Several people have asked me how we will handle the book of Psalms, which is our next book up for discussion.  One person said they had too many favorite verses to choose just one.  Another said it’s a REALLY long book.  So, here’s what we will do. Psalms is divided into five books, so we will do five weeks of Psalms according to the divisions:

Happy December!

Some great new reads for December from ACFW authors! What a way to round out 2010. Take a break from the hustle and bustle of the Holidays and read a good book!

More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW website.

1. Aloha, My Love by Deborah Kinnard — A Romance from Desert Breeze. A second chance at love mixes with trade winds in a winter vacation.

2.  An Amish Love by Beth Wiseman, Kathleen Fuller, and Kelly Long — A Romance from Thomas Nelson. Two of today’s most popular genres–Romance and Amish fiction–together in one volume.

3. Christmas Bodyguard; Gardians Series, Book 1 by Margaret Daley — A Romance from Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense. Slade Caulder, a businessman, hires bodyguard, Elizabeth Walker, to protect his daughter,  but can  Elizabeth save both Slade and his daughter from a killer and keep herself from falling in love with him?

4. Cowboy Daddy by Carolyn Aarsen — A Romance from Steeple Hill Love Inspired. When a woman calling herself the aunt of his nephews comes to try to take them away, Kip learns a lesson in love and letting go.

5. Driven by Shellie Neumeier — A Suspense/Mystery/Thriller from Risen Books. Robyn can’t help but notice the new guy at school, but what she misses could cost her dearly–a demon has been sent to destroy her.

6. Love Finds You in Sun Valley, Idaho by Angela Ruth — A Romance from Summerside Press. Emily Van Arsdale returns home to film a movie and falls for the rafting consultant who has a grudge against celebrities ever since his fiancee left him for fame and fortune.

7. Maggie and the Maverick; Book 3, Idaho Brides by Erica Vetsch — A Romance  from Barbour Heartsong Presents. Maggie goes undercover to break up a ring of thieves, but finds herself falling for her prime suspect.

8. Michigan Brides by Amber Stockton — A historical from Barbour. Relive Michigan’s industrial boom alongside three women who must change their way of viewing the world before they can realize love.

9. Mail Order Cowboy; Simpson Creek Brides by Laurie Kingery — A Romance from Steeple Hill Love Inspired. An enterprising miss in a bachelor-less post-Civil War Texas town organizes the unmarried ladies to bring mail-order grooms to town.

10. Praying for Rayne by Elizabeth Goddard — A Romance from Barbour Heartsong Presents. Rayne Fleming loves her job designing water fountains, but when Jack Kostner joins the company all her plans for success struggle to survive, including the blossoming love between them.

11. Singing in Babylon by Ann Gaylia O’Barr-Breedlove — General Fiction from Oak Tara. Life in the “enchanged kingdom” is nothing like she thought.

12. The Camera Never Lies; Hometown Mysteries by Elizabeth Goddard — A Suspense/Mystery/Thriller from Barbour. When Polly Perkins’ camera finds a murder victim, her ability to read emotions through a camera lens could prevent another murder while giving her reason to hope in lasting love.

13. The Lawman’s Christmas Gift; Alaskan Bride Rush, Book 6 by Linda Goodnight — A Romance from Steeple Hill Love Inspired. Love, faith, and a Christmas miracle come to a dying Alaskan town just in the “Nick” of time.

14. Touched by Mercy by Tina Pinson — A Romance from Desert Breeze. The west seems to hold all the answers to Samantha Northam’s dreams, but is it far enough away to protect her from her nightmares?

15. Wasatch Love by Lauralee Bliss — A Romance from Barbour Heartsong Presents. The Wasatch Mountains of Utah holds the key to a young woman’s unhappiness and a man’s desperation.

16. Yuletide Defender by Sandra Robbins — A Suspense/Mystery/Thriller from Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense. A determined reporter, a protective cop, and a threatening gang war are headed for a showdown, just in time for Christmas.

Welcome back to Word Wednesday!  It’s week 17 of the challenge.  How’s it going out there?  If you want to join in, feel free to comment below or to blog at your own site and leave a link for us.  Can’t wait to dive into the book of Esther.  It’s one of my favorites in the Bible.  So much happens, and God shows Himself mightily… even though He is never mentioned by name in the book.  Still, I think I have to go with one of Esther’s most well-known verses as my favorite:

Esther 4:14b (NIV)–And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?

My birthday was Monday.  And so was the ninth anniversary of God’s deliverance in my life.  No more fear!!!  The year He worked that miracle and healed me from a battle with agoraphobia and panic disorder, the school where I taught chose this as our theme verse. It was so true for me in that year.  Had it not been for that school and those teachers and the Bible study I was led to there…  I wonder how God would have chosen to deliver me?  He definitely had me there “for such a time as this.”

As an Army wife, I lean on this verse a lot.  Sometimes I don’t want to move again.  (Fourteen years of marriage…  Nine state-to-state moves…  Eleven different houses…  And counting.)  Sometimes I don’t want to change jobs again.  Find a new church again. Make new friends.  Again and again and again. But this verse reminds me that God sends us where He wants us to go, and the important thing is looking around to see what He asks of us while we’re there.  Sometimes it’s to rest.  Sometimes it’s to dive in over our heads in service.  Sometimes it’s trials, blessings, lessons, growth…  Sometimes someone helps us, and sometimes we get to help somebody.  But always, the key is to know that we are where we are because God has put us in a specific place at a specific time for a specific reason.

It’s not just major life moves.  Are you in the line at the grocery store just in time to chat with the lady who thinks no one can see her pain?   At the library just in time to hold the door for the woman struggling with a baby on her hip and one in a stroller?  This life isn’t arbitrary, folks.  God doesn’t do things–including have the Army send down PCS orders–without a reason.  What’s the reason?  To quote the unstoppable Ferris Bueller, “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

-JB

One of my favorite things to do–and something I should do more often–is to put my Praise and Worship playlist on random and let God bring on whatever He feels like spinning up.  (Yes, I do believe God can control my iPod.  He’s God.)  Last week, shortly after God and I started our most recent dialogue about my failure to surrender, this is the song that came up and brought me to my knees.

Two things are going on here.  First of all, that line, “Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control?”  That’s the point I’d hit.  And suddenly every word of this song started to make sense, because I like to say I “give God everything,” but then I start to put conditions on that surrender.  And I want to be a prayer warrior, but I’m totally craving the safety of the picket fence.  I want to abandon all to God, but then that common sense kicks in.  Yep.  Thank God for musicians who are obedient to write songs that let us know we aren’t alone in our struggles.

But then God said something else to me.  Jesus is intimately acquainted with “the middle.”  Think about it.  No one on this earth has ever been stuck in the middle more than Jesus.  Stuck between heaven and earth.  Stuck between his Divine nature and his physical body.  Stuck between saving himself and saving us.  Stuck on a cross between a hill and the sky.  There’s never been a bigger, deeper, more profound middle than the one Jesus lived in on this earth.  So if I think for one minute he can’t understand when I’m dwelling in the middle, I’m wrong.  He gets it.  One of the reason he came here was so he could understand.  That is the kind of thing I need to know, that when I’m not getting it right, when I feel like I can’t seem to grasp what he’s working in my life and I’m not even sure I want to go there, he’s right there with me, pouring out grace in a way I’ll never be able to measure.  Oh, how much our Jesus loves us!

-JB

From Inkygirl.com…

Going to skip our usual Word Wednesday for today and say this…  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Psalm 100 (KJV)
“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

This is a repost from June 2009 and hopefully the last repost for a while.  Nano has whipped up on me this month, but today I crossed the 50,000-word finish line.  This song was on my mind this week, because I heard the story behind it for the first time.  I don’t know how I didn’t know it already, but I didn’t.  You can google Jeremy Camp and read about it, and I have to say, I stand amazed at God and his ability to bring beauty out of the deepest pain.

Today, I dropped the little monkey off at Bible school and switched from the original Hannah Montana CD to the radio. (Yeah, I said it.) I was treated to one of my favorite songs, Jeremy Camp’s “I Still Believe.” When he sang, “Even when I don’t see, I still believe” the tears whopped me right outta nowhere.

Even when God suddenly goes invisible on us… Even when we go deaf to Him or He stops talking for some reason… Even when we pray and “nothing” happens… Even when the desert is wide and dry… Even when it seems like our prayers bounce off of an invisible ceiling back to us…  We can still believe.

Why? Because God is no liar. He said He’d never leave us and never forsake us. Never. And when God says that, He means it. He. Is. Never. Going. Anywhere. Feeling Him and seeing Him and hearing Him and all of that isn’t what it’s all about. Even when we don’t see, we can still believe. And for some reason, this morning, “even when I don’t see, I still believe” spoke so much love to me from Him that I couldn’t hold it back. See, that line is not a testimony about us and our faith; it’s a testimony about God and His faithfulness.

One other line… “The only place I can go is into your arms where I throw to you my feeble prayers.” Oh… even when He is silent (or I’m not listening, take your pick), where else would I go? Where else could I run? There is none like Him, and no one loves me like He does. Walking through the desert with God in my life is far, far better than walking through life without God at all. Makes me think of Peter in John 6, when Jesus asked if the disciples were going to leave and Peter said (my paraphrase), “Lord, where else would we go?” If you’re thinking about “leaving” God, ask yourself that question. “Where else would I go?” Even in the hard times, there’s nowhere better.

-JB

Sandi Rog is a fellow writer and online friend whose first book, The Master’s Wall, was published just a couple of weeks ago.  The very day her book was released–it should have been the most joyful day–Sandi was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma and began immediate chemo.  The first thing Sandi needs is prayer.  She’s been on Facebook off and on since the diagnosis and beginning of treatment.  If you feel so inclined, please pray for her and perhaps pop over to her Facebook page (just search Sandi Rog) or to her website and let her know she’s on your heart.

The second thing comes from her publisher, and I’ll post a portion of his letter here for you to read:

Hey all,

Well, considering we are a small publishing company and can pretty much do whatever we want, my business partner and I have agreed to donate an additional $1 per book to a Fund that I’ll be setting up this week. Just so no one thinks we are being shady about the whole deal, this is above and beyond the royalties that Sandi (and her agent) is already incurring with every book sold.  The purpose of this fund is to help out Sandi’s family (husband and children) while she is laid up fighting for her life.
What I need from you is simply spread the word. For every copy of “The Master’s Wall” that is sold (including Kindle) we will donate $1 to this Fund.  I’ll also be setting it up so that it can receive regular donations if anyone is interested in just helping out financially.

I want to close by lifting the following prayer up on Sandi’s behalf: Father, I lift my sister before you as her body has been stricken with disease. You know, O God, that she has used her gifts to glorify You and spread your wonderful message of grace and love. It is my humble plea that you would bring her healing and complete recovery. I know You can do this, You are the Great Physician. Please bring Your Spirit into her home as her husband and children continue to live life without her there. They need You. May all that is done bring You glory as our God and Father.In Jesus’ name – AMEN!

I love this idea.  Not only does it help Sandi and her family, but it answers every author’s dream of knowing others are reading and loving their words.  If you’d be willing to purchase Sandi’s book, you can click on the image above to go straight to the Amazon page for it.  I will not receive anything if you go through my site to buy it.  I’m providing the link out of convenience and to help out Sandi.  Thanks, y’all!!!

-JB