David N. Walker's Blog, page 14

5 AUTHOR BLOG HOP

Today is the fifth and final day of the 5 AUTHORS BLOG HOP. For those of you who have traveled over here from one of the other authors’ sites, let me introduce myself. As you can see from the masthead, I’m a Christian author.

My first book, Heaven Sent is a collection of inspirational stories. My daughter, Lynn Heatherly, and I wrote several of these pieces, and the remainder were gathered from emails I’ve received through the years.

Christianity 101: The Simplified Christian Life is my most recent Christian book. It cuts through all the do’s and dont’s and presents the simple essence of the Gospel.

In between those two, I wrote a series of seven novellas about a girl whose mother died giving birth to her baby sister and whose father was reported killed in the War Between the States, leaving her to operate the family farm and raise her sister. Her journey takes her from the family farm in Alabama all the way to the new town of Seattle on the Pacific coast.

  

Although this series consists of seven novellas and was originally published as seven separate books, I’ve combined the first two in one book, the next three in another, and the last two in a third book. This allows me to offer this series at a more favorable price than was possible with the seven books.

Fancy is designed for young adult and adult audiences. At my last book-signing, I saw one thirteen or fourteen year-old girl who bought the first book and couldn’t put it down. Hopefully you’ll find it riveting also.

In case you missed any of the first four blogs in this hop, Monday’s was by J.T. Therrien,(click here). Tuesday’s was by Molly Harrison (click here). Wednesday’s was by Ben S. Woodard (click here). Thursday’s was by Charity Kountz (click here). Go back and read any of these you may have missed along the way.

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Ben S Woodard, Caring, Charity Kountz, Christianity 101: The Simplied Christian Life, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, J T Therrien, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Molly Harrison, People, Personal development, Self-help

The Fruit of the Spirit

Sometimes it’s difficult to be a Christian in today’s world. The world is so full of hatred, we can hardly pick up a newspaper or turn on a TV news program without hearing about Muslim terrorists committing atrocities against Jews and Christians—and even other Muslims who don’t happen to be of their particular sect.

Or people rioting and burning down businesses belonging to people who have done them no harm—just because they hate. Or people killing innocent babies before they’re even born, just because their birth would be inconvenient.

Most of us have a natural urge somewhere down inside of us to express our own hatred toward these people. Motivated by a desire to see them receive the punishment they deserve for their deeds, we want to vent our scorn in no uncertain terms. I’m guilty of this, and I suspect many of you are also.

But this is not what we as Christians are called to do. We have a criminal justice system which is charged with responsibility for prosecuting and convicting those who commit crimes, and we have intelligence and defense agencies to protect us against foreign invasion and acts of terrorism. It’s not our place to condemn and heap invective upon such people.

Paul made the following statement in Galatians 5:22:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness

These things are what the world should see when looking at us. Exhibiting these traits reflects Jesus. When people see us displaying such things in the face of all the wrong going on in today’s world, it makes them stop and think. It sets us apart and makes people around us think maybe there is something to this Christianity business.

On the other hand, when we return hatred for hatred, scorn for scorn, we give the world reason to say Christians are no different from anyone else. Rather than drawing them to the cross, we repel them from it. Is this the effect we want to have on the people around us?

In fairness, I must admit I don’t always practice what I preach on this. My mouth frequently gets going before the Holy Spirit gets control. How about you?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Archives Tagged: Bible, Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, Fruit of the Spirit, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Sins, Works

Oops!

Whenever Sharon and I travel I make an Excel file for our itinerary. In fact, I enjoy thinking about traveling so much I make up such files for imaginary trips. Okay, I’m crazy—so sue me.

Anyway, I have a column listing points along the way, another column for distances between points, another for cumulative distance for the day and so forth. At the end of each day I use a line to enter motel information, including address, phone and confirmation number. This way, I have a written record of everything I need to know for the trip.

In case you don’t read my Facebook posts, I recently had some work done on my computer which obliterated all my files. Since I used (no longer) a program called Oops! that automatically backs up all files, I didn’t worry about restoring them. What I didn’t know was that Oops! quit backing up on September 4th, and I had no way to restore any files created or changed after that date.

Among other things, I lost some 120 pages of manuscript I’d been working on. I wanted to cry over that loss, but I didn’t think anything else lost was of great consequence.

Then the other day I happened to see my “Vacation” email file, where I keep email confirmations of reservations and such, and I realized I was missing the email for one night of an impending trip. I remembered then that the motel had not sent me a confirmation, but I hadn’t worried about it since I had all that information in my Excel file.

Just to be safe, I decided to pull up the Excel file, and that’s when I discovered it was one of those lost without a backup. What do you do when you have a confirmed motel reservation but you don’t know the name of the motel, or even the town. I knew what part of what state it was in, but it could have been in a number of different towns.

Of course, when you make a reservation, they ask for a credit card number to guarantee it, which suits me fine, since I sometimes don’t arrive at motels until after 6:00 and I don’t want to lose the room. Now I was in the position of having guaranteed to pay for a room I couldn’t find.

No one wants to throw away $80 to $100 on a room not used—especially no one married to my wife. So I spent a semi-frantic hour or so calling all the motels I could find in the general vicinity in question. The more I called, the less semi the frantic became.

Fortunately, the story has a happy ending. I eventually found the right motel in an obscure suburb outside the city where I thought it was. Whew!

What sort of panic have you run into in planning trips?

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Excel, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Self-help, Vacation

George Fridrich Handel

This time of year our hearts turn to Christmas music, and when mine turns to Christmas music, it turns to The Messiah. I had the honor of singing in a couple of performances of this great piece of music in my youth, and I fell in love with it. I believe I could happily listen to “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” 24 hours a day.

There are many great pieces in The Messiah. From the tenor solo, “Comfort Ye My People” which starts it off to the final chorus, “Worthy Is the Lamb,” it is filled with great music, but no other single piece has ever been written that stirs my heart as the soprano solo, “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” does.

There is a church here that performs The Messiah every year during the Christmas season, and my wife and I usually manage to attend a performance. At this church, everyone is given a copy of the music (to be returned at the end of the performance) and encouraged to sing along on the choruses. That always takes me back to the days when I sang in such a production.

The composer, George Fridrich Handel was born February 23, 1685, and died April 14, 1759. During his 74 years here on earth, he amassed an amazing list of accomplishments.

We primarily know Handel for his Messiah, but he was a renowned composer long before he wrote it. Although his father wanted him to be a lawyer, music had too firm a hold on his heart. He wrote a couple of operas which were produced in 1705—when he was only 20 years old, and over his lifetime he wrote operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos.

Handel was 56 years old when he wrote The Messiah, and he never performed an Italian opera after that. Taking text submitted to him by Charles Jennens, Handel adapted it and wrote the music for it in an astonishing 24 days!

Unlike many classical artists, Handel was a wealthy man at the time of his death in 1759. He also created a wealth of music during his life, the greatest of which was The Messiah.

What is your favorite solo or chorus from this magnificent piece?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Bible, Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, George Fridrich Handel, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Sins, The Messiah, Works

Thanksgiving Memories

With Thanksgiving approaching, I’ve thought back over some memorable such holidays in the past. Two were strange enough I wanted to share them with you.

The first one was probably in 1956. Our family, along with two others, had a cabin in Ute Park, New Mexico, 7500 feet up in the mountains. It was built for summer use, and compared to our Texas heat the weather was delightful. Our air conditioning system consisted of a six or eight inch gap between the walls and the roof, which was very pleasant in the summer.

That year, we decided to spend Thanksgiving in the cabin. As we soon learned, that gap was a bit less helpful this time of year with morning lows of five, four, and six degrees for the days we were there. There was no provision for heat in the place, since it was a summer cabin, so opening the oven door was the only way to get any heat into the place. We bundled up in heavy clothes when we got out of bed, and kept them on all day, whether we went outside or not.

Somehow, we made it through the ordeal, and on our last day there, we came up with another brilliant idea. We would cut one of the abundant pine trees and haul it 600 miles back home to serve as our Christmas tree. The worst cuss word my father knew was “damn,” but he used it liberally on the drive home. I don’t know how many times the front end of the tree came untied, but it was several, and each time we would have to pull over and stop and reattach it. Lots of fun.

The other memorable Thanksgiving was in 1982. My 13 year-old daughter was flying from Oklahoma City to Lubbock to be with me. As always, there was a plane change at DFW—there are few places you can fly directly to from either OKC or Lubbock—and she got snowed in at DFW.

Fortunately, my wife had a sister who lived in the area, and she drove through the storm to the airport and took my daughter home with her for the night. The next morning the planes still weren’t flying, so we drove down to get her, missing the normal turkey time in the process.

Time had dimmed my memory of the details, but I think we ended up spending a day or less at home with her before we had to put her on a plane to return. Not exactly what we had planned.

What SNAFU’s have you incurred through the years trying to get family together for this holiday?

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, DFW Airport, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Self-help, Thanksgiving

The essence of the Gospel

A wise old preacher was once asked what the greatest lesson was that he’d learned from his years of studying the Bible. After a moment’s pause to reflect, he said, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

I can’t top that, and for some reason, I don’t have anything particularly brilliant to say today, so I think I’ll just leave it at that.

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Bible, Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Sins, Works

Caregivers

If your parents live long enough, chances are the parent-child relationship will be reversed at some point along the way, putting you in the position of taking care of one of your parents as they once did for you. Some people look at this as a great imposition and seek to avoid taking on such a role, but I relish it.

Here’s a photo taken on my mother’s 98th birthday:

I’ve mentioned my mother from time to time, and many of you already know she’s 98 years old and incapable of living on her own. She lived an independent life into her early nineties, but, although her financial resources allow her to avoid needing my sister and me to help with that, she has gradually devolved from total independence to a state of total dependence in which she needs someone to bathe and dress her, feed her, and transfer her from her bed to the recliner where she spends much of the day.

Since my sister lives some 1800 miles away, she gets here for a week or so every few months, but taking care of Mother’s financial affairs, arranging for her care, making medical decisions for her and so forth are left up to me, and I don’t mind a bit. I couldn’t possibly repay all she did in birthing and raising me, much less all the support she has always given me in my adult life, so I just look upon the present situation as an opportunity for me to do something for her.

As much as I love her, however, I’m not the person to bathe and feed her and do all the other little things she needs done daily. I wouldn’t be very good at it, and it would be a major imposition on my wife for me to try. Enter the professional caregiver.

Somewhere around age 90, Mother began to need help keeping her pills straight and doing her laundry. At that time, she lived in an independent living center, but they had a care-giving service available which we could hire to do these things. After a few years of this, it became necessary to move her from independent living into an assisted living facility.

For the first several years of assisted living, she could still bathe, dress, and feed herself, and use a walker to get around, but she did rely on caregivers for help with a lot of things, such as cooking, cleaning, laundry and such. Nowadays, she is completely dependent upon caregivers for everything except breathing.

It amazes me that there are so many people who are willing to do everything from feeding to changing dirty diapers on people like mother in return for paychecks comparable to working at McDonald’s. What’s even more amazing, is the cheerfulness of these ladies. Well, there are a few male caregivers, but in my experience, almost all are female.

The people who provide care for Mother just exude love. They hug her and smile while doing all sorts of things for her. At her first assisted living home, there were a few whose attitudes weren’t always flawless, but they were very few, and in the home where she currently lives, I haven’t found one person whose attitude is less than completely loving.

My hat is off to each and every one of these people who perform such vital services and do it so cheerfully and lovingly. I don’t think I could do the jobs they do, but I’m certainly thankful that they can and do.

What experiences have you had in dealing with the care of a parent or grandparent?

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Assisted Living Homes, Authorship, Caregivers, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Independent Living Homes, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Self-help

Seeing the People

The ninth chapter of Matthew contains these two verses:

35     Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

It’s easy when we’re reading a passage such as this to think, okay—that’s Jesus doing His thing—and then move on to something else. Do we stop and really ponder on what this means? Frequently not.

Personally, I’ve read these lines, along with the rest of the chapter, many times. That has been my reaction to it, too, but yesterday, my wonderful Sunday School teacher made us all slow down and think about what was going on. “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them . . .”

When we’re in a crowd or walking along a sidewalk or walking through a mall, do we see the people, or do we just see a crowd—a mass of humanity gathered for an event or pushing along trying to get somewhere? Do we think about the people, or do we just wish the crowd were elsewhere instead of being in our way?

How many of the people we encounter on a given day are “distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd?” Every one of them was created in the image of God and after His likeness. They are all unique individuals who are very important to our heavenly Father.

A few years ago it was popular to say or write WWJD. What would Jesus do? He never saw a crowd. He saw individuals with problems and concerns, and He cared about each of those individual and each of those problems and concerns.

Do we really care WWJD? Do we want to be conformed to His image? If so, shouldn’t we share His care and concern for people?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Sins, Works

Fall Gathering of Authors

As you read this, I’m in Texarkana, Texas, participating in the Fall Gathering of Authors. This is my second year to participate in this event, and I’ve really been looking forward to it.

Here are a few photos from last year’s event:

My friend Charity Kountz and I had the best location in the place.

Some of my books on display last year.

Our friend Rich Weatherly introduced us to this event.

In addition to giving indie authors a great opportunity to display our wares, this event serves two other purposes. On Friday night, there is a fund-raising dinner to help support St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. In the photo below, Tammy Thompson, who founded, organized, and runs this event, addresses the dinner attendees.

The other purpose of this gathering is to encourage young people to write. Tammy works with the middle schools in Texarkana to get students to submit essays or stories. Then the best of these are selected to be included in a book published for the occasion. Here are copies of last year’s book Dream Catchers.

On Saturday, the kids who wrote the stories included in the book sign copies just like we do with our own books. In fact, most of the traffic for our signings came from people drawn by the kids. Here’s a group picture of some of last year’s writers.

This is such a unique event. Where else can you hawk your own wares, encourage a bunch of young writers, support a wonderful charity such as St. Jude’s, be treated like royalty by the event personnel, and be given comped hotel rooms and a couple of meals? I’m sure I’ll be going to Texarkana for this event every year as long as they will have me.

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

——————————————

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Caring, Charity Kountz, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fall Gathering of Authors, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Rich Weatherly, Self-help, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Tammy Thompson, Texarkana

Grace Plus Nothing

Paul concludes the second chapter of Galatians with the following statement in Verse 21:

“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

If all Christians understood this one verse and lived by it, my newly-published book, Christianity 101: The Simplified Christian Life (click here for information on how to order), would have been unnecessary. This one statement by Paul pretty much covers it.

We Christians are always wanting to tinker with salvation—to add our own little pet requirements. If you’re a Christian, you can’t do this, or you have to do that. We can’t accept the fact that salvation comes by grace through faith and by NOTHING else.

In Paul’s day, the big controversy was whether or not one had to be circumcised in order to be saved. Basically, the Jewish Christians of the day insisted that everyone had to keep the law in order to be saved.

There are still those today who insist Christians must keep the Mosaic Law. Others put forth rules about attending movies, dancing, the length of skirts or hair, and all manner of other things they would have us do or refrain from doing in order to be saved.

Have we learned nothing in the last 2000 years? After all those centuries and all the scriptures available to us, must we still ignore the simplicity of the gospel and add our own requirements to it?

If refraining from attending movies or dancing or any of the other no-no’s people want to put on us could save us, or if going to church or playing with beads or chanting om’s could save us—if ANY action of man could save us—then Jesus’s incarnation, life, death and resurrection were unnecessary.

As Paul said, if any “. . . righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” Let’s take Paul’s word for this and accept Jesus’s sacrifice and quit trying to add our own pet ideas to salvation and being Christians.

What things have you been told you have to do or can’t do in order to be saved? In order to be a real Christian?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Paul, salvation, Sins, Works