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As a twenty-three-year-old singer and the soon-to-be wife of youth pastor Joshua Harris, nothing in Shannon Harris's secular upbringing prepared her to enter the world of conservative Christianity. Soon Joshua's bestselling book I Kissed Dating Goodbye helped inspire a national purity movement, and Shannon's identity became "pastor's wife." The Woman They Wanted recounts Shannon's remarkable experience inside Big Church—where she was asked to live within a narrow definition of womanhood for almost two decades—and her journey out of that world and into a more authentic version of herself.

We live in a distracted, secular age. These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits - and devices - that distract and "buffer" us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls "a secular age" - an age in which all beliefs are equally viable and real transcendence is less and less plausible. Drawing on Taylor's work, Alan Noble describes how these realities shape our thinking and affect our daily lives.

Discipleship is costly. Are we willing to critique and even challenge much we've been taught for the sake of the kingdom? For this is the radical nature of the discipleship to which Jesus calls us. He did not allow the outside culture to hold him captive; instead he established the kingdom of God and turned the world on its head. Jesus was untamed, and he calls his church to be the same.

Have you ever looked back over a situation or relationship in your life and wondered how it became so messy or difficult? In the series from the book of James, Five Lies That Ruin Relationships, we'll define five of the most common lies that have the potential to ruin relationships with those we love. We'll also uncover the source of quarreling, how our words wound, and how not to make decisions. And together we'll ask and answer the question: Do wrong beliefs produce wrong behavior?

Women everywhere face battles that threaten to overwhelm them. But you don't have to watch hopelessly from the sidelines. This is a crucial time for praying women to take their stand. In this newly revised and updated edition, you'll discover sound biblical guidelines, inspiring stories, and practical steps to help you see victory on the battlefront. As you understand your authority in the risen Christ, you will learn how to overcome forces of evil, help loved ones break cycles of bondage, and make your home a place of refuge from spiritual attack-all through the power of prayer.

When the smartphone was introduced, many of us quickly adopted it into our lives - too quickly to stop and think about the future costs we were unboxing along with the device. Now blessed with this revolutionary piece of handheld technology, we try to wield it with wisdom, fending off anxieties about how our digital habits impact our spiritual health. Drawing on the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, writer Tony Reinke identifies 12 potent ways our smartphones have changed our lives.

This charge from Acts 20:28 only is the beginning of a solemn and overarching task to be personally involved and disciple all of your congregants. Richard Baxter's plea for shepherding his flock continues with a charge to pastors to verify their own spiritual walk and then walks them through various disciplines, strategies and goals to guide and instruct their congregation.

Galatians For You is a new curriculum tool you can use to learn or teach from the book of Galatians. Both student and teacher can use it to walk through Galatians, learning how the gospel message changes the whole of our lives. It can be utilized by anyone who has a teaching ministry, as a daily devotional or it can be listened to for personal study and edification.

In Spiritual Parenting parents learn to create a home environment that God can use to work in their children's lives. It's a biblical, innovative fresh approach to parenting--and one that's long overdue. It's hard enough to train kids to behave, but good behavior isn't what Jesus calls for in the Bible. He wants hearts and souls that are shaped in vibrant faith and love toward God and others. How can parents cultivate this in their children? In this book Dr. Michelle Anthony shares practical examples and biblical insight on the spiritual role of parenting.

Peterson's Tell It Slant promises to deepen our understanding of Jesus' words, strengthen our awareness of language as a gift of God, and nurture our efforts to make all of our speech convey a blessing to others.

Even pastors struggle to keep going sometimes. When Dr. Jack Graham had a major surgery 10 years ago, he knew it would take a physical toll, but to his surprise, he also found himself wiped out emotionally and spiritually. He wrestled with depression, and he struggled to find joy and growth in his walk with Christ. Maybe you've been through a crisis of your own. Or maybe the busyness of life has overwhelmed you, or your faith has grown stale over the years and you've just been going through the motions. So how do you get back to being spiritually energized?

In The Secret Message of Jesus, McLaren clears away the dust of 2,000 years of the Christian religion to get to the most important questions facing Christendom: Could it be that the church has misunderstood or, in some cases, intentionally distorted Jesus' core message?

In this widely popular, exciting story for the advent season, listeners follow 10-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family. Though he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, Jotham also encounters the wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem.

Is the gift of tongues for today? Does God want me to have the gift of tongues? Should I ask for the gift of tongues? Believers have asked these questions and many others about this debated and mysterious spiritual gift. Offering fresh biblical insight, Robert Henderson has written an essential guide that helps believers understand and discover the power of tongues to remove limits and establish a renewed relationship with God transcending the natural realm.

With every earthquake and war, understanding the nature of evil and our response to it becomes more urgent. Evil is no longer the concern just of ministers and theologians but also of politicians and the media. We hear of child abuse, ethnic cleansing, AIDS, torture and terrorism, and rightfully we are shocked. N. T. Wright says that we should not be surprised. For too long we have naively believed in the modern idea of human progress.

God has a plan for your life. More often than not, it's a detour - one that can leave you feeling temporarily stalled and slowed down. Which nobody likes. But detours are necessary if any improvements are going to be made on the paths we travel. Or if any wreck is going to be cleaned up or a hazard avoided. Detours are designed for our own good, regardless of how we view or feel about them. Detours are a good thing that often feels bad. Tony knows a thing or two about detours.

Among our greatest fears is the dread of what others would think of us "if they only knew" - the parts of our past we hope to forget, the parts of our present we work to conceal. Yet the part we actually do the best job of hiding is not the unsightly debris of our own mess, but rather the stunning beauty of God's grace. The fear that demands we protect this false image at all costs leads us to unwittingly declare a false gospel at every turn. Jamie Ivey finally grew tired of doing that, tired of being too ashamed and insecure to let others see the full extent of what God was capable of doing with our unworthiness. So she quit hiding.

We all have dreams. But many of us have no clue what they mean—or that God is speaking, even imparting matchless wisdom, to us through them. Cutting through the confusion and unbiblical teachings on dreams, prophetic leader Demontae Edmonds offers a hands-on guide to this supernatural realm grounded in biblical truth. You'll discover how God uses dreams to heal, give direction and answers, expose the enemy, give warnings, reveal mysteries—and more.

"How can I hope to be an effective parent today when attack on the family are stronger than ever before?" The answer, says Farley, is the gospel. Parents who claim the gospel as their own have an enormous effect on their marriage, their integrity, and their love for their children. Keeping the gospel at the forefront of every aspect of marriage helps parents fear God, sensitizes them to sin, motivates them to enter their children's world, and causes them to preach the beauty of the gospel to their children through their marriage.

For two decades, pastor and leadership consultant Matt Keller has worked with hundreds of influencers, and he has learned that the greatest enhancer or greatest limiter to a person's success is whether someone is teachable. In The Key to Everything, Keller shows how teachability isn't something that some people are born with and others aren't. It is a characteristic that can be learned and grown.