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

What do Bob Uecker and Sandy Koufax have to do with your success as a Christian? What on earth do Dodger Stadium and Boston’s “Green Monster” left-field wall have to do with heaven? And is Kirk Gibson’s miracle homer in the ’88 World Series–“High fly ball, into right field, she is . . . GONE!”–a foretaste of the joy we will experience at Jesus’ second coming? Bible writers often used the ordinary things of life to illuminate their lessons about eternal life. James spoke to us about ships’ rudders and olive trees. Paul wrote about soldiers’ armor and training hard for the OIympic Games.

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.

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?

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!

In his bestseller, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry,” John Mark Comer suggests that a Christian can best celebrate the joy of “Sabbath” in two delicious ways. First, the family must bake a foot-square chocolate-chip cookie, smother it with ice cream, then joyously devour said cookie. But I love Idea #2: curl up on Sabbath afternoon with a great novel. I assume he means winsome adventures where the protagonist has heaven as their ultimate goal, and the Body of Christ as their highest passion! Which is where these Bangkok love stories come into play.

They call it the “Death Zone” – 26,000 feet high, close to the roof of the world, where the planet’s rotation causes 140 mph winds. What makes alpine climbers risk fortunes and even their lives in order to stand for five minutes on the world’s highest peak? Mount Everest is also the wind-swept battlefield for personality conflicts, the unfolding of ego-driven dramas, and the sometimes unheralded stories of courage and sacrifice as one climber lays down his life for another.1996 marked a tragic climbing season in Nepal when icy storms blew in and left a number of climbers dead.

Sue Baines wins every lottery prize there is, except the one attached to a honeymoon suite. At 55 and still alone, she figures a quick stint as Bangkok Christian School’s substitute principal is just one more of God’s many missionary assignments. Can a gray-haired lady cross nine time zones flying to Thailand and meet her first credible love interest?

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.

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.