Spiritual Growth Love

The Bible reveals not just butterflies and broken hearts. In Scripture, we see God’s beautiful design for the partnership of marriage. We witness friendships that cross all boundaries. We watch as families navigate the many seasons of life. Our guiding example for them all is the deepest, most abiding, foundational love ever known: God’s unconditional love for His people. In The Love Stories of the Bible Speak, Shannon Bream draws lessons from the good, the bad, and the ugly of Biblical romances, friendships, and families.

When best-selling author Joyce Meyer posted "God's not mad at you" on Facebook, she didn't anticipate that her words would trigger thousands of responses of gratitude and relief. Apparently many Christians struggle to reconcile their perception of God as both a loving parent and a stern judge. In God Is Not Mad at You, Joyce will help those who haven't truly received God's love because they are afraid of his anger and disapproval.

In I Just Want You to Know, New York Times best-selling author Kate Gosselin continues her story of faith and family, picking up where her first book, Multiple Blessings, ended. Using excerpts and written prayers from her actual journal, Kate offers an intimate look at the heart of a mother during the three years her family transitioned from obscurity into television fame.

Transform your struggling relationship into a thriving one with God's Love Manual: A How-to Guide for Building Successful Relationships. Discover the secrets to building successful relationships and experience the benefits of a stronger, more loving connection.

Rejection is inevitable. Yet we spend little time considering the significant impact it makes on an individual's whole self. When we do, we swaddle it in quippy statements and shallow encouragement—meaningful for just a moment. But rejection leaves aching wounds that challenge and forge our most intimate thoughts of who we believe God, others, and ourselves to be. Tabitha Panariso blends biblical truth, candid personal stories, and timeless wisdom forged through personal experience and her vocation as a therapist to invite listeners into a new way of living.

When a newspaper ad prompts Darla King to travel to Birch Creek in search of a husband, her identical twin, Amanda, promises their parents she’ll convince Darla to come home. After all, Amanda is the responsible and reliable one. She has always protected Darla, who acts on impulse and trusts people too easily. The sisters’ close relationship is strained as Darla asserts her independence, and Amanda grapples with regrets of her past and the longings of her own heart.

Do life’s challenges and distractions prevent you from developing or maintaining a deep, consistent, intimate relationship with the Father? Dr. Jackie Greene has been there but love—God’s love—changed everything for her, and it can change everything for you too. When Dr. Jackie finally learned to surrender, receive God’s love, and spend time in daily devotion with Him, resting in His love, she discovered a life-transforming revelation: His love remains consistent and unfailing despite her mistakes and flaws.

Churches are full of differences. Those differences might be rooted in culture or personality or even musical style. In recent years, differences over political and social issues have frayed the unity of many churches. Yet if a church is centered on Christ alone, then unity at church will sometimes require building genuine friendships that bridge across all those differences. How can Christians navigate those relationships? This practical guide explores 8 truths from Romans 12–15 that show us how to find God-exalting unity at church with those we struggle to love.

In this third book in the Apprentice Series, James Bryan Smith helps us know how to live in relationship with others as apprentices of Jesus. "Apprentices of Jesus are not part-time do-gooders," he writes. "They live in continuous contact with the kingdom of God, and are constantly men and women in whom Christ dwells. They do not sometimes tell the truth, sometimes live sacrificially or sometimes forgive. There are myriad opportunities for us to impact the world in which we live."

John Pavlovitz examines the bedrock ideas of our religion: the existence of hell, the utility of prayer, the way we treat LGBTQ people, the value of anger, and other doctrines to help all of us take a good, honest look at how the beliefs we hold can shape our relationships with God and our fellow humans - and to make sure that love has the last, loudest word.

Having every one of us been in bondage to sin, we readily believe that sinful things are Satanic; but do we believe equally that the things of the world are Satanic? Many of us, I think, are still in two minds about this. Yet how clearly Scripture affirms that "the whole world lieth in the evil one" (1 John 5:19). Satan well knows that, generally speaking, to try to ensnare real Christians through things that are positively sinful is vain and futile.

Miracles are impossible. They defy explanation. They can’t be real. And yet, miracles surround us every day. Where we face something that we can’t fix and run out of options. Where the limited and finite ability of man ends and unlimited and infinite will of God begins. Where what is impossible with man is possible with God.

God loves broken people. And when weary, wounded men and women find a way to open their bruised hearts and somehow welcome Him into their personal darkness, they will find a love beyond anything they have ever known. In 12 stirring, insightful, and deeply revealing chapters, Sheila Walsh shows how personal brokenness can open doors of intimacy with Jesus Christ that might never open in any other way.

Pumpkin crunch cake. Game night with friends. Jazz music. Baseball. These are good gifts — and potential threats to the worship of God. At the heart of the Christian life is a tension between the supremacy of God over all things and the enjoyment of all things for his sake. In this audiobook, Joe Rigney offers a biblical vision for enjoying God in everything and enjoying everything in God.

Think about an incredibly joyful event in your life. Do you remember how you couldn’t wait to talk about it? You were willing and eager to have a conversation about it with anyone who would listen! Why doesn’t our excitement for Jesus overflow from our lives in a similar and natural way? In this book, Thom Rainer explores what makes so many Christians hesitant to talk about the greatest news the world has ever heard. There are real obstacles, challenges, and fears, but God is bigger and stronger than these hurdles.

The role of organized religion in our society is undergoing monumental changes. Church attendance is decreasing at unprecedented rates. At the same time, there is an increase in the number of people who identify as “spiritual but not religious.” Clearly, the need for religion remains as strong as ever, yet more and more, people are seeking spirituality elsewhere. Why? What accounts for these trends? Can organized religion still play a valuable role in today’s world?

Pop culture and psychobabble tell us to make ourselves the center of the universe in order to be happy. Churches have communicated the false idea that God exists to give us all that we selfishly want. In this book, Max Lucado reminds us that it's not about us, it's all about God. It is through this shift in thinking that we can truly live an unburdened, happy life.

It is in the heart of every person to want God, but life gets loud, and we forget Him. We get consumed by our problems, our desires, ourselves. We forget our first encounter with the Savior and how much we once wanted Him. But Lisa Whittle believes that if we calibrate our attention, refocusing on God determines the perspective for everything in our life.

Having faith isn't an all-or-nothing situation and we all deserve to enjoy the parts that bring us comfort. In Have a Little Faith, Kate reveals for the first time the surprising truth about what faith means to her and how, ultimately, it can make us all happy. Kate is not your average vicar; in fact, she says herself that believing in the resurrection is 'a bit bonkers' so, whether you believe in God, the universe's plan or simply the goodness of humanity, Kate argues that having belief equals having hope, and we all deserve to feel hopeful.

It's no easy journey disentangling the good news of the gospel from the toxic theologies that have rendered Jesus unrecognizable. It's no wonder the church has sent many walking. In The Road Away from God, Jonathan Martin reimagines Luke's story of two disillusioned disciples walking the Emmaus road away from the holy city where they had watched their hope die before their eyes. For anyone who is feeling their faith unravel, reckoning with religious trauma, or walking the long road of deconstruction, Martin speaks hope into the journey of today's disillusioned disciples.