Readers' Choice Award Winner Best Books About the Church from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore Fast food. Fast cars. Fast and furious. Fast forward. Fast . . . church? The church is often idealized (or demonized) as the last bastion of a bygone era, dragging our feet as we're pulled into new moralities and new spiritualities. We guard our doctrine and our piety with great vigilance. But we often fail to notice how quickly we're capitulating, in the structures and practices of our churches, to a culture of unreflective speed, dehumanizing efficiency and dis-integrating isolationism. In the beginning, the church ate together, traveled together and shared in all facets of life. Centered as they were on Jesus, these seemingly mundane activities took on their own significance in the mission of God. In Slow Church, Chris Smith and John Pattison invite us to leave franchise faith behind and enter into the ecology, economy and ethics of the kingdom of God, where people know each other well and love one another as Christ loved the church.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers.

Looking for an ideal toast, quip, or remark for that special occasion--or the perfect pithy comment to enliven an everyday conversation? Ask Shakespeare!

A wedding vow--"To you I give myself, for I am yours" ("As You Like It")

A birthday greeting--to me, fair fried, you can never be old. (Sonnet 104)

Party time!--"Let's mock the midnight bell." ("Antony and Cleopatra")

The plays and poetry of the Immortal Bard make up a vast repository of wit and wisdom, insight and passion. If there's an occasion that needs commemorating, chances are there are some lines from Shakespeare that will do the job right. Whether you want to "speak the speech" with verve and flair or craft an elegant toast, lecture, or missive, world-renowned Shakespearean director and teacher Barry Edelstein will help you find the perfect "Bardism" for any occasion.

From houseplants and succulents to container gardens and vegetable patches, track your gardening progress and plot your growing dreams in this charming, cheeky plant journal. Container gardeners, newly-minted homesteaders and eager plant parents rejoice! Full of informative sidebars, guided growth charts, recommended varietals and adorable illustrations, I Love My Plants is a unique and useful journal for keeping up with your green thumb. This concealed spiral-bound journal is as practical as it is beautiful, with three notched sections for easy reference, fresh tips for keeping plants thriving and a durable, matte-laminated cover. With room to track progress for both indoor and outdoor plants, as well as sections for free-form writing and planning, I Love My Plants is the perfect addition to any indoor, or outdoor, gardener's toolkit.

Bring the fun and excitement of bowling right to your desk with this glow-in-the-dark, nostalgic game. Kit includes: * 11" bowling lane with glow-in-the-dark features and flashing lights and music * 6 pins * Bowling ball * Mini book on the history, setup, and rules of the game

The Truth Revealed

Freemasons have been connected to the all-seeing eye on the dollar bill, the French Revolution, the Knights Templar, and the pyramids of Egypt. They have been rumored to be everything from a cabal of elite power brokers ruling the world to a covert network of occultists and pagans intent on creating a new world order, to a millennia-old brotherhood perpetuating ancient wisdom through esoteric teachings. Their secret symbols, rituals, and organization have remained shrouded for centuries and spawned theory after theory. The Masonic Myth sets the record straight about the Freemasons and reveals a truth that is far more compelling than the myths.

These popular and proven workbooks help students build confidence before attempting end-of-chapter problems. They provide short exercises that focus on developing a particular skill, mostly requiring students to draw or interpret sketches and graphs. New to the Third Edition are exercises that provide guided practice for the textbook's Problem-Solving Strategies, focusing in particular on working symbolically.

Relax and unwind with this stress-relieving colouring book of relaxing patterns. The art of colouring is a form of meditation, focusing the mind and stilling the endless mental chatter that saps our energy and causes stress and negative feelings. As you start to colour in these beautiful designs you will unleash your inner creativity and find yourself gradually moving to a more peaceful and calming state of mind. You can colour in as little or as much as you like, taking your time to develop your picture the way you want it. There are no hard or fast rules, you are truly free to create your own unique designs using pencils, pens or paints. Start colouring today and enjoy the still, quiet voice of calm this simple meditative practice will bring.

He is risen indeed! Here are the best reasons why it's true! Culture is doing its best to convince the world there is nothing special about Jesus. And many Christians never get beyond a Sunday school understanding of their own faith. As a result, Christianity's most important historical fact--the resurrection--is often the most misunderstood, relegated to Easter and funeral services, creating a powerless Christianity. In Body of Proof, acclaimed apologist and scholar Dr. Jeremiah Johnston sets out to show why Jesus' victory over death is central to a believer's faith. Straightforward, accessible, and practical, this book examines the latest archaeological and textual findings and presents seven tangible, fresh reasons to believe Jesus really rose from the dead--and why it matters today as the foundation of our hope in the face of suffering and grief. When you fully understand the implications of the resurrection, you will begin to understand the power of Christ in you. This changes everything. "A creative masterpiece of persuasive evidence for the pivotal event of human history."--LEE STROBEL, New York Times bestselling author and founding director of the Lee Strobel Center at Colorado Christian University "Body of Proof is a book every pastor should teach and every believer should read."--DR. JACK GRAHAM, senior pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church

For fans of Gudetama, this adorable talking figurine is the perfect addition to any desktop. Meet Gudetama -- everyone's favorite lazy egg with the can't-be-bothered attitude. This one-of-a-kind kit includes a 3" talking Gudetama figurine with a retractable bacon blanket to activate the sound and a mini sticker book. Sound clips include: - "Leave me alone" - "Don't care" - "So lazy" - "Meh" - "Can you not?" - "Please don't" - "Okay okay" - And "please stop."

Medieval saint, mystic, healer, and visionary-Hildegard von Bingen has made a comeback. She is now popular in natural healing circles, in medieval and women's studies, and among those interested in investing the everyday with the spiritual.
Hildegard's Healing Plants is a gift version and new translation of the 'Plant' section of Physica, Hildegard's classic work on health and healing. Hildegard comments on 230 plants and grains-most of which are still grown in home gardens and sold at local health food stores. In one of many entries on women's health, Hildegard writes, 'Also if a pregnant woman labors much in childbirth, let someone cook pleasant herbs, such as fennel and assurum, in water with fear and great moderation, squeeze out the water, and place them while they are warm around her thighs and back, tied gently with a piece of cloth, so that her pain and her closed womb is opened more pleasantly and easily.'
Whether read for the sheer enjoyment of Hildegard's earthy, intelligent voice ("Let a man who has an overabundance of lust in his loins cook wild lettuce in water and pour it over himself in a sauna") or for her encyclopedic and often still relevant understanding of natural health, "Hildegard's Healing Plants" is a treasure for gardeners, natural healing enthusiasts, and Hildegard fans everywhere.
"Hildegard's Healing Plants" includes 230 plants and grains-most of which are still grown in home gardens and sold at local health food stores.

Have fun, save money, and improve your home with these easy step-by-step projects

Are you looking for a way to make your bathroom a little more beautiful? Or maybe you'd like to give your tired furniture a face-lift, improve your home's air quality, or fix a toilet. No matter your DIY needs and no matter whether you're a DIY novice or expert, home improvement guru Andrea Ridout, host of the nationally syndicated radio show Ask Andrea, has ideas, expertise, and advice to share with you.

If I Had a Hammer offers easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations designed to make home improvement simpler than ever. With a little help from Andrea, you'll be able to tackle repairs, painting and decorating, bathroom and kitchen remodeling, wood care for furniture and floors, and much more with projects that often take as little as an hour. Also, you can try a few of Andrea's energy-conserving projects that can dramatically improve your utility bill--Andrea's projects are friendly on the environment and on your wallet With If I Had a Hammer, you'll have the tools to keep your home functioning and looking as good as--or even better than--new.

Why does divorce cause so much strain and long-term distress for children of all ages? Andrew Root, a recognized authority on youth ministry and a child of divorce himself, explains that divorce causes children to question their core identity. Since a child is the product of the union of a mother and father, when that union ends, he or she experiences a baffling sense of loss of self--a loss of his or her very sense of being. Root redirects efforts for assisting children of divorce to first address this fundamental experience.
This unique book examines the impact of divorce not only from a theological and spiritual perspective but also from a young person's perspective. It will benefit those who have experienced divorce and those who minister to children of divorce.

What's at stake in our worship? Everything. Worship is the dangerous act of waking up to God and God's purposes in the world. But something has gone wrong with our worship. Too often worship has become a place of safety and complacency, a narrowly private experience in which solitary individuals only express their personal adoration. Even when we gather corporately, we often close our eyes to those around us, focusing on God but ignoring our neighbor. But true biblical worship does not merely point us upward--it should turn us outward as well. In this prophetic wake-up call for the contemporary church, pastor Mark Labberton reconnects Christian worship with biblical justice. From beginning to end, worship must pursue justice and seek righteousness, translating into transformed lives that care for the poor and the oppressed. Labberton shows how to move beyond the comfort of safe worship to authentic worship that is awake to the needs of the world.

This sweet blue gingham baby book for boys is 64 pages of keepsake records of a baby's birth and first year. There are prompted pages to fill in, scrapbooking pages for photos and more, small envelopes for the hospital bracelet and a lock of hair from the first haircut, and 2 full pockets for assorted keepsakes. The pages carry quotes, poems, prayers and verse from Scripture - all conveying the beauty and design of bringing forth this new life.

The padded cover has a die-cut photo frame for you to insert your own favorite picture. A magnetic flap keeps the book closed and tidy. The full-color pages are acid-free.

- 64 Full-Color Pages,Padded Cover

- Magnetic Closure

- Die-Cut Cover Photo Frame

- Acid-Free Paper

- Packaged In Gift Box With Acetate Window

This book relates the path to higher consciousness through the colour, shape, and symbolic forms on the twenty-two Tarot cards. Detailed study and meditation of each card may release internally all that is involved with each level encountered on the journey towards the Light. These cards may be used in conjunction with the text or separately for meditation. When studied individually, a card can reveal the necessary steps that need to be taken to actualise one's potential. Tarot cards, or symbolic representations of the truth have always been used to help man relate not only with the mind, but internally, through the feelings invoked by the colours and forms. The nature of these cards is that they can produce a strong awakening of ones unconscious forces. They are like a spiritual mirror in which we can recognise and examine ourselves. We can then understand that the reasons for our fate lie within ourselves, and changes by the mere fact that we begin to react differently to everything that happens to us. These cards with the text are a valuable key to understand our present state, our past and in a deeper sense, how we create our future. Included in the book are 22 pages of five-colour tarot illustrations.

Now everyone's favorite joke books from Rob Elliott can be found in one economical volume Combining his bestselling "Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids," "Zoolarious Animal Jokes for Kids," and "Knock-Knock Jokes for Kids," Elliott will have kids of all ages laughing with the gut-bustingest, knee-slappingest, guffaw-inducingest, funniest collection of clean jokes you can find.
Great on car rides, at the dinner table, on the playground, and anywhere in between, this collection of hilarity will make you and those around you smile every day.

Revive the art of storytelling using these nine beautifully illustrated wooden dice to create the most imaginative, funny and bizarre stories. Construct your own intergalactic adventure tale with flying saucers, cyborgs, mad scientists and aliens. Form an army with your space troopers to battle giant insects, dodge black holes and even gain superpowers like time travel and x-ray vision! This is the perfect family game that will stimulate the imaginations of children and adults alike. Ideal for playing by a log fire.

Mudpuppy On the Farm magnetic letters are lots of fun. Each colorful wooden magnet is a barnyard animal or something else found on a farm, as illustrated by Barn Eyes: horses, cows, sheep, duck, goose, cat, kittens, rabbits, dogs, pigs, hen and chicks and rooster, goat, mule, a bushel of apples, corn, carrots, hay bales, mice, a red tractor, and the farmer himself. Decorate the refrigerator or any metal surface for a real down-on-the-farm good time. The full magnetic backing will hold the letter firmly in position.
- Resealable double snap package closure
- Magnetic pieces made of 80% recycled wood
- Package contains 85% recycled paper
- 40 1-3/4" tall wooden pieces per set
- Printed with nontoxic inks

This bestselling Hollywood novel by the witty author of "Wishful Drinking" and "Shockaholic" that was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.
When we first meet the extraordinary young actress Suzanne Vale, she's feeling like "something on the bottom of someone's shoe, and not even someone interesting." Suzanne is in the harrowing and hilarious throes of drug rehabilitation, trying to understand what happened to her life and how she managed to land in a "drug hospital."
Just as Fisher's first film role--the precocious teenager in "Shampoo"--echoed her own Beverly Hills upbringing, her first book is set within the world she knows better than anyone else: Hollywood. This stunning literary debut chronicles Suzanne's vivid, excruciatingly funny experiences inside the clinic and as she comes to terms with life in the outside world. "Postcards from the Edge" is more than a book about stardom and drugs. It is a revealing look at the dangers--and delights--of all our addictions, from money and success to sex and insecurity.

An imaginative deck and book set that weaves traditional tarot symbolism, mythic expression, elemental magic, and reflective phases of lunar energy into a tapestried focus for seer and seeker alike.