Monthly Archives: April 2015

Ladies and Gentlemen: We Have A Title!

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Ladies and Gentlemen: We have a title! You will recall how I was bemoaning – wait, I’m not sure that’s the right word – puzzled? No. Frustrated? Mmm, no. It’s that state of being where you know something isn’t right, but are having trouble knowing how to fix it. What is that? Well, whatever it is, it’s fixed!

And, Rhonda Jensen, you have earned yourself a free, autographed copy of my new book fresh off the presses (when those presses print it 🙂 ) for your terrific suggestion! Yes, indeed. My publisher agreed to use the title, Mrs. Covington’s Sunday School Dropouts.  003

I’m looking forward to August when it will be published! To whet your reading appetites, I will tell you that each chapter begins with something the main character has said to her students. Here’s a sample:

Peter said, ‘Lord, you know that I love you.’ and then Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’ Peter knew sheep were stupid and stubborn and could smell up the sheep pen, so he knew Jesus wasn’t saying this just because it had a pretty ring to it. No, Brandon, no one ever, ever adequately anticipates the clean up.

And so begins the clean up…

So Hallelujah and pass the coffee! I’m doing a little happy dance here in the hobbit-sized study where I write. I hope your day holds something as exciting for you as a new book title is for me!

TGIF

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There was a man who was born under intriguing circumstances and for most of his years lived a common life with uncommon insight and passion. Then he began more widely sharing his teaching with anyone who would listen. Word spread, and people began traveling for miles just in order to hear what he had to say. Some of them did so simply so they could say they’d seen the current newsmaker. Some of them were more than curious, and followed him from place to place. For more than a few it got to be too much and they returned home to the comfortable and familiar. There were those, however, who took his words to heart. Those lives, the lives of those who took his words to heart, were changed whether they tramped up and down a few miles of the middle east with him; or lived out their lives in cities or towns or the countryside; or became international travelers.

And then there were those who heard him and hated him. They didn’t just hate his teaching. They hated him. They hated him enough to put him through a mockery of a trial and crucify him. They hated him enough to hunt down people who had followed him and continued to share about him even after he’d been killed, in part, as a result of mob hysteria and a powerful nation. Curious, isn’t it, how hate can travel not just miles but years?

But the truth remains: He died for you. For your redemption from the horrors of hell. For your free welcome to heaven. Your choice.

Cross_in_sunset

This Friday is Good Friday, the day we remember Jesus’ crucifixion. And Sunday? Maybe you can look that one up yourself.

Image: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. By AntanO (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons; http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACross_in_sunset.jpg