Excerpt
Purpose
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
--Ephesians 2:10
We hauled the old couch out the door last night. It’s been demoted, from the living room to the basement.
The cushions we once carefully guarded by banning all food and drink from their presence will now be the dog’s winter
sleeping quarters. After all, its just the basement couch. No one will care if red Kool-aid spills across its pillows, no
one will give a thought to the buttons on the back when they come loose. After a few years in the basement it will be
demoted again, this time to the living room of some newlyweds, before making its final stop: the curb.
Carrying the old couch out the door brought back memories of when we carried it in. We were so excited back then,
before the cushions were barraged by baby girl spit up and toddler potty training accidents and the sodas I spilled while
watching the Yankees. (I tend to get a little excited during Yankee games.) It was our first new piece of living room furniture,
replacing the old parent to newlywed hand-me-down my parents gave us. It went to the curb. Out with the old, in with the new.
Eleven years, four living rooms in four states, and four thousand miles in moving vans later, the new couch was old,
one step away from the curb. The thought made me a little sad, not because I miss a sofa whose springs have lost all their
spring, but because of the futility of it all. Furniture wears out. As do televisions. And microwave ovens. And cars.
And houses. And clothes. And our bodies. All of the things to which Western man devotes his time and energy make the same
journey from the showroom to the curb, with a few stops in between. Carrying my old couch out the door made me realize that we
live in a culture where mankind’s only purpose is to keep the trash collectors busy.
The thought made me depressed, until I turned to the promise of God.
-- Names of God's Promises
Read More
Desperate for something real?
All that makes life worth living flows from God
and His promises. Yet He doesn't give some pie-in-the-sky-wait-'til-I-die
religious mumbo jumbo. The promises God makes to each one of us intersect
our points of greatest need. They bring joy and hope and the patience
to persevere no matter what life may throw at us. With just the right touch of humor,
Names of God's Promises explores forty promises you can use
today.
From the Author
Shortly after Names of Heroes of the Faith was released
Moody Press called asking if I would be interested in writing another book for
their Names of God series. At first I wasn't. Ideas were bubbling
over in my head for other books and I couldn't wait to tackle them. But as
we talked about the focus of the book I became more and more intrigued
Too often our understanding of God is so tied to clichés
and pithy little sayings that we
don't really understand all God promises those he loves. I wanted to do
something different. This book tries to be honest about what we can and
cannot expect from God. I've included promises that make our hearts soar
as well as a few we could live without. I've included my
favorite
chapter for you to read. I hope you enjoy it.
About a year after "Promises" came out a stranger called my
house. His accent was so thick my wife could hardly understand him.
She thought the call was a joke. It wasn't. The man was calling from
his home in what was once communist East Germany. While vacationing in
Wales he picked up a copy of my book at a bookstore. He called not
only to tell me how much he enjoyed the book, but also how he was going to try
to have it published in Germany. I wrote his name and number down, but the
slip of paper later disappeared. Three years later his efforts paid
off. A German edition entitled Ich will Dich nicht verlassen! which
roughly means "I will never forget you," came out in 2002. Click
the thumbnail below for a look at the German edition. First
year sales were very good for a foreign language edition. I don't know if
God promised to fill our lives with surprises, but he has a knack of doing
things we never expect. What a glorious God we serve.
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