Join Dr. Chrysandra Brunson as she sits down with the renowned Dr. Mark Yarbrough, President of Dallas Theological Seminary, as they dive into the heart of faith-driven living. In this engaging episode, Mark shares his profound journey—from his early years influenced by devout parents to leading a major seminary. Witness how he navigated challenges with grace and how he believes in the importance of living out God-given dreams without fear. Mark also unveils his latest literary endeavor, ‘The Rekindled Heart’, which addresses the six essentials of reviving faith. Using real-life stories and biblical insights, Mark encourages listeners to remain
Welcome everyone to The Calling’s radio show to all the dreamers. I’m your radio host, Dr. Cassandra Brunson, founder and CEO of The Calling. And it is such an honor to be with all of you today. You know, at The Calling, we have realized that so many people are afraid to go after the dreams that Jesus has put inside their hearts because they are afraid to fail. And that is just plain wrong because if God has given you a dream and you’re not living it out, we are wasting it. And we do not want you or anyone else to die with regret. And that’s why at The Calling, we love to inspire, empower, and equip people to, after God’s calling on their lives, treat the best kind of eternal legacy possible to have immediate impact on themselves and their families. And we love to do this through so many different avenues, through custom tools, programs, workshops, seminars, but especially through this radio show where we bring on world-renowned guests who are living out their God-given dreams to share how they’re going after them and how you can do the same. Today is no exception. We have the world-renowned Mark Giles. yarbrough and we are so honored to be able to have you mark here with us and actually live on site at colorado christian university’s new reading room actually jerry jenkins reading room that’s right we’re so honored to have you mark and people are hearing your name and it’s ringing a bell can you just share with people where they may have heard you from and what you’ve done in the past and where you are today oh my goodness
MARK YARBROUGH :
Yeah, when you open that door, the most important thing that I get to say is I’m a child of God. I kid you not. That is my lead in. I am a child of God. I am the proud husband to Jennifer. We have four beautiful, phenomenal, incredible kids. Two of those are married. One gets married a week from today. And as of a month ago, we became grandparents for the very first time. I am privileged to get served as the president at Dallas Theological Seminary. And that has been home for me. I have been from an employment standpoint. I was there in 2001. And I’ve been in a bunch of different roles, pastored at churches. And so just real, I’m just, I’m still in shock all these years that the Lord chooses to use us, right?
MARK YARBROUGH :
Through faith. Not because of any merit of our own or anything that we can bring to the table. It’s all God’s goodness. I assure you of that. but Dallas Seminary is my home, and so I moved into the presidency in 2020, so I’m into my sixth year almost at the end of that sixth year. It’s hard to believe. Yeah, so I’m involved in a lot of different things, and we lead a ministry called Story of Scripture out of Dallas Seminary, and that’s a real privilege to be engaged with helping individuals and churches to be able to understand the grand story of the Bible. It starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation and to help people see how it moves from one book to the next. And God’s got a great grand plan. And I always tell people it starts in a garden and it’s going to end in a city garden. Sin comes in and sin goes out. There are tears that are entering and those tears are gone at the end. So it is one of the privileges of my life to travel around the country and around the world to help people understand God’s word better.
CHRYSANDRA :
Mark, we are just so honored to be able to have you. And we have so many fun things to be able to talk about. Of course, this show is all about people going after their God-given dreams. But first, we just want to be able to give just a little bleep of what’s going to be coming. You have this new release that has just come out that we want to talk about, The Rekindled Heart. So we cannot wait to hear about this. And also, just real quick, what book is on the horizon right now? from you and Dr. Jerry Jenkins.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Yeah, we’re excited about this. It is a book called The Battle for Heaven and Earth. It’s out on Amazon now. The book is not available, but it just went live. It’ll be out in November of 2026. and uh yeah we partnered together on writing this novel and we are looking forward to both coming back together and doing another episode with you yes so that we can talk about it in detail but in essence i can tell you what it is it is um it covers the pre-creation fall of satan yep And then Genesis 1, 2, and 3. And so it goes all the way up to where Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden because of sin. And so part of our desire is to tell the greatest story ever told, the story of Scripture. So it has a strong balance. biblical line and obviously as narrative, it imagines what that must have been like. So it stays true to the biblical thread that we have and have access to. And our prayer is that it’s going to send people back to the scriptures, that they’re going to dive in deep and wrestle with it themselves and imagine. So it is our way of trying to get people back to the book, but to also just live in the story and imagine what it must have been like. So anyway, that’s coming out in November. We’ll look forward to talking with you in detail about that in another episode.
CHRYSANDRA :
Can’t wait. Can’t wait for that. Well, Mark, when you look back on your life and just how Jesus started fashioning all these threads in your heart to be doing what you’re doing today, what comes to mind of memory or experiences that Jesus was just working in your heart to know that this was your calling now? Yeah.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Yeah. Well, I tell you what, um, my, my experiences, and I really mean this, it goes all the way back. I grew up in a phenomenal home and, um, I saw Jesus lived out. My mom and dad are still alive. I am so blessed with that. And, uh, the two greatest servants of the Lord that I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean, they are the real deal. They are Bible believing, Jesus loving, gospel sharing.
CHRYSANDRA :
Talk about treasure.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Oh, Huge, huge. And I had it on both sides. I really mean it. I had a spoil of riches in terms of relationships and seeing Christ lived out. And I really sincerely mean that. And so I saw these models and individuals that poured into my life. And yeah, I had some great mentors that pulled me aside and challenged me and pushed me and forced me to serve in new, very unique ways. And you get those opportunities and those experiences and they start forming and you start assessing your own gifts and abilities. And none of those gifts are ours.
CHRYSANDRA :
Right.
MARK YARBROUGH :
They’re given by God.
CHRYSANDRA :
Right.
MARK YARBROUGH :
And so the question really starts coming to every believer is how am I gonna use the gifts that God’s given me, right? And so for me, I had a huge moment that hit really in my freshman year of college. So my wife, she was not my wife at the time, we dated in high school and we actually met in junior high, how about that?
CHRYSANDRA :
We met in junior high, started dating in high school.
MARK YARBROUGH :
And, um, our freshman year, uh, we were, we would have married right out of high school, but it would have totally freaked our parents out. And so we decided to wait, you know, we knew we were going to wait for two years. Okay. And, um, after our sophomore year. And so she was going up to the university of North Texas, do a teaching degree. And so my dad said, Hey, why don’t you go to do Bible college for a year? I wasn’t running from God, but I heard that very distinct call into vocational Christian ministry or what I was supposed to do. In fact, I love the outdoors. I don’t like big cities. I don’t like pavement. And so I had a full ride to go do a degree in large ranch management. Seriously.
CHRYSANDRA :
Really? Large ranch management.
MARK YARBROUGH :
How about that? So my plan was to, you know, marry Jennifer. I’m going to find a billionaire and go run his ranch. That was actually what I was going to do. How about that? Seriously. That’s kind of what I wanted to do.
CHRYSANDRA :
I think we have a lot of ranchers that tune in. Come on.
MARK YARBROUGH :
You still need me. I’m your man. And so that’s kind of what I was planning to do. But my freshman year at a Bible college, I had some professors that their passion for the Word of God lit me on fire. And it disturbed my soul. And I can remember showing up as an 18 year old.
CHRYSANDRA :
I have goosebumps.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Showing up as an 18 year old, you know, in their office. And they were like, after a while, they’re like, Mark, why do you keep coming into my office? Is it possible that God’s chasing you? Is he asking you? Is he causing you to stop and reflect upon what you’re supposed to do with life?
CHRYSANDRA :
Yeah.
MARK YARBROUGH :
And after a while, one of them said, I think he may be calling you into vocational ministry. And I can remember going, so you gave me kind of some things to pray about.
CHRYSANDRA :
Yeah.
MARK YARBROUGH :
And to search the scriptures and to, I can remember even reflecting upon how I’m wired and it just became clear. And the Holy Spirit was just chipping away. And this is what I knew. And I can remember thinking, oh my goodness, how am I going to tell Jennifer? You know, I’d sold her on the romantic vision, you know, off to Wyoming or Montana. And, um,
CHRYSANDRA :
The ranches, the best ones. Yes, I mean, come on.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Blue sky and mountains in the background and all that stuff. And I’ll never forget having a very distinct meeting with her. And you asked for a moment or these kind of defining kind of situations. And I can remember taking her, not knowing how she was going to react. I’m sure it was scary. It was. It was scary for me. And I can remember sitting down. I said, I said, Jen, I think that the Lord has. I was not thinking to it. He’s called me. And I’m supposed to study the word and preach and teach the gospel. And I’ll never forget her words. She said, Oh, I’ve known it for quite some time. I wondered how long it would be before you knew it. It was a huge moment in our life and trajectory. And from that point forward, we’ve never looked back. And, you know, I really believe that when when we know who we are and we are executing the gifts and the dreams and the visions that God has given us, even if we can’t see them in all the clarity that we would want, that God will bless that and he will fuel us with energy and enthusiasm because he is going to give us Everything that we need because it’s not man-made. It’s not something that we have created. And so my story is a story of the grace of God.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Through and through. It’s not about me. This is not a Mark Yarbrough show. This is about what God’s called me to do and he’s empowered me to do certain things. And it’s not me. He calls all of us to simply be faithful and take those gifts that he’s given us and give them to him.
CHRYSANDRA :
And Mark, when you are able to see on this journey of going after what God’s called you to, we know that the giants, they undoubtedly come. And so how have you been able to persevere through these different scenarios? Maybe one in particular that comes to mind that you didn’t know how you were going to be able to walk through and fight that Goliath, but you were able to by faith.
MARK YARBROUGH :
You know, we had a, we had.
CHRYSANDRA :
And Mark, I actually, I asked the question. Now we need to go to a short break.
MARK YARBROUGH :
We’ll come back after that and do it.
CHRYSANDRA :
But everyone, you are listening to the one and only Dr. Mark Yarbrough. And we’re so honored to have him here live at Colorado Christian University at the newest Jerry Jenkins reading room. We’ll be right back. Liquid Acre is the world’s first crypto to land marketplace, allowing you to own fractional acreage through non-fungible acres. Don’t let the dream of owning a piece of the trillion dollar real estate market slip away. Visit liquidacre.com to invest in real survey land in seconds and start building your real estate legacy. Twist and shout with Lee and Co. They are the premier oldies band delivering the rock and roll vibes you’ve been missing. Great songs, great memories. Book them at LeeandCo.com. Have you heard you have an opportunity to come with The Calling and I to Greece this fall? You don’t want to miss it. Go to The Calling Nonprofit’s Instagram to find out all the details.
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CHRYSANDRA :
At Ignite Brilliance Coaching, you will get 34 years of science teaching, a decade of university level instruction and over 10 years of instructional coaching to empower educators with the tools, mindset and confidence to thrive. Contact Ignite Brilliance Coaching on Facebook. We are back. Thank you for listening to all the dreamers radio show. I’m your host, Dr. Cassandra Brunson. And we have the one and only world renowned Dr. Mark Yarbrough. And Mark, you were just sharing right before break about a giant that you have encountered in a Goliath.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Yeah, it was something of, you know, we had an experience after child number three, Jennifer, her system crashed. And there were all sorts of things of thyroid cancer. And after the birth of our third child, she went into a pretty dark place and the medical world will call it, you know, postpartum depression. Yeah. And sometimes there’s an interesting thing. I don’t I don’t know if we always know in depression, if you’ve ever walked through depression with anybody, it can be a it’s a it’s clearly a very lonely place for them. And it’s a lonely place for the caregiver. And so we walked through that together. And so you talk about, you know, a giant. It was some dark days, and I stepped out of a doctoral program, and I mean, it was, this is my priority. And God, in His kindness, through some individuals on the medical side, some on the metabolic side of really saying, we got to rebuild her system and get her healthy. And then to watch the Lord use people to also realize that this wasn’t just, and this is true for every believer, whether that’s our exact story or not. You know, when Paul says in Romans chapter 12, that do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but by the renewing of your mind. That’s an important thing for us as believers, the renewing of our mind. And Jennifer, if she was sitting here with us, she would tell you the same thing. She would say, one of the things that came out of that, that God made clear was, Jennifer, I need you to renew your mind. Trust me in the midst of the pain. And so we watch the Lord heal her physically, spiritually, spiritually. And that is a major ministry that she has today because God will always take our pain and sanctify it and use it for his glory if we let him. And so that’s a major story that we frequently tell. And we weren’t never trying to hide it. And we talk about it when we do all sorts of seminars and speak at places and things like that. But we recorded it for the very first time in this particular book because it connects with so many people that either there or have been there, or I can say this, may find themselves there. And there are various things that kind of quench the fire of our active faith. And I think the evil one does a lot of things in order to do that. But we’ve got someone that is greater than that, that we can trust in the midst of the fire.
CHRYSANDRA :
Mark, when you look at, you know, just the giants, but also these miracle stories that also come to mind, tell us of a situation where it was just a complete miracle that you never foresaw. Okay.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Tell you what, I’m not trying to go back to the book, but there’s another. There’s a story in there that I tell, and that’s the joy of writing, as you well know, right? Because we all write out of our own lives and experience of watching and observing God. Yeah, when I was a kid, we loved to go to Colorado. So here we are in Colorado, and as a Texas boy, that’s a big deal. Well, we had a place in Colorado that was a Christian family camp that was just precious to our family growing up that we would kind of travel and go to. And so we were caravanning up with a group and we were on our way to Raton.
CHRYSANDRA :
Yeah.
MARK YARBROUGH :
And we were heading there. And so we were in New Mexico and we got caught in a mega storm. I mean, it was a flight out.
ADVERTISER :
You couldn’t see a thing.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Oh my gosh. And it’s shut down the highway, you lose all sense of perspective. You can’t see any lanes, there’s nothing. And whiteout messes with you and everybody’s, the cars are freezing up, we all got separated. So I’m in a travel van with my family and we’re traveling together and we’re going like 10 miles an hour and the snow’s just coming down, you can’t see a thing. and every saw he got to where we knew we had we were going to have to stop and pull over and so my dad said hey mark i’m going to pull the uh the van over help me get the ice off of the windshield wipers we can’t see so he pulls it off to where we think is the shoulder you can’t see anything but you know it doesn’t go down and so over there And so we pull up and my dad puts the car in park and he opens up the door and he closes it and I’m getting my boots on to get outside. So he’s in front of me, right? So he gets out of the driver’s seat. The minute he closes the door, the minute he closes it, you hear the sound of an 18 wheeler and it clips side window of the driver’s door. And all of this happens instantaneously. And we all scream and we just know there’s no way about it. My dad just got hit by an 18 wheel. And I can remember my mom, all she did is she looks back and she grabs my sister’s hand in my hand and she says, Lord, give us strength. Because all three of us knew he had just been killed. And I’m ready to get out of that car. And I put my hand and I’m going, I’m going to go see my father that is all over the highway. There is no doubt in my mind. And I reached towards that door and it flings open. And my dad is standing there and he says, what are you waiting for? Are you going to help me or not? And the three of us couldn’t speak. We didn’t know whether we were seeing an angel And to this day, my dad never saw the truck, never heard the truck, can’t explain how it clipped. I am still convinced to this day that the Lord just picked him up and moved him. I can’t explain it. I can tell you the story, and I’m giving you my perspective on it. And so all I can say is that, look, you and I know, and we believe this not just by faith, but it is the story of God’s Word.
CHRYSANDRA :
Amen. Mark, we’re coming up towards the end of our show. We don’t even know where time has gone. We have so much to talk about and we would love to have you back sooner than later. But we have a couple of things that we need to hear from you. We have a listener, at least one listener that’s tuning in right now. And they’re afraid to go after what Jesus has called them to. and they needed some encouragement and some wisdom, what would you tell them at this moment has been the most profound thing you’ve heard about obeying the Lord’s calling on your life and doing it quickly?
MARK YARBROUGH :
I mean, I would say, look, we got to go back to some basics here. Of greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Because there is an evil one that wants to speak. non-truth into your life. Here’s what I would say to someone right now. First and foremost, you remind yourself that your identity is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Get up and tell yourself that every day. Okay. Second thing that I would say is that every Part of the body of Christ. And we are all part. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re a head, a toe, a nose, a hand, an arm. I mean, look, we’re all part of the same team.
MARK YARBROUGH :
And so part of our responsibility as believers is to say, Lord, how have you wired me? What gifts and abilities are yours that you have bestowed upon me? Yeah. And I think that our responsibility is to execute those gifts for the glory of God and to not listen to the lies of the evil one, but to remember that we are children of the king. Amen. And so, look, if we can do that every day of our lives, start off our day reminding ourselves, I’m a child of the King. That’s going to give us a motivation and an energy and an enthusiasm to not say we’re out here and been created to conquer the world, but we’re here to serve the one who has the right to do that. That is a totally different perspective. So those are two anchor points that I would say related to our identity and to the reminder that he has gifted us. He has empowered us. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are not our own and that we need to walk in step with the spirit, not listen to this messy, ugly world and to listen to the one who spoke the word and brought the universe into existence. That’s who I want to align myself with.
CHRYSANDRA :
And you have two books that are on the horizon, one that’s out, one that’s coming out. But tell us about this one and the one that’s coming out in November.
MARK YARBROUGH :
This book is near and dear to my heart because as I travel the country and I travel the world, The Rekindled Heart, Six Essentials for Reviving Your Faith. So here’s the reality. I told you about my love for the outdoors. Every other year I go on a big giant fishing trip. So this last summer, I was on that trip. I was with some guys and I had a guy that was with me early in the morning. I got up and I’m usually, I can’t sleep very well. So I was always, I’m always up in the morning. So I’m usually starting the fire. And there was a friend that was there and I was getting some you know, tender together to get the fire going. And I looked at the fire because we’d had a big giant fire the night before as we’re all sitting around the campfire, right?
MARK YARBROUGH :
So the coals from the night before were still present. You know, you could see them. They were buried underneath the ashes. And so I’m getting some stuff together and my friend, he looks at the fire and he points his finger and he said, that’s my faith. said it used to be like last night when that flame is ablaze yeah and he said that’s where it is right now and so that metaphor is what i started running with and so as i talk with people around the country and around the world this is not a us issue this is about what it means to be a believer it’s a hard ugly broken world call it what it is it’s tainted by sin we’re getting chased again by the evil one that wants to derail us and wants to derail our faith. And so I started pouring through scriptures. And one of the things that I do at Dallas Seminary, we have things that are called core values that are very important. And I started pouring back through those and adapting those to say, you know what? These are essentials. This is not a to-do book. It’s not a do these steps. And I’m not anti any of that stuff, but I call it the essentials for a reason. Because I’m saying, look, these are important things. So as an example, like when I talk about, you know, this book, I say it’s rekindled devotion, having bold trust in God’s word. And so I take us back to what scripture claims about, look, it’s the very breath of God. And that’s a shocker. Yes. And I’m saying if God has spoken, how important is it then that we subject ourselves to what God has said?
MARK YARBROUGH :
And that’s transformative. So I hit things such as what it means to have total God dependence. I call it refrigerator faith. You’ll have to read the book.
CHRYSANDRA :
I’m so excited to. Everything.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Handled love and servanthood. So I’m actually going, I’ve got six things. This is not an exhaustive list. I want to be clear about that. But what it is, if you find yourself, here’s what I would say to anybody that is watching, listening to us today, that we’ve all been there. We all have these mountaintop Jesus moments and God does a miracle. And we’re like, man, I am, this is. I’ll never doubt him again. And then life happens. And sometimes it happens by our own stupidity. Mark Yarbrough’s got stories. We’ve got stupid moments. We’ve got things where the world just things happen to us. It’s out of our control. You know, it’s just circumstances. God allows it. We don’t know why. Sometimes it’s just, it’s just neglect. So I try to open that up and let’s just be real transparent about it. And what I’m saying is that if you find yourself in a moment where your faith is ablaze, praise God, good for you. And so you know what I say? Keep staying after these things because you want to keep stoking that fire. If you find yourself like my friend saying, that’s my faith. It’s not what I want it to be. It’s not ablaze. I’m saying, you get into these things right here. Not to do, but some of it is how we think and remind ourselves of what God has said. And so that’s what I’m trying to do with this book. I want to stir the heart. So my prayer is that the Lord will always take something like this. And so that’s kind of where it comes from.
CHRYSANDRA :
And that’s also what goes into your upcoming book that is in pre-sales right now. So you guys can get your copy in the order right now.
MARK YARBROUGH :
The battle for heaven and earth.
CHRYSANDRA :
That’s what you’re talking about.
MARK YARBROUGH :
Or the rekindled heart.
CHRYSANDRA :
yes yes and the rekindled heart everyone go pull over right now go follow dr mark yarrow um be able to go get this book the rekindled heart for you and a loved one because truth be told we are all under attack every single minute satan is relentless We need to be on guard. And so thank you so much for saying yes to your calling, Mark. Challenge everyone with Paul’s words from Ephesians 4.1. As a prisoner of the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Till next time, dreamers, keep dreaming big.
