Books & Bibles
Entertainment
Fashion & Jewelry
Gifts & Giving
Home Decor & Accents
Kitchen & Gourmet
Beauty & Health
Specialty Stores
|
|
|
Item Description...
God's unexpected pathway to joy.
Learn how to look through life's tragedies and see the lavish blessings God has for you.
"Shattered dreams," writes Dr. Larry Crabb, "are never random. They are always a piece in a larger puzzle, a chapter in a larger story. The Holy Spirit uses the pain of shattered dreams to help us discover our desire for God, to help us begin dreaming the highest dream. They are ordained opportunities for the Spirit first to awaken, then to satisfy our highest dream." To help you understand this neglected truth in the deepest and most helpful ways, Larry Crabb has written a wise, hopeful, honest, and realistic examination of life's difficulties and tragedies. He wraps his insights around the bold story of Naomi in the Bible's book of Ruth. As Crabb retells and illuminates this sometimes disturbing and often profoundly touching story, we are shown how God stripped Naomi of happiness in order to prepare her for joy. And we gain an unforgettable picture of how God uses shattered dreams to release better dreams and a more fulfilling life for those He loves. Shattered dreams have the power to changes our lives for good. Forever.
Bible Knowledge Bookstore Book Buyers Tips
At Bible Knowledge Bookstore, we value our clients and if you have any questions on your Christian Books, then contact our support number and we will be more than happy to assist you.
|
Item Specifications...
Pages 224
Dimensions: Length: 8.9" Width: 6" Height: 0.7"
Weight: 0.7 lbs.
Release Date Apr 16, 2002
Publisher WATERBROOK PRESS #373
ISBN 1578565065
EAN 9781578565061
|
Availability 106 units.
Availability accurate as of Sep 02, 2010 01:37.
Usually ships within one to two business days from New Kensington, PA.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay. |
Product Categories
Similar Products
Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Fantastic! Oct 24, 2008 |
| This is such a great book! I've already recommended it to so many people. Very matter of fact and realistic, and therefore full of hope - continually pointing to the promises and character of God. I am so thankful for this book! | | | | A Breakthrough Book! Mar 25, 2008 |
Every once in awhile, we get a gift of a book from a talented author genuinely inspired by God. This is one of those books.
Larry Crabb in Shattered Dreams has the courage to tell us that God is not supremely interested in our being happy. This disturbs people, but it is 100% true. God wants us close to him, and to act like His son Jesus.
Larry Crabb uses powerful imagery to explain how God wants us to be holy and set apart to Him, and will let our lesser happiness shatter when he wants to grow us up in His Joy. Joy and happiness are not synonymous, and Crabb argues when we genuinely are more interested in pleasing God and spending time with him that getting our way, we will experience the Joy of God like never before.
This book is a must read for anyone who is serious about their faith and understanding the struggle between our own happiness and living out the will of God; once we "offer our bodies as living sacrifices" and "be not conformed to the pattern of this world", God will reveal His "good, pleasing and perfect will", and at that point, we experience the genuine Joy of God! | | |  | A hard read Jan 30, 2008 |
The reason is because the author takes sooooo long to get to the point.
I could have read the last two chapters and gotten everything he wanted to say without slogging through the rest of it.
The final message was pretty good, but I believe this book is full of too much irrelevant information to recommend that people read.
The pastor at a church I attend occasionally was reading this and quoted from the book during a sermon. He expressed how much he liked the book. The passage he quoted seemed to imply the book was about something other than what it was. That's why I bought it.
But disappointment came within four chapters and I continued to read it hoping against hope that it would pick up. Well, as I said, the final two chapters finally delivered the message -- a message I pretty much already knew anyway (I read a lot, contemplate a lot, pray a lot and meditate on the Word a lot).
Just read the story of Job and you'll get it. Shorter read? Read Ruth, the book the author uses to make his case (weakly). You'll get more out of that than this.
| | | | For all who hunger and thirst... Dec 22, 2007 |
It's interesting reading through the comments posted on this site books. Call me a pessimist, but I find I often pull up the low stars reviews first. I want to see what made angry or disappointed folks bother to post at all. Are they on a mission to save others from wasting their time? Are they trying to correct the author's theology? Or, are they merely wanting to contribute another perspective to a reading community?
I'm usually cautious when a review (positive or negative) becomes tainted with "reactionary vengeance". A good book is like good art. It is very individual. What bores one person to death will likely move another to life-changing tears.
I was loaned a copy of Shattered Dreams by a new friend. He was a Pastor for over 20 years. He did tons of counseling - free of charge - to drug addicts, religious burn-outs, poor and wealthy. For now, he needs a break from "professional Christianity". He is tired, fighting disillusionment, in a chasm of sorts.
So am I.
We are both wrestling an unseen foe in a fog. Struggling to keep the pilot light flickering on our faith, our passion for God, our "grasp" of the gospel as we have so zealously (and sincerely) tried to live it, share it, be transformed by it. Our sense of perspective and purpose seems to be slipping away. Like Naomi, we are inclined to snap, "Don't call me 'Naomi' (pleasant). Call me 'Mara' (miserable)."
I don't know that I blame God for the fog. At least, not in a final way. In fact, I have stumbled on to notions I never noticed before while in the thick of it. God's sovereignty. And, on its heels, God's faithfulness. And, attached inseparably to that, God's deep, mysterious goodness. A baffling, double-take kind of goodness.
I have always sensed (hoped?) that the fog (self-induced, life-induced and, perhaps, God-graciously-induced) was functional in its restrictiveness. Like a cast that heals a body by imprisoning it, I am beginning to hear in the fog an invitation. A whisper, really - but a clear one - to lean in or clench onto God in a way I haven't before. In a couldn't outside the fog. Like Jesus' analogy about the blind leading the blind, I have to admit I am certainly blind. Thus, I need a guide. Even the blind being led by a wise and loving Guide will feel uncertain at times, wobbly, untrusting, fearful, etc. I think this is one way of looking at Larry Crabb's message. God - through pain, suffering - brings us to a full embrace of our blindness and, equally, a complete surrender of our strivings (even the 'noble' ones).
This is not an insult to us as humans. This is not a "Woe is me! I'm a worthless worm" experience. This is a "I am made to find my sustenance in God". Like Jesus, we learn this type of obedience through "suffering". Through fog. This is not morbid, or dark, or emo. This suffering is not devoid of joy or, even, seasons of giddiness. Indeed, my deepest 'highs' have come in this condition.
Jesus put it plainly: God did not come for the healthy. God is the great Healer but He only heals the sick. God is the Great Provider but He only feeds the hungry. God is the Living Water, but He only quenches the thirsty. I think "Shattered Dreams" does an excellent job of illuminating this powerful and core reality in God.
One review said, in effect: "This type of God is like telling a child to return to an abusive father. I want nothing to do with this type of God". I didn't get that message at all. The big, fat difference in this comparison is the fathers. One destroys. One creates. One is imperfect. One is perfect. One is full of unmet needs and wrath. One needs nothing. One is perfect Love. And Love never fails.
I haven't finished the book so I may come to appreciate some of their comments better later. Still, I have already gotten so many nuggets of gold in the first 5 chapters to justify a lasting gratitude for Larry Crabb's insights. I will most certainly buy my own copy - to read again and again through the years. So many of the negatives seem to focus on Larry not giving us "application tools" for navigating these times. I think he does. The tool is to let God be God. Stay on the bike. I think Mr. Crabb feels that any clever acronym or "1,2,3 steps" would be artificial, manipulative and disruptive. On top of that, God would, if allowed, simply unmask these, too. And that's something awesome and glorious. To realize that the God of all creation invites us to simply walk with Him as He determines the path. And trust - because of who God is - that it will be all it should be, which, incredibly, is more than you or I can imagine or dream of.
If you want God (or, even, can only say you 'want to want' God), I think you'll benefit from reading this book. But read it slowly. Ingest even the shortest sentences. I have already been encouraged and taught so much. I have been ministered to and provoked to lean into God's sovereignty in the midst of the fog and, therein, taste joy. Thank you, Larry Crabb. | | |  | Insightful and moving Oct 25, 2007 |
| Insightful and moving, revealing an unexpected point of view. This will certainly provide you with a different perspective to consider. Well worth the read. | | | Write your own review about Shattered Dreams
Customers who purchased this item also purchased the following items...
|
|
