The Afternoon of Life

  BOOK REVIEW   INTERCONNECTED By:   Jamie Urquhart Jake seems to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time as this interesting who-dun-it unfolds.   An innocent stop for breakfast at a roadside diner puts him smack dab in the middle of attempted murder…of a police officer, no less.   And other diners impossibly agree as they point to him as the shooter!   Along comes Officer Kowalski…’Ski to his friends.   Jake and Officer Kowalski will slowly but surely piece together a crime with far-reaching outcomes.   This reader enjoyed the fact that she did NOT guess the ending till the very end.   It always felt as if I were putting together a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces.   I believe that is exactly how the author intended the reader to feel. I have been looking forward to reading this first novel of a friend of mine.   I knew it would be factual, because Jamie has years of experience as an EMT and fire fighter.   ...

  BOOK REVIEW 4 Chair Discipling What Jesus Calls Us To Do By:   Dann Spader Matthew 28: 16-20 “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.   And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”               I set a goal for 2021 that I will read two books each month and write a review so that at the end of the year I will have twenty-four books under my belt.   One book would be a book for my personal Christian growth, the other just for pleasure and relaxation.    ...

A recent homework session with Holden had me lying in bed late one night and replaying all that had happened.   It had NOT been a good session with Holden…at least it had not started out well.   First, he refused to sign his own name on the math paper assigned for homework.   He kept insisting he wanted to put "B29"…and when given a pencil, that is what he wrote.   I erased his mistake and reminded him who he was before asking a second time for him to write his name.   And again he wrote “B29”.   I knew immediately this was not going to go well.   Sometimes Holden gets in his head exactly what he believes should happen…and getting him to change his mind is like pulling teeth from a polar bear (or at least what I imagine that would be like).    Again and again and again he continued to try to sign in as “B29”…and then he began folding his fists together as a ninja pose.   I bowed my head and prayed, “Lord, I’m not sure how to help hi...

“Don’t ask me about being a writer.  If when you wake up in the morning you can think of nothing but writing, then you’re a writer!”   ~Rainer Maria Rilke I’m not sure how many years ago I first heard this quote shared by Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act II, but I remember it made me cry.   I remember as a teenager wishing I could be a writer.   As a young mom, I wished I could express everything happening in my life so I could keep all my memories filed somewhere better than my brain – it seems I misfile too much stuff there and cannot pull it up when I want to enjoy it.   I remember when I started teaching school fifteen years ago I wanted to keep a journal – but teaching took too much time for me to make notes every day.   I battled cancer for so many days, weeks, months and even years – and yes, I did start a journal but was too afraid to write my fears in case they came true, and too afraid to dream of a future in case it didn’t come tru...

Book Review "Zealous for Good Works" by Todd A. Wilson What a challenging read for the Christian with a heart to grow the Kingdom of God through obedience to the Scriptures.  Wilson has logically, spiritually and forcefully captured the spirit of the writings of Titus in this well-organized, enthusiastic and uplifting volume.  He asks the question, “Is your church transforming the community?” and from there builds on the steps needed to take the church all the way up to becoming a city on a hill! Chapter titles are intriguing and it’s hard not to take a shortcut through to those that look more interesting, but one will certainly lose out on the flow of this book by doing so.  He explains why he chose the book of Titus to help the church grow to become a serving church and not just a body of believers.  He asks another question:  “What Turns a Place Upside Down?” and goes on to illuminate the importance of excellent preaching in the church.  H...

Jonathan Cahn has a third home run in his writing of “The Paradigm”.  The book is a gateway book that actually helps to set the stage for his third book “The Harbinger”, which was also an out-of-the-park volume.  Both books are fictional, but there’s so much Scripture involved that they feel factual.  Most of the information shared in both books is factual and can be confirmed through reading of the Scriptures and through Internet searches.  It’s hard to call the historical fiction because the history shared in both books is less than fifty years old in many places…but history it is.  While “The Harbinger” refers to events around 9-11-2001, “The Paradigm” is going to take us back to the Old Testament reign of Ahab and Jezebel, comparing their governing to recent principles in our own immediate history…and it’s a fascinating comparison.  There is little to “contrast”…because Cahn has found the stories to be almost identical in scope, purpose and ending...