Alicia Britt Chole - 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

PRAISE FOR 40 DAYS OF DECREASE

Alicia has a unique way of framing truth. Her heartfelt and thoughtful words penetrate the soul and make you feel and think in new ways.

MARK BATTERSON LEAD PASTOR, NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D.C.

I shared the platform with Alicia, heard her speak and realized how much she loved the Lord and His Word. I was taken by this dear woman.

KAY ARTHUR INTERNATIONAL BIBLE TEACHER, CO-FOUNDER OF PRECEPT MINISTRIES

Alicia has written a beautiful Lenten devotional, filled with gems that will draw your soul to God and His love. I highly recommend it!

PETER SCAZZERO PASTOR AND BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY SPIRITUALITY

I have always loved Alicias writing and I am falling deeper for her prose bathed in prophetic realism. She refuses to be sentimental and forces the reader to find a gritty Gospel where life, pain, and redemption live in the same space. The majority of writers claiming a spiritual center serve up prosaic prose, peppered with simple and cute couplets of sanitized faith, but Alicia delves into what Howard Thurman calls the altar on the island of the soul. This is the kind of writing that cuts and heals. Bravo!

DR. OTIS MOSS, III SENIOR PASTOR, TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, CHICAGO, IL

I first encountered Alicia Britt Chole through her profound book, Anonymous, and I am delighted to see this new companion to nurturing our life together in the Spirit. 40 Days of Decrease is a unique and original approach to the traditional preparation for the climax of Easter. The daily Reflection and Todays Fast components are gems, and the 40 distinct fasts she proposes offer a transformational praxis that redefines the meaning of hunger.

DR. KEN BOA PRESIDENT OF REFLECTIONS MINISTRIES, AUTHOR OF CONFORMED TO HIS IMAGE

Alicia Britt Choles book is a wonderful journey into the purpose and heart of the Lenten season for those who may not be familiar with it. As someone who grew up in a non-liturgical church context, I never understood how to engage Lent as a sacred act of decreasing self and elevating Christ. Alicias profound yet accessible revelation of decreasing ourselves so that Christ might increase in our lives will bless both seasoned participants in Lent and those who are just beginning to express this powerful spiritual discipline.

KERRI WEEMS AUTHOR OF RHYTHMS OF GRACE: DISCOVERING GODS TEMPO FOR YOUR LIFE

To me, Alicia is the complete package. Who I see day in and day out is the same person I see in publica true follower of Jesus.

DR. BARRY JAY CHOLE CO-FOUNDER OF LEADERSHIP INVESTMENT INTENSIVES, ALICIAS HUSBAND

Alicia has a tremendous passion to communicate the wholeness of Gods purpose for broken people in broken communities, and shine a light on that path to wholeness and peace.

SARA GROVES AUTHOR, RECORDING ARTIST

Alicia is a dynamic sage and spiritual guide for the twenty-first-century seeker of God.

DR. FRANK ANTHONY THOMAS PROFESSOR OF HOMILETICS AT CHRISTIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

In her beautifully transparent way, Alicia walks us through her journey toward utter dependence on Jesus and guides us in how to do the same. You will be blessed by her story and encouraged to look at fasting in a whole new way during this forty-day study. She will teach you how to rest in the promise that where He calls, He blesses and restores.

JENNIFER ROTHSCHILD AUTHOR OF INVISIBLE: HOW YOU FEEL IS NOT WHO YOU ARE, FOUNDER OF FRESH GROUNDED FAITH EVENTS AND WOMENSMINISTRY.NET

Alicia Britt Chole has an eloquence and thoughtfulness with words that are a rare gift. Her writings have deeply influenced me and I keep going back to them again and again. This devotional will provide Christ-followers everywhere a rich experience through the Lenten season. Her insights will help you linger over the sayings of Jesus and, more importantly, help you love Jesus more deeply.

LANCE WITT FOUNDER OF REPLENISH MINISTRIES

My dearest friend Alicia has done it again. And this time bringing our thoughts and attention to our interior life as we journey through Lent together. She writes with her whole heart laid bare... intuitive, prophetic, and profoundly inspiring, calling forth a revolution of soul health, stirring our passion to know Jesus more.

DARLENE ZSCHECH COMPOSER, WORSHIP LEADER, PASTOR, AND SPEAKER

Once again, God has sounded a clear chord of revelation through Alicia Chole. In her book, 40 Days of Decrease, God uses her to lovingly guide the reader into recognizing His presence, purpose, and power in times of necessary loss. Against a backdrop of societal belief that identifies God in terms of individual gain and increase, Chole alerts and encourages us to recognize Gods will and ways in the midst of experiencing personal reduction. In so doing, she leads us into a fast that further conforms us into the image of Christ. God has entrusted Alicia with a gift rare and precious in nature.

DR. CLAUDE R. ALEXANDER, JR. LEAD PASTOR OF THE PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, CHARLOTTE, NC

This book is a breath of fresh air. In a world where the loudest voices seem to all say that fulfillment is only found in addition, Alicia Britt Chole beckons us to reacquaint ourselves with the power of subtraction. 40 Days of Decrease is a beautiful invitation to prepare for the celebration of Jesus resurrection in a more meaningful way than ever before.

DAVID LINDELL LEAD CAMPUS PASTOR, JAMES RIVER CHURCH WEST

More than ever I am persuaded that the true purpose of Christian spiritual formation is not self-help or even spiritual growth, but loving God and serving Gods world. Christ-followers are hungry for the kind of Lenten fast that sets us free to love and serve... and Alicias creation is a powerful tool to lead us on that journey.

DR. DAN BRUNNER PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY AND FORMATION, GEORGE FOX EVANGELICAL SEMINARY

Alicia is brutally honest; shes true; she is much closer to the Jesus path, the downward journey to the cross, than the surplus of tepid and painless American-Christianity-lite. Hers are stern, robust and healing words, ideas, paragraphs, days. Alicia is not a pseudo-martyr, simply inviting us to wallow in (or idolize) her pain and sadness. Rather, through the delicate turn of the word, idea and phrase, she invites us to walk with Jesus Himself (not with her), to join her and others on the tough and true journey of transformational discipleship. This is the diet of true Christian Lent (You will learn more about Lent than ever before!), crucial for those who prefer to jump over the 40 days and land immediately into an exciting resurrection Sunday. I myself need this deep and disturbing book.

DR. WILLIAM D. TAYLOR SENIOR MENTOR, WORLD EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION

Alicia does something quite remarkable with this book. Her gentle and poetic prose invites us to forgo lifes clutter and heavy burdens, leading us to joy and freedom of a deeper life with God. So practical. So helpful.

DR. NATHAN FOSTER AUTHOR OF THE MAKING OF AN ORDINARY SAINT

I am continually stunned by Alicias vivid conciseness, which cuts quickly to the unseen core of carnality. She settles down the reader into the joy of purposeful brokenness. This devotional is more than a must-read; it gripped my heart as a must-experience.

DR. DAVID J. NIQUETTE LEAD PASTOR OF CHRIST CENTER COMMUNITY CHURCH, FORT COLLINS, CO

Copyright 2016 by Alicia Britt Chole

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. W Publishing and Thomas Nelson are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.