St. Jude Oak Cliff Bookstore

Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit

A follow up to the profound message of Crazy Love, Pastor Francis Chan offers a compelling invitation to understand, embrace, and follow the Holy Spirit’s direction in our lives.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and … the Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of all three, but how often do we live with an awareness of only the first two? As Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised to send the Holy Spirit—the Helper—so that we could be true and living witnesses for Christ. Unfortunately, today’s church has admired the gift but neglected to open it.

Breakthrough author Francis Chan rips away paper and bows to get at the true source of the church’s power—the Holy Spirit. Chan contends that we’ve ignored the Spirit for far too long, and we are reaping the disastrous results. Thorough scriptural support and compelling narrative form Chan’s invitation to stop and remember the One we’ve forgotten, the Spirit of the living God.

• Buy on Amazon

12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You

Do You Control Your Phone—Or Does Your Phone Control You?

Within a few years of its unveiling, the smartphone had become part of us, fully integrated into the daily patterns of our lives. Never offline, always within reach, we now wield in our hands a magic wand of technological power we have only begun to grasp. But it raises new enigmas, too. Never more connected, we seem to be growing more distant. Never more efficient, we have never been more distracted.

Drawing from the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, writer Tony Reinke identifies twelve potent ways our smartphones have changed us—for good and bad. Reinke calls us to cultivate wise thinking and healthy habits in the digital age, encouraging us to maximize the many blessings, to avoid the various pitfalls, and to wisely wield the most powerful gadget of human connection ever unleashed.

• Buy on Amazon

What Is the Trinity? (Crucial Questions)

The Bible teaches that God is one in substance and three in person—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Although the Trinity is clearly taught in the Bible, it has been attacked throughout church history, and many Christians today have not studied this foundational doctrine.

In this booklet, Dr. R.C. Sproul carefully explains the Trinity and clarifies common misconceptions. While the Trinity is mysterious, it is not contradictory, and it is essential to understanding the nature of God.

The Crucial Questions booklet series by Dr. R.C. Sproul offers succinct answers to important questions often asked by Christians and thoughtful inquirers.

• Buy on Amazon

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

You are what you love. But you might not love what you think.

In this book, award-winning author James K. A. Smith shows that who and what we worship fundamentally shape our hearts. And while we desire to shape culture, we are not often aware of how culture shapes us. We might not realize the ways our hearts are being taught to love rival gods instead of the One for whom we were made. Smith helps readers recognize the formative power of culture and the transformative possibilities of Christian practices. He explains that worship is the "imagination station" that incubates our loves and longings so that our cultural endeavors are indexed toward God and his kingdom. This is why the church and worshiping in a local community of believers should be the hub and heart of Christian formation and discipleship.

Following the publication of his influential work Desiring the Kingdom, Smith received numerous requests from pastors and leaders for a more accessible version of that book's content. No mere abridgment, this new book draws on years of Smith's popular presentations on the ideas in Desiring the Kingdom to offer a fresh, bottom-up rearticulation. The author creatively uses film, literature, and music illustrations to engage readers and includes new material on marriage, family, youth ministry, and faith and work. He also suggests individual and communal practices for shaping the Christian life.

• Buy on Amazon

Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies)

Malls, stadiums, and universities are actually liturgical structures that influence and shape our thoughts and affections. Humans--as Augustine noted--are "desiring agents," full of longings and passions; in brief, we are what we love.

James K. A. Smith focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire in Desiring the Kingdom, the first book in what will be a three-volume set on the theology of culture. He redirects our yearnings to focus on the greatest good: God. Ultimately, Smith seeks to re-vision education through the process and practice of worship. Students of philosophy, theology, worldview, and culture will welcome Desiring the Kingdom, as will those involved in ministry and other interested readers.

• Buy on Amazon

Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian in Community

In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, renowned Christian minister, professor, and author of The Cost of Discipleship recounts his unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years in Germany. Giving practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups, Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.

• Buy on Amazon

In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character

Sometimes we ask What is God’s will for my life? when we should really be asking Who should I be? The Bible has an answer: Be like the very image of God.

By exploring ten characteristics of who God is―holy, loving, just, good, merciful, gracious, faithful, patient, truthful, and wise―this book helps us understand who God intends for us to be. Through Christ, the perfect reflection of the image of God, we will discover how God’s own attributes impact how we live, leading to freedom and purpose as we follow his will and are conformed to his image.

• Buy on Amazon

No More Holding Back: Emboldening Women to Move Past Barriers, See Their Worth, and Serve God Everywhere

What’s holding you back from living out your identity as a woman of God?

Many of us as women feel conflicted about Jesus’s calling on our lives because a woman trying to love God beyond her heart and soul, with her mind and strength, can be thought of as crossing some line or unspoken boundary.

Bible teacher Kat Armstrong challenges us to ask, “Why am I allowing limitations on my pursuit of Jesus’s calling?”

In No More Holding Back, Armstrong debunks five common myths about women:

1. Women Can’t Be Trusted to Learn and Lead
2. I Don’t Have a Lot to Offer
3. My Greatest Joy Is Marriage and Highest Calling Is Motherhood Chapter 
4. I Am Too Much to Handle
5. Leading Ladies Don’t Fit in Supporting Roles 

 No More Holding Back invites us to discover the joy and freedom of being all in for Jesus.

• Buy on Amazon

Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story

TThere is a growing body of literature about the missional church, but the word missional is often defined in competing ways with little attempt to ground it deeply in Scripture. Michael Goheen, a dynamic speaker and the co-author of two popular texts on the biblical narrative, unpacks the missional identity of the church by tracing the role God's people are called to play in the biblical story. Goheen shows that the church's identity can be understood only when its role is articulated in the context of the whole biblical storynot just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. He also explores practical out workings and implications, offering field tested suggestions for contemporary churches.

• Buy on Amazon

Jesus and the Disinherited

In this classic theological treatise, the acclaimed theologian and religious leader Howard Thurman (1900-1981) demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus is a partner in the pain of the oppressed and the example of His life offers a solution to ending the descent into moral nihilism. Hatred does not empower--it decays. Only through self-love and love of one another can God's justice prevail.

• Buy on Amazon

The Mediation of Christ

In "The Mediation of Christ," Thomas F. Torrance (Professor Emeritus of Christian Dogmatics at the University of Edinburgh) sets forth a devotional theology of the atoning work of Christ in: the mediation of revelation, the mediation of reconciliation, the person of the mediator, the mediation of Christ in our human response, and the atonement and the Holy Trinity. This important 2nd edition adds a foreword addressing the reality of unconditional grace in relation to "the integrity of the response we are called to make in repentance for sin and in acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Savior." Also added to this edition is a new final chapter, which further addresses the centrality of the Trinity in the atonement.

• Buy on Amazon

Evangelism: Doing Justice and Preaching Grace

Evangelism involves the ministry of listening and serving, as well as speaking. That combination communicates God's message of life in Christ in a way that meets people where they are.

Harvie M. Conn alerts us to barriers that hinder such communication—barriers that can be overcome in a Spirit-enlightened ministry of love and mercy. He discusses "righteous deeds" as a neglected but essential aspect of effective evangelism.

Conn says in his preface, "My prayer is that this book will not emerge as one more exercise in blackboard evangelism, one more excuse to learn a little bit more and do a little bit less, to keep off the streets and out of the kitchen. May it direct us to the streets and not, pray God, to the study."

• Buy on Amazon

Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World's Largest Religion

Religion’s decline in the modern world turns out to be a myth.

Christianity is the most widespread global belief system, and promises to remain so well into the future. But for many educated westerners, biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea―challenging some of their deepest beliefs.

Channeling state-of-the-art research, personal stories, and careful biblical study, Confronting Christianity explores 12 questions that keep many of us from considering faith in Christ. Look more closely, McLaughlin argues, and the reality of suffering, the complexity of sexuality, the desire for diversity, the success of science, and other seeming roadblocks to faith become signposts. Jesus becomes not a relic from the ancient world, but our modern world’s best hope.Item_weight:16.0 ounces

• Buy on Amazon

The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life

An Inspiring Classic on the Nature of God

What is the nature of God? How can we recapture a real sense of God's majesty and truly live in the Spirit? This beloved book, a modern classic of Christian testimony and devotion, addresses these and other vital questions, showing us how we can rejuvenate our prayer life, meditate more reverently, understand God more deeply, and experience God's presence in our daily lives.

Informative and inspiring, The Knowledge of the Holy illuminates God's attributes'from wisdom, to grace, to mercy'and shows through prayerful and insightful discussion, how we can more fully recognize and appreciate each of these divine aspects. This book will be treasured by anyone committed to the Christian faith. It bears eloquent witness to God's majesty and shows us new ways to experience and understand the wonder and the power of God's spirit in our daily lives.

• Buy on Amazon

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

In Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, top-selling author and Anglican bishop, N.T. Wright tackles the biblical question of what happens after we die and shows how most Christians get it wrong. We do not “go to” heaven; we are resurrected and heaven comes down to earth--a difference that makes all of the difference to how we live on earth. Following N.T. Wright’s resonant exploration of a life of faith in Simply Christian, the award-winning author whom Newsweek calls “the world’s leading New Testament scholar” takes on one of life’s most controversial topics, a matter of life, death, spirituality, and survival for everyone living in the world today. 

• Buy on Amazon

Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith

• 2012 Preaching Survey of the Year's Best Books for Preachers

• Buy on Amazon

The Complete Chronicles of Narnia ( Boxed Set 7 Books )

The Chronicles of Narnia Collection 7 Books set by C.S. Lewis.The series revolves around the adventures of children in the world of Narnia, guided by Aslan.

• Buy on Amazon

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

A repackaged edition of the revered author’s retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche—what he and many others regard as his best novel.

C. S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—brilliantly reimagines the story of Cupid and Psyche. Told from the viewpoint of Psyche’s sister, Orual, Till We Have Faces is a brilliant examination of envy, betrayal, loss, blame, grief, guilt, and conversion. In this, his final—and most mature and masterful—novel, Lewis reminds us of our own fallibility and the role of a higher power in our lives.

• Buy on Amazon

Hinds Feet On High Places

Much-Afraid had been in the service of the Chief Shepherd, whose great flocks were pastured down in the Valley of Humiliation. She lived with her friends and fellow workers Mercy and Peace in a tranquil little white cottage in the village of Much-Trembling. She loved her work and desired intensely to please the Chief Shepherd, but happy as she was in most ways, she was conscious of several things which hindered her in her work and caused her much secret distress and shame. Here is the allegorical tale of Much-Afraid, an every-woman searching for guidance from God to lead her to a higher place.

• Buy on Amazon

In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership

• Buy on Amazon

The Way of the Heart: Connecting with God Through Prayer, Wisdom, and Silence

Since its first publication, The Way of the Heart has helped millions of men and women cast off the anger and greed that trouble the world—and find love, compassion, and peace in the heart of God.

Inspired by the ancient teachings of St. Anthony and the Desert Fathers,The Way of the Heart clears before us a spiritual path consisting of three stepping-stones: Solitude (learning not to be alone but to be alone with God); Silence (the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive); and Prayer (standing in the presence of God with the mind in the heart).

Distinguished theologian Henri Nouwen brilliantly illuminates each of these disciplines. In reflections that are beautifully clear and practical, as uplifting on the fourth reading as on the first, he helps us separate the wheat from the chaff in our spiritual lives–and reconnects us with what truly matters.

Within this one small book lies the most relevant and inspiring challenge that we shall ever face: to surrender the compulsive noise of the world for the way of the heart that leads us to God.

• Buy on Amazon

Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

• Buy on Amazon

Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness

When Jesus "made himself nothing...taking the nature of a servant," He modeled for all believers true humility. Andrew Murray calls this "our true nobility" and "the
distinguishing feature of discipleship." With insightful, penetrating clarity, Murray calls all Christians to turn from pride, empty themselves, and study the character of Christ to be filled with His grace. Often called the best work on humility ever written, this edition has been edited for today's reader.

• Buy on Amazon

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time, as seen in the HBO documentary True Justice

“[Bryan Stevenson’s] dedication to fighting for justice and equality has inspired me and many others and made a lasting impact on our country.”—John Legend

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • The Seattle Times • Esquire • Time

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Nonfiction • Winner of a Books for a Better Life Award • Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • Finalist for the Kirkus Reviews Prize • An American Library Association Notable Book

“Every bit as moving as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so . . . a searing indictment of American criminal justice and a stirring testament to the salvation that fighting for the vulnerable sometimes yields.”—David Cole, The New York Review of Books

“Searing, moving . . . Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be America’s Mandela.”—Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

“You don’t have to read too long to start cheering for this man. . . . The message of this book . . . is that evil can be overcome, a difference can be made. Just Mercy will make you upset and it will make you hopeful.”—Ted Conover, The New York Times Book Review

“Inspiring . . . a work of style, substance and clarity . . . Stevenson is not only a great lawyer, he’s also a gifted writer and storyteller.”—The Washington Post

“As deeply moving, poignant and powerful a book as has been, and maybe ever can be, written about the death penalty.”—The Financial Times

“Brilliant.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

• Buy on Amazon

The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege

• 2017 Foreword INDIES Book Award Honorable Mention

• Publishers Weekly's Five Best Religion Titles of 2017

• Buy on Amazon