I don’t know if this is for me, or for someone else, but Sunday, as busy as it was, seemed to have a theme running through it regarding continuing the fight because victory is found in Christ! I was sent running for a note sheet three times. At breakfast, even before I got to Church, a solo I used to sing came back to mind: Praise the Lord. At the time I sang it, it was attributed to Russ Taff who has sadly given in to the battle in one area of sin in his life. When this particular song came to mind Sunday morning, I questioned it at first, because I don’t support what Russ is doing these days. Today as I was going through my notes and looking up each song that came to me, I discovered that his name is no longer on this song at least as far as CCLI, the North American regulatory licensing agency is concerned. Information for this song now reads: Song Number: 19832 |Authors: Brown Bannister, Mike Hudson | Copyright© 1978 Word Music, LLC (a div. of Word Music Group, Inc.) | Catalog info Word Music, LLC | Administrator Info Word Music Group, Inc.
Another song playing during pre-service at Church was by Hillsongs, and I do like much of the music that has come out of that church. The song title is “Victor’s Crown”. Then Sunday evening at the Southern Gospel Concert I was assisting with, another song was shared, “I’m Not Giving Up!”.
I would like to share the lyrics to these songs, in the order they came to me:
Praise the Lord
Lyrics
When you’re up against a struggle That shatters all your dreams And your hopes have been cruelly crushed By Satan’s manifested scheme And you feel the urge within you To submit to earthly fears Don’t let the faith you’re standin’ in Seem to disappear
Praise the Lord He can work through those who praise Him Praise the Lord For our God inhabits praise Praise the Lord
For the chains that seem to bind you Serve only to remind you That they drop powerless behind you When you praise Him
Now Satan is a liar And he wants to make us think That we are paupers when he knows himself We’re children of the King So lift up the mighty shield of faith For the battle must be won We know that Jesus Christ is risen So the work’s already done
Praise Him praise Him When you praise Him when you praise Him When you praise the Lord
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Song Number: 19832 |Authors: Brown Bannister, Mike Hudson | Copyright© 1978 Word Music, LLC (a div. of Word Music Group, Inc.) | Catalog info Word Music, LLC | Administrator Info Word Music Group, Inc.
“VICTOR’S CROWN”
Written by: Darlene Zschech, Israel Houghton, Kari Jobe
Lyrics
You are always fighting for us Heaven’s angels all around My delight is found in knowing That You wear the Victor’s crown You’re my help and my defender You’re my Saviour and my friend By Your grace I live and breathe To worship You
At the mention of Your greatness In Your Name I will bow down In Your presence fear is silent For You wear the Victor’s crown Let Your glory fill this temple Let Your power overflow By Your grace I live and breathe To worship You
Hallelujah You have overcome You have overcome Hallelujah Jesus You have overcome the world
You are ever interceding As the lost become the found You can never be defeated For You wear the Victor’s crown You are Jesus the Messiah You’re the Hope of all the world By Your grace I live and breathe To worship You
Every high thing must come down Every stronghold shall be broken You wear the Victor’s crown You overcome You overcome
At the cross the work was finished You were buried in the ground But the grave could not contain You For You wear the Victor’s crown
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Darlene Zschech, Israel Houghton, Kari Jobe
© 2013 Integrity’s Praise! Music/Sound of the New Breed/BMI, Integrity Worship Music/ASCAP, EWI, Inc./APRA (all adm by Integrity Music via at EMICMGPublishing.com), Worship Together Music/BMI (adm at EMICMGPublishing.com)
I’M NOT GIVING UP
by Squire Parsons
Lyrics
Well, I’m not givin’ up, no, I’m not turnin’ ’round, By the grace of God, I’ll win a shinin’ crown someday. Well, I’ll keep holdin’ on to that nail scarred hand; I’m not givin’ up, No, I’ll keep goin’ on.
I’ve been walkin’ through the valley, thru this vale of tears; At times I’ve even questioned even if my Lord was near. Many times that ol’ tempter says, “Why not turn around? You can’t get any farther, you’re just losin’ ground.”
But, I’m not givin’ up, no, I’m not turnin’ ’round, By the grace of God, I’ll win a shinin’ crown someday. Well, I’ll keep holdin’ on to that nail scarred hand; I’m not givin’ up, No, I’ll keep goin’ on.
Would you mind to tell me, there’s been something bothering me? Why is it that old devil just won’t let God’s children be? You see he has purposed and determined to get right in the way; And turn us from the way of life and lead our souls astray.
But, I’m not givin’ up, no, I’m not turnin’ ’round, By the grace of God, I’ll win a shinin’ crown someday. I’ll keep holdin’ on to that nail scarred hand; I’m not givin’ up, No, I’ll keep goin’ on. No, I’m not givin’ up, no, I’m not turnin’ ’round, By the grace of God, I’ll win a shinin’ crown someday. I’ll keep holdin’ on to that nail scarred hand; I’m not givin’ up, No, I’ll keep goin’ on. I’m not turnin’ ’round, By the grace of God, I’ll win a shinin’ crown someday. I’ll keep holdin’ on to that nail scarred hand;
I’m not givin’ up, No, I’ll keep goin’ on.
************
(Having trouble finding copyright information publicly on this song)
I deliberately got rid of the poetic stanza breaks because I want the reader to read each set of lyrics apart from the usual song-style breaks. Read the message in these lyrics.
The fight isn’t over. These songs are shared on my pinterest board, “Songs that Impact Me”. I haven’t added to that board in awhile, but these needed adding. God speaks to me through lyrics via songs that sing about what God has already said in His Word. Does anyone else out there need this encouragement?
In the cadence of that familiar relational ditty known to so many in North America;
First came doubt, then came desire, then came sin on the funeral pyre.
Of this I speak of Genesis Chapter 3. satan offered seeds of doubt that Eve allowed to germinate in her mind. We aren’t told of the length of time between the planting and the germinating, but it would appear to have happened fairly quickly in this particular instance. Allowing the seed of doubt to germinate opened up Eve’s other senses and considerations. She took a second look at the fruit on the tree. Her own logic began to take over. The fruit was beautiful. The fruit was otherwise there for nourishment, and eating it bore the promise of great wisdom! Interestingly enough, none of those claims about the fruit of this tree were false. Nothing God makes is ever ugly, useless, harmful or detrimental in any way. All these claims were true, and because of the last claim, there were certain pieces of wisdom that God felt the human race did not require, so Adam and Eve had been instructed to avoid this particular fruit. God had placed before them a choice. His directive, or his fallen foe’s directive. Which would they choose?
Back to Eve now, she had been given a seed of doubt, she took that seed and began to examine the fruit’s characteristics against it. Notice satan didn’t do this, she did this. All he did was offer the doubt and explain his own faulty logic for the offer. She took his logic, mixed it with her own observations, and decided that God was holding out on her. There was no logical reason in her mind why God would withhold something good from her, so she took matters into her own hands, reached out, and ate of the forbidden fruit. Only then would the consequences of what she’d done begin to dawn on her. However, those consequences could have been redeemed if her husband had not followed suit and ate of the fruit with her.
This is the first recorded case in Scripture where the head of the home brought it down to its knees. Even before God had to pronounce judgement for this first sin, Adam was assumed to be the head of his household, and God speaks to him as such after the blame game has finally ended. The level of wisdom God was withholding from His prize creation involved that of good and evil, right and wrong. . . . God knew that if they obeyed His directive, that the knowledge of sin as discovered by satan, would stay with satan and his fallen angels, and God would forever have the companionship He longed for in mankind. But God wanted mankind to be made in His image, which meant giving them a free will. A free will means the ability to choose, and because He had not made them gods in themselves, they would be able to choose for the better or worse, just as a third of His angels had done.
So Man and Wife together listened to the wife’s logic fed by the serpent’s doubting lies, and sin entered the world. They became aware of visual appearances that hadn’t mattered before. They became aware of the need to manage those appearances. They became fearful of God when they hadn’t been in the past. They engaged in the first ever blame game, passing the buck as we sometimes say, with the first ever hoped-for avoidance of discipline for their actions. Unfortunately for them, all three entities involved in the blame game were disciplined, and that discipline has carried on to this day. The serpent’s body has been identified by biologists as indeed having nubs in the skeleton where arms and legs used to be. Women give birth in pain and sometimes even die in childbirth. Farmers continue to grow meat and produce at the sweat of their brow and at the mercy of the climate in which they live.
BUT. . . all is not lost! Hope is given to us in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” This is the first recorded prophecy of the Messiah Who would come.
The Tree of Life will one day stand again on the new earth. Jesus has become The Way, The Truth, and The Life, and all who choose to bow at the foot of the Cross, sometimes referred to in the New Testament as “the tree”, will obtain that life and the benefits that come with it. Indeed the Fruit of the Spirit is beautiful. The Fruit of the Spirit is there not merely for our nourishment but the nourishment of the Body of Christ, and the Fruit of the Spirit brings with it wisdom. All these things are true and can’t be skewed by any seed of doubt. Faulty logic will teach that one must work to earn these fruit in their lives, but the real trick to obtaining them is not through our own works and our own sense of prideful accomplishment, but through submission and surrender to the Holy Spirit’s desire to work in and through us.
Today as at that very first incident, satan or his minions can come along and try to plant seeds of doubt backed up by faulty selfish logic. We can either entertain those seeds and mull over that logic, mingling it with our own as we assess the situation before us in our human intellect, or we can toss those seeds aside, kick out the faulty logic, and embrace God’s ways instead. All satan has to do is plant a seed. Humanity has the capability to nourish that seed or starve it by the choices and thought processes we employ to deal with it. Sometimes it really does seem as if God is withholding something beneficial from us and our human logic can’t wrap around that apparent reality. Rather than doing as Eve did and taking matters into our own hands to avail ourselves of the benefit of what we are being denied, it would be better if we go to God and seek to understand His logic for the apparent denial. Perhaps God will offer an answer, other times He will ask us to trust Him. From personal experience I can tell you dear reader, that choosing to trust God when you don’t have the answer for this apparent denial will eventually show you the reason in hindsight after you are long past that situation! Then you will be glad you listened, glad you waited and glad you had the self-control to remain obedient to God because you will have avoided the fate that would have awaited you otherwise.
God knows what He’s doing. We may not always understand the why’s and wherefore’s at the time, but God truly does know what He’s doing. Just because everything seems on the up and up in our own understanding, doesn’t mean there are dangers on the other side if we put our logic above God’s directives. God knows best. Trust Him.
Taking the Book Marketing Challenge May 2014 was, by and large, a very encouraging daily part of my activities. The first week was largely confirmation of everything I’ve already been doing to build my author platform, with a few tidbits of information I’ve added to my marketing calendar. Week two was all about building your list, with one of the topics relating to repurposing your content into other forms you can offer either as a freebie or at a discount to build your list. The third week built on this concept of repurposed content by talking about building multiple income streams for your book. The fourth week dealt more with marketing strategies, some of which I could grasp and some I wasn’t that keen on. This last week of the challenge has been all about virtual book tours.
Prior to taking this challenge, I’d been looking at ways to take a tiny e-book I’d written, “Practical Thoughts on Becoming an Author”, (paid link)and turn it into a workshop or e-course. I wasn’t sure at first which way to go with this and had already attempted to put on a workshop locally that only one person signed up for! Another author couldn’t afford the $25 registration fee, so I sent them the ebook for free. I was in the process of breaking down the content of the workshop into daily sessions when we got to the week on list-building. By the time we got to the week on multiple income streams, my ebook was undergoing review by another author, but it wouldn’t be till the fourth week that the e-course would actually go live.
I view this 19-day $15 e-course as another income stream for the e-book, “Practical Thoughts on Becoming an Author”. It costs more than the e-book, but the reviewer told me that I’ve given it a bargain price-tag already and that I could have charged more!
At the same time I was starting to think about a book tour for my next book, “A Year in Prayer With Jesus”. Some aspects of the challenge talked about creating buzz for your book before it comes out. I am hoping for 30 bloggers for this pre-launch book tour, and have 6 bloggers on board so far, representing 9 blogs that I have been invited to utilize for this tour. One of the give-aways on this tour will be my $15 e-course when people sign up for my monthly newsletter. I actually have one student who came into the course via the newsletter sign-up link already and they are half-way through the course now. When this blog tour is over, I’ll be removing the e-course as a freebie and putting the e-book in it’s place. The reason for this, is that as far as income streams go, at only $15 per registration, if I was to get just 5 sign-ups a day, every single day, I could earn just over $2k per month!!! That would go a long way to easing up on my current financial struggles!
I’ve created a permanent page here on my blog for this course, simply titled, “$15 e-course”. A slideshare presentation has been added, and in case that doesn’t work for someone for some reason, the content of the presentation is given further down the page. I am using gumroad.com to manage the purchase of the e-course, and their purchase system lets you buy it as a gift for others as well.
I have created a 1/3rd off discount offer just for any BMC members who would be interested in this course. The code is currently shared over at the BMC fan page on Facebook. As this blog hop is public, I will send that code to any BMC members who contact me stating they took The Book Marketing Challenge May 2014. If you choose to gift this course to another author, please do so at full rate.
For those considering offering an e-course, I am using a self-hosted installation of WordPress, with the mailpoet newsletter plugin. Mailpoet has regular newsletters and autoresponders that you can use. You can have more than one list as well. So now that I know how to set this up for one book, I may see about ways of doing this for either other books, or simply other courses that I may be able to offer.
Thank you D’Vorah for hosting this course, and thank you Shelley Hitz for sharing this course with your mailing list! I took the BMC as a silver member because finances are beyond tight right now, but what I gleaned from the challenge has been both encouraging and empowering.
Hope everyone is enjoying the blog hop.
Philippians 4:5-13 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. 10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Spellen opens up her final devotional session with Philippians 4:8-9. As is my habit, I like to look at the context of each verse or passage shared, and felt the need to share today’s context. Spellen makes an incredibly powerful statement in one paragraph, that I’ve been doing my best to tell others as well! It is a series of statements that most Christians I’ve met are all too eager and even forceful about refusing to accept. She says the following:
“It’s important that we censor the music we listen to, the TV programs we watch, the books and magazines we read, the games we play, and the places we frequent. All of these activities influence our thinking and therefore our behavior. Whatever we feed on will eventually be revealed in our conversations and decision-making. It’s like eating with our mouths open. Everyone can see all that we have taken in – the garbage that we consume will be highly visible to others. The only way to prevent it from spewing out of our pores and giving off a foul stench is to change our mental, physical, and spiritual
diets. The Bible tells us that as a man thinks so is he (Proverbs 23:7)”. (from page 70 of The Waiting Room in the copy I was given to review, copyright either 2012 or 2013)
We are also told in Proverbs 4:23-27 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. 24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. 25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. 26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. 27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
Here in this passage, we are told to be careful what we speak, what we see, where we go, and what we do. Let us go and sit for a moment at the feet of Jesus as He offers a few words about what we allow into our hearts:
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:27-30 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
Matthew 6:19-24 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 15:7-9 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Matthew 15:10-11 And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: 11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Matthew 15:17-20 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
So if the heart, when left to itself is so wicked, what do we have to do in order to put Philippians 4:8-9 and Proverbs 4:23-27 into practice? This is where context comes in. The answer has already been given to us in the surrounding verses in Philippians 4. I would encourage the reader to read that entire chapter as it is very powerful! In addition, The Psalmist nailed it on the head when he repeatedly wrote in various Psalms, that spending time in God’s Word kept him from evil, guarded his footsteps, lighted his path, taught him the right way, right thoughts, right words, right worship, how to judge good from evil, and so much more! He says in Psalm 119:
Psalms 119:9-11 BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. 10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Paul reflects these sentiments in Romans 12:1-3 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
We renew our minds by deliberate, methodical, and purposeful efforts to spend time with God and in His Word, and applying what God teaches us to our everyday life. Brushing off what we feed our minds as nothing more than mere entertainment allows the enemy of our souls to fill our hearts with much that does not please God. I have witnessed first-hand, the kind of tainting of speech and laughter that comes from those who really don’t care that their choices of media intake are not pleasing or upright before God. You can learn a lot about a person by listening to what they laugh at. Not just hearing the joke, or seeing the supposedly funny scenario, but actually seeing and hearing what God sees and hears. Too many modern Christians have a very lax attitude toward where they go, what they do, what they see and by consequence of those three, what they say. This is a message that needs to be out there louder than it is. We are not to look like, sound like, or be like the world. We are to adopt a different culture, the culture of heaven, of whose citizenry we are. We are called to be ambassadors to this world, representing a much higher calling. Just as am ambassador from a different country will visit with, make friends with, and generally move among those of the country to which they have been sent, and yet all the while maintaining their own sense of the culture back home, so we are called in like manner. We are to be different in a way that draws others to Christ. This won’t happen if we are mingling and blending in so well that the unsaved look at us and wonder why they’d ever even want to join us because we are no different than they are.
The heart of the saved man or woman should reflect the heart of God. James puts it this way:
James 3:9-13 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. 13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
In the King James English, “conversation” refers to the way we live everyday life. So he is saying, “Let us show out of good daily living our works with meekness of wisdom”.
How are you living YOUR everyday life?
Well, today’s varied and disparate readings off and online have come together under one word so far: Fellowship!
The first appearance was via Day 29 of T.C. Spellen’s devotional, The Waiting Room. She mentions ensuring that as Christians, we deliberately attend church and gatherings made up of other fellow believers. She reminds the reader that it is in community that we are held accountable in our faith walk, built up by other believers, challenged, etc.
The second appearance of the concept of fellowship, believe it or not, came because of this week’s focus in The Book Marketing Challenge. This is the last week for the BMC, and the focus for the week is on virtual book tours. It just so happens that I’ve begun plans for a pre-launch book tour for my next book, “A Year in Prayer With Jesus”. I currently have four bloggers on board for this tour. I need at least another three, preferably a total of 30, but even just 7 would work.
My next book, “A Year in Prayer With Jesus” breaks The Lord’s Prayer down into 7 points, each with their own unique Scripture verse for 365 days, and each with their own unique prayer prompt for 365 days as well. The thought occurred to me this morning as I was reading today’s challenge, that through this next book, I am encouraging the reader to engage in meaningful communication and therefore, fellowship, with God Himself.
T.C. Spellen points this out in her session on Day 29, saying that when we engage in prayer and Scripture reading, we are engaging in fellowship with God. There is a saying that used to go around, “Me and God are a majority”. There are already books and teachings out there that encourage praying the Scriptures, so I haven’t re-written “the book” on that method of prayer. But a person is able to pray the Scriptures if they choose as they go through my prayer guide in a year. Some of the prayer points in my guide list missions organizations, countries in the 10-40 window, people groups, language groups, etc. I have this daydream going around my head that goes something like this:
What if 365 people bought my book, and each started on a different day in the calendar? Person one on Jan 1st, person two on Jan 2nd, person 3 on Jan 3rd, and so on till the 365th person starts on the 365th day of the year. You know what that would do??? That would mean that every single people group, language group, 10-40 country, and listed missions group, would get prayed for every single day! This doesn’t count the fact that room is made under each prayer point where the reader can add in their own prayer point to pray over as well. No doubt the prayer point suggestions I’ve come up with are not exhaustive. I’m sure there are groups out there I have missed, in fact I KNOW there are groups I’ve missed because some of the lists were far too long to consider for what now seems like a short 365 day list count. But the daydream to see people in conversation with God about just this one point in the prayer guide gets me a little excited!
This is why I want to generate some pre-launch buzz for this book! One reviewer has already said that she was not aware you could use The Lord’s Prayer in so many different ways! She’s excited about it and hasn’t even read through the whole thing yet.
Sunday morning also brought out this concept of fellowship with each other and fellowship with God. A couple who were interviewed during the service spoke of spending an hour in prayer with God, with your Bible open, having that two-way conversation. The children’s pastor spoke on the importance of parents setting spiritual disciplines in their home to aid in building strong spiritual foundations for their kids to build on later in life. It was a family service followed by a church family barbeque after the service. I choked on my food again, and this time, someone other than my children noticed and offered assistance. We are a church family, and God has answered my prayer many times that through that church family, my kids would find adult men and women who could speak into their lives when I wasn’t able to. Amazingly enough, my kids consider that a blight on my own parenting, but the fact it actually did take place is an answer to prayer from my perspective. The African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child, is incredibly, deeply, and profoundly true in the Church family setting! As a single mother wanting to be responsible and work rather than live on welfare, my ability to speak into my kids’ lives was greatly hampered and I relied on the Family of God to be there when I couldn’t. I can say with conviction and appreciation, that my local church family pulled through on that level multiple times! My kids have graduated high school as of June 2013, and are now preparing to make their own way in the world slowly but surely.
Which reminds me of the grad gift I wrote for them last year. In there is a section about interpersonal relationships and there again, the admonishment to be in community with God’s people is brought up both in the parental tidbits of advice, and in the Scriptures offered on facing pages. Yes, fellowship seems to be the word for the day. God has a message out there for someone who is not in community with other believers. He is calling them back into fellowship with Himself and with their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It is my prayer that they will answer, and return to the local expression of believers that God has called them to.
I just realized that this blog/website does not yet have a list of places where readers can leave reviews of my books! There is a list of where to buy them around the world, a list utilizing Smile.Amazon.com, etcetera, a partial list in the pullout tab on the side here of where to find me online, but no list you can click on when you feel like leaving a review!
The following was shared on my Facebook author page this spring, and now it’s high time I shared it with you! I’ll have to figure out a permanent place here to put this, but for now, here it is in blog post format:
Amazon: (paid link)http://www.smarturl.it/MarilynnDawson
Deeper Shopping: http://www.deepershopping.com/marilynn-l-dawson/homepage.html
Boomerang Books: http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/author/MS-Marilynn-Dawson
Chapters: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/search/?keywords=ms.+marilynn+dawson
Barnes & Noble: http://my.barnesandnoble.com/songdove-library/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10989028-marilynn-dawson
Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/search/books?Keywords=Marilynn%20Dawson
InkBok: https://inkbok.com/users/marilynn-dawson
Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/Songdove/documents
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Ms.%20Marilynn%20Dawson&c=books
My website: https://songdove.fa-ct.com/wordpress-mu/songdovemusings/store/
fReado: http://www.freado.com/users/34318/marilynn-dawson
Kobo: http://evocalize.com/consumer/business/520e6ea22f18b/search?term=Ms.+Marilynn+Dawson
Library Thing: https://www.librarything.com/profile/songdove
Remember these links go to my books, but each site’s search feature lets you find the books of other authors as well to leave reviews for them. Reviews help other book lovers find books they might enjoy based off the reviews and ratings left by readers like yourself. So if you’ve read my books and want to leave a review, this is the list to use. If I’ve left out a place, let me know.
Isaiah 54:2-5 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. 5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
This passage was given to me by a dear sister in Christ a couple months ago at a special luncheon in her honour. Her hand-written note, taken from the Amplified Bible instead of the KJV above, is still here on my desk. For those who have not yet read my series, “Becoming the Bride of Christ: A Personal Journey”, God had introduced himself to me as my unseen Husband back in March of 2007. With a personality determined to ensure I am always obeying and living life in context of Scripture to the best of my ability, that revelation sent me diving into the Scriptures to be sure I hadn’t finally fallen off the deep end! This desire to learn more about what had just happened led to lessons and revelations that I talk about in that series. The past four years tested that understanding in my daily outworking of faith, because I had gone from working for myself to being someone else’s employee, as well as entering a severe downhill slide in my mental and emotional health that I’d later discover was a direct result of suffering adrenal fatigue! Not fun!
As I have taken steps to slow down, change my diet to feed my adrenals, brain and hormonal systems of the body, and deliberately make more time for myself and my Unseen Husband, God has been showing up with those trademark 360 degree hugs again. . . and it feels so good! Actually allowing God to move in that role in this home has resulted in some pretty humorous situations every now and then. God very much enjoys being given the freedom to be an active part of our household!
So with that background in faith and daily living, I came to day 27 in Spellen’s book, and the verse that got her back on track was Isaiah 54:5, the last verse shared above. Just like myself, this revelation blew her right out of the water! I know how that feels!
Scripture talks at various times about the Bride of Christ, most notably in Ephesians 5, the later set of verses. But being a member of the Bride of Christ is not all roses and warm fuzzies! God has expectations of His Bride, and many of those require submission and surrender so that the Holy Spirit can make us ready for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. You can read more by picking up a copy of my series at any of the links you see here on this blog. New Christian Books even has the complete set as a single package in either PDF or paperback format. I’m dabbling with the idea of turning the series into an audio series, having recorded my “backstory” this spring.
Whether you are in the waiting room hoping to one day be married to an earthly mate, or whether you are widowed or divorced, if you are a member of the Body of Christ, God wants to be there for you! This goes for both men and women. God will meet you on the level best suited for you, if you will let Him! Will you let Him love you?
I’ve run across this concept twice now in less than 24 hours! When I was going to grade school, part of my education was spent in the ACE program. ACE is short for Accelerated Christian Education. It’s a great supervised self-study program that teaches the child not only the basics, Math, English, Social, Science, etc, but this system teaches goal-setting along with education in the Bible, early church, missionary biographies, and more. I still have a stash of ACE weekly goal charts sitting right here at my desk.
The concept was simple, each day had to have a goal of a certain number of pages in each subject’s PACE, or packet of accelerated education, otherwise known as your workbook. When you accomplished the number of pages you’d set for yourself, you crossed off that space on the goal chart. If you couldn’t reach your goal, that was your homework when the day was over. This taught the child how to gauge their capabilities and to adjust their goals accordingly. I graduated from this system of education.
Adult life for me however, did not start with much more than one real goal, and that goal eventually got derailed altogether. Everyone in life needs something to live for, something to strive for, and something to reach for. Very quickly, those three things found their meaning in trying to survive. Earning enough to pay the bills became the highest goal I could reach for. Next to that, always ensuring there was time for my Lord’s House was a weekly goal that I generally put my foot down to make sure it happened. Many times I could have chosen work over God’s House, but my faith meant more than my income, so working when I should have been in my Father’s House was a rarity. My love for being in my Father’s House led to attempted balancing acts between work, raising two kids on my own, and church ministry involvement. This balancing act led to many schedule and time management challenges, leading many to believe that I was some sort of super-woman. Going non-stop was the name of the game and slowly but surely my body was giving more and more signals that it couldn’t handle it.
In the meantime, a dream of writing a book to share how God was dealing with me and teaching me, was born. This would eventually become the first real non-survival goal I’d had in many years. This goal would be realized in 2012 when I published “Becoming the Bride of Christ: A Personal Journey” as a six-volume set with a Leader’s Guide. Suddenly there was more to life than the rat race I’d been on for over 20 years.
My next book would come along as a grad gift to my children, and guess what? “Mom’s Little Black Book: Godly Advice for the High School Graduate” would include calendars for pacing personal devotional times, charts for managing the housework in a timely fashion, a sample budget sheet for income and another for grocery shopping. Clearly, my ability to understand goal-setting had not wained these many years. Even as I talked with my kids about any dreams they had, I would talk about the steps required to realize those dreams. It became my desire to encourage the dreams my kids had, and to help them discover ways they could work toward those dreams and turn them into reality. I am pleased to say that my daughter is thinking about those goals, and considering when and how she’ll put them into practice.
Two more books would come along, “Practical Thoughts on Becoming an Author” and “Dressed for Eternity”, released in the Fall of 2013 and Winter of 2014 respectively. In addition, I would find myself once again working for myself under my own business name, FCS – Fact Computer Services Co. Generating new clients requires marketing and promotion equally as much as getting out word of my books. But while writing a book was a concrete goal that I could see develop and come to fruition fairly easily, the idea of marketing and promotional goals has seemed far more nebulous. Measuring how well a given effort or campaign does has also been somewhat nebulous inspite of seeing many articles and tools available for the concept.
A chiropractor that my family is seeing right now presented a goal-setting workshop that he’d like to offer his clients in the near future. Flipping through it showed many interesting ideas that have clearly been thought out. Week three of the May 2014 book marketing challenge featured an article that contained a very concrete example of using guest blogging to promote my books. After all these years of survival, that in reality, are not over yet if my bank account has anything to say on the matter, it’s good to finally start seeing some concrete examples of goal-setting that I can consider putting into place in my own life. There are some people out there who have taken goal-setting to a minute level, and are lovers of todo lists. For them, life just doesn’t happen if they can’t scratch something off that list. It is their way to stay disciplined, focused and continually moving forward.
I will be releasing my next book, “A Year in Prayer With Jesus” hopefully later this summer, with a launch date for the Fall. This book has a goal for launch. It appears I need to carve out some time just to examine what I want for my monthly income and how I’ll go about reaching that goal; what I want for book visibility and sales, and how I’ll go about reaching that goal for each of my current books, and seriously ask myself where I want to be if the Lord tarries and we’re here on this planet for another 10 years. Sometimes just putting one foot in front of the other is a goal all by itself. Over the past year, regaining my health has been a goal and I’m starting to see it happen a year later. Decent health is needed for many of the desires I want to or need to engage in.
It appears time needs to be made for some personal examination and goal setting again. It feels good to say that, let me tell you!
We’re finally ready to launch Songdove Books e-Course on “Practical Thoughts on Becoming an Author”!
This is a 19-day course that comes to you via your inbox once per day. Most of the sessions are short, with a daily task to be completed at the end of each session. Who might be interested in such a course?
- The person who has had an idea for a book bouncing around their thoughts, but never written it down.
- The person who has begun a rough draft, but unsure what to do next.
- The person who thinks it costs too much to break into publishing.
- The author who is looking for a cheaper way of getting their books out there.
Contents of this course will cover:
- Tools that cost very little to no outlay at all.
- Tips on why those tools are needed.
- Instructions on how to use one of them to prepare your manuscript for self-publishing printers.
- Links where you can download various tools
- Links leading to resources and information
- etc.
The cost of the course is only $15 and it’s a one-time fee for the full 19 day duration of the course. Because this is an e-course, from time to time content may change or get updated to reflect new information coming down the pipe. If you get word of a significant change that you want to walk through, you are more than welcome to purchase the course again to learn the new content.
The purchase/sign-up link for this course is: https://gum.co/eCPTBA The little giftbox icon beside your name box when you click “I want this”, allows you to purchase this course for a friend as well. Feel free to pass this link around to those you know who may be interested in what it takes to get a book idea from concept to print-ready with very little financial outlay.
Members of the Book Marketing Challenge are being offered a discount if enough of them show an interest in taking this course! As of the time of this posting, 2 have expressed interest so far. But if we get a descent handful of people interested from the BMC, I will offer a special discount just for them.
If $15 is too expensive at this time, you can get the e-Course for free by signing up for the Songdove Books monthly newsletter that just went out today.
Recent discussions coupled with observations on Facebook and in the devotional I’m currently reviewing, have led to this morning’s feelings on relationship with Christ. As I type this, I am just finishing up my morning devotional quiet time, and am still feeling my Lord’s arms around me. This subject is dear to His heart as well and He’s had me write on this at various times over the years. This moment just happens to be the latest expression.
As an author, I am part of several group boards on Pinterest where I can share what I write. Other authors also share what they write, and one author, at some point during each day, will post “The 1 Minute Devotional”. Another author from time to time will share “The 5 Minute Devotional”. Devotional books I have on my shelf are typically only one to two pages in length per day, with one maybe two Scripture references and lots of white space, maybe a pretty picture thrown in for good measure.
I look at these devotionals and have been getting more and more bothered by them. Their content doesn’t bother me necessarily, although most of them seem more geared to making the reader feel good for a few minutes rather than encourage quality time with their Lord and Saviour. What bothers me is the attempt by various authors to fit their message into the shortest snippet of time available because their readers are busy and busy lifestyles demand quick “pick-me-ups” as opposed to offering the invitation to slow down for a bit and spend time in God’s arms, hearing His heart beat and learning from Him.
The reason this has begun to bother me so much, is that busyness is one of the ways the enemy has discovered that Christians will succomb to. Modern so-called civilized society has a person going a mile a minute with just snippets of time available for those that matter to them, God and family included. We see memes aimed at parents and families, saying that it’s not the quantity of gifts that matter so much as the quality and quantity of time that a family can share together that counts. There used to be a saying, “The family that prays together stays together”. This is true of God’s family too.
God longs for relationship with His people! Relationships of any kind are difficult to engage and go deep on just a few minutes every day. Relationships are built by spending quality time together. This time together might be in silence, just enjoying each other’s presence. It might be spent together in conversation. It might be spent together with one learning something new from the other. In parent/child relationships, that time might even be spent with the parent correcting the child’s behaviour and the child having to accept and deal with that correction in a manner that either hurts or furthers their relationship with the parent.
Popping into one’s quiet time just long enough to say ‘hi – goodbye” to God isn’t really spending much quality time with Him at all. There isn’t time to have a meaningful conversation of any kind beyond short quips that the person will forget hardly an hour later as they go about their busy schedules.
No. . . God wants quality time. God wants to truly spend time with us! He longs for two-way communication as we pray with our Bibles open, so that He can engage us as we engage Him.
Today’s devotional from T.C. Spellen was discussing obedience and the results that can happen in one’s life if they continually choose disobedience. She mentioned that it’s our duty to obey God’s commands. Yes, sadly, I grew up with obedience being referred to as one’s duty as well. So many people have been under the impression of duty for so many years that it’s become one of the primary reasons for backsliding and walking away from the faith. Duty can only be kept up for so long before it eventually turns to drudgery if relationship with the one to whom they have that sense of duty is only kept at a superficial, arms-length distance. Yes, as the children of God we are expected to be obedient just as the bond slave forever obeys his master, but notice that term “bond” here. Paul makes this usage in reference to himself in his letters. In Bible times, if a servant loved their master so much that when the year of Jubilee came, they did not want to leave their master, they would put their ear to the door and their master would drive an awl through it to forever mark them as his bond slave. Usually, this was a situation where the master treated the slave well, and the slave was like part of the household. The key to this term “bond” is in the relationship the slave had with the master. Christ told His disciples that He no longer called them servants, but friends, because He told them all that was in His heart. To add yet another level of depth to this point, Paul tells the Ephesians that wives are to submit to their husbands. Many have abused this verse to grant men the right to abuse their wives and to prevent women from having any leadership roles anywhere at all. But in a healthy marriage situation, husband and wife love each other deeply. This love causes the husband to protect and fight for his wife to the point of putting his own life on the line to spare hers. This love causes the wife to willingly submit to her husband’s leadership in the home and deepens her nurturing nature toward him. There’s that word “love” again.
There is a saying among starry-eyed lovers that “your wish is my command”. But in God’s way of doing things, nothing would please Him more than if His command was our desire. If we are truly, deeply in love with Christ, His commands are sweet and far easier to obey than if we have an arms-length relationship with Him. The master/servant relationship is not discounted in Scripture as a valid way to look at obedience to God’s commands, but God would prefer to treat us as sons and daughters, and as the Bride of Christ, pleased that we would choose to love Him so much that we willingly obey out of that love and desire to put a smile on His face. Now some will read this and accuse me of teaching some form of salvation by works, or of trying to earn God’s pleasure. Well, Scripture does tell me that I can grieve the Holy Spirit. So if it’s possible to earn His sadness and grief, if it’s possible to stir up His anger and if it’s possible to cause Him to feel the need to correct me, then it is equally possible to put a smile on His face and to sense His pleasure at having taken the time to please Him. Even Christ was moved by Mary’s sacrifice of Spikenard poured all over His feet. It is possible to make glad the heart of God as the Psalmist puts it. So while I can’t earn my salvation, I can affect God’s emotions and feelings toward me. It is true that God’s love for me is infinite, but it is also true that my capacity to accept and discover that love is directly related to the time and dedication I am willing to give to my relationship with Him.
So we come full circle in this discussion. God’s desire that we come away, come apart, and spend time together in His presence, is a command. God expects that anyone coming to and accepting Christ’s gift of Salvation will want to spend time with Him. To discover whole generations of modern society coming for the gift and then only peeking in on God one or more times in a day must be quite saddening and cause God much grief. God has shown me that He appreciates my efforts to draw near to Him. He’s shown me that He appreciates my efforts to spend time with Him, and He shows up to meet me. That hug I talked about at the beginning? Yeah, it’s still there as I begin to wrap up this entry. God is pleased when we choose to spend time with Him. He’s pleased when I choose to obey His directives. He’s pleased when I choose to thank Him and show an attitude of gratitude for all He’s busy doing on my behalf every day. It’s time to buck the North American/Western societal rat race and make time for the most important relationship you’ll ever have, your relationship with Jesus Christ Himself. The Bridegroom is calling. Will you answer?