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Saturday, July 15, 2017

The Best Part of My Day

As a writer, I receive a lot of emails from other writers and coaches about ways to succeed in the writing business. Lately, I have been following some posts on how we can makeover our mornings to be more productive.



In her posts, the coach advises that writers make a “game plan” of what they want their morning to look like. That way, she suggests, we will be able to set the tone for a productive day. I agree with everything she says. Whenever I oversleep, my morning routine – prayer, Bible reading and morning walk - gets messed up and I feel lost.  I hate when that happens.

The Bible tells us that Jesus had a morning routine too. He knew the benefit of rising early to commune with His Father and get His leading for the day. "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed" (Mark 1 : 35). Seems like even his followers knew He rose early because Luke tells us, “and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple” (Luke 21: 38).

Even the psalmists spoke of rising early. "Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early" (Psalm 57: 8).

:O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;" (Psalm 63: 1)

What is so special about the early hours of the day? In the early morning when there is little or no activity going on around you, your mind is fresh and uncluttered and you can focus better. However, it goes deeper than that. God commanded the people of Israel to honor Him with the firstfruits - the first - of their substance, i.e.. anything they had – produce, livestock, everything.  The firstfruits were “holy unto the LORD,” (Ezekiel 48: 14) and were to “cause the blessing to rest in thine house” (44: 30).  Later, in the New Testament, the apostles Paul and James referred to the early Christians as the firstfruits of Christ, and Christ Himself is referred to as the firstfruits of the dead.

We honor God with the firstfruits of our increase in the form of tithes and offering. In the same way, we can honor Him with the firstfruits of our day. The very first thing we ought to do before we do anything else is to commune with our Heavenly Father. When we do that, we “set the tone “ for our day. We come away feeling refreshed, energized and ready to face the challenges of the day. Try it.

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Do you love to read but find that the most of the books out there contain graphic sex, violence or material that goes against your Christian beliefs? I have written a series of books called the "Egypt" series which strongly bear out the redemption story while providing all the emotion and suspense of a gripping novel. The first book Coming Out of Egypt is available here and the second book In The Wilderness is now on preorder here. Not sure if you're ready to buy? Then click the popup form to receive a free copy of the first chapter so you can decide if you want to read the book. And please share this post with others by clicking on the buttons below. God bless.

Tuesday, July 04, 2017

What Does Independence Mean?




Here's another post I wrote some years back. As I read it, I realized that most of what I said then is still relevant today, so I decided to dust it off and re-present it to you along with your Fourth of July apple pie.  I trust that while you’re having that second helping  you would stop to reflect on what independence means to you and to America.


What does Independence truly mean? Does it only mean having the ability to govern ourselves? Free from outside control, as the Oxford dictionary tells us? Or does it mean not depending on anyone? America is known as the land of the free and the home of the brave. But lately we have to ask ourselves who are the free and who are the brave?


Freedom may be limited, but bravery abounds. We have to be brave to walk the streets at nights, brave to send our children to school, brave to mention the name of Jesus in public. When over thirty six million people live in poverty in this, the richest country on earth, where is the independence? When children are the largest growing number of the nation’s poor, and words like outsourcing and downsizing are common everyday terms, where’s the independence?

I hate to spoil your celebrations, but we need to examine ourselves. As more people lose their healthcare, prices of basic commodities continue to rise, and wars rage at home and abroad, we need to depend more on God. The Bible tells us, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3: 5).

Think about that as you dig into that apple pie.

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Do you love to read but find that the most of the books out there contain graphic sex, violence or material that goes against your Christian beliefs? I have written a series of books called the "Egypt" series which strongly bear out the redemption story while providing all the emotion and suspense of a gripping novel. The first book Coming Out of Egypt is available here and the second book In The Wilderness is now on preorder here. Not sure if you're ready to buy? Then click the popup form to receive a free copy of the first chapter so you can decide if you want to read the book. God bless.

Saturday, July 01, 2017

Free and Bargain Book Event

I suspend my regular programming to bring you a very important event, sorry, announcement. Today, Sat. Jul. 1st, I'm participating in a very important event. It's called the Support Indie Authors Free & Bargain Book event. This is a Facebook event in which SIA members offer temporary discounts or freebie promos, and combine our collective marketing resources to showcase our works to a larger readership. I've never done anything like this before and I'm very excited about it and so are the other authors.

I will be promoting Women For All Seasons, my Christian non-fiction book based on women of the Bible. I will also be talking about my new Egypt series, Book 1, Coming Out of Egypt, and Book 2, In The Wilderness, which is now on preorder for 99c.The redemption message rings out loud and clear in these books, and I'm sure you will be blessed by it. To know more about all of these books you can go  here.

This is your chance to get Women For All Seasons FREE and Coming Out of Egypt for only 99c. But just for today, so don't miss this opportunity. And while you are there, please opt-in to my subscribe box so you can get updates on my books, author events and giveaways. So please pass the word on to your friends. The event starts at 8.00 a.m here and goes on all day. I will be on at 3.00 p.m. Hope to see you there.