Grace In Tension

We all face stress and tension in our daily lives. How we respond either diffuses or ignites it. If lit, we can feel stretched beyond our capabilities, wondering why our God of abundant goodness doesn't remove the struggles we face. Grace in Tension affirms that although God doesn't create our tension, he does show up in the midst of it to lead us through. Centered on Jesus' interactions with Martha and Mary in the gospels, we can follow the sisters' transformative journeys through their own struggles. Reflecting on what transpires between Scripture verses, we see their initial tension become the catalyst that drives both Mary and Martha to the feet of Jesus -- the perfect place to discover peace. Simultaneously, Grace in Tension explores the areas where stress arises in our own lives. Each chapter contains helpful tips to address it, a thought-provoking prayer to inspire us to go to God with our problems, and questions for reflection to help us see all the ways he is working for our good. No matter how big or small our struggle, when we seek out God, he reveals what we need to do to resolve our tension, transforming it into grace. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Claire McGarry is the author of the Lenten devotionals With Our Savior and Abundant Mercy. She contributes regularly to Living Faith, CatholicMom.com, and blogs at ShiftingMyPerspective.com. Her work has appeared in Mornings with Jesus, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Keys for Kids, These Days, The Secret Place, and Focus on the Family magazine. The founder of MOSAIC of Faith, a ministry with several programs for mothers and children, she lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children

Sometimes, grace gets messy. Caleb Kaltenbach was raised by LGBT parents, marched in gay pride parades as a youngster, and experienced firsthand the hatred and bitterness of some Christians toward his family. But then Caleb surprised everyone, including himself, by becoming a Christian…and a pastor. Very few issues in Christianity are as divisive as the acceptance of the LGBT community in the church. As a pastor and as a person with beloved family members living a gay lifestyle, Caleb had to face this issue with courage and grace. Messy Grace shows us that Jesus’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” doesn’t have an exception clause for a gay “neighbor”—or for that matter, any other “neighbor” we might find it hard to relate to. Jesus was able to love these people and yet still hold on to his beliefs. So can you. Even when it’s messy. “Messy Grace is an important contribution to the conversation about sexual identity for churches and leaders. Caleb's story is surprising and unique, and he weaves it together compellingly. He states his views clearly, leaves room for disagreement, and champions love no matter where you are in this conversation.” —Jud Wilhite, Sr. Pastor, Central Christian Church

The bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments reveals the life of one of the most notorious women of the nineteenth century in this "shadowy, fascinating novel" (Time). • A Netflix original miniseries. It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers.

One of The New Yorker's "Books We Loved in 2017" A Grace Paley Reader compiles a selection of Paley’s writing across genres, showcasing her breadth of work as well as her extraordinary insight and brilliant economy of words. "A writer like Paley," writes George Saunders, “comes along and brightens language up again, takes it aside and gives it a pep talk, sends it back renewed, so it can do its job, which is to wake us up.” Best known for her inimitable short stories, Grace Paley was also an enormously talented essayist and poet, as well as a fierce activist. She was a tireless member of the antiwar movement, the civil rights movement, the tenants’ rights movement, the anti-nuclear-power movement, and the Women’s Pentagon Action, among other causes, and proved herself to be a passionate citizen of each of her communities—New York City and rural Vermont.

Paul and the Gift transformed the landscape of Pauline studies upon its publication in 2015. In it, John Barclay led readers through a recontextualized analysis of grace and interrogated Paul’s original meaning in declaring it a “free gift” from God, revealing grace as a multifaceted concept that is socially radical and unconditioned—even if not unconditional. Paul and the Power of Grace offers all of the most significant contributions from Paul and the Gift in a package several hundred pages shorter and more accessible. Additionally, Barclay adds further analysis of the theme of gift and grace in Paul’s other letters—besides just Romans and Galatians—and explores contemporary implications for this new view of grace.

FOR FANS OF KATE MOSSE, PHILIPPA GREGORY AND DIANA GABALDON, COMES THIS POWERFUL TALE OF OBSESSION AND DESIRE. York , 1577: Hawise Aske smiles at a stranger in the market, and sets in train a story of obsession and sibling jealousy, of love and hate and warped desire. Drowned as a witch, Hawise pays a high price for that smile, but for a girl like her in Elizabethan York, there is nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. Four and a half centuries later, Grace Trewe, who has travelled the world, is trying to outrun the memories of being caught up in the Boxing Day tsunami. Her stay in York is meant to be a brief one. But in York Grace discovers that time can twist and turn in ways she never imagined. Drawn inexorably into Hawise's life, Grace finds that this time she cannot move on. Will she too be engulfed in the power of the past?

Whether you serve as an entrepeneur, stay-at-home mom, pastor, business owner, manager, or public figure we all experience pressure. The greatest hope you have is to leverage your tension, instead of allowing it to weigh you down and wear you out. In Leveraging Tension, Todd will share some key insights into discovering that every thing you face in life and leadership can be leveraged for a higher calling. You don't have to let life get the best of you. You can still live the best of this life as you discover how to leverage the tension you face.

ôGrace. ItÆs what we crave most when our guilt is exposed. ItÆs the very thing we are hesitant to extend when we are confronted with the guilt of othersùespecially when their guilt has robbed us of something we consider valuable. Therein is the struggle, the struggle for grace. ItÆs this struggle that makes grace more story than doctrine. ItÆs the struggle that reminds us that grace is bigger than compassion or forgiveness. That struggle is the context for both. When we are on the receiving end, grace is refreshing. When it is required of us, it is often disturbing. But when correctly applied, it seems to solve just about everything. This struggle is not new; it has been going on since the beginning.ö ùAndy Stanley We find in the pages of Scripture that the stories found there often mirror our own stories, and that we too need the very thing we do not deserve: the grace of God. From the beginning, the church has had an uneasy relationship with grace. The gravitational pull is always toward graceless religion. The odd thing is that when you read the New Testament, the only thing Jesus stood against consistently was graceless religion. The only group he attacked relentlessly was graceless religious leaders. Even now as you think about grace, there might be a little voice in your head whispering, ôIt canÆt be that easy!ö ôWhat about obedience?ö ôWhat about disobedience?ö ôWhat about repeated misbehavior?ö ôWhat about bad habits?ö ôWhat about justice?ö ôWhat about repentance?ö ItÆs this tension that makes grace so slippery. But thatÆs the beauty and the truth of grace. We donÆt deserve it. We canÆt earn it. It canÆt be qualified. But God gives it to us anyway because he loves us unconditionally. The story of grace is your story. And as you are about to discover grace plays a larger role than you imagine.