J. Ellsworth Kalas provides a profile of some of the teachers in the School of Experience: Friendship, Regret, Love, Success, Defeat, Enemies, and others. He draws from the lives of saints and sages -- as well as from rogues -- to discover inspiration and insight for today's...

In this book popular author J. Ellsworth Kalas reflects on the tenth year of his life, and how that one special year shaped him and his Christian faith in so many important ways. He shares stories about what it was like growing up in Iowa during the days of the Great Depression, and he remembers the people, places, and events of those times that continue to have an impact on his life to this day.

The author invites readers to think about their own life journeys and faith stories at the same time, and he explores several key...

This little book invites us to study with some ancient experts in prayer, the persons who wrote the Book of Psalms. We haven't read long in the psalms before we realize that the authors, like us, were altogether human, their lives marked by breathtaking highs and lows. But with all of that, they were saints who left us with the greatest collection of prayers in the possession of our human race.

Kalas highlights the wonders of the Bible for readers both familiar and unfamiliar with them, and shows how the Bible isn't just a collection of stories of the past, but rather it is our own continuing story of God and God's...

J. Ellsworth Kalas presents new insight into twelve of Jesus' parables by entering them through a unique starting point, a creative retelling, a new "lens," or the eyes of a minor or unsympathetic character. A study guide is included.

Chapters include:

1. The Value of the House - Matthew 7:24-27
2. The Man Who Talked with His Soul - Luke 12:13-21
3. What Chance Does an Average Sinner Have? - Luke 7:36-48
4. The Importance of Downward Mobility - Luke 14:7-14
5. The Danger of Being Good and Empty - Matthew 12:43-45
6. Risky Business -...

Using his method of approaching Bible passages from an unusual angle or a unique starting point, J. Ellsworth Kalas presents new insight into the beatitudes, Jesus' blessings from the Sermon on the Mount.

When we start examining the beatitudes we realize that in Jesus' view, happiness is not something we get by pursuing it; indeed, almost the contrary. We are told that we will be happy--or blessed, if you prefer--in what appears to be the near antithesis of happiness. If we choose to live by the beatitudes, we make a declaration of dependence. We put ourselves into...

J. Ellsworth Kalas, adapted from chapter 1:

There's an old hymn you may be familiar with that contains these words: -This is my Father's world, / And to my listening ears, / All nature sings, and round me rings / The music of the spheres. / This is my Father's world, / He shines in all that's fair; / In the rustling grass, I hear him pass, / He speaks to me everywhere- (Maltbie D. Babcock, -This Is My Father's World-; 1901). It is true still today that -all nature sings, - but it is increasingly difficult to catch the melody. Almost anywhere we go, nature's voice is now muted by...