Janet Sketchley's Blog: Tenacity, page 62

Confident in God

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16, NIV*

We’re encouraged to approach God’s very throne. With confidence.

In what circumstances? When we’re at the peak of our success and have it all together?

No. Believers in Christ are to come to the All-Powerful Ruler of all creation when we most need grace and mercy.

Asking for help from others is hard for many of us, in part because we feel...

Review: Random Acts of Murder, by Christy Barritt

Random Acts of Murder, by Christy Barritt (River Heights Press, 2014)

Having only a year to live affects a person’s choices. Social worker Holly Paladin knows she can’t change the world, but she can make a difference for a few people – even if her random acts of kindness could get her in a heap of trouble.

Case in point: she breaks into a client’s empty home to clean it. The occupant is a single mom, overworked, underpaid, and out of hope. Won’t a surprise cleaning job give her a boost?

We’ll...

Guest Post: 12 Places to Find Motivation

12 Places to Find Motivation by Steph Beth Nickel

Where do you find motivation when the only thing you want to do is laze around or lay your head down and have a nap?

I’m not sure if it was the muggy weather, a mild case of burnout, low grade depression, or a combination of all three, but I haven’t been near as productive over the last little while as I would have liked.

But things are on the upswing. Maybe the following ideas will help you as well.

Make a List

I gave my most recent list what...

Remember Our Hope

I asked you to come here today so we could get acquainted and so I could explain to you that I am bound with this chain because I believe that the hope of Israel – the Messiah – has already come.
Acts 28:20, NLT*

This is the Apostle Paul, talking to the local Jewish leaders in Rome after he arrives as a prisoner.

What strikes me is the latter part of the verse: “I believe that the hope of Israel – the Messiah – has already come.”

For years the Jews had been waiting for the Promised One. The...

Review: The Things We Knew, by Catherine West

The Things We Knew, by Catherine West (Thomas Nelson, 2016)

Lynette Carlisle can’t remember what happened the day her mother died, but she was there. Now, in her dreams, it feels like her mother wants to tell her something. Or is it her own mind trying to communicate with her?

Lynette divides her time between her daycare job and caring for her father, who exhibits signs of dementia. The family home on Nantucket Island is falling down around her. Her older brothers and sister have left the are...

Prelude to Danger Free on NoiseTrade

Here’s a new option for acquiring your free download of my Redemption’s Edge bonus features ebook. This will be especially helpful for my non-US Kindle-reading friends, since outside the US Amazon lists the price at the equivalent of $0.99.

I’m excited about offering a book through NoiseTrade (which has expanded from music to include ebooks and audiobooks too). Take a few minutes and browse the other options for reading and listening. The way the site works, material is offered for free, with...

Healthy Repentance

I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.
Acts 20:21, NLT*

These days, if people say “that’s a sin” they either mean “what a shame; that’s unfortunate” or they mean “you’re disqualified; that’s offensive.”

But it makes sense that in the eyes of a holy God, we often do, think, or say things that fall short of His perfect standards. All of us, so there’s no ground for pointing fingers. We do...

Review: Missing, by Lisa Harris

Missing, by Lisa Harris (Revell, 2016)

Nikki Boyd and her partner, Jack Spencer, specialize in finding missing persons. Their newest case also involves murder, and the body count keeps growing. Can they find the missing woman before her enemies do?

Complicating the issue is the fact that Nikki’s good friend Tyler Grant and another man she knows are both linked with the crime. And somewhere in the process of comforting Tyler after his wife’s death, she’s fallen for him, even though he’s not re...

Small Steps Add Up

I had the chance to guest-post at InScribe Writers Online this week, on small steps and perseverance in the writing journey.

I think it was Phyllis A. Whitney, in her Guide to Fiction Writing, who compared getting published to a train arriving at a station. If that train is a breakthrough of some sort, for you or I to benefit, we have to be diligent in the small steps of showing up at the station, bags packed and ready to go… [Pop on over to read the rest, and check out the other writers’ pos...

The Right Kind of Open-Mindedness

And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.
Acts 17:11, NLT*

Paul and his associates travelled from town to town, sharing the good news that Messiah had come. Invariable some people were open to their message, but others weren’t just closed to it – they were hostile.

In Berea (after being run out of Thessalonica) Paul and Silas...