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David I. Smith

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Practicing Christian Education

For anyone who teaches in any kind of Christian educational setting, I suspect that the best review of this book is an extremely brief one: if you have not yet read it, please do. It is one of the more winsome, wise, accessible, and suggestive books about Christian education that I have ever encountered, and this second edition with an added study guide by Syd Hielema is a fitting testimony to its value. By all means persevere through this review…
David I. Smith
June 1, 2008
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How Not to Bless the Nations

The king was understandably upset. In a single night it had all unraveled. What had started out as an inviting series of developments had taken a turn that would unseat anyone's peace of mind. Divine deaththreats in the night hours were not the best recipe for a restful sleep, and watching fear seep through his court was not the best way to start the day. And all because of that foreigner. Before last night there had been no hint of…
David I. Smith
December 16, 2005
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Psalm 113–The Movie

A short film that aired on TV when I was a child lingers at the fringes of my memory. It began, if I remember aright, with a boy rowing a boat on a lake. Then the camera began to zoom out until first the boy, then the boat, the lake, the country and finally the planet receded from view. Eventually, somewhere in the far-flung depths of space, the motion ceased, and then reversed its direction. The viewpoint zoomed lakeward. On…
David I. Smith
January 16, 2005
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Irony, Sovereignty and Cheeses

Reading the story of David and Goliath recently (I Samuel 17), I found myself wondering what the cheeses were all about. In the midst of an otherwise dramatic story, the narrator lingers over the homely details of Jesse's instructions to his son David concerning bread and cheese. David is to take an ephah of roasted grain and ten loaves of bread to his brothers who are camped with the Israelite army. That's understandable--it's hungry work fighting Philistines. But it is…
David I. Smith
June 1, 2003