"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?" - James 4:1-2 (NIV)

How do you stop something from happening if you don't know what causes it?  The answer is you usually can't.  Abuse in relationships often comes as a surprise.  But it doesn't have to be that way.

If you're a Christian in a relationship, whether married, dating, courting or "just friends", it's important to take a serious look at what's really inside of the person you're with.  And for any Christian, it's a good idea to take a close look at what's inside yourself.

Pastors, ministers and Christian counselors have been so perplexed by the problem of abuse that they've basically given up.  Most will either turn away those that ask for help, or refer them to "professionals".  But this book will show you that it's people trained in the Word of God that have the answers, not the so-called professionals that they rely on.

The Challenged Heart lays out the underlying causes of abuse in simple, easy to understand terms taken straight from the Bible.  Here's what you'll find:

• Chapter 1 - Descriptions of abusive behavior collected from numerous publications and commented on from a clearly Christian perspective.
• Chapter 2 - A clear Biblical description of abuse is explained in simple terms taken from II Timothy 3.
• Chapter 3 - Here you'll find help in understanding why abuse starts small and progresses to dangerous levels.
• Chapter 4 - Explanations of the traditionally suspected causes of abuse, and the strengths and weaknesses of each idea.
• Chapter 5 - More food for thought in explaining where abuse comes from and the ideas that many have proposed.
• Chapter 6 - An attempt to re-humanize the one that society has written off as almost inhuman -- the abuser.

Don't let anyone you know get married without reading this book.