Are you traveling through a difficult season? With thoughtful discussion and reflection questions and inspiring stories, Give Grace, written by Megan Smalley, provides you with a safe place to process the ups and downs of life and find new inspiration to trust God's plan as you rest in his unfailing love. Through her own journey with loss and hope, Megan is passionate about sharing the message of God's grace for our lives, whatever we are experiencing today. In Give Grace, she shares her painful experience with infertility, as well as heartfelt stories of encouragement and personal growth from her own life, in order to come alongside us in our own times of questioning and waiting. Give Grace will help you: Feel comfortable discussing the challenging times Grow spiritually and reflect on deeper thoughts Identify the purpose behind your pain Give Grace is also an ideal gift for anyone going through a challenging time to let them know that they are cared for, loved, and able to handle anything with God's grace. If you are traveling through a difficult season--however big or small--you will find comfort in the Scripture, stories, and reflections in this inspiring book.
Michael Beates's concern with disability issues began nearly 30 years ago when his eldest child was born with multiple profound disabilities. Now, as more families like Michael's are affected by a growing number of difficulties ranging from down syndrome to autism to food allergies, the need for church programs and personal paradigm shifts is greater than ever. Working through key Bible passages on brokenness and disability while answering hard questions, Michael offers here helpful principles for believers and their churches. He shows us how to embrace our own brokenness and then to embrace those who are more physically and visibly broken, bringing hope and vision to those of us who need it most.
This book is not a before-and-after story. Our culture treats suffering like a problem to fix, a blight to hide, or the sad start of a transformation story. We silently, secretly wither under the pressure of living as though suffering is a predicament we can avoid or annihilate by working hard enough or having enough faith. When your prayers for healing haven't been answered, the fog of depression isn't lifting, your marriage is ending in divorce, or grief won't go away, it's easy to feel you've failed God and, worse, he's failed you. If God loves us, why does he allow us to hurt? Over a decade ago chronic illness plunged therapist and writer K.J. Ramsey straight into this paradox. Before her illness, faith made sense. But when pain came and never left, K.J. had to find a way across the widening canyon that seemed to separate God's goodness from her excruciating circumstances. She wanted to conquer suffering. Instead, she encountered the God who chose it. She wanted to make pain past-tense. Instead, God invited her into a bigger story. This Too Shall Last offers an antidote to our cultural idolatry of effort and ease. Through personal story and insights from neuroscience and theology, Ramsey invites us to let our tears become lenses of the wonder that before God ever rescues us, he stands in solidarity with us. We are all mid-story in circumstances we did not choose, wondering when our hard things will end and where grace will come if they don’t. We don't need to make suffering a before-and-after story. Together we can encounter the grace that enters the middle of our stories, where living with suffering that lingers means receiving God's presence that lasts.
A man with his wife at the table on the other side of the restaurant is polite but distracted. A woman at work stares out her office window with a blank expression, her mind far away. A father wraps his arm around his daughter in the church pew; his eyes are on the pulpit, but his mind wanders. What about the college student on the soccer field or in the library? The doctor prepping for surgery? The realtor showing the house next door? The mailman on your front porch. Your Sunday school teacher . . . perhaps even your preacher. These people may be dominated by some form of sexual brokenness, from pornography to adultery to unwanted homosexual temptation. They share a secret they hope and pray will never be revealed. The urge to "act out" in their brokenness is destroying them because it conflicts with a life they have already chosen. They don't know how to live with it; they don't know how to be rid of it. They may not know what caused it; they only want to "cure" it. "Am I just a misplaced homosexual?" "Did God make me this way?" "Why won't He change me?" Surrounding them are the ones who sense something is amiss but have no clue what to do or where to find help. They may be confused by the teachings of the church: love the sinner; hate the sin. This seemingly Biblical response can actually send the message to the struggler that he is, in fact, unlovable because his identity seems inseparable from his sin. Surviving Sexual Brokenness examines the roots and the roadblocks and provides understanding, encouragement, hope and help through Biblical truth and Christian compassion for the freedom-seeker and those who travel alongside.
If you could point to one thing in your life and say, Lord, heal this. What would it be? Where does God's mercy most need to abide in your life? We all hold ourselves back from truly letting God love us, but what if today you let Him in? What would you lay down at the foot of the cross?
In an era where contemporary education often neglects the complexities of brokenness, evil, and sin, this volume offers a pioneering examination of these concepts through a theological lens. Roel Kuiper and Bram de Muynck curate contributions from distinguished scholars across pedagogy, psychology, philosophy, and theology to reintegrate notions of grace, forgiveness, and hope into educational discourse. Addressing manifestations of evil and suffering within educational settings, this interdisciplinary work provides educators with theoretical and practical frameworks to enhance human flourishing. By bridging historical and contemporary perspectives, this book seeks to enrich educational theory and practice with profound, holistic approaches to human formation.
An invitation to find beauty and meaning in the ordinary and imperfect aspects of your life; not as a call to settle for less, but rather as a way to mysteriously participate in God's power and purpose. Glenn Packiam wants to empower readers to find great joy, purpose, and passion in their daily living. While bread may be one of the most common items on our dinner tables, Jesus chose to take it at the Last Supper and invest deep, wonderful, and transcendent meaning in it. Like the bread that was blessed, broken, and given; readers will see how God uses ordinary experiences to cultivate their mission and their brokenness to bring healing to the world. The ordinary is not the enemy; it is the means by which God accomplishes the miraculous. Through clear biblical teaching and practical steps, Packiam leads the reader into a more purposeful, directed, hopeful future.
Though one in four pregnancies ends in loss, miscarriage is shrouded in such secrecy and stigma that the woman who experiences it often feels deeply isolated, unsure how to process her grief. Her body seems to have betrayed her. Her confidence in the goodness of God is rattled. Her loved ones don't know what to say. Her heart is broken. She may feel guilty, ashamed, angry, depressed, confused, or alone. With vulnerability and tenderness, Adriel Booker shares her own experience of three consecutive miscarriages, as well as the stories of others. She tackles complex questions about faith and suffering with sensitivity and clarity, inviting women to a place of grace, honesty, and hope in the redemptive purposes of God without offering religious clichés and pat answers. She also shares specific, practical resources, such as ways to help guide children through grief, suggestions for memorializing your baby, and advice on pregnancy after loss, as well as a special section for dads and loved ones.
Every great movement of God is preceded by a season of humility and repentance and a time of tearing down walls, of getting honest with God and others about your true spiritual condition.It may be hard. It may hurt. But in the end, God will use your brokenness to restore your 'first love' for Jesus, rekindle your spiritual fire, reconcile your relationships, and repair your life.A richer, deeper, more God-filled life is waiting for you. And it all begins with Brokenness.The Revive Our Hearts Trilogy - Now in Paperback!This bestselling series by Nancy Leigh DeMoss has sold well over 80,000 copies! All three titles now include study questions at the end of each chapter, making them ideal for personal or small group study.
We are all broken. It's a unified human experience. And we all need a hope that doesn't disappoint, a love that anchors us, joy that survives in unthinkable conditions, and a perspective shift that goes beyond our circumstances. Some days we feel the perfection of sunshine and a light breeze. Other days hold wet, gray skies with drowning grief. In the wake, comes promise of new growth. Still other days a cold winter frost catches us by surprise, halting our journey toward fruitful blooms. We step back, reeling at the damage from this frost. We question the system and environment we grow in. We can exist in this garden dictated by the changing weather patterns. Or, we can see a different kind of brave living-that which exists beyond our fragile stems and dainty leaves, living instead deep in our roots. This book is for those sitting in the deep-down dark, traveling with grief as a constant companion, and anyone whose life path has taken an unexpected turn. Bekah shares the heart break of a fatal diagnosis for not just one, but both her children. As she journeyed through dark valleys of death, it was there she experienced Jesus in a whole new way-in deeply broken places. Her journey holding pain in one hand and joy in the other is vulnerably scribbled out on these pages as she tore open the wounds in her soul to share how Christ created beauty and goodness in it all. It was in this journey, she learned to see wholeness in cracks, courage in the broken-hearted, and bravery in the act of letting go. May you discover the Life-Giver of joy, see your beautiful bloom, and know that hope is always worth holding on to, because redemption is coming--and in fact--is already happening here and now. "Can't Steal My Joy is an honest, real-life account of a life storm that drops down right on top of you with no warning - and the unspeakable beauty that blooms from the wreckage. Bekah's heart beats in every page, every word. To read her story from start to not-yet-finished, it's only natural to wonder how anyone could survive something like this. But the truth is that Bekah and Danny have done much more than survive. They have thrived. And as for the how? Jesus - only Jesus. God's grace weaves seamlessly throughout each moment of confusion, devastation, hope, surrender, and triumph. You cannot read this book without seeing the Creator and longing for all things new." Anne Riley, author of Voyage to the Star Kingdom "I had the absolute pleasure of being able to read Bekah Bowman's book, Can't Steal My Joy, before it hit the bookshelves. I honestly have not read anything so moving and soul stirring since, The Shack. Whether you are in a season of mourning or grief, or in my case, struggling in the heaviness of life to find peace and joy within, this book helps lift the veil of sadness to reveal God's promise that He never leaves you. God makes his presence known everyday in little ways if you only stop to look for the joy outside the pain. Bekah is a gifted writer and I'm so excited to share this book with my friends and family." Melinda, founder of WhenLife Co
