Mark, called and said, "I've done something terrible." Within hours, she learned that he had taken his own life and, over a period of several years, millions of dollars from friends and colleagues. Everything she believed to be true, the very fiber of her marriage, was called into question. Yet from that first horrific moment, God was there. Awful Beautiful Life is Becky's journey through the two years surrounding Mark's death and how she overcame.

God wants to grow great things in the lives of His people. I Am a Field uses the powerful metaphor of God as the farmer and our lives as the field to show us not only who we are but also who God is and how we can recognize His work in our lives. Interweaving Scripture with engaging stories as well as humor, catch a fresh glimpse of God in your life and renew your desire to experience more of Him and impact the world around you.

En corazón pródigo descubrirás cómo Christine logró superar la muerte de su padre, el mudarse a otro país, los sentimientos de coraje, la falta de perdón, pérdida y rechazo, el haber sido acosada sexualmente, y hasta fue liberada de vivir una doble vida siendo líder en la iglesia. Ella retó a Dios y Él le respondió con su amor sanador. Christine comparte su historia y el gozo de rendirse completamente a Dios. Hoy día vive pródigamente, es decir, vive sin restricción por la gloria de Dios, para el servicio de su pueblo y no para sí.

Millones de personas desesperadas por tener esperanza y soluciones para su vida se sienten atraídas por la promesa del evangelio de la prosperidad: que Dios hará lo que sea necesario con solo un poco de fe y un don financiero. Mientras tanto, los predicadores de la prosperidad explotan a los pobres y los necesitados para acumular sus riquezas. ¿Qué pueden hacer los seguidores del verdadero evangelio para combatir el engaño?

With a unique mix of passionate revelation and quirky humor, River Jordan takes us on a journey through her Southern childhood to her present-day life as a novelist. Her stories run the gamut from dancing disco nights and midnight desert rides to surprise visitations with the divine. Included are comforting letters to personal friends and loved ones about faith, death, heartbreaks, and their futures.

Christian music icon Sandi Patty has long astounded listeners with her powerful voice. Yet, off the stage, Sandi struggled to have a voice at all. Through deeply intimate stories of her life and the empowering spiritual truths she’s learned, Sandi offers listeners wisdom to navigate the journey from voicelessness to discovering the voice God has given you. Sandi’s warm and invitational writing will draw you to the voice of God. With timeless wisdom, The Voice will help you uncover your God-given identity and a voice of your very own.

Drawing from science, literature, art, theology, history, music, philosophy, pop culture, and more, Thaddeus J. Williams paints a fresh and inspiring vision of how we become most truly ourselves by mirroring the greatest person in history.

Too many Christians, especially those in ministry, believe they are untouchable - that they're too faithful to fall or too spiritual to give in to temptation. They deny any sort of weakness, fail to draw proper boundaries, and end up doing the very things they swore they'd never do. Pastor and author Brittany Rust was one such person - until she found herself in the middle of moral failure and a church-wide scandal. Bewildered, humiliated, and ashamed, she thought she was beyond redemption. But God's grace met her on the ground, and here she shares what she's learned through her painful journey.

In this engaging memoir, Andrea speaks to all of us who wrestle with faith, doubt, and spiritual identity. Join Andrea as she navigates the Thames River, the Oxford Atheist Society, romance in ancient pubs - and a new perspective on who God is. As Andrea learned, sometimes it takes letting go of old ideas to discover lasting truth.