A tiny Christmas tree is convinced that nobody will select him for their holiday celebrations.

The Lord Is Our Light invites you to explore God’s hope and presence through a study of the scripture readings for Advent and Christmas. Author Elaine Crawford calls us to explore our hope for new beginnings, praising God as we eagerly await the birth of Christ in our lives. Recalling the fulfillment of God’s promises at Christmas, she invites us to imagine the future culmination of our hope in Christ’s death, resurrection, and second coming. Dawson’s reflections challenge readers to cultivate faithful lives here and now, in active expectation for the coming of the Christ Child. Based upon the Revised Common Lectionary scriptures for year B of the church year, a three-year cycle of Bible readings. The study includes commentary and reflection on key Bible readings from the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Epistles. It offers the opportunity to explore these Bible readings in a five-session study. It will help participants understand, appreciate, and engage in meaningful and joyous celebrations of Advent and Christmas and to live each day in God's light through Jesus Christ. The study book includes a leader guide with information about the season of Advent, suggestions for starting and leading small groups, Bible background, and discussion activities.

Hidden Buddhas may well be Liza Dalby's best work yet; with its fascinating story of characters caught up in a world they themselves don't understand. Besides taking us on a journey through little-known corners of Japan, it offers us an engaging and believable portrait of people driven to do things they may not have imagined.'' - Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha According to Buddhist theology, the world is suffering through a final corrupt era called mapp. As mapp continues, chaos will increase until the center can no longer hold. Then the world will end. In Japan, many believe that Miroku, Buddha of the Future, will appear and bring about a new age of enlightenment. From this ancient notion of doom and rebirth comes a startling new novel by the acclaimed author of Geisha and The Tale of Murasaki. Hundreds of temples in Japan are known to keep mysterious ''hidden buddhas'' secreted away except on rare designated viewing days. These statues are not hidden because they are powerful - their power lies in their being hidden. Are they being protected, or are they protecting the world? In this novel, one Buddhist priest struggles with the dictates of his inherited orthodoxy, while another rebels. An American graduate student begins to suspect the mysterious purpose of the hidden buddhas, just as he falls in love with a beautiful Japanese artist who is haunted by an aborted child. The weaving of karma that brings these two together results in a tech-savvy half-Western, half-Japanese child who text-messages her way through the profane world to enlightenment. Tracing the lives of its characters through the late twentieth century to the present, from Paris to Kyoto to California, Hidden Buddhas turns a cosmopolitan eye on discipline and decadence in religion, fashion, politics, and modern life. Liza Dalby is an anthropologist and writer specializing in Japan. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Many women dream of meeting their soul mate and settling down to have children and create a family. For Melissa, it wasn’t going to be that easy. As a senior in high school, Melissa discovered she had a serious autoimmune disorder that would lead to a life of progressive pain and unique challenges. Doctors were unsure if she would be able to have children. She was fortunately blessed with a healthy baby girl early on in her marriage, and everything went smoothly—at first. As they tried to grow their family, they ran into obstacle after obstacle. Little did she realize she would face years of challenges and heartbreak on her journey to try to expand her family. Her faith was tested again and again, but God had special plans waiting for Melissa and her family. Just when they were ready to give up, God showed his glory and his power through an unexpected and surprising gift that no one knew was possible—not even the doctors. This is her story of hope, heartbreak, raw emotion, and the faith that pulled her through and ended with an unexpected blessing poured out by the hands of God. Because with God, all things are possible.

Hundreds of millions of people believe that Jesus came back from the dead. This cogent, forcefully argued book presents a decidedly unpopular view —namely, that the central tenet of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus, is false. The author asks a number of probing questions: Is the evidence about Jesus as it has been relayed to us over the centuries of sufficient quantity and quality to justify belief in the resurrection? How can we accept the resurrection but reject magic at the Salem witch trials? What light does contemporary research about human rationality from the fields of behavioral economics, empirical psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy shed on the resurrection and religious belief? Can we use contemporary research about the reliability of people’s beliefs in the supernatural, miracles, and the paranormal to shed light on the origins of Christianity and other religions? Does it make sense that the all-powerful creator of the universe would employ miracles to achieve his ends? Can a Christian believe by faith alone and yet reasonably deny the supernatural claims of other religions? Do the arguments against Christianity support atheism? By carefully answering each of these questions, this book undermines Christianity and theism at their foundations; it gives us a powerful model for better critical reasoning; and it builds a compelling case for atheism. Without stooping to condescension or arrogance, the author offers persuasive arguments that are accessible, thoughtful, and new.

Attract prosperity and wealth into your life, with this guide from world-renowned author Cassandra Eason! We all want the comfort of financial security and the pleasures it brings—as well as the satisfaction of being rewarded for our hard work and achieving a better quality of life. From getting a much-needed promotion to striking it big in the lottery, from dealing with emotional disputes over money to savings and overcoming debt, this comprehensive compendium contains an encyclopedic variety of spells for wealth and prosperity. It tells you what you’ll need to do to carry out each spell—including using colors, crystals, metals, herbs, and fragrances—and the best time to cast it, and provides detailed instructions to guide you every step along the way.

A heartfelt celebration of the writings and teachings of You Can Heal Your Life author Louise L. Hay—and the miracles she has brought to readers around the world Through uniquely heartfelt and awe-inspiring true stories, men and women of all ages and backgrounds reveal how one individual whose life has been devoted to spreading good can touch so many in a positive and miraculous way . . . and then those people spread the good to others . . . and on and on it goes, in a tremendous spiral of joyous energy. As you read the accounts within these pages, you will laugh, cry, and nod with empathy and understanding. The subject matter is diverse (relationships, work, finance, health, and more); and the outpouring of emotion is genuine and very personal. Included at the end of each chapter are affirmations and exercises by Louise that will help you create miracles in your own life!