Fresh Start SUMMER

Today, It's my delight for you to meet Beverly Nault. She is actually a local friend of mine, part of my critique group. Bev has written several books and has a few more in the future. So thrilled for her.

So meet Bev and two of her books about the amazing community of Cherryvale.

 

The Seasons of Cherryvale Series By Beverly Nault (published)

Fresh Start Summer (Lamp Post, 2011)

Grace & Maggie Across the Pond (Lamp Post, 2011)

Cherryvale, where neighbors care, gardeners share, and God allows do-overs. Along with the rest of the country, Cherryvale suffered economic hardships. Instead of waiting for handouts, the citizens worked together to repurpose, recycle and restore the town to its vintage charm. Now, brick-lined streets, attractive storefronts, and revitalized businesses lure weekend tourists, and destination travelers. Surrounded by an artery called, The Cherrypath, ‘Valers are connected as one in heart and mind. (Acts 4:32) 

FRESH START SUMMER

Cherryvale’s restored historical charm has attracted a motion picture film crew for location shooting. Faster than the director can yell ACTION! the quiet dissolves as townies argue over the controversial industry, paparazzi camp out on the corners and looky-loos clog the streets. The drama and tension, both on the set and behind the scenes, increases when the poptart starlet of the movie has a life threatening accident, a series of fires break out, and the townie most vocal against the Hollywood types mysteriously disappears. (302 pages, paperback and Kindle)

 

SUMMER READING

Today we are continuing our Summer reads suggestions. If you remember on Saturday, we told you that we are committed to help other authors in the same way so many helped us last year when we launched our book, Winning Him Without Words.

We have some great books for you to consider for your summer. Today, meet Elaine Miller. She wrote, We All Married Idiots. Hilarious!!

 

We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage And Ten Things You Can By Elaine W. Miller / Lighthouse Publishing Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can.   About the Book I married an idiot–and so did my spouse. The word, “idiot” is derived from the Greek word meaning “common man.” Aren’t we all common man? In fact, there is only One who was uncommon man–Jesus Christ.  Elaine W. Miller encourages couples to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus and run a marriage marathon like an idiot, but not like a fool. An idiot may stumble or fall, but a fool runs the wrong way. We All Married Idiots teaches husbands and wives to stop concentrating on the three things you will never change in your marriage and begin focusing on the ten things you can. Then, you will esteem your mate as a gift to treasure, not as an idiot to tolerate.

SUMMER

Well It's Memorial weekend. Wow, almost half of 2012 is already gone by. Say What? I'm still stuck in March, I think??

But here we are and this week as Dineen and I begin to enjoy the summer season, we will be traveling and away from our computers this next week. So we thought we would share some summer reading with you.

When our book launched last year, so many of our friends supported us by offering to be part of our publicity and blog tour. We were so amazing at how the Christian Community came around us to help us get the word out about our book. At that time, Dineen and I talked, cried, and prayed giving thanks for the kindness of our community. We also promised ourselves that we would do the same for other author friends who were launching books. So this next week, we are sharing several books we think you will enjoy and would be great beach reads, or camping companions or just a good book to cuddle with on a warm summer evening.

Today, we bring you Kathi Lipp. Most of you know she is one of our ministry partners. Kathi alone has given so much to support and help Dineen and I. A gift we can never repay. 

Kathi's newset book is The Get Yourself Organized Project; 21 steps to Less Mess and Stress. I can bet we all could use a few or all of her tips.

 

The Get Yourself Organized Project By Kathi Lipp / Harvest House Publishers Finally, an organizational book for women who have given up trying to be Martha Stewart but still desire some semblance of order in their lives. Most organizational books are written by and for people who are naturally structured and orderly. For the woman who is more ADD than type A, the advice sounds terrific but seldom works. These women are looking for help that takes into account their free-spirited outlook while providing tips and tricks they can easily follow to live a more organized life. Kathi Lipp, author of The Husband Project and other “project” books, is just the author to address this need. In her inimitable style, she offers

Today I say Goodbye

Today I say a tearful goodbye to all of my co-writers at Laced With Grace and tell them I love them.

I say goodbye to all of you who faithfully stopped in to spend your precious time with me. I love each of you. I expect to meet each of your face-to-face at the throne of Grace where we will hug and laugh with glee because God allowed us to share life together here on earth even if it was in this amazing world of the web. I love you deeply.

I treasure you Iris and Laurie and all of my past and present co-writers.

Mostly I love and adore Jesus. To Him all glory, honor and praise belong. Be blessed, Lynn Some of my Favorites:

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To read my Goodbyes and some of the my all-time favorite and best stories, visit Laced With Grace.

Spiritual Warfare, Part 2: Your Bible is Really a Sword

In last week’s post on spiritual warfare we talked about shifting our focus and seeing who our real enemy is. This week let’s dive back into Ephesians 6 and talk about one specific piece of our armor. Our sword.

Before we do that, I want to make one more interesting observation about verse 12:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Let’s be very clear that we are not left in this battle alone. On the contrary, I believe the last part of verse 12 shows that the battle not only resides here on earth but in the “heavenly realms” as well. If you’ve ever wondered if God is aware or present in our battles, be assured He’s not only aware but is ultimately in control of it all. Satan is a created being and we know that Christ is before all things and in Him all things hold together (Col 1:17). Jesus is large and in charge!

In fact, the more I read and study, the more I see that our role is to stand firm. Our enemy is sure and determined. We must be more so. In Ephesians 6:10-18, we are told repeatedly to stand our ground, to stand firm in our faith.

To do this it’s vital that we:

1. read the Bible daily. This is the sword of our armor (Eph 6:17). Not reading God’s Word means you’re ill equipped. You have the gun, so to speak, but no bullets. Even Jesus used direct Scripture to fight the enemy off during his testing in the wilderness (Matt 4:1-11).


2. spend time with God in prayer to repent, obtain mercy and find grace (Heb 4:16), reconnect, and receive wisdom, guidance and revelation (Eph 1:15-23).


3. pray without ceasing—be in constant conversation with God. This is not just communication but a way of thinking (Eph 6:18).

Let me share something with you that liberated me from the enemy’s hold. I remember sitting in my kitchen one night with a dear friend. She and her husband had joined us for dinner—actually they were a believing couple I admired and had invited over in the hopes that they would influence my husband to faith. Yes, I did that stuff too.

Little did I know I would be the one greatly influenced. Now this may be something you already know and understand but for someone like me who was not raised in the church and taught about God’s power being greater than the enemy, it was a huge revelation.

Satan can’t hear your thoughts. Nope, he can’t. Only God can. Satan is a limited being. He is NOT omnipotent and he is certainly NOT omniscient. But he is a mastermind at discernment. He can watch us, hear us, study us, and use all that to plan his fiery darts (vs. 16) against us, but he cannot know us as God knows us.

This is also why Jesus spoke Scripture out loud to ward satan off. Nothing sends the enemy scampering away faster than hearing God’s Word spoken out loud. Another reason why we need to have this arsenal of God’s truth ready to speak out loud.

Do you see how even more precious your thought life is? Satan can interject thoughts and impressions at us that we think suddenly pop into our thoughts, but the key is to recognize them. Sometimes we can’t because he is so crafty that he’s found a weakness and knows how to play upon those doubts and fears already pinging around in our heads. Other times it can be as sudden, foreign and obvious in its lie. (Maybe one of the enemy’s unskilled minions had a shift that particular day. LOL! Remember, the enemy is not omniscient so he can’t be everywhere all the time like God is.)

My point here is, that we can’t discern the enemy’s lies if our minds and thoughts aren’t full of God’s truth. And that truth comes from his Word and tells us:

1. Who God is. The entire Bible is about our Creator, His Son and the Holy Spirit. Do you know that the power of the Holy Spirit that fills us is the very same power that rose Christ from the dead? The word “power” in verse ten is kratos and is the same word used in Eph 1:19-20:
   
   and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
    
2. Who we are in Christ. We are adopted, accepted, blameless, blessed, chosen, forgiven, holy and redeemed (Ephesians 1:3-14). Shout that back to the enemy when you are feeling unattractive, like a failure, like you can never do anything right, like no one loves or wants you, when you feel you can offer nothing of value to this world. Those are lies. Know God’s truth and it will set you free from them. God doesn’t do anything part way nor does He do shoddy work. God made you and absolutely adores you. He sings over you (Zeph 3:17) and lavishes his grace upon you (Eph 1:7).

Now just sit there a minute and let all that sink in. That alone is some of the most powerful truths we can know and use against the enemy. John 1 says that Jesus is the Word of God and Luke 6:48 says He’s our foundation. That is where we stand firm, in God’s Word, my friends. And that brings us to our feet.

We’ll pick up with the rest of our armor next week. I pray in the meantime that God would ignite a fire in your hearts—an unquenchable hunger—for His Word.

I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength! — Eph 1:15-19 The Message

Praying and believing,
Dineen