Does it ever feel like life is out of control? Could you use the reminder that God is in control? When tragedy strikes, people desperately search for answers. Believers and unbelievers alike find themselves turning to God. Bestselling author and pastor Max Lucado tells us that though it may not be quick or painless, God will use this mess for good. In this booklet, Max Lucado will help you: Find courage to never give up during turbulent times Trust God to help you through all of life’s trials Remember that God will use every painful circumstance for good Scriptures for Your Turbulent Times also included.
The first book to center the voices of sexual abuse survivors while rethinking key Christian beliefs. Readers will discover new ways of thinking about God that are surprising, challenging, inspiring, and empowering, leading to deep healing for individuals and a transformed church that no longer contributes to the devastation of sexual abuse.
When the screams of innocents dying engulf you, how do you hear God's voice? Will God and God's people call you to life when your breath is being strangled out of you? For people of color living each day surrounded by violence, for whom survival is not a given, vocational discernment is more than "finding your purpose" - it's a matter of life and death. Patrick Reyes shares his story of how the community around him - his grandmother, robed clergy, educators, friends, and neighbors - saved him from gang life, abuse, and the economic and racial oppression that threatened to kill him before he ever reached adulthood. A story balancing the tension between pain and healing, Nobody Cries When We Die takes you to the places that make American society flinch, redefines what you are called to do with your life, and gives you strength to save lives and lead in your own community. Part of the FTE (Forum for Theological Exploration) Series
"I can't imagine a college student—skeptic, doubter, Christian, struggler—who wouldn't benefit from this book." —Kevin DeYoung For many young adults, the college years are an exciting period of selfdiscovery full of new relationships, new independence, and new experiences. Yet college can also be a time of personal testing and intense questioning— especially for Christian students confronted with various challenges to Christianity and the Bible for the first time. Drawing on years of experience as a biblical scholar, Michael Kruger addresses common objections to the Christian faith—the exclusivity of Christianity, Christian intolerance, homosexuality, hell, the problem of evil, science, miracles, and the reliability of the Bible. If you're a student dealing with doubt or wrestling with objections to Christianity from fellow students and professors alike, this book will equip you to engage secular challenges with intellectual honesty, compassion, and confidence—and ultimately graduate college with your faith intact.
A bold and persuasive case for abandoning old religions and still believing in God In this book, Mark Johnston argues that God needs to be saved not only from the distortions of the "undergraduate atheists" (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris) but, more importantly, from the idolatrous tendencies of religion itself. Each monotheistic religion has its characteristic ways of domesticating True Divinity, of taming God's demands so that they do not radically threaten our self-love and false righteousness. Turning the monotheistic critique of idolatry on the monotheisms themselves, Johnston shows that much in these traditions must be condemned as false and spiritually debilitating. A central claim of the book is that supernaturalism is idolatry. If this is right, everything changes; we cannot place our salvation in jeopardy by tying it essentially to the supernatural cosmologies of the ancient Near East. Remarkably, Johnston rehabilitates the ideas of the Fall and of salvation within a naturalistic framework; he then presents a conception of God that both resists idolatry and is wholly consistent with the deliverances of the natural sciences. Princeton University Press is publishing Saving God in conjunction with Johnston's forthcoming book Surviving Death, which takes up the crux of supernaturalist belief, namely, the belief in life after death. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.
It is hard to understand why a prostitute retires and yet becomes a mother of children, even to the extent of applying family planning contraceptives, but a virgin got married and had to wait for years just to have a child. It is difficult to comprehend why an unbeliever prospers in his ways, yet with all your connection to the Almighty God, things get so difficult. Find out why and how to cope.
He was just married but still shoplifting, breaking and entering, pulling guns. He was evil, but wanted salvation. A charismatic neighbor, smelling this, fed him Hussite truths, and then bang!: he and his wife get baptized. Suddenly he’s a fanatic, drops his friends, dismisses all plans, and enrols to become a Seventh-day Hussite minister. He graduates as one of the chosen few who can go out to recruit souls. He pulls big crowds in Sydney. In Papua New Guinea the villagers tell him Hussite missionaries tricked them out of their mountain for a bag of shells. They want their mountain back. He gives it to them! The Church is furious—but backers in high places get him a scholarship to the USA. There he’s the Moses from Melbourne, the hot-shot evangelist from Down Under, swaggering across campus and perfecting his soul-winning stage show—until, on a dare, he discovers secret papers that show his religion is a sham. His mind is tumbling! He concludes his study and retreats to New Zealand. Soon Hussitism is defending itself against religious fraud. It closes ranks, whitewashes its history, purges hundreds of ministers. He becomes a target, is spied upon, lied about, goes from superstar to outcast. He moves sideways, undertakes a PhD in America, keeps his head down. But they hit him with a new ambush. This time he’s too weary to go on. And his wife wanted out. And so, at 43, he headed home to the Australian bush, no money, no prospects. But he’s a fighter: he sued them for the way they treated him, and he beat the bastards.
Whether debilitating illness, divorce, financial hardship, emotional upheaval, or a loved one's death, life's injustice impacts everyone. When it does, questions arise: How can God allow such suffering? Why is he so silent? Can he be trusted? Finding Hope When Life's Not Fair chronicles Lee Ezell's own journey of hope and courage as she struggled with her faith during her darkest days. Offering no easy answers but plenty of hard-won wisdom, she writes honestly about how deep pain can run--and offers a compelling argument that God's love runs deeper still. Whatever their circumstances, readers will find their faith buoyed as this book affirms the reality of the Lord's grace awaiting them in their toughest times.
For those dealing with faith issues, adversities, and major disappointments. The brutally honest account of a Christian pastor-leader's struggle with his faith, how he coped, and the roads he took to eventually deepen his connection with God. Stout's book describes the spiritual struggles of Bible heroes, strong believers over the centuries, and contemporary Christ followers. Included are biblical guidelines, psychological helps, workable strategies, and practical tools for surviving a faith-loss ordeal.
True story of Leona Stucky's childhood in a Kansas Mennonite farm community and the violence and challenge of faith which results from an abusive marriage.
