Searching For The God Of Grace

“Searching for Grace invites you into the kind of relationship that we all long for deep in our hearts. The relationship between Scotty and Russ is scary, vulnerable, painful, but gorgeously loving and drenched in grace.” —Paul David Tripp, author of New Morning Mercies Anxious? Burnt out? Weary? Why is it so hard for our souls to find rest? In Searching for Grace, Russ and his mentor, Scotty Smith, explore the contours of their lives and why embracing God’s grace unreservedly is so difficult for many of us. Their honest conversations offer priceless lessons for parched souls everywhere. Many of us feel anxious and unfulfilled by our everyday existence, yet deeply long for a purposeful, meaningful, and peace-filled life. That tension creates a background buzz of profound discontentment behind everything we do. There is a better way. Searching for Grace reveals the conversations between Russ and Scotty that transformed Russ’s life forever, helping him identify the mindsets that contributed to his restlessness. Straight from his little black journal, Russ shares the seven life-giving principles he learned from Scotty that unleashed him to a refreshingly new life, radically built on God’s grace.

As the major motion picture hits theaters this spring, the best-selling coauthors of the Finding God series explore the true story of how God'TMs amazing grace ended the British slave trade. With profound reflections drawn from the lives of two men, William Wilberforce and John Newton, who wrote the beloved hymn, the authors reveal God'TMs grace in our everyday struggles and show how he uses even the smallest of events and weakest of individuals to implement his grander plan in this world.

FINDING GOD’S GRACE is a primer on the Grace of God. FINDING GOD’S GRACE challenges its readers to consider the following: • What is grace and why is it so important? • Is God’s grace liberally bestowed upon ALL, or reserved for a select few? • Is grace something we can control? • How is grace manifested in the world? FINDING GOD’S GRACE presents the Grace of God from a biblical perspective. In it we find: • Grace by definition • Biblical Grace in the original Hebrew and Greek root words • God’s Grace and notable Old & New Testament Saints • Finding God’s Grace in times of despair • Every appearance of the word: GRACE in the entire Bible No serious student of the Bible should be without this valuable reference.

People look for God's presence in many places. They gather in the basilicas of Rome or at the red rocks in Sedona. I find God's presence quite nearby-in the magnificent complexity of the human person. -Dominic Grassi We bump into God's grace every day in all kinds of humorous, serious, mysterious, random, and sometimes completely unlikely ways. This charming collection of thirty-five stories reveals one person's myriad encounters with God in both the mundane and extraordinary moments that make up our days. This is not a book about ideologies, but about people. . . . There are miracles and ordinary moments to celebrate, grace and joy to share, silly folk and saints to relish. -Dominic Grassi A natrual storyteller, Dominic Grassi invites readers to share his warm memories of life in Chicago over the past five decades. He shows how God is reflected in the people we meet every day: a butcher, a bookstore owner, a short-order cook. With rich and often funny descriptions of human triumphs and struggles, laughter and tears, youthful pranks and quiet maturity, Grassi uncovers grace in the most unexpected places. Stories such as Wisdom Teeth and Window Washers and Thumping Watermelons help us see not only moments of grace in Grassi's life but also times when we too have unexpectedly bumped into God.

With Gods Grace ... takes you into the lives of five women seeking the meaning of grace. Do you know what grace feels like? Is it real? How do you get it? Do you have to earn it? Starting as strangers, their stories became entwined weaving themes of childlike trust, healing and forgiveness. They bring you along in their soul-searching experiences to discover grace is real and how much God loves you. His gift is not one-size-fits-all but is specifically designed for the person receiving it. Through their trials, God reaches out with different paths of grace. In their cries for help, they dont always get what they ask for. But with overwhelming challenges God showers overwhelming grace. Along the way they offer reflections to explore grace in your own life. Once you start understanding how to look and ask for it, you will be astounded by Gods gift.

You cannot make it without God’s mercy. Do we just need God’s grace in dark and shameful moments? Are prayers for mercy only for those times when we really mess up? Jonathan Parnell says we need God’s mercy all the time. In fact, contrary to many church cultures, Parnell shows that asking God for mercy should be as regular as asking God for our daily bread. There’s no doubt that David was in a terrible predicament when he first prayed the words of Psalm 51. It was a dark and shameful moment in the Bible, and one so dark and shameful it seldom feels relevant to us today. But David’s most desperate prayer is really a prayer for all of us—and not just for our worst moments, but for our every moment. In these pages, you'll discover: how to pray a daily, memorable prayer derived from Psalm 51 how to practice daily repentance and soul care how to pursue God and experience his joy in the Christian life This is God’s mercy, and it’s Mercy for Today.

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.