Showing results by narrator "Renee Ertl" in All Categories

In Believing Jesus, Bible teacher and author Lisa Harper retraces the steps of the apostles in the book of Acts, while throwing in a few of her own crazy adventures along the way. The disciples didn’t have much of a road map after Jesus ascended to heaven, but God’s grace and spirit filled in the gaps as they moved forward. It required their willingness to risk everything to establish a new community that would change the future world.

As Amish widow Emma Yoder contemplates the task ahead, her thoughts center on one: What if she fails? Longing to remove a burden from her family by becoming self-sufficient, Emma has offered to hold quilting classes in her home. But when she sees the patchwork of faces assembled for the first lesson, her confidence dwindles as doubt threatens to take hold.

With his trademark humor and wit, Dr. Leman offers frank answers to the questions all of us have about sex.

Joshua Landsverk left Blessing two years ago, but he's never forgotten Astrid. Returning to town, he seeks to court her, and love begins to bloom. When the opportunity opens for Astrid to go to Chicago for further training, she finds it difficult to leave home and Joshua. They agree to correspond, but after receiving only one letter from him, she learns he's left town again. Believing Joshua no longer loves her, Astrid makes an impetuous, heart-wrenching decision.

Eighteen-year-old Grace Knutson loves Blessing, North Dakota, and sees no reason to leave. She's more serious-minded than her twin sister, Sophie, and very sensitive to the feelings of others. In spite of her family's disapproval, Grace has always had a soft spot in her heart for Toby Valders, for she's seen the vulnerable side he keeps well hidden. Jonathan Gould, the handsome scion of a wealthy New York family, creates a flurry of anticipation and speculation when he arrives in Blessing.

Having experienced her share of sorrow, Rebecca has grown afraid of opening her heart to love. Can she overcome her fears or will she settle for something less than love?

Allison Allen made a career of being someone else. Formerly a professional actor, and now a highly sought-after Bible teacher, she knows a thing or two about playing a role. But, she says, all of us play roles nearly all of the time, and it's exhausting. We walk into a room, figure out who we're supposed to be in this context, slip into character, and say the lines we know we should say. We become someone else. Maybe we tell ourselves it's some version of us, but deep down we know this inauthentic role is not what God wants for our lives - and it's not what we want either.

With 300,000 copies in print, Breaking Free is one of author Beth Moore's best-selling releases to date. An empowering audiobook for anyone held back by sin or doubt, it shows listeners how to make freedom in Christ a daily reality by identifying spiritual strongholds in their lives and overcoming them through the truth of God's word.

Dr. Tori Taylor rules the operating room with a cold precision that makes nurses cower and her colleagues take notes. But even with her success as a respected surgeon, Tori finds herself alone in her moment of desperation - dying on her own operating table. Tori needs a heart transplant, but what she receives is far more than just a donor organ. Lying loveless and friendless in the recovery room, Tori experiences flashes of terrifying events she never witnessed.

.She thought she was content...until a love from the outside world turned hers upside down. Gabrielle Hope and her mother joined the Harmony Hill Shaker community in 1807. The community promised stability and devotion that Gabrielle wholeheartedly embraced. But when a local doctor must be brought into Harmony Hill from the outside, he sets into motion a chain of events that will challenge Gabrielle's loyalty to the Shakers.

Anxiety Interrupted grapples with the anxiety that creeps into our lives and helps us look to the promises of God and to the hope that He holds us securely. As Christians, we can struggle with our questions and experience His sovereignty when we invite His peace into our moments. God can handle our doubts. He can handle our anxieties. He can handle our fears. He can handle our hard questions. These things do not make us less than as Christians. God is the only steady hand that can handle our questions, doubts, and fears.

Elizabeth Duncan has nowhere to turn. In charge of her younger brother and sister after their parents die, her options are limited. When she hears that the Shaker community in the next county takes in orphans, she presents herself and her siblings at Harmony Hill. Despite the hard work and strange new beliefs around her, Elizabeth is relieved to have a roof overhead and food to eat. But when she feels a strong attachment to a handsome young Believer named Ethan, life gets complicated.

Nones claim no religion. Dones have become disillusioned and left the church. Research shows many young adults are landing in one of these camps. But that's not the end of the story. Many emerging adults, ages 18 to 33, are tossing aside the none and done labels and are instead embracing a transformative Christian faith. Based on her extensive research, scholar-practitioner Beth Seversen outlines a model for how to engage and retain millennials and Generation Z in the life of the local church.

Even when you feel hopelessly stuck, change is possible. As women, we are constantly evaluating ourselves. Am I enough? Why can't I change this certain thing about myself? Should I be doing more? We long for real, deep, lasting change - but we don't know how to begin. In Meet the New You, Elisa Pulliam empowers women to take charge of their own life transformation by engaging in a meaningful relationship with God and his word.

Some dreams were meant to come true. Jessamine Brady has been in the Shaker Village for half her young life, but in spite of how she loves her sisters there, she struggles to conform to the strict rules. Instead she entertains dreams of the world outside. When Tristan Cooper seems to step out of those dreams to entice her into the forbidden realm beyond the Shaker Village, her life turns upside down. Will Jessamine be able to survive the storms of the world? Or will she retreat back to the peace of Harmony Hill?

What must it have been like walking in the garden, talking with God? What would it be like to share our troubles and joys openly with him, to hear his voice responding to our questions? How might knowing God's view on our stories heal our wounds and renew our hope? No matter our circumstances, we need God's perspective on our lives. We need to know how he sees us. Come on, girl, he says. Let my light shine in.

Charlotte Vance is a young woman who knows what she wants. But when the man she planned to marry joins the Shakers - a religious group that does not marry - she is left dumbfounded. And when her father brings home a new wife who is young enough to be Charlotte's sister, it is more than she can bear. With the country - and her own household--on the brink of civil war, this pampered gentlewoman hatches a plan to avoid her new stepmother and win back her man by joining the Shaker community at Harmony Hill.

It is 1844 and Lacey Bishop's life is a tangled mess. Estranged from her own family, at age 16 she went to work for a preacher and his wife. When his wife died, the preacher convinced Lacey that the only decent thing to do was to marry him. That way she could continue to act as mother to the little girl who was left on his doorstop. But Lacey never expected he would decide to take them all off to a Shaker village. In the Shaker village, Lacey’s still married but living in a community that believes marriage is a sin.

Too many Christians, especially those in ministry, believe they are untouchable - that they're too faithful to fall or too spiritual to give in to temptation. They deny any sort of weakness, fail to draw proper boundaries, and end up doing the very things they swore they'd never do. Pastor and author Brittany Rust was one such person - until she found herself in the middle of moral failure and a church-wide scandal. Bewildered, humiliated, and ashamed, she thought she was beyond redemption. But God's grace met her on the ground, and here she shares what she's learned through her painful journey.