Helpful Books

Listed below are some books that may be of interest to anyone participating in a Living Free group.

Broken Children - Grown Up Pain by Paul Hegstrom, PhD. Beacon Hill Press, 2001. (Store)

Despair, emotional isolation, self-loathing, immaturity, abusive behavior... the damage that lingers for those who have been broken as children.

Even if the memories are distant and dulled by time, past wounds continue to inflict pain into adulthood - often spilling over into the lives of those you love.

In Broken Children, Grown-Up Pain, Paul Hegstrom helps you recognize the scars of your childhood and shares practical and proven methods for facing and dealing with the pain of the past. Using scientific research, psychological studies, and biblical principles, Hegstrom points you to the place of healing and the freedom to pursue authentic relationships and build healthy emotional intimacy with others.

"We have made a terrible mistake! We have wrongly defined soul wounds as psychological disorders and delegated their treatment to trained specialists. Damaged psyches aren't the problem. The problem is disconnected souls. What we need is connection! What we need is a healing community!" - Larry Crabb
Dr. Larry Crabb expands on his lifelong work in the field of psychotherapy to adopt a groundbreaking, but biblical approach to healing the deep wounds of the soul-an approach that centers around building intimate, healing mini-communities in our lives and churches.

Dr. Crabb envisions a day when communities of God's people - ordinary Christian whose lives connect as husband to wife, brother to sister, friend to friend - will accomplish most of the healing that we now depend on mental health professional to provide.

God has deposited within us the power to heal soul disease, and that power is released to do its work as we relate to each other in revolutionary new ways. In challenging, practical language, Dr. Crabb shows us how.

Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time by Stephen Arterburn, Fred Stoeker with Yorkey. WaterBrook Press, 2000. (CBD)

From the television to the internet, print media to videos, men are constantly faced with the assault of sensual images. It is impossible to avoid such temptations…but, thankfully, not impossible to rise above them.
Shattering the perception that men are unable to control their thought lives and roving eyes, Every Man's Battle shares the stories of dozens who have escaped the trap of sexual immorality and presents a practical, detailed plan for any man who desires sexual purity - perfect for men who have fallen in the past, those who want to remain strong today, and all who want to overcome temptation in the future.

Good News for the Chemically Dependent and those who Love Them by Jeff VanVonderen. Bethany House, 1991, 2004. (Store)

Millions of people are caught in the vortex of addiction to alcohol, prescription and non-prescription drugs. It leaves confusion, despair, and broken relationships in its wake. And despite what many want to believe, chemical dependency is a silent storm quietly raging within the church. Updated with information on the latest designer drugs, including crystal meth, this powerful resource will help guide individuals, families, and churches through their darkest times.
In this book, Jeff VanVonderen provides answers to the many questions facing those with addictions and those looking to help them, including:

• How and why people become dependent
• What steps must be taken to overcome the dependency
• Why total family wellness is essential to long-range recovery
• What friends, loved ones, and the church should - and shouldn't - do to help

In a sincere but misguided attempt to please God, many of us strive to "fix our sin." We soon discover that it doesn't "fix" very well or for very long. And so we try to hide it and pretend like it isn't there. But this only leads to more hiding, pretending, and despair - and nothing ever changes. We fear that God is almost never pleased. TrueFaced draws a clear distinction between two very different underlying motives: our determination to please God or to trust him. The resulting difference from these two starting points could not be more profound. One results in a striving that never feels it has done enough to please him. The other results in a trust that experiences his full pleasure. Our motives as followers of Christ will either keep us in unresolved sin and immaturity or free us into God's astonishing dream for our lives.