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We
have a lot to sort through on any given day. A whole lot to
navigate over the course of a week or a month. Am I in the
right relationships? How am I going to come up with enough
money to do the things I want to do? And what about love -
is this the one? Why can't I overcome those "habits"
that look more and more like addictions? Am I at the right
church? What is God doing in my life?
All
Day Long WE Are Making Choices. How Do We Know What To Do?
We
Have Two Options
We
can trudge through on our own, doing our best to figure it
all out. Or, we can walk with God. As in, learn to hear his
voice. Really. He offers to speak to us and guide us. Every
day. It is an incredible offer. To accept that offers to enter
into an adventure filled with joy and risk, transformation
and breakthrough. And more clarity than we ever thought possible.
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"I think
that most believers and doubters alike share the discomfort
of uncertainty." You long to live with certainty, to know
without a doubt that you've bet your life on the truth and
that no surprises await you on the other side of eternity.
Even those known for their deep faith - people like Billy
Graham, Martin Luther and Mother Teresa - have wrestled with
unanswerable and often painful questions. John Ortberg takes
an honest look at the misgivings and uncertainties that often
obscure our view of God. He candidly describes grappling with
his own personal doubts as well as walking with others through
the faith shaking storms of life. Then he reveals how we can
celebrate the gift of uncertainty as we allow the right kinds
of doubt to actually deepen our faith and intimacy with God.
" Doubt can motivate us to study and learn," Ortberg writes.
"It can purify false beliefs that have crept into our faith.
It can humble our arrogance. It can give us patience and compassion
with other doubters. It can remind us of how much truth matters."
'Many
books are written by experts. This isn't one of them,' admits
Tim Chester. 'It was born out of my own struggle to change.
My long battle with particular issues set me searching the
Bible as well as writings from the past. This book shares
the amazing truths I discovered.'
'For years
i wondered if I'd ever overcome certain sins. And while I
can't claim to have conquered sin - for no-one ever can do
- here are discoveries that have led to change in my life
and the lives of others.'
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"You Must
Be Born Again" This declaration from Jesus is either deluded
or devastating to the one who would be captain of his soul.
Not many biblical realities are better designed by God to
reveal our helplessness in sin. But not everyone today is
jealous to esteem this miracle for the wonder that it is.
The term born again is very precious and very crucial in the
Bible. And our main concern should be to know what God intends
when the Bible uses this language, so that by his grace we
may experience it and help others do the same. It is of enormous
consequence that we know what being born again really means.
Tracing
threads that run through the Bible
The Bible
is a big book, and it can be confusing if we jump around its
pages without knowing the bigger picture.
Or pictures
That's
why this book explores particular themes which help make sense
of its many characters and events....
Mackenzie
Allen Philips youngest Daughter, Missy, has been abducted
during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been
brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the
oregan wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great
Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from
God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.
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Colin
Garnett grew up in Stockport, south Manchester, in a tough
working-class culture. A teenage involvement with alcohol,
amphetamines and violence led to an adult heroin addiction.
For many years he was lost in a crime-and-drugs lifestyle
and did time in twenty-seven different prisons. But on 17
June 1993, in a prison chapel, he received Jesus Christ as
his Lord and Saviour. From that moment God began to transform
Colin's life. He has become a highly effective evangelist
with a special ministry to those in prison and those trapped
in drug addiction. Today Colin leads the Bethesda Christian
Rehab in South Africa, helping others to find freedom from
drugs through a personal relationship with Jesus.
In the
Heavenly Man, you learned the story of how God took
a young half-starved boy from Henan Province and enabled him
to stand strong on the frontlines for Jesus Christ, braving
horrific opposition and impossible odds.
Living
Water is a collection of Brother Yun's dynamic teachings
that evolved from his life experiences of persecution and
revival in China. Brother Yun shares how the grace of God
sustained him during his darkest hours and how that darkness
was transformed into the infectious joy and zeal for the Lord
that are the hallmark of his ministry today. This unique book
teaches us that radical faith is not for a chosen few, but
for every believer who dares to call Jesus Christ Lord
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"I live
with a price on my head ... The kind of people that I spend
my time engaging with are not usually very nice. On the whole
nice people do not cause wars." Andrew White is one of a handful
of people trusted by virtually every side in the complex Middle
East. Political and military solutions constantly fail. Andrew
offers a different approach, speaking as a man of faith to
men of faith. Compassionate and shrewd, gifted in human relationships,
he has been deeply involved in the rebuilding of Iraq. His
first-hand connections and profound insights make this a fascinating
document.
Possibly
one of the most difficult things to come to terms with in
life is the sheer amount of waiting involved: it is not always
easy to feel loved by God as we hang on in there, day after
day, wondering if things will ever work out. Both comfort
and encouragement may be found in this absorbing book, which
weaves together reflections on the Bible, prayers and real-life
stories. Many of these stories are touching; some are funny;
all are honest. Not all end 'happily', yet a remarkable number
show how the tension of waiting can release a life-enhancing
capacity for creative action. God wants a grown-up relationship
with each one of us, and its best that he sets the pace and
rhythm. Too often we rush around, wasting time and energy
in worry. Those moments when we let go, allow ourselves to
experience the sheer joy of being loved by our heavenly father
- and find ourselves loving others in return - are moments
when we realise just how much we have grown through our struggles
to trust in Him.
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How do
I know what God wants me to do?
What's
the right way to pray?
How do
I explain this to my friends?
This
is only the beginning of your fantastic faith-life journey.
It includes insightful questions asked by someone just
starting out on the trek toward truth, and includes prayerful
devotions to meditate on in response. In fact, each
day is dedicated to a different Christian topic you've been
wondering about.
When C.
S. LEWIS was asked about his churchmanship, he replied that
his preference was neither for high church nor low church,
but rather for 'deep church'.
In this
book Frog and Amy Orr-Ewing explore the concept of deep church
in a 21st-century context. They argue that a missionary congregation
needs to be deeply evangelical and evangelistic, deeply reliant
on the power of the Holy Spirit, deeply engaged with its surrounding
culture and community, deeply realistic about its limitations
and temptations, and deeply convinced of its faith, in the
face of all other worldviews and alternatives.
DEEP is
about restoring the heart of the Christian faith, within a
rapidly changing and demanding culture, without lurching from
one new methodology to another. It's about rescuing today's
church from unnecessary disillusionment, and wholeheartedly
embracing Christ and his Kingdom.
The call
of deep church is not just for theologians and church leaders;
it is also about each individual Christian experiencing and
knowing that Jesus rescues from the depths and changes them
deeply.
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