Meet the book cover artist for He Restores My Soul
Last month we announced a new collaborative project with Katie Schuermann, a book entitled He Restores My Soul. Envisioned as a sequel of sorts to He Remembers the Barren, this new book taps into the wisdom of twelve female writers to broaden the discussion of suffering in the Church and apply the theology of the cross to a wider range of topics. (We’ll be posting a complete list of authors and topics very soon.)
Now it is our pleasure to announce the artist from whom we have commissioned a painting for the book cover of He Restores My Soul. Rebecca Shewmaker is an artist
working in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Visual Arts from Rice University (2006) and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Intermedia from Texas Women’s University (2018), where she also taught Art Appreciation, Watercolor, and Basic Drawing classes. Recently her work was included in the Good Shepherd Institute’s Sola Faith-Grace-Scripture exhibition at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Selections from her body of work have been shown in several galleries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where she lives with her husband, Tim, who is the music director at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Dallas. When not making art, Rebecca enjoys singing in the church choir, knitting, listening to audiobooks, and entertaining her two cats.
A word from Rebecca: “In my work, I study the beauty I find in the Northeast Texas landscape. My maternal family has lived near Bonham, Texas, for several generations and I grew up playing in 300 acres of pasture and woods. The seasonal colors and topography of the land serve as my inspiration. I often spend Saturday mornings exploring this rural area and photographing the landscape. Based on the photographs and my childhood memories, I create landscape-based artwork.”
We are honored to be working with Rebecca Shewmaker, and we look forward to revealing the cover art this summer! In the meantime, please visit her website to admire her beautiful paintings, including unique thread paintings that use custom-dyed cotton fabric for the peaceful colors of both sky and land.
Shipping Hiatus: May 21-28
All orders placed by the end of Friday, May 19, will be mailed out this week. There will be a hiatus in shipping the following week, and then we resume our regular schedule on May 29. Thank you for understanding!
It’s Book Release Day!
In The Great Works of God, Parts Five and Six: The Mysteries of Christ in the Book of Exodus, Valerius Herberger shows that Jesus Christ is the center of every part of Scripture. The excerpt below is Meditation 47 (Part 5) in its entirety.
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XLVII. JESUS, The Mediator, Places Himself Between Pharaoh and the Israelites (Exod. 14:19–20).
Moses said, “The Angel of God which went before the camp of Israel stood with the pillar of cloud between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of the Israelites.” Above He was called “the LORD” (Exod. 13:21). Moses says the same thing again here in Exodus 14:24. Now then, if it is Jehovah (“the LORD”), it cannot be a created angel. But if it is the Angel of God, then it can be neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit, and must be “the Angel of the covenant” (Mal. 3:1), our Lord Jesus, as also the ancient Doctors of the Church and our own professors have proven from St. Paul.
O Lord Jesus, how comforting this is! When Moses sighed and the Israelites wept, You clearly demonstrated that You were alive, as Job 19:25 says, that You heard it, and that it stirred Your heart. And since the Israelites could not make very quick progress, You camped in their midst all night so that Pharaoh would be unable to gain power over them before they had traveled a good way into the Red Sea and escaped his wrath. You are the Angel which encamps round about the God-fearing (Ps. 34:7), like Elisha (2 Kings 6:17). You are a wall of fire round about Your people (Zech. 2:5). You are “the Angel which redeemed Jacob from all evil” (Gen. 48:16). Oh, how beautifully Your comforting office of Mediator is depicted to me here! O Lord Jesus, dear Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), when the fierce wrath of Your Father burned against me, You stood between us so that the fiery wrath of Your Father would not consume me.
When the world, the devil, and death, yea, every foe of my salvation blew one horn and pursued me in order to capture me, You went behind me and stood between my foes and my misery, that I might be kept on the true road of faith to eternal life. (p. 234)
Excerpts from The Great Works of God: Exodus
The book of Exodus is a fascinating historical account of how God establishes His people as a nation. Valerius Herberger also shows how it can also be read devotionally, with Jesus at the center of all of Scripture. In The Great Works of God: The Mysteries of Christ in the Book of Exodus, this 17th-century Lutheran pastor teaches the faith with a certain timelessness, using a sacramental lens to reveal Christ in the Old Testament. Herberger draws the reader deeper into the text, providing an abundance of wisdom, comfort, and insight for the Church of today.
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“We know that there is no great undertaking in the Old Testament in which our Lord Jesus is not involved. Therefore He was also at work here, protecting His servant Moses on the water just as He preserved His disciples (Matt. 14:26). Yea, every notable history in the Old Testament earnestly anticipates the great history of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Thus, our blessed forefathers also compared this wondrous history of Moses with the account of Jesus Christ’s childhood, explaining one by way of the other.
“Moses, the ‘drawer and bringer out’ of the Israelite people, lay in a humble, simple ark of bulrushes. Jesus, the far greater Drawer and Bringer Out of mankind, who would draw the evil foe out of his armor, overthrow him, and bring us out of his power, also lay in a humble little manger (Luke 2:12). In both cases the beginning was poor, but the ending majestic. Miriam carried Moses, the redeemer of the Israelites. Mary (which is the very same name as Miriam) carried the Redeemer of the World, Jesus Christ. Miriam brought the infant to the king of Egypt’s daughter and arranged for him to be cared for by her. Mary brought the infant Jesus to the same land in which Moses was raised long before. ” (p. 24-25)
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“As the tabernacle was enclosed by ten curtains, the Church always carries the ten curtains of the holy Ten Commandments that she may better recognize her sins, and accordingly find hope in the ten curtains of Jesus Christ’s comforting benefits enumerated in the Second Article of the Creed. The five wounds of Jesus Christ must always be fixed to the five books of Moses. Law and Gospel must both be preached, that man may know how to live a Christian life and die a blessed death. We should and must hear Moses and the Prophets together (Luke 16:29–31).” (p. 450)
Lower prices on select paperbacks
We have permanently lowered the prices of several of our paperbacks by up to 20%! Have a look:
An Explanation of the Common Service
God With Us by David H. Petersen
He Remembers the Barren by Katie Schuermann
Seed-Grains of Prayer by Wilhelm Loehe
Thy Kingdom Come by David H. Petersen
What an Altar Guild Should Know by Paul H.D. Lang
The Word Remains by Wilhelm Loehe
He Restores My Soul: A new book about God’s promises amidst suffering
Author Katie Schuermann is known for giving voice to the shame of barrenness and Christ’s sure comfort amidst suffering in her book, He Remembers the Barren. Readers often comment in person and in reviews that her compassionate, honest insight into suffering and stress resonated with them, even beyond the subject of barrenness:
“[Schuermann] encourages her readers to lament without falling into self-pity, to be honest with God about their pain, and to look to the promises that He has given in His Son.”
“This book has opened my eyes to the suffering many women experience and how the grace of God answers their pain, not with explanations, but with hope.”
Now, Katie Schuermann is collaborating with Emmanuel Press and a host of experienced female writers to broaden the discussion of suffering in the Church and apply the theology of the cross to a wider range of topics in He Restores My Soul, a new book set to release in October of 2018.
Utilizing the timeless, rich comfort permeating Psalm 23, He Restores My Soul offers empathy and encouragement to the cross-bearing Christian woman. Never indulging in contemporary self-help rhetoric, Schuermann and friends persist in pointing the reader to a firm trust in God’s promises found in His Word and a resounding joy in God’s mysterious work of conforming us “to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).
Various topics addressed within the pages of He Restores My Soul include living the Christian faith in the public arena, carrying a child in the womb who is not expected to live, mothering while working, regretting an abortion, struggling against same-sex attraction, caring for aging parents, children leaving the faith, living with mental illness, suffering from depression and chronic diseases, and raising children apart from one’s own upbringing.
Follow along as we release more information about the book’s topics, participating authors, and excerpts by signing up for email updates on the right sidebar or by liking Emmanuel Press and Katie Schuermann on Facebook.
Thy Kingdom Come: An Excerpt from Maundy Thursday
“The fruit of the tree is on the paten and in the chalice. The angel of death passes over. He has no claim upon us. We belong to God. We bear His watery name. We eat at His table. We are His people and more. We are not merely guests, sojourners in His house for but an hour, but we are members of the royal family raised up from stones. We are not Gentile dogs hoping for crumbs, worshiping what we do not know. We, by grace, are the Lord’s own beloved and immaculate bride. We belong to God. We are baptized. We eat at His table. We are gathered under the protecting shadow of the cross.”
-David H. Petersen in Thy Kingdom Come
Excerpts from He Remembers the Barren, Second Edition
“Perhaps the matter would be clearer if we hadn’t abandoned the use of gift language in the body of Christ. Rarely do we talk about children as God defines them in the Bible, using His words of ‘gift, heritage, fruit, blessing, reward.’ Instead, we refer to children as the world does, adopting cultural phrases like ‘birth control, family planning, baby machine, reproduction, fertility science.’ By our language alone, we suggest to each other that children are a commodity to be planned for and controlled. This control language is a waste of breath in the church because it isn’t true. It isn’t God’s language. It doesn’t come from His Word. It is something we humans have made up in an attempt to explain and define and harness that which remains mysterious and untamed, and control language falls short every time.”
“Sisters, we can waste such precious time in this life staring into a mirror. We can study our flesh until we have our faults and flaws memorized, but we end up learning nothing and going nowhere. Instead, we wander aimlessly down a long, winding path of navel-gazing where even the best and strongest of navigators can get lost. When you spend the whole of your journey looking at yourself, you miss the road signs that clearly mark your way. Are you a baptized child of God? Then you have put on Christ, and your Savior is perfect and holy for you. When God looks at you, He sees the redemptive work of His Son, and there lies your worth. We must pull our gaze from ourselves and look to the cross. In Christ’s suffering and glory, we will find the answers, though the questions we ask will be different.”
-excerpts from Katie Schuermann’s He Remembers the Barren: Second Edition
New free download: Starck’s Motherhood Prayers
Starck’s Motherhood Prayers offers comforting prayers for expectant and new mothers. Written in German in the 18th century by Lutheran pastor Johann Friedrich Starck (as part of the larger volume, Starck’s Prayer Book), this book is now available as a free download here on our website.
As Rebekah Curtis describes in her thoughtful review, “The book is set up as a series of exhortations, prayers, and hymns. It begins with a general devotion and goes on to cover different angles on parturition such as The Woman With Child Reflects on Her God-Pleasing State; Commends Herself and Her Child To God; Thanks God For Her Fruitfulness; Takes Comfort in the Thought That God Will Help Her; etc. Next is a long section of Meditations for Labor, including Scripture, prayers and ‘sighings.’ Then there are meditations for confinement, including prayers for the child at its baptism, the woman’s churching, the weaning of the child, etc.” As Curtis further explains in the Introduction to Emmanuel Press’s edition, the Motherhood Prayers “will teach you how to speak God’s own Word back to Him, which is the truest, most edifying prayer. They will comfort you as you pray them because they are saturated with that Word, which is God’s gift to us.”
It is inevitable that one may question the relevance of such prayers, written in antiquated language for a woman many generations before. Yet through the beauty of carefully-crafted meditations interwoven with Scripture and hymns, Starck reminds all of us –not only expectant mothers – that children are not merely a product of nature but are a gift from God Himself. All who believe that life begins at conception will benefit from these prayers, marvel at the miracle of life, and be strengthened to support and encourage other women, whether they be our daughters, sisters, friends, or family. What a treasure for an expectant mother during her time of pregnancy, labor and delivery, and the enigmatic haze of the weeks to follow.
These prayers help give voice to a mother’s faith when her own words falter, when she needs to hear that God will grant her peace and perseverance and will not abandon her in her hour of pain and sleeplessness. It is no coincidence that the longest portion of prayers in this book is for women in labor, an especially trying time when words of comfort and mercy are most needed. Starck reminds us that it is God in His mercy and grace who permits a mother to rise in good health in the morning, to keep her mind upon Him throughout the day, and to commend herself and the fruit of her womb to God at every hour of the day.
Thy Kingdom Come: Now 20% off!
An excerpt from Septuagesima: “God isn’t like you. He doesn’t think the way you think. His ways are not your ways. And He doesn’t owe you, or anyone, anything. For reasons all His own, however, He loves and welcomes you into His kingdom—not for free, but for the bloody, torturous death of His beloved Son. This is the essence of the Gospel: The Lord rewards those who don’t deserve it. He loves those who hate and abuse Him. He gives gifts to those who steal from Him. He is generous, merciful, and good despite you. If that doesn’t send a tingle down your spine, and you haven’t just lost a baby or your mother, shame on you. The Gospel doesn’t promise an emotional reaction, but it almost always gives it. The Bible calls that emotion joy.”
-David H. Petersen in Thy Kingdom Come, now 20% off
Pre-Lent begins with Septuagesima, which is only 4 days away! With over sixty sermons spanning Pre-Lent, all forty days of Lent, and the Sundays after Easter, this book serves as an excellent daily devotion for both pastors and parishioners. Use the word cloud in the right sidebar to find more excerpts and also have a look at our reviews.