In 1850’s Ocracoke, North Carolina, against backdrop of the mysterious Roanoke tragedy, the Devil uses a local town to gain access to their infant sons, including an unborn Jeremiah Black. The plan is clear, he wants to build a new regime of evil. Jeremiah’s parents unite with an old friend and London inspector, Matthias Connors and Callum, a unique individual with unparalleled powers to save the town and stave off the Devil’s plan. Lives will be lost, sacrifices will be made, and an unborn child’s fate hangs in the balance. An origin story for Gehlert's prior novel, "Jeremiah Black."
The sacrificial nature of Jesus' crucifixion stands at the core of the Christian faith, and it serves as a focal point for the forty days of Lent. The essential meaning of his death as a victim of sacrifice is widely recognized, but there is more to the sacrificial representation than many realize. Jesus is not, for example, described in the New Testament only as a Passover lamb. That type of lamb sacrifice had nothing to do with addressing sin. His sacrifice involved concepts beyond Passover. Jesus and his early followers drew upon Jewish Scriptures to describe his death in light of several other Israelite practices and traditions, such as Day of Atonement rituals, guilt-sacrifice, and more. In this book, Tatlock draws upon his understanding of ancient sacrifice to explain the complex portrayal of the crucifixion in the New Testament. He shares about his personal challenges and insights in a series of daily reflections for the Lenten season or for any other time of the year.
It’s never too late to be a better father Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, is an expert in fatherhood—in part because his own "fathers" failed him so badly. His biological dad was an alcoholic. His stepfather deserted him. His foster father accused Jim of trying to kill him. All were out of Jim's life by the time he turned 13. Isn’t it odd—and reminiscent of the hand of God—that the director of the leading organization on family turned out to be a guy whose own background as a kid and son were pretty messed up? Or could it be that successful parenting is discovered not in the perfect, peaceful household but in the midst of battles and messy situations, where God must constantly be called to the scene? That is the mystery unraveled in this book. Using his own expertise, humor, and inexhaustible wealth of stories, Jim will show you that God can make you a good dad, a great dad, in spite of the way you’ve grown up and in spite of the mistakes you’ve made. Maybe even because of them. It’s not about becoming a perfect father. It’s about trying to become a better father, each and every day. It's about building relationships with your children through love, grace, patience, and fun—and helping them grow into the men and women they’re meant to be.
Apoyo Sacrificial, Sacrificial Support explores the experiences of undocumented Latinx parents as they support and guide their children’s pathways to higher education, and how their precarious immigration status impacts this support. In addition to analyzing the various understandings, interactions, and relationships undocumented Latinx parents develop with different education entities, including secondary schools and colleges and universities, the book also examines these in relation to the various social, political, and economic factors that shape parents’ engagement with their children’s education. Cuevas illuminates how the parents in her study engaged in supportive behaviors similar to those of middle and upper classes families despite the barriers they faced, such as low-income households, undocumented legal status, and single parenting. Providing an alternative view of parental engagement and access to higher education, Apoyo Sacrificial, Sacrificial Support will help educators truly meet the needs of marginalized students and communities. Book Features: Illustrates the often unobserved and unappreciated supportive strategies employed by undocumented Latinx parents. Highlights in-depth qualitative interviews that center the voices and perspectives of parents.Shows how an undocumented immigration status is a unique barrier that shapes how families interact with education entities. Illustrates the range of supportive behaviors undocumented Latinx parents engage in to ensure their children’s success, including access to higher education. Demonstrates how the parents of first-generation Latinx students play a critical role in their success, even after they matriculate to college.
Among the many religious acts condemned in the Hebrew Bible, child sacrifice stands out as particularly horrifying. The idea that any group of people would willingly sacrifice their own children to their god(s) is so contrary to modern moral sensibilities that it is difficult to imagine that such a practice could have ever existed. Nonetheless, the existence of biblical condemnation of these rites attests to the fact that some ancient Israelites in fact did sacrifice their children. Indeed, a close reading of the evidence—biblical, archaeological, epigraphic, etc.—indicates that there are at least three different types of Israelite child sacrifice, each with its own history, purpose, and function. In addition to examining the historical reality of Israelite child sacrifice, Dewrell’s study also explores the biblical rhetoric condemning the practice. While nearly every tradition preserved in the Hebrew Bible rejects child sacrifice as abominable to Yahweh, the rhetorical strategies employed by the biblical writers vary to a surprising degree. Thus, even in arguing against the practice of child sacrifice, the biblical writers themselves often disagreed concerning why Yahweh condemned the rites and why they came to exist in the first place.
This book offers a new assessment of the Joseph story from the perspective of the biblical laws in Leviticus 1-10. Of interest to professors and students of humanities, religion, law; also religious professionals and laypersons interested in biblical studies.
Judaism, the origin of which dates from the rejection of polytheism by the patriarch Abraham nearly four thousand years ago, is committed to the worship of the one and only God. In the course of that long period of devotion, the character of that worship has evolved from a primitive form to progressively more sophisticated approaches necessitated by historical circumstances. The present study is concerned primarily with the original concept of worship of the divine in the form of a sacrificial cult, conducted by a priestly hierarchy, as described in the biblical Pentateuch, and the later transition to a democratized form of verbal worship conducted by the laity in a synagogue or by the individual in one’s home, as described in the rabbinic literature. One of the significant difficulties encountered in such a study is the translation of biblical and rabbinic Hebrew texts into English, which employs terminology such as ‘worship’ and ‘prayer’, terms which have no reliable biblical or rabbinic Hebrew equivalent. Accordingly, the common equation of worship, in the general sense of reverence paid to a god, with prayer, in the more precise Jewish sense of supplication or petition, can be misleading. Indeed, prayer, understood in the latter sense, constitutes a rather small segment of the voluminous liturgy of Jewish worship, much of which is drawn directly from Scripture, whereas prayer as petition, both formal and personal, is primarily the product of individuals confronting a variety of challenges to their and their coreligionists’ social and physical wellbeing. The principal focus of this study is on prayer, understood in the latter sense, which is traditionally interconnected with benedictions intended to give hope to those petitioning for divine beneficence.
The Hebrew Bible portrays King Manasseh and child sacrifice as the most reprehensible person and the most objectionable practice within the story of 'Israel'. This monograph suggests that historically, neither were as deviant as the Hebrew Bible appears to insist. Through careful historical reconstruction, it is argued that Manasseh was one of Judah's most successful monarchs, and child sacrifice played a central role in ancient Judahite religious practice. The biblical writers, motivated by ideological concerns, have thus deliberately distorted the truth about Manasseh and child sacrifice.
"The near sacrifice and miraculous restoration of a beloved son is a central but largely overlooked theme in both Judaism and Christianity. This book explores how this notion of child sacrifice constitutes an overlooked bond between the two religions."--
