Finding God In The Ruins: How God Redeems Pain - REVIEW and a GIVEAWAY

About the author:

Matt Bays is a writer, speaker, and musician with a passion to call people out of their hiding places. In ministry for twenty years, he and his wife, Heather, live in Indianapolis with their fun-loving and insightful teenage daughters.

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About the book: 

Finding God in the Ruins (David C. Cook, March 2016)

If God is love, why do we hurt so much?

When the reality of your pain doesn't line up with what you've been taught in church, then what? While many abandon their faith or embrace hopelessness, it is possible to discover the God who heals your heart in the midst of the pain.

Matt Bays has been where you are. His unforgettable stories of loss and healing will usher you into a life where gratitude overpowers anger, hope overcomes despair, and hunger for God replaces indifference to God. With a fresh and original writing style, Bays demonstrates that true redemption is far more powerful than the temporary fixes of sanitized Christianity.

Purchase a copy: http://bit.ly/1Mkv8QQ

Finding God In The Ruins Book Trailer/Music Video

Matt Bays' Testimony

Read a excerpt from Finding God in the Ruins on New York Times bestselling author Ann Voskamp's website: http://bit.ly/1Pa4R7C

My Thoughts:

In Finding God In The Ruins, Matt Bays leaves everything on the table.  Bays shares a very transparent look into his own personal "ruins" and offers a bold challenge to not move over or around our own personal ruins but through them.  Matt writes with an urgency that is palpable on every page of this book.  Bays' encouragement is that we find God and know Him in the hard places of life and that we trust Him with everything.  The book includes Discussion Questions at the end.  This book would be a powerful discipleship tool in a small group setting. 
*Some other reviewers have cited problems with Bays' use of Scripture primarily noting his comments regarding Psalm 44:11.  Matthew Henry's commentary on Psalm 44:9-16 say this:

"The believer must have times of temptation, affliction, and discouragement; the church must have seasons of persecution.  At such times the people of God will be ready to fear hat he has cast them off, and that his name and truth will be dishonored.  But they should look above the instruments of their trouble, to God, well knowing that their worst enemies have no power against them, but what is permitted from above." 

I believe many of the negative things being said about the author's message is the very thing he warns believers against.  We want Christ to come into our lives and make everything all neat and tidy;however, it just doesn't work that way.  God's greatest work often arises out of the biggest, darkest messes.  That's the message of this book and Bays' tells it well.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of giving my honest review.

*You can see what others are saying about Finding God In The Ruins HERE.

I have an Advanced Reader Copy of Finding God In The Ruins to give to one of my visitors to this post!  All you have to do is:  1.  Follow Mother of Three (You can do this in the left sidebar of the blog.)  2.  Leave a comment answering this question -  What is your testimony of finding God in your ruins?  3.  Be sure and leave your email address in your comment in the event you are the winner.

Blessings,

Jennifer