Identity in Christ

Beyond Leaving Legalism: More Resources For Hurting People

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Hello, favorite readers!

Now that Leaving Legalism has launched and is in the hands of all kinds of people who needed to hear its message, I wanted to let you know about a few additional resources.

affiliate link (In case you haven’t gotten your copy yet!)

Certainly, once you’ve read the book and worked through the helpful questions, you’ll be left with an additional need to pinpoint the issues that still come up from time to time. I’m not leaving you hanging!

First, a new series of follow-up posts will be coming to your inbox in the next few weeks. I’ll be addressing questions such as, “I left legalism. Now what?”, and “My family has ostracized me. I don’t know what to do about that.” These are tough issues to wrestle with, and my whole goal is to continue to point you back to the gospel and to the Bible for solid answers and reconciliation.

Secondly, there is a private group on Facebook called, appropriately, Leaving Legalism. It is a safe place for discussion, questions, and encouragement. We’d love to have you there. Click the link in the previous sentence or this one right here: Leaving Legalism Facebook Group.

Third, it is my heart’s desire that the message of Leaving Legalism get out to as many people as possible. Because I’m still raising a large family, I am quite guarded about my speaking availability, but I am starting to open up 2019 for conferences, women’s retreats, and one-day events. I’d love to talk to you about yours. Click here for speaking inquiries.

Fourth, speaking of speaking events, my husband Fletch and I will be at Sandy Cove Ministries this February for a weekend marriage getaway, and we’d love to have you there! We’ll be talking lots about hope-shifting and marriage and living free! (Even cooler than us? Andrew Peterson will be the Saturday night concert.)

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That’s it! Let’s connect. And if you know someone hurting from the aftermath of legalism, invite them along. There’s room for everyone at this table.


Good, Solid Christian Books That Just Might Change Your Life

Good, Solid Christian Books That Just Might Change Your Life

Last week I walked into one of the few remaining big box bookstores in North America and after eyeing the stacks of beautiful covers and interesting categories, I decided to peruse the Christian Living shelves.

I wish I could say I was shocked, but sadly, what I found was in keeping with the way I’ve watched Christian retailing and marketing transform over the past three decades (my first real job was as a cashier in a Christian bookstore when I was 16, and also sadly, that was three decades ago).

Christian retailing and marketing looks very much like all the other retail and marketing, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We want what we have to share to catch the eye of regular people and to draw them in, and we want what we’re producing to be of high quality.

But there’s a catch to all of that chasing marketability: What tends to sell in stacks at Costco isn’t deeply Biblical, unless it’s a stack of Bibles.

It’s not a secret that I’ve been struggling for some time with the idea that Christians in ministry must now be marketable; I wrote a piece last year called I Daresay Elisabeth Elliot Would Not Get a Book Deal in 2017 that speaks to the reality of platforms and au courant marketing techniques.

Just a few days after my impromptu trip to the bookstore, my 17-year-old daughter and I had a discussion about Christian books, and she told me that she is increasingly turned off by what she described as the “Rah! Rah! You are strong! You can do this! Dream big!” authors with big platforms who don’t ever seem to get to the core of anything other than what turns out to be really pretty Instagramable cheerleading. I sympathized, and then I turned to women (and one particular guy for a particular reason) in my life who pursue Jesus passionately and asked them,

“Which books, other than the Bible, changed your life?”

The responses were spectacular, and I especially appreciated how each one seems to be a reflection of how each of these believers lives their own lives.

affiliate links below

Good, Solid Christian Books That Just Might Change Your Life

Autobiographies and Biographies

A Chance to Die: The Life & Legacy of Amy Carmichael, Elisabeth Elliot

A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken

Bad Girls of the Bible, Liz Curtis Higgs

Chasing God, Roger Huang

China Cry, Nora Lam

Evidence Not Seen, Darlene Deibler Rose

Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God, Noel Piper

The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom

Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor

I Dared to Call Him Father, Bilquis Sheikh, Richard H. Schneider

Really Bad Girls of the Bible, Liz Curtis Higgs

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, Rosario Butterfield

Seven Women, Eric Metaxas

Through Gates of Splendor, Elisabeth Elliot

Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom

 

Christian Living and Spirituality

All of Grace, Charles Spurgeon

Because He Loves Me, Elyse Fitzpatrick

The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes

The Calvary Road, Roy Hession

The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel

Desiring God, John Piper

Discipline: The Glad Surrender, Elisabeth Elliot

Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper

Drumbeat of Love, Lloyd John Ogilvie

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Pete Scazzero

God Has a Name, John Mark Comer

God is the Gospel, John Piper

Godspeed, Britt Merrick

The Great Commandment Principle, David Ferguson

Habits of Grace, David Mathis 

In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character, Jen Wilkin

Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, Paul Tripp

The Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne

The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey

Keep a Quiet Heart, Elisabeth Elliot

Knowing God, J.I. Packer

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

New Morning Mercies, Paul Tripp

None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That's a Good Thing), Jen Wilkin

Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl, ND Wilson

One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp

Passion and Purity, Elisabeth Elliot

Permission Evangelism, Michael L. Simpson

A Praying Life, Paul E. Miller

The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller

The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning

Sacred Pathways, Gary L. Thomas

A Scandalous Freedom, Steve Brown

Secure in the Everlasting Arms, Elisabeth Elliot

Streams in the Desert, L.B. Cowman

These Strange Ashes, Elisabeth Elliot

Three Free Sins, Steve Brown

Unoffendable, Brant Hansen

What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Philip Yancey

When People Are Big and God is Small, Edward T. Welch

 

Particularly On the Subject of Women

Eve in Exhile, Rebekah Merkle

Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision For Women, Carolyn Custis James

Learning Contentment, Nancy Wilson

Lies Women Believe, Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth

Lost Women of the Bible: The Women We Thought We Knew, Carolyn Custis James

Popes & Feminists, Elise Crapuchettes

 

Phew! That should keep us reading for awhile. Is there a book that has changed your life but isn’t on this list? Let us know in the comments below!


Leaving Legalism: Learning to Love God, Others, and Yourself Again

affiliate links below

It's here! It's here!

Leaving Legalism is launched and ready to go out and land in the hands of anyone who needs the healing power of the gospel.

If it's your time to find freedom and healing, Leaving Legalism will serve as a guide to help you learn not only to separate religious behavior from true faith in Christ, but to emerge confident in the knowledge that you're already loved and accepted far beyond your wildest dreams.

Beyond my story is yours. Together we'll discover:

  • Swinging the pendulum from law to grace

  • Why rules make us feel safe

  • How we all end up evangelizing a lifestyle

  • Our identity in Christ

  • How to let go of the past

  • How to learn to rest in what God has done for us

  • How to move forward (including how to apologize to your children)


Paperback

Kindle