In a delightful yet profound reading of the Scriptures, Enter the Story opens up the central stories in the Bible and shows how they are alive in us. These stories happen over and over again, much like a great unfinished symphony, in the lives of those of us who look to Scripture for inspiration. In this sense, the biblical stories are metaphors?events that may have occurred long ago among biblical characters, but also, the same dramas great and small that happen to believers today, every day.
Fran Ferder takes familiar stories from Scripture and shows us what the significant events, or feasts, in the great Christian story mean and how they continue to unfold in our lives -- in ways we do not expect. These old stories are new stories. Unfinished stories. They are our stories. And when we understand them, they can transform our lives.

'Imagine what your students would learn if they were there when the Hebrews wandered for forty years through the wilderness. What would your students experience if they walked through an Old Testament Tabernacle? How would their lives be changed if they really understood the Kingdom of God? When it comes to learning, all the best teaching can't compare to the value of an interactive experience. When your students have the opportunity to use all their senses and personally participate in a lesson, they walk away with a greater understanding. Enter the Story gives you everything you need to help your students engage in and learn from the Bible with seven unforgettable, hands-on experiences. As you understand more about experiential learning, you'll also find detailed instructions to effectively prepare experiences on: * Creation * Separation * Wanderings * Tabernacle * Kingdom * The Cross * Restoration Whether used individually or in succession, at a weekly youth group meeting or during a retreat, these practical and easy-to-use experiences will shed new light on the Bible and allow students to truly enter into God's Story. '

An encyclopedia designed especially to meet the needs of elementary, junior high, and senior high school students.

The first book in Chris Colfer's #1 New York Times bestselling series The Land of Stories about two siblings who fall into a fairy-tale world! Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change forever, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales. The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with fairy tale characters they grew up reading about. But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

'It's a long time since I have enjoyed a novel so much. Fresh, witty and smart it also has a heart.' KATE ATKINSON 'Sizzles with uproarious fun, from its snout to the sting in its tale.' INDEPENDENT 'The perfect tonic for testing times.' GUARDIAN We all know politics is absurd. But could a Republican be brought down by a stuffed aardvark? Republican congressman Alexander Paine Wilson is determined that nothing will stop him in his campaign for re-election. Not the fact that he is a bachelor, not the fact that his main adversary Nancy Beavers - married, with children - is rising in the polls. Nothing. That is, until one hot day in August, he receives a large parcel via FedEx. Inside is a gigantic taxidermied aardvark. This aardvark has a surprising history - from the Victorian naturalist who discovered it to the taxidermist who deemed it his finest creation. But for Wilson, the entrance of the aardvark sets off a chain of events that threaten to ruin his entire career. Constantly surprising, brilliantly comic and piquantly provocative, Enter the Aardvark is a tale for our times, a biting satire with a tender underbelly. ____________________________________________ 'Sometimes, a paragraph near the start of a novel is so perfect and funny that you read it over and over, laugh every time, and know you're in for a treat...I'm loving this. Completely insane but utterly hilarious'. JOHN BOYNE 'Spry, slim, clever...the inventiveness is impressive and the story has heart' THE SUNDAY TIMES 'What begins as a topical takedown of the American political system deepens into a hugely enjoyable romp through history.' OBSERVER 'Fresh, astute and mouthwateringly sharp, this is a rare thing; a political satire that tugs on the heartstrings in unconventional ways.' IRISH TIMES 'Sharp, inventive and very funny, it's an entertainingly bizarre political satire.' TATLER 'Part 21st-century political satire, part unexpectedly affecting 19th-century love story...It's every bit as strange as it sounds, and yet somehow it works' DAILY MAIL 'Old, dead creature brings down flash, vain senator... Out in front as the most fizzing and amusing novel of the year.' STRONG WORDS magazine 'A blisteringly innovative and outrageous novel.' NY OBSERVER 'Weird, wonderful, and very much of the moment, Enter the Aardvark is a landmark political novel of the Trump era...With heart and humor, Anthony expertly skewers our current political climate.' ESQUIRE 'Inventive and darkly funny...as Anthony connects characters from today with those from 19th-century England, she offers an original and unsettling lens through which to view male power as it has evolved over time.' TIME 'Enter Jessica Anthony. With her highly inventive, ever attentive, and morally serious (as all great comedy must be) Enter the Aardvark, she estranges all over again our deplorable political moment, and thereby helps make it bearable.' JOSHUA FERRIS 'Mischievously zoological and darkly satirical - a brilliant novel' JOHN IRONMONGER, author of NOT FORGETTING THE WHALE 'A feverish, rollicking beast of a book. Totally assured, completely unpredictable, Jessica Anthony has created a true original.' SIMON WROE, author of CHOP CHOP and HERE COMES TROUBLE

The New Testament Challenge is designed to help small-group members explore the books of the New Testament in a fresh and new way. In this Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), participants will learn how the story of God restoring his original creation—which was begun in the Old Testament—reached its crowning moment with the birth of Messiah into the world. Through Jesus' birth, he answered the question once and for all of who God is and what he is like. Through Jesus' teaching, he revealed the deepest meaning of the laws and institutions that God gave to the people of Israel. Through Jesus' death and resurrection, he introduced the life of the age to come into the present age. Group members will also discover how the followers of Jesus formed a new community and invited people from all over the world to join them, and how the Bible looks ahead to the day when Christ will return to renew all of creation and establish God's justice and peace on the earth. Sessions include: Luke–Acts Luke–Acts, 1–2 Thessalonians 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, Romans Romans, Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, Philippians, 1 Timothy, Titus, 2 Timothy Matthew Hebrews, James, Mark 1–2 Peter, Jude, John 1–3 John, Revelation Designed for use with The New Testament Challenge Video Study (sold separately).

Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy-tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die. "It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order." —Entertainment Weekly McCandess had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Not long after, he was dead. Into the Wild is the mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild and whose story captured the world’s attention. Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild. Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled McCandless. When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding—and not an ounce of sentimentality. Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.

Baptism and the Lord's supper are more than rituals of passage; they are means of deep fellowship with God. John Mark Hicks shows how our baptism and meetings at the table grow out of Jesus' experience and how they reflects, embody, and radiate the gospel in its fullness. -- Book Cover