Book Review: The Rose Legacy

Here is a book review that I actually wrote for my other blog but thought I would bring it over to this one too. By the way, I am still working on the devotional book. It’s meant to be read together as a couple over a year but that would be a bit too long to wait to review so I will post that one after Jonathan and I have done a few more chapters together and I have read the rest by myself. In the meantime – here is a quick historical fiction review:

The Rose Legacy by Kristen Heitzmann
Diamond of the Rockies #1

“My heart is a blind guide. Why did I follow ~ Rose”

Carina Maria DiGratia leaves the comforts of everyone and everything she has ever known for the dreams of Crystal, Colorado. Filled with bitterness and hatred for those who betrayed her at home, she vows to never be trusting again. She soon learns, however, that in a mining town, a lone woman needs help – she will have to trust someone – but whom? Not everyone in Crystal is as they first appear. When violence escalates, Carina must discover who is really trustworthy in order to help save the city from complete corruption.

I really enjoyed reading this book – I could easily imagine the surroundings and wonderful characters who fill the pages. The book is nice and long so there is time to develop the characters and story line well. One thing I was not so fond of was the blurring a little of the gospel. Although it is said that one must be washed in the blood of the lamb, it seems also present that whatever road you take – as long as you are sincere -will get you to heaven too. I probably would not recommend it to a friend who was searching for the gospel themselves. I loved the story itself however and can’t wait to read the next one in the series.

I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers for the purpose of reviewing

I’m so excited!

I have decided to become a book reviewer on my blogs. I LOVE to read and once I start a book it is so hard for me to do anything else until I have turned that last page. Blogging about it, I think, will help me to be a more critical reader. I just got my first book in the mail. It is a couple’s devotional book that is supposed to take a year to go through so I will have to cheat and read ahead, but I am looking forward to seeing if it will be a blessing in our family. Stay tuned to hear how it goes

Seeking

In getting ready for the upcoming service on Sunday,t I have been thinking a lot about Matthew 6:33. For a verse that I know so well and have heard so much about, I have never given much thought to what it is to really seek after the kingdom of God. Since I lived right next door to the only earthly “kingdom” (the united kingdom) on earth I tried to think of what that was made up of and what “seeking” it would entail.

Firstly, it is made up of several different countries under one King (or Queen as the case may be) – to keep a Kingdom entact it would need unity. So “seeking” here would mean making an effort for the diverse to also be unified. The same goes in the kingdom of God. We are from many nations and backgrounds but we need to make an effort to be unified under our One King!

Secondly, it needs to defend itself from enemies. Our spiritual enemy of course is Satan (NOT other Christians!) and we need to be on the defensive by putting on the whole armor of God and encouraging those around us to grow in their walk with Christ.

Thirdly, it wants to expand. Back in the day, the United Kingdom was huge and it was constantly looking for new territory to add to it’s kingdom. Not only do we need to be on the defensive, but on the offensive – winning those around to Christ! I searched for all the uses of “the kingdom of God” in the Scripture and it was amazing how many of the times it occured were people “proclaiming and preaching” the Kingdom of God to the unsaved.

There is soooo much more to write. I came up with 67 times that the phrase “the kingsom of God” is used in the New Testament and I really want to read and learn more about how to seek it  and then I will post it as I learn

One more thing about that verse (Matt6:33). We are also to seek God’s righteousness. To me, at least this seems more on a personal level than seeking the kingdom. I know that I am already clothed in the righteousness of Christ, but I so want to keep seeking God’s right-ness in every area of my life.

Psalm 37:4-6 comes to my mind:

“Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD;trust in him, and he will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.”

If God is the one to bring forth righteousness in my life, then my seeking should involve me learning to delight myself in Him, in His Word, in His Will. It makes everything else I could seek pale in comparison!

Faithful to Confess

I recently found a new song that really encouraged and challenged me. It’s called “Let me be” by Caedman’s Call (not sure on the spelling of that).
The line that really stuck out to me says “teach me to be faithful to confess.”

Wow

There are so many things that I think of when I think of faithfulness: friendship, ministry, showing up for church gatherings, worship, obedience…

I guess I never thought about it in the realm of confession.  With two small children and a new house I am working feverishly to get painted so we can move in, I don’t often have time to just stop and think. So even though I sin regularly during the day, I don’t always stop to see it as sin and take it to my Heavenly Father in confession.

I may over-react to a childish mistake by my two year old, for example (a pretty realistic example in my house!). Even though I may feel bad about it at the time, I often forget to take it to the Lord and confess my anger as sin. Then there is confessing to my son – he is only two but I really want to be an example of humility to him. He may not understand right away but I need to be faithful to confess my sins against him now so when he is a teenager I will not all of a sudden turn into a hypocrite in his eyes!

How much sweeter would my daily walk be with the Lord if I was more faithful to confess? Even in earthly relationships, problems left un-dealt with create distance between people. The same goes with our relationship with God and he is NOT someone I want to be distant from!

So my goal for this week and really for the rest of my life is to take time to be faithful to confess!

New Life visits New Life

Last Friday New Life had “Lost and Found Day.” Basically, we took the day off work and our normal routines and spent the day connecting with God through time in his word, each other through spending the day together, and the city by visiting local businesses. We travelled around on the bus visiting and getting to know people and then went to a mission to sit in chapel and do some work projects.

On our travels, our team saw a store called “New Life Nutrition” and we knew we had to stop and say hi. It is a cute little store that makes healthy shakes and is run by a very fun and energetic lady named Teresa.
We explained what we were doing and told her about New Life and then she told us about herself. She had been a paralegal for 30 years when she decided she wanted to do something different for a change and so went into sales. She really did not enjoy that and ended up depressed and overweight. That’s when she discovered these nutritious shakes and they helped her not only lose weight but also feel healthy. In fact, she loved them so much she thought she would open a store selling them and start a “new life” that way.

It was so much fun to get to talk with her, and I was challenged by her eagerness to tell her “new life” testimony to anyone who would listen. Although, I think having a healthy body is very important and a worthy cause, how much more important is a soul that knows Christ. The testimony of my new life is so much more crucial for people to hear and yet I am not usually as eager to share Christ and Teresa was to share her shakes. She has something that can heal the body but I know Someone that can heal the soul! What a great challenge to me to share my new life with others!

Help…

For the last few weeks Eóin (who is now 2 and 4 months) has been praying by himself before he goes to sleep at night. Up until then he was repeating after me. It has been so sweet and hilarious to hear him pray by himself.

He usually begins by telling Jesus what he did that day, prays for a few random family members with a few favorite tv characters thrown in the mix, and then prays that he will have a good nap and stay in bed (remnants of what I used to have him repeat I usually have to grin at that point because he can pray all he likes that he will stay in bed but of course no angel is going to strap him to the bed – he just needs to obey and keep his bum under the blankets!

Then I thought of how often I do the same thing to God. Pray for help with a certain sin I am struggling with. For example, “Father, help me to control my temper today…” Then the temptation comes to lose my cool and just as I am about to explode I feel a little nagging in my spirit to just shut my mouth. But it’s a quiet little voice and easy to ignore. So I go ahead and freak out at my current annoyance. Two seconds later, I know I’ve blown it and think – “Lord I asked you help me with this – where were you?”
But of course, He WAS there – gently prompting and reminding me there is a way of escape – namely by shutting my trap ’til I’ve calmed down! I just CHOSE to ignore Him. God has promised to always provide a way of escape when we are faced with temptation but we then have the responsibility to obey and do what we know is right. Just like God is not going to force Eóin to stay in bed at nap time, neither will he come down from heaven and personally put his hand over my mouth before I can sin. Our little bedtime routine reminded me of that.
Sometimes the biggest lessons come from the smallest people

ps – our second son – Aidan James Harrison was born a month ago today. Hence the lack of blog activity Praise the Lord for a healthy baby boy!

Waiting….

It’s official – I am terrible at waiting! Our second little boy is due to arrive in the world on Saturday but last Wednesday we went to the hospital to induce.
We had been there since 5am and after being tortured when they could not find my veins to put in the iv I was finally on pitosin for about 3 hours. The doctor came in to break my water when he discovered that it was actually 3 days too early to induce and they would have to take me off the medicine again and send me home!
It was really weird that night to be home again – I expected to be cuddling with my new little one by then!
But here I sit – still with heartburn, leg cramps, little legs lodged in my rib cage. In my head I know it will be worth it when I see my little one’s face but sometimes it is VERY hard to convince myself of that
As I was in the hospital I did think of something…(besides throwing up). We mothers certainly go through an ordeal to become a mother…nine months of non-comfort and hours of painful labor – not to mention all that will follow (like my 2 year old’s stubborn will that would wear out any military giant!). Jesus went through so much much more so that we could become his children!
33 years of uncomfortableness compared to the splendor of heaven and hours of pain we will never know on the cross – not to mention the burden of all our sin on him and his own Father having to look away! Then when we do become his children, we make 2 years old temper tantrums look like nothing! What amazing love! I am certainly privileged to be His child! I hope that I can always keep before me what he had to go through so I could be His! I also hope I live a life that he will think was worth it!

Power Wheels and Houses

I’ve really been challenged by Troy’s messages about wealth and what Jesus said about it. It’s so true that you don’t have to have a lot of money to be overly concerned with it. Material possessions can quickly become idols in our hearts whether we have them or just want them!

When my husband was little, he really wanted a power-wheels car (so did I). He lived at a Christian camp and every night he would pray that if Jesus would let him have a power wheels car he would use it for God at camp. He imagined carrying sick campers to the nurses office in his car and saving the day! 

Lately I’ve really been struggling with wanting a house of my own. We have been married now for almost five years and our second son is due in just 13 weeks! I still have yet to be able to paint and decorate a nursery for my kids because both places we have rented have not allowed painting. So my son sleeps in a room with yellow walls and a flowery border – not quite what I always imagined! 

I found myself thinking the other day that if only the Lord would let us buy this house, we could decorate the basement and really be able to use it for his glory…we could take people in, and minister through hospitality.  It struck me that my prayers sounded very familiar to Jonathan’s – God if only I had such and such, THEN I could really serve. 

That’s not true at all though is it? God has given us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness. We are so blessed to even have a home, especially in this economy! Yes, my furniture may be hand me downs, and the decor might not be exactly what I always dreamed of, but I can still reach out and use what he has given me to bless others!  Someone who is going through a hard time probably couldn’t give a hoot whether they are sitting on a brand new couch or our 3rd hand one if we are listening and reaching out to them! 

Where my treasure is – there will my heart be also. Is my treasure the furniture in my house, or the souls that are sitting on it!?!

So Patient

Last week in my Bible time I was reading about the life of Abraham. The one thing that really stand out to me as I read is that God is VERY patient! It strikes me as so funny that Abraham trusts God for huge things in his life and struggles to trust Him when it comes to keeping him safe. Not once, but twice he lied about Sarah being his wife because he was afraid of what men would do to him. It’s such a comfort to know that even when we succumb to the same issues and sins over and over, God is still prepared to use us for His glory. God could have easily decided that since Abraham couldn’t obey and trust him in these small matters that he would give his promise to a more worthy person, but He is ever patient with us!

One more thing that struck me as I read these accounts is that our sin affects more than just our own life. Each time a King married Sarah, there were consequences for his whole family. Abraham brought judgement on them by not being honest and they both asked Abraham why he would do such a thing to them – Abraham must have felt like an idiot! Later on in Genesis, Isaac, Abraham’s son, did the exact same thing. We pass our trust in God or lack thereof onto our children – we are their examples of faith – whew – BIG responsibility! 

Anyway – these are my thoughts from the last week or so…

Who can stand before Him?

My husband, Jonathan, and I have started to read through the Bible chronologically – hopefully in a year (I am a little behind). Right now, we are reading through the book of Job. Honestly, I wasn’t too excited about starting this book because it’s so heavy (and sometimes depressing) especially for starting off the year.
I was encouraged by something I had read recently though. Job was obviously a righteous man (God Himself pointed this out to Satan), and yet he struggled with the fact that no matter how “righteous” a man is – he could not stand before God. God is so pure and perfect that man’s meager attempts at holiness are nothing! He felt as if there was no hope – no one to stand up for him in the court of God.
How amazing that one of the first books written in Scripture already points to man’s need of Christ! We can’t come before God ourselves – there is none righteous enough! But now we have an advocate in Jesus Christ – someone to stand before God for us and plead our case. And our case is Him – his blood has cleansed us so we ARE holy in the sight of God! WOW!! Not only does he come before God for us, but because He has made us holy, now we can stand before God. What a privilege – I was thankful to be reminded of that from Job. I am looking forward to seeing what other lessons and reminders lie ahead in this book