Sacrament Of Happy
$16.99
Imagine hearing your physician tell you that chips and queso contain more nutritional benefits than kale and quinoa. Or opening an envelope that looks like just another bill, and unfolding instead an official document declaring you the sole beneficiary of an anonymous billionaire’s estate.
In her new book, The Sacrament of Happy: Surprised by the Secret of Genuine Joy, Lisa Harper unveils a similarly extravagant, unexpected surprise, declaring that happiness-just plain feeling happy-is a gift from God that you can unashamedly enjoy.
Wearing the twin hats of seminarian and belly-laughing adoptive mom, Harper delivers a warm, vignette style built upon solid theological scaffolding. She observes, for example, that God’s choice of wording for the first verse of the first psalm (a word often translated as “blessed”) literally means happy-one of many biblical reasons for dismantling the old-school idea that joy, not happiness, is the truly spiritual one of the Christian family. In truth, they’re more like fraternal twins than distant cousins, meaning we as Christ-followers are not called to jettison happiness-like a no-longer-needed set of spiritual floaties-as we learn to swim in the deep waters of intimacy with God. Beyond merely a circumstances-based, up-and-down emotion, happiness comes from a deep conviction in the unmitigated goodness of our Creator-Redeemer, freeing us to feel and express genuine joy, fulfillment, and contentment, regardless of personal or global tumult.
The author’s personal story includes such happiness killers as sexual abuse, the deaths of near loved ones, a heartbreaking failed adoption, followed by the arrival of an adopted daughter from Haiti who is HIV-positive. Yet she writes on themes like: “The lost sacrament of laughter”-“Does happy have a personality type?”-“Tuning out the Pharisees who try to mute your happiness in the context of spiritual maturity.” So this is obviously not a book of trite, untested cliches. It goes well beneath most people’s surface understanding of happiness, gently guiding readers closer to the heart of God . . . with naturally a few genuine laughs and grins to enjoy along the way.
1 in stock
SKU (ISBN): 9781433691935
ISBN10: 1433691930
Lisa Harper
Binding: Trade Paper
Published: June 2017
Publisher: B and H Publishing Group
Related products
-
Sermon On The Mount Bible Study Book Revised And Expanded With Video Access (Stu
$24.99In His sweeping depiction of kingdom citizenship, Jesus utters some of the most familiar passages in all of Scripture. Most of us have only encountered the Sermon on the Mount in fragments, considering its subdivisions as complete teachings in their own right-a study on blessedness; a reflection on the Lord’s Prayer; a discussion of religious devotion, money, ambition, and relationships.
What if we navigated these three chapters in Matthew as they were originally heard? What if we read them as one cohesive, well-ordered message, intended to challenge us to think differently about what it means to be a follower of Jesus?
This 9-session study will give you the opportunity to do just that. Come and learn from Jesus, just as His disciples did. First released in 2014, this study is now updated with new teaching videos from Jen Wilkin.
Add to cart2 in stock
-
Case For Easter
$2.99Did Jesus of Nazareth really rise from the dead?
Of the many world religions, only one claims that its founder returned from the grave. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very cornerstone of Christianity.
But a dead man coming back to life? In our sophisticated age, when myth has given way to science, who can take such a claim seriously? Some argue that Jesus never died on the cross. Conflicting accounts make the empty tomb seem suspect.
How credible is the evidence for–and against–the resurrection? Focusing his award-winning skills as a legal journalist on history’s most compelling enigma, Lee Strobel retraces the startling findings that led him from atheism to belief. He examines:
*The Medical Evidence–Was Jesus’ death a sham and his resurrection a hoax?
*The Evidence of the Missing Body–Was Jesus’ body really absent from his tomb?
*The Evidence of Appearances–Was Jesus seen alive after his death on the cross?Written in a hard-hitting journalistic style, The Case for Easter probes the core issues of the resurrection. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead: superstitious myth or life-changing reality? The evidence is in. The verdict is up to you.
Add to cart12 in stock
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.