Excellent Reads

If you are looking for some good books to read this summer, I just read a couple that I would highly recommend !

On is "The Torn Veil" by Gulshan Esther. Gulshan was born into a rich and highly revered Pakistan family. Her family being deeply religious, she too closely followed the Islam religion. She did not have many distractions in her pursuit of pleasing Allah, since she was a cripple and needed help with the simplest tasks.

When she was 19 her whole life changed! In seeking Allah for healing, it was Jesus she met. But I won't give away the story -- the book is very moving, inspirational and encouraging to your own faith. After I read it, and read it aloud to my husband he went out and bought several more copies and we have been passing them out.

I have also read the sequel, "Beyond the Veil" which is also good.

Another book I thoroughly enjoyed is "Flight to Heaven" by Capt. Dale Black. It is not your usual NDE testimony ... and again I don't want to give away the book. There is one section that gives the account of his experience in heaven. It is the most believable, beautiful description I have even heard or read.

I know you will enjoy these books ... and if you read them, come back and tell me what you thought of them!

It was Good !

My neighbour friend rang the door bell tonight to bring me some Bing cherries from the Okanagen. They were perfect and delicious!!




My patio baskets are blooming. I marvelled today at the delicate petals arranged in endless variety.

My husband came across this video tonight - a slideshow of an amazing array of God's artistic creativity in bugs that are rarely seen.

How different from each other were my three reminders today of God's wondrous creation. Yet each one conveyed the same message -- Our God is indeed a God that inspires awe in our hearts as we observe His amazing handiwork.
It IS indeed GOOD, even as He said when He created all things.

I believe in the six day creation --- because it is what God said He did.

Exo 20:11 "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. "

The cherries, the flowers, the bugs all need very specific conditions to grow, to bloom or to reproduce. If any of the conditions are not met, there will be no cherries or flowers or bugs.

I understand atheists clinging to evolution because it is their only alternative to believing in a creator. But I do not understand Christians who try to find some middle ground by believing that God created all things but allowing that He used evolution or millions of years to do it in. The days of creation, they say, are not twenty-four hour days.

If each creation day is perhaps a million years and since each day is made of up day and night... was the earth alternately dark and light in 500,000 year cycles? And what vegetation would survive in 500,000 years of darkness? And when did the very long days finally become the 24 hour length we have today?

We recently listened to someone who believed that the Genesis creation days were not literal 24 hours but rather much longer. In the same conversation he showed a video of a hummingbird that could only survive if it had access to one particular flower. And this flower could only survive if this same hummingbird pollinated it. Since the flower and hummingbird were not made on the same creation day , they were separated by perhaps millions of years. How did the flower survive all that time waiting for the hummingbird to come pollinate it?

More and more scientists are admitting that the evolution model does not work. In
The Origin of Species, Darwin writes: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” He believed that the basic cell, the building block of life, was 'simple' and on this supposed fact based his theories. Science has proven the cell to be anything but simple; it is unbelievably complex. That pulls the rug out from under Darwin's feet.

There is no reason to doubt God's Word. What is so hard about believing that a God who is all powerful and wise created a world in six days? If He didn't do it in six days, would He not have told us ? I like what someone said in answer to someone who stated that a scripture passage did not mean what it said. They retorted ..."If God didn't mean what He said, then why didn't He say what He meant?" I believe God said exactly what He meant.

A God who could create all that we see in the minutest detail of complexity and order, could easily have done it in LESS than six days had He so chosen .

" He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen." Deu 10:21

**

Life out of Death

I am someone who is reluctant to throw anything out that has sentimental value to me. Nor do I quickly throw out a plant even though it appears to be dead . I need to be absolutely sure.
Last year we bought a gorgeous Mandevilla plant. Being a tropical plant it must be kept as a patio plant and brought inside to wait out winter in a semi-dormant stage.
I brought it in before the frost last year and hovered over it all winter willing it not to die. But the leaves turned yellow and fell off. The stems lost their green color and turned dead brown.
But I hoped.
In spring we put it back on the patio and I watched... searching every day for some sign of life. I saw none. After a couple of months we broke down and went to the nursery to buy a replacement plant -- but they did not have the variety we wanted, Moonlight Parfait.
I continued to examine my plant daily until one morning , I called excitedly to my husband. "Look, look, I think that tiny bump is a little bit green!" My husband bent down for a closer look but he saw nothing that looked like life.
I watched ... day after day ... until there was no doubt that indeed my Mandevilla was growing, There is definitely life and fresh growth, as my above photo proves. I will enjoy the incredible blooms again this summer, and my joy will be heightened because I thought the plant was dead.

I thought of the parable that Jesus told in Luke 13:6-9
A man had a fig tree in his vineyard, that for some reason was not healthy. It bore no fruit when it was expected. He had been patient with the tree long enough.
He said to his gardener, "Look, enough is enough .. for three years this tree has born no fruit. Cut it down, it is taking up space that could be given to a more fruitful tree!"

But I identify with the gardener who pleaded, "Please, wait a little longer.. just one more year. I will dig around it and fertilize it and if it then bears fruit , wonderful!! If it fails again .. then you can cut it down."

Jesus told the story to reveal that He Himself has the heart of the gardener. He is reluctant to give up even if there is no sign of life. He will wait, patiently looking for that tiny spark. He will do all He can do, in whatever way He can to encourage life to flourish once more. He will guard carefully that nothing hurt or hinder the fruitful life He seeks.
We all have had times in our life where we have died or almost died. Times where we were so discouraged or downcast that we could barely hang on to life, bearing fruit was beyond our strength. Times where circumstances were such that death seemed imminent. Yet the Gardener was waiting, "digging around us and fertilizing" - perhaps we were not even aware until we could look back with hindsight.
We are not told, in the parable, whether the tree bore fruit the next year - it was up to the tree to respond to the care it was given.
So also we must respond to God's Spirit -- with whatever strength we have , it will be enough.

Did you notice the last detail in the story?
The Gardener's heart is so tender toward the tree that even though the vineyard owner told HIM to cut down the useless tree, the Gardener responds that if the tree does not bear fruit in spite of all my care , YOU cut it down."

Such is the loving heart of the One who calls us His own.
**

The Heart Mender - book review

Someone once said that there is no work of fiction that was not somewhere rooted in fact.

The author of 'The Heart Mender' insists that his story is true and I believe that it is. But unless you believe in a Master Weaver of life and its events, Andy Andrews' story seems incredulous.

It all starts with the death of a tree. A necessary and common occurrence in nature and yet this tree hid a secret that would never have been uncovered except the tree died and needed to be cut down.

Forgiveness and second chances and the wisdom of those the world considers 'less than' are the themes of this book's pages.

The story is masterfully told and , even though the suspicions arise early in the reader's mind as to the outcome of the story, the suspense holds to the last pages.

"Except you forgive... " Jesus taught the importance of forgiveness. While we all find reasons not to forgive the most hurtful offences committed against us, the fact remains that unforgiveness in a cancer that destroys from the inside out. To forgive is a choice, a decision that sets the captive free - free to enjoy the best that God has waiting.

I don't want to give the story away .... but encourage you to read it for yourself.