Abigail S Story

As we navigate the challenging issues and complicated relationships in our lives today, it is essential that we seek the Lord’s face or we may be tempted to respond with indifference, fear, or isolation. It is also helpful to consider the godly role models God has given us in the Bible. Abigail’s Story reveals a woman who responded with strength and faith even as she encountered some very difficult circumstances. The humility of her heart provides a beautiful example. Her sacrificial service makes a powerful impression. And the depth of her trust in God is infectious as we press on to become women of strength and faith. Through her experience, we see God’s complete provision for answering his call to significant ministry and responsibility. This study of Abigail also explores how her character qualities and actions originate from the very heart of God. Highlighting this reality should encourage us to delight in making him known through our daily walk, as well. Examining the evidence of God’s unconditional love, sovereign purpose, and faithful presence in Abigail’s life should strengthen our own faith and trust in Him. And finally, following Abigail’s example should infuse us with confidence as we interact in a needy culture and face an unknown future, knowing we serve a God who is alive and in control.

To settle her brother's gambling debt, Abigail convinces her boorish lord to marry her. Exiled by him to the life of a shepherdess, she grows to love David, who will come face-to-face with her husband in a war and destroy her hopes of peace.

Abigail Johannes wasn't interested in romance. Jake Murphy couldn't stand physical contact. They were perfect for each other. When a troubled young man named Jake moves into the little yellow house, he struggles to overcome a painful past and begin a new life outside the prison walls that he had known for so long. Abby's future is secure - or so she had thought. With the prospect of marriage to a childhood friend, and the opportunity to attend college, Abby's life seems already determined. Then the new neighbor arrives, and Abby finds she must learn compassion. As she befriends Jake, the young woman wonders where her future really lies.

Each of us can point to someone who makes life complicated. It could be a coworker, a family member, or even a spouse. Sometimes it's easy to let circumstances like this control our thoughts, words, and actions. We react, rather than act...and find ourselves frustrated -- our ourselves and the situation. But does this have to be the way it is? One woman of the Bible shows us that there is a better way. The way of wisdom. The way of hope. The way of Jesus. In this six-week Bible study, journey along with Abigail as she uses her influence in two men's lives-- with different results. See how the empowerment of the Holy Spirit can help you deal with difficult people...without becoming difficult yourself.

This children's picture book tells the story of a Black Loyalist's family in the early years of Birchtown, Nova Scotia.

As we navigate the challenging issues and complicated relationships in our lives today, it is essential that we seek the Lord’s face or we may be tempted to respond with indifference, fear, or isolation. It is also helpful to consider the godly role models God has given us in the Bible. Abigail’s Story reveals a woman who responded with strength and faith even as she encountered some very difficult circumstances. The humility of her heart provides a beautiful example. Her sacrificial service makes a powerful impression. And the depth of her trust in God is infectious as we press on to become women of strength and faith. Through her experience, we see God’s complete provision for answering his call to significant ministry and responsibility. This study of Abigail also explores how her character qualities and actions originate from the very heart of God. Highlighting this reality should encourage us to delight in making him known through our daily walk, as well. Examining the evidence of God’s unconditional love, sovereign purpose, and faithful presence in Abigail’s life should strengthen our own faith and trust in Him. And finally, following Abigail’s example should infuse us with confidence as we interact in a needy culture and face an unknown future, knowing we serve a God who is alive and in control.

A teenage girl's difficult journey towards adulthood in a time of war. "Szabo is skilful at creating moments of heart-rending tension, often through exquisite, evocative prose . . . the novel has a devastating power" Spectator Of all her novels, Magda Szabó's Abigail is the most widely read in her native Hungary. Now, fifty years after it was written, it appears for the first time in English, joining Katalin Street and The Door in a loose trilogy about the impact of war on those who have to live with the consequences. It is late 1943 and Hitler, exasperated by the slowness of his Hungarian ally to act on the "Jewish question" and alarmed by the weakness on his southern flank, is preparing to occupy the country. Foreseeing this, and concerned for his daughter's safety, a Budapest father decides to send her to a boarding school away from the capital. A lively, sophisticated, somewhat spoiled teenager, she is not impressed by the reasons she is given, and when the school turns out to be a fiercely Puritanical one in a provincial city a long way from home, she rebels outright. Her superior attitude offends her new classmates and things quickly turn sour. It is the start of a long and bitter learning curve that will open her eyes to her arrogant blindness to other people's true motives and feelings. Exposed for the first time to the realities of life for those less privileged than herself, and increasingly confronted by evidence of the more sinister purposes of the war, she learns lessons about the nature of loyalty, courage, sacrifice and love. Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix