Hope For Today

Dear Friends, I am thrilled to have Emily Owen with us today. You may remember I reviewed her latest book, 'The Power of Seven'. If you missed my review and would like to read it please click  here . Emily is an a uthor and speaker. She is the winner of the Association of Christian Writers Award for Outstanding Contribution to Christian Publishing 2018. Her books are available from various stores and online. She has written several '30 Days with...' You can check out her books on  Amazon . Today she has provided us with an excerpt from her book ' 30 Days with Mary: A devotional journey with the mother of Jesus' . Just right for Advent. As you read and meditate on the excerpt below I know you will be blessed as I have been.  Not only that, Emily has also generously provided a free copy of this book to give away to one person. Which I'm very excited about. 😃 Anyone who leaves a comment at the bottom of this post by Sunday 25th November 6pm wil...

Dear Friends, I first came across Malcolm Duncan’s #niteblessings via his Facebook page and Twitter. He shared on these sites that his blessings were going to be put together as a gift book. So, when his book became available to request through NetGalley in return for an honest review, I jumped at the chance to read it. I was not disappointed. There are 365 blessings to be read.  They have the day and the month so you can either can dip into the book and read whichever one you like or, as I prefer, read the blessing for that day. They are not dated for a particular year so they have the added bonus for being suitable for any year which means they can be read and re-read. I read this on my kindle but, in my opinion, it is far better as a hardcover book, especially as it includes photos throughout. I like the idea of having it beside my bed for easy reach as I settle down for the night so that it is the last thing I think about before I shut my eyes. For the majority of...

Dear Friends, Self-Care Photo by bruce mars from Pexels Were you aware it was National Self-Care Week this week? I only realised it myself when I was scrolling my twitter feed a few days back. But it got me thinking. What does self-care mean from a Christian's point of view, or at least from my point of view as a Christian? Should a Christian even practice self-care? Shouldn't my life be spent caring for the needs of others not taking care of number one? Well, here are some of my thoughts.  I believe that unless we first practice and incorporate self-care into our daily lives we will not be able to care for anyone else. The Bible tells us: Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘ Love your neighbour as yourself. ' Matthew 22:37-39  (NLT) Everything we have has been given to us by God and this means we have a...

Dear Friends, I first connected with Liz not that long ago via various groups on Facebook. Although we have never met in person, I still count her as one of my friends. In my opinion, she is an incredible woman of faith who has recently written a 'must-read book'. I had the privilege of being one of her Beta readers (I'm even mentioned by name amongst other names on her acknowledgements page in her book - I told her it was the next best thing to having a book published myself with my name on the front cover! 😀) I had the pleasure of reading her book a second time when I joined her Facebook Book Launch Team and I plan to read it again. Yes, it really is that good! So let me tell you a little about Liz Carter's book, "Catching Contentment: How To Be Holy Satisfied"... This book is a result of a journey Liz went on to explore what contentment really means. Liz explored contentment as described by Paul in his letter to the Philippian Church. Sh...

Dear Friends, I heard Cris Rogers speak at Spring Harvest in April 2018 and then again at the CRE at Sandown in October 2018 about his course, “Making Disciples”. It was because of this and because I knew our church would be running his course in 2019 that I wanted to read his latest book, “What if we knew what God knows about us.”  On more than one occasion in his book he tells us that:  “What we think about ourselves will ultimately govern what we do with ourselves.”   What we believe to be true about us will determine our choices and behaviour.  We so often believe the lies we have told ourselves, for example, we believe we are weak, not able, not gifted etc. We also believe the lies that have been said over us about who we are. Cris writes:  “There is a danger that we believe certain things about ourselves which then stop us from stepping into becoming the person we were saved to be.”  In his book, Cris looks at “who God ...

If you would like to listen to this devotional please click  here Dear Friends, The Potter's Wheel A couple of weeks back I was reminded about a story I had read a few years ago. It's called "The Teacup Story" but before I share it with you, let's go to the Bible. Jeremiah was one of God's prophets in the Old Testament. He was called by God to pass messages on to God's people. In Jeremiah 18:1-6  we read about an object lesson God gave to Jeremiah and which is still relevant for us today: God told Jeremiah, “Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.” So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot. Then God’s Message came to me: “Can’...