An Anchor for the Soul: Help for the Present, Hope for the Future - Softcover

Pritchard, Ray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802415350 ISBN 13: 9780802415356

Publisher: Moody Pub, 2000

Synopsis

People have honest doubts and questions about God that deserve solid answers. How do we explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way we can all understand? Ray Pritchard has updated this best-selling presentation of the gospel in a clear, straightforward way using simple language and clear Scripture references.

An Anchor for the Soul is written with doubters, seekers, and skeptics in mind. In a clear, straightforward presentation, he answers questions such as: What is God like? How can I know Him? Who is Jesus and what did He do? What does it mean to be a Christian? Through stories and illustrations, Pastor Pritchard very personally, yet gently, challenges his readers with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

About this title

From the Publisher:

We are made to know God, and something in us desperately wants to know Him. We are incurably religious by nature. That's why every human society-no matter how primitive-has some concept of a higher power, some vision of a reality that goes beyond the natural. On one level, that explains why science has not eradicated religion from the earth. Science can never do that because technological achievement can't meet the deepest needs of the human heart. That explains why millions of people read their horoscopes every morning and millions more call psychic hotlines.

We want to know the answers to the three most basic questions of life. Where did I come from? Why and I here? Where am I going? And we will spend money, buy books, listen to tapes, attend seminars, and travel great distances to find the answers. Several years ago a book claiming to report one woman's after-death visit to heaven climbed to the top of the best-seller list. Recently another book purporting to find hidden messages in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament sold hundreds of thousands of copies. People are hungry for spiritual truth, and if they cannot find it by normal means, they will reach for anyone or anything that claims to give them an answer.

It is the same wherever you travel. Superficially we are very different in our appearance, background, language, and customs. But scratch deeper, and you discover that all people are substantially the same. Once past the surface, you discover no fundamental difference between a person born in poverty in Haiti and a corporate lawyer on Wall Street; or between a schoolteacher in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and a computer scientist in Singapore. Everywhere we are the same-with the same need to love and be loved; with the same desire to be remembered after we die; and with the same sense that there must be a God of some kind who made us.

We were made to know God, and we need to know Him. God made us to know Him. He designed us so that we would want to know Him-and then He guaranteed we wouldn't be happy unless He Himself fills the void within. This brings us face-to-face with the famous statement that there is a "God-shaped vacuum" inside each person. We may turn to God, or we may fill the vacuum with idols of our own making or the evil spirits of our ancestors. Something in us drives us to seek ultimate meaning. That "something" inside us is put there by God. Augustine gave us this oft-quoted prayer: "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you."

From the Back Cover:

Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?

These are the deepest questions people ask.  And often they suspect the answers have something to do with God: Is He real?  What is He really like?  Is it possible to have a personal relationship with Him?  Can He answer my deepest questions?

"This book is written for those who want to know God," says Ray Pritchard.  "If that describes you, then I have some good news for you: it is possible to know God deeply and personally...and to experience His power in your life."

An Anchor for the Soul is a straightforward, easily readable book--the perfect introduction for those just beginning their Christian journey, or for those considering new steps towards God.

This book helps answer the toughest questions...and gives hope for a new kind of future.

About this edition

• Publisher: Moody Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0802415350
• ISBN 13: 9780802415356
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 131