SLATE:
A story of faith, temptation, and sacrifice.
I just discovered today that Amazon has put this book on a super sale at 52% off. The paperback normally sells for $7.99, but right now is on sale for $3.81. Amazon has their own funny way of figuring prices, but I don’t ask questions. I just take advantage of them when they do it.
The E-book edition is $0.99.
The fields are ripe for harvest.
Let’s be about our task
To spread the Lord’s great mercy
And love for all who’ll ask.
Let’s tell the world of Jesus
And how He took our sin.
How God’s granted forgiveness
To all because of Him.
Let’s concentrate on loving
The broken and the lost
And demonstrate with actions
God’s love at any cost.
Let’s pray the Lord of harvest
Touch hearts and draw them home.
The fields are ripe for harvest.
Even, so, Lord Jesus, come.
I just finished another encouraging message from the Word of God for my ministry YouTube channel. Thought some of my followers from this site would enjoy it as well.
“I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me” (Song of Solomon 7:10)
Jesus loves you, and His desire is toward you. That word toward is very significant here, because most people who love someone have a desire for them — rather than toward them. And, in truth, Jesus does desire to have you for His own, but that’s only so that He can give you everything He is and everything He’s accomplished for you. He wants you to have everything He has. And He’s already paid the price for you to possess it. You don’t have to do anything to earn all that He has for you. The only requirement on your part is that you receive Him into your own spirit (your own heart) and make Him Lord of your life. Once He’s in that position, He can begin pouring into you all that you need and all that will make your life blessed and successful now — and throughout eternity.
In Ephesians, chapter 1, the Word of God tells us that God accomplished total victory over every force of evil through Jesus’ work of redemption, and when He raised Jesus from the grave, He gave Him absolute, eternal power and authority over every person and thing in the entire universe. Then the Word says that when God did that, He was exercising the “greatness of His power toward us.” It was all done for us. You see, God’s power is always moving and working to bring us good. It’s always toward us. The truth is that if you become a child of God — by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord — you just can’t get away from God’s power working good for you.
Men and women for generations have sought high and low for some kind of religion that would satisfy them. They’ve studied one religious system after another and experimented with their various tenets and practices. But not one — not one single religion on the face of the earth — can offer man a total deliverance from his own base nature and from the evil that exudes from that nature. Not one of those religions can offer a fresh start, free of charge, and a nature purified and changed into the nature of the God who created us in the first place. Every religion out there tells us that we, somehow, have to do something, to earn a better life and a better eternity. We have to work at it, and then may not obtain our goal in the end after all.
But Christianity is NOT a religion. True Christianity is simply the Father God loving His own children, and being loved by them. It’s a family, pure and simple. Every parent who is worthy to be called a parent is constantly aware that he loves his child more than his own life, and his constant desire is toward his child — to meet his needs, heal his wounds, and bless him with gifts. And God is no different. That’s His desire as well. And through Jesus, the first Son, He calls all of us into His loving arms, desiring us to receive His love and become sons and daughter as well, so that He can exert His power toward us for good.
If you know this wonderful Father, you know what I’m talking about. But if you do not yet know Him, today can be your day. He already loves you, His desire is already toward you. Call out to Jesus and let His exceeding great power work a total regeneration in you today — and for eternity.
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Tall, with handsomely chiseled features and the bronzed skin of his Cherokee ancestors, Lionel Butler has caused more than one girl’s heart to flutter. But he never takes much notice, because he’s convinced he’s destined to be a bad husband and father. He’s also turned his back on the God his mother served, and since her death, he’s convinced he’ll never be a believer. But when he meets Kana Wallace, a devout Christian, his surprising feelings for her force him to stop and re-evaluate his reasons for a lack of faith.
Christ’s blood seeped from the puncture wounds the thorns produced around his head. His blood ran freely from the scourging that tore apart his back and torso. It gushed from his side slashed open by the soldier’s spear. His bright red blood mingled with death’s morbid, black shroud that afternoon on Calvary’s infamous hill.
But during the somber three days following that seemingly fatal failure, that precious red blood inundated the black of death — mixed with it and overcame its fearful depths — and thus created the regal color of victory. And purple reigns forever, the color of royalty upon the throne of the universe. Salvation is complete.
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Those of you who visit both this site and my ‘Hangin’ Out With God’ site, will notice that today I’ve chosen to post the same response to the prompt on both. I hope you don’t mind.
To participate in the prompt visit Daily Post.
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THE SACRIFICE
A crown,
A diadem,
A shackle placed upon the brow.
Bestowed
Contemptuously,
And scarlet robe on shoulders bowed.
The grief,
The agony,
The tortuous, mutilating pain.
All born
By Innocence
To give me peace and health again.
A cross,
On Calvary:
To execute the Father’s plan.
A tomb,
Now empty stands:
He’s paid the price for every man.
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Sometimes people ask me which of the nine novels I’ve written so far is my favorite. And I have to answer that I feel like a parent with nine children, in that I can honestly say all of them are my favorites. They were born out of me. They are literally part of me. Every single one of them carries something of me out into the world and into the heart of every person who picks it up and reads it. And not one of them can supersede the others in my own heart.
Each one, of course has it’s own special strengths — as far as I’m concerned. (Of course, there are probably a few people out there who don’t think any of them have “strengths,” because, let’s face it: no one ever writes a book that everybody will like. It’s just a fact of life. But not to worry: we don’t write for those people. A true writer writes for himself first — and secondly for all those people who will find great pleasure in reading his work.)
So back to my point: each book has its own set of strengths. When I look at the list of titles, I’m reminded of certain people who received help or encouragement or a good laugh when they read certain stories from that list. And I see each novel as offering its own specific gift to the readers.
However, sometimes we find ourselves writing a story that carries so much more potential for touching and changing lives than the average book does. Somehow, we just know that one particular story has an extra special gift to give the readers, and when we’ve finally written the words “The End,” we sit back and say, “Wow, this is an important book.”
That sense of importance — of special significance — came to me when I finished Repaired By Love, the third book in The Smoky Mountain Series. I truly believe this book is the most important book I’ve ever written. The reason is simple: This story has so much to say about the way of salvation and a joyous relationship with the Lord that it could easily be the only tool necessary to lead someone to make a decision to turn his heart over to Jesus Christ. I make that statement, not because I’m the author, but because I sincerely believe that the Lord Himself orchestrated that book to accomplish just that purpose.
Of course, I pray and believe the Lord to lead me in writing what He wants written in every inspirational novel I create. And the main focus in all of those novels is to help people come to know the Lord better and see that He wants to be involved in our everyday lives — helping, guiding, healing, and protecting us. I hope I’ve been faithful to Him in every book I’ve turned out. But in this one particular book, I sense a special anointing from Him to touch hearts that have never yet opened up to Him at all. I am still in awe of how the Lord led certain people into my life and then used them to plant the seeds of so many of the characters in this book — and how He carried me along with the plot that I didn’t even have a plan for in the beginning.
When I wrote Repaired By Love, back in 2004, I said to a number of people: “If I could have written only one book in my whole life, this is the book I would want to have written.” Eleven years later — and having written five other novels since then — I still feel the same.
I hope my readers will be blessed by it as much as I have been.
Readers can find the digital Repaired By Love at the Kindle Store at a special price for the next two weeks. From today through October 16th, the novel will be on sale for only $1.99. After that date it goes back to the same price as all the other books in the series ( 3.99).
To read an excerpt from Chapter One click HERE.
(And don’t forget, if you don’t have an e-reader, Amazon has a free app you can download in just a few minutes that will let you read all e-books right on your own computer. Just follow the link to the book page, and you’ll see the notification about the free Kindle App.)
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We don’t have to do anything to earn acceptance and love from the Creator of the universe.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemned the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believes on Him is not condemned.” (John 3:16-18).
“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. … God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. … For He has made Him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us … that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
Jesus Christ already paid for the whole package with His perfect life, his sacrificial death, and His victorious resurrection.
All we need to do is acknowledge that He has done it all for us and make Him our Lord.
Will we change? Yes.
Will we need to struggle to do so? No.
Will life become an instant bed of roses with no thorns? No.
Will we be filled with a peace and joy like we’ve never known before? Yes.
Will the Lord then hear us when we pray and rush to help us? Yes.
Will we have the security of knowing our eternity in His glorious presence is guaranteed? Yes, absolutely.
Overall, it’s the best deal we’ll ever be offered. If you haven’t taken Him up on it yet, my advice is DO IT!
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You can find a hint in the words of this Christmas Carol:
The most significant carols of the Christmas season have something important to say that goes beyond the adoration of a baby in a manger. Jesus Christ came to earth as a babe, but He did not come to remain so. His whole purpose in being born a man was to be able to live a life of perfect obedience on our behalf and then take the punishment that we deserved for not living that life ourselves.
Christmas is not a season that lasts a week — or 12 days — or for the month of December. Christmas is about the life-long celebration of our salvation from our sinful nature and our free admittance back into right relationship with our Creator so that we can live with Him forever.
This lovely carol, “Oh Holy Night,” by Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, explains the situation so well. We (the human race) had degraded ourselves by rebellion, selfishness, hatred, greed, and all manner of immorality. We had become weak and insignificant – without power to give ourselves value. As a result, we were without worth and without any hope for this world or the next. We sat in darkness and in bondage, enchained by our own sin and error and by the death that resulted from that sin.
It took a God who was, in and of Himself, beautiful, valuable, and unutterably holy to offer Himself in our stead – paying the ultimate price for our degradation and sin – transposing us from a mass of worthless matter into a priceless treasure. And with that one merciful act of God, the human race became worth more than all that lay in the storehouses of Heaven.
Jehovah is God – all by Himself. And, in the person of Jesus Christ, He gave all of Himself for you and me.
Our souls now recognize our worth because we were bought with the life of Him who is worthy of all honor, praise, and glory forever.
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold … but with the precious blood of Christ ….” (Holy Bible, 1 Peter 1:18-19)
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O, Lamb of God
So pure, so holy, undefiled,
You came so meekly,
Vulnerable, a tiny child.
You took our sin
And took all of its consequence.
You chose the cross,
And on it your lifeblood was spent.
But for what cause,
When tempted in the garden that night,
Did you still choose
To let yourself be crucified?
You told us, Lord;
If we’d just listen, we would know.
You said, “Because
I love the Father, I will go.”
Lord, work in us
That holy and obedient love,
That we, when tried,
Will speak and act only for God.
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(Photo courtesy of Karen’s Whimsy)
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The Happy Wordcrafter 