Welcome to the Blog Tour for The In-Between Place by Kat Armstrong, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! I’m delighted to host Kat today to chat about her new book!
Title: The In-Between Place: Where Jesus Changes Your Story
Author: Kat Armstrong
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: January 5, 2021
Genre: Christian Life/Spiritual Growth
Jesus’ journey to the woman at the well in Samaria offers insights and hope for women today to make peace with the past, find hope in the present, and step into the future.
God wants us to move toward the goodness He has planned for us. But what do we do when challenges stop our forward momentum? What’s the next step when we fall into a pit of despair with the determination knocked right out of us?
On his way from Judea to Galilee, Jesus traveled through Samaria, a broken place everyone knew to avoid. In Samaria he stopped in Shechem, where evil had gained such a foothold of power that it eventually reigned. Yet the place once condemned as somewhere no one wanted to visit—let alone hang out in for a while—was the location of one Samaritan woman’s most hope-filled encounter with the Savior.
The In-Between Place offers deeply important insights to anyone who feels stuck and can’t see a way forward. It is for the person who feels that if she looks left, her face will be scraped by an immovable boulder, and if she looks right, she’ll see nothing but hard to handle. It’s for the person who feels lost and is not sure she is worth the effort to be found, for the person who feels overlooked and unfulfilled. Because sometimes Jesus saves our greatest spiritual breakthroughs for our in-between places.
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Hi Kat! Welcome to the blog!
Kat: Tea, Cinnamon or herbal tea, all day!
Carrie: that sounds so soothing!
Kat: Music. Mostly U2 and Adele.
Carrie: Music is almost always on at my house during the day 🙂
Kat: Sandwich with crusty bread and melted cheese and tons of avocado.
Carrie: you had me until ‘tons of avocado’ – haha!
Kat: Print, I need to hold it in my hand and underline and tab pages.
Carrie: I’m the same way with nonfiction – but with fiction I do enjoy reading ebooks more and more because of the convenience. (I still want to OWN all the print books though lol)
Q: Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. If YOU had a superpower, what would it be?
Kat: My superpower is connecting the Old Testament in the Bible to the New Testament and noticing the awe-inspiring ways God elevates and amplifies women in a day and time when that was not normal.
Carrie: i love that!
Q: If you knew you were only going to be allowed FIVE books for the rest of your life, besides the Bible, which five would make the cut?
Kat:
- Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright
- Lost Women of the Bible by Carolyn Custis James
- Suffering and the Heart of God by Dr. Diane Langberg
- Advent by Fleming Rutledge
- The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
Carrie: I love seeing Wright & Willard on your list! I’ll have to check out those other 3 🙂
Q: What do you enjoy most about writing?
Kat: Honestly, I enjoy the time I get to commune with God. Spending time in his Word, guided by his Spirit, it is the very very best part of writing a book.
Carrie: i would love that too!
Q: Why is the theme of The In-Between Place important to you?
Kat: I know what it feels like to live in Stuckville, between a rock and a hard place. I’ve been there emotionally, spiritually, and in my career. My book theme for The In-Between Place is important to me because I needed to know the different ways Jesus can change my story when I feel suspended in fear or frustration. I needed hope, and I hope that is what my readers will gain as they read.
Carrie: i think this is so important – and especially timely after the last year, when I think even more people feel that their stories have changed.
Q: What is something that surprised you the most while researching The In-Between Place?
Kat: It really came as a surprise to me how a geographical location in the Scriptures can have such symbolic meaning in the text and relevance to our lives. I’d never cared that Jesus’s conversation with the woman the well happened in Sychar until I stood in modern-day Samaria on a Holy Land tour. The saying is true, the Bible really does come alive when you visit the Holy Land. All of a sudden I wanted to know more about Sychar and its history. I wanted to know why John made a point to locate the story. Turns out Sychar shows up many times in the Old Testament, but it was called Shechem, and it was a really bad place where really bad things happened to people. And the backstory of that place sheds light on Jesus’s ability to redeem our in-between places.
Carrie: oh wow! That’s one of my favorite stories in the New Testament and I never knew that it happened in Shechem. Also, I love how intentional God is – in Scripture & in our own lives.
Q: What is one of your favorite quotes from The In-Between Place & why do you love it?
Kat: “Seems to me, in our in-between places—in between jobs, in between kids, in between our hopes and dreams and the cruelty of real life, in between sickness and health, in between confusion and clarity, in between divorce and remarriage, in between the ICU and death, in between the cross and the new heaven and new earth—hopelessness often pitches a tent. When we feel overlooked and forgotten, when we can’t find answers, when we don’t understand how we got here, when life doesn’t make sense, when we don’t know who we are anymore, when the best we can do is turn off the lights, crawl into bed, and hope we don’t wake up tomorrow, that’s when we need Jesus to redeem our in-between places. And I’m convinced he can. He has. And he will do it again. This time, for you.”
I love this quote because the whole message hinges on this belief that God can fill us with hope when we feel the most depleted and weary.
Carrie: Amen ♥
Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.
Kat: Working motherhood and pastor wife life is always going to be my priority. But I’m also applying to a doctoral of ministry program in New Testament studies, and I’m counting on God inspiring me to write more books as I spend more time learning about our Savior, Jesus.
(1) winner will receive a print copy of The In-Between Place and No More Holding Back!
Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight February 22, 2021 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on March 1, 2021. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.
This giveaway is hosted by JustRead Tours, not RimSP
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
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What about you? What makes you want to read The In-Between Place by Kat Armstrong?
A real treasure which interests me greatly.
Sounds like a book I need to read. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much!