One of the greatest hurts that can ever be experienced is living without hope. Hope is the spiritual force that keeps us moving forward. It fills each day with anticipation, excitement, and joy. With hope, there is life, but when hope is stolen and our dreams are crushed, we are left with emptiness. Hopelessness brings the pain of loneliness...
Answers to Life's Questions From the Book of Job When pain or tragedy strikes, the first question most of us ask is, "Why?" We're in good company. The biblical book of Job tells the story of a man who lost everything--his children, his wealth, and even his health--and also wanted to know why. Why should he, a God-fearing man, suffer so much? Why did God allow it? Job did not get the answer he expected. In fact, God began to ask questions of His own--70 questions, to be exact. And in His response to a grieving, broken man, we can catch glimpses of hope in the midst of our own suffering. Join Ray Comfort as he journeys into Job's extraordinary story. You'll find that, when God Speaks, He will transform you and forever change your perspective on suffering and faith.
Parenting today’s teens is not for cowards. Your teenager is facing unprecedented and confusing pressures, temptations, and challenges in today’s culture. Mark Gregston has helped teens and their parents through every struggle imaginable, and now he shares his biblical, practical insights with you in bite-size pieces. Punctuated with Scriptures, prayers, and penetrating questions, these one-page devotions will give you the wisdom and assurance you need to guide your teen through these years and reach the other side with relationships intact.
At the moment of his greatest professional success, vetteran newspaperman & author of this book was struck by a crippling depression. Neither psychotherapy nor Prozac helped him, & it wasn't until he began a painful probe of his life & an investigation into depression's larger issues that he saw a way out. Not a depression memoir, Finding Hope in the Age of Melancholy uses the author's personal experience to launch a profound & inspiring exploration of the depression epidemic in our society. Weaving literature, philosophy, economics, religion, & medicine into a discussion about the roots of our barren culture, the author comes to provocative conclusions. He shows how the nature of our society is often as much to blame for depression as brain chemistry is, how depression can be a positive goad to creativity & deeper self-understanding, & why religious belief & community involvement are often more potent therapies than drugs & the analyst's couch. This is a deeply helpful & illuminating book for all who are looking for meaning in their lives
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
Eric Oakes and Anthony P. Acampora tap into their many years of experience in the mental health and addiction-recovery industry. They provide powerful insights on overcoming adversity by providing numerous strategies from a clinical and faith-based perspective. This conversational platform puts into focus the hearts of two seasoned professionals who see things differently but are willing to listen and collaborate for the mutual goal of helping people find hope in seemingly hopeless situations.
When no hope is left, to whom should we turn? Through the words of Jesus as He was dying on the Cross, Jack Hayford unfolds the secret of triumphing over the ultimate season of suffering. Establishing a framework for dealing with hardship, Hope for a Hopeless Day challenges readers to examine the way they handle trials and encourages them to focus on the power that frees - the cross. Here are real - life stories of individuals who triumphed over their ''hopeless days.'' Readers will be heartened by their stories of bravery and integrity - even while facing the anguish of marital infidelity or financial collapse. Although facing what seems like insurmountable odds, ''we are called to hope just as surely as we are called to the Cross, for the Savior who speaks there is teaching us the way to live as surely as He is dying to give us life.'' Hope for a Hopeless Day does more than encourage you to endure; it inspires you to overcome.
The authors of this innovative book provide a synthesis of current knowledge about the physical effects of hope and hopelessness. They analyze the causal relationship between psychological and physical well-being and explore the key conceptual and theoretical issues.
Over a decade ago, the first edition of City Schools and the American Dream debuted just as reformers were gearing up to make sweeping changes in urban education. Despite the rhetoric and many reform initiatives, urban schools continue to struggle under the weight of serious challenges. What went wrong and is there hope for future change? More than a new edition, this sequel to the original bestseller has been substantially revised to include insights from new research, recent demographic trends, and emerging political realities. In addition to surveying the various limitations that urban schools face, the book also highlights programs, communities, and schools that are making good on public education’s promise of equity. With renewed commitment and sense of urgency, this new edition provides a clear-eyed vision of what it will take to ensure the success of city schools and their students. “City schools continue to play one of the most important roles in our quest to restore democracy. This is a must-read . . . again!” —Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison “The authors provide concrete examples of innovative strategies and practices employed by urban schools that are succeeding against all odds.” —Betty A. Rosa, chancellor, New York State Board of Regents “This is the book every teacher, parent, policymaker, and engaged citizen should read.” —Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, UCLA
"We want life to be less arduous and more delightful. We want to be able to think differently about how to organize human activities." So begins A Simpler Way, an exploration of a radically different world view that will reshape how we think about organizing all human endeavor. Margaret J. Wheatley and coauthor Myron Kellner-Rogers explore the question: "How could we organize human endeavor if we developed different understandings of how life organizes itself?" They draw on the work of scientists, philosophers, poets, novelists, spiritual teachers, colleagues, audiences, and their own experience in search of new ways of understanding life and how organizing activities occur. A Simpler Way presents a profoundly different world view that can change how we live our lives and how we can create organizations that thrive. A Simpler Way explores fundamental new beliefs about organizations and life. Like Leadership and the New Science, this new book is rooted in science but breaks new ground by developing insights from literature, spiritual teachings, and direct experience. The authors challenge many assumptions about life, organizations, and change, while providing inspiration and guidance for readers on their own journey to a simpler way to organize their endeavors. The authors describe a new paradigm of life as self-organizing and coevolving, drawing on sources that support modern science but predate its findings by thousands of years. They examine five major themes-play, organization, self, emergence, and coherence-each grounded in both the science and philosophy of a world that knows how to organize itself. Each theme is explored in depth, and then applied to how we think about human organizations. The book begins and ends with photo essays, providing visual imagery that recalls readers to their own experience with a world that is creative, playful, and self-organizing. Written in a relaxed, poetic, and inviting style, the book welcomes the reader into this exploration of a new way of being in the world, one which can give us increased organizing capacity and effectiveness with less of the stress that plagues us now.
