Spiritual Growth Love

Our culture is obsessed with love and romance--so why are so few women experiencing satisfying, long-term love? In this insightful and encouraging book, sisters Kristen Clark and Bethany Baird help single women of all ages discover a radically better approach to navigating their love lives. Covering topics such as true love, romance, purposeful relationships, purity, boundaries, singleness, and glorifying God in our relationships, Love Defined unpacks God's original design for romance, showing modern women how to experience God's best for them in their relationships.

Walking through Psalm 23 phrase by phrase, therapist and author K.J. Ramsey explores the landscape of our fear, trauma, and faith. When she stepped through her own wilderness of spiritual abuse and religious trauma, K.J. discovered that courage is not the absence of anxiety but the practice of trusting we will be held and loved no matter what. The Lord is My Courage is for the deconstructing and the dreamers, the afraid and the amazed, for those whose fear has not been fully shepherded but who can't seem to stop listening for their Good Shepherd's Voice.

It's time to remember. Dr. Kelly Flanagan is known to millions for the letters he writes to his children and shares on his blog. Loveable is written to the little one in each of us, who is all too ready to be reminded: You are enough, you are not alone, and you matter. In Loveable, Dr. Flanagan reveals the core insight gleaned from his years of clinical work - you are here for a reason, yet you cannot truly awaken to it until you have first embraced your truest, worthiest self and then allow yourself to be truly embraced by others.

We want to love God with all our hearts, but we often find ourselves striving in our efforts to please Him, acutely aware of our weaknesses. As our failures pile up, we become frustrated and discouraged. Have we missed the essence of the gospel? Is there a simple but true way to serve God that can fill us with joy and peace rather than fear and discouragement? St. Thérèse of Lisieux faced similar struggles. As a young woman who desired to abandon herself to God, she felt daunted at the thought of climbing “the steep stairway of perfection.”

We believe in God, we serve God, we trust God, but would we say that we enjoy God on a day to day basis? What exactly does a personal relationship with God look like, and how is it even possible? This seminal work by Tim Chester shows us how we can enjoy God in every moment of every day, whether we are experiencing good times or hard times; whether we are changing diapers, or stuck on a train. He explores how the Father, the Son and the Spirit relate to us in our day-to-day lives, and how to respond.

In the beginning, God created Adam. Then he made Eve. And ever since we’ve been picking up the pieces. Loveology is a theology of love from God’s point of view. The five sessions start with God’s design for marriage and works backward, dealing with sexuality, romance, singleness, and what it means to be male and female. Pastor and writer John Mark Comer shares about what is right in male/female relationships - what God intended in the Garden. And about what is wrong - the fallout in a post-Eden world.

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.

Create a church unchurched people absolutely love to attend. Deep and Wide provides church leaders with an in-depth look into North Point Community Church and its strategy for creating churches unchurched people absolutely love to attend. Andy Stanley shares his strategy for preaching and programming to both mature believers and cynical unbelievers, essential ingredients for creating irresistible environments, and North Point's spiritual formation model (The Five Faith Catalysts).

This is the story of our Creator-Redeemer and the greatest “love surprise” of all time. It surprised Adam and Eve. It surprised the deceitful serpent. It surprised the adulterous woman of John 8. It surprised the Pharisees. It surprised the disciples. It even surprised the heavenly angels. And it continues to surprise us today.

For us to have favor with God, obedience is of utmost importance. "To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22). This is evident from the very beginning of the Bible to the very end: "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life" (Revelation 22:14).

The love that the world tells us to pursue is all about self, about following your heart’s desires. But what is the Christian worldview on love? When we follow Jesus, we realize that he invites us to reorient the focus of our lives, so instead of chasing love primarily for our own happiness, we are first and foremost to give love - to God and to others.

Loving others can be so messy. Somewhere along the way, maybe you’ve experienced pain and trauma that caused you to put up barriers in your heart. Maybe you’ve even felt this spreading into your relationship with God. If you're honest, maybe your connection with Him only feels surface level. You’ve shut down with him too and aren’t experiencing His love like before.

Puritan John Flavel (1630-1691) in Keeping the Heart (originally titled: A Saint Indeed or The Great Work of a Christian Opened and Pressed) has proven to be a steady and timely friend to many over the years. Using Proverbs 4:23 ("Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life."), Flavel creates a treatise designed for all professing Christians.

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.

We all need more energy, the vitality that helps us stay motivated, focused and productive in life. We know we receive energy from good nutrition, along with working out, adequate sleep and maintaining positivity. But there is another major source for the energy we need: having the right kinds of relationships with others. Not the ones that drain us, but the ones that refuel us.

This is a book about discovering what we really need. There are a lot of second-best options, but we weren't made to live a second-best life. Finding what we actually need is different than what we are often offered. There are many books full of opinions, steps and programs. This isn't one of them. This is about craving the things that matter. Things that don't just work, but last.

In Wounded by God’s People Anne Graham Lotz draws on the biblical story of Hagar to show those who have been hurt by God’s people how to move past their wounds into the joy and fellowship of His presence, claiming the fullness of the blessings God has for them.

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.

Throughout Keep Showing Up, Karen includes ideas to implement in your marriage right now, such as powerful statements to speak to your spouse, date-night-on-a-shoestring suggestions, and discussion starters. Discover how your "incompatibility" can become the strength of your marital team in this real-life guide to both living with and loving your spouse - differences and all.

Do you realize that the God of the universe speaks your love language, and your expressions of love for Him are shaped by your love language? Learn how you can give and receive God's love through the five love languages: words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Gary writes, "As we respond to the love of God and begin to identify the variety of languages He uses to speak to us, we soon learn to speak those languages ourselves.