What happens when an ordinary woman chooses to step out in faith and serve an extraordinary God? Come along for an inside look at one woman's journey overseas, walking in obedience to God's call to love the world. Follow alongside her as she tells a colorful, poignant, and startling honest tale of how God taught her to love the people of an Asian island nation and in doing so captured a greater vision for His glory. Walk with her through the highs and lows of her experiences in running a medical clinic in a rice farming village, delight in her curious stories of hiking for smelly fruit in the mountains, chuckle at her stories of treating chickens with high blood pressure, and revel in moments of God's miraculous healing. Through the comic moments, the tragic moments, and the glorious moments, as you hear her share her heartfelt disappointments, frustrations, and joys, you will find God's grace and faithfulness at every turn. Prepare for your vision of God's Kingdom to be expanded as you learn how to see the world around you--and yourself--more through His eyes. His glory is all around you, and even in you.
"...we are a community of individuals. We can only really share our lives with each other when we are aware of who we are. In this way community is affirming to both the collective and the individual. When community is happening we feel more whole as individuals. It is not a loss of individuality but a profound affirmation. Ironically, it is isolation that destroys us as individuals and community that most affirms us..." In your Underwear is our story of exposure and acceptance; what it is like to live as unique individuals in intentional community. We are: Jeremy the perfectionist, Jennifer the healer, Jason the achiever, Crystal the artist, Katy the investigator, Jessica the loyalist, Joann the enthusiast, Brian the challenger, and Monica the peacemaker. As you read you may find yourself in these pages. You may also find the hope of a life richly lived in the vulnerability and security that is biblical Christian community.
Water, wind, earth and fire. A marriage that can survive the elements is a marriage that can last. Take a journey through 100 devotionals designed for couples to explore tbeir relationship as well as themselves. Hear first-hand stories from a gifted counselor who has spent countless hours walking through the elements with couples in need of hope and looking for new life in their relationship. Regardless of where you are on the journey of your relationship, Elemental Marriage will ask the questions and give you the tools you need to face the elements.
While sages extol humility as the chief of all virtue, too often we have treated it as optional, or even as a weakness. Yet, there was nothing that Jesus did that was not saturated with the color of this difficult and enigmatic virtue. It is hard to reward, it cannot be achieved in the formal sense, and it is often lost as it is directly pursued. Humility cannot stand on stage or spectacle and therefore cannot be apprehended the way generosity or even love can be. In other words, it is not gained by a direct campaign but is somehow a product of something else. Elusive: The Pursuit of Jesus and Humility is about that "something else." It is about imitating the life of Jesus. A life that was quintessentially humble.
Life without church. It's getting easier to imagine. And maybe you already left. A leaver, then. Committed to Jesus, not an institution. Perhaps you've left your church in spirit, remaining in the pew. Outwardly silent. Secretly bored. In either case, Brian Sanders has a word for you. Out of his own experience as a leaver, Brian distills the complex problem into two viable options:
Stay. Remain in your church with the blessing of Christ and in the power of his great vision for the church to come.
Take the path of revolutionary leaving. Move purposefully, seeking the kingdom of God that is beyond institutions.
Whether Sunday mornings find you alone in a one-bedroom apartment or isolated in a church of thousands, Brian reminds you to keep listening for God's call. Reform the church that is Christ's. Be it from the inside out, or the outside in.