Life is full of unexpected twists and turns and this has been particularly so in 2020. But the most unexpected and significant event in the history of the world actually happened over 2000 years ago when God himself became one of us in the person of Jesus Christ. These Advent reflections, written by David Mathis, help us to lift our eyes to wonder of the incarnation and worship the one who came to save us and make our futures certain. Be amazed once more by the unexpected details of Jesus' unique birth and saving work with these short daily devotions and prayers, and renew your worship of our humble, generous and loving Savior.
25 Advent Readings by Pastor and Author John Piper 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 twenty-five short devotional readings from John Piper aim to help you keep Christ at the center of the Advent season.
We want to say or do something that helps our grieving friend. But what? When someone we know is grieving, we want to help. But sometimes we stay away or stay silent, afraid that we will do or say the wrong thing, that we will hurt instead of help. In this straightforward and practical book, Nancy Guthrie provides us with the insight we need to confidently interact with grieving people. Drawing upon the input of hundreds of grieving people, as well as her own experience of grief, Nancy offers specifics on what to say and what not to say, and what to do and what to avoid. Tackling touchy topics like talking about heaven, navigating interactions on social media, and more, this book will equip readers to support those who are grieving with wisdom and love.
Advent devotional on 1 Corinthians 13, reflecting on the source of authentic, divine, transforming love. Advent devotional on 1 Corinthians 13, reflecting on the source of authentic, divine, transforming love. Everyone seems to say that Christmas is about love. It’s in the songs we hear as we shop for presents and in the adverts we see on TV. It’s in the cards we send and on the gift tags we write. And Christians can agree. Christmas really is about love, because love came down at Christmas in the person of Jesus Christ. This Advent devotional contains 24 daily readings from 1 Corinthians 13. Sinclair B Ferguson brings the rich theology of the incarnation to life with his trademark warmth and clarity. We'll see what “love” looked like in the life of Christ and be challenged to love like him. Each day's reading finishes with a question for reflection and a prayer. However you're feeling, your heart will be refreshed as you wonder again at the truth that love came down at Christmas.
Advent devotional for Christmas that will stir hope and inspire worship. As dawn broke on that first Christmas morning, the sun rose on a new era: God's king had come to earth to bring about his kingdom. Join Sinclair Ferguson as he opens up the first two chapters of Matthew's Gospel in these daily devotions for Advent. Each day’s reflection is full of insight and application, and will help you to arrive at Christmas Day awed by God's redeeming grace and refreshed by the hope of God’s promised king.
History, Romance, & Destiny The Third Novel in the Trilogy Dr. John Burel's great-grandson, John Harrison, was a toddler when his family pioneered from South Carolina to Mississippi. As a youngster, he proudly helped his family bellwether the Civil War and rebirth of the New South. By the early 1900s, he was a prosperous farmer and landowner. Time passed quickly, and too soon he was an old man. Join Grandpa and feel the biting north wind as he shuffled onto the front porch, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted, "It's hog-killing day!" Watch the bustling families rush toward the big house to slaughter enough hogs to carry them through the winter. Summer finally arrived and brought old-time gospel singing and preaching to their country church on the hill. Mama rose early on Sunday morning and filled her basket with fried chicken, biscuits, baked sweet potatoes, and fried apple pies. After preaching there was going to be another dinner-on-the-ground. Everyone was excited. Without a doubt, those were the good years. But all that changed. Walk down the dismal road with the Burrell family as they helplessly watched the reckless Roaring Twenties and Great Depression bring a flourishing economy and their comfortable lifestyle to a grinding halt. Feel Grandpa's pain and humiliation when the bank called in his Deed-of-Trust, and he was forced to sell his last 640-acre farm and home for a few dollars. Sit for awhile and listen to his grandson, Cecil Allen Burrell, The Man Himself, as his thought-provoking stories detail how they all survived those disastrous years. With their eyes on the future, John Harrison's children and grandchildren navigated their way back into prosperity and eventually reclaimed their part of the American dream - the same dream brought to America by their Great3-Grandfather, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Elzéar Burel in 1778.
Profound reflections on the cross that help you to meditate on and marvel at the sacrificial love of Jesus. This book can be used as a devotional, especially during Lent and Easter. These profound reflections on the cross from David Mathis, author of The Christmas We Didn’t Expect, will help you to meditate on and marvel at Jesus’ life, sacrificial death, and spectacular resurrection-enabling you to treasure anew who Jesus is and what he has done. Many of us are so familiar with the Easter story that it becomes easy to miss subtle details and difficult to really enjoy its meaning. This book will help you to pause and marvel at Jesus, whose now-glorified wounds are a sign of his unfailing love and the decisive victory that he has won: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) This book can be used as a devotional. The chapters on Holy Week make it especially helpful during the Lent season and at Easter.
This is a charming, atmospheric Christmas entry in Rhys Bowen's New York Times bestselling historical mystery series featuring private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan.
Are you facing something seemingly insurmountable? Have you allowed someone to intimidate you and donaEUR(tm)t see a way out? Have you focused so much on the hurts and disappointments in your life that you have missed the blessings?Then you need to read this true story of a woman who did. Sometimes people and circumstances occur in our lives without warning and attempt to drain the sunshine from our days. Regardless of what life hands us, we have choices. This book will make you laugh or cry with the turn of each page. The chapter summaries detail how the people or circumstances contributed to who she became. They were symbolically represented by pieces of colorful mosaic glass connected by gold-tinted lead to form her mosaic window of life. Jesus Christ represents the gold lead because He holds our lives together in all the storms we face. He is also the Sonshine on our windows displaying His glory through us regardless of our circumstances. The life lessons in these pages are endless and conducive for Bible studies or book clubs.
The anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania, five hundred square miles of rugged hills stretching between Tower City and Carbondale, harbored coal deposits that once heated virtually all the homes and businesses in Eastern cities. At its peak during World War I, the coal industry here employed 170,000 miners, and supported almost 1,000,000 people. Today, with coal workers numbering 1,500, only 5,000 people depend on the industry for their livelihood. Between these two points in time lies a story of industrial decline, of working people facing incremental and cataclysmic changes in their world. When the Mines Closed tells this story in the words of men and women who experienced these dramatic changes and in more than eighty photographs of these individuals, their families, and the larger community.Award-winning historian Thomas Dublin interviewed a cross-section of residents and migrants from the region, who gave their own accounts of their work and family lives before and after the mines closed. Most of the narrators, six men and seven women, came of age during the Great Depression and entered area mines or, in the case of the women, garment factories, in their teens. They describe the difficult choices they faced, and the long-standing ethnic, working-class values and traditions they drew upon, when after World War II the mines began to shut down. Some left the region, others commuted to work at a distance, still others struggled to find employment locally.The photographs taken by George Harvan, a lifelong resident of the area and the son of a Slovak-born coal miner, document residents' lives over the course of fifty years. Dublin's introductory essay offers a brief history of anthracite mining and the region and establishes a broader interpretive framework for the narratives and photographs.
