In this book, which is one man's journal and is written in a style somewhere between prose and poetry, Bruce Ray Smith journeys into his own heart in search of what makes a person, against all odds, proud. Drawing on Scripture and writers as diverse as Shakespeare, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Smith seeks to find what makes us proud, what can make us humble, and finally, what can make us whole. In the honest pages of Winter Light, I found the prideful secrets of my own heart revealed. As I read I breathed a quiet, “me too.” Bruce Ray Smith’s par- ticular quest for humility gives voice to our common longing for transformation. We want to be changed, but the heart is deceitful above all things. We want to know God in our very bones, but there is a cost. With poetic and personal style, Smith offers a deeply insightful reflection on pride and humility that flows from the narrative of his life and prayers. Winter Light is that rare kind of book, where literary writing meets lived, biblical theology. It's a treasure! Andi Ashworth Author, Co-Director of Art House America Nashville, TN I commend Bruce Ray Smith’s book Winter Light. Once I had begun to read I could not stop―both be- cause of the raw power of the content and because of the brevity and starkness of the style which match the subject so well. I was deeply moved by its sometimes painful honesty and by the moments of profound joy that light up these pages. Bruce is acutely insightful in his analysis of our ar- rogant and self-centered manner of living and of our need to recognize our spiritual poverty and to discov- er our dependence on the support and love of oth- ers. This slim volume deserves to be widely and often read. I know that I will return to it again and again and use it as an aid for my own self-reflection and prayers. The endless patience and grace of God shines a bright light across this bleak landscape of the heart. Jerram Barrs Professor of Christianity and Contemporary Culture Resident Scholar at the Francis Schaeffer Institute Covenant Theological Seminary St. Louis, Missouri When Martin Luther penned the first of The Nine- ty-five Theses, “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ said, 'repent,' he meant that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance,” he gave a gift to us all, for he cast a glorious light upon the blessed path to close communion with our Triune God. Winter Light modeled that life of repentance with a ruthless beauty and searching vulnerability that I find rare in Christian authors. Because Bruce Ray Smith found God’s searching grace a holy gift (Acts 5:31), I was encouraged as a reader to do the same. He helped me to kiss the blade of God’s convicting grace and pull it in. I have been significantly helped in my repentance and faith by this work. I am a thankful debtor to the author, a brother I have not met, but who has helped me “find the old paths, and walk in them.” Joe Novenson Senior Teaching Pastor Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church Lookout Mountain, GA Brother Lawrence himself could well have written this story; and those of us who find strength, hope, and instruction in Brother Lawrence's words will find those same things here in the confessional words of Bruce Ray Smith. Phyllis Tickle Editor, Author, Playwright, &amp; Compiler of The Divine Hours Millington, TN

Winter Light: A Christian's Search for Humility

Religion & Spirituality

Smith, Bruce Ray

Christian Books & Bibles

Kalos Press

“Is being a stay-at-home-mom enough?” “Does chopping onions and folding laundry really matter?” “Does he really think I’m beautiful?” In some ways becoming a wife and a mother was as exhilarating as Abbie envisioned; in other ways it was stifling and painstakingly ordinary. A candid memoir about growth, faith and belonging, Stretch Marks I Wasn’t Expecting delves with startling honesty into conversations about infertility and inner-city living, mommy wars and the incarnation, letdowns of marriage and learning to notice God in the mundane. With thoughtful and deeply resonant prose, she documents a universal search for meaning and belonging.

Stretch Marks I Wasn't Expecting: A Memoir on Early Marriage and Motherhood

Parenting & Relationships

Smith, Abbie

Adoption

Awesome. Amazing. The Best Ever.  If we are honest with ourselves, we have all wanted—even longed for—these kinds of extraordinary moments. This natural human desire seeps into our faith journeys too. We want the mountaintop experiences with God, we want to sense his presence in bright, tangible ways. But real life and real faith are far more about ordinary living and faithfulness than they are about experiencing one WOW moment after the next. Alicia Brummeler challenges readers to stop waiting for the extraordinary by recognizing how ordinary life is a pathway for encountering God. She provides practical tools for meeting God anytime, anywhere.  Everywhere God is a story of finding God in everyday life. From her days as a young wife and mother to her days of parenting teenagers while juggling a teaching career, Alicia chronicles her discoveries about the goodness of ordinary, everyday faith in an accessible, engaging manner. She shows readers that experiencing God’s presence isn’t another task to accomplish, but a way of looking at daily life and recognizing God in the midst of it.

Everywhere God: Exploring the Ordinary Places

Brummeler, Alicia

"Don't die and don't give up!" How did this unknown voice empower a young child to cling to life despite unspeakable pain and her family's best efforts to destroy her soul?  Taylor Shepherd was born into a family deeply involved with the occult, and throughout her childhood she was the victim of their substance abuse, violence, and sexual assault. Yet though her mind was fractured by seemingly endless trauma, she clung to what little truth she knew even as a four-year-old: that there was only one true God and that the god in whose name her family abused her was not Him.  As an adult, Taylor began a journey of healing and truth. In sharing her story, Taylor hopes to:  Encourage survivors:  • to recognize God's hand in their survival,  • to understand that healing emotional scars is not easy or simple,  • to know God is a very present help through it all. Call all Christians:   • to be aware of abuse hidden in seemingly normal families,  • to seek to do no harm to fragile survivors,  • to learn ways of offering comfort and acceptance. A gripping memoir of terror and hope, Surrounded by Evil: Saved by God takes the reader on a journey through childhood abuse, mental illness, and the redemption possible only through the Lord who suffered with and for all the lost children of the world.

Surrounded By Evil: Saved By God

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Shepherd, Taylor

Mental Health

Stuck again? Bible Reading Plan not working out? Everyone gets stuck. Nailed It: 365 Sarcastic Devotions for Angry or Worn-Out People can help “unstick” you: offering just a few brief verses for each day, you’ll encounter biblical men and women like you—desperately in need of God—and also find encounters with God himself, and how he sought you out in spite of yourself. And you’ll discover anew that the Bible is worth every minute you devote to it. With a devotional for every day of the year, Anne Kennedy will guide you through the Bible—the whole Bible—helping you turn your eyes towards Jesus with every step.

Nailed It: 365 Sarcastic Devotions for Angry or Worn-Out People

Kennedy, Anne

The gospel is for you. It is for the person you are now, and it is also for the person you want to become: the person God created you to be.  God is not out to get you. The idea that He doesn't care about you is a lie.   If what Jesus did for you doesn't bring you joy, maybe you don't fully grasp the comprehensive way the gospel saves us and frees us to be what God desires us to be.   Feel stuck in bad habits and sin? God has the answer: regeneration.   Feel like you deserve what you get? That's covered by propitiation.  Think God doesn't want to be with you? God provides reconciliation. Don't feel like you belong? Through adoption you're part of His family. Feel like you just will never be good enough? He's all over that dilemma, too, through justification.  These aren't just big words thought up by old theologians long dead and gone. These concepts are real aspects of the gospel Christ secured for you! He wants you enjoy the relationship you have with His Father, right now. You'll want to read this book to find out how!  Or, maybe you think you would have never joined with the Pharisees when Jesus walked the earth. You may not be a different as you think.  Better read on to find out!

Cornered By Grace: Right Where You Need to Be

Beames, Robert

When we were young, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Those answers were our childhood dreams. The reality of adulthood is that what we are and do now is what we became. Finding Livelihood is a book about work for grown-ups. It's about not just the work we thought we wanted but about the work we found and the work that found us. It's also about the work we have lost. At once a shrewd challenge of Buechner's assertion that "the place God calls you to is where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" and also a lyrical journey to the place where labor and love meet, Finding Livelihood explores the tensions between the planned life and the given, between desire and need, between aspirations and limits. Through story, collage, and juxtaposition, Finding Livelihood invites you to consider work in its many facets. Who gets to decide if our work is "good"? How do we deal with forces and routines that leave us longing for escape? How do questions about money and meaning change when you are holding a pink slip in your hand? How are we transformed when our current work becomes part of a spiritual journey that encompasses all of life? Drawing from thinkers as diverse as St. Aquinas, Josef Pieper, and Simone Weil, Nordenson affirms the doctrine of imago Dei and brings it into the real world of work: a world full of brokenness and hope, of dead-end jobs and live-saving interventions, of daily bread and transcendent meaning. In the midst of it all, we find our livelihood.

Finding Livelihood: A Progress of Work and Leisure

Nordenson, Nancy J

Scripture-and fairy tales -tell us that it is in the ordinary where we can be surprised by meaning and significance. If we have eyes to see, then we might catch sight of subtle signs pointing to a deeper reality that transcends the narrow confines of the here and now. In this view lost binoculars occasion hints of the divine, and everything from Sudoku, sun-dried cotton sheets, piles of trash and garter snakes loose in the house mysteriously provide glimmers of hope in a broken world. For 33 years Margie lived with her husband and children in an American Gothic Foursquare in Minnesota that their children christened "Toad Hall." During those years, Margie's eyes were finely tuned by the ancient wisdom of biblical seers and the everyday trials and challenges of life to see past the surface of things. Through her reflections, and with warmth and humor, she gifts us with reflections from her years in Toad Hall so that we, too, might see deeper layers of meaning. And when we learn to see the sacred in the ordinary, our pilgrimage begins to shine with expectation.

God in the Sink: Essays from Toad Hall

Haack, Margie L.

For decades, Keith Miller has encouraged, inspired, and strengthened Christians in their faith through his spiritual writings. Out of print for years, now Habitation of Dragons is back in an updated edition! In each of these 42 brief meditations, Keith considers one of the many "dragons" he has faced in his own life - including reconciliation, insecurity, temptation, loneliness, or dishonesty. Keith's personal stories, combined with Scripture, quotes from other well-known writers, and a short prayer, offer helpful and edifying devotionals for Christians of all levels. You will be surprised and delighted at Keith's honesty, clarity, depth, and humor on every page. Prior to his death in 2012, Keith had updated much of the content of Habitation of Dragons for a 21st century audience. Now, with the help of his widow, Andrea Wells Miller, we are delighted to present this updated version of Habitation of Dragons in honor of the life and ministry of Keith Miller.

Habitation of Dragons: A Book of Hope about Living as a Christian (Updated, Commemorative Edition)

MILLER, Keith

Miller, J. Keith

We've all heard the sermons and read the books: "If you really loved God, you would be radical. You would sell your belongings. You would become a missionary and move to another country." Matthew B. Redmond has preached the gospel of doing more for God, and he wants out. In this collection of essays, he asks a simple question: what about the rest of us? Is there a God for our often-mundane lives? This is a book about pastors, plumbers, dental hygienists, and stay-at-home moms. It finds grace and mercy in chicken fingers, smiles from strangers, and classic films, and ultimately convicts us of something Matt Redmond has learned himself: there is a God of the mundane, and it's not about what we do for him. It's about what he does for us.

The God Of The Mundane: Reflections on Ordinary Life for Ordinary People

Redmond, Matt B.

Redmond, Matthew B.

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