Author Matt Bays Releases "Finding God In The Ruins: How God Redeems Pain"

Speaker and worship leader Matt Bays releases Finding God In The Ruins: How God Redeems Pain March 1, 2016 from David C Cook. The book offers story-based insights (i.e. narrative spirituality) for helping readers reject the false promises of religious clichés so they can discover a real and lasting redemption far more powerful and life-giving than the temporary fixes of sanitized Christianity.

Today's Christians are seeing the end of Evangelical triumphalism as cultural hostility grows, as young people leave the church and as church leadership leave the flock while struggling with their own pain and disappointment with God. The world is entrenched in turmoil and Christian formulas that may have worked decades ago now tend to ring hollow.

"This dumbing down of our faith is either an overexposed snapshot of God, with very little contrast, or an underdeveloped Polaroid that doesn't look a thing like God. And it is one of the main reasons Christians come across as out of touch, irrelevant, or even cruel to the rest of the world," declares Bays.

Joining the ranks of narrative spirituality writers such as Donald Miller, Rachel Held Evans and Ann Voskamp, Bays shares with readers an honest, raw, authentic, funny and creative companion for sorting through the struggles and joys of life and the biggest hopes and fears that life with God entails.

In ministry for more than twenty years, Bays' own story was birthed through a season of devastating loss and pain. Through it, he experienced the reality that God can heal hearts even while pain is still present.

"I used to pray that the unredeemed circumstances in my life (and in yours) would be made right," says Bays. "But then my older brother died tragically after living just twenty-three years of an extremely troubled life. And my sister's breast cancer came out of remission with a vengeance, spreading throughout her body like wildfire. And me? I was raised by wolves. What happened in the privacy our home when I was just a boy would eventually catch up with me and confiscate my faith altogether.

"But as it turned out, that confiscation would be exactly what I needed," continues Bays. "Because I have found something out about God that I cannot undo; he's not who I thought he was - not who I was told he was."

Giving readers a glimpse into the new book, Bays has released a compelling Finding God In The Ruinstrailer / music video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ZQZQ3C1Ic. The video is a hope-filled look at Bays' personal struggle and feelings toward God due to the tragic circumstances surrounding his sister's stage-four breast cancer.

"I know all the clichés - 'God won't give you more than you can handle.' 'Everything happens for a reason.' 'This must be God's will.'  But I want more than empty clichés. I'll be honest. I want a God who heals my wounds, but I have a God who heals my heart. He comes to me in the most unexpected ways and always lets me know I'm going to be okay. And so are you," encourages Bays.

This book is for all those who have been given simplistic and defective answers to life's most powerful and haunting questions. It tells stories that show readers how God heals hearts even when the pain is still very present, and gives practical help in understanding what redemption looks like in the here and now, not just in a glorious eschatological future.

His first book to be released nationally, Bays is receiving glowing endorsements for Finding God In The Ruins from numerous well-known authors, pastors, musicians and more, including: New York Timesbestselling author Kelle Hampton, international bestselling author Lori Nelson Spielman, songwriter/recording artist Jon McLaughlin, GMA Songwriter of the Year Christa Wells, Senior Minister of Oak Hills Church and author Randy Frazee, award winning novelist Amy K. Sorrells, Dean Emeritus, Anderson University School of Theology David Sebastian and many others.

Prior to the book releasing in stores, millions of YouVersion readers are encouraged to participate in a free, seven day Finding God In The Ruins reading plan at www.bible.com/reading-plans/1809-finding-god-in-the-ruins. YouVersion, from Life.Church, is about engaging people into relationships with God as they discover the relevance the Bible has for their lives.

 

 

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