When you stand before your congregation, what do you hope to accomplish when you preach the Word? If people have Bibles and the freedom to read and pray on their own—why do they need you? In short, what do you bring to the table? Author, pastor, and professor John Koessler answers those questions and many more. Why does one sermon have a powerful effect on the audience while another falls flat? Why should listeners heed what the preacher says? Is human language adequate for facilitating an encounter with God? What is the point of preaching a sermon? Folly, Grace, and Power is a must-read for pastors, seminarians, and lay leaders charged with the task of preaching God’s word. This essential book is both a stern reminder of the sacredness of the awesome “job” of being a preacher, as well as a how-to that reveals the key to speaking powerfully on God’s behalf.

There are many things that we all believe yet do not experience. We all want victory, yet few find it. One of our greatest frustrations is that much of what we believe really doesn’t work. Too often we spend our lives struggling with the same issues. The feeling of defeat can be agonizing. It is as if we are caught in a maze of formulas and rules. We know there’s something missing, but we’re not sure what. In our search for truth, we lose our way among the dos and don’ts of religion. Christians everywhere have been missing the truth about grace--and the result is defeat and frustration. In this life-changing book, Dr. James Richards unfolds the mystery of grace. You will find the power to overcome instead of repeatedly seeking forgiveness. You will conquer personal issues instead of enduring them. You will discover God’s power of effortless change instead of your best effort to change. This reality will transform everything you are experiencing with God. Grace: The Power to Change will bring you into the dimension of Christian living that Jesus called “easy and light.” This is a must-read for every believer!

Growing up the son of agnostics, John Koessler saw a Catholic church on one end of the street and a Baptist on the other. In the no-man’s land between the two, this curious outside wondered about the God they worshipped—and began a lifelong search to comprehend the grace and mystery of God. A Stranger in the House of God addresses fundamental questions and struggles faced by spiritual seekers and mature believers. Like a contemporary Pilgrim’s Progress, it traces the author’s journey and explores his experiences with both charismatic and evangelical Christianity. It also describes his transformation from religious outsider to ordained pastor. John Koessler provides a poignant and often humorous window into the interior of the soul as he describes his journey from doubt and struggle with the church to personal faith

FROM FOLLY is the amazing true story of a 21-year-old college student's survival in the ocean following a failed suicide attempt on LSD. Matt's plan was to swim out as far as he could into the Atlantic Ocean so that even if he wanted to turn back at the last minute, it would be too late. Yet when the time came to drown himself, he recognized something that would change him forever. At the brink of death, he finally saw the value of life.

An Epic New Fantasy Series from Fan Favorite Jill Williamson This edition includes the first three parts of the Kinsman Chronicles originally released as ebooks. o Part 1--Darkness Reigns o Part 2--The Heir War o Part 3--The End of All Things The gods are angry. Volcanic eruptions, sinkholes, ground shakers--everything points to their unhappiness. At least that is what the king of Armania believes. His son, Prince Wilek, thinks his father's superstitions are nonsense, though he remains the ever dutiful First Arm of Armania. When a messenger arrives and claims that the town of Farway has been swallowed by the earth, the king sends Wilek to investigate. But what Wilek discovers is more cataclysmic than one lost city. Even as the ground shifts beneath his feet, Wilek sets out on a desperate journey to save his people and his world. But can he do it before the entire land crumbles?

Prayer can feel mysteriously difficult, boringly perfunctory and frustratingly out of our control. Often prayer brings us comfort, but sometimes, especially when there aren t easy resolutions or prayers go unanswered, it intensifies and focuses our sense of longing, pain and care. And often God uses our times of darkness and desperation to awaken our hearts to the ache within us--and the cries of those suffering around us. Prayer is all about coming before God to face life head-on, with all its jagged edges of mystery, joy, longing and agony. In fact, says pastor Matt Woodley, prayer is actually a real encounter with the untamable God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore our experience of it should reflect the power, mystery and even risk of entering into relationship with the Lord of the universe. In this book Woodley strips away all the religious-speak and presuppositions we have about prayer, distilling it to the essence of wholehearted engagement with the living God. Exploring an earthy, unadorned, jargon-free approach to prayer, Woodley unpacks a host of fresh synonyms for God-encounters, including prayer as desperation, invocation, mystery, astonishment, groaning and even absence. These marginal ways of praying compel us to engage marginal people--the desperate, the groaning, the victimized and the ignored. As we pray God will open our eyes to the pain of the world around us. With stories from his own experience and biblical and historical examples, Woodley gives fresh language to describe a life grounded in prayer that leads to compassion and service.

All human faculties have evolved to tell us about the universe, including our awareness of beauty, meaning and goodness, our ability to make scientific measurements, and our experiences of consciousness and community. A belief in God makes sense of all these experiences in one coherent, rational and inspiring picture, a true theory of everything.