Not for Saints


Book Description

Few things bring more happiness than those we achieve with our determination and self-control, when we lose weight, when we quit a bad habit, if we had a dependence on drugs and we are cleaned now, or if we were alcoholic and we overcome this weakness, we get a sense of real accomplishment like no other, because is indeed a monster we have defeated, “our own mind”, this mind guide me through all my life with many mistaken decisions, but I have woken up to the realization that I needed to change, is in our mind the root of all our problems and very little we do to remediate, because of the order we prioritize things we put our minds on autopilot, thinking we don’t need to feed it anymore, but is in there where the secret to very real and permanent changes is hidden, we tend to exaggerate our problems whatever they are and expand them to make others feel sympathy for us, we need so much attention and this is one reason social media is so successful, many different state of minds, depressions and erratic behaviors this is why many jobs can be problematic despite of how great the work environment might be; behind this display of tough or toxic personalities we are in reality very lonely and fragile, there is no doubt we need to change for the people we love, because usually they are always the ones we hurt the most, the great majority of us have a good personality but we mostly reflect on the outside what our present emotions dictate, our minds fly away with so many worries, anxieties, frustrated desires and dreams, and little do we realize is just a decision, a mental attitude, we want the world to be miserable and in line with our mental state, many just become absent their mind is always somewhere distance, a reaction to a frustrated desire or our rejection to the present reality, but in this equation there is a factor that plays a major role in everything we do “our spirit”, this spirit will always be hungry and whatever we feed it, will have serious consequences in our entire existence, present and distance. I apologize for using my personal life as an example in many situations is not to be vain but to help others learn from my mistakes. This book is a little of my personal experience my small token, I’m not a professional nor a religious expert but my personal view from the perspective of a simple man, I have changed many things in my life, I’m always working on some others I still need to change every day, but now I’m aware of this fierce battle within, I take one day at a time, there are some days I lose this battle but I don’t allow this defeats to take over my life, I get up the next day with a will to fight to be better and not just for me anymore but for my creator, for my family and because this world needs so much change, and since we can’t change the world, if we individually change, we will create a chain reaction, if we change, others will change too, our love ones might get the very best version of you and when we feed the spirit properly we will never feel lonely anymore; as with many self-help, spiritual books take only the things that might help you even if you only find something small, a little knowledge may go a long way, my mother always told me, even from the ignorant you can learn something, and in this case, the ignorant is me, take this humble message from my mother and perhaps here you might find something to set you truly free; this book is spiritual but even if you disagree with some things, disregard them and continue, I don’t want to change your mind, I want to change your heart, open your heart; among the pages here you might find be the answer you were looking for, you might find a word to gain strength and a word to stand firm through the hurricanes and tornados of life; you might find some things I mention more than once but I truly believe they are important, nothing is new just a reminder that I wish you will never forget.




What the Saints Never Said


Book Description

"God helps those who help themselves." - The Bible? "Preach the gospel always; when necessary, use words." - St. Francis of Assisi? Sayings like these are such a part of modern pious tradition that we assume they come from the Bible, the mouths of saints, or the pens of famous Christian writers. In What the Saints Never Said, apologist Trent Horn takes over forty of these well-known but dubious sayings and attempts to track them to their true source. In so doing he finds some that are close to what was really said, many that were mis-attributed or twisted beyond their original meaning, and more than a few that were just plain made up! Trent Horn sets the record straight,




Not All of Us Are Saints


Book Description

The story of what it means for a middle-class white male physician to confront the health problems of ravaged ghetto communities.




Saints are Not Sad


Book Description

Presents short biographical sketches of forty Christian saints, from before 500 to the twentieth-century.







No Place for Saints


Book Description

The emergence of the Mormon church is arguably the most radical event in American religious history. How and why did so many Americans flock to this new religion, and why did so many other Americans seek to silence or even destroy that movement? Winner of the MHA Best Book Award by the Mormon History Association Mormonism exploded across America in 1830, and America exploded right back. By 1834, the new religion had been mocked, harassed, and finally expelled from its new settlements in Missouri. Why did this religion generate such anger? And what do these early conflicts say about our struggles with religious liberty today? In No Place for Saints, the first stand-alone history of the Mormon expulsion from Jackson County and the genesis of Mormonism, Adam Jortner chronicles how Latter-day Saints emerged and spread their faith—and how anti-Mormons tried to stop them. Early on, Jortner explains, anti-Mormonism thrived on gossip, conspiracies, and outright fables about what Mormons were up to. Anti-Mormons came to believe Mormons were a threat to democracy, and anyone who claimed revelation from God was an enemy of the people with no rights to citizenship. By 1833, Jackson County's anti-Mormons demanded all Saints leave the county. When Mormons refused—citing the First Amendment—the anti-Mormons attacked their homes, held their leaders at gunpoint, and performed one of America's most egregious acts of religious cleansing. From the beginnings of Mormonism in the 1820s to their expansion and expulsion in 1834, Jortner discusses many of the most prominent issues and events in Mormon history. He touches on the process of revelation, the relationship between magic and LDS practice, the rise of the priesthood, the questions surrounding Mormonism and African Americans, the internal struggles for leadership of the young church, and how American law shaped this American religion. Throughout, No Place for Saints shows how Mormonism—and the violent backlash against it—fundamentally reshaped the American religious and legal landscape. Ultimately, the book is a story of Jacksonian America, of how democracy can fail religious freedom, and a case study in popular politics as America entered a great age of religion and violence.




Saints for Sinners


Book Description




Trouble the Saints


Book Description

WINNER OF THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD “Juju assassins, alternate history, a gritty New York crime story...in a word: awesome.” —N.K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fifth Season The dangerous magic of The Night Circus meets the powerful historical exploration of The Underground Railroad in Alaya Dawn Johnson's timely and unsettling novel, set against the darkly glamorous backdrop of New York City, where an assassin falls in love and tries to change her fate at the dawn of World War II. Amid the whir of city life, a young woman from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear among its most dangerous denizens. Ten years later, Phyllis LeBlanc has given up everything—not just her own past, and Dev, the man she loved, but even her own dreams. Still, the ghosts from her past are always by her side—and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she keeps in her heart. And so Phyllis will have to make a harrowing choice, before it’s too late—is there ever enough blood in the world to wash clean generations of injustice? Trouble the Saints is a dazzling, daring novel—a magical love story, a compelling exposure of racial fault lines—and an altogether brilliant and deeply American saga. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Original Blessing


Book Description

Of the worlds major religions, only Christianity holds to a doctrine of original sin. Ideas are powerful, and they shape who we are and who we become. The fact that many Christians believe there is something in human nature that is, and will always be, contrary to God, is not just a problem but a tragedy. So why do the doctrines assumptions of human nature so infiltrate our pulpits, sermons, and theological bookshelves? How is it so misconstrued in times of grief, pastoral care, and personal shame? How did we fall so far from Gods original blessing in the garden to this pervasive belief in humanitys innate inability to do good? In this book, Danielle Shroyer takes readers through an overview of the historical development of the doctrine, pointing out important missteps and overcalculations, and providing alternative ways to approach often-used Scriptures. Throughout, she brings the primary claims of original sin to their untenable (and unbiblical) conclusions. In Original Blessing, she shows not only how we got this doctrine wrong, but how we can put sin back in its rightful place: in a broader context of redemption and the blessing of humanitys creation in the image of God.




Patron Saints of Nothing


Book Description

A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST "Brilliant, honest, and equal parts heartbreaking and soul-healing." --Laurie Halse Anderson, author of SHOUT "A singular voice in the world of literature." --Jason Reynolds, author of Long Way Down A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin's murder. Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. But when he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story. Hoping to uncover more about Jun and the events that led to his death, Jay is forced to reckon with the many sides of his cousin before he can face the whole horrible truth -- and the part he played in it. As gripping as it is lyrical, Patron Saints of Nothing is a page-turning portrayal of the struggle to reconcile faith, family, and immigrant identity.