Book Review: AWAKE

 

amazon.com

By Anjuli Paschall

 

Anjuli Paschall, in this her second book, shows transparency about herself, her deepest thoughts, and her understanding of Jesus.

 

In fifteen chapters, she takes her thoughts and feelings about life and examines them under a microscope and looks at what she finds from different angles, much like a jeweler inspects precious stones.

 

She has learned lessons and taught me about life that we all need to learn. Lessons about how to live, how to love, and how to understand circumstances that enter our lives.

 

One thing I have relearned from her book is that I need to strive to be always in contact with God, no matter how I feel about things going on in my life.

 

In the back of the book, she includes discussion questions for individual and for group studies.  On the cover of her book, Anjuli Paschall poses holding a rooster. She speaks of her aversion to animals in her book and how she had to overcome it.

 

I would recommend this book to any woman searching for purpose or meaning in their lives. It would be a good study for a women’s group.

 

This book is available on Amazon.com AWAKE, Christianbook.com -Paying-Attention-Matters.

 

I received this book free of charge from Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Company. All they ask of me was that I give an unbiased review.

July Reflections

End of June: Trip to see Roger and some friends. Our friend Betty had, that day, finished 30 radiation and chemo treatments. She is scheduled for surgery on August 13^th. Of the 30 days, she had one bad day. Jim (Hubby) and I went to Kentucky and saw Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace.

 

July

I attended a first birthday party for a friends’ granddaughter. That was a special time.

New Pastor

 Our new pastor and his wife arrived in mid -June. Their appointment was not official until July 1st. His first Sunday was July 7th. They sat in various worship services. I led prayer meeting on two Wednesday nights at the end of June. The second time, they came and sat in that service. 

Throughout July, Pastor Rick and Cheryl hosted small group fellowship meetings in their ‘home’. This was their way of getting to know the people of the church better. It was nice to get to find out more about some of the people with whom I worship as well as the pastor and his wife

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I attended a first birthday party for a friends’ granddaughter. That was a special time. Her grandparents sit in our Sunday school class. When the little girl was dedicated, they asked members of our class to join them on the dais and stand with them for the dedication. We were honored to do so.

Class Reunion

I decided to attend my classes 55-year reunion. It took place about a quarter of a mile north of where we live. It was a very nice evening. One thing the committee did was take individual pictures as we entered. A group picture of those classmates who came. And then group pictures of us based on where we went to grade school. My grade school group had eight of us. One grade school group had twelve people.

Entry picture 

"Kids:: from my grade school.

The three women had been in Girl Scouts, back in the day.

Great Movie

I saw a movie at church this month, I Am Not Ashamed, the story of Rachel Joy Scott. She was one of the twelve students that were killed at Columbine High School.

 Special Project

A dear friend called me and asked me to work on a project for an interdenominational women’s group that she belongs to. (I just started attending this spring.) She asked me to create a bookmark for an area meeting to be held in our town. I created five samples for her to take to the president of the group so she could see what they might look like. Each sample had a picture, a topic, and five scriptures that pertained to the topic. Two of the samples had pictures I had taken.  My friend was thrilled with the samples.

  Vacation Bible School

Theme: Polar Blast: Where Jesus' Love is Cool

I oversaw pre-registration and registration.

This is the table I set up. 

On Wednesday morning before the school started four of us stayed after prayer time and painted snowflakes. Here they are used in decorations.

You have to look close to see them

                                             This is the chancel area of our sanctuary. 

The polar bear is sitting by an igloo made out of plastic gallon milk jugs. 

Our custodian did the decorations this year. Her mother found the snowflake lights at a rummage sale just a few days before our Bible school was scheduled to start.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . . .

I have had this old standard Christmas song on my mind several times so far this season.  I have done some decorating that I haven't really done in quite some time. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

This is on our front door. I used to make wreaths and had a nice wreath hanger. When we refurbished our enclosed front porch, it went by the wayside. I found this hanger at Dollar Tree. I got the idea for this from fellow blogger Pam Steiner.

This is my version of an advent wreath. The greenery is part of a garland I purchased at Walmart. I used the rest of it to make the front door wreath. The major expense I had with this was the four colored candles. 

Back in the summer, we went to an antique store in southern Indiana. I found this unusual glass basket with a movable handle on it. I have had it sitting on our coffee table empty most of the time I have had it.  The ornaments are gold with a cardboard peace dove sitting in the middle. Please excuse the cardboard behind it. I had no other place to keep it, it is my display board for book signings. This sits on my grandmother's cedar chest. The doily was made by my great aunt, one of her sisters.

Above our couch, we had a piano window that had a replacement insert. Hubby thought the gold balls would look nice up there. It took us three different times trying to get them hung on the wire. The gold balls are new but the thing in the middle is a leaf-shaped red ornament from my childhood. IT also has gold glitter on it to show the veins.

This is a picture from last year of my little Christmas tree. It measures about  18" tall. And is easy to store, I put it away each time I use it and leave the ornaments on.  I haven't got it out yet. I have to decide what to do with the items that are on the table. BTW, the table is believed to be a Duncan Phyfe library table that was originally my dad's grandmother's.  It was in my childhood home and came to me when we had to place Dad in a nursing home.

My World in March

This month has been different. Hubby and I enjoyed the warm days we had in February; March has been a different story.  We have enjoyed the days at the end of last week. Last Friday, the temperature got to 75 degrees. (I call that Florida weather.) I got to spend some time on my porch over the weekend.

Because of the downturn of the weather, I have felt sort of listless. I have begun a book proposal for the collection of meditations I have assembled. Figuring out the target audience is going to be interesting. I also am slowly working the competitive title analysis has been daunting.

A group of people at our church have been working to put together a presentation for Good Friday. I have been assisting the director with some of the plans and the staging. But we hit a glitch with one of my ideas. We will work around that speed bump. When I discovered a problem with what we wanted to do, I talked to the director and we decided we could backup and start again.

April looks to be a bit brighter for me with the Good Friday drama, an evaluation meeting, a Sunday school class party, and a possible trip with Hubby. I will find time to do some work on my de-cluttering and my book proposal. And I hope to get in some quality porch time.

Some scenes from our Good Friday drama

Watching Jesus enter Jerusalem

                                                         
                                                 The servant girl and Peter in the courtyard

                                                  A Jewish sign painter and a Roman Soldier

                                                               John comforting Mary

                                                   Tying the scenes together, our narrator,

Book Review: I Hope it’s not Hereditary, by Jedidiah Hartley

               Jedidiah Hartley writes a series of stories about his father, Evangelist Bob Hartley. This book tells about his father and many antics that Bob Hartley performed as a child growing up, as a young adult on his own, and an adult during the years as Jedidiah grew up.

              

               The tales this son shares with his readers remind me of stories one would hear around a kitchen table. A son would say something like, “Do you remember when,” or “Let me tell you about my dad.”

While Jedidiah Hartley shares stories from his dad’s life, some rather embarrassing, the reader will get the feeling that this son is proud of his father in spite of the crazy antics, Bob did.

               I usually choose to review books that deal with spiritual growth. There was some spiritual growth in this collection of stories. This book starts out like a biography and changes toward the end to a memoir.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy stories about families and those members who have come through times brought about by their own choosing.

There was a drawback to my really liking this book. The title on the Book Club Network site read, “Hope it’s not hereditary.” The actual title of the book was “I Hope it’s Not Hereditary” I found this misleading.

               I received this book from Whitaker House publishing via Book Fun and Book Club Network free of charge. All they asked of me was an honest review.

                

Book Review: When The Glass Ceiling is Stained

                           by Mary Detweiler

When God gives His children Spiritual Gifts, He plans on those gifts to be exercised. Some feel that women have no place in leadership roles of the church.

Mary Detweiler has researched this issue by studying Old Testament women who led people through catastrophic times—Deborah, Huldah, and Rahab and Esther. God equipped these women with the gifts they needed to lead their people though the difficult times those people groups faced.

She has documented her book with writings of John Maxwell, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren and other Christian writers.

This book is not a diatribe against the church but a positive book pointing out how God has used women in the furtherance of His Kingdom. Mary refers to Rahab, Deborah, and Huldah and Esther in the Old Testament and to Mary Magdalene, Mary (the sister of Lazarus), Euodia and Syntche, and Priscilla, in the New Testament.

In today’s world, we see godly women leading or assisting the leaders of their churches by employing their Spiritual gifts. We also hear of some sectarian groups who cling to the belief that women are not equipped to participate in Kingdom work in the role as pastors, even pastoral assistants, or even ministry group leaders. Having worshiped in one denomination and now worship in another that doesn’t exclude women from leadership roles; I believe I have grown in my faith because of the experience of their learning and their instruction.

I received a copy of this book from the author. All she asked in return was my honest and truthful review.

HOW CAN WE SHOW THANKS?

Have we ever gotten a note expressing thanks from another person? How did it make you feel?

When someone holds a door open for us how do we respond? Do we just walk on through the door or do we express our thanks? We should thank the person. And do we hold the door open for others? We might not always hear the person thanking us, but we find ourselves doing it because we know it’s the right thing to do. And then, we might be surprised and that person may respond.

Sometimes we are told to pay it forward. A friend does something nice to help us. He or she tells us to do a special deed for someone else. Do we seek to serve others, no matter how small the act? Something as simple as giving a ride to someone down the street.

Do we volunteer our time, resources, and talents? Do we send out cards to those who are ill or experience difficult times? Do we donate to missions or to a local nonprofit ministry or charity?