This grabbed my attention...

"A simple illustration provides a pithy parallel to our situation: a ship in the sea is all right; the sea in a ship is all wrong. In the same way, the church in the world is all right; the world in the church is all wrong. If there is too much of the sea in a ship, it will sink. I believe the ship of today's church is so near sinking that every individual who becomes a believer and accepts Christianity is set to bailing water with everyone else to keep the church afloat."

Excerpt from Protection From Deception by Derek Prince

Plain Pursuit by Beth Wiseman

Plain Pursuit tells the story of Carley Marek, a young woman healing from the grief, pain and mental stress of a car accident that stole her mother's life. Carley spends a month of mandatory vacation by going to visit with Englischer turned Amish friend Lillian (whose story is told in Wiseman's Plain Perfect).

The tale that unfolds from there is an enlightening, heartwarming tale of a Noah Stoltzfus who followed the call of God to become a Doctor and the shunning that ensued. Wrapped up in the tale of his rejection are the conflicting emotions of his immediate family and the illness of a nephew he has never been allowed to meet.
Wiseman does a beautiful job of going beyond the conventional Englisch perception of an Amish shunning. The reader comes away with a better understanding of the faith and community which exemplify the Amish way of life.

It was nice to pick up a book billed as Amish fiction and find a contemporary story that doesn’t focus on the long lost daughter of the one who was shunned. Likewise, Wiseman’s story was a nice departure from the predictable. I look forward to finding out if the rest of the Daughters of Promise series exhibit a similar style and feeling. Well done.

He Is.

New Book: Green by Ted Dekker

Followed by the books Black, Red and White, Green begins and ends Dekker’s circle series. Our Hero: Thomas Hunter, common man in modern time, leader of “The Circle” in an alternate future. Our Villians: Ba’al (future) and Billy (modern). Green is an interesting, but sometimes confusing story of good and evil.

With vivid description and multiple characters of interest, Dekker paints a new and frightening world. A bit edgy and disturbing in places, hopeful and encouraging in others. Aside from the battle between good and evil, Green does bring to mind the matter of second chances. Do we all get them? Do we realize it when we do? Do we make the same mistakes?

While I think that Green may wrap this series up well, this was my first acquaintance with Ted Dekker's work. By default, Green represented the beginning of the circle for me. Unfortunately, I think this was the wrong choice. Apparently so much had gone before, that I was unable to get an accurate picture and found myself confused at points. In Lord of the Rings style, there were new terms to learn and a new world to understand. Mixed in were chapters and references to a time in the not too distant future. In order to really appreciate Green, it seems beneficial to read it as a conclusion. It does seem that this book could begin the series again, just reads as an awkward first time beginning. IMHO.

Koinonia

Love is:
~a verb.
~an action.
~a feeling.
~a belief.
~a reason.
~a many splendored thing.

How many people have tried to define love? How many philosophical and impassioned discussions have there been on the subject? Too many to count I'm sure.

I don't have an answer and I'm not trying to stir up another discussion.

I just have a few comments to make.

There are some people that I like. Some that I tolerate. Some that I may never have more than a passing acquaintance with.

Then there are some people that I genuinely love.

Sure, there's my family.

But there are friends for whom I have a deep, platonic love for.

A love birthed in fellowship.

{Fellowship -
{1. the state of sharing mutual interests, experiences, activities, etc.
{2. a society of people sharing mutual interests, experiences, activities, etc.; club
{3. companionship; friendship

I recently had the priveledge of gathering together with a group of friends that I love. It was a group that hasn't assembled for about 5 years. I've seen some of them off and on over the past few years, but this was a special time.

We shared joy together. We laughed. We shared trouble together. We prayed.

Truly this is a group that I share Koinonia with.

{Koinonia -
{Christian fellowship or communion with God or with fellow Christians;
{said in particular of the early Christian community.

I don't tell them often enough how much I value them. Honestly, the depth of my feeling for each of them doesn't in anyway make light of my other friendships and relationships.

But I read something today that I felt applied specifically to this group:

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." ~ Philippians 1:3-6

I love you guys.

Two Hits & A Miss

So, as I mentioned before, I'm a big reader. But I've been taking a break over the last month or two. Busy life yields little time for the library. I did however, manage to sneak a quick trip in last Sunday. All three books I brought home were by authors I didn't really have a previous acquaintance with. Hit or miss, right?

Thankfully, two of these turned out to be gems.

The first, Gone to Green by Judy Christie, is about a big city editor who gets stuck with the ownership of a small town paper. Committed for a year to small town Louisianna, Lois Barker has to figure out how to fight prejudice and inject change into both the paper and the town. Great read. I look forward to picking up the sequal.

The second book was by author Kristen Heitzmann. Now I had read Halos before, and though enjoyable, it didn't really leave me with a strong affinity for her work. This book changed my mind. Finally, a good Christian author who doesn't try to wrap things up in a tidy package of 250 pages or less.

A Rush of Wings tells the tale of a woman on the run.

From something.

About picking up her life.

Somewhere.

About her personal journey.

Oh, yeah, and her romances.

Though, I must say at the end, I was thinking, "But what happens to the other guy?!?"

Thankfully, I've discovered she wrote his story too. That's on my list for the next drive by at the library.

Oh? You want to know about the third book? Well, I've struggled to get through the first chapter. It just hasn't grabbed me yet. I may give it another try. Or it may go back for some other lucky reader to snatch up.

The Reminder of a Promise

Last Wednesday, I was driving into town when I noticed a sliver of a rainbow of to the right. "How beautiful," I thought and kept on driving. The farther down the road I got, the more I noticed the rainbow. The clouds began to break and I realized that I was seeing a glorious range of colors that spanned the road.

Below, a picture I tried to take while stopped at a light.


On turning to another highway, the clouds dissipated and the rainbow grew clearer. Absolutely beautiful. I had to wait until I parked to get this picture, so the trees got in the way. But imagine a full rainbow, like one you'd see in a cartoon. :-)

"Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life."

Genesis 9:14-15