Mary has written Not Marked, an honest book that provides a way towards healing for abuse victims and their families.
Sexual abuse does NOT need to mark you.
It did mess with me. For far too many years. Flashbacks invaded my sleep. I startled far too easily. Sex within marriage became scary and complicated. I often wondered if I’d ever be normal. I even disconnected from those I loved the most.
The mark that sexual abuse gave me felt indelible, permanently inked with a Sharpie pen. And no matter of scrubbing erased it. (Have you ever felt this way?)
The problem was, I felt that I should be “over” it (and well-meaning people said those same things to me.) After all, I became a Christian, and I heard all those sermons about everything being made brand spanking new. I believed that when I met Jesus, all those scars and marks and fears would instantly leave.
This book has amazing potential to help those who feel they’ve been marked by sexual abuse but Mary needs help to fund the publishing of the book.
Mary needs your help now to reach her goal so that others can be be helped and healed. Please visit her indiegogo page and consider making a contribution.
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Family members hurt us. Friends betray us. Fellow Christians deceive us. But Jesus provides a path through the pain—the Lord’s Prayer.
In The Wall Around Your Heart, Mary DeMuth shows you that you can reach wholeness and healing in the aftermath of painful relationships by following the road map of the Lord’s Prayer. You’ll walk through story after story of hurt people who are led through biblical truth into amazing, life-sustaining, joyful growth.
Life is hard. People can be mean and petty and awful. But they can also be amazing and beautiful and sacrificial. God is good. He is faithful. You can trust him with your relationships. “He’ll send people to call out what is hard in your heart,” Mary shares. “And that’s a gift to you.”
I’ll say a lot more about the book as the release date gets closer but I should say even now that I believe it’ll be a book that will bring healthy change for many people.
Have you ever had that feeling when you’re reading a book that you wish someone else could read those pages because they’re ‘just the sort of person’ that needs to hear those words? Sometimes we feel that way because we believe that ‘God needs to sort them out’. It can be a rather negative thing. We want to wave those words around like a big stick to make someone else be more like we think they should be.
Let me tell you that this book is so different in that as I read through the pages my heart goes out to those I feel would find new hope and healing through the words Mary has written. It’s not about changing anyone’s ‘bad behaviour’ but changing their hearts to experience love and life in new ways. It’s about wanting freedom from the past for them. But let me assure you, it’s not just about wanting others to find healing in those pages, I need those words too. They’re honest, refreshing and practical and I need to hear what God is saying through Mary’s words for me too.
The Pain Book provides an up-to-date overview of how pain works and the best pain treatments now available. Based on the latest research, The Pain Book features information, skills and techniques that form a proven and effective step-by-step approach to treating pain.
The authors are all highly experienced in pain management. Philip Siddall is Professor in Pain Medicine at the University of Sydney with more than 30 years of clinical experience and international recognition for his work in the field of pain management. Rebecca McCabe is a physiotherapist with a particular expertise in chronic pain and many years’ experience in private practice and hospital pain management centres. Robin Murray has a PhD in clinical psychology and has also practised and taught in the field of pain management for many years.
Having devoted much of their lives to working with people in pain, the authors are lead clinicians in the HammondCare Pain Management Service at Greenwich Hospital where they run a successful pain program based on the principles in The Pain Book.
Philip Siddall joined me on the phone this morning during my radio program to talk a little bit about the book and the hope that exists for those experiencing pain. You can hear our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player below.
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Sometimes when what we want is answers, what we really need is someone who understands our journey to travel alongside us. I feel that for many people that traveling companion will be the new book by Sheridan Voysey, Resurrection Year: Turning Broken Dreams Into New Beginnings.
For ten years Sheridan and his wife Merryn prayed to a seemingly silent God for a child. During that time they endured a number of failed IVF treatments, explored adoption and then just as hope began to break through they learned that their positive pregnancy test was a false positive. There would be no baby.
I spoke to Sheridan about the new book and you can hear our chat by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.
Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker and broadcaster on faith and spirituality. His study of society, culture, Scripture and religious movements, plus the insights gained from his 2000-plus radio interviews, have led to two core convictions: that human beings innately long for God and that God walks beside us incognito.
Sheridan is the author of five popular books: the award-winning Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life (named 2006 Christian Book of the Year, now updated in a second edition), Open House Volume 1: Sheridan Voysey in Conversation, Open House Volume 2, Open House Volume 3 and the memoir Resurrection Year: Turning Broken Dreams into New Beginnings (May 2013).
I received a pre-release copy of the book late last month. It took me just a couple of evenings to read Resurrection Year. It’s not a long book but it does provide plenty of food for thought. The true story that Sheridan tells will stay with readers long after the book is placed back on the shelf.
The book explores the doubts and disappointments as well as the adventure of the ‘resurrection year’ which combines travel and a new start with an opportunity to explore the deeper questions of where we find God when he seems absent.
Don’t expect a big ‘happily ever after’ at the end of the book. That’s so often just the stuff of fairy tales. Instead expect real questioning, moving forward in faith and life, and rays of hope shining into the darkness.
Resurrection Year doesn’t tie everything up into a neat package by the end of the book which is why I think it will be so helpful for anyone who has struggled with disappointment in life. It’s very real.
Even if readers are not coming to terms with childlessness, as Sheridan and Merryn are, they will still recognise much about the journey that Sheridan describes. The fact that so many will relate to the highs and lows in the pages will ensure that readers will be able to apply the gentle lessons that are found throughout the book.
Resurrection Year is a very personal telling of an intensely personal story. It doesn’t give easy answers where there are none but it does remind us that there’s always a way forward.
Some dreams come true, but others die a painful death. We can learn from both. In Resurrection Year, Sheridan Voysey writes from experience – there is life after the death of a dream. Your dream may be different, but the road to resurrection will be similar. I highly recommend it. – Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages
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If we don’t know our own history, we will simply have to endure all the same mistakes, sacrifices and absurdities all over again. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I’m going to admit right now that I haven’t read the entire book and that’s for a very good reason. I don’t want to spoil the effect of reading the book as it’s intended, one page a day for a year.
Having said that, I have read quite a number of the stories the book contains to get an overall feel for what it contains and I’ve been thrilled by what I’ve read so far. The book isn’t a daily devotional as such, but a wonderful addition to a daily reading and study plan. Morgan has researched the lives of Christians throughout the ages to tell the ongoing story of God’s involvement in the world he created. There are many stories of hardships overcome and each one gives great testimony of God’s faithfulness when his people give their lives to him.
Each day the book gives the reader an opportunity to read about an event in Christian history that happened on that day. There is also a verse or two from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible to complete the day’s reading. While I haven’t found that the scriptures chosen always speak directly to the story shared on the page above it, knowing that all scripture is helpful in teaching and building up those who follow Jesus, the verses are still a delightful way to reflect on God’s goodness.
My favourite aspect of the book is the connection it brings between biblical history and the modern day. When we read the Bible we encounter stories of men and women of God encouraging and directing us. When we read Christian history we’re reminded that God has continued to work throughout the last two thousand years. There’s a certainty that it can bring to us. We know that God is continuing to unfold his plans for this world; we understand that the same Jesus who saved those first century believers has continued seeking and saving the lost over hundreds of years. His work has continued wherever men and women have been faithful to his call upon their lives.
The encouragement I take from this book is that if God has been working in the hearts and lives of his people throughout history, he can work through me. When I read of the failures and setbacks that have ultimately resulted in triumph for the kingdom, I know that God can still work through someone as unworthy as me.
