Zondervan Blog |
- Remembering Jan Berenstain
- Discover Who You Are & Whose You Are: Listen to the "Your Secret Name" Chat with Kary Oberbrunner
- Imagine that God is Love [Excerpt by Scot McKnight]
| Posted: 27 Feb 2012 03:12 PM PST
In remembrance of Jan Berenstain, 26 July 1923 – 24 February 2012.  It has been an honor and a privilege to work with Jan Berenstain. Her obvious love of family and life, children and reading ... all are reflected in the artwork she has created for so many books over the years. After working with Mike and Jan Berenstain for three years as an editor for the Berenstain Bears Living Lights series, I was finally able to meet Jan face-to-face this past fall. When I met Jan I was struck almost immediately by her vitality. Though petite in stature, Jan had a spirit and a smile as big as Mama Bear's! I was pulled into her circle just as easily as most of us Berenstain Bear fans have been pulled into the Bear family and their stories and lessons. Listening to her relate memories of the early Berenstain Bear books and the story of the Bears and their development, and then later having the opportunity to watch as she painted a current project for the Living Lights series, I remember thinking that I was watching a children's literature icon hard at work. Blessed with a marvelous sense of humor and artistic talent, Jan has brought to life characters that have become friends, family members, and favorite teachers for many of us readers over the past 50 years.
This is how I am going to remember Jan ... a big smile and a hug, with paints smudging her fingertips ... thinking in that sharp mind about the next action-filled, colorful scene on the next spread of the next book ... - Mary Hassinger, Acquisitions Editor, Zonderkidz
It has been a childhood dream and an adult privilege for me to work with Jan and Mike Berenstain over the years. I remember the first birthday card sent to Jan from our team and her response, "I love this year's signed birthday card. Thanks! I'm beginning to understand why readers enjoy getting their books signed — it's great!" Jan was a kid at heart. She will always be that bubbly person to me. The world is a better place because of Jan Berenstain. - Annette Bourland, Publisher, Zonderkidz Image: Jan & Stan Berenstain, via www.harpercollins.com. | ||||||
| Discover Who You Are & Whose You Are: Listen to the "Your Secret Name" Chat with Kary Oberbrunner Posted: 27 Feb 2012 10:22 AM PST
A pastor formerly addicted to self-injury, Kary was honest about how many of us let pain define our lives. But he also traced the hopeful, transformational journey in which we can discover our Secret Name.
During the Call Listeners Discovered:
The New "Your Secret Name" TeamKary Oberbrunner also just launched an international Your Secret Name team whose deep passion centers on helping others overcome the lies of the Enemy and discover their true identity in Christ. Bring a Your Secret Name speaker to your area or learn more about the benefits of joining the new team.
Discover Your Secret Name for GodTake the "Secret Name" Test to discover what your secret name for God could be. 
Learn more about the Your Secret Name book by Kary Oberbrunner Watch Kary's 700 Club Interview - Beth Murphy, Zondervan
(This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's opinions are his own, and are shared for information purposes only. To receive new blogposts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.) | ||||||
| Imagine that God is Love [Excerpt by Scot McKnight] Posted: 27 Feb 2012 06:55 AM PST
Excerpt from One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow (eBook) by Scot McKnight.
Lots of people say they know that God loves them, but deep inside they don't feel loved and so they feel like impostors with God. Even more, deep inside they are so conflicted about love itself that they cannot become vulnerable enough to embrace this God and know that God embraces back.
Until we get our heart connected to God's heart, Jesus' dream kingdom will be neither understood nor embraced. At the core of Jesus' dream kingdom is God, and that God is a God of Love. No, even better, that God is Love the way that God is Life.
We need to think back into Time and Before Time to the time when God was all there was, back to Before this world of ours even existed. What we have learned from Jesus and the New Testament and the Church is that ... God was indwelling God. The Father. The Son. The Spirit. One. Three-in-One. Indwelling and interpenetrating One Another in the endless God Dance of love and delight. This dance of love is who God was and is, and this is what God is like and what God will always be like, and that means that the only way to be connected to God is to love the God who is Love himself.
To follow Jesus into this God-who-is-Love God is to enter into the Divine Dance. Jesus' vision of the dream kingdom, then, is a dream about dancing with the God who is Love. It's like Jesus to imagine a world where that kind of God was at work. So we must listen to another of Jesus' stories and...
Imagine a World Where God Is LoveJesus was imagining the kingdom one day when he told a parable we call the Prodigal Son... The story starts at a table where Jesus is dining with the religious experts of Jesus' day who had serious questions about his table friends [see Luke 15:1-2]. The experts want Jesus to explain himself for doing such an unholy thing like associating with (to the point of sharing a meal with) sinners. Jesus does explain himself, but he does so by telling a fantastic story that takes their question and sabotages it. At the same time, the tax collectors and sinners are listening in to Jesus' response and they discover that he is tossing grace toward them.
What Jesus wants us to see in this Kingdom.Life is a Father-God who loves us in ways we never imagined and a table of fellowship that is full of Kingdom.Life joy and love. But this father sabotages the expectations of many listeners (and many today are like them)...
 "We've got to imagine this world to make it happen."
We've got to imagine this world to make it happen. The dream of reconciliation with God and with the family can only happen if we first believe it can, and then we have to take the first steps to return to the Father.
[Read the Parable of the Prodigal Son] -Scot McKnight
- Adam Forrest, Zondervan
Learn more about One.Life (eBook).
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