Book Review--Small Town Girl

Author Ann Gabhart revisits the small town of Rosey Corner and the Merritt sisters that we met in her offering Angel Sister several years ago. Little Leona Birdsong has become a ten-year-old and the Merritt sisters are all grown up too, and ready for their destinies. Many of the people we met in the previous book make appearances here, too. But if you didn’t read the first book, you will still enjoy this one. It can be a stand-alone story as well as a sequel.

Kate, the middle sister, is the main character.  We meet her while she gets ready to stand up with her sister Evie as she marries Mike, the preacher at the Rosey Corner Baptist Church. Kate has to swallow her hurt because she loved Mike, too, and wanted to marry him, but he has eyes only for Evie. Mike invited his friend Jay Tanner to come and be his best man, and as soon as Jay sets eyes on Kate, sparks begin to fly,

Kate is not interested in love and marriage, though, so she keeps Jay at arm’s length, even though Leona’s crush on Jay is evident. So Jay tries to get to Kate through Leona, whom he calls “Birdie.” He takes them on walks and to movies, the way couples courted in the 1930s.

The book is full of homespun wisdom, interesting dialogue, and sub-plots that crop up here and there. The time is the beginning of World War II when people listened to the radio and cranked their cars to get them to start. Kate works in her parents’ establishment, an old variety store which stocked most anything people would need and kept a tab for people who didn’t have money to spend every time they needed an item from the store. It is so reminiscent of the old days. Many people will not remember these days, but they will learn how people lived back them by reading about it.

When Pearl Harbor interfered with everybody’s life, big decisions had to be made. Kate had to decide whether she loved Jay. As the author describes life in the Army camps, we can see the hardships the men had to endure. Jay became a Paratrooper, jumping out of airplanes, while Mike was a Chaplain.

This book was so good, I didn’t want it to end. I hope you will get a copy and read it, too. Ms. Gabhart is an excellent author and a master at dialogue.

Nadab and Abihu (Little-Known Old Testament people)

The post today is a story from my unpublished book about little-known Bible people,
Ordinary People Come face-to-face with Extraordinary God
If you wish to know more about this book, check the tab on the blog.

NADAB AND ABIHU: They Chose to Change God's Directions for Worship
(The story is found in Numbers 3:3 and in Leviticus 8-10)

Moses and his family came from the tribe of the Levites, the men chosen to show the Israelites how to worship. But we must remember that this large group had not been a cohesive people group for many years. They had been slaves in Egypt. They had not been worshipping corporately since they became slaves in Egypt.

God was teaching them how to worship as he led them through the wilderness. As God gave the laws to Moses, Moses told Aaron, and Aaron taught the people how to worship God. To them, everything about corporate worship was new, so they had to learn how to worship together.

Before they went to Egypt, their fathers worshipped God and offered sacrifices to him, but these traveling nomads were several generations removed from the people who originally went to Egypt during a famine. This generation only knew the land of Egypt and the stories that had been handed down from previous generations about the Holy God.

God chose Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron the High Priest, as the ones destined to assume their father's role. Although these two young men knew nothing of sacrifice and worship, their father surely impressed upon them the seriousness of the work they would do. If you read Leviticus chapters 8 through 10, you will see how carefully Aaron taught them. Surely they must have realized that God demanded strict adherence to the laws he gave. Yet they made a terrible mistake,

Nadab and Abihu had been eyewitnesses to the mighty acts of God--the crossing of the Red Sea, the giving of the Ten Commandments, the building of the Tabernacle, and the beginning of God's laws. They had good family examples to follow. They watched their uncle, Moses, lead the people and perform great works. Their aunt, Miriam, was a prophetess and a songwriter; the young men watched as she led the people in praise and worship to God, and they watched their father, Aaron, as he led the people in worship and obedience and in sacrifices to God.

Consecrated to God

When the time came for Nadab and Abihu to be consecrated as priests, Aaron followed the high laws of God. Leviticus 10 tells us that Aaron and his sons were taken into the Tent of Meeting. They were washed in water and then dressed in priestly robes. The sacrifices were prepared according to God's law. The consecrating oil was sprinkled in the correct places to denote the holiness of this act. Nadab and Abihu presented the offerings and prepared the sacrificial meal according to the laws that God had given Moses.

All this was done to show Aaron's sons the awesome holiness of God and that they were to follow the laws strictly with no deviations. We are told in Leviticus 8:36 "So Aaron and his sons did everything the Lord commanded through Moses." They were on the right track.

But we read in the first verse of Chapter 10, "Aaron's sons Nadab and Abidhu, took their censors, put the fire in them, and added incense, and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord." Their young lives were snuffed out before they had a chance to start on their journey with God, because they did not follow God's laws exactly as he had commanded.

Perhaps these young men brought coals of fire to the alter from another source or perhaps they added incense when it was prohibited. It could be that the two young priests gave an offering at the wrong time. Whatever it was, they did something disrespectful to God. They tried to change the way God had commanded the people to worship. Nadab and Abihu were careless about following God's laws. God had given rules for worship yet they attempted to add their own ideas to what God had told them to do.

Do Not Become Careless

It is sometimes easy for us to grow careless about obeying Go and to want to do things our way instead of listening to God in obedience. However, if one way were as good as another, God would not have given the laws as he did. He would not have commanded that we live his way.

This story reminds me of people today who think they don't have to obey the rules. They think they can exceed the speed limit if no one is looking, or if they have a radar device on their car to tell them when a police officer is near. They think they can take shortcuts to attain what they want, even if the tactics they use are illegal or not even totally ethical. Some people today have no scruples. Whatever they desire is their main goal, no matter what must be done to obtain it. Just take a look at our government, and you see countless examples of this--men and women who think they are above the law.

The Holiness of God

From the story of Nadab and Abihu, we learn that sin has deadly consequences. God always has good reasons for the things he tells us to do. We place ourselves in serious danger when we think we may have a better plan, or if we carelessly disobey or disrespect God. We are in danger of making the same mistakes these brothers did when we treat lightly the justice and holiness of God.

We must recognize God's holiness and remember that he controls the universe. However, today we no longer live under the laws of the Old Testament. Jesus came and brought a new way. By trusting in him and receiving him as our Savior, we can become a new creation. We still worship him, but not in the way taught by the priests eons ago. The sacrifices to do not have to be presented, because Jesus is our sacrifice. We worship him in Spirit and in truth.

Questions for further thought: (presented at the end of each chapter)
1. This is a hard story to read. Why do you think God did not give these two young men another chance?
2. After learning all the laws for worship why do you suppose Nadab and Abihu chose to worship in a different way? The Bible says they offered "unauthorized fire." Why do you think they did this?
3. What does this story teach immature young people of today?
4. When people disobey God today, is he more lenient that he was in the day of Moses?
5. What lesson can we learn from the story of Nadab and Abihu?

Sometimes It's Hard to Accept Reality

As we moved to different churches during my husband’s ministry, he liked to find out about the people and what they were going through; what they needed from him. In one of those churches, he discovered that a woman who had been a long-time member was suffering from cancer. She had been afflicted with the disease for quite some time and was very ill. So my husband, the new preacher, went to visit her.

When he arrived at her house, he was ushered into the bedroom where she lay, almost unable to rise from her pillow. They visited for a while. She told him about the work she had done in the church during her productive years, and they talked about the church where she had been a member for many years, the church he had just come to serve.

Then my husband asked a simple question He said, “How long have you had this cancer?”

She looked at him with frantic, wide eyes. Rising to a sitting position in the bed, something she had not been able to do without help for days, and pointing her finger at him, she said, “I do not have cancer. Don’t you ever say this is cancer!”

He apologized profusely, as she managed to get back onto her pillows and turn away. He left the room.

My husband visited her at other times, but he never mentioned the word “cancer” as her body wasted away.

After a time, the woman died and my husband preached her funeral. But she never accepted the fact that her disease had been a debilitating cancer.

This woman was unable to accept the reality of her life. She was unable to come to terms with the fact of her cancer. But did that stop the cancer from ravaging her body?  No.

Sometimes things come into our lives that we cannot accept. Hard things that we will not face with a true spirit. We think that by denying the fact of the matter, it will go away. But it won’t. Perhaps it is a habit that we don’t want to get rid of. We know it is hurting our bodies, but we refuse to come to terms with the reality of what it is doing.

It may be a spirit of rebellion that a person refuses to acknowledge. Time moves on and the rebellion or spiteful spirit grows within the person. While the attitude grows, it ravages the mind. It goes on, even when the person who has it refuses to accept its reality.

It may be a deep hurt that has festered for a long time. Sometimes a faithful church member drops out of church and stays away from his house of worship because of something somebody said or did that hurt their feelings. Satan comes to us, reminding us of how this person or that person hurt us, keeping us upset and mad, and out of fellowship with God, as long as we allow him to do so.

These things we refuse to acknowledge hurt the one who will not come to terms with it. When a person is convicted and allows God to work again in his or her life, the victory no longer belongs to Satan. Once we acknowledge our reality and confess it, we can be forgiven and restored.

Is there something in your life that has been festering a long time? Take a deep look inside and allow God to heal your spirit, if this is your reality.

 

 

On My Blog

I've had some wonderful authors on my blog with eleven book winners since I started this. I think it was November or December when I started maintaining a blog in earnest. And it is a full-time job. I don't know how many of you do a blog, but I didn't realize what I was signing up for. Believe me, I know now! Keeping a blog and posting regularly keeps a person on her toes.

If you didn't see The Dust Bowl, November 30, 2012, I hope you will check my blog for older posts and look at this. I watched some PBS specials on the dust bowl of the 1920s and 1930s and posted pictures from the internet. Then I ordered and read a novel that was advertised on those programs. Sanora Babb lived through these times and wrote about them. She had her manuscript ready and sent it to editor Bennett Cerf in New York in 1939. He was interested and planned to publish this "exceptionally fine" work, but when John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath swept the nation, Cerf did not feel that the market could sustain two books on the subject. So Sanora did not get her book published until 2004, 65 years later. The novel is titled Whose Names are Unknown and it was a fantastic read. Babb wrote five other books during her lifetime. Steinbeck became famous,
but Sanora Babb was the one who lived these experiences.

I've written about many people we knew during our ministry and afterwards. I wrote about a Christian country gospel group in our area, The Barn Again Gang, on November 8. I was very impressed by the woman singer in the group who told about how God had healed her from cancer and told about it in the post. Just recently she lost her battle with cancer.

I've written about travel. Our son who now lives in Germany was here in February for a visit and we went back to the town where we lived when he was a little boy. My blog on February 12 was about our Trip to Bogard and how the town has changed, complete with pictures our son and I took while we were there.

I can't count the number of book reviews I've posted.

I've written about people in our churches. You would not know them, but you might enjoy reading about them. Some of the titles in this blog are: Death of a Judge, January 8; Piano Memories, May 3; I Remember Joe, June 21; Sometimes the Doctor is Wrong, June 28.

Our son, David, from Midland, Texas, writes on my blog, too. His essays are posted on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. His pithy and humorous wisdom is worth reading.

Here is a list of the book winners along with the titles of the books and their authors:
1. God's Little Miracle Book by Sally Jadlow -- winner: Margo from Illinois
2, Finding Your Place by Margo Dill (children's book) -- winner: Elizabeth from PA
3. Too Brides Too Many by Mona Hodgson -- winner: Wendy from Florida
4. Secrets Over Sweet Tea by Denise Hildreth-Jones -- winner: Faye from Missouri
5. What Matters Most by Bette Lee Crosby -- winner: Karen from PA
6. Winner's Choice of any book by Julie Lessman -- winner: Carol from Alabama
7. Picture Perfect by Janice Thompson: winner: Bonnie from Kentucky
8. The Dance by DanWalsh -- winner: Debbie from Texas
9. Stealing the Preacher by Karen Witemeyer -- winner: Maxie from Texas
10. She Makes it Look Easy by MaryBeth Whalen -- winner: Cherie from Ohio
11. I'll Watch the Moon by Ann Tatlock -- winner: Allene from Texas

I plan to continue my blog for a while longer, but will not be able to keep it up forever. I need to cut out some stress because I had another heart cath Monday of this week. That's the third one, About the end of April I had the same test and a stent was inserted. I did not have to have a stent this time, but will be checking with my doctor about medications. I probably need to slow down even more than I have already.

Thanks again to all the people who read my blog. I hope you have enjoyed it. I appreciate all those who commented, whether on the blog, Facebook, or by email.

Sweet Tea -- by David Nobles

The winner of Ann Tatlock's book I'll Watch the Moon is Allene from Texas. Congratulations, Allene. And thanks to all of you who visited my blog and commented, either on the blog, on Facebook, or by email. Today, Monday, July 22, I will be in the hospital having a heart cath. Hope to be back soon

Now here's another essay by our son, David Nobles, who lives in Midland, Texas.

 

I like sweet tea. Growing up, we had sweet tea at just about every meal. With four kids, it was hard and expensive to go out to eat, so my mom cooked for us, and she cooked really well. I can remember her pot roast, fried chicken, spaghetti, and lots of other great meals. Almost all were accompanied by sweet tea.

We very rarely bought soft drinks. Maybe Mom thought they weren’t healthy enough, but I suspect it was “all about the Benjamins” and cost kept them out of our house. I do remember they didn’t last long if they ever showed up. My biggest memory of soft drinks in the house was on Sunday nights after church, getting a half-gallon (in a glass bottle) of Dad’s Root Beer and having root beer floats. If only Blue Bell had been around back then!

So tea was my drink of choice, until I went off to college and they had soft drink fountain dispensers in the dorm cafeterias. Forget the tea, gimme the good stuff! Being a loyal Baylor Bear, Dr Pepper quickly became my favorite. I even learned that it’s spelled WITHOUT the period.

At some point in my early adult days, I began drinking tea again, and decided to drink it without sugar. At first it was very bland, but eventually I came to appreciate it. I was eating out more, and adding sugar to the iced tea brought to my table wasn’t anything like home, so I figured it was no great loss and maybe even a bit healthier.

Today, more and more restaurants offer sweet tea. I have noticed some of the tea in town is worth it and some is not: Rosa’s is amazing, Bush’s is good, McAlister’s is OK, Jason’s sweet tea is putrid. I’m sure you know as I do that it depends on the type of tea and sweetener used and when and how sweetener is added. When the tea is hot, real sugar (the best sweetener) dissolves and flavors the whole pot. When the tea is cold, you can stir that thing all day long and you’ll still end up with a lot of sugar on the bottom of the glass.

In other words, the tea has to be right to accept the sugar.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Just like the tea, we have to be in the right position to accept God’s truth and instruction in our lives. The sugar doesn’t change—it’s still sugar—but when the tea is hot it combines with the tea in a way that produces a much different result than when the tea is cold. I know there’s a scientific reason for this, and it’s all about the heat. When we are ready to accept God’s influence, he can dramatically flavor our lives. How do we get hot—how do we become ready? Admit sin. Repent. Ask Him to give you the desire to experience Him fully, then ask Him to fill you, lead you, influence you. Get in the habit of talking to Him all the time—He wants to hear about everything, no matter how big or how small. Read His word and let it fill your heart. Serve God by serving people.

All that is really easy to write and much more demanding to do—but when we do—life is sweet.

Faith, Hope, and Love by Kimberly Rae Jordan

FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE by Kimberly Rae Jordon

 

            Many times when I download a book on my Kindle that is listed as Christian Fiction, I find that it really does not belong in that category. But this book was correctly placed, and I enjoyed reading about Cassie and Quinn, a young missionary couple serving in South America. The author used flashbacks much of the time, to let the reader know what had gone on before.

            Cassie had just learned she was pregnant and planned to tell her husband that night, but during the day he and several of the men in his teaching group were kidnapped. They were held for more than five years before some of them were released. Quinn was one who was allowed to go back home, to the states, where Cassie had gone to live as a single mother when she thought she had lost her husband.

            When Quinn returned, however, he had lost his faith in God, his hope for the future, and his love for Cassie. Most of the book told about his disillusionment with God because of his wasted years, and Cassie’s trying to encourage him to be who he was before.

            Quinn was proud that he had a daughter and immediately connected with her. He connected with his sister, but he could not express love to Cassie.

            Quinn had to examine himself  before he could come to terms with the losses in his life. I think if you read this book you will be impressed. The author introduced likeable characters. At times, I wished she would move a little faster, but in the end, it was an enjoyable book.

Meet Author Ann Tatlock

Hello, Ann,

I have read several of your books and I had to devour each of them, only putting them down when absolutely necessary, so I am looking forward to talking with you today. I hope our readers will enjoy this conversation as well.

Juanita: First, please tell us about your faith and why you write Christian novels.

Ann: The first blessing in my life was my parents. Mom and Dad were wonderful people who loved the Lord, each other and their children. Because of them, Jesus has been my Savior from the beginning and he has kept me in his grace all my life. My desire from an early age has been to serve him, which is what I strive to do through my writing.

Juanita: I know you attended Wheaton college and worked for Decision magazine and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for a few years. Did you think that would be your life work, or were you pulled toward writing novels early?

Ann: Early on, I thought I would be solely a writer of non-fiction. I attended Wheaton College Graduate School to earn my master’s degree in journalism, with the hopes of joining the staff of a Christian magazine. When I graduated, I was offered the position with Decision. I really enjoyed interviewing people and writing their stories of conversion and faith. So yes, at one point I thought this would be my life work. I didn’t see the point in making up stories when there are already so many fabulous true stories out there.

Eventually, though, I began to realize that fiction is a powerful vehicle for relaying the truths of the Bible because people are hard-wired to learn through stories—which is why Jesus taught so often in parables. I had always loved to read fiction, so I decided to try my hand at writing it. I discovered I loved it! I write stories to entertain, but I also want to leave readers thinking about biblical concepts such as forgiveness, mercy, redemption, hope and restoration.

Juanita: I read somewhere that you kept on persisting, even after years of rejection notices. How long was it after you began writing that you finally received an acceptance from a publisher for your first novel?

Ann: Eleven years! And then it was another two years before I saw my first book in print, so a total of 13 years from the time I started writing fiction to the day my first book was published. As I tell aspiring writers, persistence is key! Don’t give up.

I had started writing non-fiction articles in college and did some freelance writing after graduating. Then I went on and got the degree in journalism, so I was trained in non-fiction but I’d never had a fiction-writing class. I learned to write fiction simply by writing fiction (and reading good fiction), so it was a long process of trial and error (and rejection and trying again).

Juanita: I’m pretty persistent, but I believe you would outdo me! I have read some of your novels and have looked at the reviews for all of them. I notice you insert American history into every book you write. For example, All the Way Home was about the Japanese internment during World War II and the friendship of two little girls—one American and one Japanese. A Room of My Own was about the time during and after the Great Depression, and many historical incidents were inserted in that story. I understand that your new book, Sweet Mercy, is also set during the Depression, and it has gangsters and illegal alcohol, and how a young girl dealt with that. How do you choose your settings and why is history so important for an author to deal with?

Ann: Twentieth-century American history fascinates me. It was a remarkable century, with each decade filled with both amazing advances and overwhelming struggles. What interests me most isn’t so much the overarching events themselves, but how those larger events impacted individual lives. How did the Japanese internment camps affect one child? How did the 1948 polio epidemic alter the dynamics of one family? How did the era of Prohibition forever change the heart and mindset of one teen-aged girl? We are all products of the historical setting in which we find ourselves, though we may not always view our life in that way. (In other words, No man is an island!) I’m always looking for an intriguing era to use as a backdrop for the development of my characters.

Juanita: Many of your main characters were young girls and many times, you wrote in the first person. Do you do this because you put yourself into the situation you are writing about to make your books so real and compelling?

Ann: I think you’ve nailed it! I like to pretend I was really there and that now I’m telling the story. It’s a writing device that comes naturally and seems to work.

Juanita: Tell us about your most recent books, Travelers’ Rest and Sweet Mercy, published in 2012 and 2013. What do you want the reader to take away from each of these books?

Ann: Thank you for asking about the take-away; that’s so important!

Travelers Rest is about a woman whose fiancé returns from Iraq seriously wounded. He wants to call off the engagement; she has to decide whether or not to stay with him.

Take-away: The knowledge that when you put your heart in God’s hands, it will never be broken by unrequited love. His throne is the one sure place we can lay our heart and never have to take it up again. It’s the end of the journey. His is the love we long for and the only love that ultimately satisfies.

Sweet Mercy is the story of teen-aged girl who fancies herself “a righteous person” among the many criminals and law-breakers of the Prohibition era—until she too finds herself breaking the law for the sake of family and love.

Take-away: None of us is good by our own merit. Righteousness is a gift of God’s mercy.

Juanita: Can you relate a funny situation that happened while you were working for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association?

Ann: I remember the afternoon Ruth Graham came to speak to the employees. A friend of mine from the art department had just found an old photograph of a young Billy Graham dressed in an outlandish and unfashionable suit and tie. My friend dared me, and I took the dare. After Mrs. Graham finished speaking, we made our way to her and showed her the photograph. “Mrs. Graham,” I asked, “is it true that you pick out your husband’s clothes for him?” She laughed heartily at that.

Juanita: If people knew, what it is about you that would surprise them?

Ann: In 1998, my husband Bob and I traveled to China to pick up our 7-month-old daughter and bring her home. Laura is 15 now and the joy of our lives!

Juanita: I notice you speak at Writers’ Conferences. What importance do you place on these organizations for new, aspiring writers?

Ann: I highly recommend that aspiring writers attend a writers conference—or several! They give you the opportunity to take helpful classes from published authors, meet and connect with other aspiring writers, brainstorm with a host of creative people, and meet face-to-face with editors, agents and publishers. Conferences definitely offer a foot-in-the-door to anyone wanting to be published.

Juanita: Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Ann: It has been a joy to be a guest on your blog, Juanita. I hope you and your readers will come with me to Marryat Island this summer and enjoy Sweet Mercy!

Juanita: Thank you so much, Ann. I appreciate your time in answering these questions for those who choose to read my blog.

Readers, it’s your turn again. Comment on this interview and leave your email address so I can contact you if you win, and you will be entered in the drawing for a free copy of one of Ann’s books. The book Ann and I have chosen for you is I’ll Watch the Moon, published in 2011. This story took place in the late 1940’s during the polio epidemic in America. Winner will be announced on July 19, (one week from today) and will also be notified by email.

Get extra contest entries if you "follow me" or "subscribe to my blog".  Mention on your comment that you have done this for the extra entries.



Ann's newest book, Sweet Mercy



I'll Watch the Moon



Promises to Keep



These are three of the nine novels Ann has written. Check www.amazon.com for the other titles.