Breathing Grace: What You Need More Than Your Next Breath - Tapa dura

Each week thousands of Christians will sing “Amazing Grace” at church, paying lip service to one of the most phenomenal aspects of Christianity, yet walking away untouched by its magnitude. They pay mental assent to the concept, but their hearts are untouched.

In the author’s words, “God’s grace is amazing, abundant, free, and available. So why is spiritual famine an epidemic both inside and outside the church? Because although we’ve come to Christ by recognizing grace, few of us have carried it along as essential equipment on the Christian path. . . . God never promised a pain-free life, but he did promise that his grace is all we need in our search for peace and fulfillment.”

Breathing Grace is a unique look at a topic that stands at the very core of the Christian faith. Dr. Harry Kraus, best-selling author and practicing surgeon, reveals the gospel of grace through a series of medical metaphors, predominantly the physiology of our need for and utilization of oxygen. The clinical flavor of the book brings to life a subject that many Christians have failed to grasp and incorporate into their daily lives, illustrating our need, God’s provision, and the moment-by-moment inflow and exhalation of grace to a starving world.

Breathing Grace includes study questions for group and individual use.

“My friend Harry Kraus is an accomplished surgeon and novelist. Now in Breathing Grace, he proves himself an insightful spiritual guide, using medical analogies to illustrate great truths. Harry’s heart for God and for people spills over on each page.”
Randy Alcorn
Author of Heaven, Safely Home, and Deception

“There is no shortage of books on divine grace, but this one is different. Kraus has resorted to a medical metaphor, which he uses especially well in an era when the public is obsessed with health and medicine. But the real lack is spiritual maintenance, which in this presentation is laid out in an interesting and exciting fashion. Thrilling case histories, both medical and spiritual, abound. The human body can go three weeks without food, three days without water, three minutes without oxygen, but spiritual need requires minute by minute dosing, and grace is the remedy. This is not merely a ‘how to’ book but conveys a simple and satisfying way of life.”
C. Everett Koop
M.D., former Surgeon General of the United States

“With a physician’s skill, my favorite Christian fiction writer dissects the truths of grace with compelling medical analogies. Breathing Grace is soul surgery that will transform your life as it probes the core of your relationship with God.”
David Stevens
M.D., M.A. (Ethics), Executive Director, Christian Medical Society

“Kraus combines creative imagination, professional and clinical perspectives, and cross-cultural insights from his work in Africa with the Scriptures as the word of grace and does so out of his own genuine commitment to Christ. The uniting thread that runs through the book is the emphasis that knowing Jesus in grace makes a radical difference in the way we live and relate to others. Through this work the reader will be enriched in spirit and in faith.”
Myron S. Augsburger
Former President of Eastern Mennonite University

HARRY KRAUS, M.D., is a practicing general surgeon and the author of eight novels, including the best-selling Could I Have This Dance? and The Chairman. He received his M.D. degree from Medical College of Virginia, completed his surgical internship and residency at University of Kentucky, and formerly practiced in Virginia. Dr. Kraus is currently serving with Africa Inland Mission as a missionary surgeon at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, where he lives with his wife and three sons. Visit the author's web site at www.cuttingedgefiction.com.