Sunday, December 31, 2017

WHAT PRAYER CAN DO


What prayer can do

By Ada Nicholson Brownell

Released Dec. 17, 2017

E-BOOK AND PAPERBACK AVAILABLE.

Pray. God answers.




True testimonies of events where God intervened.

Ennis Surratt, known as the “meanest man in town,” changed in a moment. John Feliciano, blinded in an industrial accident, sees instantly. Marjorie Eager’s family escapes death when God stops a forest fire. A mother prays on her deathbed for her sons to meet her in heaven, and years later God grabs Gary Hilgers out of sin and turns him around. More amazing chapters originally published in The Pentecostal Evangel, enough for every week of the year, with three bonuses.





Monday, December 25, 2017

Who Is Jesus?


WHAT CHILD IS THIS?

By Ada Nicholson Brownell

Can you imagine the chaos if identification on newborns in large hospitals disappeared?

“Whose baby is this?” nurses would say over and over as an expert checked tiny footprints.

“What Child is this?” often is asked near Christmas. William Chatterton Dix, struck with a near-fatal illness at age 29 asked the question. Confined to his bed for months in 1865, he looked to Jesus, the babe born in Bethlehem so many years before. Was the Christ child different from everyone else born into the world?

Some people put Jesus on the same level as Mother Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi, the Pope, Moses and other famous religious personalities. Some religions teach Jesus was a great prophet, but deny His deity. Author Josh McDowell says in his book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, that Jesus can’t be identified as a great moral teacher because He claimed to be God. “He is either a liar, lunatic or the Lord.”[1]

Who was the babe in the manger?

Dix searched for an answer to the question and wrote a song titled “What Child is this?”  set to the music of Greensleeves, a 16th Century English tune.  

Down through the centuries people asked, “Who is Jesus?”

Scripture reveals who the Child is. My Bible has 1,448 pages filled with the story of the Messiah-Redeemer—promised right after Adam and Eve became subject to sickness and death.[2] God warned the couple if they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would die.

Satan, taking the body of a serpent, told Eve, “You won’t die.  It’s good.  Try it.”

The couple took the reptile’s advice and the venom of Satan’s lie fills every urn and grave since then. Adam and Eve understood sin’s tragedy when they grieved at the grave of a dead son, killed by his brother.

Although God’s justice required severe consequences for sin, He promised redemption as soon as as the first couple disobeyed. Sin is so terrible God required blood to forgive it. Beautiful animals lay over altars, blood dripping over the stones, until God gave His one and only Son as The Promised Redeemer who showed up on earth in the body of a tiny baby.

Prophets testified about the details of the Messiah’s birth, death and resurrection thousands of years before He came.

Jesus was unlike any baby born. He was God in human flesh, yet we are invited to know Him personally. According to Rev. 3:19-21, Jesus stands outside the door to our lives and knocks. He says, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him. The last chapter of Revelation declares, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

What Child is this? Humankind’s only hope.
***
MATTHEW 4:16 IS A FLASH OF INSIGHT SHINING FORTH all year, but especially this season. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Matthew 4:16).


©Ada Brownell 2013















[1] Here’s Life Publishers Inc, San Bernardino, CA 92402, 1979, page 107
[2] Genesis 3:15

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

HOW THE MEANEST MAN IN TOWN WAS CHANGED AFTER A SHOOTING





WHAT PRAYER CAN DO:

A Collection of true stories by Ada Brownell Published by The Pentecostal Evangel

By Ada Brownell

Ennis L. Surratt clutched the cool metal handle of his .45 pistol. Through the weeds he could see three men coming. He knew they would come near where he crouched because they would be coming after the barrel of whiskey that had disappeared from his still the night before.

When the men were only a few feet from the barrel, Ennis stepped out in front of the man who seemed to lead the way.

“You’re not taking this barrel,” Ennis growled, keeping his right hand next to the gun. “You stole it last night, and we’re going to settle it right here.”

He drew his gun and aimed it at the thief.

“Shoot!” the thief yelled as he whirled with his double-barreled shotgun.

 An explosive charge sounded from the shotgun and Ennis fell to the ground. Pain surged through his neck and chest, and hot blood trickled from the wounds, but Ennis raised up on one knee and fired the pistol.

With a cry of anguish, the thief dropped the shotgun and fell into the weeds.

Ennis fell back again, and both men cursed and writhed with pain until they were taken to town for treatment. Ennis was filled with buckshot but not hurt seriously. The other fellow, however, was in serious condition.

Events like this were why the bootlegger became known as “the meanest man in town” and that caught the attention of two lady evangelist holding a tent revival in that town. The women decided if the meanest man in two would be changed by the power of God, there would be revival.

How God reached down and Ennis upside the head. He changed so much he became a fiery gospel preacher that won not only many others to God, but his own children, who became ministers of the gospel as well. One of his sons pastored the author’s church several years.

Read the story of Ennis Surratt in What Prayer Can Do, on sale now at http://ow.ly/9CEI30h4IdL

Sunday, December 17, 2017

DO YOU NEED A MIRACLE?

WHAT PRAYER CAN DO

By Ada Brownell





Pray. God answers.


 Ennis Surratt, known as the “meanest man in town,” changed in a moment. John Feliciano, blinded in an industrial accident, sees instantly. Marjorie Eager’s family escapes death when God stops a forest fire. A mother prays on her deathbed for her sons to meet her in heaven, and years later God grabs Gary Hilgers out of sin and turns him around. More amazing chapters originally published in The Pentecostal Evangel, enough for every week of the year, with three bonuses.

This book is about what happens when God intervenes—what is called in court and church as “testimonies.”
Part One: Prayer Results in Miracles
Part Two: Prayer Brings People to God
Part Three: Prayer Helps with Victorious Living
Part Four: Prayer Changes Marriages; Families
Part Five: Prayer Makes an Eternal Difference


When God intervenes, everything changes. This is experiential reality for Spirit-filled believers who intently seek God, trust His promises and believe for the impossible. In What Prayer Can Do, award winning author Ada Brownell nourishes our faith with remarkable true stories of supernatural answers to prayer. May this inspiring volume stretch you, encourage you and motivate you to a deeper life of God-dependent prayer.”


--Dr. James Bradford


General Secretary


The General Council of the Assemblies of God



Monday, December 11, 2017

ARE YOU JUST LIKE ME?






People Just Like Me
By Leeann Betts




My tagline is “stories that brighten your day” because I like to read and write stories that don’t just answer a burning question, or educate, or even pass the time. I like to read and write stories that brighten my day, give me hope, and strengthen me to keep on going when everything within me is screaming to simply give up.



Because underneath, I think most people are just like me. I have a husband, children, grands, siblings, various other friends and family who expect time and energy from me. I have a job, chores I’m responsible for, and not enough down time. Sometimes I question my faith, wonder if I really hear from God, worry that I don’t spend enough time in prayer or Bible study, struggle with balancing my calendar.



And that’s who I write about—people just like me. In my recent Christmas-themed release, In Search of Christmas Past, my heroine and hero both want something—but they don’t want the same thing. Add into the mix the fact that my heroine is angry with God for not answering her prayers, but my hero has a real, alive, and growing relationship with God, and you can see where some conflict might crop up.



If we’re honest, as believers, we’ve all been where my characters are—uncertain, pining for something more, wishing for things to be the way they used to be. We all go through change, and face it, we don’t really like it.



But the good news is that with God in our camp, as our focus and the center of all the choices we make, we can get through this. I recently spoke with a new widow in our church, and I said how much she blessed me by being in church the first Sunday after her husband’s funeral and in the choir the previous Sunday. She said, “How could I do anything else? God is my life. Brian (name changed) was my husband, but God is my life.”



Her words encouraged me and strengthened me. It can be difficult to find joy in the midst of what seems like the darkest moment we’ll ever face. And some moments are longer than that—they are seasons. My friend’s life is forever changed with the passing of her husband, but she has learned a valuable lesson—God is bigger than the moments, bigger than the seasons.



And so I’ll keep on writing about people just like me—and you. And I’ll keep learning—and sharing—whatever God has for me to learn and apply.



Won’t you submit your life to His plan and come on this journey with me?







About Leeann:

Leeann Betts writes contemporary suspense, while her real-life persona, Donna Schlachter, pens
historical suspense. She has released six titles in her cozy mystery series, By the Numbers, with Petty Cash releasing in December. In addition, Leeann has written a devotional for accountants, bookkeepers, and financial folk, Counting the Days, and with her real-life persona, Donna Schlachter, has published a book on writing, Nuggets of Writing Gold, a compilation of essays, articles, and exercises on the craft. She publishes a free quarterly newsletter that includes a book review and articles on writing and books of interest to readers and writers. You can subscribe at www.LeeannBetts.com or follow Leeann at www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com All books are available on Amazon.com in digital and print, and at Smashwords.com in digital format.



Website: www.LeeannBetts.com Receive a free ebook just for signing up for our quarterly newsletter.




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About In Search of Christmas Past:

Grace Bellows, a senior in college, receives a Christmas card one month after her grandmother’s death, where her beloved Grammie challenges her to an old-fashioned scavenger hunt. Raised by her grandmother after her parents’ death in a car accident when she was eight, Grace has lived a jetsetter lifestyle with her wealthy grandmother. Now all she wants is to settle down and have a normal life.



Luke Fisher manages his family’s Christmas tree farm out of a sense of loyalty to his deceased mother because she gave up her dreams of being an attorney. He doesn’t want to live with any regrets, and longs to escape the confines of loyalty to live a life of adventure in the real world.



Can Grace and Luke solve the clues and uncover the truth about their real feelings, or will the tension and their differences in goals and faith drive them apart?






Sunday, December 10, 2017

WHAT PRAYER CAN DO.: A COLLECTION OF ARTICLES PUBLILSHED IN THE PENTECOSTAL EVANGEL


What prayer can do

By Ada Nicholson Brownell

E-BOOK RELEASED TODAY. PAPERBACK COMING HOPEFULLY DEC. 11.

Pray. God answers.




Ennis Surratt, known as the “meanest man in town,” changed in a moment. John Feliciano, blinded in an industrial accident, sees instantly. Marjorie Eager’s family escapes death when God stops a forest fire. A mother prays on her deathbed for her sons to meet her in heaven, and years later God grabs Gary Hilgers out of sin and turns him around. More amazing chapters originally published in The Pentecostal Evangel, enough for every week of the year, with three bonuses.

This book is about what happens when God intervenes—what is called in court and church as “testimonies.” Many are interviews with people who have had God’s miraculous intervention.

Part One: Prayer Results in Miracles

Part Two: Prayer Brings People to God

Part Three: Prayer Helps with Victorious Living

Part Four: Prayer Changes Marriages; Families

Part Five: Prayer Makes an Eternal Difference







Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Two great Christmas books.




A New Reality -- From a memory to a memoir

By Donna Schlachter



Two years ago, my father called me with an interesting proposition: write his life story, keep all the profits, share the movie rights.



Now, right off the bat, he acknowledged that his story wasn’t unique: a boy adopted by grandparents who didn’t know his “sister” was really his mother until he was thirteen years old.



However, he felt the circumstances, the time period, and the setting would make the book unique. I thought it was high time somebody documented the events, since everybody involved was either really old or dead, and because I felt his family--my siblings--should know where we came from.



Over the next six months we met a couple of times. I recorded the time we spent discussing the book. He gave me contemporaneous documents in the form of cash books from his father’s store and letters between his birth mother and his father. I researched what I could, got in touch with the town historian when necessary, and made up the rest.



That’s right. A memoir, and I made stuff up.



Because the truth is, nobody knows everything that happened, or what was said, or even who was involved. So many times I asked my dad who was with him, and he couldn’t remember everybody.



The first edits were interesting. I’d send it to him, and he’d send it back, “I don’t think I said this” or “I don’t think it happened like that”. I’d ask, “Do you remember what did happen?” “No.” “Then my version stands.”



He finally came to terms with the fact that creative non-fiction is exactly that: creative.



We used the names of the original people, because this was going to be a family-only version. But he said he wanted the book published in the general market, so we agreed to change the names and a few other details so nobody knew for certain who was being talked about.



My dad held “his” book in his hands three weeks before he passed. He was as pleased as punch to see his name on the cover, to read his stories, his past.



And then he looked at me and said, “We need another book.”



Except this time we didn’t have two years. This time we had three weeks.



I wish I’d asked more questions. I pray he’d be as pleased to hold this new book in his hands. Once again, we published a family-only version first. And The Physics of Love released October 2016.



But even more important than the fact I wrote these books was the fact that I took a big step of faith and witnessed to my unbelieving father. He accepted Christ just three weeks before he passed. I was able to spend time with him the last week of his life, and he was alike a sponge, soaking up everything I shared about God, Jesus, heaven, healing, and whatever else he wanted to ask about. He talked to both of his sons and several of his grandchildren about his newfound love, and wanted to live long enough to share the gospel with all of his family. He planted seed that other will water and harvest, and hopefully he will one day see the results of his courage.



My new reality includes going on without my dad, but his new reality is eternal life with Jesus.





Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick, her first-line editor and biggest fan. She writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts. She is a hybrid publisher who has published a number of books under her pen name and under her own name. Her recent releases include The Mystery of Christmas Inn, Colorado and Christmas Under the Stars. Donna is also a ghostwriter and editor of fiction and non-fiction, and judges in a number of writing contests. Donna loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is proud to be represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.






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Christmas Under the Stars

November 1858, Utah Territory

Edie Meredith strives to keep her temper and her tongue under control as she heads west with her brother to California. Raised in an itinerant preacher family, she promises she will never marry a man of the cloth.



Tom Aiken, drover of the wagon train, longs to answer his true calling: to preach, and while he realizes not every woman would choose a preacher for a husband, he hopes to soon find his help-meet.



Suspicious ‘accidents’ plague their journey. Is someone trying to keep them from reaching their destination? Or will misunderstanding and circumstances keep them apart?



The Mystery of Christmas Inn, Colorado

Matthew returns to Christmas Inn to celebrate his fortieth anniversary alone, intending to take his own life so he can join his beloved Sarah, who passed on to glory the previous January. Not certain how—or if—he will go on without her, Matthew learns on his arrival that the old inn will close its doors on New Year’s Eve. A developer has purchased the building and intends to tear it down and put up a chain hotel. Determined to keep his memories and his connection to Sarah alive, Matthew embarks on a harebrained scheme to keep the inn open.



Edith Cochrane, a widow, comes to Christmas Inn because she has nowhere else to spend the holidays. Her children are angry with her because she refuses to choose to live with one of them. Edith and her husband enjoyed a long marriage and a long mission-field ministry, but ever since his passing the previous year, Edith has found herself at loose ends. She comes to Christmas Inn to spend some time thinking about her options.



Can Matthew and Edith save the old hotel—and themselves—or will they run out of time?









  


Monday, December 4, 2017

WHY CHRISTMAS JOY IS RELEVANT





By Ada Nicholson Brownell



The church today is accused of being irrelevant.

      Irrelevant?  What is more relevant than we’re all destined to die, but Jesus Christ came to get us off this planet alive?

What is more relevant than John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

      The relevance of the gospel of Jesus Christ is never more real than when death invades your life. When our oldest daughter died of cancer less than a month after her 31st birthday, I knew there was hope because of Jesus.

      Jesus did something about death, and since then people have been singing “Joy to the World! The Lord is come.” Not necessarily the words written by Isaac Watts. The song wasn’t written until 1719.

      But on that first Christmas, which became the dividing point of time—B.C. and A.D.— a choir of angels sang a joyful song about tidings of comfort and joy. The tidings were for all people, “for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

      Why did humankind need a Savior? Because sin brought death.

      God warned Adam and Eve that although they could eat everything else in the Garden of Eden, they were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would die.

 “You won’t die!” the Tempter told Eve.

So Eve ate, shared the fruit with her husband, and not long afterward they sat at the gravesite of a murdered son. Eventually, death claimed them.

      When Adam and Eve disobeyed, the Heavenly Father still loved them. He created them for fellowship. So He designed a “just” way to restore humans to righteousness and life forevermore.  He would bring a Redeemer to reverse the penalty of sin (Genesis 3:15). But blood would be required, because sin is so serious and always hurts someone, especially the sinner.[1]

      Yet, death became the enemy of every mortal person, despite a glimmer of hope with repentance and the sacrifice of bulls and goats. Bull and goat blood wasn’t enough to thwart the Tempter—the Enemy who is delighted when people fall into sin and are destined to eternal death away from God.

Then God-the-Son slipped into a baby’s skin, and He landed in a straw-filled manager surrounded by cattle, sheep and the smell of manure. A long, hard road stood between the Christ Child and victory. He grew and demonstrated His love, but people loved themselves more than God and killed Him. His blood trickled down a splintery cross and He died. Hope seemed lost.

 Three days later, Jesus’ walked out of the tomb alive without even unwrapping the grave clothes. He told the Apostle John, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:17-19 ).

      Isaiah wrote in his prophesies about the Messiah, that “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:2-4). But we’re like Adam and Eve. We decide whether to obey God. It’s up to us whether we accept the gift of salvation and the resulting joy.

      Joyful singing about Jesus has erupted from mortal lips since His birth and for good reason. And we’re still singing, “Joy to the World!  The Lord is come!”

      If you’re human, that’s relevant.

      © Copyright Ada Brownell 2016



See Genesis 3:14-15

Smoky Mountain Brides and a new publisher: Mantle Rock Publishing