My name translates into English as "beloved" and Jonathon's is "God has given." God loved me so much that he gave me Jonathon as a friend.

I hope you're beginning to see the clear parallels between my life and yours. Like it was for me, a throne is God's purpose for you (1 Peter 2:9-12), a cross is his path for you (Matt. 10:37-39), and faith is his plan for you (2 Cor. 5:7).

Obed was the father of my father Jesse, so Boaz and Ruth were my great-grandparents. My name is David, a former shepherd boy from Bethlehem who became Israel's greatest King.

"Because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." - John 20:29

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

With the death of Haman and the elevation of Mordecai to Chief Counselor, you’d think my problems would be over, but we still had the extermination order against all my people in Persia to deal with. I fell on my knees and begged the King to rescind Haman’s order.

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

As Esther might have told it today…

The foiled assassination plot against the King can be likened to your salvation experience. Remember, due to Mordecai’s timely warning the two officers who plotted the King’s death were discovered and sentenced to die. Most translations of my story say they were hanged,

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

As Esther might have told it today…

As I mentioned last time Mordecai is my cousin, although he’s so much older than I am that he actually remembers life in Jerusalem before the Babylonians destroyed it. When my parents died he took me in and raised me as his own.

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

(NOTE: Ray C. Stedman’s book “The Queen and I” was a major source of inspiration for this series of articles on the Book of Esther.)

This is part of Jack’s, Bible Thru the Eyes of Its Writers series where he tells the stories in first-person—as if the authors were telling the story themselves.

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."(Matt. 1:20-21)