Showing results by narrator "Lyle Blaker" in All Categories

The American church is at a critical crossroads. Our witness has been compromised, our numbers are down, and our reputation has been sullied, due largely to our own faults and fears. The church's ethnocentrism, consumerism, and syncretism have blurred the lines between discipleship and partisanship. Pastor Eric Costanzo, missiologist Daniel Yang, and nonprofit leader Matthew Soerens find that for the church to return to health, we must decenter ourselves from our American idols and recenter on the undeniable, inalienable core reality of the global, transcultural kingdom of God.

The Lord uses each of our unique interests to speak to us—including the great game of golf! From your time on the fairway to your time in the rough, God can repurpose the insights you've gained from golfing to help you better understand truths of His Word. In A Look at Life from the Fairway, bestselling author and outdoor enthusiast Steve Chapman is here to help golfers everywhere notice the parallels between golfing and walking with Christ.

In wondrous contrast to silent idols, the one true God speaks. He addresses his people in love, and it’s their great privilege to answer him in prayer. At its root, prayer isn’t mere self-expression or a prod to get a silent God to speak, but it is a learned skill to answer God’s initiating word in Christ. Through this thoughtful book, author and pastor Daniel J. Brendsel explains how responding to God can nurture prayerful engagement with Scripture, shape healthy rhythms among God’s praying people, and spur excitement for communion with God.

Does it matter if you are sorry for what you have done—or that you have not done? Does your being sorry—does your remorse—matter? If so, how? Who is helped or changed by it? Can spiritual leaders help people wrestle with some of the most challenging dilemmas of their lives? Episcopal priest and licensed therapist Stephen Crippen describes remorse as the crisis—both destructive and creative—that erupts within the human spirit at the point where sin and grace collide. 

Why do we buy what we buy, vote the way we vote, eat what we eat, and say what we say? Why do we have the friends we have, and work and play as we do? It's our choice? Yes, but there are forces, often unseen, that shape every decision we make and every action we take. These hidden, life-shaping values and ideas are not promoted through organized religions or rival philosophies but fostered by cultural habits, lifestyles and the institutional structures of society.

Scars on the Land is the first comprehensive history of American slavery to examine how the environment fundamentally formed enslaved people's lives and how slavery remade the Southern landscape. Over two centuries, from the establishment of slavery in the Chesapeake to the Civil War, one simple calculation had profound consequences: Rather than measuring productivity based on outputs per acre, Southern planters sought to maximize how much labor they could extract from their enslaved workforce.

In this audiobook are practical tips and insights on everything from diaper changing to managing work-life balance. With a focus on modern fatherhood, this book tackles the challenges that new dads face in today's world.

Let This Mind Be in You explores God’s call on our lives to servanthood. Aimed specifically at ministers of the Gospel, this book argues that servanthood is essential to every form of Christian service. When we consider the teachings of Scripture and the example of Jesus, we simply cannot be who we are supposed to be without taking the posture of servants.

The BRRRR real estate investing strategy (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat) is a method used by real estate investors to acquire and grow their rental property portfolios. This strategy involves purchasing a property that needs work, rehabbing it to increase its value, and renting it out to generate income. In this BiggerPockets PocketBook, you’ll learn how the BRRRR method will help you buy homes quickly, add value through rehab, and build sustainable cash flow to expand your real estate portfolio exponentially.

Whether you plan to flip houses or buy and hold a rental property, successful real estate investing requires a deep understanding of the local market and thorough deal analysis. In this BiggerPockets PocketBook, investors can quickly learn how to identify profitable real estate markets to build a successful portfolio of real estate investments.

Many investors get their start in real estate by purchasing a simple, two-unit property called a duplex. This BiggerPockets PocketBook provides a concise guide to ensure your small multifamily investments are cash-flowing deals. Not only will this guide teach you to buy your first (and next!) duplex property, but you will also develop a deep understanding of how to research the appropriate market and manage your properties like an investing expert.

As a spiritual pilgrim for more than half a century, Jon Sweeney has practiced with teachers of many religious traditions. He's gone looking for wisdom, beauty, and truth wherever it can be found. But recently he's found himself learning closer to home—from the teacher-cats he lives with. What he discovered is that our greatest spiritual teachers are at our feet. Literally. They are the cats we love and treasure.

Beyond Sunday Morning is an easy to follow, “offbeat blend of humor and apologetics” providing clues, tiny tidbits, and morsels; some are easy to swallow, some not so much, on how to stay connected to the Lord in the other 99 percent of life.

Conflict is inevitable, but peace, especially among Christians, is essential. When conflict turns into peace, frustration becomes clarity and turmoil becomes unity. When conflict turns into peace, God is glorified. But how do we find peace without ignoring our problems? How do we pursue unity without compromising on our principles? The Path of a Peacemaker offers a simple, proven path to a lifestyle of peace. It guides you through an examination of your own personal story, identifying the origins of your hopes and fears.

National tensions are at a record high. People on all points in the political spectrum care deeply about their country, although they differ wildly in their opinions about what it looks like to serve that country well. As Christians, we love God and seek to follow him. At the same time, nothing shapes us and tugs at our loyalties quite like the place we live. And of course we are regularly encouraged to pledge our allegiance to our country―or particular understandings of it. Who wins when the priorities of God and our country clash? 

Conflict on a scale unimagined has come to once peaceful shores. Caught in an interstellar war that has started up again after countless millennia, Commander Tyler Ryan Tor finds himself thrust into service once again by the last remaining guardian of a dead race. Four quests--three for good and one for evil--will determine the fate of humanity. It is up to Tyler, along with his band of unlikely heroes, to give the universe a fighting chance by raising the ancient banners of Acrea and completing his original mission.

After going into cold sleep aboard Earth's last surviving colony ship, Commander Tyler Ryan Tor awakens marooned on an alien world. Having gone to sleep expecting to awaken orbiting a distant habitable planet with the rest of Earth's refugees, he finds himself alone and hunted by an ancient evil. The darkness that pursues Commander Tor wants the knowledge in his head, but there is one problem–Tyler can’t remember anything before the crash.

No major arena of US governance is more elitist than foreign policy. International relations barely surface in election campaigns, and policymakers take little input from Congress. For much of the twentieth century, officials, activists, and academics worked to foster an informed public that would embrace participation in foreign policy as a civic duty. Every Citizen a Statesman recounts an abandoned effort to create a democratic foreign policy.