Résultats lu par "David A. Smith" dans Toutes les catégories

Here in "Of Fleeces and Faith," I have a great time exploring from the fascinating Old Testament story of Gideon and his tiny little band of 300 warriors. He asked for a sign; in fact, he asked for three of them! God said yes, but is that the best way for a follower of heaven to proceed? Always wanting more proof, more proof, more more more?

9/11 tragedies and Auschwitz can’t be overruled without the “butterfly effect” causing even greater havoc. When high school senior Jordan Wickam gets a mysterious bootleg iPod that flips back his calendar exactly seven days, he piles up a greedy fortune betting on horse-racing exactas. Then on the night of the senior prom, he’s abruptly forced to decide: Do I play God?

I have many dear friends whose youthful experience in the church was fraught with anxiety over “I’ll never be good enough” and the warning that nineteen out of twenty kids are doomed to stay forever out of heaven. Okay, you too? On the cusp of college graduation and my new gig as a teacher in an Adventist school, two rescuing lifeboats floated my way. I began reading stuff by C. S. Lewis and also a pastor named Morris Venden – ironically my mom’s cousin!

Katrina Saxby wasn’t even planning to trade her on-track academic life at Pacific Union College for a year in northern Thailand. But the call of God was clear and so she said yes. Now she’s got to teach English, start up a high school choir, launch the newsletter, be a substitute preacher when a bus breaks down, dispense dating advice to teenage girls, and fret about the growing reality that one of the Thai teachers might be falling in love with her.

Every Christmas, millions gather in cathedrals and concert halls for a spectacular tradition: the sing-along to the Messiah. It’s a celebration of one of music’s finest miracles, where a composer drafted the world’s perennially favorite oratorio in just 24 days. Choruses and solos range from stirring to dizzyingly complex, and together, the songs express the full significance of what Christ came to this scarred world to achieve on our behalf.

Despite her secular mindset, Rachel Marie’s cousin, Samantha Kidd, is drafted to join the Bangkok Christian School team to fill in for a semester teaching calculus. Recently divorced and seething with bitterness, she arrives with seven-year-old Paloma in tow, and struggles to meet the Thai cultural norm of soft-spoken tranquility. Not entirely sure she’s ready to embrace Christianity, Samantha soon begins to fall for Tommy Daggett, the school’s joke-loving choir director.

Is it really free? Unlimited? Can it save “a wretch like me”? A few years ago I was invited to write a series of radio essays on this greatest of all Bible topics: Amazing grace. I had a lot of fun with it! It’s always been my job, during my radio years, to dig and claw and scratch and find the most memorable illustrations possible. So I went to a lot of Dodger games. I didn’t exactly turn in my receipts, including parking and popcorn, but it was a wonderful experience to try to find ways of making this wonderful theme in Scripture come to life here in the 21st century.

A farmer went out to sow his seed. With these eight words, Jesus gives His church planting instructions still vibrant with meaning in this 21st century of satellite-guided tractors and wind farms. This colorful book by veteran radio scriptwriter David B. Smith shares fifteen fresh slices of truth about how we can relate to the four types of soil: pathway, stony, thorny . . . and sometimes good. Smith, a recently retired math professor from San Bernardino Valley College, is a collector of spicy illustrations: West Wing, Law & Order, Everybody Loves Raymond.

The journey may be difficult, but if you go to this Healer, there can be but one outcome! It’s the most colorful of Jesus’ amazing miracle healings. A man desperate for help has friends let him down through the roof and right into the Savior’s lap! And this one gossiped-about infusion of divine power speaks volumes to us today. Because a caring Friend is anxious to bless and heal us too!

It amazes me that, even though some of Hollywood's classic films are half a century old, most of the college students I teach have seen the best of the best! Steven Spielberg's wonderfully inventive Back to the Future came out in 1985, but just about everybody has seen Marty McFly rev the DeLorean up to 88 mph and jet his way back to Mill Valley High where his mom and dad need his help in order to fall in love.

Duke Vincentino, the ruler of Vienna, fears that under his mild sovereignty, the people may have become lazy and lax. He decides to “go over cover” in the disguise of a monk and appoint his deputy, Angelo, who is a reputed paragon of virtue, as temporary ruler. On assuming power, Angelo inaugurates draconian provisions regarding sexual propriety. One of the first victims of this new regime is young Claudio, who has impregnated his lover Juliet, and is accordingly sentenced to death.

If God picked up His paintbrush and painted yet another new world into existence, a warning could be blazed across the sky. Don’t let madmen build nuclear bombs. Drugs and divorce can really hurt. Try to avoid a repeat of 9/11. And, Queen Lady, stay away from that apple tree! But what if a network of unstained worlds was already out there before the mess began on Earth?