Broken Promises: Understanding, Healing, and Preventing Affairs in Christian Marriages, Henry A. Virkler, Word, Inc., Irving, Texas, 1992, 306pages, $13.99, hardcover.
Believers are not immune to the epidemic of adultery in our culture. Virkler describes counseling and survival techniques for offenders and the offended and how to avoid compromising situations.
Making the Break, David Partington, Harold Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois, 1992, 112 pages, $6.95, paper.
Many people long to be free from bondage to destructive compulsive behaviors. This book offers the first steps toward freedom, in overcoming eating disorders, pornography, gambling, drugs, and alcohol. A list of helping agencies is provided.
Sexual Temptation: How Christian Workers Can Win the Battle, Randy Alcorn, InterVarsity Press, Downer's Grove, Illinois, 1989, 32 pages, $2.99, paper.
A small book with a big message for those struggling with temptation.
About Choosing the Right Marriage Partner, Channing L. Bete Company, Inc., South Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1991, 15 pages. Since this booklet is usually sold in bulk orders, the price varies. The first book is $1 plus handling and postage.
This is only one of the helpful scriptographic booklets put out by Channing L. Bete Company. Their informational booklets cover everything from AIDS to ecology and are designed as tools for pastors and other church leaders. Featuring an easy blend of text and graphics, these booklets reach readers of all backgrounds. Call 1-800-628- 7733 for a catalog.
Glimpses of Grace: A Family Struggles With Alzheimer's, Rosemary J. Upton, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1990, 159 pages, $7.95, paper.
This specialty book may be just what you or someone you know needs.
For Want of a Child: A Psychologist and His Wife Explore the Emotional Effects and Challenges of Infertility, James and Mary Elizabeth McGuirk, The Continuum Publishing Company, New York, 1991, 164 pages, $17.95, hardcover.
Not having children in a world where it is expected is painful. An important book for those who suffer infertility, it has a message for pastors, counselors, parents, and friends of the afflicted, as well.
Jesus and the Single Mother, Barbara Rogers-Gardner, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1990,145pages, $9.95, paper.
This specialty book is written for an audience generally ignored by writers of self-help books. Not just a how-to book, it contains a deeply spiritual message. The author, writing from personal experience, approaches the issue with love and understanding. The volume includes a workbook section to help the reader sort out her feelings and put principles into practice.
All-day Care: Exploring the Options for You and Your Child, Susan M. Zitzman, Harold Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois, 1990, 236 pages, $7.95, paper.
The author, a widowed single parent, empathizes with parents trying to make the right work and family choices in a complicated world and offers suggestions in making those decisions.
The Mourning After: Help for Postabortion Syndrome, Terry L. Selby, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1990, 147 pages, $7.95, paper.
Postabortion syndrome (PAS) is now a recognized disorder. Though helpful for sufferers, their families, and friends, the book is directed at those who counsel them.
Problem Drinking: How to Help a Friend, Charles Downs, Harold Shaw Publish ers, Wheaton, Illinois, 1990, 110 pages, $7.95, paper.
This volume provides excellent resource material for pastors, is excellent to give members struggling with relationships shaped by alcohol.
When Love Gets Tough: The Nursing Home Dilemma, DougManning, Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1990, 100 pages, $7.95, paper.
Manning helps families understand the needs of aging relatives, and guides families through the decision-making process of choosing the best option. He explains how to prepare the elderly per son for transition to a nursing home, and deal with feelings on both sides of this difficult choice.
Coping With Life After Your Mate Dies, Donald C. and Rita Crossley Cushenbery, Baker Book House, GrandRapids, 1991, 89 pages, $6.95, paper.
This book can be read quickly and easily during a stressful transition period. The authors write from personal experience and have conducted work shops for surviving mates. This helpful book makes a good gift for grieving parishioners.
My Grieving Heart, Joyce Rigsby, Re view and Herald Publishing Association, Hagerstown, Maryland, 1991, 95 pages, US$6.95, Cdn$8.70, paper.
A widow shares her intimate journey through her winter of pain and offers compassion and hope for those who grieve.
Remarried With Children: A Blended Couple's Journey to Harmony, Don and Ladean Houck, Here's Life Publishers, San Bemardino, California, 1991, 215 pages, $8.99, paper.
Looking through the lenses of their own experience, the authors give guidance to couples considering remarriage when children are directly involved.
Their seminars for those in or contemplating such a remarriage have brought encouragement and practical help to many blended families.
Life After Prison, Al Wengerd, Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, 1984, 48 pages, $1.95, paper.
This short volume is written by a lay minister who has worked with ex-prisoners ever since he graduated from col lege. He talks to ex-prisoners personally about being "on the street," "on the job," and "in the family," and about what happens "inside of you."
A Table Before Me: Devotions for Overeaters Who Crave the Power of God, Pauline Ellis Cramer, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Boise, Idaho, 1992, 127 pages, US$7.95, Cdn$9.95, paper.
The author shares words of wisdom and inspiration through these daily devotions that helped her change old thought patterns that prevented her from achieving her goals.
Single Parenting, Andy Bustanoby, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1992, 271 pages, US$9.99, Cdn$13.50, paper.
Bustanoby, a well-known author and marriage and family therapist, speaks to the special problems of single parents (with and without custody). This volume can help pastors in counseling single parents about child care, quality time, dating, and other aspects of raising children alone.
Every Time I Say Grace We Fight, Sandra Finley Doran, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Hagerstown, Mary land, 1992, 94 pages, US$7.95, Cdn$9.95, paper.
This practical volume offers suggestions for fulfilling marriages between persons of different religions and/or beliefs.
Finding Your Place After Divorce: Help and Hope for Women Who Are Starting Again, Carole Sanderson Streeter, Harold Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois, 1992, 161 pages, $7.99, paper.
The author speaks from her own struggles after divorce. She writes about such concerns as identity, forgiveness, finances, and helping children heal.
Recently Noted
Toxic Christianity: Healing the Religious Neurosis, Paul DeBlassie III, The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, 1992, $17.95, hardcover.
Legalism and reliance on external observances have caused the faith of many to be little more than superstition. The author, a psychotherapist, not only describes the problem of dysfunctional religion, but provides biblical and spiritual solutions. "Over time, old ways of receiving God and inviting His presence give way to new developments, but in no manner is the canon of Scripture or the orthodoxy of faith ever violated. Jesus becomes more relevant and more eminent in the minds of believers."
A particularly relevant statement by the author: "The ghost of fear must be met straight on without pause or hesitation. In the church, rigidities, narrowmindedness, and a black-and-white approach to God characterize a fear-ridden mind. This mentality has nothing at all to do with the true nature of God, but has only to do with an ego-centered intent to control God and His people."
What needs to be done, he says, is to listen to God's "voice as it unfolds with truth and sets the human heart free from fear."
