If the Bible can be thought of as the grand story of God, many of its main characters are passionate and even desperate men and women. Jo Kadlecek introduces us to eight biblical women driven by their passion and desperation to seek out Jesus. She explores their stories in their cultural context, then draws out the lessons they hold for contemporary readers who are willing to let an encounter with Jesus change their lives.In studying these eight characters, readers will find new in...

"The memory of a strong woman is a sanctuary . . . ." And so begins our story. It's 1983. Teacher Bailey Crawford and a bunch of rag tag girls are about to make history as their school’s first, and only, state champions. But few in town care; they're only girls, after all. It's not until twenty-five years later in 2008 when new coach Reynalda Wallace discovers their story and recognition for the champs finally arrives. In the process, Rey learns how much of her own life—past and present—is...

Bible studies on the life of Peter examine his letters, the book of Acts, and the Gospels.He was impulsive, arrogant, and passionate to a fault. Yet Jesus chose him to lead the early church. Peter, one of the most colorful of Jesus’ disciples, paints the picture of a man who wants desperately to be holy but is hampered by being all too human. Sound familiar?Reckless Faith looks at this caustic, cocky, cowardly, chosen man and what his life has to s...

Why did Jesus spend forty days on earth after his death when he could have returned home to the majesty of heaven? And out of all the people on the planet at that time who could have helped him get a major religious movement off the ground, why did he seek out those who had run the other way when he was crucified? In this fascinating book, Jo Kadlecek shows readers how the disciples who saw Jesus after his death were changed from sometimes bumbling scaredy-cats to pillars of the Christian ...

Woman Overboard, Kadlecek explores the meaning of passion through the lens of her own life. Follow her from a middle-class, suburban existence bordering on tedium to a life awakened to the gifts in and around her, a life that embraces the new and unexpected. Discover with her the paradoxes of pain and beauty, life and death, love and compassion, work and adventure."Each of these helped me see that this question of being alive demands utter abandon but is somehow as familia...

Do you long for more passion in your life? How do you define passion? Many people associate passion with intense romance, adventure, creativity, vocation, or calling. If you ask a pastor or priest to define passion, he or she would likely link the word to the passion of Christ, to the events of Holy Week. The definition of passion has evolved over the years. Originally the word came from the Latin word passio, which means “to suffer.” Woman Overboard leads you in an adventure of discoverin...

“We live between two mighty events…”Advent is as much about looking back as it is looking ahead—back to Christ’s incarnation, ahead to His return. From Heaven combines A. W. Tozer’s best reflections on these two themes to help us better appreciate the season of Advent. Each daily reading is paired with Scripture for meditation, drawing our attention to the rising light of Christ.“I am struck with the wonder and the significance of the limitless mea...

Little-known stories of faith behind twelve influential people of history in one inspiring volumeWhat do Abraham Lincoln, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Louis Pasteur, Frederick Douglass, Florence Nightingale, and John D. Rockefeller Sr. have in common? They all changed the world--and they were all Christians.They Were Christians reveals the faith-filled motivations of these important world figures who made some of the most outstanding political, scientific, ...

A Story of Love, Desperation, and Hope During a Great Biblical EpochSold into slavery by her father and forsaken by the man she was supposed to marry, young Egyptian Kiya must serve a mistress who takes pleasure in her humiliation. When terrifying plagues strike Egypt, Kiya is in the middle of it all.Choosing to flee with the Hebrews, Kiya finds herself reliant on a strange God and drawn to a man who despises her people. With everything she's ever known swe...

When you talk to God, do you ever feel as if you are not getting through?You're not alone. At some point, most believers find themselves grappling with difficult questions like Would God really talk to me personally? and How do I know it's truly God talking, and not my own thoughts?But here's the good news: Hearing God is simpler than you think.It's possible to have a relationship with God that involves both speaki...

From hit songs to bumper stickers to eye-black, Jesus is trending high wherever you look. But at the end of the day, many "try Jesus" and come away disappointed in the experience. That's because the Jesus of popular culture looks much more like us than the God-man who appeared in the flesh two thousand years ago. We've got Guru Jesus, Braveheart Jesus, Dr. Phil Jesus, Free-Range Jesus, and plenty more imposters that feed into our selfish desires. The problem is, they don't have the power t...

The church of today did not appear on the earth fully formed but developed over the centuries through historical events that, while they may seem distant, have a direct effect on our everyday lives. Following Jesus's command to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, the apostles and their spiritual descendants have grown the church through times of peace and times of war, through persecution and pilgrimage. The church that began as a rag-tag group of Middle Eastern fishermen, tax coll...