Christmas Devotion

This devotion I wrote appeared in "Power for Living" last Christmas. (The picture is from a Christmas pageant at the boarding school in Nigeria when I was only about five years old.)

 ‘Twas the Night before Christmas

Read: Job 5:8-9, Micah 5:2

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from ancient times.” Micah 5:2 (NIV)

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the world, the people continued as they always had with no idea of the event—the advent—that would happen the next day. In the streets of Jerusalem, the people did not think they needed a new king. They served Caesar and he was the most powerful man on earth. The people did not think they needed a savior. They obeyed the Roman laws and were not in trouble that they needed saving from, as far as they knew. And the people in Jerusalem and elsewhere could care less what was happening in an obscure little town called Bethlehem.

But what happened in that little town the next day changed the trajectory of history. For in that obscure place, the next day, Jesus, God’s own Son, came into the world as a tiny baby. 

The ancient prophet, Micah knew what a special place Bethlehem was to be in history. He foretold it so many years earlier when he said out of this little obscure town will come one who will be the ruler of the world. We read this in Micah 5:2 which says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." 

Thinking of those people so long ago who completely missed what God was doing in their time, causes me to wonder what we may be missing today. Certainly, we are not missing the birth of Christ but are there other, smaller ways God is working that you and I and the rest of our world are too busy and too preoccupied to notice? According to our focus passage in Job, God performs wonders that cannot be fathomed!

Prayer: Gracious Heavenly Father, open our eyes to see your marvelous works. Open our hearts to be sensitive to your Spirit’s prodding. Open our minds to knowledge through your word. I pray we do not miss the great works you are doing in our world and in our lives. In Your Son’s Name, Amen. 

Thought for the Day: ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the world, the people of God were …

Writing News

Fall is here and winter is closing in. Time has a way of flying by. This is the one year we may all be happy to see time go by, though. Here's to hoping 2021 brings a cure / vaccine for Covid and many other blessings! 

Though I have penned many books the past few years, I still enjoy freelance writing. One of the perks of freelancing is that along with payment, most magazines also send complimentary copies of any magazine I have contributed to. Currently,  have a devotion in the fall issue of "The Secret Place" and an article in the "Focus on the Family Magazine". I also received notice that "The Secret Place" will carry another of my devotions in their upcoming winter issue.  

And ... some exciting news on the book front. In August, my co-writer, Shirley Crowder, and I (in agreement with our publisher) decided to list one of our devotional books "Glimpses of Prayer" as a permafree--meaning it is permanently free on Kindle. Authors who have several books sometimes do this for promotional reasons. It has worked! This week it shot up in number of downloads on Amazon and a few days ago it hit #1 in two catagories--books on Christian prayer and Christian devotional books. Woohoo! (It has stayed there for several days, though I fully expect it to move down in time.) 

Writing is so much fun for me! It's a gift God gave me and I feel like a child who loves taking out my gift and playing with it everyday! 

Book Signing in a Pandemic

 Southern Seminary is excited about our book! The bookstore there has purchased a lot of copies from the distributor and is not only carrying them in the bookstore, they are spotlighting them! They had talked with us about holding an event where we come and meet the students and sign books as they were purchased but due to Covid restrictions, they have decided to wait on that event until next spring. Instead they sent a box of books home with John for us to sign and they are spotlighting these books both in their store and online. We are so excited to see their enthusiasm for our book!

The picture is of us today when we brought in the box of signed books. Little did we know they had bought another box for us to take home and sign! 

Summer Bible Study

"Prayer: It's Not About You" is my first published book. It's the book that got me a writing contract. It's the book that started my writing career. I have told the story before, about how I faced a difficult time and wanted to know more about prayer for application in my own life (because I wanted my prayers to get answered.) I started my own personal study of prayer, searching the Bible for any and all passages about prayer. This quest took four years, at the end of which I had a book written from my search. It took another few years to find a publisher but in May of 2016, the book made it's debut.

This book remains my best seller, possibly because it is often used by groups in group Bible studies. Just since last fall it has been used in a men's small group Bible study, a senior Sunday school class in a large church here in Louisville, a women's group study in Missouri, and an online women's study in Nashville. The leader of the group in Nashville, whom I do not know, said it was one of the best books on prayer she has ever read.

Looking for a good summer or fall Bible study, group or individual, online or otherwise? Want to know more about prayer? You will find this a good resource.

A Time Like None Other

These certainly are strange times. I, like most of you, am stuck at home waiting out the Covid 19 pandemic, hoping and praying the cases will decrease and a cure can be found soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to keep busy.

How am I keeping busy? Well, my substitute teaching job is pretty much over for the year since summer is so close upon us so I'm not doing that. I'm cleaning and fixing up my house. I braved the lines at Home Depot and bought two gallons of antique white paint and a gallon of white trim paint. (Trim has a higher gloss.) So far I have painted the upstairs hall and a bedroom that I plan to turn into my writing space. And of course, I'm still writing. Here are some updates on that. In March, April, and May my writing will appear in the following:

1) a story in a Chicken Soup book
2) a devotion in the spring issue of "The Secret Place" (Judson Press)
3) a parenting tip in Focus on the Family magazine
and I have completed two writing assignments--a seven day devotional assignment from "The Quiet Hour" (David C. Cook) and an article assignment for "Focus on the Family Magazine."

But I've had two speaking engagements canceled due to the virus. One has been rescheduled. The other was teaching a workshop at a writers conference. Hopefully, they'll ask me to teach next year.

My co-writer on many of my books, Shirley Crowder and I have started reading devotions from one of our books on a Facebook Live. She reads on Tuesdays and I read on Thursdays. This has been challenging but fun. Shirley and I also have the 2nd in our year around devotional series releasing soon so at any moment, I could get galley edits (line edits from my publisher / editor) in my inbox and have to drop everything to do those.

So yeah, I'm keeping busy. The pic at the top of this post is the cover to our soon-to-be-released book, by the way. Stay healthy!

Recovery and Writing

I'm writing this from my bed where I have been recovering from knee surgery. I had two meniscus tears in my right knee as well as arthritic changes so my doctor cleaned out my knee and did a partial meniscectomy. I'm five days post-op and seeing improvement every day. Today I graduated from crutches to a cane. Woohoo!

So, I'm using the time to catch up on some writing projects, one of which is to let you know what's happening in my writing life. I am still freelancing, as always. I had a short article in the Feb 23rd issue of "Power for Living" (published by David C. Cook), devotions in both the winter 2020 and in the upcoming spring issues of "The Secret Place" (Judson Press), a short piece of parental advice coming out later this spring in 'Thriving Family" (Focus on the Family), and I just received a devotional writing assignment for "The Quiet Hour" (David C. Cook). That last one is due back to the publisher at the end of April.

I love speaking as well. Last week I met with a senior citizen Sunday School class of a large Methodist church in my city who have been studying Prayer: It's Not About You. How humbling to see a room full of people all with a book  you authored in their hands. :) I just learned of another group of 14 people in Missouri who will soon begin studying that book too. I have two other speaking engagements in the not-so-distance future--I will lead two workshops at the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference in Memphis TN March 20-21 and a women's conference here in Louisville in May.

And another book in the year-around devotional series Shirley Crowder and I are co-writing will be released in May. We've gotten a peek at the cover and can't wait to show it to you! It's lovely!

Meanwhile, A Stand for Truth is now available in hardcover too. It continues to have strong sales and garners new reviews all the time.

Ooh, I do love the writing life. I better hurry up and heal so I can get back to it.

It's Finally Here!!

It's release day! Woohoo! The riveting memoir about my husband's tenure as a trustee at Southern Seminary during a very challenging time is finally published and can be purchased here. 

This book has been a long time coming. It took well over ten years for my husband and me to get it written and then another several years to get it published. And today, thanks to Olivia Kimbrell Press and it's editor-in-chief, Gregg Bridgman, it has finally hit the stands. I couldn't be more excited! 

Rather than telling you why I love this book, I'll post some excerpts from the numerous endorsements we garnered for the book: 

"This story is so compelling you will not be able to put the book down." --Timothy K. Beougher, Ph.D Associate Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions at SBTS

"...a very rare and important insider view … There are urgent lessons here for every seminary, Christian college, and denomination." --Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr, President of SBTS

"A story that is one that everyone interested in Southern Baptist history will enjoy reading." --Jason K. Allen, Ph.D. President of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary 

"The book is a remarkable journal of one man's challenges as he stood for Biblical fidelity and institutional integrity … Read with a renewed sense of God's faithfulness, and see the courage it often takes to stand for truth." --James Thomas "Jimmy Draper, Jr. DHum., DDiv. President Emeritus of Lifeway and Former President of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

Ready or Not, Here's 2020!

As I start a new year, I can't help but look back on last year. My youngest son is still in college, though he will graduate this May and get married in June. But this past Christmas break, he was still at home with us. One of his dress jackets was missing a button so I took it to a local fabric shop to match buttons so I could replace the missing one, or as it turned out, all of them.

I was not prepared for the flood of emotions that washed over me when I stepped into that fabric shop. My mother, whom I lost last August, absolutely loved fabrics. She learned to sew as a teenager, the daughter of a poor farmer. She used to make dresses out of her father's feed sacks which she said came in pretty cotton prints back then (not burlap.) She became quite good at sewing and sewed so many things throughout her life--wedding dresses, for herself and her daughters, clothes for her family when we were in Africa, and beautiful heirloom smocked dresses for her granddaughters which are now being passed on to her great-granddaughters. (I put my sweet mama's story in fiction form in a book a few years ago titled, The Whisper of the Palms.)

I had to walk back to the very back of the store to find the buttons and as I walked past row after row of fabric, especially the laces and lovely dress fabrics, it was all I could do to hold back my tears. I could just see her stopping all along the way to touch and ooh at the lovely things. I felt her loss all over again and it made me pensive and even a bit weepy all that day.

This happened on New Year's Eve and had me thinking even more than usual about the year gone by and the one to come. 2019 was one of the harder years in my life but it had high moments too. As I start 2020, my mom is in heaven and her new body feels better than it has in many years, a loved one who had struggled greatly in the winter and spring of last year is back on his feet, two of my children got engaged, and I have a new grandson. I have much to be thankful for indeed, and reason to be hopeful and excited for the year and decade ahead. I pray the same for you!