Now I Become Myself: How Deep Grace Heals Our Shame and Restores Our True Self
By Ken Shigematsu
Zondervan
Becoming who you were before the world told you who you had to be. You’re not alone when it comes to experiencing shame or fear of not being enough. Shame isn’t felt only by those who have gone through failure or trauma or been told they’ll never amount to anything. Many people – even those who are considered successful – struggle with a sense that they are deficient or inadequate.
Drawing on a rich variety of personal experience, Scripture, spiritual formation classics, psychology, and relational neuroscience; award-winning author and pastor Ken Shigematsu shows how a deep, experiential encounter with the love of God can heal us of our shame, make us whole again, and inspire us to fulfill our purpose by making a faithful contribution to the world.
Now I Become Myself will help you:
- Break free of an unhealthy self-image and from jealousy of others’ achievements.
- Discover how beauty and spiritual joy can help you overcome the unhealthy shame you’re clinging to.
- Create space in your life to draw close to Jesus and deepen your sense of God’s boundless love for you.
Written with pastoral compassion and understanding, Shigematsu’s stories and teachings will uplift you and help you break free from the feeling of not being enough so that you can find rest in the security of God’s grace. Each chapter concludes with a prayer exercise intended to nurture your relationship with the God who formed you in love and created you in beauty.
About the author:
Ken Shigematsu is the Senior Pastor of Tenth Church in Vancouver, BC, one of the largest and most diverse city-center churches in Canada. He is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal awarded to Canadians in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the country and the author of the international bestseller God in My Everything. Before entering pastoral ministry, he worked for the Sony Corporation in Tokyo and draws on both eastern and western perspectives in writing and speaking. Ken lives in Vancouver with his wife, Sakiko, and their son, Joey.
Anarchy in the Alps
By Alan Doerksen
Something is rotten in the state of Tyrolia… and you are about to find out what it is! This is the story of Princess Lily Valois, a young woman whose life is about to take some surprising twists and turns. The story takes place in and around the tiny mountain kingdom of Tyrolia, high in the Alps. The year is 1775 – a time during which revolutions are brewing in France and the United States. Meanwhile, trouble is brewing in Tyrolia, and Lily is caught in the midst of it. Her life and future are in danger, and she needs to trust God and a few close friends if she is going to make it through these challenges.
About the author:
Alan Doerksen lives in the Niagara Region of Ontario with his wonderful wife, Junko, and their mischievous cat, Lupine. Currently, Alan works for the charity Intercede International as Publications Editor. He has worked in faith-related journalism and publishing for many years and has written for various Canadian magazines and newspapers. Alan writes fiction, including this, his third published novel. His inspiration comes from God. He has published several collections of his faith-related songs.
How to Inhabit Time
By James K.A. Smith
Brazos Press
Many Christians live a faith that is “nowhen.” They are disconnected from the past or imagine they are somehow “above” the flux of history, as if every generation starts with a clean state. They lack an awareness of time and the effects of history – both personal and collective – and thus are naive about current issues, prone to nostalgia, or fixated on the end times and other doomsday versions of the future.
Popular speaker and award-winning author James K. A. Smith explains that we must reckon with the past in order to discern the present and have hope for the future. Integrating popular culture, biblical exposition, and meditation, he helps us develop a sense of “temporal awareness” that is attuned to the texture of history, the vicissitudes of life, and the tempo of the Spirit.
Smith shows that awakening to the spiritual significance of time is crucial for orienting faith in the twenty-first century. It allows us to become indebted to the past, oriented toward the future, and faithful in the present.
About the author:
James K.A. Smith is a Canadian philosopher (born in Embro, Ontario, and graduated from the University of Waterloo) who is currently Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, holding the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview.
Don’t Let What if? Ruin What Is
by Alison Brown
Westbow press
‘Moms don’t sleep. They just worry with their eyes closed.’ Are you losing sleep while your mind jumps to every worst-case scenario? Are you parenting from a place of fear? If you’re a helicopter mom who can’t seem to relax, Alison can relate and she wants to help you break the habit of worry and live with peace instead – the way God intended. Most of what people worry about will never actually happen. If you’re a chronic worrier, knowing this doesn’t put the fire out, nothing does until you’re willing to fan the flame of a whole new fire. In Don’t Let What If Ruin What Is, Alison shares her deeply personal battle with worry and what she has coined her ‘FIRE process’; Faith, Inner Work, Real Food and Exercise, to give you the tools needed to break the habit. Read on and have hope that you too can set worry down and live your life instead.
About the author:
Alison Brown is a women’s health expert who is passionate about helping moms live healthy and stress-free lives. She is mom to three energetic boys, a 25-year fitness and nutrition veteran, a mentor, and co-owner, with her high-school sweetheart Graham, of New U Fitness and the online program, The Switch Project. She is the author of Making the Switch – A moms guide to fill her own cup up first. Connect with her at https://theswitchfitness.com
Sons of Adamah
By CM Genton
La Grange-Presse
The people of Earth have achieved gender neutrality, and with it, peace. Or so they believe. John is exiled to Earth after being raised in a socially conservative galactic colony, only to discover that both worlds are teetering on the brink of collapse. As he strives to save those he loves, his journey sets traditionalists, progressives, disembodied beings, and the fates of multiple planets on a collision course.
If you like science fiction that engages with the social issues of the day – ultimately asking, “what does it mean to be human?” – then Sons of Adamah is for you. Readers have compared the novel to works by Michael O’Brien, Maria Doria Russell, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. LeGuin, PK Dick, Craig Spector, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling
About the author:
CM Genton grew up in a French-Catholic family affording a rich mythological and sensory world. Her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of the Arts in Theology were enabled by a finely pitched obsessive compulsiveness. For more info, visit www.cmgenton.com
Living like a Lamb Among 21St Century Wolves
By Paul Estabrooks
Castle Quay Books
Balancing Grace and Truth – in a day when polar opposite world views are endlessly hostile, confrontational and seemingly intent on eliminating each other from public dialogue and discourse of each’s particular views of life, this is a book on how we Christians should respond to our current world dilemmas as well as to each other – with grace and truth! Carefully and skillfully handling Scripture, culture and history, Paul Estabrooks lays out a map for all Christians on how to maintain a grace-filled approach to what are clearly ‘wolves intent on Christian destruction and silence’ while sharing the stories of persecuted Christians elsewhere who exemplify being overcomers.
About the author:
Rev. Paul Estabrooks is a veteran foreign missionary with a deep concern for Christians in restricted countries. He ministered for 38 years to persecuted Christians with Open Doors International after eight years with the Far East Broadcasting Company. He is the author of five books and a number of booklets. Standing Strong Through the Storm is used around the world in 46 languages. His latest volumes are Escape from North Korea, Night of a Million Miracles and Daily Inspiration from the Lion’s Den. He is a graduate of Tyndale University College with a Bach. of Theo. degree, and a Bach. and Master of Arts from Wayne State University. In 2016, Tyndale University College awarded him the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year!
To Know Him: A children’s devotional
By Elizabeth Smith & Brittany Strauss
We all want our kids to know God and to pass down the basic beliefs of Christianity to the next generation. To Know Him Devotional is rooted in biblical truth that will help equip and encourage young children to personally discover who God is and how to find their identity in Him.
Each of the 32 devotionals includes a main verse, reflection questions and a list of supporting scripture. In addition, beautiful photos throughout the book help to create a more personal experience for children as they see what it means to walk with God each day.
Merrygold’s Very Best Home
By Marcia Lee Laycock
Merrigold is a little girl who thinks she needs a new home. She visits several animal characters and soon realizes that their homes aren’t suited to her at all. A wise piglet finally tells her to go home to her own house and when she does she realizes she already has the very best home and the very best parents in all the world.
Meant to help parents and grandparents cultivate contentment in the children they love, this story is a ‘the grass is not always greener’ or should I say, ‘the house is not always better’ story with an ending reminiscent of the story of the prodigal son. Parents and grandparents will have an opportunity to talk about being grateful, unconditional love and forgiveness in terms the child can understand.
About the author:
Marcia Lee Laycock is a mom to three grown daughters and grandma to Thea and Spencer Mark. She is an award-winning author of several books and a popular speaker, living in southern Alberta with her husband and a bouncing Bernedoodle named Livy. Visit her website – https://marcialeelaycock.com
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