Breathe Again


Book Description

What Do You Do When It Seems God Hasn’t Come Through for You? When the miracle-working God whom Pastor Stacy Henagan loved and served did not answer the prayers on behalf of her terminally ill one-year-old daughter as expected, she was left crushed with grief and struggling to understand. How could a loving God allow this to happen? What do you do when it seems God has let you down? Is God trustworthy? Rather than choosing to remain in overwhelming pain and doubt, Stacy emerged with a much greater belief that God is good and trustworthy, even when we don’t think His plans make sense. Links to an in-depth study guide and 5-part video teaching series are available on stacyhenaganbook.com.




God Isn't Finished with Me Yet


Book Description

2019 Illumination Book Awards, Gold: Christian Living 2019 Living Now Book Awards, Gold: Meditation/Relaxation 2019 Best Book Awards, Finalist: Health: Aging/50+ 2018 Independent Press Awards, Winner: Aging I haven’t finished with my life, and neither has God. As we see fewer years ahead than behind, it can be easy to question our value or what we have left to contribute to our communities. How can we continue to give back and live with purpose in our later years? Barbara Lee is living this reality every day, and in this book she describes the intersection of aging with the timelessness of Ignatian spirituality. God Isn’t Finished with Me Yet shows readers how God meets us with unexpected grace. In five succinct chapters, Lee shows how Ignatian prayer and discernment offer those in later life a path to discovering previously unknown vocations and new ways of living and being of service. You’re still living your life, and God is still revealing His grace.




No More Faking Fine


Book Description

Scripture reveals a God who meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be. No More Faking Fine is your invitation to get honest with God through the life-giving language of lament. If you've ever been given empty clichés during challenging times, you know how painful it is to be misunderstood by well-meaning people. When life hurts, we often feel pressure--from others and ourselves--to keep it together, suck it up, or pray it away. But Scripture reveals a God who lovingly invites us to give honest voice to our emotions when life hits hard. For most of her life, Esther Fleece Allen believed she could bypass the painful emotions of her broken past by shutting them down altogether. She was known as an achiever and an overcomer on the fast track to success. But in silencing her pain, she robbed herself of the opportunity to be healed. Maybe you've done the same. Esther's journey into healing began when she discovered that God has given us a real-world way to deal with raw emotions and an alternative to the coping mechanisms that end up causing more pain. It's called lament--the gut-level, honest prayer that God never ignores, never silences, and never wastes. No More Faking Fine is your permission to lament, taking you on a journey down the unexpected pathway to true intimacy with God. Drawing from careful biblical study and hard-won insight, Esther reveals how to use God's own language to come closer to him as he leads us through our pain to the light on the other side, teaching you that: We are robbing ourselves of a divine mystery and a divine intimacy when we pretend to have it all together God does not expect us to be perfect; instead, he meets us where we are There is hope beyond your heartache, disappointment, and grief Like Esther, you'll soon find that when one person stops faking fine, it gives everyone else permission to do the same.




Today We Win


Book Description

What does winning look like for you? Today, our constant access to analytics and instant feedback comes with a problem: there are no ready-made scoreboards for our lives. However, this doesn't stop us from keeping score. Internally, we tally points, and those points calibrate our emotional lives. They drive our decisions, self-perceptions, and actions in surprising-sometimes destructive-ways. Discover a system for finding your purpose, choosing where to grow, understanding what success looks like, defining how to get there, and knowing how to win every day. Not just for yourself, but for everyone in your life.




God Is Not Through with Me Yet


Book Description

Thelma Wells has known a lifetime of achievements and victories over obstacles, as well as a wealth of meaningful relationships and abundant ministry to countless others. But recently, God led her into dark valleys–including an almost fatal illness–as part of His plan to deepen her firsthand knowledge of Himself as the Great I AM. This rich experience is what she shares with you, along with plenty of smiles and laughter, in God Is Not Through with Me Yet. She’s the first to say, “Thelma doesn’t have it all together. No one has it all together.” But the Lord has filled her heart to overflowing with new appreciation for His loving wisdom and His healing truth. It’s an overflow that spills out, with clarity, and humor, on every page of this book. With personal stories and solid biblical teaching that open your heart to God’s truth, Thelma guides you to a deeper faith and an exuberant desire to follow your Lord…even through your life’s most turbulent storms. With the warmth of a grandmother, the wit of a jokester, and the wisdom of a woman in the Word, Thelma opens your eyes to the full wholeness God has for you.




A Sudden Glory


Book Description

Do you long for something more in your relationship with God? The good news is that “something more” does not mean “doing more.” God is not waiting for you to get your spiritual life “right.” He wants to be with you right where you are. The real question is not “What does God want from you?” but “What does God want for you?” Sharon Jaynes understands what it’s like to have a “glory ache”—a longing to experience God’s presence on a daily basis. She also knows how easily working for God can get in the way of intimacy with God. And she’s discovered that we tend to make our faith journey much too hard. In A Sudden Glory, Sharon uses Scripture and story to help you erase the line between your “spiritual life” and your “daily life” as you enter the sanctuary of God’s presence even in the middle of your busy, messy day. Here you will find your eyes opened to moments of sudden glory in which the Creator assures you of His love as you live and move and have your being in Him. Here you will discover true freedom—the freedom of experiencing God in a deeper and more intimate way than ever before. Includes Bible study and discussion guide.




When God Isn't There


Book Description

Why does God feel so far away? Why is my worship so empty? Has God left me? David Bowden knows these questions firsthand, having wrestled for years with God’s apparent absence and studying what the Bible says about it. In this new book, Bowden tackles the subject head-on, finding the key to understanding it in the Bible’s depiction of a God who is infinitely far from us, free to move where he wants, but who chooses to come near in the person of Jesus. A resource of encouragement for those who struggle with feeling God’s absence and a wake-up call to those who take God’s presence for granted, When God Isn’t There will forever change your understanding of why God sometimes seems to vanish and how he can be found again. Praise for the work of David Bowden “Awesome and inspiring.”—Blake Mycoskie, Founder and Chief Shoe Giver at TOMS Shoes “David brings a fresh, engaging and highly impactful approach to Scripture. His passion for the Word is both contagious and inspirational.” —Roy Peterson, President of American Bible Society




Gospel-Centered Discipleship


Book Description

Reflecting on the practice of disciple making in young adult, college, graduate, and local church contexts, Jonathan Dodson has discerned some common pitfalls. For many, discipleship is reduced to a form of religious performance before God. For others, it devolves into spiritual license and a loose adherence to spiritual facts. Both approaches distort biblical motivations for Christian obedience and are in need of reform. By explaining various motivations for discipleship, Dodson charts a biblically faithful, grace-driven alternative. Additionally, he provides a practical model for creating gospel-centered discipleship groups—small, reproducible, missional, gender-specific groups of believers that fight for faith together. This book blends both theology and practice to inspire and equip Christians to effectively fight sin, keep Jesus central, and make gospel-centered discipleship a way of life. Both new and growing Christians will learn to trust the gospel in community as they fight together for holiness as well as how to start gospel-centered community groups in any local church.




Don't Limit God


Book Description

God has more for us than what we are experiencing. We have all limited God in our lives at some point in one way or another. Fear of success, fear of persecution and imaginations are all ways that we limit God. We often see ourselves in a certain way but we have to change that image if we want to experience the abundant life that God has for...




I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die


Book Description

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.