Isaiah Chapters 1-35
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
-
When Holidays Hurt
$14.99Find fullness of joy during the holidays-especially for the brokenhearted.
Divorce. Financial stress. Chronic illness. Losing a loved one. Experiencing any of these situations during the year is already difficult. But the holiday season, once joyful and happy, can heighten this pain even more. Author Bo Stern has spent the past two Christmases struggling to connect with the joy of the season. As she has watched her husband, Steve, struggle with terminal ALS, Bo has quietly felt her spirit for the season fade-and has noticed countless others suffering the same way.
Through stories and scriptures, Bo offers readers a way to redeem what can often become painful days-Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries, milestones such as weddings and graduations, and more. At the end of each devotion, Bo gently guides readers to engage with these holidays and special occasions in different ways that offer a tangible outlet for healing. At the heart of this message is that Christ came-to bring hope and healing to those who are hurting.
“Jesus didn’t come to cheer us up. He came into the shadowlands we call home to set us free. He came to untangle us from the despair that wraps itself around our joy and peace and purpose. It seems, then, that hopelessness is the very first qualification for receiving the bright hope of Christ’s coming. Perhaps you are exactly where you need to be to experience the miracle after all…”
Add to cart2 in stock
-
Jesus Storybook Bible
$24.99The Jesus Storybook Bible tells the Story beneath all the stories in the Bible. At the center of the Adventures is a baby, a child upon whom everything depends. Every story whispers his name. From Noah to Moses to the great King David – every story points to him. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle – the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together.
From the Old Testament through the New Testament, as the Story unfolds, children will pick up the clues and piece together the puzzle. A Bible like no other. The Jesus Storybook Bible invites children to join in the greatest of all adventures, to discover for themselves that Jesus is at the center of God’s great story of salvation – and at the center of their story too.
Add to cart15 in stock
-
Over In A Stable
$17.99Over in a Stable, written by award-winning author Suzanne Nelson, is a beautiful and engaging Christmas read-aloud for you and your little ones that tells the story of the nativity, featuring the memorable counting and cadence of the beloved classic poem “Over in the Meadow.”
Over in a stable, though the hour was growing late,
grazed one mother sheep and her fleecy lambs eight.
“Give,” said the mother.
“We give,” said the eight.
And they gave their hay to make a bed to rest a King so great.With vibrant illustrations from artist Aleksandar Zolotic and gorgeous verse by award-winning author Suzanne Nelson, Over in a Stable counts up from one little drummer boy to ten little children, showing the animals and people who gathered to celebrate the arrival of baby Jesus on that miraculous night in Bethlehem.
Add to cart3 in stock
-
Christmas Stories : Heartwarming Classics Of Angels, A Manger, And The Birt
$19.99A Heartwarming Collection of Christmas Stories and Reflections from Max Lucado
These stories-like your favorite Christmas ornaments-come in all shapes and sizes. They unfold in a variety of settings, from ancient Bethlehem to rural England. From a small Texas town to the heavenly realms. Some are short. Others many chapters long. Some offer reflections. Others imagine Christmas through the eyes of a burnt-out candle maker, a lonely business man, or angels.
Yet all are vintage Lucado, and all resonate with the wonder of the season.
“In the mystery of Christmas,” Max writes, “we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come, and how much he must love his people. Such mysteries can never be solved, just as love can never be diagrammed. Christmas is best pondered, not with logic, but imagination.”
That’s what each of these unique Christmas stories helps us do. In the midst of the bustle and hurry that often distract us this time of year, these stories free us to explore the ways in which Christ’s coming has forever changed history-and us.
Add to cart1 in stock
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.