Spiritual Theology

Human beings are wired for connection. We long for deep relationships and real intimacy — both of which reflect our fundamental desire to be close to God. But all too often, whether because of our sin or our failures, we imagine that God prefers to keep his distance. In this book, Edward T. Welch shows us the purpose for which we were created: to be brought near to God as a kingdom of priests.

The good news that God’s Word proclaims is a recipe to use in times of disaster. That is to say, it comes as a relevant announcement only to those who are in trouble for one reason or another. This book calls for more realism in facing life’s challenges and a richer view of God and his purposes to match them.

Evangelical pastor Ed Dobson chronicles his year of living like Jesus and obeying his teachings. Dobson's transition from someone who follows Jesus to someone who lives like Jesus takes him into bars, inspires him to pick up hitchhikers, and deepens his understanding of suffering. As Dobson discovers, living like Jesus is quite different from what we imagine.

This honest book will help you discover a different Jesus from the flannelgraph Sunday school figure, the sweetly smiling Victorian Savior, and all the cultural clichés that have tamed Jesus and kept him in comfortable religious boxes. Philip Yancey cuts through existing views and preconceptions of Jesus - citing opinions from church history, modern history, and popular culture; discussing how different people and cultures view Jesus; dissecting popular quotes about Jesus; and much more - and he offers a more accurate perspective by pointing us back to the Bible.

According to researcher George Barna, most born-again Christians live indistinctly from nonbelievers because they do not think any differently—which is a result of not understanding the basic truths of the Christian faith.

In Dirty God: Jesus in the Trenches, Johnnie Moore draws on both Scripture and his extensive experience with other cultures and religions to show how the God of the Bible is unique in his willingness to be near us in all of our messiness. Moore outlines the central importance of the doctrine of grace while introducing readers to a humble and human Jesus who reaches out to us at our worst and pulls us up to our best. Grace, Moore argues, is something that is both gotten and given, and the two-part structure of the book allows listeners to explore both of these dynamics.

In Theologizin’ Bigger: Homilies on Living Freely and Loving Wholly, pastor, podcaster, and public theologian Trey Ferguson encourages you to re-engage your imagination, and to construct theologies that speak to our current contexts, just as people of faith have done throughout history. With personal stories and some lo-fi truth telling, Ferguson leads us through topics like how we read the Bible, our inherited traditions, the shame and confusion we experience, and a faith that can shape tomorrow.

Heavenly Secrets to Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts helps you identify the gifts of the Holy Spirit and teaches you how to start accessing them now. It’s never too early or too late to start. The first step is developing a powerful, intimate, and dynamic relationship with the Gift-Giver: the Holy Spirit!

It all happened in a moment - a most remarkable moment. God came near. He came not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. The hands that held him were not manicured, but callused and dirty. No silk. No ivory. No hype. No party. No hoopla. God had come near...for you.

God did not create you to be a slave to the world's economic system. He does not want you to live from paycheck to paycheck, just barely scraping by. He wants you to live in divine prosperity! God desires you to have more than you need so you can give to others to help meet their needs. In this book, Pastor Bob Yandian shows you how to cross the barrier between having just enough and living in abundance.

Rightly understood and rightly communicated, the Christian faith is one of great joy. It is an invitation to God's kingdom, where tears are replaced by laughter and longing hearts find their purpose and their home. This is the heart of the gospel: God's search to reclaim us and love us as his own. But have we truly grasped this? Those of us who have disdained Christianity as a religion of bigotry - have we repudiated the genuine article or merely demonstrated our own prejudice and ignorance?

In Where Is God When It Hurts, Philip Yancey gave us permission to doubt, reasons not to abandon faith, and practical ways to reach out to hurting people. In this sequel, Yancey revisits our cry of "Why, God?" in the wake of increased violence and natural disasters the world over. It's a cry that many of us take up with more urgency each year as we sit stunned by the calamities devastating our world, our communities, and our personal lives.

Grace is the church's great distinctive. It's the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else - for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world. In What's So Amazing About Grace?, award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God's love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy?

Believers are called to authentically demonstrate both the character of Jesus and the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives. Unfortunately, parts of the church are unwilling to encourage the operation of the Holy Spirit’s empowering gifts, for fear of creating disorder and chaos. Greg Mohr contends that the biblical mandate for all believers is to move in the regular, supernatural demonstration of the Spirit’s gifts.

Outside the church, the myth of an age-old conflict between science and Christianity is nearly ubiquitous in popular culture and can poison the well before a fruitful dialogue can begin. Within the church, opposing viewpoints on the relation between Christianity and science often lead to division and rancor. Three Views on Christianity and Science addresses both types of conflict. Featuring leading evangelical representatives, it presents three primary options for the compatibility of Christianity and science.

In a little book that's hard to swallow, A. W. Tozer teaches plainly who the Spirit is, why we should desire Him, but why few of us do. He instructs us in how to be filled with the Spirit, but first poses this question: Do you really want to be filled?

The book is a hands-on primer for bringing to life the basic message that Christ brought. In it, Meyer examines what will happen if we each decide that we will refuse to live only for ourselves and love intentionally through action.

Why do we believe what we believe? The Case for Christ Daily Moment of Truth offers fact-based, intelligent devotions to build a foundational faith. These 180 insightful writings will strengthen your spiritual knowledge and touch your heart with life-changing truth. Combining the authors' expertise in apologetics with scriptural application for daily living, leading Christianity apologists Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg articulate the reasons why Christians believe what they believe.

Shine forth with a flow of the miraculous! Why would a supernatural God build a supernatural Church and then expect it to function naturally? He wouldn’t! God wants the gospel delivered and demonstrated by believers who live in a unique flow of the miraculous. In Releasing the Miraculous, author and pastor James Tan shares that the Holy Spirit infilling is really about God outpouring himself through operations we call the nine gifts of the Spirit.

Nowhere was the vitality of Jesus more visible than in His love - compassionate, honest, powerful, humble, and sacrificial. Get to know Jesus, observe His life and His love as they unfold in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Combined with author Paul Miller’s own life stories, Love Walked Among Us will encourage you to imitate Jesus’ way of loving people in your relationships and community. Become more like Jesus and grow in your relationship with God.