IT HAPPENED ON A BROOKLYN SUBWAY

by Paul Deutschman

There are two different explanations of what happened as the result of a subway ride taken by Hungarian-born Marcel Sternberger on the afternoon of January 10, 1948.

Some people will say that Sternberger ’s sudden impulse to visit a sick friend  in Brooklyn - and the bright world of dramatic events that followed - was part of a string of lucky coincidences. Others will see the guiding hand of divine providence in everything that happened that day.

But whatever the explanation, here are the facts: Sternberger, a New York portrait photographer living in a Long Island suburb, has followed for years an unchanging routine in going from his home to his office on Fifth A venue.

A methodical man of nearly fifty, with bushy white hair, guileless brown eyes, and the bouncing enthusiasm of a czardas dancer of his native Hungary, he always took the 9:09 Long Island Railroad train from his suburban home to Woodside, New York, where he caught a subway into the city.

On the morning of January 10, 1948, Sternberger boarded the 9:09 as usual. En route, he suddenly decided to visit Laszlo Victor, a Hungarian friend who lived in Brooklyn and was ill.

At Ozone Park, Sternberger changed to the subway for Brooklyn, went to his friend’s house, and stayed until mid-afternoon. He then boarded a Manhattan-bound subway for his Fifth Avenue office. Here is Marcel’s incredible story:

The car was crowded, and there seemed to be no chance of a seat. But just as I entered, a man sitting by the door suddenly jumped up to leave, and I slipped into the empty place.  I’ve been living in New York long enough not to start conversations with strangers. But being a photographer, I have the peculiar habit of analyzing people’s faces, and I was struck by the features of the passenger on my left. He was probably in his late thirties, and when he glanced up, his eyes seemed to have a hurt expression in them. He was reading a Hungarian-language newspaper, and something prompted me to say in Hungarian, “I hope you don’t mind if I glance at your paper.”

The man seemed surprised to be addressed in his native language. But he answered politely, “You may read it now. I’ll have time later on.”

During the half-hour ride to town, we had quite a conversation. He said his name was Bela Paskin. A law student when World War II started, he had been put into a German labor battalion and sent to the Ukraine. Later he was captured by the Russians and put to work burying the German dead. After the war, he covered hundreds of miles on foot until he reached his home in Debrecen, a large city in eastern Hungary.

I myself knew Debrecen quite well, and we talked about it for a while. Then he told me the rest of his story. When he went to the apartment once occupied by his father , mother, brothers, and sisters, he found strangers living there. Then he went upstairs to the apartment he and his wife once had. It also was occupied by strangers. None of them had ever heard of his family.

As he was leaving, full of sadness, a boy ran after him, calling “Paskin bacsi! Paskin  bacsi!” That means “Uncle Paskin.” The child was the son of some old neighbors of his. He went to the boy’s home and talked to his parents. “Your whole family is dead,” they told him. “The Nazis took them and your wife to Auschwitz.”

Paskin gave up all hope. A few days later, too heartsick to remain any longer in Hungary, he set out again on foot, stealing across border after border until he reached Paris. He managed to immigrate to the United States in October 1947, just three months before I met him.

All the time he had been talking, I kept thinking that somehow his story seemed familiar. A young woman I had met recently at the home of friends had also been from Debrecen; she had been sent to Auschwitz; from there she had been transferred to work in a German munitions factory. Her relatives had been killed in the gas chambers. Later, she was liberated by the Americans and was brought here in the first boatload of displaced persons in 1946.

Her story had moved me so much that I had written down her address and phone number, intending to invite her to meet my family and thus help relieve the terrible emptiness in her life.

It seemed impossible that there could be any connection between these two people, but as I neared my station, I fumbled anxiously in my address book. I asked in what I hoped was a casual voice, “Was your wife’s name Marya?”

He turned pale. “Yes!” he answered. “How did you know?”

He looked as if he were about to faint.

I said, “Let’s get off the train.” I took him by the arm at the next station and led him to a phone booth. He stood there like a man in a trance while I dialed her phone number.

It seemed hours before Marya Paskin answered. (Later I learned her room was alongside the telephone, but she was in the habit of never answering it because she had so few friends and the calls were always for someone else. This time, however, there was no one else at home and, after letting it ring for a while, she responded.)

When I heard her voice at last, I told her who I was and asked her to describe her husband. She seemed surprised at the question, but gave me a description. Then I asked her where she had lived in Debrecen, and she told me the address.

Asking her to hold the line, I turned to Paskin and said, “Did you and your wife live on such-and-such a street?”

“Yes!” Bela exclaimed. He was white as a sheet and trembling.

“Try to be calm,” I urged him. “Something miraculous is about to happen to you. Here, take this telephone and talk to your wife!”

He nodded his head in mute bewilderment, his eyes bright with tears. He took the receiver, listened a moment to his wife’s voice, then suddenly cried, “This is Bela! This is Bela!” and he began to mumble hysterically. Seeing that the poor fellow was so excited he couldn’t talk coherently, I took the receiver from his shaking hands.

“Stay where you are,” I told Marya, who also sounded hysterical. “I am sending your husband to you. We will be there in a few minutes.”

Bela was crying like a baby and saying over and over again. “It is my wife. I go to my wife!”

At first I thought I had better accompany Paskin, lest the man should faint from excitement, but I decided this was a moment in which no strangers should intrude. Putting Paskin into a taxicab, I directed the driver to take him to Marya’s address, paid the fare, and said good-bye.

Bela Paskin’s reunion with his wife was a moment so poignant, so electric with suddenly released emotion, that afterward neither he nor Marya could recall much about it.

“I remember only that when I left the phone, I walked to the mirror as in a dream to see if maybe my hair had turned gray,” she said later. “The next thing I know, a taxi stops in front of the house, and it is my husband who comes toward me. Details I cannot remember; only this I know - that I was happy for the first time in many years.

“Even now it is difficult to believe that it happened. We have both suffered so much. I have almost lost the capability to not be afraid. Each time my husband goes from the house, I say to myself, Will anything happen to take him from me again?”

Her husband is confident that no horrible misfortune will ever again befall them. “Providence has brought us together,” he says simply. “It was meant to be.”

Skeptical persons will no doubt attribute the events of that memorable afternoon to mere chance. But was it chance that made Marcel Sternberger suddenly decide to visit his sick friend and hence take a subway line he had never ridden before?  Was it chance that caused the man sitting by the door of the car to rush out just as Sternberger came in? Was it chance that caused Bela Paskin to be sitting beside Sternberger, reading  a Hungarian newspaper?

Was it chance - or did God ride the Brooklyn subway that afternoon?

(Taken from  Do You Believe in Miracles? Copyright © 1997, 2012 by John Van Diest Published by Harvest House Publishers)

God Without Man

Courtesy: www.gulfbreezerecovery.com

When God wanted to create fish, He spoke to the sea.

When God wanted to create trees, He spoke to the earth.

But when God wanted to create man, He turned to Himself.

Then God said: "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness."

If you take a fish out of the water it will die; and when you remove a tree from soil, it will also die. Likewise, when man is disconnected from God, he dies. God is our natural environment. We were created to live in His presence. We have to be connected to Him because it is only in Him that life exists.

Let's stay connected to God. We recall that water without fish is still water but fish without water is nothing.

The soil without tree is still soil but the tree without soil is nothing. God without man is still God but man without God is nothing.

(Author Unknown)

 

TOP 81 CHRISTMAS QUOTES!

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts! || Benjamin Franklin

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year || Charles Dickens

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time || Laura Ingalls Wilder

Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas || Ronald Reagan

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that? || Bob Hope

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind || Mary Ellen Chase

Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone || Charles M. Schulz

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

|| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall || Dave Barry

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful || Norman Vincent Peale

Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you || Steve Maraboli

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree || Roy L. Smith

And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself || Sigrid Undset

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly || Andy Rooney

A man wrapped up in himself always suffocates. But his loved ones will forever hold in their hearts the memory of that Christmas || Bauvard

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness || Bob Hope

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together || Garrison Keillor

My parents always said that knowledge was the best gift they could give me, probably because they were too cheap to buy me Christmas or Birthday presents || Jarod Kintz

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love || Hamilton Wright Mabie

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace || Agnes M. Pahro

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts || Janice Maeditere

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas || Calvin Coolidge

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves || Eric Sevareid

Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever || Bess Streeter Aldrich

www.stockpict.com

Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog || Philip Yancey

Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children; to remember the weaknesses and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and to ask yourself if you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open? Are you willing to do these things for a day? Then you are ready to keep Christmas! || Henry van Dyke

Peace on earth will come to stay, When we live Christmas every day || Helen Steiner Rice

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart || Washington Irving

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home || Charles Dickens

Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given--when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes || Joan Winmill Brown

I didn’t feel like buying him the jacket he asked for for Christmas, so I just got him a coat hanger with a sticky note attached that read, “Here’s something for you to hang your dreams on, pal || Jarod Kintz

As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is || Eric Sevareid

The universe is a trillion, trillion threads moving in seemingly unrelated directions. Yet when you look at them together, they create a remarkable tapestry || Richard Paul Evans

Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home || G.K. Chesterton

No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear || Greg Kincaid

At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe || Chris Van Allsburg

And in despair I bowed my head;

There is no peace on earth, I said;

For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail,

the Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!

|| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends || Margaret Thatcher

I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world || Norman Vincent Peale

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall || Larry Wilde

Remember, if Christmas isn't found in your heart, you won't find it under a tree || Charlotte Carpenter

Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world || Calvin Coolidge

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white' || Bing Crosby

The knowing is easy. It's the doing that gives us trouble || Vannetta Chapman

Everyone wants to feel loved, but when all you feel is alone it's tough to accomplish anything else || Glenn Beck

God is here. This truth should fill our lives, and every Christmas should be for us a new and special meeting with God, when we allow his light and grace to enter deep into our soul || St. Josemaría Escrivá

The human life cycle no less than evolves around the box; from the open-topped box called a bassinet, to the pine box we call a coffin, the box is our past and, just as assuredly, our future. It should not surprise us then that the lowly box plays such a significant role in the first Christmas story. For Christmas began in a humble, hay-filled box of splintered wood. The Magi, wise men who had traveled far to see the infant king, laid treasure-filled boxes at the feet of that holy child. And in the end, when He had ransomed our sins with His blood, the Lord of Christmas was laid down in a box of stone. How fitting that each Christmas season brightly wrapped boxes skirt the pine boughs of Christmas trees around the world || Richard Paul Evans

If you desire to find the true spirit of Christmas and partake of the sweetness of it, let me make this suggestion to you. During the hurry of the festive occasion of this Christmas season, find time to turn your heart to God. Perhaps in the quiet hours, and in a quiet place, and on your knees—alone or with loved ones—give thanks for the good things that have come to you, and ask that His Spirit might dwell in you as you earnestly strive to serve Him and keep His commandments. He will take you by the hand and His promises will be kept || Howard W. Hunter

Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive || Robert Lynd

At Christmas

A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;

He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;

Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before,

And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for.

He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;

When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime.

|| Edgar A. Guest

Fail not to call to mind, in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; for mirth is also of Heaven's making || Leigh Hunt

I think commercialism helps Christmas and I think that the more capitalism we can inject into the Christmas holiday the more spiritual I feel about it || Craig Ferguson

The light of the Christmas star to you.

The warmth of home and hearth to you.

The cheer and goodwill of friends to you.

The hope of a child-like heart to you.

The joy of a thousand angels to you.

The love of the Son and God's peace to you!

|| Sherryl Woods

www.wallng.com

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas || Peg Bracken

Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart... filled it, too, with a melody that would last forever. Even though you grew up and found you could never quite bring back the magic feeling of this night, the melody would stay in your heart always - a song for all the years || Bess Streeter Aldrich

Christmas is a time in which, of all times in the year, the memory of every remediable sorrow, wrong, and trouble in the world around us, should be active with us, not less than our own experiences, for all good || Charles Dickens

Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year - and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority || W.J. Cameron

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world || David McCullough

One of the things that Christmas reminds us is that Jesus Christ was once a child || Hark Herald Sarmiento

Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today's Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday || Gladys Taber

I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays - let them overtake me unexpectedly - waking up some find morning and suddenly saying to myself: 'Why, this is Christmas Day! || Ray Stannard Baker

It comes every year and will go on forever. And along with Christmas belong the keepsakes and the customs. Those humble, everyday things a mother clings to, and ponders, like Mary in the secret spaces of her heart || Marjorie Holmes

Christmas works like glue, it keeps us all sticking together || Rosie Thomas

O Christmas Sun! What holy task is thine!

To fold a world in the embrace of God!

|| Guy Wetmore Carryl

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month || Harlan Miller

A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;

It makes no noise at all,

But softly gives itself away;

While quite unselfish, it grows small || Eva K. Logue

Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence || Joan Mills

It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one's fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit || Isabel Currier

A Christmas gambol oft could cheer

The poor man's heart through half the year.”

|| Walter Scott

Christmas is a time for families || Dorothy Koomson

As I wrote 'The Christmas Lamp' I realized that tradition is priceless, whether you have a small family, a large family, or no family. Tradition doesn't have to be logical; it only has to emphasize the light of Christ and his everlasting love || Lori Copeland

Without the door let sorrow lie,

And if for cold it hap to die,

We'll bury 't in a Christmas pie,

And evermore be merry.

|| George Wither

Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion || Ralph Sockman

Money is made at Christmas out of holly and mistletoe, but who save the vendors would greatly care if no green branch were procurable? One symbol, indeed, has obscured all others--the minted round of metal. And one may safely say that, of all the ages since a coin first became the symbol of power, ours is that in which it yields to the majority of its possessors the poorest return in heart's contentment || George R. Gissing

The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected || Samuel Johnson

Except the Christ be born again tonight

In dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame,

The world will never see his kingdom bright.

|| Vachel Lindsay

At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year || Thomas Tusser

For the rest, silence or good music, not much food, a lot of solitude, walks on the Heath, the time to think while others... well, often fall apart. Not so bad, not so bad at all. Being queer and self-sufficient is the best present at this season || Will Self

There are some wonderful aspects to Christmas. It's magical. And each year, from at least November, well, September, well, if I'm honest, May, I look forward to it hugely || Miranda Hart

Before God does anything, before he makes anything for us to be sustained by, God says, "More than food, more than water, more than shelter, more than other people, they are going to need me.” || Wesley Miller

Mankind is a great, an immense family... This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas || Pope John XXIII

FIRE OF THE RAGING DRAGON

In order to further its national interests and nefarious designs of world hegemony, the new power-hungry president of China, Tang Qhichet, also known as Raging Dragon, unleashes the might of its naval forces on the hapless Taiwanese forces on Itu Aba Island, which is located in the South China Sea. Beneath the floor of this sea, billions of gallons of natural gas wait to be mined. And China is hell-bent on mining this natural resource.

Though the Chinese gained control of the Itu Aba Island, the Taiwanese forces capture a Chinese civilian freighter Shemnong which was used for carrying weapons to reinforce communist forces. The crew members are also critically wounded. The US responds to Shemnong’s urgent request for medical assistance and to investigate crimes against humanity aboard the ship.

When the medical team boarded Shemnong, they made a shocking discovery, which even the strong stomach of steel that all doctors possess, the callous resistance to the grotesque, could not withstand. The ship’s manifest lists them as “medical supplies.”

The U.S. President Douglas Surber orders for the ship to be captured and placed in the care of the United States. A fuming Chinese president Tang Qhichet retaliated by attacking USS Vicksburg. As the situation spirals out of control, president Surber send the U.S. Seventh Fleet into the area. USS Emory S. Land, the first to respond, is captured by the Chinese. And aboard the submarine is Ensign Stephanie Surber, who is also the First Daughter of the United States. The Chinese demand the release of Shemnong or they would kill everyone on board USS Emory S. Land.

It is a difficult situation for the U.S. but the bridge must be crossed. The President must make a decision. Will he take a stand against evil? Or will he save the life of his daughter?

One thing that comes to mind as one reads the book is the vast knowledge that the author, Don Brown, exhibits all throughout the story which is simply incredible. The novel explores the history of both sides in the conflict.

Fire of the Raging Dragon by Don Brown is the second book in the Pacific Rim series. It is a political thriller like no other. Don who served five years in the U.S. Navy writes a fast-paced book making good use of his knowledge about the military and their operations, which is guaranteed to engage the reader to the very end. The book may well turn out to be a warning and a prophecy!

Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: DON BROWN graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1982, and after finishing law school, continued his post-graduate studies through the Naval War College, earning the Navy’s nonresident certificate in International Law.

During his five years on active duty in the Navy, Don served in the Pentagon, was published in the Naval Law Review, and was also a recipient of the Navy Achievement Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. Visit Don's website

Q & A WITH ROBERT MORGAN

Robert J. Morgan is a best-selling, Gold Medallion Award-winning author whose over twenty-five books include Then Sings My Soul, The Red Sea Rules, 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart and The Children’s Daily Devotional Bible. A staff writer for Dr. David Jeremiah and Turning Points Magazine, he has also served as pastor of The Donelson Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee, for three decades. Morgan and his wife have three daughters and ten grandchildren.

Can you tell us how your new devotional, All to Jesus, came into being?

One night when I was troubled, I found 1 Peter 5:7, a verse of Scripture I had known for years: Casting all your care on Him for He cares for you. The word "all" struck me. I'd never seen it before. The verse would have been wonderful without it, but its inclusion lifted the promise to infinity. No burden or problem was beyond the reach of 1 Peter 5:7. I could cast "ALL" my burdens on Him without limitation. That made me wonder if there were other verses in the Bible that were similarly modified with that little adjective and I found over 5000 of them. We selected 366 "alls" for this book.

What is “the largest little word in all the world” and why do you think so?

Someone said: "All means all and that's all all means." We often use the word "omni" to describe God — He is omnipresent, omnipotent and so forth. The little word "all" is the earthly application of God's omni-qualities. It takes His infinite nature and shows us what it means to us here and now. The Lord doesn’t waste words in His Book. In the verses above, the alls could easily have been left out; yet there they are. Seems it’s one of God’s favorite words. He used it thousands of times, often in passages that would have read nicely without it; yet the all maximizes the meaning to the absolute. It’s the largest little word in the world, taking already-strong statements and broadening their applications to virtual infinity, which, after all, is what one would expect from an omnipotent Father.

How many times is “all” mentioned in the Bible? Why do you believe God uses the word so frequently?

The word “all” appears in the Bible 5,675 times. God loves to speak in all-encompassing superlatives because He is eternal and infinite. According to 2 Corinthians 9:8, He is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

What are a few of your favorite “all” verses and why?

All things work together for the good of those who love God—Romans 8:28
You have thrown all my sins behind Your back—Isaiah 38:17
Even the hairs of your head have all been counted—Matthew 10:30
Love the Lord your God with all your heart—Matthew 22:37
Trust in the Lord with all your heart—Proverbs 3:5-6
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened—Matthew 11:28
Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life—Psalm 23:6 (NIV)
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you—Matthew 6:33

What do you hope readers will take away from their daily readings of All to Jesus? 

Each of these devotions is excerpted from my pulpit ministry and represents what I believe to be solid exposition of Scripture, sprinkled liberally with stories, quotes and interesting tidbits of truth. Each reading calls us to total faith and total obedience, based on the totality of God’s grace. Because He is our All in All, we can say, “All to Jesus.”

All to Jesus
A Year of Devotions
Robert J. Morgan
B&H Books/October 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4336-7786-1
$14.99/Hardcover/400 pages