“This gentle, gorgeously written book may be one of my favorites ever.” —Jenna Bush Hager (A Today show “Read with Jenna” Book Club Selection!) This “moving portrait of love and friendship set against a backdrop of social change” (The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice) traces two married couples whose lives become entangled when the husbands become copastors at a famed New York city congregation in the 1960s. Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart. Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How then, can he fall in love with Lily—fiercely intellectual, elegantly stern—after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not? James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. James’s escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life. In The Dearly Beloved, Cara wall reminds us of “the power of the novel in its simplest, richest form: bearing intimate witness to human beings grappling with their faith and falling in love,” (Entertainment Weekly, A-) as we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment. Against the backdrop of turbulent changes facing the city and the church’s congregation, Wall offers a poignant meditation on faith and reason, marriage and children, and the ways we find meaning in our lives. The Dearly Beloved is a gorgeous, wise, and provocative novel that is destined to become a classic.

You're not what you do. You're not what you have. You are not what others say about you. You are God's beloved. Are you ever concerned that you don’t deserve to love and be loved because you are continually having to prove yourself? In You Are Beloved, Bobby Schuller shows you how to let go of these fears and put your trust in the One who sees you for who you really are. Here is an easy to follow, proven path to personal dignity for all those who think they are not good enough no matter how much they achieve. This path is illuminated by the truths that it is not about what you accomplish, but what has already been accomplished for you; not about what you have, but what has already been provided; and not about who others say you are, but who God says you are. Know that you are valued, cared for, and embraced. You Are Beloved will help you rebuild your life as a response to that assurance.

C. S. Lewis’s masterpiece The Four Loves, published in 1960, provided the world with a Christian exploration of four dimensions of human love: extolling the divine blessings and warning of the idolatrous distortions in familial belonging (storge), friendship as a common quest (philia), romantic desire for personal union (eros), and concluding with the perfection of divine, unconditional love (agape). Whiting uses the four loves as a framework to interpret the Christian love of God in historical movements across Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. He illuminates the often reactionary and competing tensions swinging between emphases on loving God in liturgical ritual and worship (storge), the active moral life (philia), personal spiritual experience (eros), and approaches of faith to suffering (agape). Synthesizing a panoramic view of Christian history with philosophy, literature, and biblical reflection, Whiting shows how the love of God is diminished when the loves become fractured. He advocates for an integrated, holistic love of God that both avoids excesses and challenges the modern narrative of secular progress.

Whoever and wherever you are, God is pursuing you. Are you wondering about God's plan for your life? Are you curious about what He desires from you? Once you come to Christ and receive His amazing gifts of forgiveness and salvation, His pursuit of your heart and life is only beginning. As you grow in the understanding and practice of your faith, you can live in a powerful, personal relationship with your Lord as His new creation. Demi Thompson is a wife, mother, and most importantly a Christ-follower who has walked through the valley and on the mountaintop with Christ. In this practical, conversational book, she shares life lessons that have transformed her own heart, life, and ministry. Be uplifted as you learn how to: - Appreciate and communicate the fundamentals of your faith - Understand the potential in seasons of suffering - Cultivate and treasure your personal time with God - Withstand spiritual warfare - See yourself as God truly sees you At the conclusion of each chapter, application-focused questions, a suggested action step, and a journal prompt make this an ideal book for either personal devotions or a small group setting. Whether you're just starting your spiritual journey or find yourself struggling to stay the course, Demi Thompson offers practical guidance and personal encouragement for connecting more deeply with Christ. Delve into your copy of Beloved today and begin discovering-or rediscovering-how to live your identity in Him as never before.

6 week Walking With Purpose Bible study for Women

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past. Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present. Combining the visionary power of legend with the unassailable truth of history, Morrison’s unforgettable novel is one of the great and enduring works of American literature.

When Nouwen was asked by a secular Jewish friend to explain his faith in simple language, he responded with "Life of the Beloved, " which shows that all people, believers and nonbelievers, are beloved by God unconditionally.