How do we practice real conversation with God? Instead of prayer becoming an agenda of our needs for God to handle, how can we experience his presence as part of our everyday life? How do we hear what he is saying back to us? As we explore the disciplines of prayer and listening through these six sessions, we will draw closer to God in everything that we do.

Reading the Bible is one of the most important spiritual disciplines we can engage in. Why is Bible study so significant? How can our attitude and approach affect what we get out of our reading? Learning to immerse ourselves in God's thoughts through study and meditation allows us to go deeper into God's Word and live in a more Christlike way. This six-session LifeBuilder Bible Study from Jan Johnson helps us do just that. Previously published as part of the Spiritual Disciplines Study Series

Most Christians have experienced the "laundry list" phase of spiritual life, in which praying means giving God an agenda of needs to handle. But how do you move to having real conversation with God? How do you hear what God is saying back to you? How can you make your experience of God's presence part of everyday life? In this six-session LifeGuide(R) Bible Study, Jan Johnson covers the disciplines of prayer and of practicing God's presence. Going deeper in these areas will help you to draw closer to God in everything you do. For over three decades LifeGuide Bible Studies have provided solid biblical content and raised thought-provoking questions--making for a one-of-a-kind Bible study experience for individuals and groups. This series has more than 130 titles on Old and New Testament books, character studies, and topical studies.

How can we hear and understand God's voice? For over thirty years, Dallas Willard's Hearing God has helped thousands of readers learn to develop a conversational relationship with God. Now Hearing God Bible Study guides you deeper into biblical texts and themes that are woven throughout Willard's beloved book. With these six easy-to-use studies, written by longtime spiritual formation author Jan Johnson, you will encounter what Scripture says about listening to God and what it means for you today. As companions to the IVP Signature Collection, IVP Signature Bible Studies help individuals and groups explore and apply biblical truths found in classic books. Each session features quotations from Hearing God matched with Scripture passages, reflection questions, and application ideas that will equip readers to connect the text to their own lives. A leader's guide is also included.

Lectio divina is a practice of Scripture reading that treats the Bible not only as a text to be examined, but also as the living Word of God spoken anew to us. Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. Experienced Bible teacher Jan Johnson presents forty Scripture meditations organised topically, giving us the tools we need to practice Lectio Divina on our own. Each meditation can be used both individually and in group settings, and includes: An introduction to the meditation encouraging a time of quiet preparatory exercise; the complete passage from Scripture with explanations, context, and background to the text, help to enter and absorb the text; space to contemplate the passage, respond to God in prayer and rest in his presence; and an exercise to implement the ideas of the passage in our daily lives. Meeting God in Scripture moves us beyond merely understanding what the text meant in its original context to a direct spiritual encounter with Christ.

Come and experience the Scriptures in a fresh and life-giving way. "Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught." -Luke 1:3-4 In this collaboration between Alabaster Co. and IVP, the full text of the Gospel of Luke is presented alongside beautiful full-color photographs and guided meditations by Bible teacher, author, and spiritual director Jan Johnson. Carefully designed as a practical, study-focused version of Alabaster's other bible books, the Alabaster Guided Meditations invite readers into deeper reflection by incorporating the church's ancient lectio divina and visio divina traditions. Though the intersection of New Living Translation Bible passages, photography, thoughtfully designed layouts, and meditations, readers are invited to experience the Gospel of Luke anew.

This book gives you the opportunity to surrender to God's presence and enjoy just being with Him. Find contentment, peace, and encouragement from practicing spiritual disciplines, and learn simple, tangible insights into practicing God's presence in everyday life.

Come and experience the Scriptures in a fresh and life-giving way. In this collaboration between Alabaster Co. and IVP, the full text of the Gospel of John is presented alongside beautiful full-color photographs and fourteen guided meditations by Bible teacher, author, and spiritual director Jan Johnson. Carefully designed as a practical, study-focused version of Alabaster's other bible books, the Alabaster Guided Meditations invite readers into deeper reflection by incorporating the church's ancient lectio divina and visio divina traditions. Though the intersection of New Living Translation Bible passages, photography, thoughtfully designed layouts, and meditations, readers are invited to experience the Gospel of John anew.

Come and experience the Scriptures in a fresh and life-giving way. In this collaboration between Alabaster Co. and IVP, the full text of the Gospel of Matthew is presented alongside beautiful full-color photographs and fourteen guided meditations by Bible teacher, author, and spiritual director Jan Johnson. Carefully designed as a practical, study-focused version of Alabaster's other bible books, the Alabaster Guided Meditations invite readers into deeper reflection by incorporating the church's ancient lectio divina and visio divina traditions. Though the intersection of New Living Translation Bible passages, photography, thoughtfully designed layouts, and meditations, readers are invited to experience the Gospel of Matthew anew.

To encounter Jesus daily and have a relationship with Him changes everything, our focus becomes eternal. Experience Jesus in such a way that His love-drenched, others-focused nature shapes your character. The spiritual practices in each chapter will challenge you to go deeper with Him.

From "The Next Generation" and "The X-Files", to "Farscape" and "Enterprise", sci-fi television series in the US have multiplied since the 1980s. Jan Johnson-Smith shows how, in line with national political upheavals, this vibrant and perplexing genre set about expanding the myth of the Western frontier into deep space. She looks at the "sense of wonder" or sublime that infuses much Frontier art and science fiction, and traces a possible historical precedent to the genre in the fabulous and heroic journeys of the Classical epic. She discusses narrative styles and their influences, from the overarching narrative of "Babylon 5" to the episodic formula of "The Outer Limits", considers how experimental series such as "Twin Peaks" challenge conventional structures, and how and why sci-fi television has adopted new technologies. She also explores the juxtaposition of arcane language and technological jargon in modern American sci-fi television, revealing the extraordinarily alien, yet curiously familiar arena it creates.

Jan Johnson's second guide book begins where the first left off, with an ambitious goal of including all that was left out of the first in touring Galveston, Texas. Readers will travel the Island's streets from the port to the gulf, meandering in and out of the East End before walking two areas: one of the downtown "Arts and Entertainment" Post Office District and the Broadway Cemetery. Driving west to the airport through middle-class neighborhoods, the driving guide will lead you "Down the Island" to Jamaica Beach, then return you via a circuitous route to the very eastern tip of the Seawall. Along the way, happy wanderers will encounter the usual colorful and somewhat infamous characters who pepper the Island's past set among many vintage images.

Jan Johnson guides you through 61 carefully chosen selections from renowned author Dallas Willard's best selling book, Renovation of the Heart . With each selection, you'll progress through Dr. Willard's plan for renovating the complete person.
Each provocative reflection includes a thoughtful, meaty selection by Dallas Willard along with Jan's illuminating personal stories, plus suggestions for making the concepts come alive in your own experience.

Jan Johnson offers an innovative Advent small-group study built around a careful contextual reading of scripture combined with the imaginative reading approach introduced by St. Ignatius. The title Taste and See hints at how readers are invited to experience the stories of the season with their senses. Drawing on that experience of scripture, participants then consider how these stories speak to their own lives.

Strong tradition and creativity flourish in the home of Emma Aileen Morgan, a young woman with three sisters who all come of age in the turbulent 1960s. When she moves away from home and becomes a professional dancer, Emma's physical strength and external confidence thrust her forward. But inside she is carrying emotional confusion rooted in childhood experiences she hasn't shared with her sisters.
An ill-destined marriage, betrayal, and unexpected losses cause Emma to question why her life has brought her so much adversity. The breaking down of her old life cuts a new path. Answers come through inner guidance when she starts remembering and documenting her nightly dreams.
Emma chooses to step into an alternative relationship and further changes her life direction by leaving the dance world to study the healing arts. Revelations and metaphysical experiences catapult her onto a conscious spiritual path that transforms the way she looks at the world. Her self-inquiry and change shake the foundations of her intimate partnership.
Jan Johnson sheds a light on the stories we tell, the beliefs we cling to, the power of dreams, and the process of spiritual awakening. In this account of her search for her own truth, Johnson offers tools that have the potential to help readers find their own higher understanding.

Strong tradition and creativity flourish in the home of Emma Aileen Morgan, a young woman with three sisters who all come of age in the turbulent 1960s. When she moves away from home and becomes a professional dancer, Emma's physical strength and external confidence thrust her forward. But inside she is carrying emotional confusion rooted in childhood experiences she hasn't shared with her sisters.
An ill-destined marriage, betrayal, and unexpected losses cause Emma to question why her life has brought her so much adversity. The breaking down of her old life cuts a new path. Answers come through inner guidance when she starts remembering and documenting her nightly dreams.
Emma chooses to step into an alternative relationship and further changes her life direction by leaving the dance world to study the healing arts. Revelations and metaphysical experiences catapult her onto a conscious spiritual path that transforms the way she looks at the world. Her self-inquiry and change shake the foundations of her intimate partnership.
Jan Johnson sheds a light on the stories we tell, the beliefs we cling to, the power of dreams, and the process of spiritual awakening. In this account of her search for her own truth, Johnson offers tools that have the potential to help readers find their own higher understanding.

Parents die. At any age, the loss of a parent marks a profound and often overlooked transition in life. When the parent leaves a young child to grow up without guidance, nurturing, goading, and love, the event becomes a landmark, a defining moment.
When authors Leslie Simon and Jan Johnson Drantell learned of their common experience of losing a parent at a young age, they set out to discover the experiences and effects that unite those who have lived through this same signal event. "Every tragedy has its before and after," they write. "One day a child's life feels normal, the next it feels as if the world has torn apart."
This is a rent that can never be repaired, a wound that despite the passage of time and the coming of age never truly heals. In "A Music I No Longer Heard, " Simon and Drantell have collected the voices of seventy men and women who share this poignant life's journey. "Even three or four years later," the noted filmmaker Ken Burns remembered, "my wish would be that my mother would come back. I think I just submerged the fact that she had died."
As life progresses, the authors point out, every new experience is filtered through the lens of loss. The dead parent remains a vibrant presence in these lives: "My relationship with my father doesn't seem finished, or sealed." Or in the words of another, "I feed myself with memories of my mother. I think about her and it is just a wonderful feeling."
Most of all, these children of loss experience adulthood differently, always compensating in some way when choosing a mate or a career, in developing the ability to trust and to love, and in the willingness to take risks and live life to the fullest. "Maybe my dad's death, in some small way," one woman wonders, "helped me to wake up and see what the world is, what the world could offer."
What emerges from these stories is a moving portrait of the many and various ways that the death of a parent shapes one's life. "A Music I No Longer Heard" will be therapeutic for those who have lost a parent and will enable those who have not to understand the complex emotions that surround this all too common experience.

Walking Historic Galveston: A Guide to its Neighborhoods is the city's

first practical, comprehensive walking guide of the Island's most concentrated

historic areas with interesting anecdotes about the people

of their past. Written in a very readable voice, the book is designed

for the "Everyman" who wanders the city streets and wonders about

the inside human stories of those who lived, loved, and worked in the

unusual buildings that survived them. Fifth generation Galvestonian

JAN JOHNSON has been seriously

studying the Island's rich history as

a Tour Guide since 1982. Based on

her driving tours, Walking Historic

Galveston: A Guide to Its Neighborhoods

offers walker-friendly routes of

portions of nine distinct districts recognized

as historical on the Island.

Women crave a sense of purpose. They yearn to know that their efforts will impact other people’s lives. Experts urge them to say “no” to the things that drain or distract them–yet, even as women struggle to maintain a sense of control, they long to discover the calling to which their hearts must joyously respond: “Yes!” That longing, explains author Jan Johnson, can be satisfied only when a woman discovers–and lives out–her God-given purpose.

God’s call on a woman’s life isn’t meant to remain a mystery. More than a role, a spiritual gift, or a job she loves, finding her purpose is about knowing who she is: God’s woman in this world. Within these pages readers will discover what purpose in life is, why they need it, and how they can find it. Best of all, each woman will simplify her life by focusing on the things that matter most to her and God, as she becomes the woman he desires her to be.