Have a cup of coffee and put a log on the fire, settle info a comforable chair and enjoy a winter's day with the writings of novelist Madeleine L'Engle and poet Luci Shaw. Participate in the winter season: the wonder, the solemnity, the power, and the miracles. These readings reflect on the winter world around us, drawing joy from winter days, hope from Christmas celebrations, and promise for the New Year. This elegant collection is the natural outflow of the long-standing friendship between Madeleine L'Engle and Luci Shaw. Sharing similar themes and a reflective style of writing, they combine their two rich literary worlds. Newbery Award Winner Madeleine L'Engle is widely known for her children's books, and adult fiction and nonfiction. Her most recent book is Live Coal in the Sea. Renowned poet Luci Shaw's most recent book is The Green Earth: Poems of Creation. Both women are widely known throughout the United States and Canada for their workshops on writing and journaling, lectures, and retreats.

Overflowing with creative ideas for the holidays, 12 Days of

Christmas with Six Sisters' Stuff includes dozens of recipes,

projects, and ideas for bringing the excitement of the season

into your home. With full-color photographs and easy-to-follow

instructions, you'll find

12 Family Traditions

12 Homemade Gifts

12 Christmas Cookie Recipes

12 Christmas Decorating

Projects

12 Neighbor Gift Ideas

12 Ways to Make Christmas a

Breeze

12 Quick and Easy Dinners for

Busy Families

12 Christmas Party Themes

12 Days of Christmas for Your

"True Love"

12 Spectacular Christmas

Treats

12 Days of Giving Back

12 Christmas Brunch Recipes

Create delightful family memories with all-new recipes,

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Before the charismatic John Duval Gluck, Jr. came along, letters from New York City children to Santa Claus were destroyed, unopened, by the U.S. Post Office. Gluck saw an opportunity, and created the Santa Claus Association. The effort delighted the public, and for 15 years money and gifts flowed to the only group authorized to answer Santa's mail. Gluck became a Jazz Age celebrity, rubbing shoulders with the era's movie stars and politicians, and even planned to erect a vast Santa Claus monument in the center of Manhattan - until Gotham's crusading charity commissioner discovered some dark secrets in Santa's workshop. The rise and fall of the Santa Claus Association is a caper both heartwarming and hardboiled, involving stolen art, phony Boy Scouts, a kidnapping, pursuit by the FBI, a Coney Island bullfight, and above all, the thrills and dangers of a wild imagination. It's also the larger story of how Christmas became the extravagant holiday we celebrate today, from Santa's early beginnings in New York to the country's first citywide Christmas tree and Macy's first grand holiday parade.The Santa Claus Man is a holiday tale with a dark underbelly, and an essential read for lovers of Christmas stories, true crime, and New York City history.

"Preaching today", says Kennon Callahan," is less about law and more about grace. It is about inviting people to discover God's grace, perhaps for the first time, and touching their lives in a powerful, personal, helpful way." Callahan, who has helped tens of thousands of church leaders and pastors through his dynamic workshops and seminars, sees the sermon as a shared event for the pastor and the congregation who are gathered to discover the good news for this day and the week to come. He sees preaching as a sign of grace, compassion, community, and hope. Preaching Grace encourages pastors to develop the approach to preaching that matches with their unique gifts and strengths. Through focusing on these strengths, pastors will discover more fully their own personal preaching style and advance the sermons that will stir and inspire their congregations-to discover the grace of God, the compassion of Christ, and the healing hope of the Holy Spirit.

This warm-hearted little book is a window into the soul of St. Francis, one of the most passionate and inspiring followers of Jesus. "Prayer was to Francis as play is to a child: natural, easy, creative, and joyful," author Jon Sweeney tells us. "Before it became common to speak in personal terms of a relationship with God, Francis did so and made it seem natural." With this guide, readers will: Pray the words that Francis taught his spiritual brothers and sisters to pray. Explore Francis's time and place and feel the joy and earnestness of the first Franciscans. Experience how it is possible to live a contemplative and active life, at the same time.

We take it for granted that aspects of monastic life can sustain our daily lives in the world, but we owe this understanding to John Main, a Benedictine monk who pioneered the idea that the desert tradition of meditative or contemplative prayer, which had largely been forgotten in the West, was for all Christians. At his monastery in London, he started teaching this way of prayer to lay groups and a network of meditation groups came into being, quickly spreading throughout the world and renewing a sense of the Church as a fellowship rooted in prayer and contemplative action. Bestselling books soon grew out of his talks. This simple, practical guide to 'pure prayer' teaches that by ceasing to struggle to find words and images by which we all too easily try to control God, we give God freedom to be himself in our hearts and we begin to pray with 'the mind of Christ', as St Paul teaches. In a nervous world saturated with image and endless self-commentary, this is a nourishing, life-giving stream of hope and refreshment.

Learn the teaching method God uses to teach His children. The ultimate hands-on Bible lessons! Teach your children the way God instructed the Hebrews to teach their children-with annual events telling the story of His people and the coming of Jesus. This giant, 585 page telephone-size book gives an an extensive look at the nine annual holidays: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles, Hanukkah, Purim and the weekly holiday-the Sabbath! Having this book at your fingertips is like having a library on the Bible holidays! This book includes information that will fill ten books: one on each of the seven holidays in Leviticus, the Sabbath, plus Hanukkah and Purim, and tons of information about the importance of our Hebrew Roots. You'll use this book over and over for year to come!

This classic work of Russian spirituality has charmed countless readers with its tale of a nineteenth-century peasant seeking the truth with simple humility, finding joy and plenty everywhere in life.

Leonard Ravenhill's call to revival is as timely now as it was when rst published over forty years ago. The message is fearless and often radical as he expounds on the disparity between the New Testament church and the church today. Why Revival Tarries contains the heart of his message. A.W. Tozer called Ravenhill "a man sent from God" who "appeared at a] critical moment in history," just as the Old Testament prophets did. Included are questions for group and individual study. Ravi Zacharias refers to this as "the book that shaped me...more dramatically than any other..."

Hank Hanegraaff documents the danger of looking for God in all the wrong places and goes behind the scenes into the wildly popular and bizarre world of contemporary revivalism. Hanegraaff masterfully exposes the stark contrast between these deeds of the flesh and a genuine work of the Spirit by contrasting modern "revivals" with the scriptural examples of God's movement among His people.

Using the Blob style of illustration popularised in the Blob Tree publications, The Visual Christmas Story opens up the Bible for readers and non-readers alike, of all ages and abilities, and is suitable for use at home, church or school. The Bible text appears opposite verse-by-verse illustrations that encourage emotional and intuitive engagement with the narrative. Includes the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of Jesus.

This collection aims to provide a comprehensive survey of a highly significant part of the Christian Year: Ash Wednesday and Lent, Passiontide, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. Its contents span all musical periods of what is a marvellously rich area of church music and it contains much that is not widely available elsewhere under one cover.

Ash Wednesday to Easter for Choirs includes a number of less familiar works together with new or recent arrangements of well-known tunes, such as Philip Ledger's 'This joyful Eastertide', Simon Lindley's 'Now the green blade riseth', and Bob Chilcott's setting of 'Were you there?'. Some of the anthems, for example Richard Shephard's 'Sing, my tongue' and Grayston Ives' 'Ride on', have been newly commissioned specifically for this collection, thus filling certain gaps.

Wherever possible new practical performing editions of 16th-century repertoire have been prepared, reflecting current scholarship and including an English singing translation and, where, the original had none, a dynamic scheme. Such dynamics are the editors' suggestions only and may be freely ignored or adapted. Note values have in some instances been halved. Unaccompanied items include keyboard reductions for rehearsal.

The subject of prayer is explored as an essential element of self-awareness. The discovery of prayer, faith, love and man's relationship with God gives us hope and courage to pray.

Leonard Ravenhill presents prayer as faith in action in this fast-paced presentation of this crucial subject. He called prayer the most essential ingredient in producing revival. Filled with exhortations and illustrations, it teaches the art of effective praying--which will result in revival. Moody Monthly said, "This is a plea for praying that will melt the preacher's heart, move the people, and magnify the Lord Jesus."

The Rise and Fall of Merry Englandexplores the religious and secular rituals which marked the passage of the year in late medieval and early modern England, and tells the story of how they altered over time in response to political, religious, and social changes. Ronald Hutton examines a number of important and controversial issues, such as the character and pace of the English Reformation, the nature of the early Stuart `Reformation of Manners', the context of writers like Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick, the origins of the science of folklore, the relevance of cultural divisions to the English Civil War, the impact of the English Revolution, and the viability of economic explanations for social change. Never before has such a comprehensive study of the subject been undertaken, and it has been made possible by using categories of source material, notably local financial records, in a quantity never attempted hitherto. This is highly readable and entertaining book which, in both research and interpretation, breaks several frontiers.

Advice and examples help you find your own prayer style

Discover how prayer works and why you need it now more than ever

Do you want to pray, but you’re not sure how? This friendly guide explains the different kinds of prayer – revealing how and why to pray and how to discern God’s answers. You’ll see how to overcome hindrances, how to use a journal, and how to pray on your own. Discover what "Thy will be done" means and how to approach prayers that seemingly haven’t been answered.

The Dummies Way

• Explanations in plain English
• "Get in, get out" information
• Icons and other navigational aids
• Tear-out cheat sheet
• Top ten lists
• A dash of humor and fun