Sober Cycle

July 26, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

Her alcoholism was at its fiercest. Desperately looking for a way out of her addiction, Sherry Hoppen joined a fundraiser that would require her to cycle hundreds of miles from Michigan to Texas—despite not even owning a bike. Pedaling while miserably hung over and being chased by everything from poodles to pit bulls, she soon discovered the road to freedom wasn’t on a bicycle. True recovery would come from following a different path.

Sober Cycle: Pedaling Through Recovery One Day at a Time is the true story of Hoppen’s fight to escape alcoholism and all its shame and secrecy. Written with a balance of honesty and humor, she holds nothing back as she details her secret double life as an addicted follower of Christ. Recounting the many failed attempts to reach sobriety the hard way, Hoppen offers hope to others without judgment or useless clichés, assuring fellow believers that redemption and healing can be found—without riding a bike for thousands of miles. Addictions—whether it is drinking, excessive spending, prescription drugs, gambling, social media, or being entangled in sexual sin—can be found in every walk of life, but you too can ride your way to freedom and find a deeply satisfying partner in Jesus to help you get there.

Away from her desk, you will find Sherry Hoppen riding her beloved road bike for pure enjoyment. She is an avid reader and has a passion for all things decorating. Sherry and her husband enjoy traveling together and loving on their three grandsons.

Hoppen is a Christian wife, mother, grandmother, and a recovering alcoholic. She writes and speaks about overcoming the shame of being a Christian woman entangled in the nightmarish secrecy of addiction. She is the founder of She Surrenders, a ministry to help women confront and surrender the secrets they shamefully hold close. Through this ministry, Hoppen aspires to help women find freedom from alcohol and other addictive substances and behaviors.

While boldly sharing her own story of faith-based recovery, Hoppen inspires others to remove their masks of shame and guilt and embrace life to the fullest in recovery. Sharing her personal addiction journey experiences with honesty and humor, she desires to help women see their true, authentic self away from the darkness that surrounds their addiction. Encouraging women that there is only one road that leads to freedom from alcohol, she has been a guest on the popular recovery podcast The Bubble Hour and has shared her story Not by Chance in Faith and Freedom, a collection of short stories. A regular speaker at women s events, college campus, and local Bible study groups, she has also hosted a retreat for recovery in partnership with Journey of Hope Yoga.

In Sober Cycle, find renewed hope and practical steps to recovery one day at a time. There’s always hope when you find your way back to the one that can save you. †

June 29, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

On New Years’ Eve of 2019, Dr. Tony Evans spent most of the day alone in his room. The lights were dim. The curtains were drawn. His wife had died the previous day, and he was overwhelmed with grief. He was scheduled to preach at a special New Year’s Eve service, but he was unable to get out of bed because his heart was broken. Then he remembered his wife’s faith and dedication. He remembered his calling. He remembered that he was a citizen of the kingdom of heaven and that the Spirit of God was stronger than the shadow of death. So, in the midst of darkness and sorrow a man’s feet hit the floor. It was time to rise. It was time to stand up. It was time for Tony Evans to preach.

In his new book, Kingdom Men Rising (Bethany House Publishers), Dr. Evans calls on men to step into their calling as men of God – men who consistently submit to the rule of Jesus. When men truly practice discipleship, they will prosper spiritually and fulfill Christ’s agenda for their life. Success is not defined by career paths, income, or the world’s acclaim. True success is doing the will of God, regardless of how others measure your life. Dr. Evans is calling for men to stand up, lift up their heads, and start living under the lordship of Jesus. Find your kingdom purpose. Be brave and resolute. Then go to work.

Dr. Evans is not interested in men merely professing their faith. He wants men to put works behind their faith. In Kingdom Men Rising, he says, “God’s Word does not work just because you get excited about it. It doesn’t work just because you heard a sermon and got fired up. To listen to God’s Word but refuse to act on it causes a man to do little more than waste his life.”

If Christians truly want to influence others and change the world, it will require men of God to act like men. We need to be discerning, strong, and selfless. It may be hard. It may require self-sacrifice. The golden rule and the law of love are not easy, but Jesus told us it would be difficult. Dr. Evans is right. It’s time for our feet to hit the floor. It’s time to stand up and preach. It’s time for Kingdom men to rise.

-Darrel Holcombe, Owner

Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts

Colonial Promenade, Alabaster

www.sanctuarychristianbooksandgifts.com

205-663-2370

June 29, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

Kick-Off the 2021 Football Season With Del Duduit. Responding to fans everywhere, First Down Devotions II continues providing readers an inside look at popular National Football League players, coaches, and the people who shape them. Exploring successes both on and off the gridiron, these daily devotions recount the personal stories about these superstar athletes and their personal walk with Jesus Christ. Providing positive stories to share with friends, children, Little League teams, and fellow sports fans, these unique interview-based devotions will let these players inspire you to push to the goal line and score in your own spiritual life.

Del Duduit is an award-winning sportswriter and author. He lives in Ohio with his wife, Angie.

First Down Devotions II has devotions with:

Ben Utecht: Super Bowl Champion Tight End with the Indianapolis Colts
Clinton McDonald: Defensive End for the Oakland Raiders
Kurt Warner: Hall of Fame Quarterback for the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals
Tim Tebow: Quarterback for the New York Jets and Denver Broncos
and many, many more!

To read more about First Down Devotions II, visit NewHopePublishers.com. †

May 25, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

“Sometimes we have to go a long way to find out who we are.”

The Stars in April by Peggy Wirgau is based on the true story of twelve-year-old Titanic Survivor, Ruth Becker. The year is 1912. When doctors in India are unable to treat her baby brother’s illness, Ruth’s missionary parents decide there is one solution: move her mother and the children across the world- to Michigan. But India is the only home Ruth knows. In a matter of days, she must leave Papa and all she loves behind, abandon her dream of one day playing violin in the Calcutta Orchestra, and embark on a rollicking, four-week journey across the Arabian and Mediterranean Seas, followed by the voyage to New York aboard the luxurious, ill-fated RMS Titanic.

Ruth’s story is one of courage and self-sacrifice as she earns her sea legs and faces the unknown, culminating in a desperate, tragic night she will never forget. Floyd Andrick, former Titanic Historical Society member and personal friend of Ruth Becker, says, “I feel as though I’m sitting in Ruth’s apartment and she is sharing her life story with me… so very well-written… one can hardly stop reading.”

Peggy Wirgau

Peggy Wirgau loves true stories from the past and writes through the eyes of ordinary people in history who faced extraordinary challenges and became heroes. Like Ruth’s family in The Stars in April, Peggy hails from Michigan. She and her husband have two adult children and split their time between Michigan and Florida. †

May 25, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

One day, long ago, an old man sat down and wrote a letter. With few remaining days on this earth, the elderly pastor’s letter was his final act of faithfulness to the gospel of Christ’s kingdom. Suffice it to say, he didn’t hold back. The epistle John left the world with the most imaginative and dramatic body of literature in our Bible. His words have brought hope, fear, clarity, confusion, mystery, and mischief. So, what are we to do with such a strange book? Author Eugene Peterson has some words of wisdom for us.

This Hallelujah Banquet (Waterbrook) focuses on John’s opening verses in the Book of Revelation. Seven churches are in various states of distress, and the apostle’s exhortation was intended to bring comfort and correction. It was a time of deception and injustice. Believers were losing hope, losing their courage, and losing their love of God. Some were even losing their lives.

In addition to writing more than 30 books, author Eugene Peterson was the translator for the Message Bible before his passing in 2018.

This Hallelujah Banquet is a reminder that the strange writing we encounter in Revelation was never intended to obscure the truth, but to reveal it. It wasn’t written to the last generation of Christians, but the first. They knew exactly what John meant because he wrote it specifically to them. But there are lessons for us in these ancient words. Be courageous. Be faithful. Live in hope. Never lose your love of God. Be wise and discerning. John’s letter was not intended to be a manual on prophecy, but a call to live proleptically. As followers of Jesus, we live in the perpetual dawning of Christ’s kingdom. One day, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess Christ is King. Revelation isn’t about the end of the world. It’s about a kingdom fully come, a just and redeemed world without end. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.

Hallelujah and Amen.

-Darrel Holcombe, Owner

Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts

Colonial Promenade, Alabaster

www.sanctuarychristianbooksandgifts.com

205-663-2370

May 25, 2021May 25, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

It’s Saturday! And Saturday means Pancake Dad is open for business. Three excited children rally their dad out of bed for their special weekly time together: making a yummy breakfast for the family. In Pancake Dad, the Rev. Dr. Ken Gordon, pastor of The House of Light Church in Birmingham, Ala. writes a rollicking story about the enduring value of spending quality time together with one’s children, away from cell phones, televisions, work, and distractions.

“Every Saturday, Pancake Dad cooks pancakes for his wife and their three children. This is his time to allow Mom to rest and not get up early. It is also his time to spend quality time with his children, which is extremely important to him,” Rev. Dr. Gordon explains. Before the team gets started on their cooking, they have their “Saturday Morning Challenge” where they share a memorized verse of Scripture. Pancake Dad follows up by reassuring them,“Everything about you is beautiful, and you are perfect to God, to your mom, and to me!”

In Pancake Dad, Rev. Dr. Gordon expertly weaves a playful story with important messages of faith, love, and fun, brought to life by bright illustrations, and ending with a note of affirmation to dads and an interactive journal entry for kids. Families will delight in reading aloud the positive and joyful story of a loving family spending quality time together.

Pastor Ken Gordon — To purchase *Pancake Dad*, visit www.dadsoffaith.com. Rev. Dr. Ken Gordon pastors The House of Light Church that was founded in 2018. The church meets at Jazzi’s on 3rd Music Gallery, 1725 3rd Ave. N, Birmingham.

Pastor Ken, as he is known to his congregation, is a father of four young adults. He wrote Pancake Dad and the subsequent books in the collection “to inspire fathers to put down the cell phone or gaming system, turn off the game, leave work on time, and spend valuable time with their children.” Pancake Dad is the first in a 12-book children’s series focused on encouraging fathers to engage with their families, as opposed to merely being present. This series contains five common threads woven throughout each book.

1. A father putting away distractions and actively engaging with his children.

2. A father empowering his daughter to know she can do anything she puts her mind to.

3. A father modeling what it is to be a man to his sons.

4. A father treating the mother of his children as a queen, with respect and love.

5. A father leading his family to a relationship with God.

To read more about Pancake Dad, visit www.dadsoffaith.com.

April 28, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

Love has a way of revealing truth. When we love a fellow human being, we become more attuned to reality. We see the world as God sees it, with deeper understanding and clarity. Love requires that we hear the voice of others, that we learn from them, share with them, and place value on the details of their life. If you want to find the truth, you must first learn to love.

Mother to Son – Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope (Intervarsity Press) by Jasmine L. Holmes is a work of epistolary love. Deeply personal, Holmes pours out her joy, pride and devotion for her young son. Honest and hopeful, she shares her dreams for her son’s future with eloquence and power. She longs for him to feel the dignity of self-worth, to be strong and wise and joyful. Most of all, she wants her son to know that God loves him and placed him on this earth for a purpose. Her hope for her son does not flow from social or political ideals, though those are an important aspect of being a follower of Christ. Holmes’ hope rests in Jesus and the power of the Gospel to transform individuals, societies, and, yes, even our churches.

Holmes’ writing is elegant and moving. Although the letters are written to one of her sons, they are a gift to us all. Mother to Son is filled with faith in God’s providential care, hope in the power of the Gospel of Jesus, and love for her two beautiful black boys. In a society gripped in a state of cognitive dissonance, Holmes’ book will bring clarity and truth – not because it was written with answers, but because it was written with love.

-Darrel Holcombe, Owner

Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts

Colonial Promenade, Alabaster

www.sanctuarychristianbooksandgifts.com

205-663-2370

April 28, 2021April 28, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

The past year has been quite a challenge for all of us. From the pandemic to quarantine, all of our lives have been turned upside down. Many of us are struggling on how to put the pieces of our lives back together again so that we can move forward. Sometimes we feel like we have lost all sense of normalcy or certainty in our lives. How do we heal from all of the trials and tests that we’ve all faced? How do we know we are following God’s best for our lives?

The answer to the path of healing is found in discovering the three R’s: reconnect, realign, and reactivate our lives. The Enjoy Today Own Tomorrow Journal is designed to help you to discover and live out the three R’s. When the pandemic hit, many of us were stunned by the impact it caused. We were locked up in our homes. We were not allowed to attend church. Our schools were closed. Almost every area of our lives had been affected by Covid-19. This brought us to a reality that we had never experienced. Many of us seemed unclear on what our next move would be.

Laine Lawson Craft is the author Enjoy Today Own Tomorrow, which recently won an Illumination Book Award for an exemplary new Christian book.

Reconnect. When we are lost or confused, we must first turn our thoughts and hearts toward God running into His arms. When we reconnect with God, accept His love, and lean into His guidance, then our lives will have a new level of clarity and direction.

Realign. We begin to realign with God by allowing God to move through our broken hearts and shattered dreams so that we can find healing. We realign our thoughts and plans as we seek God’s will and ways for our lives. When we realign, we are made whole and live in step with God’s purpose for our lives.

Reactivate. This is the most essential step in the three R’s. This comes from the supernatural power that lives inside of us. We must reactivate or stir up the power inside of us, the living power of God called the Holy Spirit. Then as we reactivate this power of God living inside of us, it enables us to reconnect, realign, and reactivate our lives in God’s strength and wisdom. So that, we know God will orchestrate your steps to give you your best life now! You will find peace knowing He’s got you!

-Laine Lawson Craft

March 25, 2021 by Laurie Stroud

Best Books

Well, this is awkward… Last year I finished a work of fiction featuring Mary Magdalene and Simon of Cyrene. I wrote it with the Lenten/Easter season in mind and decided to publish it. Now comes the awkward part. I also write book reviews. So, how does one write a review of their own book without sounding either shamelessly hubristic or artfully self-deprecating? It can’t be done. My solution is to simply give you a quote from the book, a taste of what the reader will encounter in Remembering the Messiah – A Story of Simon of Cyrene and Mary Magdalene. Here is a quote from Mary Magdalene. I hope you enjoy it. Have a blessed Easter.

Wondrous.

That’s the word I most often use when I describe my days with the Rabbi. Every day was a gift, an adventure, a time of sacred subversiveness in which harlots uttered holy words and scribes were rendered speechless, when lame men leapt with joy and blind men beheld the face of God. It was as though the weight of all humanity was bestowed upon one man – all our love and hatred, all our sins and virtues, all our dreams and dread. The fullness of God and humanity dwelt within him, reconciling the world unto God and God unto the world. In Jesus, God ripped the heavens asunder. And then the impossible happened.

Darrel Holcombe is the owner of Sanctuary Christian Books & Gifts in Alabaster where you can purchase Christian publications, Bibles and gifts and get your free copy of BCF! We at BCF are forever grateful for how he has personally helped us spread Good News for more than 20 years!

It was after midnight when a servant reached Bethany with the news of his arrest. By the time I arrived in Jerusalem with his mother, the sun was already rising in the east. It was the worst day of my life. I learned later that Jesus, upon his betrayal by Judas, called it the hour of darkness. By nightfall the light of the world would be extinguished. The Rabbi who turned water into wine would cry out in thirst, and the Messiah who promised to save the world would be tortured to death. What do we do when Goliath slays David, when Pharaoh captures Moses on the banks of the Red Sea, when Abraham dies desolate of a son? How does one comprehend such an abomination? Until the moment when he breathed his last breath, I expected him to be rescued by a miracle. When the earth shook and he screamed out to God for the last time, I knew it was over. The Rabbi was dead, and with him the dream of God’s kingdom had died as well. As I sat in the darkness throughout that sinister Sabbath night, I was unsure the world would survive another day. God had come to us, but we had killed him.

-Darrel Holcombe, Owner

Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts

Colonial Promenade, Alabaster

www.sanctuarychristianbooksandgifts.com

205-663-2370

Sober Cycle

Subscribe FREE and be the first to get our good news - delivered right to your inbox.

Connect on Social Media