God's Encouraging Word

Perhaps no segment of Holy Scripture is more "human" than the portion known as the Books of Wisdom (Job through Song of Solomon). That portion of the Bible deals with the full range of human experience, from tragedy to triumph, as lived out by people of faith. This is a book of meditations on selected passages from those books. They began as a product of Dr. Nail's personal devotional time. Occasionally some of those insights were shared with friends by e-mail. Over the years some of these friends have shared them with others and have encouraged him to put them together in book form. It was Dr. Nail's aim from the beginning to write a devotional thought on at least one passage from each chapter of the Bible. These meditations on the Books of Wisdom are the first volume to be published, with more to hopefully come later.


Dr. Marvin P. Nail was born in a small community just outside Grenada, Mississippi. After finishing college at Mississippi State University, he served a tour of duty as an officer in the Air Force. Feeling called by God to pastoral ministry he then enrolled in The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he earned both the Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees. He has served churches in Tennessee for over three decades. While enrolled in seminary, he was married to Kay Bullard of Atlanta with whom he had one daughter, Pam. After 17 years of marriage she died in a tragic accident. Then 5 years ago he married Nancy Sellers Byrum, inheriting three sons, their wives, and seven grandchildren. Dr. Nail and his wife were employed by LifeWay Christian Resources until their retirement earlier this year, and he currently serves as pastor of Ivy Memorial Baptist Church in Nashville.