Here are the top books on sale at Amazon.com. Click on the book title to purchase the e-books.
1. Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
Now a New York Times Bestseller! As a college student he spent 16 days in the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of canned meat. As a father he took his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren’t good enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean’s office for seven days until they finally let him enroll.
Bob Goff has become something of a legend, and his friends consider him the world’s best-kept secret. Those same friends have long insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm shifts, musings, and stories from one of the world’s most delightfully engaging and winsome people. What fuels his impact? Love. But it’s not the kind of love that stops at thoughts and feelings. Bob’s love takes action. Bob believes Love Does.
When Love Does, life gets interesting. Each day turns into a hilarious, whimsical, meaningful chance that makes faith simple and real. Each chapter is a story that forms a book, a life. And this is one life you don’t want to miss.
Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn from Bob’s life and attitude just might inspire you to be secretly incredible, too.
2. Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul (Highly Recommend this)
God designed men to be dangerous, says John Eldredge. Simply look at the dreams and desires written in the heart of every boy: To be a hero, to be a warrior, to live a life of adventure and risk. Sadly, most men abandon those dreams and desires-aided by a Christianity that feels like nothing more than pressure to be a “nice guy.” It is no wonder that many men avoid church, and those who go are often passive and bored to death. In this provocative book, Eldredge gives women a look inside the true heart of a man and gives men permission to be what God designed them to be-dangerous, passionate, alive, and free!
3. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality (Highly Recommend this)
“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.” ?Donald Miller
In Donald Miller’s early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.
For anyone wondering if the Christian faith is still relevant in a postmodern culture.
For anyone thirsting for a genuine encounter with a God who is real.
For anyone yearning for a renewed sense of passion in life.
Blue Like Jazz is a fresh and original perspective on life, love, and redemption.
4. Hope for Each Day Morning and Evening Devotions
Leading inspirational author and pastor Billy Graham shares words of wisdom and inspiration for hope-filled living every morning and evening.
Billy Graham has touched millions of lives by sharing the truth of the gospel. Now, by combining his popular devotionals Hope for Each Day and Wisdom for Each Day, this special morning and evening devotional will help readers stay close to the Lord throughout the day. Each morning readers can prepare their heart and mind for what lies ahead, and then process the day’s events every evening in the presence and fullness of His grace. It’s a beautiful means for abiding more in the One who is our true hope for each day.
5. Grace for the Moment Volume I: Inspirational Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
With more than 2,500,000 copies sold, this devotional continues to touch lives as it emphasizes the help and hope of God in everyday moments. Each daily reading features devotional writings from Max Lucado’s numerous bestsellers as well as a Scripture verse selected especially for that day’s reading.
6. The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity (Highly Recommend this)
In his #1 best-seller The Case for Christ, legally trained investigative reporter Lee Strobel examined the claims of Christ, reaching the hard-won verdict that Jesus is God’s unique son.
But despite the compelling historical evidence that Strobel presented, many people grapple with serious concerns about faith in God. As in a court of law, they want to shout, ‘Objection!’ They say, ‘If God is love, then what about all the suffering in our world?’ Or, ‘If Jesus is the door to heaven, then what about the millions who have never heard of him?’ Or, ‘If God cares for everyone, then why does he eternally torture some in hell?’
In The Case for Faith, Strobel turns his tenacious investigative skills to the most persistent emotional objections to belief–the eight ‘heart’ barriers to faith. The Case for Faith is for those who may be feeling attracted to Jesus but who are faced with formidable intellectual barriers standing squarely in their path. For Christians, it will deepen their convictions and give them fresh confidence in discussing Christianity with even their most skeptical friends.
7. Fireproof
Growing up, his wife Catherine always dreamed of marrying a loving, brave firefighter . . . just like her father. Now, after seven years of marriage, she wonders when she stopped being “good enough.” Countless arguments and anger have them wanting to move on to something with more sparks.
As they prepare for divorce, Caleb’s father challenges him to commit to a 40-day experiment: “The Love Dare.” Wondering if it’s even worth the effort, Caleb reluctantly agrees, not realizing how it will change his world forever.
Surprised by what he discovers about the meaning of love, Caleb begins to see his wife and marriage as worth fighting for. But is it too late? His job is to rescue others. Now Captain Holt must face his toughest job ever . . . rescuing his wife’s heart.
These stories will deepen your Christian faith by helping you practice Christian values in your daily life: at home, at work, and in the community. This collection will open your heart to the experience and expression of more love in your life and will remind you that you are never alone or without hope, no matter how challenging and painful your circumstances may be.
9. Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story
This is the true love story of Joni and her husband of 30 years, Ken Tada. A love story showing what it truly means for a man and a woman to live in love … in sickness and in health.
Even the honeymoon wasn’t easy. Did Ken realize what he was getting into when he proposed to Joni, a quadriplegic woman?
As their marriage years moved on, Ken became increasingly overwhelmed by the never-ceasing demands of caring for Joni, who begins to experience chronic, extreme, nightmarish pain. Ken sinks into depression, and the couple finds themselves on parallel tracks in life, married and living under the same roof but drifting apart emotionally.
But as they fight for their marriage and find their way through the mazes of depression and pain, they wrap their two lives around their rock—Jesus.
During Ken’s denial of Joni’s diagnosis, and Joni’s thoughts of how wonderful a quick exit to heaven would be, they experience a personal visitation with the savior you will never forget.
10. Pistol: A Biography of Pete Maravich
Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It’s the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father’s dream — and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete — a basketball icon for baby boomers — all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.
Almost four decades have passed since Maravich entered the national consciousness as basketball’s boy wizard. No one had ever played the game like the kid with the floppy socks and shaggy hair. And all these years later, no one else ever has. The idea of Pistol Pete continues to resonate with young people today just as powerfully as it did with their fathers.
In averaging 44.2 points a game at Louisiana State University, he established records that will never be broken. But even more enduring than the numbers was the sense of ecstasy and artistry with which he played. With the ball in his hands, Maravich had a singular power to inspire awe, inflict embarrassment, or even tell a joke.
But he wasn’t merely a mesmerizing showman. He was basketball’s answer to Elvis, a white Southerner who sold Middle America on a black man’s game. Like Elvis, he paid a terrible price, becoming a prisoner of his own fame.
Set largely in the South, Kriegel’s Pistol, a tale of obsession and basketball, fathers and sons, merges several archetypal characters. Maravich was a child prodigy, a prodigal son, his father’s ransom in a Faustian bargain, and a Great White Hope. But he was also a creature of contradictions: always the outsider but a virtuoso in a team sport, an exuberant showman who wouldn’t look you in the eye, a vegetarian boozer, an athlete who lived like a rock star, a suicidal genius saved by Jesus Christ.
A renowned biographer — People magazine called him “a master” — Kriegel renders his subject with a style that is, by turns, heartbreaking, lyrical, and electric.
The narrative begins in 1929, the year a missionary gave Pete’s father a basketball. Press Maravich had been a neglected child trapped in a hellish industrial town, but the game enabled him to blossom. It also caused him to confuse basketball with salvation. The intensity of Press’s obsession initiates a journey across three generations of Maraviches. Pistol Pete, a ballplayer unlike any other, was a product of his father’s vanity and vision. But that dream continues to exact a price on Pete’s own sons. Now in their twenties — and fatherless for most of their lives — they have waged their own struggles with the game and its ghosts.
Pistol is an unforgettable biography. By telling one family’s history, Kriegel has traced the history of the game and a large slice of the American narrative.
11. Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently (Highly Recommend this)
The world’s most respected leadership expert gives five principles and five practices for breaking the invisible barrier to leadership and personal success.
12. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story
After writing a successful memoir, Donald Miller’s life stalled. During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself unwilling to get out of bed, avoiding responsibility, even questioning the meaning of life. But when two movie producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, he found himself launched into a new story filled with risk, possibility, beauty, and meaning.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years chronicles Miller’s rare opportunity to edit his life into a great story, to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll. Through heart-wrenching honesty and hilarious self-inspection, Donald Miller takes readers through the life that emerges when it turns from boring reality into meaningful narrative.
Miller goes from sleeping all day to riding his bike across America, from living in romantic daydreams to fearful encounters with love, from wasting his money to founding a nonprofit with a passionate cause. Guided by a host of outlandish but very real characters, Miller shows us how to get a second chance at life the first time around. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is a rare celebration of the beauty of life.
13. Breaking the Islam Code (Highly Recommend this)
World events won’t let North Americans ignore Muslims anymore. Whether those Muslims are villagers in Iraq or neighbors down the street, Breaking the Islam Code offers everyday Christians profound insight into the way Muslims think and feel.
J.D. Greear’s ability to communicate challenging heart truth, plus his expertise in Christian and Islamic theology and two years’ experience in a Muslim-dominated area, make him the perfect author for this empowering, insightful, reader-friendly book. It transcends traditional apologetics, focusing on helping Christians
understand what is deep in Muslims’ hearts, behind their theology—which will lead to friendship and effective communication of the gospel
respectfully turn many of the primary objections into opportunities to share the faith
avoid unnecessarily offending Muslims they’re interacting with
Readers will be excited that sharing Christ with Muslims is something they can do—as everyday Christians in their own cities, campuses, and workplaces.
Charles Finney’s ministry rolled like a spiritual shock wave across the American landscape in the nineteenth century. He attributed his effectiveness in large part to prayer. Now his superb insights are condensed and collected in a single book.
15. Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (Re:Lit:Vintage Jesus) (Highly Recommend this)
Doctrine is the word Christians use to define the truth-claims of Holy Scripture. Of course there are many churches, organizations, and denominations, each with a unique doctrinal statement. But while Christians may differ on numerous issues, there are basic tenets of the faith that should be denied by no one claiming to be a follower of Jesus.
In Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe, Driscoll and Breshears teach thirteen essential elements of the Christian faith. This comprehensive yet accessible overview of basic doctrine will help Christians clarify and articulate their beliefs in accordance with the Bible.
16. The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God (Highly Recommend this)
Renowned pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church and author of the forthcoming Every Good Endeavor, Timothy Keller with his wife of 36 years, delivers The Meaning of Marriage, an extraordinarily insightful look at the keys to happiness in marriage that will inspire Christians, skeptics, singles, long-time married couples, and those about to be engaged.
Modern culture would make you believe that everyone has a soul-mate; that romance is the most important part of a successful marriage; that your spouse is there to help you realize your potential; that marriage does not mean forever, but merely for now; that starting over after a divorce is the best solution to seemingly intractable marriage issues. All those modern-day assumptions are, in a word, wrong.
Using the Bible as his guide, coupled with insightful commentary from his wife of thirty-six years, Kathy, Timothy Keller shows that God created marriage to bring us closer to him and to bring us more joy in our lives. It is a glorious relationship that is also the most misunderstood and mysterious. With a clear-eyed understanding of the Bible, and meaningful instruction on how to have a successful marriage, The Meaning of Marriage is essential reading for anyone who wants to know God and love more deeply in this life.
17. Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church (Highly Recommend this)
The Reformers viewed the gospel as not merely one thing among many in the life of a church but rather the means by which the church exists. When the gospel is rightly declared and applied to God’s people, the church becomes “a creature of the Word.” She understands, embraces, and lives out the reality of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection in more than her doctrinal statement. The gospel impacts all the church is and does.
Creature of the Word lays out this concept in full, first examining the rich, scripture-based beauty of a Jesus-centered church, then clearly providing practical steps toward forming a Jesus-centered church. Authors Matt Chandler, Eric Geiger, and Josh Patterson write what will become a center- ing discussion piece for those whose goal is to be part of a church that has its theology, culture, and practice completely saturated in the gospel.
18. On the Grace of God (Re:Lit: A Book You’ll Actually Read) (Highly Recommend this)
Why is grace such a big deal? What does God tell us about it in Scripture? Can radical grace really be true? If so, what are the implications for our lives? This book will answer these questions and more as we explore the all-important theme of God’s gratuitous grace throughout the Bible. Packed with big truth, this little book on grace can be read quickly–ensuring you’ll actually read it.
Justin Holcomb highlights Scripture’s recurring emphasis on humanity’s desperate need and God’s extravagant grace. He convincingly demonstrates that grace–most powerfully manifested in the person and work of Jesus Christ–is the foundational theme and primary message of the whole Bible. An appendix succinctly summarizes how God’s grace is evident in each book of the Bible.
BONUS for all the Malcolm Gladwell fans!!!
19. Outliers: The Story of Success
There is a story that is usually told about extremely successful people, a story that focuses on intelligence and ambition. Gladwell argues that the true story of success is very different, and that if we want to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time looking around them-at such things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth date. And in revealing that hidden logic, Gladwell presents a fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential.
In The Tipping Point Gladwell changed the way we understand the world. In Blink he changed the way we think about thinking. In OUTLIERS he transforms the way we understand success.
20. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.
21. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?
In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of “blink”: the election of Warren Harding; “New Coke”; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of “thin-slicing”-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.