For thirty-four years, I lived my life placing God in the category as the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter bunny. I attended a church for weddings and funerals. I hated both. Something about the chapels always made me anxious and nervous. Maybe it was because of the way I felt about a God I didn't believe in. At thirty-four years old, I was set in my ways when it came to any type of religion. I was happy with my life. I had a wonderful husband, a company that was thriving, a home I loved, a nice car, and we took vacations often. I didn't want for anything. I also worked for everything. It was not handed to me on a silver platter. I grew up in poverty, a broken home, along with bouncing from one place to another through my teens. I was determined to be successful, and by my standards, I had made it. The only thing that I failed at was the religion topic. My husband would always try to get me to go to church or change my view. For almost a decade, he tried, but it fell on deaf ears. We would disagree about it, and I refused to participate in anything religious. I thought I was doing a great job and had my life together. That could be far from the truth. I couldn't see it. It was not until God himself visited me in my living room (He knew he would not find me sitting in a church pew or even near one). That's the day I found out I had it all wrong, also the day that my husband's prayers were answered. However, he never expected my reaction or how it would ultimately affect him as well and change his life. God wanted me to give up everything I worked so hard for. However, my husband didn't sign up for that. So he too was faced with very hard decisions. Are you wondering what God told me? Well, he told me to find a lady named Hellen in another country (Nicaragua, to be exact). Let's just say my life changed that instant. First of all, I had to tell my husband I am changing the way I live and placed my most prized assets on the back burner-my marriage, my career, everything I struggled and worked so hard for. All my time, energy, resources are now going to be devoted to God. You know, the one I knew nothing about.

Argues that one can retain their faith, even when distancing oneself from the traditional methods of worship through the organized church, and helps readers identify six life-tested passages that lead through changes in faith towards authentic renewal.

Advice from One Grieving Mom to Others When Kim’s three-year-old son tragically passed away, she found plenty of resources on grieving. She says what she really needed, though, "was someone who would give me advice for living, not just grieving . . . How do I get through the grocery store without crying? What do I do with my son’s things? When will my mind stop replaying the emergency room scene?" Now, ten years later, she’s written that book. With raw vulnerability, a deep well of wisdom, and the practical knowledge of someone who’s been there, she walks grieving moms through the life-after-death process from how to plan the funeral to how to deal with friends, family, holidays, and birthdays. This is a profound and powerful resource that’s invaluable for the mom who has lost a child—and for her friends and family who want to love her well.

The search of your life is the search for your life. What you are holding right now is an exploration of the human spirit; a journey into our deepest longings, our desires, our needs, our cravings, our souls. Our need for intimacy, meaning, and destiny point to the existence of God and our need to connect with Him. This book will deeply stir you to consider and chase after the spiritual implications of your souls' deepest longings.

Our culture is self-obsessed – in our schedules, relationships, and especially online. (Can you say selfie?) But in this near-narcissism, people are less content than in decades past. Why? Because we forgot the joy that comes from putting others first. Doing so requires us to live alert, listening for “heart drops,” hints from those in our lives who need a helping hand or a generous dose of encouragement. Living alert lifts our own spirits, showing us that blessing others blesses us even more. Listen, Love, Repeat offers biblical teaching and suggests doable actions that are simple, heart-tugging, sentimental, even sneaky and hilarious. This message: • Presents scriptural examples of those who lived alert, including Jesus, who noticed those who least expected to be seen. • Explains the role of good works for followers of Christ. They aren’t our ticket to heaven but they are our marching orders on earth. • Gives creative ideas for showing love to friends and family, and suggests practical ways to reach out to the lonely, the marginalized, the outcast, and the odd duck. Additionally, it helps you comfort the grieving, showing what you can do when you don’t know what to say. • Provides inspiration for blessing the “necessary people” in your life, those often-overlooked souls who help you get life done every day, and teaches you how to hug a porcupine by genuinely loving the hard-to-love. As we scatter love, we create a safe space where we can openly share the gospel. We get to see lives changed right before our eyes. Most importantly, Listen, Love, Repeat will enable you to live a life that is full of kind deeds, not to selfishly shout, “Hey! Look at me!” but to humbly implore, “Will you look at Him?”

Our generation needs a reformation. But a single person won’t lead it. A single event won’t define it. Our reformation will be a movement of reformers living creatively, compassionately, courageously for the cause of Christ. This reformation will not be born of a new discovery. It will be the rediscovery of something old, something ancient. Something primal. —Mark Batterson, Primal What would your Christianity look like if it was stripped down to the simplest, rawest, purest faith possible? You would have more, not less. You would have the beginning of a new reformation—in your generation, your church, your own soul. You would have primal Christianity. This book is an invitation to become part of a reformation movement. It is an invitation to rediscover the compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy that turned the world upside down two thousand years ago. It is an invitation to be astonished again.

The journey of faith can be risky and overwhelming. Yet we join up, knowing that with the challenge comes excitement, the sense of being fully alive, and the extremity of living a life completely sold out to Jesus. And our goal is to become spiritually strong enough to stand till the end. Author and teacher Ben Patterson calls you to develop muscular faith—the faith of a Jesus follower whose heart, soul, mind, and time are committed to a cause of supreme worth. Through biblical insight and wisdom, you’ll be equipped for the only fight that matters—doing the work of God against the snares and temptations of this world. You’ll build up your spiritual muscles on the hard road to glory . . . and become stronger than you ever knew you could be.