Showing results by narrator "Nan McNamara" in All Categories

In this engaging, accessible account, Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman explore the methods spies actually used in the period, including disguises, invisible inks, and even poisons. Drawing on a vast array of archival sources, they show how understanding the tricks and tools of espionage allows us to reimagine well-known stories such as the Babington and Gunpowder plots.

Who was among the last at the cross and the first at the empty tomb? Mary Magdalene. Her role in Jesus's ministry as told in all four Gospels was pivotal in many ways. Yet her story is often overlooked, confused, or scandalized by the church. In The Mary We Forgot, award-winning church historian and theologian Jennifer Powell McNutt unpacks Scripture and church history to reveal the real Mary Magdalene as a model of discipleship for all Christians today—women and men alike.

Is there a new reformation happening in the church? It depends on who you ask. The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a popular and fast-growing new movement of Christians who emphasize signs and wonders, and teach that God is giving new revelation through new apostles and prophets. But is this biblical Christianity? In Counterfeit Kingdom, apologists and NAR experts Holly Pivec and Douglas Geivett show how the NAR’s key tenets distort the gospel, twist the Scriptures, are influenced by New Age practices, and lead faithful Christians to shipwreck their faith.

How is the follower of Jesus to understand the words of the Old Testament? How are those words relevant to the New Covenant he is establishing? What might the words of the Lord’s Prayer have conveyed to his initial followers, and why is that historical information essential to the prayer two millennia later? In Sermon on the Mount, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine takes a detailed and colorful overview of Matthew 5-7, collectively known as Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.

At eight years old, Shulle has known only life in a small village with her loving but peculiar father. When Uncle Shebna offers shelter in Jerusalem in exchange for Shulle's help tutoring King Manasseh, Judah's five-year-old co-regent who displays the same peculiarities as her father, she's eager to experience the royal court. But Shulle soon realizes the limits of her father's strict adherence to Yahweh's Law when Uncle Shebna teaches her of the starry hosts and their power.

What if you could climb into Mesu Andrews' mind while she plotted a biblical novel? Have you ever wished you knew more about a character's motivation? Or more personal history that led to the characters' emotional reactions? Prophets & Kings answer those questions. His Unfathomable Plan attests to God's absolute goodness and sovereignty over even the most painful events of our lives. Before Aya becomes Isaiah's prophetess wife, she cares for a little girl who young Prince Ahaz later agrees to marry.

Heidi Barr didn't believe in Jesus. No one in her Jewish family did, nor did they want to—especially not her father, who told her that Jesus Christ was the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on humankind. So when Heidi was in a terrible horseback riding accident and died at age sixteen, Jesus was the last person she expected to see. Yet she did. And then she returned to life. This is the incredible true story of Heidi's difficult family life, her sudden death, her unexpectedly loving encounter with Jesus, and her return to life on earth as a person completely and irrevocably changed.

With most of Sera’s civilization destroyed, Sergeant Marcus Fenix and Lieutenant Anya Stroud must somehow rebuild on the ruins. For Marcus, his purpose is impossible to grasp. With no clear enemy to fight, there may be no place left for him in this postwar world. Some call him hero; others view him with resentment. As Anya struggles to create alliances to re-form the Coalition of Ordered Governments, she quickly discovers how impossible it is to tell friend from foe.

This is a book for Christians who want to learn how to do better. Heather Matthews has experienced sexism in the church firsthand. In Confronting Sexism in the Church, she explores the history and culture of sexism in our contemporary evangelical world and describes the many ways—subtle and not so subtle—that it lives on in the church today. She gives simple, practical steps for how Christians can actively fight sexism in its many forms.

Drawing on her upbringing in a long-standing family tradition of winemakers and her degrees in biblical studies and spiritual theology, Gisela Kreglinger shows Christians that wine is a gift from God that we are to receive with gratitude and enjoy in wholesome, communal, and redemptive ways.

With the number and variety of mental health issues affecting kids on the rise, and as more clinicians and counselors are pushed to the front lines of defense, there is an acute need for a comprehensive, practical resource that guides professionals through the complexities of child and adolescent mental health. This comprehensive book—now in its third edition—answers that call.

When someone suffers through trauma, can healing happen? And, if yes, how does it happen? Dr. Diane Langberg tackles these complex and difficult questions with the insights she has gained through more than 40 years of counseling those whose lives have been destroyed by trauma and abuse. Her answer carefully explained in Suffering and the Heart of God is Yes, what trauma destroys, Jesus can and does restore.

A thriller writer is embroiled in a real-life whodunit when a friend drops dead with her hatpin impaled in his back. The violation of a sealed West Bank tomb, its rock walls intact, provides a Thebes investigator with a mystifying conundrum. Two sisters take shelter in a shuttered old house at the end of a country road . . . only to discover they're not alone. And the author's most beloved characters, Amelia Peabody and Radcliff Emerson, make an appearance in a newly uncovered tale with a witty nod to Sherlock Holmes.

In The Happiness Track, Emma Seppala, the science director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, explains that our inability to achieve sustainable fulfillment is tied to common but outdated notions about success. We are taught that getting ahead means doing everything that's thrown at us (and then some) with razor-sharp focus and iron discipline; that success depends on our drive and talents.

Sometimes we describe ourselves as trees. When we're thriving, we speak of being rooted and fruitful, in a good season. When we struggle, we might describe ourselves as withering, cut off from friendship and the world. These ways of describing ourselves matter because they shape the ways we live. But in a world dominated by efficiency, we have begun to use more unforgiving metaphors. We speak of ourselves as computers: we process things, we recharge. In doing so, we come to expect of ourselves an exhausting, relentless productivity.

With this indispensable guide, you'll cultivate a values-driven approach to building a culture of sustained authentic inclusion where everyone can thrive; learn how to improve the interview process to avoid missing game-changing talent; develop a hybrid office protocol that works for everyone and a support infrastructure that aligns with universal design principles; uncover and eliminate the destructive influence of unconscious cognitive biases; understand unique problem-solving abilities such as lateral thinking, visual-spatial thinking, multisensory thinking, and much more.

Spurred to prayer by tragedy, pain, frustration, or raw hunger for God, you've felt it: the joyful anguish, the grief-longing, the burden for mercy, reformation, revival, justice—even Christ's return. Your heart is gripped, and words cannot express all that is churning deep in your soul. It's here, in this holy ground beyond human language, where mysteries are unveiled, authority is imparted, and the most powerful prayers are birthed—not by you, but by the Holy Spirit within you.

They say friends are the family we choose. And that choosing—the joy of loving and being loved by someone who isn't genetically obligated to share life with us—adds priceless worth to our days, but also great risk. Because hurt can happen even in the closest friendships, and sometimes friendships fall apart. The loss can be staggering. As we struggle to digest the pain and confusion, we wonder, How could this happen? And what do I do now? Beloved author Elizabeth Laing Thompson comes alongside listeners as they process their struggling friendships.

The former middle-distance Olympic runner and high-end escort speaks out for the first time about her battle with mental illness and how mania controlled and compelled her in competition but also in life. This is a heartbreakingly honest yet hopeful memoir reminiscent of Manic, Electroboy, and An Unquiet Mind.

This introductory theology text helps students articulate basic Christian doctrines, think theologically so they can act Christianly in a diverse world, and connect Christian thought to their everyday life of faith. Written from a solidly evangelical yet ecumenically aware perspective, this book models a way of doing theology that is generous and charitable. It attends to history and contemporary debates and features voices from the global church.