The Jesus Priorities: 8 Essential Habits by Christopher Maricle

"Imagine my surprise at learning that I needed to get to know my God a lot better." Despite lifelong Christian devotion, Maricle came to this startling realization after experiencing a crisis of faith. "I needed answers that are so fundamental to Christian living," he writes. "Why is this life, at times, so hard? Why isn't my faith helping me? Why am I finding no comfort in prayer? These questions — and the struggles behind them — challenged all my notions of faith, my perception of God and the purpose of this life."

What would Jesus do? has been trivialized as a catchphrase but not as a serious consideration for Christians. After many desperate and pleading Gethsemane prayer moments, Maricle turned to the Gospels again to see what Jesus said and did since these scriptural passages are the best windows to truth for Christians. In The Jesus Priorities: 8 Essential Habits, his findings point toward a way of transforming your life in the midst of living it.

Here are the Jesus priorities evidenced by the words he most frequently spoke and the acts Jesus most often demonstrated. Allow your life to be an instrument of God's grace in the world as you learn the Jesus priorities and make them your own. Succinct summaries, scripture, questions to consider and prayers make this book ideal for personal study, groups or a churchwide challenge. Can Jesus change your life — your everyday, going-to-work (or school or the grocery), taking-care-of-the-kids…life? The resounding answer found in this warm spiritual survival guide is, "Yes!"

Hurry Less, Worry Less at Christmastime: Having the Holiday Season You Long For by Judy Pace Christie

Hurry Less Worry Less at Christmastime will help busy people learn to celebrate more joyfully, peacefully, and deeply during "the holiday season"—the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day—and on through the Christian celebration of Epiphany. Judy Pace Christie meets us where we are, in a frenzied, out-of-control frame of mind, and helps us begin to have a deeper understanding of the joy of the season and its deep meaning for our lives overall—and how that can be a starting point for a more abundant life in the new year. Using the holiday season as an entry point, Christie guides us to a more helpful, Christian understanding of this time of year. Aspects of the liturgical calendar are introduced as part of this process, including the Christian understandings of Advent, Christmas, and Ephiphany. She gives us practical tools for coping with holiday pressures but above all stresses the need for transformation from a secular perspective to a Christian one.

God's Top 10: Blowing the Lid Off the Commandments by Anne Robertson

For people of faith, religion and life are strongly connected. That’s why so many voters cite "moral values" as their most important guide when they head to the polls. But what exactly are "moral values"? For most Christians, regardless of their political persuasion, the best way to figure that out is to start with the Ten Commandments, the ultimate guide to morality. In God’s Top Ten, author Anne Robertson examines the big moral issues of our day through the lens of each of the Ten Commandments. A chapter on the Sixth Commandment, for example (Thou shalt not kill), looks at such issues as abortion, war, capital punishment, and stem cell research. In a lively, engaging style that combines practical theology with a sense of humor, Robertson proposes that there is more than one Christian approach to the tough issues of our times, and that the Commandments have a social as well as personal dimension.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

The most popular of C. S. Lewis' works of nonfiction, Mere Christianity has sold several million copies worldwide. It brings together Lewis' legendary broadcast talks of the war years, talks in which he set out simply to "explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times." Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, Lewis finds a common ground on which all Christians can stand together, and provides an unequaled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to hear a powerful, rational case for their faith. It is a collection of scintillating brilliance that remains strikingly fresh and confirms C. S. Lewis' reputation as one of the leading writers and thinkers of our age.