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Retired from petroleum exploration and teaching geology at Houston Community College, Richard Barnett lives and writes in Wimberley, Texas. As an enthusiastic wood butcher, he has built a houseful of furniture.
Snow lay deep on the mountains of Korea on Christmas Day, 1952, where I heard Billy Graham speaking about the Christ of Christmas. Dr. Graham stated that Christmas Day has no meaning apart from the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. December 25 would otherwise be a day no different from any other, whether or not that was the actual date of the Nativity.
Because of Jesus, Christmas Day is a day for genuine celebration so long as we bear in mind that it took more than his birth to complete his great work of redemption.
My poems share my convictions and feelings about that holy night when God entered human history as a newborn infant. My tales show how the coming of Jesus Christ turns desperation into joy, how it can melt hard hearts and change lives, and how it gives us opportunities to pass on the blessings we receive. Deep And Crisp is a Christmas book to treasure, full of crips poems of reflection and deep tales about the most wondrous night in history....
All Kinds of Scented Wood: Wood & Woodworking in the Bible is a treasury of inspiration for general readers and a unique reference tool for teachers, Bible students, and all those who love to work with wood.
References to trees and wood fill the Bible from beginning to end, adding to its literary and historical value and enlarging its storehouse of inspirational treasures. They reflect keen observation, practical experience, and conditions of everyday life in the biblical world. Whether in the form of pictures, stories, messages, or poems, these treasures are resources that we may use to enlarge our faith.
This book surveys woods and woodworking in the Bible, their place in Jesus' preparation for his ministry, and what the scriptural allusions to trees, woods, and woodworking meant to Him as a carpenter and master builder.
Everyone knows the story of Samson, the most flamboyant but least effective of the deliverers, and many remember Gideon and even Deborah and Jael, but who has ever heard of Othniel? Even Bible scholars need their memories jogged..
The Book of Judges relates from a prophetic point of view how God pleaded with Israel while life fell into chaos. Its narrative episodes record how people repeatedly abandoned the Mosaic covenant and went their own way, lapsing deeper and deeper into hedonism and paganism. Foreign and internal oppressors took advantage of Israel's civic decline to exploit them. The nation survived only because God delayed the slide into chaos through leaders who briefly delivered different parts of the nation..
Othniel, son-in-law of Caleb, Joshua's right-hand man, became Caleb's successor as a leader in the southern part of Judah. We read that Israel enjoyed forty years of rest because of his leadership--a record never to be matched after Deborah's time. The biblical record twice gives us a glimpse of the woman he married, Acsah, a woman of character and foresight. No other leader named in the Book of Judges had such a worthy partner. Reading between the lines, we may suspect that Othniel owed no small part of his success to her influence.
The story of Othniel and Acsah, therefore, represents an unblemished episode in Israel's tawdry history. In Othniel: The Force of God, you will find the hand of God at work in an inspiring story full of adventure and romance, loyalty and daring-as well as their opposites. Surely it has as useful a place in God's plan as the more lurid tales.
“Silent Night: the Inside Story” is one of 28 winning short stories in Linden Hill’s Amazing Cat Tales. Stories range from funny, poignant, inspiring, endearing, clever, witty--all the way to sophisticated. Some tales are for story time and others are for happy hour. All celebrate our fascination with those splendid creatures – CATS.
You will meet clever and cuddly cats, wise and witty cats, mischievous cats, matchmaking cats, supernatural cats, and even a truly amazing cat that will inspire boundless flights of fancy on magic carpet rides.
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Richard S. Barnett
