Find the freedom from regret, hurt, and fear that God wants for you while discovering joy, relief, and hope as you become the beautiful human he created you to be. We all carry regret, hurt, and fear. These are burdens that weigh us down and make us feel trapped. In twenty-five years of pastoral ministry, Scott Sauls has come alongside countless individuals and communities through weary seasons and circumstances. From his own seasons of regret, hurt, and fear--including battles with anxiety and depression--he knows what it's like to be unfinished and on the mend under Jesus' merciful, mighty healing hand. Beautiful People Don't Just Happen reads like a field guide that can help you: Find hope in how God is drawn toward you, not appalled by you, in your sin and sorrow. Practice emotional health with joy, gratitude, and lament. Quiet shaming, wearying thoughts with God's divine counter-voice. Discover how the defining feeling of faith is not strength but dependent weakness. Learn what the Bible calls "the secret of being content" in every circumstance. Dare to embrace the contentment, hope, and fullness God wants for you--offered to all who will receive it.

Jack and Judy Balswick offer a vision of marriage that is both profoundly spiritual and thoroughly practical for the twenty-first century.

Phillips Brooks, author of the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, was the rector of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston for 22 years and the Bishop of Massachusetts for 15 months until his death in 1893. This volume in the Great American Orators series focuses on Brooks' oratorical style and the public's response to his rhetoric. Chesebrough provides a biographical sketch of Brooks' life emphasizing the development and use of his oratorical skills and placing him within the secular and ecclesiastical contexts of his times. Attention is given to Brooks' development as a public speaker and to his manner of sermon preparation and delivery. Three of Brooks' sermons are printed in their entirety: Abraham Lincoln, The Cradle of the Lord, and Help from the Hills, preceded by introductory remarks and a brief analysis of the sermon. This examination of Brooks' rhetoric will appeal to scholars of rhetoric and of American theology and American religious history, especially Episcopal history.

To be a Christian involves becoming more like Jesus and this involves at least three things: Developing the type of relationship with God that Jesus had. Having our lives transformed by the Holy Spirit into lives of purity and holiness. Ministering to people with the same love and power in which Jesus ministered. In this book, John Coles, Director of New Wine, pays particular attention to the third point (which is often neglected) and gives practical guidelines to all those who desire to minister healing to others. Firmly grounded in biblical principles it helps readers to know where to begin and offers valuable advice and wisdom, gained over many years of ministry experience, as they seek to develop a healing ministry.

Bible scripture tells us the secret things belong to God but those things which are revealed belong to us. I Know the Secret is a series of true short stories on how God works here on earth through people to help us with trials and tribulations. The author explains how her path in life has been directed by God but orchestrated by people. She shares her life experiences on death, divorce and other challenges. Her personal testimony demonstrates how God works in mysterious ways to help His children. Through her strong relationship with God she began to experience extraordinary events that could only be explained as being communications from heaven.

For approximately four decades, from shortly before the Civil War until his death in 1887, the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher dominated the pulpit and the public platform. Halford Ryan argues that although the ministry was Beecher's career, public speaking was his calling. Combining important orations with a critical analysis of Beecher's rhetoric, this book examines all facets of the Reverend's speaking and preaching. Particularly, it demonstrates that Beecher was unusually skilled in the art of refutative rhetoric, that is, he often paid more attention to rebutting the claims of his opponents than he did to building his own arguments. Of special note is the fact that Ryan's analysis is grounded in original research conducted in the Beecher Family Papers. These primary sources, described fully in the endmatter, are the core materials for the critical chapters, the chronology of speeches and sermons, and the bibliography. Ryan's thesis that Beecher was aware of the importance of delivering his speeches and paid special attention to the presentation of his orations is supported by these resources. The book also contains a bibliography of works by and about Henry Ward Beecher, texts of his important speeches and sermons, and a Chronology of Sermons and Speeches that is keyed to Beecher's various publications. This study provides a penetrating analysis of Beecher's impact on issues of sacred and secular interest during a critical period in American history. It should be read by both historians and those interested in rhetoric and communications.

In this book, scholars and church and synagogue leaders examine religious affiliation in contemporary America. Their essays explore the dynamics of congregational affiliation: the motivations which impel people to join a congregation, drop out or remain unaffiliated; the practices within churches and synagogues which attract or repel membership; and the ways in which contextual religious, social, and cultural factors influence patterns of congregational affiliation. The book is principally concerned with churches and synagogues in the more liberal denominations of Christianity and Judaism, those where the greatest membership losses are occurring. Over the past few decades membership in "mainline" churches in the United States has declined, with some groups losing more than 20 percent of their membership. Similarly, four decades ago, 60 percent of all American Jews were religiously affiliated; today that number is below 40 percent. This book seeks not only to explain the reasons for declines in affiliation, but also to propose approaches that may combat the decline and showcase studies of congregations that have succeeded in holding their memberships. This work will be of great interest to scholars of religion in America as well as clerics, rabbis, and others actively involved in congregational life.

"No other man in history was so mightily used of God in revival as Asahel Nettleton. He labored amidst more revivals of religion than Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield One can learn much about how God moves in revival by studying Nettleton's life, therefore this book will be a useful tool for any serious student of revival. Secondly, the role that Nettleton played as a defender of the faith against the 'New Measures' and the 'New Haven Theology' reveals how theology in America shifted from its Puritan roots of Calvinism to a more Federalized man-centered theology" (from Introduction by author E.A. Johnston).