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Books
PIECING TOGETHER PEACE: Finding Faith's Calm in a Frantic World
How do women of faith find peace in our busy, challenging, and confusing world? It’s tempting to think there’s a single path or a simple answer. Instead, peace is like a patchwork quilt: an assemblage each of us must fashion, piece by piece, from the diverse memories, moments, and emotions of our lives. Some of the pieces are dark, others exuberant; some are stained or tattered, others shining and bright. One woman’s peace quilt may be unconventional, another’s traditional, yet another’s a mix of the two: there is no one-size-fits-all pattern for tranquility. Yet, diverse as their materials and designs may be, one thing is true about all of our prayerful patchworks of peace: by sorting through the scraps of our lives, figuring out how to connect them all together, sharing our hearts with God and our experiences with other women along the way, we find not just serenity but also enduring warmth, solace, stability and joy. In Piecing Together Peace, Sue Holbrook shares glimpses of her own life’s peace quilt and the process of stitching it all together. Her wise and funny patchwork of faith and Florida, friends and family, grief and jubilation, past and present will resonate for women of faith seeking to find—and sustain—peace amid life’s many and often bewildering changes.
ENCOUNTERS: A Savior Walks the World—Special Reflections Edition
This special Encounters Reflection Edition adds journaling prompts designed to help you help you connect even more deeply and personally with the ways that Jesus changes hearts and minds…including your own.
As with the original Encounters, its core question is simple: If we had been alive in the same time that Jesus was, would we have noticed him near us? Would we have stopped to engage with him or been too busy with our tasks and to-do lists to notice his presence?The fictional stories in my latest book, Encounters: A Savior Walks the World, arose from my fascination with these questions.
In some of the tales, men or women meet Jesus face to face. In others, they discover that something extraordinary has happened in their town or region but cannot yet grasp its meaning. However it happens, their lives are forever transformed.
Inspired by the Gospels, enriched by colorful illustrations and accompanied by the texts of their scriptural sources, the stories of Encounters invite readers to reflect more deeply on the ways that Jesus changes hearts and minds, both during his time on Earth and today.
ENCOUNTERS: A Savior Walks the World
If we had been alive in the same time that Jesus was, would we have noticed him near us?
Would we have stopped to engage with him or been too busy with our tasks and to-do lists to notice his presence? Would we have decided to follow him on the spot, needed years to absorb the redemption his ministry offers, or even resisted his message?
The fictional stories in Encounters: A Savior Walks the World, arose from my fascination with these questions.
In some of the tales, men or women meet Jesus face to face. In others, they discover that something extraordinary has happened in their town or region but cannot yet grasp its meaning. Sometimes their encounter with Jesus is brief, sometimes enduring; sometimes it is joyous, sometimes puzzling or even angering.
However it happens, their lives are forever transformed.
Inspired by the Gospels, enriched by colorful illustrations and accompanied by the texts of their scriptural sources, the stories of Encounters invite readers to reflect more deeply on the ways that Jesus changes hearts and minds, both during his time on Earth and today.
CRADLE AND CROSS: Reflections on Christmas and Easter
The Christian calendar is defined by the Cradle and the Cross. From a baby in a manger to a man enduring a brutal crucifixion and returning to life, both the Christmas and the Easter seasons are filled with their own traditions and practices, expectations and frustrations, beauty and deep emotions.
Cradle & Cross captures the all-too-human reality of these holidays: the exhaustion of last-minute shopping and the years in which Christmas joy seems impossible to find, a father balancing an Easter basket on his head and a mother painstakingly sewing annual mother-daughter Easter dresses. Balancing these everyday experiences are the profound, often surprising ways God’s presence moves through Christmas and Easter, from a mysterious angel who guides a child toward safety on Christmas Eve to an Easter pageant’s opportunity to grapple with the mystery of Judas. Sue’s stories capture the way Jesus’s life, love and message resonate through our lives in these central, and inextricably linked, Christian seasons.
With the same lively blend of reverence and warmth, reflection and humor that characterize Sue’s first essay collection, 2015’s Faith Breezes, Cradle and Cross offers a moving look at how our most familiar Christian holidays illuminate our most profound Christian beliefs.
FAITH BREEZES: Glimpsing God's Glory in Everyday Life
As women of faith, our lives can become endless “to do” lists: each task important and worthwhile, but all of them together a constant struggle.
Faith Breezes offers a series of small moments of refreshment—times of grace and stillness that can be savored without effort or expectations, in the midst of even the busiest day.
“Faith breezes” are small reminders of God that caress our souls and reassure us that He is always near. Just as the breeze moves everything from the highest clouds to the lowest grains of sand, God’s power breathes in all of the aspects of human life. No matter how delicate or gusty, a faith breeze always offers a glimpse of the awe-inspiring glory of God. From a grandchild’s surprisingly profound remark to a Biblical passage that strikes right to the heart of a struggle, faith breezes come at the exact right moment to restore, reawaken, and reconnect us to God’s love.
A Lay Speaker in the Methodist church for many years, Sue Holbrook shares her own “faith breeze” moments in brief essays and offers pages on which readers can recall and savor their own. Both humorous and heartfelt, Faith Breezes is the perfect companion for women of faith seeking to deepen their connection with God despite busy days and myriad responsibilities.
CELEBRATING FAITH, FAMILY, FRIENDS & GOD'S GLORY
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