Bible

He's Holding on To You

My husband and I like to hike. We spend time in God’s creation to appreciate His beauty, get needed exercise, and to be together as a couple. On an outing last week, we traveled over sixty miles to visit South Cumberland State Park here in Tennessee. We have hikes much closer to home, but we drove to a park near the setting of my fictional series, Love in Pleasant Springs. Though we didn’t see what we’d hoped to find.

We visited Foster Falls, where Luke, the hero in Book Two, plans to propose to Lanie, the heroine. But his plan falls through because of an interruption. Don’t worry! It’s a romance! He’ll get another chance.

Despite a glitch in his plans, they enjoy a lovely view of the waterfall, a picnic, and a kiss or two. They’re together and happy after several misunderstandings and disappointments in their stormy relationship.

Kenn and I endured a hiccup, too, on our hike. We made a steep, rocky climb down to the waterfall and crossed a suspension bridge near the base of the falls. But what we saw differed from my two characters. Only a trickle of water fell into the gorge below.

Were we disappointed after what some might consider a strenuous trail for two senior citizens? A little. But I got what I wanted—to see and sense the location for a scene in my story. What might the characters experience while there? Could they enjoy a picnic at the falls, or would they need to hike back to the trailhead to eat their dinner? Was the suspension bridge wobbly? How could that play into my story?

Kenn and I shared special moments that day. We were alone to appreciate God’s goodness and peace. After several minutes and many photos, we made the trek back to our car. The upward climb out of the gorge was steep, but worth it. We even found another trail to hike. We weren’t ready to quit.

Life is like that, isn’t it? Our plans don’t always turn out as we envisioned. Disappointments come, and we may want to give up. But God gives us strength to keep going.

I love the Bible’s stories of faith and trust. Stories of people with problems and triumphs we can learn from. God hasn’t changed. His Word applies to us today. We find hope and determination to persevere. God walks alongside us through our disappointments and struggles. Hang onto Him and don’t let go! He’s holding on to you!

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Isaiah 40:28-29, ESV

Seek the Third Solution

Please welcome guest author, Sherri Stewart, to my blog today as she shares about seeking the third solution and her new release, Deer Eyes!

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5, NIV 

Being a believer of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean life will be smooth and easy. Sometimes we face huge dilemmas at work and at home where there doesn’t seem to be a good solution. As an immigration attorney, I dealt with cases like the one with the twenty-four-year-old widow who was being deported to the Philippines because her American husband had died in a car accident while her application for a green card was being processed. But God often gives His children a third option, as He gave me with regard to my widowed client. God brought a happy ending to this case that seemed unsolvable. Often the characters in my books face practical problems with no apparent solution, but they pray and usually find their third option in the Bible.

Ask high school principal, Judd Trudeau, who deals with people problems at work every single day. But what he also has learned is God often gives a third solution when there seems to be no answer. In Deer Eyes, Judd’s most immediate problem is more personal. Newcomer to Bar Harbor, Selah Brighton, is as skittish as a deer in the headlights when he encounters her in Acadia National Park. Once she learns to trust him, together they seek God’s third solution to thwart the plans of the enemy who’s followed her to town. https://amzn.to/3oGaI0s

Author Bio & Links

There’s a lot of me in the book, Deer Eyes. Authors are advised to write what they know, and that’s what I do in all my books. In Deer Eyes, Judd deals with the same conflicts at school as I did as a principal of a Christian school. Selah’s disclosure about her father came straight from my own life as a fourteen-year-old. I’ve written twenty historical fiction/romance and romantic suspense novels. My hobby is traveling to the settings of my books. Next month, I’ll visit Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If you have any suggestions about what I should see, let me know.

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/gZ-mv9

https://www.amazon.com/author/sherristewart/ 

https://twitter.com/machere

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/758893.Sherri_Stewart

www.stewartwriting.com

https://www.instagram.com/stewart_sherri/

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sherri-stewart

www.hhhistory.com


Title photo by Nathan and Kiran Edwards

A Time of Refreshing

Temperatures are falling, and soon leaves will follow, but here in Middle Tennessee we’re expecting highs in the upper eighties. Often after being out in the sun, heat, and humidity, a glass of sweet tea beckons us, along with a refreshing cool shower. And what else do we need in the shower? Soap! Although we won’t find the soap mentioned below there, it offers a time of refreshing, too.

The church we attend distributes a S.O.A.P. Guide each month. Each day suggests a specific chapter from the Bible they invite us to read. Reading from our guide each day is a great way to get God’s Word into our hearts and minds. We read, jot down verses, summarize what we think God is saying, apply what we read to our lives, and pray.

Perhaps you or your church uses the S.O.A.P. method of Bible journaling, too. You can use this method with any Bible reading plan.

S for Scripture—write out a verse or two that spoke to you.

O for Observation—jot down what you think God is saying through the Scripture.

A for Application—note how these verses apply to your life right now.

P for Prayer—ask God to help you apply what you’ve learned.

The journal I use is a weekly planner. I write with a different color ink for each letter response, but I run out of space before I get to my prayer. Instead, often my application is a request or declaration to the Lord.

This is part of my entry for Psalm 42.

Scripture
5. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. 

Observation
When we feel down, we are to put our hope in God and trust He will see us through.

 Application
I will trust the Lord!

Prayer—as stated above, I don’t write these out. I can’t stop with one or two verses and take too much space by writing three or four. But if I were to write my prayer, it would be something simple like this: Lord, I put my hope in you and praise your holy name. Help me trust You in every situation that comes my way.

I end with a word of thanksgiving that I place at the top of my entry each day. It may be gratitude for something that happened or thanksgiving for a promise I read from God’s Word that day. With Psalm 42, I wrote—I’m thankful for the rain we’ve gotten and for what is predicted to come.

In checking online, I found a nifty S.O.A.P journal I plan to order that includes a gratitude section at the bottom of each page. There’s enough space to allow me to expand my thoughts and write my prayers, too.

Grab your Bible, journal, and pens and find a time of refreshing with S.O.A.P.


Photo by Roman Synkevych - Unsplash