Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Audio, Inc." in Religion & Spirituality

King Solomon had all the fame and fortune that any man could want. He was the world's wisest and wealthiest king. And yet, tragically, he threw it all away for the love of money, the pleasures of sex, and the powers of an earthly kingdom. In studying the life of Solomon, we see both the true greatness and the tragic failure of our own humanity - from godly devotion to self-serving excess. Philip Graham Ryken tells us how, by the grace of God, to prevent those downfalls and to seek God's glory amid earthly temptations through this rich, Christ-centered study of the life of Solomon.

James was a vegetarian, wore only linen clothing, bathed daily at dawn in cold water, and was a life-long Nazirite. In this profound and provocative work of scholarly detection, eminent biblical scholar Robert Eisenman introduces a startling theory about the identity of James - the brother of Jesus - who was almost entirely marginalized in the New Testament.

Over 1600 years ago, God raised up a man named Patrick to take the Gospel of Christ to the people of Ireland. Seldom in church history has any missionary been blessed with a more fruitful ministry. The preaching of Patrick was used by God to transform many of the Irish people from idol-worshiping pagans into servants of the one true God of Scripture.

Why have societies all across the world feared witchcraft? This book delves deeply into its context, beliefs, and origins in Europe's history. The witch came to prominence - and often a painful death - in early modern Europe, yet her origins are much more geographically diverse and historically deep. In this landmark book, Ronald Hutton traces witchcraft from the ancient world to the early modern state.

We all know that in order to accomplish a certain thing we must concentrate. It is of the utmost value to learn how to concentrate. To make a success of anything you must be able to concentrate your entire thought upon the idea you are working out. In The Power of Concentration, author Theron Q. Dumont sets out to help readers learn how to concentrate and use their powers of concentration to become more successful, overcome bad habits, and achieve their personal goals.

What happens when a nineteen-year-old boy leaves home and heads into the jungles to evangelize a murderous tribe of South American Indians? For Bruce Olson, it meant capture, disease, terror, loneliness, and torture. But what he discovered through trial and error has revolutionized the world of missions. Bruchko, which has sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide, has been called "more fantastic and harrowing than anything Hollywood could concoct."

This is a book of guidance for life's journey rooted in the wisdom of ancient China. Best-selling author Deng Ming-Dao provides key poetic lines that distill the essence of Taoism, organizing them in the form of a journey. The material here is drawn from three sources: The Tao Te Ching, The Yijing, and 300 Tang Poems.

In the post-Christian context, public life has become markedly more secular and private life infinitely more diverse. Yet many Christians still rely on cookie-cutter approaches to evangelism and apologetics. Most of these methods assume that people are open to, interested in, and needy for spiritual insight when increasingly most people are not. The urgent need, then, is the capacity to persuade - to make a convincing case for the Gospel to people who are not interested in it.

MacDonald stressed the necessity of salvation and the importance of combining Christian faith with obedience to Jesus' teachings. He also believed that God's universal grace would eventually save everyone. Though written in the mid-19th century, these sermons, including "Mirrors of Christ", "Glorified through Trouble", "Salvation from Sin", and "The Giver of Rest", continue to provide contemporary followers with the spiritual guidance they seek.

The Counterlife is about people enacting their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter seemingly irreversible destinies. Wherever they may find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted unceasingly by the prospect of an alternative existence that can reverse their fate. Illuminating these lives in transition and guiding us through the book's evocative landscapes, familiar and foreign, is the mind of the novelist Nathan Zuckerman.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs is a classic work featuring clear and simple instructions on how to be content as a Christian. Burroughs will teach you that contentment lies in subtraction, not addition; that the workings of Christianity are nothing like what you thought them to be; and that once you have learned the way from Christ's word, you will be able to attain contentment as you never before imagined.

If the Oceans Were Ink is Carla Power's eye-opening story of how she and her longtime friend, Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, found a way to confront ugly stereotypes and persistent misperceptions that were cleaving their communities. Their friendship - between a secular American and a madrasa-trained sheikh - had always seemed unlikely, but now they were frustrated and bewildered by the battles being fought in their names.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity offers answers to the secular world's criticism of Christianity's history, traditions, and beliefs. You think you know about Christianity, but did you know: God likes "organized religion" - it's clear from both the New and Old Testaments; Christians have always believed that men and women are equal; the correct pronoun for angels is "he"; science was stillborn everywhere outside the Christian West; Christianity, which first taught the world to value victims, is now the victim of a victimhood culture; and more.

In a world that will not tolerate the mention of sin, and in churches where it has been defined only in generic, sociological terms, one could make a good case could that repentance is one of the least used words in the English language today. Repentance is essential to true Christianity - Jesus Christ himself said that if we do not repent, we will perish - and there are few better guides that have existed in this or any other area of spiritual experience than Thomas Watson.

Compiled after his death in 1662, Pascal's "pensées" (thoughts) are his ideas for a book in defense of faith in a rational world. These fragments give evidence of a profoundly original thinker who had resolved the conflict between his scientific mind and heart-felt faith. This audiobook begins with an analysis of the difference between mathematical and intuitive thinking and goes on to consider the value of skepticism, contradictions, feeling, memory, and imagination.

This Puritan classic, first published in the late 17th century, sets forth the biblical teaching of God and his interaction in our lives. No detail is too small or insignificant for God; he is there, working out "all things for good". And in that promise, every believer can take comfort that God truly has a purpose for every single person and will unfold his plan, which includes every detail in our daily lives.

When Rick Van Warner found himself searching abandoned buildings and dangerous streets looking for his missing son, he had no idea that the synthetic, pill-form heroin that had snared his teen was already killing so many. In the years of pain and heartache that followed, as he tried to save his son from opioid addiction, Van Warner discovered what the American public is just now becoming aware of: Opioids prescribed for even minor pain relief are so addictive that even a few days of use can create dependency.

Hannah Whitall Smith originally wrote The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life in 1875 as an article for her husband's inspirational magazine. The book subsequently became a worldwide best seller that has influenced generations.

The enduring influence of the Catholic Church has many sources, but in the first half of the 19th century, the foundations upon which the church had rested were shaken. For many people, liberalism in the guise of liberty, equality, and fraternity was the quintessence of the evils that shook those foundations. At the Vatican Council of 1869-1870, the church made an effort to set things right by defining the doctrine of papal infallibility. Author John W. O'Malley draws us into the bitter controversies over papal infallibility that at one point seemed destined to rend the church in two.

Thomas Boston's Human Nature in Its Fourfold State is often regarded as one of Christian literature's best discourses on human nature, tracing it from its perfect beginnings in Eden, through the fall of man, and on to its final state in eternity. According to Boston, the four states of man are the state of innocence, in which God made him; the state of nature, as he has unmade himself; the state of grace, as created in Jesus Christ; and the eternal state, as made by the Judge of All Things.