How can the church be a healing force in the world? In this longtime bestseller, now revised and updated, authors Jerry Cook and Stanley C. Baldwin suggest that it is only when believers admit their own brokenness that they can love, accept, and forgive those who are hurting around them and put out the welcome mat to their community. They offer clear teaching about the church in a hurting world. As veteran leaders who practice these principles, they speak from experience, not theory. Through touching true stories and practical guidelines for connecting with fallen, sinful people, Cook and Baldwin announce the good news. The church is not broken, and it is the broken people who can change the world.

What is forgiveness? When is it appropriate? Is it to be earned or can it be freely given? Is it a passion we cannot control, or something we choose to do? Glen Pettigrove explores the relationship between forgiving, understanding, and loving. He examines the significance of character for the debate, and revives the long-neglected virtue of grace.

One can love and not forgive or out of love decide not to forgive. Or one can forgive but not love, or choose to forgive but not love the ones forgiven. Love and forgiveness follow parallel and largely independent paths, a truth we fail to acknowledge when we pressure others to both love and forgive. Individuals in conflict, sparring social and ethnic groups, warring religious communities, and insecure nations often do not need to pursue love and forgiveness to achieve peace of mind and heart. They need to remain attentive to the needs of others, an alertness that prompts either love or forgiveness to respond. By reorienting our perception of these enduring phenomena, the contributors to this volume inspire new applications for love and forgiveness in an increasingly globalized and no longer quite secular world. With contributions by the renowned French philosophers Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion, the poet Haleh Liza Gafori, and scholars of religion (Leora Batnitzky, Nils F. Schott, Hent de Vries), psychoanalysis (Albert Mason, Orna Ophir), Islamic and political philosophy (Sari Nusseibeh), and the Bible and literature (Regina Schwartz), this anthology reconstructs the historical and conceptual lineage of love and forgiveness and their fraught relationship over time. By examining how we have used—and misused—these concepts, the authors advance a better understanding of their ability to unite different individuals and emerging groups around a shared engagement for freedom and equality, peace and solidarity.

At age three, author Ruth Hostak longed for the love of her mother who abandoned her and her two older sisters to an orphanage. Seven years later, they were taken back to her home with two half-sisters and her mother’s then-boyfriend. At age sixteen, Ruth quit school, was unhappy at home, and yearned for a stable environment. She moved out and chose to live with other family members, returning to school and earning a high school diploma. Ten years later, she attended the college of her dreams and graduated with honors. In Love and Forgiveness Ruth narrates her story, a story illustrating dedication and perseverance and one that showed her there were no limits to what she could accomplish. As she was unsuccessful with two marriages, she continued to immerse herself in a world of personal and professional growth. She learned to love unconditionally, to forgive others, and to fully accept herself. In this memoir, Ruth shares how she learned the importance of a life devoted to something bigger than herself. During these transformational experiences, she found passion and fulfillment in helping others, and gratitude became her daily prayer. In the end, she received the best gift she could have asked for; The last words her mother spoke to her were: “Ruthie, I love you”.

Singles are getting conflicting messages from today's culture, both Christian and secular. Is it okay to want to be married? Is there anything a never-married woman can do, within a biblical framework, to "assist" the process? Candice Watters gives women permission to want Christian marriage, encourages them to believe it's possible, and supplies the tools to get there - despite our anti-marriage culture. This book blends the author's personal journey from singleness to marriage with the biblical perspective on marriage. As an editor for Focus on the Family's Boundless webzine, Candice Watters knows the target audience inside and out. Whether a woman has been told to "get married" or marriage is on her lifelong wish list, Get Married points her to the source!

For Giving Love gives you the tools for giving yourself the unconditioned love and happiness you've always wanted. This book addresses specifically how YOU can bring the very tangible power of love and forgiveness into your world. You will learn why forgiveness works, not just in metaphysical terms, but also biologically. You will come to recognize the patterns and beliefs that create resistance to forgiveness, and you will see clearly how easy it is to overcome this resistance once you understand what a powerful force forgiveness is. You will learn how to practice "presence" so that who you really are can compassionately transcend who you "think" you are. And, you will learn a simple, easy-to-use process to help you forgive and free yourself from past limitations and stories to finally be who you really are. You will also have the opportunity to unconditionally love and accept yourself - and in so doing, become a light unto the world. Thank you in advance for joining me on this transformational journey, and may the power of Love light your way.

Starting a family is a soul-shaping, world-altering experience. Unfortunately, in a culture of competing values and protracted timelines, couples are increasingly backing their way into parenting or missing it altogether. By the time the average couple tries to have kids, they are often beyond their late twenties and surprised to learn they are sliding past the peak of their fertile years. In Start Your Family, Steve and Candice Watters encourage couples to be intentional about their timeline in the early years of marriage and to trust God to help them boldly launch their families. Responding to the most common doubts and hurdles, they offer biblical inspiration for the questions: Why have kids? When is the best time to start? How can we fit kids into our lives?