For a long time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an exception: nearly three-quarters of people who grew up Mormon stayed that way into adulthood. In The Next Mormons, Jana Riess demonstrates that things are starting to change.Drawing on a large-scale national study of four generations of current and former Mormons as well as dozens of in-depth personal interviews, Riess explores the religious beliefs and behaviors of young adult Mormons, finding that while their levels of belief remain strong, their institutional loyalties are less certain than their parents' and grandparents'. For a growing number of Millennials, the tensions between the Church's conservative ideals and their generation's commitment to individualism and pluralism prove too high, causing them to leave the faith-often experiencing deep personal anguish in the process. Those who remain within the fold are attempting to carefully balance the Church's strong emphasis on the traditional family with their generation's more inclusive definition that celebrates same-sex couples and women's equality. Mormon families are changing too. More Mormons are remaining single, parents are having fewer children, and more women are working outside the home than a generation ago.The Next Mormons offers a portrait of a generation navigating between traditional religion and a rapidly changing culture.

    Yet, because the details of the vision are spread over nine different accounts that vary in emphasis and some finer points, many people do not know all they could about this remarkable and world-changing experience.Kerry Muhlestein, professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, presents a faithful, harmonized version of the First Vision story to show how each of the various accounts might share select aspects of the vision yet all be consistent with the actual event experienced by Jospeh Smith. As the Prophet recorded or shared his remarkable vision, he emphasized different details depending on the audience and circumstances at the time. All nine accounts—four firsthand and five secondhand—are combined into one compelling story in this retelling of Joseph Smith's incomparable vision. Also included are the original accounts in their entirety so that readers can feel for themselves the powerful witness of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Strengthen your testimony of this singular, foundational event that would lead to the Restoration of Christ's Church upon the earth.

    Perfect for new and longtime temple worshipers alike, this priceless volume is guaranteed to help you use the temple experience and its rich symbolism to find healing and hope that will let you see yourself more truthfully, then seek God more trustingly.

    A fresh focus on our relationships with God and other people can transform our understanding and experience of the Latter-day Saint gospel basics of faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. In this book, Samuel M. Brown highlights continuity between the gospel’s first principles and ordinances and the highest ordinances of LDS temple worship. After encountering his tapestry woven of personal stories, scripture, LDS history, and perspectives of other religious traditions, you’ll never read the Fourth Article of Faith the same way again.

    Spiritual Roots of Human Relations addresses the roots of relationship problems and suggests spiritual solutions such as vision, commitment, understanding and example, communication, and self-discipline.

    We beat ourselves up over our failures and, in the process, pull away from God because we subconsciously believe He tallies our defects and hangs His head in disappointment. In this newly repackaged edition--now with full appendix, study questions, and the author's own epilogue, ""Ragamuffin" Ten Years Later," Brennan Manning reminds us that nothing could be further from the truth. The Father beckons us to Himself with a "furious love" that burns brightly and constantly. Only when we truly embrace God's grace can we bask in the joy of a gospel that enfolds the most needy of His flock--the "ragamuffins."Are you bedraggled, beat-up, burnt-out?Most of us believe in God's grace--in theory. But somehow we can't seem to apply it in our daily lives. We continue to see Him as a small-minded bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on a score sheet.Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we've done. We come to Him as ragamuffins--dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His "furious love."Brennan Manning 's now-classic meditation on grace and what it takes to access it--simple honesty--has changed thousands of lives. Now with a Ragamuffin's thirty-day spiritual journey guide, it will change yours, too.

    I will show you how to waste your life. Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader's Digest: A couple 'took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. . . .' Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: 'Look, Lord. See my shells.' That is a tragedy."God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives."Most people slip by in life without a passion for God, spending their lives on trivial diversions, living for comfort and pleasure, and perhaps trying to avoid sin. This book will warn you not to get caught up in a life that counts for nothing. It will challenge you to live and die boasting in the cross of Christ and making the glory of God your singular passion. If you believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain, read this book, learn to live for Christ, and don't waste your life!

    But God keeps showing up in the least likely of people—a church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious Bishop and a gun-toting member of the NRA. As she lives and worships alongside these “ac­cidental saints,” Nadia is swept into first-hand en­counters with grace—a gift that feels to her less like being wrapped in a warm blanket and more like being hit with a blunt instrument. But by this grace, people are trans­formed in ways they couldn’t have been on their own. In a time when many have rightly become dis­illusioned with Christianity, Accidental Saints dem­onstrates what happens when ordinary people share bread and wine, struggle with scripture together, and tell each other the truth about their real lives. This unforgettable account of their faltering steps toward wholeness will ring true for believer and skeptic alike. Told in Nadia’s trademark confessional style, Accidental Saints is the stunning next work from one of today’s most important religious voices.From the Hardcover edition.

    Enzio Busche, emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, was born in Germany in 1930, three years before Hitler's rise to power. Fifteen years later, when World War II ended, Enzio was a prisoner of war, having been drafted into the German army at age fourteen. The war left Enzio with many questions: Is there a God? What is the purpose of life? What happens after death? In time, he learned the answers. "Yearning for the Living God" is a collection of Elder Busche's experiences - both before and after his conversion - and an account of the life-changing awakening that can come to all who search for truth in this world.About the Author:Elder F. Enzio Busche is an emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was sustained a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on October 1, 1977, at the age of forty-seven. He has also served as president of the Germany Munich Mission and president of the Frankfurt Germany Temple. He and his wife, Jutta, are the parents of four children and the grandparents of nineteen.Tracie A. Lamb comes from the small rural town of Manila, Utah. She graduated from Weber State College and served in the Germany Munich Mission while Elder F. Enzio Busche was mission president there. She received a Master's degree from Arizona State University and then taught English in Seoul, Korea, for three years. She teaches English as a second language and lives with her husband and two daughters in Auburn, Washington.

    Consumer with grief, his disciples did not realize that within three days, as the Jews measure time, earthshaking events would culminate in Jesus' resurrection, the which they would all become eyewitnesses. The Garden Tomb tells the story of the Savior's burial, mission to the world of the spirits, and triumph over death - all of which constitute the third act in the singular drama that was and is the Atonement of Jesus Christ.About the AuthorAndrew C. Skinner is dean of Religious Education and a professor of ancient scripture at BYU. He has served as a bishop and as a member of the Church Materials Evaluation Committee. He holds a master's degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver. A popular speaker known for his thought-provoking ideas, he is the author or co-author of many books, including Gethsemane and Golgotha, the first two books in his Atonement trilogy.

    The words on these pages will not go down like Ambien. I’m not writing to calm or coddle you. With God’s help, I intend to incite a riot in your mind. Trip your breakers and turn out the lights in your favorite hiding places of insecurity and fear. Then flip the switch back on so that God’s truth can illuminate the divine destiny that may have been lying dormant inside you for years. In short, I’m out to activate your audacious faith. To inspire you to ask God for the impossible. And in the process, to reconnect you with your God-sized purpose and potential.—STEVEN FURTICK, from Sun Stand Still“Steven Furtick challenges all of us—from the missionary in the third world to the family in the suburbs—to believe God for the impossible and begin living a life of faith beyond the ordinary.” —ANDY STANLEY, senior pastor, North Point Community Church “I don’t know anyone better positioned to challenge you to rise above mundane living and embrace faith-filled audacity than Steven Furtick.”—CRAIG GROESCHEL, senior pastor, LifeChurch.tv“For too long Christians have embraced a miniscule vision of faith.… Steven Furtick reminds us that the God who accomplished the impossible through the great heroes of faith still desires to do the same through us today.” —JENTEZEN FRANKLIN, senior pastor, Free Chapel “This book will show you that your hopes and expectations are truly just the beginning of what God can do.” —ED YOUNG, senior pastor, Fellowship ChurchFrom the Trade Paperback edition.

    Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, this book will help you realize the Ignatian goal of “finding God in all things.” Filled with relatable  examples, humorous stories, and anecdotes from the heroic and inspiring lives of Jesuit saints and average priests and brothers, The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything will enrich your everyday life with spiritual guidance and history.

    She partook of the forbidden fruit, persuading Adam to do likewise. Was she a temptress? Did she introduce evil into the world? When scrutiny regarding Eve’s actions in the Garden of Eden takes on a negative tone, we can turn to truths to put Eve in the right light. Glorious Truths about Mother Eve addresses many questions about her and her story by exploring the hidden depths of the Genesis, Moses, and Abraham accounts of the Fall of Adam and the teachings of Latter-day prophets on the role of Eve in the garden and in mortality. Learn how these sacred truths challenge traditional religious scholarship, and rejoice with gospel scholar Susan Easton Black in the revelations that clarify Eve’s noble role as matriarch of the human race in the Lord’s plan.

    Using the same inspired, inquisitive approach, he now turns to our most sacred book, the Bible. What Is the Bible? provides insights and answers that make clear why the Bible is so revered and what makes it truly inspiring and essential to our lives.Rob takes us deep into actual passages to reveal the humanity behind the Scriptures. You cannot get to the holy without going through the human, Rob tells us. When considering a passage, we shouldn’t ask "Why did God say . . .?" To get to the heart of the Bible’s meaning, we should be asking: "What’s the story that’s unfolding here and why did people find it important to tell it? What was it that moved them to record these words? What was happening in the world at that time? What does this passage/story/poem/verse/book tell us about how people understood who they were and who God was at that time?" In asking these questions, Rob goes beyond the one-dimensional question of "is it true?" to reveal the Bible’s authentic transformative power.Rob addresses the concerns of all those who see the Bible as God’s Word but are troubled by the ethical dilemmas, errors, and inconsistencies in Scripture. With What Is the Bible?, he recaptures the Good Book’s magic and reaffirms its power and inspiration to shape and inspire our lives today.

    In this insightful book, the author looks at the teachings of ancient and modern prophets concerning the times we live in now and the times to come. In a clear and straightforward manner, he discusses dozens of signs of the latter days and examines many specific prophecies about what has happened and what will happen--and how we can be prepared for whatever comes. A memorable, easy-to-understand portrait of the last days