Samuel’s Birth and Childhood (Ch. 1) We often wonder about the childhoods of great people. We have very little information about the early years of most of the people mentioned in the Bible. One delightful exception is Samuel; he came as a result of Hannah’s fervent prayer for a child. In fact, the name “Samuel” [...]
Everybody loves a romance! From literature classics like Romeo and Juliette to the cheap smutty paperback novels…from epic films like Gone with the Wind to the latest cheesy chick-flick…from the mightiest of men to the weepiest of women… everybody loves a romance story! The Bible has its own version of a romance story. Boaz: Israel’s [...]
In the fall of 2004, ABC launched its hit television series Desperate Housewives. The show, part comedy and part drama, follows the lives of a group of housewives, seen through the eyes of their dead neighbor. They work through domestic struggles and family life, while facing the secrets, crimes and mysteries hidden behind the doors [...]
Samson’s Potential (Judges 13) Few people in the Bible were born with more potential than Samson. Like John the Baptist’s parents Elizabeth and Zechariah, in Judges 13 we learn that Samson’s parents had been unable to conceive for many years. Then God sent his angel to announce that they were going to have a son. [...]
Everyone considered him the coward of the county He’d never stood one single time to prove the county wrong His mama named him Tommy but folks just called him yellow But something always told me they were reading Tommy wrong Kenny Roger’s “Coward of the County” is one of my favorite country songs. The song [...]
In 1907, Anna Jarvis, a Philadelphia schoolteacher, had an idea. She wanted to do something special to honor her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. So, she solicited the help of hundreds of legislators and prominent businessmen to create a special day to honor mothers. The first Mother’s Day observance was a church service honoring Anna’s [...]
After Moses delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, he led them for forty years and then he died. Then his assistant Joshua took the Israelites into the Promised Land and he was their leader for another forty years. After Joshua died, Israel entered the time of the judges, where God raised up a series of [...]
Have you ever been caught off guard by something? That is, have you ever expected one thing to happen but then you were completely shocked when something else happened? Maybe you thought you job was secure, but then your boss called you into his office and said, “I’m so sorry, but we are going to [...]
This evening I would like to tell you a story about something that happened to me a number of years ago; something that happened during my trip to Jerusalem. Ever since I was a kid, I had always wanted to go to Israel and see Jerusalem. As I grew up, my parents had told me [...]
Joshua is one of the few people in the Bible who didn’t have any major moral weaknesses or character flaws. He was strong, courageous, lived a life of faithfulness to the Lord, and became one of Israel’s most prosperous and successful leaders! Joshua’s Life Joshua was the son of Nun of the tribe of Ephraim, [...]