Showing results by narrator "Lyle Blaker" in All Categories

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.

Are you for Christ or are you against him? You know you are either one or the other, for he says so. We learn in Matthew 12:30 in the words of Jesus himself: He that is not with me is against me. Everyone is either with Jesus wholeheartedly, confessedly, and openly, or else they are against Jesus. Which are you? For Christ or against him?

Praying should be as urgent and necessary to us as breathing—yet all too often we're bored by it, distracted from it, or uncertain of its purpose. Yet we have many reasons to be excited about prayer. It is the glue that bonds our hearts to the Lord. God commands us to pray, and he graciously answers our prayers. As we pour out our hearts to him, we and the world around us will be changed. Informative, encouraging, and practical, this brief book will serve as a primer for pastors, elders, study groups, and Christians who seek encouragement and instruction on prayer and its blessings.

Did you know you can read Jesus's Sermon on the Mount in about eighteen minutes? Yet packed into this short talk are more life-changing and startlingly original teachings than anywhere else in Scripture. Drawing from decades of study, Dr. Robert Jeffress breaks down Jesus's most well-known (yet least-followed) teachings about happiness, faith, relationships, sex, reconciliation, prayer, money, and more. He shows how we often misunderstand and misapply these verses and unpacks exactly what Jesus was teaching us about our own hearts and minds.

What is the nature, calling, and work of local church leadership? Pastor and seminary professor David Mathis considers the elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 not only as prerequisites but as daily necessities to carry out joyfully. This accessible guide aims to serve current and aspiring pastors and elders, as well as church members who want to know the expectations for their leaders and how to pray for them.

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.

R. D. Hooker, Jr. was a combat soldier and leader in five wars. He then served as a senior Pentagon advisor and as a White House staff member in four different administrations. At the time of his retirement from the military in 2010, he was the most decorated colonel in the US Army. Beginning with his enlistment at eighteen in 1975, this memoir chronicles his experiences in the post-Vietnam Army as a young paratrooper, as a West Point cadet, and as a combatant in the many military conflicts which followed.

The Christ many preach and write about is not the real Christ. The Christ of many Evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic churches today is not the actual Christ Jesus who once walked this earth and whom men saw and studied and knew—the Christ who was the incarnate Word of God and the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

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?

Leadership is not static. Instead, authority in projects shifts dynamically between project managers, individual team members, and sub-teams, depending on the situation. Leadership may be exercised through a vertical, horizontal, shared, or distributed leadership approach. However, balanced leadership ensures the best suitable approach is used in any given situation. Based on an award-winning global program of research studies, Balanced Leadership is a thorough investigation of balanced leadership in projects.

"God’s attitude toward His Son is unutterable love, but He gave that Son up to die for you and me. God’s attitude toward the believer is to give him eternal life, regardless of what his past has been. God’s attitude toward those who will not believe is to leave them to the perdition they so madly choose. What will you choose today: life or death? People decide that question in a few minutes; decide it for all eternity. God help you to decide it right.

In many circles, the image of what a pastor is or does looks nothing like the picture Jesus paints for his disciples of the character that marks citizens of his kingdom. Shepherding Like Jesus is a call to rebel against much of what our culture understands pastoral leadership to be and return to being the shepherd God has called pastors to be. It’s an invitation to recover the most essential element of pastoral ministry: the character of Christ.

Get Your Game F.A.C.E. On is here to help guide business owners, partners, colleagues, and suppliers to a clear understanding of how to have successful businesses and be happy at the same time. The author accomplished building many successful companies to achieve goals well beyond what she imagined, and she did it while having fun and enjoyment in watching others succeed. If you want to learn more about F.A.C.E., have a listen and feel free to reach out to the author to learn more about her company, We Guide, You Grow, LLC.

We all experience difficult relationships. Oftentimes we try to reconcile but the other person simply won't, or else we find they can't keep the commitments they made during reconciliation. How do we handle these tough relationships in a way that brings peace to our lives and glory to God?

When we encounter human suffering or personal tragedy, Christians and non-Christians alike utter the same refrain: Where is God? If God exists, then where in the world is he? Why doesn't he show himself? And how can we tell if God is really working or not? Tim Muehlhoff gives us insight into recognizing how God is at work in the world.

Police Officer Pepper Ryan returns home to Cape Cod for his last shot at redemption. Dumb move? He can never measure up to the ghost of his brother who died a good cop. But when a Secret Service agent’s corpse shows up in a clambake pit with a note threatening the President's life, Ryan sees his chance to erase the past and prevent the assassination.

Christians need to fight both big, obvious sins and commonplace, familiar sins which can sneak in and become the hardest to kill of all. Pastor and counselor Rush Witt defines such diehard sins, presents an understandable overall doctrine of sin, and lays out a method for change that pits Christ and his provisions against the subtle, elusive sins that seem so unkillable.

Elliot met his wife Kay in a remote Hudson Bay Post in the northern wilderness of Labrador. She had come as he had; to escape the stress, struggles, and hypocrisy of the “civilized” life. She was a nurse there and he became a teacher. But life at a remote wilderness post wasn’t remote enough....