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Live No Lies

Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace

John Mark Comer

About Live No Lies

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry equips readers to recognize and resist the lies that seek to rob them of peace and freedom.
 
Live No Lies is brilliant, deep, scriptural, and will equip you to face the enemy and fight.”—Jennie Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head

We are at war. Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it’s a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies.
 
The problem isn’t so much that we tell lies but that we live them. We let them into our bodies, and they sabotage our peace. All around us in the culture and deep within our own body memories are lies: deceptive ideas that wreak havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being, and deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life truly is.
 
The choice is not whether to fight or not fight, but whether we win or surrender.

Ancient apprentices of Jesus developed a paradigm for this war; they spoke of the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Live No Lies taps into this ancient wisdom from saints of the Way and translates the three enemies for the modern era, with all its secularism and sophistication. As a generation, we chuckle at the devil as a premodern myth, we are confused by Scripture’s teaching on the flesh in an age where sensual indulgence is a virtue not a vice, and we have little to no category for the New Testament concept of the world.
 
In this provocative and practical book, bestselling author John Mark Comer combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation. He identifies the role lies play in our spiritual deformation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them.
 
Do you feel the tug-of-war in your own heart, the inner conflict between truth and lies? The spirit and the flesh? The Way of Jesus and the world? It’s time to start winning. It’s time to live no lies...

Praise

“This is the book I’ve been waiting for and one of the most important books a follower of Jesus will ever read. It will become a classic.”—Christine Caine, founder of A21 and Propel Women

“John Mark Comer is a gift to the church. He writes with adept cultural nuance, theological savvy, and refreshing spiritual depth. In Live No Lies, he’s taken on a multilayered, ancient topic and brilliantly rearticulated it for our generation. This is a gem.”—Rich Villodas, lead pastor of New Life Fellowship and author of The Deeply Formed Life

“In a time that feels full of contradictions and confusion, John Mark does a masterful job of laying out what is true, what true is, and why it matters deeply that we know the truth. This is the book for our day.”—Annie F. Downs, New York Times bestselling author of That Sounds Fun

“I devoured every word of this book and found myself deeply stirred and nourished. John Mark speaks to the mind and soul, as he uncovers in his usual thoughtful way the three great enemies to our peace—the world, the flesh, and the devil. You will emerge better after reading these pages.”—Bryan Loritts, author of Insider Outsider

“Every day we are dealing with temptations in multiple forms that draw us away from faithfulness to the Way of Jesus. In this compelling work, John Mark gives a vision of the beauty of Jesus in a culture of lies.”—Jon Tyson, pastor of Church of the City New York and author of The Intentional Father

“This book is a godsend. It exposes our spiritual enemy of untruth—a foe impacting our societies on a global scale. In a world where everyone tries to live their own ‘truth,’ this book reveals and challenges the many lies that have become common, normal, and accepted in our everyday conversations and decisions..”—Albert Tate, lead pastor of Fellowship Church

“Comer has personally helped me on my faith journey and I believe he is one of the greatest teachers of our generation. As you read Live No Lies, your heart will be strengthened and your eyes opened to the daily war waged against our personal peace.”—Rich Wilkerson Jr., pastor of VOUS Church

“In a time where deception seems to have settled upon the land like a dense fog, Live No Lies offers us a clearing to see how we have been deceived, to learn how we deceive ourselves, and to flee from the one who deceives. An essential guide for discernment in our contested age.”—Mark Sayers, senior leader of Red Church in Melbourne, Australia, and author of a number of books including Strange Days and Reappearing Church

About John Mark Comer

John Mark Comer is the founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, a teacher and writer with Practicing the Way, and the New York Times bestselling author of multiple books, including Practicing the Way, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and Live No Lies.

Product Details

336 pages | Published by WaterBrook

On Sale Date: Sep 28, 2021

Trim Size: 5-3/16 x 8

Carton Quantity: 12

Sneak Peek

Start reading the first chapter

The bestselling author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry equips readers to recognize and resist the lies that seek to rob them of peace and freedom. We are at war. Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it’s a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies. The problem isn’t so much that we tell lies but that we live them. We let them into our bodies, and they sabotage our peace. All around us in the culture and deep within our own body memories are lies: deceptive ideas that wreak havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being, and deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life truly is. The choice is not whether to fight or not fight, but whether we win or surrender. Ancient apprentices of Jesus developed a paradigm for this war; they spoke of the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Live No Lies taps into this ancient wisdom from saints of the Way and translates the three enemies for the modern era, with all its secularism and sophistication. As a generation, we chuckle at the devil as a premodern myth, we are confused by Scripture’s teaching on the flesh in an age where sensual indulgence is a virtue not a vice, and we have little to no category for the New Testament concept of the world. In this provocative and practical book, bestselling author John Mark Comer combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation. He identifies the role lies play in our spiritual deformation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them. Do you feel the tug-of-war in your own heart, the inner conflict between truth and lies? The spirit and the flesh? The Way of Jesus and the world? It’s time to start winning. It’s time to live no lies...

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Brett Benson, Senior Publicist
bbenson@penguinrandomhouse.com
507-581-1561

Bestselling Author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
Portland OR Pastor John Mark Comer Wants to Equip People to Recognize the Lies and Resist the Forces That Seek to Steal Their Happiness, Wholeness, and Holiness
“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” — Winston Churchill 

“We live in a postmodern world where a battle is raging between truth and lies, and truth is losing. Unfortunately, disinformation—or in the language of Scripture, deception—is at the root of almost every single problem facing society and our souls,” states author and pastor John Mark Comer. In his new book, Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace (WaterBrook, 9/28/21), Comer unmasks and names those enemies: the devil, the flesh, and the world, and offers a way to fight back. Regardless of one’s political party or church background, Comer provides a powerful and urgent message for all who are experiencing the weight of tension and controversy in our modern, post-Christian age and provides a poignant call for reawakening our souls to the battle for our minds. 

“Why does every day feel like it’s a battle? Because it is,” writes Comer. “I’m a pastor, not a pundit; I have zero political agenda here. But I deeply believe this: I have a soul. You have one too. And your soul, like mine, is locked in a war with lies.”

The ancient apprentices of Jesus developed a paradigm for this war; they spoke of these three enemies of the soul and how to win the battle over them. Comer taps into this ancient wisdom by borrowing from saints of the Way and translating the three enemies for the modern era, with all its secularism and sophistication. As a generation, people chuckle at the devil as a premodern myth, and they are confused by Scripture’s teaching on the flesh in an age where sensual indulgence is a virtue, not a vice. Furthermore, they have little to no category for the New Testament concept of the world.

In this provocative and practical book, Comer combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation to help digest these truths, especially for the Millennial and Gen Z reader. He identifies the role lies play in one’s spiritual deformation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them. The answer—practicing the Way of Jesus—starts with the church. The word church in Greek means “called out.” It’s not a community of comfort but of calling and is the army one needs to help fight the war to resist the gravitational pull of all three enemies of the soul.  

The three key strategies: 
• Discern Jesus’s truth from the devil’s lie
• Help one another override the flesh by the Spirit
• Form a robust community of deep relationships that function as a counterculture to the world

In a down-to-earth pastoral voice, Comer presents a compelling message: “Do you feel the tug-of-war in your own heart, the inner conflict between truth and lies? The spirit and the flesh? The Way of Jesus and the world? It’s time to start winning.” As C. S. Lewis proposed in his groundbreaking book The Screwtape Letters, the devil is as cunning now as he was in Eden, and Comer reveals how his lies have adapted to fit our current individualistic mindset of “believe in yourself,” “you do you,” and “speak your truth.”

“There is a tremendous opportunity in our cultural moment for the church, the followers of Jesus, to come back to her roots as a counter-anti-culture—not just against the world but for the world—and to live no lies.” 

John Mark Comer is the founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, the director and teacher of Practicing the Way, and the bestselling author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and four previous books. Much of his writing is focused on the work of spiritual formation in post-Christian culture. The gnawing questions that get him out of bed in the morning are, How do we experience life with God in the digital age? And how do we change to become more like Jesus in a culture where emotional health and spiritual maturity are rare? To that end, he is regularly found reading the desert fathers and mothers, ancient saints and obscure contemplatives, modern psychologists and social scientists, philosophers like Dallas Willard, and the weekly op-ed page. When he’s not reading, he can be found attempting to learn how to cook for his wife and children, drinking Heart coffee, and walking in family dog in the forest. John Mark graduated from Western Seminary and has a master’s degree in biblical and theological studies. 

For more information, visit www.waterbrookmultnomah.com or https://johnmarkcomer.com/.

Contact Publicist

Brett Benson, bbenson@penguinrandomhouse.com