"Encouragement In Grace" launch day

Forty-three years and thirteen years in the making, seven-and-a-half years of writing and three months of editing & formatting, today my eBook "Encouragement In Grace" launches at Amazon.

For 43 years I was an unsaved rebel enemy of Christ. Hating Him at every turn, I tried ignoring my festering conscience. I was perplexed by the revelation of God to the world through the world, but rejected the solution of Jesus as Creator. Finally I dabbled in almost every other religion I could find to salve my anxious and offended soul. For forty-three years, nothing worked.

After a torturous series of events lasting several years, at long last and in His perfect timing, I was saved by His grace. I did not have an aisle-walking pillow soft Just As I Am salvation. I did not have an easy experience with warm sensuous embraces by an invisible Groom. I did not hear a gentle voice calling me toward clouds. I was dragged kicking and screaming over the threshold of the Door and was given the grace to repent despite my howling objections. At last, I succumbed.

As a result, I value His grace so dearly.

Post-salvation, the Spirit prompted me to begin using my time and writing ability for His glory. I began blogging and exploring theological issues in the topics of discernment, encouragement, and prophecy, the gifts the Spirit had delivered to me. For nine years I blogged, accelerating my writing activity for the last seven years by blogging daily. I wrote on the range of topics in the way I prayed would encourage or convict readers and honor the Lord.

The internet, and blogs in particular, were a gracious addition to the technology the Lord has allowed to be invented. They have been a wonderful relief to me, a writer who has been minimally published, but despaired at the hurdles and gatekeeping of the tightly-knit publishing industry. Blogs allow authors to side-step all that. What a benefit to live in a nation that allows free expression and discussion of Christian topics on self-publishing platforms.

Years later, along came self-publishing platforms such as Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. Hallelujah! KDP and other programs make self-publishing easier ... but never easy. Writing is not easy. Writing about God and for God is even less easy. Neither is it easy researching among the competing self-publishing platforms, proof-reading, formatting, and marketing. But it makes the process of disseminating material written by people like me more straightforward. For that, I'm grateful for the opportunity to make Jesus known through these means.

The next two books in this series will be published approximately four months apart. As with Encouragement In Grace, the next eBooks will be published through the Kindle Direct Program, Lord willing. They'll be called -

Prophecy In Grace

Discernment In Grace

If you should choose to buy the eBook, I pray that "Encouragement In Grace" convicts, enlightens, or sheds some other aspect of Jesus onto your heart and mind.



Comments

  1. Blogs are *good* technology? You've seen the rot on tumblr, right?

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    1. I said that blogs are a gracious addition to the technologies God has allowed to be invented. Technology itself is neutral. But because man is sinful, man will use technology for ill purposes. By 1961 the promising technology of televised images and sound (TV) had dwindled, and famously, Newton Minow noted before the FCC that it had become a "vast wasteland".

      To answer your question, no, I have not seen the rot on tumblr. I have seen the rot on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress...and heard of the rot on SnapChat, YikYak, and so on.

      The printing press allowed dissemination of the first Bibles in the people's vernacular, sparking the Reformation. The same printing presses printed porn, too.

      There is no doubt that television, radio, and internet can and is used for good purposes by sharing the truth. We are blessed to live in an age where historical sermons such as from Spurgeon and the ones before him and after him can be easily rad and heard thanks to blogs, Youtube, online radio, and the internet in general.

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  2. That is so exciting, Elizabeth! What a wonderful accomplishment! I, too, am so thankful for blogging. Writing a book is something that I have been thinking about for some years now. I have the outline and everything but even thinking about it is a bit fearful for me!

    I would like to contact you personally about something (unrelated to my comment), but just cannot find a way to contact you on this page. Do you have contact info that I am just not seeing...? :)

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind encouragement Leslie A! I appreciate it.

      My email is at the end of the explanation in the tab 'About This Blog'

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    2. I also moved made a copy of it for the right-hand sidebar. No one could ever find the email address in About This Blog, so...

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  3. Congratulations on your new e-book! (I don't have a Kindle... can it be downloaded to a Macbook?) I've found your blog over the summer and have enjoyed all your articles.

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    1. Yes, apparently there's an App for that, lol.

      https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle/id405399194?mt=12

      https://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/mac/download

      thank you for your congratulations!

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    2. note, the second link above *actually* starts the download.

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    3. Also, Amazon has a free app to read Kindle books, too, within their own platform. Now I remember using it before I acquired a Kindle.

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  4. Congrats! I see my copy arrived in my Kindle app, and I look forward to reading it.

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  5. Will definitely look for your new ebooks. Congratulations! One of my sisters is an author and a poet so I know the excitement in publishing. I have just found your blog and am impressed with your writing and perspective. Living in rural Alaska it is hard to find good scripture backed varied discussion on topics people just breeze over. Encouragement and Discernment are two of my gifts as well as one of my son's. I'm looking forward to reading All of your books you have listed to publish. I can't wait to share your blog with him, and equally neat- he's spends part of the year in Georgia��. He is a 20 yr old who constantly seeks to keeps Christ center in his life and enjoys reading about the Bible and how it relates to his Daily Walk with the Lord. As a mom of three I sincerely appreciate those who take the time to share their insights and views on living a Christ centered life in this world. So far today Ive come across so many pieces youve written that made me smile as they have been topics of conversation at our home in the last nine months ie: whispering and gossip, Teachers who are more concerned with their own glory, The Catholic faith, morality in entertainment,. I know these were written some time ago, but it was a kick to see so many things weve discussed recently written down in one place. Again, congrats and thank you for more discussion topics for our family. I think maybe this kind(tech) of avenue will be added to our spiritual journey. Im not a big technology fan like my kids are (sons ages 22 and 20, daughter age 11. Me a dinosaur at 46) My illness (systemic and discoid Lupus) doesn't allow much time for tradional Bible study in the church setting these days. Do you have any suggestions as to other good sites I should check out? I love the discussions you provoke and the topics youve chosen to cover. Looking forward to reading more and will be sharing your blog with my hubby, friends, and family. Well done.

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    1. Hi Kelli! And welcome. Thanks for your encouragement, I appreciate it so much.

      There are other good sites I recommend, are in this essay, scroll way down,
      https://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2015/01/she-reads-truth-ifgathering-and-women.html

      I also recommend Erin Benziger who has a podcast called Equipping Eve equippingeve.com

      Michelle Lesley who does good discernment work as well as lessons going thru books of the Bible, https://michellelesleybooks.com

      DebbieLynne Kespert, https://headstickdeb.com/
      Sharon Lareau, chapter3min.org/

      And don't restrict yourself to women,

      the Grace To You blog is super duper, gty.org/blog

      Anything from 9 Marks, https://9marks.org/

      TheCripplegate.com

      should be enough to get ya going! :)

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