Finding God in Unexpected Places


Book Description

The traces of God can be found in the most unexpected places--an Atlanta slum, a pod of whales off the coast of Alaska, the prisons of Peru and Chile, the plays of Shakespeare, a health club in Chicago--yet many Christians have not only missed seeing God, they’ve overlooked opportunities to make him visible to those most in need of hope. In this enlightening book author Philip Yancey serves as an insightful tour guide for those willing to look beyond the obvious, pointing out glimpses of the eternal where few might think to look. Whether finding God among the newspaper headlines, within the church, or on the job, Yancey delves deeply into the commonplace and surfaces with rich spiritual insight. Finding God in Unexpected Places takes readers from Ground Zero to the Horn of Africa, and each stop along the way reveals footprints of God, touches of his truth and grace that prompt readers to search deeper within their own lives for glimpses of transcendence.




Unexpected Places


Book Description

Unexpected Places is the personal story of gospel singer Anthony Evans, son of well-known pastor Tony Evans and brother of author Priscilla Shirer. In this intimate and moving memoir, Anthony shares the details of his struggles with depression and doubt, and encourages readers with the unique story of his search for purpose and identity. From growing up duty-bound to his name, to his time as a finalist and then talent producer on The Voice, Anthony explores the pressures he experienced as a child and as a young man in Hollywood. He describes the journey to his renewed faith in God and exposes the vast differences between what the world teaches us to value and how God values us. Anthony examines what his parents did right in raising him but also describes how they unknowingly missed his pain. Finally, he reveals how God orchestrated His plan to grow Anthony into a man who is in love with his life, his heritage, and his individual calling. Anthony has learned to embrace the incredible beauty of his unique voice. In Unexpected Places, he invites readers on their own journey to do the same.




Finding God in Unexpected Places


Book Description

“Rabbi Riemer offers us the kind of wisdom that we need in order to survive and thrive,” writes Dr. Bernie Siegel, best-selling author of a dozen books about spirituality and healing. The late Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel adds, “Jack Riemer’s words are songs of hope and faith. Listen to them as I do.” Widely sought after as a master storyteller and teacher, Riemer is one of the most frequently quoted rabbis in the U.S. That’s because of the winding paths he takes in describing the relevance of timeless Jewish wisdom in our modern world. What do a professional baseball player, Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry box, a hurricane, a garbage dump and a blue blazer hanging in your closet have to do with each other? They’re all turning points in Riemer’s stories that lead us toward universal questions we all confront at some point in life, including: Is there a dream that gives meaning to your life? What are our duties to the people we love? How do you make a decision when you’re caught between two conflicting values? And, what would you do if you found out that your time on this earth was almost up? Reflecting on Riemer’s wisdom about life, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor writes that the rabbi “is obviously a person with much understanding of the human situation.” Word of warning: The stories in this book may surprise you and perhaps make you chuckle, but they could change your life, as well.




Finding God in Hidden Places


Book Description

Bestselling author and artist Joni Eareckson Tada invites readers to join her on a deeply personal journey as she explores the presence of a holy God in hidden places. Stories from Joni's life shine in this collection of gathered memories. Readers will recall quiet, out-of-the-way moments in their own lives when God was present--both in happy and sad times. Words of encouragement, comfort, and insight leave the soul satisfied and longing to be closer to a loving Father, who often shows up when least expected. Finding God in Hidden Places is the perfect size for bedtime reading or taking along for daytime moments of rest and reflection.




God Is Stranger


Book Description

Have we missed the Bible’s consistent teaching that God is other, higher, stranger? Krish Kandiah offers us a fresh look at some of the difficult, awkward, and even troubling Bible passages, challenging us to replace our sanitized concept of God with a more awe-inspiring, true-to-the-Bible God. Allow yourself to be surprised by God as you find him in unexpected places doing the unexpected.




Sanctuary


Book Description

Sanctuary is about some unlikely and unexpected places where Becca Stevens has encountered God--a trail in the Andes, her son's bathtub, Dorothy Day's Hospitality House, the Kroger parking lot. Sanctuary was nominated by Christianity Today as best spirituality book of 2005. "I have never read a more direct and moving set of meditations. Becca Stevens has the most extraordinary gift for finding the ineffable in our ordinary old real world, and for making us feel it, too." -Lee Smith, author of The Last Girls "Becca Stevens' meditations imagine an entire world and our part in it, as a place where God dwells. Instead of the tired effort of searching for God, she reminds us, like Francis Thompson's 'Hound of Heaven,' that God can find us wherever we are." -Charles Strobel, Founding Director, Campus for Human Development "Becca Stevens is my kind of preacher woman. Her ministry extends far beyond the walls of St. Augustine's Chapel. Her words bring to life the miracles that abound in the mundane." -Marshall Chapman, author of Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller "Sanctuary can be found in Becca Stevens's elegant, exquisite, earnest pages." -Alice Randall, author of The Wind Done Gone Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest at St. Augustine's Chapel on the Vanderbilt University campus. She is the founder of Magdalene, a residential community for women with a criminal history of prostitution and drug abuse, and the author of Hither & Yon: A Travel Guide for the Spiritual Journey, coming in September 2007. Meet Becca Stevens in this video interview about her life, faith and experience with the women of Magdalene House.




Seeing in the Dark


Book Description

Christians are supposed to be “the light of the world.” Yet we seem to spend most of our time stumbling in the dark. We want answers carved in stone, and instead we get uncertainty. We want a clearly marked path and a panoramic view of the future, and God gives us only fleeting glimpses of what lies ahead—and just enough light to take the next step. So what do we do? We take the next step. In her much anticipated follow-up to Looking for God, Nancy Ortberg takes readers on a journey that began thousands of years ago. From an ancient cave in Turkey to the California coast, Nancy highlights the often unexpected, sometimes imperceptible, yet always extraordinary means God uses to light our way through even the most painful and challenging moments in life.




Grace Notes


Book Description

Collects 366 daily readings from the author's writings in which he discusses his understanding of the world, faith, and God.




Your God is Too Glorious


Book Description

Most of us are regular people who have good days and bad days. Our lives are radically ordinary and unexciting. That means they're the kind of lives God gets excited about. While the world worships beauty and power and wealth, God hides his glory in the simple, the mundane, the foolish, working in unawesome people, things, and places.In our day of celebrity worship and online posturing, this is a refreshing, even transformative way of understanding God and our place in his creation. It urges us to treasure a life of simplicity, to love those whom the world passes by, to work for God's glory rather than our own. And it demonstrates that God has always been the Lord of the cross--a Savior who hides his grace in unattractive, inglorious places.Your God Is Too Glorious reminds readers that while a quiet life may look unimpressive to the world, it's the regular, everyday people that God tends to use to do his most important work.




Hidden Treasure


Book Description

Hidden Treasure, Finding God in Unexpected Places, is about the author's journey from reluctant do-gooder to leader of a successful international ministry that now seeks to replicate that success in other parts of Guatemala. Although she was a Christian when she first started serving the poor, her faith deepened and her relationship with God became the driving force for her life of service.