Showing results by narrator "Carla Mercer-Meyer" in All Categories

At age 12, Ashlee Nichols fell in love with her brother's best friend, Beau Jacobsen. Everyone thought she was cute, and that her crush was simply a crush. But her young heart had known he was the one, and she had planned on marrying him as soon as she was old enough. Unfortunately, when she confessed her feelings to Beau, he'd laughed, patted her on the head and told her he was flattered. Sure, Beau had been 22 at the time, but she knew she wouldn't always be a little girl. Just when she turned 18 and was finally old enough to date him, Beau joined the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan.

Writer, speaker, and blogger Elizabeth Scalia takes a look at 13 little sins that, if left unexamined and unconfessed, can have a serious impact on our spiritual lives and relationship with Christ. Through her honest (and sometimes funny) examination of these same sins in her own life as well as Church teaching on each one, she helps us ask ourselves the tough questions and gives us the tools to kick these bad habits before they kick us.

They've escaped the Breeders, yet their journey has just begun. Riley and Clay are once again on the run from the Breeders. The group may have escaped the deranged experiments at the hospital, but as one of the world's last free women, Riley can never be safe. On the road back home, Riley and her crew are captured by a band of savage men. Their destination: the Citadel, run by a bizarre religious prophet named the Messiah. Somehow he knows their secrets. He wants them to join his group of Believers, but only if they'll drink the baptismal water and swear allegiance.

After her husband became an agnostic, Stina Kielsmeier-Cook was left "spiritually single" - struggling to live the Christian life on her own, taking her kids to church by herself, and wrestling with her own questions and doubts. In this memoir, Kielsmeier-Cook tells the story of her mixed-faith marriage and how she found community in an unexpected place: an order of Catholic nuns in her neighborhood. As she spent time with them and learned about female Catholic saints, she began to see that she was not "spiritually single" after all - and that no one really is.

Our dwellings - both our home and body - are intricately connected. Each has the potential to inspire the other to be its very best! Your home is where your life happens. Learn how to create a sanctuary that inspires your well-being, so you can experience a greater sense of peace, comfort, and belonging. Your body, including your mind and soul, needs daily nourishment to help you feel healthy and happy.

It is 1845, and Hannah Gardner Price has lived all 24 years of her life according to the principles of the Nantucket Quaker community in which she was raised, where simplicity and restraint are valued above all, and a woman's path is expected to lead to marriage and motherhood. But up on the rooftop each night, Hannah pursues a very different - and elusive - goal: discovering a comet and thereby winning a gold medal awarded by the King of Denmark, something unheard of for a woman. And then she meets Isaac Martin, a young, dark-skinned whaler from the Azores who, like herself, has ambitions beyond his expected station in life.

They've escaped the Breeders. They've broken out of the Citadel. Now, after all they've been through, Riley, Clay, and Ethan know one thing for sure: nothing tastes sweeter than freedom. And no one can rest easy with Auntie Bell in bondage.

Emma Sharpe, granddaughter of world-renowned art detective Wendell Sharpe, is a handpicked member of a small Boston-based FBI team. For the past decade Emma and her grandfather have been trailing an elusive serial art thief. The first heist was in Ireland, where an ancient Celtic cross was stolen. Now the Sharpes receive a replica of the cross after every new theft - reminding them of their continued failure to capture their prey.

In this audiobook, godly, clear-thinking women talk about a range of areas of life and culture. They help us to be thoughtful about films, books, and the media; set out biblical principles for approaching topics such as body image and racism; and encourage us to shape the world around us for Christ - becoming beautifully distinct.

Whether it’s the TV or radio continually playing in the background or the persistent pinging on our phones, the constant noise and frenetic pace of modern life can be overwhelming. The cacophony of cultural messages that permeate the air produces an inner restlessness that says, “You should be doing more, saying more, posting more, and sharing more.” More than ever, we need sanctuary, not only as a refuge from the noise around us but also as a place where God’s truth can be clearly heard.

Many believers know in their heads that God cares about them. But it's hard to hold that truth in your heart when you're worn out and weary from the mundane, everyday battles and struggles - when you lose your temper again or give into that persistent temptation or feel paralyzed by overwhelming circumstances. The truth is that the Holy Spirit is right there - waiting for you to let him help. With warmth and encouragement, Sarah Bowling shows how he longs to be part of every situation you face in life.

Many Christians are alarmed by the decline in church attendance and seek a culprit. Too often, we point the finger away from the church, make culture the enemy, and build walls between us and others. But our antagonism and enemy-making are toxins that further eat away at our witness. Is there a better way? Tara Beth Leach could easily be one of those millennials giving up on the church. Instead, she is a pastor who loves the church and is paradoxically hopeful for its future.

Emily Miller tells her personal story of how being a single, female victim of a home invasion drove her to try to obtain a legally registered gun in Washington, D.C. The narrative - sometimes shocking, other times hilarious in its absurdity - gives the listener a real-life understanding of how gun-control laws only make it more difficult for honest, law-abiding people to get guns, while violent crime continues to rise.

Greta loves her job as assistant librarian. She loves her best friend, Will, the high school civics teacher and debate coach. She even loves her mother despite her obvious disappointment that Greta is still single. Then she meets Mac in the poetry section of the library, and she is smitten. Mac is heart-stoppingly gorgeous and showers her with affection - poetic text messages, and free hot chocolate at the local café where he works. The only problem is that he seems to be a different person in his texts than in his face-to-face conversation.

Sarah Ivill contends, “As we study prayer through the lens of the unfolding story of Scripture, it will teach us how to pray, but more importantly it will reveal the Covenant God to whom we pray.” And such an endeavor provides the foundation and motivation necessary to enrich our prayer life. See how Old Testament prayers find their fulfillment and transformation in Christ. Discover boldness and joy in prayer because Christ is the high priest who gives us access to the throne of grace. Moreover, look forward to an eternity in which our prayers will consist of unhindered praise.

An engaging and accessible guide to the Bible’s teaching on miracles and whether they happen today.

The dream of becoming a writer takes hold of Isabelle Rothman during her senior year of college. Feeling brave, she begins a tutorial with a once highly praised novelist, Daniel Jablonski, known on campus as eccentric and disengaged. Despite his reputation, Isabelle loves his novels and hopes he can teach her the secrets of his luminous prose. But their first meeting is a disaster. He never read the chapters she submitted and will not apologize for being unprepared.

In these profound reflections on the mysteries of life and death, Stone unpacks how childbirth reveals our anxieties, our physicality, our mortality. All who are born or give birth will someday die. While living and working in one of the world's most impoverished countries, teacher, doula, and mother Rachel Marie Stone unexpectedly caught a baby without wearing gloves, drenching her bare hands with HIV-positive blood. Already worried about her health and family and whether her service was of any use, Stone grappled with realities of human suffering, global justice, and maternal health.

Kara Tippetts discovered how to find joy in the small moments of life. She learned how to hold tight to hope, even while battling intense physical and emotional pain. And she lived out the truth that God can redeem any story. In her final book, Kara offers gentle reflections on living and dying well. She invites us to cultivate soft hearts, even when we face great disappointment. Her ideas for living are hard-won, wrestled with in the crucible of family, illness, and faith.

So many Christian women are exhausted because we've come to believe that God's purpose for us is rooted in what we do - which means we're constantly striving to have somehow done enough. But there is hope! Elizabeth takes us back to the gracious plan God laid out for us in Genesis: He created us to bear his image, he is inviting us to live out that purpose, and through Christ, he frees us to flourish as those who are unconditionally loved.