Inspirational Applications for Living Your Faith
With more than 1,000 Life Lessons
offering insights straight from Max Lucado, this Bible is a
comprehensive resource to meet all of your devotional, study, and life
needs, making the message of God’s Word more meaningful and impactful
than ever.
Available in Hardcover, Leather, & LeatherSoft versions, wherever Bibles are sold.
Hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, The City
Harmonic releases their new six-song EP today with Kingsway. The worshipping
foursome is made up of frontman Elias Dummer,
drummer Josh Vanderlaan, bassist Eric Fusilier, guitarist Aaron Powell (pictured l to r). According
to the band’s Facebook page, “The City Harmonic is what happens when you mix
nostalgic hymns, brit-rock and that sing-at-the-campfire feeling.” The band’s lead singer shares his thoughts about God’s love
and being a worship leader.
The Whole Story God wants our whole selves. We sing songs about it. We talk about it. We pray that we’d give God our “all,” but yet for many
of us in Western culture it seems we’re still uncomfortable with the implications.
One thing I think we need to do is reshape our thinking to conform to a
biblical way of seeing the world. We
need to recognize just how much Platonic philosophy
(i.e. sensual/emotional: bad; intellectual/“spiritual”: good) has shaped the
modern Christian worldview. I don’t think God looks at the world and sees
“spiritual” and “secular.” God so loved the world that He came and died through
Jesus for it. He has called out the church to do the same thing for the
world. The fertile ground for our salvation is not in the afterlife, it’s here and now, moment by moment. We may try to compartmentalize our lives and
make it easier on ourselves, but it just doesn’t work. We either make
every effort to worship God in every thought, action, feeling, whatever—or we
don’t. God made us as thinking creatures, but also as physical creatures
and emotional creatures. We must stop trying to reject the physical or
the emotional in favor of the intellectual.
We have to value the whole, seeing our spirituality as a summary of our
lives rather than a part. We have to bend our whole selves to give God
glory. In the song, “I Wonder,” we kind of go into that a
little bit. I talk about how we can see the love of God in all kinds of
mysterious ways, but one example is that we see it in our romantic
relationships. In the song I use lines like: “I see it in true love; I
see it in her eyes” and “the love of God is bigger than my beating
heart.” If we can’t see our most important love relationships as a
glimpse of God’s love, that’s a pretty sad story. So our songs get into theology, of course, but I hope that it’s
because that truth, that theology, is grounded in our lives and our stories.
 Gateway Worship | Integrity Music
Gateway Church, which birthed “Revelation Song” and
introduced worship leader Kari Jobe, releases God Be Praised, a live
recording of 15 new songs. The album reflects the passionate worship the church is
known for and carries the theme of the “victory we have in Jesus,” explains
Associate Pastor and Worship Leader Thomas Miller. “I am praying that the music from this album will be songs
for people and churches everywhere to declare the absolute, complete,
overwhelming victory that we have in Jesus,” Miller says. “Since He conquered
all, we are more than conquerors and can live a life of complete victory
through Him. When we live in victory and freedom, we life a life that naturally
overflows with praise to God.” Click here to purchase this new worship album.
 Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent | Thomas Nelson
In March 2003, Todd and Sonja Burpo were facing a parent’s
worst nightmare. Their 4-year-old son, Colton, became very ill. His appendix
had unknowingly burst. Surgery was the only option but even then, he was
fighting for life. Colton survived. But several months later, his parents
learned that something did happened during their son’s operation—Colton visited
heaven. Over many months, Colton told of his experience. He was able to describe
things that he could not have known. He met a sister who was miscarried before
he was born. He saw his grandfather who died 30 years earlier. He said he watched his parents pray for him while he
was in surgery. He also described heaven, Jesus and others he saw on his
journey. Todd Burpo acts as narrator, and often uses Colton’s own
words as he tells his son’s story. Burpo also shares the lessons he and his
wife learned from their young son’s visit to heaven. When asked what he wants
people to know from his story, Colton, now 11, said: “I want them to know
that heaven is real.” Click here to purchase this book.
Lori Copeland | Zondervan Life is throwing Jules Matias a lot of curveballs and they're coming at her all at once. Jules has had to break off her engagement to Cruz Delgado not once, but
twice. She loves him, but she had good reason, or a good person—Pop—to make
such a sacrifice. Now she must cope with Pop’s death and shoulder the tension
with her sister, who wasn’t included in their father’s will. Jules’ chief
concerns are caring for her father’s potato farm and restoring a
relationship with her sister. But when her best friend dies from cancer, Jules
is also left to keep her promise to care for her friend's two small children. With all these burdens to carry,
Jules must rely on God for answers and strength. Click here to purchase this book.
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