It is never too late to repent. That is the message Steven A. & Laurel Cramer hope to convey as they relate the struggles they went through to overcome addiction and repair their marriage and how the Atonement carried them through. Told with love and understanding, this book is perfect for those who are working through their own addictions and their loved ones who are looking for healing.

Idioms are words and phrases that express more than the actual words themselves. Found throughout the scriptures, these figurative expressions, such as "gird up your loins" and "salt of the earth" can be misleading if the reader has no experience with the message being conveyed.

In these pages, George M. Peacock explains exactly what idioms are, how to identify them, and how learning their meaning can add to one's understanding of the scriptures and their messages. Along with the many other resources available today that aid in understanding the scriptures, Unlocking the Idioms will help bring insight and knowledge to anyone who wants to feast upon the words of the Lord.

Have a more vibrant, unified marriage with the help of this handy guide. With over 300 questions on topics ranging from intimacy to finances, this book provides a starting point for couples to sit down and talk about what's really important. Discover untold dreams or ways to be better parents as you develop open, honest communication that will last a lifetime.

A tale of survival and freedom, Stolen Innocence is the story of one heroic woman who stood up for what was right and reclaimed her life. In September 2007, a packed courtroom in St. George, Utah, sat hushed as Elissa Wall, the star witness against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, gave captivating testimony of how Jeffs forced her to marry her first cousin at the age of fourteen. This harrowing and vivid account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of the lengths to which Jeffs went in order to control the sect's women. Now, in this courageous memoir, Elissa Wall tells the incredible and inspirational story of how she emerged from the confines of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and helped bring one of America's most notorious criminals to justice. Offering a child's perspective on life in the FLDS, Wall discusses her tumultuous youth, and explains how Warren Jeffs's influence over the church twisted its already rigid beliefs in dangerous new directions. Once she was married, Wall's childhood shattered as she was obligated to follow Jeffs's directives and submit to her husband in "mind, body, and soul." With little money and no knowledge of the outside world, she was trapped and forced to endure the pain and abuse of her loveless relationship, which eventually pushed her to spend nights sleeping in her truck rather than face the tormentor in her bed.

Cathars have long been regarded as posing the most organised challenge to orthodox Catholicism in the medieval West, even as a "counter-Church" to orthodoxy in southern France and northern Italy. Their beliefs, understood to be inspired by Balkan dualism, are often seen as the most radical among medieval heresies. However, recent work has fiercely challenged this paradigm, arguing instead that "Catharism" is a construct, mis-named and mis-represented by generations of scholars, and its supposedly radical views were a fantastical projection of the fears of orthodox commentators. This volume brings together a wide range of views from some of the most distinguished internationalscholars in the field, in order to address the debate directly while also opening up new areas for research. Focussing on dualism and anti-materialist beliefs in southern France, Italy and the Balkans, it considers a number of crucial issues. These include: what constitutes popular belief; how (and to what extent) societies of the past were based on the persecution of dissidents; and whether heresy can be seen as an invention of orthodoxy. At the same time, the essays shed new light on some key aspects of the political, cultural, religious and economic relationships between the Balkans and more western regions of Europe in the Middle Ages. Antonio Sennis is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at University College London Contributors: John H. Arnold, Peter Biller, Caterina Bruschi, David d'Avray, Joerg Feuchter, Bernard Hamilton, R.I. Moore, Mark Gregory Pegg, Rebecca Rist, Lucy J. Sackville, Antonio Sennis, Claire Taylor, Julien Thery-Astruc, Yuri Stoyanov

When James Work took a teaching job at the College of Southern Utah in the mid-1960s, he knew little about teaching and even less about the customs of his Mormon neighbors. For starters, he did not know he was a "Gentile," the Mormon term for anyone not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But just as he learned to be a religious diplomat and a black-market bourbon runner, he also discovered that his master's degree in literature apparently qualified him to teach journalism, photography, creative writing, advanced essay and feature article writing, freshman composition, and "vocabulary building."

With deadpan humor, Work pokes fun at his own naivete in "Don't Shoot the Gentile," a memoir of his rookie years teaching at a small college in a small, mostly Mormon town. From the first pages, Work tells how he navigated the sometimes tricky process of being an outsider, pulling readers--no matter their religious affiliation--into his universal fish-out-of-water tale. The title is drawn from a hunting trip Work made with fellow faculty members, all Mormons. When a load of buckshot whizzed over his head, one of the party hollered, "Don't shoot the Gentile We'll have to hire another one "

Today the College of Southern Utah is a university, and Cedar City, like most small towns in the West, is no longer so culturally isolated. James Work left in 1967 to pursue a doctorate, but his remembrances of the place and its people will do more than make readers--Mormon and non-Mormon alike--laugh out loud. Work's memoir will resonate with anyone who remembers the challenges and small triumphs of a first job in a new, strange place.

Based on ethnographic research among African Pentecostal Christians living in the UK, this book addresses themes of migration and community formation, religious identity and practice, and social and political exclusion. With attention to strained kinship relationships, precarious labour conditions, and struggles for legal and social legitimacy, it explores the ways in which intimacy with a Pentecostal God - and with fellow Christians - has been shaped by the challenges of everyday life for Africans in the UK. A study of religious subjectivity and the success of the so-called 'prosperity' gospel, African Pentecostalism in Britain examines the manner in which the presence of God is realised for believers through their complex and often-fraught relationships of trust and intimacy with others. As such, it will appeal to sociologists and anthropologists with interests in migration and religion.

How did America's white evangelicals, from often progressive history, come to right-wing populism? Addressing populism requires understanding how its historico-cultural roots ground present politics. How have the very qualities that contributed much to American vibrancy-an anti-authoritarian government-wariness and energetic community-building-turned, under conditions of distress, to defensive, us-them worldviews? Readers will gain an understanding of populism and of the socio-political and religious history from which populism draws its us-them policies and worldview. The book ponders the tragic cast of the white evangelical story: (i) the distorting effects of economic and way-of-life duress on the understanding of history and present circumstances and (ii) the tragedy of choosing us-them solutions to duress that won't relieve it, leaving the duress in place. Readers will trace the trajectory from economic, status loss, and way-of-life duresses to solutions in populist, us-them binaries. They will explore the robust white evangelical contribution to civil society but also to racism, xenophobia, and sexism. White evangelicals not in the ranks of the right-their worldview and activism-are discussed in a final chapter. This book is valuable reading for students of political and social sciences as well as anyone interested in US politics.

Nestor Makhno has been called a revolutionary anarchist, a peasant rebel, the Ukrainian Robin Hood, a mass-murderer, a pogromist, and a devil. These epithets had their origins in the Russian Civil War (1917-1921), where the military forces of the peasant-anarchist Nestor Makhno and Mennonite colonists in southern Ukraine came into conflict. In autumn 1919, Makhnovist troops and local peasant sympathizers murdered more than 800 Mennonites in a series of large-scale massacres. The history of that conflict has been fraught with folklore, ideological battles and radically divergent cultural memories, in which fact and fiction often seamlessly blend, conjuring a multitude of Makhnos, each one shouting its message over the other. Drawing on theories of collective memory and narrative analysis, Makhno and Memory brings a vast array of Makhnovist and Mennonite sources into dialogue, including memoirs, histories, diaries, newspapers, and archival material. A diversity of perspectives are brought into relief through the personal reminiscences of Makhno and his anarchist sympathizers alongside Mennonite pacifists and advocates for armed self-defense. Through a meticulous analysis of the Makhnovist-Mennonite conflict and a micro-study of the Eichenfeld massacre of November 1919, Sean Patterson attempts to make sense of the competing cultural memories and presents new ways of thinking about Makhno and his movement. Makhno and Memory offers a convincing reframing of the Mennonite / Makhno relationship that will force a scholarly reassessment of this period.

Making Believe responds to a remarkable flowering of art by Mennonites in Canada. After the publication of his first novel in 1962, Rudy Wiebe was the only identifiable Mennonite literary writer in the country. Beginning in the 1970s, the numbers grew rapidly and now include writers Patrick Friesen, Sandra Birdsell, Di Brandt, Sarah Klassen, Armin Wiebe, David Bergen, Miriam Toews, Carrie Snyder, Casey Plett, and many more. A similar renaissance is evident in the visual arts (including artists Gathie Falk, Wanda Koop, and Aganetha Dyck) and in music (including composers Randolph Peters, Carol Ann Weaver, and Stephanie Martin). Confronted with an embarrassment of riches that resist survey, Magdalene Redekop opts for the use of case studies to raise questions about Mennonites and art. Part criticism, part memoir, Making Believe argues that there is no such thing as Mennonite art. At the same time, her close engagement with individual works of art paradoxically leads Redekop to identify a Mennonite sensibility at play in the space where artists from many cultures interact. Constant questioning and commitment to community are part of the Mennonite dissenting tradition. Although these values come up against the legacy of radical Anabaptist hostility to art, Redekop argues that the Early Modern roots of a contemporary crisis of representation are shared by all artists. Making Believe posits a Spielraum or play space in which all artists are dissembling tricksters, but differences in how we play are inflected by where we come from. The close readings in this book insist on respect for difference at the same time as they invite readers to find common ground while making believe across cultures.

Unlock the Power of the Holy Communion, let Pastor Joseph Prince unlock the healing promises from the Scriptures designed to lead you to a life of abundance!

Discover the secrets to health, wholeness, and a long, abundant life!

Most of us eat without thinking. Yet there is a direct correlation to what and how we eat to our physical and spiritual well-being. Let Pastor Joseph Prince unlock the healing promises from the Scriptures designed to lead you to a life of abundance.

You will learn:

• About the life-giving properties of the Holy Communion
• To experience divine healing when you "Read the Red" (aka) feed on Jesus, the true Passover Lamb
• How to hear and obey the Spirit of God when we eat
• About the health-giving power that comes from a relaxed heart

Michael W. Homer has collected the writings of diverse European travelers through Mormon settlements in the American West. Providing a counternarrative to typical accounts of encounters with Mormons in such sojourns, these collected tales include such colorful perspectives on the Mormons as those of an outraged Catholic priest, an intrigued German prince, a liberated French woman, an insightful Italian count, and an embittered Danish apostate. Some of the travelers met with Brigham Young, while others encountered more commonplace figures of the West, including fur traders, Indians, and soldiers.

They always manage to knock on your door at the worst possible times. It's difficult to talk to Jehovah's Witnesses because they test your Bible knowledge and spiritual endurance. But the effort is worth it, because they need to hear the gospel from you. Reed, a former JW elder, closely examines the Jehovah's Witnesses' favorite Bible verses and discusses other important verses they ignore.

The history of the twentieth century is one of modernization, a story of old ways being left behind. Many traditionalist Mennonites rejected these changes, especially the automobile, which they regarded as a symbol of pride and individualism. They became known as a ""horse-and-buggy"" people. Between 2009 and 2012, Royden Loewen and a team of researchers interviewed 250 Mennonites in thirty-five communities across the Americas about the impact of the modern world on their lives. This book records their responses and strategies for resisting the very things-ease, technology, upward mobility, consumption-that most people today take for granted.Loewen's subjects are drawn from two distinctive groups: 8,000 Old Order Mennonites, who continue to pursue old ways in highly urbanized southern Ontario, and 100,000 Old Colony Mennonites, whose history of migration to protect traditional ways has taken them from the Canadian prairies to Mexico and farther south to Belize, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Whether they live in the shadow of an urban, industrial region or in more isolated, rural communities, the fundamental approach of ""horse-and-buggy"" Mennonites is the same: life is best when it is kept simple, lived out in the local, close to nature. This equation is the genius at the heart of their world.