The writer states, "My book is not only a historical account of my journey from monastery and priesthood to marriage and United Methodist ministry. The story is told through the lenses of spirituality and psychology, noting the original deception, its childhood roots, and the miracle of grace that led to unmasking the deception. It is a testament to the fact that with God, it is never too late. A midlife retreat at the age of fifty-two was the turning point. The book is also a testament and call to live a Christian life which is whole in its quest for union with God. After ordination, the Lord led me into a series of successful ministries. In the course of these ministries, a former Peace Corps volunteer named Mary came into my life. I struggled with my priestly commitment and a deepening relationship with Mary. To get free enough to follow the Lord's will, I had to go on an inner journey to discover my idols. How I did so is the essence of the story."

In Context presents the context of 69 "Velcro" quotes: well-known or memorable sayings from Christian history that stick in the mind. These were selected to cover each century and as many major movements and significant events as possible, and are presented so as to be easily readable and awaken popular interest. Every quote, and its context, is as accurate and authentic as the historical record will permit.

This is a collection of six first-person true stories featuring the world of individuals who live on the Island of New Guinea and are emerging from a Stone Age lifestyle. A boy, the only son of a war-chief, refuses his heritage. When he meets a strange being who bursts into his world, a missionary, he becomes a follower of Jesus. In midlife our hero becomes the church leader of thousands of people. A chief far greater than his father. A six-year-old girl is the only child of her parents when they become missionaries to a distant tribe. Rebels capture the family and force them to walk three days into the dense jungle where there is no food. God delivers them in an amazing fashion.

This is the story of a young man trapped by the police, who to escape arrest, dove headforemost through an upper window, plummeting to the waiting concrete below. The story begins with the young man's arms immobilized in casts and head bandaged lying in a jail cell struggling to endure mental and emotional trauma. He remains in jail eleven months awaiting sentence for robbery. Encouraged by his mother he daily reads several chapters from a cell-placed Gideon Bible and shortly experiences the biblical new birth.With fixed resolution he persists in studying the Bible. When court day arrives, instead of receiving expected probation, he is shocked with a maximum sentence of up to twenty years in prison.The rest of the story entails God's rearing of the "newly born" young man in prison in the midst of fear, dread, anxiety, and trials spawned by his new environment. When he is later released on parole, he emerges from prison with vision for his future and adament determination to attain it - he is not the same person who a few years earlier smashed through glass and crashed on concrete!

After God called 8-year-old Willie to be a preacher, he fled like Jonah. His escape to alcohol and drugs trained him to be a pusher. He resisted any form of education and regarded schooling as a white man's trick. He dropped out of high school and lived high on a good income from his drug trade. He liked fine clothes, the admiration of others and the company of attractive women. Eventually his business led him to Parchman Penitentiary. Willie's mother prayed for him, and after many years her prayers were answered - Willie was delivered from his addictions. He earned a college degree, and the Lord gave him special lessons in being like Jesus. Today he is a preacher and has his own radio program.

She Found It In The Clouds is about a young girl's journey, beginning in the safe place, gently tucked inside her mother's womb. Her grandmother and her aunt cared for her after her birth because her mother was not able to take care of her. The woman who gave her life separated herself from her. As she wrestled with the thought of giving up her first child, a question overshadowed her mind. Was she making the right decision to let her baby go or not? Her grandmother and aunt raised her in Jamaica then as she transitioned into her new life with her new parents; she experienced excitingly unforgettable adventures as she and her family experienced new continents. As Sharon grew into her teenage years, she began wondering why her mother had not personally raised her, and questioned the reasons behind her adoption as a baby. Sharon tried her best to mask the empty feelings buried deep within her heart, those feelings of loneliness, and the sense of emptiness, which radiated from within the core of her very soul. Sharon found herself questioning if she would ever experience real love. Her family chose not to talk about her life with her. Her life seemed full of nothing but secrets.

The Scottish reformation in 1560 was an almost completely bloodless revolution of both a religion and a nation -- a nation that had been ungovernable for the previous 400 years. The revolution also led within just a few decades to the establishment of the world's first constitutional monarchy (in Scotland and England) and to the world's first system of universal public education. This remarkable revolution was made possible by the fierce personal independence and faith of the Scottish people, from nobleman to peasant, and the spirited dedication of a peasant's son by the name of John Knox. The manuscript offers a fast-paced and somewhat light-hearted narrative showing the changes that an energized and dedicated individual can bring about when he or she is motivated by seeking God's will and does not care who gets the credit.

Hannah More: The Artist as Reformer (working title) The brilliant Hannah More, a celebrity in her time, is almost forgotten today. Why is she not included in the canon of English literature? Moderns disregard Hannah’s writings, finding her difficult to deal with due to her strong Christian views. They ignore the major roles she played in the abolition of slavery, opening schools for the poor, and reforming the manners of the great. Yet, like her mentors John Wesley and John Newton, she never left the established Church of England. Despite ugly criticism, Hannah persevered, paving the way for other Christian women writers and poets such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Fanny Crosby.

William Wilberforce sought Hannah’s aide in the campaign against slavery. (Her character appears in the 2007 film Amazing Grace.) Samuel Johnson called her “the most skilled versificatrix in the English language.” He sought out her company at the Bluestocking Literary Society meetings. Born in obscurity in 1745, Hannah died leaving nearly £30,000 to her charities, (today’s equivalent of $2,000,000), —an unequaled amount for a woman writer 200 years ago. Her writings changed hearts and prevented a revolution in England, as happened in France. Great Britain issued a postage stamp in 2007 in her honor.

Ben and John Peterson grew up in a God honoring family in rural Wisconsin. No one could’ve imagined the Olympic Games for either of them. As a wrestler, Ben lost all seven varsity matches by pins in his first year of wrestling and never placed at the state high school tournament. Yet he received a wrestling scholarship to one of America’s top wrestling universities where he earned two NCCA Championships. Then he made 3 U.S. Olympic teams and won gold and silver medals.

John had a serious knee injury delaying his start in wrestling. He never qualified for the state high school tournament and placed just fifth as a senior in a small college national tournament. And yet John also made two Olympic teams and won silver and gold medals.

The Peterson brothers’ wrestling experience has God’s fingerprints all over it. Ben tells the story of how they progressed in their wrestling and their faith from grade school all the way to the Olympics Games. Each chapter tells another segment of the successes and failures they experienced as athletes learning to trust God and progress in wrestling.

On July 21, 1970, a storm raged around an eager group of campers on Opeongo Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Should they push on with ther wilderness canoe trip of turn back? Their decision turned an adventure into tragedy, resulting in the death of three young men - Don Enzor, Chuck Schnittker, and Tim Meadows.

The deaths of these three young men set the stage for the Lord revealing Himself in powerful and unexpected ways. This poignant, firsthand retelling of the canoeing accident takes a look behind the scenes and shows in very understandable ways, some of the pieces of the puzzle of how God is at work in the grand scheme of things. It shares many of the life lessons the Schnittkers and the author learned as they walked through the healing process. It is a journey through the deep waters of grief, guilt, and depression, into hope, peace and a new sense of purpose. It is a journey into the very heart of God.

I am in the process of writing a memoir that explores the psychological

and social repercussions of being a Jewish convert to Christianity. I

examine the joys and pitfalls of integrating my faith into my identity

over the last thirty years.

I live in the same Jewish community in which I grew up and where my family

has been active for several generations. I discuss the cultural tensions

of living on the boundaries of two communities as well as the difficulties

had in communicating across the secular-supernatural divide. Because my

journey does not fit the stereotypical experience, I have leaned on the

paradoxical understanding of being “a congregation of one.”

After describing the angst from my secular Jewish years, I detail the

arguments for God in natural theology that led me towards spirituality in

Judaism. My subsequent study of the Holocaust led to an interest in

theodicy. My unexpected epiphany came as a result of encountering the

Jewishness of Jesus and the significance of his vicarious suffering on

the cross. I recount a six-pronged, lay study in which I compare Judaism

and Christianity.

Through essays and personal stories, I illustrate how the Jesus I have

come to know is profoundly connected to the liberal, democratic values of

my youth. By weaving stories about my Mother into research themes such

as redemption, atonement and resurrection, I show how, as the wounded

healer, she guided me towards spiritual wholeness.

The Radio Signal is the story of two families during the 1930s and 1940s, one from Germany’s bucolic Pomerania and the other from Poland’s urbane Warsaw. Each family has four children, and both eventually are thrown into refugee existence. Their vibrant faith imbues their actions with courage and trust. The Radandts hold worship meetings in their home during WW II and reject the pressure of the local party leaders to have their sons attend a residential school for future Nazi leaders. Across the border, the Jobs – members of the active German Baptist community in Poland – have to deal with the frightening fact of a death sentence from the Polish resistance movement for Ludwig, the researcher and developer of radio tubes. Driven from their homes and forced to give up the only safety they’ve ever known, the Radandts and the Jobs each embark on harrowing, yet thrilling parallel journeys across war-torn Germany. This memoir offers a seldom-seen perspective on the Third Reich: that of children growing up in the era of the century’s most horrible events. During the war, neither family knew of the other. Neither family knew that their paths would ultimately cross.

Can one man make a difference in a nation that denies its citizens basic rights, makes war against its neighbors, uses its power to destroy the Jewish race, tries to control the message of the Christian Church, and kills Christian leaders who resist? All of these events occurred in the nation of Germany beginning with Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. 

In order to conform the Protestant Church to the racial ideals of National Socialism, Hitler led a campaign to Nazify the Protestant Church in Germany. He passed legislation prohibiting the freedom of speech. He intimidated church leaders. He influenced church elections and installed Nazi-friendly leaders in critical positions. 

From 1933 to 1943, Dietrich Bonhöffer performed critical roles against these efforts to nazify the German Protestant Church. He helped author the Bethel Confession for the Confessing Church. He led German congregations abroad. He led an illegal seminary for the Confessing Church from 1935 to 1940, and he was involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

The impact of his labors against the nazification of the German Protestant Church was great. The example he set as a spiritual leader is still studied today and he continues to inspire millions.     

Frank Majewski is abandoned, abused, and rejected. By the time he turns twelve, he has all the makings of a juvenile delinquent. Frank is arrested so many times, he spends the majority of his high school years behind bars.

But when Frank turns nineteen, he meets Jesus Christ and his life is instantly changed. He shares his new faith with everyone he meets and begins to lead hundreds of bikers, hippies and drug addicts to Christ.

Set against a backdrop of the 1960’s, Bring Him to Me is the true story of a powerful Detroit evangelist, proving that no one is ever beyond the reach of God.

ENCOURAGE TO FAITH

The Presumptuous, Mostly Accurate Account of One Man’s Journey into the Heart of God 

Kevin Murray

Book Premises and Objectives: 

We are invited on an eternal journey into the heart of a loving God. All we have to do is accept. The book spans the life of Kevin Murray—from seeker to skeptic to believer to encourager. Kevin’s fresh and candid telling of the struggles and triumphs in his own life illuminates the clarion call for all of us—turn back to God and cling to the only relationship that will ever fulfill our deepest desires. 

People are struggling to get from their heads to their hearts how to relate personally to the God of all creation. They pretend otherwise, but they know they’re drifting and that they miss God desperately. Readers of this book will reignite their passion to embrace the God of the Bible as true north. They will find that the eternal journey into God’s heart was never meant to be a burdensome trek. Rather, it is a journey bathed in love and grace from a Father Who cares deeply about what is best for us and Who has the capacity to bring it about.

The book answers the questions “Who am I?” “Why Am I here?” and “Where am I going?” It is unabashedly philosophical in its presentation and both encouraging and persuasive in its teaching. The biographical story line presents the case that true meaning in life is found only in God, while at the same time exposing the misleading arguments of the skeptics who deny God. It also highlights the believer’s ongoing need to be filled with Jesus in order to be free of the false idols of this world and to grow into maturity of faith.

Market

The subject matter of the book will appeal to a broad range of readers. It is the story of the author’s spiritual journey which overlays the point that all men must make a journey. In that way, its ultimate appeal is to the human dilemma and to the One and only solution. 

Likely readers will be Christians ages twenty and up who are in need of encouragement that leads to lasting change; intelligent men and women of faith who want rational encouragement, but not technical jargon; devoted churchgoers who desire to carry the torch of faith throughout the week, not just on Sundays; believers who are not actively engaged in their faith due to past disappointments or confusion, but who would like to reengage and continue to grow; believers who feel distant from God, but long for deeper intimacy with Him; believers who would like to explore all the dimensions of the gift of faith; seekers who want accessible answers to their objections and obstacles to faith; Christian book lovers appreciative of an encouraging story line with thoughtful prose; readers seeking ultimate truth who prefer an appeal to the mind which also touches the heart.

A young girl uprooted from her Amish Mennonite community in the mountains of western Maryland, leaves the cloistered three-room Yoder School, where her mind never stalls and where she has already decided to become a teacher. She finds herself in Flint, Michigan, where no one knows a Mennonite. There she encounters fights, the Flint riots, and tries to keep from getting bullied for wearing a head covering to school. She wonders how she can learn to be a good teacher if she doesn’t have one. But she finds a place at the table in the school cafeteria with friends who learn to see her without first noticing the covering on her head.

She pursues her college diploma against odds through the post-Sputnik decades, searching in each new classroom for the enchantment of Yoder School. She finally finds it again at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she graduates with the hippies. Along the way, she learns how to be different, how much people are really the same, and that, if you want to go home again, you must create that home within yourself from pieces you’ve picked up along the way.

Part reflection and part research--A Congregation of One recounts my spiritual coming of age against the backdrop of a loving, albeit quirky family--whose secular Judaism was cultivated in opposition to South Carolina’s Bible Belt culture. The day I told my dad that I had embraced Christianity, he said, “If you were younger, I could put you over my knee and spank you.” At thirty-seven, I had insulted my Jewish family and every generation preceding them. Despite challenges over the last thirty years, I have integrated my belief into my personal identity.

Life began to unravel when Michael, our nine-year old, developed serious emotional problems. After a thirty-five-year struggle with depression, drug addiction, and an eating disorder, he revealed that a stranger had sexually molested him as a child. In my desire to resolve suffering on a deeper level, I realized that the Christian worldview held the only promise of making sense out of our grim reality.

Over the fifteen years of guarding my privacy, I attended to my inner life by writing, reading, praying, and meditating. Cultivating a faith of my own apart from culture war extremes, I viewed myself as “a congregation of one.”

Mountain Raised is the story of how Billie June Sutherland overcame the adversities of her childhood as a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia and went on to be an influential woman who role modeled faith and love to her family and community.

Along the way, she encountered many hardships, including a tragic mine explosion, racial prejudices, and the loss of loved ones. These are juxtaposed against the humorous interactions of a small town, the joys of raising a family, and an amazing love story.

This book illustrates the practical struggles of life and how faith triumphs over tragedy. Billie June’s life shows that leaving a legacy isn’t about wealth, publicity, or spectacular achievement. Rather, it is about loving people well, learning to laugh easily, and being resilient when challenges come.

Billie June’s story is told in a relatable way that has a message of hope for everyone. It illustrates the impact that a faithful life can have on others. Along the way, it is sure to bring both tears and laughter to all who venture to read its pages.

While tumbling on wet grass, 16-year-old Jenny Smith lost her identity as a gymnast and her physical independence after sustaining a spinal cord injury. She had no way to deal with the losses in her life or the shame and embarrassment of needing help with the most basic of daily activities. Slowly Jenny rediscovered how to use her gifts and talents in other settings. She became more confident in her abilities after meeting other women with disabilities at the Ms. Wheelchair America Pageant. Jenny found freedom and independence through wheelchair sports. From pushing down the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, to rolling down the catwalk during New York’s Fashion Week, she has experienced much more than she ever could have ever imagined. Faith, determination, and the support of family and friends allowed her to surpass the physical limitations she experienced after becoming a quadriplegic. Jenny’s story provides hope that there is life after a tragic injury.

In the civil affairs office in Zhengzhou, China, they handed us our daughter. After fifteen months of paper chasing and the agony of waiting, we finally had her. With four layers of clothes on, she was huge. So heavy. I tried to look into her face, but she wouldn’t focus or make eye contact. I handed her to my husband, and we studied her. Smiling with with relief, I thought, “It is over now, right?”

A horrible feeling crept into my soul while we waited to fill out more paperwork. The room with no heat felt suffocating. She would not look at us. Her body was limp, like a rag doll. The wait of her head was too heavy. Only a soft meow sound escaped from her parched lips. In that moment, I realized our lives would be different. Our normal life at home would change forever. Her medical needs were more significant than we had anticipated.

We had anticipated her to be minor-special needs. Her only diagnosis was “high muscle tone.” When she arrived to us with extremely low muscle tone, I knew something was wrong. In fact, she could barely sit, crawl, or even hold her head up. The drool poured from her mouth. While playing, she never looked at the object, she only used her peripheral vision. While we were in China, I struggled. My plan for our family was slowly coming undone. Fear began to plant a seed in my heart.

After arriving home I was just trying to survive with four children seven and under. Our new daughter needed as much help as a newborn. I had to struggle through the pain of losing my dreams, the guilt of attachment struggles, and the crying. She would scream for hours in grief, frustration, and for reasons I never knew. I felt so helpless.Was I supposed to be her mother? I felt like a stranger and the babysitter. Fear turned to grief and I wept through the pain. When I thought about the past, it brought guilt and shame. The future only held uncertainty. What would her quality of life be? Who would take care of her when we were gone? I hated myself for resenting the whole situation, but God showed me that all of my grief, anger, and frustration stemmed from fear. My mother bought me a little sign from Hobby Lobby a few weeks after returning home. It said: Practice Courage Every Single Day. I wept in exhaustion and maybe a little jet lag. Courage was the very farthest thing I felt, and it seemed utterly impossible.

In my book, Cultivating Courage, I share how a seed of fear was planted in my heart which led to a season of debilitating anxiety. Before fear grows into a weed, I’ve learned to rely on the daily process of cultivating courage through the study and truth of God’s Word.

Through the process of studying God’s Word, specifically the Psalms, I found a seed of faith to plant in my heart instead of fear. By cultivating this seed, through daily Bible reading, a new courage has bloomed in my life. Many of our fears are mirrored by the author’s of the Book of Psalms. In this book, I will walk the reader through my story while also bringing out truth from God’s word, especially the Book the Psalms to help her find God faithful, no matter what she faces. My book walks the reader through that journey, providing a reflection questions at the end of each chapter for further help in cultivating courage.

THAT ONE PERSON is the true story of a God-appointed stranger who saved a little girl with her love. Have you ever thought about that one special person who entered your world—perhaps unexpectedly—and changed the course of your life, sometimes forever? We all have one. We may even have more than one. Other times, we’re that person for someone else. Times when the unexpected occurs, over which we have no control. Some of those moments are happy. Some, not so much. Others are simply devastating. This memoir is about those people, and those moments.

I wrote this book to encourage others during their difficulties, and to encourage them to inspire others during their seemingly hopeless situations. My mother was an abusive teenager. When a doctor told her that I probably wouldn’t make it past third grade, she said that I was too much of a burden and it would have been better had I never been born. But God had a different plan I didn’t know anything about faith or courage at the time but He saw it all. He did what I couldn’t do for myself and sent a complete stranger into my life, who changed everything.

Nate Van Noord grew up in suburban Detroit in one of the wealthiest counties in America. But like many Detroit suburbanites in the 90s, he rarely ventured into the city. In 2006, however, with Detroit just being named the murder capital of America, he moves into a multi-racial, intentional Christian community in inner-city Detroit. Over the course of these last thirteen years, he recounts living next door to drug dealers, surviving a neighborhood shootout, and getting punched in the face on the basketball court. He takes us along on his journey of black friends questioning his motives for being in Detroit and teaching in the worst school district in America.

This is also a coming of age story about a young man whose mom cries every night as he decides to take literally Jesus’s call to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. Van Noord comically recounts eating out of dumpsters, sleeping in an abandoned factory, and floating down the Detroit river on a homemade raft. After his father and grandfather worked so hard to bring his family into the middle class, he pursues a life of downward mobility from biking through Detroit’s harsh winters to taking home a toilet he finds in the bushes. He weaves an inspiring narrative of being a missionary to his neighborhood and city but first discovers he has a lot to learn about race, class, community, and the faithful lives of those already there. He spins his tale about the city in his backyard he never knew - from being the worldwide symbol of urban decay to bankruptcy to its rise from the ashes - discovering hope in a place most would have never expected.    

Ten miles in, ten miles out. Anyone who walks ten miles into the forest better be willing to put in the work to walk the ten miles back home. Zach Mason started looking at porn when he was ten years old. That is fifteen years of graphic sexual content floating through his memory. Does that mean it will take fifteen years of working on recovery to stop watching?   This autobiographical work, broken up by periods of allegorical short stories, focuses on specific details and decisions that can lead to a lifetime of shame. Zach narrows in on his early encounter with pornography and how that affects his relationships, the way he views himself, and most importantly, the way he views God.  What happens when you have to choose between hating yourself and allowing perfect love to redeem you? What happens when you finally allow that perfect love to redeem you yet terrible choices, addiction and depression continue to win? Zach opens up his mind and heart to the process of recovery and finds one answer: Jesus.  

I knew the boy well:  He was born into a near-destitute family in a unique era defined by the Great Depression and extending through WWII.   His family was atypical in heritage, faith, lifestyle, character, and appearance.  His mother wore a prayer covering and plain dress that belied her fiery nature and her dramatic past as a peasant maiden who endured the horrors of revolution and war.  His American-born father had a dogmatic “German” personality,  made more rigid and narrow by his conversion to a (very) conservative, pacifist’s faith.  The boy’s family of seven lived on less than an acre of land that contained their primitive house,  an outhouse, and five dinky outbuildings that sheltered a menagerie of animals and stuff (junk).   The boy’s neighborhood was defined by modern, middle-class homes on neat and orderly lawns.  The resulting contrast was like a wart on the face of a lovely maiden. As the author, I know first-hand the misery and pains of poverty resulting from cold and hunger.  Accordingly, I intended to write a book about the harshness of poverty and its ill effects on a boy. Yet, the life of this boy in poverty had an unexpected mystique and appeal to me.  He enjoyed adventures born in poverty beyond the dreams of most boys.  I would have liked to have been that boy—and so I was.  As such, the anecdotes and related events in this book are true to the limits of memory.  That reality enhances the intrigue that starts with my mother, who affectionately (most of the time ) referred to me in German as “Der Kleine Lump” (The Little Rascal).

Jean Bosco was 14 years old when the genocide that would claim the lives of almost one million people in Rwanda began. With the assistance of writer Karen Panton WalkingEagle, he tells the true story of how he survived after being sucked up into a powerful tornado of death and disruption and being forced to flee his home and family. His book, Upheld, is a testimony to the fact that in the midst of the traumatic, the miraculous can happen and God’s grace can abound. Yes, he did literally run for his life through the forests of Rwanda and Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and daringly escape from refugee camps in both Uganda and Kenya. And yes, at the age of 17, he did find himself imprisoned with hardened adult criminals who spoke a language he barely understood. But he was one of the fortunate ones; his story did not end there. Upheld by God’s righteous right hand he not only survived, but he lived to fulfill the simple promise he had whispered to Jesus during his most desperate moment: “If you get me out of here, I will serve you the rest of my life.”

Pam Espy was just 53 when a stroke left her with severe language deficits and memory impairments. Her therapies ran their course. Our church welcomed her, but expected nothing from her. Yet, as her husband, I clung to the promise that God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). I believed that she was not diminished, only broken — like me, like so many who are marginalized inside and outside our churches. Together, we have walked a journey that has not been recovery so much as manifestation and laying bare. At times this has meant disinhibited rage, when she called the police on me, or when I snapped. More often, thankfully, we have laughed, as words and all our devices fail us. This is a stroke memoir, proceeding first chronologically and then topically. It is also a work of reflection, drawing on Scripture, poetry, neuroscience, and more than 40 accounts of other stroke and brain injury survivors. Ultimately, it is a love story, a meditation on what remains when everything is shaken.

What do a struggling mom, an unsatisfied nun, a misunderstood teenager, and a homeless former slave all have in common?  Each of them, in the midst of great disasters, changed history.  From Michigan to Mozambique, travel across time and history to learn key life lessons from Christianity’s wisest women. From civil rights champion Sojourner Truth to Susanna Wesley, the “Mother of Methodism,” glean perspective and practical insights about living a life of faith and influence regardless of circumstances. These women faced seemingly insurmountable challenges both personally and in society, but still made an enduring impact.   Follow the journeys of the prophet Deborah, the Virgin Mary, Catherine of Siena, Susanna Wesley, Sojourner Truth, St. Therese of Lisieux, Mother Teresa, and Dr. Heidi Baker as they deal with pandemics, debt, genocide, foreign invasion, houses burning down, boredom, cyclones, and much more. Whether you are a struggling single mom or a national leader, these women will encourage you to live a life of faith, hope, and transformation.

“Adventures of a Maverick Scientist” is a memoir about a Christian science writer who received international publicity after losing his column in Scientific American because he privately rejected Darwinian evolution and abortion. That writer was me, and I went on to write 50+ books with total sales exceeding 7.5 million copies (the potential  audience for this memoir) and receive a Rolex Award for inventing a handheld  instrument that found an error in NASA’s ozone satellite. That finding led to my first paper in Nature, the world’s leading scientific journal. This memoir is designed to motivate Christians to excel when faced with ridicule from skeptics and today’s cancel culture crowd. Thanks to my faith in God, I’ve had a successful career as an inventor, self-taught scientist and author of best-selling books and a few thousand magazine and newspaper articles. I’ve also edited two science magazine. Though my sole degree is a BA in government and English from Texas A&M, more than 20 of my research papers have been published in science journals. A paper on my 30 years of measurements of the ozone layer, water vapor layer and haze will be published in the December issue of  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, a leading journal.

Imagine that you had witnessed 276 executions. What would that do to a person? Would it make you stronger or tear you down? Would you be able to sleep at night or would death be your constant companion, even in your dreams? In ”A Beautiful Day To Die – What 276 Executions Have Taught a Death Row Chaplain About Life” I delve deep into an unlikely story of self discovery that came about after visiting death row chaplain Jim Brazzil in his Texas countryside home. In a touchingly honest two week long interview I became privy to his remarkable life’s journey of love, forgiveness, and redemption. This book shows readers the incredible impact Jim has had on countless souls, but also reveals the universal truths he has learned through his incredible experiences. Through Jim’s brutally honest revelations and my reflections you will learn about living life to the fullest, forgiving those who have wronged you, and finding hope in the darkest of moments. Both by the grace of God, but also from your own doing. This book was recently published here in my native Sweden, but as Jim is dying, it is his last wish, and mine, that it will be published in America as well.