Who can be a true worshiper? Anyone can!

Heart Hungry to Worship--Is Jesus Enough?
David Herndon

It's been awhile since I've read a book about ministry. I'm glad that I was given the opportunity to read this one! In Heart Hungry to Worship, David Herndon gracefully weaves personal histories of people he has been blessed to minister to with the uplifting histories of Bible figures like Philip the Evangelist, Saul the radical Jew who became Paul the Apostle and many others. And within the pages of this easy-to-read and entertaining book, David focuses on how all kinds of people--even those no one would expect--have become true worshippers of God.

David has compared the lives of people he knows, focusing on their fears, doubts, frustrations and failures, with the merciful insight of someone who has experienced first-hand God's grace and love. And it's because of this that Heart Hungry to Worship can be a great tool for ministry. I can see David's book being used effectively in home-based Bible studies as well traditional Sunday School settings.

At the end of a few chapters of this 14-chapter "handbook," David challenges the read to accept God's grace as it has been presented through Jesus. At the end of a few others, he suggests taking the concepts presented within those chapters and applying it to our daily walk with Jesus. So what does this mean? Heart Hungry to Worship is not just a book for someone who is already a Christian; it's also a wonderfully-inspiring read for someone who has never read about Saul, the woman at the well or even Mary Magdalene.

As with any self-respecting handbook for Christian living, David has done a fine job with referencing and explaining key Bible passages, and he does this with a much-welcomed conversational style that seemed to be missing in more than a few of the other Christian-growth texts that I have encountered. Of course, it should go without saying that it could be concluded that listening to one of David's sermons would have a similar effect!

Here's one of my favorite parts of Heart Hungry to Worship: "There is no one so bad, so evil, so immoral that He cannot redeem him or her. There is no one so tainted by sin that He cannot cleanse. There is no one so far away, so lost, that He cannot find." This passage comes from the book's conclusion. But throughout the book, David hits on this essential truth about God's amazing grace. And this makes Heart Hungry to Worship a great read for everyone!

A Heart Hungry to Worship

 

Review of Fading Empires: Volume I

Fading Empires Vol 1
Ian Kane

A few years ago, there was a computer game with the strange name of "Quake 3 Arena". It was one of more than a few "first-person shooters" on the market at the time. The opening sequence of Q3:A showed a character named Sarge, a burly ex-Marine sporing a buzz haircut and chewing on a stubby cigar. Sarge carried a massive machine gun, one that could be thought of as a .50-caliber. In this "cut scene," Sarge takes on a huge number of enemies and defeats them all. As I read the first chapter of "Fading Empires: Volume I," where the main character, Kilbane, fights his way through a dense jungle to reach an extraction point, I found it very easy to picture this Sarge character.

From that first chapter all the way to the cliff-hanger ending (it is a massive cliff-hanger as well!), "Fading Empires" delivers a ferocious amount of physical carnage, much like what can be expected when playing a "first-person shooter." The novel begins with parallel scenes: Kilbane fighting his way to an extraction point where he is picked up by a remote-controlled UAV while the other scene presents a professor being interviewed on a pirate radio/video show about the horrors of the "have's" of this dystopic futuristic US of A fighting off their respective "have-nots" Because of these first scenes, the reader is given a quick but thorough layout of the novel's main conflicts.

Yes. reading the novel got thinking (more than I wanted to) of playing a sci-fi first-person shooter like Quake 4:Arena or Modern Warfare; Kane must have spent a copious amount of time and effort to delinate the descriptions of so many kinds of hand-held rifles, machine guns, RPGs, etc.

Even though "Fading Empires" is set in a dystopian society fairly far into the future, Kane chooses to present that "global warming" will be a major cause of society's downfall. In this novel, global warming has caused the seas to rise which has moved the coastal populations further inland. One minor side note: it is interesting that the street-gangs (at least one gang, anyway) have very sophisticated weaponry but have to watch how much is discharged since ammo costs are very high.

I liked how Kane made a subtle transition from the action to show a more tender, dramatic side when Kilbane partners with two of his buddies. They are in the middle of planning a mission that will benefit not only themselves but possibly thousands of other like-minded souls when he gets a message from a childhood friend who's been badly injured in a gang-related excursion. It is from this point until the end of the novel that the main plot-line becomes (thankfully) very obvious.

Like I mentioned earlier, the novel ends with a heavy cliff-hanger. It is so abrupt that I literally grunted my out loud when I hit that proverbial concrete wall! Then I was greeted by an appendix that includes a "cast of characters" along with a glossary of terms for the weaponry, etc. described in the novel.

"Fading Empires" is a very-quick, action-intensive read that introduces gang-bangers, ex-cons, industry tycooons, and yes, military types like Kilbane. Even though Kane's first action-packed novel ends with a massive cliff-hanger (which I suppose should lead interested readers directly to volume two of the series), I give it a bloody -- but frustrated -- thumbs up!

Fading Empires: Volume I

Review of U-TURN KILLuR: Death Row edition

Gabe McLaughlin is a full-time firefighter, a lieutenant as well as a respected member of the fire department. He has a wife that loves him dearly and a three-year old daughter who thinks he's the best daddy a little girl could ever have. So what does Gabe think of them? He's too busy wrapped up in writing a novel that hopefully will take him--and them--out of their hum-drum existences into a brand-new life to even notice that they are slipping away from him. And what's wrong with that? According to Teric Darken via his revamped novel, U-TURN KILLuR, everything!

Through this novel (which appears to be a part of a series that began with KILL FM 100) Darken reveals his talent for poetic prose as well as fanciful fiction. Like his other novels, U-TURN KILLuR is a combination of live-action and stream-of-consciousness narrative and dream sequences. And because of the novel being packed with what is dream/fantasy/metaphor and what isn't, anyone looking for a thrill-by-the-minute action-packed fireman's adventure might be disillusioned with this novel.

But like he has done with his other spiritual/metaphysical pieces, Darken focuses on how a man can have everything and still miss what's most-important.

Tha author graciously provided a PDF of the manuscript and in thankful response I have uploaded this review.

U-TURN KILLuR

We have a winner!

Gratz and kudos to Lisa Vazquezanzua, one of 422 entrants in the 10-day Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls giveaway on Goodreads! According to Goodreads, Lisa entered the giveaway on Sept. 30th.

Lisa, I mailed your copy today! Hope you enjoy it! :)

Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls--FREE via Goodreads!

From now until Oct 5, log into Goodreads to register for a FREE paperback edition of book two of The Land of Betrovia trilogy!

FREE COPY!

That Pesky Mayan Calendar Thingy!

And so! It's the first weekend of Autumn, 2012. Not really, "autumn" yet, if the calendar is the sole indicator of the change of the seasons. But the cold front that came through MidMO yesterday afternoon brought strong, NW winds, a little over an inch of rain (which brings the total in the past week to over 4" according to the gauge on our deck!), and much-cooler as well as dryer air. Lots of folks coming into the MFA in Freeburg said their ponds are nearly full now thanks to the storms. The temp this morning when I finally got out of bed (close to 6) was 55. And that's a very-fine temperature for the start of a sunny weekend! (Wifey was already gone on another one of her Springfield adventures which is one reason why I allowed myself almost an extra hour's shut-eye!)

Before 7, I pulled the weed-wacker out of the storage shed (we use an electric, non-battery powered weed-wacker -- and it works great when tethered to about 100' of extension cords!) to prepare the yard for its first complete mowing since May! (Yes, it has been a very dry, very hot summer here in MidMO.) The grass at that time was still too wet for mowing -- but perfect for wacking -- so at a little before 9, I pulled Ryan away from his mindless Saturday-morning cartoons, and we ventured to the Habitat for Humanity "re-use" store. It's like a Salvation Army/Goodwill store, but there are no clothes or things like that. There's all kinds of used furniture, tools, larger sporting goods (bikes, exercise equipment, etc.) appliances and even plumbing and electrical supplies. But what's one nice thing to grab if we can get there right at 9?

Free donuts! Woot!

Before we finally gave up trying to find anything that we couldn't live without, I had polished off two of those wonderful somewhat-fresh pastries (Ryan, however, practiced a bit more self-control -- he had only one!). It was nice to have some REAL junkfood for the first time since my little hospital adventure three weeks ago -- especially since the pastries were FREE!

By 11, the lawn had been exposed to enough dry winds and warm sun, so we headed outside to mow the lawn. Since the mower has not been used a least once a week, like it normally is during the Summer, it just didn't want to keep running. But after fiddling with the choke and waiting for the carberator to reassimilate after such a long vacation, it finally agreed to keep running. Ryan and I traded off guiding that beast back and forth across the yard and by 12:30 the front, both sides, and the back yard were mowed! Man oh man, does the whole yard look good now! And isn't it just amazing how crabgrass and other wonderful MidMO weeds look just like regular grass when they are sufficiently watered and trimmed to about 3" high? :)

After getting a little something for lunch, I thought I would be able to plop down at my desk, watch some college football and maybe even start on the first chapter of Ahnak: Edelin's Revelation. Well, I am at my desk, and I am typing away on something. But is there any football on the tube? (I do need to add here that we do not have cable or dish; we have to rely on whatever is broadcasted via the good ol' fashioned way!) I have been given the choice of US Open tennis and some golf tournament. And so here I am, hammering away on this noisy keyboard, watching the 5 seed take on the 3 seed on the men's side of the US Open tournament. I could try to convince myself that if some college football game was on the tube that I would be hammering away on that elusive first chapter. Well, I could! (As another side note, the tennis tournament commentators keep talking about Ivan Lendl, one of the tennis greats from the middle 1980's, who just happens to be in the stands watching the same match that I am! I can't say that I liked Lendl Ivan the Great  that much when he was terrorizing the professional circuit. But I must say that he looks like he could just jump out of that box seat and show those two youngsters dancing around on the court how the game should be played!)

So when will chapter one of the final book of The Land of Betrovia trilogy be drafted?

 Who knows?

Maybe I have the goal of drafting a chapter a week, figuring on at least 16 chapters total for the book, and that would mean that the entire book would be completely drafted around the new year. And wouldn't that be nice? The goal is to publish Ahnak by Spring 2013 and having the whole thing drafted by New Years Day would be fantastic!

But will it happen? A previous goal was to have Lycentia drafted by July 4th (goal met) and published by Labor Day (another goal met).

Oh  no! Wait just a second! I almost forgot! It's that pesky Mayan calendar thing! The world as we know it is gonna end on December 21, 2012 The End of the World .

Well, so much for that!

ACK! And PTL!

End of August Musings

August 2012 has been an August to remember.

Now just why is that? Let's count the ways in which August 2012 is one for my personal record books:

1. My little "hospital adventure": 2.5 days cooped up on in the geriatrics wing suffering from the after-effects of my pancreas that apparently had attempted to commit hari-kari. (If more information about this is needed, refer to the Blogpost entitled "Hospital Adventure".) Today, on this rainy last day of the month, I met with my GP who decided to set up a "HIDA scan" to determine if my gall bladder is what enticed my pancreas to malfunction. The main thing I am not looking forward to with this HIDA scan? Having to lay motionless inside a machine on my back for over an hour! Having radioactive isotopes flowing through my veins and then down into my intestinal tract doesn't concern me. No, not in the least! It's having to remain immobile for over an hour! And to be attired once again in a loose-fiting hospital gown to boot! ACK and PTL!

2. Both of my parents needing to vacate their cozy two-bedroom condo where they have lived for nearly 20 years to begin a new chapter in their lives in an assisted-living community 30 miles from the city where they have lived together since 1969! Since this has been happening nearly 200 miles away, I've thankfully been kept abreast of the details via emails with my siblings who have done all of the leg-work, etc. Now the issue of putting the condo up for sale and deciding what to do with all of their things must be dealt with. ACK and PTL!

3. The polshing and then publishing of the second book in The Land of Betrovia trilogy. (For more information, check out this Blogpost: "Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls -- the Process".) Three months ago I promised via The Blog that Lycentia: Harrak's scrolls would be out by Labor Day. And so it was! Is it perfect? No. Does having it "out there" for anyone to read and comment on make me nervous and/or naseous? Maybe. Do I feel as good about finishing it as I did about publishing Betrovia about this same time last summer? Oh yeah, I sure do! ACK and PTL!

4. The fourth-straight month of nearly no rain to hit the ground in MidMO. The word "drought" has been used even by the national media to describe what we have been suffering through all summer here in MidMO. Thankfully, though, today, on the last day of the month, there's almost 2" of the glorious wet-stuff in the rain gauge on the deck! Even though it took the remains of Hurricane Issac which just two days ago dumped nearly 25" on Louisianna and Mississippi to break this long dry spell, the relief is much-needed! ACK and PTL!

5. And last but not least: the beginning of the defense of my Fantasy Football title in the FF league I organized 4 years ago. I have sorted The PreDraft List. I have written a note and placed it on the table next to my computer desk to remind me of when the online draft will happen. And what if I get, for some out-of-this-world reason, FIRST PICK in the draft? Who will I pick? I don't know! I just don't know! Last year, I got to pick last of 12 "managers" (which means I also got the 13th pick as well). ACK and PTL!

I suppose it would be important to add that in the middle of all this, I still worked every day for MFA Freeburg (at least a little bit each day!) or at church (my part-time job). Do I wish September 2012 to be just like August 2012?

NOT IN THE LEAST! ACK and, most-importantly, Praise the Lord!