Redeeming Singleness

Explores the issue of singleness through a biblical-theological examination of the redemptive history from which biblical singleness emerges.

Have you made a New Year's resolution to get married out of nowhere? Did it work? When the author turned thirty, she put getting married on her New Year's resolution list, not because she wanted to get married or had a boyfriend but because of social pressure in which she lived. Social pressure made her think that if she wanted to ever get married, it was better to do so sooner than later. For three consecutive years, she prayed about it and made efforts to form relationships. After three years passed by, she was still single and unhappy. As she reflected on her unhappiness, she finally realized that she was not happy because she was not able to accomplish a goal that was ultimately out of her control. "How absurd it was to put 'get married' on my New Year's resolution!?" As she eliminated marriage from her New Year's resolutions and focused on what she really wanted to do with her life, her energy level was boosted. Although she did not have any tool to frame her singleness, she happened to choose the best course for her. Only if she knew the socially constructed characteristics of marriage, the first three years of her thirties would have been different. The author hopes ministers and never-married single women can learn what we think is normal is a very contextual product. The author invites never-married single women to own their own stories instead of being owned by metanarratives in their lives.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE starring Abigail Cowen, Tom Lewis, Nina Dobrev, with Logan Marshall Green and Eric Dane, special appearance by Famke Janssen. Distributed by Universal Pictures with a screenplay by Francine Rivers and D.J. Caruso. California’s gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep. Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside. Then she meets Michael Hosea, a man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything. Michael obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation, until despite her resistance, her frozen heart begins to thaw. But with her unexpected softening comes overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she no longer can deny: her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael does . . . the One who will never let her go. A powerful retelling of the story of Gomer and Hosea, Redeeming Love is a life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love. Includes a six-part reading group guide!

Manage your time the way Jesus managed his with a biblical antidote to swamped to-do lists and hurried schedules. “A highly practical road map.”—Mark Batterson, New York Times bestselling author and lead pastor of National Community Church Despite the overwhelming amount of resources for time management and work-life balance, the ability to cultivate the efficiency and equilibrium needed to manage all our worthy pursuits can often feel frustratingly out of reach. The reason for our struggle is that productivity and time-management systems focus on individual habits rather than more meaningful and lasting lifestyle changes. But as it turns out, there is a better way to reach our full potential. We don’t need just another approach to changing our habits. What we need is an operating system that takes into account the full scope of our lives. In these pages, bestselling author Jordan Raynor presents this system, using seven powerful time- management principles drawn from the example of how Jesus lived: 1. Start with the Word: Find meaningful connection with the author of time daily. 2. Let Your Yes Be Yes: Accept only the commitments you can fulfill. 3. Dissent from the Kingdom of Noise: Create room for silence, stillness, and reflection. 4. Prioritize Your Yeses: Confidently maintain your commitments. 5. Accept Your “Unipresence”: Focus on one important thing at a time. 6. Embrace Productive Rest: Live the God-designed rhythms of rest which are productive for our goals and souls. 7. Eliminate All Hurry: Embrace productive busyness while ruthlessly eliminating hurry from our lives. With these principles, you’ll see how Jesus managed his time on earth and how he responded to human constraints much like the ones you face today. More than that, you’ll discover corresponding practices that will help you embrace the best, most Christlike version of yourself possible: purposeful, present, and wildly productive.

If marriage shows us the shape of the gospel, singleness shows us its sufficiency. Much of what we commonly assume about singleness—that it is primarily about the absence of good things like intimacy, family, or meaningful ministry—is either flat-out untrue or, at the very least, shouldn’t be true. To be single, we often think, is to be alone and spiritually hindered. But the Bible paints a very different picture of singleness: it is a positive gift and blessing from God. This book seeks to help Christians—married and unmarried alike—value singleness as a gift from God so that we can all encourage singles to take hold of the unique opportunities their singleness affords and see their role in the flourishing of the church as a whole.

Life Is Never Mainly About Love and Marriage. So Learn to Live and Date for More. Many of you grew up assuming that marriage would meet all of your needs and unlock God's purposes for you. But God has far more planned for you than your future marriage. Not Yet Married is not about waiting quietly in the corner of the world for God to bring you "the one," but about inspiring you to live and date for more now. If you follow Jesus, the search for a spouse is no longer a pursuit of the perfect person, but a pursuit of more of God. He will likely write a love story for you different than the one you would write for yourself, but that's because he loves you and knows how to write a better story. This book was written to help you find real hope, happiness, and purpose in your not-yet-married life.

From the author of Out of a Far Country, which details his dramatic conversion from an agnostic gay man who put his identity in his sexuality to a Bible professor who now puts his identity in Christ alone, comes a gospel-centered discussion of sex, desire, and relationships. Dr. Christopher Yuan explores the concept of holy sexuality--chastity in singleness or faithfulness in marriage--in a practical and relevant manner, equipping readers with an accessible yet robust theology of sexuality. Whether you want to share Christ with a loved one who identifies as gay or you're wrestling with questions of identity yourself, this book will help you better understand sexuality in light of God's grand story and realize that holy sexuality is actually good news for all.