MSI Press Blog

   The e-book edition of  Lamentations of the Heart  by Marti Wells-Smith is on Kindle countdown discount, beginning at 99 cents, from April 4 through April 11. Marti Wells-Smith's  Lamentations of the Heart Mingled with Peace and Joy  combines prose and poetry in a comforting missive for bereaved parents. Through its pages, one finds not only the resilience of the author but sources for anyone to develop needed resilience in the face of devastating life circumstances. When it came out, it quickly became one of Amazon's "hot, new releases." Description Lamentations of the Heart  soulfully combines contemporary free verse poetry and nonfictional prose to tell the story of one mother's grief following the death of her only child. The author interweaves scriptural passages with the inevitable struggles to accept and make sense of her new reality. All of it reveals the unending love for family that remains. Written to reach out to others who have experienc...

    Excerpt from  A Believer-in-Waiting  by Elizabeth Mahlou.  A Simple Grace It all began with prayer, but which prayer began it all I do not know. It may have been the grace I was coerced into saying five years ago. Or, it may have been the prayer of my sister Danielle five decades earlier. I used to think it was the former. Now, in reviewing the whole expanse of my life, I rather think it may have been the latter.   Danielle’s Prayer The “8-pack,” a moniker given to my seven younger siblings and me by my brother Rollie, suffered immense abuse during our childhood. My sister Katrina, in fact, never planned on growing up, certain that she would be killed by Ma before achieving adulthood. However amazing, we all did survive the extensive physical abuse (e.g., being stabbed, thrown into walls, kicked into unconsciousness, pulled down flights of stairs by the hair, and much more), emotional abuse (e.g., being negatively compared with each other, denigrated at...

  From Arthur Yavelberg, author of A Theology for the Rest of Us -- Not So Still, Small Voice In times of terrible tragedies—whether personal or world-wide—many in the West think of the Bible and pray.  While the text of the prayer may be general–”Please fix this!”–there is usually the hope that there will be some dramatic, divine intervention—much like, say, God splitting the Red Sea in the Book of  Exodus .  However, while there are many examples of such miracles in both the Old and the New Testaments, there are also accounts where God’s presence is not at all obvious.  For instance, in the Book of Genesis, the  Joseph  of “The Coat of Many Colors” fame is despised by his brothers, sold into slavery and spends years in an Egyptian dungeon—only to rise to power by the side of the Egyptian vizier, save the lands from a devastating drought and rescue his family.  As Joseph tells his bewildered brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended i...