Quotes to Live By

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
(John Quincy Adams)

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. (Aristotle)

Every artist was first an amateur. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. (Thomas Jefferson)

It takes ten years to build up a reputation, but only five minutes to ruin one. (Anonymous)

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The Governess of Highland Hall

Worlds lie between the marketplaces of India and the halls of a magnificent country estate like Highland Hall. Will Julia be able to find her place when a governess is neither upstairs family nor downstairs help?

Missionary Julia Foster loves working alongside her parents, ministering and caring for young girls in India. But when the family must return to England due to illness, she readily accepts the burden for her parents’ financial support. Taking on a job at Highland Hall as governess, she quickly finds that teaching her four privileged, ill-mannered charges at a grand estate is more challenging than expected, and she isn’t sure what to make of the estate’s preoccupied master, Sir William Ramsey.

Widowed and left to care for his two young children and his deceased cousin Randolph’s two teenage girls, William is consumed with saving the estate from the financial ruin. The last thing he needs is any distraction coming from the kindhearted-yet-determined governess who seems to be quietly transforming his household with her persuasive personality, vibrant prayer life, and strong faith.

While both are tending past wounds and guarding fragile secrets, Julia and William are determined to do what it takes to save their families—common ground that proves fertile for unexpected feelings. But will William choose Julia’s steadfast heart and faith over the wealth and power he needs to secure Highland Hall’s future?

I enjoyed this book tremendously as a fiction work. I really liked how the characters worked together in harmony from a book lover's eyes. I have read thousands upon thousands of books, but this author does a great job in weaving this story together.

Do What Jesus Did

A Real-Life Field Guide to Doing What Jesus Did

The things Jesus did are not just for Bible times. They are for today. For everyone. Chicagoland pastor Robby Dawkins sees this again and again in his ministry to hurting people and even to gang members. Everyday people are seeing God's power unleashed through simple faith in God's Word; they are healing the sick, routing demons, and making a dynamic impact for the Kingdom of God.

But many other believers are missing out, unaware that they have far more power and authority than they realize.

Dawkins shares dynamic, real-life instruction and amazing stories from the front lines of ministry, showing that believers carry the authority of the Son of God and the power of the Holy Spirit wherever they are. When we walk in the presence and authority of God, we will do what Jesus did.

This book shared some of the best insight about Jesus's miracles.

I was dually amazed at the miracles that Dawkins did through Jesus's name and the power seen through different people used by Him. I couldn't put down the book.

Even though I have not grown up in a charismatic church, I wouldn't want to give up the chance to see a miracle as the ones I've read about in the book or give up the chance to be used by God in an unbelievable way.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks that miracles of the Bible are dead and they don't happen anymore.  

Here is Robby Dawkins' interview on YouTube. It has three parts to it.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Friday, August 16, 2013

David and Bethsheba

David and Bathsheba is a spellbinding story of a gifted king and the woman he loved but could not have.  Told from Bathsheba's perspective, author Roberta Kells Dorr brings to life the passion that almost cost David his kingdom and tested a people's courage and faith in God.

David and Bathsheba is colored richly with details of Bible-era Israel-from the details of the everyday way of life to details of the Jewish religion.  Dorr brilliantly merges reality with folklore as she tells the story of two great characters of the biblical era. The book starts out with Bathsheba as a young girl and David as a strong willed rebellious military leader.  It details the way they met and follows them all the way through their difficulties.

The only problems I had with this novel is 1: the story of Bathsheba and David seem to feel inaccurate and 2: the words in the story were miniscule. They weren't normal-sized. If I were more determined, I would hunt down a magnifying glass but as it stands, I barely made it through the book halfway because of the small print.

I would have liked to see what happened at the end, but the small print made my eyes hurt after concentrating on each word.

If the publisher ever made  the words bigger in the book, I would really like to find out how the book ended.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Critical Pursuit

Officer Brinna Caruso has built a reputation at the precinct as the cop to call when a child goes missing. For Brinna, it’s personal because she was once one of them. Brinna and her K-9 search and rescue dog, Hero, will stop at nothing to find a missing child, no matter the stakes.

Detective Jack O’Reilly isn’t ready to return to his homicide duties, after losing his wife to a drunk driver. He’s on the downside of his career, and bent on revenge, when he’s assigned as Brinna’s partner. While on patrol, Jack struggles between his quest for personal justice and his responsibility to those around him, especially his partner.

Skeptical of Jack’s motives, Brinna isn’t sure she can rely on her new partner, whose reckless abandon endangers the safety of those around him. But when a man surfaces with an MO similar to the criminal who abducted Brinna twenty years earlier, Brinna and Jack must cast aside previous judgments and combine efforts to catch the kidnapper, and finally allow Brinna the peace stolen from her as a child.

 I was on pin and needles as I waited for this book to arrive. As soon as it arrived, I read it hungrily. I loved the action that put me in the driver's seat. I seem to have picked up an interest in crime thrillers and TV crime shows. I love the excitement as well as the work of the detectives as they try to find the guy who did it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good crime thriller.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Motivated By Love

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

Love is the highest and best motivation. Like beauty pageant contestants, faith and hope accompany love as the top three finalists, but love is crowned the winner. It reigns because it brings out the very best in the lover and the one being loved. Similar to an invisible force field, love protects us from ourselves and compels us to give ourselves to others. It generates goodwill and garners trust. Yes, love is the pinnacle of the Lord’s expectations because it points to Christ.

Love is loyal when most are disloyal. Love steps up when some step away. Love believes the best and doesn’t think to assume the worse. Love looks out for the interests of loved ones above its own needs. Love loves when unloved, love loves when lonely and love loves when loved. Love loves the unlovely, the unconcerned and the underutilized. Love looks for potential where impatience sees disappointment. Love is the Lord’s lubricant causing relations to run smoothly.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6

What is your primary reason for relating to people? Is it to be loved or to love?

 Fortunately, when we are free to love without expecting anything in return, we are fulfilled by love’s fruit. Indeed, the glorious grace of God does not stand still when you run to love one starved of compassion. Hallelujah, your gift of love invites the Holy Spirit to shed His love across the landscape of your heart and soul. Like kudzu the seeds of love grow in places we cannot fathom.

Furthermore, make sure your motivation for love is inspired out of your intimacy with your Heavenly Father, as you commune with Christ. The more consistent your love relationship with Jesus, the more capacity you have to love. To the extent you are loved well by the Lord, you will love well. The world’s noise drowns out the gentle words of Jesus, “I love you,” but in your daily quiet time you hear and feel His presence. God’s love motivates you to love with intentionality!

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7

Prayer: Heavenly Father, lead me to love motivated by Your gracious and giving love.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

12 Going on 20

Especially for moms of teens and preteens, a practical, Christ-centered guide to helping your daughter grow in mind, body, and spirit.
As the mother of a young girl aged 9 to 16, you want a lot for your daughter. You want to see her soar in self-confidence and accomplishment, to navigate a safe course through the treacherous waters of school, culture, and hormones, and to grow closer to God while learning to rely on his Word. And through it all to maintain a warm, open mother-daughter relationship.
She's Twelve Going on Twenty offers a comprehensive, Christian approach to issues almost every mother and daughter will encounter:
  • Identity and faith
  • Music, movies, TV, and the Internet
  • Boys and falling in love, sex and purity
  • School and grades
  • Drugs and alcohol
  • Clothes, fads, appearance, and body language
  • Boundaries and personal safety
Easy-to-read and deeply personal, this invaluable book draws on a wealth of experience, careful research, and a deep grounding in the Bible and Christian faith. "Working It Out Together"at the end of each chapter provides communication starters and activities to help you and your daughter talk things out and plot a positive course together for the challenging but exciting adolescent years.

This was particularly helpful because my cousin has reached her tween years and her mom is perplexed at the change in her little girl. My grandma also has no idea what to expect or help her when she reaches middle school. This book helped me see some things in her so as a result, I will be mentoring her now and helping her find her identity in God instead of letting school or outside forces influence her.

This book will be released to the public on August 13! 

Monday, August 5, 2013

Harvest of Gold

In Harvest of Gold (Book 2) the scribe Sarah married Darius, and at times she feels as if she has married the Persian aristocracy, too. There is another point she did not count on in her marriage-Sarah has grown to love her husband. Sarah has wealth, property, honor, and power, but her husband's love still seems unattainable.

Although his mother was an Israelite, Darius remains skeptical that his Jewish wife is the right choice for him, particularly when she conspires with her cousin Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Ordered to assist in the effort, the couple begins a journey to the homeland of his mother's people. Will the road filled with danger, conflict, and surprising memories, help Darius to see the hand of God at work in his life-and even in his marriage?

A hidden message, treachery, opposition, and a God-given success, will lead to an unlikely bounty.

I highly recommend this book to book lovers and readers of Biblical fiction. I would recommend reading the first book in the series first called: Harvest of Rubies.

This book is a sequel to the first book. Without reading the first book, you could get a little lost in the beginning but this book could also be read along without reading the first book too.

When I started this book, I couldn't put it down. This book was much more exciting than the first book. It was about assisination plots with more exciting characters. I wanted to jump into the book and experience it firsthand.

The author really brings the Bible characters to life. I kinda wish that the imagination station was real so I can go back in time and experience all of the past in real life and be an observer to history. 

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Burning Sky

“I remember the borders of our land, though I have been gone from them nearly half the moons of my life. But who there will remember me? What I have seen, what I have done, it has changed me.
 
I am the place where two rivers meet, silted with upheaval and loss.
 
Yet memory of our land is a clear stream. I shall know it as a mother knows the faces of her children. It may be I will find me there.“
  
Abducted by Mohawk Indians at fourteen and renamed Burning Sky, Willa Obenchain is driven to return to her family’s New York frontier homestead after many years building a life with the People. At the boundary of her father’s property, Willa discovers a wounded Scotsman lying in her path. Feeling obliged to nurse his injuries, the two quickly find much has changed during her twelve-year absence—her childhood home is in disrepair, her missing parents are rumored to be Tories, and the young Richard Waring she once admired is now grown into a man twisted by the horrors of war and claiming ownership of the Obenchain land.

When her Mohawk brother arrives and questions her place in the white world, the cultural divide blurs Willa’s vision. Can she follow Tames-His-Horse back to the People now that she is no longer Burning Sky? And what about Neil MacGregor, the kind and loyal botanist who does not fit into in her plan for a solitary life, yet is now helping her revive her farm? In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, strong feelings against “savages” abound in the nearby village of Shiloh, leaving Willa’s safety unsure.

Willa is a woman caught between two worlds. As tensions rise, challenging her shielded heart, the woman called Burning Sky must find a new courage--the courage to again risk embracing the blessings the Almighty wants to bestow. Is she brave enough to love again?

This book will be released on August 6th, 2013!

Pre-order your own copy now! 

Lori Benton spent her late teens and early twenties pursuing a career as a wildlife artist, attending the Maryland College of Art & Design before she began painting professionally. When not writing or researching, Lori can be found exploring the mountains of southern Oregon with her husband, Brian. Burning Sky is her first novel. - See more at: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/author-spotlight.php?authorid=163736#sthash.8VzZivDP.dpuf
Lori Benton spent her late teens and early twenties pursuing a career as a wildlife artist, attending the Maryland College of Art & Design before she began painting professionally. When not writing or researching, Lori can be found exploring the mountains of southern Oregon with her husband, Brian. Burning Sky is her first novel. - See more at: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?work=222106#sthash.rqsCX9D3.dpuf
Lori Benton spent her late teens and early twenties pursuing a career as a wildlife artist, attending the Maryland College of Art & Design before she began painting professionally. When not writing or researching, Lori can be found exploring the mountains of southern Oregon with her husband, Brian. Burning Sky is her first novel. - See more at: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?work=222106#sthash.rqsCX9D3.dpuf

Author Spotlight

Lori Benton

Lori Benton Lori Benton spent her late teens and early twenties pursuing a career as a wildlife artist, attending the Maryland College of Art & Design before she began painting professionally. When not writing or researching, Lori can be found exploring the mountains of southern Oregon with her husband, Brian. Burning Sky is her first novel.
- See more at: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/author-spotlight.php?authorid=163736#sthash.8VzZivDP.dpuf