"God's goodness is bigger than all human badness," writes best-selling author John Claypool. "God's power and willingness to forgive are greater than our human capacity to sin." The Bible is often held up as a source of family values, but it is also full of families who falter and do so generation after generation. Few families have visited as much evil on each other as Abraham's descendants in Genesis. Using these stories, Claypool explores how God turns the "lead" of evil–like Jacob's theft of Esau's birthright, and Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery in Egypt–into the "gold" of abundant blessing, as alchemists were said to do in the past. God is always more interested in our future, according to Claypool, than in our pasts. In this book, as in his other books, Claypool explores the biblical texts carefully, and with a pastoral eye for the characters from Genesis and his contemporary readers. This book offers challenge and comfort to people who feel that their sins may be beyond God's concern and their lives beyond redemption.

"God is an ingenious alchemist, with the capacity to take lead and make gold out of it. God can take evil and turn it into something that makes for growth and blessing. In the stories of Jacob - who stole his brother's birthright - and his family, and in the stories of contemporary people, Claypool shows us how God works through people even at their worst."-Page 4 of cover.

By studying those whom Jesus selected as apostles and what he did for them, to them, with them, and through them, we can learn much about how we experience the holy in our own day. This book is about those apostles, their relationships with Jesus and with each other and what the dynamics of that community can teach us.

During the week following the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, Americans gathered in unprecedented numbers to seek comfort and guidance from their religious leaders. Regardless of creed, the same questions echoed from the pews. Where can we find God amidst the rubble? How can we answer hate with greater love? Is there hope for peace or are the trumpets of Armageddon less distant than before? These were the questions ministers, priests, imams and rabbis had to address from their pulpits. Even as they spoke, the soul map of our nation was being recharted. The preachers' daunting task was to bring hope and direction to a people newly lost. Each of these sermons, by some of America's greatest preachers, is a testament of hope. Collectively, they rise to the spiritual challenge of our time.

Robert Linders is an extraordinary preacher—one of the two best I have heard over a lifetime. He brings a wide variety of sources into play, traditional and contemporary, which illustrate the theme and reflect his broad knowledge and continuous reading. He requires hearers to reflect on theological, philosophical, scientific, cultural, and personal issues at a level of seriousness rarely found in modern preaching. —Peter C. Hodgson (PH.D. Yale) Charles G. Finney Professor of Theology Emeritus Divinity School, Vanderbilt University In the Land of Linders, Bible hermeneutics meet today’s news, and memorable jokes confront philosophical wisdom in such rapid succession that one needs at least a good week of conversation at home to sort them out. —Robert C. Williams (PH.D. Harvard) Pulitzer Prize nominee in Russian history Brunswick, Maine

What do Dexter King, Condoleeza Rice, Mackenzie King, Corazon Aquino, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bill Cosby, Tony Dungy, Theodore Roosevelt, George H. W. and Barbara Bush, Caroline Kennedy, Arthur Ashe, Lady Bird Johnson, Colin Powell and C. S. Lewis have in common? They all have significant grief experiences that have shaped their lives in dramatic ways, stories that have also shaped our lives. Grieving individuals, through "borrowing narratives," look for inspiration in biographic, historical and memoir accounts of political and religious leaders, celebrities, sports figures, and cultural icons. In a time of diminishing trust in heroes and "sainted leaders", who will speak to us from their grief? In a diverse society grief counselors and educators need to identify and "mine" the experienced grief(s) of historical personalities for resources for reflection and meaning-making. This book will help readers: find, "read," evaluate, extract, and adapt historical/biographical materials create bio-narrative resources for use in grief counseling and grief education explore the wide diversity of experienced grief in biographical narratives identify ways to "harness" grief narratives for personal reflection.

In three meditations John Claypool speaks eloquently of the wounds all of us carry through life—the wounds of grievance, guilt, and grief—and how they can be healed. The wound of grievance comes from our suffering at the hands of others, we are pierced by guilt when we inflict pain in return, and we suffer grief when we are hurt by loss. By anecdote and personal example, Claypool helps us see that all these wounds can eventually be healed through the gifts of insight, forgiveness, and gratitude. With the help of scripture and Claypool's own pastoral wisdom, Mending the Heart is a powerful tool for reflection. Each meditation begins with verses from the psalms and ends with a prayer. This book is a wise resource for pastors and caregivers, especially in times of crisis and bereavement, but its simplicity and insight also make it a good guide to prayer and discernment as well as a fine gift book. Mending the Heart is the fourth in our series of Cloister Books: smaller format, gift edition books designed for meditative and devotional reading.