Glimpses of Grace

 

If you grab one new book this summer, let it be my friend Gloria Furman’s book, Glimpses of Grace; Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home.

I have been holding this book in my hot little hands since April, beside myself waiting to recommend it to everyone I know. I want to hand it out at swim team and toss it in random women’s shopping carts at the grocery store. But, other than the fact that it might be weird for me to do so, it also hadn’t been released to the public yet, so I couldn’t. I had to wait.

Today, my wait is over. So, please, please, please, run and do not walk (or click, click, click as it may be) to pick up a copy for yourself.

Who’s it written for?

As you can guess, with a subtitle like “Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home,” the book is geared mainly to women: wives, mothers, spiritual mothers, homemakers, and those steeped in domesticity. Gloria wants us to know and love Christ. Without sounding theologically heady, she tackles the scriptural truths of who God is and how the gospel applies even to our daily routines. She writes:

“Theology is for homemakers who need to know who God is, who they are, and what this mundane life is all about.”

If you’ve ever wondered what God could possibly be teaching you through unloading the dishwasher twenty times a week or scrubbing dirty floors, this book is for you.

What It Isn’t / What It Is 

What I LOVE about this book, is that it isn’t another “how-to” manual of how to be the best Christian, or Mom, or Woman in general. It does not give you tips, tricks, or tactics to be a better you. It doesn’t offer blanket solutions or ultimatums. It gifts readers with reflections on the Gospel – true Glimpses of Grace.

Glimpses of Grace looks at scripture and examines who God is and what Christ has done for us and offers a“distinctly Christian hope of God’s glory”. By presenting the gospel alongside regular day to day challenges and struggles, it offers homemakers encouragement and hope grounded in the Word of God.

Gloria does a great job reminding readers to continually rehearse the gospel in their lives by seeing and savoring Jesus in the mundane.

Favorite Take-Aways

Hands down, my favorite take away was the gospel-application of the book to my general daily life. What makes my experience as a wife, a mother, and child of God distinctly Christian? These are a few of the many convicting insights that called my number and helped me to see Jesus more clearly.

• “Longing for a connection with God but feeling trapped in the mundane is the story of my life too. But I’m here to tell you there’s hope for you to change, and God wants to meet you there. Right there. With spit-up dripping down your back and salty, bitter tear stains on your cheeks. He loves you, he’s with you, and he offers you the gift of himself to enjoy forever.”

• “Your spiritual life is not restricted to early mornings before the noise makers in your life wake up. If you feel that God meets with you only when the house is empty or quiet, you’ll view every noise and every noise-maker as an annoying distraction to your communion with God. 

• “How easy it is for us to relegate Jesus’s influence over us to one spot in our house under specific circumstances and only for a certain period of time each day!”

• “God is holy, and he fellowships with us as we are in the midst of our mundane.”

• “The questions I ought to be asking are these: How does believing in Jesus change the way I face the monotonous daily grind? Or how does believing take an interrupted nap in stride? How does faith in God rescue me from a restless heart? How can I experience the peace of Christ when I am so prone to failure because of my sin? How does the gospel make me into a woman who rests in the peace of God in the midst of the chaos in my heart?”

Nuts & Bolts

As a busy mom of four small children, I highly value short-reads. Though this book is power-packed with convicting truth, it’s easy to read and digest. It has thirteen chapters and is 180 pages long. I knocked it out on a short plane ride.

Does it deliver?

Gloria’s reading draws you in – she is winsome, humorous, and easy to relate to.

If you can’t guess from my ringing endorsement, I love this book. I told Gloria after I finished reviewing it that I’d be buying it in bulk and handing it out to all of my friends (and maybe on the street corners). I think it more than delivers on the promise of offering Glimpses of Grace and teaching readers to Treasure the Gospel in Their Home. Grab it, read it, and love Jesus more.

 

*Pick up your copy today or before June 7th and receive a free copy of the ebook as well as one of Gloria’s favorite resources—the ESV Study Bible Online (ESVBible.org Web App & Ebook)! To redeem your free extras, simply scan and email your receipt to glimpses@crossway.org before 11:59am on Friday, June 7.*