From Crip to Christ

From Crip to Christ
Author: Eric M. West
Publisher:
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2014-01-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780980194043

Imagine you're a sensitive child living with your godly grandmother in small-town Arkansas of the 1960s. One random day your mother, almost a stranger to you, appears and decides to remove you from the only loving home you've ever known and take you with her to live eventually in Watts—the volatile area in south central Los Angeles where the savage Watts Riots had occurred not many years before and where the notorious street gangs—the Crips and the Bloods—had recently started up to confront a hostile world. In the relative peace in the place of your roots, the severe stuttering condition you've always endured had been disregarded as no big deal; but in the hostile atmosphere of the projects in L.A., you find yourself bullied and beaten unmercifully—daily. As a continual victim, you fear for your life. You have no source of protection or familiar support. How can you even survive? Would allegiance to a gang provide the kind of safety you so critically need? Who could blame you for seeking the only available security? Eric's decision to become not only a Crip but a ruthless and hardened leader among them, took him deeply into the valley of the dark side. But God had other plans. Follow Eric's treacherous journey through that valley, the crushing of his spirit and nearly his life, his call toward the peace of God's mountain, and his climb upward to victory. The difference between Eric the Grape Street Watts Crip and Eric the Man of God is truly so startling that, once you've read his searingly honest story, you will never doubt God's unlimited power to change lives again.

13 Years With A Bullet

13 Years With A Bullet
Author: Mr. Mike Sanchez
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
Total Pages: 103
Release: 2017-01-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1635255384

This is a story about a middle-aged married Christian man. How his life changed when an unexpected thing happened to him. The way he handled it was the wrong way to handle it. He became a fugitive from the law. He was on the run for thirteen years till the police arrested him. This Christian man prayed to the Lord and prayed for his help and protection through his ordeal. Mr. Mike Sanchez

The Whole Language

The Whole Language
Author: Gregory Boyle
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2023-04-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 198212833X

Beloved Jesuit priest and author of the inspirational bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir returns with a call to witness the transformative power of tenderness, rooted in his lifetime of experience counseling gang members in Los Angeles. Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang-intervention program in the world. Now, following his acclaimed bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart, “destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality” (Los Angeles Times), and Barking to the Choir, deemed “a beautiful and important and soul-transporting book” by Elizabeth Gilbert comes The Whole Language, a book that “filled my cup with hope” (The Jesuit Review). In a community struggling to overcome systemic poverty and violence, The Whole Language shows how those at Homeboy Industries fight despair and remain generous, hopeful, and tender. When Saul was thirteen years old, he killed his abusive stepfather in self-defense; after spending twenty-three years in juvenile and adult jail, he enters the Homeboy Industries training and healing programs and embraces their mission. Declaring, “I’ve decided to grow up to be somebody I always needed as a child,” Saul shows tenderness toward the young men in his former shoes, treating them all like his sons and helping them to find their way. Before coming to Homeboy Industries, a young man named Abel was shot thirty-three times, landing him in a coma for six months followed by a year and a half recuperating in the hospital. He now travels on speaking tours with Boyle and gives guided tours around the Homeboy offices. One day a new trainee joins Abel as a shadow, and Abel recognizes him as the young man who had put him in a coma. “You give good tours,” the trainee tells Abel. They both have embarked on a path to wholeness. Boyle’s moving stories challenge our ideas about God and about people, providing a window into a world filled with fellowship, compassion, and fewer barriers. Bursting with encouragement, humor, and hope, The Whole Language invites us to treat others—and ourselves—with acceptance and tenderness.

Barking to the Choir

Barking to the Choir
Author: Greg Boyle
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1476726159

A Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries traces his experiences of working with gangs in Los Angeles for three decades, sharing what his efforts have taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of radical kinship.

Homies and Hermanos

Homies and Hermanos
Author: Robert Brenneman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2011-11-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0199912491

Using the tools of sociological theory, Robert Brenneman seeks to discover why a pot-smoking, gun-wielding "homie" gang member would want to trade in la vida loca for a Bible and the buttoned-down lifestyle of an evangelical hermano (brother in Christ) - and to what extent this strategy works for the many youth who have tried it.

The Concept

The Concept
Author: Bo Bennett
Publisher: eBookIt.com
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2010-11-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1456600001

Maybe you were born to Christian parents and raised as a Christian. Or maybe you are just a part of a Christian nation. You might have attended church regularly, or maybe just on special occasions. If asked, you say that you believe in God, but you really never thought about what that means exactly. You are a well-educated person who accepts the idea of Biblical miracles, but only the more "reasonable" ones. You have read some of the Bible, mostly just parts of the New Testament, but never committed to reading the Bible cover to cover. You are a good person who admires the many "Christian values" as demonstrated by Jesus Christ. But something does not feel right. * Science tells us that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, but the Bible tells us it's 6,000 years old. * Science tells us life is the result of emergent properties in combined molecules, and we have evolved from a very primitive life form, but the Bible says that God made us, as is, from dust, and blew life in our noses. * You see a world where little bunnies burn to death in forest fires, and wonder why an all-good and loving God would allow such a thing to happen. * You pray to God and you realize that sometimes your prayers are answered, and sometimes they aren't -- just as if you didn't pray at all. * You hear about other religions and wonder why your religion is right and every other religion on the planet is wrong. * You have a real problem with the idea of all your non-Jesus-believing friends and family spending eternity in Hell.âe¨ In fact, the more you look around, the more you see a world absent of this perfect image of a perfect God. As much as you want to avoid critical thinking and "just let go and have faith", you find that you cannot believe in something contrary to your logic and reason -- no matter how much you want to. This might lead to feelings of guilt, insincerity, and/or hypocrisy. Yet you just can't imagine living life without God, and you don't have to. When you start asking serious questions about God and religion, you begin to see through the stories of people living inside the stomachs of big fish, 900-year-old men, and bodies coming back to life after three days, and understand how man created God, and not the other way around. By daring to question "sacred" religion, challenging your childhood beliefs, and risking eternal damnation (okay, so there might be a minor side effect to reading this book), you will discover an appreciation for religion on a new level, as well as a renewed appreciation for the human race. Through a unique blend of science, philosophy, theology, and a touch of humor, you will see how you can trust your logic and reason, be true to yourself, and embrace God - not as a being, but as a concept - The Concept.