HOW DO YOU RESPOND when your husband or wife tramples your emotions? When your boss fires you unexpectedly? When you lose your life's savings? When the child you've loved and prayed for turns his back on you and your values? When disappointments like these smash their way into your life, you may want to scream, "How could God let this happen?"

BUT WHAT IF GOD didn't just "let it happen"? What if the things you call disappointments are really His appointments - events He is using to make you more like Christ? What if He is using your disappointments like flames to melt and burn away the undesirable elements in your life, leaving you pure and radiant - like refined silver?

YOU CAN BE DEFEATED by life's unavoidable disappointments, or you can become stronger because of them. Kay Arthur paints a graphic picture of the dangerous downward spiral of disappointment that can lead to discouragement, depression, or even despair. But you can learn to break that cycle and embrace disappointment with a faith that recognizes the trials of life as tools that God uses to make you - as silver refined - a reflection of His goodness.

God delights in transforming lives. In Broken Into Beautiful, singer and songwriter Gwen Smith’s first book, she tells the real–life stories of women with shattered dreams, shameful secrets, and damaged souls, and the God who makes them beautiful again. Each chapter features a compelling personal story coupled with relevant biblical teaching and application. Readers will meet women wounded by infidelity, abortion, widowhood, abuse, and other tragic events, only to discover the joy of being restored by a loving heavenly Father.

The book will remind women of all ages of God’s willingness to eternally forgive and forget and of His heart to transform broken lives. Readers will be empowered to believe truth, to remember grace, and to live for God’s greater purposes. Broken into Beautiful is ultimately about a beautiful Savior who became broken for us so that all who are broken can be transformed to reflect His beauty.

This proven guide in pastoral counseling has been extensively expanded and revised by the author to include recent developments and research, new resources, and attention to newly urgent needs such as AIDS, eating disorders, homosexuality, and violence. Written with clarity and sensitivity, this volume builds on biblical foundations and the best resources of professional psychology. It reflects the insights the author has gained from many years of Christian counseling.

New Sections include:

• The Legal, Ethical and Moral Issues in Counseling
• The Multicultural, Multiracial Issues in Counseling
• Conflict and Relationships
• Dealing with Death and Grief
• Alcoholism and Other Substance Abuse
• Crises and Trauma
• Counseling and Terrorism

This authoritative handbook provides a definitive overview of the theory and practice of couple therapy. Noted contributors--many of whom developed the approaches they describe--combine clear conceptual exposition with thorough descriptions of therapeutic techniques. In addition to presenting major couple therapy models in step-by-step detail, the book describes effective applications for particular populations and problems. Chapters adhere closely to a uniform structure to facilitate study and comparison, enhancing the book's utility as a reference and text.

For more than a decade, Desires in Conflict has been the definitive “must–read” for those who wonder “Can a homosexual change?” This new edition with updated information offers more compelling reasons why the answer is “yes!”

“I read Desires in Conflict for the first time when I was 19...More than a decade later, I am free of desires that once held me captive, strong in my faith, married to my amazing wife, Leslie, and currently the Executive Director of Exodus International, North America. The Lord used Desires in Conflict to help guide me out of homosexuality. Joe Dallas has eternally impacted a generation of young people like me.”

Alan Chambers
Executive Director
Exodus International