The worst thing about Christianity

I found this video online about an upcoming documentary and thought I'd share it with you. It's the perfect example of what I've been talking about recently on this blog: LOVE. Love is the key to opening the human heart. Love is what Jesus did the entire time he was here on earth. Why do we as Christians fall so short?

Go to this site and click to start the video: http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/

The beginning of the end?

I don't know about you, but I'm watching closely the events in this world and the signs that came out of last week's UN meeting, especially as they pertain to the Bible. It astounds me how accurate the Word of God is. Thousands of years ago, God told us through the prophet Ezekiel that not only would He scatter the people of Israel away from their land as punishment for their idolatry, but He also foretold of a time when He would bring them back. (Ezekiel 28,36). I love Ezekiel because it was while I was reading it some 15 years ago that God revealed Himself to me and I turned away from the miserable life I was leading and ran into His arms.

Ezekiel 38 describes a coming war upon Israel. Although there is some debate as to who the nations listed are today, here is a pretty accurate list, give or take a few countries:

Iran

Iraq

What used to be Southern Russia (Turkmenistan, Uzbeckistan, Afghanistan, etc)

Turkey

Ethiopia

Egypt

Ukraine

Byt the way, note that these countries are all muslim.

Here's what we saw in the news last week:

President Ahmadinejad dodged a question about whether his country had enough uranium to manufacture a nuclear weapon and ignored allegations that he wasn't complying with International law by not disclosing that a nuclear facility at Qom had been under construction for years. Basically his speech was fairly innocuous, not at all like his past speeches at the UN where he cited from the Koran and gave praise to Allah and said he saw a blue glow around himself while he spoke. But I would rather he had done that than remain as civilized as he did (Although he did threaten President Obama that he would "Regret his statement" to comply with International law.) I believe he's stalling for time, playing politics, smiling and being polite, lying about his willingness to negotiate. Why? Because he still needs more time to develop his nukes. And I for one, have no doubt that once he does, he will attack Israel.

Ahmadinejad believes that by attacking Israel and creating chaos in the world, he will be ushering in the Islamic messiah, Imam Al-Mahdi. So, he could care less what anyone in the world thinks or anyone in his own country. This is why he scares me so much. Want to hear something creepy. This Al-Mahdi is supposed to sign a 7-year peace treaty with Israel. Sound familiar? Humm

Could this be the beginning of the war described in Ezekiel 38? Only time will tell.

But what concerns me the most is whether or not our country will take a stand with Israel. I believe Prime Minister Netanyahu will do the right thing for his country, but will we stand behind him? We must, not only because Israel is the only democracy in the middle east, but because they are God's chosen people and God will judge all the nations according to how they treated Israel.

I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land.

Joel 3:2

Pray for the Peace of Israel and for God's Kingdom to come upon the earth!

Book giveaway: Cowboy Christmas by Mary Connealy!

And the winner of Daughter of Liberty by J.M. Hochstettler is: georgiadawgs_abby@comcast.net !!!! Thanks, everyone for entering.

This week I have a Wild Card first chapter from Mary Connealy's new book, Cowboy Christmas! If you'd like to enter to win, make a comment on what you thought of the first chapter.

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Mary Connealy

and the book:

A Cowboy Christmas

Barbour Books (September 1, 2009)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

As an award-winning author, Mary Connealy lives on a Nebraska farm with her husband and is the mother of four grown daughters. She writes plays and shorts stories, and is the author of two other novels, Petticoat Ranch and Calico Canyon. Also an avid blogger, Mary is a GED instructor by day and an author by night. For more information on Mary Connealy, visit her Web site at .

Visit the author's website.

Product Details:

List Price: $10.97
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Barbour Books (September 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602601453
ISBN-13: 978-1602601451

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

A mining camp in Missouri, November, 1879


“You’ll wear that dress, Songbird.” Claude Leveque grabbed Annette Talbot’s arm, lifted her to her toes, and shoved her backward.

Annie tripped over a chair and cried out as it toppled. The chair scraped her legs and back. Her head hit the wall of the tiny, windowless shack, and stars exploded in her eyes.

Stunned by the pain, she hit the floor, and an animal instinct sent her scrambling away from Claude. But there was nowhere to go in the twelve-by-twelve-foot cabin.

Her head cleared enough to tell her there was no escape, so she fought with will and faith. “Never.” Propping herself up on her elbows, she faced him and shouted her defiance. “I will never go out in public in that dress.”

“You’ll sing what I tell you to sing.” Claude, in his polished suit and tidily trimmed hair, looked every inch civilized—or he had, until tonight. Now he strode toward her, eyes shooting furious fire, his face twisted into soul-deep rot and sin.

“I sing as a mission.” Annie tried to press her back through the unyielding log wall. “I sing hymns. That’s the only thing—”

A huge fist closed over the front of her blouse, and Claude lifted her like a rag doll to eye level, but he didn’t strike.

He would. He’d proved that several times over since he’d come here with his disgusting demands.

She braced herself. She’d die first. Claude might not believe that, but he’d know before long.

“So, you’re willing to die for your beliefs, heh?” Claude’s fist tightened on her blouse, cutting off Annie’s air.

“Yes!” She could barely speak, but he heard. He knew.

“Are you willing to watch someone else die, Songbird? Maybe your precious friend, Elva?” He shook her and her head snapped back. “I can always find another piano player.”

“No!” Annie had to save Elva. Somehow. Of course Elva would be threatened. Annie hadn’t had time to think that far.

Elva would never stand for this. Elva would die for her beliefs, too.

A wicked laugh escaped from Claude’s twisted mouth. “She’s easily replaced. But I’ll never”—he shook her viciously—“find another singer like you.”

How had it come to this? God help me. Protect Elva and me.

“My answer is no! Elva wouldn’t play the piano for me if I wore that.” Her eyes went to the slattern’s dress hanging, vivid red, near the door. “She would refuse to play the piano for those vulgar songs.”

“We’ll see, Songbird.” Claude laughed again.

Annie saw the evil in him, the hunger to hurt. He wasn’t just hurting Annie to get his way. He was enjoying it. Her vision dimmed and blurred as she clawed at his strangling fist.

“I’ll go have a talk with your frail old friend and then we’ll see.” He shoved Annie backward, slamming her against the wall.

She hit so hard her knees buckled. What little air she still had was knocked away.

Claude charged out, shutting the door behind him.

Annie heard the sound of a padlock snicking shut as she slumped sideways.

She became aware of her surroundings with no idea how much time had passed. In the falling darkness, she could barely make out blood dripping down the front of her dress. Tears diluted the blood and she wept.

“Do something, idiot! You can’t just sit here crying.”

Annie proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was indeed an idiot by burying her face in her hands and sobbing her heart out. The tears burned. She swiped at them and flinched from the pain in her blackened eye.

Shuddering, she lifted her battered face from her hands and looked at the dress. It seemed to glow in the dim light, as if the very fires of the devil gave it light. Indecent, vivid red silk with black fringe. No bodice worth mentioning, the front hem cut up nearly to the knees. The garment was horrible and disgusting, and Annie’s shudders deepened. She shouted at the walls of the tiny, solidly locked cabin, “I won’t do it!”

Claude had known before he’d asked that Annie would never wear that sinful dress and sing those bawdy songs. Touching gingerly her throbbing, swollen cheek, Annie pulled her hand away and saw blood. Her lip was split, her nose bleeding. She knew Claude’s fists had been more for his own cruel pleasure than any attempt at coercion.

“Beat me to death if you want,” she yelled at the door. “I will never again perform onstage for you!” She felt strong, righteous. Ready to die for her faith.

Then she thought of Elva. Annie’s elderly accompanist was maybe, right now, being punished because Annie hadn’t fallen in line.

Claude’s cruel threats rang in her ears even with him gone.

For all her utter commitment to refusing the Leveques and singing only her beloved hymns, how could Annie watch Elva be hurt? Could Annie stand on principle while Elva was beaten?

The welts on Annie’s arm, in the perfect shape of Claude Leveque’s viselike hand, along with Annie’s swollen eye and bleeding lip, proved the hateful man knew how to inflict pain. He’d proved he had no compunction in hurting a helpless woman.

Noise outside her prison brought Annie to her feet. He was coming back! Annie was sick to think what the couple would do to the elderly woman who had spent her older years worshipping God with music.

Sick with fear that they’d force Annie to watch Elva being battered, Annie clenched her fists and prayed. God would never agree that Annie should wear that tart’s dress, sing vile, suggestive songs, and flash her legs for drunken men.

But Elva!

Please, Lord, guide me though this dark valley.

A key rattled in the doorway.

Annie braced herself. If she could get past Claude, she would run, find Elva, and get away. Go somewhere, somehow. Throw herself on the mercy of the men in this logging camp—the very ones Claude said would pay to see that dreadful harlot’s gown.

The wooden door of the secluded, one-room shack swung hard and crashed against the wall. Elva fell onto her knees, clutching her chest. “You have to run!” Elva, eyes wild with terror, lifted her head. Annie saw Elva’s face was battered; a cut on her cheek bled freely.

Expecting Claude and Blanche to be right behind the gray-haired woman, Annie rushed forward and dropped to Elva’s side. “Elva, what did they do to you?”

“I heard. . .I heard Claude making plans, awful plans for you. He caught me eavesdropping. He thought he’d knocked me cold, but I lay still and waited until he left. He’d hung the key on a nail, and I stole it and slipped away to set you free.” Elva staggered to her feet, every breath echoed with pain. She stretched out a shaking hand, and Annie saw Elva’s black velvet reticule. The one the sweet pianist, who made Annie’s voice sound as pretty as a meadowlark, carried always. “There’s money. All I’ve saved.” Elva coughed, cutting off her words. She breathed as if it hurt. “T–Take it and go. There’s a wagon. It’s already left, but run, catch it. Ride to town. Enough.” Coughing broke her voice again and Elva’s knees wobbled. She clung tight to Annie. “Enough for one train ticket.”

Annie realized what Elva was saying. “No, I won’t leave you.”

“It’s my heart.” Elva sagged sideways, clutching her chest. Annie couldn’t hold her dead weight, slight though Elva was. They both lowered to the floor. “When Claude landed his first blow, I felt my heart give out. Oh, Annie, the things he threatened for you. The evil, ugly words from a serpent’s mouth. My precious girl. Run. You must run.”

“I won’t leave you. They’ll kill you, Elva.”

“No. My heart. I’ve felt it coming for months and tonight’s the end. They can’t harm me anymore.”

“Elva, don’t talk like that.” Tears wanted to fall, but Annie had no time for such weakness. “You’re all I have!”

“Your father. Go home.”

“He doesn’t want me. You know that.”

Elva’s hand closed over the already bruised place on Annie’s wrist. Elva clearly saw what Annie had already suffered at Claude’s hands. “Go. There’s no time. What they want from you is a fate worse than death.”

Annie gasped. Those words could mean only one thing. She glanced at the indecent dress. A harlot’s dress.

“God is calling me home, my beautiful girl. He’s taking me b–because He knows you’d never leave me. God in heaven is rescuing us both. I’ll go home and so will you. I believe that.”

Annie looked into Elva’s eyes, and even now they clouded over.

“Go. Please. It’s my fault you’re in this place. I thought we’d bring the Lord to these people with your beautiful singing. I convinced you to stay when the Leveques took over. If you stay I will have died for nothing, Sw–Sweet Annie.”

Elva’s grip tightened until Annie nearly cried out in pain. Then as quickly as the spasm had come, it was gone.

And so was Elva. She sank, lifeless, to the floor.

Annie saw the very moment Elva’s spirit left her body—a heartbreaking, beautiful moment, because now Elva was beyond pain.

But Annie wasn’t.

“If you stay I will have died for nothing.”

A loud snap of a twig jerked Annie’s head around. She gazed into the nearby woods surrounding the sequestered shack she’d been locked in. The Leveques were coming.

“What they want from you is a fate worse than death.”

As if God Himself sent lightning to jolt her, Annie clutched Elva’s reticule, leaped to her feet, and ran.

“There’s a wagon. It’s already left, but run, catch it. Ride to town.”

Annie gained the cover of the woods and, without looking back, began moving with painstaking silence.

She heard Claude’s shout of rage when he discovered the cabin door ajar.

Poor Elva. No one to bury her. No one to make her funeral a testimony to her life of faith.

Annie hated herself for running away. It was cowardly. There had to be some way to stay and pay proper respect, see to a decent Christian burial. Every decent part of herself said, “Go back. Face this.”

She kept moving. Elva had insisted on it. Common sense confirmed it. God whispered it in her heart to move, hurry, be silent.

Silence was her only weapon and Annie used it. She’d learned silence in the mountains growing up, slipping up on a deer or an elk. Slipping away from a bear or a cougar.

As much as Annie had loved her mountain home, she’d never learned to hunt. Pa fed the family. But she loved the woods and was skilled in their use.

Heading for the trail to town, she was careful to get close enough to not lose her way but stay off to the side.

Not long after she’d started out, she saw Claude storming down the trail toward town. He’d catch the wagon Elva spoke of long before she did. And, she hoped, insist on searching it. Once Claude assured himself that Annie wasn’t there, she’d have her chance.

Annie felt the bite of the cool night air. She heard an owl hoot in the darkness. The rustle of the leaves covered tiny sounds she might make as she eased along. She knew the trail. She knew the night. She knew the woods.

All of it was filled with treachery.

Unfortnately, I only received this book in the mail last week, so I haven't been able to dive into it yet to give you my review. I will say, however, that I've read other books by Ms. Connealy and she is a fantastic writer. In fact, she was nominated for a Christy award this past year. Anyway, I'm willing to give my copy away. So simply leave a comment about your thoughts on the first chapter and I'll draw a winner Next Friday.

Fort McHenry and the American Spirit.

It was a cloudy, stormy day when I visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore last week. Oddly enough, I soon learned that the night of the British bombardment, it was also a stormy night. This tiny fort sits out on a circular peninsula that guards the entrance to Baltimore's harbor. I planned my trip here long before I discovered that the very weekend I intended to go, Fort McHenry was hosting a war reenactment. That's what I call a God moment! If you don't know what happened at this fort, it's a great story that will inspire you and bolster your patriotism.

On the night of September 14th, 1814, The British Navy (The most powerful navy in the world at that time) attacked the tiny port town of Baltimore, both on land and by sea. The British labeled Baltimore a "nest of pirates" because of all the privateers which were launched from there during the war and all the havoc they caused among British merchant ships. Now, the British intended retribution. Once they had Baltimore, they believed they would continue on and conquer the entire nation.

Here's a picture of the fort. It isn't very large.

and the inside

What most people don't know is that after the British burned Washington and our President, Madison was on the run, Baltimore was left completely on it's own. There was no major army there except for around 1000 troops that were comprised of both army and citizen milita. No one as coming to their aid. They were all alone. Off shore, not 2 miles from the fort sat the British fleet--the most powerful navy in the world at that time.

Here is a picture of the cannons which surrounded the fort and pointed out toward the harbor

And here, I got an awesome picture of the Pride of Baltimore sailing by the fort and firing upon them.

The bombardment began on the evening of Sept 14, 1814. For the next 25 hours some 1,800 rockets and cannon bombs were launched at the fort. Unfortunately, the British fleet was out of the Fort's range so all the men could do was duck and cover.

Here's a picture of the marching band at the fort. Their duty was to wake up the troops and play during marching and battle and at special events

Check out this cool shot of a musket firing!

and the men manning the cannons

The miracle of this story is that only a handful of men were killed and a few more injured. As the story goes, a lawyer by the name of Francis Scott Key was on a nearby ship witnesses the bombardment of the fort. When the bombing ceased, he feared the worst--that the fort had fallen. But by dawn's early light, he saw the American Flag still flying above the fort and he was so overcome with emotion that he wrote our Star Spangled Banner.

In Book 3 of in my upcoming series you'll find out much more about Francis Scott Key.

Here is a picture of he and his wife. They were quite personable and willing to answer all of our questions:

All in all, I learned a lot and had a great time!

I've been thinking a lot about pride lately and how it was the first sin of mankind, and especially how it is so pervasive in our present society. In fact, pride seems to be encouraged among our youth. Where is humility to be found these days?

I heard Beth Moore once state that Pride is the complete Anti-God state of mind. Not only that but I've come to realize that pride is also a form of anti-love. Pride makes it impossible to truly love others. When a person has pride, they are always focusing on themselves and their achievements and never on others. Pride is self-honoring, self-serving and highly judgmental of others. It is never satisfied until it is better than everyone around it.

Yea, yea, you say. I've heard all that before. What has that to do with me? I'm a pretty humble person. In fact, I don't think very highly of myself at all. I'm extremely insecure and prefer to stay out of the limelight. Really? Me too. I always thought I must be the humblest person on the planet. But you know what I discovered? I have just as much pride as the person who loves the attention and flaunts themselves around. Insecurity is a very insidious form of pride and I think the worst form because it fools us into thinking we are humble. When we are insecure, when we are worried about what others think, when we think we are humble, what are we doing except focusing all our thoughts on ourselves.

You see, humility is the complete absence of self awareness. A truly humble person does not spend his time thinking about himself. When he is with other people, he isn't worried about what they think of him or thinking how their presence can benefit him. He is truly With them in every sense because his thoughts are on them and them alone.

Remember this verse in Philippians 2:5-7 ?
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

If you study the Greek word for the participle "being" you'll discover that based on its context, the actual meaning is "because" In other words, Jesus did not make himself of no reputation despite the fact that He was God. No, He did it because that type of humility is the very nature of God. His humility was revealing who God really is.
That blew me away. How far short I fall from such a standard.

Let us all ask God to reveal areas of pride in our hearts and to show us how we can change and become as humble as He is. What a different world this would be!

Can ye talk like a pirate, eh?

In honor of National Talk Like a Pirate day (That's today!!), one of me favorite holidays, to be sure, I'm havin' this contest. Do yer best to give as many correct answers as possible in translatin' th' pirate slang below and ye can have yer pick o' the following prizes.

Any copy of my pirate series, signed and delivered: The Redemption, The Reliance, The Restitution

Or

Any copy of my Charles Towne Belles series: The Red Siren, The Blue Enchantress, The Raven Saint (I won't have this last one until late December)

Or

A CD from Echoes of Nature entitled : Ocean Waves (for those moments when ye find yerself landlocked and need a fix o' the sea)

Show a glim : Show a glim, ye drunken dogs!

Scupper this : Blast ye, woman! Where's your hide? Rum! And scupper all this!

Bowse up : So, bowse up, lad, stand away wit' me and rum it shall be.

This is spleen: Hum! This is spleen! A megrim or fit o' your ladylike vapors!

Pish : Set him adrift. Pish, the same miraculous power that is to bring him provisions, can also bring him a sail.

Seadog : To it, lads. . . at 'em, old seadogs!

Cull : And look'ee, my dainty cull, when you've seen as much o' death as Mings.....

boosy : When did ever gentlemen of fortune turn astern to that much dollars for a boosy old seaman? And him dead, too

So, do yer best, ye toad-eatin' ninnies or by the powers, I'll send ye aloft during a squall!

Winner will be announced in 2 weeks.

Winner of Bride Bargain and new book giveaway: Daughter of Liberty!

And the winner of The Bride Bargain is.... Mindy!!! Thanks to all who entered!

This week's book giveaway is Daughter of Liberty by J.M. Hochestetler. This is book 1 in The American Patriot series. I've read book 3 and it was incredible!!
Here's the back cover blurb

It's Eastertide, April 1775, and in Boston, circumstances are escalating toward a fateful confrontation between the British Regulars and the Sons of Liberty. Caught in the rift between Whig and Tory, Elizabeth Howard is torn between her love for her prominent parents, who have strong ties with the British, and her secret opposition as the infamous courier Oriole, to England

Elizabeth must learn when the Regulars plan to seize a critical store of munitions. But she hasn't counted on the arrival of Jonathan Carleton, a captain in the Seventeenth Light Dragoons. To Elizabeth's dismay, the attraction between them is immediate, powerful, and fought on both sides in a war of wits and words. As Carleton quickly wins General Thomas Gage's confidence and the assignment to ferret out Oriole, Elizabeth realizes he is her most dangerous foe--and the possessor or her heart.

Wow! Just leave a comment and your email address to enter to win. I'll draw a name next Friday.

Also tune in tomorrow for another small contest on Talk like a pirate day, and bring yer pirate dictionary, ye slaggards!

Back from Baltimore!

Hi everyone! I'm back in California, safe and sound. We flew in around 11:00 PM last night which was our 2:00 AM EST. Yikes, am I tired! But, it's good to be home. I had a great time and gathered a lot of information for my next series. I spent the first two days around Baltimore's inner harbor which is where the early city was developed and where my characters will be interacting. Even though the harbor looks very different now, I like to close my eyes and imagine what it looked like back then. I take in the smells and the feel of the wind on my face, which helps me to get a good sense of a place. (Plus, I simply had to sample that Maryland Crabcake--for reseach purposes, of course) I already posted a few pictures of The Constellation, but I'll post a few more here too. And some below of the Naval Academy.




Captain's Stateroom











Sailor, firing off a gun













Master's quarters







Sickbay









Captain's private bath
View of the Harbor

Cannon on deck


On Friday, my husband and I spent the day an hour south at Annapolis at the Naval Academy. We were able to attend two of our daughter's classes, go to lunch with the midshipmen, watch a full dress parade and attend the Navy football game. It was great to see our daughter! We are so proud of her. She's doing so well at the Academy.

The Parade!

And here's a view of the Academy yard. It's one of the most beautiful college campuses I've ever seen.


And finally, my hubby and our daughter, Christine!



If you've made it this far, I'll be posting pictures of Fort McHenry later in the week. I was able to attend the War of 1812 Reenactment there and captured a battle on video!!

Also, I'll pick the winner of Bride Bargain on Friday and offer another book drawing!

Have a wonderful day!

Pictures from Baltimore

I don't have much time to write, but thought I'd share a couple of pictures from The Constellation. This is a US Navy sailing vessel used in the Civil War. The original Constellation was a Frigate and was used in the war of 1812.

Here's the stern

The gun deck!! My favorite spot.

The berth where the sailors slept in hammocks

And the captain's cabin.

I spent 4 hours on board and took part in three different hands-on activities:

Loading, priming, running-out and firing a cannon!
Using the Capstan to haul cargo on board
Using the Braces to shift the yards on the mizzen mast.

I also toured the home of Mary Pickersgill who made the huge flag that flew over Ft. McHenry. Her original home from 1812 is still standing! Here's the outside:

Tomorrow is the Maryland Historical Society and Saturday the War of 1812 Reenactment at Fort McHenry!

I hope all of you are well and having a great week!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Baltimore I go!

Tomorrow I'm getting on a plane in California at 6:00 AM (Is anyone up at that hour? Yikes) and crossing the entire country to the east coast, landing in Baltimore, MD. My plan is to spend two days doing research in and around the inner harbor area for my next series, Surrender to Destiny. All three books take place in Baltimore in 1812. On Thursday night, I'm picking up my hubby, who is flying in to join me and we are traveling to Annapolis to visit our daughter attending the Naval Academy. I'll be back in Baltimore Saturday night for the grand War of 1812 Reenactment at Fort McHenry! Very exciting. I hope to be taking lots of pictures and will post them here as soon as I can.

Allow me to share with you a brief list of some of my biggest fears: (I have more than these!)
1. Traveling by myself
2. Cockroaches
3. Public Speaking

Notice the first one. Yes, indeed, I am terrified of flying somewhere by myself, finding a rental car and trying to find my way in a strange city to my hotel. Even then, I'm afraid of going out and about in a strange city by myself. Yes, I know I'm a coward. Not at all like the heroines in my books, eh? LOL. Yet it seems God has been forcing me to face my biggest fears a lot lately (Well all except the cockroaches, thank goodness. I had enough of them in South Florida when I was growing up)

Fear is the opposite of faith, right? And without faith, it is impossible to please God, so when I am afraid, I'm not pleasing God, and that alone makes me want to desperately change. But how do we do that? Fear is not something we can control. I believe God wants us to face our fears and not cower before them. In other words, don't always take the easy road. Do the thing that scares you the most if you feel God leading you there. I think what you'll discover is that the thing you were frightened of the most is nothing at all in the face of an awesome, loving God.

What are you afraid of the most? What are your biggest fears? The death of a loved one, sickness, being alone, an accident, whatever they are, deal with each one individually by bringing them to God and asking yourself what if these things happened? What if? If you are the child of the one true and living God who is all powerful, all knowing and all loving, what if such and such happened. So what? Wouldn't God take care of it? Wouldn't He bring good out of it?

It's only when we are faced with our biggest fears that we discover if we really do believe in God and if we really do trust Him. Maybe that's why sometimes He allows us to confront our fears. He wants to show us that we can count on Him through thick and thin, through the good times and through the bad times.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline 2 Tim 1:7

So, tomorrow, I'm facing one of my biggest fears. But I know deep down I'm not alone and no matter what happens, I'm in God's capable hands. So, what are your biggest fears?

Book giveaway: The Bride Bargain by Kelly Eileen Hake!

And the winner of last week's giveaway: On a Someday by Roxanne Henke is Mimi!
Congratulations and thank you all for entering

And now, The Bride Bargain. Kelly the author is a friend of mine. I've done several book signings with her and she's an absolute doll and great fun to hang out with. She's probably the youngest writer I've ever met at age 24.
Here's a blurb about the book:

1815 Nebraska
A Resolute Woman
When dropped from the wagon train for not pulling their load, Clara Fields is desperate to provide for he newly-widowed aunt. Josiah Reed, owner of the Buttonwood Feed and Dry goods Store, makes Clara what seems a heaven-sent bargain: he'll sign over his 2-story house if she can marry his son off to a local girl in the next month...

And a Determined Doctor
Dr. Saul Reed agrees to watch his father's store while Josiah is away, thinking the slow pace of the prairie will be a welcome respite before Saul establishes his medical practice in Baltimore. But when he finds pretty Clara Fields installed in his father's house, the gleam in her green eyes promises anything but peace and quiet.

Find more than they bargained for
With his bachelorhood at stake, and her ability to provide for herself and her aunt hanging in the balance, Saul and Clara face off in an unlikely battle... Will God soften two stubborn hearts and strike a new bride bargain?

If you'd be interested in winning this book, just leave a comment with your email address.

And have a great weekend!