New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Author Barnabas Piper suggests that God is infinite and beyond understanding, yet chooses to reveal Himself in ways that spark questions rather than settling them all. In his book Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not The
Enemy Of Faith releasing July 1 from
David C Cook, Piper invites questioners and searchers to pursue a path towards real belief by getting comfortable with the uncomfortable yet necessary tension between faith, doubt, certainty, mystery and yes, even unbelief. In the tradition of Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz and
Daniel Taylor's The Myth of Certainty, Help My Unbelief is for all who long for God, but are disenchanted with what is peddled as Christianity or a rote, mundane faith that has grown too rigid or too hollow.
Millions of people claim to believe in God, but their lives tell just as many stories as to what that really means. In this refreshingly disruptive book, Piper tackles the topic of what it really means to "believe in God," navigating the tension between faith and doubt that begins with an acceptance that belief is not the final destination, but rather a pursuit and process filled with questions, failures and victories.
"'I believe; help my unbelief' [Mark 9:24] is my favorite phrase in scripture," says Piper. "It captures so much of what it means and takes to be a follower of Christ, encapsulating struggle, faith, doubt, obedience, wandering and repentance. It is deeply theological and personal. For these reasons and more, I wrote Help My Unbelief, which explores what real belief is and its relationship with doubt in the life of a believer."
There are incredibly tough questions that believers attempt to tackle and answer on this side of heaven, like:
"We trust that God is good although the world He created is filled with badness?"
"We think in terms of scientific evidence, proof, and logic though our holy book tells of miracles
and supernatural occurrences."
"We believe God is omnipresent though we can see Him nowhere."
"We defy the economy of earthly power by following a leader who died to save us, who willingly
laid down his glory and power, and who calls us to be the least in order to be great?"
Wrestling personally through these and more tough questions of Christianity, Barnabas learned through observing his own life, the world around him and the teachings of Scripture that discovering an infinite God as a finite human is an act of exploration. It is a process of learning, and then embracing the God who not only desires our belief, but also actually welcomes our curiosity that pulls toward a deeper, more real understanding of following Jesus.
"A Christian who doesn't know the tension of 'I believe; help my unbelief' might not be a Christian at all, or at least a very infantile one," suggests Piper in the book. "Our faith is one of brutal tensions. Not everyone can express this, but every Christian knows it. We feel it in our gut… Tension is our state of being for all of this life, and to live as a believer is to live in it."
Available at BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com, Christian retailers and everywhere great books are sold July 1, readers curious about this new book can get a sneak peak now of the "Belief Is Relationship" excerpt available to read at TheBlazingCenter.com.
Leading up to the release of Help My Unbelief, Piper will also be sharing the thoughts and experiences of several of his friends, authors, church leaders, writers and thinkers who honestly answer questions about faith and doubt. You can read the first of these at TheBlazingCenter.comwith Christine Hoover, author of The Church Planting Wife and From Good to Grace: Letting Go of the Goodness Gospel.
About Barnabas Piper:
Barnabas Piper is the author of The Pastor's Kid: Finding Your Own Faith and Identity. He writes weekly for WorldMag.com and TheBlazingCenter.com, writes quarterly for Leadership Journal,blogs at BarnabasPiper.com and co-hosts the Happy Rant Podcast. The son of noted author and Pastor John Piper, Barnabas and his wife live in the Nashville area with their two daughters.
For additional information on Barnabas Piper and Help My Unbelief, go to www.BarnabasPiper.com.
You can also follow Barnabas on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
About
David C Cook:
David C Cook is a leading nonprofit resource provider serving the global Church with life-transforming, Christ-centered materials. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with offices in Illinois, Canada and the United Kingdom,
David C Cook's resources are published in over 150 languages and distributed in more than 160 countries. Originally founded in 1875 as a curriculum publisher, today
David C Cook publishes numerous bestselling fiction and non-fiction books from a variety of award-winning authors. It is also a leading provider of worship music through its Integrity
Music label, which produces over one-third of the top 100 praise and worship songs sung around the world. Additional information can be found at www.davidccook.com.
