The HARBINGER - A MUST Read

I LOVE BOOKS!!!!  Beginning with February 7, 2008 I have written a total of 27 posts about books here on Penless Writer.  To the left sidebar you can see the lists of the 15 books I read in 2010, the 16 books I read in 2011, and the 4 books, prior to The Harbinger, I have read this year.

I have found almost all of these books worthy of reading and a blessing to some degree in my life.  I have recommended many of them to you  ......BUT this is the first time I have every said:

YOU HAVE TO READ THE HARBINGER  by Jonathan Cahn 

IF

YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN

YOU BELIEVE THE TIME OF CHRISTS RETURN IS NEAR

YOU BELIEVE THE BIBLE TO BE REAL & THE LIVING WORD OF GOD

and IF YOU BELIEVE IN THE PROPHETIC 

I cannot urge you enough to RUN, don't walk, to buy this book and read it NOW.  Trust me, you will not be able to put it down.

Then PLEASE comment back to me and let me know your thoughts on this book.  If you read and enjoyed Joel Rosenberg's books,  The Harginger is the same type fiction, true to life, and prophetic writing.

Begining in August of last year, 2011, with the book Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman, The Lord has placed a succession of powerful books that have stirred me in the depths of my Spirit and to the very core of my being.
   

The WORD The Lord gave me for the year 2012 was
FERVENT
and now I understand fully why He chose that word for me.

I am FERVENT after reading The 10 Second Rule & now The Harginger.

THE HARBINGER  is a MUST READ!!!!
PLEASE!!!!!

#13 - Meeting ANOTHER Friend In Real Life

I am always so blessed when I get to meet someone in peron who I've gotten acquainted with on-line.

This was my privilege March 23, 2012 when I got to meet Shari England.

Some background:  I have been blessed to meet 12 people who I met as a result of this PENLESS WRITER blog.  Shari, which makes #13, is the first person I originally met on fb.  My introduction to Shari was from my close friend, Jeanne, who told me one day, "I think you'd enjoy reading her posts."  Jeanne later blessed me with an autographed copy of Shari's book, Lesson's From The Sticker Patch.

So, in January when Shari contacted me about our meeting somewhere mid-way between her home in Medford, OK and mine in Coweta, OK I was more than delighted.  We settled on meeting in Stillwater.  I knew I wouldn't make that drive alone, since it was a couple of hours, and especially since I'm not at all familiar with Stillwater so I immediately contacted Jeanne and asked her to make the trip with me.  Since Jeanne knew her, since Jeanne's son had attended Stillwater, and since Jeanne is ALWAYS such a huge help to me (Christmas Party for The King's Kitchen the past two years - Co-hosting Britney's Baby Shower,- she and her husband have been on the delivery team of King's Kitchen from the beginning, etc., etc.) I felt she would.  

Picture of Jeanne & Tim.

I had my camera with me and I was mortified when I got home and realized I had not taken ONE single picture of us meeting.......so I lifted a couple of pictures of both Shari & Jeanne for this blog post.  Usually I am taking pictures right and left :o(

On with the story:  Due to one reason or another, each time we planned to meet something would come up and it didn't work out.  FINALLY, Friday, Jeanne and I made our way to Stillwater in my little orange HHR and Shari made her way from Medford.  We meet at 1:00 at Joseppi's Italian Kitchen.   At first they tried to seat us at a table in a noisy area but we wanted a quiet corner.  There was none but Shari had seen another dining area and asked if we could be seated there.

We all had a wonderful spinach with chicken and strawberry salad and water with lemon to drink.  Shari & I added dessert and coffee to ours, I had Creme Brulee and Shari had cheese cake with a strawberry topping.  

We talked, and talked, and TALKED some more.  We had arrived at 1 and did not leave until 3:45.  I even kidded with the waitress and asked her if they were going to charge us "table rental!".  It is truly amazing the connection that can be made, meeting someone for the first time,  because so much ground work has been laid through the prior network sharing.  

A BIG thank you from me to both SHARI & JEANNE for making this another occasion of meeting a cyber friend in REAL flesh and blood a reality.  

Now, who will be #14????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm ready - Are YOU?

BABY SHOWER FINALLY OCCURES

 Our precious mother-to-be, Britney

 Honoree with Co-hostess Jeanne

Britney blesses Jeanne and I with the 2 lovely mum plants on the table.

 Like most showers we had to play those SILLY games.  Here we had to draw a picture of a baby, but we had to put the paper on our forehead to draw!!  I actually won this game!!!

Another game was guessing the number of M&M's in the baby bottle you see on the table in the picture above.  Wantha one this game and only missed the count by 6 M&M's!!!!

 Another game was listing the items that were hanging on the clothes line on the front porch.  You would have thought I'd win this one, since I hung them up!!! but I didn't -- Kathy won.

 Lots of packages and packed full of LOTS of lovely, adorable items that had all of us oohing and awing, and us with older children making comments about all the wonderful baby things that are available today that we didn't have.  

 Kathy, made the list of the gifts, and this was her special gift FOR THE MOTHER of a lovely nursing top.

How thoughtful and we really oohed and awed over this one!  

The 8 of us that were in attendance, and there were gifts by some who didn't make it.

(left to right) Susan, Jeanne, Britney, Thelma, Sandra, Donna, Kathy & Wantha

A fun time was had by all.

NOW COMES THE HARDEST PART - AWAITING THE SOON ARRIVAL OF

PAUL JACOB

HOW DO YOU BEGIN YOUR DAY?

My friend Brenda, in her give-away contest which I blogged about 10 days ago, asked the question:  "How do you begin your day?"  As I began to type out my answer it was so long, and involved, I decided it would make be my post for today.

I am a very EARLY riser, and am usually up by 5 a.m. (sometimes earlier)  Since my husband sleeps in much later our official DAY does not begin until he gets up.  So:
(1) I turn the TV on to FOX news to see if anything has happened overnight;
(2) I walk into my office and turn on the computer and pull up fb.  I check my 2 prayer blogs and pray for the requests that have been posted there since I turned in the night before; then I scan through recent fb updates of friends I follow
(3) I like to work crossword and suduko puzzles to keep my mind sharp so I work 1 or 2 of these;
(4) Around 6:30 - 7:00 I turn on the automatic coffee pot which Mickey has prepared the evening before;
(5) Back to fb to see if there have been any updates and then back to puzzles or paying bills, writing cards, and of course blogging.  .

Mickey usually arises at 7, 7:30 or 8.  THEN our official DAY begins:
(1) He gets his cup of coffee and gets me one if I haven't already had one, or want another;
(2) He sits on the couch and I sit in a recliner by a table with all my books and I read aloud to him:
(A)  2 devotionals: The Word For You Today and My Utmost For His Highest;
(B)  a book of the Bible, currently reading Isaiah;
(C)  then we have a book we are reading through, currently -The Power of Blessing by Kerry Kirkwood;
(D)  then I move to the couch, where Mickey is sitting, we hold hands and he prays and I pray;.
(E)  then we fix our toast and sometimes a bowl or cereal or boiled egg;
(F)  we make the bed.

The exception to the above is on Tuesdays when Mickey gets up at 6 or 6:30 so we can get all our devotional time in and get to the church by 8:30 to begin our day at King's Kitchen and preparing a meal for shut-ins that is delivered around 11:30, by 5 delivery teams.

Mickey & I began the above devotional time procedure MANY years ago when we both worked and  both got up by 5 a.m.  We began reading My Utmost For His Highest on January 1, 1998 so we are into our 15th year of reading this book each & every morning!!  I have made notes of important events and occurrences in the margins and it is interesting to see, and remind ourselves, of what was going on in previous years.

I love my life.  I am a very blessed woman to have a husband who loves and serves the Lord (he just is not a reader so he delegated that to me years ago!!!).  I am an avid reader and love to read.  I love words and the importance and POWER in words that direct our thoughts, and mold our character.

SO, now it's my turn to ask the question:  HOW DO YOU BEGIN YOUR DAY?   

Do You Know These Hymns?

Participating, once again, in SPIRITUAL SUNDAY.  

I usually post something serious but I just received this in a e-mail and thought it was cute and wanted to share it here this morning to give everyone a SMILE.

After you smile through these I ask you to go to my previous post from Friday which is a review of the book THE CHEMISTRY OF THE BLOOD by M. R. DeHaan, M.D.   This is a wonderful, very moving book especially the Chapter The Chemistry of Tears.  

Do you know these hymns?

Dentist's Hymn.................................... Crown Him with Many Crowns Weatherman's Hymn........................... There Shall Be Showers of Blessings Contractor's Hymn............................... The Church's One Foundation The Tailor's Hymn................................ Holy, Holy, Holy The Golfer's Hymn................................There's a Green Hill Far Away The Politician's Hymn........................... Standing on the Promises! Optometrist's Hymn..............................Open My Eyes That I Might See The IRS Agent's Hymn.......................... I Surrender All The Gossip's Hymn............................... Pass It On The Electrician's Hymn......................... Send The Light The Shopper's Hymn............................ Sweet Bye and Bye The Realtor's Hymn.............................. I've Got a Mansion, Just Over the Hilltop The Massage Therapists Hymn............ He Touched Me The Doctor's Hymn................................ The Great Physician AND for those who speed on the highway - a few hymns: 55 mph .......................... God Will Take Care of You 75 mph .......................... Nearer My God To Thee 85 mph .......................... This World Is Not My Home 95 mph ........................... Lord, I'm Coming home100 mph ......................... Precious Memories

HAPPY SABBATH!!!!!

THE CHEMISTRY OF THE BLOOD - 4th book of 2012

I hope and trust that the Lord blesses you with almost each and every book He directs you to read.  I know He blesses me so much in this way.  Sometimes I read them because someone loaned me a copy after they told me about one, or the Lord directs me to a certain book just out of the blue when at the Christian bookstore.  

Thus, I was directed to this little book of  9 chapters and 151 pages at the end of last year, 2011.  I have to admit I began it immediately, reading the first chapter, and not being very impressed with it I put it aside, and instead read Erasing Hell & The 10 Second Rule.

Since, one of my self-imposed "rules" is that I must finish any book I start I picked up The Chemistry of the Blood again on March 1st.  This time I was ready for the wonderful message it contained.

The book is written from both a medical and a spiritual basis since Dr. DeHaan was: Bible teacher, pastor, author & physician.  He was the founder of Radio Bible Class and lived from 1891-1965.

The nine chapters of the book are The Chemistry of (1) the Blood, (2) Conscience, (3) Calvary, (4) Light, (5) The Book, (6) Prayer, (7) Matter, (8) Tears, (9) Man.  Every chapter was so insightful but I was particularly moved by chapters (6) Prayer and (8) Tears,  perhaps because my life, of late, consists so much of both of these.  

A few quotes from Chapter 6 - The Chemistry of Prayer.  

"Prayer is everybody's gift and privilege.   Whereas we often need preparation and training to become efficient preachers and personal workers, the gift of prayer is offered to all, and all may become the wielders of the very powers of Omnipotence."

"Nevertheless, the fact remains that the power of prayer is the power which is least exercised by the average believer."

"Communion, the first element in prayer, DOES SOMETHING TO US, whereas in petition we have something done FOR US, and by intercession we have something done THROUGH US.  But before something can be done For us, or Through Us, something must be done To Us."

"Prayer is not a matter of forcing God to do things for us but rather a coming to God in absolute faith that what we need will be given to us in answer to our prayers."

"Prayer is the breath of the soul."

Now to Chapter 8, The Chemistry of Tears.  First, I must tell you I literally wept my way through this chapter!  Now for some quotes from this chapter:

"Man is the only created being who can laugh.  Man, too, is the only one who can shed tears in the sense of expressing emotion.  Other animals have tear glands, and ducts but they are not used to give expression to the soul."

"What is a tear?"  and then he goes into the chemical side but ends with "A tear is a distillation of the soul."

"True tears are not camouflage but the PICTURE OF THE SOUL, on the CANVAS OF THE EMOTIONS.  They are the portraits of our deepest aspirations." 

"If there were no trouble or sorrow and no tears in the world, all of us would be perfectly content to remain here forever."  

"Why do women pray better than men?  Because they have known more trouble."  

"He will then reveal that our tears were not in vain.  He will show us that all of them were recorded and every one remembered.  He will open the veil and show that NOT ONE SINGLE THING which He sent upon us and over which we shed tears was without a purpose, but we shall then see what we know now by faith, namely, that all things work together for good to them that love God."

I know I recommend a lot of books here on Penless Writer, but I HIGHLY recommend this little book if PRAYER is your passion, or if you want to learn more about prayer.  

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If you read this blog post PLEASE leave me a comment picking out the quote for both PRAYER and TEARS that most spoke to your heart today.    Thank you for being a faithful follower of JESUS!!!!

GOD SPEAKING by the Peach Tree

This peach tree in our back yard spoke to me loud and clear this morning and I wanted to share it.

This is a peach tree that we started from a peach seed, from a peach we ate while we were traveling in our 5th wheel some years ago.  We kept the seed and when we returned home we planted it in a pot and set it by our back garage door.  We didn't really water it per say, just what rain water it got and every once in awhile we'd notice it and add some much needed water. 

Low and behold it began to grow and about 6 years ago it had grown enough that Mickey planted the little, about 2 or 3 foot, tree here in the back yard.  Each year it has grown, and each year Mickey has pruned it.  We read where it takes a number of years for a fruit tree to begin to produce.  Two years ago it had it's first blossoms but, as quite often happens here in Oklahoma, we had a later frost and it got the blossoms.  Last year it blossomed and budded and it actually got a few peaches on it, but they were very small and hard and not edible.

Now, here it is this year, just beginning to blossom out and we have high hopes that we might actually get a peach or two this year.

How much we, in our Christian walk, are so like this little peach tree.  Thankfully, God, the patient, never giving up on us, GOD, keeps tenderly tending to us and watching as we grow.  As we wait for our first little peaches, from this tree that Mickey has nurtured and tended these years, God just said loud and clear to me this morning as I was praying, "You're just like that little peach tree and I'm waiting, and tending, and watching and giving you love and care just waiting to see a harvest of my fruit."

Lord, let me bear that fruit for you THIS SEASON in my life.

Who doesn't like a FREE GIVEAWAY

My blog friend, Brenda, has just started a new blog which is called B.E. Creative.  Now, you can see by that "creative" name just how creative Brenda is!!  So go here and find out all about it.  Trust me you won't be disappointed.

I "meet" Brenda not too long after starting my blog 5 years ago.  October, 2008, when my husband and I made a trip to Flagstaff, AZ, where we had married, to celebrate our 50th Anniversary I had contacted Brenda ahead of time about meeting her in REAL life.  It was a wonderful REAL connection.  One thing I remember most is her relaying to us that she had told her husband something about hoping I wasn't an ax murderer, or something to that effect!!!  One thing you'll learn about Brenda very quickly is she is not only very creative but she has a wonderful sense of humor.

Grace, Sunny, Brenda, Susan - October 2, 2008 

See, I even have the proof!!!

Back to the FREE GIVEAWAY.  She is having a 20 Day Spring Fling and is going to have a drawing on the first day of Spring for one of her CREATIONS.  Sooooooo- Go on over, check her out, and put your names in her pots for a change to win.

3rd Book of 2012 - The 10 Second Rule

This is a small book of only 12 chapters and 176 pages.

The title says it ALL.

Yes, it's about not only HEARING the voice of God but DOING what HE tells you to do.

Actually this book just confirms what my husband and I began to do last September when we stepped out in faith and paid a number of bills for an older couple (funny for me to be using THAT term when Mickey & I are 74 & 79!!!  Guess we don't see ourselves as we truly are.) who had gotten in a bind and needed help.  And no, we did not know them previously.  God just put them in our path and said, "help them". 

I cannot tell you what a release it was for us, in so many ways, to be obedient like this.  Since then we have truly been hearing and obeying God to the best of our ability.  The thing that has also been confirmed to us is..........you cannot out give God......the more we give the more HE gives back to us and blesses us in ways that cannot be measured or counted.

Reading this book has just solidified this truth in our hearts.  In fact, there is one thing the Lord has instructed me to do, which I am stepping out and being faithful in obeying.  A little later I will tell you what that is and what the result is.  

I truly encourage ALL of you, who truly want to be more obedient to Jesus and walk the walk along with our talk, to pick up this book, read and see for yourself.

We are called to be Jesus hands, feet, mouth, ears:  The Body of
Christ!!!  

Let's do it~~~~

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Denny - Will you please contact me some way that I can get back in contact with you?  I've tried but just come up blank.  As to your question yesterday about my Scripture Garden, you can read about it here http://penlesswriter.blogspot.com/2008/06/show-tell-19-fruit-of-spirit-flower-bed.html .  Don't know why this didn't link properly above.  This was a post I did in June of 2008. 

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