Janet Sketchley's Blog: Tenacity, page 80
June 17, 2015
Beyond “Why?”
“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”
John 9:3, NLT*
Jesus and his disciples encountered a man who’d been born blind, and the disciples asked about the cause. Apparently in the culture of the time, anything like this was considered a direct result of someone’s sin.
When we encounter difficult situations, how often do we ask if it’s because of something that person, or another, did? Or if we’re the one...
June 15, 2015
Review: Inner Sanctum, by Darlene Oakley
Inner Sanctum, by Darlene Oakley (Lanico Media House, 2014)
In the mid 2100’s, with a global war raging, underground cities were established as refuges. The plan was to assess the inhabitants’ health at the 50-year mark and then seal them in until those on the surface considered it safe to bring them back.
Around 400 years after its founding, Aurora Cassle and her childhood friend, Den Maron, hold responsible positions in the underground city of Egerton. Aurora’s discovery that the population...
June 12, 2015
Tea and Spontaneity
My husband and I can offer visitors over 50 varieties of tea, from one of perhaps 10 pots, in any of a frighteningly large number of mugs or cups. [If that worries you, well it worries me too and I’m on a new mission to downsize our tea capacity — since I don’t want to open a tea room!]
Suffice to say, we love our tea. So this building was iconic to me when I saw it recently in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Red Rose Tea Building, Saint John, NB “Only in Canada, you say?”
Here’s a link to Red Ros...
June 10, 2015
Seeing One Another
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Corinthians 5:16-17, NLT*
When we look at our brothers and sisters in Christ, do we remember they’re new people? Or do we focus on the bits of their old nature still clinging to the edges of their newness?
When co...
June 8, 2015
Review: The Icarus Hunt, by Timothy Zahn
The Icarus Hunt, by Timothy Zahn (Bantam Spectra, 1999)
This is one of those novels that I loved on a first read and appreciate just as much (if not more) on subsequent visits when I can watch the hints and clues drop into place.
If Alistair MacLean were to have written a space thriller, it might look like this. Twists, turns, people who aren’t what they seem, and a protagonist I somehow trusted from page one even though his resume testified against him. (That might have had something to do w...
June 5, 2015
Running and Life Lessons
Last Saturday, I participated in my first-ever 5K running event (that’s 5 kilometres for my US friends, which translates to roughly 3.11 miles). This proves that God has a sense of humour, because I have never been athletic.
The Hillside2Haiti run is sponsored by a local church that regularly sends mission teams to Haiti to teach life skills. I’d wondered for a while about attempting a challenge like this, and when I saw the promotional material at another event, I recognized that the time wa...
June 3, 2015
Half Right is Half Wrong
But how could he be [the Messiah]? For we know where this man comes from. When the Messiah comes, he will simply appear; no one will know where he comes from.
John 7:27, NLT*
The common people thought Jesus would just “appear” – they wouldn’t know where He came from. John 7:41-42 shows that the religious leaders knew He’d be born in Bethlehem, which is why they had so much trouble with His coming from Nazareth.
I wonder if any of them thought to ask Him where He’d been born.
Today’s verse h...
June 1, 2015
Review: Writing the Heart of Your Story, by C.S. Lakin
Writing the Heart of your Story, by C.S. Lakin (Ubiquitous Press, 2014)
What transforms a novel from a good read to one that lingers in readers’ imaginations? C.S. Lakin suggests the key is finding—and writing—the story’s heart. Finding it, she says, requires seeing the big picture, or some level of pre-writing discovery. Once a writer has found this connection point, he/she is in a strong position to weave it through the whole story.
Sections of the book focus on the heart of the story, of t...
May 29, 2015
Be Authentic and Real
Photo of Steph’s hubby, Dave, one of the most courageous people she knows.
Be Authenticand Real, by Steph Beth NickelGenuine. Authentic. Real.
Do these words describe you? Do they describe me?
I admire those who are courageous enough to be real.
“I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” While people may only utter these words on TV courtroom dramas, there’s a lot to be learned from this statement.
I believe being truthful goes hand-in-hand with being authenti...
May 27, 2015
Our Point of View and God’s
“You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
John 7:4-5, NLT*
Jesus’ brothers were urging Him to go to Jerusalem, where more people could see His miracles. They clearly believed in His power, but didn’t “believe” in the sense of recognizing Him as the promised Messiah.
Without that crucial piece of understanding, the future they saw for Jesus wasn’t in line with the Father’s act...
