I am deeply grateful for my editor at Convergent Books, Derek Reed, whose editorial skills and probing questions made this a much better book. Thank you, Derek! Thanks, too, to Campbell Wharton, Tina Constable, and the entire team at Penguin Random House who made this book possible. I also want to thank the amazing copy editor who worked on catching my errors and correcting my grammar! Thank you Hilary Roberts!
I’m grateful for my agent and friend, Roger Freet, whose encouragement and input in developing the concept for this book was invaluable.
Thank you to Susan Salley and Alan Vermilye and the team at Abingdon for your partnership in developing small group leader guides, videos, and children and youth components so that entire congregations can study Words of Life together!
I’m grateful for James Ridgeway and the team at Educational Opportunities who provided travel, accommodations, and guides for the time I spent in Egypt, retracing the life of Moses and the historical backdrop to the Ten Commandments. The videos that accompany this book were filmed largely in Egypt. This would not have been possible without Educational Opportunities.
Thanks, too, to Julian Zugazagoitia, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, for allowing us to film portions of each video study in the gallery as they were hosting the Queen Nefertari: Eternal Egypt exhibit. Nefertari was the beloved wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II. If a late date is assumed for Moses, Nefertari was Egypt’s queen as Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. Having items from her time period, including her sarcophagus, in Kansas City as we filmed was a treat.
Special thanks to Sandy Thailing who traveled with me to Egypt to film the small group videos and then who edited and produced them.
My gratitude to the people of the Church of the Resurrection. I love this congregation, and the ideas that made it into this book were first shared with them in sermons over the last thirty years.
Finally, I want to acknowledge my wife, LaVon, who has been my constant companion, closest friend, and muse for nearly forty years. As a full-time pastor, I write after hours—evenings, late nights, on my day off, and on vacation. LaVon gave up hundreds of hours we might have spent together in order to allow me to write this book. Her feedback and input as I was writing was invaluable. And she has sought to live these commandments with me over the last four decades. I love you dearly, LaVon.