Showing results by narrator "William Sarris" in All Categories

When a perfect storm of personal, professional, and natural disaster threw Mike Mantel into a dark night of the soul, he embarked on a journey through his own life and around the world to rediscover God's presence through the diverse body of Christ. In Thirsting for Living Water, Mantel invites listeners to join him on this adventure and open their eyes to their own stories of God's faithfulness.

A struggle to pray reveals a desire to pray, and when you have that desire, you can address the obstacles to prayer by facing them head on. Writing as a sympathetic and practical guide, Kevin Halloran helps you to pinpoint areas of weakness in your prayer life and take immediate steps to overcome them. Examine your heart, implement practical measures, and experience the joys of faithfully drawing near to God. 

In 2018, 34 people were shot at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Jaime Guttenberg, a 14-year-old, was the second to last victim. That she and so many of her fellow students were struck down in cold blood galvanized many to action, including Jaime's father, Fred, who has become an activist dedicated to passing common-sense gun-safety legislation. This book is not about gun safety or Parkland. Instead, it tells the story of Fred Guttenberg's journey since Jaime's death and how he has been able to get through the worst of times thanks to the kindness and compassion of others.

The heart is where the human soul and God meet. This is what teachings from Scripture and the mystics reveal: The heart is the temple of God within us, and within the heart, we hold the key to live a truly divine life. But how do we embody the tremendous love available to us, deep in our hearts? In Eternal Heart, Carl McColman, author of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism, invites us to create an optimistic, visionary, and imaginative path to personal happiness and fulfillment.

Since the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world, in the West at least, has become increasingly disenchanted. While this might be taken as evidence of a crisis of belief, Richard Beck argues it's actually a crisis of attention. God hasn't gone anywhere, but we've lost our capacity to see God. The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly changed our religious imaginations and led to a loss of the holy expectation that we can be interrupted by the sacred and divine. But it doesn't have to be this way. 

In Develop: 7 Practical Tools to Take Charge of Your Career, Ted Fleming, head of talent development for CVS Health, shares simple, powerful advice for finding the right job or growing in an existing role. Fleming offers actionable tools and step-by-step techniques that anyone can apply to crystallize and achieve their career goals.

In recent decades, cognitive psychologists have cast new light on human development and given colleges new possibilities for helping students acquire skills and qualities that will enhance their lives and increase their contributions to society. In this landmark book, Derek Bok explores how colleges can reap the benefits of these discoveries and create a more robust undergraduate curriculum for the 21st century. 

Some of the most profound growth of our lives can happen in the home stretch, the years after age 60 or so. It's a time when we can finally crystallize the meaning of what we've been and done so far and fully expand into the self we've always intended to be, guided by the voice of the soul. But, says psychologist Charles Garfield, that can only happen if we first loosen the grip of the life we've led so far, the one that's been focused outwardly - on activity, achievement, and the idea of success - and let our souls lead the way. 

In 40 Questions About the Great Commission, scholars Daniel Akin, Benjamin Merkle, and George Robinson unpack the meaning, history, theology, and practical applications of Jesus' command to go and make disciples. Ideal for personal or group study, this volume will reignite your passion for evangelism while answering key questions like: Where do we stand in relation to fulfilling the Great Commission?; how do baptism and teaching relate to the Great Commission?; and more.

The outlook for the future of colleges and universities is uncertain. Financial stresses, changing student populations, and rapidly developing technologies all pose significant challenges to the nation's colleges and universities. In Academia Next, futurist and higher-education expert Bryan Alexander addresses these evolving trends to better understand higher education's next generation. 

Life is messy. We can get discouraged by setbacks, overwhelmed by busyness, and shaken by worry. Hope is the power that gets us out of bed in the morning and gives us the courage to face adversity. Looking for God in Messy Places by Jake Owensby is a book about hope. How to find it. How to practice it. How to grow in it. Hope begins when we recognize that God is in this mess with us.

In Ephesians 5:16, the apostle Paul instructs Christians to redeem "the time, because the days are evil." Author Ryan McGraw says that "how you use your time measures the quality of your life." But how can you manage your time in order to serve the Lord and the church well? In this pamphlet, you will learn what the Bible has to say about the gospel foundation for time management and how to apply its instruction so that you redeem the time in a God-honoring way.

What is a Christian? This is a truly vital question because never-ending happiness or everlasting horror hinges upon understanding the correct, biblical answer to it. Yet few questions have provoked so much confusion. Ryan McGraw lays out what it means to be a Christian in terms of what one believes, what one experiences, and what one does a full-orbed Christianity of head, heart, and hands.

We all worry. Although many of our worries are never realized, we continue to live with daily anxiety, constantly fearing the present and the future - things that are or things that never will be. In How Can I Stop Worrying?, Gerald M. Bilkes examines God's gracious path for trading anxiety for a deep peace through Jesus Christ that can fortify and guard us, regardless of our circumstances, in a way that brings glory to God.

"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend," Proverbs 27:17 tells us. God uses Christian friendships to help His children grow in grace and stay true to Christ. But our 21st century Western culture values individualism, busyness, and selfishness qualities that do not encourage deep, long-lasting, satisfying friendships.

Prompted by a friend to describe Jesus as he is - not as he was or will be in the coming days - Dick Eastman found himself stammering. What followed over many months was a desire to get to know the Jesus who had changed his life, but in a much fuller and richer way - now! From then on, on scraps of folded paper in his pockets, Eastman found himself recording adjectives describing the nature and character of Jesus Christ, expanding them later into a personal devotional journal.

Many Christians view the Bible as an instruction manual. While the Bible does provide instruction, it can also captivate, comfort, delight, shock, and inspire. In short, it elicits emotion - just like poetry. By learning to read and love poetry, says literature Professor Matthew Mullins, listeners can increase their understanding of the biblical text and learn to love God's word more. Each chapter includes exercises and questions designed to help listeners put the book's principles and practices into action. 

Pastor and author James Emery White leads his church and his life with a singular mission: to turn spiritual explorers into fully devoted followers of Christ. The obvious first step in this process is for someone to cross the line of faith - to say, "I believe." That was the heart behind his book Christianity for People Who Aren't Christians. But what comes after "I believe" is equally important, and it's the way someone truly becomes a fully devoted follower of Christ. 

Jared Dees, creator of the popular website The Religion Teacher, shows how applying the steps of lectio divina to teaching can reorient religious education toward encountering the person of Christ rather than merely sharing information about him. In Christ in the Classroom, Catholic author and speaker Jared Dees applies the five steps of lectio divina - reading/learning, meditation, prayer, contemplation, and action - to the ministry of catechesis. 

There are plenty of reasons to criticize, judge, and even walk away from the church. Many of us have been hurt and rejected. We may see church as insular and irrelevant. Despite this, Kevin Makins believes that the church still matters - perhaps more than ever. If you've been burned or burned out by the church, if you've been silenced or misunderstood, if you've left or never even joined in the first place, this candid, hopeful audiobook is your invitation to consider what you miss out on when you give up on church - and what the church misses out on when it gives up on you.