Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0819221805 ISBN 13: 9780819221803

Publisher: MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING, 2005

"God's goodness is bigger than all human badness," writes best-selling author John Claypool in this timely new book. "God's power and willingness to forgive are greater than our human capacity to sin."

The Bible is often held up as a source of family values, but it is also full of families who falter and do so generation after generation. Few families have visited as much evil on each other as Abraham's descendants in Genesis. Using these stories, Claypool explores how God turns the "lead" of evil–like Jacob's theft of Esau's birthright, and Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery in Egypt–into the "gold" of abundant blessing, as alchemists were said to do in the past. God is always more interested in our future, according to Claypool, than in our pasts.

In this book, as in his other books, Claypool explores the biblical texts carefully, and with a pastoral eye for the characters from Genesis and his contemporary readers. This book offers challenge and comfort to people who feel that their sins may be beyond God's concern and their lives beyond redemption.

About the Author:

John Claypool is an Episcopal priest and popular teacher, speaker, preacher, and retreat leader. Initially ordained in the Southern Baptist Church, he also pastored for 30 years in that denomination. He teaches at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta. He is the author of numerous other books, including The Hopeful Heart, also published by Morehouse.

Review:

"In this small gem of a book, John Claypool retells the Jacob/Joseph saga in a way that brings new insight, even to those familiar with the story. Enjoy this book, a remarkable blend of simplicity and substance."--The Very Rev. Charles Hoffacker, for the Living Church, August 2005

"An unparalleled story of forgiveness. Claypool's message in this short volume is not a new insight for him, but the fruit of his own lived experience. To him, God's ingenuity is very real."

"This is a quick but absorbing and comforting read and one not only to read again and again but also to give away."--Episcopal Life, December 2005

"In the stories of Jacob - who stole his brother's birthright - and his family, and in the stories of contemporary people, Claypool shows us how God works through people even at their worst."-- The Anglican bookstore, Autumn 2005