With vulnerability and honesty, Jerry Sittser walks through his own grief and loss to show that new life is possible--one marked by spiritual depth, joy, compassion, and a deeper appreciation of simple and ordinary gifts. This 25th anniversary edition features a new introduction and two additional chapters, one which provides help for pastors and counselors. Loss came suddenly for Jerry Sittser. In an instant, a tragic car accident claimed three generations of his family: his mother, his wife, and his young daughter. While most of us will not experience such a catastrophic loss in our lifetime, all of us will face some kind of loss in life. But we can, if we choose, know the grace that transforms us. Whether your suffering has come in the form of chronic illness, disability, divorce, unemployment, crushing disappointment, or the loss of someone you love, Sittser will help you put your thoughts into words in a way that will guide you deeper into your own healing process. This revised edition of A Grace Disguised plumbs the depths of our sorrows, asks questions many people are afraid to ask, and provides hope in its answers: Will the pain ever subside? Will my life ever be good again? Will the depression ever lift? Will I ever overcome the bitterness I feel? What is God's plan in all of this? The circumstances are not important; what we do with those circumstances is. In coming to the end of ourselves, we can come to the beginning of a new life.

Don't Leave Too Soon, Don't Stay Too Long Staying isn't always good and leaving isn't always bad. Both require grit and grace. Cross-cultural ministry presents us with many difficulties like transitions, loneliness, messy relationships, and the desire to escape. The lies we believe tempt us to leave our work too soon. But nothing tests our resolve to stay like seeing others go.Grit to Stay Grace to Go normalizes the challenges of ministry through honest and humorous stories from the authors' own lives as well as testimonies from many other workers. The point is to help cross-cultural workers not just to stay, but to stay well, by countering lies with truth. This workbook provides thoughtful reflection questions, practical action steps, and suggested prayers. It encourages stayers to process their grief, guilt, and relief when saying goodbye to goers. In this way, they can move forward with forgiveness and humility and truly bless the departing ones. Those considering leaving will find poignant questions and spiritual practices to help them make an intentional, not reactive, decision.Are you considering leaving the field? Or do you know someone who is? Work through this book by yourself or with others. You will gain wisdom to help workers develop grit and grace to stay or go.

With vulnerability and honesty, Jerry Sittser walks through his own grief and loss to show that new life is possible--one marked by spiritual depth, joy, compassion, and a deeper appreciation of simple blessings. Loss came suddenly for Jerry Sittser. In an instant, a tragic car accident claimed three generations of his family: his mother, his wife, and his young daughter. While most of us will not experience such a catastrophic loss in our lifetime, all of us will taste it. And we can, if we choose, know the grace that transforms it. Whether your suffering has come in the form of short-term illness, chronic illness, disability, divorce, rape, emotional abuse, physical or sexual abuse, chronic unemployment, crushing disappointment, mental illness, or the loss of someone you love, Sittser will help you put your thoughts into words in a way that will guide you deeper into your own healing process. A Grace Disguised plumbs the depths of our sorrows, asks questions many people are afraid to ask, and provides hope in its answers: Will the pain ever subside? Will my life ever be good again? Will the depression ever lift? Will I ever overcome the bitterness I feel? What is God's plan in all of this? The circumstances are not important; what we do with those circumstances is. In coming to the end of ourselves, we can come to the beginning of a new life.

Are you feeling stretched to your limits and wish those limits weren't there at all? Bestselling author Sara Hagerty asks: "What if your greatest weaknesses--the areas of your life you resent the most, the places where you feel the most overextended and unfulfilled--are your doorway to rich intimacy with God? What if your limitations were, in fact, your greatest gift?" It's all too much. Too much laundry and too many bills. Too many appointments, meetings, and open tabs on our browser. Yet in the midst of so much, we feel deprived. Limited. We make another family dinner while shelving our passion for art. We tend our tiny patch of grass while envying the time our neighbor has to garden. We go to bed exhausted, too tired to enjoy a few minutes with our own thoughts. As a writer, speaker, and mother of seven, Sara Hagerty knows what limitations feel like. Yet she has also seen how the boundaries of our life circumstances can bring about growth and satisfaction we'd never experience otherwise. With the poetic voice, gentle validation, and deep spiritual insights that have made Sara's books so popular, The Gift of Limitations explores how to: Name the limitations that haunt us and how we have unknowingly given them power Open our eyes to what God can do with the weaknesses we resent Discover what God's Word says about living within our limitations Understand what embracing our limits looks like in everyday life Recognize when we are pushing ourselves too far Understand how God sees weakness and how He has used it in the lives of great believers Dream again while remaining tethered to God's best story for us Release the shame and frustration of our weaknesses In The Gift of Limitations, you will learn to see the beauty and peace God provides in the midst of our life circumstances--and the deep spiritual growth we can experience through the limitations that we once thought held us back.

Realizing how little control we have over our lives can make us fearful and anxious--or it can lead to greater intimacy with God, a richer prayer life, and a joyful eternal perspective. Seasons of grief, pain, and loss of control are inevitable. Despite our best efforts and steadfast faith, reality rarely matches our expectations. In an unpredictable and broken world, how do we cling to a foundation that provides purpose for today and hope for the future? In their new book, Beyond Our Control, Michael and Lauren McAfee show us how trusting God brings greater contentment than the illusion of control. With deep and abiding faith, the McAfees draw on their experiences with adoption, infertility, illness, and loss to help readers navigate unexpected circumstances. Offering biblical insights and their powerful story of pain and providence, Michael and Lauren know that no matter what happens--to their family, work, or ministry--everything is as it should be because God is in control, and he is good. The McAfees help us: recognize the illusion of control and how it leads to greater anxiety; understand why glorifying God is the richest expectation we can have for our lives; realize that Jesus' pain on the cross brings hope and healing to the pain we experience now; practice the profoundly comforting spiritual discipline of lament, which makes room for us to process grief; and use times of loss to make more room for God's work of growing and sanctifying us. If you struggle to embrace the life you have rather than the life you wanted, this book invites you to find a deeper peace in God than you could have imagined.

More than a decade ago, Jerry Sittser prayed for the protection of his family, yet three of his loved ones--his daughter, his wife, and his mother--died in an automobile accident. What went wrong? "Why wasn't my prayer answered?" he asks. "It is no longer an abstract question to me. What should we do and how should we respond when our prayers--prayers that seem right and true and good--go unanswered?" In When God Doesn't Answer Your Prayer, Sittser continues exploring the issues he addressed in A Grace Disguised. He asks, "Why doesn't God answer our prayers? What, if anything, can we do about it?" Sittser is intensely committed to exploring the Christian faith, especially when it doesn't seem to "work." In this thoughtful and beautifully written book, he moves beyond easy answers and religious formulas to explore the goodness and greatness of a God who cannot be controlled but can be trusted. When God Doesn't Answer Your Prayer takes an honest and probing look at the problem of unanswered prayer. In doing so, it draws us ever deeper into a relationship with the God who is the end of all our prayers, the object of our faith, the one who fulfills our deepest longings.

True Discipleship Integrates Emotional and Spiritual Health. New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York, had it all: powerful teaching, dynamic ministries, an impressive growth rate, and a vision to do great works for God. Things looked good---but beneath the surface, circumstances were more than just brewing. They were about to boil over, forcing Peter Scazzero to confront needs in his church and himself that went deeper than he’d ever imagined. What he learned about the vital link between emotional health, relational depth, and spiritual maturity can shed new light on painful problems in your own church. Here are refreshing new insights, and a different and challenging slant on what it takes to lead your congregation to wholeness and maturity in Christ. Our churches are in trouble, says Scazzero. They are filled with people who are ·unsure how to biblically integrate anger, sadness, and other emotions ·defensive, incapable of revealing their weaknesses ·threatened by or intolerant of different viewpoints ·zealous about ministering at church but blind to their spouses’ loneliness at home ·so involved in “serving” that they fail to take care of themselves ·prone to withdraw from conflict rather than resolve it Sharing from New Life Fellowship’s painful but liberating journey, Scazzero reveals exactly how the truth can and does make people free---not just superficially, but deep down. After offering a new vision of discipleship and a revealing, guided self-assessment of your own spiritual and emotional maturity, The Emotionally Healthy Church takes you through six principles that can make a profound difference in your church. You’ll acquire knowledge and tools that can help you and others · look beneath the surface of problems · break the power of past wounds, failures, sins, and circumstances · live a life of brokenness and vulnerability · recognize and honor personal limitations and boundaries · embrace grief and loss · make incarnation your model to love others. Written in a personal and passionate style, The Emotionally Healthy Church includes hands-on tools, discussion questions, spotlights on key points, and story after story of people at New Life whose lives have been changed by the concepts in this book. Open these pages, and find out how your church can turn a new corner on the road to spiritual maturity.

Anyone that has had a loved one go home knows the pain and sorrow that can overwhelm them. The loss of a loved one can send you into a deep abyss of pain and sorrow. Do you wonder where your loved one is? What is he or she doing? What is Heaven like? How do you find comfort in the pain? Where is God when it hurts? This book was written as the author found herself asking the same questions when, while still grieving the loss of her dad, her strong, healthy husband had a sudden heart attack. On November 2, 2011, her husband of thirty-eight years was called home to heaven. Trying to hold on to her faith while reeling from shock and grief, she threw herself into studying Gods Word and holding on to her faith while she tried to seek answers and comfort. Being unable to find a devotional that was specifically for grieving Christians lead her to write her first book. You will find comfort and assurance that you will be reunited with your loved one in the scripturally based devotions as you read what God has laid on her heart. Ann gives you a daily devotional that helps you focus on heaven, Gods sovereignty and everlasting love, eternity, and that glorious day we will be reunited with our loved ones, and help you find comfort and an eternal perspective as you wait on that day.

Nothing destroys trust like sexual betrayal. Beyond broken vows, a woman who discovers that the man she loves has been viewing pornography or having an affair must deal with devastating blows to her self-image and self-worth. She must grapple with the fact that the man she thought she knew has lied and deceived her. She may even bear the brunt of shame and judgment when the people around her find out. Drawing from her experience both as a marriage and family therapist and a woman who personally experienced the devastation of sexual betrayal, Dr. Sheri Keffer walks women impacted by betrayal through the pain and toward recovery. She explains how the trauma of betrayal affects our minds, bodies, spirits, and sexuality. She offers practical tools for dealing with emotional triggers and helps women understand the realities of sexual addiction. And she shows women how to practice self-care, develop healthy boundaries, protect themselves from abuse or manipulation, and find freedom from the burden of shame and guilt.

Why did Jesus have to die? Was it to appease a wrathful God's demand for punishment? Does that mean Jesus died to save us from God? How could someone ever truly love or trust a God like that? How can that ever be called "Good News"? It's questions like these that make so many people want to have nothing to do with Christianity.Healing the Gospel challenges the assumption that the Christian understanding of justice is rooted in a demand for violent punishment, and instead offers a radically different understanding of the gospel based on God's restorative justice. Connecting our own experiences of faith with the New Testament narrative, author Derek Flood shows us an understanding of the cross that not only reveals God's heart of grace, but also models our own way of Christ-like love. It's a vision of the gospel that exposes violence, rather than supporting it--a gospel rooted in love of enemies, rather than retribution. The result is a nonviolent understanding of the atonement that is not only thoroughly biblical, but will help people struggling with their faith to encounter grace.