I have owned this book by Julie Ann Barnhill for several years. It's a wonderful book to pull off the shelf when you need to be reminded of real grace - scandalous grace - and in a most humorous, tearful, and enlightening way all at once!
First I'm going to tell you where I encountered Julie Ann Barnhill. When I was homeschooling Shane, I attended a conference in Rochester called Hearts at Home. She was a speaker at the conference - and oh, so funny! I fell in love with her mixture of faith, humor, and how we accept.
Scandalous and grace don't seem like two words that belong together, do they? Shocking grace is what we find in this book. What I like about this easy read is that it's written as if Julie is talking directly to us. She's in the fitting room with us feeling our insecurities. She's uncovered the moments of doubt. She's understood fear. In this book she made me laugh over stomachs (yes, stomachs!) and cry over unwavering forgiveness. This mixture of laughter and tears is a unique quality in all of her books.
In all of our situations and relationships, we hope for grace. Whether it is a spouse, a friend, a sibling, a parent, a co-worker - we pray for an unconditional response. It just doesn't always happen. But God's grace and God's grace working through us, well that's just scandalous. And that's the grace that helps build us up to what we should be in all His glory.
Excellent read - over and over.
1 comment:
I'll have to see if I can get that from the library.
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