By The Grace Of God Blink Once For Yes

This personal narrative tells the true story of a young mother who experienced three devastating strokes that left her imprisoned in her own body and then discovered her salvation through God s grace and love."

On May 31, 1980, Laura Klehr Barnett, age 23, was planting flowers when she was suddenly seized by debilitating dizziness and later by convulsions. At the hospital, she slipped into a coma, the result of a severe brain stem stroke. Crying and blinking were her only activities for five weeks. One day she started laughing at something her husband did; from this, her improvement began. Over the next three months, she relearned to walk and eat again but could not speak. After four months in the hospital, Laura returned home. Recovering her speech was the challenge she faced at home. With a special retainer and effort, she was able to make herself understood. Many possibilities opened up to her, and she went about pursuing endeavors to fill a void in her life. Yet, despite her busyness, inside she felt empty. Driving past a small neighborhood church, she decided that attending would be good for her foster children. Ultimately, that decision was good for her! God filled the vacuum in her life!

How often do you say “yes” to God in your daily life? Do you regularly share that yes with others? Generous living isn’t just about putting money in the collection basket during Mass or always being the one who steps up to help out. According to bestselling Catholic author, speaker, blogger, and creator of CatholicMom.com Lisa M. Hendey, generous living is about consistently answering God’s call to act through mission and loving service to others. In The Grace of Yes, Hendey shares eight spiritual virtues that have allowed her—and will help you—live generously and joyously say yes to God. With warmth and practical advice, Hendey helps you become more open to God’s unique plan for your life through the virtues of belief, generativity, creativity, integrity, humility, vulnerability, saying no, and starting over. As she candidly reflects on her own faith journey, Hendey guides you toward your own path of generous giving. Each chapter includes questions for personal reflection and a prayer that invites you into a deeper relationship with God. Each chapter includes questions for personal reflection and a prayer that invites you into a deeper relationship with God.

From the author of Hard Knocks: Memoir of a Small Moment and Hard Love: A California Memoir, Hard Faith is Lopez's third memoir and picks up where Hard Love leaves his readers. Hard Faith describes Lopez's struggles and growing maturity as a Christian, husband, father, and probation officer. It tells of the difficulties in the church and trying to hear God's voice in declaring the plans he has for us. Lopez leaves the Baptist church after fifteen years and starts serving in an independent, nondenominational church that is pursuing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially prophecy. It covers the Lopezes' lives as double-income, professional parents and the challenging experiences while raising their children. Hard Faith explores the impact of 9/11. It takes the reader on some incredible journeys, like when Lopez and his wife, Paula, traveled to Peru to be with their daughter who was in a coma after being hit by a tourist bus. They experienced many miracles in Peru, most significantly, their daughter's survival and healing. Hard Faith covers his mother's stroke and the deaths of both of his parents, focusing on how God uses all things for our good (Rom 8:28) and brings us closer together. The book travels through Lopez's retirement as a federal law enforcement officer and his struggles with depression, and ends with the death of his sister-in-law from ALS at the age of fifty-four.

Hand of Mercy: A Story of God’s Grace is a cross-generational account of God’s mercy upon a family. When a car slams into 80-year-old Joseph “Joe” Nowicki causing him to die, twice, from the impact, a story unfolds that captivates the imagination. The two dreams which accompany his deaths are not about heaven . . . but hell. Joe lives to share his remarkable rescues from an eternity without God, with the Lord’s hand of mercy extended to this self-proclaimed atheist. Not only does this story reveal an eternal consequence, it also reveals multiple divine interventions in the areas of faith, healing, business, and the “coincidence” of timing. God’s mercy on this family, and others, gives hope that He is at work in the affairs of all, young and old, ever drawing us to Him, even if we are unaware. Joe experienced a simple truth: life is short and eternity is real, and where we spend it is a choice we make. Gene Andrews, Joe’s son, shares his family’s story so all may have a greater understanding of God’s hand upon our lives. He provides photographs that bless as they signify the heart of living. Readers also have the opportunity to participate in “A Deeper Reflection” sections, found at the end of each chapter. Thought-provoking questions accompany Scripture that is relevant to the story and take us on an adventure of self-awareness and evaluation.

Women need to connect with other women in deep, meaningful ways—especially within the context of a mentoring relationship or spiritual friendship. Older women who have experienced the heartache of life's journey can offer encouragement and wisdom to younger women beginning their journey with God. Younger women can inspire and inform the older generation. The One Year Women's Friendship Devotional will not only provide daily wisdom and encouragement from God's Word throughout the year but will also encourage women across the country to cultivate meaningful, spiritual friendships.

The devotional companion to the New York Times bestselling One Thousand Gifts, this book will be your daily guide to giving thanks and finding joy amid the struggles of life. Renew your appreciation for the breathtaking beauty that surrounds us in life's simplest details. Encouraging you to reflect even deeper on the concepts explored in her bestselling book One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp offers sixty wisdom-soaked devotions, complete with scriptures, prayers, reflection questions, and space to record your own insights. As practical as it is profound, this devotional offers real life transformation with intentional space to begin the radical habit of thanking God for your own one thousand gifts. The endless grace of our overflowing God is meant to be experienced directly. The most important thing is simply to begin. This devotional contains: 60 reflections for two months of daily devotional study Bible verses and prayers in each chapter Space at the end of each chapter to write notes A special section with one thousand lines to journal your own list of gratitude When you pick up a pen and this book, you can change your life. Take the dare to fully live! God is waiting to bless you with the greatest gift of all: more and more of Himself. For extended study into this message, pick up the original One Thousand Gifts book and the One Thousand Gifts video study and study guide.

Readers will be inspired, amazed, and amused by these stories of faith — the 101 best stories from Chicken Soup for the Soul’s library on faith, hope, miracles, and devotion. Filled with heartfelt true stories written by regular people, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stories of Faith will amaze, inspire, and amuse readers. Its stories of prayers answered miraculously, amazing coincidences, rediscovered faith, and the serenity that comes from believing in a greater power will touch and resonate with Christians and other faiths.

A dose of inspiration for caregiving professionals and the millions of souls who help care for family and friends.

Millions of Christians have struggled with how to reconcile God's love and God's judgment: Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this "good news"? Troubling questions—so troubling that many have lost their faith because of them. Others only whisper the questions to themselves, fearing or being taught that they might lose their faith and their church if they ask them out loud. But what if these questions trouble us for good reason? What if the story of heaven and hell we have been taught is not, in fact, what the Bible teaches? What if what Jesus meant by heaven, hell, and salvation are very different from how we have come to understand them? What if it is God who wants us to face these questions? Author, pastor, and innovative teacher Rob Bell presents a deeply biblical vision for rediscovering a richer, grander, truer, and more spiritually satisfying way of understanding heaven, hell, God, Jesus, salvation, and repentance. The result is the discovery that the "good news" is much, much better than we ever imagined. Love wins.