To Serve The Living

From antebellum slavery to the twenty-first century, African American funeral directors have orchestrated funerals or “homegoing” ceremonies with dignity and pageantry. As entrepreneurs in a largely segregated trade, they were among the few black individuals in any community who were economically independent and not beholden to the local white power structure. Most important, their financial freedom gave them the ability to support the struggle for civil rights and, indeed, to serve the living as well as bury the dead. During the Jim Crow era, black funeral directors relied on racial segregation to secure their foothold in America’s capitalist marketplace. With the dawning of the civil rights age, these entrepreneurs were drawn into the movement to integrate American society, but were also uncertain how racial integration would affect their business success. From the beginning, this tension between personal gain and community service shaped the history of African American funeral directing. For African Americans, death was never simply the end of life, and funerals were not just places to mourn. In the “hush harbors” of the slave quarters, African Americans first used funerals to bury their dead and to plan a path to freedom. Similarly, throughout the long—and often violent—struggle for racial equality in the twentieth century, funeral directors aided the cause by honoring the dead while supporting the living. To Serve the Living offers a fascinating history of how African American funeral directors have been integral to the fight for freedom.

In the “hush harbors” of the slave quarters, African Americans first used funerals to bury their dead and to plan a path to freedom. Similarly, throughout the long struggle for racial equality in the 20th century, funeral directors aided the cause by honoring the dead while supporting the living. Here is their story.

In this classic volume, Charles Swindoll uniquely shows the important aspects of authentic servanthood, such as: What it takes to serve unselfishly Why a servant has such a powerful influence What challenges and rewards a servant can expect He offers clear guidelines on developing a servant's heart and challenges you to realize the rich rewards promised in a life of authentic Christian servanthood.

Most people wake up and drive to a job that they hate. Think about your five closest friends. Are they happy? Do they live their lives with purpose? Do you? We put on a fake front for what we want people to see and think about us, but the reality is most people aren’t happy. We’re lost. We settle. We aren’t happy with where we are. You can’t be happy if you don’t know your purpose. It’s not possible. You want more but you don’t even know where to start. You know there is more out there. You see others having success and you want it, too; there is nothing wrong with that. You just need help finding your purpose so you can find the success you see all around you. You can be productive, crush your goals, pretend that all the things that you’ve acquired actually mean something…but at the end of the day, if you don’t know your purpose, you’ll always feel like there’s something missing. You’ll know that you’re capable of more and that you’re not living the life you should be. You might be fooling the world, but you’re not fooling the person looking back at you in the mirror. You need to find your actual power source. Your purpose is your source of power. Once you find your purpose it’ll fuel you for life. You’ll do things that you never thought you were capable of. Achieving your purpose will force you to morph into a stronger version of yourself. You’ll have to push through fears, insecurities, and doubts that held you back. But somehow it’ll all feel possible and necessary because you’re purpose-driven now…and that’s the only thing you’ll ever need.

Winner of the 2014 Robert W. Peterson Award for Excellence in Negro League Research from the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, sponsored by Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research Roberta J. Newman and Joel Nathan Rosen have written an authoritative social history of the Negro Leagues. This book examines how the relationship between black baseball and black businesses functioned, particularly in urban areas with significant African American populations—Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, and more. Inextricably bound together by circumstance, these sports and business alliances faced destruction and upheaval. Once Jackie Robinson and a select handful of black baseball’s elite gained acceptance in Major League Baseball and financial stability in the mainstream economy, shock waves traveled throughout the black business world. Though the economic impact on Negro League baseball is perhaps obvious due to its demise, the impact on other black-owned businesses and on segregated neighborhoods is often undervalued if not outright ignored in current accounts. There have been many books written on great individual players who played in the Negro Leagues and/or integrated the Major Leagues. But Newman and Rosen move beyond hagiography to analyze what happens when a community has its economic footing undermined while simultaneously being called upon to celebrate a larger social progress. In this regard, Black Baseball, Black Business moves beyond the diamond to explore baseball’s desegregation narrative in a critical and wide-ranging fashion.

Winner of the 2020 Christian Book Award for Bible of the Year! Trusted & Treasured by Millions of Readers over 30 years, the Life Application(R) Study Bible Is Today's #1-Selling Study Bible, and a Bible for All Times. Now it has been thoroughly updated and expanded, offering even more relevant insights for understanding and applying God's Word to everyday life in today's world. Discover How You Can Apply the Bible to Your Life Today Now with a fresh two-color interior design and meaningfully updated study notes and features, this Bible will help you understand God's Word better than ever. It answers questions that you may have about the text and provides you practical yet powerful ways to apply the Bible to your life every day. Study the stories and teachings of the Bible with verse-by-verse commentary. Gain wisdom from people in the Bible by exploring their accomplishments and learning from their mistakes. Survey the big picture of each book through overviews, vital statistics, outlines, and timelines, and grasp difficult concepts using in-text maps, charts, and diagrams--all to help you do life God's way, every day. The Personal Size editions are for people who like to carry their study Bible with them. Features: (Enhanced, updated, and with new content added throughout) Now more than 10,000 Life Application(R) notes and features Over 100 Life Application(R) profiles of key Bible people Introductions and overviews for each book of the Bible More than 500 maps & charts placed for quick reference Dictionary/concordance Extensive side-column cross-reference system to facilitate deeper study Life Application(R) index to notes, charts, maps, and profiles Refreshed design with a second color for visual clarity 16 pages of full-color maps Quality Smyth-sewn binding--durable, made for frequent use, and lays flat when open Presentation page Single-column format Christian Worker's Resource, a special supplement to enhance the reader's ministry effectiveness Full text of the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT), combining the latest biblical scholarship with clear, natural English

This book is two thousand years overdue in its telling. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God declared a state of war between Satan and the woman and her offspring, therefore, Satan hates women with every fiber of his being (Gen. 3:14, 15, MSG). Since time immemorial, Satan has worked relentlessly to try and steal, kill, and destroy women, trying to steal our knowledge of who we are in Christ Jesus, trying to beat us down and kill us with abuse, and trying to steal from us our dignity, our value, our worth, our identity, and ultimately, our joy (1 Pet. 5:8). For too long, Satan has kept us deceived, demeaned, and defeated, but Jeremiah declares, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know" (Jer. 33:3). Through Jesus's glorious gospel of grace, God is lifting the veil of darkness that has kept Christians blinded to the truth of who women are in Christ and all that is ours as heirs to His throne of grace. A grace revolution is sweeping our planet, and part of that is the unveiling of women's identity in the Godhead and all that we are in Christ Jesus. Two thousand years ago, at the cross of Calvary, God returned to man His glory, and this book unveils all that that means to us as daughters of the Most High, and it reveals the fullness of who we are as His comforters, helpers, and beautiful shekinahs.