Spiritual Memoir

Although Andrew Jackson gained notoriety as a rakish young man, religion's influence on him ebbed and flowed as he established himself as part of the South's planter elite. With his devout wife, Rachel, he attended church and knew his Bible and religious subjects well, and while his determination to preserve his reputation involved him in numerous personal conflicts—including a duel that led to his killing a rival—he blended the principles of the antebellum South's honor-based culture with his belief in a traditional, orthodox version of Christianity.

This portrait of Paul Russell, a Tihanama spiritual practitioner also known as Chief Two White Feathers, is based on interviews by the author in Tennessee in 1996. It covers a wide range of topics, including seer tradition, herbal medicine and the ways of Tihanama spirituality. Some of the lessons imparted are the three mountains, honoring, how to approach a medicine person, Indian sign talk and color symbolism. It's a one-on-one session with a personable teacher whose simple words you will never forget.

In this unabridged audio edition— Love Mercy: A Mother and Daughter's Journey from the American Dream to the Kingdom of God—Christy award-winning novelist Lisa Samson and her daughter, Ty, experience a life-changing, soul-rattling journey on a mission trip to Africa. Confronted face-to-face with the AIDS crisis, poverty, prostitution, and illness, Lisa and Ty find something else as well: Christ’s love and redemption ablaze.

Jason Lozano is a true living miracle and has led an inconceivable life of remarkable achievements. He is known and admired by people all over the world for his passionate pursuit to see lives powerfully transformed by God. As a young man, Jason Lozano never imagined a life that didn’t involve drugs, violence, and chaos. His life was riotously spiraling deeper into darkness and destruction.

Do you feel compelled to run for political office but aren’t sure how or where to begin? Are you a pastor wondering how to address sensitive political issues with your church? Have you felt uncertain in the voting booth and wondered how to fulfill your civic duties without violating your conscience? Do you want to know how to speak to—and be heard by—your local city council or school board?

Amanda always had a thirst for adventure. Perhaps it stemmed from growing up without electricity and running water, in the middle of a natural wonderland. Along came Cocoa, her family’s new dog, and the two became the best of friends as they shared a love of the wild surroundings. But Amanda felt like there was something missing, something “more” she had to discover, and gets the push necessary to find it in Australia.

In Uncharted, you will find a practical rhythm to grow in your faith, transforming your fears into trust, and your hesitation into commitment. In a world full of obstacles, comparison, and uncertainty, the most rewarding journey you will ever undertake is the uncharted walk with God.

For Ann Voskamp, the notion of being able to give thanks was lost between her gnawing anger and deep resentment toward God for his unfair dealings in her life and the lives of others. Having suffered from agoraphobia and anxiety for much of her life, she despaired of finding a joy of her own. Then, a friend dared her to write a list of a thousand blessings. Over the months that followed, she made some profound discoveries.

Fasting for Ramadan is structured as a chronicle of daily meditations during two cycles of the 30-day rite of daytime abstinence required by Ramadan for purgation and prayer. Estranged in certain ways from his family’s cultural traditions when he was younger, Ali has in recent years re-embraced the Ramadan ritual, and brings to this rediscovery an extraordinary delicacy of reflection, a powerfully inquiring mind, and the linguistic precision and ardor of a superb poet.

What if your search for meaning could solve the world's problems? What if everything you are passionate about could save a life or change history? Justin Dillon argues it can, and A Selfish Plan to Change the World shows how. In this paradigm-shifting new book, Dillon - the founder of Slavery Footprint and Made in a Free World - reveals the secret to a life of deep and lasting significance: the discovery that our need for meaning is inextricably linked to the needs of the world.

In Ley Lines of Love, Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle shares wisdom gained from a lifetime of spiritual seeking and devoted practice. A dedicated practitioner of Buddhism, she shares many remarkable stories about her inner journey, including the joys of learning from enlightened teachers. She also recounts how her years of involvement with a devotional tradition from India ended in an archetypal story of disillusionment.

Evangelical pastor Ed Dobson chronicles his year of living like Jesus and obeying his teachings. Dobson's transition from someone who follows Jesus to someone who lives like Jesus takes him into bars, inspires him to pick up hitchhikers, and deepens his understanding of suffering. As Dobson discovers, living like Jesus is quite different from what we imagine.

With a unique mix of passionate revelation and quirky humor, River Jordan takes us on a journey through her Southern childhood to her present-day life as a novelist. Her stories run the gamut from dancing disco nights and midnight desert rides to surprise visitations with the divine. Included are comforting letters to personal friends and loved ones about faith, death, heartbreaks, and their futures.

Women today feel pressure to be the best wife, mom, and professional possible - often at the expense of their own identity. But what if you could experience deep peace - knowing you are loved right now, just as you are? In Brave Love, the founder of the multi-million-dollar company Lisa Leonard Designs inspires women to find themselves again amidst the noise and competing demands of real life.

Like so many saints before him, Samuel Rutherford did his best work while he was imprisoned for the gospel. While in exile from his hometown, he wrote hundreds of letters to his friends and members of his congregation. Christians of all walks have drawn strength from Rutherford's letters, which were printed several years after his death in 1661 and have been called “the most remarkable series of devotional letters that the literature of the Reformed churches can show.” The Loveliness of Christ is a collection of short excerpts from these letters.

Jesus lived the stretched-out life so that you and I can have the incredible gift of sweet salvation in Him. The Stretched-out life is a life of submission and subjection to our Creator God, who knows our end from our beginning. It's about treading the narrow path of pain, promise, and purpose. It looks like an unpaved road of sacrifice, strength, and sorrow filled with uncertainty, but there is peace amid the storm.

I Made Them for Hope is a collection of real-life stories that reveal God’s presence in the ordinary, the unexpected, and the miraculous. Through heartfelt personal experiences and stories from friends and loved ones, Carolyn Wing Greenlee shares how God works in even the tiniest details of life—helping with simple tasks, answering whispered prayers, and revealing His love through unexpected moments of grace. From a lost earring miraculously reappearing to the wind and waves obeying a spoken command, these stories remind us that no concern is too small for our Creator. With warmth, ...

Hard hitting, funny, outrageous, and tender by turns, Grace Triumphant delivers a scathing assessment of the scandals, gross ignorance of Scripture, and bad practices in Fundamentalism.. Told in journal format as Grace narrates her story, the book chronicles Grace's escape from Fundamentalism and her journey of faith. In the final book of the series, Grace confronts adultery in her own marriage that throws her back to the adulteries of her Evangelist father, as she contemplates ways to save herself and her children. In her troubles, she faces opposition from Independent Fundamental Baptist ...

★★★★★ "A well-written memoir that uplifts while it teaches through story. And funny too. Worthwhile!" - Reader review ___ Memoir meets self-help in this true account about the meaning of buddhism, meditations, and living a spiritually abundant life! Novelist, composer and conductor Somtow Sucharitkul (who writes books under the name S.P. Somtow) had an extraordinary epiphany while driving downthe California coast. At almost 50 years of age, having spent very little time in his native Thailand, Somtow was seized by an overwhelming desire to enter a Buddhist monastery. This is the ...

Had anyone told Ben Malcolmson that he'd someday be a wide receiver on the national champion USC football team - after not playing football since an unfortunate fifth-grade Pop Warner experience - he would have called them crazy. As a reporter for The Daily Trojan, in the spirit of George Plimpton, he participated in walk-on tryouts for the team and was dumbfounded to find himself listed on the roster. His position on the team never amounted to much in a game-time contribution, but Ben felt strongly that his faith was inextricably linked to his purpose.