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BMH Books - E. Lingenfelter Mark

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50 pages

English

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Subtitled "Capturing Hope Though a Daughter's Special Needs," Chasing After Faith chronicles the journey of author Mark Lingenfelter and his wife, Angie, took through the discovery and adjustment to a number of birth and developmental problems with their daughter, Faith. Four pages of color photos highlight the growth and development of Lingenfelters' daughter, who is now six years old.About the book Pastor Dan Gregory of Grace Church in Akron, Ohio, said, "Dark moments and difficult circumstances can shake our faith . . . this is a powerful, yet down-to-earth book about real people walking through real challenges chasing a real faith in a real God."Tom Avey, fellowship coordinator for the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, said, "Shepherds lead best when God has deepend them through dark days. This is an excellent tool for pastors, fathers, or small group leaders to help people talk through vital faith issues."The slim 71-page paperback contains eight chapters, each teaching a spiritual principle learned through the Lingenfelters' experience, and each followed by several pages of discussion questions and exercises designed for individual study or small-group discussion.

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Publié par	BMH Books
Date de parution	01 mars 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780884692935
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0400€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Chasing After Faith 2012 by Mark E. Lingenfelter ISBN:978-0-88469-280-5 RELIGION/ Christian Life/ Family
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( www.lockman.org )
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
The author has added italics to Scripture and quotations for emphasis.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
How to Use this Book
Chapter 1 Her Name is Faith
Discussion Questions
Chapter 2 Faith is Born
Discussion Questions
Chapter 3 Giving Thanks for Faith
Discussion Questions
Chapter 4 Almost Losing Faith
Discussion Questions
Chapter 5 Learning to Live with Faith
Discussion Questions
Chapter 6 The Heart of Faith
Discussion Questions
Chapter 7 The Miracle of Faith
Discussion Questions
Chapter 8 Chasing After Faith
Discussion Questions
Appendix
About the Author
Acknowledgments
My daughter Faith. For being perfect just the way you are and providing me with plenty of sermon material.
My wife Angie for loving me and being an amazing partner in life and ministry.
Kim, Janice, Jake, Cheryl and Michelle for helping me with early content editing and advice.
Dan and Tom for going out on a limb and endorsing my first book. Thanks for letting me ride your coat tails.
Terry and the team at BMH books for giving me this opportunity and providing amazing support and guidance. You truly made this whole process fun and rewarding.
Introduction
This book is NOT a record of woes and hardship. This book is NOT a pool of self-pity or sorrows. This is a book about the JOY found growing in the soil of suffering. It is intended to challenge the reader to consider the value of chasing after a life of faith.
I met a man who had a son born with a condition that will eventually result in the boy s becoming deaf. This has been a huge challenge to the man s faith. He questions God s love. He wonders why God would allow his child to suffer when so many evil people in the world seem to be untouched by such hardship. It is for this man and many like him that I wrote this book.
There have been, and will continue to be, many more difficult circumstances than our family has experienced with our daughter Faith. I have met men in Africa who have experienced severe persecution that I cannot begin to relate to. I have preached several funerals for families that have experienced the unimaginable pain of the death of a child. I do not pretend to know or understand the full measure of pain that others have experienced in this fallen world. However, I do know that those who have chosen to chase after a life of faith have avoided a lifetime of bitterness. They have experienced a supernatural peace and joy that transcend all understanding. My hope and prayer is that God will use the words in this book to encourage your heart, challenge your mind, and perhaps even change your life as you consider what it means to Chase After Faith.
Mark E. Lingenfelter, Roaring Spring, Pa.
How to Use this Book
This book can be used for personal reading, small group discussion, or one-on-one discipleship. If you are reading this book by yourself, you may still benefit from the discussion questions. The questions are designed to help the reader interact with God s Word and grow in his or her faith.
If you are using this book for a small group Bible study, the leader should distribute books to group members one week prior to the first group meeting. Instruct group members to read the first chapter so they will be prepared for the discussion questions. Encourage group members NOT to read ahead. Although the chapters are not long, the tension from week to week will keep members excited and engaged. At the end of each week s Bible study assign the following chapter and the Chasing After Faith section to be completed before the next meeting. The Chasing After Faith section at the end of each discussion is intended to be a personal and practical application of each chapter. It would be good to follow up with group members the following week on their experiences.
Since the purpose of this book is to encourage people to chase after a life of faith, consider asking someone who is struggling in their faith or going through a difficult circumstance to read a chapter a week with you and discuss it at a mutually agreed-upon time and place. The discussion questions could be a great way to open up dialogue in a discipleship setting.
Thank you for choosing this resource. My prayer is that God will use this book to bless many lives and draw people into a closer relationship with Him.
Pastor Mark E. Lingenfelter
Chapter 1
Her Name is Faith
I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
This may seem like an odd way to start a book, but I want you to say your NAME out loud. Yes, the whole thing from start to finish. Let it roll off your tongue like you were being introduced as the keynote speaker of a conference or the prizefighter in the main event. If you are reading this book in a public place (like the subway or the gym), shouting your full name among random strangers should probably be avoided.
Just think. Somewhere in the past your parent(s) said your name out loud and decided this would be your name. Some of you really like what you hear. The first name and the middle name seem to fit together like a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Or perhaps you cringe at the sound of it. Maybe the first and middle name clash like a pair of green pants and a blue shirt. Maybe you like the fact that your name is unique or that it is ordinary. Or maybe you wonder what in the world your parents were thinking when they told the nurse to type such a bizarre or mundane name on your birth certificate.
Selecting a child s name is a significant and daunting responsibility. There are so many things we cannot choose for our children: the color of their eyes and hair, the shape of their nose, the size of their ears .whether or not they will be born with abnormalities. These genetic gifts, over which we have no control, go with them throughout life, but their NAMES their NAMES are the life-long gifts we do get to choose for them. So you may applaud or abhor the choice your parents made, but I think we all wonder at some point, How did my parents choose my name?
Maybe your parents used one of those books filled with names, combing through thousands of possibilities until they came to one that caught their ear. Maybe you are named after your father or some other relative. Perhaps your name was chosen in honor of some important historical figure or maybe you have one of those hippie names that makes no sense.
My name is Mark Edmund Charles Lingenfelter. My first name is just a biblical name that my parents liked and my middle names are a tribute to my grandfathers. It sounds somewhat regal when you say it out loud, but imagine trying to write this lengthy handle in the first grade. When Bill Smith was outside playing at recess because he finished his homework, I was still writing out my obnoxiously long name. My parents then continued the two-middle-name tradition with my sister, Michelle Elizabeth Lynn Lingenfelter. That s thirty-three glorious letters, longer than the alphabet awesome!
When the time came to name my own children, I knew I could not do much about the length of Lingenfelter, but I could use some self-control and only give them ONE middle name. So my wife, Angie, and I agreed that our oldest daughter would be named Hannah Pearl. We both liked the biblical name Hannah, and her middle name is a tribute to my grandmother whom we both loved and greatly admired. When we found out our second child would be a boy we quickly agreed that Elijah was a great first name, but since no family names seemed to fit for a middle name we chose James (one of our favorite books in the Bible).
In both cases, Angie and I had little difficulty or disagreement over this monumental decision. But that was not the case when we found out that a third bundle of joy was on the way. I m still not sure why we had so much trouble deciding on a name, but at one point we thought we might be that couple that waited until the child was born and the sarcastic nurse would have to come in and say, Did ya ll choose a name yet, or should I just write Jane Doe on the birth certificate? Fortunately it never came to that.
It was mid-August when we took our annual vacation to the beach. This trip to Ocean City, Maryland, had been a long-standing tradition in my family, and now I was continuing the tradition and making special memories with my own children in the sands near the Atlantic Ocean. Angie was six months pregnant at the time, so I imagine we looked like quite a frazzled pair as Angie waddled through the sand with a 1 -year-old and a four-year-old in hand while I was carrying all the necessary beach equipment strapped to my back.
One evening as we were strolling the boardwalk, popping in and out of the different shops, browsing through beach jewelry and silly junior high humor T-shirts, we decided we would buy the kids mugs with their names on the