Back on the Island

August 29th, 2012

Just a short post to let you know I’m safely back on the island. 

Unfortunately, I’m still not sure if my brother is safe.  He’s stationed at the air force base at Biloxi.  This is situated on a tiny peninsula.  My sister-in-love packed up the dog and pulled one of my hurricane bug outs.  She got in the car and drove, so even though I don’t know where she is yet, I feel sure she’s safe. 

My brother had to hole up in his office in the base hospital.  I haven’t been able to reach him since Isaac hit, so I’m not sure about him. 

If any of you all are so inclined, I would appreciate your prayers.

Story

August 28th, 2012

Storyteller Recaptures the Mystery of the Ancient Scriptures

 

Author Steven James leads readers to (re)experience the greatest story ever told.

James, a professional storyteller from East Tennessee, grew up in the church but fell in love with Jesus at age 21 on Easter Sunday at his bosses’ church. “Easter is a love story; I’d never realized it before, but I had to experience the entire Christian story to be truly moved and changed by it,” he says.

Through 30 short chapters, James retells key elements of the Christian story-from Adam and Eve in the Garden, to the Israelites plea for freedom and the love/hate struggles between humans and God in the Old Testament. Story illuminates Jesus miraculous birth and daring ministry on earth, building to the “rising terror” of the crucifixion and rediscovery of freedom following the resurrection.

A Story Unlike Any Other

At one point, James paints the brutal murder of Able in the Old Testament through the eyes of his brother Cain. He views Jesus dancing and turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana through the testimony of the bewildered bride. At another, he writes as a frightened onlooker as Jesus struggles to carry his cross to Golgotha, and captures the chaos sweeping through the Holy Land following the resurrection. All the while, James relates the events of the Bible to life on Earth today.

“I’m thankful Jesus didn’t come to start another religion. Jesus didn’t arrive on earth to debate theology but to propose marriage. In a very real spiritual sense, God is courting us. Christianity is wild. It’s intimate. It’s heartbreaking and soul-mending,” writes James.

However, James believes the real meaning of Easter has been lost somewhere in the last 2,000 years. “The bunny has stolen the rabbi and stolen the show,” James writes. “Easter has evolved into just another nice, harmless, spineless, little holiday…when it’s supposed to be about a wrestling match between life and death, a cosmic struggle between good and evil.”

James invites readers to meet Jesus again-or for the very first time. “It’s all one story. And only when you finally untangle it, see it unfold, and enter it for yourself do you realize that the story has finally entered and at last untangled you,” James writes

ISLAND BREEZES

This book is much different from Steven James books I’ve read previously. I certainly didn’t expect to need that box of tissues while reading the introduction, but the beauty of it caused tears.

Steven James can’t be boxed into any one genre. This is the old story made new from beginning to end.

Read this book and heed it’s message. Your soul will rejoice.

***A special thank you to Donna Hausler for providing a review copy.***

Critically acclaimed author Steven James has written more than thirty books, including his bestselling Patrick Bowers series. One of the nation’s most innovative storytellers, Steven developed his skill as a performer at East Tennessee State University (MA in storytelling). Steven is a much sought after speaker for writing conferences and seminars around the world. He lives in Tennessee with his wife and three daughters.

Available August 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Chased by Isaac

August 27th, 2012

Had to bug out ahead of Isaac.  Getting ready to run over to the mainland and head NE to join up with Consumer Man.  Will probably get back late Wednesday and hope to write before hitting the hay.

Hope all’s well with all you all.

Woe to Him

August 26th, 2012

Jesus said to his disciples, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! 

It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

Be on your guard!  If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. 

And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times, and say. ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”

Luke 17:1-4

The Other Side of Goodness

August 23rd, 2012

The Other Side of Goodness

How far will faith and love go when an ambitious man finds himself in the fight of his life—with a woman who knows the other side of goodness all too well…

Fifty-year-old Alabama congressman Lawrence Rudolph Simmons will do whatever it takes to get re-elected—even switch parties from Democrat to Republican. With the political tide turning, Lawrence feels it’s his best shot—along with his charisma, solid twenty-nine year marriage, and three great kids. But a buried secret from his past is about to be resurrected.…

It’s been eight years since Gabrielle Mercedes gave up her baby for adoption. But when she learns the child desperately needs a bone marrow transplant, she doesn’t hesitate to contact the congressman. Like Lawrence, Gabrielle will fight for what she wants, even if it means the truth could ruin someone else’s life and career….

ISLAND BREEZES
What a mess! Gabrielle is in the middle of a fight – a life changing fight for all involved. And the enemy is playing dirty.
And Paris. She’s a real trip. It’s amazing just how self-absorbed (selfish) she is.
There’s a lot of family dynamics going on in this book. And it’s not an “everyone lived happily ever after” book.

Some of the secrets begin to come out, and some good things happen by the end, but we’re left dangling.

Although this book is part of the Blessed Trinity series, it is a good stand alone read.

I presume there will be another book to follow in order to deal with the unfinished business at the end. I hope Ms Griggs is a fast writer. I’m ready to read the next book now.

***A special thank you to Adeola Saul for providing a review copy.***

 

“God’s Cheerleader,” Vanessa Davis Griggs is an author and motivational speaker who adores the power of words both written and spoken. At the end of 1996, this former BellSouth employee left 18 years of service stepping out on faith and decided to pursue her purpose and passion–writing. Proving out Proverbs 18:16, A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men, she began her own company (Free To Soar) emphasizing the taking off of limits as she travels inspiring and encouraging others–both young and old–to take flight like an eagle and do the same.

You can go here to read the first chapter.

Tidewater Inn

August 23rd, 2012

Tidewater Inn

 

Welcome to Hope Beach. A place of intoxicating beauty . . . where trouble hits with the force of a hurricane.

Inheriting a beautiful old hotel on the Outer Banks could be a dream come true for Libby. The inn cries out for her restorer’s talent and love of history. She’s delighted to learn of the family she never knew she had. And the handsome Coast Guard lieutenant she’s met there on the island could definitely be the man of her dreams.

But Libby soon realizes that the only way she can afford the upkeep on the inn is to sell it to developers who are stalking the island. The father who willed her the inn has died before she could meet him, and her newfound brother and sister are convinced she’s there to steal their birthright. Worst of all, her best friend and business partner has been kidnapped before her eyes, and Libby’s under suspicion for the crime.

Libby’s dream come true is becoming a nightmare. Her only option is to find her friend and prove her innocence, or lose everything on the shores of Hope Island.

ISLAND BREEZES

Libby is a restorer of historical buildings and an old inn has just landed in her lap. A father she never knew left it to her.

She also inherits a couple of sulky half-siblings who resent her to no end.

That’s just the beginning of her problems. Her best friend is kidnapped and she’s a suspect. It appears that there’s no one who trusts her or believes in her innocence.

Then there’s a problem with restoring and running her inn. It’s going to take a lot of money she doesn’t have.

***A special thank you to litfuse for providing a review copy.***.

Colleen Coble’s forty novels and novellas have won or finaled in awards ranging from the Romance Writers of America prestigious RITA, the Holt Medallion, the ACFW Book of the Year, the Daphne du Maurier, National Readers’ Choice, the Booksellers Best, and the 2009 Best Books of Indiana-Fiction award. She writes romantic mysteries because she loves to see justice prevail and love begin with a happy ending.

Digital Winter

August 21st, 2012

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today’s Wild Card author is:

 

Mark Hitchcock and Alton Gansky

 

and the book:

 

Digital Winter
Harvest House Publishers (August 1, 2012)
***Special thanks to Ginger Chen of Harvest House Publishers for sending me a review copy.***

 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

 

Mark Hitchcock is the author of nearly 20 books related to end-time Bible prophecy, including the bestselling 2012, the Bible, and the End of the World.
He earned a ThM and PhD from Dallas Theological Seminary and is the
senior pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. He has worked
as an adjunct professor at DTS, and he and his wife, Cheryl, have two
sons.
Alton Gansky is the author of 30 books—24 of them novels, including the Angel Award winner Terminal Justice and Christy Award finalist A Ship Possessed.
A frequent speaker at writing conferences, he holds BA and MA degrees
in biblical studies. Alton and his wife reside in Southern California.

www.altongansky.com

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

 

Prophecy expert Mark Hitchcock and novelist Alton
Gansky provide a suspenseful and fast-moving story of life after a
massive cyber attack. Surgeons find themselves operating without
electricity. The military can’t use its computers… This gripping story
of darkness and heroism highlights prophetic themes and the danger of a
cyber attack.

Product Details:

List Price: $14.99

Paperback: 352 pages

Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0736949127

ISBN-13: 978-0736949125

ISLAND BREEZES

You can’t just leave me hanging like this. I hope you guys are writing like crazy to get the next book out.

Talk about suspense! This book has it. It certainly isn’t a run of the mill book. It’s an “I cant put it down” kind of book.

This book has it all. Medical drama, suspense, love, computer geek stuff. Enough scary stuff to turn a person into a “prepper.”

The worst part of the book is also the best part. Something similiar really could happen.

 
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:


–>

 

Stanley Elton
January 20, 2014
Shadow, shadow on my
right,
Stanley
Elton emerged from the bedroom at
precisely 7:10 a.m., his favorite mug in his hand containing his favorite
African blend of coffee. Truth was, he had seven favorite mugs, one for each
day of the week. He had seven favorite blends of coffee as well, seven favorite
dress shirts, seven chosen suits of varying shades of gray, and seven power
ties.
T?he morning sunlight had already
pushed back some of the thick clouds that covered the parts of San Diego
closest to the Pacific. His part of San Diego was called Coronado Island,
although it wasn’t a true island. Situated on a stretch of land called the Strand,
the small community rested on a jut of property that looked from the air like
an arthritic thumb sticking into the blue waters.
Founded in 1860, the city of Coronado
was home to the elite. North Island Naval Air Station took much of the prime
real estate, but there was still plenty of room for retired admirals, CEOs, and
entrepreneurs who made sudden wealth in the digital age. A stroll through the
city streets sometimes allowed tourists a glimpse of a celebrity.
Stanley Elton was no celebrity or entrepreneur;
he wasn’t a retired admiral or a man of old money. He was, however, the CEO of
San Diego’s largest CPA firm, a company whose client list included scores of
the top companies in the country. He was on a first-name basis with people
often mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. For
thirty years he worked for OPM Accounting. Most people assumed OPM stood for
the founders of the firm, people who died a generation ago. It didn’t. Insiders
knew OPM stood for Other People’s Money. A bit tongue in cheek, but it drew
hearty laughs for the few who knew the joke.
“Nice day.” Stanley moved to the open
kitchen and kissed his wife on the top of the ear.
“You know that gives me the shivers.”
Royce Elton pulled away and tried to rub her ear on her shoulder, her hands
busy flipping eggs and turning bacon. A pot next to the frying pan cooked down
some oatmeal. Instant oatmeal wasn’t good enough for her son, Donny. At least
he ate something close to healthy.
“My presence has always made you
shiver.” Elton slurped his coffee.
“Shudder is more like it.” Her tone was
playful.
“Shiver, shudder; potato, patahto.” He
moved from the kitchen and took his usual spot at the floor-to-ceiling window
overlooking the rolling Pacific. T?he $3.5 million condo was on the top floor
of one of the fifteen ten-story structures on the Strand. Built in the 1960s,
the luxury buildings caused such a stir that a city ordinance was passed
forbidding similar towering structures in Coronado. Too late and too little.
From the wide living room, Stanley
could look to the left and see the Pacific Ocean or look right and see the calm
waters of Glorietta Bay. “Water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”
“Good thing we have plumbing and
coffee.” Royce dropped two pieces of bacon (well done) and two eggs (over hard)
onto a scalloped-edged green plate. A moment later, she added two pieces of rye
toast.
He stepped to the dining table. “Dining
room” would be inaccurate. T?he only real rooms in the open floor plan were the
bathrooms and bedrooms. Royce set the plate on the glass top. She sat next to
him, sipping a chocolate diet shake.
“Eating real food while watching you
suck on that stuff fills me with guilt.” He stuck a piece of bacon in his
mouth.
“You’re a man. You’re supposed to feel
guilty. It goes with the Y chromosome.”
“T?his is what I get for marrying a
geneticist.”
“Brains are sexy.”
“Really? I hadn’t heard.”
Royce raised an eyebrow. “You know, I
can poison your breakfast.”
“T?hat’s why we have Rosa cook our
other meals. Cuts down on your opportunity to cash in on the life insurance.”
He cut one egg in half and scooped it into his mouth. Stanley didn’t like
wasting time on trivial things like breakfast. “Busy day?”
“Usual classes at the university, and
then I have about four hours in the lab. I’ll be late. I have to grade test
papers after that. Rosa has something planned for you and Donny.”
“She’s as good a cook as she is a
nurse.” Down went the second half of the egg.
“She’s a jewel. We should pay her
more.”
It was Stanley’s turn to raise an
eyebrow. “Really? She makes good money now.”
“I’m not sure it covers all she does.
Dealing with Donny isn’t easy.”
Stanley contemplated the comment while
gnawing on the bacon. “What do you mean? He sits in his room and doesn’t cause
any trouble. He’s as passive as someone with his condition can be.”
Royce frowned. She hated it when
Stanley referred to Donny’s challenges as his
condition
.
“Sorry,” he said. “You know what I
mean. Other people like him can be high maintenance.”
Another frown. “He requires a lot of
care, Stan. You know that.”
“Of course. I do my share.”
She touched his arm. “I know, dear. I
didn’t mean that. You do more than any other father would. You provide an
income that allows us to get all the help we need. My professor’s salary
wouldn’t pay for one room in this place. I’m just saying we should reward Rosa.
She’s been with us since Donny was ten. T?hat’s twelve years.”
“She’s a trooper. Did you have
something in mind?”
“I thought of a paid vacation, but I
don’t think she’d leave Donny for more than a few days. She’s so devoted to
him. I know that her car is getting a little long in the tooth. She had to take
it into the shop. Cost her a pretty bundle to get the transmission fixed.”
“You want to pay for the repairs?”
“No, I want to buy her a car.”
Stanley lowered his fork. “You’re
kidding, right?” He could see she wasn’t. “You mean like a Porsche or Ferrari
or—”
“Of course not. I was thinking of a
Prius or some other hybrid. It would save her some gas money.”
Stanley furrowed his brow, narrowed his
eyes, and clinched his jaw, but he couldn’t maintain the pretense. He had never
been angry at his wife and couldn’t imagine starting now. T?he forced frown
gave way to the upward pressure of a smile.
“You’re working me, aren’t you?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, but it’s going to cost you
another cup of coffee. I’ll let you make the arrangements. Take the money from
the house account.” He paused. “We are talking just one car, right?”
“For now.” She rose, kissed him on the
forehead, and took his cup to refill it. “Speaking of Rosa, she said something
yesterday that seemed…”
“What?”
“I don’t know what word to use.
Unexpected.” She filled the cup and returned to the table. “She said Donny
spoke.”
“Spoke? You mean more than one word?”
“She meant sentences.”
“You’re kidding. I’ve never heard him
link words together. I thought it was beyond his ability.”
“We don’t know that.” Royce the
geneticist was talking now. “His condition is a mystery. T?here are only a
handful of savants in the world. We don’t know what goes on in his brain.”
“What did he say?”
“She told me she couldn’t make out all
the words. He stopped when she entered the room. Something about shadows.”
“Maybe she was hearing something from
one of his computers.”
“Maybe, but she didn’t think so.”
Stanley checked his watch. “Why didn’t
you tell me this last night?”
“Um, because you didn’t come home until
nearly midnight and you were half asleep.”
“Oh, yeah.” He rose. “T?hanks for
breakfast. Good as Rosa is, food cooked by my wife always tastes better.”
“I manipulate the alleles in the eggs.”
“T?hat’s more science talk, isn’t it?”
“You going to say goodbye to him?”
“Just like every day for twenty-two
years.”
“T?hanks.”
Stanley started the most difficult task
of his day. He loved his son, but he would rather face off against a bunch of
IRS attorneys than turn the doorknob to his boy’s bedroom.
As his hand touched the brass knob, he
heard a voice from the other side of the door:
Shadow, shadow on my
right,
….
Donny Elton sat in his chair as he did
every hour he wasn’t sleeping. T?he chair was an expensive, well-padded iBOT
designed by inventor Dean Kamen. It was powered and could raise Donny to the
eye level of any adult not playing in the NBA. A series of gyros and a robust
computer program enabled it to climb stairs without tipping. T?he invention had
been a boon to wheelchair-bound consumers.
But Donny wasn’t bound to the
wheelchair. He could walk if he wanted, jump if he desired, and even sprint if
he had a mind to, but he never did. At least that was what the doctors said.
Under heavy sedation, Donny had endured MRIs, CAT scans, X-rays, muscle
conductivity studies, and other medical tests. All came back negative.
“T?he problem isn’t with this body,”
the doctors said. “T?he problem is in his mind. He doesn’t want to walk.” T?hat
had been the end of their assessment. No one could offer any ideas of how to
make a healthy twenty-two-year-old who was monosyllabic on his best day and
mute on his worst and who possessed an IQ above 200 do what he didn’t want to
do. “You simply cannot make a man walk if he doesn’t want to.” T?hey had been
united in that assessment.
Stanley, in the few quiet moments he
allowed himself, wondered why his son refused to walk or engage with humanity.
Yes, his savant condition was probably due to autism, but research had yet to
come to a consensus on that.
Stanley stood in the open door with a
bowl of hot oatmeal in one hand and wondered if he had heard what he thought he
heard.
“Hey, buddy. Mom whipped up some
oatmeal for you.” He moved to the long desk that took up all of one wall in the
place they called Stanley’s bedroom. It looked more like a NASA control center
than a place to sleep. A series of four 27-inch monitors lined the table, and
two computer towers sat nearby. T?hey were never turned off. More than once,
Stanley had awakened in the night to hear Donny’s fingers tapping on the
keyboard.
“Oatmeal. Food. Oatmeal. Good.”
Stanley set the bowl and spoon on an
unoccupied spot of the table. “Whatcha working on, pal?”
“Oatmeal. Good.”
Stanley was thankful Donny could feed
himself. He needed help dressing and using the bathroom, but at least he could
manage to put a spoon in his mouth or hold a sandwich. Small
blessings.
T?he large window of the bedroom
overlooked the Pacific side of the Strand. T?he thinning cloud cover allowed
the morning sun to paint sparkles on the gentle swells and surf. A short
distance from the shore, surfers waited for the ocean to offer more waves.
Although Stanley couldn’t see them from this window, he knew that new Navy
SEALs were training there. Such was Coronado: home to the wealthy, a mecca for
sun worshippers, a training ground for the Navy, and a magnet for tourists.
Donny knew none of this. Stanley
doubted his son had ever noticed the beauty outside his window, the kind of
view that made the 1700-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath condo worth $3.5
million. T?he only things Donny seemed to notice were on the computer monitors.
Stanley doubted the young man even knew him. T?he last thought brought pain, as
it did a dozen times every day.
Line upon line of code filled the
monitors. For a few moments, Stanley considered having a programmer look at it,
but he dismissed the idea. What difference would it make?
“I’m headed to work, son. I’ll be home
late again, but I’ll look in on you. Mom will be here until Rosa arrives.”
“Rosa. Oatmeal. Good.” Donny took a
bite of the pasty meal.
Stanley ran his fingers through his
son’s hair. He loved the boy even if he had never caught a baseball or watched
a football game. “Take it easy, champ.”
“Bye. Later. Oatmeal.”
Stanley turned when something appeared
in the corner of his eye—something dark, indistinct. He snapped his head around
but saw nothing.
Closing the door, Stanley paused and
tried to push back the gloom that draped his mind. T?hen he heard Donny’s voice
again.
Shadow, shadow on my
right,

Shadow, shadow on my left,

Shadow, shadow everywhere,

Shadow has all the might.

Shadow, shadow on my left,

Shadow, shadow everywhere,

Shadow has all the might.

Shadow, shadow on my left,

Shadow, shadow everywhere,

Shadow has all the might.

Dying to Read

August 20th, 2012

Dying to Read

By Lorena McCourtney

 

Lorena McCourtney has spun a fast-paced and witty romantic mystery in her new book, Dying to Read. From the very first chapter, she grabs your attention and keeps you hooked until the very end.

Cate Kinkaid is just dipping her toe into the world of private investigating until one of the many rĂŠsumĂŠs she has floating around lands her a real job. All she has to do is determine that a particular woman lives at a particular address. Simple, right? When the big and brooding house happens to contain a dead body, this routine PI job turns out to be anything but simple. Is Cate in over her head?

ISLAND BREEZES

I want to read more books about Cate Kinkaid. I’ve always loved mysteries, and have to admit to a secret desire to become a PI. Well, I guess that’s not a secret anymore.

Cate seems to have spent a lot of time bungling through life. I guess that’s why it was no surprise to see her bungle through a murder investigation.

She also managed to bungle through one love relationship, and got off to a rough start with another one.

I certainly hope Ms. McCourtney plans on writing a lot of these Cate mysteries. I’m also interested in learning more about Mitch. And then there’s Willow. I hope she pops up every now and then.

***A special thank you to Donna Hausler for providing a review copy.***

Lorena McCourtney is the award-winning author of dozens of novels, including Invisible (which won the Daphne du Maurier Award from Romance Writers of America), In Plain Sight, On the Run, and Stranded. She resides in Oregon.

Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, offers practical books that bring the Christian faith to everyday life.? They publish resources from a variety of well-known brands and authors, including their partnership with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and Hungry Planet.

Available August 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

Win a Kindle Fire or Nook Color

August 17th, 2012
Win a Kindle Fire or Nook Color from @SuzanneWFisher in “The Haven” Giveaway! RSVP for Live Video Chat on 8/30!

 

Celebrate the newest book in the Stoney Ridge Seasons series with Suzanne by entering her 4 eReader Giveaway and Facebook Party and RSVPing for the Live Video Chat on 8/30! 

See what folks are saying about The Haven!

Four grand prize winners will receive:

  • A Brand new Kindle Fire or Nook Color 
  • $25 Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble.com Gift certificate 

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on August 29th. Winner will be announced at Suzanne’s Live Author Chat Party on 8/30

. Suzanne will be hosting an author chat (party will start on Facebook AND then be Live from her website) and giving away books, gift certificates and several Burt’s BeesÂŽ Nourishing Radiance Kits!!

So grab your copy of The Haven and join Suzanne on the evening of the August 30th for a fun chat (both on Facebook and via Live Video), trivia contest and lots of giveaways. 

Enter via E-mail Enter via FacebookEnter via Twitter

Don’t miss a moment of the RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 30th!

Globequake

August 17th, 2012

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today’s Wild Card author is:

 

Wallace Henley

 

and the book:

 

Globequake
Thomas Nelson (July 10, 2012)
***Special thanks to Rick Roberson of The B&B Media Group, Inc. for sending me a review copy.***

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

Award winning journalist and former White House aide during the Nixon administration, Wallace Henleyhas traveled the world as a speaker and writer, authored more than a dozen books, served as a congressional chief of staff and leadership consultant, and has worked in over 20 countries, all the while gaining a keener grasp of scripture and a deeper understanding of human nature. Today, as he has for the past 11 years, Henley serves as pastor in the 59,000-member Second Baptist Church of Houston, led by Ed Young. He is also a regular columnist for Christian Post. When not traveling, he and his wife of over 50 years, Irene, divide their time between their home in the Houston area and their small ranch outside of Brenham. The couple has a grown son and daughter and eight grandchildren.

Visit the author’s website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

 

2011 was a year of disturbance. Tunisia erupted in violence in January, after a street vendor set himself on fire, and unrest spread across the Middle East in a wave of toppled dictators and violent revolutionaries. March saw tsunamis sweep across Japan, leaving a nation teetering on the edge of nuclear catastrophe. Rioters stormed through the streets of London in August, burning cars and looting stores. Vicious partisan attacks left the American government deadlocked as unemployment stayed high, families desperately tried to find work, and disillusioned protestors occupied public parks from New York to Oakland.

The very underpinnings of the world, the tectonic plates of existence, seem to be shifting and sliding under the feet of every person, and in this time of crisis, author Wallace Henley provides a blueprint for surviving the changes in his new book Globequake: Living in the Unshakeable Kingdom While the World Falls Apart. Henley argues that we are seeing a shift taking place in what he calls the “six core spheres of society” – Person, Church, Family, Education, Government, and Business. In Globequake, he extensively and exhaustively details the transformations crossing all parts of daily life, but the book is more than a list of the changes in the world, it is ultimately a focus on the change that people can have in their hearts.

Product Details:

List Price: $16.99

Paperback: 288 pages

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1595555013

ISBN-13: 978-1595555014

ISLAND BREEZES

This is a very well researched book.  This makes it an even more valuable book.

While the globe is shaking up around us, we can learn more about the reality of the unshakeable kingdom.  We can and must put it to work in our everyday lives, and expand the message within our spheres.

We need to follow the advice of an old song.  “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.”  Look to the Lord and remember who’s in charge.

Mr. Henley teaches that we need to utilize the four elements of a solid strategic plan to anchor ourselves while enduring the turbulence of the Globequake.

Let Mr. Henley help you survive all this shaking.  He knows what he’s talking about.

 
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:


–>

 

Chapter 1—The Globequake and the ‘New
Normal’
The shaking is here to stay
“Our political leaders are lying to us. All commodities are
skyrocketing, and have been for months. It’s not just oil, but metals for
manufacturing, labor costs, and everything else necessary to do business. It’s
beginning to kill us, and there must be major redefinition!”
The words erupted suddenly from the executive, like magma
building for centuries in the throat of a volcano. I could feel the throbbing
anxiety in the usually solid business leader. I knew he had survived—even
thrived—through several upheavals in his long career. But somehow it was
different this time.
As a pastor I had heard the desperation and fear on the
voices of many people in all stages and spheres of life as they sought comfort
and hope. I’ve been listening to people pour out their heartbreak and worries
for 40 years, but, as in the case of the businessman, the tension has reached a
new pitch.
Emotionally, multitudes now are like people in a scene
caught by a camera as an earthquake of record-breaking proportions struck a
Japanese city in early 2011. Men and women working in a skyscraper were filmed
dashing out of the tall building. They had to dodge the steel and stone
crashing down from the swaying highrise. Their heads pivoted and eyes looked
desperately as they wondered: Is there safety anywhere?
It appears people everywhere seek security midst the
instability of a world gone wild. Our planet is in a state of upheaval, blasted
with worldwide turbulence.
It’s a “Globequake.”
Individuals across the globe sense something big is shaping.
Is it global collapse? Fiery wars along the civilizational “fault lines” Samuel
Huntington wrote about in the 1990s? Worldwide depression? Mass starvation?
Ecological chaos? The end of the world?
People everywhere are asking,
• What’s
going on?
• What can I
do?
Down deep in all this roiling turbulence people are trying
to go about their lives, maintain solid marriages, raise and educate their
children, and do their jobs.
All they know is gut-anxiety.
It’s as if the tectonic plates of society and culture are
being torn apart and reshaped right under our feet. “The social threat to the
American way of life” is “dire,” writes Rich Lowry. Voices in many nations around the world would
say the same for their societies.
Good news
The good news is that behind the gut-wrenching uncertainties
about the future are wonderful, strong certainties, given by the Lord of
history Himself. In this book we will
discover answers to the troubling questions through solid biblical truth that
can be applied to bring stability to us and our institutions. What you will
read here unites orthodoxy (right belief) with orthopraxy (right practice)
based on foundational truth on which people can ground their lives when the
continents are shifting at what seems light-speed.
In the Globequake turmoil we can either react with negative
indignation, or we can proact with positive insights. In the pages ahead you
will discover the positive, exciting, stabilizing truths and principles that
provide the insights by which people can be safe, sane, and stable midst
worldwide upheaval, and be inspired with hope.
We are living through the spiritual, social, moral,
philosophical, economic, political, and personal equivalent of the ancient
geological tectonic shifts that brought upheaval and reshaping of vast
landmasses. Like those redefining physical movements, what we are experiencing
now is worldwide. Unlike the tectonic shifts of antiquity, in which the drift
was inches a century, the changes rumbling throughout our “worlds” seem to be
zipping at miles a second, with us riding on top!
The Psalmist posed the question in the hearts and on the
lips of multitudes today:
If
the foundations are destroyed,
What
can the righteous do?”
(Psalm
11:3)
Spinning down the ‘ringing grooves of
change’
Change, by definition, is initially a departure from a
normative condition. After awhile the new situation becomes the norm, until
change sweeps it away and drops something else in its place. However, under the
Globequake conditions in which we now live, rapid change and the upheavals it
produces is the “new normal.” Tennyson wrote, “Let the great world spin forever
down the ringing grooves of change.” It appears he got his wish.
“The more things change the more they stay the same,” said
19th century French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. However, the aphorism
has been turned on its head in the Globequake age, and now says, “The more
things stay the same the more they change.” Victor David Hanson writes, “the
natural order of the world is chaos, not calm.”
Will Durant, writing in a more optimistic age, thought humans could
dominate chaos by “mind and purpose.”
But far from dominating chaos, humanity seems to be falling into “a
systemic rise in worldwide unrest,” writes Peter Apps, “political risk
correspondent” for Reuters, the international news agency.
It’s not just geopolitical systems trembling all the way to
their foundations, but everything around us. The face of the world is being
reshaped before our eyes, with new power centers emerging like islands suddenly
leaping from the sea-bottom, thrust upward by volcanic fury. “We are in the
midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their
futures fundamentally altered,” said media mogul Rupert Murdoch, in an internal
memorandum to his staff.
In my lifetime I have seen America and the West move through
three eras:
• The Atlas
Era, when the Western Alliance seemed to hold the world on its shoulders,
leading the resistance to Nazi, and then Communist threats to global freedom
• The Bacchus
Era, when, under the priesthood of people like Hugh Hefner and Timothy Leary,
cultural elites, weary from shouldering the world, let themselves go, did their
own thing, and retreated into the body and its cravings, taking masses with
them
• The
Narcissus Era, in which every wrinkle is a crevasse begging for cosmetic
surgery, where every emotional flitter is a tornadic psychic upheaval, and
every Twittered and Facebook-inscribed self-narrative is epic literature.
Under the Globequake, Western civilization has been
dislodged from strong biblical moorings, and shifted into nominal Christianity,
then to the minimizing of Judeo-Christian influence, then to anti-biblical
materialism, then into vague “spirituality” that tries to find anchorage in the
sandy bottom of ancient paganism, and at last into a spiritual void Islam and a
host of other religious and philosophical systems are eager to fill. The
Western nations have fallen into the deep rifts of existentialism (“the only
meaning is in the experience of the ‘now’”), nihilism (“there is no purpose or
meaning in anything”), and hedonism (“since there’s no purpose or meaning in
anything, make life one vast party, then die”).
We have arrived at the stage of history Peter Drucker must
have had in mind when he wrote on the eve of the 21st century,
“Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable.
But that still implies that change is like death and taxes — it should be
postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in
a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the
norm.”
What makes the upheavals of our time different from the
tremors and redefinitions of other eras? Can we really claim the contemporary
turbulence is any more intense than that of any other? We will explore these
questions in detail in chapters to come. However, here are three ways in which
the upheavals we now experience differ from those of other historic ages.
Scope
For centuries, people have been talking about “changing the
world.” In previous eras, the “world” they dreamed of changing was at best
regional in scope. Hannibal could conquer only that small bit of the planet he
could cover with his elephants. Genghis Khan may have fancied himself a
world-conqueror, but vast numbers of people living in his age were beyond the
reach of his sword. Now, for the first time in history, it’s possible to impact
the whole world with change, which, in the Globequake era, is becoming viral
and universal.
The alterations of the Globequake age are making borders
irrelevant. In previous periods, attacking armies could be blocked at well-defended
boundaries between nations, but electronic invasions render normal lines of
defense useless and even meaningless. Regimes that don’t want their societies
to participate in the change can only try to block powerful marauders like
Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other information systems, but they cannot
prevent the leakage of news and opinion into their societies, and the changes
that inevitably occur.
Many have assumed the Internet would open closed nations to
democracy. But there’s just as much concern authoritarian regimes are learning
to use the Web to manipulate their populations through such strategies as
propaganda-spreading blogs, and to spy on opposition groups. The scope of
change in today’s world can be as ominous as it is promising. Powerful groups
and individuals can spin the currents of change toward their own interests, and
they can do it worldwide—for the first time in history.
Some even see a future in which computers become so dominant
they take over the world. Professor Stephen Hawking has called for genetic
engineering to develop human intelligence to outpace the growth of computer
intelligence. “In contrast with our intellect, computers double their
performance every 18 months,” he told Focus, a German magazine. “So the danger
is real they could develop intelligence and take over the world.”
Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, expressed a
similar concern about the scope of change possibly looming for the world’s
future. By 2030, he says, engineers may be building machines a million times
more powerful than today’s computers. “I may be working to create tools which
will enable the construction of the technology that may replace our species,”
worries Joy.
The scope of the new normal of change is not merely
electronic. In the industrialized nations especially, there is scarcely any
institution not impacted by what has become a continuum of change. Revered
establishments that have preserved and propagated belief and value systems have
toppled into the rifts opened by the Globequakes.
The scope is so broad it seems no one can escape the changes
hurtling toward us in the Globequake age. Just about the time we adjust to one
set of transitions, we are assaulted with more changes zipping at us faster
than we can assimilate them.
Velocity
The accumulation of information is the fastest increasing
quantity in the world. Researchers at
the University of California—Berkeley, examined the “total production of all
information channels in the world for two different years, 2000 and 2003.” In 2000, the total production of new
information in a 12-month period amounted to 37,000 times the information
housed in the Library of Congress. By 2003, the accumulation of information was
growing by 66 percent per year. The total amount of scientific knowledge has
been doubling every 15 years since 1900.
Information alters existing realities, and also creates new
phenomena. The velocity of information therefore accelerates change. The
Industrial Age shows there are certain periods of megaleaps, when technologies,
systems, and processes morph seemingly overnight into radically new forms. An
18th century balloon and the Wright Brothers’ airplane shared the goal of
enabling humans to fly, but the plane was a leap into a new category.
Information is a primary catalyst of change. No previous
historic period has experienced the velocity of the increase of information;
therefore, the contemporary period is unique—up to this point of history. This
is why Globequake-level change is the new normal.
What about the future? Clearly, if the velocity builds with
its own momentum, the eras ahead will be marked by even more radical change.
This raises a question of apocalyptic proportions: At what point does the
velocity overwhelm the “vehicle”? An airplane, for example, has a maximum
speed. Go beyond that and structural failure occurs. Systems break down.
Already, as the Berkeley study found, “the information about and from a process
will grow faster than the process itself… and so as we progress, information
will grow faster than whatever else is being produced.”
How will we contain it all? Followers of John the Baptist
asked Jesus one day, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples
do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14 ) Jesus’ answer is as relevant today as 20
centuries ago:
“… no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment;
for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old
wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the
wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are
preserved.” (Matthew 9:16-17)
The Gospel proclaimed by Jesus was truth so dynamic, so
vibrant with life new structures were needed to convey it across society and
history. The cry of the present Globequake age is for new “wineskins,” new
structures that can cope with the information coming at lightspeed—literally.
Sadly, having rejected the way of Jesus, the old religion of humanism can’t
handle the flood either, and its leaders work their fingers raw trying to piece
together new structures.
As we will see in the chapters ahead, once again the truth
about Jesus and His Kingdom is the “new wine” that will bring strength and
vitality to the world in upheaval. The structures of society must be renewed—they
must become “new wineskins”—to receive the powerful principles that give them
enduring calm and stability as they are being squeezed and torn by the
Globequake. As the velocity of information builds, the accumulation of energy
begins to impact the face of entire civilizations. Hardly any institution
escapes the resulting magnitude of change.
Magnitude
The ancient tectonic plate movements in earth’s geology and
geography were immense in magnitude, altering the face of the whole planet. The
changes now underway in the spiritual, social, political, economic, ethical,
and philosophical “continents” of the world are just as huge. The upheaval that
is the new norm in the present is redrawing the face of the world!
According to tectonic shift theory, in the earth’s early
history there was one vast supercontinent, Pangea. Upheavals deep in the planet
caused the plates on which the landmass rested to split, dividing massive
chunks from one another, and setting them adrift on the planet’s surface.
In a sense, this is what is happening to the spiritual,
intellectual, and socio-political systems of the world. There was once
consensus holding whole civilizations together. For example, scholars have
noted the similarities between the Ten Commandments and other law codes of
nations surrounding the Hebrews. The Ten Commandments were revealed to Moses by
God Himself, in an act theologians call “special revelation.” However, God’s
“general revelation” is written instinctively in every human being (Romans
2:15), so it’s no surprise there’s a certain consensus among humans regarding
murder, theft, adultery, and other moral issues on a near-global scale.
Globequake forces, however, shatter the consensus. Moral
relativism has devastated Western civilization. There is no longer a firm,
inviolable consensus around a core belief system. When the consensus is
destroyed, the Pangea of human belief and behavior is ripped apart. The world
fragments into the chaos of Israel in the time leading up to the Judges, when
every person “did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6)
The fragmentation in the consensus about God has had an
impact of great magnitude on many cultures. Under Globequake conditions, God
has first been pushed off to the sidelines of the public square, and, in the
thought of many elites, shoved out of sight totally.
The magnitude of this act is immense in its destructive
force. G.K. Chesterton wrote, “in the act of destroying the idea of Divine
authority we have largely destroyed the idea of that human authority by which
we do (an arithmetic) sum.” The
destructive forces at the highest levels of magnitude radiate downward, to the
most detailed concerns of life. With the loss of reverence for God comes a loss
of reverence for His creation—beginning with human life. Here the magnitude of
the upheaval reaches truly tragic proportions, resulting, for example, in the
abortion culture, and the deaths of tens of millions of unborn babies.
Three impacts on people
The scope, velocity, and magnitude of the changes wrought by
the Globequake impact us in three major ways.
Insecurity
People have many reasons to feel insecure in the Globequake
age. They worry about their marriages and other relationships, job security,
caring for their aging parents, and their own retirement, as well as a secure
future for their children and grandchildren. On the national and world scale
there’s concern about the availability of oil and other energy resources. Many
worry about the declining quality of leadership in a period when churches, families,
schools, government institutions, and businesses need the best.
And then there’s always the weather. One chunk of the
population fears climate change portends serious injury to the planet’s
ecosystem, which they believe to be fragile. Another hefty demographic worries
those who agonize over global warming and other environmental changes are
laying the framework for more government control of industrial and commercial
development, and the reduction of personal freedoms.
Many people are haunted by vague, unidentifiable anxiety,
manufactured within their own turbulent souls. We have managed to create an
entire culture of insecurity. Both the real and imagined threats of the
Globequake age drive us deeply into ourselves in the effort to fend off the
gremlins of fear and anxiety. The outcome is what we experience presently:
self-absorption resulting in what Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin called
the “sensate” stage of a culture, when feelings and emotions govern. The more
we view the world through the lens of our own emotions, the greater loom the
threats to our security.
Christopher Orlet writes, “an overdose of self-esteem and
self-promoting technology have combined to create a perfect storm of
narcissism.” The more narcissistic we
become the more insecure we are, worrying about the ripples that will destroy
the image we stare at relentlessly in the increasingly troubled waters of our
world. Thus, there is a vicious cycle in which insecurity leads to a passion
for self-preservation, which rushes into self-absorption, which results in more
insecurity.
Under such pressure, the psyche begins to crumble. In the
Globequake age, the heavy lifting of which only the spirit is capable has been
cast upon the flimsy soul. The Greek word translated “soul” in the New
Testament is psuche, from which we get “psyche” and a whole family of terms.
Insecurity is felt most acutely in the soul, where we think and feel
emotionally. If the condition persists, it affects the body with physical
symptoms, and drives people to the drugs and medications characteristic of our
times. The best the weary, overtaxed soul can do is crank out counterfeit
spirituality leading only to more disappointments, uncertainties and desperate
quests for security.
If we live in a state of insecurity long enough, after
awhile we drift into insanity.
Insanity
Insanity is at epidemic proportions. That was the conclusion
of E. Fuller Torrey and Judy Miller in their 2002 book, The Invisible
Plague. From 1955 into the 21st century,
many medications had become available, but the number of people diagnosed with
mental illness had increased six-fold!
It’s not just individuals, but whole nations can also lose
touch with their identity and history. What is the insanity that causes entire
cultures to lose their minds and dive into the spiritual, moral, and
intellectual fissures gouged by the Globequake?
“Identity is an
individual’s or group’s sense of self,” wrote Samuel P. Huntington, in Who Are
We?, a study of contemporary America’s identity crisis. Identity is important, he adds, because it
shapes our behavior. So people who rip apart high values covering them, their
families and nations, suffer from sheer insanity. Their destructive behavior
shows a loss of their own identity.
Insanity is “reason used without root, or reason in the
void,” wrote G.K. Chesterton. “The man
who begins to think without the proper first principles goes mad; he begins to
think at the wrong end.” Cultural, societal, and national insanity occurs when
people destroy their roots and forget their first principles. The Globequake
tears out the root-system and brings down the edifice of first principles.
That’s why whole societies lapse into insanity and lose their stability.
Instability
One day in 1973 the reality of the world’s instability
flamed to searing focus in my mind. I had grown up and spent much of my young
adulthood in a nation where you griped if you had to pay 38-cents for a gallon
of gas. But that morning as I pulled up to a pump, I was stunned when I saw the
price for a gallon of gasoline had rocketed to 58-cents. While I slept
something drastic had been afoot in the world. The tremors then were mild—we
would eagerly pay 58-cents for a gallon of gas today—but they portended greater
instability and upheaval to come.
In a much larger way, the devastating destabilization of the
Globequake is its impact on the foundations on which all strength and order
rest. So, in response to the Psalmist’s rhetorical question: there is much the
righteous can do in the midst of foundations crumbling under Globequake
upheaval. David gives us the foundational principle as, through the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, he begins answering his own question. The central fact we
must keep in focus when the foundations are quivering beneath us is recorded in
verse 4: “The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven…” Here is stability and
confidence!
In a later chapter we will explore the unshakeable Kingdom.
Its strength is in the Person enthroned in the “holy temple.” He is immoveable
and unchangeable, not because He doesn’t like change, but because He doesn’t
need it. At the core of all reality, and in the midst of the most catastrophic
upheavals, there is One who is perfect and complete, dwelling in a temple no
magnitude of quake can topple, on a throne from which He cannot be removed by
any force or power.
There are three essential foundations on which the tremors
focus their fury. The first is God Himself, the second is the foundation of
truth, and the third, the foundation of humanity. The absolute and objective
reality of God cannot be destroyed, but self-created human perceptions of God
can be rattled to the very foundations. Since God and truth are inseparable,
ultimate truth cannot be altered, but under intense tremors can be distorted
and confused. Because the human is created in the image of God, the
foundational nature of humanity cannot be obliterated, but it can be twisted.
If these foundations are destroyed in the subjective understanding and
experience of human beings, what can the people do who seek to hold to God’s
holiness and purity midst the turbulence of our age? Plenty, as we will see in
the pages ahead.
‘Things will settle down’
“Things will settle down,” my mother used to tell me. Pearl
Harbor and America’s entry into the world war came two days after my birth in
1941. My childhood was full of the global conflagration and its aftermath. Ten
years later, divorce blitzed our home, and our family experienced personal
upheaval. When I was a teenager and young adult, the headlines were obsessed
with the inevitably of global nuclear war.
Always my mother would say, “Things will settle down.”
She’s been gone a long time, but now I understand why she
remained stable and hopeful, no matter how intense the quakes that rumbled through
her life and world, and how she was able to steady our household.
Mother was the youngest of nine children. She and her
widowed mom were left on a barren farm as my mother’s older siblings went to
the big city to try to find jobs to support themselves, their mother and little
sister. There were times when my mom, at age six, had to milk the neighbor’s
cow so she and her own mother could survive. Later in life, my mom rode out the
heart-rending turbulence of domestic violence and the divorce that destroyed
her 18-year marriage. She was faced with the challenge of raising and educating
my sister and me. But she couldn’t be knocked down. She kept standing, no
matter what. That’s why I believed her when she said things would “settle
down.”
Now I see my mother didn’t mean the tremors would stop. She
knew they were the norm. One of the reasons my mother knew things would “settle
down” was because she was old enough to see a big swath of history. She
believed God was in charge of every moment. She knew “all things work together
for good” for those called by God and set apart for His purposes—even if it
took decades (See Romans 8:28-39). She had an instinctive sense of how time
works, and that formed her understanding of her narrow slice of history and an
individual’s experience within it.
Finally I figured it out. She wasn’t telling me the external
world would “settle down,” because the upheavals were the norm. Rather, my
mother was saying I would “settle down” in the midst of the shaking by
positioning myself on sold biblical truth, just as she had done.
“What can the righteous do?” For one thing, we must examine
and incorporate into our worldview the Bible’s revelation about how time
functions, and allow that truth to shape our perspective about the Globequake.
As my mother demonstrated, you don’t have to be an Albert Einstein or Stephen
Hawking to get it!