One Day Closer To Death

"I have an incredible story to tell. It occurs during extraordinary times between two worlds that have grown complacent about God. There is a rebellion brewing on heaven and earth, and with the four horsemen saddling up, as 'end times' draw near, our two lives will be crucial to changing our worlds' course. Stay with me here because redemption is always worth it, especially when it comes to the salvation of two deeply broken beings, one who was transformed into the bringer of Death and collector of souls, and then there's me. Forever hiding from my disfigurement, unwilling to let go and live the life God has granted me. "“That is until I met Azrael.”

Highlighting this collection is an ingenious new episode in the saga of Jimmy Blackburn, the eponymous serial killer of Denton's third novel. "Blackburn Bakes Cookies" might best be called the icing on the cake that is Blackburn's story, and it is appropriately delectable. Other highlights of this collection include: "The Territory," a "what if?" story revisiting Kansas in the days of the Civil War and imagining, in one small way, how things might have gone a bit differently; "We Love Lydia Love," a science-fictional examination of the ways in which modern obsessions with celebrity and stardom can change us...and the ways in which we'll never change; and "The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians," a moving and funny trip to the afterlife, where all great comics go when they die. In assembling these stories, Bradley Denton discovered that all of them are concerned with some aspect of death. It's true. And yet (as they say), in death there is life: these eight tales brim with such vitality and joie de vivre that readers will find themselves enjoying the work of this fantastic storyteller again and again.

How do you find God in the midst of pain, suffering, and despair? Who should you turn to for assistance when you're at your lowest point? No matter what kind of life you've led, or what kinds of sins you've committed, where is the one place you can find eternal salvation? The answers to these questions and many more are found inside the covers of One Day Closer to God. View the fascinating, little-known world of penitentiary life behind the eyes of a veteran inmate who has endured over 25 years behind the wall. Hear the grim details and personal anecdotes of the daily violence, profanity, lewd behavior, disrespect, hostility, and hatred found in our nation's lock-ups. Finally, find out how only Jesus Christ can give you true fulfillment, satisfaction, and joy in this life and the next.

An instant national bestseller and "a beautiful story of what love can do to conquer the impossible" (Jann Arden). On the day my daughter was kidnapped by outlaws in Somalia, my life split into two parts: Before and After. This is the story of both parts, and of how I fought to bring my daughter home. On August 23, 2008, Amanda Lindhout, Lorinda Stewart’s daughter, is kidnapped outside of Mogadishu in Somalia. The kidnappers’ demand is simple: pay $2.5 million or Amanda will be killed. For the next 460 days, Lorinda does everything in her power—and beyond—to get her daughter back alive. This brave, small-town mother with no experience in hostage negotiations is called upon by the RCMP to be the lead communicator with Adam, the Somali who identifies himself as the English-speaking negotiator for Amanda's kidnappers. In a secret “war room” in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, Lorinda joins forces with federal officers and begins to answer calls from Adam, establishing a fragile rapport of trust with the man who holds her daughter’s fate in his hands. She learns how to demand POLs—proofs of life—from Amanda’s hostage takers and even how to react to “bad calls”—when she is forced to listen to her daughter’s desperate cries for help, fearing she is being abused and tortured. What’s supposed to be a short negotiation stretches on, and weeks become months. Lorinda finds herself increasingly on her own as negotiations break down. But she never gives up hope, even as the conversations become more traumatic. Faced with the terrible possibility of her daughter’s death, she decides to take control, bringing in private hostage negotiators and fundraising ransom money from donors. But will it be enough? This is the true story of one woman’s heroic perseverance in the face of despair, and of the hope and healing to be found beyond trauma. It is also, in the end, a tribute to the extraordinary power of a mother’s love.

What are we one day closer to? Everything that will happen in the future. Christians, and particularly students of Biblical prophecy, understand that everybody is one day closer to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. With the downward direction of our country and current disturbing world events and trends, the probability of moving closer to the second coming is increasing. That is not to say the date is known. Only the Father knows the date. One Day Closer cites biblical quotes, history, and political events, showing how and why the downward direction occurred and world events are unfolding as they are. It also includes end-event prophecy details.

Voices From American Prisons: Faith, Education and Healing is a comprehensive and unique contribution to understanding the dynamics and nature of penal confinement. In this book, author Kaia Stern describes the history of punishment and prison education in the United States and proposes that specific religious and racial ideologies - notions of sin, evil and otherness - continue to shape our relationship to crime and punishment through contemporary penal policy. Inspired by people who have lived, worked, and studied in U.S. prisons, Stern invites us to rethink the current ‘punishment crisis’ in the United States. Based on in-depth interviews with people who were incarcerated, as well as extensive conversations with students, teachers, corrections staff, and prison administrators, the book introduces the voices of those who have participated in the few remaining post-secondary education programs that exist behind bars. Drawing on individual narrative and various modern day case examples, Stern focuses on dehumanization, resistance, and community transformation. She demonstrates how prison education is essential, can provide healing, and yet is still not enough to interrupt mass incarceration. In short, this book explores the possibility of transformation from a retributive punishment system to a system of justice. The book’s engaging, human accounts and multidisciplinary perspective will appeal to criminologists, sociologists, historians, theologians and scholars of education alike. Voices from American Prisons will also capture general readers who are interested in learning about a timely and often silenced reality of contemporary modern society.

2012 Global Warning: The destination or the beginning of the apocalypse? Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. And very soon after this the ceremonies of people will cease. There are nine signs that great destruction has come and is coming. Like many tribes, the Hopis drew images that have come to pass and images of things to come. Thirteen Baktuns is equal to just over 5,125 years, and in our present age of the jaguar, the fourth age, the Great Cycle runs out on the winter solstice, December 21, 2012, the Mayan end date. The meaning is the death of the sun, the rebirth of a universe, and the Mayan Prophecy of the return of the god Quetzalcoatl: all this is the subject of active debate. This time will also mark a United States change in era where we will elect a new President. Is this the prophecy of the Antichrist? Could it be the end of one time and the beginning of the final stages of centuries of prophecies?

Perhaps you too have experienced the nausea brought on by the arrival of an invitation to a high school reunion. Bookstore clerk and culture junker Verity Presti will soon attend her fifteenth reunion with her boyfriend, the unfortunately but aptly named Charlie Brown, who lives with his parents while training to be an urban shaman—a modern-day medicine man somewhat capable of exorcising ghosts from apartments and cubicles, predicting baseball scores, and channeling lost pets. Verity, angst-ridden and burdened with fifteen years of magnificent failure, will be reunited with Craig and Carolyn, sickeningly perfect high school sweethearts, married now and perfectly sick of each other; Verity’s former crush Stan and his wife, Laurel, a frustrated author of angry haikus; and Will, a rage-aholic KJ (that’s “karaoke jockey”) whose only soft spot is the one he still has for Verity. A growing anxiety permeates the round of cocktail parties that precedes the reunion, causing old affections and animosities to boil over and threaten the dubious complacency of these seven lovable losers. With her trademark sarcasm and uncanny ability to skewer the oddities of contemporary hipster life, Stella has created a cast of endearingly eccentric characters who embody the insecurities and foibles that all of us—former prom desperados, band nerds, the burnout brigade, and loner stiffs—have and hope nobody else will notice.