Showing results by narrator "Van Tracy" in All Categories

Being a misfit does not disqualify you from a dynamic life - it prepares you for it.Matthew Barnett knows a thing or two about misfits. As founder of the Dream Center in Los Angeles, a 24-hour church that ministers to 35,000 hurting people a week, Barnett has seen a little of everything. Gangsters, addicts, orphans, taggers, cutters, the sick, the suffering, the hopeless . . . all the misfits of the world come through the church's doors in search of hope.

He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake. This lighthearted song is a bit more ominous in the context of other Christmas traditions. From beasts that threaten to cook children into stew to sinister crones who snatch little ones from their beds, you won’t find any dancing sugar plums here. Outside of the heartwarming Christmas tales we all know and love, there are an abundance of frightening stories to chill all who hear them to the bone.

Mark Batterson has a surprising secret weapon for parenting: prayer. Batterson shares a perfect blend of biblical yet practical advice that will revolutionize parents' prayer lives. This guide describes seven important ways prayer circles will transform how parents pray for their kids and lead them to a deeper relationship with Christ. As Batterson says, "You can leave a legacy for generations to come. Your prayers have the power to shape the destiny of your children and your children's children. It's time to start circling."

As teens, it can feel difficult to find a way out of our bad habits and unhealthy thought patterns, too often feeling like our thoughts are running out of control and finding ourselves off-track from where we want to be. Pastor and bestselling author Craig Groeschel deeply understands this daily battle against self-doubt and negative thinking, and in this book adapted from his bestselling Winning the War in Your Mind, Groeschel explains how you too can challenge your thinking and change the course of your life for the better, revealing the strategies he’s found that help.

Prayer can sometimes be a frightening thing. How do you approach the maker of the world, and what exactly can you pray for? In this student adaptation of The Circle Maker, Pastor Mark Batterson uses the true legend of Honi the circle maker, a first-century Jewish sage whose bold prayer saved a generation, to uncover the boldness God asks of us at times and what powerful prayer can mean in your life.

Grounded in carefully selected Scripture, Believe Audio Bible in the NIV is a unique spiritual growth experience that takes you on a journey to think, act, and be more like Jesus. General editor and pastor Randy Frazee walks you through the 10 key beliefs of the Christian faith, the 10 key practices of a Jesus-follower, and the 10 key virtues that characterize someone who is becoming more like Jesus. Each chapter uses short topical passages from the New International Version (NIV) to help you live the story of the Bible.

Do you ever sense that there's far more to prayer, and to God's vision for your life, than what you're experiencing? It's time you learned from the legend of Honi the Circle Maker - a man bold enough to draw a circle in the sand and not budge from inside it until God answered his prayers for his people. What impossibly big dream is God calling you to draw a prayer circle around? In this powerful booklet, excerpted from The Circle Maker, Batterson helps you uncover your heart's deepest desires and God-given dreams and unleash them through the kind of audacious prayer that God delights to answer.

The Gospel costs nothing. You can't earn it or buy it. It can only be received as a free gift compliments of God's grace. It doesn't cost anything, but it demands everything. It demands that we go "all in," a term that simply means placing all that you have into God's hands. Pushing it all in. And that's where we get stuck - spiritual no man's land. We're afraid that if we go all in that we might miss out on what this life has to offer. It's not true. The only thing you'll miss out on is everything God has to offer.

Why do we believe what we believe? The Case for Christ Daily Moment of Truth offers fact-based, intelligent devotions to build a foundational faith. These 180 insightful writings will strengthen your spiritual knowledge and touch your heart with life-changing truth. Combining the authors' expertise in apologetics with scriptural application for daily living, leading Christianity apologists Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg articulate the reasons why Christians believe what they believe.

Summit Ministries’ half century of teaching, this first volume of the Understanding the Times Series is your definitive resource for deepening and defending your faith. It’s a required resource for every Christian’s library.

Enter the world of ancient Rome through the eyes of one of history's most transformative figures. The Apostle by John Pollock seamlessly weaves together drama, scholarship, and historical accuracy in this book about the apostle Paul's extraordinary life. Starting with the dramatic death of Stephen, you'll witness Paul's incredible transformation from persecutor to preacher. Follow him on his daring missionary journeys that took him to the far corners of the Roman Empire, where he spread the teachings of Christianity.

It can seem as though today's culture encourages weakness, not strength. And this attitude has crept into the church: Don't take a strong position of faith. Don't take a strong view of evangelism. Don't maintain strong moral values. Yet God's people are called to be soldiers, and to fight for His cause and kingdom. Based on the book of Joshua, Be Strong is an inspiring guide to pursuing a victorious life. Part of Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe's best-selling "BE" commentary series, Be Strong has now been updated with study questions and a new introduction by Ken Baugh.

What can you do in 30 minutes? Have lunch? Watch television? Check Facebook? How about change your life? Why do some people achieve far more than others? We all get the same 24 hours in a day, yet a special few seem to have superhuman abilities when it comes to accomplishing great things in life. Tommy Barnett, a proven master at “getting things done,” says the key to maximizing your productivity is to make use of small, manageable moments in your day - just 30 minutes at a time.

With definitions and insights like this, the "pastor of pastors" and phenomenal author Warren Wiersbe continues to enliven the Scriptures as he weaves the words of Isaiah with historical explanations and thought-provoking questions for every chapter, creating a study guide that can be used in personal Bible study or with a group.

The church across North America has struggled to minister effectively with people struggling with mental health issues. One reason for the lack of ministry is the absence of a widely accepted model for mental health outreach and inclusion. In Mental Health and the Church, Dr. Stephen Grcevich presents a simple and flexible model for mental health inclusion ministry for implementation by churches of all sizes, denominations, and organizational styles.

Some churches advocate one-on-one discipling, others try getting everyone into a small group, while still others training through mission trips or service projects. Yet others focus all their efforts on attracting people to a large group gathering to hear biblical teaching and preaching. But does one size really fit everyone? Based on careful biblical study and years of experience making disciples in the local church, Bobby Harrington and Alex Absalom have identified five key relationships where discipleship happens in our lives.

If making disciples of Jesus is the greatest cause on earth, how should we equip people to do it? This handbook is a practical guide for how to embrace the discipleship lifestyle—being a disciple of Jesus—and how to make other disciples of Jesus. Whether you are a parent who wants to disciple your children, a small group leader who wants to disciple those in your group, or a church leader who wants to disciple future leaders, the seven key elements in this handbook form a framework for understanding discipleship that can be applied in countless situations.

The Case for Christianity Answer Book provides succinct answers to real questions about Christianity. Best-selling author and spiritual skeptic Lee Strobel uses his investigative journalism skills to dig deep into the Bible to provide compelling and concise answers about the religion of Christianity.

The Covid crisis has been a proving ground of sorts for business leaders, forcing them to adapt to new realities and unprecedented uncertainty. Leading through it has often been painful, but it’s also produced valuable lessons about rallying employees, navigating global pressures, and finding opportunity amid hardship. Leadership in Crisis profiles leaders of a range of business from auto giants like Telsa and General Motors to Moderna, the upstart that developed a Covid-19 vaccine, to a small grocery store in North Carolina.

For many Christians who've tried their hands at evangelism or have had to defend their faith, it can feel like doing PR work for God—limiting ourselves to a series of strategies and tactics. In The Faithful Apologist, Scott Oliphint provides a foundation for Christians to explain their faith in a welcoming manner that avoids any burden to "sell" Christianity to non-Christians. Drawing as much from the rich tradition of Western apologetics as from the wisdom of effective communication, this book bridges the gap between sharing the truth of our faith and the art of persuasion.