A gift. The baby. The pageant. The parties. The worship. The afterglow. The story. These are the elements of most every Christmas. In Startling Joy, award-winning author James Calvin Schaap takes a look at each of these elements through seven stories that show how imperfect people can find joy and grace in an imperfect world. His eyes turn on an outgoing bus driver, a passionate mother, a daughter reluctant to return to church, and even his own assumed-mediocre performance at a Christmas pageant. Along the way, readers see how the amazing message of Christmas can be found in the oddest of places. This heartwarming read is both moving and magical and will help readers usher in a joyful Christmas season even amidst the howling winds of winter.

Startling Joy: Seven Magical Stories of Christmas

Christian Books & Bibles

Schaap, James Calvin

Christian Living

Revell

A gift. The baby. The pageant. The parties. The worship. The afterglow. The story. These are the elements of almost every Christmas. In Finding Christmas, award-winning author James Calvin Schaap takes a look at each of these elements through seven stories that show how imperfect people can find joy and grace in an imperfect world. His eyes turn on an outgoing bus driver, a passionate mother, a daughter reluctant to return to church, and even his own assumed-mediocre performance at a Christmas pageant. Along the way, readers see how the amazing message of Christmas can be found in the oddest of places. This heartwarming read is both moving and magical and will help readers usher in a joyful Christmas season even amidst the howling winds of winter.

Finding Christmas: Stories of Startling Joy and Perfect Peace

Literature & Fiction

United States

"What's it like having an old man who's a saint?" The question came from the depths of Romey Guttner's troubled soul. It was as honest as the hot sun that beat down on him and his best friend, Lowell, as they picked beans that unforgettable summer in the late fifties. They were just boys, one the son of the town's pillar of faith and one the neglected child of a man whose anger spilled onto everyone in his path. Despite their disparate upbringings, Romey and Lowell were like brothers, inseparable in their pursuit of adventure. But events were brewing that would force them to confront the reality of their differences for the first time. With perceptiveness and style, James Calvin Schaap renders a coming-of-age tale about friendship, fathers and sons, and, most of all, the grace that saves us from the darkest places.

Romey's Place: A Novel

The collection here assembled includes fifteen stories, all rooted in history, of Dutch immigrants and pioneers that aim "to illustrate the beauty of an ethno-religious heritage too grand to be sacrificed on the altar of American homogeneity."

Sign of a Promise and Other Stories (Mandate Series)

Short Stories & Anthologies

Dordt College Press

James Schaap has created powerful stories about fathers and their “kids” — big kids, even grown-up ones. Sometimes it’s from the father’s viewpoint, sometimes that of the son or daughter. Always it’s a “reality check,” a yardstick to measure what we know — or don’t know — about our own critical relationships. 
These vignettes are life lived out in all its joy and tenderness and grief and hard complexity. Some of it is rather harsh stuff; it’s not prettified to meet a certain standard of purity. Happy endings are not a given. Grace is – in ways we always knew and never knew, in ways that unexpectedly satisfy. We want more – because here we have tasted the real thing. Here is “love that will not let us go.”

Paternity

Quiddity Pr

Mother Teresa's dedicated love for the poor of Calcutta brought her admirers from around the world. Millions loved her, none more than the forgotten she felt called to serve. But few had any idea that her love for God seemed at times unrequited, that "the little bride of Christ" felt herself somehow outside the range of God's love. In a series of meditations, James Calvin Schaap tells the story of Teresa of Calcutta and reflects on the deep faith but also the nagging doubt that characterized one of the most beloved human beings of the 20th century.

Reading Mother Teresa: A Calvinist Looks Lovingly at the Little Bride of Christ

Religion & Spirituality

Set in a small prairie town in northwest Iowa, and narrated from the grave in a voice that is often humorous, elucidatory, and enlightening, these interconnected folk tales capture how the dearly departed handle being spirits in a world that continues on without them, but also with them. In Up the Hill, death is intimate, and sometimes painful, but it is a threshold to understanding - not only for the deceased, but for the living. The result is forgiveness, redemption, and divine intervention and proof that "you get a whole lot smarter when you die."

Up the Hill: Folk Tales from the Grave

Looking for Dawn

Genre Fiction

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Small Wonders: A Museum of Missouri River Stories

History

Americas

Independently published

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Books by Schaap, James Calvin