Breaking Up With God

"Honest,like down-to-the-core honest, beyond what most people are capable of,especially in public on the topic of faith." —Kelly Corrigan, New York Times bestselling author of The Middle Place Inthe tradition of Barbara Brown Taylor and Sue Monk Kidd, Sarah Sentilles offers a poignant, beautifully wroughtmemoir of her personal crisis of faith. Sentilleswas on the way to becoming a priest when she ultimately faced the truth: she nolonger believed. Her moving story examines the question of how youleave the most powerful being in the universe—and, if you do, where do you go? Breaking Up with God is an inspiringreflection no matter where you stand on the matter of faith.

“Perfection is exhausting at best, defeating at worst. In Breaking Up with Perfect, Amy is the trusted friend who comes to help us knock down our walls of fear to rebuild a more doable, sustainable, God-honoring life.” —Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling author of The Best Yes and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries An inspiring and thought-provoking guide to help you abandon the pursuit of perfection and become comfortable and more confident in your own skin. We’ve all been in relationships that were bad for us...whether with a catty girlfriend, a selfish boyfriend, or a coworker who undermines our best efforts. But there is one relationship that steals the potential of all other relationships—including our relationship with ourselves and, ultimately, our relationship with God. And that’s our relationship with Perfect. Perfect is a bad friend. No matter what we do or say or give or bake or create...it’s never enough. Perfect always demands more, but it’s never satisfied. Never. Whether you are a “good girl,” who always tries to be what you think everyone else wants you to be, or a “never good enough” girl, who’s desperately hiding your past and shame behind attempts to measure up—this book will help you find the beautiful, loving, fulfilled woman God created you to be. Imperfections and all. Breaking Up with Perfect will help you: • Experience authenticity as the antidote for isolation • Trade the Lies of Perfection for the Truths of God’s Love • End the pursuit of perfection, so God can begin His powerful perfecting work in you After reading this book, you’ll be able to end the never-ending stress that chasing Perfect brings and live a life filled with joy, peace, and spiritual fulfillment.

After years of living with a set of religious demands that he could never live up to, Fil Anderson found himself spiritually bankrupt and emotionally drained. Following a crash-and-burn in professional ministry, he experienced relief in learning to be with God rather than doing for God. Instead of desperation, he found healing, and a rich new life with God.In Breaking the Rules, Fil invites us to explore what happens when good religion turns bad. At such times we are weighed down with expectations of what it takes to be "right with God"--whether it is the expectations of others, holding up under pressure, fixing what's wrong or accomplishing big things for God.When we set aside this false agenda, we find the courage to confess our fears and insecurities. We taste the depths of God's love for us. Here is an opportunity to quit trusting in your own ability to live for God, and simply trust in God instead.

“I used to be a lesbian.” In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • “A powerful, heartbreaking, necessary masterpiece.”—Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild The moving story of what one woman learned from fostering a newborn—about injustice, about making mistakes, about how to better love and protect people beyond our immediate kin May you always feel at home. After their decision not to have a biological child, Sarah Sentilles and her husband, Eric, decide to adopt via the foster care system. Despite knowing that the system’s goal is the child’s reunification with the birth family, Sarah opens their home to a flurry of social workers who question them, evaluate them, and ultimately prepare them to welcome a child into their lives—even if it means most likely having to give the child back. After years of starts and stops, and endless navigation of the complexities and injustices of the foster care system, a phone call finally comes: a three-day-old baby girl named Coco, in immediate need of a foster family. Sarah and Eric bring this newborn stranger home. “You were never ours,” Sarah tells Coco, “yet we belong to each other.” A love letter to Coco and to the countless children like her, Stranger Care chronicles Sarah’s discovery of what it means to mother—in this case, not just a vulnerable infant but the birth mother who loves her, too. Ultimately, Coco’s story reminds us that we depend on family, and that family can take different forms. With prose that Nick Flynn has called “fearless, stirring, rhythmic,” Sentilles lays bare an intimate, powerful story with universal concerns: How can we care for and protect one another? How do we ensure a more hopeful future for life on this planet? And if we’re all related—tree, bird, star, person—how might we better live?

In a Culture of Distortions, Discover God-Defined Womanhood and Beauty In a culture where airbrushed models and career-driven women define beauty and success, it's no wonder we have a distorted view of femininity. Our impossible standards place an incredible burden of stress on the backs of women and girls of all ages, resulting in anxiety, eating disorders, and depression. One question we often forget to ask is this: What is God's design for womanhood? In Girl Defined, sisters and popular bloggers Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal offer women a countercultural view of beauty, femininity, and self-worth. Based firmly in God's design for their lives, this book helps women rethink what true success and beauty look like. It invites them on a liberating journey toward a radically better vision for femininity that ends with the discovery of the kind of hope, purpose, and fulfillment they've been yearning for. Girl Defined helps readers · discover God's design for femininity and his definition of a successful woman · uncover the secrets of lasting worth, purpose, and fulfillment · be equipped and empowered to live out a radically better vision for womanhood · gain personal insight through the chapter-by-chapter study guide

Relationships are like road trips. Sometimes they’re an exciting adventure. But sometimes they’re like a traffic jam going nowhere. Or even worse, they’re a wrong turn that’s taken you hundreds of miles off your course. With much-needed humor and honest advice, bestselling author and speaker Chad Eastham helps you think through tough but necessary relationship issues such as: · Why some people find happiness, while others find heartache · Why pain hurts so much · When to break up · When to make up Chad’s conversational tone, facts, and advice encourage young people to rethink life’s conversations, even the difficult stuff like heartbreak. There is nothing in life that is too big, too painful, or too difficult that God cannot make better and use to teach us about love. Nothing.

We must lay down our certainties and honestly admit our doubts to identify with Jesus. Rollins purposely upsets fundamentalist certainty in order to open readers up to a more loving, active manifestation of Christ's love. He explores how the Good News actually involves embracing the idea that we can't be whole, that life is difficult, and that we are in the dark. By joyfully embracing our brokenness, and courageously accepting the difficulties of existence, we truly rob death of its sting and enter into the fullness of life.

God's Purpose For The Wait is for both non-Christian and Christian singles. If you have experienced a relationship breakup, a new start is just what you need! This new start will not be like any other you have ever experienced because you are going to restart your life with God, this time around. God's Purpose For The Wait teaches that restarting life with God means that you are making a decision to wait on God. When you wait on God, you give Him permission to take total control in every area of your life. This is your time of change! God does not want you to run to another partner for comfort. He wants you to run into His arms. There is a process of spiritual, emotional, mental and physical healing that God wants to take YOU through. As He does this, He will not only prepare you for the blessing of marriage in His perfect timing but most importantly, He will prepare you to walk in the divine purpose for which you were created.

Read the riveting story of the Fox 4 Evening News anchor's experience with a stalker and what she went through to bring him to justice. She also outlines the 10 steps to success her faith led her to that anyone can use in their own life.