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Introduction "I have a daughter, a very beautiful daughter. She likes to buy fixer-upper houses with which I would help her, only now I am not as young as I used to be". Chuck Smith, Founder and Senior Pastor of the world-wide Calvary Chapel movement where I worship in Costa Mesa, California, introduced this little homily into one of his Sunday morning messages. I believe it was precisely these human-interest vignettes that became the inspiration for my stories - with one major difference. Because Pastor Chuck essentially speaks to those of the household of faith, it is entirely appropriate for him to give an erudite, Biblically centered message, with only the odd human-interest tale in between. What if I were to turn it round the other way, and write a human-interest story with only the occasional lesson from the Bible included, but with full chapter and verse references at the end, covering in the aggregate all 66 books in the Bible? Might I not be making a small but personal contribution to the Great Commission referred to in Matthew 28:19-20? Might I not also be honoring the mission statement of my Alma Mater, Biola University in La Mirada, California, to impact the world for the Lord Jesus Christ? I must say the whole idea appealed to me immensely. This book is the result. I purposely set out to try and make the stories intriguing, hoping thereby to encourage the reader to look up the Bible references under 'Further reading' at the end. In this way would I seek to lead the lost of this world on a journey that would end in their acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Thus, in each of the total of twenty-six stories, one for each letter of the alphabet, there is only one named character and no references to times or places. By making you, the reader, rely on your imagination in this way, as opposed to identifying with facts with which you might already be familiar, I hope to make it easier for you as you begin your study of the Bible. My prayer for you, and for all whom you hold dear, is that your life from this day forth will be all that God had in mind for you when He first thought of you. Christopher Warren-Smith |