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This picture was taken from my parents’ house:
Summary:
His New York Times–bestselling phenomenon The Prayer of Jabez changed how millions pray. Now Bruce Wilkinson wants to change what they do next. You Were Born for This will inspire readers to look for the miracles God is ready to do through them on a regular basis.
Author Bios:
One of the world’s foremost Christian teachers, Bruce Wilkinson is best known as the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller The Prayer of Jabez. He is also the author of numerous other bestsellers, including A Life God Rewards, Secrets of the Vine, and The Dream Giver. Over the past three decades, Wilkinson has founded several global initiatives, including organizations that recruited and trained thousands of Americans to address hunger, AIDS, and poverty in Africa. Bruce and his wife, Darlene, have three children and six grandchildren. They live outside Atlanta.
David Kopp has collaborated with Bruce Wilkinson on over a dozen bestselling books, including The Prayer of Jabez. He is an editor and writer living in Colorado.
Click here to read an excerpt: You Were Born For This:7 Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles
For more information click here.
When I first saw the title I thought, I need to read this because I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. Maybe this book will give me some insight. I didn’t find my perfect career, but I did discover a part of my life as a Christian that I was missing–partnering with God’s Holy Spirit to meet the needs of others.
I teared up several times as I read the stories of how God used people like me to miraculously meet the needs of someone hurting–whether financially, spiritually or emotionally.
Seemingly chance encounters can be orchestrated by God to work a miracle in someone’s life.
So, what do I want to be when I grow up–NOW? I want to be used as a delivery agent for God to deliver his miracles all to His Glory.
This book was written for Christians to help improve their serve. I believe serving in this way is an excellent way to open the door for witnessing to hurting people.
Read You Were Born for This to see if you are overlooking daily miracles.
This is an example from scripture of a miracle encounter:
Acts 8:26-39 (New International Version)
Philip and the Ethiopian
26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian[a]eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”[b]
34The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”[c] 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
The Transformation.
Read this post from Brandilyn Collins about including faith in fiction:
http://forensicsandfaith.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-faith-in-fiction.html
I recommend reading Stay Affections by Charlene Ann Baumbich.
The book starts with this sentence:
Preoccupied by troubling news, Cassandra accidentally broiled a batch of cookies.
What you’ll find in the book:
A woman with shattered dreams and a broken heart.
A childless couple.
Bad Betty.
A mysterious snow globe.
A Cowgirl Bride
New found purpose for more than one character.
Summary:
The last thing that Cassandra Higgins expects out of her Sunday is to be mesmerized at a collectors’ convention by a snowglobe. She’s enjoying some shopping time, with husband Ken at home tending their brood of four young boys, when she’s utterly charmed by the one-of-a kind globe containing figures of three dogs and a little girl with hair the color of her own. She can’t resist taking the unique globe home– even if means wrestling another shopper for it!
The beautiful snowglobe sparks long-dormant memories for Cassie, of her beloved Grandpa Wonky, the stray she rescued as a child, and the painful roots of her combative relationship with her mother, “Bad Betty” Kamrowski. Life in Wanonishaw, Minnesota is never dull, though, and Cassie keeps the recollections at bay, busy balancing her boys, her home daycare operation, and being a good friend to best pal Margret. But after a strange–flurrious, as Cassie deems it–moment happens with the remarkable snowglobe, Cassie and the people she loves are swirled into a tumultuous, yet grace-filled, and life-changing journey.
With the quirky, close-knit Midwestern small-town feel that made Charlene Ann Baumbich’s acclaimed Dearest Dorothy novels so popular, Stray Affections invites you to experience the laughter and the healing of second chances.
Author Bio:
Charlene Ann Baumbich is a popular author and speaker and an award-winning journalist. In addition to her Dearest Dorothy series of novels, she has written seven nonfiction books of humor and inspiration. A bungee-jumping, once motorcycle-owning grandma and unabashed dog lover, Charlene lives with her husband and rescued dog Kornflake in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She loves telling stories, laughing whenever possible, and considers herself a Wild Child of God.
Did you know that September 20-26 is National Dog Week? This is a great book to read to celebrate.
I’ll be giving a copy of this book to my friend who would love to do what the characters did at the end of the book.
Click on this link to hear Jonathan Clements talk about the agent/author relationship: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-devotions/2008/11/18/christian-devotions-speak-up
Sigh. I’ve been across the table from this agent. He even helped me “complete” the title to the screenplay I’ve written: Poison Ivy Bride (back in 2006), a romantic comedy. Okay, so I had not written it at the time I pitched to him, so I came home and wrote it in a month. Unfortunately, he rejected it because it did not have enough twists.
Hopefully now I’ve learned how to add twists. In fact, my last completed novel has a lot of them. So, I got the twist factor down, now I need to learn how to add detail. Maybe in another few years I’ll get that right.
But each time I attend a conference I come away with something new–sometimes I come away with just a little more confidence that maybe I can do this and that spending a large amount of my at home waking hours writing is worth it.
The next year(at the same conference) I pitched the Bride story to Dr. Ted Baehr. He told me that I made a good presentation. I went back to my room that evening and could not sleep. I tossed and turned until I had an epiphany about my story. I ate breakfast with Dr. Baehr and his wife the next morning and told him about what I concluded overnight, and strangely or divinely enough, he told me something (I’ll not share that here) that solidified the thoughts that had kept me awake–my story is an allegory of Christ and his bride the church.Why did it take me a whole year to figure that out about my story?
Anyway, one day I would love to see my Poison Ivy Bride on the big screen– maybe with a few more twists, but representing something of more spiritual value than I originally realized.
See Dr. Baehr discuss the movie starring Sandra Bullock. Click Here: ALL ABOUT STEVE. It’s worth watching the review.
Put A Ruffle On It 
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