THE BODY OF CHRIST NEEDS HEALING This is my journey to a real and engaging relationship with Jesus. It’s how I became born again among Evangelicals, was empowered by the sacrament among Catholics, received the baptism of the Spirit among Pentecostals, and was transformed by social justice ministries among Oldline Reformers. But it’s also about how the Church has divided by these four very ways people meet Jesus, sabotaging both its credibility and mission. In fact, this division in the Body of Christ reflects the same shame-based spirit of religion that fueled both the Pharisees and the 9/11terrorists. Above all, this book is about how Jesus is battling to heal His broken Body unto today, and through it, this broken world. It's time we joined Him. His victory--and ours--demands it. GOD HAS A PLAN—ARE YOU READY? Chapters: 1. “Are You a Christian?” Toward a Spiritual Ecumenism 2. Platypus Christian: A Strange but Holy Mixture 3. From Blah to “Aha!” Rediscovering a Whole Faith The Evangelical Witness 4. A Time to Die, A Time to Be Born—Again The Sacramental Witness 5. Nothing but the Blood: Getting Ready for Communion 6. A Protestant Confession: Power in the Sacrament The Pentecostal Witness 7. Faith Encounters of the Third Kind: God’s Larger Reality 8. Who Is Holy Spirit? Meeting the Active Presence of God Today 9. Healing Emotional Wounds: Seeing the Past as Jesus Sees It 10. Cleaning Lady to the Rescue: Power to Heal Bodies The Social Justice Witness 11. From Pier to Ocean: Adventuring into the World with Jesus 12. Of Jogging and Cat Food: Meeting Jesus Where It Hurts 13. The Mirror of Prejudice: Overcoming Personal &amp; Corporate Racism 14. Jesus Is Our Peace: The Alternative to Warmaking Healed by God 15. Blackmailed by Shame, Freed by Grace and Truth Epilog - Rise and Jog SOUND BITES * I found myself sneaking from camp to camp, learning from Catholics, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Oldline social reformers, yet being careful not to reveal in any one church my sympathies for the others. * Most people don't want to be healed--at least, not as badly as they want to cover their shame. * God’s love is not a zero-sum game. There’s plenty to go around. You don't have to condemn someone different in order to affirm yourself. You just have to know how much your Father loves you. * To look forward to communion with excitement--as my friend looked forward to being with his wife again--you must believe that Jesus will actually be there at the table with you, alive and active, even in your behalf. * Biblical faith redefines safety--indeed, peace itself--not as the absence of threat, but the presence of Jesus. * Those who have little of the world’s resources reflect the deeper reality that we all have nothing except what God has graciously given us. * Material comfort and security are good insofar as they are seen as the undeserved gifts of a graceful, loving God, and evil insofar as they separate us from the needs of others and make us unresponsive to their suffering. * Christians are not called to fit into this world, but to change it. * Moses came to tell us what to do; Jesus came to show us Who does it.

Broken By Religion, Healed by God: Restoring the Evangelical, Sacramental, Pentecostal, Social Justice Church

Religion & Spirituality

Dalbey, Gordon

Christian Books & Bibles

Civitas Press

“I wish my dad and I were closer….”
“When your first child was born, did your father reach out to you with support, encouragement, or helpful advice?” Only five hands out of 350 dads at the conference went up. 
“When you were around 11 or 12,” I asked another gathering of 150 men, “did your dad talk to you—in a helpful way--about girls and sex?” Only two hands. 
It’s the same everywhere I’ve ministered around the world--regardless of nationality, race, age, education, or social status.
We men today are abandoned and left unequipped for manhood. The father of Lies capitalizes on our shame and blackmails us into isolation, denial, and a host of bogus cover-ups—from money and guns to alcohol, sex, and performance religion. 
Meanwhile, the true Father of all men has come in Jesus to draw us back to Himself and to the man He created you to be. 
Here’s the map to get you there.
Father God wants to be closer to you. It’s time to let Him.
*The man who does not honor his father will dishonor his own manhood.
*“We wanted men to get sensitive” she said, “but we didn’t want them to get passive.”
*A little boy cries from his father’s wounds; a real man cries for his father’s wounds.
*Knowing your father is more important than getting his apology.
*”Jesus, show me my dad the way you see him.”
*Have you ever said to another man, “I need you”?
*A man meets Father God not by trying to do it right, but by confessing he can’t.
***
A pioneer in the Christian men’s movement, Gordon Dalbey has blazed the trail not only to the heart of the wound, but to the heart of the Healer.
If you’re ready to face your wound, seek your true Father’s healing, and trust His call to manhood, Sons of the Father is for you.

Sons of the Father: Healing the Father-Wound in Men Today

Fight like a Man is not about how to be a man, but knowing the One who rescues and restores men. It's not even about how to be a warrior, but surrendering to the Commander of the Lord's Army. You won't learn a technique here; you'll remember your longing for a relationship. You won't be exhorted to obey; you'll be invited to trust. You won't be commanded to do right; you'll be freed to be real. You won't be warned to be strong; you'll be promised your Father's strength. And if you're honest, you'll be battling for your life. Both refreshing and upending, Gordon Dalbey’s books take us to the depths of authentic manhood where we’re humbled by its mystery and engaged by its call. Fight like a Man completes his men’s trilogy by focusing on the crippling byproduct of fatherlessness in men, namely, shame--too often fostered by religion, always overcome by Jesus.

Fight Like A Man: A New Manhood for a New Warfare

“It’s not an adventure unless it’s a little scary!” The lessons of fathering are the character of God Whatever you don’t forgive your father for, you’ll do to your son. 
Many years ago, in a land far, too far away, my three-year-old son sat excitedly on my lap before bedtime while together we read a picture book based on Treasure Island. As Long John Silver, cutlass in hand, chased young Jim across the page and through the jungle, the boy within my arms suddenly knit his brow and looked up at me. 
“Daddy,” he burst out, “do pirates wear pajamas?” 
Startled, I drew back. “Uh, well, that’s…uh, a really great question!” I managed. 
When I was a much younger man and unmarried, my father once told me, “If you never have children, you’ll miss out on one of life’s greatest adventures.” 
He was right. 
WELCOME TO THE ADVENTURE OF FATHERING 
In these impacting real-life stories, you’ll meet a bestselling Christian author who’s a dad in on-the-job training—sometimes stumbling, sometimes celebrating, always learning. 
Experience teaches us the best lessons. But too often, we men miss the experience because we fear the shame of not knowing how to do it. 
There’s good news here for dads: We’re in this adventure together as men and the Father of us all stands with us. You don’t have to know how to do it. You just have to know Who does it. 
Never trust a dad without spit-up on his pajamas. 
Like Jesus, the child restores innocence to this world. 
Watch for what God is doing in your child, and bless it.

Do Pirates Wear Pajamas?: and Other Mysteries in the Adventure of Fathering

Since Jesus, religion is obsolete. "Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I’m after mercy, not religion.' I’m here to invite outsiders, not to coddle insiders." (Matt. 9:13,14TMB) Shortly before the prequel to this book No Small Snakes: A Journey into Spiritual Warfare went to press, my then-teenaged son and I were enjoying the summer breeze on a late-night drive in our trusty old convertible. Just that morning, I had carefully folded the windshield sunscreen and stuffed it securely under the back of the driver’s seat so it wouldn’t blow away with the top down. That night in the outside lane, as a pickup was about to pass us, we were startled by a loud Pop! Fwhoosh! Suddenly, the sunscreen leapt out behind us from under the driver’s seat and flew up above us and foreword, unfolded, and fell spread-out across our faces. In a flash of blindness, we sideswiped the pickup and shot off the freeway. Slamming from 65 to zero in seconds, an explosive blast of impact left us stunned and wedged under a foot-thick tree branch just inches above the windshield. Dazed, and covered with leaves and dirt, we managed to pull ourselves out of the wreckage and debris. Soon afterwards, a patrolman arrived to find my son and me trembling and holding each other, dusty and trembling. The grey-haired officer studied the crumpled remains of our beloved sports car wedged under the huge branch—low enough to have crushed through the windshield and cabin of any sedan. Finally, he shook his head in amazement and turned to my son. “Do you go to church?” he asked. Shaken, but alive and filled with grace, we both nodded. This book, like its prequel, presumes that ours is a planet at war. What’s more, the enemy of God quite deliberately attacks first and most fiercely those surrendered to Jesus, because we’re the only ones capable of recognizing and empowered to overcome the kingdom of darkness. Those who are not surrendered to Jesus dare not even see the battle, because they have no power to win it. Thus opting out of the battle into denial, they bear no threat to the enemy (see 1 Corinth. 2:14). Spiritual warfare, that is, allows no conscientious objectors, but only deluded deserters and persevering victors. To withdraw is neither honorable nor safe—but simply to capitulate to the enemy, whose objective is precisely to remove opposition from the battlefield. I pray this book will stir you not only to acknowledge the battle in the larger world, but indeed, to face it within yourself; not to surrender to the enemy’s deceptions as a comfortably ensconced POW, but to surrender to Father God as an active, victorious combatant. The Father of us all has set our destiny. Jesus has blazed the trail. Holy Spirit has empowered us to get there. History awaits us. Religion fabricates relationship with God. Tragically, few people today, even in the Church, dare to face and walk in this reality. Proudly, we discount spiritual power and trust instead in our own. This denial sustains religion as an unholy distraction from what God is doing and thereby, marks it as a tool of God’s enemy. The enemy of God hides in religion… In fact, the increasing work of evil among us today—from warmaking, family breakups, and gender confusion to addictions, racism, and corporate greed—reveals graphically both our desperate need for saving power and the inability of religion to provide it. … but the heart of God shines in Jesus. Chapters include Christmas after 9/11, Terrorism and Spiritual Warfare, Secularization and White Racism, Homosexuality: Outing the Man-Hating Spirit, Hollywood’s X-Rated Spirituality, Ball Games and the Battle for Men’s Souls, Old Demons in the New Age, Depression or Expression?, But Is Jesus the Only Way?, The Commandment to Enjoy, and Unmasking Halloween.

Religion vs. Reality: Facing the Home Front in Spiritual Warfare

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

CAUTION ! You are about to enter the spirit realm. Powers you will engage after this point are beyond your ability to control.  There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. ( 1 Corinth. 6:16,17TMB) The powerful mystery of sexual desire marks it as a spiritual phenomenon. Yet talk of sexuality has largely been banned from churches, leaving a vacuum which the world is literally hell-bent to fill. “Sex is dirty and immoral,” as the culture confounds, “so save it for marriage and the one you love most!” Yet if God created sex as a reflection of His very image in male and female together (Gen. 1:27), it must be good.  Among people who acknowledge and respect spiritual power, sexual desire prompts awe, even worship. Because we can’t control it however, our secularized culture uses religion to confine sex to manageable morality, divorcing it from spirituality and enforcing compliance with shame.  Includes “Was It Good for You (Too)? Sexual Bonding and a Woman’s Heart” by Mary Andrews-Dalbey Here’s a reality-based view of sex, free from either judgmental religion or care-less tolerance. It’s not about “what you can do to improve your sex life,” but rather, what God is doing to accomplish His purposes in men and women today, and how He provides what you need to join Him.

Pure Sex: The Spirituality of Desire

IT’S NOT ABOUT WHO’S RIGHT, BUT WHAT GOD’S TRYING TO TEACH YOU BOTH. Join bestselling author Gordon Dalbey and his wife Mary, a psychologist, on this pioneering adventure through the wilderness of marriage conflict into the blessing of maturing faith and growing love. From sex and finances to in-laws and parenting, here’s both tell-it-like-it-is truth for those with ears to hear and show-it-like-it-can-be grace for those with hearts to believe. FOREWORD Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses…. He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy. The time for mourning and the time for dancing, the time for making love and the time for not making love, the time for kissing and the time for not kissing. (Eccles. 3:1,4,5TEV) It was the Fight of fights. Tempers blazed. Fingers pointed. Accusations flew. Shouts fired. Threats launched. Feet dug in. Positions defended. No prisoners taken. “You never…!” “You always…!” “I’m done!” “Fine! I’m out of here!” And then the silence. The confident standoff. Let’s see who blinks first! One leaves for a friend’s house that night. The sun sets on anger. Shadows close on distant, self-satisfied pillows. And eyes that do not close. No problem. At first. Then the sleepless justification. Vindicating re-hash. Sharpened barbs. Re-enforced defenses. A new zinger determined to mention next time. The Accuser smirks. Righteously alone, the accusers examine their bedroom ceilings, anticipating. But no call comes. So what? I won the argument. Until at last, seeping relentlessly through the brokenness, comes the fear of losing. Everything. What if we never…? Later the next evening, as husband and wife lie smiling in each other’s arms, they turn to each other with a kiss and…. What?Hold on! What is this, some kind of sadistic fairy tale? We’re talking knock-down, drag-em-out brawl, and suddenly the two are making love? How in the world did that happen? I’m glad you asked. So God created man in his own image…male and female he created them. Gen. 1:27 Because God’s image is reflected in man and woman united, the enemy of God wants to destroy marriages—most often, by making partners think the other one is the enemy. IT’S TIME TO FIGHT TOGETHER: NOT AGAINST EACH OTHER, BUT SIDE-BY-SIDE AGAINST YOUR TRUE, SPIRITUAL ENEMY. So that you will know the hope to which he has called you, and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. Ephes. 1:15ff CONTENTS Foreword: It Was the Fight of Fights, but… 1 Finding Your Voice: Starting Apart, Finishing Together 2 In the Beginning: Why It’s So Hard 3 Never Waste a Good Fight: Getting a Third Opinion from the Great Physician 4 For Better, for Worse: Letting Go of Judgments (Mary Dalbey) 5 When You’re Hot, You’re Hot; When You’re Not… It’s Time to Talk about Sex 6 Hurt People Hurt People: But Holy Spirit Heals 7 Leaving Father and Mother: The Trailhead to Marriage 8 For Richer, for Poorer: Whose Money Is It? 9 Staying Focused as Parents: Whose Child Is It? 10 Fire Prevention: How to Stop a Fight before It Starts 11 Caution! I Love Like You: The Case for Grace *”Forgive us, Father, for turning away from each other instead of turning toward you.” *Anger is pain masquerading as power. *God does not lift up one partner to humble the other; He lifts up Himself to humble you both. *With the capacity to judge, it’s not far from Paradise to a fight. *Sexual intimacy happens not by trying harder, but by surrendering more deeply to God and each other. *Money exposes your values; that’s why it’s such an explosive issue for marriages. *When you let Jesus heal your childhood wounds, You don’t need to act them out any more in your marriage. TRUE LOVE GROWS OUT OF GREAT COURAGE— AND GREAT FAITH IN THE ONE WHO ANIMATES IT.

Loving to Fight or Fighting to Love: Winning the Spiritual Battle for Your Marriage

Andrews-Dalbey, Mary

Life is not a flow chart. We weren't meant to master it on our own. We weren't meant to be mastered by it either. The discussion guides in the Transformation of a Man's Heart series put us in conversation with God and with one another to see how God shapes and transforms us in the ordinary experiences of our lives. Am I every going to change? he asks. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that we're not the men we wish we were. Not only our dreams but our values are vulnerable to external forces and internal chaos: the wounds inflicted on us as well as the compromises we've allowed ourselves to make. In this discussion guide, inspired by essays in The Transformation of a Man's Heart, men will be reminded that wherever they find themselves, God is there with them, inviting them forward onto a new and better path. This study accompanies the book, The Transformation of a Man's Heart, compiled and edited by Stephen W. Smith.

Transformation (The Transformation of a Man's Heart)

Politics & Social Sciences

Smith, Stephen W.

Baker, Howard L.

Social Sciences

IVP Connect

Discusses the inner wound caused by a man's alienation from his father, examines how this wound has crippled men emotionally, and encourages men to seek healing through the Father God

Father and Son: The Wound, the Healing, the Call to Manhood

Thomas Nelson. Inc.

Fight Like a Man: Redeeming Manhood for Kingdom Warfare

Tyndale House Pub.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dalbey, Gordon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dalbey, Gordon