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    A Door of Hope
    A Door of Hope
    A Door of Hope
    Ebook120 pages1 hour

    A Door of Hope

    By Martha Boswell

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    About this ebook

    Although most of these devotionals were written more than ten years ago, putting them together into a book has reminded me of Gods faithfulness. In our difficulties and in our moments of joy, He has been there every step of the way. For every heartbeat and heartbreak, His love has held onto us. Patiently He teaches us about ourselves and His great love for us as He transforms bad into good, confusion into clarity, and trouble into hope. May God bless you as you study His word and find your hope in Him.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    ISBN9781490815558
    A Door of Hope
    Author

    Martha Boswell

    Martha Boswell is married to a carpenter, and they have two lovely daughters. She lives in Louisiana, where she enjoys the food, the music, and the delightful people of that state.

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      Book preview

      A Door of Hope - Martha Boswell

      Copyright © 2013 Martha Boswell.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      WestBow Press

      A Division of Thomas Nelson

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.westbowpress.com

      1 (866) 928-1240

      Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

      Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

      All rights reserved.

      Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Scripture taken from the Living Bible (TLB). The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

      Scripture taken from the New International Reader’s Version. Copyright © 1996, 1998 by Biblica

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4908-1555-8 (e)

      WestBow Press rev. date: 11/26/2013

      Contents

      Epigraph

      Preface

      Acknowledgement

      Chapter 1  Solomon

      1 Kings 1-2

      1 Kings 3-4

      1 Kings 5-6, 1 Corinthians 5-6

      1 Kings 9-10

      1 Kings 11-12

      Chapter 2  Elijah and Elisha

      1 Kings 18

      1 Kings 21-22

      2 Kings 3-4

      Chapter 3  Nehemiah

      Nehemiah 1-2

      Nehemiah 3-5

      Nehemiah 5-7

      Nehemiah 7-9

      Chapter 4  Job

      Job 9-12

      Job 13-16

      Job 17-20

      Job 21-24

      Job 25-29

      Job 30-33

      Job 34-37

      Job 38-41

      Job 42

      Chapter 5  David

      Psalm 22

      Psalm 22

      Psalm 23

      Psalm 24

      Psalm 25

      Psalm 25

      Psalm 26

      Psalm 34

      Psalm 33-34

      Chapter 6  Isaiah and Jeremiah

      Isaiah 1-2

      Isaiah 3-8

      Isaiah 9-11

      Isaiah 12-15

      Isaiah 16-19

      Isaiah 20-24

      Isaiah 25-29

      Isaiah 30-31

      Isaiah 34-37

      Isaiah 38-42

      Isaiah 53

      Isaiah 54-57

      Isaiah 59-63

      Isaiah 64-66

      Jeremiah 1-2

      Jeremiah 3-6

      Chapter 7  Paul

      Romans 16

      1 Corinthians 1

      1 Corinthians 6

      1 Corinthians 7

      1 Corinthians 15

      2 Corinthians 1

      2 Corinthians 4

      Philippians 1

      Philippians 2

      Philippians 3

      Colossians 1

      For Mom

      Epigraph

      There I will give back her vineyards to her and transform her Valley of Troubles into a Door of Hope.

      Hosea 2:15 (TLB)

      Preface

      G rowing up in church, I loved Bible stories and Bible characters. But somehow they got stuck in my imagination as perfect marble statues of people rather than real people—sort of like stained glass saints hanging motionless and two dimensional in church windows. Older now and having spent more time studying God’s word, I have changed this earlier notion about people in the Bible. They were just people, just like you and me. They were at times confused, lonely, angry and hopeless. When I read about them, I see myself. Beyond that, I see God’s hand in their lives and in mine. Like them, I have found myself stuck in that Valley of Trouble searching desperately for a way out- a door of hope. Then God steps in, and He transforms trouble into hope. Writing these devotionals, I began to see the people in the scripture passages as more than stained glass images. They became three dimensional. Solomon, the legitimate child of an illegitimate love affair must have been a social misfit as he stepped up to rule God’s people. Elijah and Elisha were branded as troublemakers for pointing out political corruption. Homeless, Nehemiah is forced to take refuge in a foreign land, and Job stands out forever marked as the victim accused by those closest to him. David was a fugitive fearing for his life. Isaiah and Jeremiah were outcasts, and Paul was a prisoner awaiting trial. The misfit, the troublemakers, the victim and the refugee. The outcast and the prisoner. Each one stuck for a time in a valley of trouble waiting for a way out. But God, always faithful, shows us and them a way out. May these devotionals be an encouragement to you as you encounter your own valleys and allow God to transform them into a door of hope.

      Acknowledgement

      M y grateful appreciation goes to Lara for the use of her laptop, to Jessie for listening to me read on road trips, and to David, for cooking me eggs for breakfast every morning.

      Chapter 1

      Solomon

      Scripture passage: 1 Kings 1-2

      Then the king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down and killed him. The Kingdom was now firmly established in Solomon’s hands.

      1Kings 2:46 (NIV)

      I n the corner of my yard I have an old, cast iron, claw footed bathtub. About twenty years ago, my husband (with the help of several friends) brought this treasure home with him from a remodeling job he was working on at the time. Isn’t this old tub great? he said. We can have it redone and put it in the extra bathroom I’m planning to build someday. That was three moves and three houses ago. Each time we moved, we brought the bathtub with us, always planning to turn it into something beautiful and useful. But more than twenty years have passed, and there it stands, on four very old, very tired claw feet in the corner of my back yard. Every spring I plant flowers in it and around it, and each winter it rewards me by sprouting unsightly weeds where the flowers had grown and by getting even more rusted. I question why we ever brought the thing

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