"Daily reflections for Advent and Christmas based on the bestselling Dawn of the Messiah by Edward Sri, with new questions for reflection, Scripture, and prayers"--

The Christmas story evokes many touching images. Halos, fresh hay, shepherds carrying newborn lambs, and young motherhood in blue homespun. It's enough to bring tears to the eyes of Christmastime churchgoers. But the Christmas story is more than sentimental--it is powerful. It deals with real people, it involves pain, and it is one of the most strikingly unusual stories in all history. Above all, its main emphasis is not on the infancy of Jesus but on the deity of Jesus--and why that deity took the form of an infant. It's a story that still has deep meaning today.

Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint of heart. As the midnight of the Christian year, the season of Advent is rife with dark, gritty realities. In this book, with her trademark wit and wisdom, Rutledge explores Advent as a time of rich paradoxes, a season celebrating at once Christ’s incarnation and his second coming, and she masterfully unfolds the ethical and future-oriented significance of Advent for the church.

In Preparing for Jesus, best-selling author and master storyteller Walter Wangerin Jr. recreates verbal images of the events surrounding the Advent of Christ, offering a devotional journey into the heart of the Christmas season. Through rich detail and vivid images, these moving meditations make Christ's birth both intimate and immediate, allowing us to see Christmas from its original happening to its perennial recurrence in our hearts. Preparing for Jesus is sure to be a seasonal classic, treasured year after year.

How to focus on Christ during Advent Most Christians agree that Christmas is all about Jesus, yet most of us spend little time preparing our hearts to celebrate Him. Why is this? Partly because we don’t know how. In Unwrapping the Names of Jesus, Asheritah Ciuciu leads readers through the four weeks of Advent (Hope, Preparation, Joy, and Love). Each week: Begins with an interactive family devotional that equips readers to celebrate Advent together Offers five daily reflections that focus on that week's name of Jesus Includes suggestions for fun-filled family activities or service projects This devotional can be used by readers in their own personal worship times or as a tool to engage in family worship during the busy holiday season. Either way, participants will gain a greater sense of awe and wonder at who Jesus is. By focusing on the person and character of Jesus throughout the Advent season, readers will prepare their hearts so that when they admire the live nativity, sit in the candlelight service, or wake up on Christian morning, they can join the faithful who sing from the bottom of their hearts, "O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!"

Through this eight-week small group Bible study, Gospel in Life, Timothy Keller explores with participants how gospel can change hearts, communities, and how we live in the world. This pack includes one softcover 230-page Participant Guide and one DVD.

Gain a better understanding of the church season that leads up to Christmas. Features: - Personal study opportunities for ongoing spiritual growth - Family discipleship activities Benefits: - Enrich yourself spiritually by immersing in the Advent season. - Grow in spiritual maturity with optional family discipleship activities. - Become more spiritually oriented through greater familiarity with Advent.