"Crackerjack Moments with Jesus is a book about encountering God in unexpected places and in some really inspiring ways! Sure to stir your appetite for your own amazing moments where God comes through for you, these incredible stories will encourage you and lift you up! They will build your faith in a living God who wants to give you your own Crackerjack Moments with Him!

Throughout 17 years of teaching inner-city children Bible through Keeping Hope Alive, I have prayed for the mothers of many children. Looking into the face of a mom whose eyes were black as night, I could feel the trauma she had gone through. Even so, this mom lacked the confidence to say no, and to get out of the abusive situation. Another mom we prayed for had been beaten by her boyfriend many times, even hospitalized. However, she always went back to him. One other mom had been beaten repeatedly by her boyfriend. Some days her arms would be covered with bruises, and she always had a hollow look on her face. I would come in each week to teach Bible for the kids who stayed in this hotel. Over time I noticed small changes, gradually she wanted to read Christian books, and study the Bible more. Soon she was setting boundaries and telling her boyfriend no to things that were not appropriate. Even though her life started changing for the better, she still lacked confidence to move completely forward and out of the grip of the abusive boyfriend. After seeing abuse in the lives of mothers over and over again, lacking the confidence to get out of the dangerous situations in which they found themselves, I decided to write this book. Behind Closed Doors shares stories of women who lived in abusive situations, and how God brought them through it to the other side. It is intended to bring hope to them through the realization that God can and will help them through the circumstances they face. He will give them the confidence to keep walking, to keep saying no, and to keep trusting Him to bring them through to a new life on the other side of abuse.

A young pitching coach for a major league team in Buffalo discovers that baseball, his great true love, has changed in ways that reflect our constantly evolving society. Tradition clashes with modernity both on and off the baseball diamond in hilarious, ironic and unexpected ways.

As most readers of the New Testament know, the words of Jesus are often spoken in riddles--in parables and other sayings that were and continue to be difficult to understand. In Jesus the Riddler, Tom Thatcher explains that Jesus may have been intentionally ambiguous, using riddles to establish his authority as a teacher and to encourage his followers to think more deeply about the nature of truth. Jesus' riddles, like riddles across many cultures, potentially refer to many different things, and they challenge those who hear them to decode the meaning the riddler intends. Figuring out the riddles in which Jesus spoke requires a depth of faith and close attention to the words of the gospel. With text boxes and other helpful features, this book guides readers through discerning these puzzling and important words.

Ira Nettleman was your ordinary garden variety schnook who had that certain combination of qualities you can only get by crossing Woody Allen with Danny Kaye, and then throwing them into a breeding pool with Lassie, the famous Collie dog. A schnook, definitely, that is, until the Central Intelligence Agency comes calling, and, then, well, that same schnook turns into a delightful butterfly, or, in this case, everyone's hero, a sometimes fumbling, sometimes babbling, sometimes irritating hero who trashes the villains of international terrorism. One after another, right and left, the bad guys fall before Ira's Jell-O-like stature, Qaddafi, Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, and hosts of others; they can never stand against him.

This book is a contemporary, scripture-rich, and visual exploration of the Catholic faith for young adults. There are chapter profiles on Christian role models from both ancient and modern times, and discussions of contemporary events from a Christian perspective. (Adapted from back cover).

Through Maggie's drunken youth, she was reminded by her preacher father of The 3 Things: you are part of a family, be true to yourself, and glorify God in all that you do. But as Maggie shares in this transformational book, those old truths take on new meaning in modern life, recovery, and motherhood. Sometimes, simplicity can untangle the most complicated messes. Even in the darkest pit with the cold hard slab of rock bottom pressed against our face, there is a lifeline of truth, a rope of wisdom we can grab to pull ourselves out. As Maggie Boxey curled into a tight ball of overwhelming shame, addiction, and isolation, she could hear her preacher father’s voice, echoing in her ears. “You are part of a family. Be true to yourself. Glorify God in all that you do.” These were the three things Maggie’s Daddy would insist she repeat as a teenager before running out the door for “sleepovers” that were really trips to the darkest corners of town to binge drink with strangers. Each night, she would rattle off the 3 things before wandering off to pull herself further into the complicated mess it would take decades to untangle. It took her 25 hard, traumatic years for her to fully grasp the depth of her father’s words, through her time serving in the Navy, through addiction, and through losing custody of her child due to her behavior and instability. The deeper Maggie sunk into addiction and isolation, the less she felt part of a family. Without community to see herself reflected back to her, it felt impossible for her to be true to herself. Instead of glorifying God in all she did, she resorted to foxhole prayers and felt unworthy of God’s love. She lived in the undoing of the 3 things until she found herself in an alcoholic suicidal bottom with only two ways to go: end it all, or surrender to a new beginning. She chose the latter. With the 3 things as her guide, Maggie gathered powerful forces to aid her in her recovery: contemplation, community, celebration, and compassion for herself and others. She relied on her 12-step recovery community to help her get sober and put in the humble work to right the wrongs of her past. She became part of a family again, both chosen and inherited. Her compassionate honesty allowed her to be true to herself. And she remembered what it means to glorify God in all she did, whether that was taking out the trash, giving birth to her second child, or writing a book in service to others, The 3 Things. In The 3 Things, Maggie Boxey shares how she used her faith to regain all she lost and find the will to start again, even when it seemed hopeless. She shares her struggles of being a sober progressive liberal and *gasp* vegetarian living in military communities in the South. And as a die-hard Indigo Girls fan, she guides readers from all walks of life and religious backgrounds to get closer to fine.