Muddy Waters: an insider’s view of North American Native Spirituality by Canadian Cree author Nanci Des Gerlaise has gone to press. – Back from press on May 28th. Order your copy today.

A warning to Native and Non-Native Christian believers alike . . . and a call to those Involved in Native Spirituality, the New Age, or occultism

Book Information: ISBN: 9780984636648 232 Pages, Retail $13.95

Table of Contents and Preface

Is the “Great Spirit” the same as the Holy Spirit of the Bible? * * What are Native Spirituality practices such as, vision quests, shamanism, sweat lodge ceremonies, dream catchers * * What is the Native “Renewal”? * * Can cultures be redeemed? * * How Native Spirituality & the Emerging Church Are on the Same Path

Description: Many Christians see no problem combining the beliefs and practices of Native American Spirituality with their view of Christianity. But Nanci Des Gerlaise knows differently. Raised on a Metis settlement with fifteen brothers and sisters, Nanci’s childhood and young adult life was riddled with terrors that come with being the daughter and granddaughter of medicine men. Muddy Waters tells the story of this Cree Native American woman, who after years of struggle, oppression, and spiritual darkness found light and truth in the One who offered her freedom.

But Muddy Waters is not just a biography. It delves deeply into the framework of Native Spirituality. While Native American Christians are looking for a great spiritual awakening within the First Nations/Native American groups–by incorporating Native Spirituality practices into their Christianity–right under their noses, a massive worldwide deception is swiftly surging forward. Partly in overcompensation for very real injustices committed against Native Americans, Native Spirituality has become politically correct inasmuch as traditional biblical Christianity is on a fast track to becoming politically incorrect. Sadly, in the process, the Gospel, which is “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16) is being pushed aside, as if it were to blame–leaving countless numbers of people–both Native American and non-Native–without the sure hope that only comes through knowing Jesus Christ. Click here to order this book.

By Greg Reid
(author of The Color of Pain)

In my autobiography, Nobody’s Angel, I tell the story of my life, and how the first eleven years of my childhood were a black hole of emptiness. Things had happened, but they had been so horrific I had entered into a world of Forget. I went from a once polite, gentle, God-loving child, changed overnight into a slovenly, sexualized, angry, hard-drinking, rebellious, destructive, secretive, occult-addicted pre-adolescent. My father asked me once,“Whatever happened to that neat little boy I used to know?”

“He died a long time ago, Pop,” I replied, though I knew he couldn’t understand.

Starting at eleven-years-old, I entered the world of the occult. I was drawn into the darkness of it and never could grasp why. I was exploited by predators, raped, and abused and experienced all types of evil. This went on until I felt that I was at the brink of death. A staggering sense of loss and grief had become my constant companions. By the time I was fifteen, I had lived what felt like an entire pathetic life.

I guess my parents should have asked more questions about the changes in me, but at the time they were struggling with serious health issues, and their lives couldn’t take on anymore than what was already consuming them.

In the spring of my 15th year, I met a man hitchhiking who turned out to be a Christian. He gave me a copy of a book called The Cross and The Switchblade. It was the story of Dave Wilkerson, a skinny Pennsylvania preacher, who went to New York and faced down the worst, most deadly gang leader in New York, Nicky Cruz, and told him Jesus loved him. Nicky beat him up. Dave kept on him, and Nicky finally became a Christian.

Eventually, after some very dramatic events, I too surrendered my life to Jesus Christ and became a Christian. Had that not happened, I believe I would have died before ever reaching the age of twenty. I had been on a road to destruction.

Over the next few years, I continued to heal under the protection of some dear Christian friends and a seventy-six-year-old Baptist saint who took me in and loved me and taught me about God’s unconditional love. I devoured the Scriptures, and they broke the lies. I fought a vicious battle with sexual issues, depression, unhealthy relationships, deep loneliness, and a smoldering rage.

I went immediately into “ministry” at sixteen, and before I was twenty-six, had been around the world. The occult, and demonic influence, had wrapped itself in every fiber of my being, and God gently and firmly took me out of it all.

How was I to know that everything inside me would fall apart in my twenties, when as a respected teacher and youth leader, I would have to face a nightmare worse than anything I could imagine? God was now ready for the ordeal to come to me that I know broke His heart, but would be the final deliverance and revelation of who I was and where I had been. I was about to go to the gates of hell—not as a warrior—but as a wanted man, a traitor to the devil, and a terrified child. Those first forgotten eleven years of my life were about to intrude into my adult existence. I had to go back into the dark and empty corridors of my forgotten past to retrieve the truth and, in so doing, become fully prepared to go to war against the satanic powers, organizations, and occult rulers who continue to destroy the lives of thousands of innocent children today.

It was the summer of my twentieth year, and I was home from Bible school for three months. It was the beginning of the crack in the wall that would lead to my descent into the mouth of my satanic past. Nearly a decade would pass before all of the horrible ugly truth came out. But the Lord was with me all along the way; and today I can say that He has healed me. Yes, there are and always will be scars, but His love and His Word have been my Deliverer.  (from chapter 1, The Color of Pain, Greg Reid, Lighthouse Trails)

By Maria Kneas
(from her book, Strength for Tough Times, Lighthouse Trails, 2010)

We need to develop the habit of being grateful for who God is and what He has already done for us. It is easy to take things for granted. For example, you are reading this book. Have you thanked God for the fact that you are able to see, and you know how to read?

If we look for things to thank God for, we will find more and more reasons to be grateful. And if we look for things to complain about, we will find more and more reasons to complain.

When the Israelites came out of Egypt and went to the Promised Land, they kept complaining. They got bored with eating manna every day and wanted to eat something more flavorful (with garlic and leeks). So they complained about the miraculous food that God provided. They complained when they had no water. God miraculously supplied water for them, but we have no record that they were grateful for it.

And what was the end of the matter? That generation died in the wilderness because they refused to enter the Promised Land when God told them to. They didn’t trust God to deal with the giants there.

This is an example of how a lack of gratitude can result in a lack of trusting God. And that can lead to a lack of obedience (i.e., rebellion against God).

Compare this with the attitude of King Jehoshaphat. When he and his people were threatened by a huge army, Jehoshaphat prayed:

O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. (2 Chronicles 20:12)

And God came through for them. He miraculously delivered them from their enemies.

We can choose to develop the habit of thanking God. We can look for things to thank Him for. We can thank God and praise Him even when we don’t feel like it.

We can deliberately choose to be grateful, and we can ask God to give us a grateful heart. The Apostle Paul exhorted us to have that kind of attitude when he said:

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy were sent to a Nazi concentration camp because their family hid Jews during World War II. Betsy died in that camp, but Corrie was released.1 After the war, Corrie traveled the world, telling people about God’s love. She knew first-hand how difficult life can be, when she said:

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.2

Betsy ten Boom was able to love the Nazis and pray for their salvation even while surrounded by the horrors of a death camp. Instead of seeing the prison guards as being monsters, she saw them as being trapped and tormented. She saw their need for God’s love and forgiveness. She prayed for their salvation, and by her example she led other prisoners to do the same.

Betsy reminds me of Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr. While he was being stoned by an angry mob, he prayed for his persecutors:

And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:60)

At first Corrie hated the Nazis, but eventually she was able to forgive them. After the war she heard that Jan Vogel, the man who had betrayed her family, was in prison and was to be executed. She wrote to him, telling him that she forgave him, and telling him about the love of Jesus Christ. Shortly before he was executed, Jan Vogel wrote back to Corrie, telling her that he had become a Christian.

When Corrie was ministering in Germany, a man came up to her after the service. He had been a prison guard in Ravensbruck, the death camp where Betsy died. He held out his hand to Corrie, asking if she forgave him. At first, Corrie was overwhelmed by memories from the prison camp, and she froze. Then she asked God to help her love this man. She forced herself to put out her hand to take his. When they held hands, God’s love flooded Corrie’s heart, and she and her former tormenter embraced one another as fellow children of God.

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5)

Corrie’s love wasn’t strong enough to love that prison guard, but God’s love was. God filled Corrie’s heart with His love for that man, and broke down the barrier between them.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. (Ephesians 2:14)

(from Strength for Tough Times, Lighthouse Trails, 2010)

Late last fall, Lighthouse Trails released Roger Oakland’s apologetics biography, Let There Be Light. We call this book an apologetics biography because interwoven in the pages of Roger’s life as an evolutionist-turned-creationist is a defense of the Gospel and a contending for the biblical Christian faith, addressing several vital issues (for example: the emerging church, road to Rome, Calvary Chapel, abortion, evolution, and the New Age). The book is an emotional and hard-hitting read as many of our readers who have already read the book have been telling us. One of the reasons we believe the response is so strong is that those reading it are resonating with Roger’s struggle to get other Christians, including pastors, to take his warnings seriously. Some of the people who have contacted us have expressed their own frustrations and struggles in trying to get their families, friends, colleagues, and pastors to take heed to their exhortations about watching out for spiritual deception. Click here to read excerpts of the book.

For three days, we are offering this special offer to Let There Be Light.

3 copies of Let There be Light for the price of 2 – Click here for details.

By Ellen Pope

When I discovered that Lighthouse Trails was going to create tea by the name “Shepherd’s Bible Verse Tea,” I knew it was going to be special. Tea has been a part of so many wonderful memories: from times sharing with good friends, or sharing the Gospel with others, or just sitting quietly alone with Jesus. The combination of tea and scripture is, I think, a perfect fit.

Thanks to Lighthouse Trails, now we can use tea, read Scripture, and support a good cause all at the same time! Named for the One who created the tea, The Shepherd’s Garden offers a line of completely natural and organic teas, with each box directly contributing to the work of Lighthouse Trails.

It’s truly a rare thing to support a ministry when buying food and staples. More likely, our money is going to places you’d rather it not! Whenever we get the opportunity to purchase a product that goes toward helping spread the message of Jesus Christ, and feed yourself and family something wholesome at the same time, it’s a blessing. Shepherd’s Bible Verse Tea is one of those rare opportunities.

For a long time, Lighthouse Trails has been producing food for the body of Christ through their books and extensive research to expose the un-biblical roots of new age “Christianity” and meditation. Now, with the introduction of The Shepherd’s Garden products, readers have one more great way to share the Gospel and “feed” the body of Christ, as each verse directs its reader to the real point of “meditation:” Jesus Christ.

Don’t hesitate to try Shepherd’s Bible Verse Tea. Each one is especially tasty, marvelous in quality, completely natural, and full of the Light of God’s Word. Thanks to Lighthouse Trails for such a great product that honors God, and feeds the body in so many ways. I highly recommend Shepherd’s Bible Verse Tea.

As Lighthouse Trails soon nears the end of our 10th year (10 years this coming March), we’d like to take a moment to ponder 2011, which was a busy year for us. It’s not easy being a small publisher in today’s western society where book reading is being slowly squeezed out of many people’s lives by the Internet, television, radio, and a host of other technological inventions. Not only that, small publishing houses must compete with the large houses that seem to have marketing budgets that keep them selling thousands, if not millions, of books. And many of the more established Christian publishers have been bought out by huge secular corporations giving their marketing budgets even more clout. An article in Christianity Today this past fall titled “HarperCollins Buys Thomas Nelson, Will Control 50% of Christian Publishing Market” is a case in point. HarperCollins bought Zondervan in 1988. Thomas Nelson and Zondervan are Christian publishing’s two largest publishing house.

But in spite of the huge challenge it is for small publishers to stay in business, Lighthouse Trails is still here after nearly a decade. We believe that God has continued to provide for us; and we thank Him for giving us the wisdom to keep our overhead small, live and work as simply and frugally as we can, and never lower our standards from what we believe they should be just so we can sell more books. We’ll never be a Thomas Nelson or Zondervan (we think that might be a good thing considering their move toward contemplative and emerging), but we hope and pray we can be around another ten years and represent even more authors than we already have who have biblical and personal integrity .

Here is a recap of this past year:

In 2011, we published our second public domain book, Stories from Indian Wigwams and Northern Campfires by Egerton Ryerson Young. It’s a wonderful collection of true stories by a Canadian missionary to the Cree Native Americans in the late 1800s. The stories are fascinating and inspiring, and we think our readers will gain much from reading this book.

We also published two biographies by women – Stolen From My Armsby Katherine Sapienza (with Zach Taylor) and In My Father’s House by Corrie ten Boom. Sapienza’s book is her story of how her young son was abducted, taken to a far away country, and how with the help of a Delta Force team she decides to attempt to get her son back. This is an edge-of-your-seat book.  In My Father’s House is about the years prior to World War II in Corrie’s life. The book paints a beautiful picture of “family” from which today’s Christian families can glean valuable and eternally-lasting lessons. While this book was published a number of years ago by a couple top name publishers, we’ve been told this Lighthouse Trails edition is the nicest one that’s ever been done. We think it has more photos than any of Corrie’s other books – over 50 of them!

This fall, we published Roger Oakland’s biography Let There Be Light. The book had been published several years ago, but this new edition is about double that size with several new chapters and lots of photos. We’ve been getting some great reviews back on the book – it’s a hard one to put down, we’ve been told time and again. This book will challenge believers to stand strong in their faith and will capture the attention of non-believers, showing them what the true Gospel is and why it is worth believing.

In addition to the new books wepublished ourselves in 2011, we also added several products from other companies or ministries to our Lighthouse Trails online and catalog store. We want to say, we don’t just add products for the sake of adding products. Every single item has been chosen with much care, thought, and prayer, and always with the best interest of our readers in mind. One of the most exciting names we picked up this year was Canadian song writer and singer, Trevor Baker. Roger Oakland told us about him, and we came to love this brother in the Lord and his music immediately. He sings about many of the things that Lighthouse Trails Research writes about, and it doesn’t take too long listening or watching Trevor to know this is man after God’s own heart. You can listen to 30 second clips of all his songs that we carry on the store, and there is also a full Trevor Baker in Concert video on the store site – definitely worth watching. You won’t be sorry you did.

Harvey Yoder, a biographer, is a new name in 2011 to Lighthouse Trails. We now carry three of Yoder’s books, and every one of them is a book you will never forget. Heavy stories of people who are going through some kind of persecution: A Small Price to Pay (Behind Iron Curtain), God Knows My Size (Behind Iron Curtain), and A Good Difference (Kenya). Harvey Yoder is an excellent writer and captures the essence of life and faith  in these difficult places.

Just recently we added two young people’s books by Patricia St. John: Treasures of the Snow (we also carry the movie) and The Tanglewood’s Secret. We decided to add these books when we learned that both books have a wonderful Gospel message. It has been our desire to build our children and youth section – a bit of a challenge for sure.

A new project we have just launched is our handcrafted wood-framed pictures with Scriptures. These are absolutely stunning and made right here in Montana by some of the Lighthouse Trails team. The photographer, Dan Morgan, is giving 10% of the proceeds to Understand the Times Bryce Lodge Orphan Home project. You might want to check out these beautiful rustic frames and pictures. The framed photos are part of our new gift section; each item in this collection is really very unique. One of the new product lines that we are just getting started with is baskets made by the widows in Kenya. We should be receiving our first batch in the next few weeks. We are paying the widows a fair market wage to make these beautiful hand-woven multi-colored baskets, which we believe will improve their lives and give them the chance to support themselves.

In 2012, we’ve got some very interesting projects lined up so far. We will be publishing Nanci Des Gerlaise’s book, Muddy Waters: an insider’s view of North American Native Spirituality. This apologetics biography is important and  ties in with much of the evangelical church today. Not only is the evangelical church embracing a mystical spirituality through Native Spirituality, but many First Nations Christians are being led into a very spiritually dangerous situation by Christian evangelical leaders. This book addresses these issues.

We are also planning to release Berit Kjos’ book, How to Protect Your Child From the New Age and Spiritual Deception. When it is released, it will be worth the wait. Berit Kjos has a succinct understanding of spiritual deception in today’s world and how it is affecting children. We consider her work to the body of Christ vital and trustworthy.

Roger Oakland is working on a new book, one he is co-authoring with the editors at Lighthouse Trails. We’ll announce more about this apologetics book later in the new year. We’ve got some other projects on the burner and hopefully those will come to fruition in 2012. We’ll keep you posted.

Thank you to all of those who have supported Lighthouse Trails Publishing these past nearly ten years. We hope we can continue to be a publisher that you and your families feel good about and can trust. May God bless you, your loved ones, and your churches in this New Year with the truth of His Word and the power of His Gospel.

Lighthouse Trails Editors
Eureka, Montana

P.S. If you haven’t had a chance to try our Shepherd’s Bible Verse Tea, remember, you can send us your name and address with a self-addressed stamped envelope, and we will send you a free sample.

By Corrie ten Boom
(from chapter 1 of In My Father’s House)

Willem ten Boom, my grandfather, was not strong like his father, so he chose a work which was not physically difficult. In the year 1837, Grandfather purchased a little house in Haarlem for four hundred guilders and set up shop as a watchmaker.

It was in 1844 that Grandfather had a visit from his minister, Dominee Witteveen, who had a special request. “Willem, you know the Scriptures tell us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the blessing of the Jews.”

“Ah, yes, Dominee, I have always loved God’s ancient people —they gave us our Bible and our Savior.”

Beginning with this conversation, a prayer fellowship was started, with Grandfather and his friends praying for the Jewish people. This was an unusual idea among Christians at that time. The Jews were scattered throughout the world, without a country or a national identity; Jerusalem was a city torn by centuries of conflict. The attention of the world was not upon the Middle East, and yet a small group of Dutch believers met in a little Haarlem house, a watchmaker’s shop (later called the Beje), to read the Scriptures and pray for the Jews.

In a divine way which is beyond our human understanding, God answered those prayers. It was in the same house, exactly one hundred years later, that Grandfather’s son, my father, four of his grandchildren, and one great-grandson were arrested for helping save the lives of Jews during the German occupation of Holland.

Another strutting dictator, more arrogant and insane than Napoleon, had planned to exterminate every Jew in the world. When Holland was controlled by Hitler’s troops, many Jews were killed.

For helping and hiding the Jews, my father, my brother’s son, and my sister all died in prison. My brother survived his imprisonment, but died soon afterward. Only Nollie, my older sister, and I came out alive.

So many times we wonder why God allows certain things to happen to us. We try to understand the circumstances of our lives, and we are left wondering. But God’s foolishness is so much wiser than our wisdom.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:25)

From generation to generation, from small beginnings and little lessons, He has a purpose for those who know and trust Him.
God has no problems—just plans!

Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. (Psalm 40:4)

(from chapter 1 of In My Father’s House by Corrie ten Boom)