This book will teach you how to take hope in God because of how God restored, vindicated, and made His name great in the lives of people like Job, Joseph, and Abraham. It will give you the encouragement you need to believe that God can work the same power in your life.

You have faced challenges—financial, emotional, physical, relational, ministerial, and business. It is often in the midst of these tests, trials, and difficulties that God prepares you to move into a new season of expansion. Even though the circumstances feel uncomfortable and victory may be hard to see, you will recuperate from devastation and not a moment of it will be wasted. Take comfort in knowing God will remember and vindicate every tear you’ve cried and will restore to you more than what the enemy stole and the locust ate.

Breaking open fresh revelations from the Psalms and Proverbs and examining snapshots of the lives of Gideon, Joseph, Abraham, and Job, You Shall Recover All will encourage you to know that through the tests and trials you thought had come to diminish you, God is actually turning them around for your good and preparing you for greatness. It may be tempting to give up hope or throw in the towel, but do not give in to discouragement, hopelessness, depression, doubt, or defeat. Despite what you see, God is still on the throne.

There is hope for you and your world. What the enemy means for bad, God turns around for your good. For all that you’ve pressed through and endured, let God put a new level of honor on your life. He will take you from least to greatest, and you shall recover all!

Joel Osteen, Paula White, T. D. Jakes, Rick Warren, and Brian McLaren pastor some the largest churches in the nation, lead vast spiritual networks, write best-selling books, and are among the most influential preachers in American Protestantism today. Spurred by the phenomenal appeal of these religious innovators, sociologist Shayne Lee and historian Phillip Luke Sinitiere investigate how they operate and how their style of religious expression fits into America's cultural landscape. Drawing from the theory of religious economy, the authors offer new perspectives on evangelical leadership and key insights into why some religious movements thrive while others decline.

Holy Mavericks provides a useful overview of contemporary evangelicalism while emphasizing the importance of "supply-side thinking" in understanding shifts in American religion. It reveals how the Christian world hosts a culture of celebrity very similar to the secular realm, particularly in terms of marketing, branding, and publicity. Holy Mavericks reaffirms that religion is always in conversation with the larger society in which it is embedded, and that it is imperative to understand how those religious suppliers who are able to change with the times will outlast those who are not.

!El manto de Dios de uncion y poder te esta esperando! Inspirado por la fidelidad y la audacia de los grandes profetas biblicos Elias y Eliseo, el exitoso autor Samuel Rodriguez explora el poder de perseverar con esperanza en medio de los tiempos oscuros en los que vivimos. Si las circunstancias dolorosas o las perdidas te han dejado cansado y desanimado, !entonces aferrate a las promesas de Dios y preparate para completar tu asignacion! Fundamentado en la verdad de la Palabra de Dios, el pastor Sam te ayuda a: * permanecer fiel a Dios y experimentar Su poder y provision * descubrir la direccion de Dios para el tiempo y la temporada en que estas * aprender como el arado de la perseverancia siempre conduce al manto de promocion * recuperar tu familia, recuperar tu hambre espiritual, recuperar tu sueno No importa que estes experimentando, no dudes ni por un segundo que Dios esta obrando en tu vida. El infierno no puede parar la uncion profetica que Dios ha puesto sobre ti. Determina que perseveras--!y espera una cosecha de derramamiento del Dios ilimitado y vivo!

In recent years, millions of people have joined churches such as the Seventh-day Adventist which prosper enormously in different parts of the world. The Road to Clarity is one of the first ethnographic in-depth studies of this phenomenon. It is a vivid account based on almost two years of participation in ordinary church members' daily religious and non-religious lives. The book offers a fascinating inquiry into the nature of long-term commitment to Adventism among rural people in Madagascar. Eva Keller argues that the key attraction of the church lies in the excitement of study, argument, and intellectual exploration. This is a novel approach which challenges utilitarian and cultural particularist explanations of the success of this kind of Christianity.

This new study explores the role the Unitarians played in female emancipation. Many leading figures of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were Unitarian, or were heavily influenced by Unitarian ideas, including: Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, and Florence Nightingale. Ruth Watts examines how far they were successful in challenging the ideas and social conventions affecting women. In the process she reveals the complex relationship between religion, gender, class and education and her study will be essential reading for those studying the origins of the feminist movement, nineteenth-century gender history, religious history or the history of education.

Balthasar Hubmaier remains one of the most significant figures in the radical reformation of the sixteenth century. A Pledge of Love is close and thorough examination of Hubmaiers view of the sacraments within the context of worship. This ground-breaking work examines the distinctive theology of this important Anabaptist and his possible influence upon others.

A personal retreat. We've never needed it more. We run from one place to the next--from meetings and appointments to our kid's soccer practice, from class to work to choir rehearsal, from the grocery store to small group--and then drop into bed later than we hoped, exhausted and dreading the morning. We want to slow down but don't know how and don't really believe that we can. And often, the idea of a personal retreat--time for solitude and silence--makes us feel as anxious as all our frenzied rushing. What in the world would we do with an hour, an afternoon or (gulp ) a whole day of solitude with God? But what is the cost of our frantic pace? What are we missing by not slowing down for reflection and meditation on Scripture? What kind of toll does our anxious running take on those around us--and, even more deeply, on our own soul? In Resting Place, retreat speaker Jane Rubietta addresses soul matters with retreat topics such as dealing with our fear of abandonment, wrestling with discontent, overcoming our attempts to control others and fulfilling our deep desire to be loved. These retreats help us enter Psalm 23 rest, a place of true rest and trust in our loving, gentle Shepherd. Full of quotes to contemplate, Scripture to meditate on, questions, prayer and journaling ideas, and ideas for creativity, Jane Rubietta leads us to and through times of silence and solitude that will follow us into our everyday world as we learn to allow Jesus to guide, comfort and restore us. Come to the Shepherd, and find the true rest your soul is longing for.

In 2006, the contemporary American Pentecostal movement celebrated its 100th birthday. Over that time, its African American sector has been markedly influential, not only vis-a-vis other branches of Pentecostalism but also throughout the Christian church. Black Christians have been integrally involved in every aspect of the Pentecostal movement since its inception and have made significant contributions to its founding as well as the evolution of Pentecostal/charismatic styles of worship, preaching, music, engagement of social issues, and theology. Yet despite its being one of the fastest growing segments of the Black Church, Afro-Pentecostalism has not received the kind of critical attention it deserves.

Afro-Pentecostalism brings together fourteen interdisciplinary scholars to examine different facets of the movement, including its early history, issues of gender, relations with other black denominations, intersections with popular culture, and missionary activities, as well as the movement's distinctive theology. Bolstered by editorial introductions to each section, the chapters reflect on the state of the movement, chart its trajectories, discuss pertinent issues, and anticipate future developments.

Contributors: Estrelda Y. Alexander, Valerie C. Cooper, David D. Daniels III, Louis B. Gallien, Jr., Clarence E. Hardy III, Dale T. Irvin, Ogbu U. Kalu, Leonard Lovett, Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., Cheryl J. Sanders, Craig Scandrett-Leatherman, William C. Turner, Jr., Frederick L. Ware, and Amos Yong

Many Christians who receive a prophetic message, or "word," from the Lord don't understand that its fulfillment is not necessarily automatic. Others don't know how to determine if a prophetic word really is from the Lord. And still others don't understand what prophetic ministry is and how it works.
A veteran prophetic warrior, Barbara Wentroble is aware of the need for training in Bible-based prophetic ministry. With insight and wisdom, she explains not only how prophetic ministry works, but also how believers today--like biblical characters of old--may need to engage in spiritual warfare in order to receive promises that really are from God. Wentroble shows that prophetic words are not confined to church walls, and are not for a select few Christians but for all. She gives readers the guidelines and prophetic etiquette they need to help prevent abuse and misunderstanding, while helping them find the incredible blessing of the biblical gift of prophecy.

This book is about African Pentecostalism and its relationship to religious beliefs about a pervading spirit world. It argues that Pentecostalism keeps both a continuous and a discontinuous relationship in tension. Based on field research in a South African township, including qualitative interviews and focus group discussions, the study explores the context of African Pentecostalism as a whole and how it interacts with the concepts of ancestors, divination, and various types of spirit. Themes discussed include the reasons for the popularity of healing, exorcism, the "prosperity gospel," the experience of the Holy Spirit, Spirit manifestations and practices resembling both traditional and biblical precedents, as well as scholarly discussions on African Pentecostalism from theological and social scientific disciplines. The book suggests that the focus on a spirit-filled world affects all kinds of events and explains the rapid growth of Pentecostalism outside the western world.

In April 2008, state police and child protection authorities raided Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas, a community of 800 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist branch of the Mormons. State officials claimed that the raid, which was triggered by anonymous phone calls from an underage girl to a domestic violence hotline, was based on evidence of widespread child sexual abuse. In a high-risk paramilitary operation, 439 children were removed from the custody of their parents and held until the Third Court of Appeals found that the state had overreached. Not only did the state fail to corroborate the authenticity of the hoax calls, but evidence reveals that Texas officials had targeted the FLDS from the outset, planning and preparing for a confrontation. Saints under Siege provides a thorough, theoretically grounded critical examination of the Texas state raid on the FLDS while situating this event in a broader sociological context. The volume considers the raid as an exemplar case of a larger pattern of state actions against minority religions, offering comparative analyses to other government raids both historically and across cultures. In its look beyond the Texas raid, it provides compelling evidence of social intolerance and state repression of unpopular minority faiths in general, and the FLDS in particular.

The Puritans of seventeenth century England have been blamed for everything from the English civil war to the rise of capitalism. But who were the Puritans of Stuart England? Were they apostles of liberty, who fled from persecution to the New World? Or were they intolerant fanatics, intent on bringing godliness to Stuart England? This study provides a clear narrative of the rise and fall of the Puritans across the troubled seventeenth century. Their story is placed in context by analytical chapters, which describe what the Puritans believed and how they organised their religious and social life. Quoting many contemporary sources, including diaries, plays and sermons, this is a vivid and comprehensible account, drawing on the most recent scholarship. Readers will find this book an indispensable guide, not only to the religious history of seventeenth century England, but also to its political and social history.

This book makes a significant contribution to the burgeoning field of childhood studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture by drawing on the intersecting fields of girlhood, evangelicalism, and reform to investigate texts written in North America about girls, for girls, and by girls. Responding both to the intellectual excitement generated by the rise of girlhood studies, as well as to the call by recent scholars to recognize the significance of religion as a meaningful category in the study of nineteenth-century literature and culture, this collection locates evangelicalism at the center of its inquiry into girlhood. Contributors draw on a wide range of texts, including canonical literature by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Susan Warner, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, and overlooked archives such as US Methodist Sunday School fiction, children's missionary periodicals, and the Christian Recorder, the flagship newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. These essays investigate representations of girlhood that engage, codify, and critique normative Protestant constructions of girlhood. Contributors examine girlhood in the context of reform, revealing the ways in which Protestantism at once constrained and enabled female agency. Drawing on a range of critical perspectives, including African American Studies, Disability Studies, Gender Studies, and Material Culture Studies, this volume enriches our understanding of nineteenth-century childhood by focusing on the particularities of girlhood, expanding it beyond that of the white able-bodied middle-class girl and attending to the intersectionality of identity and religion.

Much misunderstood, Mormonism had a colorful beginning in the 19th century, as a visionary named Joseph Smith founded and built a community of believers with their own unique faith. In the late-20th century, the church had to come to terms with its own growth and organization, as well as with the increasing pervasiveness of globalization, secularization, and cultural changes. Today Mormonism is one of the major religions in America, and continues to grow internationally. However, though the church itself remains strong, it is elusive to those of other faiths. Here, a seasoned author and third-generation Mormon sheds light on the everyday lives and practices of faithful Mormons. Bushman's readers will come away with a more thorough appreciation of what it means to be Mormon in the modern world. Much misunderstood, Mormonism had a colorful beginning in the 19th century, as a visionary named Joseph Smith founded and built a community of believers with their own unique faith. In the late-20th century, the church had to come to terms with its own growth and organization, as well as with the increasing pervasiveness of globalization, secularization, and cultural changes. Today Mormonism is one of the major religions in America, and one that continues to grow internationally. However, though the church itself remains strong, it is elusive to those of other faiths. Here, a seasoned author and third-generation Mormon sheds light on the everyday lives and practices of faithful Mormons. Bushman's readers will come away with a more thorough appreciation of what it means to be Mormon in the modern world. Following Brigham Young into the Great Basin and founding communities that have endured for over 100 years, Mormons have forged a rich history in this country even as they built communities around the world. But the origins of this faith and those who adhere to it remain mysterious to many in the United States. Bushman allows readers a vivid glimpse into the lives of Mormons-their beliefs, rituals, and practices, as well as their views on race, ethnicity, social class, gender, and sexual orientation. The voices of actual Mormons reveal much about their inspiration, devotion, patriotism, individualism, and conservatism. With its mythical history and unlikely success, many wonder what has made this religion endure through the years. Here, readers will find answers to their questions about what it means to be Mormon in contemporary America.