Being the son of counter-culture author William S. Burroughs is bound to be a trial. After all, the man who frequented lesbian dives and had a fascination with firearms couldn't possibly make that great of a father. Perhaps inevitably, William Jr. (called Billy) referred to himself as "cursed from birth" and in the book of the same name editor David Ohle collects parts of Billy's third and unfinished novel Prakriti Junction, his last journals and poems, and correspondence and conversations to recreate this tortured life. Endowed with the sufferings — but not the patience — of Job, Billy's life was often characterized by tragedy and frustration, although there were also pockets of success and levity. More than just the memoir of a casualty of the Beat Generation, Cursed From Birth provides rare insight in Billy's father, as well as his scene, friends, and times. It also provides an all-too-familiar story of familial difficulties that anyone with difficult parents can understand and appreciate.

Redemption from Curses Perhaps you are plagued by family disputes and bickering. Your marriage is crumbling, and you just can’t seem to connect with your kids. Maybe you’re sick of living paycheck to paycheck. You’ve prayed and fasted and prayed some more, but nothing has seemed to work. No matter what kind of problem you’re dealing with—financial, familial, or physical—you may be unknowingly living under a curse. Here is how to determine if you’re under a curse and, if so, how to break that curse.

Under the Law of Moses, every firstborn son was predestined to receive the full inheritance and blessing from his father. The purpose of this book is to examine the Scriptures that explain why the firstborn son rarely received the father's inheritance and blessing. Our human birth is our first birth and when we are born again, it is our spiritual birth or second birth. We are born in the flesh, and then we are born again spiritually. Our first birth is cursed because we are all "shapen in iniquity; and (born) in sin" (Psalm 51:5) and because of this, we cannot receive the blessing of Father God. It is when our second birth occurs, that we are made in the image and likeness of God and have God's nature; this qualifies us for the full inheritance and blessing of God. Curse of the Firstborn will walk you from the Garden of Eden to Calvary, revealing how God's blessing was never given to the firstborn son because he represents the flesh. God's blessing was always given to the youngest son because he represents the Spirit.

The world is filled with messages for women about pregnancy. Popular books and well-meaning family and friends offer unsolicited advice about what to expect and how to stay healthy—sometimes resulting in joy and excitement but other times leading to discouragement and fear. The Bible, too, has a lot to say about childbirth—offering real hope that nothing in this world can match. In Labor with Hope, Gloria Furman helps women see topics such as pregnancy, infertility, miscarriage, birth pain, and new life in the framework of the larger biblical narrative, infusing cosmic meaning into their personal experience by exploring how they point to eternal realities. Women will see that only Christ can provide the strength they desperately need in order to labor with hope.

How old is prejudice against black people? Were the racist attitudes that fueled the Atlantic slave trade firmly in place 700 years before the European discovery of sub-Saharan Africa? In this groundbreaking book, David Goldenberg seeks to discover how dark-skinned peoples, especially black Africans, were portrayed in the Bible and by those who interpreted the Bible--Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unprecedented in rigor and breadth, his investigation covers a 1,500-year period, from ancient Israel (around 800 B.C.E.) to the eighth century C.E., after the birth of Islam. By tracing the development of anti-Black sentiment during this time, Goldenberg uncovers views about race, color, and slavery that took shape over the centuries--most centrally, the belief that the biblical Ham and his descendants, the black Africans, had been cursed by God with eternal slavery. Goldenberg begins by examining a host of references to black Africans in biblical and postbiblical Jewish literature. From there he moves the inquiry from Black as an ethnic group to black as color, and early Jewish attitudes toward dark skin color. He goes on to ask when the black African first became identified as slave in the Near East, and, in a powerful culmination, discusses the resounding influence of this identification on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinking, noting each tradition's exegetical treatment of pertinent biblical passages. Authoritative, fluidly written, and situated at a richly illuminating nexus of images, attitudes, and history, The Curse of Ham is sure to have a profound and lasting impact on the perennial debate over the roots of racism and slavery, and on the study of early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.