Books

This life-changing 186 page workbook is designed to help the Christian achieve an emotionally rich spiritual life in the presence of God. This book is the result of twenty years of biblical research, thousands of hours spent discipling people, and many years leading seminars and classes in the spiritual life.

The workbook contains 60 readings. It can be completed in as little as 12 weeks if one wishes to do a daily study. However people often want to go much deeper with the study as they delve into the biblical principles referenced. In that case one reading per week will give the group or individual 60 weeks of transforming truths to integrate into their lives. Many people have used this book with great value in private study, small group study or as a follow up tool to our seminars.

Special Workbook Features

Dr. Eckman has done original translations from the Greek New Testament for this workbook. The left hand margin will often include these translated Bible verses to help in your understanding of the Biblical text.

Placed in the left margin throughout the text is a Theological Jargon Box (TJB). Many times, Bible teachers and ministers have a language all their own. This box will take any religious language found in the text and attempt to explain it. The individual will be learning the language of the church, while developing a rich relationship with the Trinity.

Important points in the text are highlighted in bold face type in the left margin.

Chapter Outline

CHAPTER 1 Acceptance and Gratitude

Explore how spiritual growth in the Christian life is directly related to how well we respond to God, the first member of the Trinity, as a Father. Obstacles to spiritual growth often arise from one’s family background. The solution is to participate in God’s family so as to experience an emotionally rich sense of being loved and to have a correspondingly deep response of gratitude.

CHAPTER 2 Acceptance and Worth

Explore how a Christian develops a healthy sense of worth. The chapter will show that a Christian is worth a Son to God. The cross illustrates that at humanity’s worst season and at the time of our moral weakness, Christ died for us. This shows God values us for who we are to Him and not for what we can do for Him, either bad or good. Feeling worthwhile, feeling worth a Son to God, is an essential part of feeling loved.

CHAPTER 3 Acceptance and God the Father

Explore how our acceptance is uniquely linked to each member of the Trinity. The first member of the Trinity is our ultimate and intended Father. He has a deeply emotional attachment to us called “agape love,” and we are to respond to such love with gratitude.

CHAPTER 4 Acceptance and the Son

Explore how salvation is a Person and not a religious system. That person, Jesus, is dedicated to delivering us from our past failures and sin, giving us peace in the present, and securing our future with Him. To appreciate Him adequately we must make certain we do not have an “evil conscience,” an instinctive belief that to feel accepted with God we must add religious works to the work of Christ.

CHAPTER 5 Acceptance and the Holy Spirit

Two payments have been made that should cause the believer to feel accepted: The Son was a payment for sin to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is a permanent down-payment to us signifying God’s intention to finish our salvation. The Holy Spirit also has a primary ministry of reminding us that God is our Heavenly Dad, and He wants to have a principled and affectionate relationship with us.

CHAPTER 6 Acceptance and Trust

Explore how trust plays a central role in the spiritual life. The Trinity functions by trust, and trust brings us into that circle of love. Trust, or faith, has some false forms and one true one; we must know how they differ.

CHAPTER 7 Acceptance and Our Identity

Explore how a Christian shares the same quality of relationship that Jesus has with the Father. This is because we are identified with Christ by being placed in union with Him. Acceptance of this truth gives us the freedom to have an open and heart-warming relationship with the Father. Our relationship does not depend upon what we have done or how we view our past, but our personal friendship is based upon what Christ has done for us and our being viewed as joined to Him.

CHAPTER 8 Acceptance and Moods: Walking by the Spirit

Explore how walking by means of the Spirit addresses the moods and appetites of the flesh. We will note the negative power of this twin threat. We will find having a healthy relationship with the Trinity delivers us from the power of lusts and moods and brings us spiritual resources.

CHAPTER 9 Acceptance and Fruit: Walking by the Spirit

Explore the different ministries the Spirit of God has to us. At the same time, we must recognize how radically different His ministry is to that of the flesh. We are commanded to walk by the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, to have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, and to take individual steps into life by the Spirit.

CHAPTER 10 Acceptance and Prayer

Discover how our relationship with God the Father is expanded through prayer. Prayer is based neither on the investment of time nor the multiplication of words. Instead, our prayer life is based on a set of issues we must face daily. These issues determine how we relate to God as a Father and the world about us.

CHAPTER 11 Acceptance and Sin

Explore how we are to deal with the effects of sin and the acts of sin in our lives. Sin affects us internally and affects the Trinity. When we sin, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each respond differently to us. This makes confession of wrongdoing critically important in our lives.

CHAPTER 12 Acceptance and Service

God the Father could not think of a greater or nobler role for His Son than to send Him on a mission of Rescue. The Son was sent to serve, to suffer, to ascend to Heaven, and to be rewarded by His reign over the universe and the church. We, too, are called to participate in the family business of rescue, and to consciously choose to replicate Christ’s ministry in our lives. We have been sent as daughters and sons of God. We are to choose to serve and to suffer. We will ascend in the rapture, and be rewarded by participating in Christ’s reign. God could not think of a greater or more noble role for us than to participate in Christ’s life pattern. This life pattern gives overall meaning to our lives.

Be sure to get the Becoming What God Intended: Facilitator’s Guide in Hardcopy or Downloadable PDF. This guide aids group leaders in leading your group through the workbooks. Don’t forget one with your workbooks.

Also check out the Becoming What God Intended: Audio CD Series, a 6-CD series of lectures that forms the background for the Becoming What God Intended workbook.

We strongly recommend the What God Intended Courses, our interactive, multimedia-rich, online education course series.

Perhaps you’re:

• struggling with anxiety, guilt, or habitual sins
• frustrated because your experience doesn’t seem to match what the Bible talks about
• wondering if your emotions and feelings fit into the Christian life at all

If so, you may be working from the wrong set of pictures.

GOD HAS A GREAT NEW PICTURE FOR YOU!

Getting the true pictures in your mind—grasping reality from God’s perspective—will help bring your thoughts and emotions under control. It will lead you to a life filled with the positive emotions of love, joy, and peace, and you will finally be able to live out the richness of true Christianity…the life God the Father has always intended for you.

About the Author

David Eckman, PhD, grew up in a dysfunctional family and came to the Lord as a teen. His emotions remained frozen through years of theological study and pastoring, until he finally gained a picture of how God truly loved him. When he became dean and professor at Western Seminary, he began to do extensive personal counseling; and in 1997 he cofounded BWGI Ministries, which seeks to bring about spiritual transformation through helping people understand who they are in Christ.

Comments from Authors, Pastors, and church members…

“David Eckman is a man you can trust… His teaching resonates with God’s wisdom and compassion”

Stu Weber
Author of Tender Warrior
and Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart

“I am astonished the impact your book Becoming Who God Intended is having on me! It is answering questions about myself and the pitfalls I seem to get into over and over.  My fear and anxiety has been replaced with the love, joy, and peace of the Holy Spirit!  Your book has profoundly put into focus many aspects of my life that I was unable to put together myself. Thank you so much!  I will suggest your book for my small group because I think it is imperative for every Christian to read.”

Unsolicited comment from
a reader in California

“I have read Becoming Who God Intended and found it one of the best, most helpful books I have every read. I have read many good books, thinking ‘Yes, I should change’, but nothing would really happen. This book has made a real difference! Thank you. Dr. Eckman’s teachings on God’s personal, passionate delight in me have transformed how I think about God, which has in turn transformed the way I do ministry. I now share with greater personal depth of meaning the fact that God truly loves them, because His love has begun to transform my thinking.”

Holly Menzer
Campus Crusade for Christ
NDSU, Fargo, ND

“How do you personally experience the transforming intimacy with the Father so kindly offered to us in Jesus?  Living openly and freely with the Father provides the joy we all seek and the power we all need…not just for ourselves but for the dear people we love and minister to in our congregations.

At times the sorrow of trapped lives and broken relationships in our churches become more than our souls can endure.  Is the Gospel truly transformational?  Can the Holy Spirit perform the life changes today that we rejoice in reading about on the pages of the New Testament?  How does it happen?  Really, how does God set a heart free and keep it from enslavement to the flesh and it’s appetites?  Where’s the joy that Jesus promised and died for?

My friend Dr. David Eckman has answered these questions for me from the pages of scripture.  God has used David in my life, and that of thousands of others to walk us down the biblical path of freedom, joy, and a rich experience of the Father’s affection.  David is a biblical scholar who opens treasure chests of scriptural truth that allow us to see just how good and powerful our Savior really is.

For your own delight and for the life-change and freedom of your people, I’d encourage you to pour over the pages of Dr. David Eckman’s Becoming Who God Intended, by Harvest House publishers.  Get this book in the hands of your congregation and watch their hearts and lives experience the freedom that Jesus paid so dearly to give them. ”

Alan Hlavka
Teaching Pastor at
Good Shepherd Community Church
Portland, Oregon.

Be sure to get the Becoming Who God Intended: Facilitator’s Guide. This guide aids group leaders in leading your group through the book. Don’t forget one with your group’s books.

People from all walks of life give in to temptations and adopt patterns of secrecy and shame. Using groundbreaking research and offering compassionate understanding rooted deeply in Scripture, David Eckman shares:

• how and why unhealthy appetites grip people and trap them in a fantasy world
• how God responds gently to weakness and failure
• how shame and guilt disappear when we realize His passionate delight in us
• how four great experiences of the spiritual life break the addiction cycle
• how enjoyment of our relationship with God actually guards us from addiction

Readers will discover how to break the pattern of out–of–control desires and extend grace, not judgment, to those facing such struggles. This is a much–needed Christian look at fighting addiction.

David Eckman’s excellent book SEX, FOOD & GOD is a must read for every Christian and even non-Christians. The beautiful, inspiring, heart warming message woven throughout the book is that God is not distant but close and wants to be their Heavenly Father, even their ‘daddy.’

How many Christians are really living the abundant life? Many say they know God loves them but how many really know that their Heavenly Father LIKES them and has a passionate delight in them? His love is not based on how well they perform or if they are struggling with addictions; God is not there to punish them but to bless them. This is a message that everyone needs to hear – not once but many times.

This book is liberating because our focus becomes our true identity in Christ and the wonderful, unconditional love and kindness of our heavenly Father. Be blessed and read this great book!” –Bob & Geri Boyd
Bob & Gerri Boyd are hosts for the Issues in Education Radio show that is heard on over 500 radio stations in North America:

David Eckman’s wisdom and vision helped me come face to face with “Issues I thought I had addressed long ago…The pain I have lived with so long is now gone, thanks to being able to give all of my family background over to God.” –Cheryl, Sacramento, California

“In reaching our students in the areas of their heart…In dealing with areas of addictions, eating disorders, and sexual disorders, nothing we’ve done has been more effective than what David Eckman’s material has done for us.” –Tim Rule, Northwest Associate Director Campus Crusade for Christ

About the Author

David Eckman, PhD, grew up in a dysfunctional family and came to the Lord as a teen. His emotions remained frozen through years of theological study and pastoring, until he finally gained a picture of how God truly loved him. When he became dean and professor at Western Seminary, he began to do extensive personal counseling; and in 1997 he cofounded BWGI Seminars, which seeks to bring about spiritual transformation through helping people understand who they are in Christ. Becoming Who God Intended is his first book for Harvest House.

We recommend the Mentored Course: Sex, Food, and God. In this course students will discover keys to dismantling the addiction cycle through developing elements of a vibrant spiritual life.

This course is also available without mentorship as the standard Course: Sex, Food, and God.

Be sure to get the Sex Food & God Book: Facilitator’s Guide. This guide is available free for group leaders if you purchase the workbooks for your group. Add to your cart with the workbooks.

Also check out the Sex, Food, and God Kit. Discussing the content of the workbook, the DVD study employs video, music, and stimulating visuals, to appeal to today’s media savvy generation.

A groundbreaking resource for growth in your spiritual life, this book asks you: Are you thirsting for a felt experience of the Bible’s truth? What if you could…

• Have an all-encompassing sense that you have a loving heavenly Dad?
• Have a sense of being enjoyed and delighted in by Him?
• Recognized that He sees you differently than you see yourself?
• Realize that who who you are is more important to Him than what you do?

These four experiences are integrated in Biblical Christianity. Discover what often stands in the way of them and how you can begin to know the heart of the Father in a deeper way as He works with these realities into your life. Do you want things to be different? See how these four great heart/soul transformations result in a vibrant, living faith that can stand up to the test of life.

Be sure to get the Knowing the Heart of the Father: Facilitator’s Guide. This guide aids group leaders in leading your group through the book. Don’t forget one with your group’s books.

The book should be used in conjunction with the seminar, or with the eLearning course Spiritual Life Development. This seminar/eLearning course is designed to help the Christian by:

• Setting the heart free from the overwhelming feeling that we are guilty, worthless, and spiritually orphaned.
• Setting the heart free to enjoy our relationship as real adult sons and daughters in God’s family NOT based on our performance, and guaranteed to last forever.
• Setting the heart free to experience genuine and lasting motivation to live the Christian life and to reach out to others.

The workbook is unusual in that it develops biblical passages as a means to illuminate our humanity, and God’s intention that couples and singles learn how to become part of interdependent relationships.

Healthy Relationships contains 6 chapters with 5 readings in each chapter. It can be used over a 6 week period, or for more in depth study it can be used over a 30 week period using one reading per week.

Chapter Outline

CHAPTER 1 Humanity’s Creation

Explore what it means to be human. See how God created the world and the great purpose He gave humanity as the pinnacle of His creation. Look at God’s original intent for man and woman. Examine how He intended woman and man to work together as an interdependent team, as “one flesh”.

CHAPTER 2 The Teams’ Failure

See the challenge that God allowed to come upon this interdependent team. With that challenge, the team failed. In their failure are many valuable lessons for us to learn. The greatest lesson is that God should be trusted.

CHAPTER 3 Ineffective Communication Patterns

In Genesis 3 and in life, four negative miscommunication patterns appear again and again: blaming, placating, rationalizing, and distracting. They are responses to powerful emotions within.

CHAPTER 4 Healthy Communication

Discover that effective communication describes what is going on inside of us, and that it is shared for the other person’s benefit. It is balanced by our own sympathetic listening to the other person.

CHAPTER 5 What Is Headship?

Discover that the New Testament teaching of the Headship of the male in marriage relationships is a powerful extension of the Old Testament teaching that the wife is the great helper, or Azer, like unto God.

CHAPTER 6 The Art of Forgiveness

In human relationships forgiveness is a necessity to sustain a friendship with a spouse or any other friend. This forgiveness is not only important relationally, it is important to God.

Be sure to get the Healthy Relationships: Leader’s Guide. This guide is available free for group leaders if you purchase the workbooks for your group. Add to your cart with the workbooks.

Most books about family life don’t appreciate how family background influences adult functioning. This one does!

The book describes how a healthy family functions and how such is based on a positive identity. From there, it develops a positive picture of family roles. It also teaches gender differences and how to appreciate them.

The latter half of the book is on how to manage emotions in family relationships. It addresses common pitfalls in one’s emotional life and how to use those emotions in an effective way. Finally, it discusses the basis of personal worth in relationships. That topic is developed to free individuals from codependency and a sense of worthlessness. When a person is done with the book, they will understand the effects of an unhealthy family background and how to go on a pilgrimage toward health.

Chapter Outline

CHAPTER 1 A Healthy Family

Discover that healthy families have positive identities, deep affection, and happiness skills. Dysfunctional families are dedicated to minimizing pain and keeping people at a distance.

CHAPTER 2 A Healthy Identity

Explore the idea of how our self image (how we instinctively view ourselves) is a controlling reality in our lives. In our culture we are preoccupied with what we know and do, but we overlook the picture of ourselves we carry in our hearts. Examines the importance of how we view ourselves and how we view our God.

CHAPTER 3 Trust: The First Skill

Explore how trust plays a central role in the spiritual life. God functions by trust, and trust brings us into His circle of love. Trust, or faith, has some false forms but only one true form.

CHAPTER 4 Not Becoming Our Emotions

Many people do not stand apart from their emotions. Instead, they become what they feel. Maturity means that we observe how we feel, change those emotions if we need to, and manage the ones we choose to keep.

CHAPTER 5 Dealing With Confusing Emotions

Often the emotional life of people in unhealthy homes is confused. Clear definitions of how emotions work and consistent, healthy practice can revolutionize the emotional life. We are to live off the primary emotions of love, joy, and peace, and manage the reactive emotions of anger, hurt, anxiety, and shame.

CHAPTER 6 Worth

Our culture does not provide an adequate basis for human worth. Unfortunately in our world, you are worth only what you can do or the amount of money you have. In Christianity we are worth a Son to God. Therefore, we have a solid reason for a deep sense of value.

Be sure to get the Creating a Healthy Family: Leader’s Guide. This guide is available free for group leaders if you purchase the workbooks for your group. Add to your cart with the workbooks.

Also check out the Creating a Healthy Family: DVD Series. Discussing the content of the workbook, the DVDs are broken into four sections on two DVDs to facilitate use with small groups.

This is a small, light, paperback in booklet form. Easy to hand out!

The introduction includes clear and detailed descriptions, as well as help to start and lead a small group. In addition to the chapter previews to introduce the chapter material, the reading summaries come in handout format for photocopying as group handouts.

The extensive chapter reviews will be extremely useful for tying together all the material using exercises, thought questions, and mental images to think and talk through. These images are a powerful method for bringing the material alive to the image-centric modern person. Extensive facilitator tips and information on leading a small group are included, plus a group covenant page to photocopy for each group member.

This Facilitator’s Guide also comes as a Hardcopy.

Be sure to get the Becoming What God Intended: A Study for Spiritual Transformation Workbook. The current item is the leader’s guide, available to aid group leaders to lead your group through the workbook. Don’t forget to add to your cart with the workbooks.

Also check out the Becoming What God Intended: Audio CD Series, a 6-CD series of lectures that forms the background for the Becoming What God Intended workbook.

We strongly recommend the What God Intended Courses, our interactive, multimedia-rich, online education course series.

The introduction includes clear and detailed descriptions, as well as help to start and lead a small group. In addition to the chapter previews to introduce the chapter material, the reading summaries come in handout format for photocopying as group handouts.

The extensive chapter reviews will be extremely useful for tying together all the material using exercises, thought questions, and mental images to think and talk through. These images are a powerful method for bringing the material alive to the image-centric modern person. Extensive facilitator tips and information on leading a small group are included, plus a group covenant page to photocopy for each group member.

This Facilitator’s Guide also comes as a Downloadable.

Be sure to get the Becoming What God Intended: A Study for Spiritual Transformation Workbook. The current item is the leader’s guide, available to aid group leaders to lead your group through the workbook. Don’t forget to add to your cart with the workbooks.

Also check out the Becoming What God Intended: Audio CD Series, a 6-CD series of lectures that forms the background for the Becoming What God Intended workbook.

We strongly recommend the What God Intended Courses, our interactive, multimedia-rich, online education course series.