Brushes with Death: The Blood of Jesus is an autobiographical novel detailing several dangerous encounters that the author experienced living a life of crime. The story also references the author's inner struggle of dealing with his conscience and his moral values as he battles the paradigm of doing wrong when he knows to do right. The book also alludes to the main character's faith and how it kept him safe during his waywardness. The reader travels with Slick, the protagonist as he tryies to resist temptation of money, drugs, women, gambling, guns, alcohol, sex, prison and more. The 394 page novel is factual and based on truel events. Names and some situations have been distorted to protect the innocent and the guilty. This book serves as a deterrent to those youth who are not yet enthralled in but are considering a life of crime. It also serves as encouragement to those still entwined in a life of crime and violence to digress from their actions. The book is in no way a promotion of like activities. The author hopes that his experiences will shed light on the destructiveness of drug dealing and give those who have no knowledge an inside perspective on the who's, what's, when's, where's, why's, and how's of street living. It is sophisticated but yet real; explicit but not trashy.

At one time, apocalyptic literature was relegated to the more obscure reaches of biblical scholarship, acceptable to occasionally refer to, but too thorny to delve into deeply. However, in recent decades it has moved to the forefront of research. The rich veins of wisdom to be mined therein are being rediscovered. Richard A. Taylor has crafted a handbook to explore those riches and uncover a way to understand apocalyptic literature more fully. Using the characteristic six-chapter structure of the Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis series, Taylor offers an introduction to the genre; covers the purpose, message, and primary themes; and then discusses critical questions and helpful works for study. He provides guidelines for interpretation of the text, and then lays out sample texts on which to practice those guidelines. Taylor does more than simply consider the history of the texts and those who have previously studied them; he uses these as a foundation for and springboard into the proclamation of apocalyptic literature.