A devotional I wrote was published today on Park Street’s website.
It’s called “The Giving Heart of the Father”.
Here’s an excerpt:
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus admonishes us to give to those who ask us for something. He goes on to say later “when you give to the needy.” He doesn’t say, “If you give” or “When you have extra”; He says “when you give”, as if it were understood that giving is a vital part of following Him.
Now go read it 🙂
My fifth article has been published on Boundless.org:
🙂
Another of my articles was printed over at Boundless today:
I’m actually quite happy with the way it came out. When I wrote it, I wasn’t sure I liked it as much as the other 3 that have already been printed, but reading over it again, I think it’s quite good.
Enjoy 🙂
I was inspired by one of my friends in Exodus who recently signed a book deal that I should be more consistent in working on my book. He said he was working on it for a year before he got picked up by a publisher. So yesterday morning, while Bear napped on my lap, I worked on my book. I already have a loose intro written, as well as an outline of about 18 chapters, some of which may eventually be cut, depending on the format I choose for the final version. I went through various talks I’ve given during my days doing campus ministry with Chi Alpha, as well as Exodus, & articles & devotionals I’ve written and pulled information from those, cutting & pasting them into the appropriate chapters. I ended up with over 50 pages of material! So that felt good to make all that progress 🙂
I also just really enjoyed reading over some of my old talks & teachings. I really struggled with those early talks, whereas now I’m much more comfortable preaching & teaching. But even though I struggled with writing & giving them, some of them had important things to say – if I do say so myself.
Yesterday, I was out of spinach, but in an effort to maintain my green smoothie streak, I used broccoli & kale as my greens. Um, let’s just say I don’t recommend it, unless you have a more powerful blender than I do. It was so thick it took me several hours to drink it.
I wanted to get some writing done tonight since the Bear’s been asleep for a while and Roy is working late, but my brain won’t cooperate. I did get a few things jotted down for my book on the theme of “Perseverance”, so that’s good. And I did some tidying up.
Roy will be at work for a little while longer, so I think I’ll take a shower & go to bed. Night, all!
Roy & I stayed home from church today because Bear has a fever and isn’t feeling well. And since we’ve been up since about 5 AM, I’ve been catching up on reading some library books that I have out. And since the Bear is snoozing on my lap, I thought I’d type a post on my new Asus 🙂
2 books really have me thinking: “The Simple Living Guide” and to a lesser degree “Your Money or Your Life”. Janet Luhrs, author of “The Simple Living Guide”, discussing simplifying your life to the point where you can easily live within your means and still save money so that one day, you become financially independent. We are on track to be set to retire in 15-20 years if we continue to pay down our debt at our current rate and continue to earn about the same amount of money with annual raises.
This may surprise some of you, but I’ve always desired to live a simple life. Some of you probably just laughed out loud as you read that because you’ve been to our house and have seen all the stuff we’ve accumulated over the years. Yes, our hoarding tendencies still need to be worked on, for sure 🙂 But ideally, I’d love to live in a small town where you go to the village store and the clerk knows you by name (yes, I have watched too much “Little House on the Prairie”). We’d live in a modest house, and I could have a large garden on lots of land with a stream nearby for Roy. Yes, I would miss the conveniences of city life (like being able to walk to the grocery store and not use any gas to get there!), but I think the pros would outweight the cons. And with all the technology we have available to us today, Roy & I could both work from home.
The question is what work would I do? Luhrs talks a lot about finding work you are passionate about. I’m passionate about a lot of things – ministry, music, healthy eating which does not mean “low-fat”, fyi), green smoothies, dogs, babies, recovery – the list could go on & on 🙂 She talked specifically about how great it was to be able to work from home when her kids were small. Her job? Writing! As I read that, I was reminded of how, in recent years, I’ve really had a strong desire to write a book. I’ve never thought of myself as much of a writer before, but I recently had 3 articles published over at Boundless.org, and those were relatively well-received. There are a few different book ideas that I’ve tossed around, but there’s one specific idea that I feel strongly God put on my heart over 3 years ago. As I sat thinking about this, I actually had several ideas pop into my head, so I hopped over to my Asus & jotted them down.
So get ready, Eva! (She’ one of my best friends and has edited pretty much everything I’ve written since we met a few years ago.) It may take me 2 or 3 times as long to write a book, typing with one finger and a baby in my lap, but it’ll get done eventually!
Shameless plus – I have been reading some great books lately! Check out my Library Thing list below for some recommendations 🙂
I’ve written a series of articles for “Boundless”, the webzine of Focus on the Family. This was possibly the easiest to write, but the most difficult to share. It’s strange to see it up in print now.
“Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.” James 5:16, MSG
There’s freedom in honesty. It’s out there for the world to see. I can’t take it back, and I don’t want to.