Reconizing and remedying the underserved shame that burden our spirit and crushes our joy -- from the author of Forgive and Forget.

If you persistently feel don't measure up, you are feeling shame -- that "vague",undefined heaviness that presses on our spirit, dampens our gratitude for the goodness of life," and diminishes our joy. The good news is that shame can be healed.

With warmth and wit, Lewis B. Smedes examines why and how we feel shamed and presents a profound, spiritual plan for healing. Step by step, Smedes outlines the road to well-being and the peace that comes from knowing we are accepted by "the grace of One whose acceptance of us matters most."

For all of us who have been wounded by another and struggled to understand and move beyond our feelings of hurt and anger, Lewis Smedes's classic book on forgiveness shows that it is possible to heal our pain and find room in our hearts to forgive. Breaking down the process of healing into four stages and offering stories of real people's experience throughout, this wise book provides hope and solace for all who long for the peace that comes with forgiveness. This classic is now available in an updated paperback PLUS edition with a reader's guide and other bonus materials.

""There are some things about God that, were I to stop believing them, my world would change color, my hope would turn sour, and the meaning of my life would be yanked inside out.""In this moving spiritual memoir, finished shortly before his death in December 2002, Lewis Smedes, beloved teacher and best-selling author, takes readers through his own lifelong walk with God.In "My God and I" Smedes gives voice to both the struggles and the joys of his life, revealing his deepest questions to a God who would never let him go and expressing his eager anticipation of the day when, as God promises, all things will be made new. "It has been 'God and I' the whole way," Smedes writes. "Not so much because he has always been pleasant company. Not because I could always feel his presence when I got up in the morning or when I was afraid to sleep at night. It was because he did not trust me to travel alone."Yet "My God and I" is more than Smedes's personal account of his travels with God -- the theological odyssey that was his life. Like all his writings, this book also models and instructs. Through his honest confessions on the nature of Christian faith, Smedes offers gentle insights not just about God but also about human life and how it can and should be lived. And for those interested in the particulars of Smedes's professional life, these pages include many anecdotes by one whose career was linked closely with shifting currents in modern theology and with some of America's premier educational institutions.Above all, "My God and I" will provide a source of spiritual comfort to those who, like Smedes, continue to strive after the presence of God. It will also be a cherished good-bye for the many people who have been touched by the wisdom, wit, and charm of Lewis Smedes.

" There are some things about God that, were I to stop believing them, my world would change color, my hope would turn sour, and the meaning of my life would be yanked inside out. "

In this moving spiritual memoir, finished shortly before his death in December 2002, Lewis Smedes, beloved teacher and best-selling author, takes readers through his own lifelong walk with God.

In "My God and I" Smedes gives voice to both the struggles and the joys of his life, revealing his deepest questions to a God who would never let him go and expressing his eager anticipation of the day when, as God promises, all things will be made new. It has been God and I' the whole way, Smedes writes. Not so much because he has always been pleasant company. Not because I could always feel his presence when I got up in the morning or when I was afraid to sleep at night. It was because he did not trust me to travel alone.

Yet "My God and I" is more than Smedes's personal account of his travels with God -- the theological odyssey that was his life. Like all his writings, this book also models and instructs. Through his honest confessions on the nature of Christian faith, Smedes offers gentle insights not just about God but also about human life and how it can and should be lived. And for those interested in the particulars of Smedes's professional life, these pages include many anecdotes by one whose career was linked closely with shifting currents in modern theology and with some of America's premier educational institutions.

Above all, "My God and I" will provide a source of spiritual comfort to those who, like Smedes, continue to strive after the presence of God. It will also be a cherished good-byefor the many people who have been touched by the wisdom, wit, and charm of Lewis Smedes.

Each one of us enjoys deep relationships held together by an invisible cord called commitment, and every important community depends on the strength of that unseen cord. At times, we find it a joy to keep our commitments. At others, it seems difficult-even impossible-to honor those spoken and unspoken pledges.
If you deeply desire to make and keep commitments...
If you want insight into what makes relationships work-
or to learn what to do when a relationship is in crisis...
If you feel trapped by a bad commitment and wonder if you can
experience grace and a new beginning...
Best-selling author Lewis Smedes offers insights that will profoundly affect the way you interact with and relate to others. Find out what you and those you love can gain from committed relationships; discover how to cope when someone close to you breaks your trust; and determine which, if any, relationships should continue forever-as well as how you can make these relationships last-in "Learning to Live the Love We Promise. "

Now considered a classic statement on sex and sexuality from a Christian perspective, Lewis B. Smedes's Sex for Christians offers a frank yet compassionate discussion that is refreshingly open-minded and strongly biblical. The book is divided into three major sections. The first, "Sex and Christian People," overviews human sexuality -- its created goodness, its sinful distortions, and its redeemed potential -- what we are as human sexual beings. Part Two, "Sex and Single People," and Part Three, "Sex and Married People," are about sexual behavior in each succeeding stage of life -- the things we do as sexual beings.With the addition of an extensive epilogue, Smedes brings his text into clear focus with today's pressing issues -- AIDS, cohabitation, homosexuality, and the need to develop Christian strategies regarding sex. And with the hindsight of two decades since Sex for Christians first came out, Smedes presents an even stronger statement of his two sources of authority: the Bible's moral standards regarding sex, and the authority of reality as we discern it.Smedes's attempt to present "a Christian perspective for a truly human sexual life" has resulted in a sexual morality that, within a biblical perspective, is as liberating as it is limiting.

Is there a morality that shows us how to survive as a humane community? Can we know what God expects of the human family? Is there a morality for ordinary people? In this book, the author of Sex for Christians and Love within Limits explores the way to moral sanity amid the confusions and crises of contemporary life. We do not, says Smedes, have a -moral map- to mark out the details of our route in advance, but neither are we left to grope and improvise at every step. The focus of Smedes's study is the commandments -- in particular those five of the Ten Commandments which call us to respect other persons: -Honor your father and mother-; -You shall not kill-; -You shall not commit adultery-; -You shall not steal-; -You shall not bear false witness.- Each of these commandments pinpoints the moral nucleus of one sector of life in community -- family, marriage, property, communication, and the preservation of life itself. Using these commandments as a basis, Smedes asks three questions: What does God command us to do? Why does he command this? And how can we obey this in the ambiguities and conflicts of real life? Smedes answers the first question by extracting the simple meaning of the commands. He probes answers to the second question -- why? -- on the premise that a reasonable Creator commands his creatures only to be what they are and to act in ways that fit their nature as human beings in community. -Moral norms are not alien, - claims Smedes, -they conform to our being.- It is in answering how to obey these commandments in ordinary life that Smedes moves from the ancient words at Sinai to the troubled twentieth-century context in which we live. This is not always an easy task. The commandment may signal a clear moral direction, but determining whether and how its absolute fits into each new situation will require patient common sense, tough-minded reason, and devout faith. Such painful struggles, for which Smedes provides eloquent guidance are at the core of responsible moral living.