Divinely Inspired
Easter is right around the corner, and Paper Leaves is prepared with a shelf full of Bibles, devotions, and other Christian titles as Easter grows closer. Our top picks for Bibles include our She Reads Truth and He reads Truth Bibles meant to better help men and woman of God grow in their faith. Here are a few other titles we recommend.
Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff
As a college student he spent 16 days in the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of canned meat. As a father he took his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren't good enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean's office for seven days until they finally let him enroll.
Bob Goff has become something of a legend, and his friends consider him the world's best-kept secret. Those same friends have long insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm shifts, musings, and stories from one of the world's most delightfully engaging and winsome people. What fuels his impact? Love. But it's not the kind of love that stops at thoughts and feelings. Bob's love takes action. Bob believes Love Does.
When Love Does, life gets interesting. Each day turns into a hilarious, whimsical, meaningful chance that makes faith simple and real. Each chapter is a story that forms a book, a life. And this is one life you don't want to miss.
Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn from Bob's life and attitude just might inspire you to be secretly incredible, too.
Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere by Savannah Guthrie
If we could believe this, really believe this, how different would we be? How different would our lives be? How different would our world be?
If you ever struggle with your connection to God (or whether you even feel connected to a faith at all!), you're not alone. Especially in our modern world, with its relentless, never-ending news cycle, we can all grapple with such questions. Do we do that alone, with despair and resignation? Or do we make sense of it with God, and with hope? In these uncertain times, could believing in the power of divine love make the most sense?
In this collection of essays, Savannah Guthrie shares why she believes it does. Unspooling personal stories from her own joys and sorrows as a daughter, mother, wife, friend, and professional journalist, the award-winning TODAY show coanchor and New York Times bestselling author explores the place of faith in everyday life.
Sharing hard-won wisdom forged from mountaintop triumphs, crushing failures, and even the mundane moments of day-to-day living, Mostly What God Does reveals the transformative ways that belief in God helps us discover real hope for this life and beyond.
A perfect companion to your morning cup of coffee, this incisive volume—not a memoir but a beautiful tapestry of reflections crafted as a spiritual manual—includes:
• a fresh, biblically rooted look at six essentials of faith: love, presence, grace, hope, gratitude, and purpose;
• an honest exploration of questions, doubts, and fears about the love of God;
• a dose of encouragement for the faith-full, the faith-curious, and the faith-less;
• …and much more.
This deeply personal collection is designed to engage the practical ways that God loves you—not just the world, but you—and to inspire you to venture down a path of faith that is authentic, hopeful, destiny-shaping, and ultimately life-changing.
Women of the Bible Speak: The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons For Today by Shannon Bream
The women of the Bible lived timeless stories—by examining them, we can understand what it means to be a woman of faith.
People unfamiliar with Scripture often assume that women play a small, secondary role in the Bible. But in fact, they were central figures in numerous Biblical tales. It was Queen Esther’s bravery at a vital point in history which saved her entire people. The Bible contains warriors like Jael, judges like Deborah, and prophets like Miriam. The first person to witness Jesus’ resurrection was Mary Magdalene, who promptly became the first Christian evangelist, eager to share the news which would change the world forever.
In The Women of the Bible Speak, Fox News Channel's Shannon Bream opens up the lives of sixteen of these Biblical women, arranging them into pairs and contrasting their journeys. In pairing their stories, Shannon helps us reflect not only on the meaning of each individual’s life, but on how they relate to each other and to us.
From the shepherdesses of ancient Israel who helped raise the future leaders of the people of God, to the courageous early Christians, the narrative of the Bible offers us many vivid and fascinating female characters. In their lives we can see common struggles to resist bitterness, despair, and pride, and to instead find their true selves in faith, hope, and love. In studying these heroes of the faith, we can find wisdom and warnings for how to better navigate our own faith journeys.
The Women of the Bible Speak outlines the lessons we can take from the valor of Esther, the hope of Hannah, the audacity of Rahab, and the faith of Mary. In broadening each woman’s individual story, Shannon offers us a deeper understanding of each, and wisdom and insights that can transform our own lives today.
30 Days with Jesus Bible Study Guide: Experiencing His Presence throughout the Old and New Testaments by Lisa TerKeurst and Joel Muddamalle
Jesus is never absent. You are never alone. When world events feel chaotic and scary … When you feel crippled by fear and anxiety … When you feel hurt by the very people you thought you could count on … It’s tempting to wonder “Jesus, are you here? Do you care?” Though we may feel alone sometimes, Jesus assures us we are not. Even when we can’t see Him, He is here. Even when we aren’t hearing Him, He isn’t silent. How can we know this for sure? Because Jesus is never absent in any of Scripture, and he’s certainly not absent in our lives either. In 30 Days with Experiencing His Presence Throughout the Old and New Testaments , authors Lysa TerKeurst and Dr. Joel Muddamalle will help Jesus isn’t hiding from us; He’s waiting to be seen by us. Let this Bible study help you experience His presence every single day.
God Never Give Up On You by Max Lucado
Ever wonder if you’ve stumbled one too many times for God to use someone like you? Could you benefit from an encounter with God’s unending, unbending, unswerving love and devotion? If your answer is yes, it’s time for you to see how God’s grace transformed Jacob’s life. And if you feel undeserving of God’s grace, this book will serve as a refresher course on God’s perfect plan to use imperfect people to do great things. God Never Gives Up on You is for the strugglers among us and the fumbler within us. For those of us who are part saint, part scoundrel; we mean well, but we don’t always do well. We have breakthroughs and breakdowns, often in the same hour. We need no reminder of our failures. But where can we find examples of God’s steadfast grace? No one is more suited to help assure you of God’s grace than Jacob. He was less a prodigy and more a prodigal. Strong on savvy. Weak on conscience. Jacob took advantage of his famished brother and pulled the wool over the eyes of his dying father, yet God never turned his back on Jacob. And he won’t turn his back on you. If you are ready to start counting on God’s grace and believe he never gives up on you, this book is for you.
Written by Carlie Renee
