Marilynn Dawson's Blog, page 15

This wouldn't share from my profile: Another Story of God at Work in the Little Things of the Home

Last Saturday, Ashley and I went shopping and ended up purchasing three major groups of stuff:

 

a) regular groceries (maybe $20 over budget), b) Holiday groceries, (close to $100), and back to school stuff for Ashley and hoped-for shoeboxes later this fall (another $45 roughly).

 

 

Superstore was having one of those gas events where you get so much off per litre if you spend so much in groceries. For the first time in who knows how long, I had enough to warrant the largest dollar value off per litre on the coupon! I was thrilled, double-checked the use-by date, and put it on my desk knowing that during this staycation, a time would come when I'd have to fill up again.

 

 

That time came tonight. We'd driven to and from the Trestles, out to the Kangaroo farm in lake country down to Crock Talk in east Kelowna and then down Lakeshore to Carmelis Goat Cheese past Bertram Park, then all the way out north of Vernon to the Atlantis Waterslides. I'd already used a quarter tank for work the week previous and was now down to a quarter tank tonight and figured I'd go gas up after midweek prayer.

 

 

It was at midweek prayer when I was told that gas prices are rising all over town as of today due to a rifinery going up on flames somewhere in the US. I was told of only one gas station that hadn't moved yet.

 

 

I left midweek prayer and went to Superstore's gasbar to use the gas coupon, only to also discover that it too had not yet moved up the price! I paid only $1/litre tonight for roughly 38 litres of fuel to fill the 3/4 empty tank!

 

 

Needless to say, I was thanking God for the timing of that coupon, the timing of the groceries needed to get that coupon, and the fact that the Superstore Gasbar had not yet raised their prices! I would never have foreseen that combination of events. All I knew was that I had a regular run, a holiday run, and got a coupon because of it.

 

 

I saved almost $10 off the total cost of my gas purchase tonight!

 

 

Thank You Lord for making that gas fill affordable.

Promotional Note: Becoming the Bride of Christ: A Personal Journey Volume One Available for Purchase

Volume One became available for purchase over the weekend from both Createspace.com and Amazon.com. This means I am populating the "where to buy" section of this page.

 

Volumes 2 - 6 are on course for availability by the end of August, barring any unforeseen circumstances. A 7th may be in the works if a leader's guide gets the input it needs to come together.

 

 A pdf of the volume list giving the chapter titles contained in each volume is also available as its own tab here on this Facebook page . A collage of the cover art is also in the photo album here. Bookmarks can be downloaded from here and printed double-sided, then cut apart to use either for yourself, or to pass around to others.

 

I now have an author page at Amazon.com and when the remaining volumes become available, they will all be featured at this link. Each book has its own page at Createspace.com. Volume One

 

A short "elevator pitch" as they call it, is shared below.

 

* * *

Becoming the Bride of Christ chronicles Marilynn's personal journey as she learns to live with God as unseen Husband and Father in the home. It's about learning to appropriate many Scriptural concepts that we've overly spiritualized, and bringing them down to where life is lived every day. This series can be read as an account of the lessons God's actively teaching Marilynn, or it can be engaged in as a personal or group Bible study. There is quite a bit of Scripture in every chapter, as well as questions to help a person appropriate these lessons into their own life. One of Marilynn's goals is to share a story that men as well as women can read and glean from. Too often it seems presentations on the Bride of Christ have been geared toward women when Scripture says the Church, who is referred to as the Bride of Christ, is made up of men and women. She write from a women's perspective of course, but it's her desire that men will be able to gather helpful insight, not just women. After all, we are all called to live out the commands of Christ in our everyday life.

 

* * *

 

If you know anyone who would benefit from sharing in my journey, pass this email on to them and have them contact me at author@fa-ct.com for further information.

 

If you know of Bible study leaders who might want something a bit different for their group members to go through, pass this on to them. I've developed a skeleton generic calendar, with the discovery that if a group chose to do all 6 volumes in one year, that it would take them 10 months. However it is to accommodate the potential for groups to take this on, that there are 6 volumes. Each volume goes for an estimated number of weeks:

 

Volume One: chapters 1 - 4 = 10 weeks

Volume Two: chapters 5 and 6 = 6 weeks

Volume Three: chapters 7 - 9 = 8 weeks

Volume Four: chapter 10 = 10 weeks

Volume Five: chapters 11 and 12 = 10 weeks

Volume Six: chapters 13 and 14 = 3 weeks

 

If a person reads each volume by themselves, they can make it take as long or as little as they wish.

 

Anyone reading this who has ever attempted to write a book will know that if people don't know about it, they won't buy it. So feel free to pass this information on to anyone who would either a) appreciate it, b) promote it, c) use it for their group, etc.

We are NOT Alone!

The thought hit me again last night - we are not alone! There is a song that sings during the bridge, "We are not alone (be still and know I'm here) we are not alone" etc.

 

The biggest lie in the universe is when we think that there is no one else out there going through what we are going through. That we are doing this all on our own and no one understands. Too many lives have ended because someone felt so alone, so isolated, so without hope, that life seemed better off over and done with.

 

But the truth is, others have walked where we are walking. Others have been where we are. Others have gone through what we are going through now, and it behooves us to tell our stories to encourage those who so desparately need it.

 

Such is the encouragement I received last night. Learning how similar someone's journey was to my own, just served to spurr me on to complete this book series, "Becoming the Bride of Christ: A Personal Journey".

 

Volume One is supposed to be in my hands right now, but is waiting on Canada Post to deliver it this side of the border. Once I've approved the cover art, the first of 6 volumes will be available for purchase, with the others soon to follow.

 

God is already using my story to encourage others, and that in itself is encouraging me. I get cold feet about sharing my story at times. But last night that was thoroughly assuaged, right along with the renewed realization that indeed. . . we are NOT alone!

When brainstorming one thing leads to something else. . .

So tonight I'm sitting here looking at marketing suggestions on the forums of createspace.com, when one suggestion is to write about the book from 10 different angles.  Then use those angles in creating press releases.  Press releases should be sent out before the book is printed, so as to create interest in the subject matter and increase chances of the book being purchased.

 

So I opened my list of volumes/chapter titles, and began thinking about those titles.  I was amazed again at how the breakdown has fit so nicely into each volume, but was also struck by an over-arching theme of relationship.  So I figured, well, let's make relationship the first angle I attempt to write about.  The following list developed, and I realized I don't have one article here, I have several just on this angle alone!

 

God wants relationship

 

God the Father wants to interact with His Children

God the Son wants to win His Bride, heal her scars, and present her blameless to the Father

God the Holy Spirit wants to woo us to the Son, teach us the Son and Father's ways, and live through us to the world around us, wooing others to the Father through our yielded efforts.

 

Maintaining Relationship:

 

God longs to know that WE want relationship with HIM.

So He waits for us to come to Him of our own choosing.

Waits for us to show by our obedience that we want to live in a manner that pleases Him.

Waits for us to carry out the mandates He presents to us.

 

Marks of healthy relationship:

 

Focus on the other person for who they are, not on what they can do for you

Focus on pleasing the other person rather than how the other person can please you

Making time to be together in conversation, action, or silence

Gratitude toward the other person rather than incessant demands

 

Byproducts of Relationship:

 

Answered prayer

Personal healing and restoration where needed

Sense of never being alone

Challenges to go further, deeper, higher, etc

 

Ways to destroy relationship:

 

Never show gratitude, always plead, beg, demand

Never make time for the other person but expect them to always be there for you

Never do anything to please the other person, never show an interest in what pleases them

The quandry of marketing. . . Getting the word out about my story in a way that isn't self-serving. . .

So I continue the editing while looking over other details of publishing.

 

One big one is this whole business of marketing. If God has impressed on me to tell my story and make it available, then it also has to be found. If writing my story wasn't challenging enough with how vulnerable and transparent it makes this very private person, promoting my story feels even more uncomfortable, because it forces me to get out there in one way or another.

 

Various avenues are available, press releases(so many sites offering this its not funny), blog writing, ad campaigns, attempts at generating word-of-mouth, etc. I'll be asking you guys, my initial core group here, to help with the word of mouth.

 

If you strongly believe in what I am doing, then I'll ask you to start sharing this with your friends, pastors, and Bible study leaders that you know.  Send them the link to this fan page and invite them to click "like" and read chapter one and the volume list.

 

The entire purpose of telling my story is not to say in any way that I've "arrived", but to hopefully encourage someone else along their own journey into the heart of God.  I have to relearn various aspects of these lessons, because in my humanity, life goes on and I forget.  Editing and preparing this series is indeed reminding me every so often of things I need to keep working on with the help of the Holy Spirit.

 

If you know of people who blog about new books coming out, point them in my direction so we can chat.  

 

Send them to https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1... if they don't have a facebook account so they can review chapter one there.

 

Pray for me that I'll hit the right places myself, and for this project that it will get into the hands of those who need it most.

Isaiah 32:17 from today's shared status, and its context

Isa 32:15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.

Isa 32:16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.

Isa 32:17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

Isa 32:18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

 

This passage is warning the women of Israel that trouble is coming, wastelands and lack of creature-comforts they have grown so used to!  But then verse 15 comes, and God turns to the future.

 

I find it of keen interest that it is only when the Spirit is poured out, that the following verses are made possible!  The wilderness will turn into a fruitful field and from there grow into a forest.  God's judgement, which I have come to understand as helpful to the Christ-follower, not harmful, will rest over the wilderness, producing righteousness in the fruitful field.

 

Indeed God fully intends that His desires to cleanse us from unrighteousness, would result in righteous living, and from there to the quietness and peace spoken of  in verse 17.

 

Living a life pleasing in God's eyes does bring peace, even with one's neighbors according to Proverbs.  But all this is made possible by the Holy Spirit poured out upon us on the Day of Pentecost!

 

Praise God for keeping His promises!

What's with the tree on the cover?!

I've never considered myself much of an artist.  This tree on the cover, is probably the only thing I ever felt confident enough to draw.  The last time I drew it was as a teenager.  When the thought hit me to see if I could draw it again, I was quite surprised it actually turned out!

 

Back in 2008 when I first sat down to consider this writing project, it all looked like the visual equivalent of a tree with intertwining branches weaving in and around each other. It took a while to figure out how to present these lessons in a way that didn't boggle the reader and still offer that sense of discovery and revelation as it came to me. This series is the result. The presentation isn't perfect, but I pray it encourages you down your own path into the depths of God's heart.

 

The tree on the cover represents the nature of the lessons in this series.  

 

There is additional symbolism in that Christ says we are the branches and He is the Vine.  A vine is not a tree, but branches of a tree are attached to a trunk the same way branches of a vine are attached to the main vine.  Cut off the branch and you cut off the source of life to that branch.  So it is as the Holy Spirit moves through us as we stay connected to Christ, that we have the power to be all that God longs for us to be. 

Book Size Quandry Answered!

All 6 book cover art images

So in case anyone hasn't noticed. . . my page count problem has been solved!  It's morphing into 6 volumes that are so far maxing out to be no longer than 200 pages, roughly!  The breakdown seemed to flow with the chapter titles too, which was even more amazing!

 

A copy of the volume breakdown is now posted on the main page among the tabs here.  But once again, it's as if the breakdown guided itself!

 

There are definitely times when it seems this book has a mind of its own. . . and/ or that God is deciding how its going to flow. . .

 

Get's me excited when I stop to think about it!