Prayer/Devotional

Morning and Evening Prayers

Cornelius Plantinga

In this li le book, Cornelius Plantinga o ers a month’s worth of prayers, with two for each day: one for the morning, looking forward, and one for the evening, looking back. Each prayer expresses some essential Christian longing on behalf of self and others—for faith, hope, love, wisdom, gratitude, peace—yet also makes space for any state of heart or mind by rejoicing with all who rejoice and weeping with all who weep. Earnest and unassuming, Morning and Evening Prayers is for anyone seeking fellowship with God— from those who have prayed their whole lives to those who have yet to nd the words.

Cornelius Plantinga is president emeritus of Calvin eological Seminary and senior research fellow at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. His previous books include Beyond Doubt, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, and Engaging God’s World, and his many articles and essays have appeared in such periodicals as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, and e Christian Century.

978-0-8028-7881-6 | Hardcover | 144 pages | $19.99 US | $26.99 CAN | £15.99 UK Available May 2021

Where the Eye Alights

Phrases for the Forty Days of Lent Marilyn McEntyre

Lent is about more than going to church on weekdays and giving up chocolate or social media. It’s also a time to form one’s heart and mind through study and prayer. In Where the Eye Alights, Marilyn McEntyre o ers forty short meditations, based on excerpts from Scripture and poetry, that guide readers on a devotional journey from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday. As in lectio divina—the spiritual practice of reading Scripture repetitively and meditatively—McEntyre invites us to notice words that may give us pause and summon us to re ection. is book calls our a ention to how the Spirit speaks through phrases that can open doors to deep places for those willing to sit still with them.

Marilyn McEntyre is the award-winning author of several books on language and faith, including What’s in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause (winner of a Christianity Today 2015 book award in spirituality), When Poets Pray, Speaking Peace in a Climate of Con ict, and Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies.

978-0-8028-7698-0 | Jacketed Hardcover with Ribbon | 128 pages | $19.99 US $26.99 CAN | £15.99 UK | Available

RELATED TITLES

Dear Abba

Brennan Manning Reading for Preaching

Cornelius Plantinga

RELATED TITLES

What’s in a Phrase?

Marilyn McEntyre When Poets Pray

Marilyn McEntyre

Affirming

A Memoir of Faith, Sexuality, and Staying in the Church Sally Gary

Sally Gary knew since her early adulthood that she was a racted to women. But as a devoted Christian, she felt there was no way to fully embrace this aspect of her identity while remaining faithful. In this deeply personal memoir, Sally traces the experiences, conversations, and scriptural reading that culminated in her seeing her sexuality as something that made sense within the context of her faith—not outside of it or in opposition to it. Along the way, she addresses speci c aspects of her journey that will resonate with many other gay Christians: the loneliness and isolation of her previously celibate life, the futile a empts she made to resist or even “change” her sexual orientation, and the fear of intimacy that followed a lifetime of believing same-sex relationships were sinful. Her story is a resounding reminder that, just like Sally’s own heart, things can change, and sometimes, when we earnestly search for the truth, we nd it in the most unexpected places.

“By sharing her story with such thoughtfulness and grace, Sally Gary invites other Christians to join her in rethinking their views while holding fast to the love of Jesus and the truth of the Bible. Her words will open countless hearts, bring healing to those who are hurting, and help build up the church’s witness for future generations.” — MA HEW VINES

author of God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships

“ is is a powerful read. . . . In a world that increasingly sees Christians as hypocrites and homophobes, Sally’s story is just what we need to remind us of what drew so many of us to Jesus in the rst place.” — JUSTIN LEE

author of Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate

“I have known Sally Gary for nearly twenty years. She has been—and still is— deeply commi ed to faith, Scripture, and the church. In sync with the same spirit she has demonstrated all these years, I recommend this vital work.”

— DON MCLAUGHLIN

senior minister of North Atlanta Church of Christ

Sally Gary is founder and executive director of CenterPeace, a nonpro t organization that has been helping churches and families have Christ-like conversations about faith and sexuality since 2006. She is also the author of Loves God, Likes Girls.

God Gets Everything God Wants

Katie Hays A gospel of hope, inclusion, and de ance

If God gets everything God wants, and if what God wants is you, can anything stand in God’s way? Too many Christians have been taught that essential parts of who they are—their gender, their sexual orientation, their politics, their skepticism—prevent God from loving them fully. For these, church has been a painful experience of exclusion, despite the reality that Jesus was the embodiment of God’s radical inclusion.

Katie Hays invites weary Christians, former Christians, and the Christcurious to take another look at God through the testimony of our biblical ancestors and to reimagine the church as a community of “beautiful, broken, and burdened” people doing their best to grow into their baptisms together. Hays insists that yes, God does get everything God wants, and—even better—we’re invited to want what God wants, too, and want it “more and more and more, until life feels abundant and eternal and delicious and drunken with possibility.” is is a message of stouthearted faith anchored in wonder—not false certainty. Atheists are welcome. ose who feel uneasy inside a church are welcome. ose still angry at other Christians are welcome. Because no matter what we’ve experienced, the God who still adores this world is the God of hope, inclusion, and de ance of the powers that be. And for those who are willing to collaborate in “the painstaking work of examining our Christian faith and sorting it out—the good stu from the harmful stu , the stu with integrity from the stu we simply inherited from family or church or . . . the cultural air we’re breathing”—there await life-giving possibilities found nowhere else.

Katie Hays is the founder and lead evangelist of Galileo Church, a church that seeks and shelters spiritual refugees, especially young adults and LGBTQ+ people, on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas. She is also the author of We Were Spiritual Refugees: A Story to Help You Believe in Church and the coauthor of Family of Origin, Family of Choice: Stories of Queer Christians.

978-0-8028-7856-4 | Jacketed Hardcover | 192 pages | $21.99 US | $29.99 CAN £17.99 UK | Available September 2021

978-0-8028-7917-2 | Paperback | 237 pages | $19.99 US | $26.99 CAN | £15.99 UK Available