Glory In The Ordinary

Folding laundry. Weeding the garden. Cooking dinner. Changing diapers. Work in the home can seem so ordinary. Does any of it matter? Is there meaning in our most mundane moments at home? When the work of the home fills our days, it is easy to get disillusioned and miss God's grand purpose for our work. As image bearers of the Creator who made us to work, we contribute to society, bringing order out of chaos and loving God through loving others—meaning there's glory in every moment. In this encouraging book, Courtney Reissig combats the common misconceptions about the value of at-home work—helping us see how Christ infuses purpose into every facet of the ordinary.

Radical. Crazy. Transformative and restless. Every word we read these days seems to suggest there’s a “next-best-thing,” if only we would change our comfortable, compromising lives. In fact, the greatest fear most Christians have is boredom—the sense that they are missing out on the radical life Jesus promised. One thing is certain. No one wants to be “ordinary.” Yet pastor and author Michael Horton believes that our attempts to measure our spiritual growth by our experiences, constantly seeking after the next big breakthrough, have left many Christians disillusioned and disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with an energetic faith; the danger is that we can burn ourselves out on restless anxieties and unrealistic expectations. What’s needed is not another program or a fresh approach to spiritual growth; it’s a renewed appreciation for the commonplace. Far from a call to low expectations and passivity, Horton invites readers to recover their sense of joy in the ordinary. He provides a guide to a sustainable discipleship that happens over the long haul—not a quick fix that leaves readers empty with unfulfilled promises. Convicting and ultimately empowering, Ordinary is not a call to do less; it’s an invitation to experience the elusive joy of the ordinary Christian life.

One of the greatest social tragedies of our day is the underperformance of marriage—not only marriages that end in divorce, but also those which, while remaining “intact,” become painfully strained and emotionally scarred. Surely there must be hope for something better, for something more. With profound insight and vivid illustrations, marriage counselor Tim Savage helps us to realize the unlimited potential of marriage—to discover how the glory of God can infuse our unions, increase our joy, and make us bright lights in a troubled world.

Selected from sermons delivered by C. S. Lewis during World War II, these nine addresses offer guidance and inspiration in a time of great doubt.These are ardent and lucid sermons that provide a compassionate vision of Christianity.

Framed around one ordinary day, this book explores daily life through the lens of liturgy, small practices, and habits that form us. Each chapter looks at something author Tish Harrison Warren does in a day—making the bed, brushing her teeth, losing her keys—and relates it to spiritual practice as well as to our Sunday worship.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” —Matthew 13:31–32 When Jesus began his ministry, he announced that the kingdom of God was at hand. But many modern-day Christians don’t really understand what the kingdom of God is or how it relates to the message of the gospel. Defining kingdom as the King’s power over the King’s people in the King’s place, Patrick Schreiner investigates the key events, prophecies, and passages of Scripture that highlight the important theme of kingdom across the storyline of the Bible—helping readers see how the mission of Jesus and the coming of the kingdom fit together. Part of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series.

Meditations on the Psalms helping women to express their feelings and grow in their faith. Many of us suppress our feelings because we’re worried they are ungodly. Others of us are so led by our emotions that we let them dominate everything, including our faith. In these honest, personal and uplifting meditations on 24 selected psalms, Courtney Reissig looks at emotions we all experience, ranging from shame, anxiety, and anger through to gratitude, hope, and joy. For each, she shows how the psalms give us permission to acknowledge how we feel before God, and how they can help us to use those feelings productively and faithfully. This inspiring book will give women a language to cry out to God in order to help them process their feelings, as well as help them to grow in their faith. Can be used as a daily devotion.

Everyone yearns for the mountaintop. We search for the conference that will (God willing) be life-changing. The moment when everything in our lives will neatly come together. (It could happen.) Yet daily experience teaches us that we don’t — and probably never could — permanently live at such heights. The opposite is also true. Tragedies touch our lives every now and then. When they do we hold on to God with all our might — because He’s the only thing that’s real to us in those times. But just like life at the heights, life in “the pit” is not the norm. The truth is, most of life is lived somewhere between Mt. Everest and the Grand Canyon. We reside at the corner of Mundane and Grace. The bad news? It gets boring and a little tough to keep going. The good news? That’s exactly where God wants you. With light-hearted humor, gentle encouragement, and a healthy dose of wisdom and insight, Chris Fabry reveals the beauty in where you are today — encouraging you to step forward in faith and to encounter God as you have never before At the Corner of Mundane and Grace. You will laugh, cry, and pray as Chris Fabry takes you to the corner of Mundane and Grace. He writes with wonderful, penetrating, down-to-earth insights into both human foibles and the wonders of God’s grace. At the corner of Mundane and Grace you will see God in your life in the most marvelous ways. --Charles W. Colson, Prison Fellowship Ministries If your life is rather ordinary, this book will lead you to the extraordinary stuff that God has hidden in your daily routines. --Joseph M. Stowell, President, Moody Bible Institute A big problem in our Christian faith is that we think God is with us only in the pew, when we’re spit-shined and all tucked in. Chris Fabry tells us otherwise — that God is with us when we’re elbow-deep in dirty diapers, when our marriages are faltering, when the kids are sick and the dog is dying. --Philip Gulley, Author, Front Porch Tales Warm, witty, winsome! This happy volume will have a special place in my heart and in my home. I predict that others who taste and feast will be delighted and nourished as I have been. --Adrian Rogers, Pastor, Bellevue Baptist Church

We tend to look for God in the grand and spectacular, but most of our lives are filled with ordinary moments and routines: drinking coffee, reading a book, driving to work. Can we find God in the banalities of everyday life? In Finding God in the Ordinary, the author shows that we can, and that we must. Our world is not an ordinary world. Because it was spoken into being and maintained by the word of God's power (Heb 1:3), everything around us is always revealing the nature and character of the triune God. Our world is extraordinarily ordinary, always calling our attention to the God of glory and his work in the commonplace.

God has provided a way for all people, not just scholars, to know that the Bible is the Word of God. John Piper has devoted his life to showing us that the glory of God is object of the soul’s happiness. Now, his burden in this book is to demonstrate that this same glory is the ground of the mind’s certainty. God’s peculiar glory shines through his Word. The Spirit of God enlightens the eyes of our hearts. And in one self-authenticating sight, our minds are sure and our hearts are satisfied. Justified certainty and solid joy meet in the peculiar glory of God.