Posts by: Adam Forrest

Authors on the floor at ICRS

If you are a publishing professional attending ICRS convention right now, you are probably wondering what to do with all your free time, right?

Well, just in case, we thought we’d draw your attention to a few of our stellar authors who are present and available on the ICRS show floor for book signings and presentations. Most of these events are happening at the Zondervan booth (which is booth #223). Be sure to make your way over to say hi, greet an author, and get your book signed!

Christine Caine

Daring to do what God calls you to do
Already today Christine Caine has signed her testament of transformational insight and witness to God’s power to rescue, Undaunted: Daring to do what God calls you to do.

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Announcing the Beginner’s Bible Storybook App for iPad (Watch the Video)

Announcing the Beginner’s Bible Storybook App for iPad (Watch the Video)

We’re excited to announce that the best-selling children’s Bible of all time, The Beginner’s Bible, is coming soon for iPad as a storybook app!

The Beginner’s Bible App will be free for all to download. It will include 6 Bible stories, coloring pages and a game.

Get your first look at the app when you watch the video, then sign up to be notified as soon as it’s available!

Watch the video

We are so excited about the app’s upcoming release!

A child’s first Bible is so important. It can set a child on a course of lifelong Bible exploration. The Beginner’s Bible is the first print Bible that many children receive in their life – and for good reason. The book is a vibrant, engaging introduction to the characters and stories in God’s Word.
We set out to create an app that captures the appeal of the book. From the app you can expect:

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How to Pursue Life after Loss [Excerpt]

The ever-honest Jerry Sittser reflects on the pain of losing a loved one, and how we can free ourselves from destructive feelings such as regret, hatred, bitterness, and despair. If you feel crushed under the weight of regret, I hope Jerry’s gentle but honest wisdom is a blessing to you. [Excerpt from A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows through Loss (eBook).] -Adam Forrest, Zondervan

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If I want transformation, I must let go of my regrets over what could have been and pursue what can be. But what I cannot have is the best of both worlds: the growth that has transformed my life as a result of the tragedy and the people whose death engendered that growth.

There is a bitter irony here that cannot be avoided, however much we grow through loss. The people whose death enabled me to change for the better are the very people with whom I would most like to share these changes. Their death has forced me to grow; I wish now that they could benefit from the growth that has resulted from their death.

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Unity: The Christian’s Calling Card [Excerpt]

Potent stuff today from author/pastor Mark Buchanan: Why “oneness” is superior to “equality;” the benefits of pursuing church unity; and what’s at stake if we don’t. Excerpt from Mark Buchanan’s book Your Church Is Too Safe: Why Following Christ Turns the World Upside-Down.

A brief open letter to Mark: “Dear Pastor Buchanan, your writing on unity convicts my introverted soul. For your next book, please write “Your Life Is Too Safe: The Introvert’s Field Guide to Joining Community.”  -Adam Forrest, Zondervan

Equality vs. oneness

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The Bible is little interested in equality. It aims much higher than that. From Genesis to Revelation, it calls us to this deeper, greater, tougher, sweeter thing: oneness. Oneness in our relationship with God. Oneness in our relationship with our spouse. Oneness with our relationships with other Christ-followers. Oneness in the church.

Oneness beats equality every time, because equality demands sameness. To be equal to you, I have to be as smart and strong and kind and generous as you. But oneness presumes difference. To be one with you, I have to accept your gift of otherness. I can be weak where you’re strong, and vice versa. Oneness requires my life to complement yours. It calls us to complete one another.

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A Heavenly Party [Excerpt]

Joni Eareckson Tada’s vision of heaven vibrates with joy, and C.S. Lewis asks what we really want, in this devotion from the NIV Voices of Faith Devotional Bible: Voices from the Past and Present.  

My favorite part about Joni’s view is seeing the saints come together from across time: “There’s Moses toasting Martin Luther.” What Christians from history would you most like to meet, and what would you ask them?

-Adam Forrest, Zondervan

Joni Eareckson Tada

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Joni Eareckson Tada

Before we realize it … we shall find ourselves in the embrace of our Savior at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. Heaven will have arrived. The Lord’s overcoming of the world will be a lifting of the curtain of our five senses…

Now, enjoy an unseen divine reality. Rev up your heart and picture yourself taking a seat at the Wedding Supper. As you pull up a chair to the banquet table, take a look at what’s on the menu from Isaiah 25:6: “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine — the best of meats and the finest of wines” …

I get a charge just thinking about it! I wonder who will sit next to me, or across from me. I glance down the table and there’s my friend, Verna Estes, mother of seven, swapping baby stories with Susanna Wesley, mother of seventeen. There’s Moses toasting Martin Luther. St. Augustine giving a bear hug to that jungle missionary …

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Seek and Ye Shall be Surprised [Excerpt]

Yesterday Mark Batterson shared his experience with trying to Force a Miracle. Here’s the story’s unexpected conclusion — a real-life example of “seek and ye shall find,” and how the finding will often surprise … ye!

I love how this story hints that God is directing the scene, but Mark and his unnamed friends have their roles to play. That is exciting, because it’s true in our stories too!

This story is from Mark Batterson’s book The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears.

-Adam Forrest, Zondervan

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Lessons Learned from Trying to Force a Miracle [Excerpt]

Have you ever ever prayed for something that would advance God’s kingdom, but your plan didn’t work out? This can be disconcerting, to say the least.

“This could be God saying ‘Not yet’ instead of ‘No,’” a friend says. But a delay is mysterious when we see a clear need for God’s intervention. “Why would God wait?” I’ve thought. “Doesn’t he know the timeframe I’m working with? I only get about three score and ten years to make a difference!”

These concerns come out dramatically in this true story from pastor and author Mark Batterson. This story is from his book The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears, and I hope you find it as encouraging as I did.

-Adam Forrest, Zondervan

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It’s Like Watching Jesus Drive a Shuttle Bus (AKA, Flourishing in Action – Excerpt)

Does God want his people to flourish? What does flourishing even look like? John Ortberg gives us a picture in this excerpt from The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You.

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Not long ago I boarded an airport shuttle bus to get to the rental car lot. Driving a shuttle bus is usually a thankless job, for the driver is often regarded as the low man on the totem pole. People on the bus are often grumpy from travel and in a hurry to get to their car. No one says much except the name of their rental car company. But not on this bus.

The man who drove the bus was an absolute delight. He was scanning the curbside, looking for anybody who needed a ride. “You know,” he told us, “I’m always looking because sometimes people are running late. You can tell it in their eyes. I’m always looking because I never want to miss one. Hey, here’s another one! …”

The driver pulled over to pick up a latecomer, and he was so excited about what he was doing that we got excited. We were actually cheering him on when he was picking people up. It was like watching Jesus drive a shuttle bus. The man would grab people’s luggage before they could lift it, then he would jump back on the bus and say, “Well we’re off. I know you’re all eager to get there as quickly as possible, so I’m going to get you there as soon as I can.”

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How Can We Share God’s Peace? [Excerpt]

What is the church’s role in extending God’s peace to the world? Mark Buchanan gives perspective in this excerpt from Your Church Is Too Safe: Why Following Christ Turns the World Upside-Down.

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The primary gift God gives to those who trust in him is reconciliation with him. But the primary gift the people of God give to those who are reconciled to God is a community of reconciled people. We give them the gift of our own wholeness and oneness. We give the gift of community. We invite them to be part of a people where everyone makes “every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” [Ephesians 4:3].

God calls us out of darkness and into marvelous light [1 Peter 2:9]. But his intent is that “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” [1 John 1:7]. So God prepares us to be a people who draw and who welcome every tribe and tongue and nation into the light by first making us light. And he does that, in part, by bringing those who are far away near. He does that by making the community of the converted also the community of the reconciled…

One sign that God has returned to dwell in the center of our lives and of our churches is that we become a living testimony of what we promise. We promise that in Christ all become new creations, no longer seeing others according to the flesh. We promise that in Christ we have the peace of God and the God of peace. We promise that we through Christ receive God’s love and forgiveness, and then extend it — with authority — to the whole world. We promise all this, but then claim exemption for ourselves in some petty matter or another.

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The Weight of Your Past (and What Jesus Thinks about It – Excerpt)

We begin our scene at Jacob’s well, as two people discuss what God desires. One of those people is the Son of God. This story is told by Mark Buchanan in his book Your Church Is Too Safe: Why Following Christ Turns the World Upside-Down. -Adam Forrest, Zondervan

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“Will you give me a drink?” Jesus asks.

The voice, the question, the man: they startle her. They startle her out of her silence and avoidance.

“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” [See John 4:1-42]

And then unfolds a remarkable encounter, a life-turning exchange. But not at first. At first, her speech is as cagey as her silence, a series of diversions and evasions. Jesus offers her living water, “the gift of God.” She’s puzzled and intrigued, but when Jesus exposes her condition, she scurries down a rabbit trail. She wants to talk about worship. That might be a good thing, but as so often happens with talk of worship, it bogs down quickly into hairsplitting and argument baiting. Is this style better than that style? Is old better than new? Is tradition better than innovation?

When Jesus exposes her condition, she scurries down a rabbit trail.

Jesus cuts through all that with a clear word about the heart of worship: it’s about the heart in worship. It’s about a heart that longs for God and seeks him wherever he might be found. It’s about a heart that wants truth in the inmost parts, and opens itself wide as a bird’s mouth to receive it, and steeps in it until it works its way to the outermost parts. Worship is not about a style or a form or a place. That’s not what God’s seeking. He’s seeking not a kind of music or liturgy or architecture but a kind of person: humble, hungry, wide awake, who comes in spirit and truth, bold and beseeching both, ready to live toward God out of their depths.

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