Showing titles in Holidays

If you're looking for a new Lenten experience, here are 40 fresh ideas. Some will challenge you to deepen your prayer life; others will open your mind to new ways to serve others. Each of the 40 ways includes a reflection to help you understand more about Lent and why it matters. You'll learn how to have a more creative experience of Lent. You'll discover positive, proactive ways to take action instead of the same old routine of giving something up.

A memoir of childhood Christmases on the South Dakota plains. By turns sweet and comic, sentimental and serious, Joseph Bottum's Dakota Christmas is an instant Christmas classic. In this beautifully written account of the mad joys and wild emotions of Christmas for children, Bottum captures the universal spirit of the season even while he recounts his memories with a sharp particularity that brings them alive for listeners.

Grow close to the Lord this Advent season with 25 insightful and meaningful devotions from The Christmas Code by best-selling author O. S. Hawkins. Trace the birth of Jesus from its roots in the Old Testament to the ultimate gift of God: salvation. With a short devotion each day leading up to Christmas, this booklet will be the perfect way to keep daily focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Each day includes a passage of Scripture, a devotional thought, a Code Word, and a prayer of reflection.

From bestselling author Gayle Boss (All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings) comes a Lenten book filled with twenty-five of Earth's rare and wild creatures. Their stories, while tragic and uncomfortable, will wake listeners to greater compassion and hope—which is what Lent, meaning "springtime," has always been for.

The Bible teaches us the real story of Christmas. The problem is people have taken this story and added onto it. Cultures have added on to it. It’s passed through countries, and they’ve tacked on their little spin. We have thousands of years of a Christmas that is built around legends and myths. The Christmas we know is, in places, more a fairy-tale. It’s an inspiring one for sure. But a fairy-tale, nonetheless. This book helps us slow down and unpack the layers so we can see just how beautiful this gift really is.

Watching in disbelief as his computer was struck by lightning in 2007, Harry Bucknall had no idea that the subsequent trail of events would lead him to Rome - five years later, on foot. Following the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrim path that dates back nearly 2,000 years, Harry walks through England, France, Switzerland, and Italy weaving a historical tapestry liberally colored with tales of angels and saints, emperors and kings, and war and revolution.

Have you ever tried to imagine what it was really like for Mary? Do you think she automatically understood all that was happening? Can you use your imagination to fill in parts of her story that the Bible has not recorded? The author has attempted to do just that. Not to be authoritative about what Mary was thinking, but to stimulate your imagination and allow the lives of Mary and Joseph to become more real in your own awareness of what it might have been like for them.

Christmas is a time of seasonal cheer, family get-togethers, holiday parties, and-gift giving. Lots and lots - and lots - of gift giving. It's hard to imagine any Christmas without this time-honored custom. But let's stop to consider the gifts we receive - the rooster sweater from Grandma or the singing fish from Uncle Mike. How many of us get gifts we like? How many of us give gifts not knowing what recipients want? Did your cousin really look excited about that jumping alarm clock?

La perspectiva espiritual se agudiza llevándonos a comprender que los designios de Dios, muchas veces, son más complejos que lo que aparentan ser a primera vista. Esto es lo que podemos ver en las fiestas que Él dio al pueblo de Israel en el tiempo de Moisés. Cada una de las fiestas tiene un significado y un propósito más allá de ser una simple celebración. En cada una hay un simbolismo y un aspecto profético único. Descubrirás que hay un paralelo entre las fiestas judías y la vida de Jesús. De hecho, todas las fiestas han sido o serán cumplidas en Jesucristo.

Come, let us adore him. This beloved Advent refrain captures the heart of the season. Advent is for adoring Jesus. It is a season of preparation to ready our hearts for the glory of Christmas Day as we celebrate the coming of the eternal God in our frail humanity. These 25 short devotional readings from John Piper aim to help you keep Christ at the center of the Advent season.

Take a few minutes to focus on the hope we have because of Easter with this Easter edition of Jesus Calling devotions. This meaningful compilation of devotions comes from Sarah Young’s bestselling brand. Whether a self-purchase to enhance your observation of Easter and the death and resurrection of Christ or a gift for friends and loved ones, Jesus Calling for Easter will be a central part of the Easter experience for years to come.

Ace Collins helps you uncover the background of 32 favorite Christmas songs. Learn the surprising tale of how each song was created. Explore specific times and places that gave birth to each message. Hear these familiar melodies with new understanding as their stories find their way into your heart.

Pangolins and polar bears, olms, lemurs, and leopards. We share this beautiful blue-green globe with creatures magnificent, delicate, intricate - and now vanishing at a faster rate than at any other time in Earth’s history. Spend Lent with 25 of these wild ones. Vivid descriptions of their lives will fill listeners with wonder - and grief at what they suffer on a planet shaped by human choices. Their stories thaw our stiff hearts and wake us to greater compassion - which is what Lent, meaning “springtime”, has always been for.

Everything seems different at the end of the year. We put lights on our houses to dispel the growing darkness, Christmas music floods local radio stations, apple cider and cranberry sauce are again on the menu, and wrapping paper and tape are always ready. Things just look, smell, and taste differently during the Advent and Christmas season, and these differences are a sign to us that God is about to do something radical and different.

How can we recover the radical meaning of the Christmas season? Using the thoughts and words of Madeleine L'Engle, this books offers you a guide through the hectic Christmas season. With quiet times of prayer, Scripture, and meditation, you can begin to wonder—to imagine big possibilities and ask important questions—as you wander outside your typical comfort zones. In the twelve days of Christmas, bookended by Christmas Eve and the Feast of Epiphany, you will experience anew the awe and wonder of the Incarnation. As you both wonder and wander, the questions and images in this book will ...

Do you want to have a better life? Do you want a closer relationship with God? Haven’t so may of us lost so much from COVID-19 that you want these things in your life? You see the uniqueness of my book, The True Story of the Attempted Murder of Jesus Christ, as seen on the Hillsong Channel, is that the apostle Paul, whose writings are in the Bible, knows the same truth that I expose in the book. A truth that God has graced me with knowing from the Bible. A truth that no man has ever written about until me, well except for Paul.

The book features one carol for each day from December first to Christmas Eve and presents both the lyrics and the fascinating stories and interesting facts behind the creation of the songs. Each entry deepens our understanding of the music and enhances our appreciation of why these songs are culturally important and dearly treasured. From popular, familiar carols to lesser known but cherished hymns, author Michael D. Young combines his musical expertise with information specific to each song.

As winter comes and the hours of darkness overtake the light, we seek out warmth, good food, and good company. But beneath the jollity and bright enchantment of the festive season, there lurks a darker mood - one that has found expression over the centuries in a host of strange and unsettling traditions and lore. Here, Sarah Clegg takes us on a journey through midwinter to explore the lesser-known Christmas traditions.

Christmas has become synonymous with shopping, overindulging, competition, and stress. But according to Mike Huckabee (who was a pastor before getting into politics), that was never God's intention. Going back to the nativity, Christmas is supposed to be about simple things: faith, love, family, and hope. The hard part, in today's crazy world, is remembering that those simple things are the most precious of all.

This is a story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes III collection. In this collection are four more individual cases for Mr. Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr. Watson. They dive into the opium dens of London in "The Man with the Twisted Lip," recall the curious history of "The Musgrave Ritual," come face to face with the grisly evidence contained in "The Cardboard Box," and go on a wild-goose chase in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle." The powers of Sherlock Holmes prevail.