**I received a complimentary copy for consideration. All thoughts are my own.
In a broken world, we ache for a way to walk through life without giving up or giving in. Instead of breaking down, Jesus offers us another way: breaking open. Discover a new way of living and rise with hope, power, and purpose!
Everyone aches to be whole. We ache to be healed. We ache to be restored. But most of the time we wouldn’t put it into words. We just know we are broken because our child is addicted. We ache because the depression of our youth is now the depression of our golden years. We are stretched to the point of breaking because our career ambitions position us to commit to a pace we can’t sustain. Miscarriage, divorce, loneliness. In all of it, we ache.
In Breaking Open, Pastor Jacob Armstrong exposes the seven dangerous ways that we commonly seek to avoid a breakdown, showing how these seven ways are stealing life from us, and then walks us through a progression of seven Jesus-ways that move us from merely breaking to breaking open. It is these Jesus-ways that get us to the good stuff: a life filled with hope and opportunity.
In Breaking Open, you
- discover how your greatest heartaches can open you up to the life God desires for you,
- learn how to slow down from a frenzied pace and settle into the spacious life you have been longing for right now,
- stop living a cheap imitation of life and develop trust in who God says you are,
- receive permission not to have it all together by finding the power to love and live vulnerably, and
- find the courage to name the achy undercurrent in your soul so you can break it wide open and let Jesus heal you and make you whole.
Jesus never intended for us to break and stay shattered, but to fall and rise differently. To rise with power, rise with hope, rise with purpose. In Breaking Open, learn to rise open to a new way of living!
Jacob Armstrong is a published author, speaker, and pastor of Providence Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Jacob and his wife, Rachel, founded Providence Church in 2008 with a vision to see people who feel disconnected from God and the church find hope, healing, and wholeness in Jesus Christ. Providence Church has been one of the 100 fastest growing churches in the nation the last three years.
When I read these words in the book blurb for Breaking Open, I knew without a doubt that this one would be a book for me. If I'm being brutally honest, I so often feel like I am just one step away from a breakdown... and I'm certain I am not the only one.
This world is so full of pain. It is unfortunately something that each and every one of us will have to experience at one point or another. As Christians, we are not exempt from pain... but sometimes we feel like we should be above it... that we shouldn't let it get us done, shouldn't show distress ever. This is simply not true. So, how do we as Christians handle our pain? How can we turn to Jesus in these moments when it might not be easy to do so?
Breaking Open takes a look at just that. It is a book that reminds us that we are not alone in our pain... but more importantly that God can use our pain. This book is packed full of personal stories and biblical wisdom. I certainly appreciate the stories within these pages, as I feel like they help us to realize that everyone has different pains in their lives, and they bring the subject to life in a very understandable way. More importantly though, I appreciate all the Biblical insight reminding us it's important to turn to God's word in times of pain.
If you are struggling, Breaking Open just might help.
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"Pleasant words are as a honeycomb: sweet to the soul and health to the bones." Proverbs 16:24