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The Purpose of Christmas

Rick Warren

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Holidays -> Christmas -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hailed by The Economist as the "the most influential pastor in America," and by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, the bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life expounds on the profound origins of Christmas, describing it as an opportune time to welcome peace into our lives.

In his powerful yet compassionate voice, Pastor Rick Warren sounds the clarion call to "remember the reason for the season," taking readers back in time to the most wonderful story of all -- the birth of the baby Jesus. When he was just a small boy, young Rick asked his parents if they could celebrate Christmas with a birthday party for Jesus -- and the tradition began that the Warrens have upheld for over fifty years. Now through stirring imagery and compelling personal insights, The Purpose of Christmas honors the significance and promise of this cherished holiday.

Pastor Warren encourages readers to identify and confront what drains peace from their lives. Warren explains that the way to respond to these peace-robbers is to learn how to surrender to God's will and not feel defeated or discouraged when life does not go as planned. True peace of mind is found by having an unshakeable faith in God -- knowing that his empowering Spirit will guide his children through life's challenges.

Beautifully written, The Purpose of Christmas will stir readers to honor the true significance of Christmas and to nurture God's gifts of love and peace in this world.

Watch For The Light: Readings For Advent And Christmas

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Donne, Meister Eckhart, T.S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins, C. S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Archbishop Romero, Henri J.M. Nouwen, Philip Yancey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Loved it!! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I love that this series, including "Bread and Wine:Readings for Lent and Easter," because it challeneges our complacent culture-dictated experience of Advent and Easter. This is not a feel-good book, it is a faith-building book. Be prepared to be shaken up and for God to meet you in a new way.

I bought copies for my friends and family. Everyone loved it!

The diversity of authors come together in surprising unity. This broadened my perspective and made me want to find books written by the individual authors. I also loved that the authors are from all points in history and geography. An experience like this is what all of us in the US need.

Company on the Journey 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Like a kid counting down the days until Christmas, I took a spiritual journey by reading the days until Christmas. My guide, Watch for the
light. Cheaper than a real journey...no stops for gas , no waiting in line. Pop open the book's cover and begin to read. Some funny stories, some poetry, some known authors and some not so well known, all leading the way to Christmas. When Christmas comes, you will be ready.

Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent

Arnold Ytreeide

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great story / devotional book for Advent 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This was our family's best Advent yet! Occasionally "Jotham's Journey" was a bit too action-packed for our daughter (age 5), but she and our son (age 8) couldn't wait for each day's segment. Arnold Ytreeide is a master storyteller. His intricate blending of facts about biblical times into a fast-paced storyline captured our imaginations. We'll never look at Advent the same again. Our family can't wait to read Ytreeide's other books in 2006 and beyond.

all around great 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

accurate description of book, prompt service, and a great book in general- but especially for Advent and preparation for Christmas- I didn't want to stick to the Advent timeline they give because I wanted to keep reading

Family Advent Tradition 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book was out of print for a while, and I was happy to see a new publisher pick it up. Our family incorporates this into our Advent traditions, reading a section each night (as laid out in the book). At bedtime, our three kids (ages 4-9) sit while I read, and even my husband sits in (and reads to catch up if he misses a night). Each night ends on a suspenseful note, so the next evening the kids get ready for bed in record time so that we can read that night's story (finding out how last night's climax was resolved, and again ending with them wondering what will happen next). It is a family strengthening story and tradition for us. This is one in a series of three books (Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels are the other two) which we rotate over three years, then will start the cycle over again. I bought these two copies to give as gifts.

Editorial Review:

In this widely popular, exciting story for the advent season, readers follow ten-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family. Though he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, Jotham also encounters the wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem.

Christmas Jars

Jason F. Wright

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 105 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Worth the hour of your time 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a small book, but the story is captivating, heartwarming, and inspiring without being gag me with a straw sappy. I loved how there was a plot with twists, characters with imperfections (because I really hate a perfect character, they just aren't real) and a heart warming message that would be easily achieved by all who read it, regardless of ANYTHING. I was a little skeptical when I read that the main character's name is Hope, because that kind of sets the character up to be fabulous and perfect and sickening, but she isn't like that. She is hard working, trying to make her way in the journalist industry, meets her trials head on, but still has her flaws, tough decisions and accountability for her actions.

This probably took me an hour to read, maybe a little less, and with everything that is going on in the world, you really can afford an hour to feel like the world isn't all bad, to realize there are still good people, and remember that no good deed goes unrecognized.

Editorial Review:

Hope Jensen is a young, single woman and an aspiring newspaper writer, and when she receives a much-needed but anonymous Christmas gift, she's determined to find her benefactor. That search leads her to an unusual family with a longstanding Christmas tradition. Sensing a front-page feature article, Hope desperately wants to publish their story, but doing so would be a breach of trust. What she decides to do will change her life forever.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas Advent Calendar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Advent calendar 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I bought this Advent calendar and it was just as beautiful when I received it. By far the best selection online and I checked many web sites. My family throughly enjoyed this calendar.It matches the wonderful advent calendars I had as a child growing up.

outstanding 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 7 people found this review helpful.

the advent calendars that i received were really unique. i have had an advent calendar all of my life and that is alot of christmas'. these were lovely and much enjoyed.

Editorial Review:

A Santa and all of his reindeer are silhouetted against the snowcovered forest as they fly through the air in this traditional advent calendar.

The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Birth

Marcus J. Borg, John Dominic Crossan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I have learned so much 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I used a lot of this material for sermons last Christmas and the people received it well. I learned so much from this small book. I highly recommend it!

Editorial Review:

In The First Christmas, two of today's top Jesus scholars, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, join forces to show how history has biased our reading of the nativity story as it appears in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. As they did for Easter in their previous book, The Last Week, here they explore the beginning of the life of Christ, peeling away the sentimentalism that has built up over the last two thousand years around this most well known of all stories to reveal the truth of what the gospels actually say. Borg and Crossan help us to see this well-known narrative afresh by answering the question, "What do these stories mean?" in the context of both the first century and the twenty-first century. They successfully show that the Christmas story, read in its original context, is far richer and more challenging than people imagine.

A Family Christmas

Caroline Kennedy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"When I began assembling [this] collection, I was skeptical that I would learn anything new about Christmas, but reading and reflecting on the history and spirit of Christmas brought back many memories, and taught me a great deal … The literature of Christmas ranges from the miraculous to the tragic, the profound to the ridiculous, but always represents the connection to something larger than ourselves." –Caroline Kennedy

In A Family Christmas, Caroline shares the Christmas poetry, prose, scriptural readings, and lyrics that are most dear to her, drawing on authors as diverse as Harper Lee, Nikki Giovanni, Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Collins, John and Yoko, and Charles Dickens. There are also many lesser-known gems throughout and personal treasures from her own family -- including a young Caroline’s Christmas list to Santa Claus and a letter from her father as President to a child concerned about Santa’s well-being. This diverse and unique anthology will become a timeless keepsake, and will enrich your heart and mind with the spirit of Christmas.

A Family Christmas includes selections from:

Groucho Marx, Emma Lazarus, Mark Twain, Sandra Cisneros, Pearl S. Buck, Truman Capote, Gabriela Mistral, Ogden Nash, Clement Clarke Moore, Vladimir Nabokov, Marianne Moore, Calvin Trillin, E. B. White, and many more.

Caroline Kennedy is the editor of the New York Times bestselling A Family of Poems, Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, A Patriot’s Handbook, and Profiles in Courage for Our Time, and is the coauthor of The Right to Privacy and In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action. She serves as the Vice Chair of the New York City Fund for Public Schools.

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas

Nancy Guthrie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An anthology of Advent readings collected from the writings and sermons of 22 classic and contemporary theologians and Bible teachers.

Between purchasing presents and planning travel, enjoying holiday pageants and attending parties, it is all too easy for Christmas to silence the sacredness and crowd out a quiet anticipation of the season’s truths. So when editor Nancy Guthrie decided she wanted a reflective book of Advent readings that would help her pause and consider the riches of Christ come to earth, she embarked on what she calls “a sacred adventure,” putting together such a collection herself.

The result—this special volume—draws from the works and sermons of classic theologians such as Whitefield, Luther, Spurgeon, and Augustine, and from leading contemporary communicators such as John Piper, J. Ligon Duncan, Randy Alcorn, John MacArthur, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, Skip Ryan, and Joni Eareckson Tada to beckon you and your family into the wonder of Jesus’ incarnation and birth.

With its high view of Scripture and its focus on the gift of Jesus, this lovely book is sure to ready your heart and mind for a fresh experience of “Immanuel, God with us” this and every Advent season. Open the cover and discover what Christmas was meant to be…

Advent And Christmas Wisdom From Henri J.m. Nouwen: Daily Scripture And Prayers Together With Nouwen's Own Words (Redemptorist Pastoral Publication)

Henri J. M. Nouwen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wonderful! Can't go wrong with this purchase! 5 out of 5 stars.
30 of 32 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful little devotion book for Advent. I have become a huge Henri Nouwen fan.....he always shares his journey and is transparent...I especially enjoy the Advent Action given with each devotion.....the daily devotions give just enough without being overwhelming, allowing me to reflect on it all day. Redemptorist Publishing always offer heart warming devotionals.

Excellent for meditative prayer 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book for getting a better understanding the meaning of Christmas. Short daily advent readings and meaningful prayers. Author writes in a clear, easy to understand manner that you don't have to be a Bible scholar to read it. Great book for those who wants to know more about the Christian celebration of Christmas or seeks to draw closer to God amidst the busyness and commercial season.

The 88 page soft-cover book includes 28 days of advent devotionals and 12 days of Christmas devotionals. Each day has a short excerpt of writing from Nouwen, a scripture reading, a prayer and a call to action. The devotional is reflective, practical and will help you put God in the middle of the Christmas season.

I also highly recommend this book as a Christmas gift.

The Adventure of Christmas: Helping Children Find Jesus in Our Holiday Traditions

Lisa Whelchel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The ADVENTure of Christmas is a guide for moms concerned that their children are losing sight of Jesus in the midst of the distractions the holiday season brings. Lisa Whelchel was such a mom, but instead of abandoning the traditions of Christmas she rediscovered their original meanings, which were intended to remind people of God’s unfathomable gift. Hanging lights on the house, wrapping gifts, and decorating the tree have become opportunities to teach her children about how they relate to Jesus’ birth. With The ADVENTure of Christmas, mothers can redeem what’s been lost from the very symbols that are gentle reminders of the true meaning of Christmas.

Have you discovered that Jesus sometimes gets lost in the middle of the hustle and bustle of His birthday party? Would you like to be able to keep your children's focus on Jesus and also join them in the wonder of the celebration?

For each of the twenty-four days preceding Christmas, The ADVENTure of Christmas serves as a fun and handy guide that describes the significance behind your favorite traditions. Hanging lights on the house, wrapping gifts, and decorating the tree will become opportunities to share how these customs relate to Jesus' birth. The ADVENTure of Christmas recaptures the true meaning of this beloved season, giving reasons to celebrate for years to come.

Story Behind the Book

Feeling like Jesus had gotten lost in the frenzy of the holiday season, I asked the Lord to show me what I could do to teach my children the true meaning of Christmas. I was caught off-guard when He simply replied, "Don’t do anything differently. Look in the middle of the celebration and you will find Me." He was right. There was no need to orchestrate moments to pontificate about "the commercialization of Christmas." Instead, Jesus is beckoning us to come to the party and bring the kids. In doing so, we run into Him at the mall, the movies, even at school. He hides in the lights, the carols, and the cards. He is there when we dress the evergreen tree, when Dad dresses up in a red suit, and even when we eat turkey and dressing!