The Backslider's Guide to Success


Book Description

An entertaining and thought provoking book for everyone who thinks that religion does not have a monopoly on morality.




Backsliding


Book Description

In this book, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills sounds the alarm, and graphically shows why every Christian must make it to Heaven!




The Wellness Compass Travel Guide


Book Description

Do you want to maintain high levels of health, happiness, and accomplishment for a lifetime? In The Wellness Compass Travel Guide, Dr. Joda P. Derrickson provides a practical framework for assessing, improving, and maintaining diverse aspects of personal well-being. This flexible step-by-step handbook puts you in the drivers seat by providing: > The Wellness Compass, a navigational tool to maintain balanced well-being. > The Wellness Compass Guidebook, a compilation of resources and activities that facilitates self-defined strategies for resolving wellness challenges. > The Wellness Compass Journey, a three-step process for goal achievement with step-by-step guidance, tips to prevent backsliding, and strategies to maintain a lifelong wellness lifestyle. Whether you use this system to accomplish a single New Years Resolution or to maintain high levels of well-being across your lifetime, its flexible. Adapt it. Make it your own. Keep climbing your mountains and achieving your dreams! Additional copies of activities can be downloaded from www.wellnesscompasstravelguide.com




The Scrum Field Guide


Book Description

Thousands of IT professionals are being asked to make Scrum succeed in their organizations–including many who weren’t involved in the decision to adopt it. If you’re one of them, The Scrum Field Guide will give you skills and confidence to adopt Scrum more rapidly, more successfully, and with far less pain and fear. Long-time Scrum practitioner Mitch Lacey identifies major challenges associated with early-stage Scrum adoption, as well as deeper issues that emerge after companies have adopted Scrum, and describes how other organizations have overcome them. You’ll learn how to gain “quick wins” that build support, and then use the flexibility of Scrum to maximize value creation across the entire process. In 30 brief, engaging chapters, Lacey guides you through everything from defining roles to setting priorities to determining team velocity, choosing a sprint length, and conducting customer reviews. Along the way, he explains why Scrum can seem counterintuitive, offers a solid grounding in the core agile concepts that make it work, and shows where it can (and shouldn’t) be modified. Coverage includes Getting teams on board, and bringing new team members aboard after you’ve started Creating a “definition of done” for the team and organization Implementing the strong technical practices that are indispensable for agile success Balancing predictability and adaptability in release planning Keeping defects in check Running productive daily standup meetings Keeping people engaged with pair programming Managing culture clashes on Scrum teams Performing “emergency procedures” to get sprints back on track Establishing a pace your team can truly sustain Accurately costing projects, and measuring the value they deliver Documenting Scrum projects effectively Prioritizing and estimating large backlogs Integrating outsourced and offshored components Packed with real-world examples from Lacey’s own experience, this book is invaluable to everyone transitioning to agile: developers, architects, testers, managers, and project owners alike.




A Guide to the Opera


Book Description




Getting Back in the Race


Book Description

What is backsliding, really? Is it serious? What can be done about it? The Christian life is a race, a marathon. Through the gospel, God summons us to sustained and persevering effort. He empowers his children by grace--free and undeserved blessing through Christ. But he does not carry them to heaven on flowery beds of ease. Faith is a living, athletic grace. God's mercy motivates Christians and energizes them to press on and overcome great obstacles. Christ blazed the trail before us. He now calls us to follow Him to the end (Hebrews 12:1-2). Looking unto Jesus--that is how we persevere. In him is everything we need. But realistically speaking, Christians are not always pressing forward. Sometimes they wander off the narrow path, slip, and injure themselves. To the confused and injured runner, this book says, "God can help you. You can finish this race--and finish it well." Drawing from the wisdom of the Scriptures and aided by the insights of godly Bible teachers through the centuries, Getting Back in the Race addresses the age-old problem of backsliding. Backsliding is a season in the life of a professing Christian when his sin grows stronger and his obedience to God declines. The beginning of the book uncovers signs of sliding into a spiritual rut, for this is often more subtle than falling into scandalous sins. The rest of the book shows that there is hope for the backslider. God is so amazing! Even though our backsliding insults him, dishonors him, grieves him, and pushes away his love, still he calls us to return to him. When you grasp hold of God's methods by faith, you discover that Christ has grasped hold of you. Our spiritual Physician has potent medicines to heal his people from their injuries and get them back on track to finish the race. This book is a wake-up call to careless Christians and an encouragement to all believers to keep running to the Lord.




The Pilgrim's Progress Study Guide


Book Description

The most trusted study guide to learning The Pilgrim’s Progress! Understanding the The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan can be difficult and confusing at times. Not so with The Pilgrim’s Progress Study Guide! This comprehensive Bible study workbook will guide you through Bunyan’s masterful use of metaphors helping you better understand key concepts, supporting Bible passages, and the relevance to our world today. The story chronicles the epic adventure of a man named Christian who leaves his home in the City of Destruction and begins a life-long quest to the Celestial City. Set against the backdrop of a hazardous journey, this powerful drama unfolds as Christian’s adventures lead him into fascinating lands and encounters with interesting people who either help or hinder his progress along a narrow way. With a gallery of memorable characters and visits to colorful places, Bunyan’s allegorical narrative describes one man's extraordinary adventure on his journey to faith. Designed to be used alongside The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, each chapter, sub section, and study question examines Bunyan’s allegorical narrative to tell his powerful presentation of what it means to follow the narrow way of Christian salvation. This complete Bible study experience is perfect for book clubs, church groups, and independent study. Detailed character sketches and an easy-to-read book summary provide deep insights into each character and place in the book. To help with those more difficult discussion questions, a complete Answer Guide and Scripture Reference Guide are available for free online. The Pilgrim’s Progress Study Guide includes: - Twelve sessions of study - Comprehensive Bible study workbook with studies for each week - Complete character sketches and summaries to go deeper - Bible study questions that are ideal for group discussion - Answer Guide for all questions and Scripture Reference Guide available for free online - Perfect for book clubs, small groups, or individual Bible study - Available in print or e-book formats Explore the allegories, meanings, and symbols behind this timeless classic that has challenged and encouraged believers for centuries. There's no better tool for making that happen than with The Pilgrim’s Progress Study Guide! Frequently Asked Questions: What book version should I use with the study? Although, there are many versions of this Bunyan classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress is the only book that is made specifically for this study. Each chapter, sub section, and study question are designed to be used in conjunction with each other. Other books will feel drastically different and not match up with the study questions and format of this study. How long is the study? The study is 12 weeks but can easily be reformatted based on your schedule. Does each person in the study need their own book? Yes. It’s most helpful for learning purposes if each person has their own study guide. However, couples might find it convenient to share the actual book. Is there much homework? The only homework is to read one chapter each week and answer corresponding discussion questions prior to class. Can anyone lead the study? Absolutely! The study is created in a discussion format allowing leaders to simply guide participants through each study question at weekly meetings. Can I get access to the answers for each discussion question? Yes. The answers for each discussion question are available for free online!







Baxter's Explore the Book


Book Description

Explore the Book is not a commentary with verse-by-verse annotations. Neither is it just a series of analyses and outlines. Rather, it is a complete Bible survey course. No one can finish this series of studies and remain unchanged. The reader will receive lifelong benefit and be enriched by these practical and understandable studies. Exposition, commentary, and practical application of the meaning and message of the Bible will be found throughout this giant volume. Bible students without any background in Bible study will find this book of immense help as will those who have spent much time studying the Scriptures, including pastors and teachers. Explore the Book is the result and culmination of a lifetime of dedicated Bible study and exposition on the part of Dr. Baxter. It shows throughout a deep awareness and appreciation of the grand themes of the gospel, as found from the opening book of the Bible through Revelation.




Rethinking 'Democratic Backsliding' in Central and Eastern Europe


Book Description

This book seeks to inject fresh thinking into the debate on democratic deterioration in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), viewing ‘democratic backsliding’ through the prism of a range of cases beyond Hungary and Poland, to redress the imbalance in current scholarship. Over the past decade a consensus has emerged that democracy in CEE is sharply deteriorating, perhaps even ‘backsliding’ into new forms of authoritarianism. Debate has, however, so far focused disproportionately on the two most dramatic and surprising cases: Hungary and Poland. This book reflects on the ‘backsliding’ debate through the experience of CEE countries such as the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Estonia; as well as neighbouring post-communist regions such as the Western Balkans and former Soviet Union (cases such as Moldova and Ukraine), whose patterns of failing or partial democratisation may be newly instructive for analysing the development of CEE. Contributors present less frequently considered perspectives on ‘democratic backsliding’ in the CEE region, such as the role of oligarchisation and wealth concentration; the potential of ethnographical approaches to democracy evaluation; the trade-offs between democratic quality and democratic stability; and the long-term interplay between social movements, state-building, and democratisation. This book was originally published as a special issue of East European Politics.