Showing titles in Historical

At the turn of the twentieth century, sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life as the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer when their well-ordered household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly—and innocently—draws the wrong kind of attention. Meanwhile, Callie meets a man who offers her the freedom to abandon social constraints and discover her truest self.

Queensland, Australia, 1936 Sister Claire McAuliffe has been called from Dungarvan, County Waterford, to do God’s work in Jumaaroo, Queensland. Along with four other sisters, she is charged with setting up a Catholic school for the education of the gold rush families. But life between the tropical Australian rainforest and the azure ocean is far from the spectacular paradise it seems. Sister Claire finds life challenging in more ways than she can count—but far more worrying is the constant presence of the much-loved mayor of Jumaaroo, Joseph McGrath.

In a day when the culture dictated that women were to be seen and not heard, God raised up a woman with the faith, wisdom and courage to lead her people as a judge over Israel. After settling in the Promised Land, the people of Israel repeatedly turned their backs on God and went their own way. But by His grace, God mercifully responded to His people’s cries for help by raising up judges to lead His people back to Him. This is the story of one of those judges—the one called Deborah.

The Book of Acts recounts the stories of numerous men and a few women God chose to use to plant His church in the first century. This is the story of one of those–a merchant called Lydia. Explore her story and the story of the times in which she lived—the portion you may already know … and the rest of the story that could have been.

This is the story of Mary Magdalene. The Gospels tell us she was a successful woman. But they also tell us she found herself under the control of seven demons until the day Jesus set her free. From that day forward she was one of the women who traveled with Jesus. She was a firsthand witness to much of His ministry. She was one of the few who stood at the foot of the cross. She was one of a handful who journeyed to the garden tomb. She was the first to actually see Jesus after He had risen.

Yes, it’s true—Rahab was a prostitute—until the day God redeemed her. But gratefully, once we have been redeemed, God doesn’t see any of us through the lens of our sin; rather, He sees us through the lens of His Son. It was by faith, this woman of courage and strength did not die with all the others in her city. And it was by faith, she became a part of the ancestral line that led to the advent of Jesus. This is the story of the heroine who protected the Israelite spies … and so much more.

Joseph was an unlikely choice to be the earthly father of Jesus. There was nothing about him on the surface that would have prompted any of us to consider him worthy. And yet, no other man in history has been charged with the tremendous responsibility he was given. He wasn’t randomly chosen by God. He wasn’t chosen simply because he and Mary were engaged to be married. He was, most definitely, not an after-thought or a footnote. He and Mary were betrothed because God had chosen them both and ordered their steps accordingly … from before the beginning of time.

In a bizarre plot-twist, he was being taken out of his cell to be released but he still thought he was going toward his death, to join his gang members up on their crosses. Plunge right into the whirlwind of action that starts with the events leading to the gang’s arrest, through the wait till the execution, his unbeknownst release and his search to find out who this Jesus is who took his place. Could he truly hope to start again, his life changed forever?

Investigative historical journalist Andrea Andrews is tired of waiting tables to make ends meet. If she could find and write the next breakout story, she could secure a promotion with Smithsonian Magazine as their writer-at-large. But not much happens in lower Manhattan out of the ordinary until she discovers post-Civil War counterfeit bills hidden in the wall of her historic district apartment.

Most of us know the messages delivered by the prophet Isaiah, but do we know the story behind the man? Raised in the king’s palace, Isaiah, unlike other prophets, was given a unique perspective to counsel kings and foretell the coming of the King of Kings. His family relationships most likely created an internal conflict for him as he delivered the difficult messages Jehovah God had for His people and their kings. Long before Isaiah ever knew the events that would unfold in his life, God had been at work in him to mold and shape him into a man to whom He could entrust this assignment.

Simon was a loyal son, a selfless brother, a faithful husband, a loving father, a trustworthy friend, and a skillful fisherman, as well as a natural leader—long before he ever met Jesus of Nazareth. He put the needs of others before his own. He led with his heart; often before he engaged his head. Some might call him impetuous, but others would say impassioned. He was the only one willing to step out of the boat and walk on the water. He alone drew his sword to defend his Master. But this same man failed in a moment of fear and denied his Lord.

Most of the descendants of Adam turned their hearts away from their Creator and did evil in His sight. But in the seventh generation, there came an ordinary man who, at the age of sixty-five, turned his heart toward God. Explore the story of Enoch, the friend who walked with God for three hundred years until God took him in an extraordinary way. Consider a walk with God that resulted in his being one of only two men who never experienced physical death.

If widowed town seamstress Nell Armstrong has to make one more pair of boring chaps for the cowboys in her tiny Wyoming town, she might lose her mind. So meeting Brand Nolte, a widower father struggling to raise three girls, seems like her dream come true. Brand has no idea how to dress the girls, and Nell finally has a chance to both create beautiful dresses and teach the girls to sew. But Nell is much more than a seamstress.

It is 1952, and nearly all the girls 16-year-old Bertha Harding knows dream of getting married, keeping house, and raising children in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Bertha dreams of baseball. She reads every story in the sports section, she plays ball with the neighborhood boys—she even writes letters to the pitcher for the Workington Sweet Peas, part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Widowed Euodia, known to her neighbors as "the Lydian woman," seeks to make a fresh start by moving to the foreign city of Philippi. She finds new purpose after meeting Paulos, apostle to the Gentiles, who opens her eyes to helping those in need, particularly women and those who have been enslaved.

While taking photographs at an exposition in Seattle in 1909, Camera Girl Eleanor Bennet snaps an image of a woman in widow's clothes with deep sorrow etched in her expression and a young infant in her arms. Eleanor longs to study botany at the University of Washington and soon becomes fast friends with botanist Bill Reed, but she can't stop thinking about the widow in the photograph. She is stunned to learn Bill recognizes the woman as the sister-in-law he believed lost in a shipwreck.

His younger brother will be greater than he . . . With those words, Menashe's dreams collapse. As Yosef's eldest son, his position had seemed secure. But now Efrayim—bold, charming Efrayim, who's everything Menashe is not—is taking his place. With their people. With the pharaoh. With Jendayi, the slave Menashe loves. Efrayim, meanwhile, sees his dreams confirmed. Surely it's his destiny to unite the Egyptians and Hebrews. To marry a princess and achieve splendor surpassing that of his brother. 

When Minerva Jane Jenkins was just 14 years old, she married a man who moved her to the mountains. He carried with him a small box, which he told her was filled with gold. And when he died 50 years later, he made her promise to keep his secret. She is to tell no one about the box or the treasure it contains. Now 94, Minerva is nearing the end of what has sometimes been a lonely life. But she's kept that secret. Even so, rumors of hidden gold have a way of spreading, and Minerva is visited by a reporter, Del Rankin, who wants to know more of her story.

Lillian Doyle has lived her entire high-society life with her widowed mother, believing her father died long ago. But when news arrives that her estranged father only recently passed away—in jail—Lillian is startled to find that the man has left a business and all of his possessions to her, making her a rather unusual heiress. When she goes to take possession of her father's house in a backwoods Georgia town, the dilapidated structure is already occupied by another woman who claims it was promised to her son, Jonah.

In 1881, Jacci Reed is only five years old when a man attempts to kidnap her from the steamboat her mother, Irena, works on. Badly wounded during the confrontation, Irena takes Jacci aboard the Kingston Floating Palace, a showboat tied up beside them. There, Jacci's actor grandfather tends to her mother and Jacci gets a first taste of the life she will come to lead. Fifteen years later, Jacci is an actress aboard the Kingston Floating Palace, and largely contented with her adopted family of actors, singers, and dancers.