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A handbook of simple spiritual practices for readers who feel overwhelmed by the busyness of everyday life, helping us all to imagine a better way. You Might Be Too Busy If . . . invites readers into four straightforward spiritual practices that instill calm, peace, and focus. All these were basic practices of Jesus, who habitually lived in ways that opened his heart to God's work. In a busy life, he made time for Sabbath. Today, these same practices can form you into a peaceful and unhurried person, no matter what demands you face.

Why another book on Jesus? Surely if there is one Bible character we know, it is Jesus. But maybe the same old thing of “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” in our churches has blinded us to who he really was and really is. Perhaps our own walk with him is not what it should be because we feel too comfortable with him—or at least of our picture of him. "A MONTH WITH JESUS" is an invitation to spend a month with the biblical Jesus, the One who surprised his contemporaries. By looking at him through their eyes, maybe we too can be surprised. Surprised enough to shake us out of our old habits. Surprised enough to understand him as we never have before. Surprised enough to follow. Surprised enough that this familiar story—the greatest story of all—is no longer “the same old thing.”

Do you want a deeper relationship with God? A closer walk with Jesus? A sense of the Holy Spirit's constant presence? Is this the deepest desire of your heart, but you don't know where to begin? This book is for you. It offers no shortcuts or sure-fire techniques for a deeper spirituality. But it serves as a simple and easy-to-follow signpost marking the path of daily relationship with God. God invites you into relationship with him, just as you are. Even if you're not sure about God, even if you have no religious background, even if you've been a churchgoer all your life, God invites you to share his very life. It is a life richer than you can imagine.

Would you like to hear the voice of God more readily as you read the Bible? Have you heard of meditation on Scripture but don't know how to begin? Would you like a way to energize your small group study or your Bible class at church? If so, this meditative commentary series is for you. While there are many helpful commentaries and workbooks for Bible study, this series aims to help in a new way. Employing the classic Christian practice of holy reading, it provides a method and structure for meditating on the word of God.

Would you like to hear the voice of God more readily as you read the Bible? Have you heard of meditation on Scripture but don't know how to begin? Would you like a way to energize your small group study or your Bible class at church? If so, this meditative commentary series is for you. While there are many helpful commentaries and workbooks for Bible study, this series aims to help in a new way. Employing the classic Christian practice of holy reading, it provides a method and structure for meditating on the word of God.

Even during exile, the Lord speaks through the faithful. Jeremiah and Lamentations give us a spirituality of judgment, punishment, and discipline. The Lord brings justice. Turning from the Lord has consequences. But the Lord loves his people, so he disciplines them for their own good. There are profound words of hope in these books, but hope comes only after God’s people have returned to the Lord. Ezekiel has amazing visions from God—heavenly chariots, a new Jerusalem, and dry bones brought back to life. What is unique about his prophetic life are the symbolic acts, many of them strange, that he does. He eats a scroll, lies on one side for more than a year, then lies on the other side for forty days. He not only speaks the word of the Lord, he enacts it. The spirituality of Ezekiel focuses on the faithfulness of God. Although Israel and Judah have repeatedly been unfaithful to the Lord, he welcomes them back and restores them to life with him. Most people remember the stories in Daniel—the fiery furnace and the lion’s den. These stories reflect the spiritual practices that sustained the faith of Daniel and others during the exile. Even more significant for Christian readers are Daniel’s visions, especially the vision of the Ancient of Days and the son of man. Daniel points us both to spiritual practices of the present while giving us pictures of a glorious future under the reign of the Lord.

Sometimes we need a word of encouragement. We face all kinds of trouble, nagging illnesses, boring, repetitive jobs, not feeling appreciated... or worse trouble: the tumor is malignant, your company is downsizing your job out of existence, your teenage daughter is pregnant. We want encouragement. That's exactly what Hebrews supplies. It reminds us that no matter what trouble comes, Jesus is always there for us. Exactly what we need to hear.

Through meditation on the Gospel of John, we experience the life of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. Written by one who calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved," the Gospel of John paints an intimate portrait of Jesus as one who is intimate with God the Father, who calls disciples to follow him, and who gives signs that point his listeners to God.