St. Nick meets Venick from Venus. A strange purple creature with long purple hair dressed exactly as Santa. Venick has lost his way and must return to Venus to finish delivering his own Christmas toys. When St. Nick agrees to help him, they both discover
As Saint Nick is delivering his toys on Christmas, a strange object pops into sight and crash lands next to him. It's Venus from Venus, a strange purple creature with long purple hair! Venick is dressed exactly like Santa and tells him that while delivering his own toys on Venus he tripped on a star and traveled near and afar, ending up lost here on Earth. Fearing he will not be able to complete his task, he asks our Santa for help. When St. Nick says, yes, a whole new world of Christmas opens up to them.
The literary history behind this beautiful mountain region. The Massachusetts Berkshires have long been a mecca for literary greats, from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Edith Wharton to Sinclair Lewis and Joan Ackermann. The Green River in Great Barrington inspired William Cullen Bryant’s poetry. Charles Pierce Burton’s childhood hometown, Adams, became the setting for his frolicking Boys of Bob’s Hill children’s books. During an interlude in Lenox, Patricia Highsmith consulted a local undertaker for details to use in The Talented Mr. Ripley. In this book, Bernard A. Drew brings together a fascinating chronicle of some 250 wordsmiths who took inspiration from the hills and valleys of the Berkshires.
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
IN THE BEGINNING is an original, thrilling tale that will reveal the untold story of how the Earth was created and the true purpose for humanity through a cosmic battle between Heaven and Hell. God and the loyal assembly of Angels will combat Lucifer for the celestial power of the afterlife, which will divulge Heaven's conspiracy for the inhabitants of Earth and decide the eternal resting place for all the souls in existence. An ultimate challenge for power among the forces of good and evil will put the fate of the world into the hands of two humans in present day. The lives of these chosen beings will be tested and tormented by the Heavens until their predestined true love brings them to the point of self-destruction, forcing them to succumb to the will of God in order to change the future of mortal life for the rest of eternity. An epic final decision will determine the ruler of all matter of life and defy the traditional belief humanity possesses for Heaven and Hell.
The return of Christian social service to the centre of British political life through the emergence of the foodbank movement has elicited a range of ecclesial responses. However, in their urgency and brevity these Church responses fail to systematically integrate political critique and social analysis, nor do they undertake a sustained integration of the recent gains in political theology with the realities of our current ‘mixed economy of welfare’. Charles Pemberton draws on interviews with foodbank users and volunteers to defend and advance a Christian vision of welfare beyond emergency food provision. He suggests that behind the day-to-day struggles of those using foodbanks there are wider much concerns about loneliness, marginalisation and the wholesale fragmentation of society.