Category Archives: Book

Devotions- Psalm 91 *Part 2 5/25/21*

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Wow this entire chapter covers a lot! It goes from wanting to be sheltered and be under the shadow of holiness and to depend on Him and praise the Lord.

The writer says as we depend on the shadow of the Almighty, he says that God is his refuge and strength. And puts his full trust in Him.

The next section is interesting I had to explore a couple of words (and one definition out of curiosity: Ever assume you know the definition and then you look it up? I’m not always right in that, haha!).

The first word I looked up was “fowler.” It said basically the word meant a hunter of birds.

Why is that significant…? Hmm. Well later in the chapter not much into the passage it describes the Lord as one who takes us under His wings. That is sweet … but what does that mean?

It means that He will be like a wildfowl or bird that treats us like one of its own, gathering us under its wing. Like a mother bird or something like that being protective.

We should also be guarded and protected ourselves! We must have something to protect us out in this world (the Word of God). It could mean we should have a way to share but to stay guarded in case people “fire” back at us with questions. “Are you really a Christian? What is it that you people are crazy about? Huh, you love me? You don’t even know me!”

Some might be so harsh they are deeply discouraging. Some may be strong in delivering the enemy’s attack, by that I mean Satan.

We must hold fast and share and love and show others the way no matter what harsh or teasing things may happen in this world today. It is kind of a battleground nowadays but this is also all just the Lord’s battle. We must not be harsh but loving, we must not throw terrible words at others just to “stir the pot” and show real godliness, we must keep our hearts away from what we used to do and live in Him so that they know who Christ is and see by your example!

We must deeply search our hearts plucking out anything that either goes against HIs truth or His way.

We must be clean like Christ and live in the Holy Spirit day to day and see ourselves the way God sees us… so that we can deliver others while showing His salvation. Let’s be doers not just speakers of the Word today!

Devotions- Psalms 91

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Special Note: I know that I cannot post the entire chapter here out of legal reasons (the version of the bible that I use), so I will try my best to sort of paraphrase or say things in a certain way.

Other Note; I believe this is the servant David (If I’m wrong I will correct it later, haha! It’s not exactly important to know here at the moment).

First verse begins below, until final verse of chapter 91:

A person who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall belong in location of the Almighty. He will say of Him the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I (choose to) trust.”

He shall surely deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from peril, pestilence. He shall cover you with feathers, under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth be your shield your buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror that comes at night, Nor of the

arrow that flies in air by day, Nor of the pestilence which walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that destroys at noonday.

A thousand may die at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But this shall not come near you. Only with your eyes you shall look, And see the reward of the wicked or evil.

Because you have made the Lord, who’s my refuge, Even Most High, your place you dwell, No evil shall take you down, Nor shall any plague come close to your dwelling;

He will give His angels charge over you, To keep you guided in all of Your ways. In their hands they bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against stone. You should tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you should trample underfoot.

“Because He has set His love upon Me, therefore I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows My name. He should call upon me, I will answer in response; I will be with him in trouble; I’ll deliver and honor him. With a very long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”

Devotions Psalms 2:4-7 5/24/21

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I got “stuck” on the last three verses. I’m examining them personally so instead of just being devotions, I’m doing more than that with that section of the bible. Context seems to refer to King Saul but I could be wrong…

From the Bible, NKJV:

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” Psa. 2:4-7

They say that God is slow to anger so if He is this way in this part of the bible something might be wrong.

Then again the writer could just be referring to God being sick of the sin of the people during this time. Specific uses of words like “Shall” here are interesting. Usually they imply something specific that could help a reader understand the text by its usage.

But I also am interested by some other things here as well. There is a word I want to seek out the definition for. “Derision.”

Here it is found through the ‘net:

derision- contemptuous ridicule or mockery.

If this means God has turned His anger on Israel then the people who are deserving His wrath here should watch out!

God cannot stand sin. He cannot stand dark hearts that refuse to worship Him. If this kind of thing goes on long, things will not last.

I hope you today have the “light” heart today. God’s wrath might be coming even now!

—–

Are you ready? If not read this.

Father God, I am afraid of what I am seeing and hearing about in the news. I don’t know what is going on all I know that there is a lot of bad stuff! I have heard of a person named Jesus. Is it true He can take away all my sin?

I heard that one day He chose to die on the cross not just because of everyone’s sin but because of just mine too!

(Note to You: There is a song that says “even to the (cross) You’d come if I were the only one. If you were the only one on earth He had to die for, He would have. That is how deep the father’s love through His son is)

Also that He took the wrath of the world’s sin upon Himself. Thank You Father for giving me Your son. That He died, stayed dead, then was restored and lived again, bodily and is in the Heaven today!

I want to know Jesus so that I will one day be in heaven today. Thank You for hearing my prayer.

God bless you today. Love you in Jesus!

Devotions- 5/20/21 Proverbs 1:7-9 and Psalm 7:9

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The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother; For they will be a graceful ornament on your head, And chains about your neck. Proverbs 1:7-9 NKJV

Sometimes instruction is very tough on us even if we know that people have the right heart in mind.

Anyone who has ever had tough yet dedicated parents in their lives in lifting up their “child” over the years (as in “you”) might think about them.

It is good to have parents who have the best intentions. Who hope the person in their life who they want success in life not only has knowledge but shows fear towards doing bad or having committed wrong and thinks what their parents might do to punish them. They may also hope you have that applied knowledge as a part of your own life.

But notice I said “best intentions” because I mean parents who aren’t the reflection of deep and harsh abuse. I digress so let me go back to what I said earlier.

It is actually good to fear parents who punish when you have done wrong. Or fear if they know their parents will do something that is normal in punishment if they got straight D’s or F’s in school!

I wonder if fear is something us as people had to learn after the fall: The fall of men (and through man, women).

After Adam and Eve we had to experience and still do an awful thing called Sin. Adam was completely responsible, a person to run things in life but instead of that, he chose to eat the fruit. He has had such an awful impact on this world that Eve isn’t even accounted, it seems, to sin entering the world. (“Sin entered the world through one man…” a paraphrase and part of beginning of Romans 5:12). What a sad legacy to leave the people following everyone who wants to worship something, let alone people who might have to live in God’s sight that sin is now a part of. To live for something but because of a tainted body, a sin-filled body, is now a part of people who were and are created, unfortunately.

Now that we are accountable to sin where death is spiritually an absolute for the physical body we need to fear God in order to live for goodness.

What can we do? We must follow His instruction. Either to be saved, to learn to fear Him about right and wrong, and also to live life since one day we won’t get the chance to live on in this earth but will be accountable at the end to how we have all these years lived!

That is a great reason to live for God through Christ.

And we should not forsake our parents or parent figures with good intentions’ “rules” to live life.

We must in life show love towards all people, not just the ones we already care about. Just be careful about the wicked because they have not good hearts even if we might witness or share things that are good with them with a good heart.

Here’s a partial verse, note some is paraphrased. It says basically: “Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, But establish the just; God (in His righteousness) tests the hearts and minds.” Psalms 7:9.

Let us live wholeheartedly for goodness and love in Christ. Or live for ones who are hurting and needy. Let’s live for the goodness that Is God!

Let us live to be “tested” so that we will be without blame as we live in Jesus through the Holy Spirit as new creations.

Amen!

Devotions 5/19/21- Psalms

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“The ungodly are not so (prosperous), But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Psalms 1: 4-6 (word added to explain context from verse 3)

You ever worked so hard at something and then saw it fall apart? I was like that during high school in a way but an image came to me just now. I worked so hard at Legos this one time. It was probably the only time I was dedicated to work at making something, only when my friend and a family member of his came by, they saw it too! (haha)

With seeming joy they had fun “tearing” apart my house. It was kind of like a farmer who works and works only then they realize their crop hasn’t grown, they had to struggle through the winter but there was still little to nothing to show for their work.

Maybe that farmer experiences a lot of “chaff” that blows in the wind.

I just looked up what that word is. There is apparently a part of the wheat that sometimes is found during threshing (grinding during harvest of wheat, etc. fields) and the chaff is part of the husk. It is completely unusable. Not worth having. No reason to save it from harvest.

So… what could this mean?

To be ungodly is like to be one who is not saved. Here it is talking about the kind of people that would refuse help or mercy. Or maybe people who refuse to believe there is something good like a God out there.

Hey I’ve got some testimony concerning that. I thought I knew it all at times. I have doubted too. But maybe God wanted me to mature more in Him through Christ. Or at the very least start to think that I should not have to live for only myself.

This is the importance to deliverance. Sin. We all have it. Sometimes we keep going back to some of it. It’s awful, awful stuff!

I believe that if the Christian does that too many times or too often recklessly then there are consequences. You might experience a form of punishment from God (like I have myself), like a tap on the behind because of being too much like the “ungodly.” Or if you do it too much when you kept following the Lord with all your heart, you might then lose the holy spirit.

The Holy Spirit which kept guiding you and helping you week after week and in your heart you kept being an adulterer or a person who could not stop thinking of and “tasting” things that were not good…

Sigh. That’s sad.

That’s why God wants us to live for Him fully and totally. Repentance. Living for Christ and not our ways. And following Him as much as we can is so important.

Then we look less like the “ungodly” and more like Christ.

Two paths. What you were and what you are now in Christ. One path has seeming easy paths. Those paths are longer than we at first assume but they are endless if one goes alone.

The other is like stones in the ground. They might seem broken and far apart but there is only one path. That path at times seems easy. The burden is light. Work doesn’t seem so hard. That is the broken road.

That is so much more worth living for.

Nightly Devotions- 5/18/21

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This was at 1 A. M.

Like it says in God’s Word in Psalms 119: 11:

“…I will hide Your word in my heart that i might not sin against You.”

Oh how man’s sin is! To conform or to make things as a believer that Christ is not is sad.

Page 105 of A. W. Tozer’s book The Pursuit of God says, “we insist upon trying to modify Him…bring Him… to our image.”

It says in God’s Word “His Word is true.” We must never make the Christian life what He isn’t and try all in honoring Him with all our heart. Let’s ask for a discerning heart to fully know Christ!

Devotions- 5/17/21

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“Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.” Psalms 1:1-3

Has anyone ever been with people who are only out to do harm? I sort of did when I was a kid. At the very least I was with people who mocked others, caused a ruckus, and even got in trouble at school by the authority. The teachers, maybe even the principal!

It is a terrible thing to follow people who want to go out with evil intentions. Plus the bible also says not to conform to this world… do not be like the world and at least a little more like Christ.

That is one reason it is good to at least try to devote time for church. There you (usually but not always) will find people who might be the best at trying to guide you towards the right path.

There are all kinds of things there that are “good” as well. There is bible study by hopefully great teachers who will guide you after deeply studying the word themelves.

We should also learn self-discipline. There are so many terrible vices out there, just evil things that are really just Satan’s pull to lure you in and keep you away from the goodness of God. We must remember that even if we think it might be no big deal, it is not! (Out with the old, in with the new, hehe)

But as we grow and mature more into Christ every day we learn to set aside our time to live for Him and obey His word. I can think of a former church member who has told me such deep lessons.

She said to have key verses. Memorize them when you can. As you grow those verses become not just things to have in the mind but will be become a part of you then, will be like a part of who you are!

That is why we should be part of or attend a “counsel” of the opposite of the ungodly.

In God’s eyes, He probably wonders why though we might self-abate and put ourselves down because of sin. Well if He does see us and we know Christ or have experienced His love He sees someone complete, perfect (somehow… I still can’t get over this, haha! God who am I that You should love me?).

When we follow Christ with all our hearts we realize we have a foundation like a strong root firmly in the ground that was different than what was there when we began our walk in life. Mine was like sand. There was no footing no way to get anywhere until I one day followed Jesus. But to live in something greater than our personal expectations is so worth following.

Have goals for Him daily. Work for Him. Live in Him. All He wants us to live by the Holy Spirit and have a relationship with Him through His son. And He will prosper us spiritually in ways we might not even imagine….

Reader’s Note: I am excited about this new sub-category. I hope you enjoy the many things that appear here. And have a great day.

Book Review- Scream by Mike Dellosso

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What if death and hell stared you in the face?

For Mark Stone it had come close enough. Every time he had a phone line conversation with another soul, it was interrupted by terrifying voices. A cacophony of screams. What was this and how come the one he spoke to would have their line cut out before their untimely death?

This throws the idea of death and peril into Mark’s mind as this curse, this vision makes him race against the clock. Then he realizes that it is inevitable with his own power.

And then death gets personal.

This was a great and clever book. I like that this book doesn’t make light of making the Christian themes in it as some writers would (or some do now as time passes and they find a more mainstream audience). It also gives us terror of what can be a possibility of other people’s fates.

It doesn’t have to be this way for people to be separate from the love of Christ as the characters know including a Christian female cop. There is evil within the themes of this book but also the chance of salvation and love on the other side all given a tough to put down narrative. I hope people who have read this (but wouldn’t be surprised if it has happened) will feel the want to minister to others for Christ. I think the message is that powerful here in this book.

And also Dellosso’s way of writing kept me glued to the pages with its flawed characters, suspenseful and terrifying situations, and enough twists that will make you quit guessing. You are just in it to learn the going on of this main character and another person seemingly apart from the main story but it doesn’t lose its interest.

I found this second piece of the story uneven at first but as time with the book goes on getting further into the mysteries of this person with unknown true intentions, it became a separate highlight as well.

While Christian fiction rarely finds an audience or a workable narrative adapted for film, I wish this was a movie. Come on, Three and House jumped on the celluloid bandwagon so my wonder is why this true Christian Horror story hasn’t come along for the theater ride?

Another Quick Tri-Book Review!

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Hello friends!

I know it has been quite a while. I hope to post more often this year as I have been slacking lately. I thank you guys for hanging in there. I will post articles again soon I just want you to know that these are three books that are notable and must be read. And just by coincidence they are all female authors. Now while the first one selected is well-known and popular the other two you can most likely find on Amazon or Barnes & Noble by ordering them.

I last posted this kind of review back in April two years ago so I really have to catch up!

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. (Originally under a different title) Published 1939

A definite classic! Ten strangers are invited to a party but eventually a horrific series of deaths plagues them. The murderer is a mystery. All they know is each person dies by the line of the respective nursery rhyme that is located at each of the guest’s bedrooms. Who is the clever but evil person about? And why does the person feel what they are doing is right as the person believes they are bringing their sins they got away with to light and they must die for it. This book will keep you guessing. And it has one of the best twists in some of the greatest literature out there. Warning though. Very violent.

Confessions of a Prodigal Daughter by Sarahbeth Caplin. Published 2012.

Wonderful and amazing. This young Jewish woman had to go through a lot growing up. It was bad enough she lived in a heavily conservative environment where the Catholic boys ridiculed her beliefs but she started to believe and be interested in this person called Christ. Then because of that she feared of being a “stranger” to her own family. This non-fiction story of a personal journey is poignant and very thought-provoking. It goes from telling a story to bringing up points only a Christian professor would think about but this is Sarahbeth’s story and it must be read.

Frozen Footprints by Therese Heckenkamp. Published 2012.

I love the clever title as well as the story within. The title takes the “Footprints in the sand” poem and gives it a cold, daunting spin. A twin goes out to search for her male twin brother when her own grandfather is too stubborn to believe he is even in trouble. Her plight leads her to a nightmare she might never forget as she falls into the hands of a cruel man planning to benefit from their rich old guardian. After the opening scene grabs you the story pulls you in, taking you on a crazy ride that you will not want to forget. The story is about a Catholic girl who is thrust into a situation that might make her question why with her rich grandfather she lived such a responsible free life. Reading this book will make you ask over and over: “Why isn’t this a movie?!”

Hello.

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HI

Welcome to Wondermedia.

This is a place of where known novels, music, and television exists. But it gets a little better than that. If you are interested in being a writer you have come to the right place.

You can learn about creating characters and while my stuff is merely opinion you have a world of possibilities. There really is no limit when crafting a story whether it be true or just put together for fun or whether it will one day be part of a novel or screenplay.

The essence of inspiration is at your fingertips. . . or at your one hand if you like to write on paper (or type if you did not get the training on how to put stuff on computer correctly. haha).

What I have been wondering lately is. . . does anyone have interest in the sci-fi genre. I used to just excuse it since to me it was just merely aliens and goofiness. . . but I realize how wrong I was of how if one writes in the “X-Files” style, it can become more than swollen blue heads and. . . ahem, probes. It doesn’t have to be about any of that! The film The Faculty makes a fun point of it.

Also same could be said about not making it about aliens. One could build a futuristic world where (seemingly always in the narrative) man has fallen into technology and things have gotten out of hand or situations are just more dire in general. The future is never painted with puppies and smiles. It is always something that, while it won’t have to be about aliens, be about the so-called not too distant future and not be a bright one.

Look at Babylon A. D. While I have many things to say against it as a whole it is not a terrible film. It addresses many things scientifically. . . and the most intriguing aspect is a female character who may be a curse or something else to the one who has to be a chauffeur to. . . a man named Toorup.

This film has a lot going for it. . . I wish the director got full hands in putting it together. An American company, I believe, was the producer and they got more control over the project to the point the director had no hand in many of the sequences! I would be curious to know what exactly Matthieu Kassovitz did.

Also, for the curious at heart, the film was based on a book! It was originally in French. . . but the later translation made it in English and called it “Babylon Babies.” The author is Maurice G. Dantec. Both versions, I am sure, can be found on Amazon.com.

I have a copy of the book (I have not read it yet) and while the film is hugely flawed it is a great entry into sci-fi hookah.

Does anyone have an interest in at the very least reading sci-fi? Do you like Michael Crichton? How about Robin Cook? Or any other one that may put more elements of horror but keep the sci-fi side of it?

Tell me. I hope that you feel encouraged. . . and may you want to keep putting that pencil to paper (or in this case, keep that cursor flying across the screen).

I hope you like to write. . . please write to me if you want. God bless.