“Who am I becoming?” That was the question nagging pastor and author John Mark Comer. Outwardly, he appeared successful. But inwardly, things weren’t pretty. So he turned to a trusted mentor for guidance and heard these words: “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life.”

It wasn’t the response he expected, but it was—and continues to be—the answer he needs. Too often we treat the symptoms of toxicity in our modern world instead of trying to pinpoint the cause. A growing number of voices are pointing at hurry, or busyness, as a root of much evil.
 
Perfect for anyone looking to de-stress and connect more during this holiday season, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry is a fascinating roadmap to staying emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world.

We are constantly being formed by the world around us. To be formed by Jesus will require us to become his apprentice. 

To live by what the first Christian disciples called a Rule of Life—a set of practices and relational rhythms that slow us down and open up space in our daily lives for God to do what only God can do—transforms the deepest parts of us to become like him. 
 
This introduction to spiritual formation is full of John Mark Comer’s trademark mix of theological substance and cultural insight as well as practical wisdom on developing your own Rule of Life.
 
These ancient practices have much to offer us. By learning to rearrange our days, we can follow the Way of Jesus. We can be with him. Become like him. And do as he did.

Why does spiritual growth seem so difficult?

God's vision for your life is not just that you are saved by grace, but that you also learn to live by grace, flourishing with the Spirit flowing through you. And this book will show how God's perfect vision for you starts with a powerful promise: All those who trust in God "will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit" (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

Pastor and bestselling author John Ortberg first helps gauge your spiritual health and measure the gap between where you are now and where God intends you to be. Then he provides detailed tasks and exercises to help you live in the flow of the Spirit, circumventing real-world barriers--pain and sorrow, temptations, self-doubt, sin--to flourish even in a dark and broken world.

Brother Lawrence was a seventeenth century Christian who had a dramatic spiritual awakening at the age of eighteen. Seeing a tree in winter, his soul suddenly opened to the presence of God. Within six years he had entered a Carmelite monastery in Paris, where he worked chiefly in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning. He practiced a simple and natural method. He merely turned his attention to the Divine Presence available at all times during any activity. He reports that he was as fully present with God while washing dishes in the kitchen as he was when partaking of the sacrament in worship.

The profound peace and joy evident in Lawrence's life attracted many visitors, who sought to learn the secret of his unique spiritual practice.

Do you want to improve your relationships and experience lasting personal change? Join Curt Thompson, M.D., on an amazing journey to discover the surprising pathways for transformation hidden inside your own mind. Integrating new findings in neuroscience and attachment with Christian spirituality, Dr. Thompson reveals how it is possible to rewire your mind, altering your brain patterns and literally making you more like the person God intended you to be. Explaining discoveries about the brain in layman’s terms, he shows how you can be mentally transformed through spiritual practices, interaction with Scripture, and connections with other people. He also provides practical exercises to help you experience healing in areas where you’ve been struggling. Insightful and challenging, Anatomy of the Soul illustrates how learning about one of God’s most miraculous creations―your brain―can enrich your life, your relationships, and your impact on the world around you.

Gerald G. May, MD, one of the great spiritual teachers and writers of our time, argues that the dark 'shadow' side of the true spiritual life has been trivialised and neglected to our serious detriment. Superficial and naively upbeat spirituality does not heal and enrich the soul. Nor does the other tendency to relegate deep spiritual growth to only mystics and saints. Only the honest, sometimes difficult encounters with what Christian spirituality has called and described in helpful detail as 'the dark night of the soul' can lead to true spiritual wholeness.

May emphasises that the dark night is not necessarily a time of suffering and near despair, but a time of deep transition, a search for new orientation when things are clouded and full of mystery. The dark gives depth, dimension and fullness to the spiritual life.

Description goes herePeter Scazzero learned the hard way: you can't be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Even though he was the pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do--avoid conflict in the name of Christianity; ignore his anger, sadness, and fear; use God to run from God; and live without boundaries.

Eventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health and the spiritual practice of slowing down and quieting your life for to experience a firsthand relationship with Jesus. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution in Scazzero, in his church, and now in thousands of other churches.

In this updated edition, Scazzero shares new stories and principles as he outlines his journey and the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Then he provides seven biblical, reality-tested steps to become emotionally mature.

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity.

Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.

This book will reveal the power of somatic exercises to help regulate your nervous system and enhance your emotional resilience. You will reduce anxiety, tone your vagus nerve, and create a stronger mind-body connection in just 10 minutes a day.

This is not just a book about exercises but a way of moving that can break your connection with ongoing stress and anxiety to reveal a life of well-being and balance. Inside, you'll find:

-An understanding of somatic practices, showing you why they work and how to create your own practice tailored to your unique needs.

-Mastery of the movements that can create mind-body and nervous system harmony.

-Guidance on generating your own emotional release, awareness of your emotions, and greater emotional resilience.

-Strategies for cultivating deep body awareness, allowing you to tune into your body's language and signals for stress and relaxation.

Most of us have no idea how others see or process their experiences. And that can make relationships hard, whether with intimate partners, with friends, or in our professional lives. Understanding the motivations and dynamics of these different personality types can be the key that unlocks sometimes mystifying behavior in others—and in ourselves.

This book from Suzanne Stabile, coauthor, with Ian Morgan Cron, of The Road Back to You will:

-Explain the nine Enneagram types and how they behave and experience relationships

-Guide readers into deeper insights about themselves, their types, and others' personalities, and

-Open readers up to have healthier, more life-giving relationships through the wisdom of the Enneagram.

This book will explore questions like: Why do Sixes seem so intimidated and put off by Eights, who only wish the Sixes would stop mulling things over and take action? Why do Fives seem so unavailable, even to their closest family and friends, while Twos seem to feel everybody else’s feelings but their own and end up irritating people who don’t want their help? How in the world can Fours be so open and loving to you one day and restrained and distant other times?

The Enneagram not only answers these questions but gives us a way out of our usual finger pointing and judging of other people—and finding them wanting, perplexing, or impossible. Suzanne's generous, sometimes humorous, and always insightful approach reveals why all the types behave as they do. This book offers help in fostering more loving, mature, and compassionate relationships with everyone in our lives.

What you don't know about yourself can hurt you and your relationships―and even keep you in the shallows with God. Do you want help figuring out who you are and why you're stuck in the same ruts?

The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system with an uncanny accuracy in describing how human beings are wired, both positively and negatively. In The Road Back to You Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile forge a unique approach―a practical, comprehensive way of accessing Enneagram wisdom and exploring its connections with Christian spirituality for a deeper knowledge of ourselves, compassion for others, and love for God.

Witty and filled with stories, this book allows you to peek inside each of the nine Enneagram types, keeping you turning the pages long after you have read the chapter about your own number. Not only will you learn more about yourself, but you will also start to see the world through other people's eyes, understanding how and why people think, feel, and act the way they do.

To guide your first steps into your self-awareness journey, The Road Back to You offers:

-Introductions to each Enneagram type

-Questions to help you identify your number

-Changes you can make today to pursue deeper self-awareness

-Digestible windows into the other types, helping you see others with more compassion and empathy

The wisdom of the Enneagram can help take you further along into who you really are―leading you into places of spiritual discovery you would never have found on your own, and paving the way to the wiser, more compassionate person you want to become.

Richard Rohr and Andrea Ebert's runaway best-seller shows both the basic logic of the Enneagram and its harmony with the core truths of Christian thought from the time of the early Church forward.

Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fr. Richard's teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy—practices of contemplation and expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.

How do we experience rest? Alabaster Co’s new book explores this question and its qualities for our lives, rhythms, and conventions today. 

God rests. From the very beginning, rest is marked with sacred significance among all of creation. God calls individuals and communities alike into lives, rhythms, and conventions of rest. More than a mere afternoon nap, rest is a holy orientation and divine chronology that completes life as we know it. Just as God rests, we rest with God.

This book is meant to move us towards rest, into recovering its wisdom and consequence in our lives. As we contemplate and practice these many qualities of rest, may our personal lives be rejuvenated, our families strengthened, and our communities reoriented towards justice and peace. And may we rest with God. Amen. 

Ginger Garrett reveals how every woman can accent her God-given beauty using the hidden treasures of the ancient Scriptures-where every scent and every act of beautification had spiritual and emotional significance.
A woman's longing to present herself as physically beautiful is universal. Beauty is extolled throughout the Bible as complementing God's plan for women's lives. There are currently no books that examine the beauty practices of biblical women, the plants and products God created to accent their beauty, and the spiritual roots of feminine rituals.
Beautiful women abound in the Bible: Queen Esther, the bride of Solomon, Delilah, Rachel, Sarah, and more. Their beauty was a gift from God, and God also supplied the many foods, spices, and oils that perfected each woman's appearance. In Beauty Secrets of the Bible, Ginger Garrett helps readers accent their God-given beauty using these secrets.
Women who read the book will understand the essential oils and fragrances mentioned in Scripture (and why they are making a comeback) and will be able to create a regimen based on all-natural ancient products and techniques. Beauty Secrets of the Bible gives readers what other beauty books lack: the knowledge that a woman's unique earthly beauty is indeed a blessing from God that can be cultivated.