When he came back, he was changed forever.A successful airline pilot and businessman, Jim had it all—a loving family, substantial wealth, and all of the good things that come with it. But none of this was enough to satisfy the emptiness he felt in his heart. He always hungered for something more. And then one day, he died.Jim was never a religious man. When it came to matters of God and faith, he was ambivalent. But as he lay in the hospital bed, clinically dead for more than 11 hours, his consciousness was transported to the wonders of Heaven and the horrors of hell. When he returned to this world, he brought back the missing piece his soul had been longing for. Join Jim Woodford on this unforgettable journey into the afterlife! Awaken to the vivid sights, sounds and sensations that you can enjoy in Heaven forever. Be inspired by detailed descriptions of the “contrails of prayer” in Heaven’s skies, the “sticky love” of God, what it feels like to hug an angel, and more! Encounter the chilling realities of hell, and the sharp claws of destruction that threatened to pull Jim into eternal darkness. Take comfort in the “six simple words” that led Jim into the Presence of Christ Whether you need hope for tomorrow or strength for today, this story is your invitation to a radical transformation!

    Judd writes: 'The issues I have selected for inclusion in this book are representative of the difficult questions I have grappled with over the last several years in my work as a professor, a therapist, a bishop, a stake president, and a father.' Those 'hard questions' included: Is divorce the answer to a faltering marriage? Is anger a sin? What justifies and individual or nation to engage in armed conflict? How can I best understand those who are sexually attracted to the same sex? The author shows that the most meaningful answers to all our questions lie in the counsel of prophets and the miracles of the Atonement.Published: April 2004

    The author tells what has happened to the six apparitioners since the book was first published, and the Blessed Mother's monthly messages have been updated through 1997. There is also a new list of Marian Centers across the nation.The Visions of the Children features exclusive conversations with the six apparitioners who have been receiving, for more than fifteen years, visions and messages of the Virgin Mary, including extraordinary secrets about the final chapter in the history of the world. This book not only tells of the need for love and spiritual awakening, but casts a powerful perspective on the wholescale devastation in Bosnia during the last few years.

    But are those a Christian’s only options? The Voting Booth presents a third path for a new generation of Christians seeking to love both God and their neighbor. Written as a fictional dialogue between Christian, a confused voter, and three spirits of cultural engagement—Exodus, Exile, and Incarnation—The Voting Booth addresses many of the questions being asked by those struggling to follow Christ in our post-Christian age like: -How do I respond to those who view Christian faith as oppressive? -Why has Christianity become so political? -What role does fear have in Christian cultural engagement? -How should I interact with neighbors of other faiths? -Have Christians lost the “Culture War”? -How should I think about voting as a Christian? -What is the role of the Church in the culture? With engaging writing and surprising twists, The Voting Booth will challenge your assumptions and leave you with a new way of imagining your place in the culture. What others are saying about "The Voting Booth" "As an immigrant-turned-citizen facing only my second chance to vote in a presidential election, I am troubled by the options presented. Opinions from Christians abound, complete with blogs and Bible verses, but no clear path emerges. Skye’s allegory tale succinctly— if also slightly simplistically— represents the two dominant paradigms of Christian response: the call to escape, and the call to engage. He then offers a third perspective rooted in the incarnation. While the tale stops short of instruction, it is abounding in wisdom. This is an accessible read that provides a thoughtful way to name and evaluate the subconscious grids that undergird our approach to political engagement or disengagement. Best of all, it offers us a way to reflect on our perspective, posture, and purpose in a Christ-shaped way." -Glenn Packiam, Pastor at New Life Downtown "Skye Jethani is one of the most clear-headed, sober voices writing on faith and culture today. The Voting Booth raises questions many Christians wrestle with and provides answers that challenge and delight. In a time of political unrest and cultural upheaval, we can't afford to ignore what this book has to say." - Jonathan Merritt, author of Jesus is Better Than You Imagined; contributing writer for The Atlantic “In a creative and compelling way, Skye Jethani has written yet another book that pushes the American church in the right direction. His uncanny ability to put his finger up to the wind and chart the right direction forward is a huge help to our community as we navigate the increasingly treacherous waters of the secular west.” - John Mark Comer, pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church and author of Loveology. "In The Voting Booth, Skye Jethani beautifully crafts a dialogue between ‘Christian' and three personified postures we can take toward our culture. Eye-opening and thought provoking, Skye clearly illuminates the dominant but destructive attitudes that have dominated the American church for the last 100 years, and then shines a light on a better way. Highly recommended!” - Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales, What’s In The Bible, and The Phil Vischer Podcast.

    The struggle for reconciliation between the contending forces is not an easy one. It cuts deep into the soul and usually leaves scars that ache while life endures. There are thousands of young people in the Church to-day, and hundreds of thousands throughout the world, who are struggling to set themselves right with the God above and the world about them. It is for these young people, primarily, that the following chapters have been written...

    Those pages containing the only copy of the first three months of the Joseph Smith’s translation of the golden plates were forever lost, and the detailed stories they held forgotten over the ensuing years—until now.In this highly anticipated work, author Don Bradley presents over a decade of historical and scriptural research to not only tell the story of the lost pages but to reconstruct many of the detailed stories written on them. Questions explored and answered include:Was the lost manuscript actually 116 pages?How did Mormon’s abridgment of this period differ from the accounts in Nephi’s small plates?Where did the brass plates and Laban’s sword come from?How did Lehi’s family and their descendants live the Law of Moses without the temple and Aaronic priesthood?How did the Liahona operate?Why is Joseph of Egypt emphasized so much in the Book of Mormon?How were the first Nephites similar to the very last?What message did God write on the temple wall for Aminadi to translate?How did the Jaredite interpreters come into the hands of the Nephite kings?Why was King Benjamin so beloved by his people?Despite the likely demise of those pages to the sands of time, the answers to these questions and many more are now available for the first time in nearly two centuries in The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories.

    She slept on a bed of thorns. She had a friend whip her. She put hot coals between her toes. She suffered from smallpox, and the disease left her almost blind. Yet she still fasted, in penitence, and ministered to the sick and elderly. When she died, it was said, the smallpox scars instantly vanished from her face. It wasn’t long before people began to credit her with miracles.Indeed, the Vatican has just announced, 300 years after her death, that Tekakwitha is a miracle worker. She will be named a saint—America’s first indigenous saint, no less—as early as next fall. But what, exactly, does that mean? How does someone become a saint? What’s the vetting process? In this thoroughly entertaining investigation into the mysterious world of saints, Bill Donahue tells the strange and fascinating story of how the holy get their halos. The journey to canonization is long (sometimes, as in the case of Tekakwitha, it can take centuries), lurid (decayed body parts play a role), and, nowadays, surprisingly cutting-edge. Tekakwitha earned her saint status thanks to a medical miracle she allegedly caused in 2006: A boy suffering from a fatal flesh-eating bacteria suddenly and inexplicably recovered after his family prayed to the Blessed Kateri. Church experts grilled the boy’s doctors, studied his MRIs and hospital chart, and came to the conclusion that a force stronger than modern medicine saved him. In addition to Tekakwitha, Donahue introduces us to a cast of celestial characters, from Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II—both on the fast track to sainthood—to Saint Francis, Joan of Arc, and the shady Padre Pio, who claimed to suffer stigmata and raise bodies from the dead. But it’s what happens after these holy folk die that’s arguably even more intriguing. Mixing legend and science, history and on-the-ground reporting, The Secret World of Saints sheds light on one of the Catholic Church’s most arcane and captivating traditions.* * *Early praise for "The Secret World of Saints":"My sinful covetousness for Bill Donahue's talents and the fun he's having here has put me out of the running for sainthood. I love his story anyway."— Mary Roach, author of the bestselling "Stiff," "Spook," "Bonk," and "Packing for Mars"* * * About the Author: Bill Donahue is a journalist living in Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in "The Atlantic," "The New York Times Magazine," "Wired," "Runner’s World," "The Washington Post Magazine," and "Inc." He has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards, and his stories have been reprinted in Best American Travel Writing, Best American Sports Writing, and numerous other anthologies.

    

    Drawing from firsthand accounts of Joseph himself and the scribes who served with him, From Darkness unto Light explores the difficulties encountered in bringing forth this book of inspired scripture. Recent insights and discoveries from the Joseph Smith Papers project have provided a fuller, richer understanding of the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon. This book helps readers understand that the coming forth of the Book of Mormon was a miracle. Faith and belief are necessary ingredients for one to come to know that Joseph Smith performed the work of a seer in bringing the sacred words of the Book of Mormon from darkness unto light.

    After delivering the final proofs of his landmark study, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling to Knopf in July 2005, Bushman crisscrossed the country from coast to coast, delivering numerous addresses on Joseph Smith at scholarly conferences, academic symposia, and firesides. This startlingly candid memoir concludes eleven months later with an article written for Common-Place in August 2006. Bushman confesses to hope and humility, an unexpected numbness when he expected moments of triumph, and genuine apprehension as he awaits reviews. He frets at the polarization that dismissed the book as either too hard on Joseph Smith or too easy. He yields to a very human compulsion to check sales figures on amazon.com, but partway through the process stepped back with the recognition, "The book seems to be cutting its own path now, just as [I] hoped." For readers coming to grips with the ongoing puzzle of the Prophet and the troublesome dimensions of their own faith, Richard Bushman, a temple sealer and stake patriarch but also a prize-winning scholar, openly but not insistently presents himself as a believer. "I believe enough to take Joseph Smith seriously," he says. He draws comfort both from what he calls his "mantra" ("Today I will be a follower of Jesus Christ") and also from ongoing engagement with the intellectual challenges of explaining Joseph Smith.

    And the book itself provides some intriguing clues. But only recently has enough information come to light to make it possible to place the book in a plausible geographical, historical, and cultural setting. In An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, Dr. John L. Sorenson, chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Brigham Young University, presents a credible model for an ancient American background for the Book of Mormon. This model takes notice of extensive details given in the Book of Mormon descriptions of the land southward and of the land northward, of battle movements, of cities built and abandoned, of population and demographic data. Hundreds of geographical, historical, and cultural facts fall into place as his model is carried to its logical conclusions. How does Dr. Sorenson proceed? In a word, he asks more questions than he answers. His words are probing and carefully weighed. The results are great surprises and rewarding insights on every page. He asks questions like "Who were these people?" "What might they have looked like?" "Who were their neighbors?" "How many of them were there?" "How did they live, eat, speak, work, or fight?" He finds plausible answers to these questions by matching specific data from reliable archaeological and anthropological studies of Mesoamerica with the entire spectrum of cultural and historical information from the Book of Mormon. An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon is a thorough work of scholarship, a book that must be read by every serious student of the Book of Mormon.

    Packer's beloved parables is now available in an attractive gift book that will be a valuable addition to any home library.

    

    Millet explored how the restoration of one truth led to questions that led to answers and the restoration of more truths—line upon line, precept upon precept.From the original theophany of the First Vision and its implications for a world steeped in Trinitarian doctrine to the cosmic scope of the King Follett sermon, the Prophet's revelations shook up the entrenched doctrines of nineteenth-century Christianity. And by the time of Joseph's martyrdom, God had through him laid the foundations for a restored church of Jesus Christ that will last until the Millennium.

    was born in Puerto Rico. He began having visions of future events asa young boy, a gift he inherited from his mother. At age 13 he and his family joinedthe LDS Church, and the visions he had been receiving began to make sense as helearned more about the prophecies and doctrines taught by church leaders. Amongthe events he has foreseen are:�� Earthquakes in Utah�� A national financial collapse�� Plagues and sicknesses�� Concentration camps on U.S. soil�� An invasion from foreign troops�� The Saints prevail against the enemyHector's visions are specifically meant to serve as warnings to his own family, but hehopes that by sharing what he has seen, it will help others prepare for the challengingtimes that will soon come upon the world.