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NEW THIS WEEK
AUGUST 2018 volume 4

 

We've never been more educated and entertained. We have technological tools our parents could only dream of, and we are saturated with information, amusement, and recreation. Yet more than ever, we are starving for hope. School shootings are all too familiar. Depression is on the rise. And more people than ever are orchestrating their own deaths. In America alone, the suicide rate has increased 24 percent in fewer than twenty years. If a disease saw such a spike, it would be deemed an epidemic. 

People are dying from a lack of hope.

After forty years of counseling and ministry, Max Lucado has learned that nothing lifts the desperate, weary heart like the promises of God. In a world full of despair, depression, anxiety, and instability, we do not need more opinions or hunches; we need the definitive declarations of our mighty and loving God. 

Unshakable Hope examines twelve of God's promises that Max has turned to over the years to encourage himself and others. Each chapter explores one significant promise and reveals how it will equip you to:

• Overcome challenging circumstances
• Live through sadness and renew hope
• Experience lasting security
• Make wise decisions 

What is your life built on—the circumstances of life or the promises of God? The answer to that question changes everything. For every problem in life, God has given you a promise. Join Max as he takes a closer look at Scripture's unbreakable promises and shows you how to live with an unshakable hope.

Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, presents the Gospel accounts of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection as viewed through the eyes of those who witnessed them. The Sign and the Sacrifice explores the meaning of the cross and the significance of Christ's resurrection, discussing what these events meant to Jesus' followers in the early years and what they can say to us today.

 

How are Christians to live in a violent and wounded world? Rather than contending for privilege by wielding power and authority, we can witness prophetically from a position of weakness. The church has much to learn from an often-overlooked community—those with disabilities.

In this fascinating book, theologian Stanley Hauerwas collaborates with Jean Vanier, founder of the worldwide L'Arche communities. For many years, Hauerwas has reflected on the lives of people with disability, the political significance of community, and how the experience of disability addresses the weaknesses and failures of liberal society. And L'Arche provides a unique model of inclusive community that is underpinned by a deep spirituality and theology. Together, Vanier and Hauerwas carefully explore the contours of a countercultural community that embodies a different way of being and witnesses to a new order—one marked by radical forms of gentleness, peacemaking, and faithfulness.

The authors' explorations shed light on what it means to be human and how we are to live. The robust voice of Hauerwas and the gentle words of Vanier offer a synergy of ideas that, if listened to carefully, will lead the church to a fresh practicing of peace, love and friendship. This invigorating conversation is for everyday Christians who desire to live faithfully in a world that is violent and broken.

This expanded edition now includes a study guide for individual reflection or group discussion.

Silence is a complex matter. It can refer to awe before unutterable holiness, but it can also refer to the coercion where some voices are silenced in the interest of control by the dominant voices. It is the latter silence that Walter Brueggemann explores, urging us to speak up in situations of injustice.

Interrupting Silence illustrates that the Bible is filled with stories where marginalized people break repressive silence and speak against it. Examining how maintaining silence allows the powerful to keep control, Brueggemann motivates readers to consider situations in their lives where they need to either interrupt silence or be part of the problem, convincing us that God is active and wanting us to act for justice.

 

Millions are on the move, driven by war, drought, terrorism, poverty, failed states, environmental catastrophes, disease, revolutions, and the desire for a better life. Christians have a unique perspective on the migrant crisis: after all, Jesus was a refugee. So were Abraham, Joseph, and Moses.

Today, some turn their backs on refugees. In Serving God in a Migrant Crisis, Patrick Johnstone and Dean Merrill help us understand what's causing today's refugee crisis, explore Christian theology and tradition on migration, and show us how Christian workers around the globe are opening their hearts to embrace these modern outcasts.

"The world has literally come to our doorstep," they write. "Will we open the door?"

These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits—and devices—that distract and "buffer" us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls "a secular age"—an age in which all beliefs are equally viable and real transcendence is less and less plausible. Drawing on Taylor's work, Alan Noble describes how these realities shape our thinking and affect our daily lives. Too often Christians have acquiesced to these trends, and the result has been a church that struggles to disrupt the ingrained patterns of people's lives.

But the gospel of Jesus is inherently disruptive: like a plow, it breaks up the hardened surface to expose the fertile earth below. In this book Noble lays out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt our society's deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to the transcendent grace and beauty of Jesus.

Disruptive Witness casts a new vision for the evangelical imagination, calling us away from abstraction and cliché to a more faithful embodiment of the gospel for our day.

 

“It’s cancer.”

When you hear the two words you dread most from someone you care about, you know at once that your friend’s life has been turned upside down.

Whether she’s a good friend, a best friend, or just an acquaintance, you want to be supportive. But how can you understand what she’s going through enough to know what she needs? What can you say besides “If you need anything—anything at all . . .”?

Marissa Henley is here to help show you the way. A cancer survivor herself, she lets you in on what having cancer feels like and what your friend truly needs. She prepares you to support your friend with both knowledge and compassion. And she offers specific action steps and practical support resources to help you show love in the day-to-day details.

Cancer is a life-altering challenge—but Marissa will equip and empower you to walk alongside your friend with love and support.

Society says we are merely sexual beings and should embrace this, and in the church we use this same view as an excuse to distrust and avoid each other! We shy away from healthy friendship, and even our siblingship in Christ, in the name of purity and reputation . . . but is this what we are called to do?

Aimee Byrd reminds us that the way to stand against culture is not by allowing it to drive us apart—it is by seeking the brother-and-sister closeness we are privileged to have as Christians. Here is a plan for true, godly friendship between the sexes that embraces the family we truly are in Christ and serves as the exact witness the watching world needs.

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