Thursday, March 29, 2018

Happy Easter and a Linky


Good Friday and Easter

In honor of Good Friday and Easter, I have a special post this weekend. I'm sharing a chapter from my book, Happy Moms, Happy Homes. The chapter is titled, "Thankful in Light of Our New Covenant." Each chapter in the book ends off with one of my poems and below is one of my favorite. Wishing you all a blessed Easter!


THANKFUL IN LIGHT
OF OUR NEW COVENANT
by Christina Morley


The Israelites didn't have the Holy Spirit available to them in the same way that He is available to us today. In the Old Testament days, the Holy Spirit visited specially appointed individuals. Usually those individuals had to fulfill a special role or convey a prophetic message. To have this kind of personal relationship with God was highly unusual.

Since Jesus, it is possible for everyone to have an ongoing and intimate relationship with the Father. By accepting His gift of salvation, we automatically receive His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our seal guaranteeing that we are God’s people (Eph. 1:13), like the seal made by a king’s signet ring. Once the seal is made, it can’t be broken.

Moses brought the Old Covenant (the Ten Commandments), which was written on stone, to the people of Israel. This Old Covenant was imperfect because it couldn’t make them righteous. It only pointed out the problem of sin in their lives. Jesus brought us the New Covenant, where the law is written on our hearts instead of on stone. This New Covenant also makes us right with God in that He paid the penalty for our sin with His blood.

The New Covenant, which is made through faith in Christ, is not a two-way covenant. It’s not a little bit of us and a lot of God. It’s all God. The Old Covenant, on the other hand, was a two-way covenant. It was all about keeping the law. It was up to the people to keep the covenant, and if they didn’t, curses would follow. In Old Testament days, the priests had to make daily and yearly sacrifices to keep covering not only the sins of the people, but also their own sins. No one was perfect, and no one was without guilt.

In contrast, God Himself takes on completely the requirements and fulfillment of the New Covenant through His Son. Jesus Christ became our one-time perfect sacrifice. He took all that guilt upon Himself and paid the penalty for our sins. When we do something wrong, we don’t have to beat ourselves up about it. He took that punishment for us. The focus is not on our ability to try to do things right all the time, but on Him having made us right.

The moment we believed in Him He took our unrighteousness and gave us His righteousness. The more we understand this, the more victorious we’ll be in receiving true freedom. It’s crucial that we get this truth. It’s what makes true Christianity different from all other religions. Every other religion has rules and regulations to follow in order to reach Paradise, Karma, Reincarnation, or whatever their goal may be. However, no one can achieve God’s standards on his or her own merits, and with Christianity that’s just the point: we all fall short of God’s standards and need a Savior.

Christ’s blood makes us right with God and transports us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. This New Covenant is better than the Old because God guarantees it no matter how we feel about ourselves or to what degree we’re able to keep His commandments. Even though we’re imperfect, we receive Jesus' one-time sacrifice to pay for all our past, present, and future sins. Righteousness no longer has anything to do with us, because it has everything to do with Him.

One simple prayer of faith makes us right with God and forever allows us access into His presence. With that prayer, He gives us new life by His Spirit. However, we still make mistakes. That’s because our old nature is at war with the new. The old nature wants to do everything its own way, contrary to God’s way.

We need to remind ourselves regularly that God has given us His Spirit and a new nature. We should not live out of our old nature any longer. This requires the renewing of our minds: the process of changing our thought-life by developing a new perspective. He wants us to realize that He is there to enable us to accomplish His will in all areas of our lives.

We can be thankful that we have Christ’s Spirit living inside of us. Even if we embarrass ourselves in a moment of weakness, He has promised to stay. He is more concerned with the condition of our hearts than He is with our outward achievements. We can confidently surrender our lives with all our weaknesses to Him because He will empower us for successful living. Jesus paid such a heavy price for you and me because He thought we were worth it.


Our lives are like stories acted out in a play.
Yet at times those stories get jumbled in some way.
Maybe we read the wrong script or misread how it goes,
And then find ourselves caught in the middle of life’s throws.

To him that overcomes is victory living.
Our strength comes from God and He keeps on giving.
No man can go down where God cannot go,
And God is a jealous God, His love He will show.

If we miss out on the best, that’s not the end to our story.
All things work together for the good to God’s glory.
He came to give us life and life abundantly.
It’s a joy-filled life He’s given both you and me.

He knows we’ll get hurt and experience life’s stings,
So He reminds us not to focus on these things.
But to focus on Him is life evermore,
And He’ll bring us to that glorious shore.

The story is not over, it’s just begun.
The race is not finished till the crown is won!

by Christina Morley


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Welcome to my weekend blog hop -
Make My Saturday Sweet #262

Make My Saturday Sweet is a weekend blog hop for all family friendly blogs. You are welcome to link your favorite post from the past week(s) and to visit the last link before yours and leave a sweet comment. It's a really easy and fun way to make new friends and to catch up on old acquaintances.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Mrs. Peahen and Her Chicks


Mrs. Peahen and Her Chicks

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Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Mamá Graciela’s Secret


Mamá Graciela’s Secret
Publication date: October 10, 2017
Written by Mayra Calvani
Illustrated by Sheila Fein
MacLaren-Cochrane Publishing
www.maclaren-cochranepublishing.com
36 pages, 3-7 year olds
Reading guide at: www.MayrasSecretBookcase.com

Description:
Mamá Graciela’s TENDER, CRUNCHY, SPICY bacalaítos fritos are the best in town...
Local customers (including stray cats!) come from all over the island to enjoy her secret recipe. But when the Inspector discovers that Mamá secretly caters to so many cats and he threatens to close her tiny restaurant, Mamá must come up with a plan to save it—and all of the animals she loves.


Peek Inside:



My Review:

Mamá Graciela’s Secret is a cute picture book about a grandmotherly woman who makes the best bacalaítos fritos (cod fritters) in town. She loves cooking, but she loves her cats even more. She takes in stray cats and doesn't have the heart to turn any away. The health inspector tells her that she has to get rid of the cats or close her little restaurant.

The story's main theme is an entrepreneurial one, which is unusual for a children's picture book, but it's done well and is easy to understand. Amanda and I both enjoyed the story. It has the right amount of humor and tension for young listeners. The solution that Mamá Graciela comes up with is out of the box and gives the story a happy ending.


About the author:
Mayra Calvani writes fiction and nonfiction for children and adults and has authored over a dozen books, some of which have won awards. Her children's picture book, Frederico the Mouse Violinist was a finalist in the 2011 International Book Awards; her anthology Latina Authors and Their Muses was a First Place winner at the 2016 International Latino Book Awards; her nonfiction book, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, was a Foreword Best Book of the Year winner. Her stories, reviews, interviews and articles have appeared on numerous publications like The Writer, Writer's Journal, Multicultural Review, Bloomsbury Review, and others.

She lives in Belgium with her husband of 30+ years, two wonderful kids, and her three beloved pets. When she's not writing, editing, reading or reviewing, she enjoys walking with her dog, traveling, and spending time with her family. www.MayrasSecretBookcase.com


About the illustrator:

Born in Queens, New York and living in Los Angeles since 1987, Sheila Fein has always been inspired by the changing world around her. Earning her BA in Design from Buffalo State College of New York, her concentration was on drawing, painting, printmaking, and photography. Sheila's education as an artist has taken her everywhere from Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia to Bath University in England. Today, Sheila Fein runs two figurative workshops, Imaginings Sketch in LA and People Sketchers in Thousand Oaks. She has been featured in numerous collections, magazines, books, solo and group exhibitions. Her paintings and drawings reside in public and private collections. Sheila loves to make the imagination of others a reality and has done so through her commissioned Fein Fantasy Portraits and Interactive Paintings. In addition to being a fine artist Sheila works as an illustrator. She just completed the book "Mama Graciela's Secret" for Maclaren-Cochrane Publishing.


Book info:
ISBN:HC 978-1-365-86153-6
SC 978-1-365-86155-0
ISBN Dyslexic Font Version:
DY HC 978-1-365-86154-3 DY SC 978-1-365-86156-7
This book also has version printed in the Dyslexic font, the typeface for people with dyslexia. Go to www.dyslexiefont.com to find out more about the typeface.
Disclosure: We received a free digital copy of this book and this is our honest review.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Mr. Peacock in Our Garden


Mr. Peacock in Our Garden

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The Unwanted Assistant: A Clean Billionaire Romance by [Kelly, Evangeline]


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Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Blue and Pink Flowers and a Linky


Blue Plumbago and
Pink Miniature Roses
from my garden

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My Latest Book Reviews:


The Unwanted Assistant: A Clean Billionaire Romance by [Kelly, Evangeline]



The Magestaff (The Seven Kingdoms Book 1) by [Castel, Cordelia]



Dragon School: Dusk Covenant by [Wilson, Sarah K. L.]


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Now on to my blog hop...

Amanda’s Books and More

Come link up your Wordless Wednesday
(with or without words) or any picture post
at this Picture Perfect Party Linky.
Join me on this fun and easy blog hop!


I would love for you to follow me on
and
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