Undefended: Discovering God when Your Guard Is Down - Softcover

Bush, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1577997468 ISBN 13: 9781577997467

Publisher: Kirkdale Press, 2017

Synopsis

Loneliness, fear, vulnerability, conflict, pain--these aren't experiences we typically seek out. And yet we all encounter them during our lives.

Do you embrace these times, or do you raise your defenses, determined not to get hurt? What if it's possible to see God more clearly in the midst of these trials?

In Undefended, Daniel Bush shows readers how to approach life's difficulties from a gospel-centered and grace-driven perspective, arguing that the experiences we avoid can actually bring us nearer to Christ. Drawing on examples from the Bible, history, popular culture, and the author's own life, Undefended seeks to personally acquaint readers with an experience of the inner heart, where true discovery of God takes place.

Bush writes out of a deep passion for helping others find spiritual awakening, stemming from over 15 years in pastoral and counseling ministries. He guides readers through ten different experiences that can show us the authentic heart of God--if we approach him undefended.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Bush, Ph.D., has over 15 years of experience in Christian ministry--including time as a pastor, missionary professor, youth pastor, and spiritual director. In addition to 10 years of service as an officer in the US Air Force, his training was completed at Michigan Technological University (B.Sci.) and in divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.Div. and Th.M.) and the University of Aberdeen, Scotland (Ph.D.). He is the coauthor of Embracing God as Father and Live in Liberty and is a guest blogger for Faithlife, Lexham Press, and KeyLife Network.

Review

Reading a Daniel Bush book is always a delight! Undefended: Discovering God When Your Guard Is Down is not the exception. This book is incredibly refreshing and profound--and so practical. Here, you will find real-life "hard places" and the good news that Jesus shows. It's the kind of book one reads often to be reminded that one doesn't need any defense but Jesus because, in his love, grace, and acceptance, there is nothing to defend. In his presence (and thus the presence of others) one is free to laugh and dance with great joy and freedom. This is a book that could change your life.
--Steve Brown, radio broadcaster and founder, Key Life Network; professor emeritus of preaching and pastoral ministry, Reformed Theological Seminary; author of Hidden Agendas and Three Free Sins

Are we willing to let ourselves need God? In Undefended we are let in behind the scenes of one man's wrestling with this question and invited to ask it ourselves. As we do we may just find it's what we've wanted all along.
--Mandy Smith, author of The Vulnerable Pastor

Undefended: Discovering God When Your Guard Is Down is not a book that you will want to read cover to cover in one sitting. Instead, this is a book that you will want to walk through chapter by chapter, and let God speak to you in the depths of your heart, mind, and soul. By weaving together scriptural truths with relevant stories and illustrations that open us to see how we are not Undefended, Daniel Bush has provided us a guide to facilitate a release from the barriers in our lives that keep us from experiencing the full depth and breadth of God's grace.
--James F. Kirkley, associate professor, religion and ethics, Shaw University

Forged in the fires of dryness, discouragement, and pain, Daniel Bush writes from experience: his defenses burned down, his soul exposed to his own weakness and vulnerability. He writes broken by an acute awareness of unfulfilled needs and the struggle to surrender to his heavenly Father. Although intellectual and astute, Undefended is no academic perusal. It's a story of spiritual awakening, the journey from personal competency and self-determination to broken dependency we all must make.

If you're looking for a book of principles for spiritual maturity or steps to Christian joy, look elsewhere. Undefended stubbornly refuses to reduce the Christian life to a set of disciplines or propagate the notion that faith means denying the pains of this life and donning a veneer of niceness and joy. Again and again we're shown that Jesus came to save the sick, broken, and needy, that he meets us in our pain, our fear, our need, our loneliness--and even in our doubt.

Christian growth isn't a byproduct of discipline or striving, but surrender to the inevitable reality of our own sinfulness and dependence upon the love and grace of the Father. For those wounded and wearied by life, here is hope that God is present in our life and may be discovered even now if we will only seek Him. An opportunity for a deeper acquaintance with His love is near.
--Dr. Jeffrey Pipe, licensed psychologist, Tapestry Associates, Marietta, Georgia

Undefended strikes truth after beautiful truth at the bull's-eye of what it means to be human. In an age when vulnerability has arguably become glib, author Daniel Bush provides a refreshing reminder that when we guard our hearts in the love of Christ first, we are then freed to let down our guard to love others more fully. Informed yet accessible, with humor and humility, Bush offers poignant wisdom relevant to any life season, but especially to those times in which we are laid most bare. To me, this book will always be a timely, needed, and reorienting read. In other words, Bush indeed gives a blood transfusion to the anemic advice: "Just trust in God."
--Dr. Carolyn Weber, professor, speaker, and author of Surprised by Oxford and Holy Is the Day

Weary of defending a false self that proves over and over again to be indefensible? Ready to entertain the notion that the real you is on offer in the person of the only "True Self" ever to have lived, who lives even now to live in you, freeing you more and more from "pretense, people-pleasing, playacting, pomposity, self-protection, and phony, pharisaical righteousness"? If so, you are ready for this beguiling read from Daniel Bush.
--The Very Rev'd. Dr. Reggie M. Kidd, dean, Cathedral Church of Saint Luke, Orlando, Florida, and professor of New Testament emeritus, Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando

Edition details

• Publisher: Kirkdale Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1577997468
• ISBN 13: 9781577997467
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320