Named By God

 Kasey Van Norman has written an engaging book titled Named By God:  Overcoming Your Past, Transforming Your Present, Embracing Your Future. 
From the back of the book cover:
"Respected Bible teacher Kasey Van Norman understands what it means to be a prisoner of the past.  Refined by the fires of suffering and heartache, Kasey is an inspiring example of God's grace and intervention in a life that seemed beyond redemption.  In Named By God, Kasey shows what it means to find our true identity in Christ, to live the surrendered life of the redeemed, and to find life by losing it."

Here are just a few quotes from the book:
"Allow me to fill you in on a little-known fact about time:  it can be a breeding ground for sin.  If we aren't vigilant about how we're spending our hours and days, the idle passing of time can be an effective weapon in satan's armory.  Unless we are focused completely on what the Lord desires of us, we'll soon be twiddling our thumbs of spiritual complacency - which is exactly where satan starts spinning webs of fatal desire.  Plainly put, satan desires all-consuming sin to creep into our lives, ultimately resulting in death.  Of course, a believer's physical death would give the enemy a reason to boast.  However, what delights satan and his minions all the more is when he succeeds in making us what I call the 'walking dead' - in other words, Christians who have sat their stagnant rear ends on the sidelines in the middle of the most important game of the season."  (pg. 27-28)


"Please allow me to be transparent for a moment. I believe Scripture is clear that there are times to be sad, angry, quiet, and grieved over your circumstances (see Ecclesiastes 3:4), and I experienced all of those emotions during the first few days of emergency room visits with my mother.  So when I talk about the Lord, I don't mean being in denial or responding to my mother's cancer with laughter and dancing.  In this case, praising God for me meant choosing to see Him in the circumstance - staying faithful to Him in the midst of uncertainty.  I may not have been praising Him with joyful music or celebration, but I praised Him through my tears and my grief.  I praised Him by staying close to Him when I could have run."  (pg. 54-56)

"If we long to see God at work in our present, we merely need to grow in our daily longing for Him."  (pg. 155)

"When God states that He is working for your good, it doesn't mean that everything that happens in your life will be good.  He is looking at a bigger picture than we are - our eternal future.  He is working out His good in your life to bring you into a closer relationship with Him.  Bad things happen because evil has invaded every orner of our fallen world, but God can work good out of even the worst situations.  God isn't always working to make you happy, but He is constantly moving toward completing His ultimate purpose:  making you into a more accurate image bearer of His Son, Jesus Christ."  (pg. 157)

In many ways, Kasey Van Norman has suffered more heartbreak than one woman can bear. Growing up, she endured her parents' divorce, date rape, and years of addiction to sex and cutting. As an adult, she suffered the pain of an emotional affair, rejection by her friends and community, and her mother's death from cancer. But at the end of this twisting path of heartbreak, Kasey walked out of the wilderness and into a place of God's merciful and miraculous healing.

Kasey writes with transparency about her personal journey with God.  She holds nothing back and while I read her book, I felt as if I was sitting down with a friend.  Kasey's teaching style radiates refreshing authenticity as she speaks to a generation of people tired of hypocrisy from themselves and those around them and are hungry for transparent leaders. You'll find no pious platitudes and religious cliche's in Named By God; only one woman's story of how God transformed her life with the washing of His Word.



Kasey's website can be found HERE.

The book can be found at Amazon.com by going HERE.

Thank you Tyndale House Publishers for sending a complimentary copy of the book for the purpose of review.

Blessings,
Jennifer