I try to get into BookSweeps when the categories are appropriate for my writing. The spring promotional, Light in the Dark: Inspirational Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense was such a fantastic fit for Fatal Homecoming that I jumped at the chance to enter. If you like to enter contests, check out the link. The prize includes Fatal Homecoming and several other titles AND an e-reader! The contest runs from April 26-May 5.
Maybe, you’re like me, and you don’t enter too many contests. And maybe you are wondering what a book with a title like Fatal Homecoming has to do with light of any kind.
The themes explored in my stories always relate to our faith. I’m not sure if you noticed 1 Cor 2:2 on my website homepage, “I’ve decided to show nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” This is my anchor when I write, even when I write books with titles like Fatal Homecoming.
As Jessie Berns slogs through dangerous valleys in Fatal Homecoming, she comes to realize that she does not have to endure her valleys alone. Despite the absence of her physical family, God has provided a friend. Rick Chandler will not only walk with her, but he will face death to protect her. And even better than that – God will never leave her.
I don’t know what kind of valley you face, and I cannot speak into how God might resolve things for you. But I encourage you to resist the lie that you must endure your hardship alone. Find your people. Find the faith community that will walk with you, encourage you, and prepare you to stand before the Lord.
FLASH SALE:
In Too Deep
99 cents from April 29-May 1st through Pelican Book Group ONLY.
A cautious lifeguard and an adventurous camp director face a saboteur determined to destroy the camp.
Winner of the 2018 Word Awards for Best Christian Romance!
99 cents from April 29-May 1st through Pelican Book Group ONLY.
School secretary, Miranda Wilkins is thrilled when Paul Green walks into her life. The handsome gym coach is everything she wants in a man–except for one problem. He’s stopped trusting in a loving God.
Due to a mild illness, Grandma Mandy sends her young friend, Jason, to meet her granddaughter, Lissa, when she arrives in New Mexico. Lissa’s attraction to him is immediate. Yet she refuses to be tempted into romance with a man in a creative profession. She knows from experience that the insecurity of his job would cause her stress. She has worked too hard, even at the expense of a guilty secret, to be the only one making a living. Nonetheless, they are brought together because of their mutual tie with Lissa’s grandmother and Lissa finds it increasingly hard to deny her growing interest in Jason. Will she be able to ignore the attraction or will her heart lead her down the path of love? Jason also experiences an instant attraction to Lissa. However, his experience with his previous career woman girlfriend left him wary. Her devotion to her job often came before spending time with him. Can he take the chance that Lissa will be different? Does she share his devotion to God? If he takes a chance with her, will she break his heart?
There are more FREE titles on kecogan.blog and Made for Each Other is available through other providers.
Karen publisher has also put on sale Forget Me Not as a bonus for this promotion. You can find Forget Me Not
In an effort to avoid a matchmaking nightmare Heather RSVP’s two for her cousin’s wedding, without a date. Three days before the wedding, her pesky co-worker, Jake, with an obnoxious crush on her agrees to go as her fake date. Will Heather survive the evening, or even possibly see there’s more to Jake than meets the eye?
This past year, I’ve fielded more questions about our decision to homeschool than any other time.
Our family of five has been homeschooling for about seven years. This year, our children turn 17, 14, and 13, and they will be the first to tell you that we are not perfect homeschool parents. So if you are reading this and feel overwhelmed because you are not doing this homeschool thing perfectly or you fear you could never do this homeschool thing at all, you are in good company.
Why we chose to homeschool
I never planned to be a homeschool mom. I’m a writer, novelist, and speaker. I never even considered home education as an option before we moved to Brantford, Ontario. We had great public school experiences up to that point in life, and we know and love fantastic public school teachers. Our choice to homeschool did not come as a result of a wound or a fear. Our decision to homeschool began as a practical decision.
My husband is a pastor, and we were in a transition year that took us from our public school in St Catharines to the United States for four months (where we were gifted private Christian education), then back to St Catharines to sell our house to land in Brantford, Ontario. Brantford would have been our children’s third school experience that year and fourth transition. We felt that was too much change and opted to homeschool the remaining four months. I thought that even if I were the worst homeschooling mother ever – they likely wouldn’t lose an entire year in four months with me. No one is more shocked than I am that we are still homeschooling all these years later.
Unexpected blessings through homeschool
Through homeschooling, I have grown closer with my children in a way previously unknown to me. There is a greater depth to our relationship, and it saddens me to know that I had no idea what I was missing before. My kids were gone all day with conventional school and busy with homework and sports/clubs at night, but I didn’t know anything different. I thought it had to be that way. Now we are together nearly all the time (which has its pros and cons), and I have grown to love their quirks, sense of humour, and personality traits more than ever before.
So much time together has been a blessing, but it has also been the most sanctifying and challenging experience I have ever endured. Nothing has exposed the sin in my heart more than homeschooling my children. God has used this to shed light on my selfish tendencies, my sense of entitlement, and a shocking level of personal laziness. When I went into this, I believed God would use homeschooling to grow and impact my kids, but I had no idea how much he would use it to grow and challenge me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
I’m not alone
I’ve learned that my ability to teach my children rests entirely on God’s ability to keep His promises to me. It rests on God’s ability to bring about the changes in me that He desires. It rests on God’s ability to provide for our every need in Jesus Christ.
I’ve found the homeschool community to be a tremendous encouragement. Moms further along the path have encouraged me through difficult years and offered advice and resources. We’ve cried together, laughed together, and prayed together as we sought to raise our children to be responsible and God-fearing adults. As I near the finish line of homeschool, I am challenged to pour into those just beginning. I desire to be available to answer questions and share resources that I have found helpful.
Have questions?
I’m excited to be part of the 2021 Canadian Homeschool Symposium. If you have questions – this is the conference with answers. It’s affordable ($25), it’s accessible (ONLINE), offers several workshops and allows you to interact with the speakers.
I have the privilege of opening God’s Word to 2 Chronicles 20 at this online symposium. Raising our children in the ways of the Lord and educating them to be responsible God-honouring adults is an all-in, no-holds-barred, the-enemy-fights-dirty battle. Sometimes, even after suiting up in the armour, fear spears us right through the heart. At the conference, you can journey with me through 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 in Homeschool Hardships and Humble Hearts and learn how a teacher’s character shapes the student and how you can fearlessly lead your children through battles that belong to the Lord. Click the image to visit the website and learn about the other speakers, vendors, and help available.
I’m in the final month of a study in the book of Isaiah that has spanned the last six months. I’ve loved how Isaiah speaks to the people of his day, but the prophecy also speaks to us. Our Redeemer will come! I spent today in chapters 58-59, where Isaiah is commanded to proclaim to God’s people their sin (58:1). The people seek God, yet it appears that God takes no notice (2a). Isaiah declares God is not answering their fasting and humbling before Him (3a) because they seek Him “as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God” (2b).
Doesn’t that ring with the sound of modern-day cries? Spiritual actions driven by self, seeking pleasure and the oppression of enemies’ (3-4) and then crying because God fails to deliver as we desired. Many approach faith solely to meet felt needs, and God rejects such selfish, false piety. Isaiah explains that God accepts the fast that “loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke” is the fast that God blesses (6). God looks for the one looking beyond himself, with eyes on social justice that springs from a heart that believes that God’s justice has been satisfied in Christ (8-9a).
But sin has separated God’s people from Him (59:2); therefore, justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We hope for light and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom (59:9). We grope … we stumble … we growl … we moan … we hope for justice, but there is none. Salvation is far from us (59:10-11).
Hoping for light
It has been over a year of hoping for light and brightness, yet we continue to stumble, grope, growl and moan. There is no justice. No salvation. Why?
God lists the sins that have separated Him from his people: denying the Lord, turning back from following God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies (12-13). Justice, righteousness, truth, uprightness are blocked. There is no standard of truth. He who departs from evil makes himself prey (12-15).
Whoa – Isaiah penned this thousands of years ago, yet it describes today very well. Article headlines seem to be filled with people denying God and declaring their faith in objects unable to deliver hope. Oppression and revolts are frequent. It’s getting harder and harder to discern between truthful reports and lies. Those fighting for justice, righteousness, truth, and unrighteousness are blocked. He who separates from the evil of the day makes himself prey.
It feels like the attacks are coming from all directions, inside the church and outside the church. But God sees (14b), and it displeases him that there is no one to intercede, so God intercedes. Only God can redeem a people this far gone. “His own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him (16). He will come like a rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives (19).
I love that description! A rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives. It illustrates the power of God that prompts the proper response of awe and fear. Our Redeemer will come! He comes to those in Jacob who turn from transgression (20). This is God’s covenant with them:
“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.”
Isaiah 59:21
Our Redeemer will Come
I’m still working through what all this meant to the people back then and how we can apply the universal truths to us now. But as I work through all that, I am encouraged to see that the battles we face today are not new. As we repent of seeking the Lord for selfish gain and humbly return to seeking His face to do His will, as we separate ourselves from evil and understand it paints a target on our back, we put all our hope in God because only God can redeem a people this far gone.
He saw back then. He sees right now. He said the redeemer “will come,” and He did. He came in the person of Jesus Christ (bolded emphasis mine):
1 Corinthians 1:30, “But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.”
Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace.”
1 Peter 1:18-21, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
John 14:1-3 (Jesus speaking), “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Our Redeemer came, and our Redeemer lives. Our Redeemer is coming again.
Come, Lord Jesus, come.
Do you need help focusing your heart and mind on the glorious truths of God’s Word? Are you overcome with anxiety and wish someone could guide you through God’s Word, training you in handling it well and applying it to your life? Check out Chasing Holiness. It’s the perfect study to complete with a small group of friends. You are already running this race, so take the next seven weeks and train yourself to run it well!
Have you heard of the wonderful organization called Flowers for the Pastor’s Wife? They seek to encourage, equip, and connect small-town and rural ministry wives in their unique calling. Maybe you’re not a small-town pastor’s wife, but if you know one – please forward them this ministry link.
My husband and I spent our early ministry years serving God in a tiny village. I learned so much about ministry, myself, and the Lord during those years. Since then, we’ve served God in other contexts. My husband was an associate pastor and now is a lead pastor in a large (ish) church. After more than 20 years in ministry, I have to admit that there is something uniquely special and uniquely challenging about small-town ministry. Flowers for the Pastor’s Wife speaks to those needs.
It’s my privilege to write the occasional article for them. My most recent is available now and is called Whatever it Takes. **Due to the personal nature of some of the blog posts, the blog portion of their website is limited to pastors’ wives who have registered with them. Registering is super easy, and the content and community are worth it.
