tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72677026613773679902024-03-04T23:10:11.820-08:00Ink from an Earthen Vessel: Stick-to-Your Soul Encouragement"This precious treasure--this light and power that now shine within us--is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own" (2 Corinthians 4:7).Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.comBlogger858125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-59242113399003093132021-07-26T13:56:00.002-07:002021-07-26T13:56:19.266-07:00SHUT OUT<div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Today it appeared I had been shut out of my blog. It has been months since I posted an article .</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">That wasn't too surprising. With the pandemic, I only went out among crowds three times in a year. But I didn't intend to drop out of society.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">I love people, especially friends and family. I missed seeing them and being with them all.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet, we were able to get our immunizations, one shot and a booster, and we haven't been ill. Praise the Lord! Our children and grandchildren were spared from the virus as well.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our special friends in Pueblo, Colo., came down with it though. They feared the vaccine because they'd had an effect from a flu shot years ago. The flu shot, as well as the vaccine, are made from killed viruses, so what affected them must have been a mild form of the sickness, or something else.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whatever the case, they became seriously ill from Covid. I'm thankful they didn't pass away. But they were totally unprotected from from the virus because they hadn't received the immunization.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of them had to go to the hospital in an ambulance and the other was flight lifted to Denver, if I remember correctly.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">They and we are thankful friends and relatives know how to pray and we all are thankful God answers prayer. We also are thankful for medical blessings we enjoy in the United States, for the people who studied and learned how to take care of people who are sick, and for the miracles that come from the God who created us, gave humans knowledge about what to do for the sick, and loves all of us no matter who we are and what we need.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Lord doesn't always give us miracles, but he never leaves or forsakes us. He said he'd never forsake us, and that includes everything we may go through.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Scripture tells us Jesus died on the cross so that we can accept him as our Savior and never die. Even though our body may die, the spirit goes to God who gave it. When the thief who died on another cross beside Jesus repented and said, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom," Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in Paradise. "</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">He also told the sisters of Lazarus, "He who lives and believes in me will never die."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus showed his power over death when he raised Lazarus from the dead!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the most tremendous testimony to the world and everyone in it was when Jesus, who lay in a closed and sealed tomb after the crucifixion, his hands and feet bloody and his side still bleeding and sunken where the sword entered, walked out alive three days later--alive forevermore!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">He showed himself to the doubting, to five hundred people at once, ate with them, and walked into a closed room and stood before them.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then he went up in the clouds, and promised to come back again.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Who will come out of their graves and meet him in the air? Check it out at 1Thessalonians 4:14-18.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-26660112471768621382020-12-19T18:49:00.002-08:002020-12-19T18:56:33.471-08:00INSPIRING BOOKS FOR LAST-MINUTE GIFTS<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Algerian; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By Ada Brownell<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">SQUEAKY CLEAN NOVELS;</span><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN";">
Suspense; Humor; Spiritual Payload<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Lady Fugitive (60 Reviews)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Peach Blossom Rancher<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Love’s Delicate Blossom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">FAITH-BUILDING NON-FICTION</span>: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Swallowed by Life, (You're more than a body)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Imagine the Future You,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Following the Tracks (Life with the Railroad);<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Confessions of a Pentecostal<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What Prayer Can Do--</span><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(55 reprinted articles <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">From <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Pentecostal Evangel)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Amazon Ada
Brownell author page: </span></b><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06">http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "AR JULIAN"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-18707320945283266592020-11-30T14:36:00.000-08:002020-11-30T14:36:35.351-08:00<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JESUS
IS COMING? ARE YOU READY?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By
Ada Brownell<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Centuries before “Beam me up Scotty” became a common phrase
from the television sci-fi show Star Trek, a well-known person stood on a
mountain in Israel and went up through the clouds and out of sight. No space
ship, no airplane, no parachute, no rockets, no fuel. Just a blue sky and a few
white clouds. Not even a huge eagle taking on passengers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The event was witnessed
by a crowd of spectators, who craned their necks until he was out of sight.
Mouths dropped open, hands shaded their eyes as they stared. Some stood on
tiptoes. Others ran on the dirt road surrounding the peak and tried to see
higher into the blue sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">A few young men swiftly
tucked their robes around their legs and tried to climb up on a boulder, but
two huge figures dressed in white stood in their way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Chatter died down. Women
wept, and a few tears tricked into the beards of men.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Everybody knew the
Roman government voted for the death penalty after the Sanhedrin, the highest
court in ancient Jerusalem, carried out the sentence. After all, he claimed to
be the Son of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then in three days witnesses
said he was alive. The guards at the tomb reported his bloody body stolen by
his disciples. But how could they do that with so many soldiers guarding the
tomb? If there was a body why didn’t someone find it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Reports kept coming in
that people had seen him alive, talked to him, and even though he performed miracles,
some didn’t believe. While eating with his disciples, he vanished from their
sight (Luke 24:31). He appeared to them in a closed room with the door shut (Luke
24:36-40).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">For forty days he
taught about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3), and showed them by many infallible
truths that he was alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But how did he go up like that?” a loud voice
demanded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The crowd shoved their
way toward the two men dressed in white. Shoulders wide and strong, the huge
creatures stood their ground. “Silence!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Immediately you could
have heard an olive leaf drop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Men of Galilee, why do
you stand here gazing into heaven?” one of them said, while the other kept the
people back. “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so
come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11 KJ). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The creatures in white
disappeared, and Peter moved to where they stood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We have a command from the Lord. Let’s go into
Jerusalem like Jesus said and pray and tarry for the Holy Spirit!” Peter
shouted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Yes!” John answered.
“He said not to leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jesus had
been teaching them that God had something special for them. “John baptized with
water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">A dunking in the Holy
Spirit? What would that be like? But they thought he was going to establish his
kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">He had said, ‘You will
receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">That was when gravity
let loose of him. His scarred feet with bare toes wiggled in his sandals, and
he started going up. The crowd watched in awe, but he disappeared before their
eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">No matter how long they
stared at the sky and the place on Mount Olivet where their Lord had stood, he
was gone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“He’ll come again,”
someone said. “The angel—or whoever he was—promised.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Amazed people walked
around and stared up at the sky from a different angle. They touched the ground
where he stood and somebody pointed out his footprints.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“We may as well go
home,” one of the women complained, but then a man stood on a rock before the
grumbling crowd.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Jesus said not to
depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Wait?” a shrill voice
inquired.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When the sweaty group
arrived in the city, about one hundred and twenty people remained. They likely
had five hundred people who saw him go into the clouds because 1 Corinthians
15:6 says Jesus was seen by up to five hundred brethren at once. It could have
been more, counting the women and children. In those days they usually counted
only the men, but some evidently went home instead of going into Jerusalem. Yet
Acts 2 mentions women. Mary, the mother of Jesus was there with his brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">They named Peter,
James, John and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the
son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas, the son of James.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">By now they had a noisy
crowd in the upper room. They waited, and then began to pray. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Whispers echoed. “He
said he’s coming back!”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">“How can that be?” a
loud whisper filtered from ear to ear. “The man clothed in white said Jesus would
come back like we saw him go.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Similar to a family at
the airport today, whose relative hasn’t arrived despite waiting and watching,
Christians have studied the Bible and tried to figure out exactly when the Lord
will appear in the skies, ready to pick us up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some think the flight
is on a schedule and they can figure out when they depart for heaven. Their
faith is built on many scriptures such as 1 Thessalonians 4: 14—18 KJ</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">. <span class="text"><b><sup>14 </sup></b>For if
we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in
Jesus will God bring with him. <b><sup> </sup></b>For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of
the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.<b><sup> </sup></b>For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: <b><sup> </sup></b>Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. <b><sup> </sup></b>Wherefore
comfort one another with these words.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“How can that be?” a
loud whisper filtered from ear to ear. “The man clothed in white said Jesus would
come back like we saw him go.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Similar to a family at
the airport whose relative hasn’t arrived despite waiting and watching,
Christians have studied the Bible and tried to figure out exactly when the Lord
will appear in the skies, ready to pick us up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some think the flight
is on a schedule and they can figure out when they depart for heaven. Their
faith is built on many scriptures such as 1 Thessalonians 4: 14—18 KJ</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black;">14 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black;">For if
we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in
Jesus will God bring with him. <b><sup> </sup></b>For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of
the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.<b><sup> </sup></b>For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: <b><sup> </sup></b>Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. <b><sup> </sup></b>Wherefore
comfort one another with these words.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">NEXT : How do we get ready for His coming? </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;"> : ;</p>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-60944187044793030342020-10-16T14:37:00.003-07:002020-10-16T14:37:59.518-07:00FOLLOWING THE TRACKS<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">FOLLOWING
THE TRACKS SUMMARY<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By Ada
Brownell<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ever wondered how trains going different directions on the
same track arrive safely at the destination despite rock slides, derailments, a
fire burning a trestle bridge, and other hazards?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How in the era before Centralized Traffic Control railroad employees
communicated and prevented accidents?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lester C. Brownell was age eighteen when he started working
for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, after earning a certificate
from Gale Institute’s telegraph school in Minneapolis. He was one of many
employees who helped transport people, animals and mammoth loads from coast to
coast, around the clock. For years, telegraph was about the only means of
communication.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When he began his career, an unknown stomach ulcer ready to
rupture worked on his insides, and he didn’t even notice when he stood beside
the rails, his pants flapping in the breeze, meeting a train going 50 miles an
hour. With a Y-stick in his hand, he delivered urgent transcribed telegraph messages
up to the engineer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When he married Ada Belle Nicholson, she became the support
and companion he needed. After they married in 1953, together they conquered
challenges of moving twelve times the first three of their 66 years, finding places
to live in the desert or snowy mountains, and making a boxcar, a depot, and
shacks into homes..<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then Centralized Traffic Control changed the railroad and
the lives of workers. Enjoy the history, the humor, the romance, the suspense,
the rewarded faith—a true story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Following-Tracks-Railroad-Ada-Brownell/dp/B0892B9RHP/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Following+the+tracks&qid=1594763482&sr=8-3"></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>https://tinyurl.com/y2w2jqyu</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-16715266388571942952020-10-03T17:37:00.000-07:002020-10-03T17:37:42.997-07:00 <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Socialism as I witnessed it<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">By Ada Brownell<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">The
first time I viewed television news, Fidel Castro’s military was mowing down
men with a machine gun in front of a trench where their dead bodies fell.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">It
was 1960, if my guess is right. I was 22 years old. My husband and I had two
young children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">I
was horrified at what I had seen. We viewed the event when we were over at our
neighbors’ house. The husband was a signal maintainer for the railroad. We didn’t
own a television set, and that scene didn’t help me want one. We lived in Thompson,
Utah. The little town had just shy of 100 people who built a tower so
television signals would come in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">A
few months later we bought a television, and the news usually wasn’t that
violent. But everywhere television showed the multitudes of rafts Cuban people
fashioned and loaded up with their relatives trying to get to America. Many of
them drowned, and that continued for years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">I
think the majority of them knew the risks. At one Trump rally recently with
tears a man who escaped from Cuba told how his father risked everything to get
his family to the United States. He asked, “Where else could we go?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Communism
was atheistic, and controlled people’s lives, even their thinking. I felt sorry
for the Cubans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">That
feeling never changed in the many years since, even though television reception
has improved in the U.S. and they’re no longer controlling the people with
machine guns. But sad to say, the promised Utopia— first with socialism, and
then Communism, never came.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Cubans
still are oppressed. When I was younger most of the cane sugar that fed the
U.S. and maybe the world, came from Cuba, and I think most of the people who
lived there before communism were comfortable financially.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">The
country now is open somewhat to tourists, but it’s tight by what I heard. My
brother and his wife went on a mission trip a few years ago to work on a Cuban
church building and do some other charitable work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">The
church had a measure of freedom, but within limits. The people were poor and
their lives supervised and controlled by the government.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">A
talented young man in the church already had his future planned by the
government: where he could get higher education, what his career would be, and
where he would work, although that wasn’t what he wanted to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Most
people in the church lived in poverty, including the pastor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">For
years Cuban autos have fascinated men. All their cars are old, but the guys
knew their transportation depended on keeping them running, so a lot of men
became the mechanic that would keep the vehicles running, probably from parts
cannibalized from junked autos. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">The
cars on Cuban highways and streets are so old they would be valuable to
collectors in the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Any
America who thinks, reads, and remembers history will not trade their freedoms
for socialism, no matter how much “free stuff” is offered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Every
American should think before they vote.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> </span> </p>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-32984945745398187262020-08-31T14:27:00.000-07:002020-08-31T14:27:58.153-07:00PARENTING FOR THE FUTURE<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN GET TO HEAVEN</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">By Ada Brownell<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">One of the first things I learned about parenting
was my husband and I didn’t have to do it by ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">God calls others to help. Ephesians 4:10-12 says, “</span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif; font-size: 9pt;">0</span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fulfill all things.</span><b><sup><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif; font-size: 9pt;">11 </span></sup></b><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">And he gave some, apostles;
and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">Our
children had great pastors, youth pastors, Sunday school teachers, evangelists,
as well as wonderful Christian friends who influenced them in the choice to
give their lives and talents to Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">To
help your children make the choice to “go to heaven,” here are a few things we
did when our five offspring were young. They all made Jesus Lord of their
lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">Attend a full gospel church where the gospel is preached and
rightly divided. Full gospel churches usually teach salvation comes only when
we believe Jesus died for our sins, and resurrected on the third day. (John
3:16 and Romans 10:9) .Full gospel churches believe in the divine inspiration
of the Bible as God’s Word, the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of
supernatural speaking in other tongues. They also believe in Divine Healing,
the Catching away of the church in the rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;"> Scriptures for you to teach
your children: “If thou will confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe
in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans
10:9). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness “(1 John 1:9).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;"> Another: “But you will receive power after the
Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me …” (Acts 1:8).
“And while they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their
sight. .. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two
men stood by them in white apparel who also said, ‘This same Jesus who was
taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you have seen him
go into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">Become a student of the Word of God yourself. “</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Study to
shew thyself </span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">a</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">pproved unto God, </span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">a</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">workman</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> that
needeth not to be </span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">a</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">shamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2
Timothy 2:15).</span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teach them to become students of the Word. </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">“All
scripture </span><em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">is</span></em><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> given by
inspiration of God (God breated), and </span><em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">is</span></em><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16) </span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Hopefully your chur</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ch has programs for youth like Royal Rangers,
Missionettes, Bible Quiz, Talent contests, and services where young people can
use their talents and ministries.</span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Expose them to great people—Bible characters and adults
as well as teens who are living for God.</span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go to missions services. When they’re just
forming opinions and finding people to “worship” let them know the difference
between fantasy, fiction, reality, and history. They may adore Spiderman and
Star Wars characters, but they should understand they don’t exist, and when God
enabled David to kill Goliath, David wasn’t a vegetable from Veggie Tales. He lived,
loved God and did great things in His name.</span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">* Teach your children God loved them from the beginning of
their lives. “I knew you before </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> formed </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">you in</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">your
mother’s womb” (Jeremiah 1:5). </span><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">However, when Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem,</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> he was
different from any other baby because he is God’s son. Jesus was in heaven
before he came to earth. Jesus was there when the world and people were created.
Jesus, God’s only Son; and the Holy Spirit were there in the beginning. “And
God said, Let us make man </span><b><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">in</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">our</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">image</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, after </span><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">our</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> likeness: and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth”
(Genesis 1:26).</span><i><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Buy them great books and go to movies that
support Christian values.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "&quot", serif;">MOST IMPORTANT; Pray for and with our children frequently. Ask God
for wisdom. He promised to send wisdom to those who ask for it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-24857571361815568772020-08-07T14:20:00.001-07:002020-08-07T14:31:04.199-07:00SCREAMING SIRENS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1BdfTTUKOkFXmRmzXH4Nx_ElgWTjv9mYj0et8SqJDjAeB0pBDHCt2oBaFwlgivyS4XvHYsvOXx4Pf2zZsRQyLDSjAYkCIl3d8SxC_KPg52r6dR1NQUfOtvZvmPbD8hIvF3I2Zd17ua2U/s180/Keira+reaching+for+the+sunset..png" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1BdfTTUKOkFXmRmzXH4Nx_ElgWTjv9mYj0et8SqJDjAeB0pBDHCt2oBaFwlgivyS4XvHYsvOXx4Pf2zZsRQyLDSjAYkCIl3d8SxC_KPg52r6dR1NQUfOtvZvmPbD8hIvF3I2Zd17ua2U/s0/Keira+reaching+for+the+sunset..png" /></a></div> <p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">By
Ada Nicholson Brownell<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A siren’s</span></b><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> wail penetrated the
early evening air. A young mother ran out of the house. She imagined her child
lying in a pool of blood somewhere in the street. But she found her toddler
playing happily in the yard.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Another mother parted the
living room drapes, looking anxiously toward the street. Why was her teenage
son so late driving the car home from the store? Was he now breathing his last
beneath the wreckage of the automobile?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A father, just returning from
work, heaved a sigh of relief when there was no fire truck in front of his
home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A young fellow coming out of a
supermarket chuckled. “Somebody’s getting a ticket.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Sirens can mean many different
things. They make imaginations run wild. But their main purpose is to warn.
They want motorists and pedestrians to get out of the way of a speeding
ambulance, fire truck or police vehicle. Those who don’t give the emergency
vehicle the right-of-way often cause serious accidents, creating an even larger
emergency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Other warning sounds are
evident in our world—violence, war, revolution, famine. More important the rise
of atheism from our schools, and churches that offer everything but the gospel
and the Word of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Centuries ago a physician
wrote a warning about these problems. Its theme: When these things encompass
the earth, a great event is about to take place—and every person should prepare
for it. Dr. Luke, more widely known as St. Luke, penned the Gospel of Luke in
the New Testament and the book of Acts, relating the words of Jesus when he was
on earth. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the warnings he
delivered was about the second coming of Christ (Luke 21:7-36) that came from
the mouth of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Matthew sounded a similar
warning. The warnings foretold about the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 40,
but then Jesus connected events that would come to pass that would precede His
Second Coming. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">The
Lord mentioned his second coming to his disciples several times, Here’s what he
said in Matthew 24: “</span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;">And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man
deceive you.</span> <b><sup>5 </sup></b>For many shall come in my name,
saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.</span> <b><sup>“6 </sup></b>And
ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all
these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. <b><sup>7 </sup></b>For
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there
shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. <b><sup>8 </sup></b>All
these are the beginning of sorrows. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: white;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;">9 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;">Then
shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be
hated of all nations for my name's sake.</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span id="en-KJV-23968"><span class="text"><b><sup style="font-size: 1.2rem;"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;">10 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;">And then shall many be
offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.</span> And
many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.</span> <b><sup>12 </sup></b>And
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.</span> <b><sup>13 </sup></b>But
he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.<span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span id="en-KJV-23972"><span class="text"><b><sup style="font-size: 1.2rem;"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;">“ </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: "segoe ui", sans-serif;">And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and
then shall the end come…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">According to the Scriptures,
today’s world tensions are dovetailing into the Battle of Armageddon, described
in the Book of Revelation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Today’s warnings are largely
ignored. Some people have heard about the Second Coming all their lives –and they
say, “It hasn’t happened yet.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">They may end up like those who
have had to run to storm cellars so many times without experiencing a tornado, they
have become callous.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Are you ready for Christ’s
return? Have you accepted Him as your personal Savior? ”He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Heed the screaming sirens of
the times, warning you to get ready. Jesus is coming! Whether you are dead or
alive when he bursts through the clouds with the sound of a trumpet, if you’ve
repented of your sins and made Jesus Lord of your life, you’ll meet him in the
air, and from then throughout eternity you’ll be with the Lord. (See 1
Thessalonians 4:14-18).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Two men shall be in the
field, one will be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the
mill. One will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not
know the hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:40-41 KJ).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span face="" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">NEXT: More quotes from the
Bible about the catching away of the church and Christ’s second coming. “Watch
therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-44752581622744982562020-07-29T05:55:00.001-07:002020-07-29T06:39:27.370-07:00THE GOD-SHAPED VOID WITHIN YOU<br />
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By
Ada Brownell</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I covered one of the first seminars on the Human Genome Project,<a href="file:///C:/Users/ada/OneDrive/Documents/The%20God-shaped%20hole%20witin.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Pueblo Chieftain </i>in the early 1990s<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>Reporters from several Colorado newspapers were there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">An international team of researchers were mapping the genes
of humans and it was considered “one of the greatest feats of exploration in
history.” By 2003, experts could read the genetic blueprint for building a
human being. But did they miss anything?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Four years later, a new field, neurotheology, revealed our
Creator wrapped faith in our DNA, according to <span style="background: white; color: black;">a CNN report by A. Chris Gajilan on April 4, 2007. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author
of "Why We Believe What We Believe" told how the human brain processes
religion and spirituality. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Newberg <span style="color: black;">says the brain’s frontal
lobe, the area right behind our foreheads, helps us focus our attention in
prayer and meditation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The parietal lobe, located near the backs of our skulls, is the
seat of our sensory information. Newberg says it's involved in that feeling of
becoming part of something greater than oneself. The limbic system, nestled
deep in the brain’s center, regulates our emotions and it is responsible for
feelings of awe and joy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">He suggests brain scans may provide proof that our brains are
built to believe in God. He says there may be universal features of the human
mind that actually make it easier for us to believe in a higher power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I remember one brain surgeon who reported stimulating some areas
of the brain caused a patient to react in ways that suggested religious
activity and faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Newberg has written several
books about the connection between the brain and the spiritual and a new book is
coming out later this year (2020).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Evidence shows we have a God-shaped void within us nothing
else can fill. <span style="color: black;">People all over the world search for a
Supreme Being because of the emptiness inside them. If they haven’t heard the true
gospel or reject it, they worship the earth, animals, stars, the sun, an idol
they know is nothing but a figure humans created, or something else they devised
such as Humanism, turning unbelief into doctrine or worshiping the created
instead of the Creator.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I don’t know where the God-shaped space in us
resides, but I know inside each person is a mysterious place where supernatural
activities occur. If you’ve given your life to God, that’s the place where
you’ll discover unconditional love, unspeakable joy, faith, supernatural peace,
comfort, and biblical gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Supernatural joy is a phenomenon different from
happiness because it doesn’t depend on circumstances or people. Peter said when
a person believes in the Savior and repents of his sins, something amazing happens.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“…The genuineness of your faith, being
much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be
found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom
having not seen you love. Though now you do not see him, yet believing you
rejoice with ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory’” (1 Peter 1:8 NKJ). In other
words, too- wonderful-to-describe joy, and only God can be the source.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The joy obviously is linked to awesome
knowledge Jesus is God’s only son, who rose from the dead and gives eternal
life (John 3:16).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The grief I experienced when we lost a daughter
to cancer felt like my insides had been ripped out. Yet, when I believed God’s
Word, the Comforter came and gave me supernatural peace and joy, and that’s
something unbelievers don’t have.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Humans have wrestled with death since Cain
killed his brother, Abel. The Apostle Paul gave amazing teaching in 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18 that everyone can use. He said, “<span style="background: white;">I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.</span> For if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those
who sleep in Jesus…For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead
in Christ will arise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall
always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">That fills perfectly the God-shaped space in us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
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<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/ada/OneDrive/Documents/The%20God-shaped%20hole%20witin.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project">https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-47653808614174884762020-07-07T14:46:00.004-07:002020-07-09T15:34:20.024-07:00FOLLOWING THE TRACKS<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_wvAJp6Xgc5-cxR6p0ArkDlso0lkZrlfxTRkIaqNm1a5pGQfJBW-x_Uw3QcFSAnej0mELSwrlOVmSGsSYp_GGvLpQEm6Lsc-3dzWcPuVQR_p0yZ_YFA-9ZL1KR25IYbp0q52DsVn_8k/s1600/Tracks+jpg+cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1053" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_wvAJp6Xgc5-cxR6p0ArkDlso0lkZrlfxTRkIaqNm1a5pGQfJBW-x_Uw3QcFSAnej0mELSwrlOVmSGsSYp_GGvLpQEm6Lsc-3dzWcPuVQR_p0yZ_YFA-9ZL1KR25IYbp0q52DsVn_8k/s400/Tracks+jpg+cover.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Following
the Tracks and Dealing with Snow<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">By
Ada Brownell<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<p class="MsoListBullet" style="text-indent: 0in;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06">http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06</a></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListBullet" style="text-indent: 0in;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><br /></span></p><br />Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-42506384405406752702020-07-05T12:41:00.004-07:002020-07-05T12:41:48.970-07:00July 4: How God's mercy brought America through hard times<br /><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
By Ada Brownell<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A phone call from our daughter. “Better turn on the news.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A click, and I sank
into a recliner. Flames shot from the World Trade Center and people jumped out windows.
Then a large aircraft plowed into the remaining twin tower, exploding top
floors and setting the remainder of the crumbling skyscraper on fire. A short
time later, a plane made a direct hit on our Pentagon, and another headed for
the White House.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We were at war. Our soldiers still fight the tentacles of
terrorism trying to strangle the last breath of freedom from our nation and the
world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What a joy liberty has been in the decades I’ve lived! No
bombs lighting the sky in the distance or jarring my bed at night. During my
childhood I trembled during World War II when the town siren screamed, “Blackout.”
But sirens stopped, our homeland was safe despite carnage at Pearl Harbor, and
Americans lived free. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, war bruised our
nation. I remember my sister’s scream when she received the call revealing her
fiancé was killed in World War II. We feared Russia during the cold war, and
during the Bay of Pigs crisis we wondered if atomic bombs would level our
nation before morning. We’re still burying our young killed on battlefields
abroad.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout history, America went to its knees for God’s
help. They cried out to the Lord during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812,
Mexican-Indian War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II,
Korean War, Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the War on Terror in Afghanistan
and Iraq; and interventions in Granada, Panama, Bosnia. I’m thankful for those
who fought, gave their lives or were maimed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Liberty prevails, and I believe it’s partly due to our
Judeo-Christian heritage that teaches loving God and others.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another reason we
have been blessed is our nation’s support of Israel. <span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <span style="background: white;">"And I will bless those that bless
you and curse the one who curses you,” God said of Israel (Genesis 12:1-3).</span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="background: white; line-height: 200%;">Zechariah 2:8 speaks about God
rising against the nations that plundered Israel – “for whoever touches you
touches the apple of my eye."<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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If we turn from God, it even affects the environment: “There
is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is
only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery…. Because of this the
land mourns, and all who live in it waste away, the beasts of the field and the
birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying” (Hosea 4:1-3).<o:p></o:p></div>
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And the promise for obedience: “Then all the nations will
call you blessed for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty
(Malachi 3:6-12).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even with continued war and our nation divided by different agendas,
we are free and blessed. The church still prays for our leaders and our
country, and I thank God for His mercy and ask for more.<o:p></o:p></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Ada
Brownell, a free lance writer and author of ten books, is a retired reporter for The Pueblo
Chieftain. </span></i>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-67843466857124565852020-07-04T15:27:00.006-07:002020-07-04T15:36:55.650-07:00Sale on Swallowed by Life Paperback!!! Get it now! Find assurance of life after death.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS1tzkkhlfgSuwSbz9ZcHfxRnXTQkgtc1li3qI_f2xI8Zh-T_BlJm2JS0_LnmQI5TFPCZYZfts-mLhiJhlvi_p6ZwgDW-Hs-01_lbYxFgEqVxU3cF5JxsPssIcxI2YDT4ugokOzbwWGC8/s1600/swallowed+cover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="218" data-original-width="218" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS1tzkkhlfgSuwSbz9ZcHfxRnXTQkgtc1li3qI_f2xI8Zh-T_BlJm2JS0_LnmQI5TFPCZYZfts-mLhiJhlvi_p6ZwgDW-Hs-01_lbYxFgEqVxU3cF5JxsPssIcxI2YDT4ugokOzbwWGC8/s400/swallowed+cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="5">
SWALLOWED BY LIFE: MYSTERIES OF DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND THE
ETERNAL<o:p></o:p></font></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><font size="5"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>SALE! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paperback only $3.83; Kindle $2.99.<o:p></o:p></i></font></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><font size="5">While we live in these
earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid
of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so
that our dying bodies will be swallowed by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4 NLT).<o:p></o:p></font></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><font size="5">Tell your book club,
your grief support group, Bible study group, family, friends ABOUT THE SALE!<o:p></o:p></font></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i><font size="5">
“You know what we’re doing?” friends asked the author when
the Corona virus lockdown began. “We’re reading <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Swallowed by Life</span> again!<o:p></o:p></font></i></div>
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The author’s brother, a pastor, read the book at least three
times.<o:p></o:p></font></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i><font size="5">
Ada Brownell worked seven years on the medical beat at <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Pueblo Chieftain, </span>and covered one of
the first seminars on the human genome. In addition to being a newspaper
reporter, her articles have appeared in more than forty Christian publications.
She has authored ten books.<o:p></o:p></font></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><font size="5"><br /></font></i></div>
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BOOK SUMMARY:</font></i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">By Ada Brownell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: 14.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 4.5pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Peter wrote, "For we did not follow cunningly devised
fables...but were eyewitnesses of his majesty."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: 14.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 4.5pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(2 Peter 1:16).<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">13-week Bible study: SWALLOWED BY LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><font size="5">Do you believe you could live with
someone else’s heart or kidneys, but not without your body? Evidence shows
we’re more than flesh. The author, a prolific religion writer and retired
medical journalist, talks about the evidence; the wonder of life with all its
electrical systems; the awesome truth about cell death and regeneration;
mysteries surrounding the change from mortal to immortal; where we go when our
body dies; resurrection; and a glimpse at what we will do in heaven. Questions
and answers make this non-fiction inspirational book a great text for group
study.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<font size="5"><br /></font></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><font size="5"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Swallowed
by Life</i> written for support groups, religion classes, people with chronic
or terminal illness, individuals who fear death or are curious about it, the
grieving, and those who give them counsel.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<font size="5"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Review: “</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">It was wonderful how the author merged the medical with the
spiritual.”<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></font></div>
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<font size="5"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Available
from some bookstores, Amazon and from the author. Buy it here on Amazon:</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://ow.ly/U11Rn">http://ow.ly/U11Rn</a></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></font></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-46037516337712144122020-06-22T07:51:00.002-07:002020-06-23T06:20:08.023-07:00IDEAS TO HELP YOU WRITE A REVIEW<br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">By Ada Brownell</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">IF YOU ENJOYED <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FOLLOWING
THE TRACKS</i>, PLEASE WRITE A REVIEW AND POST IT ON AMAZON AND GOOD READS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">Questions to give you ideas for a review, or to discuss
with your book club.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">When you read my new non-fiction book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Following the Tracks</i>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life
With the Railroad, w</i>hat did you expect from such a book?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">What caught your interest? The author, the topic, the
location, the history, the characters, an expected theme?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">How about the first scene? Was the telegraph operator
fighting for his life in the first pages relevant to the book?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">What did you think of the way telegraphers delivered urgent
messages to engineers in the 1950s?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Why were changes necessary that took communication from
telegraph to teletype, and then computers and Centralized Traffic Control?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why was it necessary
to have an agent-telegrapher in depots in every little town and junction along
the tracks, even after they quit selling passenger train tickets?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">How does CTC work and why has it made so many changes in
the railroad operations?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">Why would readers cry, laugh, rejoice, and enjoy a book
about railroad tracks, trains, and people? Would you still call the book
“historical?” Why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">© Ada Brownell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">Here’s what one of my endorsers wrote: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">My family shared this story with the Brownells, as did many
families along the tracks of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. As I
read Ada’s book, I was moved to tears, laughter, and prayers as the memories
and old stories came bubbling up from the past. But it was not only the past
that grabbed my attention, it was the assurance that each of us had, has, and
will have, the grace of God on our lives no matter what our circumstances. As
we follow the tracks with a young bride through the mountains, into the desert,
and then to the city, we find proofs that the choice to trust God is never a
mistake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ada’s concise reporter style
makes this an enjoyable, encouraging journey along the tracks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;">--Lucretia Smith, Nurse, Educator, and Railroad Family<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;"><o:p> You should be able to get the book here:</o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/y9ky7vn5">https://tinyurl.com/y9ky7vn5</a></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.7867px;"><o:p><i>Links don't seem to work. S</i>earch for</o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.7867px;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.7867px;"><o:p>Following the Tracks By Ada Brownell on Amazon</o:p></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.7867px;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span> </o:p></span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Following+the+Tracks+by+Ada+Brownell&ref=nb_sb_noss" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 106%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div><br />
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<br />Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-2520083261183859332020-06-21T06:18:00.001-07:002020-06-21T06:18:11.990-07:00How I Write Reviews<br />
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1.5in; mso-outline-level: 1; text-indent: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How I write reviews<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
Ada Brownell<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
I’ve reviewed
more than 60 books for authors who are members of American Christian Fiction
Writers. Besides that, I wrote reviews for non-fiction Christian books for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Denver Post </i>in the 1980s.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
When I open a
book to read, I usually look to see where it was published. Because I’m a
writer, too, I am familiar with a few secular and most Christian publishers so
that sometimes tells me what to expect. The publisher’s name often tells me the
denomination represented; doctrines; and sometimes even the type of story or
premise that will be inside the book’s cover.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
Since independent
publishing has gained more respect, I don’t frown on an author going with
Amazon or other reputable print-on-demand publishers. But I won’t review one
from a publisher I know scams authors and doesn’t bother with editing. We used
to never review a book done by a “vanity” publisher and a few of those are
still around preying on people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
I usually look
at the summary, table of contents, and then I critique in my mind as I read. With
fiction, I jump into the story and watch to see whether I like the lead
character and whether the person has a worthy goal. The minor character doesn’t
need to be likeable, but even if he is the villain he needs to be developed
enough to make me either like him or hate him early. With non-fiction, I’m
looking for a great premise and a fresh way of approaching a significant
subject.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
The core of my
review revolves around whether it is squeaky clean (even non-fiction can have
unsuitable language, goals or suggestions) and in fiction I want enough plot to
keep me reading.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
During the course
of working through the book, I take notes, and if I own it, I’ll turn down
pages and underline sections I like, don’t like, or don’t understand. Then I’ll
make notes in the front of the book giving page numbers and a brief explanation
for indexing purposes. If it’s not mine, I make notes on little piece of paper
and insert where I have a comment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
Great writers
keep me reaching for my pen to write down sentences and phrases I might want to
quote in a review. I usually don’t use them because of space limitations, but I
might share them with my writers’ group and further advertise a good book.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
Yet, there is
something else important to me. I’m not looking for perfection. I want to know
what the writer did exceptionally well, and I usually find it if I like the
book well enough to read it to the end. Most of my reviews are 5-star because I
focus on the one thing I can rave about. I don’t review books I can’t give at
least a 4-star rating. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
I take my notes,
sit down to the computer and make myself think about the story and start
writing. It’s amazing how fast it usually flows because I narrowed my focus. I
never reveal important twists or the ending in a fiction book and no reviewer
should.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-outline-level: 1; text-indent: .5in;">
The important thing is to sit down and write the review. Anybody can do it.
Truth is, all you need to do is say, “I enjoyed it!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: .5in;">
I rarely write a
review now since I’m cutting back on writing because of my age. Yet I still
read, and read, and read. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here’s my new
book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Following the Tracks on my Amazon Author
page. </i><cite><span style="background: white; color: #006621; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ada-Brownell/e/B001KJ2C06">https://www.amazon.com/Ada-Brownell/e/B001KJ2C06</a><o:p></o:p></span></cite></div>
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<a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=following+the+tracks+by+ada+brownell&form=ANSPH1&refig=af35ba6190b1477c90188720a77d1ed5&sp=1&qs=HS&sk=PRES1&sc=8-0&cvid=af35ba6190b1477c90188720a77d1ed5"><span style="background: white; color: #660099; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><br />
<span style="display: inline-block; touch-action: manipulation;"></span><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: center 3.25in; vertical-align: top;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p> Among others, </o:p></i><i>The Lady Fugitive, an historical novel; Imagine the Future You, a motivational Bible study; Joe the Dreamer:
The Castle and the Catapult, a suspense novel for middle school up; Confessions
of a Pentecostal; and Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and
the Eternal, a popular Bible study. Purchase the books on Ada’s author page: </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06">http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06</a></div>
<div style="mso-outline-level: 1; tab-stops: center 3.25in; vertical-align: top;">
<span style="color: black;">Ada’s blog: http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-28858368858695093592020-06-06T15:04:00.002-07:002020-06-17T06:02:56.770-07:00HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN GET TO HEAVEN<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">By Ada Brownell</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">One of the first things I learned about parenting
was that as a child of God, I didn’t have to do it by myself.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">God calls others to help. Ephesians 4:10-12 says, “</span><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">0</span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fulfill all things.</span><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">11 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">And he gave some, apostles;
and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">Our
children had great pastors, youth pastors, Sunday school teachers, evangelists,
as well as great Christian friends who influenced them in the choice to give
their lives and talents to Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">To
help your children make the choice to “go to heaven” here are a few things my
husband and I did when they were young.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">Attend a full gospel church where the gospel is preached and
rightly divided. Full gospel churches usually teach salvation comes only when
we believe Jesus died for our sins, and resurrected on the third day. Full
gospel churches believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible as God’s Word, the
baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of supernatural speaking in other
tongues. They also believe in Divine Healing, the Catching away of the church
in the rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scriptures for you to share:
“If thou will confess the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). “If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">Another:
“But you will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you
shall be witnesses unto me …” (Acts 1:8). “And while they watched, he was taken
up and a cloud received him out of their sight. .. While they looked
steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white
apparel who also said, ‘This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven,
will so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11).
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</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">Become a student of the Word of God, the Bible yourself. “</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Study to
shew thyself </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">a</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">pproved unto God, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">a</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">workman</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> that
needeth not to be </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">a</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">shamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But
shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
(2 Timothy 2:15-16).</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;"></span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Teach them to become students of the Word. </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“All
scripture </span><em><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; padding: 0in;">is</span></em><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> given by
inspiration of God, and </span><em><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; padding: 0in;">is</span></em><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16) </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Hopefully your chur</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ch has programs for youth like Royal Rangers,
Missionettes, Bible Quiz, Talent contests, and services where young people can
use their talents and ministries.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;"></span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Watch who their heroes are. Expose them to great
people—Bible characters and adults as well as teens who are living for God.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;"></span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go to missions services. When they’re just
forming opinions and finding people to “worship” let them know the difference
between fantasy, fiction, reality, and history. They may adore Spiderman and
Star Wars characters, but they should understand they don’t exist, and when God
enabled David to kill Goliath, David wasn’t a vegetable from Veggie Tales, he
was a real person who lived, loved God and did great things in His name.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The three young Hebrews who survived the fiery furnace after
refusing to bow down to the king, were real people like you, but God was there
to protect them.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">* Teach your children God loved them from the beginning of
their lives. “I knew you before </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> formed </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">you in</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">your
mother’s womb” (Jeremiah 1:5). </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">However, when Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem,</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> he was
different from any other baby because he is God’s son. Jesus was in heaven
before he came to earth. Jesus was there when the world and people were created.
Jesus, God’s only Son; and the Holy Spirit were there in the beginning. “And
God said, Let us make man </span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">in</span></b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">our</span></b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;">image</span></b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, after </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">our</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> likeness: and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis
1:26).</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buy them
great books that support your values, and if your child is in a public school,
survey assigned books, which sometimes can be X-rated and ask for a substitute.
If your student is required to study propaganda and false doctrine, survey it
and teach your child why you don’t believe that. Don’t be afraid to approach a
teacher, a principal or a superintendent of schools with your protests, and do
it in writing. Yet be Christ-like not only as a witness to the educator, but
also to your child.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Always ask for them to be excused from sex
education classes, but teach them from the curriculum of a Christian School.
Ask homeschoolers and Christian school workers for recommendations. Abeka has
online Christian texts.</span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-36125447445902551982020-06-01T15:59:00.000-07:002020-06-01T15:59:05.510-07:00WILL YOUR CHILDREN GO TO HEAVEN?<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By Ada Brownell</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When I became a parent of a darling little boy, two big
goals crossed my mind—I wanted my child to be healthy physically, and even when
he was tiny, I wanted him to know God loves him, and to love the Lord back so
he can make heaven his home.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Later, I would be the mother of five sweet adorable
children and wanted the same goals for all of them. Praise the Lord all five
our children, their spouses, and I pray their children all have repented of
their sins and made Jesus Lord of their lives.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What a comfort it has been when cancer stole away our
oldest daughter, Carolyn, she was serving the Lord and she went to heaven
talking to her Savior and singing praises to him in her heart.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was fortunate enough to grow up in a full gospel church
that had Bible preaching pastors who knew how to rightly divide “the Word of
truth,” and other teachers did the same.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was in the Beginners’ class where any child under school
age could come, that I began to learn about God. “Sister McPherson” was my
teacher, and right off, I knew a secret. We sang “Jesus loves me this I know,
for the Bible tells me so,” and that was good news to me. The teacher also
talked about God’s love and she was so excited about it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You see, I barged into my family, becoming the fifth girl
and eighth child and my siblings weren’t excited about another baby. They’d
been beat up by the Kansas Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and my oldest
sister, Marjorie, was so mad about bringing another kid into the house she
wouldn’t even look at me for a week.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Later, the family told me about it and thought it was
funny. I didn’t. I always felt I didn’t deserve to be there. So someone loving
me warmed me all over, and I loved Jesus right off.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then something happened to our family. They had just moved
to Colorado, and Marjorie’s new friend invited her to the little white church
on a corner in the middle of Fruita. Marjorie accepted Jesus as her Savior, and
changed into the most joyful, loving person in the family. My mom and the older
children knew about Jesus, but they went further than that and invited the Lord into their lives. Our
house was full of love and joyful singing about the Lord and his love.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I understood before long that when you live for Jesus
you’ll live forever. I also discovered by listening to preaching that when I
asked Jesus, he saved me from my sins, hell and Satan’s devices. I knew at an early age, "For God so loved the world that he that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So I wanted my children to know God the way I did. As the
other children were born, they also filled our house with joy
and music. Yet I knew going to heaven doesn’t happen just because you go to
church and have a Christian family. God expected each of us to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">decide ourselves </i>to give our lives to Christ. He
doesn’t force us. I can’t force it on my children. They must make their own
decision. Anyone who listened to Billy Graham knows you “make a decision to follow
Jesus” and then when you repent and accept him as Savior, you’re born again—a
new creation in Christ Jesus!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do your children understand salvation—how you are saved
from sin, hell, and given eternal life? Ask them! God has no grandchildren.
He’s merciful and loving, but will He reward your sons and daughters for
rebellion, and refusing to obey His word? Ignoring His knock on their heart’s
door, or slamming the door in His face?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes there is grace. Grace is what Jesus thought about when
He willingly went to the cross, suffered unbearable pain, embarrassment, and agony of rejection by the people he came to save from hell and death. “For God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have
eternal life” (John 3:16).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the same Lord
who provided a way of escape from death and judgment, also said, “<span style="background: white; color: black;">And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God; and the </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">book</span><span style="background: white; color: black;">s were opened: and another </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">book</span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> was opened, which is the </span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">B</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">ook</span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">of</span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> L</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">ife</span><span style="background: white; color: black;">: And the dead were judged out </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">of</span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> those things which were written in the </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">book</span><span style="background: white; color: black;">s, according to their works .And
whosoever was not found written in the </span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">B</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">ook</span><span style="background: white; color: black;">
</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">of</span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">L</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">ife</span><span style="background: white; color: black;">
was cast into the lake </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">of</span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> fire” (Revelation
20:12,15</span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">).</span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yet it is not our works on earth that save us. It is work of loving God, accepting Jesus as our Savior, turning from sin, and to living for Jesus.<br />
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<article class="row bible-item" data-osis="Titus.3.5" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px; margin-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 1px; position: relative;"><div class="bible-item-title-wrap col-sm-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-weight: bold; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; position: relative; width: 25%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a class="bible-item-title" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+3:5&version=KJV" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; box-sizing: border-box; color: #902b1f; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Titus 3:5</a></span></div>
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Not by <b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">works</b> <b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">of</b> <b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">righteousness</b> which <b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">we</b> <b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">have</b> <b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">done</b>, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing <b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">of</b> regeneration, and renewing <b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">of</b> the Holy Ghost.</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No matter how much they’ve gone to church, we need to tell
our children and grandchildren Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and when we
accept Him as Lord, our name is written down in Glory--in the Book of Life.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">NEXT ON THIS BLOG, I'LL HAVE A LIST OF THINGS TO DO AND TELL YOUR CHILDREN SO HOPEFULLY THEY'LL CHOOSE TO FOLLOW JESUS AND GO TO LIVE IN THE PLACE JESUS PREPARES FOR THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO ACCEPT HIS SACRIFICE. WHEN HE LEFT EARTH HE SAID, "I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU...I WILL COME AGAIN AND RECEIVE YOU TO MYSELF, THAT WHERE I AM, THERE YOU MAY BE ALSO" --(John 14:2,3).</span><br />
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-64142252009802011722020-05-21T15:04:00.000-07:002020-05-28T15:18:30.367-07:00Following the Tracks<div class="_2cuy _3dgx" data-block="true" data-editor="8k3t0" data-offset-key="f06s0-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTNY4vHmexP-aesbr3v16xh5-FElcwgLUQjWSBH19ko3qVvpyx-Jh0V9jTI6O7kP_WnutfUKL2uElyCW084ea8d79g5H2dPyZ6VU6MRUV_Fnch5UzlX1LbHZSBo_jaATTBNj2PJAWjwM/s1600/MARKETINGFollowingTheTracksRGB300+%2528004%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1053" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTNY4vHmexP-aesbr3v16xh5-FElcwgLUQjWSBH19ko3qVvpyx-Jh0V9jTI6O7kP_WnutfUKL2uElyCW084ea8d79g5H2dPyZ6VU6MRUV_Fnch5UzlX1LbHZSBo_jaATTBNj2PJAWjwM/s400/MARKETINGFollowingTheTracksRGB300+%2528004%2529.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1ipra-0-0" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">By Ada Brownell
Here is the summary:
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<span data-offset-key="5a3qo-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ever wondered how trains going different directions on the same track arrive safely at the destination despite rock slides, derailments, and other hazards?</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a2mj0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">How in the era before Centralized Traffic Control railroad employees communicated and prevented accidents?</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5ubod-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Following the Tracks is a true story of a young couple who enjoyed the challenges of a career with the D&RGW Railroad. Lester C. Brownell was age eighteen when he started working for the Rio Grande, after earning a certificate from Gale Institute’s telegraph school in Minneapolis.</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5p07h-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">But an unknown stomach ulcer ready to rupture worked on his insides, and he didn’t even notice when he stood beside the rails, his pants flapping in the breeze, meeting a train going 50 miles an hour. With a Y-stick in his hand, he delivered urgent paper telegraph messages to the engineer.</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3btt3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">When he married Ada Belle Nicholson, she became the support and companion he needed. With the Lord’s help, after they married in 1953, together they conquered challenges of moving twelve times the first three of their 66 years, finding places to live in the desert or snowy mountains, and making a boxcar, a depot, and shacks into homes.</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a2j5j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Enjoy the history, the humor, the romance, the suspense, the rewarded faith—a true story.</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8cq5j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">https://tinyurl.com/y9ky7vn5</span></span></span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-68076990632131571612020-05-02T14:23:00.001-07:002020-05-02T14:23:13.371-07:00Working With Soldiers During a Pandemic in 1917
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Danger from war, a pandemic, and a wicked man spurned in love<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1d_QmPccyJ7-QNgGWX6yKA3xGSoFhoQ0pydzL4L0Xxz5EizFYue5uBzqQqeVKcNYRFkL7-k8KlkkGfXgwz9sOQBKJALUiP8ErngEenIMYHJmI7y7qAix_dgNxDdEivD2Pwu2Zb7Z94tE/s1600/blossom+.jpg+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1d_QmPccyJ7-QNgGWX6yKA3xGSoFhoQ0pydzL4L0Xxz5EizFYue5uBzqQqeVKcNYRFkL7-k8KlkkGfXgwz9sOQBKJALUiP8ErngEenIMYHJmI7y7qAix_dgNxDdEivD2Pwu2Zb7Z94tE/s320/blossom+.jpg+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">By Ada Nicholson Brownell</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mama
had spunk to match her beautiful long red hair.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
I arrived, she already had her heart full with my daddy and other seven
siblings, but I squeezed right in anyway. Mama had a year of college, unusual
for a woman born in 1900, and she had a purpose in life. She survived the 1918
flu pandemic that killed millions in the world including her beloved brother,
married Daddy when he said it was either him “or the other guy,” went through
the Kansas Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, the resulting poverty, and other
huge trials. I was fascinated by her stories of my parents’ loving romance, and
how God’s intervention in our lives kept the house full of joy and singing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">So
I created a fictional character to live Mama’s life and find a way to get
through what she did, and to come out like a peach blossom covered with dew,
which is much more than meets the eye.</span><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Love’s Delicate Blossom, an historical
suspense</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">By Ada Brownell</span></i></b><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Third in the Peaches and Dreams series</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Edmund Pritchett III wants to
marry Ritah Irene O’Casey, but his intended has just begun her fight for the
future. The beautiful redhead stands between Henry Hunter and Tulip, the orphan
girl he kidnapped to work in his brothel, and he’s not giving up. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Excited about being one of
the few women to go to college in 1917, Ritah hopes to become a teacher who can
help widows keep their children when something happens to their husbands. She also wants to enable mothers to know more
about prevention and treatment of disease, in an era when few have access to a
doctor. Instead, she ends up fighting for the lives of injured soldiers in a WW
I Army health clinic, and finds her own life threatened by illness as well as
sorrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">When Ritah takes a teaching
job, Joe Nichols, a handsome farmer, edges his way into her heart. But Edmund
Pritchett III isn’t giving up, and neither is Henry Hunter.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Will Rita be able to continue
to fight for women and families, understand enduring love, decide on the man
she loves, and defend herself and her students when Henry Hunter bursts into
the school shooting a pistol?</span><br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">COMMENT FROM A READER: Your book set a tone and world
from your grandmother’s time, the historical elements are what readers read the
genre for.</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Buy Here: </span><span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="http://ow.ly/PKJ130mP2I7">http://ow.ly/PKJ130mP2I7</a></span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
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<div style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">BIO</span></b></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Ada Brownell blogs and writes
with Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement. She is the author of nine books, more than
350 stories and articles in Christian publications, and she spent a large chunk
of her life as a journalist, mostly for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Pueblo Chieftain</i> in Colorado. She and her husband L.C., have five children,
one of them in heaven, eight wonderful grandchildren. and three
great-grandchildren.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Her book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lady Fugitive</i>, the first book in the
Peaches and Dreams series was a finalist for the 2015 Laurel Award.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 19.3pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Amazon author Page: </span><span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell">https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell</a></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 19.3pt;">
<span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">Ada Brownell's <span style="color: black;">blog: </span></span><span><a href="http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com/">http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com</a></span><br />
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<br />
<b>Look for her new book,
Following the Tracks: Life with the Railroad – COMING SOON on Amazon and maybe
online from Barnesandnoble.com. Two of her books <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Swallowed by Life</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imagine
the Future</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You</i> are available for
order and store pickup from Barnesandnoble.com</b><br />
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-63030344164981958162020-04-06T14:38:00.002-07:002020-04-06T14:38:47.172-07:00SOMEONE FOR KIDS TO LATCH ONTO<div align="center" style="mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;">
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">By Ada Brownell</b></div>
<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The police came
last night to our house to get Daddy,” the little boy announced. “He hid in the
back on the shelf in the closet and they didn’t find him!”<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>His eyes sparkled
with triumph.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The report came
during our opening moments at the Dunamis Academy, an after-school and summers
program where I heard similar stories. Dunamis means supernatural power.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started the program at our church daycare
after retirement so kids to latch onto Jesus.. A number of the elementary
children in the class were Social Services children who didn’t attend our
church.<a href="file:///C:/Users/ada/OneDrive/Documents/Someone%20for%20Kids%20to%20Latch%20onto%20(2).doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">[1]</span></span></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I had the idea for the after-school
program, I was concerned about latch-key children because I’d written about
them in my work as a daily newspaper reporter. I prayed about it and thought
God would raise up a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>someone with the
vision to use the church’s empty space during the week to reach youngsters who
needed the gospel, and also bring the congregation’s children into deeper knowledge
of the Word, and tutoring children not doing well in school. I hoped
spiritually mature teenagers and other volunteers would help.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then I spoke to
the daycare director and she also caught the vision because the older children
already enrolled in the daycare after-school-and- summers needed something
constructive to do.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The first summer
the director taught the lower grades and I took upper elementary and a few
junior high youth. We continued the program after school and summer for two
years. We charged a nominal fee to children not enrolled in day care. There was
no charge to students already enrolled. <br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Summers for three
hours Monday through Thursday we sang, prayed, played, studied Bible stories,
memorized scripture, did skits, saw object lessons, participated in discussion,
listened to guest speakers, did crafts and learned how to operate puppets in
ministry (the children’s pastor taught puppetry). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Daycare children stayed for a leisurely
afternoon.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because we were only 40 miles away, on Fridays
we went on all-day field trips to ministries in Colorado Springs to show
children some of the ministries for which they could prepare. We watched a
Christian radio missionary who was broadcasting the gospel around the world. We
visited Focus on the Family. At David C. Cook we saw how artists create
illustrations for their publications. We visited the Navigator’s castle and
others. The next year we visited soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other charities
in our city, Pueblo, Colo.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We had guest
speakers for the older children, two I’d like to mention. The guest teenager emigrated
from Africa, and told about the differences in freedoms between there and
America. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She also taught a song in
Swahili: “Hold on to Jesus.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other guest
was a public high school teacher who taught about preparing for your future,
and that included through playing a game called “Virus X” that taught how quickly
sexually transmitted diseases spread.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>According to the
last statistics I gathered at that time, five million elementary-age U.S.
children grow up with no supervision after school. Twenty-two million
adolescents are unsupervised between 3 and 6 p.m. on a typical day, according
to the U.S. Department of Health’s Child Care Bureau. <br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That happens
while thousands of large church buildings are unoccupied except for a few
people working in the office.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Large numbers of
America’s youth have never heard the gospel. The church is losing young people
to secularism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some churches have
eliminated Christian education, thereby carelessly dropping their sterling
silver youth down the garbage disposal. Churches that emphasize discipleship
often have only a small percentage of children and youth receiving training.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The first summer
of the Dunamis Academy, the two daycare assistants in my classes put the date
they accepted Jesus as Savior during that time. Most of the children and youth also
invited Jesus into their hearts.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I wrote my own
curriculum, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dynamite Decisions for Youth</i>,
and that plus teaching was a great deal of work, But sharing the gospel to
those young people was an amazing spiritual reward. If I were young again, I’d
love to help establish more programs like it.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One note I’d like
to add. Quite a few churches have after-school programs, but the ones I’ve seen
don’t emphasize the gospel. We informed parents we would teach undenominational
Bible classes and had them sign their permission. We didn’t have one parent opt
out. In fact, we had great feedback, with parents coming to awards ceremonies.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I imagine they
were like my dad when our family started going to church. He told Mama, “Let
them go. I heard they teach children to obey their parents.”<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ada/OneDrive/Documents/Someone%20for%20Kids%20to%20Latch%20onto%20(2).doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">[1]</span></span></a>
Social Services ended that program, which required children from at-risk
families to have supervision when their parents weren’t home.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-55473942729070341152020-03-25T15:39:00.001-07:002020-03-26T14:37:50.949-07:00Testimony from the 1918 influenza pandemic<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
</span>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">A suspenseful historical romance: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1731156065">LOVE'S DELICATE BLOSSOM</a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1731156065"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1731156065</span></a></span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXi0w4weqT9pBqxEaY5-1hO1ShH7tuHKDOtON8mNYEQE1DZluMs_yUWibYDST20d9E5U6n3kfFZ6KnhGjGPsucoSPhCHt_cW04CynGFiwhObjibaD2Pd49ePmZ5_Ol5NHzLHB1MeXyC30/s1600/blossom+ebook+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXi0w4weqT9pBqxEaY5-1hO1ShH7tuHKDOtON8mNYEQE1DZluMs_yUWibYDST20d9E5U6n3kfFZ6KnhGjGPsucoSPhCHt_cW04CynGFiwhObjibaD2Pd49ePmZ5_Ol5NHzLHB1MeXyC30/s640/blossom+ebook+cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">EXCERPT FROM LOVE'S DELICATE BLOSSOM</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">By Ada Brownell</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Author's note: This book is from the era of the 1918 flu pandemic. The author's mother, Rita Shepherd, nearly died from the sickness, and her brother did die. The book relates some of the details Ada's mother related about her experience, including a glimpse of heaven. Although the book has a lot of truth in it, and some of the scenes happened, the novel is fiction.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">CHAPTER 14</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The professor had an earnestness about him
that clung to his shiny black suit, stiffly starched white shirt, and the black
and white spotted tie he wore. He put his hand to his tie, stretched his neck,
apparently trying to make it more comfortable.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“More of our soldiers are returning home
from the battlefields with disease than are being wounded” he said. “That might
sound better than having your head blown off by a bomb, but communicable
diseases like mumps, flu, typhus and cholera can be just as deadly as a bullet
or a bomb.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A chill wiggled up Ritah’s spine.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, body
lice which causes trench fever, and other parasites are causing our soldiers
great grief. When they come home they need someone to take care of them. That
might be you.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Another chill made Ritah shudder.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She
feared for Stuart and hoped Bud wouldn’t be drafted when he got old enough. She’d
already seen one hospital tent where soldiers were being treated for sickness
and injuries and she kept her distance.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Sanitation
is utmost where there is communicable disease,” Smith continued. “What do your
parents do to sanitize your home when someone is sick?”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Rita
stuck up her hand. “We wash everything with lye soap, and sometimes boil the
clothing. We don’t have any other kind of soap, and it’s great at cleaning. I
heard it even prevents head lice.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Smith nodded his head and
the white hair he’d combed over his bald spot lifted, then settled again. "Lye
soap is a great disinfectant, especially if you have some tea tree root in it.
Some hospitals and other places use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect sick rooms.
In 1913 </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">five businessmen
invested one hundred dollars each to found a commercial liquid bleach factory.
They called it the Electro-Alkaline Company. A year later they began production
of a concentrated industrial-strength bleach with 21 percent sodium
hypochlorite. It will make white fabric really white, and it’s also a
disinfectant. You’ve probably heard of it. The brand name is-Clorox.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Can just anybody buy it?” one male student
asked.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Smith smoothed his hair, turned his head to the
side and said, “I think so. It might be the greatest thing we’ve found yet to
clean sick rooms and infectious clothing.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">One of the male students with a deep voice
coughed and it sounded as if he was tearing his lungs up. Ritah stuck up her
hand. “What is the best treatment we have for pneumonia?” </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
doctor glared at the student who had coughed. “Cover your mouth, young man,
when you cough. If you have a doctor, you’d better go see him.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A
rumble of low voices went through the crowded classroom.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Mustard
packs sometimes can help a great deal with pneumonia,” Smith continued. “But
pneumonia still is a deadly disease. Too many people of all ages die from it.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">When
class was over, Ritah almost wished she hadn’t taken the class. Too many people
she loved were at risk.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">********</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">ADVANCE TO PAGE 209</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">
<br />
</span><br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Ritah woke up in bed,
aching all over, burning up and struggling to breathe.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The heels on Mama’s
shoes kept stomping about the house, and the noise seemed like a sledge hammer
to Ritah’s head.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Then she remembered.
Bud was sick. She had to get up and help Mama take care of him. He probably
needed water right now. That was one thing the health professor said. “Get
clear liquids down the flu patient. Bud hadn’t been drinking much.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She struggled and sat
up. Everything went dark. When she stirred again, she hung partly off the bed
and she knew she’d almost fallen in the floor. But she had to get up and help
Bud. Keep him breathing. Keep him brea--.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Deep sleep keep
pulling her down, but finally she woke enough to cry, “Mama.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Yet Mama didn’t come.
Perhaps Mama hadn’t heard her call because her voice was so raspy. “Mom.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Someone talked softly
in Bud’s room. Perhaps he was better now.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She threw the
blankets aside and tried to sit up again. She barely lifted herself from the
bed before she fell back again. The fever dropped Ritah back into darkness.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The sun slipped
beneath the trees outside Ritah’s window, and her eyes popped open. “I have to
get up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to get up and help. I
have to--.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She heard Daddy’s
voice in Bud’s room. “Is Bud better now? Oh, Lord, help Bud to be better.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Dizziness consumed
her again, but she needed to talk to somebody. Wanting to shout, she lifted her
shoulders and looked toward the door. “Is anybody out there?”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She faintly
remembered Doc checking on her, Mama putting cool cloths to her head, but then
Daddy was there—when he shouldn’t have been. No. Daddy will get the flu.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Then deep sleep
turned the lights out.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She aroused to voices
in the next room and then Mama finally came into her side. “You’re awake,
Ritah. That’s good. I have another mustard poultice for you.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Her mother seemed to
be a long distance away, but yet Ritah was so happy to see her. “How’s Bud? I
wanted to get up and help, but I couldn’t make it.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Speak up, Ritah. I
can’t hear you.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“I said…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deep sleep drew her back.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The mustard plaster
was hot. So hot. It hurt.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Mama pulled down the
window shade. “Everybody’s praying for you,” Mama said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Ritah struggled to
get her eyes open. Mama looked tired. Mama needed help. I need to get up.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Yet her body didn’t
move, but she opened her eyes enough to see her wonderful mother in the dim
light, and tears ran down Mama’s cheeks.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Don’t cry for me,
Mama. I’m going to be all right.” But Ritah realized no sound came from her
mouth.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The next morning the
house was silent. No one walked around, and if anyone talked they spoke in
whispers. Daddy apparently didn’t fear catching the flu anymore, because he’d
been inside for hours.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Mama. Daddy. What’s
going on?”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Then deep man-size
groaning and weeping filled the house, and the screen door loudly clapped shut,
and she couldn’t hear the crying anymore. At first she thought it was Bud in
terrible pain or something, but he wouldn’t be going outside.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That afternoon she
heard the parson talking in low tones and she couldn’t understand what he said.
Then he came into her room laid hands on her and prayed.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“God we know you hold
the power of life and death, but you demonstrated when you were on earth that
you could heal sick bodies, and we’re asking you now to touch Ritah.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Mama was crying again
in the background. Ritah tried so hard to tell her not to weep, but her voice
box simply wouldn’t work.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">They disappeared and
before long the most beautiful place Ritah had ever entered opened before her.
Flowers lined the shiny path under her feet. The whole landscape was filled
with flowers. Red roses. Yellow daffodils, Blue bells. Orange Tulips. White
magnolias. Lavender lilacs. Lilies of many different colors.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She reached out and
touched a white lily, and rubbed the silky petals between her fingers. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Then it seemed Ritah
looked down and could see herself lying in the bed. She also could see into
Bud’s bedroom.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She awakened rubbing
the sheet between her fingers. Her head no longer hurt. No dizziness seized
her. Even though she still had some congestion, she could breathe easier.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Mama?” she called.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Her mother quickly
came to her side. Ritah reached for her hand.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Mama, I had the most
amazing dream. It looked like heaven and when I came back I could see me in the
bed and Bud in the next room.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A deep sob tore from
her lungs, clawing at her insides as the cry came out. “Mama, Bud is dead,
isn’t he?”</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" /></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>FIND OUT THE REST OF THE STORY.<br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman",serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.85pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1731156065"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1731156065</span></a></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXi0w4weqT9pBqxEaY5-1hO1ShH7tuHKDOtON8mNYEQE1DZluMs_yUWibYDST20d9E5U6n3kfFZ6KnhGjGPsucoSPhCHt_cW04CynGFiwhObjibaD2Pd49ePmZ5_Ol5NHzLHB1MeXyC30/s1600/blossom+ebook+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXi0w4weqT9pBqxEaY5-1hO1ShH7tuHKDOtON8mNYEQE1DZluMs_yUWibYDST20d9E5U6n3kfFZ6KnhGjGPsucoSPhCHt_cW04CynGFiwhObjibaD2Pd49ePmZ5_Ol5NHzLHB1MeXyC30/s200/blossom+ebook+cover.jpg" width="125" /></a><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1731156065"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1731156065</span></a></span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-67736354035502359302020-02-27T13:59:00.001-08:002020-02-27T14:12:15.162-08:00AMERICA WITHOUT CHRISTIANS AND JEWS?<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">IMAGINE AMERICA WITHOUT ITS JUDEO-CHRISTIAN HERITAGE</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">By Ada Brownell</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jews and Christians continually are criticized in the United States
today, but the world would be a sorry place without its Judeo- Christian
heritage.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Those who obey the Bible change the world for the better, and not only
by bringing good news of redemption and eternal life. Christian charities have housed
and fed the homeless and hungry around the world for centuries. Missionaries
often bring free health care and medicine when they go to tell the world about
Jesus. Christians are there, too, when disaster strikes.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Religion was the reason people learned to read. Since the Middle Ages,
there has been near universal literacy among Jewish men because they were required
to read the Torah by age thirteen.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In the early church, Christians copied the apostles’ writings by hand,
as was done meticulously for centuries with Old Testament scriptures. But with
the Reformation came a desire for everyone to read scripture. Until then, it
was read in churches. The first moveable-type printing press was invented by Johannes
Gutenberg, and the first book printed was the Gutenberg Bible.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">According to the Encyclopedia Americana, education in colonial New England
grew out of the Reformation as well. Puritans made sure their children could
read the Bible. In the Middle Colonies, religious sects birthed early schools.
In the Southern Colonies, parents tutored their children or educated them in a
private school, often so they could read God’s Word. In New England, teachers
were hired because of their soundness in the faith. The home and church
provided most education until the early 1900s.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Universities and colleges were started by religious organizations: Harvard to train preachers; Yale for training
in church work, civil duties, the arts and sciences; Vanderbilt for teaching
law, medicine, theology and the arts; Baylor was the fruit of the Baptist
General Convention; Boston University was started by Methodists for training in
theology; Boston College was Catholic, as was Fordham; Cornell College was
Methodist; Rutgers University for 80 years included the New Brunswick
Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church of America.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The world still is being educated by Christians. Wycliffe Translators live
with primitive tribes and give them a written language and teach them to read.
Wycliffe translated the Bible into hundreds of languages, and brought literacy
to many nations. In their “Last Languages Campaign,” Wycliffe’s translators
hope to have the 2,200 last languages translated by the year 2025. Currently, Wycliffe has 1,400 translation
literacy and language development programs, touching nearly 600 million people
in 176 countries.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The church birthed most of the hospitals in our nation.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jews also established hospitals, some of the best in the world, such as
National Jewish Hospital in Denver, and <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Hadassah Medical Center
in Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Israeli hospital was
founded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadassah" title="Hadassah">Hadassah</a>,
the Women's Zionist Organization of America, which still underwrites a large
part of its budget. In 2005, Hadassah was nominated for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize" title="Nobel Peace Prize">Nobel
Peace Prize</a> because of its equal treatment of all patients regardless of
ethnic and religious differences, and its efforts to build bridges to peace.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">A Hadassah member told me the medical center treats
Palestinians injured in the wars and conflicts between their states.</span></span></div>
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3" style="mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
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<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
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</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Christians visit those in prison, mental hospitals and nursing homes; care
for orphans and speak for those who can’t speak for themselves, such infants in
the womb.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The church teaches children to obey their parents--then they provide wholesome
activities for youth—mostly for no charge.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Christians will come to our side when we’re dying, and comfort those
left behind.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Yet, we don't do that to earn our way to heaven. "It is not because of works of righteousness that God saved us and
gave us the promise of eternal life, but because of his mercy" (Titus 3:5).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">-- Ada Brownell is a retired newspaper reporter and free
lance writer.</span></i></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-size: large;"></span>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-37351795911607610572020-02-21T07:58:00.003-08:002020-02-21T07:58:30.435-08:00PROPAGANDA AND BRAIN POWER
<br />
<h3 style="border: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
5. IMAGINE YOUR MENTAL
WEALTH</h3>
<br />
<h3 style="border: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
What you need to know
and what you don’t want to know</h3>
<div>
Excerpt from the book IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU by Ada Brownell</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<span style="mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> Chapter Five</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><br /></span>
<br />
You came into this life “empty-headed.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></i><br />
<br />
When we were kids, my brother used to tell me he could look
into one of my ears and see out the other. Then I had an MRI (magnetic
resonance imaging) of my brain so I could do a firsthand story on the latest
technology.<br />
<br />
I started the newspaper article with “My brother was wrong.
There is something in there.”<br />
<br />
What I mean by “empty-headed” is that no stored information
existed in our brains when we came into this world. New brains are like a blank
sheet of paper, although fantastic stored data governing our neurological
systems and instincts operate even while we’re still in the womb. What God
“programmed” into us commanded our arms, legs, fingers, toes, and so forth to
move even before birth. Instincts God installed in our DNA prompted us to suck,
swallow, cry, and feel hunger, as well as caused the various inner parts of our
body to function. Babies arrive with a brain download to literally cry for
love, care, and being held, and they won’t thrive without these things.<br />
<br />
When we were a few months of age, we learned to coordinate
movements so we could reach for things because our muscles and brains developed
that capacity.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, we all needed outside stimuli to use the
potential from the brain. Children who are given no attention often don’t learn
to sit, walk, or talk.<br />
<br />
We learned our language skills by imitating. If Mom kept
saying “Mama” over and over to us, soon we worked our mouths and tongues
around, using our vocal cords so we could come up with a fairly good imitation.
Sometimes the child says “Dada” first and learns later what it means.<br />
<br />
If the parents speak Chinese, the child obviously will learn
Chinese instead of English, and children of Spanish-speaking parents
communicate in Spanish or whatever language is spoken in the home.<br />
<br />
All through childhood, children imitate what they see and
hear. Adults imitate other people—at least in some degree—all their lives. For
instance, we like to imitate the experts on everything from sports to dancing,
to gardening, to playing or singing music, to doing tricks on a bicycle or
skateboard.<br />
<br />
But imitation isn’t all there is. At some point we think for
ourselves. <br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-51461302303363039652020-02-19T14:17:00.002-08:002020-02-19T14:26:28.682-08:00MIRACLES: GOD INSTANTLY RESTORED MY FATHER’S SIGHT<b></b><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .25in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By Lorraine Golightly as told to Ada
Brownell</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .25in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">An excerpt from the book What Prayer Can Do by Ada Brownell</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
*Summary of What Prayer Can Do follows<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I became a believer in divine
healing because I saw my father receive his sight when he was prayed for in a
revival meeting.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The accident that caused
Daddy’s blindness happened in 1950. I was 9 years old.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Daddy (John Feliciano) was
doing construction work in Honolulu, Hawaii, where we lived, when dynamite
exploded in his face. One eyeball was completely destroyed; the other was
damaged considerably. The blast was so severe that doctors said Daddy should
have been dead. Tiny pebbles embedded in his skin all over his body.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Daddy probably will never see
again,” Mom told us when she got home from the hospital.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was panic-stricken.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“There’s still hope,” said
Aunt Virginia, who had come home with Mom. “Jesus can heal your daddy.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We didn’t know what to think
of that. Daddy liked Aunt Virginia, but wouldn’t even let her talk about her
religion in our house. When Daddy saw people from her church in street
meetings, he’d always yell at them, “You crazy holy rollers!”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Daddy went to church, however,
and believed in God. He just didn’t like Aunt Virginia’s kind of religion.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When he came home from the
hospital, he had no hope of a miracle. His eyes were in bandages, and he was
very depressed.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“’I’ve got seven children to support!”
he’d say several times a day. “How can a blind man feed seven children? I might
as well be dead!’</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was true that he couldn’t
support us. Soon we had to live on welfare.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Surgeons hoped surgery would
give Daddy sight in his remaining eye, but the operations were unsuccessful.
After the last operation, the eye doctor told him there was nothing more they
could do for him. There was no hope he ever would see again.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Because of his youth (Daddy
was 31 when he was injured) he immediately was trained in a school for the
blind. He learned braille and how to use a seeing-eye dog. He even learned how
to feel money so he could tell denominations apart.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yet he remained depressed and
saw no reason for living.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I’ll never be able to see my
family again,” Daddy groaned one day. “I can’t take being blind. Killing myself
is the only way out.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mom tried to talk him out of
his despondency, but without success. He actually intended to commit suicide.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Finally, Mom called Aunt
Virginia and asked her to come over and talk to my father.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As soon as Aunt Virginia got
inside she began talking to Daddy about the Lord and told him what Jesus could
do.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“We’re going to have a
revival, and the evangelist will pray for the sick,” Aunt Virginia continued.
“Will you come?”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I guess I can try,” Daddy
answered, “but I don’t believe it will do any good.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When the revival started, my
aunt and uncle, Dad and Mom, and all of us seven children went to the
Pentecostal church. After the lady evangelist preached, it was time for prayer
for the sick. Mom took Daddy by the arm and led him to the healing line.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The meeting was in a large
church and people were getting healed and praising the Lord. Daddy couldn’t see
what was happening around him, but he could hear, and he was scared. He began
shaking.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One woman who was healed of
deafness gave a big shout when her ears opened. Daddy was more frightened than
ever. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then it was his turn.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Do you believe in Jesus?” the
evangelist asked Daddy.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Yes.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She began praying that Daddy
would receive his sight. Nothing happened.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Do you really believe?” she
asked my father again.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Yes.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She put her hand on Daddy’s
eye and prayed again. Suddenly he began to shout, “I can see! I can see!”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“What do you see?” the
evangelist asked.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I can see shadows,” he cried.
“Thank God.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“The Lord isn’t through yet,”
the lady minister told him. “Now believe! Believe!” She began praying for Daddy
again.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Come here,” the evangelist
told us children, and we went to the front. I was scared and crying as she
lined us all in front of my father.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We discovered the shadows had
disappeared, and Daddy could see clearly. One by one we went to him and let him
look at us. As he called each child—Margaret, Priscilla, Lorraine (me),
Elenore, Johnny, Gordon, and the baby Diane, who was 3 years old, he hugged and
kissed us and we cried together.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My sister Margaret and I
accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior that night. Mom and Dad did too. One by
one the rest of the children gave their lives to the Lord, and all of us are
still serving God.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After he was healed, Daddy was
supposed to go back to the doctor, so he kept his appointment. The physicians
didn’t believe it when he told them he could see. They were amazed when they
took tests and discovered he recovered his sight.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“God did it,” Daddy said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Daddy had served God
faithfully for 19 years when he went to be with the Lord.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m glad God’s healing power
is available to us today. Doctors thought my sister had a brain tumor, but
after she was prayed for, they could find nothing.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I had an annoying, persistent
ear problem accompanied by dizziness and ringing in my ears, which doctors
couldn’t seem to help and over which I couldn’t get victory. Then I remembered
how God instantly healed Daddy of blindness, and knew the Lord is the same
“yesterday, today, and forever.” Immediately the ear problem disappeared.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now I can say with the
Psalmist, ‘Come and hear, all of you who reverence the Lord, and I will tell
you what He did for me: for I cried to Him for help, with praises ready on my
tongue. He would not have listened if I had not confessed my sins. But He
listened! He heard my prayer! He paid attention to it! Blessed be God who
didn’t turn away when I was praying and didn’t refuse me His kindness and love”
(Psalm 66:16-20 Living Bible paraphrase).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Pentecostal Evangel, October 16, 1977</span></i></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "ar julian"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">WHAT PRAYER CAN DO</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A Collection of true
stories by Ada Nicholson Brownell Published by The Pentecostal Evangel</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">By Ada Brownell</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">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.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When the men were only a few
feet from the barrel, Ennis stepped out.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“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.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He drew his gun and aimed it
at the thief. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Shoot!” the thief yelled as
he whirled with his double-barreled shotgun. An explosive charge sounded and
Ennis fell to the ground. He raised up on one knee and fired the pistol.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With a cry of anguish, the
thief dropped the shotgun and fell into the weeds.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ennis became known as “the
meanest man in town.” That caught the attention of two lady evangelists holding
a tent revival who knew how to pray. Ennis Surratt became an evangelist as well
as his sons and grandsons.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Read many other testimonies and truths in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What Prayer Can Do,</i> Purchase at </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://ow.ly/9CEI30h4IdL">http://ow.ly/9CEI30h4IdL</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-46454043141067071422020-02-11T05:48:00.001-08:002020-02-11T15:38:00.829-08:00Ia falling in love an unavoidable dive?
<br />
<h3 style="border: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
Is falling in love an
unavoidable dive, or a decision?</h3>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Ada Brownell</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>An excerpt from the book, IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i></i></b><b><br /></b></div>
<br />
Would you like your parents arranging your marriage? That
still happens in many foreign countries. How would you guys feel about not
knowing who your bride is until the ceremony is over and you lift the veil to kiss
her? Some men experienced that.<br />
<br />
An 11-year-old girl, apparently from Yemen, recently made a
passionate plea to her parents to stop pressuring her into an arranged
marriage. The resulting video caught international attention.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1960, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Encyclopedia Americana</i> reported more
than one half of the total female population of India married before fifteen
years of age, and sometimes while they were still infants. In the western
provinces of India, a bride remained at home with her parents until she went
through puberty. But in Bengal, girls commenced their married life at age nine.
<br />
<br />
In some countries, a hopeful suitor would give a girl’s
father a certain amount of money or goods like cattle or sheep for his
daughter, and sometimes the bride brought a dowry of property to her
bridegroom. The amount depended on the status and economic circumstances of the
families involved.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Historically at the
engagement, the suitor often gave an ornament of some value, which signified
his pledge. That was the predecessor of the modern engagement ring.<br />
<br />
IMAGINE WORKING SEVEN YEARS FOR A WIFE<br />
<br />
In Old Testament times, many marriages were arranged.<br />
<br />
Jacob met Rachel leading sheep and was so smitten he kissed
her and wept (Genesis 29:11). Perhaps it was on the cheek. Who knows?<br />
<br />
Jacob stayed with Rachel’s father, Laban, a month, working
for him like a ranch hand. Finally, Laban asked what Jacob expected to be paid,
and Jacob told Laban he was in love with Rachel and he agreed to work seven
years for her.<br />
<br />
Finally there was a wedding feast, and after the ceremony,
Jacob discovered he had been given Rachel’s older sister, Leah, instead.<br />
<br />
He protested, and Laban said he couldn’t give the younger
daughter before the older girl married.<br />
<br />
Despite having a wife, Jacob worked another seven years to get
Rachel. In Old Testament times, God allowed men to have more than one wife.<br />
<br />
IMAGINE GOD GIVING A MATE<br />
<br />
Abraham arranged the marriage for his son, Isaac, and a
servant picked her out. You can read the story in Genesis 24. He must have been
worthy of the trust, because the servant traveled some distance to find her and
then asked God to show him the right girl out of the dozens of women who came
to a well to draw water.<br />
<br />
“Oh Lord, God of my master,” the servant prayed, “give me
success and show kindness to my master, Abraham. Help me to accomplish the
purpose of my journey. See, here I am, standing beside this spring, and the
young women of the village are coming to draw water. I will ask one of them for
a drink. If she says, `Yes, certainly, and I will water your camels, too!’ Let
her be the one you appointed as Isaac’s wife. By this, I will know that you
have shown kindness to my master.”<br />
<br />
As he prayed, a beautiful young woman, Rebekah, arrived with
a water jug on her shoulder. She went to the spring, bent over, filled her jug,
and straightened. Running over to her, the servant said, “Please give me a
drink.”<br />
<br />
“Certainly, sir,” she said, and she quickly lowered the jug
to fill it from the well. When he finished gulping the refreshing liquid, she
said, “I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough!”<br />
<br />
She emptied the jug into the watering trough and ran down to
the well again. She kept carrying water until the camels’ intense thirst was
quenched.<br />
<br />
The servant watched Rachel in silence. When the camels
finished drinking, he gave her a gold ring and two large gold bracelets.<br />
<br />
The servant stayed with her family and told them about how
his prayer was answered. But Isaac wasn’t even there.<br />
<br />
The father gave Rebekah to the servant, but only after
Rebekah agreed to go.<br />
<br />
Isaac saw the servant coming home with someone. Excited, he
raced out to meet them.<br />
<br />
When Rebekah saw Isaac coming, she dismounted, covered her
face with a veil, and ran to him.<br />
<br />
Rebekah became Isaac’s wife and he loved her, the Bible
says. She was a special comfort to him because his mother had just died.<br />
<br />
WHY ARRANGED MARRIAGES SURVIVE<br />
<br />
There is a reason arranged marriages work: Falling in love
is an act of the <i>will.</i> Cupid doesn’t shoot you with a poison love arrow
and “twang!” you’re a goner. Love happens to you because of several
circumstances.<br />
<br />
You are around the person of the opposite sex frequently
(that’s called propinquity—what happens when you are near in time and space).<br />
<br />
You desire someone in your life.<br />
<br />
Your God-given instincts are telling you to create a family.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The person will build
your ego. You think, Won’t everyone be surprised I have a boyfriend? Won’t
everyone be impressed with how pretty she is or how handsome he is? Won’t
everyone be impressed because of how popular he or she is? He’s so tall he
makes me feel so feminine; or, She has such a great figure it makes me feel
great to walk beside her. She or he treats me so nice it makes me feel special.<br />
<br />
Because you decide to fall in love to create excitement in
your life.<br />
<br />
Because no one better is available.<br />
<br />
Because you have similar interests.<br />
<br />
Because you are lonely.<br />
<br />
Because someone else thinks it’s a good idea.<br />
<br />
Most important: Because while you were in the womb God had a
plan for both of you, and your love is so strong you feel you can’t live
without one another (Jeremiah 1:5 and Psalms 37:33).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some Pharisees came and asked Jesus, “Should
a man be allowed to divorce his wife for any reason?” “Haven’t you read the
scriptures,” Jesus replied. “From the beginning God made them male and female.
For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his
wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:3-6KJ)<br />
<br />
There may be dozens of other reasons you fall in love, but
even if you aren’t conscious of why it is happening, you allow yourself to love
someone else. It’s a decision. If love happened spontaneously without your will
being involved, people who are greatly overweight would have as many proposals
for marriage as others. So would the handicapped or someone with facial
deformities or pure physical ugliness.<br />
<br />
I once knew a young woman whose father was quite wealthy,
but one of her eyes was noticeably higher than the other. She was an old maid,
at least the last I heard. But she was a sweet, talented young woman, and
really not so bad-looking.<br />
<br />
It seems Americans don’t know the meaning of love, although
it’s before us all the time.<br />
<br />
Well, we do know how we want others to love us, but many
aren’t willing to give that kind of love back. We want others to love us
unconditionally— the way God loves us, no matter how we look, how we act, or
what we do.<br />
<br />
God talks to us about love in 1 Corinthians 13. The Bible
chapter is read during many weddings—but most couples don’t absorb what it says
or promptly forget it. That scripture passage tells us if we don’t love others,
we’re like clanging cymbals—all noise and little music. The fellow who tries to
persuade his girlfriend to have sex before marriage is like that clanging symbol.
If he really loved her, he wouldn’t think of stealing her chastity. If he
really loved himself, he wouldn’t want the sin, the guilt, the possibility of
disease, the guilt of an abortion, or perhaps bringing a child into the world
whom he would be required by law to support until it turns eighteen.<br />
<br />
There is no such thing as a “love child” born out of
wedlock. It is a “lust child” if it was conceived before the wedding. Of
course, this isn’t the child’s fault, and it should be loved no matter how it
was conceived.<br />
<br />
The scripture tells us, “Love is patient and kind. Love is
not jealous, boastful, proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is
not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never
glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins. Love never gives
up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every
circumstance. Love will last forever” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8).<br />
<br />
Spiritually, marriage is a union between a man and a woman
so they can enjoy, love, and protect one another, and also to protect the
family. Children need a father to help guide, discipline, love, and financially
support them. Children need a mother to nurture them, guide them, discipline
them, and love them.<br />
<br />
Even biologically, the object of marriage is to ensure the
survival of the species and of the race, according to Drs. Abraham and Hannah
Stone’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Marriage Manual</i>.<a href="file:///C:/Users/ada/OneDrive/Documents/IMAGINE%20THE%20FUTURE%20YOU%204292947.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><br />
<br />
God invented marriage and the family when he made Eve for
Adam and they began to have children.<br />
<br />
Marriage is a wonderful thing, and there is nothing more
romantic than a guy and a girl vowing before God and the public, “I will love
you and you only until death parts us.”<br />
<br />
Americans probably talk and sing more about romance than any
other society. We are allowed to choose our own mates, instead of our parents
choosing them for us. Yet, half of all marriages end in divorce.<br />
<br />
Just like falling in love in the first place, staying in
love involves the will. We <i>decide </i>we will love our mates even when they
get bald, fat, ugly, wrinkled, or sick<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">,<i>
</i>or<i> </i></span>we’re broke. We <i>decide </i>we will love them even when
they’re grumpy or angry.<br />
<br />
Some people say, “Our love just died,” or “It was a mistake
in the first place.”<br />
<br />
Perhaps. But in most cases, if both ride out difficult
times, the passion will rekindle, romantic sparks will fly, fireworks will go
off again, and the romance will be deeper and more satisfying than it was in
the beginning.<br />
<br />
I know. I’ve been married several decades, and even though
it’s all about commitment, there still is romance and deep love.<br />
<br />
As a reporter, I collected marriage license records from
couples who remarried each other after divorce. There were about a half dozen
when I contacted a few and interviewed them for a story. Most said the same
thing: “Although we know we’re not perfect, we couldn’t find anyone better
after we divorced. We were still in love and knew what we were doing the first
time. Being apart was worse than dealing with our problems and learning how to
make a marriage work.”<br />
<br />
There are four important types of love: storge, natural
affection between a parent and a child; phileo, the type of affection we have
for friends; eros, romantic love; and agape, God-like unconditional love. We
need all three types of love in marriage, and except parent-child affection,
all are a matter of the <i>will.</i><br />
<br />
When you begin to court, look for real love.<br />
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ada/OneDrive/Documents/IMAGINE%20THE%20FUTURE%20YOU%204292947.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> A Marriage Manual</i> (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1953), 3.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU</b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A motivational Bible study by Ada Nicholson Brownell</b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
This Bible study will help you discover evidence for faith; how to look
and be your best; who can help; interesting information about dating, love and
marriage; choosing a career; how to deposit good things into your brain you can
spend; and how to avoid hazards that jeopardize a successful life on earth and
for eternity, all mingled with true stories that can make you smile.</div>
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
Unexpected bonuses include facts about science and faith, and information
about sexually transmitted diseases. The author is a retired medical
journalist, and worked with youth thirty years.</div>
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.35pt;">
Review:
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">How I would have loved to sit at Mrs. Brownell's knee when I was
a teen. This wholesome book resounds with sage, godly advice and could be
picked up again and again as needs arise. Worthwhile for parents too. Much fodder
for family discussion!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
Also Available in audio!</div>
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
Links: <span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284">http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
</div>
</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-50103038130986299922020-01-28T19:00:00.003-08:002020-01-28T19:00:43.652-08:00TAMING YOUR ANGER
<br />
<h1 align="center" style="border: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">TAMING YOUR ANGER</span></h1>
<br />
<h1 align="center" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">By Ada Nicholson
Brownell</span></h1>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A
crying infant suddenly is grasped by the ankles and hurled against the
wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A teen-ager kills his parents,
then marches into a school and shoots several students and a teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mother walks out on the most important
thing in her life—her family.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Angry
people are said to be mad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
that’s appropriate, because anger sometimes causes people to act insane.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Anger
can consume your happiness, rob your joy, affect your health, end
relationships, mangle your faith and may even lead to murder.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">When I
was a child, I’d get so angry with my older brother’s teasing I’d start
swinging at him. I was a scrawny freckled-faced redhead and two years younger,
so no wonder he laughed hysterically as he held me at arm’s length with his
hand on my forehead while I swung into the air.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">After
I married and had five children, I grew weary of going to bed feeling guilty
about my angry outbursts that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
asked forgiveness from God, my husband and my children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About that time I read Henry Drummond’s book,
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Greatest Thing in the World.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/ada/Videos/Evangel%20articles/Taming%20Your%20Anger.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></b></span></span></span></a> </i>In his comment on”
love is not easily provoked” (1 Corinthians 13:5), he says, “No form of vice,
not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself, does more to
unchristianize society than evil temper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for destroying the
most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for withering up men and
women, for taking the bloom of childhood, in short, for sheer gratuitous
misery-producing power this influence stands alone.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here
are 10 ways to help control inappropriate responses to anger compiled from my
experience, research and an interview with the late Derrald Vaughn, Ph.D., a
psychologist, educator and former pastor:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Realize
anger is one of the emotions God gave you and is not a sin in itself.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“We all have anger,” said
Vaughn, “but most of us don’t lose control.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If you have something to be
upset about, you can communicate it and probably should before the problem gets
worse, Vaughn noted. For instance, this helps spouses with serious problems get
into counseling and usually at least one of them will be helped.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Acknowledge
that being hot-blooded, a redhead or someone who needs to vent feelings are not
plausible excuses for out-of-control outbursts.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Realize
actions are controlled by the will, so you can decide to control anger’s
behavior. You can stop and pray for help. Sometimes anger should be vented to
God alone. Or you can write a letter and destroy it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can take anger out by doing housework or
washing the car.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Decide
what is important to be angry about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don’t bother with spilled milk, scratched furniture, dented cars or
money. With children get upset when they rebel, disobey, lie or break any other
of the Ten Commandments. Get riled when a child does things that will hurt him or
someone else.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">To find appropriate places for
anger, study the Bible and pray for wisdom.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Use
anger constructively, but accept what can’t be changed. We must not take
matters into our own hands, however. “Bombing an abortion clinic is
inappropriate use of anger because it breaks the same commandment abortionists
are breaking,” Vaughn said. “It is not righteous indignation.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Anger at Satan’s work should
take us to our knees to intercede for family, friends, neighbors and nations;
cause us to volunteer to teach Christian education, visit the sick, love the
broken, feed the hungry; vote and speak out on moral matters.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Humble
yourself and listen to other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Much anger is caused by pride—you are always right, you know better than
anyone.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Ask
forgiveness from those offended by your angry outbursts. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Sometimes we use anger
inappropriately because we are rewarded for it temporarily,” Vaughn said.
“However, it doesn’t solve problems in the long run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we ask forgiveness, that’s punishment
and becomes a deterrent.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Forgive
those who cause anger.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Avoid
substances that unleash anger and investigate other causes.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Alcohol affects inhibitory
pathways in the brain, sometimes causing angry outbursts, violence and even
murder. Research has found drinking intoxicating beverages is the number one
predictor of physical and sexual abuse.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Grief also could be involved
because anger is a stage of the grieving process for any loss.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Cultivate
the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 6:22-23). When you’re filled with love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance,
there’s little room for inappropriate anger.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What
the Bible Says About Anger</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“A soft answer turns away wrath; but grievous
words sir up anger” (Proverbs 15:11).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak,
slow to wrath; for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God (James
1:19,20).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go
down upon your wrath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let all
bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you”
(Ephesians 4:26-31-32).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“He that ruleth his spirit is better than he
that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Anger resteth in the bosom of fools”
(Ecclesiastes 7-9).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Provoke not your children to wrath; but bring
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1
John 1:9).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Pentecostal Evangel April 11,
1999</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Reprinted in the
Book, 50 Tough Questions, Gospel Publishing House, Springfield, MO 65802, 2002.</span></i></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/ada/Videos/Evangel%20articles/Taming%20Your%20Anger.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
Westwood, New Jersey, Fleming H. Revell Co.<br />
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267702661377367990.post-61516914420163388322020-01-03T02:00:00.000-08:002020-01-03T14:46:06.745-08:00<br />
Jan. 3 Guest Blog Donna Schlachter<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kv9ZLIAdtG6r7cKBdQ1sSs3FNH5vQ714gWGNMtKLsARNZXuam7TP0AgpBOjEIyUA1v2Eli1ywE-CeVgW-ZBw6UIrGFtWW_SqcMyU5dcJDs3TkoreqYbcnzsE-9D1oFDSLeqzFODQZmM/s1600/Donna+Schlachter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1489" data-original-width="1297" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kv9ZLIAdtG6r7cKBdQ1sSs3FNH5vQ714gWGNMtKLsARNZXuam7TP0AgpBOjEIyUA1v2Eli1ywE-CeVgW-ZBw6UIrGFtWW_SqcMyU5dcJDs3TkoreqYbcnzsE-9D1oFDSLeqzFODQZmM/s320/Donna+Schlachter.jpg" width="278" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Double
Jeopardy – </i>Lessons learned – with Giveaway</div>
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By Donna Schlachter</div>
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Life is a series of lessons
learned. Some come easy, like learning to like ice cream. Others come more
harshly, like learning to trust again once your heart is broken. Or figuring
out how to tie your shoes. </div>
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<div style="line-height: 115%;">
Lessons learned always require
change, and that always requires a decision. Many times folks might try to say,
“I messed up because of one bad choice.” But that isn’t true. A series of bad
choices, each one more serious and life-impacting than the previous, brings us
to our “bad end.”</div>
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Or our “good outcome.”</div>
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In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Double Jeopardy, </i>Becky and Zeke learn some important life lessons:</div>
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<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Trust the person more
than the lies in your head: as with most romances, both characters like
the other person, but they get their communication mixed up several times
and begin to distrust each other. But if we really stop and remember the
good in the other person, the lies will fade away.</li>
<li style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Be willing to forgive
quickly: We all mess up. And Becky and Zeke are no different. They are
imperfect. But being willing to forgive quickly allows doors of
reconciliation to be opened.</li>
<li style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Talk it out: Miscommunication
has killed more relationships than anything else. Whether the fault lies
in misremembering the words, misunderstanding their meaning and context,
or simply words misspoken, just like Becky and Zeke, we must be willing to
apologize and ask for clarification.</li>
</ol>
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It’s never too soon to establish a
firm foundation for an upcoming marriage, and it’s never too late to repair
cracks in the foundations of our existing relationships.</div>
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I hope you enjoy this excerpt. Keep
reading to see how you can enter to win a free ebook.</div>
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Excerpt:</div>
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Double Jeopardy</div>
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Chapter
1</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">1880 Silver Valley, Colorado</i></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Dead. Dead as her dreams and her
hopes.</div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dead as a doornail</i>, as her mother would say.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Just thinking about the woman drove
a steel rod through Becky Campbell’s slumping back. Perched on a chair in the
sheriff’s office, she drew a deep breath, lifted her shoulders, and raised her
chin a notch. She would not be like the woman who birthed her. Pretty and
pampered. A silly socialite finding nothing better to do with her days than tea
with the mayor’s spinster daughter or bridge with the banker’s wife.</div>
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No, she’d much rather be like her
father. Adventuresome. Charismatic. Always on the lookout for the next big
thing.</div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
Now her breath came in a shudder,
and down went her shoulders again. She tied her fingers into knots before
looking up at the grizzled lawman across the desk from her. “There’s no chance
there’s been a mistake in identification, is there?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He slid open the top drawer of
his desk and pulled out a pocket watch, a lapel pin, and a fountain pen, which
he pushed across the desk to her. “He was pretty well-known around here. I’m
really sorry, miss.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Becky picked up the timepiece and
flicked open the cover. Inside was a photograph of her family, taken about ten
years earlier when she was a mere child of eight and Father stayed around long
enough to sit still for the portrait. Her mother, petite and somber, and she,
all ringlets and ribbons. She rubbed a finger across the engraving. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To R. Love M. Always.</i></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Yes, this was his.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
And the lapel pin, a tiny silver
basket designed to hold a sprig of baby’s breath or a miniature rosebud—a
wedding gift from her mother twenty years before.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She looked up at the sheriff,
tears blurring her vision. “And his ring?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
The lawman shook his head. “No
ring. Not on his body or in his shack.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“But he always wore it. Never
took it off.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He shrugged. “Maybe he lost it.
Or sold it.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“I doubt he’d do either. My
mother gave it to him when I was born.” </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She peered at him. Had he stolen
her father’s ring? </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Or maybe Sheriff Freemont was
correct. Maybe something as important as her birth hadn’t meant much to her
father. Maybe she didn’t either. Was that why he left?</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Because surely his absences
couldn’t be explained by any rift between her parents.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Although, what Matilda Applewhite
saw in Robert Campbell—Robbie to his friends and family—Becky had never
understood. Her mother, who ran in the same circles as the Rockefellers and the
Astors, with presidents and admirals—yet much to the consternation of her
family, chose a ne’er-do-well like Becky’s father.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Becky set the two items side by
side on the scarred wooden desk, next to the fountain pen. The same one he’d
used to write his letters to her. Signing them, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Give your mother all my love too. Your devoted father</i>. She needed
no more information. No more proof.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Dead.</div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
Not what she hoped for when she
left New York a month prior, against her mother’s wishes, with little else to
direct her steps than a ticket to Silver Valley and her father’s last letter.
Written a year before, but as full of life, promises, hopes, and wishes as
ever.</div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
She collected the only three
material evidences of her father’s existence and dropped them into her reticule
then stood. “Thank you for your time, Sheriff. I appreciate my father’s death
must be a difficult business for you.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He stood and dipped his head.
“Yes, miss.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Do you know how he died?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He cleared his throat, not
meeting her gaze. “Still investigatin’, miss. Lots of things to look into.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She bit back a groan. Unlike in
the city, where manpower and resources seemed limitless, out here, there was
just the sheriff and sometimes a deputy. “Thank you again. Please keep me
updated.” She turned to leave. “Where is he buried?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Over by the church. Just ask the
preacher. He can show you.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Not like she was in any rush to
see her father’s final resting place. She stepped outside and scanned the
street. Surely the man who was more gypsy than family man would hate to think
of his physical body buried beneath the dust of any one place.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
A morose sense of humor invaded
her. At least it was a way to get him to stay in one place longer than it took
to eat a meal.</div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
Sheriff Fremont joined her on the
front step. “You’ll likely be returning home now, I ’spect.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She looked up past his dimpled
chin, his bushy mustache, his aquiline nose, into eyes as dark as coal. “No,
sir. I have no plans to return.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“What will you do?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Do?” </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She blinked several times as she
pondered the question, which was a very good one indeed. She’d not thought
beyond the ache building in her bosom for the father she’d never see again. At
least when he went off on yet another adventure, she had the unspoken promise
of his return at some point, in the distant future. And always a letter. Or a postcard.
Never many words on either, but confirmation he was alive and she was still
important to him. </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
At least, important enough to sit
a few minutes and pen a few words.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She stared at the dusty mining
town. More tents than wooden structures. More mules than horses. More assay
offices than churches.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Two men tumbled onto the
boardwalk opposite her, rolled down the two steps to the street level, and lay
prone in the dirt littered with horse apples. The barkeep, a barrel-chested
man, his formerly white apron now stained beyond redemption and a dingy cloth
slung over his arm, burst through the swinging doors. “And don’t come back
here. We don’t need the likes of you in here bothering our customers.” </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
The man turned on his heel and
disappeared back into the saloon. Within ten seconds, the tinny notes of a
piano filtered to her ears.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
The two in the street lay still.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Had he killed them?</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
A pack of boys ran from a nearby
alley, grabbed a hat from one the men’s heads, and raced down the street,
jabbering and hollering like their britches were on fire. Three mongrels loped
after them, tongues lolling and tails held high.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She turned back to the sheriff.
“Is there a decent boarding house in town?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
One eye squinted as he peered at
her for a long moment before nodding slowly. “So, you’re going to stay?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“I have no reason to return.” </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She glanced at the two men in the
street. One climbed to his feet, swaying unsteadily, while the other puked into
the dust without even lifting his head. The acrid odor wafted across to her,
and she wrinkled her nose, breathing through her mouth. Until the smell coated
her tongue. Then she snapped her mouth shut. </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Maybe this wasn’t the town for
her … </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
No. She would never give her
mother opportunity to say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I told you so. </i></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Well, we got us a hotel above
the saloon over yonder, and just about every drinking establishment in town
rents out rooms, but I wouldn’t recommend those places. Mrs. Hicks over at
number fourteen Front Street rents out a few rooms in her house. Tell her I
sent you.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Thank you, Sheriff.” She took a
couple of steps, her drawstring bag banging against her thigh. “I’ll also need
directions to my father’s claim so I can get that transferred into my name. As
his next of kin.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“You’ll need to check with the
Land and Assay Office, two doors up from the mercantile. But I don’t know what
kind of a title he bought. Some can be transferred, but most who come out here
can’t think past their next pay lode, so they don’t spend the money to buy that
kind.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She tipped her head. “You mean I
might need to buy my own father’s property?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He shrugged. “Not that I know
much, but that’s what I’ve heard. I wish you luck, miss. You’ll need it if you
plan to stay here.” He tipped his hat to her before closing his door.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Becky drew in a breath of the
warm May afternoon then released it in a sigh. First the cost of the train
ticket, then her meals and occasional hotel rooms along the way. And now this.
Was there no end to the ways her dwindling cache of gold coins could disappear
like snow in July?</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
First things first—a proper place
to stay tonight. She picked up her carpetbag waiting on the bench outside the
sheriff’s office and walked in the direction the lawman had indicated toward
the home of Mrs. Hicks. Her heels beat a rhythm like a drum corps in a parade.
She nodded to women and couples she passed but averted her eyes from the
solitary men.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
And there were many. Of all sizes
and shapes, ages, and deportment. Several ogled her from the chairs they
occupied outside the six—no, seven—saloons she passed, and that was only on her
side of the street. A lone barber lounged in one of his three chairs, not a
customer in sight, testifying to the fact that the men hereabouts were more
interested in cards, booze, and loose women than in personal hygiene. </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
A fact she confirmed when one
lout stood his ground and refused to let her pass. Cheap perfume, rotgut
whiskey, and sweat mingled to create an odor that made her eyes water. </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Another man stepped up behind the
drunk. “Micky, are you troubling this young lady?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Micky swayed in place, twisting
the brim of his hat in gnarled fingers. “She one of your flock?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Doesn’t matter. Apologize and
move on.” </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
The drunk tipped his hat to her
in apology and stepped back against the building, allowing her to continue. The
preacher, his collar white against the severe black suit, nodded, and she
acknowledged his courtesy with a tiny smile. “Thank you. Reverend?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
The clergyman dipped his head.
“Obermeyer, Pastor Obermeyer.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She held out her hand. “I’m Becky
Campbell.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He blinked a couple of times then
his brow raised. “Oh, you’re—”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Yes. Robbie Campbell’s
daughter.” She glanced over her shoulder. “The sheriff told me you could show
me where my father is buried.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He held her hand and sandwiched
it between his own. “Please accept my condolences on your loss, Miss Campbell.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Thank you.” That now
too-familiar ache swelled in her bosom. Would it never ease? “If I may call on
you another time? I’m off to find lodging.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He tipped his head to one side.
“Oh, you’re staying?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Why did everybody think that
because her father was dead, she would leave?</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Or was this wishful thinking on
their part?</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
If so, why?</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She nodded. “I am.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
He shook himself like a hound dog
awakening from a nap. Had he stretched and yawned, she would not have been
surprised. “Good. Good.” He pointed down the street. “The church is there. The
parsonage is the tiny house behind. I’m in my study most days. Come any time.”
He tipped his hat. “Perhaps I’ll see you in church tomorrow?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“We shall see. Thank you for
rescuing me from that horrible man.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
His shoulders slumped. “So many
have too much time and money on their hands.” He quirked his chin toward the
others walking along the street. “Many work all week then come into town and
spend it on a Saturday, only to go back and repeat the same cycle next week.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Sounded like a hopeless cycle.
But what could she do about it? Nothing. If she wanted to make it on her own
here, she had her work cut out to stay out of the poorhouse. She surely
wouldn’t ask her rich-as-Midas mother for assistance. Maybe once she got on her
feet … “Thank you again. Good day.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She gripped her carpetbag and
continued on her way, pleased that at least two men in this town—the sheriff
and the parson—were raised by genteel women. She should count herself lucky
she’d met both today. Having even one on her side might come in handy at some
point. And having two—well, that was just downright serendipitous. </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Three blocks through the business
section, then a right for two blocks, and she soon found the house she sought.
Narrow but well-kept flower gardens lined both sides of the walkway. She
unlatched the gate, headed for the door, and knocked. Her gloved hands
sweating, she longed for a cool drink of lemonade or sweet tea. As she raised
her hand to knock again, the door swung open and a tall, thin woman of
indeterminate age peered down at her.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Becky tossed her a smile and
introduced herself. “The sheriff said you might have a room for rent?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“How long?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“I’m not certain. I plan to stay
until I settle my father’s estate, at least. Possibly longer.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
The stern look on the woman’s
face eased. “Sorry for your troubles. Four dollars a week including meals.” She
peered past Becky. “And I only take respectable women. No children. No men. My
name is Joan Hicks.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
While the amount seemed high,
Becky had little choice. “My name is Becky Campbell.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Oh, you’d be—”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Becky sighed. Either her father
was famous, or infamous. The former, she hoped. “Yes. His daughter. And yes,
I’m staying in town until I get his claim sorted out.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
The wrinkles around the
landlady’s eyes deepened, and her mouth lifted in a smile. “Actually, my next
question was if you want dinner tonight?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“I would. Thank you. What time?”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“Dinner’s at five. Perhaps you’d
like to see your room and freshen up.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She was going to like this
obviously kindly, no-nonsense woman. So unlike her own mother. “Thank you.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
The interior of the house was
dark but cool, and Becky followed Mrs. Hicks up two flights of stairs to one of
three doors that opened off the top landing. The landlady stood aside and held
out her hand, palm up. “Payment due in advance. Pot roast for dinner.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Becky dug the four coins from her
reticule and handed them over. “Thank you.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
“No keys for any of the rooms. I
got the right to inspect the room with an hour’s notice. No cooking or smoking
in the rooms. Privy is out the back door.”</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Becky swallowed back a lump of
disappointment. She’d expected indoor plumbing, just as she enjoyed in New
York, but the modern conveniences hadn’t made their way this far west. </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Or at least, not to this house in
Silver Valley.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She entered what would be her
home for at least the next week, longer if she could figure out how to make her
remaining money stretch further. She set her bag on a dressing table, and then
she closed the door. When she sank onto the bed, the springs creaked beneath
her weight. She sighed. </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
A pang of—of what? Homesickness?
Missing her father? Wishing things were different?—caught her off guard,
spreading through her like a flooding river, threatening to wash away all hope.
So much for her dreams of prospecting with her father in the mountains of
Colorado. Of catching up on all the years they’d missed.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Rather, that she had missed.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She doubted her father had lacked
any adventures or excitement.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
His life had been so different
from her own. </div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
She dumped the contents of her
drawstring bag onto the bed and sorted through them. Sixty-three dollars which,
along with the hundred or so in her carpetbag, should tide her over for a
while. If she didn’t have to buy her father’s claim. If she didn’t have to pay
top dollar for every single thing she needed.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Because if there was one thing
still alive in her, it was the desire to understand her father. To understand
what drove him to leave the comforts of home and travel to this remote place.
Was it the lure of silver? Was he simply tired of his refined life? Of his
wife?</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
Of her?</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
I will randomly draw one name from
all who leave a comment for a free ebook of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Double
Jeopardy. </i></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
Don’t forget to stop by our Launch
Event at: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/2220456174726867/">https://www.facebook.com/events/2220456174726867/</a>
</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Double
Jeopardy </i>is available at <a href="https://shoplpc.com/double-jeopardy/">https://shoplpc.com/double-jeopardy/</a>
Amazon.com, and fine booksellers in your area.</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
About Donna:</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
Donna lives in Denver with husband
Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name,
and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been
published more than 30 times in novellas and full-length novels. She is a
member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In
Crime, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches
writing classes online and in person. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges
in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively
for both. <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Donna is
represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<a href="http://www.historythrutheages.wordpress.com/">www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com</a>
</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<a href="http://www.historythrutheages.com/">www.HiStoryThruTheAges.com</a> Receive
a free ebook simply for signing up for our free newsletter!</div>
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Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor">www.Facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor</a>
</div>
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Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter">www.Twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter</a>
</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
Books: Amazon: <a href="http://amzn.to/2ci5Xqq">http://amzn.to/2ci5Xqq</a> and Smashwords: <a href="http://bit.ly/2gZATjm">http://bit.ly/2gZATjm</a> </div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Ada Brownell, authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338718323371783296noreply@blogger.com3