Books published by Resource Publications (CA)

Sometimes we want to walk outside of ourselves. We want to stretch our imaginations by strolling in someone else's shoes for a few minutes. Of Man and Animals is a book for looking through other people's eyes. In these twenty fictional short stories, the reader is invited to laugh, cry, ponder, fear, love, and hate with a series of different characters.These stories emphasize the interconnected essence of our lives and how each particular moment carries an array of interesting experiences. They will bring the reader into the small, yet impacting, minor moments in other people's lives, and leave you with questions to ponder such as: What is the world around us really like? How do we act as we experience the world around us? How do we rationalize and connect our experiences and thoughts? And why do we act without even realizing our own motivations and desires on some occasions?This book is a book for pondering while at the same time enjoying a few moments apart from the daily lives we lead.

The Light in the Mirror focuses on Richard Hawkins, raised by his Uncle Mac, following the death of his family. A car accident plunges Richard into a coma, and into a dream world where he is reborn in to the family he never knew; he grows up in the turbulent 60s and 70s. Awakening in the hospital, he tells his uncle and girlfriend, Melissa, how real his life in the coma seemed. The experience gives him a new understanding of how the 60s and 70s changed our society. He deals successfully with the debilitating effects of the coma, drawing on his faith in God. Weakness on one side of his body requires him to walk with a cane. An unexpected effect is a temporary psychic ability. Regaining his health, Richard enters the business world of Dallas, and then events propel him into politics in his hometown. In a mayoral race, he opposes a former hippie of the 60s and 70s. Melissa confronts a dangerous stalker, and throughout the story, Richard seeks God's purpose for his life.

Divorce, the termination of marriage, currently affects approximately one out of two marriages in the United States. There is no guarantee for those attending church required marital preparation classes or by celebrating a religious ceremony that the union will not conclude in the tragedy of divorce. As the Church lists marriage as a vocation (a call from God), it is quite evident that in many cases God is not a part of the lived out experience of many married couples. Though much literature has been written on this topic, December Roses details the thought processes associated with the planning and execution of a divorce and the painful emotions and feelings which occur, while at the same time providing a means of prayerful healing for those involved in the divorce situation.Divorce touches many issues and feelings. As marriages die and friendships are broken, the pain cries out for healing. Pastorally, through case study, reflection, and prayer, the issues inherent in any divorce are brought forward to the healing movements of God.As a priest for twenty-six years, I have witnessed, counseled, and cried with family, friends, and parishioners as divorce took its toll on very good people. This book is written with the faith that God is greater than our human moments of grief. Through God's compassion, healing is possible.

There is something wrong with our politics that elections cannot solve. In recent years, we have had a Republican Congress with a Democratic president, a Republican Congress with a Republican president, a Democratic Congress with a Republican president, and a Democratic Congress with a Democratic president. The "New Democrat" of 1992 produced a "Republican Revolution" in 1994. We cleansed ourselves of Clinton Administration corruption in 2000 only to have to punish Republican corruption in 2006. "Hope and Change" triumphed in 2008, while "Change That Matters" flopped in 2010. For nearly twenty years, the American people have tried to mind their own business at home while carrying on a seemingly futile search for the right combination of R's and D's in Washington. That search will not end until we address the roots of our political disorder: the progressive abandonment of our republican principles and heritage. Only a political reformation calling us back to the wisdom of our fathers and the founding documents of our nation can truly free us from the deeply-entrenched, bipartisan ruling class that is bankrupting and degrading us. Only a political reformation can "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity . . ."

The poems in Old Testament Lore, are imaginative rhapsodies on themes inspired by the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Writings of the Old Testament as well as those of the Apocrypha.

Chuck Queen writes, ""Advent is more than a memory of what took place in the past or an expectation of what is to occur in the future. Certainly Advent's invitation includes both remembrance and anticipation, but the light that was and will be is now, shimmering against the backdrop of our existence. The presence of Christ is for the present.""With scriptural wisdom, theological reflection, and pastoral insight, Chuck invites the reader to encounter Advent as a transformative experience. He utilizes film, literature, and contemporary experience to draw readers into spiritual reflection on the Christian's sacred story, exploring the redemptive possibilities of the Christmas season. Chuck writes in the Introduction, ""It is my hope that amid all the glitter, glamour, gladness, and grief of the Christmas season, you will find some shimmers of light in these spiritual reflections that will enlarge your vision of God's kingdom, expand your love for all persons, and evoke your creative participation with God's project to heal and transform our world.""

Sermon structure has been deemed an important component of preaching throughout the history of preaching by preaching instructors and practitioners alike. Many have made a case for the bearing that sermon structure has for the effective preaching of Scripture. However, sermon structure when incorporated in a sermon often is not as serviceable as it could and should be! This book provides instruction for how sermon structure can serve to principlize Scripture by using statements of theological principle in the sermon outline. Therefore, the timelessness and the timeliness of Scripture are prioritized through statements of theological principle providing doctrinal accuracy and personal relevance which are apparent in the outline of the sermon. How Effective Sermons Advance provides a thorough and comprehensive treatment on the highly significant matter of sermon structure.

Apostles! Didn't they all die out at the end of the first century? Didn't I hear a person using that title on my radio? Today, this theological debate rages: in these last days, is God again raising up apostles with first-century capabilities? Certainly Bertril Baird knows the answer. In a ministry spanning five decades, this ""Admiral"" has brought hope and deliverance throughout the Caribbean region, the Americas, Africa, and India. God has uniquely prepared him to take up this debate. Thanks to his countless stories, in-depth biblical and historical knowledge, as well as balanced perspective, you will gain fresh insights into the mindset, outcomes, and supernatural tools needed to exercise the Admiral Gift.

Metrospiritual: The Geography of Church Planting is about church planting in the city. There is an outpouring of new expressions of church being started throughout metro areas across North America. Where are these new churches being started? Maybe a more subterranean question is, "Why"? Why are churches being started where they are and why is there is a bias towards one part of the city and an overall neglect of other parts? Metrospiritual explores these questions and more as it builds off of recent research and surveys of hundreds of church planters in seven large cities in the United States and Canada. There is a deeper look at pivotal issues such as gentrification, the Creative Class, community transformation, urban renewal, and the role new churches play in all of these.

The Fly in My Eye is a reflection of an illusion. It is the mirror of my creature self declaring itself as real to the eye of the beholder. Yet the human self would fade away into its parent nothingness but for the trance of the image it beholds. Enamored of its own appearance, regardless the truth of the echo, the affair with the dream continues. Narcissus sees himself time after time in the clouded pond and falls for it; hook, line and sinker. He is king in his own mind only. They say it's great to be the king, but of what, I say. If it be a ragged throne in a hellish realm, of what value to the soul is it? I have chosen to stand beside my King, instead of displacing Him. The position is not as exalted by the world, but instead of the king of hell, I claim Prince of the eternal Kingdom. I inherit now, and forever, the gifts of joy, peace, wholeness, and freedom. I relinquish title to the nightmare dream; giving up only pain, guilt, discord, and death. I choose to accept the reality of my eternal being and deny, once and for all time, the temporal, chaotic, and completely insufficient life of the world of man. I will stay for awhile, but only to convince you, my brothers and sisters, to join me and journey to a better reality. Know the fly you see in your eye is but a frail wisp of a dream, destined to fade away into the illusory mysts from whence it sprang, dissolving now as we lean in the direction of truth. Clear the reflecting fly from your eye and see henceforth with the one, eternal Mind that unifies us as brothers in Christ.

What if there were seven people who could walk you through steps to have an effective ministry through your church? What if these seven people were all definitively instructed by God? What if the directions had been written down in a clear manual for you to follow?Would you be willing to read those instructions?Seeing from the Summit presents seven biblical character-models direct from the pages of Scripture to help you and your church leaders to understand a clear model for building effective ministry in God's Church. Beginning with David and moving through Noah, Joseph, Ruth, and others, you will come to understand a systematic, scriptural model to better understand the purpose of the church, the calling of leaders, and the need to seek God's direction. Rather than presenting empty promises to build a church numerically, Seeing from the Summit deals in concrete, biblical, and spiritual concepts that grow individuals together in unity and launch them from the church in missional activity.

If life were easy, there would be no need for mentors, friends, or family. Inspiration and motivation would come naturally. Everything we ever wanted would simply come to us. But the reality is that life is a difficult journey we must travel. Sometimes the road will be smooth with a gusty wind at our back. At other times we will find ourselves mired in the mud. During those travels we use a map to find our way to the destination. This book is also a map to help guide you to that destination. It aims to inspire, motivate, and pull you from being mired in the mud. The stories you will find inside are like the many different routes on a map. While each has purpose and meaning, like the many different routes on a map, the stories will have different meanings for each of us. Simply allow the stories to be a guide for you to choose your own path. And while we may be on different paths; we each have the same destination in mind, which is a great life we all seek. So grab hold of the stories and allow them to be your guide as you travel through life. Live the journey and experience all the goodness that you pass along the way.

A foundational law promoting worship of the God of the Exodus (the Decalogue's First Commandment) has little meaning without a government policy permitting such worship. Robert Kimball Shinkoskey discusses policies in the Bible which enact freedom of religion for prophets and other dissidents who work to restore worship of the God of their ancestors. In the process, he challenges the theological idea of the cessation of prophecy. New revelation from God is necessary to rescue ancient Israel from backsliding and restore her to a place of security and tranquility in a Mediterranean world gone mad with imperial war-making.

Are you intrigued by the idea of faith? Are you searching for answers to questions about God as you try to make sense of the circumstances of your life? Have you ever wondered what it means to experience religious conversion? In Out of the Fog, Into the Sun, Jo Kinnard shares her personal story of life transformation. She talks freely about what it means to be brought into faith through Christ as an older adult, after being born and raised Hindu. As someone who has a background in religion and philosophy, and holds a doctorate in one of the main schools of Indian Philosophy underlying Hinduism, Dr. Kinnard is able to articulate questions that seekers have about God and faith. Her story makes a powerful confession of the Gospel in a world marked by religious pluralism, atheism, and agnosticism. It is written for individuals and for discussion groups--exploring what it means to be a Christian today from both an ""outsider"" and an ""insider"" perspective--and underlining that in Christ, there are no walls.

When our Father of Faith is tempted to sacrifice his sense of humor on the Altar of God's Demands, God intervenes in a surprising way that really makes Abe laugh. This is the same God whose hungry servant, Elijah, is fed by ravens way out on the ragged edge and towards whom Moses manages a sidewise glance while on the lookout for greener pastures.Then along comes another tough act to follow--the Wild Man of Judea appearing in the Galilee Theater and baptizing Jesus of Nazareth in the Jordan River of God's Transforming Power and Hope. Then, in the very next scene, Jesus ben Dios, the Number One Draft Choice in all of Baseball, hops a trial-ways bus to intensive-training camp where he comes face to face with the temptations and adversities of the real world. Fortunately, Jesus has his Spring Training Manual handy for quick reference.Jesus then launches his teaching and healing career in many forms: as a dance instructor, farmer, chef--and even as a flamboyant pyromaniac-arsonist who comes ""not to bring peace to the world"" but to set it on fire. For who can forget Marshal Jesus out along the Border of Sin and Forgiveness encountering the Ten Men-yon? Or the homefolks' chant, ""Dr. Jesus, he's our man! If we can't use him, nobody can!""? Because when Anglo-Catholic Father Jesus meets an average parishioner at the Holy Water Basin and asks her to bless him with it, their engaging conversation prompts students of the bible and pillars of the church to take a second look in order to watch ordinary altar candles suddenly take on more beauty and meaning than they have ever imagined before.So, for those who have eyes to see: Look!

My First Introduction to the New Testament is for young readers of middle school age who may cherish the presentation Bibles given to them when they were younger but wonder just how to engage with biblical literature. Church school teachers may want to use it for a yearlong class because most chapters can be covered in one session. College students and even graduate students will find this book an easy way to refresh and review.

Designed for daily use as well as for retreats, Digging for God is an invitation to linger in the gardens of the Bible and the gardens of the heart. Using the passages concerning five biblical gardens, and then her own experiences distilled into poetry, Higgins provides meditative ideas and questions as springboards to prayer. For all who have labored and loved their backyard gardens, Higgins' poems will nudge memories. For all who are, as May Sarton said, "hopeful gardeners of the spirit," this volume offers fertile ground for prayer and reflection.

This memoir invites readers to explore stages of their own spiritual journey. Bianchi graphically describes his path from an Italian immigrant family on the West Coast, through twenty years as a Jesuit, to being a professor of religious studies at Emory University. As he develops a more this-worldly inner life, Bianchi struggles with church teachings about Christ, sexuality, and authority. He candidly reveals how failed marriages gave him a humbler grasp of meeting the transcendent in everyday problems. He embraces a contemplative spirituality that links Buddhist and Taoist practices with western mysticism. With a foot in Christianity, he shows how to walk a way of inter-spirituality as a meaningful road for the contemporary seeker. For Bianchi this involves becoming a metaphorical Christian as he moves away from religious certitudes of early life to find spirit in nature and humanity. Bianchi, a well-known writer on spiritual aging, challenges Baby Boomers to craft a contemplative life that works for them today. With his wife and two cats, he discovers a home for body and spirit along the banks of the Oconee River in Athens, Georgia.

It's hard to say, exactly, what's meant by the ""modern world,"" but Henry Buckberry never really hooked into it. Born before the First World War and the oldest boy in a family of thirteen kids, he left the open, rolling, potholed prairie of North Dakota in 1921 for the dark, dense, dangerous woods of northern Wisconsin, where he learned to fish, trap, hunt, lumberjack, and farm. Although he lived into the twenty-first century (the second volume of these stories, A Windfall Homestead, will inch us closer to the information super-highway), it could be said that Henry played hooky from the twentieth. With a few allowances for a little new technology, like the Model T, Henry's life represents the end phase of a rural folk culture that has its roots in the Neolithic. Through Henry's stories it's possible to see a long way into the past and then to turn the telescope around in order to put the present under an improvised microscope.Henry didn't have an easy life, but he had a vivid life, a life amazingly free of boredom, aimlessness, or distraction, and his stories convey that vividness from beginning to end. Henry's son Charles Darwin Buckberry--also known as C.D. or Seedy Buckberry--interviewed Henry and arranged the stories in some sort of more or less working order. (Seedy insists he put those stories down with complete fidelity, although he refuses to take a lie-detector test or submit to a Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory analysis.)Henry's life, as conveyed here, is also a way to measure the intellectual bulimia (or is it the intellectual anorexia?) of present-day empire consumerism. Here is life before Wal-Mart. Here is life that lives in nature with intense and even fierce physicality. Here is life that sings.

With the onslaught of books on how to do worship, Dr. David Adams' conversational book, Lifestyle Worship, is a breath of fresh air. Highlighting the current concept of worship, Dr. Adams explains the contrast and similarities of biblical worship within our contemporary definition of worship. Sprinkled with humor, Lifestyle Worship gets to the heart of what true worship is and offers practical suggestions to deepen your walk with God. With years of research behind him, Dr. Adams is quickly garnering attention as one of the leading authorities on worship and cultural theology.

Large and successful organizations seem to emulate the trajectory of a skipping stone. First they slow, and then they sink. Why does this happen over and over again? Most organizations come to believe that their problems stem from doing the wrong things. They are unfortunately looking in the wrong place. The problem with the demise of large and successful organizations is not related to what they are doing. The problem is rather in what they have actually become. And they simply fail to see it. It is only in understanding "who we are" that the sinking trajectory of large and successful organizations can be reversed. Mind-Head Soul-Head addresses this insidious situation and provides a "human prescription" as the cure.

Between the covers of this tome lay truly wondrous things. Composed of colors previously unseen and sounds rarely heard, these buds will blossom in your hand. As they do, they will burst into light that will illuminate the darkness. As that light reflects upon a table, a feast is seen before us. Take up arms, in spoon and ladle, and prepare to experience ephemeral tastes and aromas never known. So whet your appetites my friends, hone them and apply them to the job at hand. Then join me, if you will, as we feast on these delectable delights. Yet, if you don't mind as much, we'll leave the bones behind.Praise for J. Michaels [CENTER]""The Poet's Quill is an inspirational uplifting book of poetry that will have readers aspiring to new goals. With over one hundred poems ranging in titles such as 'One Soul To Save,' 'Beauty By The Bay,' 'I Want My Perfection Back,' 'Heaven's Gate,' and many more equally thought provoking, how can one not explore the vast possibilities of this wonderful book of poems. The author, J. Michaels, has reached into the depths of his soul and produced an amazing book that will touch readers' hearts, minds, and souls.""-Angela SimmonsMember, Reviewthebook.com

Using crucial chapters from Paul's magnum opus as points of theological departure, Delano Palmer provides in-depth discussion on important themes like the role of first-century women in pastoral work and the nature and duration of spiritual endowments. Romans in Context is divided into three parts. Part one reviews the career and legacy of the apostle Paul against the backdrop of his cultural milieu and history. Part two takes up the knotty problem of what exactly does the apostle mean by justification by faith in its exploration of the declarative/demonstrative proposal of modern theologians. The section also explores what Paul has to say concerning the status of the justified in Romans 5-8. It is the final section that wrestles with matters of spiritual gifts, the role of female pastors, as well as the apostle's best-documented thoughts on Christian mission.

This book is a scholarly inquiry into several dimensions of culture, exploring the close relationship between architecture and metaphysical ideas as well as religious and philosophical concepts in each period of human history, a relationship which has, however, been largely forgotten or neglected by modernity. Rather than being a specialized account of any particular epoch, it is an intellectual attempt to map out a general picture of how certain ideas have made their way into architectural structures or shaped them in one or another way, from classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the present. The four essays it contains, focusing on light, water, color, and sound in architecture, are written by an author who is a historian and critic of architecture as well as literary scholar, who firmly believes in the value of discussing these issues from the perspective of the history of ideas. The author is conscious about the limits of any generalizations, but he believes that architecture should be studied not only as an art in its own right, but as something larger, enveloping many layers of culture and reflecting the bonds between human thinking and the practice of the art of building.

Charlie's Christmas Letter is a little document in the form of a letter to my grandson, which seeks to answer the questions that a bright teenager ought to be asking: Why were the shepherds in the fields in winter? Who were the three wise men? Why do we bring holly into the house? Of all the ways of entering a house why does Santa choose the chimney? What is the Messiah about? Why did Tchaikovsky drink unboiled water during a cholera epidemic? What is the Jewish Celebration of Lights all about? The letter presents some of the more interesting features of the season and incidental matters. Much space is devoted to details of the nativity and the transmittal of these through the uncertainties of the gospel reports; then there are the primitive rituals of food and drink; the origin of Santa Claus; and a summary of the wonderful legend ""The Cessation of the Oracles.""Then come features of the season not part of the nativity story: Messiah, The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol, containing some of the more colorful and significant details of the lives of Handel, Tchaikovsky, and Dickens. Then Hanukkah. Then Shopping. At best tangentially related, these have in them elements of Christian value. Next, the climax of the season: church on Christmas morning and the carols. Finally the book concludes with an attempt to present for the boy the huge dimension of the inconceivable phenomenon of the Incarnation. The chatty, simple style avoids long words where possible and offers parenthetical explanations. It is not without occasional, innocent wit and is sometimes a bit didactic: there are grandfatherly prescriptions, which Charlie may find a bit pompous.

Cairns have decorated the landscapes of cultures throughout time. Piles of stone-one stone placed on top of another-are set in place all over the earth to recall battles, identify burial sites, mark trails, and spur hearts and minds to remember sacred, noble, and critical events. They are landmarks. They are sacramental presences in space and time. Our lives are littered with markers of meaning. They all reveal who we are, where we have been, and offer us a jumping off point for the future. In the true mystic tradition, everything straddles meaning and is potentially available to reveal the inner life, God Himself, and all that Is. My hope is that we will begin to look at the markers of meaning in our lives and notice how we store that meaning in our heart. My hope is that we will reconstruct our prayer life and the shape of our interior world, that we will recognize the impact things have on us and discriminate toward health. Our journey in this book will be more like an amble or a wandering. We will hop from pillar to post looking for meaning and attempting to infuse things with meaning. We will look at our practices and the practices of those from our shared human past. We will begin to notice that there is a hidden depth to how we live-one that reveals we live in layers or dimensions, not simple and flat lines.

At each turn in life we are bombarded with the idea of normal. Normal finds a job he hates so it can pay for things he doesn't need while he wishes he was doing something else. Normal believes that creativity, imagination, innovation, and dreaming should cease after the fifth grade. Normal goes to church for an hour on Sundays but doesn't get carried away or allow her faith to truly intersect her life any other time of the week.Each day of normal becomes a tedious, hard-pill to swallow. But each day of normal also swells our thirst for something more. Have you ever wondered if there was something beyond normal? Have you ever craved adventure? What about purpose? Wished for meaning? Longed to know that what you do really matters? Maybe you've just longed to know that you matter.What if you could unlock the secrets to an abnormal life just like those men and women in Hebrews 11? What if God's design for your life is so much more than the trappings of this world? What if there is a life up ahead that could be meaningful, adventurous, and most of all, matter for eternity? What if God is not done altering the course of history? This is your invitation to travel miles past normal.

Se estima que la poblacion hispana en los Estados Unidos era 45.5 millones en el ano 2007, convirtiendo a los hispanos en la etnicidad minoritaria mas grande de la nacion. Los hispanos constituyen el 15 por ciento de la poblacion total de esta nacion. La poblacion latina en los Estados Unidos se triplicara, y de acuerdo a las proyecciones del Censo, los hispanos representaran el 29 por ciento de la poblacion en los Estados Unidos para el ano 2050.Este libro ofrece sugerencias para capacitar a lideres hispanos que se involucraran en el ministerio en diferentes regiones de los Estados Unidos. Las conclusiones y principios revelados en este proyecto investigativo proveen informacion, entendimiento y sugerencias que pueden tambien contribuir en los esfuerzos para capacitar a lideres emergentes y misioneros de otros grupos raciales tanto en los Estados Unidos como en otros paises.

Grief is universal, permeating all avenues of life on planet earth; no one can escape it. Pain and sorrow come in all different shapes and sizes. An Ordinary Story of Extraordinary Hope accepts that life is hard. It explores the full scope of grief issues to proclaim that grace and hope are stronger than the hardness of life; grace and hope are saturated with redemptive power.The book illustrates how those times of heartache result in growth that shapes our character and perspective. It teaches that it's our response to grief that determines whether growth will be positive or negative.An Ordinary Story of Extraordinary Hope provides true-life narrative tied to Scripture to describe God's presence in the midst of painful circumstances. It demonstrates that over time God uses both positive and negative experiences to accomplish his purposes in our lives. Its testimony to perseverance is an encouragement to others on their faith journey.

The latter half of Chapter 4 of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is the watershed of this magnificent document that is often referred to as the ""holy of holies."" Paul was never hesitant to declare God's truth as he proclaimed it to those professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, after praising The Triune God for the love, wisdom, and blessings bestowed upon us during the first three and one-half chapters Paul does an about face and enjoins the believers with these strong words saying, ""This I . . . testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity (futility) of their mind."" He is telling the hearers that once they are Christ's they are to walk to a different drummer, the Master Himself.Paul completes the watershed transition by reminding professing Christians, ""But ye have not so learned Christ."" It is with these simple, single syllable words that he opens new horizons for the members of Christ's body and paves the way for enunciating the duties and responsibilities they are to learn and to do when Following Christ. This learning and practicing is not easy, but it us joyful, rewarding, and worthwhile.That is why Paul, before embarking on Christ's learning pathway, tells the followers in the way to, ""put off . . . the old man; be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And . . . put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."" May we heed God's truth as revealed to Paul by the Holy Spirit. These blessings are comforting, strengthening, and manifold when committing ourselves to Walking With Jesus.