Jesus Shines Through

Crushed by a violent, anti-Semitic world and a troubled alcoholic father, Phillip Cohen begins searching early in life for healing and love. It's a journey through... An abusive, dysfunctional Jewish family Violent neighborhoods in Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami Hard drugs and hippie communes Ultra conservative Anabaptist churches Mainstream Christianity It's an amazing adventure you'll need to read to believe! God often isn't in the places where Phillip thinks God (or godlike substitutes) should be. Yet God appears in ways Phillip never expects to meet him. In his youth, Phil turns to stealing, running away, drugs, religion . . . anything to escape the pain of the violent neighborhoods he's living in and the troubled father who's brutalizing him, his mother, and two younger siblings. Then, while attending school in Mexico, he sees something he wants but doesn't know how to get: People living in deep poverty yet are happy and content. Soon he dives headlong into the hippie culture, drugs, rock festivals, and communes. This causes a growing rage inside that he can't contain. For a few years, he wanders alone, broke, and homeless around the US, Mexico, and Canada. Then he sees it again: Happy families that love each other. A little country Bible church in the poorest county in Tennessee appears to be what Phil and his young bride, Gina, are searching for. It seems to meet their needs—until the church falls apart, splitting families, while their man-made rules become too suffocating to endure. The search continues…. Join this amazing journey where, despite his efforts to find God, he often finds himself in unexpected places where God's presence is unexpected. Phillip's search then leads him to discover healing through woodworking, which grows into a successful multi million-dollar business. However, even in the midst of all this, Phil is drawn back to the God who shines through it all.