What do you do when your world seems to be falling down all around you? When loss is too much to bear? When disappointment becomes your new reality? Pastor Steve Carter is certain you’ll find hope and life through these three simple yet profound steps: Grieve. Breathe. Receive. In 2018, in light of further misconduct allegations against Willow Creek Community Church founder and senior pastor Bill Hybels, Steve Carter announced publicly that he was resigning from his dream job as a lead pastor at that church. After posting his resignation online, he turned off all of his devices and began to weep on his wife's shoulder. The next morning as he was taking a walk to process all the thoughts and feelings tumbling around in his mind, he cried out to Jesus in desperation, begging for an answer. "What am I supposed to do now?" He expected nothing but the silence that had overwhelmed him since hitting send on his message to the world, but before he could take two steps, a gentle whisper impressed three words upon his heart: Those three words would become a profound mantra for Steve in the season he would soon begin—a season focused on healing. Deep healing. The kind that comes after painful trauma. In this book, Steve is more personal and vulnerable than he's ever been, and by doing so he encourages all of us to: Allow ourselves the necessary time and space to properly GRIEVE what is, what you thought it was going to be and how key people let you down rather than fill our days with activities and commitments that distract us. Slow down to BREATHE in God's grace, His peace, and His love . . . and to learn how to exhale all the negativity, pain, resentment, and bitterness we carry within us. Be open to RECEIVE all the lessons, surprises, and healing God knows we need for every part of us to be made whole.   This process of grieving, breathing, and receiving was a life-restoring gift from God for Steve and his family, and he is certain that it will bless anyone who prayerfully follows it.

We all have a surface self we present to the world, but our smiling faces often hide our pain that comes from unsuccessful attempts to find relief through harmful choices. How can we keep past wounds from damaging us? Learn to allow God to heal triggers, insecurities, and more so you can experience spiritual health and wholeness. Every driver knows the importance of avoiding potholes when navigating a route. Besides the uncomfortable bump, they can create permanent damage to vehicles and endanger entire roadway systems. The same is true of our lives. We all have potholes that have been formed by pain, trauma, or choices that we've made. Usually we find a quick fix, filling the hole with activities and even addictions disguised as culturally acceptable life choices. But before long, the hole is back-and often wider and deeper-waiting to catch us off-guard, which in the end creates even more permanent damage. In The Thing Beneath the Thing, pastor Steve Carter asks the simple question, "How is life working for you?" He knows that potholes exist and that the longer we live disconnected from answering this question, the more we will fill those holes with harmful choices. The solution? Allow God to fill them with His grace and love so that we can discover the beauty of peace and wholeness He has for us. The process lies in discovering our: Triggers: the setup that sets us off Hideouts: where we go to escape the pain of our story Insecurities: the false stories we create about ourselves Narratives: the false stories we create about others Grace: the place where we discover how to become whole, holy, and spiritually healthy Journey with a seasoned fellow traveler who has learned how to ask key questions that help us unlock the places where we've buried things. Then we can dig deep, invite healing, and learn new ways to operate so we can begin experiencing the life of freedom Jesus promised.

Are you happy? Do you know what makes you happy? Do you want to be happier? The Book of Happiness is a list of ideas to help you to live in the moment and to enjoy the small things that can bring you happiness. This book attempts to randomly select new and common experiences and suggests that if you do act on them, then you may become a happier person. True well-being is about reflecting on the things that you do in life. So, The Book of Happiness not only suggests things to do, but also requires you to write what you did and reflect on how it made you feel. That is why this is not just a list to read and do, it is a list to enjoy and reflect on. The Book of Good - a good deed diary - is also by the same author.

The number one UK kindle smash hit. 'Love, Sex and Tesco's Finest Cava, reached number one in UK humour and number one in contemporary romance in March 2011. Film fanatic Rob Smith is thirty-eight, newly single and on the wrong side of two marriages. Rob's looking to get back into dating but quickly discovers that in the ten years he's been married the rules of the game have changed. After a couple of disastrous blind dates, Rob strikes it lucky when he meets the supremely confident Jenny on URdate.com. As Rob blunders his way through their early dates, he begins to discover there's a price to pay for the upturn in his sexual fortunes. Rob has to deal with an anarchic house, three teenage boys, his own sexual inadequacies and the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that, just maybe, Jenny is not all that she seems. If all that's not enough his best mate Steve's insatiable desire to be crowned 'Halton and District over 35s Five-a-side Champions' is adding to the pressure. Will love, sex and Tesco's finest cava be enough to see him through?

The Book of Good is a list of good deeds that each of us could do which will not only improve other people's lives but improve our life too. Some deeds are simple and free and some are difficult and expensive. It is a book for all people. If everyone took on the challenge to be good on a daily basis the world would be a better place for everyone. This is both a challenge and a life-changing ideal. The book of Good is also a diary and the reader will hopefully record what they have done on each page. Reflecting on being good and thinking about other good deeds is part of the process of wellbeing. The Book of Good is not a book for cynics though it should be. It is a book that should be given and well received. Here is an opportunity for you to change your world in small daily steps. Are you ready to take on the challenge?

Ted's life is a mess. He feels that the whole world is against him. Harassed by his older brother on a daily basis, his troubles get worse when the local school bully also starts picking on him. Deep in the woods one day, while hiding from his brother and the bully, Ted finds an ancient tribal mask. The wooden treasure is a portal to another dimension. Through the Mask of the Fufura, Ted discovers an entirely new world - a miniature land nestled in the rockery at the bottom of his Grandparent's garden. Leaving his troubled world behind, Ted quickly learns that life in the mysterious land of Shimwari is not that easy either. Standing no taller than a blade of grass, he has to deal with snakes, lizards and spiders, only in this world, these creatures take on colossal proportions. Ted finds that he has stumbled upon a land ravaged by war. The problems of his real world seem insignificant when compared to the dilemma facing the tiny Shimwarian folk. Rat-men, known as Sotsees, under the leadership of the Evil lord Dorox have invaded this once peaceful land - forcing the Shimwarians into hiding. Ted realizes that now is the time to face up to the challenges in his life. Will he find the courage to stand up to the school bully? Will he find forgiveness for his father, who abandoned his family so long ago? Most of all, does Ted have the courage to lead a small band of warriors in their quest to force Dorox and the Sotsees back to the dark place they came from? The veil that separates reality and a young boy's imagination is indeed, very thin.

The concept of subordination plays a prominent role in the paranesis of 1 Peter, and it appears too in the context of Christ's victory over the cosmic powers. It seems to presuppose some kind of given natural and social order in which people must live in their allotted place. But the author also sees his readers' subordination as conditioned by their status as free people, which he expounds in several passages. This investigation aims to clarify the meaning and relationship of the concepts of subordination and freedom in 1 Peter, with reference to the related idea of order. After an introduction that sets out the issues in detail, the first main section examines the three themes in the wider thought of the first century CE, and the second provides detailed exegesis of the key Petrine texts. A final chapter synthesizes this evidence and draws conclusions regarding the conceptuality of subordination and freedom expressed in the letter. The study presents the idea of "restored order" as a new interpretive key to the teaching and paranesis of 1 Peter and the significant New Testament tradition to which it belongs. It clarifies the important Petrine concepts of subordination and freedom, with that of order, within the letter as a whole and its constituent parts, and it illuminates the exegesis of various disputed texts and passages. Scholars and research students of 1 Peter and the wider New Testament will find here a compelling proposal to stimulate and inform their own engagement with the text.