Showing titles in Holidays

The time-honored traditions of the liturgical calendar guide Christians through a year-long meditation on the life of Christ. Beyond just Christmas and Easter, each season of the church year offers special opportunities to remember and celebrate the work of God. In Sacred Seasons, Danielle Hitchen helps you incorporate the rhythms and rituals of this ancient Christian discipline into your everyday family life. 

Cada fin de año, en México nos da por pensar en el pasado y en el futuro, en lo que hicimos mal y en lo que podemos mejorar “si Dios y la Virgen quieren”. Esta emoción de abrir y cerrar ciclos viene con una fuerte carga cultural y simbólica relacionada con nuestros ritos y supersticiones: barrer la casa, pasear con maletas, comer doce uvas…

Most people don’t often associate Easter with music, but author Michael D. Young has collected a variety of inspirational hymns and songs—some solemn, some jubilant—and his commentary on their meaning can enhance our holiday experience. Each chapter focuses on the rich history of two songs that relate to the events of Holy Week, including the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and the resurrection.

Celebrate the hope of Christmas as you witness how God has written the promise of Immanuel, "God with us," into human history! Awaiting the Manger journeys with you through the Advent season, illuminating how God used the lives of ordinary people to foreshadow Christ's coming during the centuries and even millennia before his birth.

During Christmas, homes are filled with good food, welcoming family, and lively cheer. Streets are lined with lights and sprinkled with snow. Amid this season of beauty, even Christians can become distracted, keeping Jesus at an unintentional distance. How can Christians effectively prepare their hearts for the arrival of their King and worship him the way he deserves? O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by Jonathan Gibson presents a 40-day devotional liturgy guiding listeners through Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany—helping them keep their eyes fixed on Christ.

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.

We all long for “happily ever afters”. But let’s face it, life’s just not like that! Or is it? This evangelistic book takes listeners through the Easter story. Good Friday looked like a bad ending to Jesus’ story. But Easter Sunday changed everything...for everyone...for ever after! Listeners will discover how Jesus’ happy ending can be theirs too as they explore how his life, death and resurrection solve the big issues that plague humankind—sin and death.

The nativity story is often seen as cute and cuddly and for kids. But that’s because some of what really happened at the first Christmas has been edited out of popular retellings! The full, unabridged, uncut story is full of twists and turns, controversy and mystery. This best-selling book, now revised and updated, tells listeners what really happened all those years ago, and why it really matters for our lives and futures today.

God is often at work through the ordinary: ordinary people, ordinary objects, ordinary grace. Through the ordinary, God communicates epiphanies, salvation, revelation, and reconciliation. It is through the mundane that we hear God's quiet voice.

Of all the seasons of the church calendar, Christmas is the one most recognized and celebrated by our society at large. That means it's the season we're most familiar with—but that can also make it harder to see past Christmas's many cultural trappings to its timeless beauty, In this short volume, priest and theologian Emily Hunter McGowin invites us into the church's celebration of that great exchange, in all its theological and liturgical splendor.

These straightforward, short, and profound Advent readings have been edited from talks given by much-loved Bible teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul, helping listeners to benefit from his enduring insight and wisdom. They delve into the details of the Christmas story and reflect on how these impact our lives now, combining scholarly detail with heartwarming application.

The Angels of Christmas: Hearing God's Voice in Advent, a four-week Advent study by Susan Robb, explores the four angelic visits surrounding the birth of Jesus with Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds. In this study, the listener will explore the visits and dive deep into the history of the angel Gabriel—and other angels—in the Old Testament. The Angels of Christmas uses these four angelic appearances to discuss God's presence in history and our lives today. The messages of the angels hold meaning for listeners both then and now.

Scripture shares a basic story, from God's first creative act in the beginning to its final scene—the renewal of all creation as a new heaven and earth. Around the Bible in 80 Days offers you an accessible guide to the Bible's high points that can enrich your faith and help you better understand God's overall redemptive story. On this eighty-day excursion, join master teacher John Mark as he encourages you to reflect deeply on specific Scriptures and what they say about God's unfolding drama.

For centuries, Christians have turned to the story and message of John the Baptist in the weeks leading up to Christmas. In Prepare the Way for the Lord: Advent and the Message of John the Baptist, bestselling author and pastor Adam Hamilton explores the Advent themes of John's life and ministry, and how John calls all followers of Jesus to prepare our hearts for his coming.

Saying Yes to Life lifts our focus from natural, everyday concerns to issues that are having an impact on millions of lives around the world. As people made in the image of God, we are entrusted to look after what he has created.

Global in scope, but homing in on the role ordinary people play in conflict and division, Reconciliation enables Christians to engage confidently in a ministry bequeathed to us by Christ himself.

Join Tom Wright on a journey with the Apostles, exploring the New Testament themes of thankfulness, patience, humility and joy.

Pentecost may well be the most misconstrued day on the church calendar. A long legacy of cessationism has drained Pentecost of much of its significance, and it's largely misunderstood in many Western churches today, if not outright ignored. That's not the case in Emilio Alvarez's tradition, though. In this Fullness of Time volume, the Pentecostal bishop and theologian offers us a rich biblical and theological introduction to the day of Pentecost and sets it in its liturgical context.

24 Weihnachtsgeschichten, die zu Herzen gehen. Mal humorvoll-heiter, mal besinnlich und nachdenklich erzählen die Autorinnen und Autoren vom Fest der Hoffnung, dass Jesus Mensch wurde, um uns zu retten. Lassen Sie sich mit hineinnehmen in das Geschehen der Heiligen Nacht und spüren Sie dem Wunder aller Wunder nach. Mit Geschichten von Elisabeth Büchle, Ursula Schröder, Anneli Klipphahn, Hannelore Schnapp, Kirsten Brünjes, Oliver Helmers und vielen anderen – meisterhaft gelesen von Philipp Schepmann, Hannah Schepmann und Friedemann Schmidt.

Find guidance through the advent season with the mother of Jesus and central figure in the story of Christmas, Mary. At Christmastime we remember that an ordinary, young, poor, oppressed woman was chosen to play a significant and breakthrough role in the redemption of the world. It is no mistake...