Learning Religion

Learning to Pray explains what prayer is, what to expect from praying, how to do it, and how it can transform us when we make it a regular practice in our lives. A trusted guide walking beside us as we navigate our unique spiritual paths, Martin lays out the different styles and traditions of prayer throughout Christian history and invites us to experiment and discover which works best to feed our soul and build intimacy with our creator.

At the height of his show career, this beautiful Appaloosa's majestic stature, strength, and willingness to work made him the perfect partner. But when an injury cost Joey his show career, he moved from one owner to the next, ultimately experiencing severe abuse and neglect. A rescue group found Joey nearly dead from starvation - and blind. Then he came to Hope Reins - a ranch dedicated to helping hurting kids who had been abused, emotionally wounded, or unwanted.

Pico Iyer has made more than one hundred retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He’s not a Christian—or a member of any religious group—but his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence. That silence reminds him of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It’s not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: it’s a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way. In Aflame, Iyer connects with inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery.

For the past 30 years, Deepak Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution in the West. Total Meditation offers a complete exploration and reinterpretation of the physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual benefits that this practice can bring. Deepak guides listeners on how to wake up to new levels of awareness that will ultimately cultivate a clear vision, heal suffering in your mind and body, and help recover who you really are.

What if intimacy with God doesn't begin with us knocking at God's door but with God knocking down ours? In Learning to Be Loved, author and Spoken Gospel CEO David Bowden and Hobby Lobby's Mart Green remind us that spiritual growth starts not with our giving but with our receiving. Learning to Be Loved unites biblical rigor and personal experience to show that intimacy with God isn't based on our ability to connect with him—but on all the ways he is constantly connecting with us.

We tend to think being "stressed out" is a normal state of affairs, and that contentment means sitting back and just bottling things up. For the Christian, however, contentment is something we must apply, work at, and make our own in every circumstance, because anxiety and frustration are not neutral behaviors.

Intention is generally viewed as a pit-bull kind of determination propelling one to succeed at all costs by never giving up on an inner picture. In this view, an attitude that combines hard work with an indefatigable drive toward excellence is the way to succeed. However, intention is viewed very differently in this audiobook.

The enlightenment you seek in other religions has been present in Christianity from the beginning. Richard Rohr, a global leader in spiritual awakening, helps you recognize the forces (such as ego resistance and dual thinking) that separate you from your deeper self. Then, drawing from Gospels and the greatest Christian contemplatives, he shows you what it means to be spiritually awake. You will learn why your ego resists change and growth, what is useful about popular ideas such as the law of attraction, what Jesus, the first mythical leader in the West, can teach you.

Ask and It Is Given is certainly a book about our ''asking'' being answered by all-that-is. But it's primarily about how whatever we're asking for is being given to us - and it's also the first book to ever, in such clear terminology, give us the simple practical formula for how to ask for, and then how to receive, whatever we want to be, do, or have. Decades ago, while searching for plausible answers to my never-ending quest to know what ''it'' is all about, I discovered the word ineffable (meaning ''incapable of being expressed in words'').

There is an Enemy among us. You may know who he is, but you may not know what he is about. Do you know how he wages war? Do you know how he targets you specifically? He's the Villain who wants to change your story in the hopes you live isolated, powerless, discouraged, and defeated. If you're weary from the struggle and ready to experience life as God intended, this book will help you explore the tactics of Satan, equip you to overcome spiritual battles, and remind you of the victory already secured through Jesus.

At a time when we are all more rudderless than ever, we look for the very best teachers and mentors to guide us. In Fully Alive, an unusual and gripping memoir, Timothy Shriver shows how his teachers have been the world's most forgotten minority: people with intellectual disabilities. In these pages we meet the individuals who helped him come of age and find a deeper and more meaningful way to see the world.

Renowned scholar Patrick Collinson is Regius Professor of Modern History, Emeritus, Cambridge. He states, "The Reformation (and Counter Reformation) was the blast furnace in which the modern state was forged." This engaging work offers a concise overview of the ecumenical revolution of the late medieval and Renaissance periods. Narrator John McDonough's presentation of the spiritual and the secular elements that led to religious reform will captivate listeners.

If you have ever forgotten to pick up your kids, accidentally worn two different shoes to the grocery store, or lost your cool over a messy house, you are not alone! In No More Perfect Moms, Jill Savage says it how it is: All moms struggle. We fall short of our own standards of excellence, and then we feel insecure about not being the perfect wife with the perfect kids, perfect husband, perfect home, perfect friends, perfect marriage, and perfect body. Jill speaks to the root of the insecurities mothers feel and points to a better way.

Thirty years ago, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning was published so that Christian parents instead of fretfully wringing their hands at the deterioration of American culture would actually do something to resist it. Pastor and school-founder Douglas Wilson called on parents to reject public schools and to give their kids a completely different type of education, with the Lordship of Jesus Christ at the center.

Almost overnight, America's public schools have become morally toxic. They are especially poisonous for the hearts and minds of children from religious families of every faith - ordinary families who value traditional morality and plain old common sense. Parents' first duty is to their children - to their intellect, their character, their souls. The facts on the ground point to one conclusion: Get out now.

While trying to navigate this thing called "life," have you ever longed for a close friend, confidant, or mentor to walk alongside you and encourage you in Biblical womanhood? Debbie Morris did. And yet even as a young minister’s wife, she found herself without someone to fill this all-important role. So she turned to the Bible. Biblical women such as Eve, Sarah, and Miriam had always fascinated her. But now they also became her friends, sisters, and teachers.

The teaching of history has long been the subject of partisan warfare. Religion often plays a prominent role in these debates, as secular progressives and conservative Christians disagree over which historical figures are worthy of study, how (or whether) certain events should be portrayed, and ultimately how tax dollars should be spent. But what about students who are educated outside the public schools, either in religious schools or at home? How are they learning history, and what effect does that have on our democracy?

In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues--including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom--highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous.

As parents, we deeply desire the best for our kids. We look for the right preschool, teach them to read, and get them involved in extracurriculars. We take our job as parents seriously. But are we also putting our time and energy into teaching them the Bible? Leading our kids to life through Scripture is not only doable, it's an essential part of parenting kids for Jesus. And the good news is studying God's word as a family doesn't have to be hard or overly time-consuming.

Parenting is not for the faint of heart, but you already knew that, right? Let's be honest, we have all had those days where we want to throw in the towel and say, “Good luck finding your own shoes y’all, I’m out!” Thankfully, we are not alone in our parenting journey—there is hope! God promises us that he will never let us down, never walk off and just leave us (Heb 13: 5-6 MSG)! Whew! Thank goodness, because as the mother of four completely unique children, I need all the help I can get! I have learned to parent my crazy crew every day by partnering with the presence of God.