Confession

I started reading 1 John this morning and this verse jumped out at me

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 (KJV)

Admitting to a wrong is never easy. It takes a lot of courage to admit you were wrong and in this case, not just wrong, but have sinned. Maybe that’s why it’s so important. It forces you to face what you’ve done and own up to it. Not always an easy task, facing the truth, ugly as it can sometimes be. If I remember correctly one of my lecturers said that confessing is saying about your sin what God says about it.

On second thought I think it takes more than courage sometimes to own up to your mistakes, it takes relationship. When you know God intimately you know He wants to forgive you. It’s hard, because you know you’ve disappointed Him but the desire to make things right overrides any other emotion.

The beauty about this is that it is cathartic. When we confess, God cleans and heals. He doesn’t leave us broken and wounded. He binds up our wounds and puts us back together, the way He would have us to be.

No More Excuses

• Jonah ran from God
• Naomi was a widow
• Job went bankrupt
• John the Baptist ate bugs
• Peter denied Christ
• The Disciples fell asleep while praying
• Martha worried about everything
• Mary Magdalene was, well you know
• The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
• Zaccheus was too small
• Paul was too religious
• Timothy had an ulcer...AND
• Lazarus was dead! ...

no more excuses now. God can use you to your full potential.
Besides you aren't the message ... you are just the messenger.

Be encouraged.

FIRST Day Blog Tour

It is September 1st, time for the FIRST Day Blog Tour! (Join our
alliance! Click the button!) The FIRST day of every month we will feature an
author and their latest book's FIRST chapter!

This month's feature author is:

Taylor Field

"We live in a squat. We don’t know
squat. We don’t have squat. We don’t do squat. We don’t give a squat.
People say we’re not worth squat."

Taylor Field has worked since 1986 in the inner
city of New York where he is pastor of East Seventh Baptist
Church/Graffiti Community Ministries. He holds a M.Div. from Princeton
and Ph.D. from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Among his
previous books is the award-winning Mercy Streets. Field and his family
live in New York, New York.

If you want to know more, please visit
The SQUAT Website!

To order Squat, click HERE.

Author interview contact is Andrea Irwin at Broadman &
Holman.

Please Note:

All author proceeds from Squat will go to Graffiti Community
Ministries, Inc., a service arm of the East Seventh Street Baptist
Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where Field preaches.

Back Cover
Copy:

In the shadow of Wall Street’s wealth, homeless
citizens with names like Squid, Saw, and Bonehead live in abandoned
buildings known as "squats" where life is hand to mouth, where fear and
violence fester. The light in lovable Squid’s obsessive-compulsive mind’s
eye is Rachel, a loving soup kitchen missionary who tells him about
faith and unfaith, hypocrisy and justice, the character of God and finding
identity in Him.

But among the squats and so many other abandoned lives, will such talk
be enough to make Squid believe that his life may actually amount to
something?

CHAPTER 1

CALMLY, THE GIRL on the sofa reached out and pulled up a flap of skin
on the little boy’s thin arm. It could have been a gesture of affection.
But then she pinched the skin and twisted it. Hard.

“Ouch!” He whipped his pencil in front of her face once, like a club,
and then cracked it on her forehead. He pulled the pencil back, ready to
strike her again, crouching against the back of the couch like a
cornered weasel.

The little girl wrinkled up her round freckled face but did not cry
out. She looked toward her mom, who was talking to the receptionist. The
boy’s mom, seated across the room, didn’t look up. She continued to look
through the pages of her magazine, snapping each page like a whip.

“You could have put my eye out!” the freckled girl hissed.

The boy rubbed the two blue marks on his arm. He looked her steadily in
the eyes and growled.

His mom called him over. “Come sit by me, honey, and stop making so
much noise.” She patted his hair down in the back and smiled at him. She
wore lots of eyeliner and widened her eyes to make even sitting in a
waiting room seem like an adventure. “You’re such a big man, now,” she had
said this morning as she combed his hair and helped him put on his best
shirt. She was humming “Getting to Know You” even though her voice
quivered just a little. She had put a lot of extra perfume and sprays on
this morning. She smelled like the women’s aisle in a drugstore.

Once the little girl’s mom finished with the receptionist and returned
to the sofa, the little girl started crying with one soft, unending
whine.

The boy rolled his eyes and looked for a book to bury his head in.

“What’s wrong, honey?” the mom asked as she swept her little girl up.

“That boy hit me.”

A stuffy silence reigned in the waiting room except for the
sound of the bubbles in the aquarium above the magazine table. The girl’s
mother glared at the boy and then at his mother. The boy picked up a
children’s book with some torn pages and began studying it seriously. His
mom hadn’t been listening to the girl. She was still snapping through
the magazine’s pages.

Finally, she threw it down with disgust and looked at her watch again.
“I’m going outside to smoke a cigarette, honey,” she said, oblivious to
the stares of the mother and daughter across the room. She stood up,
adjusted her dress with an efficient tug, and stepped outside the office.
They gaped at her departure with their mouths open, like two goldfish.

The aquarium continued to gurgle. In the following silence, the little
boy became dramatically interested in the book in front of him. It had
been pawed over by a lot of children waiting in this doctor’s office,
and the first few pages had been torn out. The pages that remained had
rounded corners and smudges along the edges. The little boy squinted his
eyes in exaggerated concentration. He preferred the smudged pictures to
the astonished fish eyes of the adult across the room.

He studied a picture of a man who wore a robe down to his ankles. He
had a beard and a sad look in his eyes. In front of him was a young man
with no beard, lying on a stone with his hands tied. The man with a
beard had a knife in his hand and had his hand raised high up as if he were
going to stab the boy. Out of a cloud an angel was reaching out to grab
the hand of the man. The angel hadn’t touched the man yet, but his hand
was getting close. The man didn’t yet know that the angel was there.

The boy forgot about the girl and her mother. The color of the man’s
robe was so deep and blue. The angel’s wings were more gold than his
mother’s best bracelet. The boy on the stone had a robe that was
silvery-white like clouds. The sun in the background was redder than any sun he
had ever seen. It was as red as a hot dog. The little boy felt he was
swimming in this world of rich colors and robes, a sleepy world tempered
by the sound of the bubbles in the doctor’s aquarium. The boy put his
finger above the picture book, to the right of the book, and then to the
left of the book. “One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three,”
he whispered to himself, touching each of the three points three times.

His mom opened the door and came back in. The summer heat from outside
reached in to bathe him in warmth. She shut the door with exasperation.
She sat down beside him, reeking of cigarette smoke and hair spray. She
adjusted his collar and gave him a nervous smile. “You’re such a big
man now,” she said and patted his hair again.

The boy pointed to the man in the robe in the picture. “Mom, is that
boy that man’s son?”

“I don’t know, honey.” She picked up the same magazine again and
started ripping through it at lightning speed.

“What’s he doing with the knife, Mom?”

His mom gave a half smile and looked at the picture absentmindedly.
“He’s protecting his boy from someone who might hurt him. Stay still,
honey. Why is the doctor making us wait so long? If he doesn’t see us by
twelve, we’ll have to leave. He ought to pay us for making us wait.”

The boy studied the picture again.

“That’s Abraham, stupid,” the little girl stage-whispered from across
the room.

The boy looked at her and scowled. “Yeah, like you know.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and turned it upside down.

His mom backhanded a few more pages, put the magazine down, and looked
him in the eyes. She beamed. “Honey, I have a surprise for you. I’ve
been waiting to tell you, and I’ve been looking for the right moment. I
guess no moment is really the right moment. At 12:15 today we are going
to see Sammy again. He’s come back. He’ll be waiting for us at our
place. Isn’t that exciting? Everything will be different. You’ll be nice to
him, won’t you? Honey, don’t bite your thumbs, you’ll make them bleed
again.”

The boy wouldn’t look at his mom. He stared down at the picture of the
man with the knife. Then he looked up at the clock above the
receptionist. The little hand was close to the twelve and the big hand was on the
eight. He turned the page of the book and another page was torn out.
The next page after the torn one had a picture of a man sleeping with his
head on a rock. He didn’t have a beard and he looked scared. His robe
was a dull gray and looked dirty, but in the background, angels were
coming up and down out of the sky on a shimmering stairway.

“I want to camp out on my own like this guy does, away from everybody,
away from the house,” he told his mom.

“That’s sweet, honey,” she said as she finished the magazine again and
looked at her watch.

The little boy’s lips moved as he carefully scrutinized the words
beneath the picture of the man camping out. His eyes got wider. He traced a
word with his finger. He almost forgot where he was. “I want to be like
this guy,” he whispered.

A man in a suit breezed in and talked to the receptionist. Immediately
his mom sat up straighter. The man finished with the receptionist and
turned around and looked for a seat. His mom widened her eyes and smiled
at the man. He smiled back.

The next page of the book was also torn out. On the following page was
the best picture of all. A youth was wearing a beautiful robe with many
different stripes of colors. He seemed so happy and looked as though
nothing bad would ever happen to him. A man with a white beard was
smiling next to him in the picture. The boy stared at the colors in the book
for a long time. If he focused his eyes beyond the page, the colors
blurred together like rainbow ice cream. Somehow looking at it kept his
stomach from hurting so badly.

“Mom, I want a coat like this one.”

His mom looked at the picture for a moment. Her tone sounded much more
patient with him now that the new man was in the waiting room.
“Everybody wants a coat like that, honey. You’ll get yours one day.”

The little girl stretched her freckled face up as high as she could so
she could see the picture. “That’s Joseph, you toad,” she said hoarsely
from across the room. “Don’t you ever go to church?”

Her mother pulled her back close to her lap and said, “Hush.”

The boy looked at the clock. The big hand was on the nine. “Mom,
let’s just stay here. It’s nice and cool and our air conditioner
doesn’t work at home. I like looking at the books here. I like the fish.
Let’s just stay here and not go back home. It’s too hot there.”

His mom looked at her watch again. “Why are your hands so clammy,
sweetie? You’re making the book wet. What’s wrong with you? Stop biting your
thumb or you’ll make it bleed right before we see the doctor. Do you
want to get me into even more trouble?” She smiled at the man as she got
up and walked past him to the receptionist. “Could you tell me how much
longer it will be until we can see the doctor? I have another urgent
appointment.” She conferred with the receptionist for a few minutes in
hushed tones.

The boy found an envelope in the back of the book with all the colorful
pictures. It had bright green writing on it and a red border. The
envelope said you could send off for more books with other stories. The boy
looked up at the little girl across the room. She was yanking on her
mother’s sleeve and whispering something in her ear. She was probably
talking about the boy’s mom. While making sure the girl was still looking
at her own mom, he carefully folded the envelope once and put it in his
jean pocket.

The girl was staring insolently at him again. He wanted to do something
to the book. He wanted to add a character to protect the boy from the
father with the knife. He reached in his other pocket and pulled out
half a red crayon. He wanted to draw a picture in the book. He wanted to
put someone in there to help that angel keep that boy from getting cut,
but he knew that the girl on the opposite couch would never let him get
away with drawing in the book. He pulled out his stack of baseball
cards as she continued to stare. He carried only Yankees. He pulled his
prize Reggie Jackson card from the stack and began to place it in the book
but decided against it. He pulled out a relief pitcher, Dick Tidrow. He
would be a good enough guard to help the angel. Then he put the card
carefully in the page where the sad man was dressed in the long robe and
holding the knife. He made sure that the edge of the card was exactly
parallel to the edge of the book. He knew the girl was watching him. He
closed the book very slowly and with great respect. Very quietly, with
just one finger, he touched three sides of the book again, three times.
“One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three,” he said under his
breath. He put the book down gently on the table and then put both
hands on his stomach and doubled over until his head touched his knees. A
groan came out of him before he knew it.

The little girl sneered at him, “You’re nuts!” Her mom held her closer
and made a shushing sound.

The boy looked at the clock again as his mom plopped down on the sofa
with a snort. The big hand was already past the eleven. “Mom, let’s stay
here. We’ve already waited a long time. Let’s stay.”

“Straighten up, sweetie. Why are you bent over? Everything is going to
be fine. Soon we will see Sammy and everything will be different. It
won’t be like last time. You’ll see. Everything will be fine.” She looked
at her watch again then got up to talk to the receptionist. She seemed
to be talking faster and faster. Finally she marched back to her son
and said firmly, “We’re going now. We’ll have to come back another day.
Let’s go, honey. Straighten up and stop frowning.”

She grabbed his hand, but he grabbed the arm of the sofa with his other
hand. The arm of the sofa had padding on the top, but a metal support
on the side. It was just right for grabbing. She pulled and his knuckles
whitened. “Come on, sweetie, don’t be silly.” She smiled at the man and
the other mother. She was petite and could not get her son to loosen
his grip. He was small for an eleven-year-old, but his grasp was almost
as strong as his mother’s. She reached to loosen his grip with her hand,
but he simply grabbed the arm of the sofa with his other hand.

She smiled sweetly to the man and said, “Would you mind helping me,
please?”

He hesitated, got up awkwardly, and began to loosen the grip of the
other hand. The aquarium began to rumble like a volcano, and both the
receptionist and the other mother stood up. The boy was stretched out like
a cartoon as the mother pulled and the man pried his fingers from the
sofa. In the middle of the hubbub, the little girl came up to hold his
torso, as if to protect him from falling. Where her mother couldn’t see,
she grabbed the sensitive skin next to his ribs and pulled and twisted
at the same time as hard as she could.

In the tussle, the book with the men in robes fell to the floor and the
little girl slipped on it. The baseball card slid underneath the sofa.
The receptionist picked up the phone to call someone. The other mother
grabbed for her daughter. The little boy squealed a high squeal; he was
a desperate guinea pig grabbed by many hands.

Finally, the man got both hands loose, and his mom dragged him by the
torso and opened the door. He clutched at the frame of the door but
couldn’t hold on. By that time, some people in white coats came out with
the receptionist and shouted as his mom dragged him out to the steaming
parking lot. His mother roared back at them with a curse. He cried and
whimpered for help as he got one last glimpse of the girl looking out at
him from the waiting room window. She stood with her hands on her hips
and her tongue sticking out.

Until he ran away from home, a number of years later, the little boy
never went back to a doctor.

Deja Vu

I lead the worship in last Tuesday night’s service. While I was at the front of the church singing, I noticed a young lady standing in the congregation and I had such a feeling of déjà vu. As she stood there looking all belligerent and resentful it took right back to that first cell meeting I had gone to where God impacted my life so deeply. I had been spending a few days with my aunt and she had insisted that I go. I was not pleased. One of my favorite shows ‘The Nanny’ with Fran Drescher was on that night and I didn’t want to miss it.

When we arrived at the cell meeting the group was already on their knees, repenting before God, as was their practice before beginning the deliverance service. I slipped in the back of the room and tried to blend into the background, as was my practice. The leader, a prophetess, was praying out loud when suddenly she was saying, ‘The Lord is saying to someone here, I didn’t ask you to be here and no-one is forcing you to stay here. If you don’t want to be here you can leave.’ The words hit me like a sledgehammer to my chest. Fear and awe formed a tight ball in my chest and I found myself on my knees along with everyone else. By the end of the service when she prayed for me and ministered the words of God into my heart, I would never be the same again. Noone knew that it was me that the Lord had spoken to BUT I KNEW. Being the object of God’s attention was addictive and I wanted to be closer to this God that would speak so plainly to His people.

Reflecting on this moment I realized something very important. Some may look at these words as a harsh correction, even rejection but looking back I was able to see the hurt. It may be hard to accept that we have the ability to hurt God’s feelings but we do. As humans we would also be hurt if someone we loved felt forced or resentful being in our presence. How much more could our heavenly Father feel? He who sent His only Son to die for our sins? To think He loved me so much even then!

We didn’t have an altar call after the service but I hope I’ll get to church one day and see that young lady, happy and smiling to be in the presence of the Lord.

“But I have prayed …” (Luke 22:31-32 Pt2)

My sister Venieca got her CXC results today. For the uninformed, in the Carbbean, this is something akin to the American High School Diploma. Passing five subjects is considered a ‘full certificate’. She wrote seven subjects and passed all, gaining distinctions in some subjects. We are so proud of her. She was so happy and excited that she couldn’t wait to get to church to testify of God’s goodness to her. One subject in particular, ‘Principles of Accounts’, she was quite sure she had failed.

What does this have to do with the scripture quoted above? I was impressed by my sister’s eagerness to attribute her success to God. Do we always do that? Acknowledge God for his participation in our triumphs, be they in life, business or our spiritual walk?

In Luke 22:31-32 Jesus tells the disciples that the devil has desired to sift them as wheat. His next words were “But I have prayed that thy faith fail not…” When our lives are surrendered to Christ He is always acting on our behalf (Romans 8:26, 27, 34). As I read them, these words are a great comfort to me because they tell me that Christ is interceding on my behalf. You see, to me what the Lord is saying goes something like this, “Listen Simon, your enemy the devil wants to test/tempt you. He will get his chance but don’t worry. I have already prayed and dealt with the situation.” (KNV – Kell-Ann’s New Version).

Hallelujah! God has dealt with our situations. I was talking here about things happening in the spiritual that we don’t always know about but we see their effects in the natural. God is always working for us, fighting our battles and so forth. So when we receive blessings and we are victorious in different areas of our lives, we should do as my sister did and thank God because sometime in the past He has prayed…

Tick Tock ...

"I thought about the whole notion of "reproduction," and what it really means to replicate yourself. Is it merely about the passing on of eyes and chins and hair color? Or is it, rather, the replication of the heart? Do we leave a bigger mark by passing on our genes, or our thoughts?"~ Shannon Woodward, author ofInconceivable: Finding Peacein the Midst of Infertility ~

Tick tock, tick tock. If I listen carefully I’m sure I’ll hear the unmistakable sound of my biological clock ticking away. Not foghorn loud of course but loud enough to remind me that Ill never see twenty-five again (except as some sort of anniversary maybe). I know I’m far from over the hill but I had always envisioned having a family at a young age. However, my mothering instincts are not wasted since I am the oldest of six daughters (yep lots of estrogen in my household :D).

My youngest sister, Arielle is eight years old. When she was born I was just out of high school and I remember taking care of her for the first few months of her life while I was looking for a job. Not exclusively, of course but I was her unofficial nanny. I fed her, bathed her, took her for walks and defended her still bald head. I read books and agonized over when she should begin eating solid foods; planned her daily menus and so on. It’s not that my mother was neglectful or unloving but my heart clave to the child and instead of being hers she was ours.

Recently Arielle raised her hands in church when our Pastor asked for those wanting to be baptized. I was so happy. No just for the obvious reasons but I remembered something that the Lord had spoken to me the year before. In our yearly thanksgiving service someone had remarked that seeing us together they could easily believe that I’m her mother or some such thing. Laughing she had thrown her arms around me and cried “Mama”. I laughed myself but in the wake of the moment the Lord spoke to me saying that, in fact, that is what I was to her. Not biologically, but spiritually He had entrusted the care and development of this child to me. I was impressed with the seriousness of this responsibility and resolved to do my best. That little upraised hand was a signal to me that inspite of my own failings He was still able to move in the life of this child. She has a lot of life left to live but I’m assured that right now she is on the right path

I may never have kids of my own but the influence that I have in my sister’s lives (both my parents are unsaved) and the difference I have made in them by just making sure they go to church and listen God’s word has been rewarding. I may never look into a young pair of eyes and see my own but I think the best part of being a parent is the molding of a young heart to be just like Christ’s. What’s more important than that?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

Today is my sister Venieca's birthday. She's seventeen. Seems like just yesterday she was a little scrap of a thing running around and getting on my nerves :D.

Now she's all grown up (almost) and spending hours on the phone talking to the enemy - cough- um- I mean, boys.

Happy Birthday sweetheart. I hope the day was great for you. Stay as sweet as you are always. I'm off to polish my shotgun. Have a goodnight.

I Taste Like Him!

Salt, when dissolved in water, may disappear, but it does not cease to exist.We can be sure of its presence by tasting the water. Likewise, the indwelling Christ, though unseen,will be made evident to others from the love which He imparts to us.”~ Sadhu Sundar Singh ~

I’ve always been really shy. I’ve come a long way (with age) but still if given half a chance I will try to stay in the background (the proverbial wallflower) and hope that under no circumstances will I become the center of attention. That’s my biggest problem with public speaking; the idea of all those eyes focused on me always made me want to dive under the nearest table and hide. One wouldn’t expect that God would call someone like me to preach the gospel but such is my mission in life. I like to think of that verse of scripture that says that he uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise because it seems foolish that God would call mousy ole me to spread His Word. I like also that He gets the glory. When people taste of me they know it’s not me but God in me that they taste. Personally, I like to be like that salt that has dissolved water and seemed to have disappeared.

I saw a message by Bishop T.D. Jakes on Sunday and his message was that there are people that are normally in the corner (I can relate) but now God is calling those people out of their corners and into the spotlight. He does that to us. His presence in our lives can hardly be hid. We are the salt and He brings people to us so that through us they can taste of Him. The Bible says that a person wouldn’t put a light under a bushel but on a mountaintop for all to see. For all my shyness I feel that way too. Having Christ in me I want the entire world to know about Him and know that I have Him. All that He has taught me I want to share with the world. The love He has shown me I want to share with the world in whatever way I can. This provides a balance to my shyness I think and is allowing me to put myself out there when my natural self just wants to dissolve in the background. To God be the glory!

More Than The Eye Can See (Luke 22:31-32 Pt 1)

I am studying Luke 22:31-32 at the moment and one of the first things that hit me was the fact that there really is a natural world and a spiritual world. Jesus is saying to Peter in Luke 22:31 that Satan has desired him to sift him as wheat. This didn’t happen in the natural but in the spiritual. The fact of the matter is that things are happening in the spiritual all the time. Usually, we don’t know about them but we experience their effects. If Job were here he could testify to this. A big mistake we make is to take things that happen to us at face value without questioning their true origins or rather without understanding that a lot of things that occur in the natural are the outcomes of battles fought in the spiritual.

I’m reminded right now of the story where I think it was Daniel had prayed and God had sent his angel with the answer but he (the angel) was delayed when he had to battle the devil that had come up against him. Daniel would not have known of this had not the angel told him upon his arrival. Most times the battles that are fought in the spirit realm for our blessings and deliverance, etc., we are not privy to. This is another reason why we must ALWAYS keep our faith and trust in the Lord because we know that no matter what happens he is on our side.

We must also understand that we too fight battles in the spirit realm. And whether we win or lose there determines our actions in the natural. For example when we are tempted our spirit man resists the devil in the spirit but if he (our spirit man) is not strong enough to withstand the attack of the devil then we lose the battle and see the effects in the natural. Sin is a good example of this happening. So we must keep up our spiritual strength by staying in prayer and in the word.

In "Other" Words

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity .”~ Albert Einstein~

The week before my baptism in September of 1998 I decided that there were two people that I needed to ask forgiveness of before my big day. One was an uncle who was a staunch Catholic as was most of my family. I called and apologized to him. One might expect that this call would have ended on a happy note as he readily forgave me but it didn’t. By the time I hung up the tears streaming down my face were not those of joy.

My uncle’s comment to me on my baptism was that he understood my situation at home was not perfect but that was no reason to be jumping from church to church. You see I grew up and made First Communion in the Catholic faith but later attended a Seventh Day Adventist Church for about a year as my mother had gotten baptized into this faith. We stopped attending when I was about 9 or 10. I did not attend any church for the next couple of years when I was coerced by my aunt (she was the adult after all) to a full gospel deliverance meeting. I got saved and was never the same again.

My childhood was not a model of stability. My father had three gods in his life: alcohol, gambling and women. Not exactly the starting point of happy family memories. But when I accepted Christ it was because I had found someone to love me inspite of myself. I do not consider that I was hopping from church to church searching for the happiness that was not always present at home. His words hurt because I felt like he was saying that I didn’t love God but was only using him conveniently somehow. There was also the shame because even though my father’s weaknesses affected us in many ways I felt we had a lot of love amongst ourselves. My mother always made sure we knew that we were loved and my father always told us he loved us. My uncle’s words somehow made me feel like trash.

So I cried. I can’t remember if I responded in any way but I remember sitting at my desk and crying feeling very much misunderstood. It was only in hindsight I realized something. He had no right to make me feel ashamed. My circumstances were not of my doing and if God had used my difficulty as an opportunity to draw me unto Him then praise the Lord! The truth of the matter is that the personal relationship with Christ that I needed to complete my life I did not find anywhere else but in a simple cell group meeting at somebody’s house and the choice of place to worship was something I considered carefully and prayerfully.

Over the years I’ve learned the value of Einstein’s statement. Every difficulty I face is an opportunity to grow closer to God. As the songwriter said, “If I never had a problem I wouldn’t know my God could solve them”

VBS 2006: Jesus is Coming Soon!

It has been a busy couple of days/weeks for me with our church concert and fashion show, my sister's wedding and the start of VBS being the 05, 06 and 07 August 2006. I guess you won't be surprised then when i tell you that even though the VBS was supposed to start at 10.00 am, at 10.45 am i was being roused from sound sleep by my sister who could not believe that i had overslept. Thank goodness I was not solely responsible for carrying on the VBS so by the time i had whipped my sleepy butt into shape it was in full swing.

Our theme this year is Jesus is Coming Soon! I had wondered if this might be too heavy for the kids but i think if it's important that they understand that our Lord and Saviour will return again for us. Today's lesson dealt with who Jesus is and we showed a movie (animated) that depicted his death and resurrection.

One Down, Four More To Go

My sister got married today. (Hip hip hip hooray!)

The day ended up being very lovely although it had a very rocky start since my sister went up to this morning by the tailor and he still had not finished her VERY SIMPLE DRESS. Needless to say many tears were shed before she receieved her dress. Also she was an early bride but this was necessary since the church had three weddings planned for that day.

Another glitch in the plans was that the keys to the Benz that was supposed to take her to the church could not be found so to avoid being late she was chauffered in a van. Hey at least it was clean and she arrived on time. Doesn't she look beautiful! Will try to put up more pictures soon!

P.S. To clarify the title my mother has five girls so one down, four more to go.

My Grace Is Sufficient for You

My grace is sufficient for you
Trust in me,
I will see you through
When times are tough and seasons change
I will always be the same
On mountaintops, in deepest seas
I control your destiny
Have I not promised, will I not stay
Here beside you everyday?
Have I not spoken, will I not do
All that I have purposed for you?

You are washed in my blood
I have called you by name
For you I came,
died
and suffered shame
Do you not trust me, to do as I say?
Have I ever failed you in any way?
Do not rely on your eyes
The things that you see
For the things you do not
Are more real to me.

WAKING LAZARUS

This month’s Christian Fiction Blog Tour features none other than the first published book by the founder of the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, T.L. Hines. Waking Lazarus has been described as :


"Provocative from the first line, intriguing to the last. WAKING LAZARUS is a thriller of strategic pacing, colored in tones of mystery and wonder. DON'T miss this exceptional debut."
--Brandilyn Collins, Bestselling Author of WEB OF LIES

"In its raw honesty and credible depiction of the paranormal, T.L. Hines' WAKING LAZARUS recalls the early work of Stephen King, leavened with optimism and a profound sense of grace. A wonderful debut by a prodigiously talented writer!"
- Michael Prescott, NY Times bestselling author and author of MORTAL FAULTS

"T.L. Hines delivers a creepy yet compelling read that focuses on one of the most disturbing questions to ever haunt man’s subconsciousness – why am I here?"
--Joseph Nassise, Author of the TEMPLAR CHRONICLES

"T.L. Hines is a fresh voice in the field of suspense, balancing dark moods with moments of emotion and redemption. He creates a likeable, conflicted character in Jude Allman, then pits Jude against an unforgettably chilling villain. I found myself holding my breath in more than one scene. With flawless pacing, Hines leads us to a final twist which is startling, yet satisfying."
--Eric Wilson, author of EXPIRATION DATE and DARK TO MORTAL EYES


Jude Allman has one motto: Keep it secret, keep it safe. He uses this to escape the notoriety that came with returning from the dead not once or twice but three times. To this end he has changed his name and is a current resident of Red Lodge, Montana. In keeping it secret and keeping it safe he has blacked out his memories from his past and works hard at secluding himself away from the world.

But the light is about to shake up his dark world as things begin to happen that may reveal life-changing truths about his own deaths. As children begin disappearing in Red Lodge and surrounding towns, Jude Allman finds himself on the brink of self-discovery that can crack the case wide open.

A Child is Born

No, not the Christchild but my brand new cousin ... cue trumpets ... Natalia. Ain't she sweet. Awwww. Welcome to the family, baby.

The Hidden by Kathryn Mackel

May Christian Fiction Blog Tours features The Hidden by Kathryn Mackel which debuted May 09, 2006.

Susan Stone vowed never to return to her childhood home but twenty years later she goes back to take care of her injured father and his business. After participating in a traumatic foaling Susan rides off into the hills of Colorado, recklessly courting danger and death. Flung headlong into a dark ravine Susan encounters something that will change her world forever. A strangely scarred boy-man chained in darkness, with no memory of who he is …

Meanwhile Sheriff Ricky Sanchez investigates a series of gruesome murders in the Colorado area that seem increasingly linked to Susan’s new discovery.

Kathryn Mackel has written a story that will keep you guessing till the end (my favorite kind). You will be caught up in the mystery of Jacob and entangled in the turbulent emotions that surround Susan and Melissa.

In the words of Colleen Coble (author of Alaska Twilight) The Hidden is "...An amazing, riveting read not to be missed."

A Worship Experience

Yesterday's service was so sweet and the anointing of God so rich, I was truly blessed. Pastor preached about the worship experience and we really experienced that. So tonight I was in Bible Study class and Pastor mentioned to those who did not make it to service yesterday what they had missed out on. I tried to put into words what I had felt and wrote the following.

Heart lifted
wholly
Bowing before you
humbly
Blood washing
purely
Praises received
sweetly

Feeling Your touch
so gently
Hearing You speak
so softly
Heart is moved
so deeply
Grace
it overcomes me

Your Spirit
living inside me
Your love
it overwhelms me
Joy
so full of glory
No other god before Thee

SAFE SEX DRESS

Personally, I think (as a single person) that the safest sex is NO SEX. However, this is a very creative idea.

TOO MUCH TIME

This has got to be one of the cleverest
E-mails I've received in awhile.
Someone out there either has too much
spare time or is deadly at Scrabble.
(Wait till you see the last one)!


DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER

DESPERATION:When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES:!
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME

ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET'S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS NO MORE Z 'S

A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
IM A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE


AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:

MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When
you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER

Yep! Someone with waaaaaaaaaaay
too much time on their hands! (Probably a son-in-law)

Christian One Liners

Don't let your worries get the
best of you; remember, Moses started
out as a basket case.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited
until you try to sit in their pews.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisors.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

The good Lord didn't create anything
without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

When you get to your wit's end, you'll find God lives there.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

People are funny; they want the
front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Opportunity may knock once, but temptation
bangs on your front door forever.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Quit griping about your
church; if it was perfect, you couldn't belong.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

If the church wants a
better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

God Himself does not propose
to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Some minds are like concrete
thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Peace starts with a smile.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

I don't know why some people
change churches; what difference does
it make which one you stay home from?!

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

A lot of church members who
are singing "Standing on the Promises" are just sitting on the premises.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Be ye fishers of men. You catch them - He'll clean them.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Don't put a question mark where God put a period.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Don't wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Forbidden fruits create many jams.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

God grades on the cross, not the curve.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

God loves everyone, but probably prefers
"fruits of the spirit" over "religious nuts!"

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

He who angers you, controls you!

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

If God is your Copilot - swap seats!

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Prayer:

Don't give God instructions -- just report for duty!

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

The task ahead of us is never as
great as the Power behind us.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

The Will of God never takes you to
where the Grace of God will not protect you.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

We don't change the message, the message changes us.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
You can tell how big a person
is by what it takes to..........discourage him.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

The best mathematical equation I have ever seen:
1 cross + 3 nails= 4 given.

He Took Our Place

One day, a man went to visit a church.

He got there early, parked his car, and got out.

Another car pulled up and the driver got

out and said,"I always park there!

You took my place!" The visitor went inside for

Sunday School, found an empty seat and sat down.

A young lady from the church

approached him and stated,

"That's my seat! You took my place!"

The visitor was somewhat distressed

by this rude welcome, but said nothing.

After Sunday School, the visitor went

into the sanctuary and sat down.

Another member walked up to him and said,

"That's where I always sit! You took my place!"

The visitor was even more troubled by this

treatment, but still He said nothing.

Later as the congregation was praying

for Christ to dwell among them,

the visitor stood up, and his appearance began to change.

Horrible scars became visible on

his hands and on his sandaled feet.

Someone from the congregation

noticed him and called out, "What happened to you?"

The visitor replied, as his hat

became a crown of thorns, and a tear fell from his eye,

"I took your place."

It’s Raining Pounds

No, not the sterling kind but the kind that wraps around your middle like runaway tires and hangs on your butt like gravity. All those years of eating whatever I wanted is now taking its toll. Those fat molecules that I thought were eliminated by my superior metabolism had simply bided their time all these years waiting for a weak moment to strike. Increasingly obvious is the fact that that time is here since I seem to be retaining pounds like water.

Of course my dear sister would choose this time to announce her impending marriage (yeah, yeah, yeah, hurrah, hurrah and all that) and my role as Maid of Honor. To which I take offense (not to the role but the title). I don’t need to be reminded that I am staring thirty in the eye and still single. I hear the ticking thank you very much. “Maid”, indeed.

Anyway, I’m gonna get on a strict regimen of healthy eating and exercise (yes, a diet) that will whip me into supermodel shape (Lord, I know You can work miracles) by August 06, the date of my sister’s impending nuptials. It sounds so simple doesn’t it except that I’ve never been much into sports and the only time I deny myself food is to fast (only for Jesus people). So, the coming weeks should be … umm…interesting.

Be Slow to Speak

(James 1:19)
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:


Look at the picture below. What do you see?

Horse or frog?

Christy award nominees

Christy award nominees are out. I am glad to see a couple of the books on my Must Read list nominated.

Two of them were featured by the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance (cue applause here): namely A Bride Most Begrudging by Deanne Gist and Comes A Horseman by Robert Liparulo. Also on my Must Read list is River Rising by Athol Dickson and Whence Came A Prince by Liz Curtis Higgs.

I’m not familiar with most of the other authors but then I’m just getting to know Christian fiction. However this is proof that they’re worth checking out.

Trinitarian vs Oneness Doctrine

I believe that the Lord my God is one God. Explaining how the Father, Son and Holy Ghost as represented in the Bible is ONE GOD is something that has probably proven challenging for laymen and theologians alike. I have never given it much thought except to think that however you explain it the bottom line must be THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD. Not “one” in terms of purpose as some may postulate but ONE IN BEING. That being said the Bible speaks about the Godhead, which we see manifested in all its forms at one time after Christ was baptized. Jesus rose from the water, the Holy Spirit descended bodily and the Father spoke from heaven. Apparently this is hard for some to accept and still hold to the ‘One God’ doctrine but personally I am of the view that it is not for me to conform God to what I can comprehend but to understand that ‘his ways are higher than my ways and his thoughts higher than my thoughts.’

Tied to this is the issue of baptism and whether to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost or in the name of Jesus. This is the question that arose and had our pastor explaining to us that we (the church) follow the apostolic doctrine and hence baptize ‘in the name of Jesus.’ I’ve never considered these issues so I decided to do some research on the internet about the subject. This brought up the Trinitarian vs Oneness issue that I was previously unaware even existed. So I am doing some reading about these issues but one thing I am sure about: there is only ONE GOD.

Research Skills Workshop (ii)

10.00 am Exchanged text messages with friend

ME: I am so sleepy. Trying hard not to fall off chair and embarrass self

FRIEND: ask lecturer lots of hard questions and she will get fed up and ask u 2 leave

ME: but then I would miss the free lunch. hmm… sleep or food? Hard decisions . . .

FRIEND: lol

Research Skills Workshop

Written at 1045 am

This is the 2nd day of the Basic Research Skills Workshop at the Cascadia Hotel in St. Ann’s. My eyes are crossing over and I am fighting so hard not to succumb to sleep and fall off my chair (This would be very embarrassing). Also the air conditioning is not helping at all, at all.


At 3.00 pm

Okay recovered somewhat earlier due to required interactive work but again resisting the urge to succumb to sleep (ethnic fatigue?). Hopefully it’s not long again. (Please God.)

A Voice In The Wind

At 4.48 a.m. on Sunday 30 April 2006 I finally finished reading A Voice in the Wind, the first book in the Mark of the Lion Trilogy by Francine Rivera. A lot of tears were involved in the reading of this book. I think it’s my favorite Christian fiction book ever with the exception of Redeeming Love (also by Francine Rivers). One thing is certain; Ms. Rivers’ writing impacts a reader like no other that I’ve read before and with the unmistakable good news of the gospel. Hadassah’s struggle to share the fullness of the gospel with her owners is something we’ve probably all faced at one time or another. Of course, the penalty of a gruesome death was not hanging over our heads. But witnessing might have cost us friends and loved ones unable to accept the truth.

I think that that’s what impacted me greatest was the love that Hadassah showed to all. She treated everyone with a compassion and respect that was truly divine. God used her to touch a lot of lives with His love and that brought home to me that this is what He desires of us even now. If we love as Christ loves us it would be easier to forgive those that hurt us and when we see our fellow man mired in sin, our hearts would burn for the lost soul and it would be unthinkable not to share the gospel with them. I prayed that God would touch my heart so that I would have that type of love and desire to share the gospel no matter the cost to myself.

Web of Lies by Brandilyn Collins

The spiders that usually take up residence in the corners of my room are spindly innocent looking critters that hardly seem worth squashing, they look so harmless. That didn’t stop my heart from leaping in my throat when a strand of my own hair innocently touched my shoulders while in the shower. You got it. I thought it was a spider. What would a spider be doing in my bathroom? Absolutely nothing but I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time since I had just finished reading Brandilyn Collins’ Seatbelt Suspense, Web of Lies.

So, if you’ve never harbored a fear of spiders, watch out. After reading Web Of Lies, the newest release by author Brandilyn Collins that may change.

Web of Lies, fourth and final book of the Hidden Faces series. Web of Lies brings together Brandilyn's two suspense series into one chilling and climactic story. Below is a “sneak pique” of the back cover copy of the book.

BACK COVER COPY
She was washing dishes when her world began to blur.

Chelsea Adams hitched in a breath, her skin pebbling. She knew the dreaded sign all too well. God was pushing a vision into her consciousness.

Black dots crowded her sight. She dropped a plate, heard it crack against the porcelain sink. Her fingers fumbled for the faucet. The hiss of water ceased.

God, I don't want this. Please!

A nightmarish vision. A murder in broad daylight. How are they connected?

After witnessing a shooting at a convenience store, forensic artist Annie Kingston must draw a composite of the suspect. But before she can begin, she hears that Chelsea Adams wants to meet with her-now. Chelsea Adams-the woman who made national headlines with her visions of murder. And this vision is by far the most chilling.

Chelsea and Annie soon find themselves snared in a terrifying battle against time, greed, and a deadly opponent. If they tell the police, will their story be believed? With the web of lies thickening . . . and lives at stake, who will know enough to save them?
(Excerpt from Brandilyn Collins' website)

Link to Prologue and first chapter .

"Don't forget to breathe ..."

Sean Luke

Recently the brutal killing of six-year-old Sean Luke rocked my country. The heinous nature of his demise not to mention the cruel way in which he was assaulted prior to his death was something that was hard for anyone to take in. That two boys allegedly perpetrated these monstrous acts: one 13 and one 16 was even harder to swallow. The identities of the boys, because of their ages were never released in the press. Today however I received a picture in my e-mail that purported to be the one of the alleged offenders.

I don’t know what I was expecting but somehow I expected that a child that could conceive of such acts and perform them on another younger, more defenseless child would look somehow warped and evil and ugly. But he didn’t. And it hurt to look at that picture. I didn’t expect that but there it was: a wealth of horror, dread, pity? that startled me by its very presence and intensity. He just looked so normal. With his low-cut hair and smooth dark skin he could be my god-son in the next couple of years or any one of the Sunday school students I used to teach at one time. It was scary.

It’s for reasons like these, besides wanting to ever be with the Lord that makes my heart say ‘Come Lord Jesus come.’

SUDOKU

Okay, I confess it – deep breath –I am a puzzle freak. I tell you I absolutely love puzzles, especially crosswords. I’m not much into word finds but I also love letter-fit puzzles. How is it that I’ve only tried Sudoku today? I don’t know really but I did and now I’m hooked. So here I am trolling the Internet for some free downloads. Pathetic, probably but you probably have your own addictions. Don’t you?

The Ten Commandments, Ebonic Style

Sometimes you have to change the message's style to get it across.

Try this for some who don't understand the King James Version:

1. I'm God. Don't play me.
(I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any
other gods before me.)

2. Don't be makin no hood ornaments
and charms outta me, or like me.
! (Thou shalt not have any graven images.)

3. Don't be callin' me for no reason
(Thou shalt not use the name of the
Lord thy God in vain.)

4. Y'all betta be in church on Sunday,
and not just the Sundays when
it's Mother's day, Easter
and Christmas
(Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy.)

5. Don't dis or cuss out yo momma.....
and if you know who ya daddy
is, don't dis him neither.
(Honor thy father and thy mother.)


6. no drive bys.
(Thou shalt not kill.)

7. Stick to ya own Boo.
(Thou shalt not commit adultery.)

8. Don't be borrow'n stuff and
don't give it back.
(Tho! u shalt not steal.)


9. Don't be snitchin' on the otha' man to save your behind.
(Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy brother.)

10. Don't be eyein' (skeeming) yo homie's crib, ride, woman, or nuffin.
(Thou shalt not covet anything that belongs to thy brother.)

10 Best Things to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk

10 Best Things to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk Number 1 is a favorite.

10. "They told me at the Blood Bank this might happen."

9. "This is just a 15 minute power nap they raved about in the time management course you sent me too."

8. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the Whiteout. You probably got here just in time."

7. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new business strategy."

6. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."

5. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people who practice Yoga?"

4. "Darn! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out how to handle that big accounting problem."

3. "Did you ever notice sound coming out of these keyboards when you put your ear down real close?"

2. "Who put decaf in the wrong pot?!?"

And the NUMBER ONE best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk.........

1. Raise your head slowly and say, "...in Jesus name, Amen."


P.S. Almost needed this yesterday :D

Return from Camp

We came home from camp today. Hope to post some pictures soon. It was a really great experience. Personally I didn’t do much hiking since I really wanted rest and relaxation. The house we rented was the perfect spot for this. Set on a hill it was blanketed by rolling green grass and surrounded by the majestic mountains of the Northern Range. It was with a sense of awe that I often stood in front of the house and gazed at them feeling God’s protection and love so strongly.

The most beautiful thing that happened in camp however was our Easter Sunday worship service. It was so beautiful. There were a lot of youths that came on the trip: those that had been there before or others that had heard of the fun we’d had on the first trip and wanted to be experience it. While we’d had devotions morning and evening since arriving on Thursday yesterday morning God moved in an awesome way and a lot of the undecided and cold surrendered their all to Jesus. We’ve had altar calls before that a lot of these same youths responded to and I can’t really explain it except to say that I know that God has started something beautiful. A lot of them testified that last night that they’ve never felt God’s touch so powerfully before and some said they hadn’t had such an experience in a long time. It was a time of rebirth and revival for all. Praise the Lord!

God is good

Today was a good day for me. I ministered in church for the second time in about three weeks. This time my voice didn’t tremble as much and I felt more comfortable with the congregation. It may seem a strange thing to say but I had fun. I think it’s because I was comfortable enough to be myself and attempt one or two jokes (yes, successfully). The brethren were very encouraging and I really thank God for the encouragement.

Not that you asked but the message was on Luke 15: the story of the prodigal son. The emphasis however was on the importance of doing things in God’s timing. The son was not mature enough to handle his inheritance and when he received it he squandered it till he had nothing. As children of God when we go out of God’s plan and season for our lives we mess it up and can find ourselves like the younger son, in a far off country, away from our father, with nothing. So it's important to understand where God has us now and what he requires of us so we don't mess it up.

HOW TO TELL THE SEX OF A BIRD

This Is AMAZING!!!

Until now I never fully understood how to tell,
The difference Between Male and Female Birds.

I always thought it had to be determined surgically.

Until Now.

Which of The Two Birds Is a Female???

Below are Two Birds. Study them closely...

See If You Can Spot Which of The Two Is The Female.

It can be done.

Even by one with limited bird watching skills.

A Family Forever by Brenda Coulter

This month Christian Fiction Blog Tours features A Family Forever by award-winning author Brenda Coulter. If you’ve read Ms. Coulter’s award winning book Finding Hope you will have high expectations regarding this new release. Trust me, it will not disappoint.

About the book
Three weeks before her wedding Shelby Franklin finds herself pregnant and without a groom. Her fiancée has died in a tragic accident, leaving her without a father for her unborn baby.

Tucker Sharpe, her fiancée’s brother, battling his own sense of guilt over his brother’s accident proposes a marriage of convenience in order to keep a promise given in his brother’s last moments to take care of Shelby.

In spite of her unease over the fact that Tucker seems to know her better than she knows herself , Shelby agrees to the marriage for the sake of her baby.

Read more about the book here and buy the book at Amazon.com.

You won't regret it.

Pink (Shades of Style) by Marilynn Griffith

This month on the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance the spotlight is on Marilynn Griffith’s novel, Pink (Shades of Style).

If you've ever felt torn between being accepted and being yourself you'll be able to relate to Raya's story.

About the Book
High fashion meets romance in the Big Apple for a fresh, funky designer.

Raya Joseph wants to break free from the beige world around her and celebrate the color of the city. With a sassy pink style and a radical change of hair, she's off to conquer the design world. But it doesn't take long for Raya to meet her match--in style and flair. Flex Dunham, a personal trainer and one of Raya's clients, has got it going on.

As much as Raya would like to pursue a relationship with Flex, she has other matters on her mind--and on her heart. Then a blast from the past comes back to haunt her, and Raya can't help but wonder if she made the right decision in keeping her past a secret. Flex seems to be hiding something too. But what?

Woven with humor, heartache, and hip friendships, Raya's new life has a lot of colorful threads. But will the end result be a beautiful design? Or will it fall apart at the seams? Join Raya and her friends Lily Chau, Jean Guerra, and Chenille Rizzo as they untangle the threads in the Shades of Style series.

Read an excerpt from the book.

Buy Now!

What I’ve been up to

Not much really. Working hard. Getting my life back in order (New Year and all that). Just finished reading James Patterson’s Honeymoon (2005). It was so good I went to the library and found another of his books I hadn’t read yet (1st to die) and that, dare I say it, was even better. I must I admit that while I didn’t figure out whodunit in the beginning of the book, (1st to die: kudos to Patterson) I didn’t fall for those false clues cleverly planted in the script. So I did discover whodunit before it was actually revealed. Yep. *Plucks imaginary suspenders* I’m feeling pret-ty proud of me :D

Blessings

Another Reason I need a car

Another reason I need a car materialised at my side last night while I waited for a taxi to take me home.

“Hello, did we have words?” he asked.

“No, were you standing there? I didn’t see you.” This was truth. If only it could have stayed that way and been reciprocated. I sighed and began the obligatory greetings and pleasantries people exchange at the start of the New Year. That’s when he began THE TALK. THE TALK is the reason I wish he would cross over to the other side of the street when he sees me and the reason I strain my eyes hoping a taxi would appear on the horizon.

No such luck.

THE TALK began in response to my wish for good things for him in 2006. To which he responded that he also wished for good things for US.

US? I thought and tossed out a flippant reply, hoping to deflect the obvious direction of the conversation. Again, no such luck and still no taxi.

“I think I have deep feelings for you. Yeah, I’ve been thinking about you and I can’t seem to get you out of my mind. And when I can’t stop thinking about a woman it usually means something. Maybe God … yuh know .. who knows?”

You may be thinking awwww and that I am being such a (insert word for female dog here) but you have to meet him in person to understand the full extent of his annoyingness. You would have had to tell him many, many times that you are not in the least bit interested in him that way. You would have had to endure these types of conversations in maxis and taxis with other people listening in. In my defense I’ve never been unkind. I’ve shared the good news of God’s love and invited him to church. We’d get along just fine if he would just accept that there is no US and there never will be an US.

Okay, movin on. Did he just imply that God has a hand in my being on his mind? Puhlease. Of course on his next breath he asks, “Um, what’s your name again?”

I could not help it, I laughed heartily and asked. “Hold on, you have deep feelings for me and you can’t even remember my name?”

His excuse: “It’s a very unusual name.”

Seriously, I gotta get that car. If only I knew how to drive.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Tuesday

Okay I had started writing my post for Tuesday and my internet explorer crashed before I had time submit my entry. Of course this would happen the one time I had not previously typed and saved my entry prior to going online to post it. But no biggie. It was probably divine intervention since I’d had a crappy (pardon my English) day. Highlights: bad hair-day, no makeup, late for work, funeral and splitting headache. To put it mildly I was feeling a little blue. So I went to bed early and got up feeling much better.

Wednesday

Today was much better than yesterday. Hair-not so bad, makeup-yes, early-er than yesterday for work.

I started this year feelin out of sorts with myself, my Father and most people around me (especially at work). All the textbooks teach you not to bring your personal life to work with you and I agree this should be so. However, my faith is such a large part of me that if something’s not right then it affects every area of my life. I become short-tempered and frustrated and things I would normally be able to handle I blow a fuse over. In short I’m miserable. It’s funny how things could be bothering you and affecting your life without your really acknowledging it. That’s what was happening to me and I didn’t even recognise it. I was harboring unforgiveness for some ‘friends’ and it was making me unhappy. But I got a breakthrough today (read more about it here) so that my smile doesn’t feel forced and fake anymore. (Thank God for small mercies.) That really was not my style. I might have wished for a fabulous hair day but this was so much better. Praise the Lord!

New Year, New Beginning

It’s a new year. I did say I would not make any new resolutions this year seeing as I’ve so little to show (in my own estimation) for the year past. I still don’t know how to drive, have yet to read the entire Bible and have gotten caught up in mistakes I swore never to make again. Resolutions? Not for me.

However, I have reconsidered. I think it would help to have something to work towards and if I fail… well at least I tried and did not just wander aimlessly along to end up nowhere. So here goes:

From yesteryear
1. I can’t get close enough to God so hopefully the close of this year will find me in a closer relationship with my Father
2. read the bible (I am beginning a ‘bible in a year’ program but I am not holding myself to the finishing of it – I will be satisfied with just spending more quality time in the Word)
overcome sins that so easily beset (impossible by myself but with God all things are possible)
3. learn to drive (important - I hate public transport and need a car)

New possibilities
4. Ministry – I haven’t been involved in much work in church because of my schooling but that’s over now and I want to get more involved in the work of ministry.
5. Writing - been torturing myself with ifs, buts and maybes for months now. This year I will put pen to paper and seriously try – what the worse that could happen?
6. Business – have been exploring a business idea for the past 2 months or so. It may not be possible right now but it can’t hurt to have all my facts and figures in place.

Happy New Year!!

Hi again. It's too late for Christmas greetings but not too early to wish everyone all the best for the upcoming year. So I want for you what I want for myself: a closer walk with God, happiness, peace, prosperity in all that you do within the will of the Lord and fulfillment as you walk within His will for your life.

Blessings

Have A Good Weekend

Well, I'm going to my sister's in a little while. Sadly she has no computer and no internet. Noooooooooooo! We're going shopping tomorrow for Christmas curtains and such and later it's off to our church dinner. I'm really looking forward to that. So I'll be back on Sunday afternoon. I hope everyone has a blessed weekend.

Thinking of You

The following I started to write as a 'Thinking of You' type greeting card. It didn't quite turn out as expected. I can't really see anyone actually sending this to an individual. Nevertheless here it is.

I'm thinking of you today
And of things that could never be
Of words I could never say
Words I hold inside of me

Am I your friend, or is there more
That I see in your eyes
In the gentle touch of your hands
And the sweetness of your smile?

Do you know I wonder, can you tell
Whenever I find you near
How my heart trembles inside of me
And I'm sure its not with fear?

If only I could reach out my hands
And draw you close to me
And feel your heartbeat next to mine
Beating in harmony.

Impossible, these dreams I know
They could never come true
But still I find myself ...
Thinking of you.

Meditations of my Heart

I’ve started a new blog, Meditations Of My Heart, the sole purpose of which is to share my reflections as I study the Word of God. I love to read devotions and hope to be able to write them also. This will be good practice I think. Honestly, it will also serve as an incentive to keep studying the Word of God.

Important Life Lesson

Below you will find an important lesson that we should all take heed of.

Enjoy!

Jesus Is The Reason for the Season

It's the first of December and Christmas is that much closer. I must admit I love Christmas: the music, the shopping, the movies, the love, the excitement, the decorations...I could go on and on. But I also don't want to lose sight of the fact that it's all about Jesus. Jesus who was born so that one day He could die for my sins. So as I start my countdown to Christmas I wanted this to be the first thing I posted, to remind myself in everything I do that it's all about Him. The following letter was found on Shelley 's blog and it very eloquently reminds us never to forget Him as we celebrate

Remember My Birthday?

As you well know, we are getting closer to my birthday. Every year there is a celebration in my honor and I think that this year the celebration will be repeated.

During this time there are many people shopping for gifts, there are many radio announcements, TV commercials, and in every part of the world everyone is talking that my birthday is getting closer and closer. It is really very nice to know, that at least once a year, some people think of me.

As you know, the celebration of my birthday began many years ago. At first people seemed to understand and be thankful of all that I did for them, but in these times, no one seems to know the reason for the celebration. Family and friends get together and have a lot of fun, but they don't know the meaning of the celebration.

I remember that last year there was a great feast in my honor. The dinner table was full of delicious foods, pastries, fruits, assorted nuts and chocolates. The decorations were exquisite and there were many, many beautifully wrapped gifts. But, do you want to know something? I wasn't invited. I was the guest of honor and they didn't remember to send me an invitation. The party was for me, but when that great day came, I was left outside, they closed the door in my face......... and I wanted to be with them and share their table. In truth, that didn't surprise me because in the last few years all close their doors to me.

Since I was not invited, I decided to enter the party without making any noise. I went in and stood in a corner. They were all drinking; there were some who were drunk and telling jokes and laughing at everything. They were having a great time. To top it all, this big fat man all dressed in red wearing a long white beard entered the room yelling Ho-Ho-Ho! He seemed drunk. He sat on the sofa and all the children ran to him, saying : "Santa Claus, Santa Claus"... as if the party were in his honor !

At 12 midnight all the people began to hug each other ; I extended my arms waiting for someone to hug me and .... do you know .... no one hugged me. Suddenly they all began to share gifts. They opened them one by one with great expectation. When all had been opened, I looked to see if, maybe, there was one for me. What would you feel if on your birthday everybody shared gifts and you did not get one ? I then understood that I was unwanted at that party and quietly left.

Every year it gets worse. People only remember to eat and drink, the gifts, the parties and nobody remembers me. I would like this Christmas that you allow me to enter into your life. I would like that you recognize the fact that almost two thousand years ago I came to this world to give my life for you, on the cross, to save you. Today, I only want that you believe this with all you heart.

I want to share something with you. As many didn't invite me to their party, I will have my own celebration, a grandiose party that no one has ever imagined, a spectacular party. I'm still making the final arrangements. Today I am sending out many invitations and there is an invitation for you. I want to know if you wish to attend and I will make a reservation for you and write your name with golden letters in my great guest book. Only those on the guest list will be invited to the party. Those who don't answer the invitation, will be left outside.

Do you know how you can answer this invitation? it is by extending it to others whom you care for... I'll be waiting for all of you to attend my party this year... See you soon ....

I love you !

Jesus

Robert Liparulo's Comes A Horseman

Comes A Horseman, the first offering of acclaimed newspaper reporter Robert Liparulo is already receiving rave reviews:

"Robert Liparulo writes the kind of thriller other authors write in their dreams, and readers devour until the wee hours of the morning! Make way for a new master of the genre and a can't-put-down knockout with Comes a Horseman." —Mark Andrew Olsen, author of The Assignment and co-author of Hadassah.

"Robert Liparulo is one of the best writers to hit the block in a long time. Comes a Horseman is brilliantly conceived and executed. It will leave readers desperately wanting more." —Ted Dekker, author of the #1 best-selling Obsessed .

"Not for the faint of heart, this is quality writing that deserves a lofty niche within the action/suspense genre. It is well-researched and meticulously detailed, and the characters are fascinating and 'real,' the dialogue clever and altogether human, the plot compelling. What I'm trying to say is, I love it!" —Frank Peretti, author of Monster and This Present Darkness .

Frightening and fiendishly smart, Comes a Horseman is a must-read! Robert Liparulo's intense thrill ride will keep your nerves frayed and your lights on. —David Morrell, best-selling author of Creepers and The Brotherhood of the Rose

Comes A Horseman became one of Amazon’s top 100 thrillers approximately one week after release and a prominent Hollywood producer has already optioned the movie rights to this book.

Interested?

About the book:
Reeling from a series of attempts on their lives, FBI agents Brady Moore and Alicia Wagner follow a trail of evidence that leads to a conspiracy a thousand years in the making. Finding clues in the dusty tomes of the Vatican's Secret Archives and the paintings of William Blake and Hieronymus Bosche, they plunge deep into a pit of evil ambition.

Want more? Read the first chapter.

Hooked? Buy the book.

Trini Women

Hey all, I received the following joke in an email and simply had to share. Ladies, don't try this at home (unless absolutely necessary)

Three men were sitting together bragging about how they had given their new wives duties. The first man had married a woman from Barbados and bragged that he had told his wife she was going to do all the dishes and house cleaning. He said it took a couple days but on the third day he came home to a clean house and the dishes were done.

The second man had married a woman from Grenada. He bragged that he had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. On the first day he didn't see any results, but the next day it was better. By the third day, his house was clean, the dishes were done and he had a huge dinner on the table.

The third man had married a Trini girl. He boasted that he told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything but by the third day most of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye. Enough to fix himself a bite to eat, load the dishwasher and telephone a landscaper.

Droppin' In

I haven't been around for a while. Keeping busy trying to finish a project at work since Monday. I'm about done in so I think I'll take a rest tomorrow (from working late that is). Saturday, I hope to tie everything up so that I can begin my Christmas preparations. Yup. Need to look for those curtains, finalise arrangements for Children's Christmas Treat, start looking for those presents, then there's the painting to be done, the cleaning, the shopping. Oy! *holds heads* Will continue this train of thought later.

Blessings and oh! Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends.

Flooding

Well, I'm home today because quite frankly my house is surrounded by water. The rain's been falling heavily over the past couple of days and we're feeling the effects. It's the first time I've experienced anything like this. The house i used to live in was on a hill (no flooding there :D). At present the water is not high enough to get into the house. I hope it stays that way. I have really great neighbours though. They came through the water to check on us and help us move furniture (the men that is). I thought that was so cool. We're somewhat new to the neighbourhood so it was really appreciated.

On the bright side (got to look for that silver lining) I'll get to see the final game between Trinidad and Bahrain later on today. Yay!

Blessings
Kelly

Results:Trinidad (1):Bahrain(1)

As you can tell from above the game was a draw. We're disappointed but hey, there's still tomorrow. I've heard it said, from the experts, that we need to win by two clear goals to qualify. Here's hoping that we do.

Trinidad vs Bahrain (World Cup 2006 Qualifier)

History is hopefully in the making for my country as we prepare to play two World Cup qualifying matches against Bahrain on the 12th and 16th November, 2005. The first match will be played on our home ground so today there is a tangible air of excitement and expectation as we get ready for tomorrow’s match. Our national colours of red, white and black are very much evident today from Trinis wanting to show support. The last time we were this close to qualifying was in 1989 (?) when we lost our qualifying match to the United States (no hard feelings, people :0).

I admit I don’t really follow sports as such and don’t know much about football (soccer to some). For example, I still don’t understand what it means to be offside. I do know however that when the ball goes inside of the net it’s a ggggggoooooooaaaaaaalllllllll. We’re hoping for lots of those.

Real Men

Travelling home yesterday I saw these words written on the rear window of a maxi-taxi, “Real men seek the Lord”. Well, duh, you might say but I think that the author of these sentiments had a valid message. As far as I can tell there are more women in the church than men. Does this mean that it’s easier for women to get saved than men? If so, why? This lead me to thinking about the authority that God has placed in man. Does it make it harder to submit to God? God’s order of the family is Himself first, the husband and then the wife. Do women find it easier to submit to God than men do as a result? I know there are probably other factors that would affect this decision but I’m just thinking here.

Nevertheless there really is something special about a man that is able to put away pride and allow the Lord to direct his life. He takes his example from Jesus who despite His own authority submitted himself to the will of the Father. And hey, what god-loving, god-fearing, Holy-Ghost-filled single girl wouldn’t want that?

Dark Star : Confessions of a Rock Idol (Rock Star Chronicles)

By Creston Mapes

I am building a list of must read books, this is a definite addition. The following is a description taken from the author's website.

"Everett Lester and his band, DeathStroke, ride the crest of a wave to superstardom. But the deeper they become immersed in fame, wealth, and power, the more likely they are to be swallowed alive by the drugs, alcohol, and discontentment that have become their only friends. Discontent and dabbling in the psychic realm, Everett is headed down a perilous road of no apparent return when he's charged with the murder of his personal psychic. The only hope he can cling to comes from Topeka, Kansas, and the letters written by a prayerful young lady who lives there. Consistent and persistent, the notes cut straight to Everett's empty heart, offering a fulfillment he's never grasped before. But what if he's found guilty of murder? Will he recognize the spiritual battle raging for his soul?"

To buy the book click on the title link.

Breaking the Cycle - Step 3

Step 3: Examine root causes of behaviour

As stated previously, repentance is turning away from sin. Sometimes we encourage ourselves to continue in sin by not changing underlying situations that contribute to our weakness. We need to examine unhealthy patterns of behaviour, mindsets and the state of our spiritual life and see how these may have affected our actions.

Patterns of behaviour
Sometimes overcoming our weaknesses means not hanging out with certain friends, watching certain movies/tv shows or listening to particular kinds of music if they encourage our weaknesses. For example if you have a drug problem that is encouraged by so-called friends, part of turning away from this would be to abstain from these ‘friends’. Also, in the case of David, sin entered in at the eyes. We need to guard our mind and heart – David should have turned away when he saw Bathsheba but instead sent after her.

Additional points to note in terms of patterns of behaviour are disobedience and idleness. In 2 Samuel 11 David is guilty of both of these. While his troops were in battle, where he should have been, he was at home. Verse 2 of this chapter describes David as arising from his bed at eventide. Disobedience breaks the hedge and gives the serpent opportunity to attack, and, as the saying goes, the devil will find work for idle hands.

Mindsets
If in our minds we have given up, and count ourselves slaves to our weaknesses then we have already lost the battle. Hebrews 4:15 says that Christ our high priest was tempted just as we are but he did not sin. 1 Corinthians 10:13 makes it clear that God will not allow us to be tempted above what we are able to bear. With temptation comes a choice, we could choose the way out that God has provided or we could fall into sin. We need to believe God’s word and make the right choices.

Spiritual life
Most times it is when we are weakest that we fall. We are weakest when we are not spending enough time in prayer and study of God’s word. Psalm 119:9 “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” We need to feed ourselves spiritually just as we do naturally in order to stay strong. When we have this firm foundation to stand upon it’s easier to withstand temptation.

Breaking the Cycle - Step 2

Step 2: Repent

REPENTANCE (Gk. metanoia, a "change" of mind). In the theological and ethical sense a fundamental and thorough change in the hearts of men from sin and toward God.
(from New Unger's Bible Dictionary)

A turning away from sin, disobedience, or rebellion and a turning back to God.
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

In 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 Paul speaks concerning godly sorrow and specifies that it is godly sorrow that brings about repentance. Godly sorrow is not simply regret at what we’ve done or the pain caused. It means understanding that we have grieved the heart of God and turning back to Him. Sometimes we think that repentance is simply being sorry for our actions but in truth true repentance is turning away from that which we know is wrong.

The greatest example of true repentance can be seen in words of David (Psalm 51). He came before God with a broken spirit and a contrite heart. After asking God to cleanse him from his unrighteousness we see David’s purpose to change. He tells God that he will teach others to do right and give God the praise.

He also asks God to uphold him with His free spirit. It’s not every weakness that we can overcome by ourselves. Some may require counselling or medical attention in extreme cases (drug dependence) but in everything GOD is our safety net who will keep us from falling.