Gary L. Thomas

Happy is good. Holy is better. Your marriage is more than a sacred covenant with another person. It is a spiritual discipline designed to help you know God better, trust him more fully, and love him more deeply. What if God's primary intent for your marriage isn't to make you happy . . . but holy? Sacred Marriage doesn't just offer techniques to make a marriage happier. It does contain practical tools, but what married Christians most need is help in becoming holier husbands and wives.Sacred Marriage offers that help with insights from Scripture, church history, time tested wisdom from Christian classics, and examples from today's marriages. Sacred Marriage reveals how marriage trains us to love God and others well, how it exposes sin and makes us more aware of God's presence, how good marriages foster good prayer, how married sex feeds the spiritual life, and more. The revised edition of Sacred Marriage takes into account the ways men's and women's roles have expanded since the book was first written. It has been streamlined to be a faster read without losing the depth that so many readers have valued. Sacred Marriage uncovers the mystery of God's overarching purpose. This book may very well alter profoundly the contours of your marriage. It will most certainly change you. Because whether it is delightful or difficult, your marriage can become a doorway to a closer walk with God, and to a spiritual integrity that, like salt, seasons the world around you with the savor of Christ.

What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?

Sacred Marriage

Profiles nine spiritual temperaments from their characteristics to their strengths and weaknesses, explaining why some people demonstrate worship through prayer while others engage in other devotional activities, and revealing how to discover one's own natural means of expression. Reprint.

Discover Your Soul's Path to God

Sacred Pathways

A countless number of marriages right now consist of two people just going through the motions. Thomas insists that this pattern can be reversed when husbands and wives learn to cherish one another in proven, loving, and everyday actions and words. Ultimately, Cherish can help bring hope, light, and life into any marriage.

The One Word That Changes Everything for Your Marriage

Cherish

How Raising Children Shapes Our Souls

Sacred Parenting

why do Christians feel so bad about feeling good?

Pure pleasure

How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands

Sacred Influence

Celebrating Marriage as a Spiritual Discipline

We all know toxic people who seem determined to frustrate our life's calling. While you're seeking God's kingdom, they're seeking to distract your focus and delay your work. Yet it's only once we learn to say no to bad patterns that we are set free to we say yes to the good God has planned for us. Thomas shares biblical principles for dealing with the toxic people in our lives, allowing us to set healthy boundaries and focus on our God-given purpose. -- adapted from jacket

Finding Freedom from Toxic People

When to Walk Away

Sacred Marriage Gift Edition

The wedding is planned, but are you spiritually prepared for your wedding day? Trusted relationship author Gary Thomas coaches engaged couples on how to grow closer to the Lord in the days leading up to the wedding as a means of preparing them for all the days after the wedding. Engagement is bursting with promise, hope, joy, and anticipation of all kinds. It can also be one of the busiest times your life. For some, planning a wedding, with all the decisions involved, can feel less like the onset of marriage and more like a long to-do list. Amidst the busyness, this devotional is designed to help you think through the spiritual priorities and challenges that lie ahead in order to grow an outstanding marriage filled with love, grace, and God's blessing. This lovely book provides encouraging entries that will help you deal with common issues such as: What real intimacy means How to celebrate your differences Remembering to laugh together With a special section on the marriage vows and meditations for the bride and groom, Preparing Your Heart for Marriage will help you grow in your relationship as a couple as you become closer to God.

Devotions for Engaged Couples

Preparing Your Heart for Marriage

Women: you’re not alone in your marriage. You never have been, and you never will be. While it may not always feel like it, God desires for you to have a relationally healthy, emotionally engaged, and spiritually mature husband with whom you can share your days. In Loving Him Well, Gary Thomas builds on concepts from his bestselling book Sacred Marriage to reveal the inner workings of a man’s heart and mind. He delves into Scriptures that help women gain biblical insight to influence their husbands. Exploring the research of neuroscientists, trained counselors, and abuse victim advocates, Gary also interviews dozens of wives to find what has worked and what hasn’t as they’ve sought to build the best marriage possible. In this newly updated version of Sacred Influence, Gary Thomas outlines practical applications you can begin using today. Thomas desires to “encourage women who are in good marriages that could get even better; and offer hope and a new path forward to women who feel invisible or marginalized in their marriage.” You’ll discover the influence you can gain and the peace of mind you can build when you go first to God for your worth, validation, protection, and provision and then learn how to use that platform to help your husband draw closer to you and closer to God. After decades of marriage ministry, ministering to couples of various walks of life in one of the largest cities in America, and gaining a new sensitivity for many of the issues facing contemporary women, Gary has rewritten this book, adding new stories and fresh illustrations to help wives understand, love, and influence their husbands. Loving Him Well offers encouragement and biblically based support for the transformation of your marriage, drawing you and your husband closer together, the way God intended.

Practical Advice on Influencing Your Husband

Loving Him Well

The author of Sacred Marriage shares the secrets to good parenting from a Christian perspective, uncovering the spiritual dynamics of parenting while offering practical advice on how to raise a sick or rebellious child.

Melody Carlson

With divorced parents, sixteen-year-old Haley chooses to live with her laid-back dad and begins the difficult struggle of overcoming a devastating experience after her third date with Harris Stephens.

A Violated Trust

Damaged

This book of fifty-two weekly devotionals is a companion to Gary Thomas s Sacred Marriage, which enables couples to think and act upon this premise: What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?"

A Year of Weekly Devotions for Couples

Devotions for a Sacred Marriage

In Cherish Him, Cherish Her, bestselling author Gary Thomas reveals how marriages can not only survive but actually thrive when husbands and wives learn to cherish each other.

Cherish Study Guide

In a groundbreaking book that rethinks spiritual formation, Gary Thomas argues that the contemporary church is in danger of accepting Christianity as a historical reality but not as a present power. Is the grace that pardons powerful enough to transform? Answering with a resounding yes, Thomas presents a compelling picture of what it means to be a “God oasis” in a God-forgetting world.“The first chapter alone is worth reading many times. This is beauty and struggle. This is the death that leads to life.”John Ortberg, Pastor and Author, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church“Set this book down ... slowly ... turn around ... and run away ... unless you hunger for a deeper vision of faith and thirst for genuine life transformation ... if you do, read on.”Kevin Harney, Pastor and Author“Once again, Gary Thomas challenges me to live passionately for God and to apply his transforming power to my daily decisions.”Kay Warren, Executive Director, HIV/AIDS Initiative, Saddleback ChurchThe Beautiful Fight will energize your life and your church. It will inspire you, equip you, and challenge you to delve ever deeper into what it means to be a truly holy believer, transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Discover just how radical Christian transformation can be, as you learn to see with new eyes, think with a new mind, and feel with a new heart. Thomas rallies you to the Beautiful Fight—the struggle to fully express the wonder and life-changing power of Christ in this world through every aspect of who you are.

Surrendering to the Transforming Presence of God Every Day of Your Life

The Beautiful Fight

Gary Thomas, a popular speaker and the bestselling author of Sacred Pathways, invites readers to reinvigorate their faith journey as he sheds light on refreshing perspectives about prayer, hope, purpose, and the thirst for God and His love. With insight from Gary’s personal journey, readers delve into classic Christian writings from John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Thomas à Kempis, and others, and emerge with practical and unexpected ways to know God more intimately and delight in Him embark on a path of spiritual training that lasts a lifetime experience the joy of a life surrendered to Christ discover kindred spirits in the great Christian thinkers and seekers move toward spiritual growth and understanding Thirsting for God offers companionship and the mentorship of great words, minds, and hearts as readers encounter a fulfilling, transforming relationship with God.

Spiritual Refreshment for the Sacred Journey

Thirsting for God

"This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith."--John the ApostleIsn’t it startling how God reveals himself most profoundly in places we least expect to encounter him? He is intent on showing himself Lord in all our circumstances--in the highs and the lows alike. The faith he calls us to is far more than a glowing positivism that shields us from life’s struggles. It is one that guides us into a deepening intimacy with the God who sustains us in the broad sweep of life. Best-selling author Gary Thomas helps us sharpen our spiritual vision and fortify our commitment by examining ten disciplines God uses to forge a fire-tested faith. A biblical view of these disciplines can safeguard us from disillusionment when—not if—difficulties surface in our lives. How we respond will determine the depth and vitality of our walk with God. Sharing scriptural insights, the wisdom of Christians through the centuries, and cogent personal observations, Thomas explores the disciplines of:· Selflessness · Waiting · Suffering· Persecution · Social Mercy · Forgiveness· Mourning · Contentment · Sacrifice· Hope and FearDrawing liberally from his storehouse of colorful and engaging stories, Thomas brings his topics to life. Find out how a message scrawled on a baseball made a big-league difference to a discouraged young pitcher. Learn how a nineteen-year-old Catholic acolyte, marked by the tragedies of war, grew up to usher in the collapse of Communism in Poland. Read the touching account of feud, reconciliation, and friendship between two of America’s founding fathers.As Gary Thomas reminds us, Jesus said that in this world we will have trouble. Paul exhorted believers to mourn with those who mourn. James wrote that God chooses the poor of this world to be rich in faith. Clearly, faith is about something other than a smooth ride through this fallen world. Rather, authentic faith is shaped, tempered, and purified in the flames of struggle. In a culture sated with blessings and comfort, Authentic Faith reveals the rich benefits that derive from embracing the harder truths of Scripture. This eye-opening look at what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus will encourage you, bolster your faith, and help you rise above shallow attachments to fix your heart on things of eternal worth.

The Power of a Fire-Tested Life

Authentic Faith

Millions of couples getting married have pledged to "love and to cherish, until death do us part." Most of us understand and get the love part... but what does it mean to cherish our spouse? Why do we say it once at the wedding and then rarely even mention it again? In this six-session video Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately), bestselling author Gary Thomas draws on personal stories and teachings from the Bible to show how cherishing can have a powerful effect on marriage. Learning to truly cherish each other turns marriage from an obligation into a delight. It lifts marriage above a commitment to a precious priority. Cherish is the melody that makes a marriage sing. Many couples today survive by gritting their teeth and holding on. Or they find themselves just "going through the motions" in their relationship. But cherishing our spouse can reverse this pattern. Cherishing can breathe light, hope, and new life into a marriage—even one marred by neglect and disrespect. The Cherish Study Guide includes video discussion questions, Bible exploration, and personal study and reflection materials for in-between sessions. Sessions include: To Love and to Cherish Your Honor Taking Your Marriage to the Next Level Cherishing Your Unique Spouse This Is How Your Spouse Stumbles Keep on Cherishing Designed for use with Cherish Video Study (sold separately).

Millions of couples getting married have pledged to "love and to cherish, until death do us part." Most of us understand and get the love part... but what does it mean to cherish our spouse? Why do we say it once at the wedding and then rarely even mention it again? In this six-session video Bible study, bestselling author Gary Thomas draws on personal stories and teachings from the Bible to show how cherishing can have a powerful effect on marriage. Learning to truly cherish each other turns marriage from an obligation into a delight. It lifts marriage above a commitment to a precious priority. Cherish is the melody that makes a marriage sing. Many couples today survive by gritting their teeth and holding on. Or they find themselves just "going through the motions" in their relationship. But cherishing our spouse can reverse this pattern. Cherishing can breathe light, hope, and new life into a marriage--even one marred by neglect and disrespect. The Cherish Study Guide includes video discussion questions, Bible exploration, and personal study and reflection materials for in-between sessions. Sessions include: To Love and to Cherish Your Honor Taking Your Marriage to the Next Level Cherishing Your Unique Spouse This Is How Your Spouse Stumbles Keep on Cherishing This pack contains one softcover study guide and one DVD.

Gary L. Thomas

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