As Christians, we are trying to be more like Jesus and constantly falling short of that goal. The forty sermons in this book explore how anyone can be more like Jesus, including those who have not yet given themselves to Christ. In fact, at the end of each sermon you’ll see an invitation to do so, and the back of the book includes a prayer that will allow you to be born again as a child of God. The sermons are written in a way that can be understood by people from every walk of life. They are easy to read and expound on the Word of God so you can take him into your heart. The sermons also emphasize that as Christians, we are held to a higher standard as we must love everyone—even those who are evil. We love them because God loves them. Whether you’re a Christian seeking to ignite your faith or someone with questions about Christianity, the sermons in this book will change your life.

Many of us long to experience the fullness of God and his purpose for our lives. Not a whole lot of us ever do. The reason is that we have departed in some significant ways from the biblical view of Christian life and growth. The New Testament highlights the communal, missional, and eschatological aspects of our walk with God. We grow in our faith as individual Christians to the degree that we are (a) deeply rooted relationally in a local church community that is (b) passionately playing its part in God's grand story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration, and (c) intently anticipating the summing of all things in Christ when Jesus returns. In recent decades, American evangelicals have traded away community, outreach, and the Bible's teaching about eternity future for the pursuit of individual religious experience in the here-and-now. Why We Need the Church to Become More Like Jesus traces this departure from biblical Christianity through recent decades of popular evangelical trends and reminds us that faith centered on community, mission, and the story line of Scripture remains the key to the spiritual formation of the individual Christian.

The Bible teaches that the goal of the Christian life is to become like Jesus—for our own personal growth and for the sake of others. Every believer needs to ask three big questions: What do I believe? What should I do? And who am I becoming? In Think, Act, Be Like Jesus, bestselling author and pastor Randy Frazee helps readers grasp the vision of the Christian life and get started on the journey of discipleship. After unfolding the revolutionary dream of Jesus and showing how our lives fit into the big picture of what God is doing in the world, Frazee walks readers through thirty short chapters exploring the ten core beliefs, ten core practices, and ten core virtues that help disciples to think, act, and be more like Jesus Christ. This compelling new book can be used in conjunction with the 30-week all-church Believe campaign or read separately as an individual study. Either way, readers will deepen their understanding of what it means to not just know the Story of God, but to live it.

Forty Meditations for Your Journey Toward Christlikeness. The Christian life is a journey of spiritual and moral transformation into the glorious image and likeness of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This journey is lifelong. We begin this journey when we first believe in Jesus, but will not reach our final destination until the final resurrection, when our bodies will be raised, transformed, and glorified, as we are fully and finally conformed to the image of Christ. As with any lengthy journey, sometimes Christians lose their way. We can become disoriented and confused. We mistake the terrain we have already traversed, lose sight of the road on which we tread, and forget the destination to which we travel. Sometimes we take detours. Or we get stuck on the side of the road. All of us sometimes need help. In To Be Like Jesus, Brian G. Hedges provides a series of encouraging road signs—brief meditations, with questions for personal reflection and application, to help you in your journey toward Christlikeness.

In the last sermon he ever preached, John Stott echoed the Apostle Paul when he said that God’s greatest desire and plan for us is to become like his Son, Jesus Christ. BUT HOW? Stott prayed daily that God would bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his own life; a prayer clearly answered and evident in his Christlikeness. Chris Wright, a close friend of John Stott, reflects on all nine qualities that the Apostle Paul includes in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. He shows how they are rooted in the character of God, first revealed in the Old Testament, and modelled and taught by Jesus. With applications to encourage biblical growth with depth, and questions at the end of each chapter, this is an ideal resource for preachers, study groups and personal reflection. Many people rightly stress the importance of the gifts, power and ministries of the Holy Spirit, but easily neglect Paul’s command to live and walk by the Spirit and cultivate the fruit that only he can bear in our lives. Paying close attention to the beautiful and robust qualities that Paul includes in the fruit, and seeking daily to cultivate them with God’s help, is surely one way we can become more and more like Jesus.

What If We Really Imitated Jesus? Living as Jesus lived—is that even possible? Jesus was sinless, performed miracles, and atoned for the sins of humanity. He was God’s beloved Son! How could we possibly come anywhere close to being like Him? But Scripture tells us to live as Jesus did, which means God Himself makes this kind of life possible. How then can we allow Him to shape our hearts, motivations, and actions so we increasingly remind people of the One we follow? Renowned Bible study writer Cynthia Heald explores the everyday journey of becoming like Christ. With the seasoned guidance from a lifelong faith, she shares the challenges and rewards of embodying Christlikeness, as well as her own imperfect, stumbling experiences in learning to become like Jesus. In this insightful, accessible, and thought-provoking book, perfect for quiet time or a 6-week small-group study, you’ll find yourself inspired and encouraged to step into the simple yet powerful ways God molds us into the image of His Son. In Becoming Like Jesus, you will find: devotional reflections on the invitation to daily spiritual growth, insightful quotations from godly writers and prayers, and Scripture references and Bible study reflection questions. Don’t hesitate to embark on a life-changing journey of becoming like Jesus. Embrace the call to imitate Christ and discover the joy and fulfillment that come from reflecting His character in your everyday life.

When it comes to the Bible, many people find some of the concepts difficult to understand. There is so much to learn and to understand. Even those who have lived a faith-based life may find it difficult to understand some of its history, especially in the context of the culture in which it was written. Author Doug Tweed’s book Be with Jesus, Be Like Jesus, Be for Jesus: A Path to Christian Maturity and the Next Great Awakening is insightful and biblically rooted. It is both an important book and an easily remembered motto for Christians seeking personal spiritual maturity and a great awakening in our nation and world. With the support of over 575 scripture citations, Tweed persuasively asserts that the key to both maturity and revival is agape love that focuses on three things: (1) intimacy, (2) sanctification, and (3) mission. Be with Jesus, Be Like Jesus, Be for Jesus: A Path to Christian Maturity and the Next Great Awakening, uses historical and cultural lenses to prepare you for the next Great Awakening as well as to live a better, more faith-filled life in the present. You will find this work as engaging as it is informative.

Do Christians need recovery? Or is recovery something needed by the church itself? Addiction—whether to a substance or to a behavior—is a problem within faith communities, just like it is everywhere else. But because churches are rarely experienced as safe places for dealing with addiction, co-addiction, or the legacy of family dysfunction, Christians tend to seek recovery from these conditions in Twelve-Step fellowships. Once they become accustomed to the ethos of vulnerability, acceptance, and healing that these fellowships provide, however, they are often left feeling that the church has failed them, with many asking: why can’t church be more like an AA meeting? Inspired by his own quest to find in church the sort of mutual support and healing he discovered in Twelve-Step fellowships, Stephen Haynes explores the history of Alcoholics Anonymous and its relationship to American Christianity. He shows that, while AA eventually separated from the Christian parachurch movement out of which it emerged, it retained aspects of Christian experience that the church itself has largely lost: comfort with brokenness and vulnerability, an emphasis on honesty and transparency, and suspicion toward claims to piety and respectability. Haynes encourages Christians to reclaim these distinctive elements of the Twelve-Step movement in the process of “recovering church.” He argues that this process must begin with he calls “Step 0,” which, as he knows from personal experience, can be the hardest step: the admission that, despite appearances, we are not fine.

The Gift of Jesus is a thoroughly trustworthy and inspiring devotional focused on the amazing gift of Jesus and what that means in our daily lives. It was created and written by General Editor Johnny Hunt, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention along with 51 Southern Baptist pastors and ministry leaders, including Dr. James Merritt, Dr. Ronnie Floyd, Dr. Steve Dighton, Dr. Don Wilton, Dr. Ted Traylor, and Dr. Michael Cloer. Each daily entry includes Scripture passages, a devotion, and a prayer. Explore such interesting themes as Jesus our Savior; Jesus, our companion for life; abiding in Christ; Jesus, our Rest; the basis of hope; God is with you; and how the Bible changes lives. This is the seventh book in the My Daily™series of devotionals with more than ­­­­500,000 units sold.

In his classic novel, The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan wrote allegory of the progress of the Christian Pilgrimage from the City of Destruction (this world) to the Celestial City (the world to come). Written in 1678 and now translated into over 200 languages, its message is still significant and relevant for Christians today. As an allegory, it pictures the struggles and challenges that confront Christians at all times. This book, relates the true story of a Christian journey that started over fifty years ago in Africa but extended to Europe (England) and America. It is interspersed with personal stories, encounters and reminiscences that point to the struggles, hurdles and hindrances faced by Christians today in their journey anywhere in the world. It suggests spiritual vitamins essential for spiritual stamina in the Christian journey in spiritual formation. The book evaluates the vital characteristics of spiritual formation and suggests from a biblical and theological perspective the disciplines necessary for its development. It affirms its validity with reference to the way in which class meetings played a major role in the Wesleyan tradition of spiritual formation. It recommends that exploring modern forms of class meetings would address current church decline.