Showing results by narrator "Lisa Larsen" in All Categories

When a Delaware real estate mogul is murdered, Reverend Candice Miller is called to minister to the grieving family. She quickly realizes that the killer has adopted the symbolism of sin eating, a Victorian-era religious ritual, as a calling card. Newspaper journalist Brian Wilder wants the scoop on the killing, including the meaning behind the mysterious loaf of bread left with the corpse.

After being humiliated in front of her entire hometown of Moose Knuckle, New Hampshire, Hadley Mortimer heads south to lick her wounds—all the way to the island of Devil's Beach, Florida, where she's opened her first business, Give Me Chills, an artisan ice-cream truck. After a couple of weeks, she's living the cream and has even met a gorgeous guy named Zander, who seems to appreciate more than her soft-serve cones. When Zander asks her to bring an ice-cream cake to his great-aunt's funeral, Hadley overhears two people talking about murder.

There’s nothing like an important birthday to make a person realize all the things they haven’t accomplished. As Tabitha Steele blows out thirty candles, she makes a wish to take charge of her life. It’s a tall order, considering she doesn’t have much to show for herself since leaving military service. She works at a motorcycle shop but has never even ridden a motorcycle; she’s floundering in massage school; her social life consists of her aunt and her gym buddies; and her closest relationship is with Trinity, the service dog who helps her manage every day.

What is the difference between the kid who struggles to "adult" and the one who jumps in feet first, ready to thrive? It all comes down to mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets. Either we as parents raise kids who are dependent on us or we raise kids who are confident, capable, and eager to take on the challenges of an independent adult life.

"I don't care for vocational books written in the United States; they're too American." When Susan Maros heard this comment from a Malaysian colleague, she was initially taken aback. Isn't the concept of calling universal? Why wouldn't resources with a biblical perspective on vocation apply to everyone? The reality is that each of us encounters our questions of calling from within a particular context.

Pastor Tara Beth Leach continues, "I hated that I was marked by fear," reflecting on how fear and anxiety can plague a Six - whether they are pulling back from or diving right in to the things that feel threatening. She explores what it means for her to be a redeemed Six who is allowing Jesus to transform her a little at a time.

We live in an age uniquely attentive to the problem of mental illness. More than half of us will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in our lifetime. It has been easy, for centuries, to relegate persistent emotional and mental struggles entirely to the realm of a failed personal work ethic ("Just don't worry so much!"), not enough faith ("Just pray harder!"), or, in recent years, a chemical imbalance in our brains ("Just take this pill!").

Cynthia Ruchti and Becky Melby know all too well how adjusting to a new, all-the-time closeness can cause the bliss of marriage to form blisters. Drawing from their experiences, and from men and women across the country in the same situation, the authors take a deep breath and dive into the root causes of the discomfort. They dig into the ways God's word addresses the topic, and they offer practical tips for learning the spiritual, emotional, relational, and even physical steps that can help listeners replace irritation with peace.

When her close friend, Reese Marigold, goes missing after attending Last Chance, an exclusive singles’ retreat on a remote island off the coast of Hawaii, no-nonsense lawyer Ann Stone infiltrates the retreat. Ann quickly realizes there’s more to Last Chance than meets the eye. The extravagant clothes, never-ending interviews, and bizarre dates hint that the retreat is a front for a reality dating show. Could Reese be safe, keeping a low profile until the premier, or did something sinister occur after all?

A year ago, Nora Hannigan died. But she left behind a haunting legacy of untruths and mysteries. Now, her four adult daughters are ready to face the past and find happiness on their own terms. Oldest Kate thought she’d put family drama behind her. But then a new commotion crashes onto the shoreline of her very own backyard, and she’s once again thrust into a small-town scandal.

Betsy Brown Braun blends humor with her expertise as a child development specialist, popular parent educator, and mother of triplets. Whatever your dilemma or child's question - from "How did the baby get in your tummy?" to "What does 'dead' mean?" to "It's not fair!" - Betsy offers the tools and confidence you need to explain the world to your growing child.

On the verge of divorce, Megan Hannigan needs a distraction. So, she turns to the sunny tract of farmland left in her mother's will. It's the perfect locale for a budding business, but locals disagree. Only a third party can help navigate this pesky small-town grudge or else Megan's career plan is dead in the water. Meanwhile, Megan's oldest sister, Kate, hosts a grand opening for her newly renovated Heirloom Inn. Everything is going smoothly until her high school sweetheart reveals a disastrous confession.

Reeling from the fallout of her late mother's estate, Amelia Hannigan and her sisters thought they had put family secrets behind them. But settling the matriarch's affairs was just the beginning. When Amelia unearths a cryptic diary entry, a new mystery takes shape: the whereabouts of the women's long-lost father.

From the masses of young people spurning organized religion to faithful followers of Jesus, there is a deep hunger across gender, age, socioeconomics, and denominational backgrounds for practical, tangible ways to live a life of love, mercy, and justice in our divided, fragmented world. But where do we start? Its easy to feel overwhelmed by the worlds problems, with solutions to violence and poverty and oppression seeming so far out of reach.

Tension in our personal relationships are at an all-time high. Dialogue - when it happens at all - is heated. It isn't that we've lost hope in what faith and politics can accomplish in our world. It's that in our polarizing times, faith and politics seem to be leading more to rage than actual change. It's discouraging, disheartening, and disappointing. But it doesn't have to stay that way. Civility is not a pipe dream. Nuance is not unrecoverable. Peace is possible. And it can all start right here, right now, with us.

Seventeen-year-old Harley Martin has been obsessed with Paris for years. So when Harley's parents feel guilty enough about their constant fighting to offer to send Harley to visit her cousin Gretchen, she doesn't hesitate. But Gretchen and Harley have both changed in the years they've been apart. In an effort to rekindle their friendship, Harley agrees to Gretchen's suggested activity, even though it's outside her comfort zone: a tour with Gretchen and her friends through the off-limits section of the Paris Catacombs.

It's tempting to respond to the slights and indignities of life with bitterness, resentment, frustration, or sadness. But what if there's a better way? Enter The Peace Project and its potent mixture of practicing thankfulness, kindness, and mercy. With short, digestible chapters and plenty of practical application, The Peace Project demonstrates that lasting inner peace comes from outward practices - seeing others, as well as ourselves, not as obstacles to overcome or objects against which to compete or compare but as people of great worth.

If you feel overwhelmed, you're not alone. Three out of five people admit to doing more than they can manage. Thinking God requires this, we say, "I must be everything to everyone". Then we struggle and feel selfish and guilty when we say no, grow weary, or snap at someone out of sheer exhaustion. Is this what God desires? Somewhere along the line of being a good Christian, wife, daughter, or friend we lose sight of who we are in Christ.

In this book, Kerstin shares her own stories with the honesty of your best friend. She explains what has worked for real, overwhelmed, under-supported women who are living through unbearable waits: unemployment, illness, infertility, death, even seasons of joylessness that seem to never end. You will learn how to manage all the little waits that come daily, the ones that make you feel like you're missing out on your life. Where's My Crown offers tangible advice and actionable steps for coping through each season.

Modern medical advances save countless lives. But for all their merits, sophisticated technologies have created a daunting new challenge, namely a blurring of the expanse between life and death. The dying process is often hidden behind a complex web of medical terminology, statistics, and ethical decisions, making it difficult for patients and loved ones to know how to approach the end of life in a dignity-affirming, God-honoring, faith-filled way.