Showing results by narrator "Lyle Blaker" in All Categories

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 Letters to an American Christian, Bruce Riley Ashford, author of One Nation Under God, addresses overarching issues of the relationship of Christianity and politics, speaks to the way historic Christian belief informs specific hot-button political issues, and challenges listeners to take seriously both our heavenly and earthly citizenships. Written as a series of letters to "Christian" - a young college student who is a new believer - Letters to an American Christian will help every listener think about how Christianity informs what it means to be an American.

Fact: Health improves learning. Yet nationwide, elementary school students spend 12 times more classroom hours studying history than health. Worse, most kids don’t get enough physical activity and over five million underage youth vape.

Johnnie Moore, like many American Christians, didn't fully appreciate the extent of Christian persecution in other parts of the world - until he witnessed the graduation of theology students in India. Unlike graduation ceremonies in America - where feel-good speeches made by visiting celebrities are common - this one featured a remarkable oath. It wasn't an oath to excel or succeed. It was an oath to be willing to die, if necessary, for the cause of Christ. This was no empty promise. This was a choice, choosing the eternal over the temporal.

High school players in a working-class neighborhood in the 1970s gain desperately needed structure and guidance from Jack "Clyde" Dempsey, a scrappy, charismatic coach who seems like nothing more than a football geek. But Coach also happens to be the toughest guy on the streets of Boston, with a temper to match, and it's his secret life as a mob enforcer/collector that forces him to flee the country, becoming one of America's most wanted.

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 today's highly charged social and political environment, we often don't know how to talk well with others - especially with people whose backgrounds differ from our own. C. Christopher Smith, coauthor of the critically acclaimed and influential Slow Church, addresses why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century and argues that it is perhaps the most-needed spiritual practice of our individualistic age.

We all carry burdens of guilt and shame. We're weighed down, constantly reminded of where we've fallen short. But the truth is we're carrying around something that isn't ours. Our sins and shortcomings belong to Jesus. He carried them to the cross. He paid our debt. And he wanted to make sure we knew it. In this book, listeners discover the seven last sayings of Christ from the cross - both what he said and what his words mean for our lives today - so that they can lay their burdens at the foot of the cross and receive God's unsurpassable grace.

"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.

Imagine a nightmare in which your darkest fears are coming true. Your life seems to spiral further towards hell with each passing day, yet you can't wake up. You're constantly dominated by unthinkable circumstances as everything you hold dear is in danger of being torn from your grip, and the lines are blurred between the natural and the paranormal. You're entrenched in a spiritual battle against ancient curses, and the satanism and witchcraft practiced by those around you. Nightmare in Holmes County takes you on one man's journey through hell on earth, in the heart of Amish country.

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?

Most people want to live forever. They desire long, healthy, fulfilling lives. But God has a bigger, better plan, though it comes at a cost. There is a training process that we need to go through. More than that, a complete change of heart is needed—we must be born again. And to follow Christ, our will must be submitted to his will, and our lives must be filled with his Spirit. There is only one way to eternal life.

We know that in a fallen and broken world there will always be pain and poverty, sickness and sadness. Yet as followers of Christ, we are called to bring hope and healing to those who hurt. What, then, is our responsibility to alleviate human suffering this side of eternity? With so many needs everywhere we look, where do we start? The Least of These brings together a collection of respected Christian thought leaders to provide a multifaceted look at the body of Christ’s relationship and responsibility―both individual and corporate―to the marginalized of our society.

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.

For weeks, Briga, a young druid, was troubled by unsettling dreams: dreams of fire, death, and destruction. Dreams that came true when her clan was ambushed by a strange new enemy who called themselves the Drev'an. After sustaining grievous injuries in the fighting, Briga was captured and claimed as a war prize by the Drev'an leader, Batu. With her life and safety in Batu's hands, her only hope of survival is to use her druidic skills and the appearance of a mysterious wolf to prove her worth to the Drev'an and their ambitious chief.

In the space of just nineteen days, former Army Special Forces officer and police officer Shane Winnings went from a public, six-figure career to an unpaid, full-time missionary position across the country. His story exploded across social media, and to this day he reaches millions each week with his audacious daily encouragement to be a light in a dark world.

A kidnapped girl. A terrified Cape Cod. And, a police cadet in way over his head. Police cadet Pepper Ryan’s biggest worries are a crummy love life and doubts about his supposedly bright future. Until a teenage girl is brazenly kidnapped, stunning her beach town. The police launch a manhunt to catch the kidnapper, nicknamed the "Greenhead Snatcher". Pepper tries to locate the girl himself, but only finds trouble. Then, the Greenhead Snatcher strikes again.

What do you do when it feels like God isn’t there―when the state of the world, our own suffering, or the struggles of those we know suggest that God is absent? When you’ve experienced soul-crushing silence from heaven, despite your fervent supplications? Looking at Habakkuk, Job, David, and Jesus, as well as reflecting on his own experience of deep suffering, Adam Mabry examines the art of lament―how to cry out to God in desperation from a place of faith and hope. At the end, there are practical suggestions for what you can do to keep faith even in times of darkness and doubt.

It was God’s purpose from the beginning not merely to redeem sinners from His condemnation but also to bring those people into a special relationship with Himself. It is His desire to draw mankind closer to Himself than any other of His creatures and to establish a most special link between His people and Himself. Trials, then, have a purpose. They awaken us to a sense of our self-pleasing ways and to our indifference to the condition of the world we live in–not only as being a world of sin but thoroughly, and all over, a world of misery.

From John Calvin until today, Reformed theology and worship have acknowledged Word and sacrament as central to its Christian identity. By exploring key liturgies, confessions, directories for worship, and theological movements, this book examines common theological themes and commitments that have undergirded worship as well as ways that our understandings and practices have developed in light of new contexts and challenges.