Many of us spend our days feeling like we're the only one with problems, while everyone else has their act together. But the sooner we realize that everyone struggles like we do, the sooner we can show grace to ourselves and others. In Low Anthropology, popular author and theologian David Zahl explores how our ideas about human nature influence our expectations in friendship, work, marriage, and politics.

We are at war. Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it’s a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies. The problem isn’t so much that we tell lies but that we live them. We let them into our bodies, and they sabotage our peace.

In Hero Maker you will learn how to bring real change to your church and community by developing the practical skills to help others reach their leadership potential. Drawing on five powerful practices found in the ministry of Jesus, Hero Maker presents the key steps of apprenticeship that will build up other leaders and provides strategies for how you can activate gifts, help others take ownership, and develop a simple scorecard for measuring your kingdom-building progress.

In our age when the church can too often seem like a poor copy of the world, Chad Bird challenges us to reclaim the astounding originality of our ancient, backward faith. With compelling examples from the Bible and today, Bird paints an enticing picture of the counterintuitive, countercultural life that God wants for us. He helps listeners delight in all of the ways that Jesus turned the world upside down, allowing us to experience true freedom, not from our weaknesses but in the midst of them.

Prayer is the source of Jesus's most astonishing miracles and the subject of Jesus's most audacious promises, and yet, people find prayer to be boring, obligatory, or confusing. Join Tyler Staton, author, pastor, and national director of the 24/7 Prayer movement, as he invites you to discover the incredible gift of prayer.

Christians know what Jesus Christ has done — but who is he? What is his deepest heart for his people, weary and faltering on their journey toward heaven? Jesus said he is "gentle and lowly in heart." This audiobook reflects on these words, opening up a neglected yet central truth about who he is for sinners and sufferers today.

We tend to think of Advent as the season of anticipation before Christmas—and while it is that, it's also much more. Throughout its history, the church has observed Advent as a preparation not only for the first coming of Christ in his incarnation but also for his second coming at the last day. It's also about a third coming: the coming of Christ to meet us in our present moment, to make us holy by his Word and Sacrament. Priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren explores all three of these "comings" of Christ and invites us into a deeper experience of the first season of the Christian year.

For much of recent history, individuals and institutions could plan, execute, and flourish with their visions of a better world. Volatile, complex forces could be addressed and confronted with planning and management. But crisis is a great revealer. It knocks us off our thrones. It uncovers the weaknesses in our strategies and brings to light our myths and idols. Our past strategies run aground, smashed by unpredictable and chaotic waves. Yet in the midst of the chaos of a crisis comes opportunity.

Rise to the Sun: 7 Footsteps and 7 Prayers for Getting Out of Hell plays with travel and journey in two senses - forward on a physical road and into the heart of the self. This book on spiritual healing is a voyage to freedom set in the context of our times. A timely and necessary work, Rise to the Sun illustrates how humankind must seek to heal its own innate suffering before it can hope to succeed in healing the various external crises affecting our planet. The 7 Footsteps and 7 Prayers unlock a kinder, gentler, and long-lasting engine for transformation.

Significant events such as birth, marriage, and death are milestones in our lives in which we experience our greatest happiness and our deepest grief. And so it is profoundly important to understand how to approach and experience these occasions with grace, endurance, and joy. In a culture that does its best to deny death, Timothy Keller - theologian and best-selling author - teaches us about facing death with the resources of faith from the Bible. With wisdom and compassion, Keller finds in the Bible an alternative to both despair or denial.

In this book, award-winning author James K. A. Smith shows that who and what we worship fundamentally shape our hearts. And while we desire to shape culture, we are not often aware of how culture shapes us. We might not realize the ways our hearts are being taught to love rival gods instead of the One for whom we were made. Smith helps listeners recognize the formative power of culture and the transformative possibilities of Christian practices.

Brother Lawrence was a 17th century Christian who had a dramatic spiritual awakening at the age of 18. Seeing a tree in winter, his soul suddenly opened to the presence of God. Within six years he had entered a Carmelite monastery in Paris, where he worked chiefly in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning. He practiced a simple and natural method. He merely turned his attention to the Divine Presence available at all times during any activity. He reports that he was as fully present with God while washing dishes in the kitchen as he was when partaking of the sacrament in worship.

Pastor and leadership development expert Steve Cuss explains how personal anxiety and leadership frustration is the result of not being “self-aware” and provides simple tools listeners can use to do something about it. Listeners will be empowered to take back control of their lives and lead in mature and vibrant ways.

Do you want to improve your relationships and experience lasting personal change? Join Curt Thompson, MD, on an amazing journey to discover the surprising pathways for transformation hidden inside your own mind. Integrating new findings in neuroscience and attachment with Christian spirituality, Dr. Thompson reveals how it is possible to rewire your mind, altering your brain patterns and literally making you more like the person God intended you to be.

How did the idea arise that masculinity is dangerous and destructive? Bestselling author Nancy Pearcey leads you on a fascinating excursion through American history to discover why the script for masculinity turned toxic—and how to fix it. Pearcey then turns to surprising findings from sociology. Religion is often cast as a cause of domestic abuse. But research shows that authentically committed Christian men test out as the most loving and engaged husbands and fathers. They have the lowest rates of divorce and domestic violence of any group in America.

The need for change as we get older - an emotional pressure for one phase of our lives to transition into another - is a human phenomenon, neither male nor female. There simply comes a time in our lives - not fundamentally different from the way puberty separates childhood from adulthood - when it's time for one part of ourselves to die and for something new to be born.

Through inspiring real-life testimonies, Paula Rinehart writes as both a kindred spirit and a compassionate counselor to women feeling robbed of their passions and trapped by life's disappointing realities. Women who long to be released from the burden of hard choices and perpetually empty souls will be empowered to rediscover dreams long lost and refocus energy misguided. Strong Women, Soft Hearts cries out for women to embrace passion and approach life as something to be lived, not merely survived.

For 27 years, George Anderson, widely considered the world's greatest living medium, has listened to those on the other side, gaining a unique awareness of what those souls want his millions of believers to know, to understand, and to accept. Now Anderson shares this wisdom - and offers an incomparable perspective on the questions faced in day-to-day life.

In this revised best-selling book, Peter Scazzero outlines a road map for discipleship with Jesus that is powerfully transformative. He unveils what's wrong with our current definition of "spiritual growth" and offers not only a model of spirituality that actually works, but seven steps to change that will help you experience authentic faith and hunger for God.

In their first book together, best-selling authors Robert and Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth share biblical and modern-day stories of God’s providence at work, including their own story of finding love and marrying - the first time for Nancy at age 57 and the second time for Robert, a widower. Each story will inspire you as you watch God redeem impossible situations in the unlikeliest ways. Learn to see His hand in your life, and you'll never be the same.

Author David Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. Brooks looks at a range of people who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity and beauty of dependence. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner, how to pick a vocation, how to live out a philosophy, and how we can begin to integrate our commitments into one overriding purpose.

With vulnerability and honesty, Jerry Sittser walks through his own grief and loss to show that new life is possible - one marked by spiritual depth, joy, compassion, and a deeper appreciation of simple and ordinary gifts. This 25th anniversary edition features a new introduction and two additional chapters, one which provides help for pastors and counselors.

Love is easy to give when you are getting it back. Are we still called to God's plan of how to love when we are getting none in return? Shauna Shanks's brave journey through obedience reveals the outcome of when we dare to follow God's ludicrous outline for love as described in 1 Corinthians 13. Wrecked with news of her husband's affair and his request for a divorce, Shauna finds herself urgently faced with a decision. Does she give up and divorce her husband and move on, or does she try to fight for her marriage?

Listeners will be fully engaged in a unique and altogether fascinating discussion of Christian spirituality. Rolheiser seeks to reconcile the rift between a smorgasbord of spiritual voices and an authentic Christian discipleship by the use of anecdotes, personal examples and a wide range of literary and cultural references. His starting point is the desire within us that longs irresistibly for fulfillment.

God wants to reveal himself through your story. Discover how he has written your life so far and how he is leading you into the rest of your story. Everyone wants clearer guidance from God on what to do with their future. In this insightful book, therapist and Professor Dan Allender shows you how to listen to the stories of your life and identify the themes that God has written there.

Is God a wrathful judge? A gentle healer? A father? Brother? Friend? In The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, Brennan Manning brings you to a deeper understanding of the true nature of God. Through poignant and unforgettable stories and challenging observations, Manning helps you stretch your mind and reject simplistic explanations of who God really is.

Born the unwanted third daughter, Esther Ahmad grew up Muslim in Pakistan. Her faith and country drove every aspect of her first 18 years, from what she wore and what she ate to her prospects for work and marriage, even to the manner of her death. Unveiled chronicles Esther’s conversion to Christianity and her escape from radical Islam. Chapter by chapter, Esther lays out the lies of the Qur’an and holds them against the truths she found in the Bible.

Everybody has one. It's called a "haunt detector". It's the little alarm that goes off in our heads whenever we detect that something mysterious or supernatural has occurred. You could be sitting around relaxing, and for no special reason you start thinking about someone. Then the phone rings; you pick it up, and amazingly, it's that person! Many of us have experienced this phenomenon.What is it? Anthony DeStefano answers this compelling question in his fascinating new book, The Invisible World.

Frederick Buechner has long been a kindred spirit to those who find elements of doubt as constant companions on their journey of faith. He is a passionate writer and preacher who can alter lives with a simple phrase. Reflecting Buechner's exquisite gift for storytelling and his compassionate pastor's heart, Secrets in the Dark will inspire laughter, hope, and bring great solace. Start listening and rediscover what it means to be thoughtful about faith.

When we live with unresolved anger or hurt, the result is nearly always bitterness, broken relationships, and unhealthy behaviors. Unforgiveness not only sabotages our interactions with those around us, it impedes our own spiritual growth and inner peace. And it can happen to anyone. In her most vulnerable writing yet, Ruth Graham reveals how a visit to Angola Prison inspired her to release the unforgiveness lurking in her own heart - toward others, herself, and even her heavenly Father and her earthly father, evangelist Billy Graham.