Showing results by author "David B. Smith" in All Categories

Even in today's media-crazed world, we appreciate a well-told story. Among the best-loved stories in Scripture are the parables of Jesus: the sheep and the goats, the lost coin, the wedding feast, the prodigal son. Through these and others, Jesus introduced His kingdom - a new order in which...

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.

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?

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.

What would be the opposite thing of a “Bucket List”? For me, signing up to run in the Los Angeles Marathon would make the Top Three for sure. I’m not a runner and don’t think I’m a nut. Why would I sign up for such a lunatic adventure? I’m still not sure how it happened, but I trained for a year, then actually lined up with 20,000 other demented men and women to stagger through 26.2 miles in a cold, driving rain. Did David B. Smith’s debut on the marathon course go well? You’ll have to listen to this book to find out! Hint: the answer is a muscle-shredding, red-faced, ego-deflating no.

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?

Do you sometimes wish your church had more people coming? We all wince when we see large gaps, empty pews, bare places. It’s especially painful when someone precious slips out a side door and into the shadows of indifference or isolation. We want to cry out: NO!! Don’t leave us! What can we do to change your minds? Come back! There are many issues to weigh and hard realities to consider. This booklet offers just one: “Try Kindness.” Believers can debate about doctrinal discord and unkempt parking lots and the repetitive thump of today’s praise tunes.

It’s sure a fun place to be a kid! There’s swim parties and Sunday afternoons at the park and crazy rides on tuk tuks and weekend excursions to exotic Phuket Island. And oh yeah, did we mention the world’s sweetest pineapple? But the best part of life in Thailand is that Gage and Jaidee and Maddy and all their pals are part of Bangkok Christian School. The teachers are great, Mr. Noah does rockin’ chapel programs, and there’s a ton of kids flowing through the place who haven’t yet heard how Jesus can be their best friend.

A STRUGGLING SINNER COMES INTO GOD’S FAMILY. Can he or she know they can stay? Under what circumstances would our heavenly Father undo His promised protection? Back to the orphanage! Begone! Originally aired as a five-week Voice of Prophecy radio series, "The Perfect Adoption" explores the healing metaphor of adoption as an ideal way of understanding our salvation.

How do we cope when faith threatens to slip away? The most durable of Christian heroes often succumb to the numb specter of doubt. "Are the things I once believed still true?" Pillars like John the Baptist, Mother Teresa, and Billy Graham have confessed that there were times in their walk with God where atheism and an empty universe seemed increasingly probable scenarios. The author refers to a recent media exchange between liberal provocateur Bill Maher and the late Charlie Kirk. Both men confessed that their chosen life philosophy brought unanswerable questions, chasms of logic.

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?

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.

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.

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.

The earliest known prison memoir by an African American writer—recently discovered and authenticated by a team of Yale scholars—sheds light on the longstanding connection between race and incarceration in America. “[A] harrowing [portrait] of life behind bars . . . part confession, part...

Is a decade enough time to heal the jagged soul scars of Pattaya Beach? Pranom was just 13 when a greedy uncle forced her into Thailand’s infamous sex trade (And a Happy New You). Now a college graduate secure in the love of her adopted Portland family, she might actually dare to spend a year back at Bangkok Christian School as the new calculus teacher. On one condition: her kid sister Paloma comes along to be the only blond senior in the entire school. Back in Asia, the kids are great. Her new church is great. Auntie Rachel and Uncle Khemkaeng are great.

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.

Newly widowed Lisa Thackeray is just finishing her chaplaincy stint at an Army outpost in Iraq when a dead soldier’s iPod comes into her possession. It’s a mind-bending discovery when she realizes the anonymous toy lets her escape to the past by a week and bet on NFL games that have already happened. She can prevent suicide bombings. She can rescue fallen comrades. What’s going on here anyway? Finally back in the U.S.