Unspoken by Dee Henderson

In my humble opinion, this is Dee Henderson's best book to date.  And I would name Dee Henderson among my top 5 favorite authors.  If you are looking for a good book to read, run buy this book!

Charlotte Graham shows up behind Bryce Bishop's coin dealer's store with an offer he couldn't refuse--buying rare coins from a private estate that would make him a wealthy man.  Bryce's friend from the FBI made the introduction to Charlotte and the more Bryce learns of her, the more mysterious she becomes and the more Bryce wants to know about her.  He eventually learns Charlotte is really Ruth Bazoni--the girl who'd made national news with her kidnapping when she was 16 and her subsequent four year captivity.  She'd actually been kidnapped with her twin sister, but had kicked her sister out of the van door which saved her sister from the same captivity.  Even though her captors had been killed, Charlotte now lived under constant security and enough secrecy that Bryce needed to uncover the layers so he could pursue her.  In the course of discovery, he learned that Charlotte was a very wealthy woman.  She was liquidating her grandfather's estate (which is where the coins came from) and looked to Bryce to find places to give some of her money.  Charlotte maintains she is single for life and Bryce learns it's because of things that happened during her four years of captivity.  This case has definitely not been completely resolved.

In this book, Dee Henderson deals with relationships of these characters in a masterful way.  She deals with emotions, pain, and past in her character's lives that show a depth that must come from her own experience.  

I give his book a high 5 out of 5 stars!

Thank you to Bethany House for providing this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

So glad my wisdom teeth are already out!

So glad my wisdom teeth are already out...and before they had cell phones and YouTube!

A Couple of Young Bucks Teaching Me

I am absolutely loving how God is pouring out His Spirit with truth on a younger generation!  I am obsessed over two books I am reading.  They are changing my life.  Michael Kelley has written a new book called Boring; Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life.  And Zach Neese has written How to Worship a King.  Both of these young men are young enough to be my sons....or at least a nephew.  ;)  Let me see if I can do both books justice by describing them a bit. But please...don't take my word for it. RUN out and get them both!!  You'll be so glad you did.  Both guys have a great writing style and the truth they're teaching is very similar.  But don't read one without reading the other.  I promise you won't be disappointed!

In Boring, Michael convinced me early in the book that God is in the ordinary.  How many of us are always looking for that one big next thing--the one where God will use us or appear to us?  Or we may be looking for one emotional spiritual experience after another.  But instead, we feel stuck in the mundane things of life--changing diapers, going to work day after day, picking up kids from baseball, working on a car, or cleaning house.  It's easy for us to believe that God is holding out on us.  (Which is the same lie Satan told Eve:  "Did God really say that you can't eat from any tree in the garden?")  When, in fact, Michael says, "God is not a miser.  He's not holding out on us.  There isn't anything else if you have been given Jesus...He's given us everything He has to give in Christ.  In fact, the very idea that there might be something else is a direct challenge to the love of God, and ultimately the subtext behind Satan's words in the garden in Genesis 3."  God is in the ordinary.  Wherever you are, God is there.  You carry the presence of Christ, so He is in the ordinary.  And do you realize (as Michael so aptly points out with his many examples), that every time God did something extraordinary in the Bible, it started out as an ordinary day?  When God says he works all things for our good, it means ALL.  Not just the big things.  He's using our conversation in the break room, on the playground with the kids, while getting our car serviced---all these things for our good.  How many times have you had a very normal conversation that turned into something life changing?  God uses the normal, boring things in our lives and can...one day...show up in a big way.  

How to Worship a King isn't unlike Boring.  Zach Neese uses the tabernacle to explain the protocol of worshiping the King of kings.  And through his video series based on his book (which I'm watching with a small group), he explains how we are priests and carry the presence of God with us everywhere we go.  Knowing that we carry the presence of God transforms the ordinary into a meeting with us, God, and the people we meet.  God tabernacles with us. He explains how we must enter through the gate with thanksgiving and praise in order to meet with God.  I love how he said in the third video that every time God meets with us, it's through the same triumphal procession as when Jesus came into Jerusalem on a donkey with people praising and waving palm branches.  Jesus is the gate...and we must enter the gate through praise and thanksgiving.  He goes through each step of the tabernacle explaining what it means for our lives today.  It's an exceptional book.  It's like David Dietz said, "I started out highlighting the things I wanted to remember...and now my entire book is highlighted!"

What God has taught me personally through these two men:  Be content.  Quit looking for the spectacular and divine moments.  Instead, praise, worship, and believe you're carrying the presence of God.  That makes each moment divine.  Can I give you an example?  Yesterday, Andy & I went to Amarillo to visit two people in the hospital.  We went in total awareness that we were carrying the presence of God with us.  We didn't know what that was going to look like as we went to minister to two families. Both visits were very ordinary.  But we carried the presence of God with us--which made it divine.  Then we went to lunch at Olive Garden and out of my mouth popped something to our waiter I'd never done before.  It wasn't premeditated at all.  I told him Andy & I were going to pray for our food and asked if there was anything we could pray for  him.  He told us several things going on in his life and we kept our word and prayed for him.  (Of course, we left a nice tip and a note to encourage him.)  It was an ordinary lunch that became a tabernacle between the three of us and God.

God has been in the process for years to bring me to this new understanding...taught to me by two young bucks!  I'm so grateful God is using a new generation to bring truth to me.

Feeding our soul

Lindsey's front porch

Gus on Shanna's front porch beside the Cinderella pumpkin.  (Isn't my youngest grandbaby adorable?  Look at those cheeks!)

We took Dax & Gus to a sunflower field one afternoon for fall photos.

I got my hands involved in helping my daughters-in-law decorate their porches for fall.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE fall???  It's my very favorite time of the year.  In fact, Andy & I got married in the fall and went to Red River for our honeymoon.  We try to go see the changing of the leaves in Red River every year to celebrate our anniversary.  But...I digress.  I couldn't help myself.  The girls were wanting color on their porches and I got to be involved in the project.  Lindsey's front porch got a splash of color with mums.  Shanna's front porch started with a pumpkin and some gourds.  We later had to make a run to Dumas to find mums (and I didn't get a picture of the finished project).  

After it was all said and done, I had to admit this fed my soul.  There's something about adding beauty to your life, to your home...that is refreshing, renewing and restorative.  Because I don't have a house this fall, it would have been easy to skip the fall decorations.  But I'm so glad I didn't.

A World Out of Control...and a God Who Isn't

I rarely watch the news.  I honestly can't handle it--it's too overwhelming to me.  If I could, I would probably be the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.  But I can't go that far.  I've chosen resources I trust and read their updates on what's going on in the world.  But I also get a bellyful of information on Facebook.  The problem with that is you can't trust everything that's put out there.  But...really?  Can we trust the info we're hearing from anyone?  For those people around my age, we had Walter Cronkite as a news anchor and we all trusted him (and really probably shouldn't have).  But it was a kinder and gentler generation and we were full of trust--and they told us they were unbiased reporters.  Do I believe in conspiracy theories?  Absolutely!  Satan has a conspiracy to kill us all.  Will he use people?  No doubt.

I've probably said this before on my blog, but I'll never forget going to Tibet and hearing a voice come over the loudspeakers all over Lhasa.  I asked Marcy what they were saying and her reply was, "Oh, it's just their propaganda!"  I went home thinking on that and asking myself if we were hearing propaganda in the U.S.A.--but just in a different way.  Of course we do!  Everyone has an agenda today.  No one is unbiased.  (In my humble opinion...)

Honesty, I feel like our world is spinning out of control.  And it probably is.  If you agree with the Bible, you know it doesn't get better!  There are going to be some cataclysmic things take place in the future.   But I cling to what The Word says, "I charge you in the sight of God who gives us life...

God, who is the blessed controller of all things, the king over all kings and the master of all masters, the only source of immortality, the one who lives in unapproachable light, the one whom no mortal eye has ever seen or ever can see. To him be acknowledged all honour and power for ever, amen!"  

I Timothy 6:13-16 J.B.Phillips Translation (emphasis mine)

Grieving

Some people would never believe how much you love them--or even think that you love them at all.  In fact, some people have faced so much rejection in their lives, they don't know how to open up to love.   They just don't feel lovable and can't accept love.

And maybe we don't even realize how deeply we love them until they walk out of our lives.  That's happened...and I'm sad.  Very sad.

I went to God and told Him that I knew what it must feel like--on a small scale--when someone doesn't choose Him.

And He said, "No small scale to it.  This is how it feels for someone to be confronted with My love and choose to walk away."

And I cried with Him.

My Comfort Zone

I've become very familiar lately with my comfort zone.  Basically, by being moved out of it!  Most of us don't like change.  Or maybe we tolerate some change...until it starts making us hurt or stretching us in ways we don't want to be stretched.

Of course, today we're reminded about bigger comfort zones--with a government shutdown.  Maybe it really hasn't affected you, depending on whether you work for the government.  I certainly saw in my own life how easy it is to "eat, drink and be merry" while other people are devastated by this turn of events.

I have a nephew and niece who have moved out of their comfort zone to reach people for Christ.  I'd love for you to watch their video here.  They're not alone....I know lots of people who have made a similar choice.

Being forced out of your comfort zone can be big or small.  I have a friend today who is being moved out of her comfort zone as she hosts people she doesn't know in her home.  That's a big deal in a small way.

Comfort zones are a funny thing.  We create this imaginary force field around us thinking we are exempt from invasion.  I think God deliberately invades our comfort zones...to make us uncomfortable.  It's then that we're reminded that He is God....and it's all His.