Books
What difference does your faith actually make?
Because I Believe invites readers to move beyond merely reciting the Apostle’s Creed to living a faith so deep, authentic, and transformative that it reshapes the way they trust, love, suffer, hope, and engage the world.
For many Christians, belief has become familiar: something recited in worship, affirmed in theory, but often disconnected from everyday life. We say the words. We know the creed. But deep down, a question lingers: So what?
This is a deeply practical book s you to move beyond simply believing the Apostles’ Creed to actually living it. Rooted in one of the oldest and most enduring summaries of Christian faith, each chapter explores how timeless truths—about God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit—are meant to shape the way we think, love, suffer, and hope.
Addressing the gap between what we say and how we live, Because I Believe calls you to a more authentic, embodied faith, one marked by trust, courage, compassion, and hope in a broken world.
Whether you’re wrestling with doubt, feeling spiritually stuck, or longing for a faith that feels real again, this book will help you rediscover the power of the gospel, not just as something you believe, but as something you live.
Because the question isn’t just what you believe. It’s what difference it makes.
Discover how real spiritual transformation takes root—not through striving, but by letting the Spirit cultivate lasting change in the soil of your everyday life. Use this interactive guide to exploring the fruit of the Spirit as a group or for individual devotions.
Cultivate invites you to experience real spiritual transformation, not by trying harder, but by allowing God, the Master Gardener, to do his renewing work in you.
When God planted the garden of Eden, his cultivating work had only just begun. That same work continues today as he grows the fruit of his Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—in the soil of our lives. God’s purpose is not just right beliefs or good deeds, but a whole-life restoration into who we were created to be.
Real change is possible, even in the hardest seasons. With vivid biblical imagery and practical wisdom, readers are guided through the slow, steady, life-giving process of cultivation.
Each chapter explores one aspect of the Spirit’s fruit, not as a checklist to achieve, but as the natural outgrowth of a life rooted in God’s love. Along the way, you’ll find prayers, journaling prompts, and simple spiritual practices to help clear away distractions and create space for God’s renewing work.
Whether read alone or with a group, Cultivate offers encouragement, clarity, and a clear path forward—toward deeper faith, lasting change, and a flourishing life even in difficult seasons.
Praise for Cultivate
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“Richard’s writing reminds me that the fruits of the Spirit are the good life. We often mistake virtue for a burden rather than a gift. But every page of this book reminds me that becoming more loving, more patient, more kind means becoming more like Jesus!"
Justin Whitmel Earley
Business Lawyer and author of “Habits of the Household,” “The Body Teaches the Soul,” and others -
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"I love everything about this book – how it looks, how it offers discussion questions, how each chapter leads us into prayer– but most of all, I love how Rich calls us back to the object of our faith. The goal of our devotion is not politics or activism or even Bible knowledge. It’s growing in the character of Christ by allowing the living Jesus to capture our imaginations. The message of Cultivate is clear: You can change. Not by self-will, but by calmly allowing the grace of our gardener God to gradually grow in you the qualities that reflect his goodness to the world."
René Schlaepfer
Senior Pastor of Twin Lakes Church and Author of “Chasing David”
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