The Power of Prayer

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This has been an especially terrible week for Bostonians and Americans with terrorism and a freak massive explosion occurring within days of each other.

My heart has cried out especially for those who have lost loved ones and for the injured.

A number of people have mentioned the similarity in the Boston bombings to some of the action in Angelguard; the senseless destruction of innocent lives.

Evil.

How should we respond?

Pray.

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“The Way of the Heart”, Henri Nouwen

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coverSolitude, silence and prayer.

I purchased this book having spent a number of months seeking to do more of all 3. For too long I’ve thought communing with God was a reflection of how many experiences I have of Him, whatever form they may take. However, I no longer seek the experiences OF Him rather to experience Him.

Nouwen’s reflections of the “Desert Fathers” ( who lived in the Egyptian desert during the 4th and 5th centuries) lifestyle are a wonderful summary of how we can experience more of Him.

At times it was a challenging read as I couldn’t immediately grasp some of the concepts presented, however, sometimes we need to allow ourselves to soak in new ideas so they can in-fill us over time. However, these few words are a great summary of the essence of the book:
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Puffed up

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Photo courtesy of “Dino De Luca”/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve had the good fortune of experiencing my first ever “Blog Tour” this past week. 30 readers with blogs requested a copy of Angelguard from Kregel on the premise they would commit to read it and write a review on their blog. I’ve enjoyed interacting with readers in providing additional information as well as reading their reviews.

In this review cycle it’s hard not to get too “me focused”. Last week I wrote about discouragement when reading reviews so that it doesn’t create hardness in our heart. Recently, I’ve read a few articles from other authors about gaining their affirmation from sales figures, glowing reviews and such like.

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“66 Love Letters”, Dr Larry Crabb

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0849946409.jpgI’ve always considered the Bible to be a love story. This book helps elucidate the essence of God’s love for us in each of the 66 letters of the Bible.

I loved it.

I took on a challenge to read the entire Bible during Lent just passed. Crabb’s book had been sitting on my shelf for a year or so untouched. It kinda jumped out at me as I dived into the Bible reading challenge.

As I moved quickly through the Word, what became very clear to me was God’s absolute love for us. He is madly in love with His creation, and will do anything to have us choose Him. This culminated in Jesus living, dying on the Cross and being resurrected. So working through Crabb’s love letters was a perfect fit for where my mind was at.

Certainly this is not a commentary nor concordance but doesn’t try to be that. There is definitely room for 66 Love Letters to sit alongside commentaries and such like to provide a different insight into the Word.

Not everyone is going to get it and may find it a poor cousin to more literal interpretations.

I don’t profess to know the Bible well. What this marvellous book has left me with is an insatiable thirst to know the heart of God and to better understand His love story. As Crabb says in his introduction: “We try to reach the heart of God without listening to the Word of God.” God’s revealed His heart to us, in 66 love letters.

I’m not sure how’d this book would go if you weren’t reading through the Bible simultaneously. It took Crabb 3.5 years to write it so he obviously spent a lot of time both studying the Word, other references and seeking God’s wisdom on each book. I particularly enjoyed how Crabb used other influential authors like CS Lewis to add additional insights.

The epilogue at the end will be a useful quick reference guide as it summarises each of the 66 letters into one paragraph.

Highly recommended.

Dealing with Discouragement

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Jenny* was running late. She grabbed the first seat inside the door, and acknowledged the teacher standing on the opposite side of the room. He welcomed her, unfazed by being interrupted.

We were sharing our homework. A 250-word piece on “Daring to Kick the Universe”.

We soon got around to Jenny. She prefaced her work by sharing that she’d experienced her first troll on her blog that afternoon. We invited her to tell us more about how she felt.

Shock, anger, and frustration reflected in Jenny’s response. I could relate having only the day before read a very unflattering review of Angelguard. It didn’t matter that I had a bunch of other really flattering ones; this one review had bugged me for a day or so.

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A Final Reflection on Lent – It’s all about Him!

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Photo courtesy of grandcanyon.free

It is the day after Easter Sunday. And my first experience of observing Lent has now passed.

Did I have an experience of God that wowed my mind? No.

Was I able to effectively let go of my daily ill discipline that I had set out to fast? Yes, but with lapses.

The most satisfying experience over the six weeks was reading the complete Bible. It was a massive task and one I often questioned why I was doing it. Most days I was just skimming through the Word just to keep up with the demanding schedule.

I don’t feel the same sense of euphoria that Margaret, who responded to God’s nudge to encourage thousands of people from around the world to take up this challenge (you can read about Margaret’s cartwheeling reflections here)

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Palm Sunday Reflections – We are God’s Delight

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Today is Palm Sunday Down Under. The day Jesus rode, on a donkey, into Jerusalem. This marks the first day of Easter week.

I finished reading the Old Testament on Friday. And wow, was it a rewarding experience. Certainly challenging, 1300+ pages in 5 weeks. I didn’t have time for deep reflection on individual passages or verses, but I don’t believe that was the purpose. It gave me an overall sense of the first part of God’s great love story.

My key take-out: God loves us so much. Yes, we are His delight. Too often we can dismiss the Old Testament (OT) as being full of great Sunday school stories but has now been “usurped” by Jesus in the New Testament (NT).

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Angelguard has Landed!

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I returned home on Monday to an unusual package sitting at my front door. I wasn’t expecting anything to be delivered.

I ventured inside noticing the address label indicated the parcel had come from the United Kingdom. Hastily I opened it and to my surprise were copies of Angelguard.

Finally, I can hold this baby that has been so long in arriving. Even though it has been available in the US for a few weeks, it has been a little hard to grasp that the novel has actually been released without seeing it for myself.

It’s also been a delightful experience for my family. They too have only “seen it” virtually and being able to see and hear their reactions of its arrival has been especially wonderful.

This morning I took a copy to my dad, who has been recovering from a stroke. It was a lovely tender moment for the two of us to share.

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Lent Reflections – Repentance & Restoring Joy

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Photo very graciously supplied by Mary DeMuth

My siblings and I have been helping our parents spring-clean their house. They’re both in their eighties and it never ceases to amaze me how much stuff one can collect over a long life. The house becomes very “full”, especially when you’re not inclined to throw things out, as is the case with my parents.

They have a lot of stuff and I mean a lot.

We’re hopeful they will be able to secure a move to a smaller place in their next two months, in fact we may know as soon as early next week regarding one place mum has her heart set on.

This won’t really be a spring clean, rather a major overhaul with lots and lots of stuff discarded, given to charities and grateful others. Already, a number of trips have been made to the tip as well as one large council pickup.

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Be a Barnabas

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I woke one morning last week thoroughly discouraged. I was struggling to understand how Angelguard was ever going to sell many copies when it appeared to only be carried by three retailers, all online ones.

I was excited having been advised ten days or so ago that stock had finally landed in the US after a month’s delay due to a bungle at the printers. This had been the second delay as the original launch date was November last year. However, my UK publisher were planning a big splash for the launch of their new fiction imprint, Lion Fiction, in March this year and decided to include Angelguard as part of the celebrations.

So to find out that none of the physical retails stores in the US were currently stocking it was disheartening.

Out of the Blue

I popped over to a blog I regularly visit and happened to notice a reply to a comment I had written a few days earlier.

BAM

I almost fell off my chair. This virtual friend shared some encouragement that blew my mind. Her words were confirmation of something I had pondered over for a while, but had never shared it with anyone else.

“Thank you, Lord,” I spoke out aloud to no one, bar Beanie our 15-week-old puppy.

He just has a way of doing that, I find. Words from out of nowhere arrive just at the moment you can do with them the most.

I stopped worrying about sluggish book sales.

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