Spiritual Freedom

Every woman knows it's easy to lose sight of the heavenly power of God at work in our lives during times of hardship, exhaustion, stress, and change. But no matter the situation - whether it's our health, marriage, finances, family, or vocation - God has equipped all women with the power and influence to live freely and confidently. With warmth and a welcoming style, speaker and award-winning writer LaTan Roland Murphy illuminates 11 courageous women in the Bible and shows how each was uniquely positioned for success because of her courageous choices.

Do you experience depression, anxiety, fear, worry? Do you ever feel like you have a black cloud that follows you everywhere you go? Financial issues, health issues, mental stress, family divisions, work issues. It seems you can never catch a break. Do you feel empty inside? Trying to fill that emptiness with the things of this world? These are all signs that doors have been opened by you or your generational line and has given legal access to the enemy to disrupt your life.

Is it okay to enjoy this life? Watching a gorgeous sunset. Sharing a laugh with a friend. Tasting a sun-ripened strawberry. Each day is full of opportunities for you to savor the countless gifts the creator has given. But do you feel free to delight in God's abundant gifts, or is your joy sometimes distorted by guilt, fear of idolatry, or simply an overwhelming awareness of sin's effects on this world?

Each of us has a story and has experienced hurt in some area of our lives. Whether in childhood, adolescence or adulthood, we all have experienced pain and disappointment. If not dealt with, these wounds begin to impact our everyday life at a crippling rate. We live bound by fear, insecurities, anger and jealousy; often chalking it up as “normal.” Yet, in reality, we are being held captive by what others have done to us. We desire freedom from our pasts and our pain yet struggle with how to attain it; we wonder if it is even possible.

Jesus promises that His burden is light, but how many of us are actually feeling, well . . . light? If life is like a long hike, most of us feel like we have a giant backpack of responsibilities and burdens that weigh us down and take the joy out of living. But Jesus offers another way.

In Sacred Mundane, Kari Patterson pulls open the dusty blinds to let the light of truth shine in. Even the most unremarkable life is an opportunity to see, know, love, and be utterly transformed by a God who knows no bounds and who upsets every expectation. He eagerly awaits your invitation to fill your world with mundane miracles and holy habits. Through her entertaining narrative, candid real-life stories, Bible study, and practical instruction, Kari will take you by the hand to discover the beautiful sacredness in the life you already lead.

Every day is full of struggles. We struggle with time; with truth; with authority; with finding peace, purity, and contentment; with our words, thoughts, and actions - and that's just the beginning! Does God speak to us about these daily tests? Is there hope in the struggle? The answer, of course, is yes - but where God speaks about them may surprise you.

I was so quick to say well at least I’m not addicted to drugs. Reality check; the drug I was addicted to was man. I compulsively pursued him until it begin to erode me from the inside out. The person I saw in the mirror was no longer me, and I could not control her. My flesh chased a high that was unobtainable. I eventually collapsed after a never ending cycle of relapse. But, God! In the midst of my mess, he extended grace to a wreck like me and began to perform open-heart surgery.

Who am I? Where do I fit? What difference do I make? Such questions of identity, belonging, and purpose are asked by all, but unfortunately, young people feel them intensely. Mafanikio is a teenager, who like most teenagers is in pursuit of his identity, belonging, happiness, purpose, and success. Unfortunately, he repeatedly encounters difficulties in most of his endeavors. In prolonged confusion, his trust and love toward people and God grew cold. A lifestyle with consequences and regrets.

When we fail to rest, we do more than burn ourselves out. We misunderstand the God who calls us to rest—who created us to be people of rest. Let's face it: Our rest needs work. Sabbath recalls our creation, and with it, God's satisfaction with us as he made us, without our hurried wrangling and harried worrying. It also recalls God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and with it, God's ability to do completely what we cannot complete in ourselves. Sabbath keeping reminds us that we are free to rest each week.

Christianity is facing an authenticity crisis...Why do we feel the need to hide our struggles, doubts, and fears? Why is there sometimes a disconnect between our faith and our feelings? Why do we sometimes wonder, God, what are you doing? Are you even there? For some, this comes from being handed a shame-based religion, for others, an image-keeping faith of rules and regulations. For others still, Christianity is a hamster wheel of performance. And this led me to realizing...I can’t do this anymore.

It's time to open your eyes to the freeing power of authentic grace - grace that releases us from trying to earn God's favor, grace that liberates from the tyranny of trying to please others, grace that empowers us to pursue authentic holiness. That's what the theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin did in their own day for the people around them. Time magazine recently dubbed Calvinism as one of the top-10 ideas changing the world right now.

We cannot always determine the circumstances in our lives, but perspective and peace in the midst of the stormy chaos of life are always available to the person who wins the battle to live a surrendered life. It is possible to have a life filled with meaning and live a rich existence basking in the pleasure and approval of God. A Beautiful Defeat contains the promise of a pathway to wholeness, fulfillment, and peace with God.

When you host a program for women, and you open up the phone lines, email box, and Facebook page, you often resonate with their heart-breaking stories. That's been the case as women have tuned in to Moody Radio's Midday Connection, a radio show co-hosted by author Anita Lustrea, and shared their struggles and victories. When issues are raised such as loneliness, friendship, mothering, domestic abuse, sexual addiction, and body image, women pour out their hearts....

“No one goes to hell by accident!” were the words I heard as the vision opened before me. The scenes that followed forever changed the way I saw the often-controversial subject of Hell. This experience confirmed that hell is a real place. It also served to confirm that it is very difficult to go to hell, although many will end up there. You have to work at it. Jesus is constantly getting in your path to redirect you to heaven.

Consider this: Did you choose the situations you were born into? Did you have any say in who your parents were, the kind of home you grew up in, or the circumstances that shaped you genetically, geographically, economically, or emotionally? As the author of The Four Agreements points out, you didn’t even choose your own name. Life being a game of chess, not checkers, we have to think in terms of strategies, tactics, and the importance of planning several steps ahead. Strategic mindfulness and emotional freedom come from not wasting our valuable time; and learning from wisdom.

Today we should obey God's marriage rules, more similar to God's marriage rules we see in the Old Testament, and have the sexual freedom God gave everyone at creation and that is reflected all over the Bible. These books explain all this in detail.

In A Nation of Sheep, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano frankly discusses how the federal government has circumvented the Constitution and is systematically dismantling the rights and freedoms that are the foundation of American democracy. He challenges Americans to recognize that they are being led down a very dangerous path and that the cost of following without challenge is the loss of the basic freedoms that facilitate our pursuit of happiness and that define us as a nation.

Is there something about you that you hope no one else ever finds out? You're not alone. Everyone has secrets, hurts, abuses, bad habits, fears. Big or small, secrets can destroy you from the inside out. The good news is that confession is more powerful than secrets--or the fear that keeps you from telling them. Aaron Stern shows you the powerful roots of secret-keeping, the difference between good secrets and bad secrets, what confession is (and isn't).

Hope Deferred makes the Heart sick (Proverbs 13:12). Overcoming Disappointment and Achieving Victory by David C. Hairabedian. In this poignant book, David Hairabedian reveals the enemy's three-phase strategy of Hope Deferred.