Suffocated By Church

What was it like to be face to face with Jesus? What does Heaven look like? And what did Randy Kay learn from his afterlife encounter? As a human development researcher, medical advisor, and director of clinical support, Randy Kay was not given to fantastical ideas about the spirit realm or embellished divine encounters. But after clinically dying in the hospital, Randy Kay had a life-changing afterlife experience with Jesus in Heaven. In his first book, Dying to Meet Jesus, Randy shared this experience, but not the supernatural insights and profound discoveries he received. Now, Randy senses a timely assignment from the Holy Spirit to answer the question so many readers have asked: what did you learn while you were in Heaven? In Revelations from Heaven, Randy leads you into a heavenly encounter of your own, revealing 31 revelations that God is unveiling to you. These insights include Emboldened Prayer: A biblical perspective on encounters in Heaven and how they embolden our prayer lives. Conversations with Jesus: Insights that were exchanged while Randy communicated with Jesus in Heaven. Angelic and Demonic Activity: How there is a very real, invisible realm battling over the souls of humanity. Race and Ethnicity in Heaven: In eternity, how do people see one another and how does God see them? The Sights, Sounds, and Senses of Heaven: In Heaven, the five senses are enhanced and there are new senses that earthly language cannot explain. Heavens Perspective on Sadness and Grief: How tears are kept and collected in bottles. The Difference Between Paradise and Heaven: When a believer dies, where do they really go? Take hold of the amazing truths that Heaven has released through Randys incredible experience, and see for yourself the powerful life-change that can accompany Revelations from Heaven.

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Christians often hear that following Jesus means our lives should be full of satisfaction. But how many of us actually experience that kind of life? Amy Simpson wants to debunk this satisfaction myth in the church. In this freeing confession, Simpson explains that our very unsatisfaction indicates a longing for God, and understanding those longings can bring us closer to him. Discover anew what it truly means to be satisfied in Christ.

In The Myth of Persecution, Candida Moss, a leading expert on early Christianity, reveals how the early church exaggerated, invented, and forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the dangerous legacy of a martyrdom complex is employed today to silence dissent and galvanize a new generation of culture warriors. According to cherished church tradition and popular belief, before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in the fourth century, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. These saints, Christianity's inspirational heroes, are still venerated today. Moss, however, exposes that the "Age of Martyrs" is a fiction—there was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still taught in Sunday school classes, celebrated in sermons, and employed by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get Christians and, rather, embrace the consolation, moral instruction, and spiritual guidance that these martyrdom stories provide.

Imagine what might happen if the solid foundation of what you believe suddenly begins to shake... That’s exactly what happened to Lisa Brockman, a six-generation Mormon with lineage tracing back to the early church. In college, Lisa found herself challenged to defend her faith, and the beliefs she knew to be true began to unravel. In Out of Zion, Lisa shares her journey of discovering the biblical Jesus and the key conversations that led her from the faith of her ancestors to conversion to Christianity. If you have reached a place of questioning what you believe, or you long for confidence to share your faith with others, Lisa provides the framework you need to… understand the nuances of the history and evolution of Mormon culture learn to identify the vital differences between the Mormon and biblical plans of salvation compassionately engage in conversation with your Mormon friends and neighbors As you follow the evolution of Lisa’s faith, you will face the same challenge to defend what you believe and, ultimately, learn to share the gospel effectively with others.

The legendary treatise on how so many died at the hands of Roman and Pagan aggressors. In good Catholic fashion, the work is heavy on the descriptions, showing who and how and where they died, with attention paid to each and every sin, in graphic detail... with loads of illustrations.

The movie Spotlight drew focus to my own situation. Reflecting on my youth as a gay Catholic male, I saw the immense influence of the dominant white Sydney culture of the mid-20th Century, my traditional devout family and the ingrained, no, near intrinsic need to cover-up. The need to deny my own sexuality on one hand but also to deny my openly Catholic practice on the other. This deeply personal account of Paul's life is uncomfortably situated in that overarching paradigm as it focuses of Paul's journey from his childhood, through adolescence and a turbulent internal struggle to his eventual coming out later in life as a Proud Gay Australian. Paul reflects on several stages of his life including: his time as an altar boy, two stints in Catholic monasteries as a teenager, Clerical Sexual Abuse, failed relationships with women and men, a sojourn to the exotic Papua New Guinea and life in the Sydney Catholic Seminary, all prior to marriage in the Catholic church. How does Paul become his authentic self?

Over the past few years, John Pavlovitz's blog, Stuff That Needs To Be Said, has become a virtual hub for millions of people from all over the world, drawn there by his clear, compelling words on compassion, equity, love, and justice. This expansive, like-hearted community transcends race, orientation, gender, religious tradition, political affiliation, and nation of origin--and finds its affinity in the deeper place of our shared humanity, which is the True North of his writing. This collection lovingly pulls together some of John's most widely-read and most beloved essays on faith, politics, grief, and the elemental parts of being human. It is an encouraging, inspiring, challenging storehouse of "stuff that needs to be said."

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.