Though they both were lovingly enfolded into a Levite family that guards the Ark, Eliora can't stop feeling like she doesn't belong.Meanwhile, a faction of discontent Hebrews finds Kiryat-Yearim to be an unfit resting place and believes that the sacred vessel should be in the hands of the priests who mean to restore the Holy of Holies in a new location. Under the guise of gathering Hebrews to worship together for the festivals, Levite musician Ronen has been sent by his uncle to find where the Ark has been hidden and steal it back. But Ronen never expected that the Philistine girl he rescued years ago would now be part of the very family he's tasked to deceive.Ronen's attempts to charm Eliora into revealing the location of the Ark lead them in unexpected directions, as they must battle betrayal and fear to help establish Israel's leadership for a better future.

    A man bent on proving his worth. A chance encounter that catapults them into the heart of history.When the daughter of a prominent Roman general meets a disinherited Jewish immigrant, neither one can dream of God's plan to transform them into the most influential couple of the early church. Nor can they anticipate the mountains that will threaten to bury them. Their courtship unwittingly shadowed by murder and betrayal, Priscilla and Aquila slowly work to build a community of believers, while their lives grow increasingly complicated thanks to a shaggy dog, a mysterious runaway, and a ruthless foe desperate for love. But when they're banished from their home by a capricious emperor, they must join forces with an unusual rabbi named Paul and fight to turn treachery into redemption.With impeccable research and vivid detail, Daughter of Rome is both an emotive love story and an immersive journey through first-century Rome and Corinth, reminding readers once again why Debbie Macomber has said that "no one brings the Bible to life like Tessa Afshar."

    . . until a guest tells Tasmin to have the servants fill the pitchers by the gate with water from the cistern. Reluctantly, she obeys and is amazed when rainwater turns into the finest wine ever tasted in Cana. When Thomas impulsively decides to follow the teacher from Nazareth, he and Tasmin argue--since the twins have been together since the womb, Tasmin can't accept losing her brother to some magician-prophet. Aided by Jude, younger brother to Jesus of Nazareth, she decides to follow the Nazarene's group and do whatever she must to mend the fractured relationship and bring her brother home.

    When they finally leave, he decides on one more week of frivolity, which ends in the banishment of his favorite wife, something he never intended to do. But when he discovers Esther, Xerxes is sure he has a second chance at happiness.In her wildest dreams, Esther could never have imagined that she would end up as queen of Persia. Yet she knows better than to become complacent. Another of Xerxes's wives is vying for position, and his closest advisor has a deep and dangerous grudge against Esther's adoptive father. Caught in the middle of palace politics, Esther will find herself in an impossible position: risk her life or consign her people to annihilation.With her impeccable research and her imaginative flair, Jill Eileen Smith brings to life the romantic, suspenseful, and beloved story of Esther, queen of Persia.

    A Pharisee disciple will do whatever it takes to secure his future, even betray those he loves. A young woman longs for peace and safety, but her heart pulls her far from home. What are they willing to give up for their faith?From the temperamental Sea of Galilee to the tinder-box that is Jerusalem, this journey through Matthew's gospel will sweep you into the first-century world. Witness the epic events of the gospel with all its wonder and conflict. See Jesus through the eyes of a woman and a Pharisee.Beth believes Jesus offers healing and hope, but his plan for her husband rises like the waves of the sea to wash away her dreams for the future. Afraid of being left behind, she chases after her husband Peter, but in traveling with Jesus she finds more questions than answers. As her husband pursues the Nazarene with his whole heart and her cousin's bitterness towards Jesus grows, she wonders, what place can a woman have in the coming kingdom?Reuben believes the way to a restored Israel is through careful obedience to law and tradition, and Jesus of Nazareth is challenging tradition at every turn. Under the watchful eye of his secretive rabbi, Reuben hopes he can rise above obscurity and take his place as a leader among men, but a disastrous confrontation with the Nazarene threatens to destroy his budding career. When his dreams collide with the people he loves, is he willing to do what it takes?“Powerful, imaginative, stirring! Get ready for a unique, substantive, and emotional journey down a stream that flows cleverly from, around, and through the Gospel of Matthew" —Gary D. Collier (Ph.D.), Director of the Institute for the Art of Biblical Conversation“This well-written book provides insight and reading pleasure. Even though we know the story, each chapter brings a new surprise. Hamel takes the abbreviated account in the Gospel and expands it using the knowledge we have about ancient Palestinian culture.” —Rev. Richard Davies (Ph.D.), Dean Emeritus, Martin University

    Peer into the lives of four people from the village of Bethany—a harlot, a mistress, a beggar, and a leper—as their worlds interweave and collide. Throughout similar circumstances, they each have unique and personal encounters with Jesus. Along the way, they learn what it means to experience authentic relationships, genuine community, and true faith. These emotionally charged stories reveal people who struggle with the same kinds of life issues that we all encounter today—feelings of loneliness, guilt, inadequacy, betrayal, and despair. Yet their interactions with Jesus bring profound changes to the way that they view their world, each other, and themselves. These four tales use the creative gift of imagination to explore what each of these men and women might have been thinking and feeling, while remaining true to the biblical accounts and consistent with life in first century Israel. So come on a journey that will challenge you, inspire you, and like these characters from Bethany, leave you forever changed.

    From that time until this, despite chasing after a multitude of healers’ promises and spending all she had on torturous treatments, she hasn’t been able to stop the resulting hemorrhaging. The doctor she saw today, like all the others, had given her lofty promises of a cure but turned out to be yet another charlatan. Defeated, Tikva returns home to her aged mother-in-law, who has heard tell of a miracle-working Rabbi visiting their province. Does Tikva dare hold out one last hope for healing?

    From the beginning of everything, to how he broke the world, shattered Eve’s heart, and watched his family crumble.Will Enoch uncover what led so many of Adam’s children away from God? And will Adam find the redemption and forgiveness he longs for?

    That went against her faith. Her own God asked her to walk away. That went against her calling.Until she is ordered by Pharaoh to kill newborn Hebrew males, Puah thought she had an easy profession. If she obeys, it means the deaths of untold innocents. If she doesn't, it means her death.As Pharaohs rise and fall, Puah’s people are forced into deeper oppression. Men are forced labor and women are sent to serve their Egyptian counterparts. Only Puah and her recently acquired guild are free. For now.Moses, one of the hidden babies who was adopted by the Princess, is being groomed to take over. When he denies his right to rule and mistakenly kills an Egyptian, he is forced to flee into the desert.Forty years later, he returns as the instrument of God.With her medical training and passion for helping pregnant women, Puah places herself in the heart of hell on earth as the intensity of plagues increases.After the last plague falls, she must make the decision to stay in Egypt or face the unknown wilderness. Puah’s heart has always been for the women of Egypt. How can she obey God to walk away from them in their greatest hour of need? She can only make the choice once and morning won’t wait.

    

    Forty years of wandering have brought the children of Israel to their Promised Land, now controlled by the peoples of Canaan. This remarkable story tells of Jewish spies and their unexpected saving. There is a call and a reason to answer. Through it all, the hand of God moves not only nations to war, but individuals to great risks and greater rewards.My name is Rahab. I am a woman of Canaan. I do not belong in the lineage of the greatest love story, and yet, I am here. Kings have come through me. My people would look in wonder or scorn. It matters not for they are no more. Rahabek is a strong name. I took it to myself and carried my head high. Now it has come down through the ages, the story of a whore who betrayed her people. But I do not think they were my people. The One who called from across the Jordan said I am His. He is mine. As such, His people have become my people. My haughty head I now bow low, for I am redeemed in love and joy.Listen to my story. Decide for yourself. It is no easy thing to fall into the hands of a fearful God without a willing heart.

    All the village says that my blood father is not the man who married my mother. They have shamed her on the matter all my life.Every woman asks which man of the village is my blood father. Every man scowls and says he was not the one my mother seduced. My mother will not tell who is my blood father. My mother will not speak on the matter. My mother bears her shame in silence.Some righteous man, a prophet, said a word over me when I was a babe in arms. He told how I will redeem Israel when I grow to be a man.Now I have grown to be a man, but I do not know how to redeem Israel. The scriptures do not explain the matter. My people say that the man who redeems Israel must take up the sword and throw off our enemy, Rome, which we call the Great Satan. My family says I must take up the sword.Only I am no man of the sword. I wish with all my heart to redeem Israel, but HaShem, the God of our fathers, must tell me how. Lately, there came a new prophet to Israel, who immerses for repentance at the river Jordan.I went to ask the prophet how I should redeem Israel.He said I am to smite the four Powers.I asked what are the four Powers.He could not say, but he said HaShem will reveal the matter to me. I wish HaShem will reveal the matter, only I am not a prophet. Not yet.But I will be.Here is what I know. Every hour of every day, I feel the Presence of HaShem. I do not know why I should feel the Presence always. My mother does not. My village does not. Even the prophet of HaShem does not.I think the Presence will teach me the way to redeem Israel.But I am afraid to redeem Israel. To redeem Israel is to leave my mother to the scorn of the village.The rage of the village. My mother begs and cries on me to make a justice for her. To make a justice on the village. I do not know how to make a justice on the village. I do not know how to redeem Israel. But HaShem will show me the way. I will learn how to be a prophet of HaShem. I will learn how to redeem Israel.I will learn how to make a justice for my mother. I will smite the first Power.Or I will die in the trying.

    However, her journey as a midwife is not as simple as she’d hoped. Torn away from her family as a child and sold as a slave, Shiphrah struggles to find her place and her freedom. But things change after she saves the lives of her master’s wife and their child during a difficult birth. Now free, Shiphrah can truly fulfill her calling and, perhaps, even gain a family of her own. And yet, change is coming, and events take a dark turn when the king of Egypt demands that the midwives see to it that all male Hebrew babies die. As one who helps bring life into the world, how can she obey this cruel edict? With the help of El Shaddai, can Shiphrah find the courage to do the right thing?

    But if that was the case, how did this woman, Rahab, become one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ? Wouldn’t the Father ensure a pure lineage for His Son? In this historical fiction, author Diana Wallis Taylor offers a beautiful story of intrigue that explains how Rahab came to be the mother of Boaz, grandmother of Obed, and great-grandmother of Jesse, the father of King David. In Rahab, Woman of Jericho, readers discover a Rahab who is a descendent of the tribe of Ephraim, one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Her clan left Egypt and settled in Canaan before the Hebrews were enslaved. Although they did not wander in the desert with Moses for forty years, nor did they hear the laws that the Lord gave to His people, they still worshipped the one true God. Rahab marries Radames, a young Egyptian officer, who is to become the new governor of Jericho. They live in the Egyptian embassy set in the city wall. When the Israelites approach Canaan with their army, pharaoh sends word that he is withdrawing his troops. Radames fabricates a story to tell Jericho’s king, but Hammurabi doesn’t believe it…and he has his eye on the beautiful Rahab. What will happen to Rahab after the lecherous king poisons her husband? How can she save her family from the invading Israelites? God parted the waters of the Jordan River for them—will He likewise provide miracles and blessings to her Ephraimite clan if they can rejoin their people?

    But when a sudden misfortune leaves him stranded in a small village on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Dismas has an opportunity to leave his fugitive existence behind. As a hired hand on a fishing boat, Dismas finds pleasure in work for time, and peace out on the sea. It’s an honest life—and he may have even found a woman to share it with. But then tragedy strikes, and Dismas sets out on the road again to seek a man he’s been told is capable of miracles. However, being touched by the divine grace of this man cannot save Dismas from the Roman authorities if they finally catch up with him for his past misdeeds. As Passover approaches, Romans and Jews alike converge on the chaotic city of Jerusalem, where Dismas navigates trials of persecution, conspiracy, and murder that ultimately lead him to be an eyewitness to the most pivotal moment in human history. With vividly imagined depictions of familiar events from the New Testament, Redemption at the Eleventh Hour is the exciting and heart-wrenching tale of one man’s difficult journey towards salvation.