Mostrando resultados por autor "David B. Smith" en Todas las categorías

A cancer diagnosis robs the two Gray gentlemen – Big Ethan and Little Ethan – of a bride and beloved grandma. Unable to cope with Seattle’s jagged memories, Pastor Ethan gratefully embraces an invitation to move to Thailand and lead Bangkok Christian School's affiliate worship center, United Christian Church. Soon enough the story has a thumping soundtrack as Noah Charoenkul drafts the aging rocker to be his keyboardist for praise music at school and church.

From mid-August to mid-September 1863, Union major general William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland maneuvered from Tennessee to north Georgia in a bid to rout Confederate general Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee and blaze the way for further Union advances. Meanwhile, Confederate reinforcements bolstered the numbers of the Army of Tennessee, and by the time the two armies met at the Battle of Chickamauga, in northern Georgia, the Confederates had gained numerical superiority.

In 2009, scholars at Yale University came across a startling manuscript: the memoir of Austin Reed, a free Black man born in the 1820s who spent most of his early life ricocheting between forced labor in prison and forced labor as an indentured servant. Lost for more than 150 years, the handwritten document is the first known prison memoir written by an African American.

Resurrected Love is yet another dramatic love story set in exotic Thailand where Buddhist harmony and Christian miracles flow in co-existing streams. And sixth-grade kids the world over are very fond of teasing their beloved American teacher when they suspect Miss Giske has a new fan.

Travel to a world where love stories unfold, shattered dreams are rebuilt, and a memorable cast of characters live out and grow in their Christian faith. The brand new Rachel Marie series takes you far away to Bangkok Christian School where rookie teacher Rachel Marie finds herself intrigued by the winsome Vice Principal Kuhn Khemkaeng, a nominal Buddhist. She’s being simultaneously wooed by expatriate Nigel Blaine, a TV journalist dripping with decidedly secular charm.

It takes adept multitasking for Ratana to thrive as a third-year med student who also does church concerts throughout Bangkok. Then one more thing threatens to explode her frantic schedule at Chulalongkorn U. His name is Jaidee: a heart-melting two-year-old orphan who needs a new mommy.

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?

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.

During the golden days of American pulps, hundreds of masked avengers were created to battle evildoers around the globe. The Black Bat, Moon Man, Domino Lady, and the Purple Scar, to name only a few of these amazing pulp heroes. Now Airship 27 Productions introduces to pulp listeners brand new pulp heroes cast in the mold of their 1930s counterparts.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!

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?