Non-fiction:
Strange Religion
By Nijay K Gupta
Baker Publishing Group
The first Christians were weird. Just how weird is often lost on today’s believers. Within Roman society, the earliest Christians stood out for the oddness of their beliefs and practices. They believed unusual things, worshiped God in strange ways, and lived a unique lifestyle. They practiced a whole new way of thinking about and doing religion that would have been seen as bizarre and dangerous when compared to Roman religion and most other religions of the ancient world.
Award-winning author, blogger, speaker, and New Testament teacher Nijay Gupta traces the emerging Christian faith in its Roman context. Christianity would have been seen as radical in the Roman world, but some found this new religion attractive and compelling. The first Christians dared to be different, pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable, transformed how people thought about religion, and started a movement that grew like wildfire.
Crisis of Confidence
By Carl R Trueman
Crossway
Historic statements of faith – such as the Heidelberg Catechism, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Westminster Confession of Faith – have helped the Christian church articulate and adhere to God’s truth for centuries. However, many modern evangelicals reject these historic documents and the practices of catechesis, proclaiming their commitment to “no creed but the Bible.” And yet, in today’s rapidly changing culture, ancient liturgical tradition is not only biblical – it’s essential.
In Crisis of Confidence, Carl Trueman analyzes how creeds and confessions can help the Christian church navigate modern concerns, particularly around the fraught issue of identity. He contends that statements of faith promote humility, moral structure, and a godly view of personhood, helping believers maintain a strong foundation amid a culture in crisis.
Even if He Doesn’t
By Kristen LaValley
Tyndale House Publishers
How can I approach God if I’m struggling to believe in His goodness?
So much of our belief can be formulaic. We often think that if we do A, B, and C, then God will do X, Y, and Z. We check things off the “Good Christian Checklist,” trusting we’ll be okay, and our trials will be minimal. But when our experiences inevitably deviate from that belief, our trust in God often crumbles. After a series of life-altering trials – including a devastating diagnosis – uncovering faith in the cracks of pain is something Kristen LaValley knows well.
Those in the midst of heartache will find strength and renewal as Kristen approaches the complexity of suffering with compassion, guiding us to endure while not forsaking the joy, hope, and peace of those marked by Jesus.
You are the Tree
By Joy Marie Clarkson
Baker Publishing Group
“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”
– Psalm 1:3
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.
You Are a Tree examines how the metaphorical descriptions we use in everyday life shape the way we think, pray, and live. This book invites you to pay attention to your experiences, and to the words you use to describe them. That attention reveals a richly layered and meaningful world, a refreshing perspective that nurtures wonder, gratitude, and hope.
Healthy Conflict, Peaceful Life
By Donna Jones
Thomas Nelson
Author, speaker, and pastor’s wife Donna Jones gives women a practical, biblical blueprint for making regret-free choices in the middle of real-life conflict so they can exchange relational turmoil for personal and relational peace.
We’ve all had moments where we look back on a conflict, shake our heads, and think, why did I handle it that way?
With three decades of ministry experience, Donna Jones has had a front-row seat to – and been in the middle of – all kinds of conflict and she understands the regret, guilt, heartache, and hurt conflict can produce. But she also knows it’s possible for God to use those chaotic, painful moments and turn them into opportunities for better connection with those around us.
The Hidden Peace
By Joel Muddamalle
Thomas Nelson
The peace we long for begins with coming to the end of ourselves.
There are inescapable aspects of life we are all marked by. We have less control than we want, more anxiety than we’re comfortable with and just enough insecurity to continually remind us of our shortcomings. To experience these things is to be human. We aren’t superheroes and invincibility isn’t an option, but humility is. Whether we’ve incorrectly defined it or underestimated its relevance to our daily life, humility is the missing piece for the security, strength and confidence we all want. It’s time to stop trying so hard to avoid our limitations or overcompensate for them. God has better for us and it begins with bowing low in humility.
Fiction:
Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure
By Angela Bell
Baker Publishing Group
London, England, 1860. When Clara’s ex-fiancé begins to spread rumours that her family suffers from hereditary insanity, it’s all she can do to protect them from his desperate schemes, society’s prejudice, and a lifetime in an asylum. Then Clara’s Grandfather Drosselmeyer brings on an apprentice with a mechanical leg, and all pretense of normalcy takes wing.
Theodore Kingsley, a shame-chased vagabond haunted by the war, wants a fresh start far from Kingsley Court and the disappointed father who declared him dead. Upon returning to England, Theodore meets clockmaker Drosselmeyer, who hires him as an apprentice, much to Clara’s dismay. When Drosselmeyer spontaneously disappears in his secret flying owl machine, he leaves behind a note for Clara, beseeching her to make her dreams of adventure a reality by joining him on a merry scavenger hunt across Europe. Together, Clara and Theodore set off to follow Drosselmeyer’s trail of clues, but they will have to stay one step ahead of a villain who wants the flying machine for himself – at any cost.
Embers in the London Sky
By Sarah Sundin
Baker Publishing Group
As the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940, Aleida van der Zee Martens escapes to London to wait out the occupation. Separated from her three-year-old son, Theo, in the process, the young widow desperately searches for her little boy even as she works for an agency responsible for evacuating children to the countryside.
When German bombs set London ablaze, BBC radio correspondent Hugh Collingwood reports on the Blitz. Amid the bombs a series of murders flame up amid the ashes. The deaths hit close to home for Hugh, and Aleida needs his help to locate her missing son. As they work together, they grow closer and closer, both to each other and the answers they seek. But with bombs falling and continued killings, they may be running out of time.
Up From the Dust
By Heather Kaufman
Baker Publishing Group
Martha of Bethany is no stranger to adversity. After her mother’s untimely death, Martha shoulders the responsibility of raising her siblings – quiet and studious Lazarus, and wild and rambunctious Mary. She finds solace in friendship and the beginnings of first love, but just as Martha begins to imagine a new future, hardship strikes again and her dreams crumble into dust.
Ten years later, Martha’s friend pleads for the new teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, to come and heal her husband. When Martha discovers that the carpenter-rabbi is connected to her past, she’s not sure she can trust him with her future. But as he continues to perform miracles, the invitation to believe becomes harder to resist, renewing Martha’s hardened heart, even as she faces an unknown future.
The Ark and the Dove
By Jill Eileen Smith
Baker Publishing Group
Zara and Noah have walked together with the Creator for their entire lives, and they have done their best in an increasingly wicked and defiant world to raise their three sons to follow in their footsteps. It has been a challenge – and it’s about to get much, much harder.
When the Creator tells her husband to build an ark to escape the coming wrath against the sins of humankind, Zara steps out with him in faith. But the derision and sabotage directed their way from both friends and extended family are difficult to bear, as is knowing that everyone she interacts with beyond her husband, her sons, and their wives is doomed to destruction. And when the ark is finally finished and the animals have been shut up inside, Zara and her family embark on an adventure that will test their patience and their faith as they await deliverance and dry ground.
Press Release
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